In, Not Of

11/1/2020

1 Corinthians 6:19 “Know ye not that…ye are not your own.”

At the conclusion of my son’s 8^th grade year, the Language Arts teacher held a literature celebration. This was a time for the students to perform a skit or pick a piece of literature to share. The choices included comedy skits, parts of beloved books, and poetry. As my son already had done some acting, and had changed the course of how the earlier American Speech presentations were done (doing a Martin Luther King Jr. speech he gave at a church in Selma before the march there), his teacher had him perform last. He chose the poem “A Dream Within a Dream” by Edgar Allan Poe. It is a poem about the question of life actually being reality or an illusion; is life a dream within a dream? The speaker of the poem is in deep contemplation, and at the end lifts sand into his hand just to have it fall though his fingers, such as the passing of time. This idea is so compelling for those who have no faith, because reality and morality can easily get blurred by the evil one.

When I read the first sentence that Chambers wrote for today’s study, this poem and my son’s amazing delivery of it came shooting into my mind. He writes, “There is no such thing as a private life—‘a world within a world’—for a man or woman who is brought into fellowship with Jesus Christ’s suffering.” We are not our own if we belong to Jesus; the internal world in which we live is one based in holiness and truth as compared to the external one that is based in contradiction and sin. With what is going on in our world currently, we could say we, as Christians, we are living in what feels like a beautiful dream within a nightmare.

Being a child of the Most High comes freely, but afterward there is expectation. We are to live in the world and not of it. With devotion and conviction to Jesus, Christians throughout history have been hated and judged at best, and martyred at worst. This is also a fact of life for believers today, yet our call to action in love is the same as it has been since the first disciples went out into the world sharing the Good News of the Gospel. They gave up their private lives to live a life devoted to Christ. We too must be more concerned with the things of heaven than of earth, and live a life that reflects the love and mercy of our Savior to others. This may not be the way of the world, but it is the way of the Cross. Chambers writes, “The first thing God does with us is to get us based on the rugged Reality until we do not care what becomes of us individually as long as He gets His way for the purpose of His redemption.”

It is true we will be hated and suffer for sharing the Gospel, but like the sand that slips though our fingers, it will be but for a moment of eternity. To God be all glory and honor forever and ever.

John 17:14-16, “I have given them your Word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world anymore that I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them in the truth; our word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself that they also may be sanctified in truth.”

In the coming days, dear reader, as our land pulses with uncertainly and fear, even if we are called to suffer, let us lift our suffering to the Lord. Chambers ends today’s lesson with these powerful words: “If through a broken heart God can bring His purpose to pass in the world, than thank Him for breaking your heart.”