“It will come about in that day,” declares the LORD, “That you will call Me Ishi [My Husband] And will no longer call Me Baali. [My Lord]” – Hosea 2:16Is there a difference between the relationship of a husband and wife and that which exists between a servant and lord? There should be. Am I saying that we should never refer to God as our “Lord”? No, not at all. Rather, I am simply pointing out that we are intended to be more than just God’s servants: we were made to be His bride (Revelation 21:9).

This week, we are looking at part four of our four-part E-sight series from the presentation Intrinsic or Imposed, found on our Web site. Over the past month, we have looked at how these two paradigms affect our church, our youth, and our evangelism. I want to conclude by taking a quick, common-sense look at what the Intrinsic paradigm means for us, relationally, with God.

I want you to consider the following questions:

1. How fulfilling would it be if you knew someone was with you only because the other option was death?

2. How fulfilling would it be to you if you were with someone because you had to be with him or her or face punishment?

3. Is there a more mature way of relating to God?

4. What did Jesus mean when he said, “Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it . . .” (Luke 9:24)?

We aren’t splitting hairs here. We are simply explaining why many do not experience the fulfillment in their relationship with God that they desire. Religion is notorious for using principles of control over its followers, rather than appealing to the principles of love.

The Imposed paradigm is necessary and needed in the beginning of our walk with God. But as we walk and grow in love, there is a “more excellent way” (2 Corinthians 12:31). As we grow into the Intrinsic paradigm–in which we refrain from certain behaviors because of the intrinsic results of those behaviors or engage in other behaviors because of the positive intrinsic cause and effect of those–we begin to see God completely differently. His love for us becomes the driving force in all our relations to Him. Maturity begins to take place, and fulfillment is left in the wake.

Just something more to ponder.

As we conclude, once again, I wish you God’s best this week.

“. . . godliness is profitable for all things . . .”

—1 Timothy 4:8 NASB

“Sin pays a wage, and the wage is death . . .”

— Romans 6:23 REBWe are in the midst of a four-part E-sight article based on the presentation Intrinsic or Imposed on our website. This week we are looking at part three and considering the different effects of the two paradigms on evangelism in North America.

I want to be very careful from the outset to avoid misunderstanding by stating that I am not saying that evangelism doesn’t work anymore. I am not even saying that the way we have done it for the last 50 years doesn’t work anymore. What I am saying is that the way we have done it is working for a smaller and smaller portion of our society and, if evangelism is to continue to bear good fruit, then we must begin to understand the culture we are living in.

The reasoning of the 1950’s was, “If you can prove that God has told us to do something, then people will make a positive decision in that direction.” However, we need to understand the mindset or paradigm that made that logic work. Most of society at that time was living according to imposed rules, especially religiously imposed rules. People believed certain things or behaved a certain way because failure to do so would mean that God would punish and obedience would mean that God would reward. This is not the case today.

Today, our society is reeling from the emotional abuses to Christianity of the last millennia. Over the last century, we have seen the rise of evolutionary theory, atheism, and agnosticism, relativism, humanism, and deep-seated materialism.

In the modern Western world, the idea that something is right because God says so is found revolting by most. This is because the whole idea of “God” has been abused and this abuse has left many very emotionally damaged souls in its wake. We now live in a very pragmatic world based on the idea of cause and effect. However, the lenses through which the world is viewed are tainted with religious disgust.

This is where I believe we are. If religion tells us something is wrong, we seem to run headlong into it. Even if that behavior is intrinsically harmful, we still will, because we are rebelling against a religion that has hurt us.

Today, to say that something is right or wrong because God says so triggers rebellion at a subconscious level. The world needs to see not what God says is right or wrong, but why something is right or wrong.; in other words, the effects of that behavior.

Today there are many things we believe to be wrong that quite honestly aren’t, and many things that we believe to be okay that are intrinsically self-destructive.

What determines whether something is right or wrong is the chain of events that the behavior sets in motion, resulting in happiness, joy, and life, or misery, suffering, and death.

I often ask audiences of the “un-churched” whether they would be interested in a list of behaviors that would set in motion blessing after blessing in their lives and a list of behaviors that would set in motion pain, misery and heart-ache. The response every time is a resounding YES! (Please see our series Life Unlimited for an example how our beliefs can be set in an intrinsic paradigm evangelistically.)

Our culture is still interested and still listening, but we must meet its inhabitants in the paradigm in which they live. They are no longer interested in living according to imposed consequences, whereby God blesses the obedient and punishes the disobedient. They want to see why things are right or wrong. Remember, God did not sit up in heaven one day and arbitrarily decide what is right or wrong. He saw the potential of some things to bring pain and death, and the potential of others to bring life and joy. Upon this basis, He deemed those things that produce suffering to be wrong and those that produce joy to be holy, just, and good. Something is not right or wrong because God says so. God says so because something is right or wrong.

The why of good or evil is what the world wants, and is waiting, to see.

When we approach our beliefs from this paradigm, the world will listen. We must go to the people where they are, and the Word will, once again, become incarnate.

I wish you God’s best this week.

Now I say, as long as the heir is a child, he does not differ at all from a slave although he is owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by the father (Galatians 4.1-2).We are in part 2 of a four-part weekly E-sight. This week, I’d like to take a simple look at what the concepts from Intrinsic or Imposed mean for a generation that is missing from many churches today. As parents, we use the imposed to teach the intrinsic. Many times, our children cannot attach a decision to its intrinsic harmful consequences because the results are too far removed. Like the time I was caught smoking as a teenager.

I remember my mother sat me down and said, “You’re not in trouble this time. I know you needed to experiment with this and find out for yourself what this was all about.” But then she became quite serious, “But I’m going to trust that you learned everything you need to know on your first experiment. Because if I ever catch you smoking again, you won’t need to worry about lung cancer. I’ll kill ‘ya.”

Now at age 14, that’s exactly what I needed. I couldn’t attach potential lung cancer fifty years later to the decisions I was making then. So my mom had to give me a close-up. She (not the cigarettes) had to become the source of death in order for me to get the connection that if I smoke, I die.

But, understand, although that threat was of a death that would supposedly have been imposed on me for my behavior, its purpose was to teach me about the other death that was really intrinsic to the behavior.

How many of us, as loving parents, have done this kind of thing? We have laid down the law (see 1 Timothy 1:9), and attached to it blessings and cursings (see Deuteronomy 28). Knowing that even that was only temporary (see Galatians 3:19) because we know that there will come a day when they are no longer under our law (see Romans 6:14). Our hope is that by that time, our children have internalized the intrinsic nature of life (see Hebrews 8:8-10), that they will see that although all things are now lawful, not all things are profitable (1 Corinthians 6:12).

The imposed is not bad when used correctly; it is a temporary way to teach what is intrinsically harmful or beneficial.

Now what happens when a child turns 18? Children naturally transition from being under the law of their parents, to being on their own in the world, and from the imposed to the intrinsic. (All of us remember what this was like.) But what happens if an 18-year-old belongs to a church that refuses to understand the intrinsic and relies on the imposed as its basis for behavior? In other words, “Something is wrong because God says so,” or, “We do this because God commanded us to. It’s in the law.” If God had never written, “Thou shalt not murder,” if there were no imposed law, would it still be intrinsically a good idea not to murder?

Between the intrinsic and the imposed, the behavior stays the same but the motivation and reasoning change. If the family of an 18-year-old refuses to relate to them in the intrinsic paradigm but only enforces the imposed, the young person in transition begins to see the church as irrelevant, of no inherent value. The church offers no help during this phase. Imposing the law is good for mom and dad but becomes less meaningful for children as they grow more independent. Grown children abandon such a church in favor of a world where they can learn, even the hard way; often they don’t return to the church until they have children of their own. And why then? Because their children need the imposed and the parents know where to find it for them.

There has never been a more critical time for the church to begin understanding the difference between the intrinsic way of relating to God and the imposed way. A whole generation is missing in many congregations. Many will not return, but many will. I want to be clear; there is nothing wrong with either way of relating to God. One is simply more juvenile and elementary. I pray not only that we understand the two, but that we will begin to relate to God through the intrinsic paradigm as well. A generation depends on it; we will continue to lose them if we don’t.

Next week, we look at what this means for evangelism in a post-modern culture, and in the following week, what it means for our relationship with God.

I wish you God’s best this week.

When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things (1 Corinthians 13:11)Over the next few weeks, I want to share with you what has been a truly revolutionary discovery for me, and I believe it will be life changing for you. I will break this presentation into four parts: the first is this week, and in successive weeks, we will give Part 2: How this applies to an entire generation that is missing in our church; Part 3: Why evangelism in North America is failing and the solution; and Part 4: What all this means to us in our heart’s spiritual fulfillment with God Himself.

I also would like to encourage you to listen to the presentation “Intrinsic or Imposed,” found on our Web site at www.renewedheartministries.com/sermons.asp

Let us begin with those words: “intrinsic or imposed.” If a child is running down the sidewalk, you might tell him, “Listen, if you keep on running, I’m going to tan your hide!” Let’s say the child does just that, and you follow through; will there be pain for the child? Yes! But is that pain intrinsic to the activity of running on the sidewalk or have you imposed it upon the child for running on the sidewalk?

Now let’s say the child is running on the sidewalk and you say instead, “Listen, if you keep running on the sidewalk, you might trip and fall and skin your knee.” And let’s say the child continues running, trips, falls, and skins his knee. Is pain involved? Yes! But have you imposed that pain on the child for running on the sidewalk or is that pain intrinsic to the nature of the activity?

I don’t mean to place moral value on either of these two paradigms. I don’t want to say that one is always right and one is always wrong. Either one can be the right response, and either can equally be the wrong response, depending on the context. For example, a five-year-old may need the “imposed” because he doesn’t understand the “intrinsic.” But it would be extremely unhealthy to “spank” a 30-year-old for doing something wrong, even if it’s your kid! So the context itself determines which is right to use.

What concerns me here is that most of us have related to God only within the “imposed” paradigm. In other words we are refraining from certain behaviors because of what we are afraid God will do to us if we do them, rather than from recognizing the intrinsic harm arising from those activities for ourselves and for others.

I saw that once when a dear saint said to me, “Herb! Don’t make God out to be too good! Don’t go around telling people God loves them no matter what they do! They’ll think they can just go out and do anything!” This extreme viewpoint is produced by seeing only the “imposed.” If you have been refraining from something because you’re afraid of what God will do to you as a result, then to hear that God will still love you if you do it may be a little problematic. But the truth is, God truly does love you, no matter what you do! What we fail to understand is that although God loves you no matter what you do, sin DOESN’T, and is still intrinsically harmful.

Understand: something is not wrong because God says so. God says something is wrong because it naturally is! And what makes it wrong? The intrinsic results that follow from the activity.

I believe when God was making this world, He saw the potential things that bring life, joy, and happiness, and He also saw the things that would bring pain, misery, and death. For things that would bring life, joy, and happiness, He said, “Those things are right!” And for the things that bring pain, misery, and death, He said, “Those things are wrong.” Notice that they are wrong because of what they produce intrinsically.

Understanding this would bring a lot of balance within the church. There are many things we say are wrong that, to be honest, flat out aren’t. And many things we say are “OK,” but they are actually very destructive. We have related to God only according to the “imposed” paradigm, and thus even our understanding of right and wrong has been skewed at times.

This is just Part 1. More will follow next week on how this concept has affected an entire generation and how we can turn it around. Afterward, we will discuss what this means for evangelism in a post-modern culture, and finally, we will discover what seeing and understanding these ideas will do for us personally in terms of intimacy and fulfillment in our heart’s relationship with God.

Happy pondering!

I wish you God’s best this week.

Mrs. E. G. WhiteHuman beings belong to one great family,–the family of God. The Creator designed that they should respect and love one another, ever manifesting a pure, unselfish interest in one another’s welfare. But Satan’s aim has been to lead men to self first; and yielding themselves to his control, they have developed a selfishness that has filled the world with misery and strife, setting human beings at variance with one another. Selfishness is the essence of depravity, and because human beings have yielded to its power, the opposite of allegiance to God is seen in the world today. Nations, families, and individuals are filled with a desire to make self a center. Man longs to rule over his fellow men. Separating himself in his egotism from God and his fellow beings, he follows his unrestrained inclinations. He acts as if the good of others depended on their subjection to his supremacy.

Selfishness has brought discord into the church, filling it with unholy ambition. If Christians are sanctified through a belief in God’s Word, why do they so often speak words that would bruise the hearts of others? Why do they acknowledge no law but the law of selfishness? Under the baleful influence of selfishness, men have lost the sense of what it means to love one another with a Christlike love.

Love for Christ unites man to his fellow man in unselfish interest. This is the science of benevolence. He whose heart is filled with the love that centers in God, realizes that he must deal justly and tenderly with his fellow beings because they have been redeemed by the blood of Christ. Supreme love for God leads us to seek the highest good of humanity.

Selfishness destroys Christlikeness filling man with self-love. It leads to continual departure from righteousness. Christ says, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” But self-love is blind to the perfection which God requires.

How great the love of God is! God made the world to enlarge heaven. He desired a larger family. And before man was created, God and Christ entered into a covenant that if he fell from his allegiance, Christ would bear the penalty of transgression. Man fell, but he was not left to the power of the destroyer. “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” To the Redeemer was given all power to impart to fallen human beings for their benefit and blessing.

While on this earth, the Saviour was sorely tried. He was tempted in all points like as we are. He poured out his soul with strong crying and tears as he looked upon the backslidden condition of the people he had brought out of bondage. He saw them full of pride and self-exaltation, full of selfishness and covetousness. All this he must labor to overcome. He must live among them the life that God requires all his children to live. He must stand free from the slightest taint of impurity. Not in the least particular must he deviate from the principles of righteousness.

The gulf made by sin has been bridged. All may come boldly to the throne of grace, seeking help in every time of need. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. He took the place of the sinner, that he might present the repentant sinner to the Father, saying, “Lay his guilt on me. I have espoused his cause.” Holding out his hands, bearing the marks of his crucifixion, the Saviour says, “I have graven that sinner upon the palms of my hands. No longer look upon him as guilty. Let him stand before thee guiltless; for I have borne his iniquity.” At the cross, justice and mercy met together, and righteousness and peace kissed each other. God bowed his head in recognition of the completeness of the offering made for sin, and said, “It is enough.”

As we contemplate the great love of God, shall not our hearts be subdued and softened, yea, broken? Shall we not be filled with patience, long-suffering, and love? Shall we not die to self?

Christ came to this world to reveal the love of God. His followers are to continue the work which he began. Let us strive to help and strengthen one another. Seeking the good of others is the way in which true happiness can be found. Man does not work against his own interest by loving God and his fellow men. The more unselfish his spirit, the happier he is, because he is fulfilling God’s purpose for him. The breath of God is breathed through him, filling him with gladness. To him life is a sacred trust, precious in his sight because given by God to be spent in ministering to others.

“Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not, knoweth not God; for God is love. . . . If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath not seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, that he who loveth God loves his brother also.”

Review and Herald, June 25, 1908

Matthew 5:45

So that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

Luke 6:35

But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men.I remember being fourteen and reading the following verse for the very first time:

So the first angel went and poured out his bowl on the earth; and it became a loathsome and malignant sore on the people who had the mark of the beast and who worshiped his image (Revelation 16:2).

I had just completed a series of Bible studies and had one burning conviction:

I had better do what God asks of me, or I’m going to get the plagues! So it was a no-brainer. Yet it was at this point that I entered into a very dark era of my journey with God. He became someone I truly feared. And although this fear did keep me from a lot of self-destruction during those first few years, what I did not understand then was that “[t]he fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge” (Proverbs 1:7, emphasis added). What God wanted for me is something much deeper, more fulfilling, more resonating. God had made me for love, and “there is no fear in love” (1 John 4:18).

Nonetheless, it was a beginning. I had decided to follow God, based strictly on how He would treat me if I didn’t. (And the plagues sound really painful, honestly!) But two years later, I would have a life-changing encounter with the heart of God. My picture of Him would be radically transformed. It was 6 a.m., and my nose was in a book about God; but honestly, I was following Him only for the motive of self-preservation, to escape punishment. But what I experienced that morning would forever change my life. I saw for the first time, the heart of God. I encountered His love for me, for the very first time, and I was left on my knees in tears. Just me, by myself, alone with the heart of Infinite Love.

What I saw that morning, in short, is the God Jesus spoke about in Luke 6—a God, who, if I were His enemy, would simply respond by loving me. If I hated Him, He would simply respond by doing good to me. If I were to curse Him, He would simply respond by blessing me. And if I misused and mistreated Him, He’d simply intercede for me even more (see Luke 6:27, 28).

You see, up to this point I had been following God because of how He would treat me if I didn’t. But at that point, something changed, and I began to follow God that morning because of how He’d treat me if I didn’t.

Yes, I know those are the same phrases, but they mean two totally different things. Today, we find two types of Christians. (And you can tell the difference by how they treat others around them.) Two different pictures of God are in the church today, producing a coexistent growth of both wheat and tares. Both are very religious and morally abiding, but one is following God for how He’ll treat them if they don’t, and the other is doing the same, but with an entirely different understanding what that treatment would be.

So this week, I ask you, what is your picture of God? When you read the question, “How will God treat you if you don’t follow Him?” your response reveals the depth of the motive that moves you to follow. But, in all transparency, if God is the type of being who loves His enemies, and I mean truly loves, then a God like that is worthy of my heart, even if there is nothing in it for me.

I wish you God’s best this week.

I find myself running on two hours of sleep this morning, having just gotten off an international flight where I will be spending the next ten days sharing the precious Gospel of our Heavenly Father’s love. In the early morning sunrise, I want to pause and simply say, “Thank you.” Thank you to all those who partner with Renewed Heart Ministries in changing lives for both time and eternity. We are all trying to make means stretch right now, and ministry is no exception. At this time especially, you are choosing to support this ministry. And I want to thank you.

There is no greater message to be sounded from any “roof top” than the truth about the loving character of our Heavenly Father as seen through the lens of our Adventist beliefs. I want to share a quotation that is especially meaningful to me this morning as I wipe the sleep from my eyes and stretch my neck from the knot the economy seat has once again left from last night’s upright slumber.

“Christ came to this world to reveal the love of God. His followers are to continue the work which He began. Let us strive to help strengthen one another. Seeking the good of others is the way in which true happiness can be found. Man does not work against his own interest by loving God and his fellow men. The more unselfish his spirit, the happier he is, because he is fulfilling God’s purpose for him. The breath of God is breathed through him, filling him with gladness. To him life is a sacred trust, precious in his sight, given by God to be spent in ministering to others.”

(E. G. White, Review and Herald, June 25, 1908)

This morning it is pressed upon my soul in clarity: we are finishing the very work Jesus began. We really are. You and I, together. The very breath of God is breathing through us with each expression of kindness, each extended touch of compassion and each other-centered act of Love. The truth about God is being sounded far and near. Not only are we so infinitely loved, but it is the highest joy attainable to allow ourselves to be conduits of the love, not just recipients, and to reach out and live a life for something greater than ourselves, to live the life of other-centeredness. To live the life of Love and be willing to spend and be spent for the benefit of others. Life is not out to GET you; life is out to GIVE you. So this week, let’s let God breathe through us anew. Go out and find something or someone you can give yourself to or for. For truly, not only is the gospel of our God’s love spread in this way, but it is one of the means through which we encounter, once again, the echoes of Eden, the kind of love that you and I were made for.

I wish you God’s best this week.

For I have a strong desire to see you, and to give you some grace of the spirit, so that you may be made strong. (BBE Romans 1:11)Grace doesn’t make us soft—it makes us strong; it strengthens, builds up, and establishes us.

I remember one time a dear saint came to me after one of my presentations and, with great concern, said emphatically, “Herb, I appreciated your passion, but you must be careful. Please don’t make God out to be too good!” When I questioned what was meant by this, the concern boiled down simply to this: if we focus too much on God’s grace, loose living will be the result.

I can appreciate this concern. But it comes from a long history, not of focusing too much on God’s grace, but of not truly understanding and focusing on God’s grace clearly enough.

Let me explain.

The Christianity of the Middle Ages, honestly, was just flat-out awful. When those whom Christ called “the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14) came to power, history refers to that time as the Dark Ages. God’s grace, during this era, was expensive. God’s grace was obtained only by human effort, ways that included, but weren’t limited to, even self-inflicted physical abuse and sometimes literally paying money for it. (God’s grace was turned into a gross fundraiser for the church.) Thus, grace was expensive.

Then came the reformation. (And please forgive me.) But the reformation did not always produce good fruit, either! Although the reformation included steps in a good direction, those steps did not go far enough. The cry of the reformation was simply that God’s grace was not that difficult to obtain. All you had to was “repent” or “believe” or “say a sinner’s prayer.” But honestly, this simply made God’s grace less expensive. It still left God’s grace as something to be obtained by human effort; it just required a lot less effort. Therefore, God’s grace became cheaper, or simply cheap.

The temptation of many today (like the dear sister that I mentioned above) is to take God’s grace away from the abuses of the reformation and move it backwards toward the Dark Ages and make it expensive again. Some very honest souls believe that this will make God’s grace more appreciated. But this is the exact OPPOSITE of what is needed. The reformation wasn’t the wrong direction; it was simply that the good news of God’s grace wasn’t taken far enough.

God’s grace is neither expensive nor cheap. It’s Free!! And when a soul truly understands all of the love, grace, forgiveness, acceptance, favor (and, dare I say, even justification) that exists in the heart of God before you repent, before you believe, before you ask or receive, only then will the human heart be filled with deep appreciation and gratitude. Only then will God become our only concern. Only then will the gross, egocentric concern with gaining heaven or escaping hell be replaced with “no longer living for ourselves, but for Him who died for us and rose again” (2 Corinthians 5:14, 15). Only then will conversion from egocentricity, even in our religion, to other-centered love truly take place in the human heart.

We must see the grace of God for what it is! Before you even desire God in your heart you are already in the heart of God. Contrary to the popular hymn, before you even take “one step toward the Savior, my friend” his arms are already “open wide!”

This understanding will not lead to loose living. Truly, this prevenient love in the heart of our God is the only power that can really change the self-centeredness so deeply rooted in each of our hearts.

The plants and flowers grow not by their own care or anxiety or effort, but by receiving that which God has furnished for their life. The child cannot, by any anxiety or power of its own, add to its stature. No more can you, by anxiety or effort of yourself, secure spiritual growth. The plant and the child grow by receiving from their surroundings that which ministers to their life—air, sunshine, and food. What these gifts of nature are to animal and plant, such is Christ to those who trust in Him. He is their “everlasting light,” “a sun and shield” (Isaiah 60:19; Psalm 84:11). He shall be as “the dew unto Israel”; “He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass” (Hosea 14:5; Psalm 72:6). He is the living water, “the Bread of God . . . which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world” (John 6:33).

In the matchless gift of His Son, God has encircled the whole world with an atmosphere of grace as real as the air which circulates around the globe. All who choose to breathe this life-giving atmosphere will live and grow into the stature of men and women in Christ Jesus.

As the flower turns to the sun so that the bright beams may aid in perfecting its beauty and symmetry, so should we turn to the Sun of Righteousness, that heaven’s light may shine upon us, that our character may be developed into the likeness of Christ (White, Steps to Christ, pp. 67, 68)

God’s grace is already encircling you, dear reader, as real as the air you breathe. I guess the real question is not how to obtain it then, but rather, will you simply open your lungs and breathe? BREATHE! And watch the transformation that miraculously happens.

I wish you God’s best this week.

Herb MontgomeryMay they be blotted out of the book of life; And may they not be recorded with the righteous (Psalms 69:28).

At Renewed Heart Ministries we offer a series of presentations on the book of Revelation that we present from time to time, and there are two verses that have been bumping together as they roll around in my head and heart. These two verses are found in chapter 13 and 17, respectively, where it speaks of a book, a lamb, and something taking place from the foundation of the world. It is quite evident to me that Christ is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, but the Greek language also lends itself to another possible reality as well. And I’m walking gently here. I’m only saying it’s a possibility. The Greek implies that it may very well be that the Book of Life was also written from the foundation of the world as well. If this were true, the implications would be profound!

First, the Bible elsewhere speaks of books about us being written before we truly ever exist.

“Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written/The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them” (Psalms 139:16).

You have one of two options with verses like this. Either all the events of our lives are pre-ordained in a non-alterable nature, and thus we are simply robots, or, God has pre-ordained us for spectacular things, even before we are born, but He gives us the choice whether to follow what He has ordained for us, or to let us write our own book, to follow our own way. I know verses like this exist, but none of them say that they are ordained in a non-alterable way. We can alter them! God has ordained all people to be saved, in fact, but we can resist that because of free will and go our own way.

But, when it comes to the Book of Life, it is interesting to me that there is not one verse in the Bible about names being added to the Book of Life, but every one of them is solely about names being removed.

“He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the Book of Life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels” (Revelation 3:5).

“But now, if You will, forgive their sin-and if not, please blot me out from Your book which You have written!” (Exodus 32:32).

The implication of this is profound! It is possible that, by virtue of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, every person’s name has been written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world as well. God has ordained all to have life! But he also allows us to take our names out of the book if we should so choose.

The verse quoted this week (Psalms 69:28) is David’s prayer that the wicked’s names be blotted out and not remain there with those of the righteous! How did the wicked’s names get into the Book of Life to begin with?

Pay close attention to what the following verses say.

For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him (John 3:17, emphasis added).

For it is for this we labor and strive, because we have fixed our hope on the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of believers (1Timothy 4:10, emphasis added).

Did Jesus save the world? Is He truly the Savoir of all? And could He especially be the Savior of the believers because they simply accept Him as their Savior, receiving the gift of salvation rather than throwing it away by resisting the abounding grace of our God?

What the judgment will reveal-it may very well be-is that salvation, full and free, was given to every man, woman and child, and that those who are lost are in that position because they, like Esau, have deliberately thrown away their birth-right possession.

Something to think about.

I wish you God’s best.

Now you are Christ’s body, and individually members of it. And God has appointed in the church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, and various kinds of tongues. (1 Corinthians 12:27–28)This week, I want you to ponder what Paul wrote next. Read it over and over again until the full weight rests upon your heart as it is upon mine right now.

“All are not apostles, are they? All are not prophets, are they? All are not teachers, are they? All are not workers of miracles, are they? All do not have gifts of healings, do they? All do not speak with tongues, do they? All do not interpret, do they? But earnestly desire the greater gifts. And I show you a still more excellent way. If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing” (1 Corinthians 12:29–13:31).

Is this really true? We regard apostles and prophets so highly— pastors and teachers too—those who can do miracles and those gifted with the ability to heal. We would pay to meet them. We look at tongues as a supernatural phenomenon; and, frankly, despite Paul’s warning to not overly emphasize or desire tongues (see 1 Corinthians 14, particularly verses 4 and 19), we often do just that, elevating them to the status of the must-have sign/gift. Incomprehensibly, some churches even say that one must speak in tongues as proof of one’s salvation! Paul must be turning in his grave.

According to Paul, the greatest, most miraculous, most supernatural gift was NOT tongues, nor was it any of the other sign gifts; rather, it was for God’s love—in a fallen, self-centered human being—to be present once again in the way we relate to each other.

Recently I spent some time discussing the hot topic of Christian perfection with a dear friend. The subject is so mired in religious abuse and misunderstanding that it’s hard to talk about it honestly. We all think people are saying things they are not. I guess that, for me, the real question surrounds altruism. Is altruism even possible among human beings? Is self-centeredness just something to be managed, or can it actually be reversed?

Are altruism and love even possible for humans? Can we live for something greater than ourselves, the gratification even of our own needs. Is God’s love strong enough to awaken genuine Love in the human race once again? These are the questions worth pondering.

“Unselfishness, the principle of God’s kingdom, is the principle that Satan hates; its very existence he denies. From the beginning of the great controversy he has endeavored to prove God’s principles of action to be selfish, and he deals in the same way with all who serve God. To disprove Satan’s claim is the work of Christ and of all who bear His name.” (E.G. White, Education (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 1903), p. 154.

I’m going to close this week with my favorite passage of Scripture—1 Corinthians 13—taken from Peterson’s The Message:

“If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, ‘Jump,’ and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.

Love never gives up.

Love cares more for others than for self.

Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.

Love doesn’t strut,

Doesn’t have a swelled head,

Doesn’t force itself on others,

Isn’t always ‘me first,’

Doesn’t fly off the handle,

Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,

Doesn’t revel when others grovel,

Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,

Puts up with anything,

Trusts God always,

Always looks for the best,

Never looks back,

But keeps going to the end.

Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled. When I was an infant at my mother’s breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good. We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us! But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.”

I wish you God’s best this week.