Mrs Sullivan was in her early thirties and she told me she was on her second marriage, “which is heading the same way as the first.” She said she had a bad temper and suffered lots of guilt and fears. She was also grossly overweight – obese. She knew about the message I was proclaiming. When she was a young girl of fourteen she said she asked the Lord Jesus into her life, but not long after having done so she drifted away. It was more than evident that this troubled lady had never given God the chance to ground her in His biblical word.
So what happened to her? The same thing that happened to the first man and woman in the garden of Eden. She, like them, heard God’s word, believed God’s word and, for a time, lived according to God’s word. Then she, like them, questioned God’s word, then doubted God’s word, then disbelieved God’s word, then disobeyed God’s word. That’s the progressive order to falling away from God. It originated in the garden and it has not changed in all of history. The progressive order is one thing, but the by-products of the order can be something else altogether – guilt, fear, loneliness, panic, anxiety, confusion, depression, oppression, sicknesses etc.
Sharon was another young lady in a similar situation. She had been married twice and was now in an unstable relationship with a another man. All her relationships were based on fantasy. She had built up in her mind that each partner was going to be the man of her dreams who would make her happy ever-after. When reality began to strike each time, all hell broke loose within her and by the time I spoke with her she was bordering on madness. She had been adopted as a baby and was now suffering from extreme identity crises. Sharon was seeking that which no human being can give.
She told me she made a commitment to Christ as a young teenager, and went on with “it” for sometime, but “it” never worked, so she sought for reality and happiness elsewhere. The root cause of Sharon’s problems was rejection. She was born with that, but in addition, it had serious control over her as a result of her questioning God, doubting God, disbelieving God and disobeying God. Rejection originated in the garden of Eden too. It ruled our first parents once they were cast out and because we are their offspring it will rule all who fail to ground themselves in God’s biblical word. We were able to help Sharon see her real problem but that’s as far as it went.
An old man told me he refused to believe in God and the Bible, “even though I once believed them as a kid.” He then went on to blame God for the state of the world, it’s wars, suffering, selfishness, starvation and the like and would not budge from that position. Blaming God is another by-product from the progressive order, which also originated in the garden of Eden. It is a common mantra expressed from the world of unbelief. The saddest deception of all to observe in this however, was the deep belief in these people that I had never heard of such things until expressed by them. Whatever he “believed” as a kid, he now gave God no chance to biblically ground him in true belief.
“I used to believe these things.” That was the comment of an elderly lady who no longer believed, because she could not come to terms with what she read of God in the Old Testament. She said she was appalled by the judgements of God, the blood sacrifices, the strict rules and laws, the wars and slaughter. She shuddered as she said, “a horrible God!” Once again such thinking originated in the garden of Eden. Truth was given to the first man and woman, but they later listened to lies with God’s word being twisted out of context and denied, then based their decisions on those lies, twists and denials. This lady was no different. It suited her to believe what she wanted to believe.
Because she tried to interpret the Old Testament without the light of the New Testament, she was unable to accept any truths about the New Covenant and the age of God’s grace, in which Christ’s biblical followers now live under. Neither was she able to hear that God has always been an unchangeable God of love and that there must be a reason why those things are revealed in the Old Testament. More importantly, the lady would not open herself to the truth revealed in the Old Testament that God, in relationship with herself, had plans for her life too. Plans for her good and none whatsoever that would harm her Jeremiah 29:11. She simply refused to be grounded in God’s word.
Miss Morley told me she was not a church-goer but said she was, “a believer nevertheless.” She was a single lady in her early fifties who invited me inside on my third visit. Over a cup of coffee she told me that she was currently experiencing stress from family squabbles due to the pending sale of her deceased mother’s family home on the other side of town. She enjoyed the company and advice she was given and asked me to call again. It was not my intention to revisit so soon, but one day she was in her garden as I walked by and she asked me if I could spare some time. She wanted further advice about the house and family members.
When answering her first question I suggested it a good idea to ask, “What would Jesus do?” She saw that as an answer from God, by going on to say her father died when she was a very young girl. She was given his wallet. Inside the wallet she found a little card with, ‘What would Jesus do?’ written on it. I then said to her that she didn’t have to guess at the answer, she could find out for herself by going directly to Him and asking. It appeared that her biblical knowledge was limited when I made that statement. It seemed to be foreign language to her. Nevertheless she was grateful for the time and she asked me to call her Vera.
Anyway, the house got sold and all worked out well for Vera and she was grateful for my continuing visits. She asked me one day to pray for her nephew who lived in her bungalow. She said he was a heavy drinker. I had not met him, but the next time I called, which was some months later, he had since died. I encouraged her to find on-going peace by seeking the reality of such through a relationship with Christ. Her response to that was rather terse. I had offended her. Vera turned out to be one of the many millions of people who enjoyed the things of God, but did not want God Himself.
This too originated in the garden of Eden. The man and the woman believed the lie that they could by-pass God and become their own gods. That was Vera’s preference when confronted with Jesus Christ. She didn’t want to operate her life as one in Christ, surrendered to Him to become empowered by Him. She wanted to continue operating independently of the Lord – very similar to lots of church-goers – drawing near to God through the ministry of others, but keeping God at a distance when it comes to themselves. Vera’s grounding in the biblical word of God had been rather shallow and she was not about to begin to dig deeper foundations.
In Chapter 15 of the gospel of Luke we read of the parable of the lost son who became dissatisfied living in his father’s house. He believed himself to be restricted so he asked to be cut loose. Although the father was disappointed with his son’s decision, he nevertheless, gave him what he desired. But the son was not too long out in the world when things began to go wrong. His fantasies of living independently of his father did not at all line up with the realities. Essentially, his life ceased to work. The longer he fought reality, the deeper he found himself in the pig-swill of life. It all began when he questioned, doubted, disbelieved, then disobeyed the will of his father and his goodness towards him.
He is not known as the “lost” son for nothing. The Bible declares all who are outside of Christ to be lost – whether they reject Him or not. And just like the little child in the shopping centre who stands, panics and screams when he is lost, this man did the same, as did the people written about above. The difference being, that as mature people working hard in denial of their lost state, they covered it up better. The good news of Jesus’ parable is, the young man came to his senses, humbled himself and went home to his father. Apart from Mrs Sullivan, these dear people gave no indication of wanting to do like-wise to their heavenly Father. “The humble He guides in justice, and the humble He teaches His way. All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth, to such as keep His covenant and His testimonies.” Psalm 25:9-10.