Adjustment

Life is the continuous adjustment of internal relations to external relations.

Herbert Spencer

            Many people want to be free. Jesus came to give us true liberty. Most of us find it hard to give up the chains that bind us,  the bondage that so easily entraps us, addictions, habits, routines, and even political correctness.

            Now, but over 60 years ago, I was hitchhiking home from Chapel Hill, on a highway near North Carolina's central prison. Across the highway, I saw some men digging a grave. Nearby was a black truck, on which set a cheap casket. Of course I had UNC stickers on my bag, and the men doing the work started yelling at me about Carolina's football team. I crossed the highway to say hello to them, and they told me they were burying a prisoner, and asked if I would like to see him. They said he was a constant problem, and had been killed by another inmate-- that his days of being a problem were over.

            Then, and since, I have thought about the fact that the prisoner was the son of parents, and at one time a small baby, probably much loved. Yet, in a prison cemetery-- all unmarked graves-- he was being buried like an animal. No preacher giving remarks about his life, not one family member present. Why is it that some human beings can make the adjustments required in life, and others cannot?

            There are two classes of us: the acceptable ones, ones who did not get caught in our sins; and the unacceptable, those who did get caught in their sins. All of us are in such desperate need of salvation-- forgiveness and redemption for sins of commission, sins of omission, and sins for which we know nothing about-- sins that keep us from the holiness of God.

            There exists an "Oprah" theology, which promotes the thought that God loves us regardless, but if we have love for God, if we have been truly redeemed, we are a new creation in Christ-- we learn to make the bends, changes expected, so that God sees in us the righteousness of Jesus. I have known so many who claim to love God, and yet their is zero evidence of righteousness in their living-- never able to make the adjustment in life choices, addictions, and sexual promiscuity, never realizing that a Christian is in constant warfare against the devil, against evil. Too many Christians/ church members, want to have it both ways-- they want to walk down the middle of the road, holding on to Jesus with one hand, and the world with the other. The great preacher, Johnathan Edwards said, "Those who come to God for mercy, come as beggars..." We follow the precepts of His book, His demands, not our wishes. We must often come out from the foolishness/ silliness of some church groups. He tells us to come out from among them, and be separated.

"Therefore, COME OUT FROM THEIR MIDST AND BE SEPARATE," says the Lord. "AND DO NOT TOUCH WHAT IS UNCLEAN; And I will welcome you. "And I will be a father to you, And you shall be sons and daughters to Me," Says the Lord Almighty.

                                                                                                            2 Corinthians 6:17

            I cringe in criticizing any group, but I honestly believe that many churches are more like country clubs with steeples, than true houses of worship.

            You cannot experience Christian rebirth and remain the same person you were previously; you are a new creation.

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

                                                                                                            2 Corinthians 5:17

            Most young men I know, even at the church house, are just interested in eating, drinking, smoking, sex activity, ball games, and making money. It's hard to imagine, when things are going well, just how quickly things can change-- it just takes one highway intersection, one disease. Every fiat paper bill you hold brings you in contact with 3,000 germs that cause disease. MRSA, a flesh-eating disease, for which there is no cure, started in hospitals, but is now in the home. Good health depends on exercise, and what you put in your mouth. but you must keep your hands clean and away from your face. Just think of the germs in any airport, on any door handle, bathroom, or stair rail. People and germs from all over the world. Do you really value your immune system? Have we, as human beings, accepted the worst for us-- warfare, disease, disability. Young men and women spend hours with games that glamorize war. 

            This world traveler spent much time in the Congo. I remember that in Goma (city at the head of the 2,000 mile Congo river) young men talked about tribal warfare with ease and even expectation. This blind veteran has found that most veterans, those who remember the horrors of Korea and Vietnam, want to forget war. They would love to eradicate its memories from their mind. In 2010, 33 Chilean miners were trapped for 69 days underground. Great efforts and expense finally brought them, every one, to the surface. At first, after such an ordeal, they wore very dark glasses, in order to adjust to the light. Having suffered through the trauma of depravation of exercise, food, etc., there was a complete physical and spiritual adjustment. They knew what it was to be delivered, redeemed, saved. When a drowning man has been pulled from the river or ocean, it is not difficult to love his savior on the bank/ solid ground, the one who pulled him from certain death. It was not hard for the miners to love those who saved them. It was not hard for patriots to love this nation. It is not hard for Christians to love Christ, who has saved them from their sins. You are glad for the world to know you a different-- not indifferent. You do not poison your body with addictive substances. You dress, behave, and live conservatively. 

            This writer has visited nightclubs. With few exceptions, the same crowd in the nightclub, could be walked right into the average church-- same immodest dress, same casual, caustic language, and much of the same type music. God has told us "But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light." In that wilderness tabernacle, designed by God, there was a holy of holies, protected by a great vale, and into which only the high priest could go. On this side of the cross, is the precious-supernatural treasure beyond the comprehension of most men, the fact that we can go any time to this holy place, with only the adjustment of true belief.