Episode 5- Chapter 5
Transcription
Hello and welcome to the latest in a series of podcasts that follow along with our book, The Wizard of God. This is Steve Roy and today we're going to be discussing chapter 5. Once again you're invited to download a free digital copy of the Wizard of God book from our website, wizardofgod.com. Or if you like you can purchase a paper copy online through Amazon or Barnes and Noble.
In these podcasts, we're going chapter by chapter, discussing our character's journey through the land of God. If you haven't read chapters 1 through 5 yet, please do.
And by the way, one more thing before we get started. At this point, I'm going to assume that those still listening are fellow travelers in the land of god. And by this, I mean you're seeking God, wanting to know God. We're or at least thinking about wanting to seek and know God. And I'm also going to assume the vast majority of you are Christians, or at least come from that background.
This parable about the land of man-made religion applies to all religions, but from here on out, I'm going to speak directly to the ones I believe are listening. Okay?
Great. On to Chapter 5, where Grace and Hayden meet Tim. Tim, a man sitting by himself with his head in his hands. Tim is a man with a heart condition, who has a very difficult time making tears. Tim is suffering from a broken heart. I only have a couple of points to make from this chapter, but in my estimation they are enormously important. The first one is about broken hearts. The blues, country music, wouldn't exist without broken hearts, but that's about the only upside I can see. Neil Young's song says,
"Only love can break your heart."
Well, maybe things other than love can break your heart, but love tops the list for sure. This broken heart condition comes with severe emotional and physical complications, but what does it mean to have a broken heart? Obviously, it doesn't mean that organ pumping your blood is broken. I think being crushed in spirit is as good a definition as any.
Love has somehow failed or abandoned the brokenhearted person. Love for someone or something. Perhaps a loved one has gone away, maybe forever. Or a deep desire or a life dream has suddenly vanished or turned into a nightmare.This condition is extremely painful and often incapacitating, causing body, soul, and spirit to shut down or at least go into hibernation. And there is no known cure for a broken heart. Most people just try to wait it out, wait for time to dull the pain, somewhat, maybe. But to be truly healed of a broken heart requires a miracle.
So many people in the land of god, so many Christians are living with, or going through the motions of living with a broken heart. Why is this? How can this be in light of the promises of Jesus that we've already explored?
How can there be rest for the weary soul if the weary one has a broken heart? In the very first message Jesus gave us, he spoke from the Old Testament book of Isaiah, chapter 61, which foretold of his coming into humanity. I'm going to read from the Amplified Version.
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed and commissioned me to bring good news to the humble and afflicted. He has sent me to bind up the wounds of the brokenhearted, to proclaim release from confinement and condemnation, to physical and spiritual captives, and freedom to prisoners.”
This is good news indeed. Jesus came to bind up or to heal the wounds of the brokenhearted, and to release those being held captive by the pain. So again, why are so many Christians broken-hearted? Well, friends, the remainder of this book is dedicated to exploring. this question along with related ones. Let's begin by establishing a foundation. Everything that Jesus brings, everything he promised, comes to us purely as a gift. The Bible calls this grace. A simple definition of grace is a gift that brings joy.
There are so many examples I could give that illustrate grace, but I'll just start here. The Gospel of John chapter 4 from the New Living Translation. Jesus was traveling from one place to another and stopped at a well. We'll pick up the story at verse 7. Soon a Samaritan woman came to draw water and Jesus said to her, "Please give me a drink." drink." He was alone at the time because his disciples had gone into the village to buy some food. The woman was surprised that Jews refused to have anything to do with the Samaritans. She said to Jesus, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. Why are you asking me for a drink?" Jesus replied, "If you only knew the gift God has for you and who you are speaking to, you are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. Why are you asking me for a drink?" You would ask me and I would give you living water. But sir you don't have a rope or bucket she said and the well is very deep. Where would you get this living water? And besides do you think you're greater than our ancestor Jacob who gave us this well? How can you offer better water than he and his sons and his that his sons and animals enjoyed?
Jesus replied, "Anyone who drinks of this water will soon become thirsty again, but those who drink the water I give them will never be thirsty again, because it becomes a fresh bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life." Wow. Jesus had just met this woman. He didn't conduct an interview to assess her moral or spiritual condition. She wasn't a Jew, and so didn't belong to the religion of his people, his family, or his nation.
Additionally, the Samaritans and Jews had no dealings with each other. But Jesus, ignoring all this, immediately, without any hesitation or conditions, offers to give her living water, the most precious gift in the universe. Just take a moment to pause and consider what I just said. It's amazing, incredible, awesome, and every superlative I could use. It's also a scandal to the religious. Drink first? Yes.
There is nothing to say or do prior to drinking. Nothing that will amount to anything anyway. Drink first, and work. and everything there is to be done will come,
will flow, as the artesian spring of living water naturally overflows. This, my friends, is grace. “If you knew the gift of God, you would ask me,” Jesus said. This is not a condition, but simply the nature of a gift. A gift must be received. A gift only becomes effectual or useful when it's received. But before it's received it must be perceived. People in the land of God aren't expecting promises, good news or gifts. Therefore, without any hope to draw on, they aren't prepared to receive the grace of God. Religion teaches those in the land of God that they are the ones who must take the initiative. They must work for what they receive.
One image of God that religion portrays is that of an angry God, one who demands, commands us to grovel, to work, to strive, to make sacrifices in order to ease his judgment against us.
Receiving gifts from this God is never considered. It's inconceivable. Or another image religion promotes is of a God that we must take the initiative. who is infinitely mysterious and unknowable.
This image of God is not one with a stick in his hand but instead with arms folded. A luke and mostly disinterested God casually glances now and then to see if we finally found the path through the religious maze.
This God may even wink or smile at us as we continue to hit dead ends, but it's all from a distance. This distant but benign, powerless smile makes this view of God even more deceitful and deadly. But both images of God have one thing in common. The burden is totally on us to take the initiative. It's totally up to us to make enough sacrifices to appease the angry God or find a way to solve the cosmic God puzzle. No gifts, only work to be done.
True Christianity is a message called good news. This is the literal meaning of the word translated gospel. This good news is about the grace or gift of God. Any message that is not purely good and not purely news is not a gospel message. Let me repeat this. Any message that is not purely good and purely news is not a gospel message. It may be true, but it's not a gospel message. The Christian message is about God taking the initiative 100% because he loves the world, loves us, and can read John 3:16. These are foundational truths, Christianity 101. If you're a Christian, let me ask you, is this purely what you've been taught? I say purely because if the message isn't pure, it's nothing. A gift that must be earned in any way ceases to be a gift, and so the gift remains unreceived and unopened. This is a huge reason. reason why Christians aren't receiving, enjoying the promises, drinking and flowing the living water.
Sometimes a message of grace, receiving a gift, appears to be pure. It goes something like this, "Yes, Jesus has done everything for you. All you need to do is receive it." And after you begin, you hear about all the work that you need to do for Jesus. Jesus. After all, look at what he has done for you. Or yes, Jesus has done it all, but in order for you to receive, you must do whatever. You must make yourself worthy to receive the gift. Worthy to receive a gift?
Well, then it's not a gift. Or if I must do XYZ after I receive this gift. gift, then it ceases to be a gift." Jesus didn't say anything like this to the woman at the well, who by the way had been married five times and was currently living with a man who wasn't her husband. He didn't ask her to do anything except ask and receive. Could it be that Jesus knew that the bubbling spring of living water in her was what she needed first and this would take care of her sin problem behavior issues? Take care of all the doing. My point is a mixed message is no message This I believe is the root problem in the land of God and by the way much of the New Testament addresses this perverted I that's no gospel at all.
Well, Tim hasn't heard any good news in the land of God. He's been suffering alone with his broken heart, trying not to misplace his eyedrops. But seizing a ray of hope from grace, he quickly accepts the invitation to tag along to find the Wizard of God. At the end of the chapter, Grace Pondershouse, she's now pursuing two people to follow her to find the wizard and to receive what they need.
And in light of the fact she's never received anything herself or in fact even met the wizard. Grace's odd behavior is a common occurrence in the land of God. This is the second point I want to talk about a bit in this podcast.
Zeal versus Knowledge. Religious people. groups often develop very passionate beliefs without much of any evidence to back them up. This is a very strange phenomenon with profound consequences. These people are sometimes called religious zealots. Zeal is defined as having great energy or enthusiasm in pursuit of a cause or objective. Religious zeal drives people to even die for their beliefs. Beliefs which may all begin and end in their own mind and emotions. Think about this. Powerful forces must be at work here. Passion driven religious zeal provides the fuel for life and death decisions.
And the more passionately the zealots proclaim their beliefs to others. or to each other, the more strongly they believe in them. Gaining greater knowledge or understanding about who or what they believe isn't driving their zeal, but only passion itself. Actually for the zealots, seeking evidence to support their religious beliefs isn't valued at all, but rather viewed as a lack of faith.
This, my friends, is a dangerous perversion. of faith. Because tell me, if it's a sin to seek evidence, then what makes me believe one thing over another? It's very common, of course, for someone to believe a certain way because it's what their parents taught them was the truth. Or maybe everyone in their culture, their nation, their village believes this way.
But this can't be a good approach with no objective... truth due to the inherent cultural bias. Or maybe it's just as simple as like grace, these zealots were lost and followed the first one who came along with advice, with hope. Most non -religious people see the religious as being anti -evidence and anti -science, and they are very often correct.
But true faith is not blind. blind faith. Blind faith is really blind hope and something without any evidence and in fact may be an opposition evidence.
However, I think it's important here to consider the nature of evidence itself. Okay, if all that exists exists only in the natural world then the scientific method is very useful. useful. But if supernatural things exist, or simply things that can't be perceived or known by the five senses, you know, that which we can see, taste, touch, hear, and feel, then they must be known in some other way. Evidence from many things we know lie outside the five senses.
Seeing isn't knowing. Science draws inferences from what they observe and make conclusions. An inference is defined as an assumed fact based upon available information.
A drawn conclusion is an assumption developed as the next logical step for the given information. And scientists sometimes reach very different conclusions given the exact same evidence. But scientists know the love they have for their children in a very different way than they know things that they've tested using the scientific method.
They don't test the love they have for their children by drawing inferences and making conclusions. It can't be done, nor does it need to be done. They know the love they have for their children deeply.
It's real. It's alive. It's unshakable. They know it Love must be known, Love must be experienced. When it comes to love or many other things Knowing is far superior to drawing inferences and making conclusions. Knowing is far superior to simply knowing about. So true faith is not the abandoning of evidence, but rather a matter of "knowing" rather than "knowing about," even "knowing a lot about." It's been said true faith and its object cannot be separated.
In other words, faith must be in something. It's a resting of the heart and the mind in someone or something that is real. We must believe,yes, but we can only truly believe in that which has been revealed to us, that which we are beholding. True faith is a heart response to something we are knowing.
Struggling with how to have faith or somehow some way increasing faith has got to be the number one spiritual dilemma. dilemma for Christians. It sure was for me. It's certainly true for those who are seeking to know or receive from God. They believe if they only had enough faith all things would be possible. But how to get more faith they don't have a clue.
Quoting the woman at the well, "They don't have a rope or a bucket and the well is very deep." deep. If you're brokenhearted and /or struggling to know what to believe or how to believe, I want to give you hope. Hope is so important, vitally important. Hebrews 11 verse 1 says,
"Now faith is a substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."
See without hope you won't be expecting to see. You won't be looking for what you desire. It might be right in front of you, but you'll be looking the other way. At this point, Grace, Hayden, and Tim don't know much of anything. They've all been told some things that have given them some hope and they're pursuing them while just trying to make it day by day in the land of God.
Well, at least they aren't alone. And that's a very good thing. and This podcast My goal was to begin to explore what Jesus said to the woman at the well if you knew the gift of God I Spoke a little bit about the gift and a bit about knowing well I've already shared some good news for sure, but as always I'll end the podcast with some Psalm 34 verse 18 says,
“The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and save those who are crushed in spirit.”
Psalm 147 verse 3 from the Amplified says, “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds healing their pain and comforting their sorrow.
From the passion translation of Isaiah 61 which I read earlier this is the first message Jesus spoke he spoke from this this Old Testament scripture. It was about his mission to planet earth. Here it is:
"The mighty spirit of the Lord Yahweh is wrapped around me because Yahweh has anointed me as a messenger to preach good news to the poor. He sent me to heal the wounds of the brokenhearted and tell captives you are free and to tell prisoners be free from your darkness. I am sent to a new a new season of Yahweh's grace, and a time of God's recompense on His enemies, to comfort all those who are in sorrow, to strengthen those crushed by despair, whom mourn in Zion, to give them a beautiful bouquet in the place of ashes, the oil of bliss instead of tears, and the mantle of joyous praise instead of the spirit of heaviness. Because of this, they will be known as mighty oaks of righteousness planted by Yahweh as a living display of His glory.”
Wow. Amazing grace. Jesus said that receiving life, eternal life, which means receiving the life of God or living water is knowing God. That's in John 17 verse 3, and 1st John 4 declares that, “God is love.” The promise, my friends, the reason Jesus came is so that you and I can know God, so that we can know love. Not as the scientist draws conclusions, but we'll know God as the child knows the parent’s love. Jesus came to give us the wellspring of life, which is pure love. This is the cure. The only permanent cure for the broken heart, but it works every time.
Well, I'm going to end with a question that may blow your minds, but just listen. What if you didn't have a broken heart? What if your heart was perfect? And what if you had plenty of faith?
What if you had everything you needed? And what if your mind has simply been polluted by lies that have deceived and blinded you to the heavenly places, to the paradise where you actually live? What if these lies were the only things keeping you from truly knowing the gift of God and drinking and flowing the living water? Our prayer is that lies would be exposed so that the promise can be foretold. revealed. If you knew the gift of God, you would ask, and Jesus would put an artesian spring of living water in you, and you'd never thirst again. And this, my friends, is the grace of God. Join us next time for Chapter 6, and bye for now.
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