Being Saved

There is a story of unknown origin to me, about four men who went fishing. In the story one of the men walks out on an old and decaying pier. As the man is making his way out to a good fishing position, the pier collapses. He begins thrashing about screaming that he cannot swim.

Two of the other three men on the bank also cannot swim and they frantically urge the one member of their group who can swim to save their drowning colleague. Seconds turn into minutes and still the man just stands there seemingly uncaring.

The other men became angry and could not understand why the one person who could save their friend just stood there watching. As the exhausted and drowning man was going down for the last time suddenly the man jumped in and pulled his friend to shore.

As the drowning man was recovering on the side of the river, the other men fussed at the rescuer and asked him "Why, why did you almost let our friend die?" He replied. "I knew that I had to wait until he knew that he could not save himself. He had to want to be saved before I could save him."

I went rafting on the Ocoee River in Tennessee some years ago and felt like the fellow in this story. I fell out of the raft, got my sandal caught in between some rocks and started taking on water. I was able to pull my foot out of my trapped sandal and continued to be carried down the river over several sets of rapids.

About the time I thought I was going to drown, I was washed close to another raft and was pulled aboard by the raft members. My stomach was full of water and it had begun to run over into my windpipe. What do these two stories tell us about being saved, our salvation?

The words of the lifesaver of the first story, "I knew that I had to wait until he knew that he could not save himself. He had to want to be saved before I could save him," probably best describes how God views us in our lives concerning our salvation or being saved.

In Matthew 19:25-26, Jesus explains: “When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, "Who then can be saved?" Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."In Ephesians 2:8-9, St. Paul goes further in saying, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

In going down the rapids of the Ocoee River, taking water into my body, I had faith that somehow I would be rescued by someone. It was my mistake that I came out of the raft, but it was another raft crew 100 yards down the river that was able to save me just before I completed my drowning on this life-threatening journey alone.

The lessons learned from these water-danger stories are instructive to our lives in this world. It is not that things will always come out favorable for us in the normal and the threatening times in our lives, but that faith in God passes all understanding and we are His no matter the outcome.

In a revelation from God’s Holy Spirit during a personal life threatening surgery, I came to understand our eternal relationship with God. I saw that no matter if I lived or died, I would be with Him always. In seeking Him in my life I’ve found a peace that denies any physical worldly harm that may come to me, as separating me from God. This is being saved and this is our salvation.   

Experiencing God's Grace on His Time

All of us can remember how impatient we were as children waiting for Christmas day to come so that we could see the gifts that were left for us under the Christmas tree. After I found out that my parents, not Santa, were responsible for these gifts, I would search the house ahead of Christmas hoping to get an early peak at my presents. My curiosity just wouldn't let me wait until the appropriate time to receive my gifts.

As adults our patience has not improved much. We look for the quick fix or the easy solution. We even look for our material gifts, like those under our childhood Christmas tree, before their time. Credit cards have helped us in this. Seeking to know God our Father takes time and discipline.

Our days are too full to devote much time toward getting to know Him better. If God is our help we say, "I need you right now Lord." We are so impatient that we decide to use our own personal strengths or gifts so that we can be on our way. We can't wait for God.

In James 5:7-10 we learn, "Be patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near."

God's time is not a tick-tock of the clock. God's time is measured by whatever is necessary with no minimums or maximums. Einstein's theory of relativity may describe God’s time more than we think. With God everything is relative. He is not on a time schedule. His time allows for the need to be fulfilled in its appropriate time. For us this might be a lifetime.                                              

Understanding God's time is trusting. On God's time our watches simply say, "TRUST ME." Trust-me time is always right. Natural world time is speculative.

Much of our worry in this life has to do with our view of time. When we worry we are not trusting; we do not have faith in God. We must set our watches on Trust-me time. We won't even have to move them forward in the spring and back in the fall.

Many times I have tried to turn things over to God so that I am not haunted with the worries and concerns of life. About the time I think I have fully turned things over to Him, I wake up in the morning with a pile of concerns I have been mulling over all night. I don’t seem to be able to understand the difference between what I can do and what God needs to handle for me.

I’ve found that the crazy part of all my worry is that my concerns are for things I don’t have the ability to change, make happen or make go away. These are things that are completely out of my control. As soon as I realize my worry is about things I have no power over, I feel a peace and a surrendering to God.

We do have a personal responsibility for many things in life. God needs our help in order to help us. Just as we need to listen to God to understand the things we have no control over, we have to listen to God to understand the things He wants us to do. It’s a bit of a tightrope walk for us, but if we don’t continually seek and listen for His guidance for our part and His part, we are lost.

The opening words in Ecclesiastes, Chapter 3 (NRSV), instruct us and guide us, “To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven." Trust God and be patient.      

All Hallows' Eve (Halloween)

It’s that time of year again when the pumpkins, ghosts, skeletons, lanterns and the like start popping up all around us. This all leads up to the “trick or treat” experience that all the children love as they go door to door to get candy with the subliminal threat of a trick if it is not received.  
                            

Just like the Christmas and Easter holidays get a bit distorted with material things, our conventional Halloween night somewhat distorts the real celebration of All Hallows Eve and All Hallows Day. In the Christian Church these are referred to as All Saints’ Eve and All Saints’ Day.

Going back some 800 years, much of the Christian Church has celebrated All Saints’ Day on the first of November.  This has been a celebration of known and unknown Christian Saints. This celebration has broadly included folks like you and me who have lived their lives in proclaiming Jesus Christ as Lord.

At some point, soon after the creation of All Saints’ Day in the church, the celebration of All Hallows Eve began as it is the night before All Saints’ or All Hallows Day.  The terms Hallows and Saints are interchangeable and both mean “holy ones”.

The celebration of Halloween (Hallows’ Eve) in our present society and culture takes on a secular or non-spiritual nature as well as a religious celebration. It has been practiced in the Christian Church for a long and fruitful period of time as our dead “holy ones” are remembered.

As with many of our celebrated Christian Holy Days, like Christmas and Easter, All Saints’ Day and Eve have a connection with past Pagan festivals. In this instance, remembering their dead. The people of many past cultures have remembered their dead. These cultures have had various understandings about death and have celebrated death in many ways.

For many years, Christians have dealt with death on All Hallows’ Eve and have proclaimed Christ's victory over death as they continue to live their lives in the hope of everlasting life in Christ. Early Christians would gather and worship in remembering the saints' victories over evil. Some would act this out with displays of Jesus’ overcoming evil.  It was customary to use costumes and masks in these demonstrations.

Thoughts of death and evil are a struggle for us humans. As with many negative aspects of life, we allow our sense of humor to help us. Many comedians have made us laugh with witty comments about things we fear. Our Halloween celebration with the scary costumes, images and trick or treating is a way we deal with death and evil. That is, by addressing them straight on and having fun and a laugh over the things we fear.

In our humorous attacks on death and evil, we have a confidence and a hope in Christ’s victory over darkness in the world. In a nutshell, we do not glorify evil in our celebration of All Hallows’ Eve (Halloween). Instead we lift ourselves up to the Lord in knowledge of the eternal life we are given. This gift of eternal life assures us a safe passage over death and evil through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

And now we can joyfully celebrate Halloween as we see the close relationship it has with the Easter story and Christ’s victories won for us as He died for us on the cross. Happy Halloween!