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Chapter One
Domination, Dominion, Delight and Deity
FLAGS FURLED WHILE THE DRUM BEATS
This world has its flags furled, for its spur and saliency is smitten. It lies broken amidst its fallen dreams, futile ravings and vile ravishings. Its leaders are flawed, its fashions cry for lordship and squabble interminably, its prides are like lions on spree, its follies like children run amok.
Christ Jesus is unravished, unfallen, smitten but this vicariously, risen and that in the power of God, declared the Son of God, corporeally unconquerable, spiritually in peace, triumphant in mission, incorruptible in mind, tender in heart, willing in spirit, great in understanding. He is incomparable and as Lord He is indomitable.
Sin seeks to ravage His people, but He rescues; jealousy seeks to abase His position, but He stands, the Celestial Trade Towers that cannot be lowered, and His trade is in the souls of men, of women, of children, and for these HE pays; and His profit is not gain for coffers, for commerce, to increase Himself, already infinite beyond time and all creation, indeed as a member of the trinity, creator of all (Colossians 1:15ff., John 1:3). It is in purchase of what is smitten, in redeeming what sin has ruined, what life has grieved for; and bringing it to His own kingdom, where life and love, peace and duty, responsibility and realism mount like eagles.
His kingdom is not of this world; but it will at last demonstrate to this fallen world what righteousness is, not only as now, in redeeming freely what is lost (Romans 3:23ff.), but in showing in the glowing testimony of truth, what life is when it is founded in God, and the globe is ruled by it; and this before this whole world, a travesty of truth, though His light be in it, because of sin, is removed as II Peter 3 tells us, and with its works, burnt up.
What then do you expect of the current world, this contemporary puddle of muddle, this pit of fiddle, this playing of Nearer my God to Thee, as the ship sinks! Do they then seek to dance to it, when indeed it is not a dance, or to display dervishes to the devil, masked or unmasked indeed, in the varieties of satanism which flourish like weeds ? it will help not at all.
When truth is more important than gain, when God is more desirable than name, when spiritual purity is more than profit and following the Lord is counted superior to playing lordly games in war and commerce, society and academia, when salvation is not only mouthed while compromised, but met without qualification: then there is peace. Without this, there is only a mounting enterprise for self-destruction as foretold (Revelation 6), where as in much of Islam, death is the mode and life is despised, as seen so explicitly in those like Nazrallah, in very utterance (cf. Conclusion, Defamation of Deity Ch. 4).
Indeed, it is notable that his very name is like a combination of the first syllable of Nazareth with 'allah', as if the lowly Christ were to be grabbed for another mission, in name only; and such of course is the nature of Islam, which downgrades through the mind of the false prophet Muhammad, what history has already demonstrated, thus forming just one of the many false prophets which Christ foretold (Matthew 24:24 cf. Defamation of Deity *6, in Ch. 2), as always, accurately.
Christ however, having the power, suffered crucifixion, and did not crucify, was impaled, and did not impale, suffered vengeance on sin, and did not fail, sinless, became sin-bearer for the free, whom He liberates; nor did He hate life, but instead delivered it.
As Lord He is indomitable, and while awaiting as foretold (II Peter 3:9) some millenia before His regal return, He has the power as always, to implement His will when the time is ripe.
In the case of Abraham, God told the patriarch that it would be some 400 years before the wickedness of those in Canaan, the Promised Land, would be ready in their reeking for the judgment to come through the Hebrew people. In the case of the Gentile world, it has been now 5 times that, but the signals for it are flapping merrily in the breeze, or as merrily as such depravity permits, such as now shouts from this earth, calling evil good both in humanism, Islamic militancy and communistic follies, in religious fraud and untold evils of mind, body and spirit. His return is now objectively near (cf. Answers to Questions Ch. 5, Ch. 2, *6, SMR Ch. 8).
Delay at the starting line in a 100 metres race, is unwise. Delay at the finishing line in the race of life is more so. The run is a foul without Christ.
It is a simple matter: domination by this world, including one's own self, culture, race, nation or psyche, or by its appointees, or dominion by God, as Lord of life, by nature, by action and by wisdom. There is no other option. As with the foul accorded to the winner of the French Grand Prix, or to Pakistan in the recent cricket match (August, 2006), it matters little if your efforts are disallowed.
God has instituted conscience as an overview, truth as a writing and shown it in His own Spirit, Christ as the criterion sent into flesh from eternity; and as trinity He has evidenced His will. If it be found, it is to be done. Do we rebel at having to sleep ? yes one may, but will pay; or at breathing ? one need not, but life will rebel in its own turn. Does a man rebel at the living God, and exercise options, like those who stroll onto the cricket field when they are ready, and not according to the rules ? If the option is not there, it is mere defiance.
While some may argue rules of cricket, there is no argument about the rules of the Lord. You appear and you accept your position and you repent, or you are disallowed. There is nothing like the Lord, and no one resembles Him. Psalm 89 makes that clear, as does the testimony of life for those who know Him! He has the power, the word, the wisdom and the love, the grace and the kindness, and all of life can parade for all its worth for as long as it will, yet it is not worthy of mention in the same breath, or even life-time!
Let us ponder a little the distinctiveness of living with Him, His way.
FOR MANKIND: ETERNITY STARTS IN HEARTS, AND DOES NOT FINISH
While this world's martial arts and parts are prized for power, blood despised in the process, in fact they are the merest trifles of temporary passion. Call it 'contemporary' ? it does not help it. It is the same.
What counts is reality, is truth, peaceablness, wisdom, nobility, longsuffering, godly resolution, fearless faith in the goodness and the mercy of God, as revealed categorically and uniquely by Him: not the destructive forces of grabland. These like a virus, can look imposing for a time; but they are only destructive, assertive, grasping like a virus, what is not theirs.
Not only however do you need to build, you need wisdom to know what stands, will stand, what life is for: in short, to know God.
Passionate power is two highways away, therefore from significant living.
Living in the light of the Lord is both part of and preparation for eternal life. It is not only your body, and your mind, that is forged by is use: it is your spirit also.
What you freely follow, it mars, marks and comes almost to marshal or even market you; for while some sell themselves, some are sold by their internal dynamics, scarcely aware of this fact! It is then that people can come to imagine that they are determined - and by their own folly, increasingly, they may be. It is not however their equipment that forces their minds or directs their spirits, except where habit ploughs furrows in manner of life, and desire enslaves mind, or futile purposes debauch even reason (cf. Ephesians 4:17-18). Let us look at this last verse.
"This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord,
that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk,
in the futility of their mind,
having their understanding darkened,
being alienated from the life of God,
because of the ignorance that is in them,
because of the blindness of their heart ..."
Futility of mind! This is precisely so. It is logical in potential, acute in dominion, sensitive in perception, but yet utterly futile if in chains of war, and dominated by derelict desires, cultures, ideologies or pre-occupations. If the spirit of man in the cockpit of life, purposes amiss, what is his mind to do ? rebel ? It often does, and psychiatry has much to do with the result. It often allows manipulation, while stirring vile passions in revenge, being abused, abuses the captor.
It is all futile. It is necessary to have the mind not futile, by severance from truth, but in the inward parts one must love the truth, and since it is freely offered without the slightest competition of a logical kind from any other source but God, as is most natural for the supernatural, in the Bible, indeed in Jesus the Christ, sent as truth for truth to bring truth, one must find and follow Him*1
There is a peculiar, a special, a unique and a resplendent delight in doing so, as if a superb bike just found a rider, or a horse excellent in gallop and jumping, encountered the rider to be desired, who could move with its nuances, float in its gallop and yet with trained eye, discern what is coming and avoiding the evil, find the joy of beating hooves in the pleasant lands and azure skies of peace.
Having Christ as Lord is more than this; for while such a combination as that above is marvellous, yet when it is God who became man who is to have dominion, why then it is a bond rather than a bondage, and a delight, not a blight; for it fulfils what is wanting, and yet evokes what is there, so bringing to culmination the potential, with the power needed, and the agility with the wisdom required.
In our next Chapter, we see how this leads to liberty, not determinism as is currently with apparent bucolic blindness, being touted in Adelaide, so much so that it is to be the subject of a debate!
NOTES
See:
Celestial Harmony for the Terrestrial Host
The Meaning of Liberty and the Message of Remedy.