OVERFLIGHT IN CHRIST

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Christian Things

Rev. Dr. Robert E. Donaldson

It is time in this most militant of worlds, to consider the paths of peace. One has been approached by this body and that, to become a Peace Ambassador or to accept such names, but this is not the way. The embassage of peace that conquers without war, is that of Christ; and of Him, already an ambassador of peace, one is not free to occupy such a post on other grounds for other interests, whether of this world or any other.

Luminaries of various religions tell us how important it is to look after number one, or to slay and slaughter. Only yesterday, one in Indonesia yesterday, speaking from his prison, was reported in The Australian (October 27, 2003) as believing that although, yes Ramadan is a time of rest, of withdrawing, yet if it comes to jihad, the flinging of body parts at people, along with steel, as it seems to be characterisable in much, then that is fair game. That, it can be done on Ramadan. It is perhaps restful to kill ?

From the report, it seems it is felt to be good to slay the enemy, even on Ramadan; and for some reason or other the US is an enemy, and various others are enemies, although the actual reason, when you listen to bin Laden (Lord of Life Ch. 8, *1 and Ch. 3), seems clear: they obscure the progress of Islam as a world dominating power, able in particular to dispose of the Middle East not largely, but altogether, able to slay or disband or dismember Israel not substantially, but altogether. That sort of enemy ? one to allay the murder of the Jew in the Holy Land once more, this time by Islamic and not Hitleresque machinations ? It is evidently intolerable to have such an 'enemy'; so they kill. Then some of them, it appears, would feel freer to kill the Jew, expatriate him or immolate the nation.

It is time to avoid such confusions. It is time for overview, to seek the Lord, to accept the attested truth and not the lusts of power for power, without power, which is not least, a significant feature of Islam, which so very nearly gained the world (losing that opportunity notably in 743 A.D. at Tours). Now, however, as Dr Mahathir puts it, is feeling marginalised. Such at least is his word. Marginalised in murder ? one would hope so. Marginalised in Jew-extermination or evacuation or both ? one would hope so. Bullies are not in vogue any more now than at other times, with many; and although World War II is past, the principles for which it was fought, these are not past.

It is time to find the only peace that is available, should be available or even could be available: that of the Creator-Redeemer-Saviour, God, who having made man has not at all left him to himself, even despite the wealth of such follies which have been in fashion from time to time, almost since the world was fashioned. The Saviour (Isaiah 43:10-11) has left him a word which alone is testable, as well as verified and victorious, a word of such depth, drama and precision that to pass test is to surmount options of disregard; and with this, He has provided a deed which was foretold, executed and fulfilled in Christ; even when He was executed, it was fulfilled, and had He not been executed, it would never have stood. It took action, heart and love to fulfil it; but it was fulfilled (Matthew 26:52-54) in Christ to the uttermost, in things small and in matters great (cf. SMR Ch. 6, 8, Repent or Perish Ch. 2, Magnificence of the Messiah, It Bubbles ... Ch. 8, Christ, the Wisdom and the Power of God, Ch. 8, Acme ...
Ch. 6).

In it likewise was a history of the Jews written uniquely BEFOREHAND (cf. SMR Ch. 9), and it is fulfilled; and with this came a history of the development of this world, before it came to pass, one now also dramatically fulfilled (SMR Ch. 8), with an analysis of the human heart, its follies and their reasons, now obviously in place.

Not in the slumbers of vain philosophy but in the cogencies of faith in the God who has the advantage of existence, unlike all idols of heart or mind or body or soul: this is the path of peace. Last time when Christ came, in His own body offering peace, He was murdered, in the brilliance of divine wisdom, thus CONSTITUTING by death the sacrifice for peace. But it is not imposed. Composed in compassion by God, it reposes in the hearts of those who so MAKE peace by RECEIVING the publication of this peace, and so becoming Christians, not in some species of deception, as if a word brought you to God, a word of man, or a title which you assume, without faith.

No, it is not in that way, but in receiving through the Holy Spirit the peace of God which passes all understanding, on account of the acceptance of reconciliation with the Father through the death of His Son as a sacrifice, propitiatory, in vicarious judgment, in loving favour, in cancellation therefore of the guilt of sin and one equipped with authentication in the predicted resurrection which none could either ignore or suppress, despite a millenium of warning that THIS was the way.

He was to do it from prophecy of old; declared He would do it; did it. Meanwhile, His work, had God allowed, was easily suppressible, but it was not suppressed till His own appointed time and scale of operations was statedly complete; was readily exhibitable in defeat, but was unavailable at call in triumph at any level, verbal, therapeutic, spiritual sway over devils, raising the dead or being raised Himself.

Having His own resurrected work to perform, He proceeded to announce the conditions – mockery, death, arising after three days; and then to meet them. Ostensibly, at any time, by devil, word, by education, by scholarship, by knowledge, by craft, by guile, by power, His work was easily crushed, but it was not crushed. That precisely is why He ‘had’ to be killed. There was no other way; but even that, being both prophesied for a millennium and the resurrection to follow no less, was in itself a victory, for they carried out His own STATED and PROPHETICALLY INDICATED program just as God said would be the case. The He arose; His body unobtainable since He Himself had use for it! Readily and indeed willingly marred till it wasincarcerated as a corpse, yet it burst all bonds (cf. SMR Ch.6, Biblical Blessings 15, *2 ). As He healed, so He rose; as He healed in quietness, not lacerating the throngs with mere power, so He rose, out of the tomb, evidenced to those who sought Him, teaching, preaching, instructing.

The bypass of this peace, by the sagacities of this grinding world, unlike the case of a heart bypass operation, brings the acme of war, the enterprise of evil, the summit of sin and the world as it is. It has asked for it, and as predicted in Matthew 24, Luke 21, it has got it! Well done world! You have shown the truth of God's word even in your endeavours to avoid it; for you have inherited, just as did the Jews in their own far more specialised way, the results of wrath. What would you ? that you should both sin and curse the pardon that would remove the sentence from application, and then have peace ? Are you out of your mind, world ? Not thus do you find peace, nor in the pieces of those whom you explode, whether for religion, heavily disguised, or for other ambitions.

In Christ, in this volume, on the contrary, we plan to make some overflights, like the U 2 of old, and to see in Him the ways of peace, of truth and loveliness, even in the midst of a world committed increasing to the ignoring of those ways, the imposition of useless ways, and the assertion of the human spirit, its words, its culturally imitative religions, its sacrifices and its sententious summits. Alas for man, made by God for God, he is making an ass of himself by braying with words not from God, and moving with a heart not given to God.

What would you expect when you omit all the demonstrated handbook of the Maker, and make up your own!

The Person who treats persons personally
infinitely excels the impersonal laxities of Man

THE NEED OF A CALM AND QUIET SPIRIT
THAT SAVOURS REALITY,
WHEN VIEWING THE TRUTH