The
Pursuit of Happiness – Part 8 – Becoming a Friend of God.
We have now come to the end of this series, not that the subject is exhausted, but rather that this part is the ultimate happiness and joy any human can live for and even die for; the incredible opportunity to be a friend of God, or more specifically, to be a friend of Jesus Christ, the human side of God. Scripture says 'for in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily'.
My granny taught me the most beautiful
of all songs when I was just old enough to sing a song, and this is the song
she taught me: 'What a friend we have in Jesus'. It was thus strange for me to
only realize the depth of that song when I became much older; too many years
went by before I made friends with Him. It should have been the first thing in
my life; but then, one realizes too late in life what true friendship means, especially
when loneliness, pain and grief strikes, as it does now and then; far too late.
I am reminded of the beautiful poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox about the value of real friendship during the lonely path of pain:
Weep, and you weep alone;
For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth,
But has trouble enough of its own.
Sing, and the hills will answer;
Sigh, and it is lost on the air;
The echoes bound to a joyful sound,
But shrink from voicing care.
Rejoice, and men will seek you;
Grieve, and they turn and go;
They want full measure of all your pleasure,
But they do not need your woe.
Be glad, and your friends are many;
Be sad, and you lose them all,—
There are none to decline your nectar wine,
But alone you must drink life’s gall.
Feast, and your halls are crowded;
Fast, and the world goes by.
Succeed and give, and it helps you live,
But no man can help you die.
There is room in the halls of pleasure
For a large and lordly train,
But one by one we must all file on
Through the narrow aisles of pain.
If we read and take this in, we start to understand this verse from 'What a friend we have in Jesus' much better:
Do thy friends despise, forsake thee? Take it to the Lord in prayer;
In His arms He’ll take and shield thee,But, let me start at the beginning.
I was serving God for over thirty
years in a charismatic Pentecostal reformed church. This statement is true, but
it is also a lie. Can you hear the discord in that statement? I hope you can.
The true part is that I served God for
over thirty years, when the incident that this story is about, happened. The
lie is that one cannot serve God in a Church. One can only have communion with
other Christians in a Church.
The words charismatic, Pentecostal and
reformed are words of this world, of the governance of a church by worldly
norms and worldly people. These three words do not appear in the Bible. QED.
But, I did not know that back then.
I wanted God as a friend, not as a
God, although I did not know at that stage that God also wanted me as a friend.
Having God as a Supervisor or Policeman shouting at my every act, omission and
transgression, was too much like hostel life to me. I had had enough of that
for a lifetime. My inner being felt that God might just be a God who could
understand a human being and be friends with one, as my grandmother had taught
me at her knee.
And then one day I had a conversation
with God.
God had an appointment with me in
Paradise (Island) 'in the cool of day', on a Sunday in the year 2000. It was to
be one of my Damascus Moments.
It was time that God removed my
Songlasses, the glasses which kept me from seeing His Son in perspective. The
glasses which kept me from seeing what a friend I had in Jesus.
This is the story:
Three of us, including my son’s atheist
friend, flew with my aircraft to the Bazaruto Archipelago in Mozambique for
business, and then, as an afterthought, we came upon Paradise Island
unexpectedly. It was the most beautiful Island I had ever seen and the sand and
the aquatic life were phenomenal.
We met a local fishing canoe with very
poor indigenous people on board who asked us for cigarettes and matches. One of
us had the necessary goods and in return they gave us one of their freshly
caught crayfish.
The crayfish you get in that sea are
very large and beautiful; about two meters long and they have the most
beautiful green, blue and beige colours. So we chucked it into one corner of
our boat.
After about half an hour of snorkelling
I got tired, not being able to draw enough breath from the restricted orifice
of my snorkel, and I lied down on a bunk of the boat to dry out, inadvertently
with my head turned towards the crayfish.
As I stared at the crayfish, I started
to talk to God and told Him how smart and ingenious and beautiful and pristine
he made the earth, the universe and all the living creatures. And then,
suddenly, God started to speak to me; how, I still cannot fathom.
He said that I am right, what he
created was beautiful, but the most wonderful thing for Him was to go down to
Paradise (and Paradise Island - my own natural thought) in the coolness of day,
to talk to Adam and Eve.
After some time, I came to my full
senses again, not knowing that I was in a sort of reverie. I looked at my
watch and saw that I have been in this reverie for about thirty minutes which
seemed to me like three minutes. I also noticed that it was just past ten
o'clock on a Sunday morning - the exact time God usually spoke through His Holy
Spirit to us in Church. That was no coincidence. God had an appointment with me
that morning. It turned out to be one of my Damascus moments like Paul of
Damascus. He called it a trance.
Scales fell from my eyes in the spirit
of the real scales which fell from Paul’s eyes. I did not miss the importance
and similarity of the incident, as my Christian name is also Paul and I was struck
by the light of the knowledge of God.
I suddenly realized that God wanted to
be my friend - an almost blasphemous thought according to the conventional
wisdom of my old Church, but I knew that I needed to pursue it - like Paul did.
I studied scripture and came to the
following sobering thoughts:
· God
gave up all his authority (dominion) over the earth, in order to be friends
with Adam and Eve, regardless of whether they would trade it for an apple or
use it wisely.
· Scripture
says that ‘the LORD spake unto Moses face to face,
as a man speaketh unto his friend’.
· Jas
2:23. ‘And the scripture was fulfilled which saith,
Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was
called the Friend of God’.
· Joh
15:14 ‘Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I
command you’.
I cannot recall any instance in which
God used His authority or coerced me into doing something, or prevailed on me,
or influenced my thoughts unilaterally in my relationship with Him. Yes, He was
all along prepared to give off all authority, if I was prepared to become His
friend; why did I never realize this?
When He wanted to come to Earth to
save mankind, He did not once use His authority to let us know that He was the Creator
of Heaven and Earth. He preferred a manger as His mansion.
If God wanted a friend without a free
will - one he had authority over - he could have chosen some from amongst His
angels, but He did not. He gave us free will because He wanted us to be His
friends. In fact, he went so far as to make us in His image to be ON PAR with
Him. Well, that is laying down authority big time. If you doubt what I say,
read Rev 5:10 ‘And hast made us unto our God
kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth’.
Obviously he cannot give us the whole holy
package and put us in the shoes of one of His Arch Angels, Lucifer, who tried
to become higher than God; we will not start that over again. Isa 14: ‘How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the
morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the
nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will
exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the
congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the
clouds; I will be like the most High’.
Even here on earth we are very conscious
of the entrapments of high office.
So, today I have this best friend, who
has never failed me, and whom I may at times argue with, or tell Him I am
unhappy with what he is doing. And, I am free to do something for Him as well,
and listen to Him when He is unhappy with me - an occurrence which He often has
reason to be, but He does it quietly and diplomatically and lovingly and
earnestly, like a very good friend should.
I can appreciate a true friend and so
can you, and this inspired me to start the internet ministry called 'What a
Friend', which you can visit here:
http://what-a-friend-an.blogspot.com/
Since then I have combined my
religious and secular articles in this blog, to give people a balanced view of
life and the secular meaning thereof as well.
I must close this part with the words
of that beautiful song my grandmother taught me, so that it can infiltrate and
saturate my whole body, mind and soul: (it is best if you listen to the version
which is being sung by Larry Ford)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qm3mKa2buhg
What a friend we have in Jesus,
All our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry
Everything to God in prayer!
Oh, what peace we often forfeit,
Oh, what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry
Everything to God in prayer!
Have we trials and temptations?
Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged—
Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Can we find a friend so faithful,
Who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness;
Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Are we weak and heavy-laden,
Cumbered with a load of care?
Precious Saviour, still our refuge—
Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Do thy friends despise, forsake thee?
Take it to the Lord in prayer!
In His arms He’ll take and shield thee,
Thou wilt find a solace there.
Blessed Saviour, Thou hast promised
Thou wilt all our burdens bear;
May we ever, Lord, be bringing
All to Thee in earnest prayer.
Soon in glory bright, unclouded,
There will be no need for prayer—
Rapture, praise, and endless worship
Will be our sweet portion there.
My best friend indeed! WDW
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