So Close And Yet So Far Away

Have you ever tried to climb into a book and physically interact with the characters on the page?  Of course you haven't.  That would be silly.   Have you ever mentally involved yourself in a story and imagined you were interacting with the characters?  I am sure I have, if not consciously then sub consciously.  Some people like to read choose your own adventure books.  The ending of the story is already written with several different outcomes, but the reader controls which way they go.  Others like to begin with a blank page and write their own story, create their own characters, and design their own plots.  That is the way to really be a part of the story.  A story doesn't write itself; it has to have an author.

Though many don't want to acknowledge it, God is the author of the universe.  His story is a little different.  He designed the characters specifically to be able to interact with Him. He gave them a mind of their own.  He allows them to go where they may and do as they will within the world He created for them.  Though the characters may do what they will, He has defined what is right and wrong.  This is a place where so many people seem to be confused.  They think that because they have a mind of their own that they can define right and wrong for themselves, but what God calls wrong is wrong even if it seems right to one of His characters.  

Part of the author's plot design is to redeem His characters who go astray, and they all go astray at some point as they make their own choices.  They were born with the inclination to do so because their parents did and so did their grandparents.  The inborn inclination to act against what the author defined as right goes all the way back to the first two people that He created with a mind of their own.  When they chose to try to define their own right and wrong they went contrary to the author and have passed down that characteristic of defiance to all generations.  God, however, would not walk away and allow His characters all to self destruct, instead He stepped into the story and made His Son one of the characters.  His Son had a mind of His own, but He diligently chose to always be true to His divine nature rather than succumbing to the nature of the character from whom he was descended in the story.  He showed the other characters what it looks like to follow the author's definition of doing what is right without straying, and He sacrificed his life to pay for all the wrong choices of every other man, woman, boy and girl in the story who would trust in Him.  After the price for sin was paid by the shedding of His life blood, He rose victorious on the third day!   

So many people are so close and yet so far away from the truth.  They want everyone to be accepted, but on their own merit, and for their choices rather than in spite of them.  Instead of admitting that God's definition of right and wrong is true and believing we can be forgiven for doing wrong, they want to make a new standard of right and wrong.  God wants to accept everyone, but He only does that based on the perfectly lived life, sacrificial death and triumphant resurrection of His Son.  He will not accept us for our wrong choices, but He will accept us in spite of them because of Jesus.  The place so many get stuck is that they refuse to admit that they have failed to uphold God's standard of right and wrong and therefore they don't ask to be forgiven for their wrong based on the merit of His Son.  

Rather than reaching out to the author and asking Him to intervene in their part of they story gone awry, some people are now calling out to the story itself and the setting they've been placed in.  They will ask the universe to guide them or provide for them, but the universe has no power.  Only The Creator of the universe has the power to help them.  He made it possible for the wayward characters He created to come to Him through His Son.  Jesus left The Author's side and stepped into the storybook to provide salvation and a connection to God despite our condition.  With salvation He provides new character for His characters.  He gives them the Holy Spirit to help them see things His way so that they can overcome that inherited inclination to make up their own definitions that conflict with His Truth.  

A person does not ask an oven for a loaf of bread, they ask the baker.  One wouldn't get far by asking a ship to take them across the ocean, they must ask the captain.  When a person realizes that they need help they had better ask The Creator, not the creation.  Imagine for a minute if the baker relabeled all of his ingredients.  What if he called the salt sugar, the sugar flour and the flour salt?  Try to bake a cake  with those substitutions.  It's not going to be a cake.  Salt is salt and sugar is sugar, just like wrong is wrong and right is right.  You can't change what it is just by changing the label.  If you substitute wrong for right the recipe is going to fail.  

My prayer is for people to turn to Jesus "the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising its shame, and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God." (Hebrews 12:1-2)  Lord, please use these words to minister to someone today.  There are so many in the world who are confused because they haven't met Your Son.  Maybe they have heard of Him, but He is still a great mystery to them.  Please open the eyes of someone today so that they can see Jesus.  In His precious, awesome and glorious name I make this request.  Amen.  

"Delight yourself in The Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart." Psalm 37:4