For those of you who do not know, I’ve been living with multiple sclerosis since 2010. I must admit, it’s been quite a journey. It took a lot of the things I loved–fast it seems. There was almost a two-year time frame before I knew what was wrong. Once I did get the diagnosis, the symptoms just increased each year, rapidly. The first body part it impacted was my hands. My career was as an administrative assistant, doing lots of computer work, desktop publishing, and typing. My documents were flawless, so imagine my dismay when I went from typing with 10 fingers to about 2-4, and seeing the loads of red underlines MS Word signals when you have a typing error. I was flabbergasted! Then, it was my legs and balance. All my life, I moved quickly. I could walk 10 city blocks easily and fast. Now, I must use a walker, and after 2 city blocks, my feet begin to drag; it’s called foot drop. The other notable change MS has produced in my life is the inability to multitask. I told you I moved quick, so I was able to do several things at the same time. However, MS symptoms also impair our mental and cognitive function. Fatigue is also real and sometimes unbearable in MS. I used to be able to clean the entire house in one day. Not anymore. It was the fatigue I kept emphasizing to doctors that something physical was wrong because they kept telling me I was having some type of mental health crisis. I always had a lot of energy. Could go and go like a Duracell battery. Now, I’ll do one thing, rest, then the next thing.
So, I lost my typing ability, multitasking skills, speed, accuracy, and ability to keep going for long periods. I was in a deep depression for the first several years and could not understand for the life of me why God would allow this in my life. (I asked Him.) I loved my career and was good at it, moving fast, and being busy.
The Lord is faithful, though, and allows nothing in our lives we can’t handle; in fact, He teaches us in it–if we let Him. He’ll show you a whole new way of being and living. It’s what He did for me and continues to do; He taught me how to manage this disease. I’ll never forget Him gently reminding me when I was living in denial trying to continue as I once was. “You’re sick Ellie,” He whispered. Wow, God deals in truth. Besides, how could I ask for healing if I’m not accepting I’m sick.
Maybe your life course, dreams, or way of being has been altered too by some malady or misfortune. You too may have legitimate questions for God. He may not always explain the reasoning, but He slowly puts things in perspective for us. So, now, I write. My body, mind, and spirit are finally at a slowed enough pace to do so.
Nonetheless, I’m excited today! Me and my new network of people is gearing up in Philadelphia on Saturday, May 4 for our annual MS Walk. I finally got a team together after 14 years. It’s an exciting event! If you would like to support us and donate, please visit my Facebook page (Eleanor Parks), or click the link below to be taken to my National MS Society’s personal fundraising page to donate. The National MS Society is an excellent organization; I’m where I am today because of them.
“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us… In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God. And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:18, 26-28)
A song that rang in my ear during my childhood; I loved hearing the pastor and congregation singing it. Pastor wasn’t a singer but you knew how much he loved this song by the way he bobbed his head and moved his legs while singing it. 🙂 It still reverberates in my spirit today at 62—At Calvary.
“Calvary,” or Golgotha was a site immediately outside Jerusalem’s walls where, according to Christianity’s four gospels, Jesus was crucified. Interestingly to me, there is a similarly spelled word “cavalry.” It denotes a unit of troops on horseback summoned for war. This group of soldiers is trained to fight and can be quickly deployed in a war. It was God, the Father, who summoned and deployed Jesus for calvary in this war for human souls. Jesus was the troop, the only war hero who fought to the death and won the battle to bring us to God.
At Calvary
Years I spent in vanity and pride Caring not my Lord was crucified Knowing not it was for me He died On Calvary
[Refrain] Mercy there was great, and grace was free Pardon, there, was multiplied to me There my burdened soul found liberty At Calvary
By God’s word at last my sin I learned Then I trembled at the law I’d spurned Till my guilty soul imploring turned To Calvary
[Refrain] Mercy there was great, and grace was free Pardon, there, was multiplied to me There my burdened soul found liberty At Calvary
Now I’ve given Jesus everything Now I gladly know him as my King Now my raptured soul can only sing Of Calvary!
[Refrain] Mercy there was great, and grace was free Pardon, there, was multiplied to me There my burdened soul found liberty At Calvary
O, the love that drew salvation’s plan O, the grace that brought it down to man O, the mighty gulf that God did span At Calvary
[Refrain] Mercy there was great, and grace was free Pardon, there, was multiplied to me There my burdened soul found liberty At Calvary
By William R. Newell
As this song tells us, Jesus’ death grants us unlimited mercy, grace, pardon, and freedom. Oh, and three days later, after this war at Calvary, Jesus got up from His grave; He’s the only war hero who ever did. Death couldn’t hold Him down. Wow! Jesus Christ is alive! Receive Him into your life now.
I am the master builder of your home in heaven, and I am the Creator of everything on earth. This is not your home, my beloved warrior; your true citizenship is in heaven. While you’re on the battlefield fighting for souls to be saved, I am preparing a paradise for you. The Place I am preparing for you will have no more death, heartache, pain, or war. But for now, my chosen one, I need you to fight the good fight of your faith with your whole heart, soul, and mind, knowing that this spiritual war will soon be over and eternal rewards await you.
Love, Your King who reigns in heaven and earth
Jesus answered, “My Kingdom is not an earthly kingdom. If it were, my followers would fight to keep me from being handed over to the Jewish leaders. But my Kingdom is not of this world.” – John 18:36 (NLT)
A Prayer for Kingdom
I pray for you, my sister princess, to receive a touch from heaven today… that our Father in heaven will remove the blinders from your eyes and you will experience an eternal view of the amazing things to come. May you find peace in knowing that the troubles of this world will soon be over, and the joys to come will be everlasting. I pray that thoughts of eternity inspire you to share God’s love everywhere you go and increase the citizenship of heaven. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Dear friends, I warn you as “temporary residents and foreigners” to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against your very souls. – 1 Peter 2:11 (NLT)
Last month, we looked at Jesus’ words to the disciples in John 15:18-21, where He said,
“If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own. However, because you do not belong to the world, but I chose you out of the world, for this reason the world hates you. Remember what I told you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they obeyed my word, they will obey yours too. But they will do all these things to you on account of my name because they do not know the one who sent me.”
We concluded how:
Sometimes Jesus’ statements are hard to grasp or accept.
Jesus equates those who have accepted Him with Himself.
Jesus suggests a mind shift to now seeing ourselves as not a part of this world, although we live here.
This “spirit of the world” opposes the Spirit of God. It does not know God or accept Jesus Christ’s ways, teachings, or message. It hates God and His Son, Jesus.
We too will experience hatred and opposition as His disciples. We should expect this and not seek any comradery with or acceptance by the world.
In continuing this discourse about “not being of the world,” in John 17, we find Jesus this time talking to His Father, God about it. He prays in verses 13-19,
“But now I am coming to you, and I am saying these things in the world, so they may experience my joy completed in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but that you keep them safe from the evil one. They do not belong to the world just as I do not belong to the world. Set them apart in the truth; your word is truth. Just as you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world. And I set myself apart on their behalf, so that they too may be truly set apart.”
Jesus knows He is about to physically leave them. He confirms with God how the disciples: (1) now belong to Him because they accepted His truthful words; (2) were sent out to proclaim His word, and they went; and (3) they no longer belong with the world but are now with and for Him and God. On this basis then, Jesus asks the Father: not to take them out of the world; to set them apart from the world (or distinguish them) by the truth; and to protect and keep them from the evil one or evil spirit that runs the world. Again, Jesus equates the disciples with Himself, “[Father] they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.” God sent Jesus; Jesus sends us. The preservation Jesus asks for is about a distinction Christians should have and a work for which they were chosen–to proclaim God’s kingdom and Jesus’ message of being Savior of the world. They needed divine power, protection, and sanctifying grace for this.
So, Jesus commits them to the custody and care of God. But it’s not just for them. He continues in vss. 20-23,
“I am not praying only on their behalf, but also on behalf of those who believe in me through their testimony, that they will all be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I am in you. I pray that they will be in us, so that the world will believe that you sent me. The glory you gave to me I have given to them, that they may be one just as we are one–I in them and you in me–that they may be completely one, so that the world will know that you sent me, and you have loved them just as you have loved me.”
That’s us, folks! 😊 One day, we heard or read the disciples’ testimony about Jesus Christ in the Bible, or someone told us; we believed and accepted it. So, we too, are called out of the world and sent into it with a specific message to share. We unite with other believers to testify of God’s love and show forth Jesus’ oneness with God. Others will also believe and glorify God as we proclaim Jesus’ message in the world. For such, we’re in it, but not of it.
Author and Pastor Ray Stedman agrees about not being a part of the world. He writes on his Ray Stedman Daily Devotion website a devotion titled, “The Way of Health” at https://www.raystedman.org/daily-devotions/nehemiah/the-way-of-health, “We must never forget that we are in the world but not of it. We are never to settle down here for good. I love the way C. S. Lewis has put it: ‘Our kind heavenly Father has provided many wonderful inns for us along our journey, but he takes special care to see that we never mistake any of them for home.’ We are pilgrims and strangers, passing through this world. We are involved in it, deeply sometimes, but we are never to see ourselves as a part of it.”
May we receive the grace to understand and accept this truth from Jesus while still here. May we unite as never before as the early church did–sharing the message of the Gospel of Christ, keeping the unity of the faith, and staying close together.
Doesn’t Jesus, at times, say things in the Gospel writings that make you scratch your head and say, “What?” One of those verses for me is found in John 15:18-21, where he’s telling His disciples,
“If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own. However, because you do not belong to the world, but I chose you out of the world, for this reason the world hates you. Remember what I told you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they obeyed my word, they will obey yours too. But they will do all these things to you on account of my name because they do not know the one who sent me.”
Holy Bible. John 15:18-21
I imagine the disciples grimly glancing at one another thinking, “Is Rabbi losing it? Do not belong to the world? Chose us out of the world? Jesus, we’re standing right here in your midst, in this place? What are you talking about?” This is a valid thought because I too questioned Jesus’ words here until I dug deeper into the context of the text.
Unbeknownst to the disciples, Jesus was preparing them for his departure and the culmination of the crises he was about to endure. In other words, events for Jesus and they were about to “hit the fan.” The Matthew Henry Commentary (1706) confirms this by stating, “It is generally agreed that Christ’s discourse in this and the next chapter was at the close of the last supper, the night in which he was betrayed, and it is a continued discourse, not interrupted as that in the foregoing chapter was; and what he chooses to discourse of is very pertinent to the present sad occasion of a farewell sermon.”
The word “world” used here is a Greek word, kosmos. Walter Elwell (1997) explains that “The biblical concept of the world falls into five categories: the physical world, the human world, the moral world, the temporal world, and the coming world. Most scholars agree that here, “world” refers to “the Moral World, [which] includes people indifferent or hostile to God, the God-hostile environment generally, and in the widest sense, corruption and evil summed up under the general term “the world… If the people of the world can be spoken of as “the world” in a neutral sense, “the world” can also refer to the subclass of indifferent and hostile people who reject God and his ways… Because of the world’s hostility to God, it is full of corruption (2 Peter 1:4 ) and stands as a symbol of corruption. One cannot be friendly with the evil world and love God at the same time (James 4:4; 1 John 2:15-17 ).”
Additionally, Thayer and Smith (n.d.) in The KJV New Testament Greek Lexicon explain kosmos as, “denoting an apt and harmonious arrangement or constitution, order, government; the inhabitants of the earth, men, the human family; the whole mass of men alienated from God, and therefore hostile to the cause of Christ… world affairs, the aggregate of things earthly… the whole circle of earthly goods, endowments, riches, advantages, pleasures, etc., which although hollow and frail and fleeting, stir desire, seduce from God and are obstacles to the cause of Christ.” It goes on to suggest how kosmos “is probably from the base komizo (kom-id’-zo), a verb meaning, to care for, take care of, provide for; to take up or carry away in order to care for and preserve; to carry, bear, bring to, to carry away for one’s self, to carry off what is one’s own, to bring back.” These definitions suggest how the order, arrangement, affairs, world systems, ways of governing or establishing ownership, and its people who are indifferent and hostile to God constitute the world Jesus has called us out of. When thinking further on His saying of being “not of the world,” understand the word “of” expresses the relationship between a part and a whole. The prepositional phrase “of the world” then clearly shows us the view Christ wants us to have regarding our living here on earth–in the sense of operating in its way, toward its agenda, we are no longer a part. The role Christians who follow Christ now play in the world in relationship to the whole, in fact, should be quite unique, different, and odd or foreign as we show forth God.
Interestingly, Jesus equates the disciples with Himself and the hatred they would experience because of their association with Him. They needed to shift their thinking from seeing themselves, not as comrades with the world but as opponents to it. Jesus did not regard them from a worldly point of view (2 Cor. 5:16-17). Isn’t that great! John Gill’s Exposition on the Bible (n.d.) confirms how, “After our Lord had signified how much he loved his disciples and what great things he had done for them; he faithfully acquaints them with the world’s hatred of them, and what they must expect to meet with from that quarter, and says many things to fortify their minds against it…” So, you see, this disassociation with the world has everything to do with our (now) following Jesus. Just as they hated Him, He exhorts, they will hate them. Is this happening today in Christ’s Church, or are we “in” with the world and being treated well? Stop complaining about how they’re treating you on the job; there’s something in your spirit that bothers them. Don’t worry about not being invited to join the lunchtime group; your conversation doesn’t blend in with theirs. Rejoice, Jesus says here. Isn’t that counterintuitive to the world? I wonder how many of those kids and young adults are Christians, who are providing interviews about the bullying and rejection they’re experiencing on social media or at school; they may not even recognize it’s because of Jesus in them.
Gill explains this further, saying, “If ye were of the world,” the text says, meaning, “Belong[ing] to the world, were of the same spirit and principles with it, and pursued the same practices. But because ye are not of the world, once they were, being born into it, brought up in it, had their conversation among the men of it, were themselves men of carnal, worldly, principles and practices; but being called by Christ, and becoming his disciples, they were no more of it; and as he was not of the world, so they were not of it, though they were in it. Jesus goes on to say, but I have chosen you out of the world: which designs not the eternal election of them, but the separation of them from the rest of the world in the effectual calling, and the designation of them to his work and service. Therefore the world hateth you, and since it was upon that account, they had no reason to be uneasy, but rather to rejoice; seeing this was evidence of their not belonging to the world, and of being chosen and called by Christ out of it.”
We will conclude here and continue this discussion next month, as it is a lot to digest and meditate upon. Surely, this is one of Jesus’s controversial sayings that some may have never heard taught. Many may find it difficult to accept and live by because it goes directly to the core of the state of affairs of the world we live in. It clearly shows there should not be an expectation of comradery with it or acceptance Christians should seek from it because it is opposed to God; we should expect hatred and trouble to come for what we believe and preach. This means we must scrutinize things in our world and be discerning of people and philosophies to see if they align with God’s nature or point of view. We shouldn’t just jump in and join social, political, or cultural marches, movements, or protests. We can’t always agree with and support organizations that promote a way of life that is contrary to God’s way. Finally, these scriptures settle, for me, how because of my acceptance of Christ in my life, He no longer sees me from a worldly perspective. Jesus sees me up there as seated right with Him in the heavenly realm. If He sees me in this way, He treats me in this way. So, too, should we view and treat our fellow believers. Wow!
Be blessed until next time. 🙂
References
Elwell, Walter A. (1997). Evangelical Dictionary of Theology. “Entry for ‘World.'”
Inspiration by Ellie 