Life In The Bunker

 

How we see God IS how we see ourselves.  How we see ourselves IS how we see other people.  How we see other people IS how we see God.  If we want to know what we really think about God, all we need to do is assess what we really think about "all those Christians out there."

Daniel Yordy

I remember coming home from work, that place where many of the words and actions that hurt me took place, and retreating into watching television and/or pornography.  That was my bunker, the place where the people who caused me so much anger, pain and frustration could never touch me.  Here I was free to be the man I thought I truly was.  But that was nothing but another lie born no doubt of others who built up their own bunkers around their lives.  I was not free to be the man I truly was, I was enslaved to the idea that I was a mans man.  Stoic, reserved and shunning everyone.  This was my world.  Now I ask you, what reasonable person could ever attempt to break down the walls of the bunker I'd built for myself?  No doubt many tried, but my anger and sarcasm eventually drove them away.  How many potential friends have I driven away?  When I think back on those times now I cannot help but feel regret for living the lie which I was.  I call it living a lie because that is exactly what I was doing.  By believing that what I was doing was the true essence of a man, I was denying the presence of the Lord who had so lovingly brought life unto me {Genesis 1:27}.  By buying into this life I had created for myself, I was turning my back on Jesus who has ALWAYS been the essence of the man that I am today.  Oh sure, I knew who Jesus was, but I wasn't "living" Jesus as someone who knew the truth of Christ in them {Galatians 2:20}.  To me, Jesus was just a figurehead, someone who was far removed from any part of my life.  Jesus was the guy who condemned me for what I had done.  Jesus was the example I was told I needed to "try to follow."  Never in my Christian life up to that point was I introduced to the Jesus who is in me.  That Jesus had no place in my bunker.  

But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is to this day, to save many people alive. 

Genesis 50: 20 NKJV 

A dear friend this morning shared with me a wonderful quote from author Daniel Yordy.  The quote was so profound to my topic today that I led off this page with it.  The truth is, how we see those around us IS how we see God.  Am I to believe that I have the market cornered on Christ Jesus being in me?  Did Jesus stop there?  NO!  The truth of Christ is that His Spirit indwells in ALL of the Lords creation.  We can, however, choose not to realize that He is in us.  We can build up for ourselves bunkers to house our false beliefs that we are our own man.  We can shun all who dare try to break down the walls of the prisons we create.  Trust me, I've ben there.  The painful pill for me to swallow was reading Daniel Yordy's quote that how we see God is how we see ourselves.  In my bunker, I was safe from the hurtful words of those I ignored.  However, when I did venture out into the world, I began to see those around me as mean and wicked people.  Was this how I saw God as well?  Yes, there were rimes where my opinion of the Lord was based upon what I felt was His past of judging the wicked.  I needed to be holy and righteous, and if I wasn't then God would judge me.  That was my view of God.  That was my view of myself.  A turning point for me came when a good friend shared with me the passage from 1 John 4:8.  Suddenly I was introduced not to a God of judgement, but of love.  The first bricks of the bunker I had built for myself began to crumble and fall.  It wasn't long before life in the bunker began to remind me of somewhere I never wanted to be.  A life in the bunker meant a life of pain devoid of the Lord.  The love and acceptance I wanted was mine for the taking outside of that bunker.  It was here where God has nurtured in me the truth I have come to know as His Son in me {Galatians 2:20}.  If indeed Christ Jesus is in me, then His Spirit is in those other believers out there as well.  It is this profound realization which helped change my own perspective of my fellow man.  Many people will continue to do mean and hurtful things, but do they really know who they are?  What will it take to began breaking down the walls of the prisons they've created for themselves?  It all begins with Jesus.  

He who is not loving knew not God, for God is love.

1 John 4: 8, Concordant New Testament 

~Scott~