FLOWERS FROM "FERTILIZER"
I frequently wheel through neighborhoods on my laid-back trike getting my exercise and some relaxed thinking time.  An interesting thought has occurred to me as I often have gotten wonderful quick whiffs of flowers or nasty smelling fertilizers--the stinky stuff that is animal waste, and yet fertile with possibilities for nurturing plants that produce fragrant blooms.  It often happens in moving along that the smell of one is suddenly replaced with the smell of the other.  
Our lives are sometimes like that. We can make bad choices, life can throw obstacles in our path, and our life can smell like fertilizer.  But if we will do what the Bible exhorts us in James chapter 1, and let God work in us through those times, we can eventually experience beauty and fragrance resulting from it.  Isaiah 61:3 is a prophecy about Jesus, and says that He will do just that sort of thing in us.  "To grant those who mourn in Zion, Giving them a garland instead of ashes, The oil of gladness instead of mourning, The mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting. So they will be called oaks of righteousness, The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified."

I'M BATMAN; YOU'RE SUPERMAN 

When I entered the house to supervise my 2 and 5 year-old grandsons, they were running around with caped pajamas that distinguished them as super-heroes, as they were flexing imagined muscles and shouting their alter-identities.  More about them in a minute. 

Philippians 2:9-11 as well as numerous other passages assure us that the time will come when everyone will understand and acknowledge who Jesus Christ really is.  "For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." 

As I was pondering this and thinking about the religious or non-religious people around the world who hold a plethora of widely varying opinions about God, gods, spirits, powers, life, death, good, evil, values, etc., several thoughts came to mind:   

• One, is that everyone has some level of belief that their perspective is accurate.  Some say they have no idea how it all fits together, but even that is usually based on a belief that truth is non-existent or unknowable. Everybody is trying to figure out life on planet Earth. 
• Two, is that it is natural for people to try to understand these things and resolve the ultimate issues of who we are, where we came from, why we're here, and what might come after.  Last weekend I sat next to a college student on an airplane, and when I asked him how in his own mind he deals with these ultimate issues he said, "I don't know. To be honest, it scares me to death." He admitted to having not read the Bible or knowing much about Christianity. 
• Three, recognizing and respecting the fact that everyone wrestles with these issues and we all come to them from different backgrounds and teachings is fundamental to honoring each other and having a platform for helpful discourse.  Whatever we believe or think we know, insisting that we are right and anyone who disagrees with us is either evil or stupid slams the door on their listening or dealing kindly with us.  Jesus dealt kindly with unbelievers, but harshly with those who knew the truth about God, yet were proud and rigid about it while not having the love of God in their hearts. 
• Four, I thought about some of the ways I've heard suggested that this eventual revelation that Jesus Christ is Lord will come about.  I remember hearing someone say that some burly ten-foot angels will command everyone to drop and bow, and from fear of retribution even the most rebellious will obey. I don't think that's what will produce the universal, humble confession.  

Back to my super-hero grandsons.  In their minds they are powerful when they don their costumes and strut around the living room. In their small, safe, uninitiated world they feel big and in charge. As they grow and learn they will realize they aren't nearly so powerful, and that for even the most powerful people on earth there are kryptonites of sickness, failure, ignorance, accidents, etc., and eventually death.  We are not super-heroes, much less gods or God!  Because these boys are being raised to know the Bible, to receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior and be filled with the Holy Spirit, they will come to understand who God is and what can be known about ultimate issues. What a heritage! 

My main point here is that all people seek truth about life, but it comes by exposure to the Truth. There are many arrows in our world that claim direction to truth, and like in a maze of distorted mirrors people try to find their way along. We who know the Truth, Jesus, should be careful not to discredit or be impatient with those who are pursuing truth in other directions.  The Bible tells us that Satan himself appears as an angel of light in order to deceive people.  Is it any wonder people are confused, and didn't many of us who weren't raised in truly Christian families once wander in confusion and try in our own minds to either be super-heroes or at least to follow the examples of some we thought had special powers or insights?  The more confused and lost people are, the more they need to be shown the love of God and the persevering but not pretentious presence of Christians who are not put off and disgusted by their ignorant pursuit of things that appear to them for the present to be right and good. 

I believe that the fulfillment of Philippians 2 will come by God's revealing Himself. When people are overwhelmed by the undeniable revelation of Who Jesus really is, all super-hero pajamas will be shed, and all will humbly acknowledge Who is the real Way, Truth and Life. (John 14:6) Our assignment for the present is to represent Him well in all His character and lead people to experience for themselves His life-transforming power.  

(2 Corinthians 5:16-21 Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer. Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.)