TO ONE ANOTHER
〉 INTRODUCTION
The Holy Spirit is at work when Jesus Christ is glorified. Jesus Christ is glorified in His body, the Church. The divine fellowship of God the Father, the Spirit, and the Son found in Holy Scripture is then reflected in the fellowship of believers within the Church.
⇒ TO ONE ANOTHER
BOOK ONE:
A Man walks into a church building about half way through the worship service on a Sunday morning. The choir is singing a hymn that he has never heard before, yet the words seem rather familiar. He hasn’t been to a church in many years, and to his surprise the walls do not cave in…
⇒ HYMN TO THE ONE AND ONLY
The Preacher is teaching the congregation from the book of Romans in the New Testament. Something stirs within the Man’s soul. Something awakens. Something very old, now made very new.
⇒ NOW MAY THE GOD OF HOPE
The choir sings a benediction and the Preacher dismisses the congregation with a few more encouraging words from the Bible.
⇒ TO HIM WHO IS ABLE
The Man seeks and finds the Preacher, asking for a few moments of his time. Having no idea even where to begin, he blurts out that he cannot understand God nor the meaning of life! The Preacher smiles and commends the Man for this confession. He clarifies that even though the answers are found in the Bible, they can seem mysterious and are only rightly discerned spiritually. “You’ll never be able to ‘figure it all out’ on your own,” he says to the Man. “You must let the Holy Spirit guide you into all truth.”
⇒ THE MYSTERY OF GODLINESS
The Man tells the Preacher he doesn’t believe he could be worthy of God’s love or of His Spirit because of all the things he has done wrong in the past. “Then why are you here today?” the Preacher asks. The Man says he can’t explain that either, unable to reconcile his feelings of guilt with his compulsion to be there. The Preacher smiles and commends the Man for this confession too. “Jesus has compassion for us all. He has washed the feet of betrayers much worse than you, my friend. Remember Judas? Jesus washed his feet at the Last Supper, knowing that He would be betrayed by Judas just a few hours later.”
The Preacher then tells the Man that he’ll be meeting two other men from the Church for lunch in a short while. He invites the Man to join them, if he doesn’t mind waiting a few minutes while the Preacher attends to a few duties. The Man agrees to join them and as he waits, the choir sings through parts of several hymns as they prepare for a special music service scheduled for later in the week. The Preacher’s words reverberate in the Man’s mind as he ponders the kindness he is being shown this day.
⇒ JESUS WASHED THE FEET OF HIS BETRAYER
The Preacher returns and the two men depart for the local diner, the distance being just a short walk through town.
〉 INTERLUDE – Seven Minutes
⇒ SELAH I
BOOK TWO:
At the diner, the Preacher and the Man are greeted by two men waiting at a table set for four – The Man is introduced to the Deacon and to the Friend. Lunch arrives and the Deacon prays a peculiar prayer that sounds like it must be from the pages of the Bible. The Man is not quite sure who the Deacon is referring to with his prayer, but he senses the agreement of the other two men, and so he mindlessly says “Amen” with them at the conclusion merely by rote.
⇒ AND NOW, O LORD GOD
The conversation over lunch seems to be part interview and part question-and-answer-period. The Man responds to the questions of the other men, and asks his own questions, now quite comfortable with expressing and confessing his struggles, his unbelief, and his fears. The Friend spends several minutes explaining how, and when, his faith in Jesus occurred with a surprising account of his own weaknesses and struggles. In the end, the Friend found his triumph much less complicated than he had expected, and his surrender to God much more satisfying than he had ever thought possible.
⇒ FILL ME UP
As the Man excuses himself to use the restroom, the Preacher turns the conversation with the Deacon and the Friend to matters of the church body. He opens his Bible and is reading to the other two men from the book of Colossians when the Man returns to the table. The Man listens in silence to the latter part of the reading and then to the ensuing discussion about how the church leadership must encourage the church more and more to live out the words found in the Bible.
⇒ AS YOU THEREFORE
The Man marvels to himself that three men are not only spending their free time like this, but are also taking the words of the Bible so very seriously. He senses a pause in the conversation and interjects a question, asking them how they can have such great love for the people he saw at the church earlier that day; many of whom barely even looked him in the eye, much less spoke to him, and for the most part actually seemed to have very little concern for each other at all. The Deacon quotes two verses from the Bible (1 Corinthians 16:14 and Galatians 5:5), and then to says to the Man, “Simply put, God calls us to such a love.”
⇒ DONE IN LOVE
Somehow the Man has become unsettled and he begins to think that these men might just be fools after all. He asks them point-blank how they can be so sure of what they believe, and how they can trust a “loving God” who could condemn people and then send them to a place like hell. The three other men are quiet for a moment. Then the Friend answers… “God sends no one to hell… Rather, He gives everyone the same opportunity to choose it for themselves – to choose it instead of Him.”
⇒ HOLD ME…FOR ETERNITY
The Man rises sadly from the table. He thanks the other three men for their time and for the meal as he sets a ten dollar bill on the table, stating it is for the Waitress. He walks out the front door of the diner and is gone.
〉 INTERLUDE – Seven Weeks
⇒ SELAH II
BOOK THREE:
The Man slips into the church office after the last morning service is over. The Preacher, the Deacon and the Friend all happen to be there having a discussion. The Man, choking back tears, confesses that the past weeks have felt like an eternity in exile and he begs the men to explain to him what he must do to share in the same assurance of salvation that they obviously have.
⇒ TELL ME ABOUT THIS JESUS
The Preacher explains in simple and concise terms the Man’s need for repentance and for dependence on God the Father, through God the Son, and by God the Spirit.
⇒ IF WE WALK IN THE LIGHT
As the four men pray together, the Man confesses his sins and his need for salvation through Jesus Christ alone according to the plan laid out in the Bible. As they finish, the Preacher notes that according to Luke 15:10, there are angels in heaven rejoicing over this confession! All four men join them…
⇒ PRAISING THE NAME
“Now what?” asks the Man. “Where do I go from here? What’s next? Where do I even start?” The Deacon effortlessly flips open the Bible on the table to Psalm 111, points to it, and says, “Start right there.”
⇒ HOLY AND AWESOME
The Man nods his head as they finish reading the Psalm and shares that he always knew it had to be more than just praying one prayer, as he had heard somewhere before. “That’s merely the beginning of a long journey of surrender,” says the Friend. “But you now have us to help you make your way through it. If you’d like…” The Man slowly shakes his head and smiles. “I know this is all true,” he says. “But I’m not sure I really understand what you mean by ‘surrender’.” “It starts right there,” says the Friend, pointing to the middle of the Man’s chest.
⇒ ALL HEART
〉 INTERLUDE – Seven Years
⇒ SELAH III
During the next seven years, the Man grows more and more in the ways of God by the leading of the Holy Spirit and through the discipleship of these three other men. Surrender is rarely easy though, and in this Man’s case it comes with seemingly insurmountable struggles and trials. But again and again the Man tastes the sweet fruit of victory in following Jesus Christ obediently. In fact, you can read about one such instance (which takes place in the fifth year of this interlude) in the Narrative for the Album Awake and Sing, You Who Dwell in Dust. He is “The First Man” in that story.
〉 CONCLUSION
Then one day the Trumpet of God sounds, the clouds roll back like a scroll, and Jesus Christ returns for His Church, which includes, among countless others, the Preacher, the Deacon, the Friend, and the Man.
Hallelujah! Come Lord Jesus, and to God be the glory… Forever and ever. Amen.