The Essence of Christianity

By David Hobbs

Some time ago I went around town to various lodges such as the Elks and Moose to see what it would take to join their group. In every case it was ridiculously easy: fill out an application, pay dues, go through initiation… you’re in!
“Well what do I have to affirm or believe to become a member?”
“Here’s a brochure about who we are, and the benefits of becoming a Moose/Elk/Lion.” The Moose especially had a very attractive plan—a big retirement place in Florida you could go to: golf, fishing, cut rate medical benefits, wow it sounded great!
There were no special beliefs you had to ascribe to. You should attend meetings and be part of the group, give alms to “Mooseheart” (a facility for orphaned children back east). But it was pretty simple.
How does that compare with becoming a Christian? Well as a Christian there is more you are required to believe—the Nicene Creed spells it out nicely: all the doctrines of orthodox Christianity. And there is more change of lifestyle “demanded” of you—don’t drink, don’t smoke, don’t cuss, don’t run around with floozy women, etc. That's more requirements than becoming a Moose. But the benefits are comparatively greater as well: eternity in heaven, provision on earth, a smooth transition to the other side…. If you stop and consider it, not too much to ask.

Just like the Moose you are expected to attend meetings and financially support the group, and try and get others to join.
And that’s the way many look at Christianity: you join a local church, ascribe to their beliefs, attend meetings, give financial support, and someday reap the benefits. That’s the americanized version. The biblical one is quite different.
The biblical pattern is to encounter God at some (crisis) point in your life, like the jailer in Acts 16:27+ who rushed into the jail where Paul was imprisoned, fell trembling at Paul’s feet and implored of him and Silas, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” Or Paul himself, many years earlier on the road to Damascus, who was knocked to the ground and blinded by the encounter and could only ask, “Who are you Lord?” (Acts 9:5).
It was not a question of joining a group, it was having a life-altering encounter with Jesus that left you forever changed. As for benefits, God promise to Paul was: “I will show him how much he must suffer for my Name.” (Acts 9:16).

Luke’s Gospel tells the story of a group of ten lepers who were miraculously healed on their way to be examined by the priests (Luke 17:11). One came back and threw himself at Jesus’ feet in gratefulness while the others vanished. Where did they go? Probably to get the rest of their lives back together. “I wonder if my wife is still waiting for me? I wonder if can get my job back? I wonder what happened to the apartment I was living in? Leprosy had taken away their lives and now they suddenly had them back and it was a rush to re-enter life as usual and get back what had been lost in the interim.
It can be exactly the same when we get saved. We’re in a heck of a bind, about to be destroyed…. But that terrible situation drives us to Jesus and we end up getting saved and He rights the ship of our life. If we’re not careful, we can go back to the things we were pursuing before we got into the trouble that drove us to Jesus.
We can think, “Great! I’ve finally got that area of my life nailed down; I’ve gotten eternity taken care of, I’ve got somebody I know I can call on if I get into trouble again. Now I can go back to the other things I was pursuing; now I can go back to getting a wife, getting a job, securing my place on the corporate ladder, finishing my education…. All those worldly goals I was pursuing before I met Christ and became a Christian."
But that’s not how it’s supposed to be. When we meet Christ and are “born again,” our old life is dead. It’s over; it didn’t work; it was taking me down; but thank God He saved me out of it. We were saved off the deck of the Titanic just before it went under. Now why would we want to go back to it, to perhaps find a safer place to hang out there? The whole ship is going down, with everyone on board. The same can be said for this world—the whole thing is doomed to destruction, so why would we want to go back and try a different tack to making it in this life?
But that’s not even my point.
When we get saved, and our eyes are opened to see the truth, we realize we were in deception all along. We thought we were all right, but we were really on our way to hell without realizing it. And even if we had realized it, there was nothing we could have done about it—no person can save himself! It was in this helpless condition we were saved, but oh what a price had to be paid! God Himself had to become one of us, live His life among us being despised and rejected, and suffer terribly including the most cruel death imaginable, to win our release from our death sentence. He saved us from death, saved us from eternity in hell, and gave us an eternity of ecstasy in “heaven” with Him, but only by taking upon Himself the most cruel, unimaginable suffering, even unto death. And not for any good thing we had done, but only because of His love for us.
In view of all that, what should our response be? “Wow, I’m glad I have eternity taken care of. Now let’s see what I can do for myself in this life?” That’s the very selfish, sinful attitude that drove Him to the cross to save us. Now, saved and delivered, we’re going to take it up again?
The only reasonable response is total surrender of our lives to the will of God; surrender to that great love that suffered so much to rescue us from ourselves. When we were in charge of our own lives we made a mess of them—what else can we say? Our lives were total disasters when we were at the helm! The only way they could be saved was for God Himself to die on the cross for us. Now we want to try again and hope we can do better? No! A million times no! Self-life is dead. It’s over; it failed; it’s gone; end of story. The only reason we are still alive is because of Him. “I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. Yet not I but Christ liveth in me.”
We all know the importance of faith in Christianity. We are saved by faith, made righteous by faith, etc. But do we really believe that Christ died for us to save us? “Sure we believe.” But is it real faith or just a mental assent to a religious doctrine? “Here’s what you have to believe to be a Christian: Christ died for our sins,” check; “Jesus was the Son of God,” check; “Father, Spirit, Son,” check.”
If we really believed Christ shed His blood, was crucified and killed because it was the only way we could be spared an eternity in hell, we would be so blown away we would sit in prayer for hours at a time: incredulous, blown away, overwhelmed. We would experience crushing bouts of guilt, agonizing despair at our total depravity, but also overwhelming joy, ecstasy, giddiness, awestruck wonder at what He’s done and why He’s done it…. We would want to shout it from the rooftops, “I’m saved! I’m saved!” We would be praying, “Lord you’ve done so much for me, what would you like me to do for you? How can I please you? How can I repay you for your sacrifice?” Everything would be focused on him, on what He’s done.
The fact that most of these things don’t happen and aren’t happening means what? It means we don’t really believe! It’s become a religious doctrine instead of a living reality--a platitude we repeat over and over with no real meaning while we, like the other nine lepers, go on about our lives trying to put the rest of the pieces together.

Commentary on "Out of the Fire"--The Glory of One Soul Saved!

By David Hobbs

Psalm 49:8—The ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough

I always knew it was great to be saved, and salvation showed that God had personal care over my soul. But I never realized how much was involved until years later writing it down in my book Out of the Fire. Delving back into it has opened up the whole, wonderful world of all that happened that I never realized. One thing that really stands out is the chapter “Song in a Thunderstorm” (page 262). It was the watershed moment on my spiritual journey.
What is a watershed?
In the mountains, everything is sloped up or down. Other than that, it can all look pretty much the same. But there is this thing called a “watershed.” A watershed is an area, and it can be quite large (probably 1/3 of the United States lies within the watershed of the Mississippi River!). Within this area--though there are hills and valleys, ridges and ravines-- everything flows down to the river that drains the watershed. No matter where you start within the watershed, if you flow downhill you will end up at the mouth of the river. There is an inexorable pull that takes everything to the same place.
Yet while up in the highlands it is possible to cross over into a different watershed that will take you to a totally different destination. Sometimes in the highlands, just crossing a slight ridge is enough to rewrite the story of your destination!

As humans living here on the earth, we are born into a watershed that will take us eventually and inevitably to the river of death and then on into the netherworld of destruction and eternal damnation. No matter how well we do in life—the riches we amass, the honor we receive, the power we exercise—there is no escaping the pull of the earthly watershed we are in. It will take us--along with everyone else who may not do so well in life, even to the beggar in the river bottoms--to that same river of death and the same eternal destiny. “[I]t is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment…" (Heb. 9:27 NKJV). "For in Your sight no one living is righteous " (Psalm 143:2 NKJV).” That’s the teaching of the Bible.
But in Christ there is another watershed! That’s the Good News! And it’s possible to cross over to it, that which will take us to a totally different destination—eternal life with Christ!
On that fateful trip on I-5 from Redding to Yreka that spring afternoon in 1974, I was traveling up the Sacramento River watershed that eventually drains the whole northern part of California’s Central Valley into San Francisco Bay. But as I traveled up the river valley to Dunsmuir, up the mountain to the town of Mt. Shasta, and then over to Weed, I crossed over to the Klamath River drainage that bisects 100 miles of mountains before flowing into the Pacific Ocean just south of Oregon.
But that was only a picture of the real “crossing over” that was going on. In that fateful crash of lightning in the heart of the storm that illuminated my whole life and its total failure, a song burst forth spontaneously from my lips, a gospel song I had never sung before. As I belted it out with inexplicable fervor, I crossed over spiritually into another watershed, a watershed that would take me only a week later to meeting born-again Mike Harris and into his orb: first bunking alongside him, then hearing his testimony, listening to his tapes, getting a Bible, praying, seeing the miracles… a whole cycle that led to my salvation by the end of the summer and a new life in Christ.
Though I wouldn’t get saved for another couple of months, that trip was the watershed moment of my life. As I came down out of the mountains to the high desert around Gazelle, the clouds of the storm broke, the sun came out, and I’m sure the angels were blowing the trumpets of God, ushering me into the new, heavenly watershed that would leave death and destruction far behind. Now in this new watershed, I would shortly “come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.” I would “come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven.” I would “come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel" [back in the earthly watershed] (Heb. 12:22-24).
What a wonderful process God used to save me! That’s why I had to write this book. But I’m convinced God uses similarly wonderful processes to save everyone He has saved. If you are saved, meditate on the process of your own salvation. Ask the Holy Spirit to illuminate it for you. It will give you a whole new appreciation for God’s love for you and all He was willing to do to effect your salvation. It starts at the cross, where God abandoned His own beloved Son Jesus so He would never have to abandon us; where He let Jesus “by the grace of God … taste death for everyone" (Heb.2:9), so we would never have to die. But then it culminates in the wonderful process He used to draw you to Himself, which is utterly unique for every person.
If you are not yet saved, ask God to effect your salvation in the way He has chosen for you. Commit yourself to Him through the process by
2 turning your ear to wisdom
and applying your heart to understanding—
3 indeed, if you call out for insight
and cry aloud for understanding,
4 and if you look for it as for silver
and search for it as for hidden treasure,
5 then you will understand the fear of the LORD
and find the knowledge of God (Prov. 2:2-5).




Me at "The Log Pile of Salvation"

Walking in the Spirit Part 2--Why Is It Critical to Walk in the Spirit?

By David Hobbs
Gal. 5:16 [NKJV]--Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

Part 1 dealt with one of the key reasons we need to learn to walk in the Spirit: because “that’s the only way we’re going to defeat the devil and turn the kingdoms of this world into the Kingdom of our God and of His Christ.” It won’t be “by our own good ideas! Not by human effort! Not by organizational skills and charismatic giftings. It will only be by the power of God working through millions of Christians as they walk ‘in the Spirit!’” (Pardon me for quoting myself, but I was on a roll!)
The second reason we need to learn to walk in the Spirit is in the Scripture above—walking in the Spirit is the only way to effectively deal with our sin nature. When I am in the Spirit, sin has no attraction to me, hence no hold over me. As long as I can stay in the Spirit, I am free from sin. When we are walking in the Spirit, it is as if we were transported to the heavenly realms out of the earthly ones. Therefore things of the earth lose their glamour and appeal. Just like the song lyrics say, “And the things on earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.”
Sin is a lie anyway. You never really get what it promises. It’s always some sort of “bait and switch” routine orchestrated by the devil’s helpers to get us to fall. But when we’re in the Spirit, we can see through the schemes and sin looks incredibly tawdry and cheap.
Therefore, since the Bible says it and my own experience has confirmed it, why do pastors spend so much time preaching Christian morality? Shouldn’t we rather be teaching our people how to walk in the Spirit? That will deal with the sin problem better than multitudinous sermons on morality. Yet I’ve never heard that preached in all the churches I have visited coast-to-coast. But I have heard sermon after sermon on morality: "you should be a better person;" "you should be more thankful," "you should not get angry," "you should not steal from your employer or cheat on your spouse." It’s like the Old Testament all over again where the Law of Moses was preached in every Synagogue service for a thousand and a half years [Acts 15:21—“For the law of Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath”]. To what effect? All the law did was show us our sin, every week show us what we couldn’t do [Rom. 3:20—“Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin”].
Here's some more of what the Bible has to say about the law and the Spirit.

Heb. 7:19--for the law made nothing perfect…
Rom. 8:3-4-- For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Gal. 5:18--But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

So I ask again, Why is Christian morality preached over and over, while living in the Spirit, being led of the Spirit, and walking in the Spirit are rarely mentioned from our pulpits; let alone is instruction given on how to do it?