Press On, Lord

Press On, Lord

“But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God; I trust in the mercy of God forever and ever.”  –Psalm 52:8

 If you are reading this, then you know that I like to write.  It’s my way of cleaning out my thought closet.  I push notions in there and they start to pile up; in time, those ideas need to be sifted, sorted, and stored.  That’s where the writing proves helpful.  It’s my way of boxing up those crumpled concepts so that they stack up more easily in my mind.  The trouble is that sometimes I don’t know where to begin.  Left brain?  Right brain?  In-between brain?  Unaccessed brain?  As in most organizational endeavors, knowing where to begin is the hardest part!  And, as you well know, things get messier before they get maintain-ier.

So, here is my messier.  I want to be a grape, but I am discovering that I am an olive.  I know, it’s a deep thought…or an unfathomly shallow one; either way, it’s difficult to measure.  Perhaps I should clarify:  I would prefer to be splattered rather than pressed.  Splattering is what happens when you want grape juice:  grape…hammer…splatter…juice.  Pressing is what happens when you want olive oil:  olive…pressy thing…oozing…oil.  Any questions?  Oh…okay…I guess that wasn’t as clear as I thought.  To put it another way, I like things that bring quick results.  I would rather “hammer down” than “press on”.  I realize I’ve extremely oversimplified the juice making process, but if I were given the choice between making grape juice or making olive oil, I’d opt for the juice (and the juice maker) hands down.  Granted, juice making could be a lot messier (especially if I used the hammer method), but it would also be a lot quicker.  That’s why, in my fruity analogy, I would rather be a grape.  I’d rather have things happen quickly, even if it’s messy, than slowly…grindingly…methodically…pressingly.  But I think, in God’s analogy, I am an olive.  I think He’s after oil and not juice.

This awareness came to me several weeks ago.  I have been trying to be consistent with my writing this summer and, on top of cataloging thoughts into small containers for this blog, I have also been wrestling with (being pressed by?) the desire to organize my thoughts into a bigger container for a book.  There, I said it.  Well, I wrote it, and that’s a start. (Not the book…just the notion to write one!)  As I’ve struggled with the how and when, and inwardly wanted everything to fall into place, the image of the grape and the olive gradually emerged.  The more I tried to set and keep a schedule, the more unraveled my days became; the more I pushed, the more life pressed.  That’s when I told God I wished I was a grape so that He could just whack me once and splatter out all that was in me.  Granted, it would be messy…and difficult to read…but it would be done; I would have been poured out, well…kind of poured…kind of plastered, and my thoughts would have been squished out.  God, however, removed the picture of the grape and replaced it with the picture of an olive.  Then, He put that olive in a press and slowly turned the handle, that moved the rollers, that pressed the olive, that released the oil, that filled the vial…that rested securely within His hand.  Such was my grape/olive revelation.  I desire fast; God demands slow.

As I contemplate this imagery and the truthfulness that lies within it, I’m becoming more resolved to life as an olive: to life in the slow but steady lane.  After all, when I think of the usefulness of olive oil in the Bible, how can I contend with its symbolism?  It was measured out with flour for the making of bread, mixed in with grain for the presenting of an offering, and meted over chosen heads for the anointing of kings.  And where did Jesus spend His last night on earth?  At the foot of the Mount of Olives, in the Garden of Gethsemane, whose name means “oil press”.  Surely, with such comparisons as these, I can embrace the parallelism between my life and the life of an olive.

So, here is how I’ll allow the press to have its way with me.  I’ll take the ideas I have for a book and little by little, drop by drop, allow them to spill out here.  Perhaps in measuring them out on a weekly (I hope) basis, I’ll not only move one step closer to fulfilling my goal, but I’ll permit the press to work for me and not just on me.  Maybe, just maybe, if I submit to its force, something of use will emerge from my fingers; something that can be poured out as an offering and poured over as an anointing.

With this, then, as the preamble for the book I hope to compile, let me now pour out the product of the first press:  the title and the synopsis.

The Synopsis of The Law of Opposites

Though the fortitude to write a book is a recent emergence, the foundation for a book was laid years ago.  Twelve-ish years ago, to be semi-exact.  That’s when I was sitting in my Sunday school class and the topic of discussion was the presence of trials and sorrows in our lives.  After a time of sharing thoughts, I offered my illustration of why I believed God allowed suffering.  I shared the analogy of a tree being planted; the taller the desired height, the deeper the required hole.  If one wanted the glorious shade of a prolific tree, then one would have to ensure an appropriate sized hole was dug.  As we apply this analogy to our lives, then we are the tree, our height is our growth toward God and our depth is our being rooted in God.  But, in order for our roots to push down, a hole needs to be dug…which means things need to be broken up and hauled away.  This is not a painless process and it’s at this point that many a believer asks, “Why, Lord?  Why the difficulties?  Why the struggles?  Why the loss?”  But if we can just remember the picture of the tree, then we’ll remember the purpose of the dig:  for a deeper hole, for a stronger root system, for a taller trunk, for broader branches.  If we want to rise to grow to great heights, then we must first succumb to the digging of great depths.

 It was upon the pondering of this analogy that the idea for The Law of Opposites emerged.  The deeper the hole, the taller the tree; the two moved proportionally opposite to one another.  If one wants to know how deep the roots of a tree go, then look at the height of its branches; as far as one stretches upward so the other reaches downward.  Isn’t that just like God to work on (and from) both ends at the same time?  Isn’t it in His nature to push and to pull, to stand tall and to bow low, to give and to take?  I think so, and this book is a reflection of that very idea.  That, whether by looking at what is around us, within us, or above us, we are created by and made to worship a God who governs, and dwells within, The Law of Opposites.  

In the days ahead, I will elaborate upon God’s creation of, and manifestation in, the realm of opposites.  When we take a closer look at nature (laws), mankind (logic), and God (Logos), we see that the law of opposites is evident in each one.  It holds true that what God created, He inhabits.  So, should the “doctrine of opposites” surface when we look at the work of His hands and the writing of His word, we would be wise to acknowledge that our God, Jehovah God, resides within the laws He created…and one of those is the Law of Opposites.

opposites

Please come back next week for the second pressing…the presence of opposites in Creation.

Chapter One: The Opposites in Creation

Chapter One:  The Beginning of Opposites

             As we begin to examine not only the existence of opposites within our world but more specifically, more purposefully, their affect upon us, the best place to start is not just at the beginning, but in the beginning.

‘In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.  And God saw the light, that is was good; and God divided the light from the darkness.’      (Genesis 1:1-4)

 When God set about creating our amazingly complex universe, we learn that everything He made could be described in two ways:  by what it was and by what it was not.  In other words, God created opposites.  God created all things from no things; the earth was formless and void, until God spoke.  Then, it took shape and had substance.  Darkness stretched out as far as the eye could not see…until God brought forth light and gave it its own realm.  The waters covered the land, until God pulled them back and set their boundaries. On every day, God created and separated…and He saw that it was good.

Just four verses into Scripture, we read of God creating the light and separating it from the darkness.  What is darkness?  The absence of light.  What is light?   The absence of darkness.  When each is looked at separately, its opposite must be laid beside it in order for its meaning to emerge.  How would we know light without experiencing the engulfing abyss of darkness?  And what would darkness be without the presence of light that, once withheld, revealed it?

As God continued His account of Creation, we learn more about the Law of Opposites that He set into motion.  On day two, God separated the waters above from the waters below (giving us our layered atmosphere), and on day three, He pulled back the waters below to reveal dry earth.  Beaches and bays; coasts and crests; sands and seas.  While they lie side by side, their characteristics are polar opposites.  One is formed in the absence of land while the other emerges from the absence of water, and both contain their own unique inhabitants.

Day four finds God lighting up the sky with the sun, moon, and stars through which He established the counterparts of day and night, the increments of months and years, and the seasonal opposites of spring and fall, of summer and winter.  On day five, He created the wildlife that skirts across the heavenlies or scuttles beneath the waters.  From birds that fly to fish that swim, each inhabiting its own terrain and each inhibited by its own traits.  Then, on day six, a final creation came forth that was the epitome of opposites.  From one, came two; though two, they became one.  This creation would be God’s greatest because into it He would impart His own breath, giving not only physical life but spiritual life as well.

“So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”  (Gen. 1:27)

 “And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place.  Then the rib which the LORD God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man.”   (Gen. 2:21-22)

On day six, God created Adam and Eve.  They were made for one another to complete one another.  From Adam’s side, Eve was formed, and from then on, she was to dwell in that place from which she had come…her husband’s side.  While God could have used any bone…or no bone…to create Eve, He did so with a rib, and the imagery is palpable.

Ribs, whose role is to protect the lungs; ribs, whose placement is on the side of the body; it’s from the ribs that God created woman.  From a rib, that man may be her protector; from his side, that she might walk beside him; from his flesh, that when together, the two may complete each other.  And, though designed to be together and directed to cleave to one another, each is the other’s opposite.

Man is created to lead the woman; to love the woman; to nurture the woman (Eph. 5:23, 25-26).   Woman is created to follow the man; to respect the man; to help the man (Eph. 5:22, 24,33).  The role of each plays off of, and into, the role of the other so that…when done according to God’s design…the man and the woman, from their place of contrast, complete each other.  And, though seemingly different in every way, from their place of divergence, this truth would be emerge:  opposites attract.  And so they do, and so they should, because in such a fashion God created them and in such a manner He reveals them.

So, there we have the manifestation of the Law of Opposites.  From the very beginning, in fact, in the beginning, God separated the light from the dark…the known from the unknown…the evident from the invisible…the Creator from the creations.  From the pulling back of the waters to the establishing of dry land, from the scattering of sunbeams to the sprinkling of moon beams, from the soaring of eagles to the swimming of eels, and from the galloping of the antelope to the grazing of the zebra.  And then, and then…God created mankind.  Male and female He created them; as opposites He created them; that each would be seen more clearly not in spite of, but in light of, their contrast.

light and dark

Chapter Two: God’s Nature in Nature

Chapter Two

“For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.  To Him be the glory forever, Amen!”   Romans 11:36

Having created the heavens and the earth, and all that dwelt within and upon them, God initiated the first…and still continuing…game of ‘Hide and Go Seek’.  I’m not talking about the incident in the garden with Adam and Eve, though that did employ both components of hiding and seeking (the cause of which we will examine later).  No, I’m referring to the hiding of God’s truths about His nature in the earth’s nature. To ensure mankind would seek Him, He left him with two things:  a questioning mind and a quarry of clues.  Surely, between the two, man would uncover the Creator of all that was, and is, and is to come; surely he would find, stretched between the beginning and the ending, the One who is the beginning and the ending, the Alpha and the Omega. (Revelation 1:8)

So God waited, and He watched, and He wooed; so man pondered, and he prodded, and he ‘pothesized.   What causes the changing of the seasons?  What makes the tides come in and go out?  What holds the planets in orbit?  What causes the formation of rainbows?   Yes, God gave man a questioning mind so that, through asking, He could show up and show out that man might grow up and grow out.  Just where did God place the answers to man’s questions?  He buried them in the earth’s crust and He tucked them into the heaven’s atmosphere and He scattered them across the ocean waves, the sound waves, and the light waves.

Over the years, men have been credited with discovering the clues God embedded in His creation.  Men whose names we recognize like Copernicus, Galilei, and Newton; and men whose names (unless we’re science geeks…or amateur writers who use Google) we don’t recognize like Aristarchus, Shen Kuo, and Theodoric of Freiberg.  Since the beginning of time, man has interacted with the world God created and he has sought to find the answers for the questions that explode like split atoms in his mind.  Though discoveries tend to bear the name of the ones who identified them, it is God who created and concealed them; man simply uncovered them.  Men like Sir Francis Bacon and George Washington Carver acknowledged that their discoveries came from God.  We know because their insights still waft through time and fall upon our inquisitive hearts.

“A little science estranges a man from God; a lot of science brings him back.” –Sir Francis Bacon

“I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station, through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in.” –George Washington Carver

“Reading about nature is fine, but if a person walks in the woods and listens carefully, he can learn more than what is in books, for they speak with the voice of God.” –George Washington Carver

So, we shouldn’t be surprised to find that Newton’s laws of motion are actually Elohim’s laws of movement, and Kepler’s Laws of planetary motion originated as El Shaddai’s laws of celestial cohesion.

It is within this preface and upon this premise that the Law of Opposites continues to unfold.  Having created a world defined by opposites, God crammed it with attributes comprised of opposites.  Though they are found within the entire field of science, their existence is summarized in this one statement, in this one law:  for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.  In textbooks, this is known as Newton’s third law of motion; in Creation’s context, it is known as God’s first law of nature, and its evidence is everywhere.

When we interact with magnets, we learn of their push and their pull: of their polar opposites.  When we look at electricity, the light switch of revelation turns on as we note the presence of electrons and protons, the recognition of negative charges and positive charges.  And what about the buoyancy principle?  According to Archimedes, “the force acting on, or buoying, a submerged or partially submerged object equals the weight of the liquid that the object displaces.”  Here we see that force is calculated by the contrast that occurs when two objects have an opposite impact upon each other; one displaces while the other holds places!

Along with the laws of nature evident within our scientific world, there are also the laws of science evident within our natural world.  For example, when studying rocks and minerals we note their texture and their density.  Are they rough or smooth; are they hard or soft? We find temperatures at which liquids freeze and liquids boil and we manipulate items as they change from a solid, to a liquid, to a gas.  With every principle and with every law there lies at its core not only the grain of truth but the God of Truth.  That which is tested examines its contents; that which is proven exalts its Creator.

And, when curiosity evolves into questions and when questioning erupts into quarrying, the game of hide and seek begins…and continues…as theories emerge and principles equate and laws establish and God expounds:  and the created beholds its Creator.  What man mistook for intellect, God meant for insight; what science mislabeled as reasonable, God not only marked but manifested as revelation, for “from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.”  Within the realization of every scientific “discovery” lies the reality of the God who “hid” it.  In magnetism, poles with opposing forces work on objects to pull in and to push out; through magnetism, we uncover the attribute of God’s holiness: He pushes away sin and pulls in righteousness.  Then, there is the presence of magnetic fields which surround magnets.  Does God not have such a force around Him that also attracts and deflects?  While God desires that all men are drawn to Him through His Son (I Timothy 2:4), Jesus stated that many would push away from His teachings (John 6:66).

Through Andre-Marie Ampere’s curiosity, God revealed the relationship between magnetism and electricity.  Ampere found that magnetic fields have moving particles and that this movement, or current, can produce electricity.  Where there is no movement, there is no attraction.  Read that again.  Where there is no movement, there is no attraction.  Need I charge your Biblical worldview battery here, or do you already feel the force of that magnetic field?  We know we serve a living, moving, current-flowing God whose one intent is to draw all men to Him, but do we also realize that for Him to draw, we need to move?  Do we realize that our attraction to God will wane with the decrease or absence of His current, of His Spirit, flowing through us?  Science revealed it…God inhabits it.  And, as being made in the image of God, we also display the attributes of our Father.  But, lacking His holiness, we can use our magnetism, our “force fields”, to influence others positively or negatively.  We can pull them in that they too may learn about the God who first pulled us, or we can push them away and miss the connection…and increased current…God made available to us.

And what about our buoyancy principle?  Just how do we amass God’s presence in this?  (See the pun…oh, I love it when these float up!)  As Archimedes soaked in his tub, God’s truth rose to the surface.  Archimedes sat down and the water rose up; Archimedes rose up and the water sat down.  To keep from having to actually explain the law of displacement any further, for fear that I would have to plunge into waters deeper than any tub could hold…or my mind could contain, let me plug the drain right here:  that which is displaced can be measured by that which it replaced.  To relate this to God’s nature, we would say that which God removes can be measured by that which God replaces. In Joel 2:25, God introduces the law of displacement:  “The LORD says, “I will give you back what you lost to the swarming locusts, the hopping locusts, the stripping locusts, and the cutting locusts.”  Here we see God’s restorative nature as He promises to replace that which He removed.  When it feels like our losses are greater than our gains, we cling to the God who holds us up…the God who keeps us afloat in shallow tubs and in high seas.  (I fear I’ve held my breath too long pondering over the simplification of this principle and, as such, am now experiencing the cranial bends.   Therefore, if my accuracy has been displaced as my analogy submerged, please forgive me and seek the truth yourself as you soak in your own thoughts…or tub.)

While these are but a sampling of examples, I believe them to be accurately depictive of God’s created nature and of His revealed nature; I believe God’s creations bear not only His fingerprints but His DNA as well. Within the world that God created, He not only left visible signs of His omniscience but He also left invisible signs of His omnipotence and of His omnipresence; God inhabits the works of His hands and reveals Himself through its principles, its laws, and its truths.  And, when He set things in order and then in motion, He established the first law of nature:  for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. God is the God of opposites.  It was manifested when He separated light from dark, the heavens above from the earth below, the waters from the land, and when He created mankind:  male and female He created them.  And the evidence of opposites is apparent not only in the creation of the world but also in the sustaining of world for the law of opposites courses through the very laws through which God holds all things together.  The law of opposites pulses through creation and is as palpable as a heartbeat detected by a doctor’s stethoscope; it is the heartbeat of God:  for every rhythm, there is an equal and opposite rhythm…for from Him and through Him and to Him are all things…to God be the glory forever!  Amen.

newtons 3rd law cartoon

Next week…the law of opposites revealed first in heaven…and then in the garden.

Chapter Three: The Tree of Opposites

Chapter Three:  The Tree of Opposites

“Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve…”  Joshua 24:15

 It’s time to go to The Tree.  Having presented the opposites that God manifested and manipulated when He brought the world into existence and order, it’s time now to look at the Tree of Opposites, better known as the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.  It is a very important tree which God placed in the Garden of Eden.  In fact, Genesis 2:9 informs us that it was placed in the center of the garden, at the heart of God’s garden.  It is the only tree God told Adam and Eve to avoid; of all the trees in the garden, there was only one that was off limits:  the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.  That’s it.  Eat from any other tree, eat from every other tree, but don’t come near the opposite tree!

While the size of the Garden of Eden is unknown, it couldn’t have been too small.  After all, within it ran four rivers, and within it God brought Adam all the animals he was to name, and within it God walked with Adam and Eve…and I just can’t picture God in a garden that “hedged Him in”.  I may be way off course here, but I’m picturing something like Yosemite National Park.  It’s not the largest national park in the U.S., coming in at 761,266 acres, but if you think that’s too large, then let me offer up the smallest national park: Hot Springs with its mere 6,000 acres.  Either way, here’s where we land:  there were a lot of trees in the garden.  If we go with the smaller number, 6,000 acres, and if we continue on the sparse side and say there was only an average of one tree per acre, that would still put the ratio of “edible” trees to “non-edible” trees at 5,999:1.  That’s quite the ratio, and here’s my point:  there were plenty of trees to pick from (literally) and only one to avoid.  And, to top it all off, the one that was off-limits was surrounded by the thousands that were on-limits.  To get to the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, one had to purposefully pass by and through a myriad of other trees; one had to move to the center of the garden, to the center of God’s plan.

And just what was God’s plan?  Why did He place a tree in the garden if He didn’t want His creations to eat from it?  Why would He put such a temptation in their midst if succumbing to it would result in their being banned from the garden?  These are difficult questions and the answers, like the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, will bring forth a revelation of their own.

To understand why God would plant such a tree of opposition, a tree that would drive Adam and Eve outside of paradise and the human race outside of perfection, we must remember God’s creative pattern of opposites.  Once again, in the Tree of Knowledge, we see God’s formation of counterparts.  It was in placing the tree in the garden and in commanding Adam and Eve to not eat of it that God gave His created beings a choice, something He gave only to them.  Rocks don’t choose; rivers don’t choose; reptiles don’t choose.  Only to mankind, with his lungs that were stretched by the breath of God, was there given the opportunity to choose.  Only to mankind, the creatures God made to glorify Him and to worship Him (Col. 1:16), did the element of choice come into play.  Why was this necessary?  Because mankind cannot praise that which he did not pick.  Praise erupts from our innermost awe, respect, and reverence for that which captures our heart.  Man cannot be mandated to admire something or made to love someone; it must lay hold of him and he must agree to let his mind and his heart follow after it; it is a choice.  The God of opposites established it to be so; to turn toward one thing is to turn away from another thing.  For man to choose God, he had to turn from something else.  God could have hard wired mankind to choose Him, but in doing that He would have gone against His nature, the only thing that God cannot do; He cannot be less than who He is.  And so God released that which He loved, that the creature might choose his Creator; that the created might praise His Protector; that the praise-giver might glorify his God.

And so God placed the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in the midst of the garden…and we know the rest of the story.  Eve, upon listening to the voice of Satan, looked upon the tree and saw that it bore fruit:  attractive fruit, temptatious fruit.  Apparently, from the wording in Genesis 3:6, Eve hadn’t previously given the Tree of Knowledge a good “once over”; at Satan’s prompting, she seems to be examining the tree for the first time:

“So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate.”

And there we have the first choice; the first directional shift; the first letting go of one thing in order to lay hold of another thing, the first step of mankind into the world, and rule, of opposites.

Through Eve’s choice, and then Adam’s as well, the event known as The Fall set into motion the physical and spiritual law referred to in the last chapter, also known as Newton’s third law of motion:  for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.  And man, oh man, was there ever a reaction to this action!  Physically, there was no more garden, no more walks with God, no more working with ease, no more lounging with lions or picnicking with pumas; spiritually, there was no more wholeness, no more wholesomeness, no more holiness. When Adam and Eve ate the choice fruit they also ate the fruit of choice.  When Eve put her hand out toward the tree, she reached away from God, and sin entered the world by one for all (though God would later cover sin for all by One).

But God is a God of law, and for that we should all be thankful!  That which He created, He inhabits; so, when His nature reveals that every action has an equal and opposite reaction, we can trust that the choice that catapulted mankind away from God will be offset by the choice that catapulted God’s Son toward mankind.   Because, as beings created in God’s image, we must acknowledge that just as we have a choice, so too does God; and He chooses to recaptivate, and to restore, and to redeem. God was not surprised by Eve’s choice.  He already knew what she would do; He already had His “clean up on aisle 7” plan in place.  We know, because He revealed it in Genesis 3:15.

“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.”

Just moments after Eve’s choice chew, God revealed His plan of correction, or to be more precise, His plan of Calvary.  After telling Adam and Eve what their consequences would be (in verse 14), God then told the serpent (Satan) what his consequence would be:  he would contend with mankind but God would contend with him.  While Satan would bruise the foot of Christ (the Seed), Christ would bruise the head of Satan; a mortal blow…a final defeat.  Eve chose the fruit; God chose the Vine (John 15:1); Eve chose the sin; God chose the sinner (Eph. 1:4).

Choice.  It’s what God gave mankind because it reflects His nature.  God chose to create man with the ability to choose that He might receive that which was merited and not mandated.  If man were not given the ability to choose God then God would not have had the opportunity to choose man…even in his sinfulness, through which He demonstrates His great love for us (Romans 5:8). To appreciate the depth of being chosen by God, look at the opposite of the word choose: to reject, ignore, dislike, refuse, neglect, not want.  But God chose us. We are not rejected nor neglected; we are not disliked nor disowned.  In creating Adam and Eve without sin, God showed His value for mankind, but in choosing them after their sin…while still in their sin…God showed His deep love for humanity.

The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.  The Tree of Opposites.  The Tree of Choice.  Beside it, Satan tempted; from it Eve ate, through it God chose.  Through man’s choice, sin entered the world; through God’s choice, love saved the world.  The tree in the midst of the garden is the cross in the center of Calvary; it’s where God chose to forgive; it’s where Jesus chose to die.

So, what will you choose?   Will it be to submit to the God who first chose you, or will it be to go in the opposite direction?  One way leads to acceptance, the other way leads to rejection; it’s up to you because you too have been given the choice fruit of choice.  “Oh taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who trusts…who chooses…Him; but as for me and my house, we will choose the LORD,” (Psalm 34:8, Joshua 24:15; italics mine).

choose this day whom you will serve

Chapter Four: The Opposites of Yes and No

  Chapter Four:  The Opposites of Yes and No

 “No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”       Luke 16:13

 When last we met, we were under the Opposite Tree, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.  It was the tree that split Eve’s world in two and our history in two.  Before she ate, Eve walked with God; after she ate, Eve walked from God.  Before Adam ate, the world was upright; after Adam ate, the world was upside-down.  As believers, we refer to this event as The Fall.  So many things in our lives, in our world, are traced back to The Fall, the time when sin entered through the door of choice.  Not only did Adam and Eve receive parting gifts of difficult labor and physical death as they were escorted out of the garden, but the earth also received some baggage of its own.  From this time on, new words were added to those which Adam had compiled for the first dictionary; words like weeds and thorns, drought and famine, poisonous and carnivorous, malignant and inoperable…sin and judgment.  When we look around at our world today, we trace every hurtful, harmful, hell-bent event back to The Fall.  It is one of our turning points in history.  And, because its hinges swing two ways, it too reveals the Law of Opposites.

As stated in the last chapter, (what we will now refer to as) The Fall came about because God created a world in which man could choose Him.  When God created Adam and Eve, He also created choice.  He did not desire programmed but preferential praise…and for that man would need a free will.  It was a daring move, but we serve a dauntless God…and a sovereign God, for He already knew the outcome of such an offer so that before Eve said, “Yes,” to the produce, His Son had said, “Yes,” to the plan.  It is in these yeses that we continue (or should I say continuum?) our look at the Law of Opposites, for where there is a yes, there is also a no.

In Matthew 5:37, Jesus said to let our yes be yes and our no be no.  The context is that of keeping one’s word; we are to mean what we say and to say what we mean.  But there is another application we can surmise from Jesus’ advice about our yeses and our nos, and it’s found in the Law of Opposites.

Surely we would all agree that yes and no are opposites.   They lie as direct contradictions to one another.  I can say yes or no to something, but I cannot say yes and no to the same thing.  If I were to place yes and no on a ‘decision line’, then one would lie to the extreme right and the other would lie to the extreme left; they would be opposite one another.  With this image of a yes/no line of continuum, it is easy to visualize this next statement:  every move toward one end is a move away from the other end.  If I take a step toward yes, I move away from no, and if I take a step toward no, I move away from yes.  That’s a simple presentation…with a compound application.

When Eve said yes to the serpent, she said no to God; when Adam said yes to Eve, he said no to Elohim.  And since that day, since that yes, we’ve been following in their footsteps…right out of the garden and right into the gulley.  With every yes we emit to the world, we utter a no to The Way (John 14:6); with every choice we make for, we make a decision against.  We say yes to a promotion, we say no to Saturdays at home; we say yes to a new boat, we say no to Sundays at church; we say yes to every activity, we say no to suppers at home.  It’s the truth of the yes/no continuum; we can’t move in two directions at the same time, though we often feel pulled in two directions!  “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other,” (Luke 16:13); we cannot please both God and the flesh, we cannot go left and right at the same time.

So how do we “walk the line”?  How do we let our yes, or our no, move us in the right direction?  We take one step at a time, we make one decision at a time.  The good news is, being opposites, the same principle applies to both ends of the continuum.  Therefore, for every no we reply to the world, there is a yes we release to The Way.  This seems so elementary, but it can be enlightening when it comes to the decisions we make.  If I can keep my mental eye on both ends of the yes/no continuum, then I can look to see not only what I am moving toward but also what I am moving from.  It’s a valuable perspective because, without it, I lose my peripheral vision; without it, I become myopic and see all movement as productive.  But, when I step back far enough to see what lies in each direction, then I can “let my yes be yes, and my no be no” for I know not only what I am moving toward, but also what I am moving from.

While this yes/no principle succumbs to the Law of Opposites and, therefore, stands true, God has provided many examples for our benefit…for our encouragement.  Let’s start with Noah; he gave God a resounding yes that lasted for 120 years as he committed to the task of building an ark…at a time when the earth had yet to know rain, much less a flood.  That yes to building a boat resulted in a no to building an admirable reputation…at least until the rain came.  Then, there’s Abraham; he said yes to a new land and no to an established homestead.  His yes led to the formation of a nation, which, by and large, is bigger and larger than a homestead.  Want another one?  How about Rahab?  She said yes to hiding some spies and no to those who were looking for them.  In doing this, she said yes to Jehovah and no to Jericho; yes to a scarlet line out her window, yes to a bloodline with her Savior.  Then, there are some infamous no-givers.  How about Joseph who said no to Potiphar’s wife?  It was a costly no at first, but its dividends paid off in the end as Joseph went from working in the palace to leading from the palace.  Ruth serves as an example of one whose no landed her in a new land…and yielded her a new husband.  When told by her mother-in-law to stay in Moab following the death of her husband, Ruth said no and followed Naomi to Bethlehem.  There, she met Boaz…and from their lineage the second king of Israel would arise; he too would say no.  David was his name; waiting was his game.  He’d been anointed as Israel’s future king in his youth, but waiting for God’s plans to unfold kept him walking the fine line of yeses and nos.  While he waited for a yes on God’s timing, David had to say a few nos to man’s timing.  No to killing Saul when he came into David’s cave and no to killing Saul when David came into his camp.  David’s no to taking matters into his own hands led him toward the yes of waiting for God to take matters into His own hands…and He did, and David, in time, became Israel’s second king.  The list goes on…Andrew and Peter, James and John, Paul and Silas, (John) Newton and (Charles) Wesley, (Charles) Spurgeon and (D.L.) Moody.  Each of these individuals said no to their plans and yes to God’s purpose; each of them had to turn their back to some things that they might turn their heart to one thing, and with each directional step, they let their no be no and their yes be yes.

It’s the Law of Opposites.  While practically we can only move in one direction at a time, positionally we can move in two directions as we realize each step toward is also a step from; with each pronounced yes, we are also proclaiming a no.  So let’s rightly position ourselves on the yes/no continuum.  Let’s look to see where our next step lands us; will we be closer to God or further from Him?  Will we say yes to our goals or yes to God’s glory?  Will we say no to our plans or no to God’s perfection?  We cannot serve two masters; we cannot walk in two directions; we cannot say yes without also saying no.

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