Christian Living

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A Place Called Normal

Romans 10:9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

Recently, in a small home group meeting, a pastor friend substituted the word restored for saved in this verse. Right away after the meeting I looked up the word restored to see how that one word might broaden our understanding of what really happened at Calvary.

Restore…to give or put back; to re-establish; to bring back to the original condition. Webster’s Universal Dictionary.

Restore…to bring back to a former or normal state…to put back to a former place or rank. The Random House Dictionary.

No matter how you put it restore means to turn back the hand of time and bring back the original intent. I especially like how Random House stated it…to bring back to a former or normal state and then to up the ante a bit – to put back to a former place or rank.

Now looking at this verse in this light opens up a lot of different opportunities to consider. It can go something like this…that if you confess with your mouth (in other words open your mouth and say it) the Lord Jesus (in other words He has become your Lord, not anything in this “natural” world) and believe (completely, without reservation) in your heart (the place of the bottom line where all things are settled once and for all) that God has raised Him from the dead (literally) you will be brought back to the place of God’s original intent for mankind, to be put back in the former place or rank (just like Adam and Eve before being deceived) and be given the ability and authority to have dominion over the things in this world (that were told you were powerless and they could control you and harm you and kill you) and this would be Normal.

Normal!! What’s normal? In the Webster’s and Random House Dictionaries normal is described as regular, usual, the usual state, conforming to the typical or standard pattern, average in intelligence or personality.

Already you can see that normal is an ever, changing reality. What’s normal for today wasn’t normal for yesterday. Trends change. Styles change. Moods change. People change and like the saying goes…the more things change the more they stay the same.

In order for us to grasp what Paul is saying here we have to understand that we must change our thinking process back to what it was like in the beginning when Adam was given the mandate to take dominion, multiply and replenish the earth. In this time frame Adam didn’t know anything about death or evil or hurt or sickness or disease. He only knew that God wanted him and Eve to have more of what they were used to having. They were used to living in a place that had trees that were pleasant to the sight or good for food. God wanted Adam to take care of this garden called Eden.
Adam and Eve had a future, a good future ahead of them. God gave a commandment to leave one of the trees alone and have nothing to do with it. Of course it’s that tree that will enlighten us to all the “good” things we’d be missing if we didn’t know about them. Things like fear and shame, torment and grief, war and hate, gossiping and bickering, sickness and disease and the biggest of them all…death.

Normal…the place Paul is referring to is the place before the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was eaten. It’s the normal of good things and peace and love and respect and doing good and loving and preferring another over yourself and living healthy and long and happy. No problems that couldn’t be easily solved. The only creatures that would have someone rule over them would be the animals and every creeping thing.

Now the trick here is how do we go backward and still go forward at the same time? Paul had the answer for that. He said in Romans 12:2, And do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. In other words you have to open yourself up and empty out some of the things you’ve learned up to now. Then you have to fill up your mind with the new things scripture is trying to teach us. Like what’s it like living in God’s Normal?

Here’s where we all get tripped up sometimes. We know God sees things different. Sometimes, because of our “normal” belief system and all the things we already have stored in it, we try to compromise God’s normal to come closer to our current condition because it’s too hard to work through. We don’t really understand that God’s ways aren’t hard, they’re just different.

Then we get started down that path where the just shall live by faith. Every one of us have different versions we live by. We’re all at different places in our lives. The great Hall of Faith chapter in Hebrews 11 shows us many different places of faith. Some of the great patriarchs had promises from God that brought about some serious, blow your mind, victories and others would die in the process. Some receiving what they were promised and others not. Paul sums it up this way in verse 13, These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

They all caught sight of that place called Normal, that place before the fall of man. However, they all didn’t have the same revelation knowledge of how to always apply what they learned. Jesus was our greatest and only example of one who understood how to live in that “Normal” place here on earth. Some of the ways He learned how to walk in this place can be found in the book of Proverbs chapter 2. I’ll list them for you. Solomon’s writing about the Wisdom from God that, when applied, will reap many good things.

1. Receive my words…whose words? God’s words or Wisdom.
2. Treasure my commands within you. The things the Holy Spirit would teach you.
3. Incline your ear to Wisdom. Listen carefully to what the Holy Spirit would say.
4. Apply your heart to understanding. The bottom line. The heart of the matter. Understanding what you’re about to learn.
5. Cry out for discernment/Lift your voice for understanding. There are other voices that want to keep you from understanding God’s ways. Don’t let them stop you. Be forceful. Don’t stop crying or calling out to God until you get His understanding. Until God’s understanding becomes your “normal” your normal is sub standard to His.
6. Seek Her/Wisdom as silver. Search for her as hidden treasures. Your very life may depend on it.

By doing these things you will grow to understand the Fear of the Lord and then Find The Knowledge of God which contains the secret code of living in that place called “Normal” while still living here on earth.

Solomon goes on to say, For the Lord gives Wisdom. From His mouth come Knowledge and understanding. He stores up sound wisdom for the upright. He is a shield for those who walk uprightly. He guards the path of justice. He preserves the way of His Saints.

Then you will understand righteousness and justice, equity and every good path. When Wisdom enters your Heart and knowledge is pleasant to your soul, discretion will preserve you, Understanding will keep you.

As we follow Paul’s advice and seek to understand how to find our way out of this present maze we were born into, we too will come to know the life Jesus lived. As we press forward and press in to the Heart of the Father we’ll begin to hear His heart beat. As we seek His wisdom and desire more than anything else to know and understand Him, His Spirit will fill us with Himself.

When His way becomes more important than our way then we’ll begin to understand His way, which will lead us to that place called “Normal.” That place where Jesus walked and lived. It’s only in Him we live and move and have our being.

For Jesus, normal was living pain free, debt free, disease free, without fear, secure and knowing the will of His Father and doing it. Every demon, every sickness and disease and even death had to bow down to Him. He didn’t even know lack. The only grief He carried was our unbelief.

A place called Normal. Right here in “our” world. Think about it.

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