Purpose

Vol. 2 Issue 4
January 24, 2008
The weekly newsletter of True Potential Publishing

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law” (Galatians 5:22-23).

The Roadmap to Peace

George W. Bush and I were in Israel earlier this month … not together. But I did see his airplane on the tarmac at Ben Gurion. He came over as part of an eight day trip to bring peace to the Middle East. I appreciate his optimism, but eight days isn’t much time.

Like I usually do before writing about a particular subject I research the definitions of key words to get a feel for what they really mean. This week’s subject, “Peace,” wasn’t any different. Webster’s defines “peace” as: “the condition that exists when nations or other groups are not fighting//the end of a state of war//the treaty that marks the end of war//friendly relations between individuals, untroubled by disputes.”

“The condition that exists when nations or other groups are not fighting.” That sounds reasonable. That’s what everybody wants for the Middle East, right? That’s why President Bush went over there, right? He wants peace in the Middle East. That’s what I want too.

I get most of my instructions from a Book that has a lot to say about Israel and a lot to say about peace. It’s the single most authoritative work on Israel and on peace ever written. As a matter of fact, it includes a Roadmap to Peace in the Middle East; it’s been in there for nearly two thousand years. I’m talking about the Bible, of course, and I wonder why more politicians don’t consult it as they work toward peace in the Middle East.

*****

The Bible was written in Hebrew and Greek originally. And since that’s the Book I’m studying to understand how to achieve peace (whether it’s in the Middle East or in my own heart) I figured I’d better understand the definition of peace in those languages.
“Eirene” is the Greek word for peace in the New Testament. There’s another word, “sigao,” translated peace in English but it means “be quiet” or “hold your tongue” as in “keep your peace.” Not the kind of peace we’re looking for right now.

Eirene, to the secular Greeks back in New Testament days, meant about the same as “peace” means to us as defined by Webster, “the absence of war.” The New Testament writers, though, drew on their Hebrew roots to make eirene mean something deeper then just “not fighting.”

The Hebrew word for “peace” is probably the best known Hebrew word, by Jews and Gentiles alike, around the world. It’s the word, “Shalom.” “Shalom” means more than just “the absence of war.” According to the Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary; “It was not a negative or passive concept but involved wholeness and completeness. The related verb could mean to ‘repay’ or ‘fulfill a vow’ and so referred to completing or repairing a relationship. A related adjective could be used to describe something as ‘uninjured, safe, complete, peaceable.’”

So, “Shalom” peace means “wholeness, completeness, that something’s already been paid for or that a vow has been fulfilled.” It means that “a relationship has been completed or repaired.” Wow. That’s a lot more than just “not fighting.”

Remember a few weeks ago when we talked about the Greek words for “love”? The Greeks never really used the word, agapao in secular society. Agapao referred to God’s sacrificial love in response to our need; it was a word and a definition reserved for the Christians.

“Eirene”(peace) was treated the same way. The secular Greeks limited its definition to “the absence of war.” Early Christians, however, had a deeper meaning for “eirene”; drawn from their Hebraic roots and their relationship with the resurrected Christ, who became “peace” for them.

“Peace,” to the early Christians (and hopefully to us later Christians) meant much more than “the absence of war”; it was a relationship with the One who reconciles what is broken so that it is once again whole, once again as it should be, once again at peace.

Peace is a relationship. It’s reconciliation between God and man. The relationship between God and man was broken when our father Adam chose his own way. Peace is a state of being whole; that state of being was broken in the Garden. Fixing that broken relationship, that broken state of being, required that a price be paid.

Jesus Christ, God’s Son, understood the broken relationship and the price for making it whole again. Through his death on the cross, He made payment for Adam’s sin debt, providing the way for Adam’s children to be reconciled, be at peace, with God; their relationship restored.

Broken relationships between men are only reflections and symptoms of the broken relationship between God and man. Likewise, peace between men is only possible when man has come to a place of peace with God. The one key relationship must be restored in order to make restoring other relationships possible.

Hostility between Jews and Arabs is no new thing. It began nearly four thousand years ago, between competing sons of the same father. One son, the eldest and rightful heir in earthly terms was tossed out in the cold when his younger half-brother was conceived. The younger son, the child of a promise, was given the birthright and the blessing of his father, which in turn, was the birthright and blessing of God. Ironically, the story repeated itself a generation later between twin brothers.

This animosity between brothers grew into an animosity between people; between the sons of Isaac and Jacob and the sons of Ishmael and Esau; between Jews and Arabs. The relationship, broken between brothers thousands of years ago, prevents peace between their children today.

The only way there’s ever going to be peace between the Jews and the Arabs is to restore the relationship that was broken so long ago. But that’s not going to happen … not until another, more important relationship is restored.

In his letter to the believers in Ephesus, Paul explained this peace process; how Christ mended the relationship between God and man, and in doing so not only made peace between God and man, but also a way of peace between all men.

"For Christ himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in his own body on the cross, he broke down the wall of hostility that separated us. He did this by ending the system of law with its commandments and regulations. He made peace between Jews and Gentiles by creating in himself one new people from the two groups. Together as one body, Christ reconciled both groups to God by means of his death on the cross, and our hostility toward each other was put to death.

He brought this Good News of peace to you Gentiles who were far away from him, and peace to the Jews who were near. Now all of us can come to the Father through the same Holy Spirit because of what Christ has done for us.

So now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with all of God’s holy people. You are members of God’s family. Together, we are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself. We are carefully joined together in him, becoming a holy temple for the Lord. Through him you Gentiles are also being made part of this dwelling where God lives by his Spirit."

(Ephesians 2:14-22 Living Bible)

*****

“Unit[ing] Jews and Gentiles into one people”? “Hostility toward each other … put to death”? Is such a thing even possible between Jews and Arabs in the Middle East?

Yup. I witnessed it.

At the same time President Bush was talking to the Israelis and the Palestinians about making peace I was with Israelis and Palestinians who had already made peace.

They were the people of Carmel Assembly in Haifa. Israeli Jews, Arabs, Druze, and Gentiles from around the world. Because of Jesus, they were all now members of one family, they were “one people”; a new creation. They sang together, prayed together, ate together, brought up their children together; one family. Their peace between each other, their repaired relationship between Jew and Arab, was made possible through Christ, who repaired their relationship with God and gave them a peace deeper than any man-made Roadmap to Peace could offer.

It’s a definition of peace that goes way beyond “the absence of war.” It’s a “shalom” peace. It’s wholeness, completeness, a bill that’s been paid, a vow that’s been fulfilled; it’s a relationship that’s been repaired. Theirs is a peace between restored brothers of the same father; not Abraham, but God.

I pray every day for peace in the Middle East. I know it’s possible, I’ve seen it in action.

I wish President Bush all the luck in the world as he tries to make the Roadmap to Peace work, and I appreciate the efforts of politicians, leaders, and well-wishers from around the world as they work for peace in the Middle East. I just think they’re going about it the wrong way.

Pray for peace. He’s already provided the way.

Until next week … Shalom,

Steve Spillman

Purpose

Vol. 2 Issue 1
January 3, 2008
The weekly newsletter of True Potential Publishing

Producing Fruit

I started True Potential Publishing to address how we define success and human potential in this culture. Before founding the publishing company I had been in business for several years and had been in full time sales for years before that. As a young, energetic, thinking salesman I gravitated toward books and audio tapes about how to become more successful in my career and in life.

All of the success literature I read and listened to had pretty much the same message. “You are in control of your own destiny.” Their action steps were pretty similar as well:

1. I deserve and I can accomplish anything I can imagine.
2. I will determine that nothing will get in the way accomplishing my goal.
3. I will make a plan for my life.
4. I will execute my plan – every day, every week, every month, every year – until I accomplish my goal.
5. I will look in the mirror every morning and tell myself, “I am good.” “I am worthy.” “I deserve success.” “I can accomplish anything.”
6. Putting myself first will enable me to help others later.

See a common theme here? The words “I” and “me” come up a lot don’t they? I am in control, I decide, I make it happen, I deserve it, I am the center of my own universe; it’s all about me.

As I studied I could see the self-serving and self-absorbed focus of this kind of success literature. I had been raised in a Christian home, believed that Christ was my savior and down inside knew that there had to be something a little more to success in life than “I” and “me.” So I went looking for the success guys who claimed to be, or at least hinted at being, Christians. But I was disappointed. What I found was the same old “I” philosophy dressed in “God” verbiage.

If you dress a pig in a tutu you haven’t turned it into a ballerina; it’s just a pig in a tutu. You can’t make a carnal philosophy holy by dressing it in religious words or preaching it from a pulpit. No matter how you dress it up, it’s still a pig in a tutu.
I had to completely dump everything I had learned about “success” and “human potential” and begin again from an entirely different perspective – God’s.

*****

The ancient Greeks came up with the idea that the earth is the center of the universe and all celestial bodies - the other planets, the sun and the stars revolve around it. This belief persisted for a long time; nearly two thousand years.

The idea that the universe revolves around the earth made sense to pretty much everyone; it seemed true from where they were standing. The sun came up in the east every morning and went down in the west. Likewise the moon rose and set in an arc across the sky. The stars, from their observation, rotated around them in the heavens. From their perspective, everything seemed to rotate in its orbit around the earth.

It was also evident to them that the earth didn’t move. If a man jumped off the ground he landed in the same spot he jumped from - not two feet away. If the earth traveled in an orbit around the sun, they reasoned, it would be moving so fast that surely everyone would be flung into space. The earth didn’t move, therefore it must be the center of the universe.

Another reason the idea of the earth being the center of the universe hung around so long was that it just appealed to folks. The earth being the center of the universe and man being the dominant inhabitant of the earth meant, by extension, that man was also the center of the universe. Thinking this way puts me, being the man I’m most closely acquainted with, in essence, at the center of the universe. What a nice thought!

Until Copernicus came along in 1514 and proposed that the earth really revolves around the sun and isn’t the center of the universe after all. Drat!

Well, today’s humanist philosophy and most success and human potential gurus prefer the old view; being the center of the universe works well for them and they’d like to stay that way.

Problem is, as Copernicus found out, we’re not. Not only is the earth not at the center of cosmos, I’m not at the center of my own little universe – although I tend to act like it sometimes.

So if I’m not at the center of the universe and fulfilling my purpose and achieving my potential as a human being isn’t about me, me, me … what is it about? As I said, I had to throw out everything I learned about success, purpose and human potential from the “gurus” and go back square one.

*****

If I believe in a personal and intentional Creator; One that knows me and put me here for a reason, then it would follow that my purpose has something to do with His purpose and my potential as a human being has to be connected to fulfilling the reason He put me here for.

Then it occurred to me why I couldn’t be the center of the universe. He created me for His purpose; I was the object not the subject. I’m not the author of my purpose. I don’t decide my destiny; He does – He already has. For me to say that I am the author of my own purpose and the captain of my own destiny is as silly as a teapot saying it’s a hammer. It’s not. It’s a teapot. That’s what it was created to be – it was the intention of the teapot’s creator that it be a teapot. The teapot can only fulfill its full potential as a teapot. If it lives under the delusion that it’s a hammer the delusion and the teapot will be shattered the moment it tries to drive its first nail.

When I discovered that I had to see my purpose and potential from the eyes of the One who created me, I had to relearn what success, purpose and human potential were from His perspective. So I asked Him. “For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened” (Matthew 7:8).
True to His word, He told me. I’ve said before; don’t talk to God if you’re uncomfortable with Him answering you. Because He does. He may speak to you in the quietness of your own heart and mind, He may speak to you through a teacher or preacher or friend, He may speak to you in an audible voice from above (although most folks quickly qualify that they don’t hear Him that way; people would think they’re nuts). Mostly though, God speaks to you from His Word, the Bible. That’s what it’s there for.

So I started looking for definitions of success, purpose and human potential in the Bible; to get God’s opinion on the matter. And boy, what I found didn’t look anything like what the gurus were saying. Stuff like “deny yourself,” “take up your cross,” “if someone strikes you on your right cheek, turn your left to him also,” “sell all you have and give it to the poor,” “do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth.” This wasn’t in the success literature! Jesus apparently never listened to tapes and CD’s.

So that’s why I started True Potential; that’s why I write this letter every week – because everything the gurus have told you is wrong. It’s not about you; it’s about Him. It’s not about being rich on earth; it’s about being rich in heaven. It’s not about receiving praise and glory; it’s about giving praise and glory.

Fulfilling your true human potential is about fulfilling His purpose; the one he assigned you before creation began. To do that requires a whole new way of thinking. It’s not so new, actually, it’s about two thousand years old, and the guru who showed it to us is God’s own Son.

For the next nine weeks we’re going to embark on a journey into the heart of God’s perspective on human success, purpose and potential. When Jesus left us to return to His Father he promised us a Helper – God’s own Holy Spirit. He promised that His Holy Spirit would indwell us, that is, live inside of us, and change us to conform to God’s perspective.

According to the Bible, there are two groups of things that come along with the Holy Spirit. One group it calls the Gifts of the Spirit; things like messages of wisdom or knowledge, faith, the power to heal or perform miracles, prophecy, speaking in tongues. These are gifts the Holy Spirit gives to people. Christians seem to pay a lot of attention to the Gifts of the Spirit; they’re flashy so folks like to focus on them … or fight about them.

The other group is the Fruit of the Spirit. They’re more like results than gifts. They’re what happen to you when you let God’s Spirit start reshaping your life. They’re what your life produces, that’s why they’re called fruit.

In his letter to the Galatians (5:22-23), Paul talks about the fruit of the Spirit and lists nine: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

Each week, for the next nine weeks, we’re going to cover one of these fruits of the Spirit. If you’re looking for success and purpose, if you want to live up to you true potential as a human being, this is a good place to start. If these nine fruits, or results, are a part of your life, you can bet you’re on the right track from His point of view. If they’re not, no matter how successful you are in any other area of life, you will have failed the success test in His eyes.

I’d like to thank Anne, one of our readers, for her suggestion for doing this series. It was a great idea. What you produce, your fruit, is what measures your success. So fasten your seatbelts! We’ll start next week.

Until then, may God bless you and keep you.

In Him,
Steve Spillman