Jesus tells us, in John 15, that if our lives are to bear fruit that will last, it will result from our ‘abiding in Christ.’
Paul tells us that if we are to share in the fruit of Christ’s resurrection life, we must also share with him in his sufferings and death. (Phil.3:10)
This is borne out in both the story of Job in the bible and the story of Professor Ransom in The Space Trilogy. Both had ‘more than a Near Death Experience’ that transformed them and made them fruitful, Job at a more personal level, Ransom at a more universal level!
After being lead to read “That Hideous Strength” which is the third book in The Space Trilogy, I subsequently reread the text from my high school days, the first in the series, “Out of the Silent Planet” and then finished with the second book in the series, “Perelandra”.
My readings were seemingly ‘out of sequence’…….. book three, then one, and then two!
However It was indeed Father’s prescribed order!
Book 3, “That Hideous Strength” describes humanity facing a crisis on Earth which bears an uncanny likeness to what we are currently facing today. I elaborated a little on this in Part 1. of this series.
Book 1, “Out of the Silent Planet” (i.e. Earth) confirms the origin of the problem – an ‘evil’ on Earth, embodied in Weston, who kidnaps the central character, Ransom, and takes him to Mars.
Book 2, “Perelandra” is set on the planet Venus where there has been no ‘fall.’ Here we read about Ransom’s lengthy struggle to the death with Weston who has followed him from ‘fallen’ earth and who has surrendered his will to ‘the evil’ there. He seeks to ‘spoil’ Venus too. Lewis brilliantly describes him as ‘The Un-man’
In Ransom’s wrestling with Weston, he at one point sustains an injury to his foot. When he appears again in “That Hideous Strength” where he has become, “The Director” to the little group who work with him to secure the final overthrow of ‘the evil empire’, he still carries this wound.
It was at the end of Perelandra, this second book in the Trilogy, that I realized why Father had ordained it be the last in my reading order.
There, at the climax of Ransom’s battling with Weston we read,
“In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, here goes – I mean Amen.” said Ransom , and hurled the stone as hard as he could into the Un-Man’s face. The Un-man fell like pencil falls, the face smashed out of all recognition…….there was hardly anything left that you could call a head, but he thought it better to take no rsks. He took it by it’s ankles and lugged it up to the edge of the cliff; then after resting a few seconds. he shoved it over. He saw it’s shape black, for a second, against the sea of fire, and then that was the end of it.”
That, however proved not to be the end of it, for the same ‘evil’ reappeared again to be finally destroyed on earth, in the last book, “That Hideous Strength.”
“…..he will crush your head, and you will bruise his heel” was the scripture that came to mind where God speaks to the serpent about the ‘seed’ of the woman.(Gen.3:15) For Ransom to play his part in the final overthrow of evil, he has to qualify by going the way of ‘the Son’ …. crushing the enemy’s head while having his own heel bruised.
I realized that the message of Perelandra (where I had landed) was to do with the training and transformation of Ransom (‘the sons’) in order for him to participate in the final victory of “the Son” who became the Ransom for all men.
……and so Father’s emphasis for me was that…… this is where we are NOW in His-Story
We have been, and are being, trained to ENGAGE in the current battle of the ages on earth, as members of the Body of Christ, Jesus himself being our Head.
In other words it is God our Father who is Looking for a Ransom (and a Job!)……. those whom He has trained and transformed so that they can, while contributing nothing, participate fully in the work of Christ!
So how are we to ENGAGE NOW in the work of Christ?
That is for each person to be lead by the Spirit, but let me mention a few things we have been lead to do.
Job like Ransom was getting ‘on the Job’ training to do what he was then only able to do, in the final 42nd chapter. Having shared in Christ’s sufferings “who ever lives to make intercession for us” he now qualified in unity with Christ, to move beyond ‘saying prayers’ as he had done in chapter 1, to effectively interceding for his friends.
In the middle of my sickness Brian sent me a video Q and A session, given by one of Watchman Nee’s colleages. The saintly brother (over 100 years old!) said, “Leadership is meant to be ‘the neck’ in the body of Christ. It’s function is to facilitate communication between Jesus, the head, and his body. Problems arise when the neck starts thinking it is the head!”
My neck was the focus of my suffering and I discovered at the same time Brian too had a painful neck. We realized we were like Paul being given an opportunity to participate in the mystery that is to ‘complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body that is the church.” (Col. 1:24) We were interceding for the leadership of ‘the church of God’. – the neck!
So there is the prayer..……. and there is the practical.
As someone who is easily distracted I have had to learn how to continuously ‘Stop and Drop’, then ‘Discern Decide and Do.’ You might think about it as learning to ‘Drop Down‘ into your spirit, or learning to ‘SINK’
One simple practical action we were lead to take was to respond to Juan O Savin’s encouragement to write a letter to the Supreme Court in advance of the January 6th hearing in support of the Bronson brothers case I mentioned earlier in the series! You can learn more about that here.
This coming Sunday, one local expression of ‘the church’ will meet in our home – a God joined, heart knit, relationally based, Spirit lead Christ centered ‘motley crew’.
We were given the name HQ which has turned out to have multiple levels of meaning! One is HeadQuarters. as we gather together to honor the Head and encourage the members of his body where he is Quartered in their various gifts and callings. Reflecting on the year past and looking forward to 2023 we will be seeking to help one another answer the question, “How should we then live in these critical days in order to bear fruit that will remain?”
Next week Hilary and I follow the Spirit on an assignment back to Ireland. I hope to complete this blog series before we leave.