An Allegory... part 3
Chapter 5
CHRISTIANS ARE BORN, NOT MADE
..... My new companion and I talked as we walked along. He told me the story of how he came to know the King and of all the things inside him that he had never experienced before. He spoke of his longing to be led by the Stream and to experience the properties of its waters. Obviously, he had received the inner well of living water from the King.
I told him about the meeting years before and about the lack of response from most of the people. I mentioned the quota that had not been met and of my desire to pay my part and then, to find many others with the same desire. I brought out the petition and we knelt by the pathway, as he signed his name to it. We asked for help together from our mother city, the New Jerusalem, as stated in the petition, that the King’s people would be powerfully moved by the Stream to take His message of good news to all mankind.
We had not yet arisen from our knees, when we heard someone sobbing. We hurried in the direction of the sound until, almost hidden in the brush, we came upon a middle-aged man, sprawled on the ground, face down. His clothes were torn and filthy and he had numerous bruises and cuts. We each took one of his arms and, as gently as possible, helped him to a sitting position. After taking a long drink from my canteen and eating one of my friend’s chocolate bars, he began to tell us his story.
“I was in a hiking group, going in the opposite direction from which you came. We had a map of the area, which we got in an Old Dragon tourist information center. In the night, I went for a walk by myself and carelessly strayed far from camp. I tripped on a root, fell and hit my head on a rock. I don’t know how long I was unconscious, but when I awoke, I was in the middle of a frightening thunderstorm, lightening striking trees very near me. I called to anyone who could hear me, even to the King, but there was no answer. Apparently my companions had lost hope of finding me and I have been many days now wandering aimlessly. Here again, I fell in the brush and was overwhelmed by my hopeless situation. I did everything I knew how to do and used every tactic that I had learned to try to save myself, but things have gone from bad to worse. I can’t believe that I got myself into all this trouble.” We listened a long time to his story.
When he finally ended, I told him this, “My friend, even while you were with your group, you were going in the wrong direction. There is nothing ahead in that way, but empty wilderness. Your companions are as lost as you are and it may be the will of the King that, having gotten yourself into so much trouble and coming to realize your predicament, this will turn into your salvation. Your group’s hike route was one of self-destruction, being led astray by the prince of this world. You got involved with that crowd and their plan, because within you there is nothing of truth or righteousness. There is no possibility that you could have ever found the right direction by yourself. You belong to the enemy king. Apparently, though you were unaware of it, the true King heard your cry, and has given you a tremendous opportunity to, not only find your way, but to receive a new inner nature that will be in agreement with the King and you will then please Him. You are not far from the Stream of Life. My friend, you must now be born again!.....”
Chapter 6
GOD´S HOME AND WORKSHOP ON EARTH
.... “What must I do to be saved?” our lost friend asked. My companion said to him, “The work has been done,” and he began to tell him the good news of the King. He had come into our world long ago and was rejected by the special people that He had chosen. They gave Him to the world powers for judgment and He was condemned to die. His blood was poured out and He died an innocent death, because we were guilty and should have been condemned. He had all authority to call in His legions and to save Himself, but instead, He took our punishment and three days later came back to life. He lives today and again sits on His throne as King. “Your only work is to believe on Him – that is, to trust the King Himself and to trust in His work,” my companion concluded.
We could do nothing more for him but lead him to the Stream and that heavenly water washed his soul. We suddenly heard a soft wind, the wind that blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know from where it comes and where it is going; but we did know that this man had been born, not of human bloodlines, not by human will, but of the Spirit. Another miracle took place on the spot: His torn clothes were replaced by new, clean ones. This man, who only a short time before was unclean and broken, had now opened his life, and the King had become his ruler.
Shortly thereafter, we came to a small pond of water, and our new traveling companion asked us, “What prevents me from being baptized?” Of course, he had fulfilled the one condition that the King had asked – he trusted Him, so he now took the first step of obedience as a new subject of the King.
Every one of those days held new experiences. We left our tents every morning, wondering what would happen next. Other poor, lost travelers found the way of the King and we met more of the King’s faithful subjects, who longed to follow the Stream and to know its power. We traveled on together. The new ones, especially, wondered how they could best serve the King, now that they had left the world of the dragon and their old plans behind. They seemed to choose instinctively the way of life, rather than the synthetic ways of men.
We studied together those days the story of His Majesty’s first followers and the simplicity and power of their service. They turned the world upside down in a few years time. We longed to be used in the same simple, yet powerful, way. Although we understood that the Stream was perfect and complete in itself, yet to our understanding and experience, it seemed to continually broaden and deepen. It was magnified in our hearts. One special day, we read these words from the King and He seemed to be speaking directly to us, “If any man is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.’”
That day, the Stream took on dimensions we had never seen before and it overflowed its banks, so that it could not be forded. We all felt drawn to the water and as we entered, suddenly we heard the wind again. The sound grew from a gentle murmur into a mighty roar of hurricane force; the water swept us off our feet and carried us in its current. It was water to swim in....
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