Sunday, January 13, 2019

LIVING LIFE FROM THE INSIDE OUT


WE live in a media-driven culture that survives on aesthetics and appearance. We celebrate the political pundits and spin doctors controlling our airwaves, Appearance drives our markets, heavily outweighing content and leaving  the public striving to balance truth with ante-deluvian floods of half-truths? This finds us living life from the outside-in.

True character can only be found by building life from the inside-out, as Jesus taught his disciples.  Trustworthy relationships can only be experienced when they are what they appear to be. Jesus taught his disciples to tenaciously avoid duplicity. Very simply: “Let your statement be, ‘Yes, yes’ or ‘No, no,’” Jesus announced. All else “is of evil” (Matthew 6:37 NASV). 

Judge each other, as you would be judged. Examine “the log” in your own eye before judging “the speck” in your neighbor’s eye, Jesus announced  (7:1-5). We are called to avoid becoming mere façades, mere fronts appearing without supporting structure behind it.

Live life from the inside out. Begin where you are and be yourself, rather than a shadowy illusion or a fading projection. Integrate your life by practicing the wisdom of the proverbial professor who taught his student preachers to “live so that you can in no way be misunderstood.”

Wholesomeness enriches our social fabric. Conform your attitudes and behaviors so the two sides integrate as one coin that is easily recognized, not easily misrepresented, and not readily misunderstood. Avoid duplicity by maintaining simple (pure) values that reflect more substance than appearance.

Vicar Rowland Taylor lived his life with a singleness of purpose that prompted people who knew him best to follow him as a trustworthy Reformer. Taylor was a man of eminent learning, having achieved his degree as Doctor of Civil and Canon Law. His personal commitment to pure and uncorrupted faith resulted in an impeccable integrity. His life and conversation became valued for his life of unfeigned Christian holiness.

In living his life with intentional selflessness, Taylor exhibited a humility that prompted the most vulnerable in his community to take comfort when seeking his assistance. On one hand, he stoutly rebuked sin and evildoing. On the other hand, the richest men in town knew they could expect Taylor’s declaration of fault, when needed. 

Taylor’s community revered their good pastor, finding him mild natured and without guile or ill will. He willingly did good and sought evil against no man. Like the Christ he represented, Taylor forgave his adversaries and made his home a haven for the needy, a place of provision and continual relief. Taylor’s household was occupied by honest, discreet, and well-nurtured, salt-of the-earth individuals that served as candlelight in the surrounding darkness of night.

The Church Hierarchy, however, called Taylor a heretic because he challenged their authority, and the rule of “Bloody Mary,” the Queen. Taylor refused to conduct Mass in the church after concluding it was unbiblical. The Bishop responded by summoning Taylor and giving him a verbal tongue-lashing. To this, the Bishop added an extra two-year prison sentence. Eventually, the Bishop pronounced a sentence of death upon Taylor.

While many stories abound, one story finds Taylor within five days of his death. On February 5, 1555, Taylor presented his beloved son with his last remaining book, a small volume on Christian advice. Taylor further commended his family to God and declared his firm personal conviction of God's faithfulness. He shared one final challenge with his parishioners, which was to walk faithfully in the truths he had taught them.  

Assured of his own heavenly welcome, Taylor reportedly cautioned his followers to avoid the blasphemy of returning to false religion. Then he prayed: “In thee, O Lord, have I trusted: let me never be confounded." The Sheriff terminated Taylor’s prayer by escorting him to Hadleigh--to burn.

As they trudged along the road toward Taylor’s eminent death-by-burning; he gave his shoes away, distributed his remaining coins among the blind in the crowd, and endured the tip of a guard’s staff thrust into his mouth to prevent him from further preaching. Approaching Aldham Common, where his suffering awaited his arrival, he reportedly saw a great multitude of people and questioned, "What place is this, and what meaneth it that so many people are gathered hither?"

Someone allegedly informed him, "It is Aldham Common, the place where you must suffer; and the people have come to look upon you."

"Thanked be God,” Taylor exclaimed, “I am even at home," With that, he exited his horse and
used both hands to rip the hood from his head. The weeping people pleaded, "God save thee,
good Dr. Taylor! Jesus Christ strengthen thee, and help thee, the Holy Ghost comfort thee!" and
other good wishes. 

Taylor walked to the stake, kissed it, and set himself into a pitch barrel they had prepared for him to stand in. Standing upright, his back braced against the stake, his hands folded together and his eyes looking upward towards heaven, Taylor prayed.

They bound him with chains and when someone cast a fagot at him, it cut his face so that the blood ran down, He replied "O friend, I have harm enough; what needed that?"  As they kindled the fire, he held up both hands, called upon God and prayed, "Merciful Father of heaven! for Jesus Christ, my Savior's sake, receive my soul into Thy hands!"      

He is described as standing still without crying or moving, his hands folded together, until Soyce struck him on the head with a halberd until his brains fell out, and the corpse fell down into the fire. Thus; this humble Man of God entered the eternal presence of his merciful Father in Heaven. He loved with his life, after preaching earnestly and faithfully. Following God obediently, even unto death, Vicar Rowland Taylor glorified God in his untimely death.

Appearance rates a very high value in our contemporary culture, but the teachings of Jesus challenge us to restructure our lives and live from the inside out. We are invited to experience a metamorphosis rather than doing a mere makeover. We are invited to experience a transformation rather than merely project a façade. We are promised the empowerment of God’s Holy Spirit, integration into a single personality whose external appearance will coincide with our internal self.

By building from the inside out, and integrating our internal beliefs with our external behaviors, we will discover what Jesus called abundant living. 
This is walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com
remembering those labels installed on every Zenith radio during my boyhood. Every radio came with this label: “where the quality is built in.” The Christian life is one lived where the quality is built in and that is when we really begin living.
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For additional material, read the following links:
3 http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Taylor,_Rowland_(DNB00)
4 http://rowlandtaylor.wordpress.com/category/1510/
5 http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/TAYLOR/2000-03/0952801386
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