The Olive Principle

iUniverse, Inc.

Contents

Preface....................................................xiChapter One: Do You Remember?..............................1Chapter Two: The "I Factor"................................11Chapter Three: Where Do You Stand?.........................23Chapter Four: The Olive Principle..........................29Chapter Five: A Murderer and a Brawler.....................41Chapter Six: Take the Worn Trail...........................51Chapter Seven: The Way to He, Not Me.......................61Chapter Eight: Now a Servant...............................75Bibliography...............................................83

Chapter One

Do you remember what it felt like when you first came to know Jesus as your personal Savior? Do you remember how your face shined with a type of glory, and how you could not get that middle-school grin off your face? Do you remember how you could not get enough of the Bible, and how you told everyone you knew about Jesus, regardless of whether he wanted to hear? Take just a moment and close your eyes and allow your mind's eye to take you back to that time. I would guess that right now you have that silly grin back on your face and that tingle in your heart like the first time you fell in love. Do you remember?

I remember one evening when I arrived at work at the Northeast Oklahoma Police Department, where I had been employed for nineteen years. I was confronted by the records clerk with the question, "Hey Lieutenant, what's going on? There is something different about you." The question caught me off guard. Firstly, because I was known as a focused person who was always on a mission, and secondly, because I strived to show no emotion around those with whom I worked (Mr. Spock on Star Trek was my hero).

The records clerk, Mona, said, "Dan, your face is shining, and you don't have the scowl on your forehead that we're used to seeing." (Mona was a Christian lady who made a habit of avoiding me, as I had a history of coming into her office, grunting orders, and walking out.) I went to look in a mirror to see the difference in my demeanor that seemed so obvious to others. I saw something that put me back on my heels, along with a smile and true look of peace on my face. It was at this time I heard a small voice inside of me say, "It is because I am now part of your life." I knew the voice was that of Jesus, whom I had come to know just the evening before.

I remember being forced to take the life of another human being one evening in September of 2000, as several officers and I were attempting to stop a possible drunk driver in a pickup. Upon stopping the pickup, the male driver exited and charged my squad car, brandishing a knife while cursing at me. This man made two lunges toward me as I commanded him to drop the knife and attempted to get my squad car between us. The man, I thought with the second lunge, had accomplished his goal of stabbing me in the chest. At this point in time I was forced to shoot and kill the man, to not only protect myself, but also the other officers running up to the scene. I felt numb and empty inside.

Even though I was cleared of this event as a justified shooting and went right back to work (back on the horse, so to speak), I continued to feel an emptiness inside. During my career, I had been involved in drug investigations and had taken part in many drug raids, and I was proud of the fact that I'd never had to shoot or kill anyone. Every day after the shooting, I put on my leather "lieutenant face" and went to work, while slipping further and further into a deep depression. After several months of sleeping only an hour or two a night and never leaving the house except for work-related activities, I felt desperate. I cried out to this "God" I had been told about at different times in my life. Something inside was telling me to talk to a pastor, a man I knew from a time in my past when I'd been seeking something more. I never took to the Bible or the church thing, being both self-centered and self-reliant; my pride prevented me from having my emptiness filled.

One day I decided it was worth the risk of letting my guard down just once in order to get some advice from this pastor. I hoped to make peace with whatever was eating me alive like a cancer. I drove the few blocks to this pastor's home, sat on his couch, and told my story. I was disappointed, to say the least, when he did not have any magical formula for me to feel good about myself. Instead, he handed me a key to his church. The pastor said, "Dan, you need to go talk to the only one who can help you—Jesus Christ." I was given instructions on how to go up to the altar, get down on my knees, and ask Jesus for help. Arriving at the church, I went up to the altar and did as I was told. Three hours later, I was on my face bawling and asking for forgiveness for my past. I remember the amazing thing was that when I got up I felt a peace inside of me that I had never felt before, and there was something different about my heart—it felt clean.

So here I was at work and people were telling me I looked different. I went into Mona's office and shut the door (probably to her dismay) and told her that I had surrendered my life to Jesus Christ the night before. I then asked her what to do next. After Mona finished hugging and squeezing the air out of me, she told me to go buy a Bible to begin reading, and that I needed to start going to church.

I went to the local Christian bookstore and bought a Bible (the New International Version), and began reading it from cover to cover. I became one of those maniac Christians: Do you remember what it was like? Do you remember being terribly excited and making sure that everyone heard about your Jesus? I spent every free minute reading my Bible and other books on prayer, fasting, and how to live a holy life. I just could not get enough of God and could do nothing but smile and tell Him over and over again how much I loved Him. The change was earthshaking for an old seasoned cop, especially one who'd become pretty cold and indifferent to people's pain, and who worked hard to show no emotion while on duty (or in his private life). I repeatedly read Psalm 63:1–6,

O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name. My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips; when I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches. (NIV)

I got it! I understood how the writer of this psalm felt. I once again could not sleep, as I was in love with God and had difficulty thinking about anyone or anything else, and my face shined. Do you remember?

In my hunger to identify with the Bible I did a character study of Moses in Exodus 34:29–35. I thought hard about how he would go up on Mount Sinai and stay in the presence of God and when he descended, his face would shine so that it frightened the other Israelites, and he was forced to wear a veil. Moses knew what it felt like to have a real and personal relationship with the Creator of the heavens and earth. Moses could not hide the outward manifestation of God's inward presence from shining on his face. Moses, however, did not always have the glory of God shining on his face. He actually was a murderer and fugitive hiding out from the law (the Egyptians) while herding stupid, smelly sheep in the hot dry desert for his father-in-law. One day while Moses was herding those smelly sheep, he wondered about the purpose of his life and if this was the best he could expect. As he did so, he came across a burning shrub near Mount Horeb, known also as the Mountain of God. It was not unusual to see a shrub or grass burning in this land of burning sand, but this time, the burning bush was not being consumed. As an old cop, I can imagine that Moses just had to see for himself what this was all about, and here he met the Lord. God spoke to Moses audibly in a voice of such authority that it literally shook Moses's world in way from which he would never recover. I believe the Lord could have spoken to Moses with a small voice (as He has with so many of us), and it would not have mattered.

Another biblical example of someone having a life-changing encounter with God can be found in the book of Isaiah 6:1–7. In this passage, Isaiah, who many scholars agree was only a teenager, literally saw the fabric of heaven pulled back so that he might see the very throne of God. Can you imagine the look on Isaiah's face, or how your face would appear at such an event? In verse 1b we read, "I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple." Then in verses 2 and 3 we read of Seraphim flying back and forth, crying out like thunder, "Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory." I only imagine Isaiah saw millions of angels around the throne with the glory of God literally brighter than any sun in his face. Isaiah cried out that he was ruined! Just imagine what it would be like to see the curtains of heaven pulled back so God could speak to you personally. Think of how overwhelmed you would feel before Him, and how you would reflect His glory on your face.

The only and (very inadequate) reference point I would have in my personal experience occurred when I lived in Italy and President Nixon came to the NATO base where my father was a command sergeant major. I was about thirteen years old and stood there with my mouth hanging open in awe, as this was the president of the United States! I remember how I could not wait to tell my other American friends, and some of the Italian kids with whom I played soccer, about the privilege of seeing the most powerful man in the world. In reflection, I realized that he, too, was created and not the Creator.

I also remember a period of time when I was a children's pastor (talk about herding little sheep), and I was always searching for object lessons to bring the gospel of Jesus alive to my young charges. Once, while attending Church of the Harvest Children's Camp in Oklahoma City and taking the kids to the Omni-Dome Science Exhibit, I discovered a device that reacted to solar power. I had a "eureka" moment as I tried this little device out in the gift store; as you brought it closer to a light source, its inner mechanism would begin to spin. I was like a little kid watching as the device spun faster and faster, the closer it got to the source. Right there, in front of hundreds of people, the Holy Spirit decided to speak into my life. The Holy Spirit reminded me of Moses's face, shining when he got near God, and how my face shined when I stayed near God. This device was an example of the same principle: the closer it is to the source (God), the more power that is generated within. The Holy Spirit reminded me again of the shine on my face, which was the outward manifestation of the presence of God living inside me, His very own creation. I am further reminded of what the German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in his book The Cost of Discipleship: "God created Adam in his own image, as a climax of his creation. He wanted to have the joy of beholding in Adam the reflection of himself." It is God's plan for us, who were made just below Him, to reflect the brilliance of who He is. The apostle Paul also tells us in 2 Corinthians 3:18, "But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit." Do you get it? We were created to reflect, just as a mirror, the glory of God on our faces—this is His desire.

The fanatical, overwhelmed part of me had to go tell everyone about this person Jesus that I'd met. At the police department I supervised the evening shift, and the officers and dispatchers did not, in their opinion, really have a choice about hearing the gospel. I was determined (even though I only knew enough to be dangerous) that I was going to snatch people out of the hand of the devil. In reflection, it made me kind of suspicious that during this time in my early Christian life, these folks were always really busy or had to leave and check on a situation. I would never have believed that their other obligations arose because I approached them and shared something I had learned reading the Bible. I had forgotten how we would make fun of people after they tried to witness to us at the police department. (You must understand, we thought we were tough, macho cops who depended only on our own strength.)

While doing another biblical character study, I made a connection with a real-life fanatic, one who'd been kind of a religious cop, and who had persecuted the bothersome Christians. Saul, as he was known, came to meet Jesus through a close encounter on the road to Damascus and got knocked off his high horse (so to speak), which was exactly what happened to me. In Acts 9:20, the Bible tells us how shortly after Saul's encounter with Jesus, "immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, `He is the Son of God.'" Throughout this chapter we see that Saul was upsetting the worldly Jews so much that they tried to kill him in Damascus. Again in verse 29, we see that Saul went up to Jerusalem to hang out with the apostles, and the Jews tried to kill him. Their belief was that their only choice was to get Saul out of the way until he could be "seasoned" and learn how to correctly approach non-Christians. It is disturbing how many times I have heard church folk say that new Christians need to be locked in a closet for a time until they settle down, "like the rest of us." I believe that this type of thought is just shameful, to be blunt. Rather, we should follow the example found in Acts 18. A newcomer, Apollos, was challenging the unbelieving Jews, when Priscilla and Aquila took him under their wing and mentored him. The plan of Priscilla and Aquila was not to stop Apollos, but to tap into the energy of his belief and teach him about Jesus so that he would be ready to correctly present the gospel. We should all want to follow this example in mentoring and teaching new believers how to both stay in the presence of God so their face continues to reflect His glory and how to properly present the gospel.

Do you remember what it was like to have that feeling of power inside, to have that shine on your face, and to be a fanatic for Jesus? Well, if you are like me and are reading this book, the depth of your feeling diminished—something gradually happened and you drew away from the source. I believe that "something" is what I am going to discuss next and will refer to as the "I factor."

Chapter Two

What possibly could have happened to cause you to look up and not feel the power of God's presence as you once did in your life? Whatever this was, it undoubtedly acted gradually, and either deceived you or found a method to draw you away from the presence of God. You would never willingly turn your back on Him. Let us take a few moments and look at some possible scenarios. Ask yourself whether any of these sound familiar to what has happened in your life.

Scenario #1: You have been working hard your entire adult life and want to see some fruit from all the effort. Your neighbor just bought a brand-new boat and your wife or husband wants to know why your family does not have a boat to go out and enjoy on the lake. Maybe something just keeps nagging at you, "Why don't you buy a new boat? You work hard, you deserve it, and it will give you prestige."

Scenario #2: Your kids are constantly coming home from school and telling you how it is not fair that Brittany in their class gets to have a cell phone, or Puma sneakers, or is always wearing something from a name-brand outfitter. You want your kids to fit in. When you were growing up, you had to do without or wore hand-me-downs from an older sibling. As a good parent, you want your kids to have more than you did growing up.

Scenario #3: You have been in ministry for years: are a former minister, a gifted teacher, or a vocalist whom the Lord has led to another church. There is excitement at first, as everyone is telling you how much the organization can use your gifts and experience; however, after only a few months your gifts have not been employed with the organization's ministry. Basically, you feel that you've been put on a shelf to sit and gather dust.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from The Olive Principleby Daniel R. Dorey Copyright © 2010 by Daniel R. Dorey. Excerpted by permission of iUniverse, Inc.. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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