A Call to Return
Restoring the Roots of Our Relationship with Jesus
by
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When I was eleven years old I started training in self-defense. I was inspired by late 1960s martial arts movies and the fact that I got beat up at summer camp by someone considered by many to be a “sissy.” It was hard to live down the event, especially for my dad, an ex-military police officer who was also an Army boxer.
When Dad heard that his son was beaten up by a “sissy,” he said, “The boy needs help!”
Dad’s solution was to enroll me in an uncompromising karate school with a Japanese instructor who had recently immigrated to Puerto Rico. There I was—eleven and training on an unpadded cement floor with an instructor who barely knew English and knew no Spanish. The training was relentless, and despite Puerto Rico’s high humidity and searing heat, the school had no air conditioning. Mopping up my sweat from the floor became an essential part of my training!
But it worked. I toughened up, and my appreciation for the martial arts never waned. For many years, martial arts movies were my favorite genre. Some were like parables, praising certain virtues and teaching why others were evil or wrong.
Stories or parables can be the best way to illustrate teachings. Jesus loved parables and used them often to convey moral lessons and kingdom principles. I will follow His example by offering you a story right now, about a warrior who sought higher wisdom:
After going through many battles, and winning every encounter because of his superb training and fighting spirit, a certain warrior came to an old, blind sage seeking the answer to his unending quest for enlightenment. The great warrior’s prize for his many victories was to receive from the blind man an ancient book of wisdom that would reveal the secrets he so earnestly yearned to understand. Many warriors before him had died in their attempt to retrieve the great book, but as the victor to every encounter, he alone was ready to receive the amazing prize.
The sage warned that the book of wisdom would reveal many things the warrior would not like hearing. He also warned that the fighter’s lifelong rage and bitter hatred had turned him into something the book would expose. The warrior could not hide from the truth; he would find it on every page. And he would have to live with the consequences of what he found.
Undeterred by the sage’s warnings, the warrior grabbed the book from his hands. “Finally,” thought the warrior, “I am about to get the answers I fought so hard to obtain!”
What would the great book of wisdom reveal to him? What would it say?
The warrior opened to the first page and was shocked to find a mirror that reflected the monster he had become. Horrified, he turned to the second page, and it was a mirror, too!
Anxiously and quickly, the warrior turned the pages only to find that every page of the thick book was a mirror reflecting his war-battered, bruised, and deeply scarred face!
The sage sternly but calmly turned to the warrior and said, “This is what you are and what you have become. Unless you change, you will have to live with the consequences. It is your choice from now on.”
The ultimate book of wisdom is the Bible. Like the mirror in the parable you just read, the Bible reveals truth. All of it is pure, but you won’t always like hearing it. If you embrace it, however, you will be blessed.
For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does (James 1:23-25 NKJV).
The book you now hold is a mirror, too. It will serve as a reflection of how you are living, what you are listening to and have been exposed to, and what fruit is produced through your life…It is your opportunity to take a good, hard, look at yourself so that you might be established and qualified by the Master to do His bidding.
As you read, consider God’s counsel:
Examine [test, prove] yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified (2 Corinthians 13:5 NKJV).
An anointed message can be hard-hitting and cut through ideas like a two-edged sword (see Heb. 4:12). This book will do that for many. This message does not tiptoe through the tulips. No doubt some will be shocked at the conclusions that are reached….If Jesus returned today, His Church would not be ready to meet Him face to face! That is why the Holy Spirit mandated this book. But it is not an easy read meant to tickle the senses. It is for those who desire more out of their relationship with God than the status quo, and are willing to do what it takes to get there.
A war is raging in the heavenlies for every member of the Church, the Body of Christ in the earth. The spiritual welfare of many hangs in the balance. Deception has spread in the land. Many are losing their way. The great shaking has begun!
I pray that the revelation of the Lord Jesus found in these words sparks a zeal in your heart that burns until His return and throughout eternity. May you be strengthened in Him powerfully for His glory and kingdom. May you be in the company of those to whom the Lord will say on that day, “Well done good and faithful servant!”
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About the Book
A Call to Return—Restoring the Roots of Our Relationship with Jesus explores the depths of the Scriptures to excavate, refine, and lift up its words of power, revealing deep truths that will radically change the lives of believers. By tapping into this rich vein of biblical insight, Dan Alan Rodriguez offers Christians the insights to enable them to set out upon paths of discipleship that follow Jesus closely and that lead to profound experiences of His presence and power.
Drawing upon the author’s study of first-century Judaism and Christianity and resting upon a diverse array of sources steeped in the foundational texts of these traditions, the twelve chapters of A Call to Return address a series of interlocking topics: a prophetic call to return; the revival of lawlessness; the revival, purpose, and preexistence of God’s commandments; the church’s commandments and their connections to faith, grace, and good works; the association of works of the law to Jewish tradition and ceremony; holiness; the fear of the Lord; each believer as a temple of the holy; and the meaning of loving the Lord Jesus.
If you have a sense that Jesus’s message and ministry are calling you to embark upon a walk with Him that might take you away from all in Christianity that requires no accountability or responsibility before God, then A Call to Return—Restoring the Roots of Our Relationship with Jesus is the right book for you to read. It will give you the keys for understanding and responding to the Lord’s call to return to Him and to follow where He leads.
About the Author
Dan Alan Rodriguez, an author, preacher, and teacher, earned a bachelor’s degree in religious studies from the Union Institute, concentrating on first-century Judaism and Christianity. A pastor for seventeen years, and business owner in the Virgin Islands. He and Christine, his wife, live in Central Florida with their triplet sons.