The gospel is such a ludicrous story! How can it be that the Lord of the Universe would send His only begotten Son to die for sinful men who were still in rebellion against Him? How can it be true that God would love the world so much that He would send His Son to save us from slavery to sin and death? What kind of God kills Himself for people who do not love Him? But the story doesn’t end there. It’s crazier than that. He died so that the traitorous rebels would become His very own children. He didn’t die just to save us from something, but to save us TO something.
It was His pleasure to crush His Son to bring many sons to glory. By destroying one Son He has paid the price for the rebels and has gone even farther by welcoming them into His own family. What kind of King welcomes those who have rebelled against Him, and violently so, into His own family and then invites them to share His glory, to reign with Him. For that is what He does! He invites us to reign with Him. The only thing that He requires is that we believe. Even the faith that we lack He will provide if we but ask Him. We must believe that He exists and that He is the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. We must cry out, “I believe. Help me with my unbelief.”
Why is it so easy to believe that I am a miserable sinner in need of grace and so hard to remember that I am royalty? I have been grafted into the tree of life, adopted into the household of God. I have been anointed as a royal priest. I have been invested with authority to reign with Him. He reigns over all the earth, and we are called to be a part of His divine administration of the Kingdom. He has given us everything that we need for life and godliness, but I rarely lay claim to the wisdom, power and authority that are mine for the asking. Instead I lay claim to my sinful identity and my inadequacy and live disempowered and discouraged.
What a paradox am I!? I am both sinful and holy, both traitorous and royal, both powerless and powerful. I must choose to believe God and to reckon on His faithfulness to finish the work that He has begun in me. He has exchanged my life, my works for His. Old things have passed away. Behold! New things have come. My believing the lie that I am incapable does not change the fact that I really can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. My continuing to believe the lie that keeps me down in the mud is so tragic when compared with the glorious truth of my redemption and my identity in Christ.
I have spent so much time and energy lamenting my sinful past and the ever present fleshly tendencies of my own heart. Today, I choose to believe the unbelievable truth that I am a prince in the household of God! I have been chosen to suffer with Him and to reign with Him. While no good thing dwells in my flesh, I have been chosen and exalted. I will reign forever with Him and am even now seated in heaven and kept by His power and promise.
I choose not to live with my head down on my chest. I choose to no longer regard myself, or anyone else, from a worldly perspective. I am a new man in Christ and a chosen ambassador to carry this message to others. He is making His appeal to the nations, to my neighbors, to my family through me. Nothing is impossible with Christ. I choose to reign with Him today, to listen for and obey His commands, to tune my heart to His voice. I pledge my allegiance to Heaven. My Father, the King, has purchased me back from my slavery to sin and to death with the blood of His first born Son. He who did not spare His own Son will give me all that I need today. I choose to believe Him and to live in this reality today.
Wednesday, October 5, 2005
Monday, October 3, 2005
The Paradox of Community
The life of a Christian is full of paradox. Life through death. Joy through suffering. Solitude in community. The call to follow God is a call to join the community of God, the people of God, the household of God; and yet, it is also a call to an individual and personal relationship to Him. There is no solidity to the community. The local manifestations of the Body of Christ are constantly in flux. Christ alone is the unchanging Rock of our salvation. It is to Him that each of us must cling.
Those of us who grew up in the church have spent most of our years surrounded by the community of faith. I cannot remember a time when I was not a member of the faith community. Well before I embraced Christ with a mature understanding of the implications for such a decision I was immersed in a culture of belief. The community nurtured me, trained me, was patient with me, and when God and the community agreed that I was ready, they sent me out into the world to help to create new communities of faith, to be the midwife for the birth of the Body of Christ in new locations and in new cultural manifestations. I love the Church. I have been cherished in its bosom and have seen it grow and mature in areas where it had never been known.
But along this road I have been many times separated from the community; either by geography or by vocation. The Lord has seen fit to call me out from, or away from the Church several times. Because I love the Church and value the role of community in life and ministry this has always been hard for me. But as I look at the pages of scripture I see that there were times in the life of many of the great saints of old that they had to stand alone with God. Abraham was called to leave his family and head out for parts unknown; later he would alone prepare to slaughter the son of the promise on the mountain. Moses spent years alone in the desert after spending years in semi-isolation as a Hebrew in the palace of the Pharaoh. Ezekiel kept his bizarre vigil for 390 days alone. Isaiah walked about naked and alone for 3 years because of the command of God. While these things are not normative, neither are they completely isolated.
There is a profound loneliness on the journey with and towards God. We are ultimately responsible to the One who is our Master. Our obedience to His call may lead us out into the desert alone as it lead our Lord Jesus. There in the desert He met the enemy and was sorely tempted but emerged victorious. God’s concern and plan for the Church and for the nations is individually expressed through the lives of His servants and this often has meant periods of solitude or isolation for them.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “Let him who cannot be alone beware of community…But the reverse is also true: Let him who is not in community beware of being alone.” I am a man who has known and loves community. In the last few years the Lord seems to be calling me to more solitude. Sometimes that call has taken the form of gentle urgings to retreat to spend time with Him alone. Because my obedience to these urgings is somewhat voluntary, they are not so scary. In a sense, I define the length and type of my isolation. But there are times when God has isolated me from the community. He has forced me to rely on Him alone, to seek Him in solitude. During those times I find myself anxious and clamoring for community. I find fear in my heart. What if God really isn’t enough? What if I make the wrong move out here in the desert and there is no one to help me get up when I fall? What if I make a fool of myself? What if I haven’t heard God’s voice at all?
God comes to me and assures me that He loves me. His Word confirms that He uses experience as the best teacher. I cannot learn what He wants to teach me in community. He has isolated me to force me to face my fears and to learn that He is trustworthy. Like Elijah who obeyed and went into the desert of the drought and famine stricken land only to be fed by ravens, I find that God supplies exactly what I need, just when I need it. I will bank everything on His faithfulness.
Those of us who grew up in the church have spent most of our years surrounded by the community of faith. I cannot remember a time when I was not a member of the faith community. Well before I embraced Christ with a mature understanding of the implications for such a decision I was immersed in a culture of belief. The community nurtured me, trained me, was patient with me, and when God and the community agreed that I was ready, they sent me out into the world to help to create new communities of faith, to be the midwife for the birth of the Body of Christ in new locations and in new cultural manifestations. I love the Church. I have been cherished in its bosom and have seen it grow and mature in areas where it had never been known.
But along this road I have been many times separated from the community; either by geography or by vocation. The Lord has seen fit to call me out from, or away from the Church several times. Because I love the Church and value the role of community in life and ministry this has always been hard for me. But as I look at the pages of scripture I see that there were times in the life of many of the great saints of old that they had to stand alone with God. Abraham was called to leave his family and head out for parts unknown; later he would alone prepare to slaughter the son of the promise on the mountain. Moses spent years alone in the desert after spending years in semi-isolation as a Hebrew in the palace of the Pharaoh. Ezekiel kept his bizarre vigil for 390 days alone. Isaiah walked about naked and alone for 3 years because of the command of God. While these things are not normative, neither are they completely isolated.
There is a profound loneliness on the journey with and towards God. We are ultimately responsible to the One who is our Master. Our obedience to His call may lead us out into the desert alone as it lead our Lord Jesus. There in the desert He met the enemy and was sorely tempted but emerged victorious. God’s concern and plan for the Church and for the nations is individually expressed through the lives of His servants and this often has meant periods of solitude or isolation for them.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “Let him who cannot be alone beware of community…But the reverse is also true: Let him who is not in community beware of being alone.” I am a man who has known and loves community. In the last few years the Lord seems to be calling me to more solitude. Sometimes that call has taken the form of gentle urgings to retreat to spend time with Him alone. Because my obedience to these urgings is somewhat voluntary, they are not so scary. In a sense, I define the length and type of my isolation. But there are times when God has isolated me from the community. He has forced me to rely on Him alone, to seek Him in solitude. During those times I find myself anxious and clamoring for community. I find fear in my heart. What if God really isn’t enough? What if I make the wrong move out here in the desert and there is no one to help me get up when I fall? What if I make a fool of myself? What if I haven’t heard God’s voice at all?
God comes to me and assures me that He loves me. His Word confirms that He uses experience as the best teacher. I cannot learn what He wants to teach me in community. He has isolated me to force me to face my fears and to learn that He is trustworthy. Like Elijah who obeyed and went into the desert of the drought and famine stricken land only to be fed by ravens, I find that God supplies exactly what I need, just when I need it. I will bank everything on His faithfulness.
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
God Speaks in Mysterious Ways
I am amazed at the personal and individual way that God speaks to us, to me. When I spend time pursuing Him and I work to eliminate some of the extraneous noise I find that He will sneak up on me and touch me in the most unlikely ways. Just this morning I was listening to Audio Adrenaline and I suddenly found myself moved to tears by the simplicity and unspeakable blessing of the gospel. That God would love me and pour out every blessing on me. That He would secure my inheritance and allow me to taste some of it here. That I am an heir to the throne of heaven, a prince in the household of God. I know that rock music is not a means of grace for many people, but it is for me from time to time. I have had similar experiences with Sonicflood, P.O.D, U2, Lost Dogs, and Bob Dylan just to name a few recent divine musical encounters. It is not the music in and of itself. In fact, that’s not even what the songs were about this morning. It is that God plays a game of tag with me. Sometimes when I least expect it He suddenly touches my heart and moves me deeply. This doesn’t happen in a vacuum. When I have spent time pursuing Him, when I draw near to Him through practicing the spiritual disciplines He draws near to me. But not always when I expect it.
The day before yesterday I had a spiritual retreat. I went away and spent 8 hours in solitude and silence. I was reading, praying, contemplating, journaling, and consciously seeking the face of God. I came away at peace and encouraged, but without any sort of “lightening bolt” experience. I came home and told my wife that I had a good time, but nothing earth shattering. I have often experienced breakthroughs and insights during my spiritual retreats so I came home a bit disappointed. I know that was a bit childish and I talked about even that with the Lord. Since then I have continued to seek Him and have experienced peace and joy in my heart and in my interactions with others. I recognized that I needed to pursue Him and to wait on Him in obedience and truth regardless of whatever experience I did or did not have.
In the last few weeks I have sought God often and while I have heard from Him on occasion, I had not experienced the intimate touch that I so longed for. I have been diligent and obedient, although far from perfect in my pursuit of Him or avoidance of sin. I have experienced Him as real and present by somehow distant or silent. But this morning I experienced the sweet intimacy with the Lord that I had sought.
I find my relationship with my wife and kids like this as well. Sometimes I want a really deep and meaningful interaction with them, but these things can’t be manufactured. There is a providential serendipity about them. But when I spend time with them, loving and serving them as I should then I create an environment where the blessed event that I seek can take place. Intimacy isn’t created in a moment, but through the patient, selfless, serving pursuit of another soul, human or divine. When I seek to please my Lord, my wife, my children, and to bless them then eventually the fruit of that will be sweet intimacy. When I seek to claim that intimacy like a “right” or to force intimacy on another it is a base form of selfishness akin to rape. We can never force another soul to open itself to us and to share the deepest parts of them with us. That is like forcing a plant to grow or a flower to open. Instead we must patiently and lovingly cultivate the soil, plant the seed, pull the weeds, and continue to water and nurture it until quite suddenly we find that it has blossomed into the beauty that we knew it was capable of. In our mechanistic age of efficiency and production this kind of patient cultivation of a process that is beyond our control can be frustrating, but in the end it is the only way, the God ordained way, to develop our human and divine relationships.
God cannot be raped. He will not submit Himself to us because we expect or demand it. He is all powerful and all wise. He will come to us in the way we most need it and in the time we most need it. Only He knows what is best for us and He will never fail to deliver exactly what we need. Learning to trust and love Him when He seems to be silent is part of the process of cultivation.
The day before yesterday I had a spiritual retreat. I went away and spent 8 hours in solitude and silence. I was reading, praying, contemplating, journaling, and consciously seeking the face of God. I came away at peace and encouraged, but without any sort of “lightening bolt” experience. I came home and told my wife that I had a good time, but nothing earth shattering. I have often experienced breakthroughs and insights during my spiritual retreats so I came home a bit disappointed. I know that was a bit childish and I talked about even that with the Lord. Since then I have continued to seek Him and have experienced peace and joy in my heart and in my interactions with others. I recognized that I needed to pursue Him and to wait on Him in obedience and truth regardless of whatever experience I did or did not have.
In the last few weeks I have sought God often and while I have heard from Him on occasion, I had not experienced the intimate touch that I so longed for. I have been diligent and obedient, although far from perfect in my pursuit of Him or avoidance of sin. I have experienced Him as real and present by somehow distant or silent. But this morning I experienced the sweet intimacy with the Lord that I had sought.
I find my relationship with my wife and kids like this as well. Sometimes I want a really deep and meaningful interaction with them, but these things can’t be manufactured. There is a providential serendipity about them. But when I spend time with them, loving and serving them as I should then I create an environment where the blessed event that I seek can take place. Intimacy isn’t created in a moment, but through the patient, selfless, serving pursuit of another soul, human or divine. When I seek to please my Lord, my wife, my children, and to bless them then eventually the fruit of that will be sweet intimacy. When I seek to claim that intimacy like a “right” or to force intimacy on another it is a base form of selfishness akin to rape. We can never force another soul to open itself to us and to share the deepest parts of them with us. That is like forcing a plant to grow or a flower to open. Instead we must patiently and lovingly cultivate the soil, plant the seed, pull the weeds, and continue to water and nurture it until quite suddenly we find that it has blossomed into the beauty that we knew it was capable of. In our mechanistic age of efficiency and production this kind of patient cultivation of a process that is beyond our control can be frustrating, but in the end it is the only way, the God ordained way, to develop our human and divine relationships.
God cannot be raped. He will not submit Himself to us because we expect or demand it. He is all powerful and all wise. He will come to us in the way we most need it and in the time we most need it. Only He knows what is best for us and He will never fail to deliver exactly what we need. Learning to trust and love Him when He seems to be silent is part of the process of cultivation.
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