It has been said that pragmatism is the true American religion. We test things to see if they work. If it works then it must be true and right. The problem is that we lack perspective. We judge what works by what we see in the world around us. We take the short view, the human view. As a result we misjudge both God and Man. We have decided that we are the scientists and that we will experiment with the world and prove or disprove truth using our minds. We live as if we are the final judges. We have decided that we can get all the information we need from the world around us, from the tangible and corporeal. We can judge the goodness, even the truth value, of something based on our observations. We have decided that if it works, or more precisely, if it works for me then it must be true.
We confidently assert that certain things are true or false, even though we are too small, our perspectives too limited, and our lives too short to gather the data that we would need to prove our grandiose assertions. There are many problems with this perspective; a key one is that we know that this world is not all that there is. There is another world, another level of existence that does not submit itself to our scientific and pragmatic pursuits. If we looked only at this world, we reach faulty conclusions. The bookstores of the world are full of books promoting “what works” in the areas of business, religion, sex, health, nutrition, and virtually any other aspect of our lives. We have reduced life to a series of “how to” books, lectures, and seminars. We have focused on methodologies for “success” in all aspects of our lives, but these systems and techniques are based on limited data and faulty presuppositions.
The fact is that in this world the evil will sprout up like grass and the wicked will flourish. (Ps. 92) The wicked and arrogant are prosperous and their lives are good; in fact, they are so luxurious and easy as to provoke envy from worshipers of God. (Ps. 73) If you take a look at those who rise to the top in most professions, it is not because of their godly character and adherence to biblical principles. It is because they have discovered how to work the systems of this world. They have learned the techniques which allow them to manipulate people and to take what they want regardless of the consequences to others or to their own souls. This would be cause for great despair if this world was all there is, but there will be a reckoning. There is a way that seems right to a man but in the end it leads to death. (Pr. 14 & 16) What will count in the end is not technique, but relationship. The foundation of the created order is not a system of natural laws, but the Creator God who will not allow Himself to be reduced to a formula that can be scientifically tested. The laws that govern the universe are descriptive, not prescriptive; they are descriptions of the way that He normally works, not “laws” that exist over or apart from Him.
I wonder if the prayerlessness of the Western Church can not, at least in part, be traced back to the pragmatic application of Enlightenment ideals. What started out as a pursuit of God and a quest to understand how He created the universe has been hijacked by those who believe that Truth is knowable apart from God. Scripture tells us that “The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God.” (1 Cor. 2:14) Our wisdom and our thinking has become futile. (Rom 1: 8, Ps. 94, 1 Cor. 3:20) We were made for God, but that relationship and understanding can only be laid hold of when the Spirit is given. It’s not a result of methods or works, but a free gift of God. Life is about doxology not methodology, it’s about relationship with, worship of, and obedience to Christ not adherence to a system or applying the right techniques to get what we want. We simply cannot control to whom God gives His spirit. We cannot make Him do anything, even by using prayer.
We cannot pray because it works. It does work, but not always in the way that we expect. I often hear that there is power in prayer. That is not actually correct. Prayer is not merely a tool to be used, but a conversation to be had. God answers prayer, plain and simple; but He is not a tame God who can be domesticated and manipulated. Teachings on prayer that promises to produce a quick return on your investment or certain results with a money back guarantee have reduced God to a vending machine. These ideas and practices have more in common with paganism and animistic magic than they do with the God of Scripture. God will not be mocked or used for our own selfish ends. (Jam. 4:3) Prayer is first and foremost a humble response to the Sovereign and Almighty God to whom all power and glory belong and who is worthy of honor and praise and worship forever and ever. I pray because there is only one God and I am not Him.
Friday, March 30, 2007
Thursday, March 29, 2007
A Path to a God-Centric Life
Is my ministry God-centric, or man-centric? Do I really believe that Christ will build His church and that the gates of hell will not stand against it? If I believe that building the church is God’s prerogative and purview then my life and work will be characterized by prayer. One of the main causes for my failure to pray is because I am too busy with life and ministry. Imagine a kingdom where those who serve the king are working too hard to listen to his commands, or too busy to seek his input.
My ministry is man-centered when I am more focused on doing good for man (myself included) than I am on glorifying God. Prayer is one of the best ways to counteract this kind of human narcissism. Prayer puts God back at the center of my life and work. Prayer helps me to remember that it is God’s work that I should be about, not my interpretation or carefully reasoned strategy for what God should do, but rather what He really would have me do. I don’t think that it is enough to obey the maxim, “love God and do whatever you want.” I think that this is a cop out. It certainly has been in my life. At the least, it pushes God to the margins of my life and more often excludes Him altogether.
I am not advocating a paralysis of analysis, where we don’t move or do anything out of fear of doing the wrong thing, or because we are unsure of our motives. As humans even our “purest” motivations are a mixed bag. That kind of fear and paralysis is another symptom of our man centric perspective. I am suggesting that we should spend time in our pursuit of God. I recently received an e-mail from a friend in which he talked about how he had neglected his personal relationship with God over the last few years because he was too busy with ministry. It was with good motivation, and while his faith is not in peril, he realizes now that his pursuit of God is most the essential element to knowing and doing the will of God on earth. We need God. Not just as a principle, and not just to save us. We need Him every day. We must pursue Him. Pursue Him as a real person who wants a relationship with me, and from whom I have a lot to learn.
Every relationship of real value requires intentionality to develop. God invites us into real relationship with Him! He has given us the marriage relationship as a picture of the kind of intimacy and relationship that He wants with us. Marriage is a sort of training ground, an apprenticeship, a workshop where we learn about what our relationship with Him can and should be; what it will be in the end, at the wedding feast of the Lamb. It’s not just an analogy, it’s a deep reality.
I love my wife and I have known her for many years. I generally know what makes her tick and what her desires are. This is the result of many years of pursuit. The pursuit started when I first realized that she was available and desirable; I realized that a relationship was possible and worth pursuing. I was intrigued and I wanted to get to know her more. Then, as I got to know her more I realized that there was depth and value in her as a person, and that I too was growing because of our relationship. I wanted to get to know her more and to take our relationship to a new level. We started courting. We defined our relationship as more than just a casual relationship, but rather one that we were both willing and excited to invest in deepening. As that continued I realized more and more what a treasure she was and I realized that I didn’t want to go through the journey of life without her by my side. I realized that I needed her in my life and wanted to make our commitment permanent rather than just exploratory. I asked her to marry me and I committed myself to her once and forever. Our relationship took on whole new dimensions of depth and intimacy. I continue to learn more about myself and about her. I am daily challenged and encouraged to grow and am in the process of becoming more and more who I want to be, who I was created to be. Our relationship still needs to be cultivated. There are times when I take her for granted and don’t spend time with her or seek her out. When I do this, we tend to get a little out of sync. The ability to “read each others minds” and to finish each other’s sentences slowly degrades and if we don’t do something about it, we start to miss each other and distance begins to creep into the relationship.
As well as I know my wife, there are still times when I try to please her but miss the mark. I do something that I believe will communicate love, but in fact causes hurt. It’s not enough for me to know about her, and to extrapolate from what I know to the unknown. If I want to know what she would like, I should talk to her about it. If I want to know how I can help her, I should ask her. I can’t assume that because I have read her to do list, or because I have known her for many years, that I should just jump in and start doing something. I should communicate with her. I should ask her how I can help. Often times, I find that even my attempts to communicate love to her are based on my own faulty presuppositions. Let me give you an example, I like it when she hugs me and so therefore I think that the most loving thing that I can do is to give her a hug. I’m sure that she would like that, I reason. Who wouldn’t? If I am practicing the maxim of “Love your wife and do whatever you please”, then this makes perfect sense. In fact, the most loving thing that I can do for her is to make the bed in the morning. I don’t understand it, I don’t even value it, but I know this because we have talked about it…repeatedly. However, sometimes I ask her how I can help her and instead of asking me to make the bed (which I can clearly see is unmade) she asks me to run to the store, or do something else to help. Even though I know her and know some of the ways that I can love her, I have to ask her. I have to talk to her. Imagine what my relationship with my wife would be like if I tried to love her based on my understanding of her, or based on the way that other men love their wives. There will undoubtedly be some good that comes from it, but it wouldn’t be me loving her. I would miss the mark.
In ministry I think that we often talk with one another, but not enough with God. It’s not enough for me to read His Word and discern principles to be practiced. It’s not enough for me to learn from others about the things that He has asked them to do. It’s not enough to develop strategies based on our observations or the experiences of others. We were meant for something more! I need to pursue Him as a person and to know what He would have me do. We must train ourselves to discern the will of God. We must tune our ears to His voice. One of the best ways to do this is to bathe our minds in His Word. His Word is the unchanging standard. The only source that we know is pure, untainted, unadulterated truth. By familiarizing ourselves with the truth we will begin to learn how to discern between good and evil, but more than that, we will learn to discern His voice among the cacophony of voices competing for our attention and allegiance. There are many counterfeits out there, and we must be on our guard, but we cannot allow fear to keep us from pursuing our birthright as children of God. We have been born again into a real conversational relationship with God, and we cannot trade our birthright for something less fulfilling, even if it seems safer. We lose more than we gain.
The best way to train people to identify counterfeit currency is to begin with the study of genuine money, money that you know is real. By using and training our senses to recognize the real thing we will be able to attune to distinguish between our bridegroom and the pretenders. Jesus said that His sheep would know and hear his voice and that they will follow Him. This is not an option, but a statement of fact.
We must start with the Word and continue in prayer. The Word is the primary way that we discover the general will of God, but we must have a real relationship with the Spirit. The Spirit is the only right interpreter of the Word. Not only that, but He promises to guide us into all truth. There are many forms of prayer, but conversational prayer is a key, but often neglected form. In conversational prayer we spend time talking, but we also spend time listening. I find that starting with the Word helps to set my mind on Him, renew my perspective, and remind me of the sound of His voice. Then, as I enter in to prayer I share my heart or the needs of others and I listen for how He would have me pray, and what He would have me do. Over the years I have found a journal to be an invaluable tool for recording these conversations. Aside from crystallizing the thoughts or impressions into words this also serves to record those words for later reflection, application, and testing against the Word.
I am serving a King and I need to get my orders from Him. The general outline of His battle plans and principles of warfare are available through His written Word, but my role in the battle is often less clear. I need to know where He wants to deploy me today. What position on the battle line, what resources I should take with me. Prayer is how we get our orders from the King. Prayer also humbles me and reminds me of my right relationship to the King. I am not the King. I am a servant, a supplicant, and a soldier of the King. Prayer, as my father used to say, keeps me from getting too big for my britches. Prayer is also a weapon that we use in our service to the King. We have been entrusted with weapons that demolish strongholds. Prayer is one of the most powerful tools at our disposal as Christians. We have been commanded to pray, we have been instructed how to pray, we have been given examples of prayers, we have been admonished about the potential power of prayer. But still we neglect the very weapon that could win the battle because we are too busy trying to win the battle. I do not pretend to understand how or why prayer works, but this much is clear: Prayer does a work in me, and is also a powerful and effective means that God uses to accomplish much.
My ministry is man-centered when I am more focused on doing good for man (myself included) than I am on glorifying God. Prayer is one of the best ways to counteract this kind of human narcissism. Prayer puts God back at the center of my life and work. Prayer helps me to remember that it is God’s work that I should be about, not my interpretation or carefully reasoned strategy for what God should do, but rather what He really would have me do. I don’t think that it is enough to obey the maxim, “love God and do whatever you want.” I think that this is a cop out. It certainly has been in my life. At the least, it pushes God to the margins of my life and more often excludes Him altogether.
I am not advocating a paralysis of analysis, where we don’t move or do anything out of fear of doing the wrong thing, or because we are unsure of our motives. As humans even our “purest” motivations are a mixed bag. That kind of fear and paralysis is another symptom of our man centric perspective. I am suggesting that we should spend time in our pursuit of God. I recently received an e-mail from a friend in which he talked about how he had neglected his personal relationship with God over the last few years because he was too busy with ministry. It was with good motivation, and while his faith is not in peril, he realizes now that his pursuit of God is most the essential element to knowing and doing the will of God on earth. We need God. Not just as a principle, and not just to save us. We need Him every day. We must pursue Him. Pursue Him as a real person who wants a relationship with me, and from whom I have a lot to learn.
Every relationship of real value requires intentionality to develop. God invites us into real relationship with Him! He has given us the marriage relationship as a picture of the kind of intimacy and relationship that He wants with us. Marriage is a sort of training ground, an apprenticeship, a workshop where we learn about what our relationship with Him can and should be; what it will be in the end, at the wedding feast of the Lamb. It’s not just an analogy, it’s a deep reality.
I love my wife and I have known her for many years. I generally know what makes her tick and what her desires are. This is the result of many years of pursuit. The pursuit started when I first realized that she was available and desirable; I realized that a relationship was possible and worth pursuing. I was intrigued and I wanted to get to know her more. Then, as I got to know her more I realized that there was depth and value in her as a person, and that I too was growing because of our relationship. I wanted to get to know her more and to take our relationship to a new level. We started courting. We defined our relationship as more than just a casual relationship, but rather one that we were both willing and excited to invest in deepening. As that continued I realized more and more what a treasure she was and I realized that I didn’t want to go through the journey of life without her by my side. I realized that I needed her in my life and wanted to make our commitment permanent rather than just exploratory. I asked her to marry me and I committed myself to her once and forever. Our relationship took on whole new dimensions of depth and intimacy. I continue to learn more about myself and about her. I am daily challenged and encouraged to grow and am in the process of becoming more and more who I want to be, who I was created to be. Our relationship still needs to be cultivated. There are times when I take her for granted and don’t spend time with her or seek her out. When I do this, we tend to get a little out of sync. The ability to “read each others minds” and to finish each other’s sentences slowly degrades and if we don’t do something about it, we start to miss each other and distance begins to creep into the relationship.
As well as I know my wife, there are still times when I try to please her but miss the mark. I do something that I believe will communicate love, but in fact causes hurt. It’s not enough for me to know about her, and to extrapolate from what I know to the unknown. If I want to know what she would like, I should talk to her about it. If I want to know how I can help her, I should ask her. I can’t assume that because I have read her to do list, or because I have known her for many years, that I should just jump in and start doing something. I should communicate with her. I should ask her how I can help. Often times, I find that even my attempts to communicate love to her are based on my own faulty presuppositions. Let me give you an example, I like it when she hugs me and so therefore I think that the most loving thing that I can do is to give her a hug. I’m sure that she would like that, I reason. Who wouldn’t? If I am practicing the maxim of “Love your wife and do whatever you please”, then this makes perfect sense. In fact, the most loving thing that I can do for her is to make the bed in the morning. I don’t understand it, I don’t even value it, but I know this because we have talked about it…repeatedly. However, sometimes I ask her how I can help her and instead of asking me to make the bed (which I can clearly see is unmade) she asks me to run to the store, or do something else to help. Even though I know her and know some of the ways that I can love her, I have to ask her. I have to talk to her. Imagine what my relationship with my wife would be like if I tried to love her based on my understanding of her, or based on the way that other men love their wives. There will undoubtedly be some good that comes from it, but it wouldn’t be me loving her. I would miss the mark.
In ministry I think that we often talk with one another, but not enough with God. It’s not enough for me to read His Word and discern principles to be practiced. It’s not enough for me to learn from others about the things that He has asked them to do. It’s not enough to develop strategies based on our observations or the experiences of others. We were meant for something more! I need to pursue Him as a person and to know what He would have me do. We must train ourselves to discern the will of God. We must tune our ears to His voice. One of the best ways to do this is to bathe our minds in His Word. His Word is the unchanging standard. The only source that we know is pure, untainted, unadulterated truth. By familiarizing ourselves with the truth we will begin to learn how to discern between good and evil, but more than that, we will learn to discern His voice among the cacophony of voices competing for our attention and allegiance. There are many counterfeits out there, and we must be on our guard, but we cannot allow fear to keep us from pursuing our birthright as children of God. We have been born again into a real conversational relationship with God, and we cannot trade our birthright for something less fulfilling, even if it seems safer. We lose more than we gain.
The best way to train people to identify counterfeit currency is to begin with the study of genuine money, money that you know is real. By using and training our senses to recognize the real thing we will be able to attune to distinguish between our bridegroom and the pretenders. Jesus said that His sheep would know and hear his voice and that they will follow Him. This is not an option, but a statement of fact.
We must start with the Word and continue in prayer. The Word is the primary way that we discover the general will of God, but we must have a real relationship with the Spirit. The Spirit is the only right interpreter of the Word. Not only that, but He promises to guide us into all truth. There are many forms of prayer, but conversational prayer is a key, but often neglected form. In conversational prayer we spend time talking, but we also spend time listening. I find that starting with the Word helps to set my mind on Him, renew my perspective, and remind me of the sound of His voice. Then, as I enter in to prayer I share my heart or the needs of others and I listen for how He would have me pray, and what He would have me do. Over the years I have found a journal to be an invaluable tool for recording these conversations. Aside from crystallizing the thoughts or impressions into words this also serves to record those words for later reflection, application, and testing against the Word.
I am serving a King and I need to get my orders from Him. The general outline of His battle plans and principles of warfare are available through His written Word, but my role in the battle is often less clear. I need to know where He wants to deploy me today. What position on the battle line, what resources I should take with me. Prayer is how we get our orders from the King. Prayer also humbles me and reminds me of my right relationship to the King. I am not the King. I am a servant, a supplicant, and a soldier of the King. Prayer, as my father used to say, keeps me from getting too big for my britches. Prayer is also a weapon that we use in our service to the King. We have been entrusted with weapons that demolish strongholds. Prayer is one of the most powerful tools at our disposal as Christians. We have been commanded to pray, we have been instructed how to pray, we have been given examples of prayers, we have been admonished about the potential power of prayer. But still we neglect the very weapon that could win the battle because we are too busy trying to win the battle. I do not pretend to understand how or why prayer works, but this much is clear: Prayer does a work in me, and is also a powerful and effective means that God uses to accomplish much.
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Perfectly Designed
The Lord sure did a good job when he created the world! It is so varied and so beautiful and so real. I have often heard people say that we were made for heaven, but I don’t think that does justice to God’s creation, nor to our relationship with it. The universe was created by God as a sort of terrarium, a perfectly designed home, for His children. He designed us for the world and the world for us. He gave us 5 distinct senses through which to perceive and enjoy the many splendored delights with which He filled the world. He gave us minds to wonder and speculate and he placed within us the ability to comprehend and appreciate the wonder of it all. We may be fit for heaven, but we are definitely fit for earth.
We were meant to enjoy God’s creation and to manage it for Him and with Him. We were designed to hypothesize and to question and to discuss these questions with Him. I’m not sure that He answered all of Adam and Eve’s questions directly. If Jesus’ interactions are any indication, He may have often answered them with another question that spurred their investigation rather than answer them straightforwardly. You see, He also created us with the capacity for growth. We obviously grow physically, but our intellectual and spiritual growth is more subtle and less apparent. Our environment contains all that we need to stimulate and encourage our growth, if God is a part of it. God is always a part of it, but we are not always aware of Him and even more rarely seek or welcome His input or perspective.
When Adam and Eve decided that they would be better off seeking knowledge apart from God, they began the idolatry that still afflicts their children today. We placed our trust first in a serpent, who cunningly encouraged us to trust in ourselves to know the best, and planted the seed of doubt about God as our father. He is the father who delights to give good gifts to His children, but we don’t believe that. Like Adam and Eve we believe that He is holding something back that is good for us. He is denying us knowledge and experience that we want or need, and so we greedily grab the fruit from the tree and eat it, only to discover that it is sweet in the mouth but poisonous.
The world that was so perfectly designed for us, and us for it, becomes not just the location but the source for our idolatry. We make life on earth or various aspects of life the center of our pursuit, the objects of our worship, rather than delighting in them as gifts from our Father that turn our hearts back to Him. It is so easy to fall into making this world our home and focus, and this is a testimony to what a great job God did in fitting us for this world. We were made for this world, but we were meant to enjoy it in relationship with God, and we are incapable of truly reveling in it apart from Him. He has given us all good things to enjoy, but instead of enjoying them rightly, we long for them, we lust for them, we make them our god.
This is obvious when it comes to sex, power, drugs, alcohol, or even food, but is less obvious in other areas. This is all complicated by the fact that we have become masters of self-deception and rationalization. We call something a virtue that is really a vice. The scriptures call this iniquity. Iniquity is a perversion of perspective; it is calling something that is bad, good, or something that is good, bad. It’s not just missing the mark, or even willfully missing the mark, the first is sin and the second is rebellion. Iniquity is deeper. It is a twisting of our perception that warps reality for us, and we no longer deal with what is actually true, but rather with our own personally or culturally defined reality.
As Christians who are striving to follow God and to work out our salvation with fear and trembling we must be on guard against our own self-deception as well as that which comes from the world around us and the devil, the old serpent. Anything that makes this present world, or anything in it, myself included, the center of the universe is wrong. I find that some of my own ministry is man centered or self centered rather than God centered. I do many things for the wrong reasons and label them as good. This doesn’t make them inherently bad, but the more I do this the farther I slip down a slippery slope. Is it bad to build schools to educate illiterate children? No. But the real question is, “Is this what God would have me do?” Anything that is not from faith is sin. When we go through life as practical atheists, with no real relationship to God, no humility or submission to Him, then we are unrepentant idolaters regardless of how much we read the scriptures or how orthodox our theology is. God, must be the center of our lives and we will be most human and alive, and most able to enjoy the world He designed for us when we are living in humble submission to Him.
We were meant to enjoy God’s creation and to manage it for Him and with Him. We were designed to hypothesize and to question and to discuss these questions with Him. I’m not sure that He answered all of Adam and Eve’s questions directly. If Jesus’ interactions are any indication, He may have often answered them with another question that spurred their investigation rather than answer them straightforwardly. You see, He also created us with the capacity for growth. We obviously grow physically, but our intellectual and spiritual growth is more subtle and less apparent. Our environment contains all that we need to stimulate and encourage our growth, if God is a part of it. God is always a part of it, but we are not always aware of Him and even more rarely seek or welcome His input or perspective.
When Adam and Eve decided that they would be better off seeking knowledge apart from God, they began the idolatry that still afflicts their children today. We placed our trust first in a serpent, who cunningly encouraged us to trust in ourselves to know the best, and planted the seed of doubt about God as our father. He is the father who delights to give good gifts to His children, but we don’t believe that. Like Adam and Eve we believe that He is holding something back that is good for us. He is denying us knowledge and experience that we want or need, and so we greedily grab the fruit from the tree and eat it, only to discover that it is sweet in the mouth but poisonous.
The world that was so perfectly designed for us, and us for it, becomes not just the location but the source for our idolatry. We make life on earth or various aspects of life the center of our pursuit, the objects of our worship, rather than delighting in them as gifts from our Father that turn our hearts back to Him. It is so easy to fall into making this world our home and focus, and this is a testimony to what a great job God did in fitting us for this world. We were made for this world, but we were meant to enjoy it in relationship with God, and we are incapable of truly reveling in it apart from Him. He has given us all good things to enjoy, but instead of enjoying them rightly, we long for them, we lust for them, we make them our god.
This is obvious when it comes to sex, power, drugs, alcohol, or even food, but is less obvious in other areas. This is all complicated by the fact that we have become masters of self-deception and rationalization. We call something a virtue that is really a vice. The scriptures call this iniquity. Iniquity is a perversion of perspective; it is calling something that is bad, good, or something that is good, bad. It’s not just missing the mark, or even willfully missing the mark, the first is sin and the second is rebellion. Iniquity is deeper. It is a twisting of our perception that warps reality for us, and we no longer deal with what is actually true, but rather with our own personally or culturally defined reality.
As Christians who are striving to follow God and to work out our salvation with fear and trembling we must be on guard against our own self-deception as well as that which comes from the world around us and the devil, the old serpent. Anything that makes this present world, or anything in it, myself included, the center of the universe is wrong. I find that some of my own ministry is man centered or self centered rather than God centered. I do many things for the wrong reasons and label them as good. This doesn’t make them inherently bad, but the more I do this the farther I slip down a slippery slope. Is it bad to build schools to educate illiterate children? No. But the real question is, “Is this what God would have me do?” Anything that is not from faith is sin. When we go through life as practical atheists, with no real relationship to God, no humility or submission to Him, then we are unrepentant idolaters regardless of how much we read the scriptures or how orthodox our theology is. God, must be the center of our lives and we will be most human and alive, and most able to enjoy the world He designed for us when we are living in humble submission to Him.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
