Swallowed up by Life

All Sorts

“He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.”
Can you hear the tune of it… “This world is not my home; I’m just a-passin’ through. My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue… and I can’t feel at home in this world anymore.”  Hmm… Is that so? Seems to me I feel pretty at home. It’s only when life gets hard or someone dies that my perspective is shaken up a bit and re-focused…

A sister in Jesus died this week. She had not intended to. She was sure through all the treatments that the Lord would do a miracle, defy the doctors’ prognoses and heal her. We were kept updated week by week through the prayer bulletin on her ‘progress’ but never a word was said about the possibility (probability) of death. After all, we wanted her to live. We were to pray for healing, and that was that. She has been healed by the Lord now; it was not exactly the way many had hoped. Will their disillusionment fuel bitterness toward God, resistance to the Gospel, flight from church and prayer and all things ‘religious’? It won’t be the first time or the last. This is the third such death in recent days here…while others suffer stoically convinced they will be healed.

When is it ok to acknowledge: ‘She’s dying’ and to bring comfort and encouragement and remind ourselves of the hope of Heaven and cheer her on to enter the gates triumphant? When do we call a spade a spade—not till it’s turning the dirt we’ll rest beneath? I don’t mean to be callous but I have seen too much of this denial of sickness that is regarded as ‘faith’, and then when death comes unexpectedly, there is devastation, disillusionment, confusion, even blame-casting as we put the incident out of sight and mind as tidily as we can despite its inconsistencies with our belief system.

Is death really an indicator of failed faith? A shame? A tragedy? Has the Devil really scored a victory when a saint is ushered from this sin-sick world and forever removed from his reach?! Can God not raise up others to continue the forwarding of his Kingdom especially as it relates to the ones we love so much?

Those hearing the medical reports could see the signs of death’s approach. It was as though the demolition team were setting up camp at the landmark building next door. The signs were posted. ‘City Hall’ was petitioned—‘No please don’t tear down our cherished heritage home’—Petitions were denied. What value then in denying the inevitable, that this dear building is slated for destruction and its occupant will be moving on? Why not redeem the opportunity to affirm her citizenship and ours, to encourage and cheer on, to say our good-byes and learn from one so near to glory…We could certainly use the perspective! Does faith really necessitate denial of physical realities like cancer? Can faith not be evidenced in other ways, like going through suffering without demanding relief, confident in a Saviour who is with me to the end…

I’m all for praying for healing. God does intervene. He does miraculously heal and extend life. But where is the putting it in His hands and leaving it with Him to determine the extent of our days? Where is the peace and acceptance when the petitions are denied? Where is the teaching that to be ‘absent from the body is to be present with the Lord’(II Cor.5:8) —the eager expectation of better things? Why do we fight so hard to avoid the ‘far better’? (Phil.1:23)


Of course we are human. We instinctively fight to live. We are loathe to let go of the ones we have shared this lifetime with….We had a ‘dry run’ to the hospital ourselves two weeks back, summoned to my mom-in-law’s bedside just in case her situation didn’t improve. She was willing to think death might be imminent and she just wanted her children near. There was opportunity to talk, to listen, to cherish, which could have been lost had she refused to reckon with the possibility of death. The urgent crisis was resolved. She rallied with the attention of kids and grandkids from near and far. But her diagnosis is terminal… She is ready to die but busy loving and being loved in the meantime. I admire her matter-of-fact attitude toward death. It is not something to be avoided at all cost. She has never wanted to grow old and be a crotchety old woman dependent on other’s care. She has gone for prayer for healing but she would love best to see her Saviour. In the meantime she cares and prays for a multitude of offspring as she waits…

Paul talked like that: “We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight…and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.” (II Cor.5:8) But he was busy investing in people’s lives, seeking the Kingdom, making it his aim to please the Lord and he left the matter of whether he lived or died to the Lord. He was intent only on honoring the Lord in his body, whether by life or by death (Phil.1:20). I like that.

Of course this is all pretty theoretical until my turn comes…but I like to think that there is value in reminding myself of a perspective that is alien to this world…we are not citizens here. This is not home. If I am completely comfortable and intent on maintaining perfect health and accruing resources to make the duration of my stay comfortable, what’s up with that? That’s our culture’s mindset isn’t it?! A ‘certain rich man’ did that and was designated a fool for laying up treasure for himself but failing to be ‘rich toward God’(Luke 12:15) He wasn’t thinking that this night would be his last. And what was he amassing all that stuff for anyway? How aptly the King James version puts it: “a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.” When I head home, I can’t take it with me.

So I’m thinking it’s a good thing to face the possibility of death squarely without squirming out of it with the ‘I’m going to be healed’ clause. Jim and I are always tossing around the idea of who will go first. He has volunteered. I assure him he’ll be fine without me and it would be better to let me go first. Yes, I’m just being selfish. The point is not pleasing myself, I suppose, but cultivating a Kingdom-seeking mentality, a desire to be with Jesus but at the same time an intent to please him with my life in the meantime.

Herein is a tension. He died for us so that ‘we might live with Him’ (I Thess.5:10) which is not ultimately a hope for this lifetime. But He has given us His Spirit as a foretaste of the real deal to come, as a comfort, as a living, breathing “God with us” reality. We know in our hearts as the modern chorus echoes: “There must be more than this.” And so there is. But no spiritual experience in this lifetime, no miraculous healing or soul salvage can fill the ache to truly be in His Presence as He has wired us to be from the beginning. If we get sidetracked staking our hopes in anything in this world or the benefits we can enjoy in this lifetime “we are of all people most to be pitied” (I Cor.15:19).


And every so often a window to Heaven is opened and our Home there seems nearer and dearer, usually through pain and loss. Once upon a time when we were young we stood over the casket of our own four-month- old on a rainy morning in a lonely cemetery singing “Jesus Loves Me” with a huddle of friends and family…It was a brush with death that forever changed the way we see life. It made Heaven a more familiar, welcome hope for us. We visited the grave this past weekend to scrub away the gathering moss and algae and to read again our second-born son’s name: Josiah John followed by the inscription: “He is healed by the Lord”. Only after he had died did we learn this was literally the meaning of the name Josiah. John adds to that: “the Lord is gracious”. Yes. Our God is gracious and our God heals. And we, the “people of His pasture” and “the flock of His Hand” (Ps.95:7) can entrust our lives to this One who is our Keeper in this lifetime and the next. We can trust Him who has pledged Himself to us ‘in sickness and in health’—this One who died to be our very life (Col.3:4) We do not grieve as those who have no hope beyond the grave (I Thess.4:13). And by His Spirit we have hope that the best is truly yet to come for it is not death to die…


Please take a minute to listen to this beautiful old song, newly rendered, which brings into perspective the hope that awaits us:



It is not death to die
To leave this weary road
And join the saints who dwell on high
Who’ve found their home with God
It is not death to close
The eyes long dimmed by tears
And wake in joy before Your throne
Delivered from our fears
Chorus: O Jesus, conquering the grave
Your precious blood has power to save
Those who trust in You
Will in Your mercy find
That it is not death to die
It is not death to fling
Aside this earthly dust
And rise with strong and noble wing
To live among the just

It is not death to hear
The key unlock the door
That sets us free from mortal years
To praise You evermore

Š 2008 Sovereign Grace Praise
Come Weary Saints album.
(Sample/buy here. I own a copy; it’s good stuff!)

Original Words by Henri Malan (1787-1864). Translated by George Bethune (1847).
Music, Chorus and Alternate Words by Bob Kauflin.
————————————-

For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. (II Cor.5:4,5)


–LS


…and a few more tidbits for thought…


As servants of God we commend ourselves in every way… we are treated as dying, and behold we live, as poor, yet making many rich, as having nothing, yet possessing every thing! (II Cor. 6:4-10)


Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable…For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” I Cor. 15:50,53,54


For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming. Then [cometh] the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy [that] shall be destroyed [is] death.I Cor.15:22-26

Quiet Confidence

All Sorts

HA! Do you ever feel like you’re going around in circles like a kid on a merry-go-round? I’m not referring to the hectic hamster-wheel of life where you run and run but never seem to get anywhere (though I suppose that’s related), but the cycling around of life lessons… Just when you think you’ve learned something, grasped some gem of truth, been propelled on into maturity, you find the same old lessons coming ‘round again…like a child on a merry-go-round.

I installed a dandy KEYWORD SEARCH on my blog yesterday (Check out the sidebar!) and did a little search of: ‘quiet confidence’, just to see what I’d already said on the subject. And surprise, surprise, last year at this time I was in a very similar place mentally, blogging about “Peace and Quiet”:  

“Is it really inevitable as long as we are living and breathing that we as mothers should bear the quiet strain of anxiety (legitimized as ‘concern’) for our children’s welfare”–Mar.4,2011

And a couple weeks later this quote:

The victory that overcomes the world is our faith. So of course it’s the target of all the zombies and vampires of the unseen realm.  And they obviously know my vulnerabilities, namely my tendency to feel responsible to control things I cannot and my wimpy tendency to conclude there’s nothing I can do that will make a difference. “Of Silver Bullets and Zombies”– Mar.18,2011

If you have read my ponderings for very long, you likely have seen this recurring theme of struggling to have faith in the face of factors outside my control, without simultaneously caving to helpless inadequacy. Sigh. I could stand to re-read these posts myself…

“the best growth happens in a context of restful faith”

…“the necessity of faith as a starting point.  When I view myself (or my ‘charges’) as my responsibility to ‘fix’ through some application of ‘discipline’ it takes me right out of that ‘calmed and quieted’ state. I must do ‘something’, anything, at least keep anxious watch, sit on the alert growling…And suddenly the focus is all wrong.  Who am I watching? Who am I trusting?” Fresh Joy—Nov.5, 2010

And it keeps coming—I’ve been on this merry-go-round for a long time…

Calmed and Quieted—October 28,1010

“An overzealous pursuit of character transformation can actually work against us rather than for us.” Our uneasiness and agitation “proceeds from an inordinate desire of being delivered from the evil which we feel, or of  acquiring the good which we desire: and yet there is nothing which tends more to increase evil, and toprevent the enjoyment of good, than an unquiet mind.”(Thomas,44 quoting Francis DeSales’ Introduction to the Devout Life,307)

Thomas concludes by saying:

“In general, our pursuit of holiness should be a patient pursuit.  We grow best living in a pool of spiritual serenity.  Instead of a frantic and desperate clutching, we should adopt a patient waiting and a hopeful expectation:”

OK, so all that was by way of saying, I seem to be on the merry-go-round of learning and relearning lessons in ‘spiritual serenity’… but just as a parent doesn’t abandon his child on the playground, God has stuck with me for the ride and maybe we’re gaining more ground than I can rightly perceive. Maybe that’s why He’s given us His Word and those verses that stick with us for life and just keep on being meaningful (and needful) no matter how old we’re getting. Isaiah 30:15 has risen to the surface again as one I need to hang onto:

“In returning and rest you shall be saved;
in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength.”

Ah, for quiet confidence… I’ve been looking at a negative example of confidence this week in the life of King Saul. His story is a curious one to me and pertinent. Despite being tall, dark and handsome and coming from a wealthy family, he had a confidence deficit. (I Sam.9:1,2) When the time came to be officially sanctioned “King” he had to be ferreted out of hiding. “He [had] hidden himself among the baggage.” (I Sam.10:22) God had chosen this unlikely fellow to save His people from their Philistine enemies. (I Sam.9:16) But apparently lack of confidence in himself was no virtue…the inbuilt fear of man that came with it would be his downfall. Rather than transferring his deficit to explicit trust in God he relied on his own evaluations of good, better, and best sparing the wicked king he was to put to death and saving ‘the best of the sheep and …the fattened calves and the lambs and all that was good’. (I Sam.15:9) (Of course it was purportedly ‘the people’s’ fault). God’s indictment against him was that “he has turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments.” (I Sam.15:11)

Samuel confronted him with the situation:

“Though you are little in your own eyes, are you not the head of the tribes of Israel? The LORD anointed you king over Israel. And the LORD sent you on a mission and said, ‘Go, devote to destruction the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.’ Why then did you not obey the voice of the LORD? Why did you pounce on the spoil and do what was evil in the sight of the LORD?” I Sam.15:17-19

Ouch!

I had always assumed Saul had gone from thinking too little of himself to thinking too much of himself, but this isn’t the main point as Samuel expounds it. Rather he failed to take seriously the importance of his position as head over the people by the Lord’s appointment. He had an important mission but failed to fulfill it because he was guided more by the fear of man than the fear of God. His ‘littleness in his own eyes’ predisposed him to be unduly influenced by people and not attentive enough to the Lord’s voice. His judgment was so impaired that what he thought ‘good’ the Lord saw as evil!

Somewhere here there’s a lesson for the faint of heart who find themselves called to a ‘mission’ bigger than they. There is cause for confidence as an appointee of the Lord of the universe—a position to be taken seriously, a position to walk confidently in, without apology, without fear—except the fear of God. To listen for His voice is enough. To follow where His instructions lead is all that’s needful. It is not my mission. I do not need to develop the game plan or use my best judgment when things don’t make sense.

It was said of Saul: “He has turned back from following me…” (I Sam.15:11)

What better resolution than ‘returning and rest’, quietness and confidence (Is.30:15)-–the verse that has come round to me again in this unfolding season of my life. (Both words in fact derive from the same root, shuwb, to return.) Return to what I know to be the Lord’s directives. Return to faith from fear and doubt. Return to rest in His sovereign purposes for my life. Yes!

As I type, a silly song lilts up from downstairs where the grandbabies play:

Shoo, fly, don’t bother me,
For I belong to somebody.

I think that’s a good piece of closing advice for Grandmom, when the ‘flies’ buzz about my head tempting me to unrest. I belong to Somebody! Shoo!

–LS

P.S.  Give the new KEYWORD SEARCH a try. Never have the archives been so accessible…

The Long Gestation

LIVE IT!

“until Christ be formed in you…”

Mary said ‘yes’ to the angel who announced she would give birth to God’s own Son, but there were still nine ordinary months of gestation before that baby would be born. Just as regeneration, being ‘born again’, is a work of the Spirit, so is growing in grace to become fully formed into the image of Christ. Why would I think the process should be short-circuited somehow in my life or my children’s lives? There is no ‘quick fix’ for Christlikeness, no matter how much ‘angst’ I work up.

The word that has dropped into my life for this new year is “WAIT”… Most of last year I had this verse above my kitchen sink:
“Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth…don’t grumble against one another.” (James 5:8,9)

Before that I had lived with this one for a long while:
“you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.” (Heb.10:36)

And this year, the compelling instruction is: “WAIT”. I guess I’m a slow learner. Then again growth in grace is a gradual process—for me and for mine. I get to anticipating full-fledged fruit when the blossoms are just forming. I get impatient. And then I begin to doubt—something must be wrong. I must have made some mistake. Must be missing something… fertilizer? Bug spray? Compost? Rain? Warmth. Love. Sunshine!

It’s one thing to conceive a child, another to give birth to that fresh tiny replica of ‘the both of us’, and yet another to feed and clothe and love that little life into maturity. It’s a process punctuated by watershed moments, memorable highlights and perhaps crises, but mostly a lot of very ordinary days…all heading toward the grand finale when we shall see Him as He is and be transformed completely into His likeness and changed in the twinkling of an eye! It’s the moment for which all creation waits and groans. (Rom.8:21,22)
It’s the moment for which we wait, having the beginnings and waiting for the full harvest—and we groan (Rom.8:23). Wonderful thing is, there’s a companion with us in this long gestation process—and He too groans. But His groans are productive. He ‘intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.’ And though we are often clueless what to pray, He always knows the mind of God and prays God’s will into being in our lives.

And so I’m learning that when the process is out of my hands but the full product isn’t in yet, it’s ok to WAIT… to stop digging up seeds to see if they’ve sprouted, to lay down my tools, to put away the bug spray and to wait—maybe hum a hopeful tune in the process? Couldn’t hurt!

I’ve been looking at this word ‘wait’ in the Bible. It’s not a curled-up-in-a-ball-asleep passive dormancy—as though we had no hope of rescue and were resigned to our fate. That is honestly my natural tendency. (So maybe I can’t put my tools down after all, but hold them at the ready while I aWAIT further instruction?!)  In strategic crisis training (from long ago days in ‘missions’) they teach you that there are two types of reactions people take in hostage situations—one is to turn completely passive and let come what may. By so doing, these folk reduce their chances of survival. The other response is to stay actively engaged in seeking your release. How does this relate to the WAIT of faith? Ha! That’s seems to be what I’m sorting out this year! The ‘Wait’ of faith—what does it look like?

This is what I’ve found so far…

It’s a waiting closely tied to hope.

“For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.” (Gal.5:6)

But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it. (Rom.8:25)

“…we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. (Rom.8:23)

There’s an eager expectation in it, a confidence that what we hope for is coming. But what about the things we hope for that aren’t guaranteed? They seem good to us. Ideal, really. We hope for our kids the good things we’ve had or maybe that the bad things we’ve known won’t overtake them. But can we guarantee it? Will our hopes prove vain, our waiting end in disappointment? These are questions that challenge me in my waiting. (When I major on them, I find my hope faltering and my waiting dissipating into a useless passivity.) I’ve had to refocus my hopes on those things that are guaranteed…we have the hope of righteousness, the hope of redemption for these bodies, the hope of our own bodily resurrection, the hope of Jesus soon return, the hope of heaven, the hope of glory.

But what of the details–the physical, this world, nitty-gritty? What hope is there for this life?

The wait of faith is tied to the trustworthy character of God.

It’s at the point of the nitty-gritty of life where trust in the character of God and His good heart toward us must come into play. We can trust His Word. We can trust His heart, even when we cannot see the how or why or when? There are bound to be both surprises and disappointments in the process of growing to be like Christ (and in the watching others do likewise!) We simply don’t see the whole picture. And it will entail a process. John White affirms: though “there may be breakthroughs, sudden insights, glorious experiences… the major work of transformation will be slow and often deeply painful.  Yet the pain is immeasurably reduced by trust and understanding.”(The Fight, 112,113)

I think Paul would have agreed. He’d given his life to planting churches where Christ had not been preached and to nurturing growth in these believers. He compared his own efforts to the labor of childbirth!
“My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you…” (Gal. 4:19)

This was no easy task accomplished by a momentary miraculous divine intervention, but a steady self-sacrificing, life-long commitment to pray and teach and spur on to love and good deeds in any way he could. But even in this very practical, day-do-day process there was a wait of faith, for Paul was dependent on the Spirit to energize and direct his efforts (Col.1:27-29). “For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.” (I Tim.4:10) Likewise, unless the Spirit moves, my efforts are so much burnt toast!

The wait of faith submits itself to God’s sovereign purposes.

So what happens when our dearly held expectations come crashing down? When life doesn’t turn out the way we anticipated? When God hasn’t ‘come through’ the way we’d been sure He would? Or His timing is ‘way off’? We may reason that “if God is all-knowing, wise, and loving, then surely He will fix our situation or respond in a certain manner.  When life does not turn out as we hope or in our expected timeframe, we may question God’s love and even begin to doubt his Word.” (Danielle DuRant) but who is then in the judge’s seat, determining good and evil, passing rulings on what is and isn’t acceptable? Yes, the wait of faith must face its own essential submission to God’s sovereign hand. God is consistent and faithful to His Word, but He is not necessarily predictable. Where then would be room for mercy and grace? “No, God is never unfaithful or inconsistent.  Rather… our inability to predict how or when He might resolve something we have brought to Him in prayer can bring great unease and mistrust if we unconsciously perceive Him as an indulgent parent or unreliable one we must win over. God is not an unreliable or indulgent parent, nor is He a heartless judge, as Jesus reminds us in his parable on prayer and the persistent widow.” (DuRant) Still, His ways are not our ways. He is the Potter. We are the clay…

The above excerpt is from an excellent article titled “Inseparable Companions” , demonstrating how our lives must hold faith and hope in tandem as we grow in Christ if we are to avoid the pitfall of doubting God’s goodness or His faithfulness to His Word. It was very encouraging and certainly pertinent to my study of the ‘wait of faith’. I close with its concluding remarks:

“So might we always pray and not give up, for there is hope in the mirror of God’s Word: the one true and trustworthy reflection of who God is and who we are becoming.  Here we are comforted and challenged, chastened and assured by the One who loves us and can speak into our lives like no other.  Here we can “set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us.  For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything” (1 John 3:19b-20).  We can bring our expectations, fears, and questions before his throne of grace and let the light of Jesus’s presence shine into every dark and confusing place in our lives.  We can hope in Him and rest in Him because He promises to never leave us nor forsake us.  So let us give Him our expectations and ask Him to give us trustful expectancy. ‘Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for we who promised is faithful’ (Hebrews 10:23).  Then we may see signs of his faithful presence where we once did not and begin to find our way forward—with deeper hope.”(Danielle DuRant)

Waiting eagerly to see what God will do,

–LS

“Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long.” Ps.25:5

The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD. Lam.3:25,26

P.S. I brought back a book from Missions Fest last month titled Unshaken. It’s the story of Dan Woolley, a Haiti earthquake survivor, and is an excellent model of what it means to wait actively. He was trapped beneath whole stories of rubble, badly injured, and able to move about very little but he refused to curl up in a ball and let unconsciousness overtake him. In fact he used his plight to encourage others to hold on and to point them to the ultimate Saviour. Remarkable testimony to the very present help of God in times of trouble (and to the wait of faith!!). [See full review here]

————————
Danielle DuRant is director of research and writing at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries. “Inseparable companions” is available at RZIM.org in the “Just Thinking” archives.

Glory in the Church

DEFEND IT!, LOVE IT!

From the long-ago bygones a simple tune lingers. Mr. Chamberlain was an unlikely song leader. His audience—a dozen young Greek students. Hardly the context for singing but he was so intent on getting across the extravagance of the Greek text’s meaning that he taught us a song that still floats through my head today. “Huper ek perissou. We will see what God can do… “(OK, so I don’t remember any of the rest of the words, but the message has stuck over all these years.) The idea is taken from Ephesians 3:20—“Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us…”. In the Greek an unusual compounding of words is used to stress the lavish nature of what God can do—‘exceedingly abundantly above’ all we ask or even think! Incredible.

What I have tended to miss is the point of this power at work in us, as used in this context.

Paul has just been talking about his calling to make known the ‘unsearchable riches of Christ’ to the Gentiles—this good news which had only recently been revealed to mankind. It had been a mystery not fully understood up until this age of the Church—now it is unveiled. But catch this, Paul says this unveiling isn’t just for us, the redeemed ones, but that through the church the principalities and powers in the heavenly places will see God’s multi-faceted genius! (Eph.3:10) This is what the power at work in us is for—God’s glory.

Paul goes on to outline the plan, you might say, starting with the reminder that as believers they now have unhindered access to God. Then he prays for spiritual strength to be given to them to really ‘get’ the tremendous dimensions of Christ’s love for them—the breadth and length and depth and height of it. Why? So that they’ll be ‘filled with all the fullness of God’ so that corporately, as the ‘church’, they will bring glory to God before all the hosts of good and evil in the heavenly realms. Incredible.

I can see how that might be true of the New Testament church, at least the very early church? But it seems Paul wasn’t referring just to the early era of the church, or even of some future era where it would be especially beautiful to behold…His benediction tells me that this is God’s intentions for you and me in our modern mixed-up and sometimes floundering churches. Unto him [be] glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Eph.3:21. And I’m encouraged. We too have all the resources needed at our disposal– through the Spirit living in us and the access granted to us into God’s throne room. No hocus-pocus or hyper focus needed, just prayer—and a great big God who is able to do abundantly above all that we could ever think to ask! This is Good News!

Why have we let it become so complicated? There are all manner of distortions of the Gospel ‘out there’—all sorts of quests to find ‘power with God’, to get a special dispensation of ‘His presence’, to figure out some way to tap into ‘supernatural power’ that will make the world see we are something to take notice of… But here Paul just prays and makes a simple request for a profound revelation of God’s love which will fill them with the ‘fullness of God’. Is there more than that?! The Gospel itself is said to be the power of God for salvation to everyone that believes (Rom.1:16) Have we mislaid it? Have we misunderstood it?

For ages and generations the Gospel was a mystery even angels longed to understand (I Pet.1:12) but we in the Church age have been let in on the secret: “Christ in you, the hope of glory!” (Col.1:27) If we fail to grasp the implications of this power at work within us, this love extended to us, and this hope prepared for us we will reflect it poorly to our neighbors and more than that, we will be easy prey for false teaching.

Just as satisfaction with one’s own mate is the surest safeguard against infidelity in marriage, so godliness with contentment is our safeguard against enticing teachings that promise us a degree of reality and power that we haven’t known. Without strong confidence in the present and sufficient work of God in our hearts through His Word and by His Spirit, we can be drawn into deceptive short-cuts that will undermine that very relationship.

An affair is enticing. It promises passion and relief from the steady humdrum of committed relationship; it makes one feel deceptively ‘alive’—but it doesn’t deliver. Its passion is short-lived and then comes the aftermath… Could this be what John meant when he concluded his epistle with the plea: “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.” He has just underlined the things we know to be true by way of reminder: “We know the Son of God is come and has given us understanding that we may know Him that is true, and we are in Him that is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life!” (IJn.5:20,21) It’s as if he’s warning: ‘Accept no substitutes!’ We can become so intent on ferreting out some secret key to effective life and witness that we trade in the essentials of the Gospel for the ‘fix’ of a sensational teaching or a ‘new’ set of ‘truths’.

Deception doesn’t come in a marked package. It’s more like a refreshing drink laced with antifreeze! If it were unmixed with truth it would not be deceptive! Its messengers don’t come across as ‘devils’ but as ‘ministers of righteousness’ (II Cor.11:15). Its appeal may be a deeper spirituality, a greater passion, a more powerful witness…but if it veers from the foundational truths of the Gospel—of Christ in you the hope of glory– it is a heady brew that will bedazzle and blind us, but leave us ever thirsty for MORE. Godliness with contentment is great gain.(I Tim.6:6)

Have I taken a rabbit trail here and jumped on a soapbox? What does this have to do with the glory of God being displayed in the heavenlies through the genius of the Church—a host of redeemed creatures, transformed by the power of the Gospel?!

Everything! When we turn aside from the Gospel and follow false teaching in hopes of finding something more to satisfy our longings, we actually harm the cause of the Gospel. “And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed.” (II Pet.2:2) It happens. Noone sees these lapses more keenly than those who already regard our faith with suspicion and skepticism.

Are we immune to being misled? I read somewhere that if you think you are above deception, think again, you’ve already been deceived! It’s easy to see somebody else’s blindspots, but not so my own. How then do I safeguard my life from deception? Even in my zeal to cultivate a healthy relationship with my Hero I can pursue the wrong means.

There are plenty of Bible passages that describe and warn against false teachers…(I John, IIPet.2, Jude 1, I Tim.4-6…) In fact, I started to amass a list of characteristics of false teachers but then I came back to Ephesians and found this…once again, the genius of the Church:

Paul describes the living organism of the Body of Christ, with all its various gifts given to build up the whole ‘until we attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ’. Why is this so essential? So that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into Him who is the Head, into Christ…”(Eph.4:13-15)

We need each other and the unique God-given contribution of each to keep us on track. Isolation is a hazard as are clumps of noses with no eyes! Or bodies without hearts, or kidneys! The Body of Christ reaches beyond our denomination, or our small group. Often we settle comfortably into fellowships that suit our gifts. Could it be we’re missing the complementary parts of us in our congregational segregations? Doctrine’s important. Distinctives are dandy. But it’s good to take a peek into another’s window and get to know the left hand of the Body, or that little pinky toe. Practically, how does this work…

Start a prayer walk. Join a hobby group. Attend a Bible study from another church. Visit churches in your area and enjoy the fellowship that happens just because we belong to the same Family. Encourage/get involved in inter-denominational initiatives in your community… I don’t know how it will work for you. But I do know that we need each other in order to grow strong and steady. We’re designed that way.

And this is where the glory of Christ’s church shines–—all these redeemed earthlings exalted to sonship and immortality, corporately comprising the very Body of Christ, their head, –a concept the angels long to comprehend (I Pet.1:12), a spectacle to the unseen hierarchy in the heavenlies (I Cor.4:9), a testimony to God’s brilliant wisdom being worked out meticulously down through the generations and now glimpsed in the Church age. And still the plan marches on. Still ahead lies our ‘hope of glory’ (Col.1:27) Only in the coming ages will ‘the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus’(Eph.2:7) be fully shown. Only then will we be fully like him, because at last ‘we shall see Him as He is.” (I Jn.3:2)

Then we shall be where we would be,
Then we shall be what we should be,
Things that are not now, nor could be,
Soon shall be our own.

In the meantime we, the church, in allegiance to our Head bring Him fame before all the powers of heaven and earth…as we cling to Him who is the Head “from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.” (Col.2:19) Which brings us full-circle to another of Paul’s prayers counting on the Power that is at work in us who believe… I find myself praying it often, for myself, for my kids, for other members of this great Body we share…

“…that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory,
may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him,
having the eyes of your hearts enlightened,
that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you,
what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints,
and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might  that he worked in Christ
when he raised him from the dead
and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places,
far above all rule and authority and power and dominion,
and above every name that is named,
not only in this age but also in the one to come.
And he put all things under his feet
and gave him as head over all things to the church,
which is his body,
the fullness of him who fills all in all…” (Eph.1:17-23)

Amen!

Thanks for listening. I more than welcome your feedback.

–LS

“Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. AMEN.” (Jude 24,25)

P.S. Interested in thinking about how different kinds of believers can integrate to minimize their weaknesses and maximize their strengths?  Check out The Word and Power Church by Doug Banister. (Review available here.)

Escaping the Womb of Self

BOOKS

 

Sometimes words are so aptly put that they seize you with conviction and you find your head nodding in assent. Such were these by David F. Wells in his rather scathing review of modern evangelicalism:

Our is a ‘Christian faith that is conceived in the womb of the self’ rather than in the forge of God’s truth. Compared to historic Christianity, ours “is a smaller thing, shrunken in its ability to understand the world and to stand up in it…Where the self circumscribes the significance of Christian faith, good and evil are reduced to a sense of well-being or its absence, God’s place in the world is reduced to the domain of private consciousness, his external acts of redemption are trimmed to fit the experience of personal salvation, his providence in the world diminishes to whatever is necessary to ensure one’s having a good day, his Word becomes intuition, and conviction fades into evanescent opinion.  Theology becomes therapy, and all the telltale symptoms of the therapeutic model of faith begin to surface.  The biblical interest in righteousness is replaced by a search for happiness, holiness by wholeness, truth by feeling, ethics by feeling good about one’s self.  The world shrinks to the range of personal circumstances; the community of faith shrinks to a circle of personal friends.  The past recedes.  The Church recedes.  The world recedes.  All that remains is the self.”
(No Place for Truth: Whatever Happened to Evangelical Theology, pp.172,182-3)

I haven’t read the book yet though I read an extensive precise and my interest is definitely piqued! Wells has written with scholarly passion for nearly twenty years warning the church of its dangerous departure from solid theology in favor of a worldly self-focused pragmatism. I ordered my first sampling of his books today!

But, about this quote…does it ring true to you? I’ve been reading and re-reading it for several days now and I admit that at first I read it with a smug “Yep, I see that (in others)”. But it didn’t take more than a little reflection to realize that this self-styled form of faith has fingered its way into my life. I have been shaped by culture as well. The pre-occupation with self that pervades the world and makes self’s pleasure the measure and motive for just about everything…has crept into my life.  The question must be asked:  Who is at the center of my universe?

Imagine a universe where we are gods. Where our pleasure is of paramount importance—after all God wants us happy (doesn’t He?), and our concerns are what matter most (aren’t they?). Just as God declares who He is and what He wants us to know about Him in the Bible, so we have Blogs! And like frogs in a world-sized frying pan we have warmed our egos to a deadly temperature quite far from the manufacturer’s specifications. It’s so cozy in here that it’s hard to see how far we’ve come from a God-centered faith. David Wells summarizes our contemporary evangelical generation: “Where we should expect, for all the opportunities we have for hearing God’s Word, a vibrantly repentant, gloriously sanctified, humbly serving, boldly outspoken, and energetically activist community, instead we find a religious people stretched out on the therapist’s couch, endlessly fixating on their personal needs and hurts.”

The question is, how do we get out (or stay out!) of this frying pan and take our proper position as creatures designed for God’s glory and pleasure above all else?

That’s the question I’ve been pondering today and here’s what I have to offer. First of all a new-to-me Twila Paris song came to mind. It ran through my head yesterday driving and later, exercising…the refrain says: “One small sacrifice—I give you all my love, I give you all my life—a token for a prize, that never could be worth the honor you deserve…” (from her “Small Sacrifice” 2007 album) The song succinctly puts my life’s significance in perspective by contrasting it to God’s own sacrifice. I am indeed not my own. I’ve been bought with a price. “Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, [which is] your reasonable service”  was Paul’s way of saying it and by his own life he exemplified this expenditure of His life for God’s glory:

“But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with you all.” Phil.2:17NASB

What does that look like for a 21st century home-maker with a dwindling supply of offspring to launch into the world? My body a living sacrifice… Could it be that faithfulness in the small things is what’s required? The meals, the schoolwork help, the housekeeping, and the trips into town for orthodontic appointments….Today I made a quick trip, just time to run to the mall and get some recyclables refunded before picking Rachel up again… but in this tiny bit of errand-running I ran into three different people I know… one standard ‘How are you’ turned up the unexpected news that Al has just been diagnosed with ALS. Already his speech is slurred and his hand affected. He can see the end of his life rushing toward him but hopes that God will spare him. He is a believer, but now has contact with others with ALS who don’t know the Saviour… As a fellow member of Christ’s body, what do I have to offer Cal that will leave him refreshed as though he’d just passed by a spring of living water? Or the young mom battling persistent cancer whom I ran into on the way into the Dentist’s office…what is there to say? I came home keenly aware that for me opportunity comes in little unexpected chunks—and that I have need to be overflowing with something other than ‘self’ if I’m going to have anything to offer at these moments.

This morning I had a chance to dip into Francis Schaeffer’s True Spirituality. In a chapter expounding the implications of our salvation, past, future and present he made this statement: “Whatever is not an exhibition that God exists, misses the whole purpose of the Christian’s life now on this earth.…We are to be living a supernatural life now, in this present existence, in a way we shall never be able to do again through all eternity” –a life that is by faith, not yet having seen Jesus face-to-face. He goes on to say that Christians are to be the demonstration to the world that the normally unseen world does exist, and more than that, that God exists. (True Spirituality, 72). How do we do  that? At some length Schaeffer amplifies on the experiential, moment by moment reality of living as the bride of Christ, letting the Bridegroom bring forth fruit in me through His indwelling Spirit, by faith. The reality of the resurrected, glorified Christ working through us is the supernatural life we are called to live out…

I confess, this is  far more theoretical to me than I would like. But I’m eager for it to become more and more the reality in which I live. I love Mary’s story—when the angel came pronouncing her assignment—you’ve been chosen to bear the Son of God… In a distinctly different sense this is true of every believer. What a daunting idea! Flesh and blood to show Christ to the world. She could have run in panic or balked in unbelief at the preposterousness of such a thing. But instead she said: “Behold, your handmaid—be it unto me according to Thy Word.” (Luke 1:38) No exertion of her personality or any amount of energy could accomplish this thing. But she could offer herself, a living body, into God’s hands to do with as He would. And so she did.

As self is yielded up with all its members ‘as instruments of righteousness’ (Rom.6:13) I escape the womb of self and Christ lives through me. That’s what I want—a life yielded and expectant, looking to God to accomplish with my lifestory what I could never do by myself.  Then mine will be a story that shows Him to be the reason for life, the universe and everything!

–LS

“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” (Gal. 2:20)