Romans Chapter 12 cont'd
God has given to all of us a sphere of life and ministry in which to function for which we also have been given the corresponding necessary amount of faith. Our physical body is one and yet it has many members, each having a different function. So the body of Christ is one and we, each of us, are one of its many members. But even though we have various roles to play, we are organically joined both to him and to one another.
Comments:
Toward A More Healthy Community
The second "reformation point" of four that I am putting forward out of Romans 12 has to do with this vital issue of forming and living in a healthy network of relationships in our faith communities. The longing for belonging and inter-personal connectedness are basic to the way that we, as humans, have been created in the image of God. Because that image has been marred, though not eradicated, by sin...all our human relations are presently imperfect. God actually, and ironically, seeks to use this pain and ache to keep us from "relational idolatry" and longing, in a healthy way, for the new heavens and earth in which we won't be tempted to worship anyone or anything but him. This will provide a perfect balance and harmony in all our other relations as the love of God will perfectly govern all things.
Still, we are called to experience a substantial foretaste of and prophetically model this relational fullness yet to come through the realism of the love and unity of the Body of Christ that witnesses to the world of the inauguration of God's new creation in Jesus. Walking out the love of God in a practical way in our relationships with fellow believers should be a main priority for us, as it is fundamental to the release of so much good into everything else around us in this world. How often did the apostles of Jesus instruct us to "love one another"? This high calling and great challenge should be no wonder to us. May God empower us to learn well what this kind of love "looks like".
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Thursday, November 5, 2009
The Romance of Romans-Part 85
Romans Chapter 12 cont'd
God has given to all of us a sphere of life and ministry in which to function for which we also have been given the corresponding necessary amount of faith. Our physical body is one and yet it has many members, each having a different function. So the body of Christ is one and we, each of us, are one of its many members. But even though we have various roles to play, we are organically joined both to him and to one another.
Comments:
Toward A More Healthy Community
In his book, Connecting, Dr. Larry Crabb distills years of counseling experience, biblical research, intensive work of putting thoughts into words and a whole lot of life lived to help us consider the essence of healthy interpersonal relationships. He steers us away from extreme but popularized views of how people are thought to overcome their personal and relational problems and holds out to us a few simply profound and profoundly simple, yet too often overlooked, keys to this kind of health and holiness…a pattern leading to maturity in Christ.
The two extreme views are what he refers to as 1) the moralistic model and 2) the therapy model. The first focuses on challenging people (often with hardly any empathy or compassion) that they simply need to begin to make better choices by trying harder to obey God and the Bible. The second focuses on trying, in various ways, to help people uncover the dynamic (sub-conscious) pains of injustice they have suffered and reacted to. Larry acknowledges that we all certainly have made bad choices and that we have suffered injustices, but he posits the notion that most of us won’t ultimately overcome either kinds of problems unless we “connect” with others in a healthy relational circle…a community in Christ. We need to have our wills renewed by the Holy Spirit and our broken hearts healed by Christ, but do these kinds of things actually happen regularly without a vital connection to friends in Christ who can track with us through life's journey? Larry says, “No!”...through his astute observations and many years of helping people as a professional counselor.
Furthermore, he goes on to describe the three essential elements of the kind of Christ-centered interpersonal connections that we long to experience in our communities of faith. First of all, believers need connection with some others (even a few make us extremely wealthy) who genuinely delight in who they are without reference to their failures or battles. Second, we need to realize that we all have something “powerful” (the Spirit’s presence) in us that is able to speak profoundly to the “good” that is truly present (maybe hidden or buried) in a hurting or struggling friend in Christ and call that good up and out. Third, (and the order here is very important) we are called to gently and lovingly, and in a timely manner, expose the sin or the pain in one another that we may be blind to or in denial of. All three elements are essential for well-rounded friendships.
These three elements of healthy relationships create a context for spiritual growth and I am convinced that unless we seek after and find this quality of connectedness, then we will be very limited in our communities to affect the kind of personal transformation we tend to admire, but often fail to achieve. This is a normative and mighty way that the Spirit of God has always worked in and through the friends of Jesus Christ.
God has given to all of us a sphere of life and ministry in which to function for which we also have been given the corresponding necessary amount of faith. Our physical body is one and yet it has many members, each having a different function. So the body of Christ is one and we, each of us, are one of its many members. But even though we have various roles to play, we are organically joined both to him and to one another.
Comments:
Toward A More Healthy Community
In his book, Connecting, Dr. Larry Crabb distills years of counseling experience, biblical research, intensive work of putting thoughts into words and a whole lot of life lived to help us consider the essence of healthy interpersonal relationships. He steers us away from extreme but popularized views of how people are thought to overcome their personal and relational problems and holds out to us a few simply profound and profoundly simple, yet too often overlooked, keys to this kind of health and holiness…a pattern leading to maturity in Christ.
The two extreme views are what he refers to as 1) the moralistic model and 2) the therapy model. The first focuses on challenging people (often with hardly any empathy or compassion) that they simply need to begin to make better choices by trying harder to obey God and the Bible. The second focuses on trying, in various ways, to help people uncover the dynamic (sub-conscious) pains of injustice they have suffered and reacted to. Larry acknowledges that we all certainly have made bad choices and that we have suffered injustices, but he posits the notion that most of us won’t ultimately overcome either kinds of problems unless we “connect” with others in a healthy relational circle…a community in Christ. We need to have our wills renewed by the Holy Spirit and our broken hearts healed by Christ, but do these kinds of things actually happen regularly without a vital connection to friends in Christ who can track with us through life's journey? Larry says, “No!”...through his astute observations and many years of helping people as a professional counselor.
Furthermore, he goes on to describe the three essential elements of the kind of Christ-centered interpersonal connections that we long to experience in our communities of faith. First of all, believers need connection with some others (even a few make us extremely wealthy) who genuinely delight in who they are without reference to their failures or battles. Second, we need to realize that we all have something “powerful” (the Spirit’s presence) in us that is able to speak profoundly to the “good” that is truly present (maybe hidden or buried) in a hurting or struggling friend in Christ and call that good up and out. Third, (and the order here is very important) we are called to gently and lovingly, and in a timely manner, expose the sin or the pain in one another that we may be blind to or in denial of. All three elements are essential for well-rounded friendships.
These three elements of healthy relationships create a context for spiritual growth and I am convinced that unless we seek after and find this quality of connectedness, then we will be very limited in our communities to affect the kind of personal transformation we tend to admire, but often fail to achieve. This is a normative and mighty way that the Spirit of God has always worked in and through the friends of Jesus Christ.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
The Romance of Romans-Part 84
Romans Chapter 12 cont'd
By the spiritual authority that God has vested in me, I challenge every person among you, not to think more highly of yourself than you should. We all need to receive "reality checks." God has given to all of us a sphere of life and ministry in which to function for which we also have been given the corresponding necessary amount of faith. Our physical body is one and yet it has many members, each having a different function. So the body of Christ is one and we, each of us, are one of its many members. But even though we have various roles to play, we are organically joined both to him and to one another.
And since we have different gifts, let us excel in using what we specifically have been given: if prophecy, then prophesy within the boundaries of genuine faith; if service, then serve in a way that you can do it graciously; if teaching, then teach in the areas in which you have true authority; if exhortation, then exhort according to your spiritual passion; if giving, then give from your heart without second guessing; if leadership, then lead with excellence; if showing mercy, then do it with the joy of the Lord.
Comments:
The second "reformational" point that I am positing for us as believers and our groups out of this chapter is about moving toward...A More Healthy Community. This involves creating a different kind of relational culture than what has been generally modeled to us in our histories within our societies at large and...usually...within our families and churches as well. Unhealthy relational styles and patterns have been stamped deeply upon our souls to the point where it is often difficult and threatening for us to even be made aware of them. In the NT, the apostles of Jesus hold out to us some high ideals of what it looks like to glorify God in our inter-personal relationships...to genuinely walk in the love of God. Their basic model revolves around gracefully navigating the tensions of individuality and interdependence...honoring diversity while maintaining an essential unity in the community of faith. In his epistles Paul utilized the image of the human body to help us intuit and picture this dynamic.
Some years ago, I was privileged to become a friend, though separated by time and space, with Dr. Larry Crabb. Still...we significantly touched hearts. His books had already been making a deep impact on my life when we met and his writings have continued to help me greatly through the years. I believe the whole Body of Christ is indebted to him for his wonderful contributions (forged in the fires of his own vulnerable journey and musings) toward understanding both the sanctification process and healthy relationships. He has helped to identify the "radical middle" between the traditional "moralistic" (You must try harder!) and "therapy" (You are a victim!) approaches to these two vital issues by gleaning truths from each polar opposite and integrating them into a more biblical context for understanding and engaging our personal human life and our relationships with others. I will write more about some critical points from his book "Connecting" in the next blog.
By the spiritual authority that God has vested in me, I challenge every person among you, not to think more highly of yourself than you should. We all need to receive "reality checks." God has given to all of us a sphere of life and ministry in which to function for which we also have been given the corresponding necessary amount of faith. Our physical body is one and yet it has many members, each having a different function. So the body of Christ is one and we, each of us, are one of its many members. But even though we have various roles to play, we are organically joined both to him and to one another.
And since we have different gifts, let us excel in using what we specifically have been given: if prophecy, then prophesy within the boundaries of genuine faith; if service, then serve in a way that you can do it graciously; if teaching, then teach in the areas in which you have true authority; if exhortation, then exhort according to your spiritual passion; if giving, then give from your heart without second guessing; if leadership, then lead with excellence; if showing mercy, then do it with the joy of the Lord.
Comments:
The second "reformational" point that I am positing for us as believers and our groups out of this chapter is about moving toward...A More Healthy Community. This involves creating a different kind of relational culture than what has been generally modeled to us in our histories within our societies at large and...usually...within our families and churches as well. Unhealthy relational styles and patterns have been stamped deeply upon our souls to the point where it is often difficult and threatening for us to even be made aware of them. In the NT, the apostles of Jesus hold out to us some high ideals of what it looks like to glorify God in our inter-personal relationships...to genuinely walk in the love of God. Their basic model revolves around gracefully navigating the tensions of individuality and interdependence...honoring diversity while maintaining an essential unity in the community of faith. In his epistles Paul utilized the image of the human body to help us intuit and picture this dynamic.
Some years ago, I was privileged to become a friend, though separated by time and space, with Dr. Larry Crabb. Still...we significantly touched hearts. His books had already been making a deep impact on my life when we met and his writings have continued to help me greatly through the years. I believe the whole Body of Christ is indebted to him for his wonderful contributions (forged in the fires of his own vulnerable journey and musings) toward understanding both the sanctification process and healthy relationships. He has helped to identify the "radical middle" between the traditional "moralistic" (You must try harder!) and "therapy" (You are a victim!) approaches to these two vital issues by gleaning truths from each polar opposite and integrating them into a more biblical context for understanding and engaging our personal human life and our relationships with others. I will write more about some critical points from his book "Connecting" in the next blog.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
My Article on Prophetic Ministry from a 2004 Publication
Thought you might enjoy this article from the past that is now available online:
http://www.pneumafoundation.org/article.jsp?article=/MSullivant-ProphecyInTheChurchToday.xml
http://www.pneumafoundation.org/article.jsp?article=/MSullivant-ProphecyInTheChurchToday.xml
Saturday, October 3, 2009
The Romance of Romans-Part 83
Romans Chapter 12 cont'd
In thinking about the first "reformational" point for the western church in the 21st century, A More Holistic Spirituality, I don't think we could improve upon the way that Eugene Peterson translates these first two verses in The Message. (I have already commented extensively on these verses and this first point in my previous blogs on Chapter 12.)
"So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you."
The "ordinary-ness" of most of our hours and our lives is not an automatic hindrance to engaging and enjoying a genuine interactive friendship with the holy Trinity in real time, or...true biblical spirituality The Father, Son and Spirit all promise to "be with us" and "go with us" in the full range of our being and activity. We are not called to strive to be "extra-ordinary", when it is sufficient for us to live fully human lives (with all its joys and sorrows...blessings and trials) and "let" God be his extraordinary Self to us. This kind of approach, in the end, does indeed lift us up to live lives that are supernaturally natural.
In thinking about the first "reformational" point for the western church in the 21st century, A More Holistic Spirituality, I don't think we could improve upon the way that Eugene Peterson translates these first two verses in The Message. (I have already commented extensively on these verses and this first point in my previous blogs on Chapter 12.)
"So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you."
The "ordinary-ness" of most of our hours and our lives is not an automatic hindrance to engaging and enjoying a genuine interactive friendship with the holy Trinity in real time, or...true biblical spirituality The Father, Son and Spirit all promise to "be with us" and "go with us" in the full range of our being and activity. We are not called to strive to be "extra-ordinary", when it is sufficient for us to live fully human lives (with all its joys and sorrows...blessings and trials) and "let" God be his extraordinary Self to us. This kind of approach, in the end, does indeed lift us up to live lives that are supernaturally natural.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
The Romance of Romans-Part 82
Romans Chapter 12 cont'd
I have "camped out" in Romans 12 for many years and have become convinced that it holds out to us a very relevant message and clear challenge for the expression of our faith here in the western world in 21st century. I believe that there are seed thoughts that can lead us into a needed "rebranding" of what it means and looks like for communities of people to genuinely follow Jesus Christ...a new reformation...if you will. Romans 12 is the beginning of the practical and logical response to who Jesus is and what he has done for the cosmos and all humanity...our part of the deal...which we can, in the end, only do well by the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. This kind of divine arrangement is what will save us from self-righteousness and yet allow us to progressively walk in authentic righteousness.
These are the four main reformational points of the chapter that stand out to me as ideals we are called to passionately pursue:
* A More Holistic Spirituality (Holistic simply means well-rounded, fuller kind of spirituality).
* A More Healthy Community. God has called us to belong to a spiritual family that is wise in the matters of relationship building and community building. We need to learn the skills about what makes for healthy relationships and what makes for long-lasting friendships.
* A More Humble Ministry. It seems to me that God has been dealing with the western church for years about pride in our lives and pride in our styles of leadership. We have allowed too much of the celebrity-mentality and arrogant entrepreneurialism to dominate our church cultures.
* A More Heart-felt Set of Values. There are some vital biblical values in this great chapter that have been generally overlooked in the personal and corporate expression of our faith in too many of our faith communities. May God help us to return with our whole hearts to the ancient simple and pure devotion to Christ that the first apostles taught and lived out.
Monday, September 14, 2009
Introducing Fully Alive Life Coaching
My dear wife, Terri, has put out her "shingle" as a life coach. She just created a new blog at: www.fullyalive5.blogspot.com. She's awesome! Her website will be up and running soon as well.
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