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...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 third "reformational point" that I see standing out in this chapter is what I would call "A More Humble Ministry". An interesting way of studying the epistles of Paul is to dig into the background of the cultures of the cities and regions to whom he wrote and notice that the errors he sought to correct in the churches were a result of the cultures "baptizing" the church communities with their embedded evils. He labored to empower the followers of Jesus to stand against the sinful elements of these cultural tides.
Our culture at large has become deeply affected and oriented around "celebrity". We are bombarded with both head on and subliminal messages from every quarter that if we are to possess and achieve real meaning, significance and value, then we must strive to become noticed by many. And...there are all kinds of powerful tools available to us to assist us in "puffing" and "projecting" and "managing" our image. Still, most of us fail to garner this kind of attention and therefore kowtow to live under a satanic lie that we are living insignificant lives. This then makes us vulnerable to finding some possible way to "hook up" with someone or some group that is "significant"...or...we simply resign ourselves to the fate that we must embrace our "boring existence". That's when we become vulnerable to the plethora of the cultural "medications" that are available to dull our aching hearts.
The apostle would challenge us to embrace a radically different view of our lives and how we are to "be" and "do" in this world. We can live truly "significant" lives without seeking or achieving "celebrity". It begins by firmly rejecting the demonic lose-lose paradigm of life described above. On one hand, we must come to a point where we don't give a rip about how many people notice us or hear our voice. We must become oriented around living for the "audience of One"...and leave the degree of our impact on others in his capable hands. Simultaneously, we must not submit to a "false modesty" about what God has called and gifted us to offer to others. Neither should we absolutely avoid utilizing the tools available to us to offer our gifts to the people and world about us.
Humility is not about looking down on ourselves or pretending that we are less gifted, capable, experienced, intelligent or discerning than we are. Humility is realism...not posing. C. S. Lewis said that humility is grounded simply in standing next to something infinitely larger and higher than we are and noticing the difference.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Sunday, November 8, 2009
The Romance of Romans-Part 86
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".
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".
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.
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