Romans Chapter 16 cont'd
My co-worker, Timothy, Lucius, Jason and Sosipater, my relative, send their greetings.
(I Tertius, to whom Paul dictated this letter, greet you in the Lord as well.) My host, Gaius, and the whole church here say hello. Erastus, the chamberlain of the city also sends his greetings, along with a brother in the Lord named Quartus.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with all of you. Let it be so, Lord!
Now we honor him who has the power to firmly establish you in this good news and in an intimate relationship with the person of Jesus Christ. This is the revelation of the mystery which was hidden from the beginning of the world, but is now manifested, and which is a fulfillment of many prophecies in scripture. And now, by the express commandment of the everlasting God, it is to be made known to all the nations of the earth, leading them into the passionate pursuit of God that flows from genuine faith.
Comments:
Some final personal greetings and a summary of what Paul has written in his letter to the Romans penned as a thanksgiving prayer brings us to the end. The doxology (Gk. glorious words) is highly reminiscent of his opening purpose statement in the first 5 verses of chapter 1:
"This is a letter from Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be a divine ambassador I was apprehended for the express purpose of spreading the good news of God that was spoken of in times past by the prophets in the holy scriptures. This message centers around his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who, in his humanity, was the Son of David. He was also proven to be "the Son of God" when he was raised from the dead through the power of the Holy Spirit. Through the same Spirit I have received this ambassadorial commission to introduce many people from many nations, for the honor of Christ, into the passionate pursuit of God that flows from genuine faith."
At long last, the penultimate focus of the Old Testament prophets and their messages to Israel and the nations, the longings and sighings of the prayerful Hebrew fathers and mothers, that which the angels long to fully comprehend (see 1 Pet 1:12) and the mysterious divine construct that would provide the previously missing cipher code for integrating into a whole all that God had done with his ancient people...God's Big God Story...was unveiled and revealed for all to see and understand. The Person of Jesus Christ and his Gospel burst...exploded...onto the scene of human history. And God is able and willing to firmly establish Christ-followers in their understanding of the points of this now-revealed secret that had been prophesied throughout the previous generations and that were preserved in OT scriptures.
Paul is boldly (audaciously) declaring his letter to the Romans captures the essential major points of this divine revelation that had been hidden from all people throughout all human history...the Jews and their rabbis, scholars and scribes, the gentiles and their philosophers and religious mystics and even the Hebrew prophets themselves who were used by God to utter his very words...had now come to pass and fulfilled in Jesus the Messiah. It required the incarnation of the Son of God and the cosmos-shifting events that followed in those 33 years to bring clearly to light a full understanding of what had been hidden. This new revelation was based on Jesus' own authoritative commentaries on the OT scriptures that he passed on directly to his apostles both before and after his resurrection...and provided the hindsight needed to unlock the mysteries of God's Big God-Story.
A major paradigm-shifting part of this Great News, that Paul expounds upon in chapters 9-11, was that the gentiles could now be freely grafted in to the ancient "olive tree" of Israel that God planted in the earth when he cut his original covenant with Abraham...if they would receive and follow Jesus as Lord and Messiah. For the "natural branches", the Jews, their long-awaited Messiah had arrived and they must personally receive him to remain in the covenant. Otherwise, they, as branches, would be pruned from the "family tree" for their blatant rejection of Jesus as Messiah. (And though many 1st century Jews...a believing "remnant"...accepted Jesus, the vast majority did not. Even so, an outstanding prophecy declares that God has not forgotten them as a people group, but that many Jews will yet come to faith in Jesus as Messiah.) They would not be "saved" and at one with God on the basis of their natural Jewish heritage, their knowledge of scripture and/or their performance of Jewish cultural and religious rites and traditions. Moreover, God had not lied or broken his word to the Jews in the revelation of the Gospel of Jesus (or the Gospel of the Kingdom of God), but many of them had, over time, forgotten, twisted and misinterpreted the nature and spiritual roots of the salvation he has promised to them (and ultimately the Gentiles) from the very beginning. The "Substance" of all that was foreshadowed had arrived and a fateful and personal life or death Moment of Decision was introduced into the planet by his coming...his intervention. It was a watershed moment in human history and nothing would, or possibly could, ever be the same again.
Eph 2:11 Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh—who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands— 12 that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, 15 having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, 16 and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. 17 And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. 18 For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.
Jesus was and is the integrating element for the Story that is now fully declared in the light of the Day of the New Creation that dawned with his personal arrival to the earth. Those who put their faith in him, whether Jew or gentile, would become "one new man"...a new kind of humanity that possesses the very uncreated life of God in their souls...in Messiah Jesus. A new temple of God has been erected in the earth...one made "without hands" that consists of Holy Spirit indwelt human lives scattered throughout the whole earth and gathered in local relational networks. Race and religious (or irreligious and/or falsely religious) backgrounds are irrelevant in light of the coming of the Christ. The Gospel of Jesus eclipses all that human beings tend to put their trust in to pridefully distinguish themselves from other peoples. God put an exclamation point on the inauguration and dedication of his new temple in Christ, by fulfilling the tragic prophecies of Jesus recorded in the gospels concerning the utter destruction of Jerusalem and its Jewish temple in 70 A.D. by the Romans.
Through the Gospel of Jesus, a final and authoritative divine revelation is being held out to humanity by the hand of God himself that is inter-generational, international, inter-gender and inter-aeon in scope. Ever since the resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ and up to this very day, that same "Moment of Decision" is continuing to be held out of individuals and tribes and nations. Who do we say Jesus of Nazareth is? Who do you say Jesus of Nazareth is? Who do I say Jesus of Nazareth is? Will I attempt to ignore him? Will I reject him for who he says he is? Or...will I agree with who God says he is and pledge my allegiance to believe in and follow him? It is an urgent question that requires a response from every person who hears of him and his message. It is also a message that must be urgently shared with all the peoples on the face of the earth
Indeed it is worth our while to drink deeply of this inspired letter that is brimming with words of grace and truth written by this brilliant Apostle. I pray that this devotional paraphrase and my musings on the meaning and application of Paul's exquisite letter will be used by God to bring greater spiritual life, encouragement and empowerment to my readers.
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Saturday, November 6, 2010
The Romance of Romans-Part 128
Romans Chapter 16 cont'd
The testimony of your faithfulness to God has been reported throughout the whole world and I am glad that you've been honored like this. Just make sure that you preserve your spirit of innocence- be "streetwise" in good, but not in evil! And soon, the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet. May the grace of our Lord Jesus be with you. Yes, Lord, let it be!
Comments:
The "problem of evil" in this world has been pondered and debated with great angst and energy by many throughout human history. And...it has been, maybe the major, stumbling block for people accepting a belief in the all-powerful and good God that the scriptures clearly declare him to be. C. S. Lewis wrote somewhere that we may not be able to fully comprehend the "why" of evil, but we all must face the "fact" that evil exists. Moreover, we must face the fact that we ourselves are more than capable of choosing a evil course of being and/or doing...and indeed...that we have done so at times.
Why would an all-powerful and good Creator allow an enemy to even exist and mess up his creation? Apparently he has. However, the two basic philosophical alternatives to this difficult scenario are even more troubling in my estimation: 1) There is an all-powerful God, but he is not good. 2) There is no creator and we are the products of the impersonal forces of time plus chance. I won't take the time to elaborate, but there are very troubling ramifications of embracing these two alternative philosophical viewpoints that poses more difficulties than simply accepting the biblical premise that our all-powerful, holy and loving Creator has allowed evil to affect his good creation.
Here is a brief overview of what the scripture teaches about the "problem of evil":
1) Long ago, a holy archangel rebelled against God in the highest heavens and was powerful and seductive enough to lure a third of the holy angels into his ill-fated attempt to displace God. This rebellion was the genesis of sin, Satan (the accuser) and the demonic forces that are present in and around our world.
2) Rather than immediately eradicating or finally judging his "fallen" angelic enemies, God banished them from dwelling in his highest heaven. However, he allowed the devil and his hosts to continue to exist and operate within a limited realm.
3) In addition, he wisely chose...and this is where the high drama of it all takes on new dimensions...to incorporate Satan's presence and plots into a greater master plan that would mysteriously reveal his love, power, mercy and glory to the crowning touch of his creation...human beings...whom he made to reflect his own image and likeness and from there to the whole of his creation.
4) In order to prepare human beings for our eternal destiny to rule and reign with him over all other things in the ages to come, he has "used" the presence of evil and our exposure to evil spirits as a developmental "testing ground" that challenges us to face and surmount sin, Satan, demonic powers and death. This has all been a part of his loving master plan. It can even be said that love is not full and mature if it is not tested, tried and entered into with freedom of choice.
5) Our first parents succumbed to the wiles of Satan in a garden paradise which they were divinely called to rule, cultivate and, apparently, export to the rest of the planet. However, as a result of cooperating with the devil, sin, and its consequence, "death"...spiritual, social and physical...entered the human nature and human race. The aftermath has been a spreading of both sin and death to all people throughout the nations of the earth and throughout all human history. We live in a "fallen" world that is agonizing under the burdens that evil and its ripple effects have created for us all.
6) But God!...has not been distant or silent throughout the centuries...though a spiritual war has been raging and there have been many sobering casualties and tragedies. His heart of love and his powerful acts have been at work...he has been passionately involved with humanity and patiently working out his master plan...what I have called "God's Big God-Story"...to rescue and redeem his beloved creation from the grip of evil.
7) God carefully prepared the earth for this intervention through many centuries by making amazing promises to his chosen human vessels (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and others of their progeny), sending prophets to foretell the future and tell forth his will, raising up and removing regimes, performing astounding signs and wonders, providentially sustaining human life with his good gifts of food and waters in addition to many other such kindnesses. Then...at a strategic moment in human history...he visited the earth "in person" by sending his Son, who co-created all things and who dwelt with the Father and the Holy Spirit in fully divine union from eternity past, as a fully human being. He came in love to show forth the "face"...the nature...of God and to deal radically with problem of evil in both the invisible and visible realms by the reality and ramifications of his incarnation, life, ministry, death, resurrection and ascension back to highest heaven.
8) The kingdom of darkness and its principalities and powers were dealt a mortal blow through all that ensued with the first coming of Christ. Those who put their personal trust in Jesus Christ receive into their souls his eternal life here and now and enter into his victory of love over all evil...sin, demons and death. This regeneration and the empowering of the Holy Spirit in their lives equip them with the divine grace needed to progressively overcome evil just as their Lord and King overcame evil. They are living witnesses to the fact that the new creation, that will assuredly "swallow up" the old, has already been inaugurated. They are "executing the judgment that has been written" against evil as ambassadors of Jesus the Christ and his mercy, truth and justice. The conflicts continue throughout this age...temptations, hassles, persecutions, trials, disappointments, human failures, tragedies, wars, afflictions, false accusations, imperfections, physical death...but in addition to God providing many experiences that help Christ-followers to counteract and surmount these evil assaults, he is also "using" the spiritual warfare that they endure to both conform them more fully to the image of his Son Jesus and to prepare them to receive their full inheritance and walk in their destiny in the age to come.
9) On a personal level, the powers of darkness yet have the oppressive ability to whisper accusations, lies, temptations to sin and horrendous thoughts of evil into the souls and minds of people...even the followers of Jesus. Satan's main weapon is deception that leads to the committing of sins that destroy the joys of human existence. This is a suffering that we encounter and must endure during our pilgrimage in this life. However, a Christ-follower is called to be awake to these subtle schemes of the devil, expose their source and firmly resist his attempt to find a lodging place for some kind of a deception or a compromise within them. The Holy Spirit will warn them about and grant them the power to rebuke and overcome these crafty camouflaged demonic affronts and assaults. As they grow in their spiritual life they can also train others to do the same. This is the joy of partnering with the living Christ in ministry.
10) Ultimately, when Jesus Christ returns and the visible and invisible realms are fully integrated into a new heavens and new earth, God will banish Satan and his hoards to a divinely constructed "hell" from which they will never escape to again spread their evil influence amidst God's redeemed and renewed creation. They will suffer an unimaginable and, actually indescribable, eternal punishment away from all that is good. More tragically, many humans who sided with God's ancient enemy and who rejected his Son will be forever banished from God's presence as well. This alone should break our hearts for the salvation of other people through Jesus...even our greatest enemy. On that day, no fallen angel and no human being will be able to point their finger at God and accuse him of being unjust or lacking in love or wisdom (as they do now). Everything will be "right-wised", all our doubts and troubling questions will be resolved, all our tears will be wiped away, all our temptations will disappear, all weariness and heaviness will flee away and our true identity and calling will be known, seen and affirmed by all. Our innate longing for true justice, that can become so confused and twisted in this life, will actually be fulfilled. We will be perfected people living fully in a perfect place...forever and ever in the love of God.
The testimony of your faithfulness to God has been reported throughout the whole world and I am glad that you've been honored like this. Just make sure that you preserve your spirit of innocence- be "streetwise" in good, but not in evil! And soon, the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet. May the grace of our Lord Jesus be with you. Yes, Lord, let it be!
Comments:
The "problem of evil" in this world has been pondered and debated with great angst and energy by many throughout human history. And...it has been, maybe the major, stumbling block for people accepting a belief in the all-powerful and good God that the scriptures clearly declare him to be. C. S. Lewis wrote somewhere that we may not be able to fully comprehend the "why" of evil, but we all must face the "fact" that evil exists. Moreover, we must face the fact that we ourselves are more than capable of choosing a evil course of being and/or doing...and indeed...that we have done so at times.
Why would an all-powerful and good Creator allow an enemy to even exist and mess up his creation? Apparently he has. However, the two basic philosophical alternatives to this difficult scenario are even more troubling in my estimation: 1) There is an all-powerful God, but he is not good. 2) There is no creator and we are the products of the impersonal forces of time plus chance. I won't take the time to elaborate, but there are very troubling ramifications of embracing these two alternative philosophical viewpoints that poses more difficulties than simply accepting the biblical premise that our all-powerful, holy and loving Creator has allowed evil to affect his good creation.
Here is a brief overview of what the scripture teaches about the "problem of evil":
1) Long ago, a holy archangel rebelled against God in the highest heavens and was powerful and seductive enough to lure a third of the holy angels into his ill-fated attempt to displace God. This rebellion was the genesis of sin, Satan (the accuser) and the demonic forces that are present in and around our world.
2) Rather than immediately eradicating or finally judging his "fallen" angelic enemies, God banished them from dwelling in his highest heaven. However, he allowed the devil and his hosts to continue to exist and operate within a limited realm.
3) In addition, he wisely chose...and this is where the high drama of it all takes on new dimensions...to incorporate Satan's presence and plots into a greater master plan that would mysteriously reveal his love, power, mercy and glory to the crowning touch of his creation...human beings...whom he made to reflect his own image and likeness and from there to the whole of his creation.
4) In order to prepare human beings for our eternal destiny to rule and reign with him over all other things in the ages to come, he has "used" the presence of evil and our exposure to evil spirits as a developmental "testing ground" that challenges us to face and surmount sin, Satan, demonic powers and death. This has all been a part of his loving master plan. It can even be said that love is not full and mature if it is not tested, tried and entered into with freedom of choice.
5) Our first parents succumbed to the wiles of Satan in a garden paradise which they were divinely called to rule, cultivate and, apparently, export to the rest of the planet. However, as a result of cooperating with the devil, sin, and its consequence, "death"...spiritual, social and physical...entered the human nature and human race. The aftermath has been a spreading of both sin and death to all people throughout the nations of the earth and throughout all human history. We live in a "fallen" world that is agonizing under the burdens that evil and its ripple effects have created for us all.
6) But God!...has not been distant or silent throughout the centuries...though a spiritual war has been raging and there have been many sobering casualties and tragedies. His heart of love and his powerful acts have been at work...he has been passionately involved with humanity and patiently working out his master plan...what I have called "God's Big God-Story"...to rescue and redeem his beloved creation from the grip of evil.
7) God carefully prepared the earth for this intervention through many centuries by making amazing promises to his chosen human vessels (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and others of their progeny), sending prophets to foretell the future and tell forth his will, raising up and removing regimes, performing astounding signs and wonders, providentially sustaining human life with his good gifts of food and waters in addition to many other such kindnesses. Then...at a strategic moment in human history...he visited the earth "in person" by sending his Son, who co-created all things and who dwelt with the Father and the Holy Spirit in fully divine union from eternity past, as a fully human being. He came in love to show forth the "face"...the nature...of God and to deal radically with problem of evil in both the invisible and visible realms by the reality and ramifications of his incarnation, life, ministry, death, resurrection and ascension back to highest heaven.
8) The kingdom of darkness and its principalities and powers were dealt a mortal blow through all that ensued with the first coming of Christ. Those who put their personal trust in Jesus Christ receive into their souls his eternal life here and now and enter into his victory of love over all evil...sin, demons and death. This regeneration and the empowering of the Holy Spirit in their lives equip them with the divine grace needed to progressively overcome evil just as their Lord and King overcame evil. They are living witnesses to the fact that the new creation, that will assuredly "swallow up" the old, has already been inaugurated. They are "executing the judgment that has been written" against evil as ambassadors of Jesus the Christ and his mercy, truth and justice. The conflicts continue throughout this age...temptations, hassles, persecutions, trials, disappointments, human failures, tragedies, wars, afflictions, false accusations, imperfections, physical death...but in addition to God providing many experiences that help Christ-followers to counteract and surmount these evil assaults, he is also "using" the spiritual warfare that they endure to both conform them more fully to the image of his Son Jesus and to prepare them to receive their full inheritance and walk in their destiny in the age to come.
9) On a personal level, the powers of darkness yet have the oppressive ability to whisper accusations, lies, temptations to sin and horrendous thoughts of evil into the souls and minds of people...even the followers of Jesus. Satan's main weapon is deception that leads to the committing of sins that destroy the joys of human existence. This is a suffering that we encounter and must endure during our pilgrimage in this life. However, a Christ-follower is called to be awake to these subtle schemes of the devil, expose their source and firmly resist his attempt to find a lodging place for some kind of a deception or a compromise within them. The Holy Spirit will warn them about and grant them the power to rebuke and overcome these crafty camouflaged demonic affronts and assaults. As they grow in their spiritual life they can also train others to do the same. This is the joy of partnering with the living Christ in ministry.
10) Ultimately, when Jesus Christ returns and the visible and invisible realms are fully integrated into a new heavens and new earth, God will banish Satan and his hoards to a divinely constructed "hell" from which they will never escape to again spread their evil influence amidst God's redeemed and renewed creation. They will suffer an unimaginable and, actually indescribable, eternal punishment away from all that is good. More tragically, many humans who sided with God's ancient enemy and who rejected his Son will be forever banished from God's presence as well. This alone should break our hearts for the salvation of other people through Jesus...even our greatest enemy. On that day, no fallen angel and no human being will be able to point their finger at God and accuse him of being unjust or lacking in love or wisdom (as they do now). Everything will be "right-wised", all our doubts and troubling questions will be resolved, all our tears will be wiped away, all our temptations will disappear, all weariness and heaviness will flee away and our true identity and calling will be known, seen and affirmed by all. Our innate longing for true justice, that can become so confused and twisted in this life, will actually be fulfilled. We will be perfected people living fully in a perfect place...forever and ever in the love of God.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
The Romance of Romans-Part 127
Romans Chapter 16 cont'd
The testimony of your faithfulness to God has been reported throughout the whole world and I am glad that you've been honored like this. Just make sure that you preserve your spirit of innocence- be "streetwise" in good, but not in evil! And soon, the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet. May the grace of our Lord Jesus be with you. Yes, Lord, let it be!
Comments:
I think it's interesting that, given the broad scope of the book of Romans for living a truly spiritual life, Paul only mentions Satan by name just this one time at the end of his letter. I don't believe this is because we should deny the reality of, ignore or underestimate the kingdom of darkness and its many hosts. Rather, I think that it is because the reality of evil and...the entities behind it all that manipulate humanity and so many cultural systems of this age...are a given in the worldview of his readers. And...the focus of the apostles seemed to be overcoming evil with good...first on a personal level and then corporately as the Body of Christ...versus hastily and angrily lashing out against all the evil about us in the name of serving God. (Notice the very practical nature of the "whole armor of God" that Paul exhorts us to "put on" in Eph 6:12ff that enables us to "stand" in an evil day.) Their instruction to us is not to panic or be overly-conscious of evil spirits and their craft, but to proclaim and live out the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ, to call all people to believe in and follow him, to leave sin in the dirt behind us where it belongs, to live in healthy interdependent relational networks called local churches and to lovingly reach out to the needy and broken people all about us with Christ's love and compassion.
When we are confronted by evil spirits, which will happen in the normal course of living out our mission, we simply exercise the spiritual authority freely entrusted to us in Christ and express the power of the Holy Spirit through our prayers, words and deeds. We often see the power of God working through us, his servants, in ways that trump and bust up the powers of darkness. Yet, this doesn't imply that everything will be or turn out fine here and now...there are casualties in this war. We "triumph through Christ", but not in a manner that smacks of the bloated "triumphalism" of so many modern (and ancient!) overly-zealous movements and sects. We have both many victories and many sufferings in our mission and God will use them all to make us more like his glorious Son.
Though Satan and is kingdom have been legally defeated and overthrown through all that Jesus accomplished in his first coming (his vicarious death and subsequent resurrection and ascension), the power of his deceptive lies still hold significant sway over many people and nations of this fallen world. Satan received a mortal blow at the cross, but he is, since then, a wounded and dying beast who is enraged at God and determined to destroy as many human lives as he can before his final judgment is leveled. Yes...we are to be well aware of the ancient enemy of all that is good and just and his classic schemes that keep so many people captive to do his will. We are aware of and buffeted by his constant attempts to assault and hinder what God wills to do through Christ-followers and our new covenant bands.
Finally, we are joyfully aware that, though we will experience painful and disappointing setbacks and losses in this battle, we minister, persevere, labor and fight with an indomitable declaration and promise of hope that rings and resonates throughout our entire being and throughout the entire cosmos. It is based on an inarguable eschatological certainty made so by the resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ to his place of highest honor and supremacy...soon, the God who brings true peace, will crush Satan under our feet. 'Nuff said...so carry on!
The testimony of your faithfulness to God has been reported throughout the whole world and I am glad that you've been honored like this. Just make sure that you preserve your spirit of innocence- be "streetwise" in good, but not in evil! And soon, the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet. May the grace of our Lord Jesus be with you. Yes, Lord, let it be!
Comments:
I think it's interesting that, given the broad scope of the book of Romans for living a truly spiritual life, Paul only mentions Satan by name just this one time at the end of his letter. I don't believe this is because we should deny the reality of, ignore or underestimate the kingdom of darkness and its many hosts. Rather, I think that it is because the reality of evil and...the entities behind it all that manipulate humanity and so many cultural systems of this age...are a given in the worldview of his readers. And...the focus of the apostles seemed to be overcoming evil with good...first on a personal level and then corporately as the Body of Christ...versus hastily and angrily lashing out against all the evil about us in the name of serving God. (Notice the very practical nature of the "whole armor of God" that Paul exhorts us to "put on" in Eph 6:12ff that enables us to "stand" in an evil day.) Their instruction to us is not to panic or be overly-conscious of evil spirits and their craft, but to proclaim and live out the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ, to call all people to believe in and follow him, to leave sin in the dirt behind us where it belongs, to live in healthy interdependent relational networks called local churches and to lovingly reach out to the needy and broken people all about us with Christ's love and compassion.
When we are confronted by evil spirits, which will happen in the normal course of living out our mission, we simply exercise the spiritual authority freely entrusted to us in Christ and express the power of the Holy Spirit through our prayers, words and deeds. We often see the power of God working through us, his servants, in ways that trump and bust up the powers of darkness. Yet, this doesn't imply that everything will be or turn out fine here and now...there are casualties in this war. We "triumph through Christ", but not in a manner that smacks of the bloated "triumphalism" of so many modern (and ancient!) overly-zealous movements and sects. We have both many victories and many sufferings in our mission and God will use them all to make us more like his glorious Son.
Though Satan and is kingdom have been legally defeated and overthrown through all that Jesus accomplished in his first coming (his vicarious death and subsequent resurrection and ascension), the power of his deceptive lies still hold significant sway over many people and nations of this fallen world. Satan received a mortal blow at the cross, but he is, since then, a wounded and dying beast who is enraged at God and determined to destroy as many human lives as he can before his final judgment is leveled. Yes...we are to be well aware of the ancient enemy of all that is good and just and his classic schemes that keep so many people captive to do his will. We are aware of and buffeted by his constant attempts to assault and hinder what God wills to do through Christ-followers and our new covenant bands.
Finally, we are joyfully aware that, though we will experience painful and disappointing setbacks and losses in this battle, we minister, persevere, labor and fight with an indomitable declaration and promise of hope that rings and resonates throughout our entire being and throughout the entire cosmos. It is based on an inarguable eschatological certainty made so by the resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ to his place of highest honor and supremacy...soon, the God who brings true peace, will crush Satan under our feet. 'Nuff said...so carry on!
Sunday, October 3, 2010
The Romance of Romans-Part 126
Romans Chapter 16 cont'd
I urge you to take note of and avoid those people who cause divisions and offenses by embracing or promoting doctrines that are contrary to the ones you have learned. These kinds of people are not concerned with serving the Lord Jesus Christ, but with filling their unsatisfied desires. They employ good-sounding words and manipulative monologues that deceive the hearts of the undiscerning.
Comments:
Dealing with divisive and offensive people and/or groups is always difficult and can tend to distract us from a positive-oriented forward movement in life and ministry. It can also be confusing and oppressive for our minds and emotions. A number of questions rise in my thinking as I ponder this subject.
Do we forebear or confront? How can we measure if a matter is worthy of a confrontation? Do we go to someone who has offended us in private or bring a few others into the mix for counsel, prayer support and/or as witnesses? Do we warn others of spiritual danger? Do we speak out publicly on a matter and expose falsehood? Does God call some to such tasks, but not others? Do we leave a matter in the hands of God alone to deal with? Do we simply avoid a matter and even a person or a group of people? And...now that the globe is connected via mass communications...which errors do we pick to confront and/or expose, since we can research them all. Our entire lives could be swallowed up by presuming to be the universal cops of the spiritual landscape of the earth. I know it's not this last option for any of us!
Following are some of the convictions I have come to over the years of leading communities of faith that have caused practical and workable actions to present themselves.
I am convinced that these kinds of situations and our proper responses to them are always on a spectrum of severity...and usually without hard and fast dividing lines between the phases. We need more than raw principles or laws to go by in these situations...we need the real-time and direct spiritual wisdom of God to settle upon us for the proper timing and application of scriptural principles. We are called to be "peacemakers" as children of God, but this is not the same things as being a "peacekeeper". Peacemaking involves putting things in their proper places and this can often involve confrontation, righteous judgment and sanctions. Sometimes a confrontation, rebuke or fight becomes a necessary evil. However, peacemaking is always about praying and looking for minimal fallout and for the redemptive purposes of God to win the day.
Another thing is that the closer we are in relationship to a person or a matter, the more we have a right and responsibility to face them/it. Often, our designated function within a community can also inform us of our right and responsibility to deal with a difficult person or matter. Another principle is that it is good to confirm, confine, contain and rectify an error to as small a circle of people as possible. However, when a scandalous sin or a crime has been committed, it is better for the guilty to suffer than for the innocent and confession should cover the same social scope as the knowledge and damage of the offense.
One final thought on this complex issue (and so much more needs to be said)...when others "go public" with their erroneous and sometimes dangerous, beliefs and teachings, public challenge and criticism is warranted. We must be careful to not misrepresent what another is actually teaching and a personal "behind the scenes" inquiry and/or challenge might be called for, but ultimately, if one has the moxie to take his/her teachings to the public square, it is only fair to expect those who may disagree to openly say so. If one can't take the heat, then she/he needs to get out of the kitchen!
I urge you to take note of and avoid those people who cause divisions and offenses by embracing or promoting doctrines that are contrary to the ones you have learned. These kinds of people are not concerned with serving the Lord Jesus Christ, but with filling their unsatisfied desires. They employ good-sounding words and manipulative monologues that deceive the hearts of the undiscerning.
Comments:
Dealing with divisive and offensive people and/or groups is always difficult and can tend to distract us from a positive-oriented forward movement in life and ministry. It can also be confusing and oppressive for our minds and emotions. A number of questions rise in my thinking as I ponder this subject.
Do we forebear or confront? How can we measure if a matter is worthy of a confrontation? Do we go to someone who has offended us in private or bring a few others into the mix for counsel, prayer support and/or as witnesses? Do we warn others of spiritual danger? Do we speak out publicly on a matter and expose falsehood? Does God call some to such tasks, but not others? Do we leave a matter in the hands of God alone to deal with? Do we simply avoid a matter and even a person or a group of people? And...now that the globe is connected via mass communications...which errors do we pick to confront and/or expose, since we can research them all. Our entire lives could be swallowed up by presuming to be the universal cops of the spiritual landscape of the earth. I know it's not this last option for any of us!
Following are some of the convictions I have come to over the years of leading communities of faith that have caused practical and workable actions to present themselves.
I am convinced that these kinds of situations and our proper responses to them are always on a spectrum of severity...and usually without hard and fast dividing lines between the phases. We need more than raw principles or laws to go by in these situations...we need the real-time and direct spiritual wisdom of God to settle upon us for the proper timing and application of scriptural principles. We are called to be "peacemakers" as children of God, but this is not the same things as being a "peacekeeper". Peacemaking involves putting things in their proper places and this can often involve confrontation, righteous judgment and sanctions. Sometimes a confrontation, rebuke or fight becomes a necessary evil. However, peacemaking is always about praying and looking for minimal fallout and for the redemptive purposes of God to win the day.
Another thing is that the closer we are in relationship to a person or a matter, the more we have a right and responsibility to face them/it. Often, our designated function within a community can also inform us of our right and responsibility to deal with a difficult person or matter. Another principle is that it is good to confirm, confine, contain and rectify an error to as small a circle of people as possible. However, when a scandalous sin or a crime has been committed, it is better for the guilty to suffer than for the innocent and confession should cover the same social scope as the knowledge and damage of the offense.
One final thought on this complex issue (and so much more needs to be said)...when others "go public" with their erroneous and sometimes dangerous, beliefs and teachings, public challenge and criticism is warranted. We must be careful to not misrepresent what another is actually teaching and a personal "behind the scenes" inquiry and/or challenge might be called for, but ultimately, if one has the moxie to take his/her teachings to the public square, it is only fair to expect those who may disagree to openly say so. If one can't take the heat, then she/he needs to get out of the kitchen!
Saturday, September 25, 2010
The Romance of Romans-Part 125
Romans Chapter 16 cont'd
I urge you to take note of and avoid those people who cause divisions and offenses by embracing or promoting doctrines that are contrary to the ones you have learned. These kinds of people are not concerned with serving the Lord Jesus Christ, but with filling their unsatisfied desires. They employ good-sounding words and manipulative monologues that deceive the hearts of the undiscerning.
Comments:
Errors, schisms, sects, divisions and cults have plagued the Church of Jesus since her earliest days...and what a downer this is. Dealing with these matters is a challenge and a suffering that believers...and especially church leaders...have to face and struggle through. It takes a lot of guts just to read church history and it takes even more to make it in one's own generation. Our wise, great and powerful Father in heaven does not over-control the choices, beliefs, behaviors and practices of human beings...and for this we should be grateful. He doesn't immediately sort out truth from error in this world by his inscrutable judgments that will, one day, forever establish absolute truth and righteousness (justice) in the new heavens and earth.
One important point to note is the vital importance of every Christ-follower and fellowship holding to sound doctrine. Like it or not...acknowledging it or not..."what we believe" ultimately affects and informs "how we live". It's an immutable reality of human psychology. So...believing well is essential to living well. (Sometimes...and too often...people can "claim" they believe well but not actually live well. But we will never truly live well without believing well.)
However, it is overly-idealistic to think that all true Christ-followers will agree on every point of doctrine. All truth is true, but not all truths are equally important. So we are left with the sensitive task of identifying and articulating the truths of Scripture that are essential to embrace for "saving faith" to be "witnessed to" and distinguish them from secondary doctrinal matters that can be righteously debated among those who belong to Christ.
And...I must add...Jesus does have the power to save an untaught person who has yet to be exposed to...or who is even yet confused about..."essential doctrines". We must be very cautious, in our important quest to land on "essential truths", that we do not limit what the Father, Son and Holy Spirit can do for and in a human being apart from their ability to clearly reason! My conviction is that one who has been saved by the power of Jesus Christ will deeply resonate with "essential doctrine" when she/he has the opportunity to hear it taught. It will thrill one's entire being to have "words put to" what they have experientially encountered. Yes...words do matter...they always have and always will.
Fortunately, much great work has already been done throughout the history of the church to identify the "essential truths" of holding genuine faith in Christ...they are few and clear in the New Testament. An example of such follows:
3For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4that he was buried, that he was raised(I) on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 7Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 1 Cor 15:3-7
It is also my conviction that the many groups of Christ-followers in the earth, large or small...old or new, must grant themselves...and their leaders and teachers...the liberty to state with conviction their personal and corporate positions on "secondary" doctrines that help to create the "spiritual culture" of their spiritual families...this is their divinely assigned realm of responsibility. This kind of freedom and diversity of expression among the various groups of believers in this earth is probably a beautiful thing in the end...and we will all laugh together in the age to come about how limited our views actually were.
Still, "non-essential-to-salvation" doctrines must not automatically be thought of as "unimportant" for the health and growth of a body of Christ followers...though there are some that are certainly unwise to over-emphasize or require adherence to. Choosing wisely and well on how to distinguish and major on "essential truths" balanced with how to steward (and minor on) the teaching and incorporation of "non-essential-to-salvation", yet still important, truths is a spiritual art that teachers, preachers, prophets and leaders must seek to pray into and master. May Christ grant His great and beautiful Body wisdom and discernment in this regard.
I urge you to take note of and avoid those people who cause divisions and offenses by embracing or promoting doctrines that are contrary to the ones you have learned. These kinds of people are not concerned with serving the Lord Jesus Christ, but with filling their unsatisfied desires. They employ good-sounding words and manipulative monologues that deceive the hearts of the undiscerning.
Comments:
Errors, schisms, sects, divisions and cults have plagued the Church of Jesus since her earliest days...and what a downer this is. Dealing with these matters is a challenge and a suffering that believers...and especially church leaders...have to face and struggle through. It takes a lot of guts just to read church history and it takes even more to make it in one's own generation. Our wise, great and powerful Father in heaven does not over-control the choices, beliefs, behaviors and practices of human beings...and for this we should be grateful. He doesn't immediately sort out truth from error in this world by his inscrutable judgments that will, one day, forever establish absolute truth and righteousness (justice) in the new heavens and earth.
One important point to note is the vital importance of every Christ-follower and fellowship holding to sound doctrine. Like it or not...acknowledging it or not..."what we believe" ultimately affects and informs "how we live". It's an immutable reality of human psychology. So...believing well is essential to living well. (Sometimes...and too often...people can "claim" they believe well but not actually live well. But we will never truly live well without believing well.)
However, it is overly-idealistic to think that all true Christ-followers will agree on every point of doctrine. All truth is true, but not all truths are equally important. So we are left with the sensitive task of identifying and articulating the truths of Scripture that are essential to embrace for "saving faith" to be "witnessed to" and distinguish them from secondary doctrinal matters that can be righteously debated among those who belong to Christ.
And...I must add...Jesus does have the power to save an untaught person who has yet to be exposed to...or who is even yet confused about..."essential doctrines". We must be very cautious, in our important quest to land on "essential truths", that we do not limit what the Father, Son and Holy Spirit can do for and in a human being apart from their ability to clearly reason! My conviction is that one who has been saved by the power of Jesus Christ will deeply resonate with "essential doctrine" when she/he has the opportunity to hear it taught. It will thrill one's entire being to have "words put to" what they have experientially encountered. Yes...words do matter...they always have and always will.
Fortunately, much great work has already been done throughout the history of the church to identify the "essential truths" of holding genuine faith in Christ...they are few and clear in the New Testament. An example of such follows:
3For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4that he was buried, that he was raised(I) on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 7Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 1 Cor 15:3-7
It is also my conviction that the many groups of Christ-followers in the earth, large or small...old or new, must grant themselves...and their leaders and teachers...the liberty to state with conviction their personal and corporate positions on "secondary" doctrines that help to create the "spiritual culture" of their spiritual families...this is their divinely assigned realm of responsibility. This kind of freedom and diversity of expression among the various groups of believers in this earth is probably a beautiful thing in the end...and we will all laugh together in the age to come about how limited our views actually were.
Still, "non-essential-to-salvation" doctrines must not automatically be thought of as "unimportant" for the health and growth of a body of Christ followers...though there are some that are certainly unwise to over-emphasize or require adherence to. Choosing wisely and well on how to distinguish and major on "essential truths" balanced with how to steward (and minor on) the teaching and incorporation of "non-essential-to-salvation", yet still important, truths is a spiritual art that teachers, preachers, prophets and leaders must seek to pray into and master. May Christ grant His great and beautiful Body wisdom and discernment in this regard.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
The Romance of Romans-Part 124
Romans Chapter 16 cont'd
I urge you to take note of and avoid those people who cause divisions and offenses by embracing or promoting doctrines that are contrary to the ones you have learned. These kinds of people are not concerned with serving the Lord Jesus Christ, but with filling their unsatisfied desires. They employ good-sounding words and manipulative monologues that deceive the hearts of the undiscerning.
The testimony of your faithfulness to God has been reported throughout the whole world and I am glad that you've been honored like this. Just make sure that you preserve your spirit of innocence- be "streetwise" in good, but not in evil! And soon, the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet. May the grace of our Lord Jesus be with you. Yes, Lord, let it be!
Comments:
Romans is such a positive and powerful oriented letter and it would be nice to not have to address the issue of difficult people or the devil. But that wouldn't really do justice to the reality of living out the gospel in the community of faith. The truth is that when believers put our hearts together and commit to function as the body of Christ in our cultures, we will be assaulted by hellish forces that are pitted against our progress and fruitfulness. Believers and the leaders of their bands must be forewarned and equipped to deal well with both the evil spirits and the deceived people who will seek to infiltrate and disrupt our communities. And we must do this without being un-Christlike...in a way that embodies his compassion and respect for people and his great heart of hope and redemption.
Sadly, the seminaries have rarely taught their ministers-in-training the art of dealing with deceived people and the demonic realm. Ironically, most church leaders have a very rude awakening that one of the main slices of their jobs ends up being the need to address the hardships, setbacks and sufferings associated with spiritual warfare and inter-personal conflicts in the lives and relationships of their members.
Early on in my pastoral ministry I internalized an important passage that helped me to face and navigate in the waters of spiritual warfare and relational conflict:
"Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will." 2 Tim 2: 23-25
Through the many years this passage helped to brace me for the challenges that I would face in pastoring God's people and to create a Christ-centered culture around my own soul (and, by extention, the whole community) that empowered me to gracefully handle the presence of unstable people...their false beliefs/destructive actions...and the manipulative spiritual enemy working beyond and through them. The key to honoring Christ and accessing the Holy Spirit's power in these difficult and oftentimes, tragic, situations is to begin with finding a "way of being" that remains poised under the pressures they create. If we can invoke and remain in the Holy Spirit's presence then the best practical steps to take will emerge and present themselves.
In my early years of ministry, I found myself "tightening up" in ways that were counter-productive to solving or, at least, containing these kinds of problems. My own zeal, energy and personal power became dominant and interfered with the display of the Lord's wisdom and power in the matter. Over time, I learned how to reign in my fleshly reactions and follow the Spirit's leadings. When we do this, the outcome is not always positive (as we can see from the above passage via the word "perhaps"), but we do provide people with the best opportunity possible for a deliverance from evil and a sweet resolution.
More to come....
I urge you to take note of and avoid those people who cause divisions and offenses by embracing or promoting doctrines that are contrary to the ones you have learned. These kinds of people are not concerned with serving the Lord Jesus Christ, but with filling their unsatisfied desires. They employ good-sounding words and manipulative monologues that deceive the hearts of the undiscerning.
The testimony of your faithfulness to God has been reported throughout the whole world and I am glad that you've been honored like this. Just make sure that you preserve your spirit of innocence- be "streetwise" in good, but not in evil! And soon, the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet. May the grace of our Lord Jesus be with you. Yes, Lord, let it be!
Comments:
Romans is such a positive and powerful oriented letter and it would be nice to not have to address the issue of difficult people or the devil. But that wouldn't really do justice to the reality of living out the gospel in the community of faith. The truth is that when believers put our hearts together and commit to function as the body of Christ in our cultures, we will be assaulted by hellish forces that are pitted against our progress and fruitfulness. Believers and the leaders of their bands must be forewarned and equipped to deal well with both the evil spirits and the deceived people who will seek to infiltrate and disrupt our communities. And we must do this without being un-Christlike...in a way that embodies his compassion and respect for people and his great heart of hope and redemption.
Sadly, the seminaries have rarely taught their ministers-in-training the art of dealing with deceived people and the demonic realm. Ironically, most church leaders have a very rude awakening that one of the main slices of their jobs ends up being the need to address the hardships, setbacks and sufferings associated with spiritual warfare and inter-personal conflicts in the lives and relationships of their members.
Early on in my pastoral ministry I internalized an important passage that helped me to face and navigate in the waters of spiritual warfare and relational conflict:
"Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will." 2 Tim 2: 23-25
Through the many years this passage helped to brace me for the challenges that I would face in pastoring God's people and to create a Christ-centered culture around my own soul (and, by extention, the whole community) that empowered me to gracefully handle the presence of unstable people...their false beliefs/destructive actions...and the manipulative spiritual enemy working beyond and through them. The key to honoring Christ and accessing the Holy Spirit's power in these difficult and oftentimes, tragic, situations is to begin with finding a "way of being" that remains poised under the pressures they create. If we can invoke and remain in the Holy Spirit's presence then the best practical steps to take will emerge and present themselves.
In my early years of ministry, I found myself "tightening up" in ways that were counter-productive to solving or, at least, containing these kinds of problems. My own zeal, energy and personal power became dominant and interfered with the display of the Lord's wisdom and power in the matter. Over time, I learned how to reign in my fleshly reactions and follow the Spirit's leadings. When we do this, the outcome is not always positive (as we can see from the above passage via the word "perhaps"), but we do provide people with the best opportunity possible for a deliverance from evil and a sweet resolution.
More to come....
Saturday, August 28, 2010
The Romance of Romans-Part 123
Romans Chapter 16 cont'd
I urge you to take note of and avoid those people who cause divisions and offenses by embracing or promoting doctrines that are contrary to the ones you have learned. These kinds of people are not concerned with serving the Lord Jesus Christ, but with filling their unsatisfied desires. They employ good-sounding words and manipulative monologues that deceive the hearts of the undiscerning.
The testimony of your faithfulness to God has been reported throughout the whole world and I am glad that you've been honored like this. Just make sure that you preserve your spirit of innocence- be "streetwise" in good, but not in evil! And soon, the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet. May the grace of our Lord Jesus be with you. Yes, Lord, let it be!
Comments:
We are nearing the end of this extensive and intensive world-changing letter and seems to me as if Paul keeps thinking of final words to say and blessings to offer and, as a result, we end up with several benedictory closings in this final chapter. He is like a proud father who boasts in the well-being and well-doing of his children...though he had never had the opportunity to visit the believers in Rome in person. It was a great victory for the believers throughout the world to have a faithful and vibrant congregation of Christ-followers in the capital city.
It would be so wonderful if church communities never had to deal with negative influences or deceptive and destructive people in their midst. Sadly, it has never been and will never be in this age. The Church is planted in the earth in the midst of a spiritual battle zone and God's ancient enemy, given that he cannot overthrow God himself, is always at work to assault and tear down the people of God...and God's beloved creation...on every possible front. Satan does this primarily, on the visible level, by using both witting and unwitting people...as ambassadors of error, disruption and deception.
Still, though it is tempting to use unholy means of dealing with these kinds of people and their influences, believers must rise above evil and overcome it with good. The Church has been compared to a mighty rescue ship in the ocean waters where people are drowning from shipwrecks in the sea. Many are saved by the efforts of the ship's crew. The ship is "in the sea"...by design...but if "the sea gets in the ship", then the ship will ironically and tragically lose its purpose for being and fail in its mission. The Church is called to navigate within the broken and sinful cultures of the world, but it must be on guard to not allow sinful cultures to invade and run unchecked within it. How can we do this without becoming overly defensive, unloving, self-righteous, negative, controlling and fearful?
The New Testament offers us a godly "polity"...a way of governing the community of faith...that equips us to deal effectively with troublesome people and influences in a way we can live out the challenge of Michah 6:8--to do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with our God. Believers need to be forearmed for the inevitability of dealing with these kinds of situations and people so that we are not left to our own reactive devices when such events crop up.
More to come....
I urge you to take note of and avoid those people who cause divisions and offenses by embracing or promoting doctrines that are contrary to the ones you have learned. These kinds of people are not concerned with serving the Lord Jesus Christ, but with filling their unsatisfied desires. They employ good-sounding words and manipulative monologues that deceive the hearts of the undiscerning.
The testimony of your faithfulness to God has been reported throughout the whole world and I am glad that you've been honored like this. Just make sure that you preserve your spirit of innocence- be "streetwise" in good, but not in evil! And soon, the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet. May the grace of our Lord Jesus be with you. Yes, Lord, let it be!
Comments:
We are nearing the end of this extensive and intensive world-changing letter and seems to me as if Paul keeps thinking of final words to say and blessings to offer and, as a result, we end up with several benedictory closings in this final chapter. He is like a proud father who boasts in the well-being and well-doing of his children...though he had never had the opportunity to visit the believers in Rome in person. It was a great victory for the believers throughout the world to have a faithful and vibrant congregation of Christ-followers in the capital city.
It would be so wonderful if church communities never had to deal with negative influences or deceptive and destructive people in their midst. Sadly, it has never been and will never be in this age. The Church is planted in the earth in the midst of a spiritual battle zone and God's ancient enemy, given that he cannot overthrow God himself, is always at work to assault and tear down the people of God...and God's beloved creation...on every possible front. Satan does this primarily, on the visible level, by using both witting and unwitting people...as ambassadors of error, disruption and deception.
Still, though it is tempting to use unholy means of dealing with these kinds of people and their influences, believers must rise above evil and overcome it with good. The Church has been compared to a mighty rescue ship in the ocean waters where people are drowning from shipwrecks in the sea. Many are saved by the efforts of the ship's crew. The ship is "in the sea"...by design...but if "the sea gets in the ship", then the ship will ironically and tragically lose its purpose for being and fail in its mission. The Church is called to navigate within the broken and sinful cultures of the world, but it must be on guard to not allow sinful cultures to invade and run unchecked within it. How can we do this without becoming overly defensive, unloving, self-righteous, negative, controlling and fearful?
The New Testament offers us a godly "polity"...a way of governing the community of faith...that equips us to deal effectively with troublesome people and influences in a way we can live out the challenge of Michah 6:8--to do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with our God. Believers need to be forearmed for the inevitability of dealing with these kinds of situations and people so that we are not left to our own reactive devices when such events crop up.
More to come....
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
The Romance of Romans-Part 122
Romans Chapter 16 cont'd
Give my love to all of these people: Amplias, my dear friend in the Lord; Urbane, who has helped us in Christ; Stachys my beloved friend; Apelles, whose loyalty to Christ has been proved; the whole household of Aristobulus; Herodion, my relative; the household of Narcissus, who are all believers; Tryphena and Tryphosa, who are Christ's workers; Persis, who has worked hard for the Lord; Rufus, who is chosen by God, and his mother, who is like a mother to me also; Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermas, Patrobas, Hermes, and all the believers with them; Philologus and Julia, Nereus and his sister, Olympas and all the believers with them.
Greet each other with a holy embrace. The churches of Christ send their greetings to you.
Comments:
The affection we feel for and express to our fellow believers can be infectious...a holy virus. I refer to fellowship or "koininia" (Gk) as an "ordinary miracle" of the Christian experience...a literal exchange of the very life of Christ between one person and another. The reality of this quality of loving and healthy relating among the followers of Jesus is maybe the most powerful witness to the genuineness of our faith in the hearts and minds of folks who have yet to come to worship Jesus.
I can't count the thousands of times that I have experienced a keen awareness of how Christ has been present and "passing between" another believer/other believers and myself as we have shared our dreams, our hopes, our fears, our failures, our food, our adventures, our victories, our songs, our love, our sufferings, our joys, our prayers, the word of God, the Lord's supper and/or the many other things of life. What a wonderful challenge it is to us all to see to it that in all our relating and working with each other in the networks of our faith communities that we ensure that we are putting our whole hearts into maintaining this quality of shared life in Jesus and not allow the weeds of dissension, unresolved conflict, jealousy, resentment, offense, competition and the like to grow up and pollute our relational gardens.
Give my love to all of these people: Amplias, my dear friend in the Lord; Urbane, who has helped us in Christ; Stachys my beloved friend; Apelles, whose loyalty to Christ has been proved; the whole household of Aristobulus; Herodion, my relative; the household of Narcissus, who are all believers; Tryphena and Tryphosa, who are Christ's workers; Persis, who has worked hard for the Lord; Rufus, who is chosen by God, and his mother, who is like a mother to me also; Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermas, Patrobas, Hermes, and all the believers with them; Philologus and Julia, Nereus and his sister, Olympas and all the believers with them.
Greet each other with a holy embrace. The churches of Christ send their greetings to you.
Comments:
The affection we feel for and express to our fellow believers can be infectious...a holy virus. I refer to fellowship or "koininia" (Gk) as an "ordinary miracle" of the Christian experience...a literal exchange of the very life of Christ between one person and another. The reality of this quality of loving and healthy relating among the followers of Jesus is maybe the most powerful witness to the genuineness of our faith in the hearts and minds of folks who have yet to come to worship Jesus.
I can't count the thousands of times that I have experienced a keen awareness of how Christ has been present and "passing between" another believer/other believers and myself as we have shared our dreams, our hopes, our fears, our failures, our food, our adventures, our victories, our songs, our love, our sufferings, our joys, our prayers, the word of God, the Lord's supper and/or the many other things of life. What a wonderful challenge it is to us all to see to it that in all our relating and working with each other in the networks of our faith communities that we ensure that we are putting our whole hearts into maintaining this quality of shared life in Jesus and not allow the weeds of dissension, unresolved conflict, jealousy, resentment, offense, competition and the like to grow up and pollute our relational gardens.
Sunday, August 22, 2010
The Romance of Romans-Part 121
The Romance of Romans Chapter 16
I highly recommend Phoebe to you. She is a servant of the church in Cenchrea. Receive her freely as a servant of the Lord and show her your hospitality. Assist her in her mission to you, whatever it may be, for she has helped many, including me. Give my love to Priscilla and Aquila who have assisted me in Christ Jesus. They have laid their lives on the line for me, and not only am I grateful, so are all the churches of the Gentiles. Also greet the church that gathers in their home. Say hello to my dear Epaenetus, who was the first believer in Christ in Achaia. Greet Mary, who worked hard for our sakes. Honor Andronicus and Junia, my relatives and, onetime, fellow prisoners. They were in Christ before me and they have a great reputation among all the divinely appointed ambassadors of the Church at large.
Comments:
It seems that a lot of folks have an image of Paul that he was caustic and impersonal in his style of relating to others. This is probably because he didn't live in the "fear of man" and his letters often reflect the boldness within him to confront erroneous teachings and the people behind them. However, if we dig a bit deeper into the narratives and letters we discover that the apostle was very warm and deeply connected to other people. This chapter in particular reveals how he took the time and spent the energy to encourage, affirm, remember and express gratitude to other people who had touched his heart.
Moreover, because Paul highlights some wise and basic "differences in divine design" of females and males in some of his writings, there are many folks throughout the centuries that have concluded that Paul is down on women and specifically down on women assuming leadership roles within the Church and/or churches of Jesus Christ. There is much ongoing debate surrounding this issue among Scripture-believing teachers and movements and all of the points that need to be considered are far beyond this scope of my purposes here.
However, I think it is sufficient to say that it is vital to examine the narrative sections of the gospels and epistles to help provide a context for interpreting and applying the didactic portions of the epistles when it comes to such a vital issue as and...serious danger of...potentially putting artificial, inconsistent, hypocritical and misguided limits on so many believers...a criticism I am indeed leveling against many in the fundamentalist traditions. (I would guess that there are more women in the earth who truly follow Jesus than there are men.) Here is my challenge: Those who would put limits on women filling leadership functions in the Body of Christ need to make room in their practical theology for heroic leading women like Phoebe, Priscilla and Junia...not to mention other Biblical characters and the hundreds of ladies like them, who have risked all and sacrificed so much throughout the whole history of the Church and in our own generation, to promote and live out the message Jesus Christ in this world.
I highly recommend Phoebe to you. She is a servant of the church in Cenchrea. Receive her freely as a servant of the Lord and show her your hospitality. Assist her in her mission to you, whatever it may be, for she has helped many, including me. Give my love to Priscilla and Aquila who have assisted me in Christ Jesus. They have laid their lives on the line for me, and not only am I grateful, so are all the churches of the Gentiles. Also greet the church that gathers in their home. Say hello to my dear Epaenetus, who was the first believer in Christ in Achaia. Greet Mary, who worked hard for our sakes. Honor Andronicus and Junia, my relatives and, onetime, fellow prisoners. They were in Christ before me and they have a great reputation among all the divinely appointed ambassadors of the Church at large.
Comments:
It seems that a lot of folks have an image of Paul that he was caustic and impersonal in his style of relating to others. This is probably because he didn't live in the "fear of man" and his letters often reflect the boldness within him to confront erroneous teachings and the people behind them. However, if we dig a bit deeper into the narratives and letters we discover that the apostle was very warm and deeply connected to other people. This chapter in particular reveals how he took the time and spent the energy to encourage, affirm, remember and express gratitude to other people who had touched his heart.
Moreover, because Paul highlights some wise and basic "differences in divine design" of females and males in some of his writings, there are many folks throughout the centuries that have concluded that Paul is down on women and specifically down on women assuming leadership roles within the Church and/or churches of Jesus Christ. There is much ongoing debate surrounding this issue among Scripture-believing teachers and movements and all of the points that need to be considered are far beyond this scope of my purposes here.
However, I think it is sufficient to say that it is vital to examine the narrative sections of the gospels and epistles to help provide a context for interpreting and applying the didactic portions of the epistles when it comes to such a vital issue as and...serious danger of...potentially putting artificial, inconsistent, hypocritical and misguided limits on so many believers...a criticism I am indeed leveling against many in the fundamentalist traditions. (I would guess that there are more women in the earth who truly follow Jesus than there are men.) Here is my challenge: Those who would put limits on women filling leadership functions in the Body of Christ need to make room in their practical theology for heroic leading women like Phoebe, Priscilla and Junia...not to mention other Biblical characters and the hundreds of ladies like them, who have risked all and sacrificed so much throughout the whole history of the Church and in our own generation, to promote and live out the message Jesus Christ in this world.
Sunday, August 15, 2010
The Romance of Romans-Part 120
Romans Chapter 15 cont'd
Finally, I appeal to you dear friends, for Christ's sake and because of the love we share in the Spirit, that you partner with me and one another in prayer to God on my behalf. Ask God to deliver me from the unbelievers in Judea and that the believers there will be pleased with the offering I am bringing to them. And that he will send me to you with joy so that you may be refreshed. So may the God of peace be with you. Yes, Lord, let it be!
Comments:
Prayer...it's a strange and mysterious thing from a certain angle. An all-knowing, all-powerful and everywhere-present Creator-God commands us to tell him things that he already knows and has will to shape. Yet, he draws our attention in Scripture to examples of human beings, just like us, who have influenced him...to do or not do...specific things throughout history. They evoked a response from God that he would not have initiated without their offering heart-felt words to him. Though he dwells in a high and holy eternal realm, he seems to desire a genuine interactive relationship with us in "real-time". To me this communicates to us a amazing message of some aspects of God's nature...that, in spite of his penultimate self-sufficiency, he is also humble and relationally vulnerable. This is hard for us to imagine and believe and probably a couple of the main sub-conscious reasons most of us don't find it easy or natural to pray. After all, "There are so many things to do and God will do what he will do without my assistance." Right? Apparently, this is not the real picture.
From another angle, prayer makes complete sense because every genuine relationship is sustained by a mutual exchange of communication of heart and word. The Scriptures teach us that God desires to have a friendship with us human beings...despite our weaknesses...he "wants us". Moreover, he "wants to be wanted" by us. God has the longing passionate heart of a Father and/or a Lover. The heart-felt words we sing and pray to him from our innermost guts move him...they move his heart and his heart moves him to act in response to our longings, needs and wants. He longs to hear, like any lover does, the oft-repeated "I love you's" that comes from the beloved. He wants us to tell him the things about him that we have come to understand about how awesome he is...things about him that have stunned and overwhelmed us...his beauty, justice, mercy, compassion, forgiveness, miracle power, infinitude, holiness and the like.
In addition, God has always looked for willing human partners to work with and through as visible agents of his grace and truth to others who are estranged from him and who are striving to survive in a sin-burdened creation. We live in a battle zone of a noble war against evil. Our conversation with him relates not only to our worship of him, but to the co-mission we are on with him in this fallen world. It is absolutely essential to have an open line whereby many words are exchanged between us in the midst of this dramatic and sometimes, dangerous, adventure. For our own sanity, safety and success, we need to continually tell him what is on our hearts and what we need. He will regularly "draw near" to us on the mission and carry both us and our hearts if we will honor him by remembering that we are neither self-sufficient nor self-reliant. Prayer is a natural and essential outcome of such consciousness.
If we will repent from wrongly taking our lives, relationships and destinies into our own hands and make worship and mission our preoccupations, then we will see marvelous provisions appear from our conversations with the Trinity:
"You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions...Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you." James 4:2-3; 7-8
Finally, I appeal to you dear friends, for Christ's sake and because of the love we share in the Spirit, that you partner with me and one another in prayer to God on my behalf. Ask God to deliver me from the unbelievers in Judea and that the believers there will be pleased with the offering I am bringing to them. And that he will send me to you with joy so that you may be refreshed. So may the God of peace be with you. Yes, Lord, let it be!
Comments:
Prayer...it's a strange and mysterious thing from a certain angle. An all-knowing, all-powerful and everywhere-present Creator-God commands us to tell him things that he already knows and has will to shape. Yet, he draws our attention in Scripture to examples of human beings, just like us, who have influenced him...to do or not do...specific things throughout history. They evoked a response from God that he would not have initiated without their offering heart-felt words to him. Though he dwells in a high and holy eternal realm, he seems to desire a genuine interactive relationship with us in "real-time". To me this communicates to us a amazing message of some aspects of God's nature...that, in spite of his penultimate self-sufficiency, he is also humble and relationally vulnerable. This is hard for us to imagine and believe and probably a couple of the main sub-conscious reasons most of us don't find it easy or natural to pray. After all, "There are so many things to do and God will do what he will do without my assistance." Right? Apparently, this is not the real picture.
From another angle, prayer makes complete sense because every genuine relationship is sustained by a mutual exchange of communication of heart and word. The Scriptures teach us that God desires to have a friendship with us human beings...despite our weaknesses...he "wants us". Moreover, he "wants to be wanted" by us. God has the longing passionate heart of a Father and/or a Lover. The heart-felt words we sing and pray to him from our innermost guts move him...they move his heart and his heart moves him to act in response to our longings, needs and wants. He longs to hear, like any lover does, the oft-repeated "I love you's" that comes from the beloved. He wants us to tell him the things about him that we have come to understand about how awesome he is...things about him that have stunned and overwhelmed us...his beauty, justice, mercy, compassion, forgiveness, miracle power, infinitude, holiness and the like.
In addition, God has always looked for willing human partners to work with and through as visible agents of his grace and truth to others who are estranged from him and who are striving to survive in a sin-burdened creation. We live in a battle zone of a noble war against evil. Our conversation with him relates not only to our worship of him, but to the co-mission we are on with him in this fallen world. It is absolutely essential to have an open line whereby many words are exchanged between us in the midst of this dramatic and sometimes, dangerous, adventure. For our own sanity, safety and success, we need to continually tell him what is on our hearts and what we need. He will regularly "draw near" to us on the mission and carry both us and our hearts if we will honor him by remembering that we are neither self-sufficient nor self-reliant. Prayer is a natural and essential outcome of such consciousness.
If we will repent from wrongly taking our lives, relationships and destinies into our own hands and make worship and mission our preoccupations, then we will see marvelous provisions appear from our conversations with the Trinity:
"You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions...Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you." James 4:2-3; 7-8
Friday, August 13, 2010
The Romance of Romans-Part 119
Romans Chapter 15 cont'd
But first I have to go to Jerusalem to bring a gift to the believers there. God moved upon the hearts of the believers in Macedonia and Achaia to take a collection for the poor believers there. They were very pleased to do this because they realized that they are indebted to the Jewish believers for the spiritual heritage that they have shared with the Gentiles and they feel an obligation to serve them in a material way as a token of their gratitude. After I deliver this "spiritual fruit basket" to them, I will come by to see you on my way to Spain. And I am confident that I will come to you overflowing with the fullness of the blessing contained in the good news of Christ.
Comments:
When Paul was first converted to Christ, the apostles in Jerusalem were suspicious of him and his motivations. Along the way, he had his tensions with those leaders from Jerusalem as they were all seeking to understand what God actually required of the gentiles who were turning to faith in Jesus. They were very unlike the Jewish believers in their cultural backgrounds and there was some religious pressure on them to conform to various cultural preferences of the Jewish believers that were not essential to obeying the gospel and to pleasing God via genuine spirituality in Christ.
However, it is very interesting to note that as they hammered out their different strategic thrusts in ministry they heartily agreed on one thing from the very start:
And from those who seemed to be influential (what they were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality)—those, I say, who seemed influential added nothing to me. On the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised (for he who worked through Peter for his apostolic ministry to the circumcised worked also through me for mine to the Gentiles), and when James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. Only, they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do. Gal 2:6-10
Paul remembered his commitment to his brothers in Jerusalem and, ironically, when they found themselves many years later suffering from a poverty primarily due to a drought, Paul inspired the gentile believers across his mission fields to give generously, in a material way, to these very people.
May we also open our hearts to Christ to be eager...in light of the many things we are eager for...to help those in need...so help us God.
But first I have to go to Jerusalem to bring a gift to the believers there. God moved upon the hearts of the believers in Macedonia and Achaia to take a collection for the poor believers there. They were very pleased to do this because they realized that they are indebted to the Jewish believers for the spiritual heritage that they have shared with the Gentiles and they feel an obligation to serve them in a material way as a token of their gratitude. After I deliver this "spiritual fruit basket" to them, I will come by to see you on my way to Spain. And I am confident that I will come to you overflowing with the fullness of the blessing contained in the good news of Christ.
Comments:
When Paul was first converted to Christ, the apostles in Jerusalem were suspicious of him and his motivations. Along the way, he had his tensions with those leaders from Jerusalem as they were all seeking to understand what God actually required of the gentiles who were turning to faith in Jesus. They were very unlike the Jewish believers in their cultural backgrounds and there was some religious pressure on them to conform to various cultural preferences of the Jewish believers that were not essential to obeying the gospel and to pleasing God via genuine spirituality in Christ.
However, it is very interesting to note that as they hammered out their different strategic thrusts in ministry they heartily agreed on one thing from the very start:
And from those who seemed to be influential (what they were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality)—those, I say, who seemed influential added nothing to me. On the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised (for he who worked through Peter for his apostolic ministry to the circumcised worked also through me for mine to the Gentiles), and when James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. Only, they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do. Gal 2:6-10
Paul remembered his commitment to his brothers in Jerusalem and, ironically, when they found themselves many years later suffering from a poverty primarily due to a drought, Paul inspired the gentile believers across his mission fields to give generously, in a material way, to these very people.
May we also open our hearts to Christ to be eager...in light of the many things we are eager for...to help those in need...so help us God.
Sunday, August 8, 2010
The Romance of Romans-Part 118
Romans Chapter 15 cont'd
I am not making an empty or presumptuous boast concerning my service for God. I would not dare to talk about things the Lord has not done through me to help the Gentiles passionately obey God in word and deed. But I will testify concerning what he has done through me. I have fully preached the good news of Jesus from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum in the power of the Holy Spirit with signs and wonders confirming its reality. I have sought to be a pioneer and preach the good news in areas where Christ has never been proclaimed so that I wouldn't build the churches on another divine ambassador’s foundation. I have taken this scripture personally, "Those shall see to whom he was not spoken of, and those who have not heard will understand." This very mission is what has thus far kept me from coming to you in Rome. But now the season has changed for me and since I have wanted to come and see you for many years, I will visit when I am on my way to Spain. I hope the Lord will permit me to do this and enjoy your company for a while.
Comments:
Paul was a wonderful and rare combination of a theorist and a practitioner when it came to the worship of and service to God. His life experiences and his sacrificial lifestyle gave him the kind of intrinsic authority needed to speak/write to others a challenging and life-altering theological message with such vigor. Additionally, Paul had witnessed many miracles as a divine endorsement that confirmed the graceful and penetrating truths he was commissioned to proclaim. Of course, the greatest miracle he witnessed was how the simple news of Jesus combined with a childlike response of trust in the human heart radically overturned ingrained sin patterns and unleashed the love of God and neighbor like a torrent into the souls of the once-unbelieving "outsiders" of his day. The power of God is embedded in the gospel of Christ and when it is delivered with spiritual authority, it transforms people's lives for good.
I too have seen some miracles of healing, guidance, answered prayers and permanently transformed lives throughout my years of ministry beginning in 1973. I have been blessed to know many others who can say the same and more. God still endorses the simple gospel of Jesus with signs and wonders...especially on the front lines of sharing Christ's love with those who have no clue who he is or what he's done. I am always thrilled with the accounts of God's miraculous activity in our day.
Sadly, as in Jesus' day, people can become preoccupied with a desire to see the spectacular and miss the heart of why divine miracles happen. This eccentricity has led many people into fanaticism and being deceived by the false and counterfeit works of religious charlatans. In all of our longing prayers for God's genuine power to be displayed, it is so vital to remember that "signs" point to something beyond themselves and "wonders" occur to inspire us to wonder "Who is like God?" Miracles (unusual acts of God's power) happen to remind us that Providence (the usual acts of God's power) sustains all things. I see this truth reflected in Paul's words to the Greek philosophers in Athens in Acts 17:24-31 :
24"The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. 25And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. 26From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. 27God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 28'For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.'
29"Therefore since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by man's design and skill. 30In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead."
May we be in that number who have repented (a changing of the mind) and are prepared for a day of justice (that will not be deterred or escaped) because we have personally agreed with and truly accepted God's message of great grace to the entire world through Jesus Christ the Lord.
I am not making an empty or presumptuous boast concerning my service for God. I would not dare to talk about things the Lord has not done through me to help the Gentiles passionately obey God in word and deed. But I will testify concerning what he has done through me. I have fully preached the good news of Jesus from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum in the power of the Holy Spirit with signs and wonders confirming its reality. I have sought to be a pioneer and preach the good news in areas where Christ has never been proclaimed so that I wouldn't build the churches on another divine ambassador’s foundation. I have taken this scripture personally, "Those shall see to whom he was not spoken of, and those who have not heard will understand." This very mission is what has thus far kept me from coming to you in Rome. But now the season has changed for me and since I have wanted to come and see you for many years, I will visit when I am on my way to Spain. I hope the Lord will permit me to do this and enjoy your company for a while.
Comments:
Paul was a wonderful and rare combination of a theorist and a practitioner when it came to the worship of and service to God. His life experiences and his sacrificial lifestyle gave him the kind of intrinsic authority needed to speak/write to others a challenging and life-altering theological message with such vigor. Additionally, Paul had witnessed many miracles as a divine endorsement that confirmed the graceful and penetrating truths he was commissioned to proclaim. Of course, the greatest miracle he witnessed was how the simple news of Jesus combined with a childlike response of trust in the human heart radically overturned ingrained sin patterns and unleashed the love of God and neighbor like a torrent into the souls of the once-unbelieving "outsiders" of his day. The power of God is embedded in the gospel of Christ and when it is delivered with spiritual authority, it transforms people's lives for good.
I too have seen some miracles of healing, guidance, answered prayers and permanently transformed lives throughout my years of ministry beginning in 1973. I have been blessed to know many others who can say the same and more. God still endorses the simple gospel of Jesus with signs and wonders...especially on the front lines of sharing Christ's love with those who have no clue who he is or what he's done. I am always thrilled with the accounts of God's miraculous activity in our day.
Sadly, as in Jesus' day, people can become preoccupied with a desire to see the spectacular and miss the heart of why divine miracles happen. This eccentricity has led many people into fanaticism and being deceived by the false and counterfeit works of religious charlatans. In all of our longing prayers for God's genuine power to be displayed, it is so vital to remember that "signs" point to something beyond themselves and "wonders" occur to inspire us to wonder "Who is like God?" Miracles (unusual acts of God's power) happen to remind us that Providence (the usual acts of God's power) sustains all things. I see this truth reflected in Paul's words to the Greek philosophers in Athens in Acts 17:24-31 :
24"The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. 25And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. 26From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. 27God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 28'For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.'
29"Therefore since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by man's design and skill. 30In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead."
May we be in that number who have repented (a changing of the mind) and are prepared for a day of justice (that will not be deterred or escaped) because we have personally agreed with and truly accepted God's message of great grace to the entire world through Jesus Christ the Lord.
Saturday, August 7, 2010
The Romance of Romans-Part 117
Romans Chapter 15 cont'd
But in light of the special calling God has placed upon me, I have had the boldness to write to you this rather heavy letter. He has called me to be a servant of Jesus Christ by serving his good news. I'm like a priest offering up an acceptable sacrifice that has been consecrated by the Holy Spirit. But it's not animals that I offer, but rather, the whole Gentile world!
Comments:
Priesthood is a concept to which the evangelical wing of the Church does not generally have an emotional connection. In this, we have lost a major living truth that is all throughout the writings of the apostles of Christ. The main point of the Book of Hebrews is that we have, in Jesus, such a high priest who is interceding for us in the Father's presence in the highest heavens. (cf. Heb 8:1f.) Believers are qualified, through the regeneration of the Spirit, to function as a part of a many-membered royal priesthood in this world. I believe that the consciousness of our priesthood is a primary identity issue for us that is meant to inform and animate all of our worship and work.
In the garden, Adam and Eve were not just stewards over the earth that God gave them to share in with him, but they were "sacred stewards"...priests of the original creation...and the garden in Eden was the "holy of holies" within the cosmos. There is "temple language" surrounding their callings and duties to God and creation in the Genesis account. This sacred stewardship was restored to humanity through the life and ministry of Jesus to those who would identify with him through simple faith. Only now, it is taken to unprecedented heights in God's economy because we are royal priests of both creation and the new creation that was inaugurated by the resurrection and ascension of Jesus to the Father's right hand.
In this passage, Paul views himself as a priest who, through the agency of embodying and spreading the great news of Jesus, is envisaging the gathering up of the whole gentile world in his apostolic arms and offering their "redeemed by Christ through grace and faith" lives to the Father as a sweet smelling sacrifice...they are the reward of the sufferings of Jesus his Son. The Father promised to give the nations to Jesus the firstborn (of both "creation" and "from the dead"...see Col 1:15,18) as his inheritance in Psalm 2.
We also are called to view our entire lives and labors in this world as a sacred offering to the glorious Trinity...in our occupation of handling the created order and in our preoccupation of sharing the news of Christ with our fellow human beings whom he so dearly loves and died to save. The duty of royal priests can be summarized by saying: we gratefully receive what God has put into our charge, we add our love, labor and human creativity to those divine gifts, we offer back to God what we have cultivated for his honor and then we trust him to sanctify and crown...with salvific grace and power...what he, in response, gives back again into our hearts and hands for the good of all creation and its creatures. As one wise Orthodox priest noted, "In the Lord's supper, we don't offer to God wheat and grapes, but bread and wine." It is these elements that he graces with new life and healing power.
But in light of the special calling God has placed upon me, I have had the boldness to write to you this rather heavy letter. He has called me to be a servant of Jesus Christ by serving his good news. I'm like a priest offering up an acceptable sacrifice that has been consecrated by the Holy Spirit. But it's not animals that I offer, but rather, the whole Gentile world!
Comments:
Priesthood is a concept to which the evangelical wing of the Church does not generally have an emotional connection. In this, we have lost a major living truth that is all throughout the writings of the apostles of Christ. The main point of the Book of Hebrews is that we have, in Jesus, such a high priest who is interceding for us in the Father's presence in the highest heavens. (cf. Heb 8:1f.) Believers are qualified, through the regeneration of the Spirit, to function as a part of a many-membered royal priesthood in this world. I believe that the consciousness of our priesthood is a primary identity issue for us that is meant to inform and animate all of our worship and work.
In the garden, Adam and Eve were not just stewards over the earth that God gave them to share in with him, but they were "sacred stewards"...priests of the original creation...and the garden in Eden was the "holy of holies" within the cosmos. There is "temple language" surrounding their callings and duties to God and creation in the Genesis account. This sacred stewardship was restored to humanity through the life and ministry of Jesus to those who would identify with him through simple faith. Only now, it is taken to unprecedented heights in God's economy because we are royal priests of both creation and the new creation that was inaugurated by the resurrection and ascension of Jesus to the Father's right hand.
In this passage, Paul views himself as a priest who, through the agency of embodying and spreading the great news of Jesus, is envisaging the gathering up of the whole gentile world in his apostolic arms and offering their "redeemed by Christ through grace and faith" lives to the Father as a sweet smelling sacrifice...they are the reward of the sufferings of Jesus his Son. The Father promised to give the nations to Jesus the firstborn (of both "creation" and "from the dead"...see Col 1:15,18) as his inheritance in Psalm 2.
We also are called to view our entire lives and labors in this world as a sacred offering to the glorious Trinity...in our occupation of handling the created order and in our preoccupation of sharing the news of Christ with our fellow human beings whom he so dearly loves and died to save. The duty of royal priests can be summarized by saying: we gratefully receive what God has put into our charge, we add our love, labor and human creativity to those divine gifts, we offer back to God what we have cultivated for his honor and then we trust him to sanctify and crown...with salvific grace and power...what he, in response, gives back again into our hearts and hands for the good of all creation and its creatures. As one wise Orthodox priest noted, "In the Lord's supper, we don't offer to God wheat and grapes, but bread and wine." It is these elements that he graces with new life and healing power.
Saturday, July 31, 2010
The Romance of Romans-Part 116
Romans Chapter 15 cont'd:
I pray that the God of hope will fill you with abundant joy and peace through your belief in him, and that you will also overflow with this strong hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. I am confident that you dear friends are also full of goodness and knowledge and therefore able to effectively counsel and teach one another.
Comments:
There are over 30 "one another's" in the NT that, when combined, give us a fairly great list of how to practically live out what it looks like to "walk in love" within a community of faith. We all need a network of believing friends in Christ in which our fellowship experience is "eyeball to eyeball" and with whom we have regular and ongoing interdependent relationships. One of these relational responsibilities is to "instruct" or "admonish" one another...the meaning of the one Greek word used here (nouthesis) that I paraphrase in the second sentence above: "effectively counsel and teach".
Admonish is a word that, in our culture, has come to have negative overtones. This seems sad to me because it represents a very needed element in healthy friendships...it brings some "guts" and "risk" to the table and adds vital texture to a great friendship. Unless I am sometimes "challenged" by my friends, loved ones and co-workers by their pointing out something I am missing, neglecting, overdoing, falling short in...and/or the like...I tend to settle down into a self-satisfied "comfort zone" and not put my whole heart into something I have said I am committed to. Of course, I need to know that such friends are "for me" and that they are compelled by their love for me as they present their challenge. The love motive is actually embedded in the original meaning of this Greek word. Additionally, in the context of this passage, Paul outlines the qualifications for the person who can effective "admonish" another...they are to be filled with goodness and knowledge.
And even more than this...the context indicates that those who are equipped to teach others well are those who are filled with joyful hope by the Spirit's power.
In other words: Don't come messing in my personal business, if you haven't done your homework, don't have a track record of having some substantial goodness/kindess rooted in your soul, don't have the joy and peace of Christ humming within you, or...if you've lost all hope for me. But, if you've got all that...bring it on 'cause I want to keep growing. Do it with a song in your heart! ;-)
"Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God." Col 3:16
I pray that the God of hope will fill you with abundant joy and peace through your belief in him, and that you will also overflow with this strong hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. I am confident that you dear friends are also full of goodness and knowledge and therefore able to effectively counsel and teach one another.
Comments:
There are over 30 "one another's" in the NT that, when combined, give us a fairly great list of how to practically live out what it looks like to "walk in love" within a community of faith. We all need a network of believing friends in Christ in which our fellowship experience is "eyeball to eyeball" and with whom we have regular and ongoing interdependent relationships. One of these relational responsibilities is to "instruct" or "admonish" one another...the meaning of the one Greek word used here (nouthesis) that I paraphrase in the second sentence above: "effectively counsel and teach".
Admonish is a word that, in our culture, has come to have negative overtones. This seems sad to me because it represents a very needed element in healthy friendships...it brings some "guts" and "risk" to the table and adds vital texture to a great friendship. Unless I am sometimes "challenged" by my friends, loved ones and co-workers by their pointing out something I am missing, neglecting, overdoing, falling short in...and/or the like...I tend to settle down into a self-satisfied "comfort zone" and not put my whole heart into something I have said I am committed to. Of course, I need to know that such friends are "for me" and that they are compelled by their love for me as they present their challenge. The love motive is actually embedded in the original meaning of this Greek word. Additionally, in the context of this passage, Paul outlines the qualifications for the person who can effective "admonish" another...they are to be filled with goodness and knowledge.
And even more than this...the context indicates that those who are equipped to teach others well are those who are filled with joyful hope by the Spirit's power.
In other words: Don't come messing in my personal business, if you haven't done your homework, don't have a track record of having some substantial goodness/kindess rooted in your soul, don't have the joy and peace of Christ humming within you, or...if you've lost all hope for me. But, if you've got all that...bring it on 'cause I want to keep growing. Do it with a song in your heart! ;-)
"Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God." Col 3:16
Sunday, July 25, 2010
The Romance of Romans-Part 115
I pray that the God of hope will fill you with abundant joy and peace through your belief in him, and that you will also overflow with this strong hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. I am confident that you dear friends are also full of goodness and knowledge and therefore able to effectively counsel and teach one another.
Comments:
As Paul continues his many-phased benediction of Romans, he refers here to a fabulous title for our heavenly Father..."the God of hope". He is the One who definitively holds the future of all things in his heart and in his hands...and it is a marvelous future for the entire creation that Jesus Christ came to inaugurate and secure. It is a perfect future...one filled with love, justice, beauty and ongoing adventure. God is with us now through Jesus and offers himself to be the source of the renewed hope that we so desperately need as we endure and grow through the adversities of life in this world. The apostle prays for us, his readers, to be filled with abundant joy and peace (those characteristics of being that spring up, by the Spirit's power, from God's hope over us and in us) as we hold fast to our trust in Christ Jesus. It requires the power of the Holy Spirit, a power with a source beyond this realm, to live in hope within this realm. Followers of Jesus are a "prophetic sign" on display to the entire creation of God's ultimate victory over all that is evil and broken.
As we are filled with these heavenly graces, we are equipped and empowered to offer this overflowing strength to one another in the community of faith and to those who are on their way into it. We not only need what God supplies directly to our hearts and minds, but we also will need brothers and sisters in Christ all along the journey...vessels of God's goodness and truth...who will be used by the same Spirit to convey God's loving messages and support into our lives as they are needed. The church is meant to be a network of Christ-centered friends who band together to track with each other through all the various seasons of life and help inspire one another to keep moving forward to our personal finish lines.
May you be filled afresh this day with abundant joy and peace. May you abound in hope through a power beyond your own as God allows you to see what he sees and shares his very thoughts with you. May he bless you with true and wise friends now and all throughout your life, until that great day comes when the old creation is seen to be swallowed up by, fully digested by and entirely assimilated into the new. Amen.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
The Romance of Romans-Part 114
Chapter 15 cont’d:
Allow me to summarize the mystery I have unveiled to you in this letter. Jesus the Messiah was sent to the Jews for the purpose of confirming the truth of the prophetic promises God gave to the Jewish patriarchs and to make a way for the Gentiles to glorify God for the extension of his mercies to them. For scripture says, "To this end I will declare your truth to the Gentiles and sing to them about your great name." And again he says, "You Gentiles, rejoice together with the Jews." And again, "Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles and exalt him all you nations." Isaiah also prophesied, "The root of Jesse will rise to reign over all the Gentiles, and they will put their trust in him."
Comments:
I believe that this is the main biblical thematic context for all that Paul has to say in the book of Romans...his inspired understanding into the meta-narrative of the big God-Story that arches from Genesis to Revelation. The "mystery" is something that was previously hidden from the understanding of God's people (even the Hebrew prophets themselves didn't always understand with the Holy Spirit was indicating through their inspired proclamations), but that has now been explained by the advent and teaching of Jesus Christ and the spiritually authoritative revelation that he imparted to his apostolic scribes.
God gave the magnificent promises of the universal and eternal good news of the Messiah to all the ethnic groups of the earth...and to the whole of creation...in "seed form"...to and through the Abrahamic patriarchs and Jewish prophets of long ago. These prophetic promises converged and coalesced in the person and work of Christ Jesus. The result is that "the chosen people of God" now includes both believing Jews and gentiles who have had the ancient and historic wall of separation between them demolished...they have come together in Jesus to make up "one new man" through their faith in him.
Paul states this clearly in Gal 3:28-29 (as well as in many other passages in his epistles):
"There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise."
Those who insist on continuing to make distinctions, in terms of personal spiritual status, between Jews and gentiles based on their ethnicity are, often unwittingly, limiting and minimizing the work that Jesus Christ finished on the cross (and in his resurrection and ascension). This is a terrible and tragic mistake that does theological violence to the gospel.
The challenging of the "racism" that was lurking in the hearts of people in the first century was a significant part of what led to the executions of both Jesus and Paul. This same kind of "racism" still lurks in the hearts of the people of our world and it is the source of much ongoing conflict, tragedy and anguish to this day...all across the world. The resurrection of Jesus represents, among many other wonderful things, the defeat of all hateful bigotry and a faithful witness to the ultimate triumph of the love of God in the human drama.
Allow me to summarize the mystery I have unveiled to you in this letter. Jesus the Messiah was sent to the Jews for the purpose of confirming the truth of the prophetic promises God gave to the Jewish patriarchs and to make a way for the Gentiles to glorify God for the extension of his mercies to them. For scripture says, "To this end I will declare your truth to the Gentiles and sing to them about your great name." And again he says, "You Gentiles, rejoice together with the Jews." And again, "Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles and exalt him all you nations." Isaiah also prophesied, "The root of Jesse will rise to reign over all the Gentiles, and they will put their trust in him."
Comments:
I believe that this is the main biblical thematic context for all that Paul has to say in the book of Romans...his inspired understanding into the meta-narrative of the big God-Story that arches from Genesis to Revelation. The "mystery" is something that was previously hidden from the understanding of God's people (even the Hebrew prophets themselves didn't always understand with the Holy Spirit was indicating through their inspired proclamations), but that has now been explained by the advent and teaching of Jesus Christ and the spiritually authoritative revelation that he imparted to his apostolic scribes.
God gave the magnificent promises of the universal and eternal good news of the Messiah to all the ethnic groups of the earth...and to the whole of creation...in "seed form"...to and through the Abrahamic patriarchs and Jewish prophets of long ago. These prophetic promises converged and coalesced in the person and work of Christ Jesus. The result is that "the chosen people of God" now includes both believing Jews and gentiles who have had the ancient and historic wall of separation between them demolished...they have come together in Jesus to make up "one new man" through their faith in him.
Paul states this clearly in Gal 3:28-29 (as well as in many other passages in his epistles):
"There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise."
Those who insist on continuing to make distinctions, in terms of personal spiritual status, between Jews and gentiles based on their ethnicity are, often unwittingly, limiting and minimizing the work that Jesus Christ finished on the cross (and in his resurrection and ascension). This is a terrible and tragic mistake that does theological violence to the gospel.
The challenging of the "racism" that was lurking in the hearts of people in the first century was a significant part of what led to the executions of both Jesus and Paul. This same kind of "racism" still lurks in the hearts of the people of our world and it is the source of much ongoing conflict, tragedy and anguish to this day...all across the world. The resurrection of Jesus represents, among many other wonderful things, the defeat of all hateful bigotry and a faithful witness to the ultimate triumph of the love of God in the human drama.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
The Romance of Romans-Part 113
Chapter 15 cont’d:
Now may the God of patience and comfort help you to live in deep harmony of spirit with one another so that with unified hearts and voices you may, in concert, glorify God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, accept one another just as Christ, to honor his Father, has accepted each of us.
Comments:
The remaining paragraphs of Romans 15-16 are various inspired endings to this great epistle. The above section could have been put at the very end as a benediction, but there are a few other things that Paul just has to say before the real end comes.
A part of dwelling in the “sweet society” of the community of Christ, to which I referred in my last post, revolves around a basic core value of “receiving” and “accepting” one another as spiritual kinfolk, if we name the name of Christ as our Lord. The body of Christ on earth is not yet a perfect community (nor or its many individual members) and we will certainly need the patience and comfort that our Father in heaven provides if we are to experience the kind of “harmony in concert” for which the apostle prays. (One preacher stated, “The Church is like Noah’s ark…if it weren’t for the flood outside, you couldn’t stand the smell inside”! Maybe he was a bit too jaded, but there is some realism to the joke. Eugene Peterson has cautioned us in his writings about the problems that come from “idealizing” the visible church. I fell prey to this in my early days in ministry.)
Somehow we must find ongoing grace from God to seek to live out our ideals in our communities of faith without succumbing to either relational cynicism or relational idolatry.
In John’s gospel, Jesus also prayed for this kind of glorious relational unity among those who chose and those who would, in the future, choose to follow him. And…he stated that the world would both know that we are his disciples and that the Father had truly sent him because of the quality of unity and love that characterizes our relationships as fellow believers.
The love and unity among the followers of Jesus Christ is to be like a wonderful and mysterious magnetic force that pricks the consciences of those who have yet to believe in Jesus and stir them to seek out how they also might experience the kind of “basic acceptance” and “noble purpose” they long for, but fail to find in the Christ-less institutions of this age.
One of the greatest helps to the personal faith of my children was when they witnessed the innate love and unity we all experienced with “strangers” from other cultures, who also followed Jesus, whom we visited in our travels and who often visited with us in our home. When their faith was tested in young adulthood by their exposure to the secularized higher education of our culture, they remembered and compared the quality of love they witnessed and experienced in our family…and even cross-culturally…with the lack of love they witnessed in the lives/relationships of many “educated” and “successful” people who were not following Christ. In remembering they realized that they were deeply marked by the love of God and never found it necessary to walk away from the faith in Jesus they confessed as little kids. Rather, they committed themselves to their Savior afresh…in a fully-adult way…and each one, along with his/her spouse (4 of our 5 are now married), walk closely with him today.
I must confess that my papa’s heart bursts like the apostle John’s, “I have no greater joy than…that my children walk in truth.” 3 John 4
Now may the God of patience and comfort help you to live in deep harmony of spirit with one another so that with unified hearts and voices you may, in concert, glorify God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, accept one another just as Christ, to honor his Father, has accepted each of us.
Comments:
The remaining paragraphs of Romans 15-16 are various inspired endings to this great epistle. The above section could have been put at the very end as a benediction, but there are a few other things that Paul just has to say before the real end comes.
A part of dwelling in the “sweet society” of the community of Christ, to which I referred in my last post, revolves around a basic core value of “receiving” and “accepting” one another as spiritual kinfolk, if we name the name of Christ as our Lord. The body of Christ on earth is not yet a perfect community (nor or its many individual members) and we will certainly need the patience and comfort that our Father in heaven provides if we are to experience the kind of “harmony in concert” for which the apostle prays. (One preacher stated, “The Church is like Noah’s ark…if it weren’t for the flood outside, you couldn’t stand the smell inside”! Maybe he was a bit too jaded, but there is some realism to the joke. Eugene Peterson has cautioned us in his writings about the problems that come from “idealizing” the visible church. I fell prey to this in my early days in ministry.)
Somehow we must find ongoing grace from God to seek to live out our ideals in our communities of faith without succumbing to either relational cynicism or relational idolatry.
In John’s gospel, Jesus also prayed for this kind of glorious relational unity among those who chose and those who would, in the future, choose to follow him. And…he stated that the world would both know that we are his disciples and that the Father had truly sent him because of the quality of unity and love that characterizes our relationships as fellow believers.
The love and unity among the followers of Jesus Christ is to be like a wonderful and mysterious magnetic force that pricks the consciences of those who have yet to believe in Jesus and stir them to seek out how they also might experience the kind of “basic acceptance” and “noble purpose” they long for, but fail to find in the Christ-less institutions of this age.
One of the greatest helps to the personal faith of my children was when they witnessed the innate love and unity we all experienced with “strangers” from other cultures, who also followed Jesus, whom we visited in our travels and who often visited with us in our home. When their faith was tested in young adulthood by their exposure to the secularized higher education of our culture, they remembered and compared the quality of love they witnessed and experienced in our family…and even cross-culturally…with the lack of love they witnessed in the lives/relationships of many “educated” and “successful” people who were not following Christ. In remembering they realized that they were deeply marked by the love of God and never found it necessary to walk away from the faith in Jesus they confessed as little kids. Rather, they committed themselves to their Savior afresh…in a fully-adult way…and each one, along with his/her spouse (4 of our 5 are now married), walk closely with him today.
I must confess that my papa’s heart bursts like the apostle John’s, “I have no greater joy than…that my children walk in truth.” 3 John 4
Monday, July 5, 2010
The Romance of Romans-Part 112
An Addendum on Locating and Overcoming Negative "Strongholds"
The New Testament doesn't go into a lot of explicit details about the nature of "strongholds" as they have come to be understood among many believers in our generation...the kind of embedded problems (even subconscious ones) like I have been describing in my recent posts. The passage from John's first epistle below may be the best New Testament passage to turn to in which we see how the apostles thought about nature of these stubborn "strongholds" of darkness that commonly become lodged deep in the hearts of human beings...even though John doesn't call them strongholds. I think this is one of the most profound passages in all of scripture regarding personal transformation into the image of Jesus Christ.
1 Jn 3;16-24
16By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 17But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? 18Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.
19By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; 20for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. 21Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; 22and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. 23And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. 24 Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.
I will simply point out some of my observations of this passage as it relates to the "Crabbian" framework about human problems and answers I have previously written about. See if you agree.
1. vs 19: God's intention is to "reassure" our heart in the light of his grace and truth. This Greek word can also be translated "persuade"...our hearts need some persuasion to become whole.
2. vs 21: Our hearts tend to "condemn" us and this robs our "confidence before God". This is the focus of the needed "persuasion"...from condemnation to confidence.
3. vs 22: In turn, this lack of "confidence" before God in our deep heart hinders our intimate communion..our conversational relationship...with the Trinity.
4. vs 23: If, however, we gain confidence before God, our friendship with him goes to new heights, depths and breadth. We will discover a naturally/supernatural flow of prayer, obedience, discernment, faith, love for others and...
5. vs 24: ...the grace and ability to "remain present" to God ...and he to us...at all times (a good definition for "abide"). Finally, we realize how close the Holy Spirit is to us, how involved he is with us in this process and how accessible to us is his presence and power.
6. vs 16: The genesis of this transformation of heart is based in "knowing love". Firstly, the sacrificial love of Jesus for us personally. Then secondly, as a direct outcome, our sacrificial love for others.
7. vs 18: This love is authentic, genuine, divine, true, beyond rhetoric...practical and concrete.
8. vs 17: We can choose to "close our heart" to self-protect in the face of others' needs (as one example among many) which, effectively, walls us off from the "love of God". The result of the profound closing of the heart (can be sudden or gradual)...today we call it "shutting down"...is the formation of a stronghold...like the kind I have been describing.
9. vs 20: When we discover a stronghold...described by John here as a area of our life in which our heart is "condemning" us...we need not panic, they are common to us all. The self-awareness, the exposure, is a gift from God. The reality is that we do not even know the depths of our own heart. Fortunately...the "self-talk" of own heart is not the final judge of our life, for "God is greater than our heart and knows all things"! Nothing true about us can shock him, scandalize him or deter his pursuit of bringing his cleansing and healing into our hearts through Jesus the Son. We need his light to even see the precise nature of our heart's conflicts. We can fall back safely into his strong waiting arms when we are bowled over by the blows of life and our own compromises.
10. vs 19: By this...our hearts go on this journey of discovery and transformation. By what? By our ongoing experience of living in a culture in which the love in human relations goes beyond rhetoric to a more genuine and practical expression. It involves dwelling in a "sweet society"...the true Church of Jesus Christ...that understands the nature of the needs, longings, tendencies, temptations, strongholds of our hearts...and that helps create a practical pathway out of condemnation into confidence for its pilgrims. Terri and I call it a "human life refuge for the wild at heart".
However large it becomes in terms of numbers of people, the believing community must be structured/organized in such a way that it will continue to include: centrality of God himself, scripture and devotion, knowing others and being known by others on a heart level, taking genuine delight in knowing and supporting one another, freedom to be transparent without rejection, welcoming of accountability for sins (confession, restoration and restitution), generosity and compassion for the needy, family-friendliness, vocation-affirming, a sense of mission to those who have yet come to faith and a felt-reliance on the Holy Spirit's gifts and graces.
The New Testament doesn't go into a lot of explicit details about the nature of "strongholds" as they have come to be understood among many believers in our generation...the kind of embedded problems (even subconscious ones) like I have been describing in my recent posts. The passage from John's first epistle below may be the best New Testament passage to turn to in which we see how the apostles thought about nature of these stubborn "strongholds" of darkness that commonly become lodged deep in the hearts of human beings...even though John doesn't call them strongholds. I think this is one of the most profound passages in all of scripture regarding personal transformation into the image of Jesus Christ.
1 Jn 3;16-24
16By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 17But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? 18Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.
19By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; 20for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. 21Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; 22and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. 23And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. 24 Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.
I will simply point out some of my observations of this passage as it relates to the "Crabbian" framework about human problems and answers I have previously written about. See if you agree.
1. vs 19: God's intention is to "reassure" our heart in the light of his grace and truth. This Greek word can also be translated "persuade"...our hearts need some persuasion to become whole.
2. vs 21: Our hearts tend to "condemn" us and this robs our "confidence before God". This is the focus of the needed "persuasion"...from condemnation to confidence.
3. vs 22: In turn, this lack of "confidence" before God in our deep heart hinders our intimate communion..our conversational relationship...with the Trinity.
4. vs 23: If, however, we gain confidence before God, our friendship with him goes to new heights, depths and breadth. We will discover a naturally/supernatural flow of prayer, obedience, discernment, faith, love for others and...
5. vs 24: ...the grace and ability to "remain present" to God ...and he to us...at all times (a good definition for "abide"). Finally, we realize how close the Holy Spirit is to us, how involved he is with us in this process and how accessible to us is his presence and power.
6. vs 16: The genesis of this transformation of heart is based in "knowing love". Firstly, the sacrificial love of Jesus for us personally. Then secondly, as a direct outcome, our sacrificial love for others.
7. vs 18: This love is authentic, genuine, divine, true, beyond rhetoric...practical and concrete.
8. vs 17: We can choose to "close our heart" to self-protect in the face of others' needs (as one example among many) which, effectively, walls us off from the "love of God". The result of the profound closing of the heart (can be sudden or gradual)...today we call it "shutting down"...is the formation of a stronghold...like the kind I have been describing.
9. vs 20: When we discover a stronghold...described by John here as a area of our life in which our heart is "condemning" us...we need not panic, they are common to us all. The self-awareness, the exposure, is a gift from God. The reality is that we do not even know the depths of our own heart. Fortunately...the "self-talk" of own heart is not the final judge of our life, for "God is greater than our heart and knows all things"! Nothing true about us can shock him, scandalize him or deter his pursuit of bringing his cleansing and healing into our hearts through Jesus the Son. We need his light to even see the precise nature of our heart's conflicts. We can fall back safely into his strong waiting arms when we are bowled over by the blows of life and our own compromises.
10. vs 19: By this...our hearts go on this journey of discovery and transformation. By what? By our ongoing experience of living in a culture in which the love in human relations goes beyond rhetoric to a more genuine and practical expression. It involves dwelling in a "sweet society"...the true Church of Jesus Christ...that understands the nature of the needs, longings, tendencies, temptations, strongholds of our hearts...and that helps create a practical pathway out of condemnation into confidence for its pilgrims. Terri and I call it a "human life refuge for the wild at heart".
However large it becomes in terms of numbers of people, the believing community must be structured/organized in such a way that it will continue to include: centrality of God himself, scripture and devotion, knowing others and being known by others on a heart level, taking genuine delight in knowing and supporting one another, freedom to be transparent without rejection, welcoming of accountability for sins (confession, restoration and restitution), generosity and compassion for the needy, family-friendliness, vocation-affirming, a sense of mission to those who have yet come to faith and a felt-reliance on the Holy Spirit's gifts and graces.
Saturday, July 3, 2010
The Romance of Romans-Part 111
Romans 15 cont'd
Even the most powerful man of all, Jesus Christ, didn't use his power to create for himself a pain-free and pleasure-filled earthly life. As scripture says, "I have personally identified with and embraced the rejection they have shown you O God." All the scriptures have been written to impart knowledge, patience and comfort to us so that we can live in hope- a confident expectation of a glorious future.
Comments:
So to conclude these "Sullivant on Crabb" series of blogs from this paragraph in Romans 15 (Parts 103-111)...
God has permitted for us to be born into and live within a context of conflict...spiritual warfare...if you will. The "good fight of faith" revolves around securing and maintaining a confidence in the depths of our being regarding his goodness despite the adversity we continually face. This requires embracing a perspective that perceives that "resistance" has a divine purpose and a noble end...to build spiritual and relational "muscles" that equip us both for this life and the age to come.
From our earliest days we have learned to rely on our own distorted and sinful strategies of coping with the pain of rejections and injustices and have developed embedded "styles of relating" that 1) rob us of the freedom to be the "truest selves" that God has in mind for us to become in Christ and 2) blind us to the negative strongholds that are empowering our reactions to people and events that pose a threat to our self-made and fragile comfort zones. All the while, the evil one is subtly enticing us to buy in to lies that are camouflaged as the "best ways" to navigate the dangers of living in a fallen world.
Genuinely becoming more like Christ then involves 1) welcoming the Holy Spirit's work to graciously expose these lies (normally through scripture and wise friends over the years), 2) learning the art of not over-reacting to perceived threats, but rather, turning to and trusting God for help, moment by moment, in order to discover the "space" we need to discern what his love and liberty "look like" for us like in any given situation and 3) boldly choosing to live in this love and freedom and leave the consequences in God's mighty hands.
This crisis/process journey results in our discovering an authentically spiritual "way of being" that informs a "way of relating" and a "way of doing" that glorifies God, honors Jesus Christ and invites the power of the Holy Spirit to trump the inferior powers of human culture, our own foolish ways and spiritual darkness.
Romans 15 states that "all the scriptures" have been written so that we might receive:
1) the knowledge we need to see what is really going on in our great Father's mind, our fallen world, the war room of our enemy, our broken and longing hearts, our ingrained over-reactions to life's pains and the way that Christ's love can win out;
2) the patience that will be required for us to continue to trust God and his goodness over the long haul of many years despite the adversity and the adversaries;
3) the legitimate and blessed comfort coming from the good hand of God that helps to regularly compensate and reinvigorate our hearts that get so battle-weary.
And so...we are liberated and empowered from within to burn with, shine and radiate the transcendent life of Jesus Christ and be/become the person he has planned for us to be. Then we will naturally/supernaturally do what he has created us to do.
Even the most powerful man of all, Jesus Christ, didn't use his power to create for himself a pain-free and pleasure-filled earthly life. As scripture says, "I have personally identified with and embraced the rejection they have shown you O God." All the scriptures have been written to impart knowledge, patience and comfort to us so that we can live in hope- a confident expectation of a glorious future.
Comments:
So to conclude these "Sullivant on Crabb" series of blogs from this paragraph in Romans 15 (Parts 103-111)...
God has permitted for us to be born into and live within a context of conflict...spiritual warfare...if you will. The "good fight of faith" revolves around securing and maintaining a confidence in the depths of our being regarding his goodness despite the adversity we continually face. This requires embracing a perspective that perceives that "resistance" has a divine purpose and a noble end...to build spiritual and relational "muscles" that equip us both for this life and the age to come.
From our earliest days we have learned to rely on our own distorted and sinful strategies of coping with the pain of rejections and injustices and have developed embedded "styles of relating" that 1) rob us of the freedom to be the "truest selves" that God has in mind for us to become in Christ and 2) blind us to the negative strongholds that are empowering our reactions to people and events that pose a threat to our self-made and fragile comfort zones. All the while, the evil one is subtly enticing us to buy in to lies that are camouflaged as the "best ways" to navigate the dangers of living in a fallen world.
Genuinely becoming more like Christ then involves 1) welcoming the Holy Spirit's work to graciously expose these lies (normally through scripture and wise friends over the years), 2) learning the art of not over-reacting to perceived threats, but rather, turning to and trusting God for help, moment by moment, in order to discover the "space" we need to discern what his love and liberty "look like" for us like in any given situation and 3) boldly choosing to live in this love and freedom and leave the consequences in God's mighty hands.
This crisis/process journey results in our discovering an authentically spiritual "way of being" that informs a "way of relating" and a "way of doing" that glorifies God, honors Jesus Christ and invites the power of the Holy Spirit to trump the inferior powers of human culture, our own foolish ways and spiritual darkness.
Romans 15 states that "all the scriptures" have been written so that we might receive:
1) the knowledge we need to see what is really going on in our great Father's mind, our fallen world, the war room of our enemy, our broken and longing hearts, our ingrained over-reactions to life's pains and the way that Christ's love can win out;
2) the patience that will be required for us to continue to trust God and his goodness over the long haul of many years despite the adversity and the adversaries;
3) the legitimate and blessed comfort coming from the good hand of God that helps to regularly compensate and reinvigorate our hearts that get so battle-weary.
And so...we are liberated and empowered from within to burn with, shine and radiate the transcendent life of Jesus Christ and be/become the person he has planned for us to be. Then we will naturally/supernaturally do what he has created us to do.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
The Romance of Romans-Part 110
Romans 15 cont'd
Even the most powerful man of all, Jesus Christ, didn't use his power to create for himself a pain-free and pleasure-filled earthly life. As scripture says, "I have personally identified with and embraced the rejection they have shown you O God." All the scriptures have been written to impart knowledge, patience and comfort to us so that we can live in hope- a confident expectation of a glorious future.
Comments:
Our friend, Steve Morrison of Healing for the Nations, opens one of the teaching sessions asking, "How many of you would like to have your sense of physical pain taken away"? Of course, after a bit of thought everyone realizes that our ability to feel pain is needed to keep us from greater harm or alert us to a condition that could be fatal. C. S. Lewis wrote that "pain is God speaking through a megaphone to a world that is not listening".
We are not easily reconciled to the fact that we will experience pain in this world...even profound pain...and everyone does, though we imagine that there are these "beautiful people" who do not. It isn't true, despite the images that the media and advertising industry throw our way. God's truth in scripture teaches us over and over that we will have our share of pain, but that he still is good and that he loves us more than we can imagine. He teaches us that there is meaning and purpose for the pains we experience as we live in a fallen world. Pain is productive, though it doesn't feel like it to us when we are going through it.
Somehow we need to grasp and internalize the reality of 2 Cor 4:17-18: "For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen."
Notice the juxtapositions here: momentary...eternal; light...weight; affliction...glory. Then notice the word "produce". Finally notice that we become conscious of these very real connections of opposites only when we "look" at our situation from a particular perspective...looking with a set of eyes that sees into the invisible realm. This kind of sight is essential if we are going to move beyond being victims of life to being victors in life...without becoming obnoxiously triumphal! Pain is real. Pain is hard. Don't go looking for pain...it will find you on its own. But, pain itself is not our enemy.
I am convinced that displacing the inferior supreme goal of self-protection that gets lodged in our souls must be disrupted and displaced by the power of the Holy Spirit in order for us to be and progressively become our truest selves...the genuine persons that Jesus came to save and display to creation. This is a practical way to think of and apply our need for co-crucifixion and resurrection with Jesus. If we cooperate with this agenda of the heavenly Father for our lives, then we will be able to slough off our childish, sinful and non-integrous "strongholds" that we have patterned ourselves to hide behind. We will be able to forgive as we have been forgiven because we realize that another human being cannot thwart our goal of life...no matter what they have done or not done. (Larry Crabb expounds on this as it relates to marriage problems in his classic book, The Marriage Builder.) We will cast off our energy-draining false selves...all the lies and foolish inner vows; the overuse of our strengths; the silly ways we try to mimic others instead of being comfortable in our own skin.
As the Holy Spirit brings his timely and compassionate exposure of our childish ways of coping...especially through the Word of God and the people of God...the invisible walls (like a Star Trek force field) we've activated since our youth will gradually, and sometimes dramatically, dissolve. As we settle our controversy with our great and good Father in heaven regarding why he has given us such longings, allowed them to be thwarted, reinforced to us that only he can fully satisfy our desperate thirst, but that we will have to wait for their full satisfaction until a future time (though he strategically provides substantial tokens of the reality of this promise that makes living in sin a boring and unsatisfactory proposition)...new dimensions of our hearts will come alive to receive the Father's love, return this love back to him and then receive more of it again so that it can flow freely though us to other people of all kinds.
We will begin to "walk in love" and the guidance and faith we so often fret over to "get from God" will catch us up in its current. If we love, we know God and we do his highest will...it becomes naturally-supernatural.
Gal 5:5-7 "For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love. You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth?"
Even the most powerful man of all, Jesus Christ, didn't use his power to create for himself a pain-free and pleasure-filled earthly life. As scripture says, "I have personally identified with and embraced the rejection they have shown you O God." All the scriptures have been written to impart knowledge, patience and comfort to us so that we can live in hope- a confident expectation of a glorious future.
Comments:
Our friend, Steve Morrison of Healing for the Nations, opens one of the teaching sessions asking, "How many of you would like to have your sense of physical pain taken away"? Of course, after a bit of thought everyone realizes that our ability to feel pain is needed to keep us from greater harm or alert us to a condition that could be fatal. C. S. Lewis wrote that "pain is God speaking through a megaphone to a world that is not listening".
We are not easily reconciled to the fact that we will experience pain in this world...even profound pain...and everyone does, though we imagine that there are these "beautiful people" who do not. It isn't true, despite the images that the media and advertising industry throw our way. God's truth in scripture teaches us over and over that we will have our share of pain, but that he still is good and that he loves us more than we can imagine. He teaches us that there is meaning and purpose for the pains we experience as we live in a fallen world. Pain is productive, though it doesn't feel like it to us when we are going through it.
Somehow we need to grasp and internalize the reality of 2 Cor 4:17-18: "For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen."
Notice the juxtapositions here: momentary...eternal; light...weight; affliction...glory. Then notice the word "produce". Finally notice that we become conscious of these very real connections of opposites only when we "look" at our situation from a particular perspective...looking with a set of eyes that sees into the invisible realm. This kind of sight is essential if we are going to move beyond being victims of life to being victors in life...without becoming obnoxiously triumphal! Pain is real. Pain is hard. Don't go looking for pain...it will find you on its own. But, pain itself is not our enemy.
I am convinced that displacing the inferior supreme goal of self-protection that gets lodged in our souls must be disrupted and displaced by the power of the Holy Spirit in order for us to be and progressively become our truest selves...the genuine persons that Jesus came to save and display to creation. This is a practical way to think of and apply our need for co-crucifixion and resurrection with Jesus. If we cooperate with this agenda of the heavenly Father for our lives, then we will be able to slough off our childish, sinful and non-integrous "strongholds" that we have patterned ourselves to hide behind. We will be able to forgive as we have been forgiven because we realize that another human being cannot thwart our goal of life...no matter what they have done or not done. (Larry Crabb expounds on this as it relates to marriage problems in his classic book, The Marriage Builder.) We will cast off our energy-draining false selves...all the lies and foolish inner vows; the overuse of our strengths; the silly ways we try to mimic others instead of being comfortable in our own skin.
As the Holy Spirit brings his timely and compassionate exposure of our childish ways of coping...especially through the Word of God and the people of God...the invisible walls (like a Star Trek force field) we've activated since our youth will gradually, and sometimes dramatically, dissolve. As we settle our controversy with our great and good Father in heaven regarding why he has given us such longings, allowed them to be thwarted, reinforced to us that only he can fully satisfy our desperate thirst, but that we will have to wait for their full satisfaction until a future time (though he strategically provides substantial tokens of the reality of this promise that makes living in sin a boring and unsatisfactory proposition)...new dimensions of our hearts will come alive to receive the Father's love, return this love back to him and then receive more of it again so that it can flow freely though us to other people of all kinds.
We will begin to "walk in love" and the guidance and faith we so often fret over to "get from God" will catch us up in its current. If we love, we know God and we do his highest will...it becomes naturally-supernatural.
Gal 5:5-7 "For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love. You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth?"
Friday, June 18, 2010
The Romance of Romans-Part 109
Romans 15 cont'd
Even the most powerful man of all, Jesus Christ, didn't use his power to create for himself a pain-free and pleasure-filled earthly life. As scripture says, "I have personally identified with and embraced the rejection they have shown you O God." All the scriptures have been written to impart knowledge, patience and comfort to us so that we can live in hope- a confident expectation of a glorious future.
Comments:
So, continuing on diagnosing the pattern of how we form deeper subterranean problems and a "false self" that is beset with negative strongholds....
Why is it that it is so difficult to displace the "clenched fist in our gut" of self-protection with the "golden goal" of "vulnerably trusting God" or "getting to know God better"? Is it not simply because God is the One who gave us the longings for intimacy and impact and then placed us in the environment of a broken world in which he knew that these longings would be significantly undermined and remain unsatisfied (though not fully so)? We have a subtle and profound controversy with God that is challenging to settle on a deep heart level. It's hard for many of us to admit, because it seems so irreligious. Yet, how can we realistically trust him on a gut level when we have doubts about his goodness? We instinctively don't trust anyone we don't believe is good. This was the original temptation offered by the serpent to Eve and Adam in the garden..."God is not good...he cannot be trusted...take your destiny into your own hands."
So we are in a bind that we desperately need to address. We must somehow become reconciled to the pain of the sufferings that God has, at least, allowed to come our way in the course of life. We must make peace with the reality that no human being on earth will meet our deepest need for intimacy...not the best parent, the closest friend or the most faithful mate. We must face the fact that we live in a world in which not everything is going well and nothing is going perfectly. And...that it never will until we are in the very presence of and face to face with Christ. We must learn to navigate in cultures in which there will always be obstacles that hinder us from freely making the impact we long to make and achieving the purposes we long to fulfill.
Yes, only God himself can possibly meet our deepest yearnings for intimacy and impact...and he will...but even then, he requires us to wait for another age for their full satisfaction. (Though surely, he does provide tokens and a down payment on their reality by "being with us" here and now by his Spirit. Moreover, he uses blessed people in this world as instruments of his love in our lives. He also showers us with many simple joys and blessings of life.) Self-protection seems reasonable, but tragically, it blocks us from receiving the generous love that God has to give us (and that he desires to flow through us to others) even in this fallen world. Experiencing and passing on his love is the very reason for our existence on the planet! It is the essence of the only thing that really matters in our lives. And...unfortunately or not...it is simply incompatible with the goal of self-protection!
Somehow we must discover that the inevitable pains and sufferings of living in this age have a redemptive purpose. This is what Jesus and the apostles say to us over and over again in the gospels and epistles in so many ways. Yes, yes, yes...God is good. Do you believe it...do I? Do I...really?
"Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all." 2 Cor 4:16-17
"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." James 1:2-4
Life in this world can be extremely hard, but God is still good. (Thankfully, there is also much of God's beauty still to behold as it is reflected in this world...so we should drink it in whenever we can and wherever we discover it!) It's not the end of the story and the scriptures have been written to impart to us "knowledge", "patience" and "comfort", by the power of the Holy Spirit, so that we can "live in hope". This is what all those Bible stories point to...what all the letters instruct us about.
Over-zealous revivalists often lead us to think that an unprecedented move of God across the globe will negate and transcend our need for "low level" virtues like "patience" and "comfort" and "hope"...but they are badly mistaken and they always leave many well-intentioned believers disillusioned along the roadways of life after the human zeal subsides. But God is full of his own zeal and his intentions for our lives, both now and in the age to come, will not be deterred if we put our trust in him.
Even the most powerful man of all, Jesus Christ, didn't use his power to create for himself a pain-free and pleasure-filled earthly life. As scripture says, "I have personally identified with and embraced the rejection they have shown you O God." All the scriptures have been written to impart knowledge, patience and comfort to us so that we can live in hope- a confident expectation of a glorious future.
Comments:
So, continuing on diagnosing the pattern of how we form deeper subterranean problems and a "false self" that is beset with negative strongholds....
Why is it that it is so difficult to displace the "clenched fist in our gut" of self-protection with the "golden goal" of "vulnerably trusting God" or "getting to know God better"? Is it not simply because God is the One who gave us the longings for intimacy and impact and then placed us in the environment of a broken world in which he knew that these longings would be significantly undermined and remain unsatisfied (though not fully so)? We have a subtle and profound controversy with God that is challenging to settle on a deep heart level. It's hard for many of us to admit, because it seems so irreligious. Yet, how can we realistically trust him on a gut level when we have doubts about his goodness? We instinctively don't trust anyone we don't believe is good. This was the original temptation offered by the serpent to Eve and Adam in the garden..."God is not good...he cannot be trusted...take your destiny into your own hands."
So we are in a bind that we desperately need to address. We must somehow become reconciled to the pain of the sufferings that God has, at least, allowed to come our way in the course of life. We must make peace with the reality that no human being on earth will meet our deepest need for intimacy...not the best parent, the closest friend or the most faithful mate. We must face the fact that we live in a world in which not everything is going well and nothing is going perfectly. And...that it never will until we are in the very presence of and face to face with Christ. We must learn to navigate in cultures in which there will always be obstacles that hinder us from freely making the impact we long to make and achieving the purposes we long to fulfill.
Yes, only God himself can possibly meet our deepest yearnings for intimacy and impact...and he will...but even then, he requires us to wait for another age for their full satisfaction. (Though surely, he does provide tokens and a down payment on their reality by "being with us" here and now by his Spirit. Moreover, he uses blessed people in this world as instruments of his love in our lives. He also showers us with many simple joys and blessings of life.) Self-protection seems reasonable, but tragically, it blocks us from receiving the generous love that God has to give us (and that he desires to flow through us to others) even in this fallen world. Experiencing and passing on his love is the very reason for our existence on the planet! It is the essence of the only thing that really matters in our lives. And...unfortunately or not...it is simply incompatible with the goal of self-protection!
Somehow we must discover that the inevitable pains and sufferings of living in this age have a redemptive purpose. This is what Jesus and the apostles say to us over and over again in the gospels and epistles in so many ways. Yes, yes, yes...God is good. Do you believe it...do I? Do I...really?
"Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all." 2 Cor 4:16-17
"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." James 1:2-4
Life in this world can be extremely hard, but God is still good. (Thankfully, there is also much of God's beauty still to behold as it is reflected in this world...so we should drink it in whenever we can and wherever we discover it!) It's not the end of the story and the scriptures have been written to impart to us "knowledge", "patience" and "comfort", by the power of the Holy Spirit, so that we can "live in hope". This is what all those Bible stories point to...what all the letters instruct us about.
Over-zealous revivalists often lead us to think that an unprecedented move of God across the globe will negate and transcend our need for "low level" virtues like "patience" and "comfort" and "hope"...but they are badly mistaken and they always leave many well-intentioned believers disillusioned along the roadways of life after the human zeal subsides. But God is full of his own zeal and his intentions for our lives, both now and in the age to come, will not be deterred if we put our trust in him.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
The Romance of Romans-Part 108
Romans 15 cont'd
Even the most powerful man of all, Jesus Christ, didn't use his power to create for himself a pain-free and pleasure-filled earthly life. As scripture says, "I have personally identified with and embraced the rejection they have shown you O God." All the scriptures have been written to impart knowledge, patience and comfort to us so that we can live in hope- a confident expectation of a glorious future.
Comments:
We buy into various kinds of false images and false beliefs about reality because they offer us some kind of temporary comfort or distraction or protection from the pain and shame of past rejections and injustices that we have not found a way to resolve. The embedded goal of self-protection is what fuels the fires of our negative strongholds. There is a positive kind of stronghold referred to in scripture as well. Psalm 27:1 is just one example of many:
"The LORD is my light and my salvation— whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life— of whom shall I be afraid?"
The Lord himself desires to become the one legitimate stronghold of our life. "Crabb-ian" thought would tell us that in order for this to happen, the illegitimate hidden/denied goal of self-protection must be displaced with "vulnerable trust in God". I believe that a deliberate and conscious exchange of a primary or supreme "goal" at the core of our being is the key to our freedom. This recommended new supreme goal of our life is thoroughly biblical. There are many ways to state this goal, but I believe it is the one "golden" goal that we all are designed to share in common.
Beyond this goal are many legitimate desires we may have in life and many prayers we are encouraged to pray that those desires might be satisfied; however, none of these noble desires should ever be elevated to the place in our hearts of a supreme goal. The reason it is vital that we do not confuse our desires with our goal is that human beings can thwart our desires, but no one can keep us from our goal if it is the proper one. Is there any rejection, injustice that can automatically keep us from "getting to know God better" or from "vulnerably trusting in God"? Such negative experiences should be thought of as "sufferings". When we give them to the Lord as an offering from a broken heart they become sanctified as "legitimate sufferings" or even "sufferings for the sake of Christ". Is not the scripture full of promises of how God can use "sufferings" to deepen our relationship with him? In fact, there are aspects of knowing God and identifying with him that can only be learned through pain.
Paul says it this way in Phil 3:10-11:
"I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead."
Even the most powerful man of all, Jesus Christ, didn't use his power to create for himself a pain-free and pleasure-filled earthly life. As scripture says, "I have personally identified with and embraced the rejection they have shown you O God." All the scriptures have been written to impart knowledge, patience and comfort to us so that we can live in hope- a confident expectation of a glorious future.
Comments:
We buy into various kinds of false images and false beliefs about reality because they offer us some kind of temporary comfort or distraction or protection from the pain and shame of past rejections and injustices that we have not found a way to resolve. The embedded goal of self-protection is what fuels the fires of our negative strongholds. There is a positive kind of stronghold referred to in scripture as well. Psalm 27:1 is just one example of many:
"The LORD is my light and my salvation— whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life— of whom shall I be afraid?"
The Lord himself desires to become the one legitimate stronghold of our life. "Crabb-ian" thought would tell us that in order for this to happen, the illegitimate hidden/denied goal of self-protection must be displaced with "vulnerable trust in God". I believe that a deliberate and conscious exchange of a primary or supreme "goal" at the core of our being is the key to our freedom. This recommended new supreme goal of our life is thoroughly biblical. There are many ways to state this goal, but I believe it is the one "golden" goal that we all are designed to share in common.
Beyond this goal are many legitimate desires we may have in life and many prayers we are encouraged to pray that those desires might be satisfied; however, none of these noble desires should ever be elevated to the place in our hearts of a supreme goal. The reason it is vital that we do not confuse our desires with our goal is that human beings can thwart our desires, but no one can keep us from our goal if it is the proper one. Is there any rejection, injustice that can automatically keep us from "getting to know God better" or from "vulnerably trusting in God"? Such negative experiences should be thought of as "sufferings". When we give them to the Lord as an offering from a broken heart they become sanctified as "legitimate sufferings" or even "sufferings for the sake of Christ". Is not the scripture full of promises of how God can use "sufferings" to deepen our relationship with him? In fact, there are aspects of knowing God and identifying with him that can only be learned through pain.
Paul says it this way in Phil 3:10-11:
"I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead."
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
The Romance of Romans-Part 107
Romans 15 cont'd
Even the most powerful man of all, Jesus Christ, didn't use his power to create for himself a pain-free and pleasure-filled earthly life. As scripture says, "I have personally identified with and embraced the rejection they have shown you O God." All the scriptures have been written to impart knowledge, patience and comfort to us so that we can live in hope- a confident expectation of a glorious future.
Comments:
I like to refer to the sinfully self-protective strategies that we choose and then repress as "strongholds". In 2 Cor 10:3-5, the apostle Paul makes reference to this challenge and battle we all face:
"For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ...."
The locus of the fight to tear down the strongholds of human depravity begins with our own thoughts...our images of reality, beliefs, attitudes, perspectives and mind-sets. In the language of Romans 12...it has to do with the renewing of the mind...the practical way that we put off the old self (or false self) and put on the new self (or new creation).
Strongholds are things that block us from the "knowledge of God"...a kind of "knowledge" that is rooted in a first-hand experiential intimacy with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit...relational knowledge, if you will. Strongholds hinder healthy interpersonal relationships with others and our self-awareness as well. I truly mean no disrespect, but, without substantial divine intervention, we all tend to slowly and progressively get "jerked into being jerks" by the evil one and our willful reactions to the pains of living in a fallen world in which our deepest longings are profoundly thwarted.
We may become religious jerks or irreligious jerks...either kind serves the enemy's broader schemes in our world. As Dr. Crabb would say, we are victims of sin, but we are also agents of sin. Our sinful strategies need to be graciously disrupted and displaced by the love of God through the power of the Holy Spirit in the context of Christ's community. It can and does happen...it has happened throughout the centuries in the lives of ordinary folks like us. Strongholds are stubborn and deeply embedded, but also recall from the scripture above that the spiritual weapons at our disposal are mighty through God and, when rightly applied, strongholds are demolished.
Please hang with me here...I promise that I will come to the good news of how a more radical transformation into the image of Jesus Christ happens in us by bringing every errant thought captive to him, but I believe we need to ponder the anatomy and scope of our brokenness in order to be prepped to take in, cooperate with and forever appreciate the remedy!
Even the most powerful man of all, Jesus Christ, didn't use his power to create for himself a pain-free and pleasure-filled earthly life. As scripture says, "I have personally identified with and embraced the rejection they have shown you O God." All the scriptures have been written to impart knowledge, patience and comfort to us so that we can live in hope- a confident expectation of a glorious future.
Comments:
I like to refer to the sinfully self-protective strategies that we choose and then repress as "strongholds". In 2 Cor 10:3-5, the apostle Paul makes reference to this challenge and battle we all face:
"For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ...."
The locus of the fight to tear down the strongholds of human depravity begins with our own thoughts...our images of reality, beliefs, attitudes, perspectives and mind-sets. In the language of Romans 12...it has to do with the renewing of the mind...the practical way that we put off the old self (or false self) and put on the new self (or new creation).
Strongholds are things that block us from the "knowledge of God"...a kind of "knowledge" that is rooted in a first-hand experiential intimacy with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit...relational knowledge, if you will. Strongholds hinder healthy interpersonal relationships with others and our self-awareness as well. I truly mean no disrespect, but, without substantial divine intervention, we all tend to slowly and progressively get "jerked into being jerks" by the evil one and our willful reactions to the pains of living in a fallen world in which our deepest longings are profoundly thwarted.
We may become religious jerks or irreligious jerks...either kind serves the enemy's broader schemes in our world. As Dr. Crabb would say, we are victims of sin, but we are also agents of sin. Our sinful strategies need to be graciously disrupted and displaced by the love of God through the power of the Holy Spirit in the context of Christ's community. It can and does happen...it has happened throughout the centuries in the lives of ordinary folks like us. Strongholds are stubborn and deeply embedded, but also recall from the scripture above that the spiritual weapons at our disposal are mighty through God and, when rightly applied, strongholds are demolished.
Please hang with me here...I promise that I will come to the good news of how a more radical transformation into the image of Jesus Christ happens in us by bringing every errant thought captive to him, but I believe we need to ponder the anatomy and scope of our brokenness in order to be prepped to take in, cooperate with and forever appreciate the remedy!
Monday, June 14, 2010
The Romance of Romans-Part 106
Romans 15 cont'd
Even the most powerful man of all, Jesus Christ, didn't use his power to create for himself a pain-free and pleasure-filled earthly life. As scripture says, "I have personally identified with and embraced the rejection they have shown you O God." All the scriptures have been written to impart knowledge, patience and comfort to us so that we can live in hope- a confident expectation of a glorious future.
Comments:
The terrible pain of rejections and injustices combine and add shame to our situation. We even feel ashamed of our very longings for intimacy and impact that are at the core of our being and again, left to ourselves, we are driven to find a way to cope. Our strategies are erected upon a reactionary and firm commitment at our center to "self=protect". We aren't speaking here of a kind of reasonable self-defense from physical harm, but a putting up of "walls" that generally shut out and shut down our relational vulnerability. This kind of self-protection becomes the subterranean, and usually, subtle primary goal of our broken hearts. The scripture states in Proverbs that "there is a way that seems right to a man, but the end thereof is death." To me, such self-protection seems to fit squarely into this warning.
On a surface level, we creatively make multiple choices, normally over the course of many years, that fit neatly with our now embedded goal of self-protection. We learn to make such decisions so swiftly and deftly that we lose touch with our hidden agenda that is moving us through life and relationships. We also lose touch with the very fact that we are making choices at all. We imagine that we are just "being ourselves"...though the joy of living ebbs out from us. (I am convinced at this stage of the process, the ancient enemies of God and the human soul...satan and his demonic host...are operating overtime "in cognito" to offer us false images of God, other people, our circumstances and ourselves. If we buy into these falsehoods, then the evil one's most basic work is accomplished, for he has received our personal support for his lies.)
In reaction to our profound pain (and our felt need for comfort of any kind), we form false images, we believe lies, we make unwise inner vows, we overuse our strengths, we transfer blame to undeserving people, we develop addictions, we mimic others and we employ any number of similar coping mechanisms. All of these things have a weird way of offering us a temporary comfort...this is why they are tempting to us. A particular "way of being" emerges and a "style of relating" ensues that is far from the genuine and whole person that God intends for us to be and become. Some would call this, and I believe there is merit to this, a "false self".
Of course, many people realize along the way that they need God to forgive them for their depravity...their sins of pride, lust, greed, hatred, selfishness and the like. And faithfully, God provides this forgiveness when we turn to Jesus Christ and believe in who he is and what he has done for us in his death and resurrection. Additionally, when the Holy Spirit enters our lives, he takes up his residence in our innermost being and imparts to us a new nature...a new heart...a new creation. This reality provides the new base line for us so that God and we can partner, through both crisis and process, to dislodge the sinful and hidden goal of self-protection and successfully put off the old nature...the false self...both it's way of being and it's style of relating.
Not a small battle is inaugurated in order for this to be realized! But, we are no longer alone in the fight and One who has already conquered all sin and death is our Bodyguard.
Even the most powerful man of all, Jesus Christ, didn't use his power to create for himself a pain-free and pleasure-filled earthly life. As scripture says, "I have personally identified with and embraced the rejection they have shown you O God." All the scriptures have been written to impart knowledge, patience and comfort to us so that we can live in hope- a confident expectation of a glorious future.
Comments:
The terrible pain of rejections and injustices combine and add shame to our situation. We even feel ashamed of our very longings for intimacy and impact that are at the core of our being and again, left to ourselves, we are driven to find a way to cope. Our strategies are erected upon a reactionary and firm commitment at our center to "self=protect". We aren't speaking here of a kind of reasonable self-defense from physical harm, but a putting up of "walls" that generally shut out and shut down our relational vulnerability. This kind of self-protection becomes the subterranean, and usually, subtle primary goal of our broken hearts. The scripture states in Proverbs that "there is a way that seems right to a man, but the end thereof is death." To me, such self-protection seems to fit squarely into this warning.
On a surface level, we creatively make multiple choices, normally over the course of many years, that fit neatly with our now embedded goal of self-protection. We learn to make such decisions so swiftly and deftly that we lose touch with our hidden agenda that is moving us through life and relationships. We also lose touch with the very fact that we are making choices at all. We imagine that we are just "being ourselves"...though the joy of living ebbs out from us. (I am convinced at this stage of the process, the ancient enemies of God and the human soul...satan and his demonic host...are operating overtime "in cognito" to offer us false images of God, other people, our circumstances and ourselves. If we buy into these falsehoods, then the evil one's most basic work is accomplished, for he has received our personal support for his lies.)
In reaction to our profound pain (and our felt need for comfort of any kind), we form false images, we believe lies, we make unwise inner vows, we overuse our strengths, we transfer blame to undeserving people, we develop addictions, we mimic others and we employ any number of similar coping mechanisms. All of these things have a weird way of offering us a temporary comfort...this is why they are tempting to us. A particular "way of being" emerges and a "style of relating" ensues that is far from the genuine and whole person that God intends for us to be and become. Some would call this, and I believe there is merit to this, a "false self".
Of course, many people realize along the way that they need God to forgive them for their depravity...their sins of pride, lust, greed, hatred, selfishness and the like. And faithfully, God provides this forgiveness when we turn to Jesus Christ and believe in who he is and what he has done for us in his death and resurrection. Additionally, when the Holy Spirit enters our lives, he takes up his residence in our innermost being and imparts to us a new nature...a new heart...a new creation. This reality provides the new base line for us so that God and we can partner, through both crisis and process, to dislodge the sinful and hidden goal of self-protection and successfully put off the old nature...the false self...both it's way of being and it's style of relating.
Not a small battle is inaugurated in order for this to be realized! But, we are no longer alone in the fight and One who has already conquered all sin and death is our Bodyguard.
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