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
Saturday, July 31, 2010
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.
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