The Romance of Romans-Part 85

Romans Chapter 12 cont'd

God has given to all of us a sphere of life and ministry in which to function for which we also have been given the corresponding necessary amount of faith. Our physical body is one and yet it has many members, each having a different function. So the body of Christ is one and we, each of us, are one of its many members. But even though we have various roles to play, we are organically joined both to him and to one another.

Comments:

Toward A More Healthy Community

In his book, Connecting, Dr. Larry Crabb distills years of counseling experience, biblical research, intensive work of putting thoughts into words and a whole lot of life lived to help us consider the essence of healthy interpersonal relationships. He steers us away from extreme but popularized views of how people are thought to overcome their personal and relational problems and holds out to us a few simply profound and profoundly simple, yet too often overlooked, keys to this kind of health and holiness…a pattern leading to maturity in Christ.

The two extreme views are what he refers to as 1) the moralistic model and 2) the therapy model. The first focuses on challenging people (often with hardly any empathy or compassion) that they simply need to begin to make better choices by trying harder to obey God and the Bible. The second focuses on trying, in various ways, to help people uncover the dynamic (sub-conscious) pains of injustice they have suffered and reacted to. Larry acknowledges that we all certainly have made bad choices and that we have suffered injustices, but he posits the notion that most of us won’t ultimately overcome either kinds of problems unless we “connect” with others in a healthy relational circle…a community in Christ. We need to have our wills renewed by the Holy Spirit and our broken hearts healed by Christ, but do these kinds of things actually happen regularly without a vital connection to friends in Christ who can track with us through life's journey? Larry says, “No!”...through his astute observations and many years of helping people as a professional counselor.

Furthermore, he goes on to describe the three essential elements of the kind of Christ-centered interpersonal connections that we long to experience in our communities of faith. First of all, believers need connection with some others (even a few make us extremely wealthy) who genuinely delight in who they are without reference to their failures or battles. Second, we need to realize that we all have something “powerful” (the Spirit’s presence) in us that is able to speak profoundly to the “good” that is truly present (maybe hidden or buried) in a hurting or struggling friend in Christ and call that good up and out. Third, (and the order here is very important) we are called to gently and lovingly, and in a timely manner, expose the sin or the pain in one another that we may be blind to or in denial of. All three elements are essential for well-rounded friendships.

These three elements of healthy relationships create a context for spiritual growth and I am convinced that unless we seek after and find this quality of connectedness, then we will be very limited in our communities to affect the kind of personal transformation we tend to admire, but often fail to achieve. This is a normative and mighty way that the Spirit of God has always worked in and through the friends of Jesus Christ.

The Romance of Romans-Part 84

Romans Chapter 12 cont'd

By the spiritual authority that God has vested in me, I challenge every person among you, not to think more highly of yourself than you should. We all need to receive "reality checks." God has given to all of us a sphere of life and ministry in which to function for which we also have been given the corresponding necessary amount of faith. Our physical body is one and yet it has many members, each having a different function. So the body of Christ is one and we, each of us, are one of its many members. But even though we have various roles to play, we are organically joined both to him and to one another.
And since we have different gifts, let us excel in using what we specifically have been given: if prophecy, then prophesy within the boundaries of genuine faith; if service, then serve in a way that you can do it graciously; if teaching, then teach in the areas in which you have true authority; if exhortation, then exhort according to your spiritual passion; if giving, then give from your heart without second guessing; if leadership, then lead with excellence; if showing mercy, then do it with the joy of the Lord.

Comments:

The second "reformational" point that I am positing for us as believers and our groups out of this chapter is about moving toward...A More Healthy Community. This involves creating a different kind of relational culture than what has been generally modeled to us in our histories within our societies at large and...usually...within our families and churches as well. Unhealthy relational styles and patterns have been stamped deeply upon our souls to the point where it is often difficult and threatening for us to even be made aware of them. In the NT, the apostles of Jesus hold out to us some high ideals of what it looks like to glorify God in our inter-personal relationships...to genuinely walk in the love of God. Their basic model revolves around gracefully navigating the tensions of individuality and interdependence...honoring diversity while maintaining an essential unity in the community of faith. In his epistles Paul utilized the image of the human body to help us intuit and picture this dynamic.

Some years ago, I was privileged to become a friend, though separated by time and space, with Dr. Larry Crabb. Still...we significantly touched hearts. His books had already been making a deep impact on my life when we met and his writings have continued to help me greatly through the years. I believe the whole Body of Christ is indebted to him for his wonderful contributions (forged in the fires of his own vulnerable journey and musings) toward understanding both the sanctification process and healthy relationships. He has helped to identify the "radical middle" between the traditional "moralistic" (You must try harder!) and "therapy" (You are a victim!) approaches to these two vital issues by gleaning truths from each polar opposite and integrating them into a more biblical context for understanding and engaging our personal human life and our relationships with others. I will write more about some critical points from his book "Connecting" in the next blog.

My Article on Prophetic Ministry from a 2004 Publication

Thought you might enjoy this article from the past that is now available online:

http://www.pneumafoundation.org/article.jsp?article=/MSullivant-ProphecyInTheChurchToday.xml

The Romance of Romans-Part 83

Romans Chapter 12 cont'd

In thinking about the first "reformational" point for the western church in the 21st century, A More Holistic Spirituality, I don't think we could improve upon the way that Eugene Peterson translates these first two verses in The Message. (I have already commented extensively on these verses and this first point in my previous blogs on Chapter 12.)

"So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you."

The "ordinary-ness" of most of our hours and our lives is not an automatic hindrance to engaging and enjoying a genuine interactive friendship with the holy Trinity in real time, or...true biblical spirituality The Father, Son and Spirit all promise to "be with us" and "go with us" in the full range of our being and activity. We are not called to strive to be "extra-ordinary", when it is sufficient for us to live fully human lives (with all its joys and sorrows...blessings and trials) and "let" God be his extraordinary Self to us. This kind of approach, in the end, does indeed lift us up to live lives that are supernaturally natural.

The Romance of Romans-Part 82

Romans Chapter 12 cont'd

I have "camped out" in Romans 12 for many years and have become convinced that it holds out to us a very relevant message and clear challenge for the expression of our faith here in the western world in 21st century. I believe that there are seed thoughts that can lead us into a needed "rebranding" of what it means and looks like for communities of people to genuinely follow Jesus Christ...a new reformation...if you will. Romans 12 is the beginning of the practical and logical response to who Jesus is and what he has done for the cosmos and all humanity...our part of the deal...which we can, in the end, only do well by the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. This kind of divine arrangement is what will save us from self-righteousness and yet allow us to progressively walk in authentic righteousness.

These are the four main reformational points of the chapter that stand out to me as ideals we are called to passionately pursue:

* A More Holistic Spirituality (Holistic simply means well-rounded, fuller kind of spirituality).

* A More Healthy Community. God has called us to belong to a spiritual family that is wise in the matters of relationship building and community building. We need to learn the skills about what makes for healthy relationships and what makes for long-lasting friendships.

* A More Humble Ministry. It seems to me that God has been dealing with the western church for years about pride in our lives and pride in our styles of leadership. We have allowed too much of the celebrity-mentality and arrogant entrepreneurialism to dominate our church cultures.

* A More Heart-felt Set of Values. There are some vital biblical values in this great chapter that have been generally overlooked in the personal and corporate expression of our faith in too many of our faith communities. May God help us to return with our whole hearts to the ancient simple and pure devotion to Christ that the first apostles taught and lived out.

Introducing Fully Alive Life Coaching

My dear wife, Terri, has put out her "shingle" as a life coach. She just created a new blog at: www.fullyalive5.blogspot.com. She's awesome! Her website will be up and running soon as well.

The Romance of Romans-Part 81

Romans Chapter 12 cont'd

Don't let the value system of fallen humanity mold or dictate your life or lifestyle. Rather, cooperate with God's agenda to transform you through the spiritual renewal of your thinking, so that you may be able to discern the will of God which is truly good, always acceptable and entirely perfect.

Comments:

2 Tim 1:6-7 For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit (or Spirit) of power, of love and of a sound mind.

Whenever I get the chance to preach about the Person of the Holy Spirit, I like to refer to this verse as a foundation. I believe that Paul is here referring specifically to the gift of the Holy Spirit rather than one of the gifts of the Spirit. As we survey the scriptures we indeed discover that He is a Spirit of power. He is a Spirit of love. These two aspects of the Spirit's Person and work are often referred to. And...this kind of language about him makes sense to us.

But then Paul says that the Holy Spirit is a Spirit of a sound mind, or discipline, or self-discipline...depending on the particular translation. To me, this language is strange and has inspired some further research and reflection on my part. It seems to be a neglected aspect of the Holy Spirit and yet it is as vital to a Spirit-filled human life as the first two.

It turns out that this passage is the only place in the whole Bible where this specific Greek word is used. Here is what Adam Clarke the commentator says about this word where I have also put my comments in ( ):

“Of a sound mind”, soophronismou (grk 4995), of self-possession and government, according to some. But a sound mind implies much more; it means a clear understanding, a sound judgment, a rectified will, holy passions, heavenly tempers (thoughts and feelings); in a word, the whole soul harmonized in all its powers and faculties; and completely regulated and influenced, so as to think, speak, and act aright in all things. The apostle says, God hath given the spirit of these things; they are not factitious (artificial, forced, engineered); they are not assumed for times and circumstances; they are radical powers and tempers (internal abiding realities); each produced by its proper principle (i.e. it is expressed from the inside/out).

Related ideas: discipline, self-control, sobering, safe, self-restraint, to admonish

My conviction that it is only by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that this kind of virtue can become imputed and genuinely expressed through our lives. The pathway to self-government and self-discipline and a renewed mind begins with the presence of the Person of the Holy Spirit within us. He himself is the spirit...the animating secret...of the kind of sound mind and renewed thinking that living in Christ involves.

An astounding implication of this is that the Holy Spirit doesn’t by-pass and isn’t superimposed upon our personality, but He becomes deeply joined to us in a cooperative and interactive partnership. He literally dwells within us and works through our human faculties. As a result of this reality, we become "supernaturally natural"...maybe you've heard the term before? We are not the Holy Spirit (and this clear distinction between Creator and creature must never be confused), but he enables us to become our truest selves as the faculties of our entire beings come under his divine influences. God wants us to "be ourselves" and also want us to allow him to "be himself". I'm not him and he's not me...but we make a great team! Does this bring as much peace and joy to your heart as it does to mine?

One of the most encouraging experiences we can have in life is to serve others in counsel, prayer, presence, acts of love and kindness...along with many other possible avenues...only to later discover that the Holy Spirit was quietly inspiring what we assumed were our own ideas, words and choices that were simply flowing naturally from our hearts, minds and bodies. But the feedback we receive about how those encounters met the exact needs of folks that we didn't even know they felt, convinces us that it was more than "merely us" who was working in and through us. This is what it essentially means to be "supernaturally natural"... a style of living, relating and ministering that I heartily recommend.