Mystics and the Grace of God

I have time only for a short post today.  I am almost caught up with the reading I received last Christmas.  This is good as I have a large shipment of new books coming soon.  Here is a great quote from Sally Morgenthaler's Worship Evangelism: Inviting Unbelievers into the presence of God.

"This extra 'glimpse of God' is what most of us crave.  With any experience of God's nearness comes all the blessings of God's divine nature: renewal, power to change, deliverance, comfort, joy, and peace.  It is no coincidence that these are the very things for which the world is longing and searching." pp. 97-98

Morgenthaler's argument is that worship should bring us to this place.  If it does, it is attractive to both believers and unbelievers.  The question we should ask is whether people come in contact with the living God while in worship.  I think this is a great question.

At Grace, I have heard from many that they "feel" the presence of God while with us in worship.  This observation comes from visitors, believers, unbelievers, long-time attenders, and everything in between.  I praise the Lord for this!  I pray that we encounter Him more.  But it leads me to thinking in another direction.

We long for the grace of God and thus His presence.  We know we need it.  Why don't more of us figure out how to achieve this?  Why don't we give everything we have to be in the presence of God?  I think we need more "believers" to come into the presence of God.  I believe that tasting the mercy of God's life-changing grace drives us to want more.  We know we are lacking something good when we do not have it.  We might substitute other object, people, sins, experiences for our greater good, but none of these satisfy.  Why are so many people then satisfied?  Why are so many people, even and particularly believers, not abandoning anything that gets in the way of knowing the grace of God?

Lord give us grace to become mystics engaging with You and reaching out to the lost and hurting world.

Cultural Longing and the Gospel

In the past couple of posts, I have been looking at an excerpt from an article written by Peggy Noonan concerning the cultural longing possessed by some.  Noonan argues in the excerpt that one of the primary reasons for our cultural "fear" is that we know something is amiss with today's society, and we long to go back to the "good old days."  As a historian, I have get a bit of a chuckle every time I think of the good old days because honest history shows that these days are a myth composed by individual and corporate consciousness.  Each day, decade, generation, and age has had its own strengths and weaknesses, high points and low points, as well as a continual thirst for the "good old days."  I remember reading in Jonathan Edwards' journal about his lament in the late 1740s of the godless and terrible generation that was following his.  These young adults were going on "night walks" and engaging in all types of inappropriate behavior.  That generation also played a major role in the American revolution, and today we see them as heros!

I believe the gospel offers a way beyond the idealized view of the past.  It also offers us hope for the future.  How?  It gives us a narrative or story that helps us navigate our rapidly changing culture.  It gives us our bearings in an often uneven world.  The gospel provides us with a platform to understand ourselves, our relationship with each other, our relationship with creation, and most importantly our relationship to God.

As I wrote yesterday, the first two planks for understanding the world include two seemingly opposed propositions: Creation is good and Creation is fallen.  While many would like to set these ideas as opposites, the Bible affirms both are true.  The created order of things is appropriate and good while the fallen of creation makes all things subject to decay.  These two tendencies constantly work in tension with one another in every area and dimension of creation.

How does this work within ourselves?  Have you ever noticed that you have a tendency to do the opposite of what you think you desire?  For example, you decide to love your parents/significant other/spouse better.  But they just keep irritating you!  You want to love them more, but you find that you snap at them.  This causes more pain for them and harms the relationship.  Why did you do it?  You have a good longing for love, but you have the tension of your sin tendencies/flesh at work within you (Romans 7 played out in your life).

How does this work within our relationships?  How about with creation?  Well, now we have two sinful beings together.  Where two or more are gathered, the ability to do good and evil is increased!  The desire to do good is often found within us.  At times, despite our internal obstacles, we do great acts of love, charity, and mercy.  Unfortunately, we also often have an internal desire to do good, but our external actions might not match our inward desires.  This is why humans often harm one another and why we have such a tough time taking care of creation.  More education does not help this tendency.  More laws or regulations do not help this tendency.  Please give me another worldview that explains why we as humans have such capacity of love and good deeds mixed with such a depravation and tendency toward evil?

The good news of the gospel not only explains our world through the creation and fall, but also explains where God fits within our lives and within all creation.  First, the reality of God and a relationship with Him explains our "longings" for something better.  We were created for something better than this.  I agree with C.S. Lewis who thought that this world, this life, was a shadow to reminder of the glorious life to come.  It also is a constant reminder of the way we were created to be!  We were made to be in perfect relationship with God, with creation, with others, with ourselves.  This perfect relationship is lost causing us to long for something better.  In my mind, this explains Noonan's cultural longing, and the political left's desire for a utopia made by government since we cannot do it on our own.  Both expressions from the political right and left are explained by the reality of created good but fallen.

Second, the gospel explains how to get out of the mess in which we often find ourselves.  We need to repent, which means to confess our sin and to seek to turn to something better.  To whom do we repent? To the God who created us as well as to those we hurt.  The second major theme of scripture and all of history is the reality that God loves us so much He does not want us to stay where we are.  He pursues us.  He knows a better future for us.  Yet, this is not a weak personal faith that is only concerned with the individual.  He seeks the restoration of all creation.  He also promises that one day all will be set right when He establishes a new heaven and new earth that will perfectly reflect the way creation should be!

Ultimately, the gospel points us to our need to be in relationship with the living God.  This God is concerned with every area of our lives and with all of creation.  Why?  Because that is the way we were made!  Our problem is that our sin, which should be defined as our wandering away from our created good, separates us from this living God.  He is holy and perfect.  We are not.  How can we solve our need to be rid of our sin?  Can we get rid of it through our will power?  Can we somehow pay for our sins through deeds of righteousness and forsaking all future sin?  Can we ignore the problem and hope that God does also?

No, the glory of the gospel is that we need do none of those things!  Why?  If we are honest, we cannot do any of them.  Try as we might, we cannot take care of our sin problem by ourselves.  God knows this.  That is why He took care of the sin problem Himself.  Jesus Christ was born into this world to take the form of sinful man, though He was not sinful.  He lived a perfect life.  He drove the religious people crazy and the sinners loved Him.  Then after a short, but eventual ministry He was wrongly killed.  He was beaten, bruised, and then crucified.  Why?  Because it was part of God's plan from before creation (Eph. 1:4).

Jesus would die the death we deserved to give us the grace and mercy of God that we not deserve.  This grace and mercy is the beginnings of a restored relationship with God, with ourselves, with others, and with creation.  We enter into it by faith, which is trust that Jesus died for us and was raised to life to secure our new life.  When we believe, the Holy Spirit enters into our life, and we begin the process of growing back to our created good.  We continue to struggle with sin, but when we do we should repent and believe the gospel!  By and through the power of the risen Christ, we walk by faith in the process of being restored to the people God made us to be.

There is so much more to say!  Thankfully there will be future posts.

Cultural changes and a Christian Worldview

"Like clouds and wind without rain is one who does not give what he promises." Somewhere in Proverbs, sort of.

I thought I would get right back to this post, but I did not.  The end of last week was marked by very high heat, and high heat makes me a very stupid man.  Late last week, every morning was full and by the afternoon it was 95 degrees and I just could not think.  Every year I think, "We don't need an air-conditioner."  This year I might look for one at a yard sale!

The following is an excerpt from an article sent to me.  I will be commenting today on how a Christian worldview dispels the typical "cultural refugee" mentality that often marks the church.

From Peggy Noonan

This Is No Time for Games

Ronald Reagan wouldn't be playing 'Targeted Catastrophe'

But there are other reasons for American unease, and in a way some are deeper and more pervasive. Some are cultural. Here are only two. Pretty much everyone over 50 in America feels on some level like a refugee. That's because they were born in one place—the old America—and live now in another. We're like immigrants, whether we literally are or not. One of the reasons America has always celebrated immigrants is a natural, shared knowledge that they left behind everything they knew to enter a place that was different—different language, different ways and manners, different food and habits, different tempo. This took courage. They missed the old country. There's a line in a Bernard Shaw play, "Mrs. Warren's Profession": "I kept myself lonely for you!" That is the unspoken sentence of all immigrants toward their children—I made myself long for an old world so you could have a better one.

But everyone over 50 in America feels a certain cultural longing now. They hear the new culture out of the radio, the TV, the billboard, the movie, the talk show. It is so violent, so sexualized, so politicized, so rough. They miss the old America they were born into, 50 to 70 years ago. And they fear, deep down, that this new culture, the one their children live in, isn't going to make it. Because it is, in essence, an assaultive culture, from the pop music coming out of the rental car radio to the TSA agent with her hands on your kids' buttocks. We are increasingly strangers here, and we fear for the future. There are, by the way, 100 million Americans over 50. A third of the nation. That's a lot of displaced people. They are part of the wrong-track numbers.

So is this. In the Old America there were a lot of bad parents. There always are, because being a parent is hard, and not everyone has the ability or even the desire. But in the old America you knew it wasn't so bad, because the culture could bring the kids up. Inadequate parents could sort of say, 'Go outside and play in the culture," and the culture—relatively innocent, and boring—could be more or less trusted to bring the kids up. Popular songs, the messages in movies—all of it was pretty hopeful, and, to use a corny old word, wholesome. Grown-ups now know you can't send the kids out to play in the culture, because the culture will leave them distorted and disturbed. And there isn't less bad parenting now than there used to be. There may be more.

There is so much unease and yearning and sadness in America. So much good, too, so much energy and genius. But it isn't a country anyone should be playing games with, and adding to the general sense of loss.

So how should a Christian respond to these observations?  First, we must acknowledge that people do feel this way.  These feelings of alienation are real.  Yet, we must not give into the cultural stupidity that says we cannot critique or correct another's worldview of opinions.  In a gracious manner, it is possible to tell someone that while they might feel or think a certain way, they might want to consider a different alternative.  I would suggest an alternative informed by a Christian worldview.

First, cultures rise and fall according to how closely they mirror the created good.  In the beginning God created all things including humans to reflect purpose, direction, and unity to the will of God.  As a result, God created culture to also reflect the goodness, love, kindness, and wholeness of God.  As a culture or an individual come closer to character of God and to their created good, they reflect a wholeness and beauty that is winsome, healthy, and good.  As a culture or an individual drift away from their created good, they reflect disharmony, anger, dis-ease, and evil.  In other words, our behaviors, our cultural decisions, and our art that reflects our culture are not neutral.

The reason for our ability to drift away from our created good is what the Bible describes as the Fall of humanity.  With the Fall, every element of human personality is infected by the tendency toward evil.  This does not mean that humans are totally evil!  It means that we have to be on guard against our own tendency toward sin and away from our created good.  Often these movements seem so natural to us.  What they are is our fallen nature speaking!  The problem is that the more fallen humans we have making decisions, the more tendency to move away from our created good.  If there is not a check on this tendency, soon what is wicked is declared good and what is good will be declared evil.  At this point, the culture either has revival or it is lost to internal decay and eventually invasion of some sort.

All of this to dispel and to denounce our cultural insistence that no one can judge or declare another's opinions incorrect.  This is a false declaration.  We can and should decide the rightness, healthiness, and good of each cultural and individual choice.  Those that drift away from a created good should be lovingly and graciously told about the beauty and wholeness of our created good.  They should be lovingly pointed to something better!  We also should understand that some contemporary art is an attempt to illustrate the feelings of alienation and lostness felt by the artist.  These feelings should be encouraged, but transcended by pointing the individual to something higher and better.

This greater good is a relationship with God through the gospel.

Hopefully tomorrow, I will finish this series by tying the first two posts together in describing how the gospel addresses the culture and offers hope of restoration.

Culture changes and religion

Today's and tomorrow's blog will be a bit different.  Both will begin with a brief excerpt from an article written by Peggy Noonan.  The question I had from a thoughtful man in my congregation was what does this have to do with religion in America?  I thought it was a good question!  Instead of writing him back directly, I thought I would share my comments in the blog so others may hopefully benefit.  Today I will write about those who share Noonan's feelings of cultural unease and import it into their religious practice.  Tomorrow will share an alternative view.

I am always looking for new material to think about, so send me more!

From Peggy Noonan

This Is No Time for Games

Ronald Reagan wouldn't be playing 'Targeted Catastrophe'

But there are other reasons for American unease, and in a way some are deeper and more pervasive. Some are cultural. Here are only two. Pretty much everyone over 50 in America feels on some level like a refugee. That's because they were born in one place—the old America—and live now in another. We're like immigrants, whether we literally are or not. One of the reasons America has always celebrated immigrants is a natural, shared knowledge that they left behind everything they knew to enter a place that was different—different language, different ways and manners, different food and habits, different tempo. This took courage. They missed the old country. There's a line in a Bernard Shaw play, "Mrs. Warren's Profession": "I kept myself lonely for you!" That is the unspoken sentence of all immigrants toward their children—I made myself long for an old world so you could have a better one.

But everyone over 50 in America feels a certain cultural longing now. They hear the new culture out of the radio, the TV, the billboard, the movie, the talk show. It is so violent, so sexualized, so politicized, so rough. They miss the old America they were born into, 50 to 70 years ago. And they fear, deep down, that this new culture, the one their children live in, isn't going to make it. Because it is, in essence, an assaultive culture, from the pop music coming out of the rental car radio to the TSA agent with her hands on your kids' buttocks. We are increasingly strangers here, and we fear for the future. There are, by the way, 100 million Americans over 50. A third of the nation. That's a lot of displaced people. They are part of the wrong-track numbers.

So is this. In the Old America there were a lot of bad parents. There always are, because being a parent is hard, and not everyone has the ability or even the desire. But in the old America you knew it wasn't so bad, because the culture could bring the kids up. Inadequate parents could sort of say, 'Go outside and play in the culture," and the culture—relatively innocent, and boring—could be more or less trusted to bring the kids up. Popular songs, the messages in movies—all of it was pretty hopeful, and, to use a corny old word, wholesome. Grown-ups now know you can't send the kids out to play in the culture, because the culture will leave them distorted and disturbed. And there isn't less bad parenting now than there used to be. There may be more.

There is so much unease and yearning and sadness in America. So much good, too, so much energy and genius. But it isn't a country anyone should be playing games with, and adding to the general sense of loss.

So what does this mean for religion?  I think for some it means much.  Many churches and Christians base their faith on a warped longing for the past.  As Noonan states, they feel like refugees in the midst of confusion.  Religion becomes the anchor that keeps then stable in the midst of turbulent cultural seas.  All a church needs is the underlying message that "our faith" is the "old-time faith and values."  Then, the church attracts other cultural refugees who have the same feeling of lostness and alienation.  

What does this look like?  I believe it is the foundation for many fundamentalist and conservative churches in America.  I use these terms broadly, and I hope not in a pejorative manner.  While much of the doctrinal conservation of these churches is commendable, their approach to culture and outreach is marked highly by this refugee feeling.  For them, evangelism means to come and embrace our culture.  Be like us and be saved from this evil world.  The message of these churches is one of condemning our "secular" and awful culture.  There is often a high emphasis on children and children's ministries, because these churches fear for our youth.  

In another manifestation, these churches may embrace a 1950's style of worship, church governance, or church social networks.  They might be reluctant to change anything of worship style because of an underlying fear that such a change will be giving in to a secular age.  Any attempt to change even the smallest element of worship will be seen as proof of secularization.  In the same way, church woman's groups may reflect this tendency.  By emphasizing "staying at home" and by having ministries during the day they harken back to a day in the 1950s when much less women worked outside the home.  Unfortunately, they also silently condemn those women who cannot make these meetings because of work.  

What is interesting is that churches can grow using these methods if they can tie into enough "cultural refugees" in the surrounding culture.  Most of these "cultural refugees" will be churched or formerly churched, and Republican/political conservatives.  This type of church will have a hard time reaching out to those who embrace today's culture.

This refugee feeling also has manifestations in the lives of individual Christians.  I have seen it take several completely different directions in the lives of individuals and their families.  One manifestation is the culture rejecting Christian.  This believer and their family, in defiance to the culture, dress and act like people who live on a farm in the 1950s.  To help them in this cultural rejecting stance, they often gather into a church of like-minded people.  Like the Amish or the strict Mennonites, they do offer an alternative!  One side effect is that they silently but clearly condemn anyone who is not like them.  In my experience, the children of these families either whole-heartedly embrace or reject this lifestyle.  

A second direction runs in the opposite direction.  These believers want their families to fit in with other families.  They allow their children to dress like and to play with all types of people.  What is different is they pick certain cultural phenomena as demonic while embracing the rest.  They also join rigid fundamentalist churches.  Why?  I think Noonan is onto something here.  These churches are picked to help "raise the children."  The rest of the culture is evil, so we sprinkle in the church to make all the difference.  The unarticulated assumption is that the church can be the anchor that holds our children in the midst of the raging cultural seas.  

As a youth pastor for years, I have seen this many times.  The entire family structure is not Christian, and it is not shaped by a Christian worldview/framework.  It has particular elements of culture it condemns, often rather loudly and condemning of those who do not reject these elements as loudly.  Yet, the children are left for the culture to shape and form.  The parents may love their children, but they do not do a good job of raising them to think Christianly.  Instead they expect the youth pastor and church to somehow "save" their children, while embracing a culture that points away from the gospel.

Tomorrow, I will talk about an alternative view of religion in America.  I will offer an opinion on how the gospel cuts through these tendencies to reach out into the culture with Christian understanding and thought.

End of Vacation

"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?" Ps. 27:1

I am so ready to get back to work!  It is amazing how this anticipation has increased for being back at writing, meeting with folks, preaching, etc.  It has increased in just the past couple of days.  Today, I wanted to share what I learned over the past couple of weeks.

First, as Americans we do not know how to vacation very well!  In the past twenty years, we have moved from taking weeks off at a time to taking long weekends for breaks.  I have to say that long weekends actually increase our work-load.  We really do not get a definitive break from work, but a short breather that requires us to work harder to prepare to leave and to work harder when we get back to make up for what we missed.  I know it is better than nothing, but I would say that it is barely better than nothing.

When I was a kid, my parents had a "camp" as we would call it in Maine (it was just called a summer home in the Midwest!).  My mother was a teacher and my dad had some flexibility in his schedule so we would take three weeks off as a family.  Every year the experience was similar.  The first week, you run around like at home.  You have not really been able to let down.  As the week progresses, the stress and drive begin to end.  The second week was one of complete let down.  It was marked by tiredness and sleeping.  It was as if our bodies showed our spirit's weariness!  At the end of this week, we always felt so much better!  Finally, the third week was one of complete enjoyment.  Vacation was had by all, as the stress was gone, the weariness ended, and our "old selves" came back to life.

This vacation, I had two weeks broken up by a wedding.  Next time, I will not do a wedding.  Still, I found the same pattern in place.  The first week, my inner dialogue continued.  I was restless.  I wanted to relax, but had trouble doing so.  We spent this week at a resort in the mountains of Maine.  It was good, but it was more of an unwinding than enjoyment.  There was always the temptation to jump back into work in thought and deed.  When we returned home for the second week, I found myself really tired.  I slept a ton.  I also found my stress level gradually decreasing.  I still had projects to do around the house, but they did not seem like such a burden.  Then, this weekend, I began to feel like my old self.  If I just took another week, I would really enjoy myself!

Now for the real lessons of vacation- the Lord does restore my soul.  When I get stressed, I feel like I work harder, but I actually get less done.  I forget things.  I miss place stuff.  My inner dialogue runs non-stop.  Yuck!  I also find it is hard to hear the voice of the Lord.  His ability lead and guide me through His word, prayer, and intuition is greatly decreased.  Why?  I think I actually lose the ability to hear.  It is as if my nerves become deadened to "God's stimuli" in my life.

This second week of vacation, I found my listening nerves came back on-line.  I spent much time in the early Psalms just reflecting and talking to the Lord.  As time went on I heard back from Him!  My prayer is that this week, my ability to listen will continue to increase.  I want to know the Living God and I want to seek His face.  I want His presence to transform me!

So how did I find restoration?  First, "Be still and know that I am God."  When I work too much or do not take time off, I begin to believe that the Lord could not work without me.  In other words, I live and walk in unbelief!  I had to stop.  Even with seeming "needs" in my church and with my friends, I needed to stop trying to meet them.  God will meet the needs and He will use someone else if I am not available. As one of my good friends likes to say, everyone is replaceable.  It is so true!

Second, I had to cut down on my electronic communications.  I did not pour myself out in blogging, e-mail, or other correspondence.  I allowed the Lord to re-fill me.  This was hard to do, but I had to do it.  So, if you are waiting for an e-mail from me, I hope to catch up this week! 

Third, I took time to take care of my aging body.  Our soul is encased within a frail body.  If we do not take time to take care of our body, we will lose the ability to function.  This includes our spiritual dimension.  One of the great truths of the incarnation was that Jesus now knows what we go through!  He knows tiredness, hunger, and thirst.  He knows emotional states like grief, sadness, confusion, and overflowing joy.  Vacation gives our frail bodies time to recover.  In the recovery, I found my spirit restored.

Well, enough for now!  May the Lord grant each of us time to find restoration!  Pray for me as I get back to work and as I think through what to write next.

Fast and Furious or Slow and Deep

"Cease striving and know that I am God; 

I will be exalted among the nations,

I will be exalted in the earth." Ps 46:10

As I was leaving the hotel this past Saturday to return to preach at Grace, I assigned my wife this passage to contemplate.  She was getting 24 hours without children, as I took them all back home.  I am sure she wondered why I would ask her to meditate upon this passage.  I know as I left and throughout the week, it has been echoing in my ears.  "Be still and know I am God."  I heard it as I meditated upon God's word.  I heard it as I read my previous blog on religious self-effort.  I heard it until I finally said, "Are you talking to me Lord?"  Deep within my spirit, I heard a loud, "Yes, I am talking to you!"

This past week, my Lord and my God confirmed to me that I am not very good at being still.  I am much better at doing than waiting.  As I have grown as a pastor and a follower of Christ, I have grown in my ability to feel others hurts, insecurities, doubts, questions, anger, etc.  When I am moving so fast that I do not find refreshment from the Lord, I become emotionally and spiritually fatigued.  This is where I find myself on this vacation.  I am in desperate need of the refreshing presence of the Lord.  Yet, it is funny how my soul runs counter to this need.  Truly my heart is marked by so much unbelief!

What does this unbelief look like?  First, my mind runs non-stop.  I think, often in disjointed terms, about all the issues going on.  I think, I pray.  As I grow in my weariness, I pray less and think more.  Suddenly, I wake up one day realizing that my intimacy with the Living Lord is diminished.  My heart is dry.  Then, I begin to lose the capacity to love and to feel.  Unbelief at work.  Do I not believe that God can help others without me?  Do I not know that without God's work, my work is worthless and not lasting?  Of course I intellectually know this!  The problem is that my actions and my heart illustrate I do not believe it.  

The only cure is the gospel and the relentless love of the Father.  He pursues me and calls me to repentance.  Repent of what?  All of my religious "good deeds."  Now you can see why I was convicted by my own blog posting!  I am an elder brother and a pharisee.  Thankfully, as He leads me to repentance and faith, I find myself again as a recovering elder brother and pharisee!

As a person who makes my living talking, teaching, and writing, I must occasionally stop talking, teaching, and writing.  Why?  One of the desert Fathers wrote that silence and solitude are the only ways to tend the fire within.  When the fire within my heart grows cold, it is always because I open my mouth too much and allow the fire and heat to escape.  As I fail to "Cease striving and know I am God," I speak and serve until my fire is out.  Only the Holy Spirit can relight the fire.  He does so as I live the gospel by walking in repentance and faith.

Where are you today?  Can you identify with my need this week?  Do you need to come to the Lord in repentance and faith asking, "Lord have mercy on me a sinner."  I am so thankful that I do not have to have it all together to find God's presence.  As I come in confession, repentance, and faith, He puts it all together and His glory shines through this cracked earthen vessel!  May He receive all the glory.

In keeping with this post, I will not be writing much more for awhile as I allow the Spirit to tend the fire within!  May He relight, renew, and restore!

Authentic Spirituality and a Spirit of Fear

Today I am re-posting an older post.  Again, can anyone find the date?  I have been learning much during my time off.  I feel like writing, but I am still on vacation.  I will hold off on writing to allow the Lord to deepen my pool of life-giving wisdom.  He will be exalted in the earth without my efforts of work when I should be on vacation!  Enjoy the post.  I think it is very important.

"For the Lord has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and self-discipline." 2 Tim. 1:7

"Be of sober spirit, be on the alert.  Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.  Resist him, standing firm in your faith;" 1 Peter 5: 7-8

For many of us, we kind of like the way that Christian leaders and others have told us that those who sensationalize the devil have it all wrong.  We enjoying making fun of the "demon behind every bush" theology, and those who claim "the devil made me do it" when caught in any sin.  As a result, most of us do not study Satan's schemes, and we live our lives as practical secularists who deny a spiritual dimension to the temptations and issues in our lives.

On the other hand, there are churches and individuals who make every element of the Christian life a battle between God and Satan that we decide.  These folks live as practical dualists who give too much credit to Satan and his forces.  Often, they also neglect the awesome power and victory of Christ over Satan and his forces.  Neither position reflects the true direction of biblical teaching.

Both of today's passages describe one of Satan's primary methods of attack on the Christian: fear.  When we live in fear, we do not live a life of faith and trust.  Instead, we are marked by self-regard, self-effort, and a lack of knowledge of the true God.  Paul reproves Timothy because he lives in fear.  The gospel gives us a spirit of power and love and discipline, not fear!  Peter tells us that our adversary prowls like a roaring lion.  I have heard it said that the roaring lion is not the one to worry about.  He roars to drive fear into his prey so that the other lions in the pride can kill it.  Peter warns us to be aware and alert.  He commands us to stand firm in the gospel.  The devil may roar; but when you hear it, arm yourself with the gospel and Christ's victory!

As Mark Bubeck states, "The victory of Christ over Satan is total and complete.  The person who appropriates and applies by faith the victory which Christ has purchased and provided will find a gracious, God-authored courage stabilizing his inner man." The Adversary, 80.

Fear takes many forms in our fallen world.  Some are wise and some are harmful.  It is wise to fear the 1800 pound bull in my back field.  I give him a healthy respect and distance.  Yet, I do not walk about in constant thought and fear of that animal!  I am "sober minded" about his power and I seek to respect and be mindful of his power.  I know he has a job to do, and I am allowing him to do it without putting myself, my family, or visitors in his path.  I think this is wise fear, because it is really respect and knowledge of this beast's power.

Other types of fear are mixed between wise and harmful.  It all depends upon what you do with it.  Most of these fears are even socially accepted!  For example, it is prudent to lock your doors in these desperate times.  Yet, those who live in fear of being robbed, those who think about it all the time, those who check their doors repeatedly for fear of an intruder do not walk in faith.  They believe that their resources and diligence will save them.  Where does God fit into this picture?  Most likely He doesn't.  Still, it is socially acceptable and encouraged to lock your doors!  Where do we draw the line?  That is a question for each of us.  If we walk in fear, we need to repent and ask God for mercy to rest and trust.  We need to ask for His protection.

Another example is parenting.  How many of us fear for the future of our children?  It is true that we have a responsibility to raise our children in the fear and admonition of the Lord.  Yet, study after study has shown that those in the 20s now have been "overly protected" by their parents from life's hardships.  Why? I believe the key reason was a socially acceptable fear.  We fear, so we give money, protection, shelter.  The unintended consequence is a generation that "has a failure to launch."  Another unintended consequence is that we have given Satan ground into our families by walking in fear.  We have not been sober minded and aware of Satan's schemes.  We have fed fear, and without repentance we will reap the consequences.

A final example is ministry.  How many of us have not spoken to a neighbor about the Lord because of fear?  What if they reject me?  What will they think?  The real question should be, are they in bondage and do they need the gospel?  If so, then out of love and walking in the power of the Spirit, we need to discipline to arrange a time to share the gospel.  We need to pray that the Lord will open the door so it just flows naturally.  Why do we not do this?  Fear.  Plain and simple, it is fear.  What about a ministry that you would love to start or be part of, yet you do not do so for fear that it will not go well or that you will "not find the time."  We so often put off to tomorrow what should be done today (to quote the great theologian Garth Brooks).

Again I say, fear is not from God.  "There is no fear in love; but perfect love drives out fear." 1 John 4:18  Do we not believe that God can work it out to bring someone to faith without making us their enemy?  Do we not believe that God can work through us, even with our frailties?  Do we not believe that God loves our children, and that He will take care of them?  Is everything really all about us?

I know what it is like to live in fear.  I know how we can busy ourselves so we avoid walking in faith.  I also can say clearly, walking in fear is not from God.  Pray about this.  Fear gives the devil a foothold in our lives, our families, our churches.  It is the primary way that Satan works to hinder the work of God.  Pray through these passages I mentioned in this blog.  If the Spirit gives you insight into areas where you are dominated by fear, I ask you, no beg you to repent!  Confess to God your sin and your need for His grace.  Ask Him to work instead of you thinking it is all about you.  Walk in faith.  Claim the victory of Christ and the truth of the gospel as your own.

May your life be marked by grace, trust, rest, and God's power instead of fear.  In so doing, you will defeat the schemes of the Evil one against you, your family, and your church.

Religious Self-Effort Our Greatest Sin?

I have written on this topic before.  Can anyone find the post date?  Just a test.  On vacation, so trying not to think too hard.

"If by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body you will live." Rom 8:13

Often well meaning folks interpret this passage as a call to stronger resolve.  I know from my experience that many churches, particularly suburban churches, are filled with strong career-minded folks.  These folks (and I might be you!) are able to control their environment through hard work, focus, and planning.  Many of them are successful at their chosen career or life path because of these traits.

The problem is matching these traits with "If by the Spirit...."  Our flesh or sinful nature has two sides.  One is open rebellion.  O.K. we have checked this one off as not the problem.  The other is much more dangerous and secretive.  It is religious self-effort.  This is effort that does not depend upon God, but trusts in our own will-power and strength to change us.  An example of this is how most of us diet.  If we need to lose 5 or even 15 pounds, many of us discipline ourselves, change our exercise problem, eat better, and will/pull ourselves to the finish line.  Of course when we do, we look great for the reunion, but then gain back all the weight and more in the next six months!  Where is our dependence upon God in this simple exercise of bodily change?

I know some will say, well what is the alternative?  If I do not do it, who will?  Such a response is natural.  Yet, it is not the entire story!  I think of Nehemiah.  He was a man of action, but also of faith.  He cried out to God to help him change things.  I can picture him circling the broken walls of Jerusalem talking to God about what needs to be done.  Praying for the grace to find help.  Praying for help in organizing.  Asking for mercy to protect the Jews from their enemies.  The old monastic tradition had a saying of "work and pray."  I ask each of us, do we pray as we labor?  Do we work and then ask God to bless?

Like losing weight, our will-power will only get us so far.  God must change our heart and minds by His grace so that we can love Him and others well.  "If by the flesh you put to death the misdeeds of the body," I assure you will not work.  It might give an appearance of working for awhile, but it does not deal with our heart and soul.  In the end, it will lead to either self-righteousness or guilty failure.

May we depend upon the Lord this day as "By the Spirit" we walk in grace and truth "putting to death the misdeeds of the body."

Walking, but with a limp

"The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

He makes me lie down in green pastures,

he leads me beside quiet waters,

he restores my soul." Ps. 23: 1-2

Today I leave for a much needed vacation.  I have much to do before I leave, but thankfully I leave!  I am a man who often does many things at once.  I like multi-tasking and I am pretty high capacity.  Just about three weeks ago, I was telling someone that I have lost so much stress in my life since last year that I did not feel like I even needed a vacation.  I thought I could really enjoy this vacation without feeling like I needed to take time to rest.  What a mistake!  Within days, I started feeling really burned out.  I have been walking with God most of this month, but I have a pronounced limp!

This week I will be preaching on trials.  In my life, I have gone through quite a few.  I have found that most of the small ones/medium sized ones, really provided me an opportunity to reflect and grow.  As I work through them, I meet with God and He transforms me by His grace.  My problem is that I do not immediately think, "What are you saying Lord?" Instead, I often work harder to try to fix whatever is causing the trial.  How about you?

This month has felt like one continuing trial.  There has been joy, but my spirit feels weighed down.  I have traveled some, but that is not the cause.  I think I need to take time to once again ask, "What are you saying Lord?"  I need to limp to a chair beside a lake so I can take some time to talk with my Lord and my God.  

I might or I might not post much in the next couple of weeks.  It depends upon how the Spirit leads!  By God's grace, I do pray I meet daily and increasingly with my living Lord.  I pray that he will restore my soul and give me clarity of mind.  Please pray for me and my family that all of us will share in such restoration.  Also, this is post number 40, so there is plenty to read and share even if I am not adding more.