Am I a "vigorous" or "sickly" Christian?

Check out this quote from MUFHH today:

"Are we prepared to purposely disregard ourselves and to launch out into the priestly work of prayer? The continual inner-searching we do in an effort to see if we are what we ought to be generates a self-centered, sickly type of Christianity, not the vigorous and simple life of a child of God. Until we get into this right and proper relationship with God, it is simply a case of our "hanging on by the skin of our teeth," although we say, "What a wonderful victory I have!" Yet there is nothing at all in that which indicates the miracle of redemption. Launch out in reckless, unrestrained belief that the redemption is complete. Then don’t worry anymore about yourself, but begin to do as Jesus Christ has said..."

View the whole devotion here.

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I'm currently in Grand Rapids, Michigan, attending a "Worship Renewal Grant Colloquium" (I know. I had to look up colloquium too. It turns out that it means an informal gathering for the exchange of ideas. Seems like a mostly fitting description for this particular conference.).

Last night I went to a workshop concerning the use of visual arts in a worship gathering. I don't have time to record all of the speaker's observations, but one of the things he talked about was a study that he had conducted of Protestant, Catholics, and Greek Orthodox churches in S. California. Among many other things, he learned that Protestants tended (there are many Protestant churches that aren't this way) to experience their times of worship together on an "inward and intensely personal" level. Interestingly enough, one of the contributors to the "self-centered, sickly type of Christianity" (as Oswald Chambers describes what our faith can turn into in the quote above) that this workshop speaker indicated was a lack of concern for the aesthetics or visuals in Protestant churches.

That's all I have time to post this morning. I can provide some more concrete examples of this from the workshop to anyone who's interested.

John 1:35-42

Today's MUFHH pointed me to John 1:35-42.

Apart from what John said in the prologue (John 1:1-18) and what John the Baptist has said about Jesus so far (1:26, 29-34, 36), this is our first actual encounter with Jesus in John's gospel. The IVP commentary available online concerning this passage is helpful.

A few things that struck me after reading the passage and the commentary for which I included the link above:

1. John's disciples immediately follow Jesus when John identifies him as the Lamb of God (1:37). I wonder if this speaks to Christian leadership? We should live humble lives that prepare to recognize and follow Jesus. And, in this instance, John's disciples literally follow Jesus, and apparently without saying anything. He actually turns around and asks them what they want (1:38). What would you say if Jesus asked you this question?
2. Either at a loss for words or truly desiring to be with him, John's disciples wonder, "Where are you staying?" (1:38)
3. Jesus responds: "Come...and you will see." That's interesting, how Jesus chooses to respond, isn't it? There are a lot of ways that he could've responded to their question, but the way that he responded seems like an invitation to relationship.

Sometimes it causes me to tremble: The adventures of will and conscience, Part 2

So it's really a question of obedience (see "The Adventures of Will and Conscience, Part 1" below to catch up on why this is the question): To obey God, OR to obey the "perversity and obstinacy" within (a.k.a. "my sinful nature," see Rom. 7:15-25). And this is where the passage of Scripture from today's My Utmost for His Highest devotion comes in.

"Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose" (Philippians 2:12-13, NIV).

I looked up the Greek words that Paul uses for "fear and trembling." Did you know that he uses this combination of words in a couple of other letters also? I confess, if I've seen these before, I forgot them. Check out Ephesians 6:5 and 2 Corinthians 7:15 (and read the surrounding context if you have time too).

Paul connects fear and trembling with obedience in all of these passages (Philippians 2:12, Ephesians 6:5, and 2 Corinthians 7:15).

But, Alex, what does "fear and trembling" mean? And what is the cause of this concerned quaking? Those are good questions.

The word used for "trembling" has a different connotation than I expected:

"..used to describe the anxiety of one who distrusts his ability completely to meet all requirements, but religiously does his utmost to fulfil his duty."

Hmm.

So, when I work out my salvation with fear and trembling, I'm supposed to distrust my own ability to do all it would require of me.

And what did our salvation require? Just look back a little further in the letter to the Philippians, 2:6-11. Jesus' obedience to God required him to go all the way to the cross (2:8).

So I can handle distrusting my own ability to completely meet all the requirements of my own salvation. And Jesus says a lot about trusting Him, so this makes sense. We have to distrust our ability to save/deliver ourselves from the mess we're in if we're going to allow Jesus to do it. (If you're wondering what the mess is, remember the struggle for obedience described in the last post or Romans 7? That's part of it.)

But this doesn't remove the obligation that we have to religiously do our utmost, i.e. to live obediently to God's Word, knowing that Jesus has rescued us from this "body of death" (Romans 7:24). (In fact, we will one day have new bodies entirely. These will be like His glorious resurrected body. They won't be corrupted by sin, or "perversity and obstinance," as Chambers says. For more on this, see 1 Corinthians 15. Also, check out any of Jesus's post-resurrection appearances in the gospel and you can try to get some sense of what this new body is like.)

Maybe that's why Philippians 2:12-13 sounds a little confusing at first: "[you] continue to work out your salvation...for it is God who works in you..." We have to work out (how?) what God is working in us.

We'll give Chambers the final word for this post: "Do I believe that Almighty God is the source of my will? God not only expects me to do His will, but He is in me to do it."

All for now.

The Adventures of Will and Conscience, Part 1

Read today's MUFHH; this is some exciting stuff.

Chambers says, "When the Lord is presented to the conscience, the first thing the conscience does is to rouse the will, and the will always agrees with God. You say--'But I do not know whether my will is in agreement with God."*

If you're like me, you might have a little trouble wrapping your mind around that sentence at first. So, it helped to picture it as an actual introduction. For our purposes, let's pretend someone knocks on the door of your house (or dorm room or apartment). Also, let's pretend that your conscience is a person and lives in your house. Their name is Conscience (I know, that's not very creative, is it?) Oh...also, your will also lives there and his name is Will (that one makes a little more sense but still isn't very creative). Here goes, Chambers' words in story form:

A knock at your door. Conscience opens it, as usual. And you, as usual, are busy doing something else. But you wonder who it is. Conscience is about to find out.

"Hello, Conscience. I AM."

"Woh!," Conscience thinks. She's unsure what to do. Her legs are like Jell-O and her heart comes into her throat. She feels like a little kid, nervous and excited at the same time about an important visitor. "I know," she goes on thinking, "I'll get Will." Conscience runs off to get Will. (She never did have good manners and has left your guest standing at the door momentarily). She knocks on Will's door. "Will!...Will! You're not gonna believe this..."

"He must be asleep," Conscience thinks to herself. "Will! Wake up. Someone's at the door." Will is roused from his nap. He opens the door, tieing the cloth belt around his robe and then rubbing his sleepy eyes awake. Conscience explains the situation: "Someone's at the door for you!" She says it as if he should've been awake and waiting for this guest. Will decides not to respond to her tone of voice but rather her intent, and he follows her back to the door.

And this is where you enter the story. You were hard at work on something else, but couldn't help but hear Conscience as she knocked on Will's door and woke him up. You can't see who's standing at the door yet, but you see Will listening intently and nodding every now and again, as if he agrees with everything the visitor is saying.

"That's funny. I don't remember Will ever agreeing with me about anything, much less a stranger. Who could this be, that Will is going along with everything he says?"

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Again: "When the Lord is presented to the conscience, the first thing the conscience does is to rouse the will, and the will always agrees with God. You say--'But I do not know whether my will is in agreement with God."

When I read those words this morning, I got to the part that says, "...and the will always agrees with God." And I thought, "I don't know about that..." But, of course, Chambers anticipated that (as you can see from the rest of the quote). He goes on to say, "Look to Jesus and you will find that your will and your conscience are in agreement with Him every time. The thing in you which makes you say, 'I shan't' is something less profound than your will; it is perversity, or obstinacy, and they are never in agreement with God." And I thought about that, and I think that's true.

My will, when confronted by my Creator (!), when it meets the presence of the Living God living in me through the Holy Spirit, knows what needs to be done. To put it another way: We know--I know--what needs to be done because not only did God create us to know right from wrong, but also His Spirit is at work in the world, and within us as believers. And, just like Isaiah or Peter when in the presence of God (see Isaiah 6:5 or Luke 5:8), our wills--we ourselves--are undone.

But there is also something else, something "perverse and obstinant" (to use Chambers words) that is at work in us, trying to keep our conscience and our will from obeying God (see Romans 7:15-25 for a biblical description of what's going on here).

Not wanting to end on a note like that, this is only part one. This post is already getting lengthy, so I'm going to continue commentary on today's devotion from My Utmost for His Highest in the next post.

To be continued...

*Note: if this sounds a little different from the text at the link above, it's because I'm using the "old school" edition...not the official name for that edition, but it works.

The never leaving, never forsaking God

Today's passage of Scripture from My Utmost for His Highest:

"Never will I leave you;
never will I forsake you."

-Hebrews 13:5 (quoting Deuteronomy 31:6)

Chamber's commentary on this Scripture is a challenge, exploring whether we really believe that God will never leave or forsake us. For example:

"We have the idea that God is going to do some exceptional thing, that He is preparing and fitting us for some extraordinary thing by and bye, but as we go on in grace we find that God is glorifying Himself here and now, in the present minute. If we have God's say-so behind us, the most amazing strength comes, and we learn to sing in the ordinary days and ways."

prayer as essential to life as blood and breathing

This is an excerpt from this past Friday's (5/26) My Utmost for His Highest devotion:

"If we think of prayer as the breath in our lungs and the blood from our hearts, we think rightly. The blood flows ceaselessly; we are not conscious of it, but it is always going on. We are not always conscious of Jesus keeping us in perfect joint with God, but if we are obeying Him, He always is. Prayer is not an excercise, it is the life" (speaking about 1 Thessalonians 5:17).

trusting in God trumps self-interest

So Abram said to Lot, "Let's not have any quarreling between you and me, or between your herdsmen and mine, for we are brothers. Is not the whole land before you? Let's part company. If you go left, I'll go to the right; if you go to the right, I'll go to the left" (Genesis 13:8-9).

In today's My Utmost For His Highest devotion, Chambers comments on the passage above, saying, "God sometimes allows you to go into a place of testing where your own welfare would be the right and proper thing to consider if you were not living a life of faith; but if you are, you will joyfully waive your right and leave God to choose for you. This is the discipline by means of which the natural is transformed into the spiritual by obedience to the voice of God."

Try an excercise: insert "trust" where Chambers has written "faith."

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Did you know that, biblically speaking, the word used for faith is the same as the word for trust? I just heard someone speak on this topic. He was reminding us how a lot of the original meaning of the word faith has been lost (in the whole, fruitless "faith v. reason" Enlightenment thinking). And so the word faith has been corrupted. But trust has not. So this means that you can also substitute "trust" where Jesus talks about "faith" and anywhere Paul talks about faith and, that passage in Hebrews 11? Yeah, it works there too (That's one of the major examples our speaker used. His name was Andrew Olsen from New Missions Systems International).

What happens when you make this change in thinking? You begin to notice that faith is not just an indefinable quality. For example (and this example is again, thanks to Mr. Olsen), if I told you that you don't have enough faith, it would be a lot like telling you that you're too short. You can't do anything about it other than feel guilty.

But if I told you that you don't trust God enough. Ah! Trusting is something I can do. It might not be easy, but I can let go, I can put my hands up in surrender, I can let someone else take control. Not saying this is going to be easy, but when you think about it, it's not impossible like willing myself to grow taller.

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And now I think I will reflect more on Abram (and later Abraham), "the man of trust" (Gal. 3:9).