One Word

November 10, 2011

Maria John , , , 2 Comments

I heard a woman assert that Christianity was not just about what the Bible says but living your life ‘christianly’.  I’m not sure what she means, but one thing I can conclude is that most people don’t know what Christianity is all about.

A recurring theme in our discussions and study at home is the idea of Done v. Do.  My husband and I are grateful and energized by this distinction.

The Gospel is good news about what God did to rescue condemned sinners. Therefore, if I had to boil down all the teachings of the Bible to just one word, it would be Substitution.

Jesus resolutely swapped places with condemned, rebellious men, women and children and was executed for our cosmic crimes against the Holy Creator and God.   He lovingly drank every drop of God’s justifiable wrath stored up for us and endured total (albeit temporary) separation from the God-head.  In turn, we received credit for His 100 % righteous behavior and fulfillment of God’s law so we can have peace with God.

Two –way substitution qualified us to be adopted and included in an eternal inheritance.  Nothing remains to be done!

Yet this seems too good to be true.  Therefore, churches continue to preach Do…Do…Do!

Well, aren’t we SUPPOSED to do something?  The question evidences our natural default.  Just like when we were teens and wondering about sexual limits, we long to know what we have to do.

Even Jesus’ followers pinned Him down by asking, “Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God” Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”  (John 6:28-29)

Correct knowledge is what counts.  We need to hear the Good News every day.  Only when we do, will we find ourselves being energized and swept up in the amazing joy of our rescue.  Out of that will flow worship/service.  When Jesus brought Lazarus back to life and Mary KNEW the power and truth of God, she joyfully worshipped and served the Savior by lavishing her 401k plan on Jesus’ feet (aka – the jar of perfume – thank you John Piper for your exposition in your 11/6/2011 sermon).

A young friend of ours was lamenting the lack of passion and fervor in his Sunday School class (young parents in their 20s).  Maybe it’s not their fault! I think they are just exhausted from growing up as 2nd and perhaps 3rd generational Christians, raised in an evangelical Christian community that batters them week after week with guilt-laden exhortations to do more.   No wonder they seem apathetic.  Only the Gospel will energize them.

And to assume that they know the Gospel and don’t need to hear it repeatedly in different ways is just as wicked as that husband.  You know the one I mean, the one who can’t be bothered to tell his wife daily in new & creative ways how much he loves her.  Instead he sputters defensively, “My wife already KNOWS I love her. I told her when we were dating.  After all, I wouldn’t have married her if I didn’t love her.”

Decisionmaking and God’s Will

August 15, 2011

Maria Romans, Trust, Uncategorized , , , 7 Comments

Talks from a conference on knowing God\’s will

You’ve probably heard of or read Kevin de Young’s book, Just Do Something.

You should read it.  It’s short and will change your mind about how to make a ‘godly’ decision.  Before I talk about it, I want to share 3 anecdotes from my own life that are probably fairly typical of how Christians act.

Before Mike and I were Christians, when we were just faithful church-attendees, we would make decisions pretty rapidly………. and then ask God to bless them.  Once we became Christians, we started on that journey of actually growing into those ‘new creations’ by being ‘transformed by the renewing’ of our minds via God’s Word.  But that was a slow process.  The very first Bible Study we ever attended was 23 years ago in Chipping Norton, England.  We had never consistently nor seriously examined God’s word.  At the time, we faced a major decision about Mike’s job and the financial stakes seemed very scary.  We prayed at length for guidance.  We eventually made a decision in the absence of FEELING God’s guiding hand.  I remember how for years after I would boast that though we had repeatedly asked God for a sign, He had never come through.  My boast had the kind of tone of ‘what’s wrong with God that He wouldn’t respond to such a sincere and Godly prayer!!!’

Fast forward to our older son Graham and a life decision he faced the spring of his freshman year.  Should he stay at his college or transfer to a famous music school?  His grandfather would have paid the difference, so money was no object.  It was the first serious decision he made as a new Christian.  I, frankly, was curious how God would answer that. To me it seemed that the stakes were high because Graham’s faith was nascent.  His technique was to try out each scenario in his mind’s eye and see how he felt.  As he flip-flopped his way through the days after receiving his acceptance, he finally got angry with God and gave him an ultimatum.  (I’m not sure WHAT he saidJ )  But the next day, he woke up FEELING Choice A – Stay and just left it alone, with some suspicion.  But the following day, the sense to go with Choice A had grown silently stronger.  So he opted to remain at his current college and turned down the music opportunity.  It was obviously the right choice, because he married his wife Shay, plugged into a church, launched a career and the rest is another story.

My last example had to do with leaving a teaching position.  I truly wanted to wait on the Lord and not do anything ‘out of His will’, so my intentions were A-OK.  And by this time, after 10 years of serious Bible study and growth, I truly had grown into the new creation that I was positionally.  But I did not know how God would let me know ‘His Will For My Life’.

When a senior colleague announced to me that ‘next year I would have to toe the line with her foreign language philosophy of teaching’ I knew instantly that I had received my sign from God, because what she was suggesting was 100 % unacceptable to me.  But when I told my Christian friends, two of them straight away assured me that the way to know if the decision was right was if one had a sense of peace.

Looking back at these three decisions, I realize that many Christians ( I don’t think I’m alone in this) look for

a)   A direct communication or sign from God

b)   And/or a feeling of peace

According to Kevin de Young and Dr. Garry Friesen, those are NOT biblical.  I have read Kevin’s book twice in the past 2 years, but recently I listened to the talks that are hyperlinked at the beginning of this blog post.  What they teach is VERY FREEING!

Their talks revealed to me that when we camp on our need for a sign, it really is a decoy for our lack of trust in God and our FEAR of making wrong decisions.  According to these pastors, decision-making is not rocket science for the Christian.  In summary here are the steps one should take:

a)   We should look at our heart’s desire and our talents & gifts.  What do we WANT to do?   It makes sense to start there.

b)   Make sure that what we propose does not violate the moral will of God (doesn’t go against His commands).  This involves more than just the Ten Commandments.  We have to study and meditate on what God says throughout the entire Bible.  Therefore, it makes sense that Paul counsels us to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.  This is NOT a quick step, but a life process.

c)    Where God does NOT prohibit, then we should enjoy the liberty He gives us and act responsibly.

d)   Make sure that the proposal is WISE and PRUDENT.  It is scriptural to pray and ask God for wisdom.  We should read the ‘wisdom’ books of the Bible.  We should ask godly mature Christians who know us for their advice.  What do they see in us?  Do they think what we are proposing is a good fit with our talents?

e)    We should pray, NOT for guidance, but to be godly and wise, courageous and honest when we take the next step TOWARD a decision.

f)     If we have a choice between two equally good courses of action, we need to ask ourselves this question:  Which one will make us love God and love others more?

g)    Finally, once we move out and make a decision, we are to continue to trust God that He will work all things together for our good (that is: our sanctification).  The grace will be sufficient for each future day.  Anxiety is living out the future before it gets here.

I was comforted to hear that problems and obstacles and lack of peace are NOT signs that we made the wrong decision.  That is part of life.  Dr. Friesen talked about expecting to make at least FIVE mistakes a day.  Whew!  What a freeing idea.  I realize that I expect perfect, problem-free days.  Talk about unrealistic pressure!

You’ll enjoy listening to the talks.  I downloaded them to my iPod, but you can listen on line just as well.

May God give you godly courage and a willingness to make some mistakes while you risk big, adventuresome and fun things for the glory of God!

Seeing is not believing…… or the need to renovate your mind.

March 15, 2011

Maria Renewing, Romans, Zechariah , , 2 Comments

Ps 63:2   I have contemplated you with pleasure in the sanctuary IN ORDER to see your power and glory.

If ‘seeing were believing’, then all those who witnessed Jesus’ miracles would have become followers.  And no one would have crucified Jesus, because they would have all believed Jesus.

Actually the above conclusion is false. Observing actions or hearing words does not necessarily cause new knowledge. Faith must be mixed in with raw data.  Some bystanders in 33 AD were powerless to arrive at truth even with eyes wide open. Then there is the category, one far worse, in which people are blinded by a motive hostile to truth.  Into this group fell some Romans, some Jews and most of the Jewish leadership.  These people could actually see and believe that Jesus was who he says he was.  Yet they were not believers.   This should not surprise us.  After all, even the demons believe that Jesus is the son of God.  When a person unequivocally acknowledges the truth of Christianity, he has gotten as far as Satan!  A crucial successive step requires a grateful reliance on this truth.

Yet, no one is off the hook for their lack of saving faith. Everyone SEES evidence for God, even if they don’t draw the right conclusions.   Paul, as well as the psalmists, tells us that.  Natural theology connects the many signs, the major clues all around us in nature, to the existence of God.  But what Christ has done for us, however, cannot be deduced from the natural world.  For that we need the spirit-empowered Gospel preached to us.  We need the ‘grammar’ or facts of this news but packaged in a way by the Holy Spirit that pierces our cold hearts to awaken us.  Once we are awakened and with new baby spiritual eyes we actually see Jesus’ rescue plan for us, the news becomes glorious.  The saving step of sinking into this truth, of grabbing hold of the rescue line thrown to us is a ‘no-brainer’ at this point.

But, this kind of seeing doesn’t end with the new birth.  Every day, we must follow Paul’s exhortation to renovate or renew our minds and thus strengthen our transformation from dead worldling to living child of God.   The verb ‘renew’ sounds like extending one’s subscription to a news magazine or paying for another year of a Barnes & Noble membership.  That’s why I like the translation ‘renovate’ for the Greek word – anakainōsis  ….be transformed by the renovating of your mind. # 342 (Romans 12:2)

It’s the same word in Titus 3:5 – “He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal (making new, renovation of our whole self )of the Holy Spirit.

God has transplanted us OUT of the Kingdom of Darkness (Col 1:13) and into the Kingdom (or Garden) of Light and set us growing in new dirt. He is the master gardener and we need to feed on Holy Spirit Sap (no disrespect intended).  Here is how we can do this, daily. ‘ “Not by might, nor by (our own) power, but by my spirit” says  the Lord’ Zechariah 4:6

Think of a sunflower.  It lifts its yellow blooming head toward the power source and grows strong, exulting in the glorious rays.  So too we must look to Jesus, to gain (in)sight and thus power.   Then we can be like the psalmist who returns to God often to align his priorities with Truth and be infused with inner strength not his own.  This is the first and constant work of being a believer.

 

 

 

 

 

Are you starving? – a new kind of Diet

December 29, 2010

Maria Matthew , 2 Comments

Jesus said in Matt 4:4, “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God”

Are you hungry for God’s word?  If you think you are not, that is probably an indication of just how anemic, how weak and how starved you truly are!  But if you’re hungry, why aren’t you eating?  Because you have an enemy who is determined to do whatever it takes to keep you from being nourished in God’s word.  If you are fed regularly, then you might become an effective Christian.  He doesn’t want that.

Satan’s favorite thoughts to plant in us are:

  • I don’t have time….
  • I don’t really feel like it……
  • It’s kind of boring…….
  • It’s so overwhelming, that I don’t know where to begin!

The above FEEL like our own thoughts, but they are not.  They are the enemy’s suggestions that he has silently sewn in our minds.  But we do NOT have to submit.

In view of the approaching New Year, I am offering an example from real life: a man, a West Pointer who was not only a military hero, but a Christian soldier.

The following excerpted directly from an on-line essay by Dr. John Barnett when I googled General Harrison.

“Lt. General William K. Harrison was the most decorated soldier in the 30th Infantry Division, rated by General Eisenhower as the number one infantry division in World War II.  General Harrison was the first American to enter Belgium, which he did at the head of the Allied forces.  He received every decoration for valor except the Congressional Medal of Honor – being honored with the Distinguished Silver Cross, the Silver Star, the Bronze Star for Valor, and the Purple Heart (he was one of the few generals to be wounded in action).  When the Korean War began, he served as Chief of Staff in the United Nations Command – and because of his character and self-control was ultimately President Eisenhower’s choice to head the long and tedious negotiations to end the war.

General Harrison, a soldier’s soldier who led a busy, ultra-kinetic life, was also an amazing man of the Word.  When he was a twenty-year-old West Point Cadet, he began reading the Old Testament once a year and the New Testament four times. General Harrison did this until the end of his life. Even in the thick of war he maintained his commitment by catching up during the two- and three-day respites for replacement and refitting which followed battles, so that when the war ended he was right on schedule.

When, at the age of ninety, his failing eyesight no longer permitted his discipline, he had read the Old Testament seventy times and the New Testament 280 times!  No wonder his godliness and wisdom were proverbial, and that the Lord used him for eighteen fruitful years to lead Officers Christian Fellowship (OCF).

General Harrison’s story tells us two things: it is possible for the busiest of us, to systematically feed on God’s Word. No one could be busier or lead a more demanding life than General Harrison. His life remains a demonstration of a mind programmed with God’s Word.  His closest associates say that every area of his life (domestic, spiritual, and professional) and each of the great problems he faced was informed by the Scriptures.  People marveled at his knowledge of the Bible and the ability to bring its light to every area of life. He lived out the experience of the Psalmist:
OH, HOW I LOVE YOUR LAW! I MEDITATE ON IT ALL DAY LONG. YOUR COMMANDS MAKE ME WISER THAN MY ENEMIES, FOR THEY ARE EVER WITH ME. I HAVE MORE INSIGHT THAN ALL MY TEACHERS, FOR I MEDITATE ON YOUR STATUTES. I HAVE MORE UNDERSTANDING THAN THE ELDERS, FOR I OBEY YOUR PRECEPTS. (119:97-100)”

**

We are well-acquainted with how tempting it is to make a New Year’s resolution.  We also tend to think about the concomitant disappointment that follows when we break it.  But this is different. You CAN resolve to read your Bible every day and not fear.   As Christians, we have the gift of repentance as a WONDERFUL tool.  So if you miss a day, repent, ask for God’s help and begin again.  Keep Satan’s offense in mind.  He would love for us to miss a day and have that turn into a week and then in despair give up.  His seed/thought is ready to be fertilized in our souls, “I’m just not the kind of Christian who can consistently read her Bible” NOT TRUE!!!  Fight on!

Post a comment or send me an email if you would like me to pray that you would stay committed!  We need each other’s prayers.

May God bless and enrich your spiritual mealtime and put MEAT on your bones through regular feeding in 2011.  Bon appétit!

 

Letter to a son – what we failed to teach you

September 28, 2010

Maria Faith, Gospel, Peace, Sanctification, Thinking , , , , , , Leave a comment

Dear Son –

Dad and I were so blessed by your phone call last night. Your transparent accounting of what you struggle with at age 22, both as a newly married man and a recently commissioned Infantry lieutenant, convey trust and love for us and a longing to grow.  These two changes in your life are major, in and of themselves.  Together they provide a lot of stress; even if they are circumstances you have chosen and for which you have mentally prepared.    You’ve faced difficult challenges before, since you’ve been a Christian for 6 or so years and have experienced pruning and growth. But new developments have peeled away a comfort layer and revealed more sin for your Father to address.  Your attitude and reaction to some of these feelings raised have caught you by surprise.

The way you described what God has been teaching you was well articulated.  It’s not a first-time lesson nor is it unique to you.  The choice before all Christians is to walk/abide in our human flesh or to walk/abide in Christ.  The first choice is more comfortable because we have developed personal coping mechanisms to deal with daily unpleasantness.  The second option works far better, but either doesn’t always occur to us and/or doesn’t appeal.  Our pride/stubbornness leads us to default to the shortcut, even if we can accurately predict the outcome. We are used to failure, self-condemnation, our own excuses and concomitant spewing over onto those we love.

Here are some observations from your parents who are 31 years older than you.  However, we have really only been growing as Christians for the past 10 years.  So you, your brother, Dad and I are really about the same age as God’s Kids.

Dad and I DID NOT teach you the following: (we have been learning these realities ourselves in recent years, since you left for college)

  • The reason we were born is to glorify God.
  • The nature of life on earth is brokenness and  warfare
  • Because of Christ in us, we can have purpose and joy beyond measure, but they have NOTHING to do with comfort or circumstances.  They have to do with the Cross.

First – the purpose of life is to glorify God.  Relentlessly, the world tells us that life is all about us.  Hear the constant litany – “our comfort, our desires, our bodies, our accomplishments, our purposes, our stuff, and our rights.”   We have to intentionally choose to live moment by moment, breath by breath for what magnifies and makes most of God, not what exalts us.  John Piper exhorts us not to waste our lives on ourselves, no matter how much we beguile ourselves with our own self-worth.  Self, self, self!

Second – because of the Fall, life is hard.  Because of Satan, we are in a war.   John Piper calls us to adopt a warfare mentality.  That’s not bad.  You were mentioning that a good soldier always has a plan and is prepared to fight.  Our enemy is not just terrorists from another land, fellow humans.  All they can do is kill us.  Our real enemy is far worse. He can deceive us into believing that God doesn’t exist, or in inventing our own version of God, made in our image.

So even though we Christians know how the story ends, we have to be alert and on guard.  The American dream in both the active working years and in retirement is a major ploy of Satan’s.  He has lulled us into thinking that this life is all there is and we had better enjoy it.  Meanwhile, he is behind our lines as a 5th column, beguiling the ‘innocent’.   Be mad!  Get righteously angry, but not at fellow humans, but at the Father of Lies.

My 3rd point is worth more discussion than I have time right now.  But I don’t think you need convincing of the possibility of lasting joy and purpose in Christ.  We are comforted and assured by God’s Word that, even now on Earth, we have eternal life.  Furthermore, God be praised, we are blessed with brief glimpses of joy even while wearing these perishable bodies.

Yet, as your chronologically older sister and brother in Christ, KNOW that this painful lesson of choosing to abide in Christ, rather than working out of your flesh/ your dominant side is a lesson you will have to RELEARN, time and time again.  I’m sorry to tell you that.  Were it otherwise!  But that’s reality here on Earth.  I still struggle with complaining and a poor attitude. I have to be pulled up short, daily.  I’m even doing what I love, teaching French.  Still I grumble, because of lack of perceived comfort, time, and choice circumstances, all the ME- desires.  Your father is blessed to sing with a quality chorus as a hobby.  He still struggles with the insidious temptation to work alone out of his own strength, thus experiencing frustration or to be yoked with Christ and enjoy rest.  How simple the choice seems with distance.  How blind we are.

So be prepared to fall again and again. We thank God for your wife, a godly woman who loves you and will hold you accountable.  And you will do the same for her, when she fails to remember the way life is.   Repentance is a blessing and the Father’s arms are never shut.  Fly to him frequently.

Love,

Mom & Dad

Functional Idols – what/who I love more than God

August 30, 2010

Maria Thinking , , Leave a comment

Okay, God.  I get it.  You give me insight and you expect me to act on it.  If I don’t, then you arrange my circumstances to reinforce your point.

I have struggled with food and body issues since I was 16.  I finally reached close to the weight I feel best at (more or less –don’t we always want to be thinner?)  I bought a scale to weigh myself every day.  If the scale showed close to my ideal, it was a good day.  In fact, my first thoughts of the day would come from what the scale showed.  And God made it very clear that this was wrong.  He gently, but persistently would ask me (the thoughts would come into my head): “Is that what is most important to you?  Your body which is temporary and is going to get old and wrinkled and break down – is that what determines how you feel about life?   What about the fact that I died for you, that I have given you eternal life, you who didn’t deserve it, you who deserve condemnation?  Do you really value your body more than what I have given you?”

And I would say, “I know you’re right – I’m to love you and worship you above all else.  But this scale has the power to determine what kind of day I’ll have.  And even though if I don’t like the number, I’ll be depressed, there’s a chance the number is on the thin side and I’ll feel REALLY good!”

But, recently, the scales have been going up and up and I seem to have no control over the number it shows or over my body.  I haven’t changed my exercise or my eating habits.  For the days when I’ve eaten more, I’ve compensated.  But now I am perplexed and have been depressed.

Yet I understand what has happened.  When I wasn’t obedient to the soft God-voice, He had to get my attention in a stronger fashion.  Repenting, I put away the scales today and asked God to give me a different way of thinking.  And He did.  I was in Zechariah this morning.  Chapter 4, verse 6 says:  Not by might, not by strength but by my spirit alone, says the Lord. And then in an email Christian quote of the day, was Paul’s reminder to Timothy (and to us) that God has not given us a spirit of fear (or condemnation) but a spirit of love, of power and of a sound mind (the Holy Spirit).

So, dear Lord, forgive me for looking to something other than You as my lodestar.  Guide me this day in how to think (and how to eat). I can’t be trusted to think correctly on my own.   I’m fallen.  And thinking right thoughts IS our chief moral duty (per Michael Novak, a Catholic theologian).  For unless we think correctly and truthfully about God, we will not act properly.

Let’s finish the rest with forthrightness and humility like David

February 3, 2010

Maria 2 Samuel, Wisdom , Leave a comment

2 Sam 24:10  But David’s heart smote him after he had numbered the people.  David said to the Lord, I have sinned greatly in what I have done.

Unlike his earlier major debacle with Bathsheba when Nathan confronted David with his sin, no human being needs to meet with David this time.  The unseen Holy Spirit, who convicts all believers of sin, communicates directly to David’s heart.  The king has called for a census during a time when his kingdom is not at war, and no conscription is necessary. Joab, his military chief of staff, has strongly advised against it.  But the King’s wishes prevail.  However, after 9 months of counting when David is presented with the data, he immediately comes face to face with the fact of his sin.  He confesses immediately to the Lord and submits to his punishment.  We know that he was correct in his spiritual inventory, because the prophet Gad is directed by God to present to David three choices of punishment.  God implements the 3-day plague that David has chosen as the lesser evil.

A further sign of spiritual growth is when David, appalled at the price his own people have to pay for his sin, attempts to halt the plague’s destruction at the end of the allotted time.  His prophet Gad instructs him to set up an altar and sacrifice.  The intended place is Araunah’s barn.  When the farmer finds out David’s intentions, he offers to supply everything David needs at no cost, including the land, animals and firewood.  David, totally unconscious of any embarrassment, publically renounces the gift by explaining that he will not offer to the Lord something that has not cost him.  David has learned that true worship, where one declares the worth of another, requires giving up of something of personal value.

I’m struck by a parallel thought.  First, the mighty King David, the man after God’s own heart, is still sinning.  I need to prepare myself for the fact that as I mature, I will, from time to time, still settle for less than God’s glory in my choices. I am still a sinner, though redeemed.  But I can always repent and receive forgiveness as long as I am humble.  Second, my sin will cost others, and my repentance will cost me.  But I rather face reality and prepare for it, then live with the illusion that Christian growth leads to an end to sinning.  Not in this life!

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