needed discernment

An important aspect of life in the Body of Christ is the gift of discernment. To each person in Jesus God gives some measure of discernment by the Spirit. To certain ones he gives an extra measure, and we should seek to learn and benefit from them. But we each have responsibility to, by the Spirit develop eyes to see more and more as God sees, ears to hear, and a mouth to speak.

It is easy to go on like the world, following our whims and fancies. In biblical language to follow the desires of our hearts and our eyes, not commended. It seems easy not to grow up into Christ. To fail to leave the old behind, and follow the new way in Jesus. In the words of Scripture to put off the old, and put on the new. And thus fail to become human in the way of Jesus who is the true human, God’s image completely restored in him so that when one sees this human they are seeing God. So this needed discernment comes through seeing the face of God in Jesus, the truth as it is in Jesus, understood through the Spirit as well as through the word of God/Scripture. And growing up together with those in Jesus, especially our church, those we have fellowship with regularly, into him, to the full measure of the stature of Christ.

We need discernment all the way around. In regard to our personal lives, our family lives, our church life, our witness in the world, our neighborhood, in everything. It is ever and always a gift to us by God, not something we can write down in a book, but something which comes to us as a gift from God day after day.

It first applies to us. We need to be open to God’s correction and become more and more sensitive to hearing his voice in whatever way he may choose to speak. Of course especially through his word. Only after we apply discernment to ourselves, and diligently keep doing so, are we ready to help others. And we help others gently, deftly, indirectly if possible, and in love, the love of God in Christ. This new way in Jesus discerned by the Spirit and confirmed over time through the church and in our lives may seem dehumanized, since what is thought to be human is often man’s invention, or the way of the world, the flesh and the devil.

We need to be patient in all of this. It takes time to develop this kind of spirit and psyche. We should never be quick to apply it to others, but should ever be keen to apply it to ourselves. It is never of us, but only in ongoing interactivity with God meeting us right where we live, right where others live. What could be likened to what has been called “shoe leather faith.”

How have you found this gift to be helpful in your own life? And don’t despise the seemingly small ways in God’s working.

fast forward

Too often we simply live for another day. For many it’s weekend. And, or retirement. Or we want instant gratification, or to have our perceived needs met now. Or the loftier goal of arriving to maturity overnight. We groan and hold on, just biding our time until… and in effect we lose real life.

We are not meant to fast forward through life, but to walk through it from moment to moment, hour after hour, day after day. Otherwise we lose out on life itself.

We are at home, we have arrived in a true sense- “in Jesus.” There is no land for God’s people now, except for the promised earth which won’t be fulfilled until Christ returns. We live as those “in Christ” together with others in him, and this is the crux of the matter for us. It’s how we live, life likened to a walk in Scripture. In that walk we are bent like a runner toward the goal, running in our spirit toward the mark of God’s heavenly call for us in Christ Jesus. But the run is really in the midst of a walk. This is where life is lived, this is where God is at work in us and out from us to others, and from them to us.

There is no doubt that life can be dull. Work can be a drag as we do much the same thing day after day. Yet we are not to fast forward away from those supposedly mundane matters. We need to look to God and his strength and wisdom. Do the best we can in our work, and accept and even learn to embrace the people God has put around us. Learning to live in relationship with others in the love God calls us to through Jesus. And sharing “the old, old story of Jesus and his love” to those who need to hear it, out of a heart of love to them from a life of prayer, and of listening.

As we do so, we’ll learn not to even want to fast forward away from the humdrum of life. Not that we don’t look forward to breaks, or the end of the day. But through it we live in Christ and in community in Christ in the mission of God for the world. And through it, God grows us up together with others in Christ.

What is life about for you? Could it be that the hard places we want to escape are the very places where God wants to meet us anew, and be at work in our lives?

pressure

Eugene Peterson in his latest book alludes to pressure in our shaping as God’s people into the image of Christ. It is a pressure in the midst of community with others in Jesus. And it is a pressure which includes plenty of  conundrums in the line of wrongs, nonsense and injustices suffered. Peterson says that this is necessary if we’re to really mature into people conformed to Christ’s image.

Pressure can hit us from all sides. Paul said it hit him and his colleagues in mission both from within and without. And to the point that he despaired even of life. They were to the end of their ropes. But Paul went on to say that this happened that they may not rely on, or trust and be confident in themselves, but only in God, the God who raises the dead. And that God had delivered them from deadly peril and would continue to do so as Christians helped them with their prayers.

For the Christian, the follower of Christ we live in an existence which is contrary to our new existence in Christ. We are in Christ, members of a Body in living union with each other together in our Head, Christ. We are growing up together. That in itself brings its own challenges. But it also brings its help in that we’re all in this together. We’re not left alone to make it through on our own. That’s actually a contradiction as to who we are in Christ. We have God the Trinity, and we also have each other through Christ by the Spirit.

The existence we live in is the world, the flesh and the devil, all at odds with God and his will. Everything is set and moving contrary to the new life we have in Jesus, a life of God’s kingdom come so that God’s will may be done on earth as it is in heaven. We struggle enough to see this kingdom of God begin to take full sway in our own hearts. But then to live it out in a society which in mostly subtle ways is directly counter to it brings enough trouble by itself. And often frees us from lesser concerns, that itself being part of our growth.

There is no escape from this pressure, and we do well to accept it. We’re in over our heads, and that seems to be a necessity in us learning to live this new life in Jesus. And we’re in this together. So that we show the way by the Spirit through how we live in this community in Jesus as well as in the world. We learn from each other.

What have you learned through pressure? How do we respond under pressure? What can we find in the midst of pressure? And what good can come out of living under pressure?

no condemnation

We read in Romans 8:1 that there is indeed no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Here is some of the passage:

¹ Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, ² because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. ³ For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful humanity to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in human flesh, ⁴ in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.

Romans 8

Our justification in Christ includes our acquittal before God, that though guilty in our sins, we are forgiven and all charges are dropped and we are accepted by God indeed as his children in his Son, Jesus. The ground for this justification is Christ and his atoning work on the cross. The outworking of that salvation is through the Spirit.

Indeed we are justified by faith in Christ apart from works. Once we add works into the mix there is no salvation. For it is Christ alone who can save us. If it depends on us one little bit, then there is no salvation because only God and God alone through Christ can save us.

So in this present life we are justified by faith alone in Christ alone. Through this grace of God by faith we have peace with God and assurance of being accepted through Christ. Nothing from us is involved in it, not any works, or we would have reason to boast in ourselves.

Works do follow and are an important part of our salvation. We aren’t saved by them, but we’re saved for them. If good works do not become a way of life for us in Jesus, we should indeed question whether or not we have been saved. Since we have become his children, and indeed light in the Lord, we are to live in gratitude, and by the Spirit accordingly.

Our justification in the present is by faith, but in the judgment it will be on the basis of our works. This is in part why we read in Romans 8 that this salvation involves fulfilling the righteous requirement of the Law of God through the Spirit. The rest of Romans 8 makes it clear that it is by the Spirit we live out this salvation. The only alternative presented to this is death.

So while it is through Christ and his death- and resurrection- that we are saved, not dependent on us, yet this salvation involves a new life. A life we can’t live by our own efforts but only through the Spirit.

This is important for each and everyone of us. None of us are deserving, and we may be haunted by things of our past which we can’t undo, nor make  right, though we are willing to do whatever God would have us do. But even so the enemy can heap on us all kinds of guilt and a sense of being condemned by God.

Of course we must again take a stand on God’s word, and we must rest on that word. And as we sense and indeed experience the working of the Spirit in us to live out this salvation, we can be assured of our salvation, that we are not condemned, but are indeed God’s children. So that we are both assured by faith in what Christ has done, and as the Spirit bears witness to our spirit that we are indeed God’s children.

If we love God and want to do his will, and find that by his grace through the Spirit we actually are doing something of his will, however imperfectly, we can be assured (along with the “rest” from our own works through faith) that God does accept us, that we are indeed a part of the great salvation of Romans 8. And from that we share this great salvation with others, so that they too can enter in and live this new life.

How has this truth in Jesus in Romans 8 impacted your own life? Has it made a difference?

grace

Eugene Peterson in his latest book, Practice Resurrection likens grace to water, like in a pool or an ocean. As people learn to let water buoy their bodies up so they can float and swim, so grace is present, and we need to trust in that grace of God through Christ to buoy us up spiritually. And spiritual is never divorced from the material. It is about living in the everyday, ordinary yet sinful, fallen world, with all of its challenges and temptations, living this existence in the Jesus way.

Grace is more like the air we breathe, or the water people learn to float and swim in. It also means it is not dependent on us. As soon as I fail to trust the water, I’m sinking (which is what I do). It’s an entrusting of ourselves into God’s grace in Christ, but it’s more than just receiving forgiveness and reconciliation, but it’s about living, about our existence and all we are becoming and doing in that existence.

Living in grace is markedly different than living the normal existence of humanity. An existence given over to the world, the flesh and the devil. An existence that is actually likened to a living death, dead in trespasses and sins in which people live in following the ways of this world and of the prince of the power of the air who is now at work in those who are disobedient. Hard words, but apart from Christ we’re sunk. We’re in need of God’s grace in Christ, and it is a grace in which like oxygen we are utterly dependent. In God’s grace we live and move and have our being in this new creation in Jesus.

So in this picture of grace from Eugene Peterson (and he’s not responsible for where I’ve here deviated from what he might say) we are talking about nothing less than a new existence. Yes, it is experiential and existential in nature, but it is reality that meets us in our full humanity, and this full humanity in the kingdom of God in community in Christ. And in the mission of God for the world.

How does this picture of grace encourage you? Do you find it as true to Scripture as I do?

Eugene Peterson on worship shaping us as community in Christ

But as our language becomes more personal it also becomes more inter-personal. This is a multi-voiced conversation. It cannot be narrowed down, reduced, to a private Jesus-and-me-in-the-garden-alone exchange of words. There are, to be sure, plenty of occasions when we are by ourselves on the road, listening and speaking, hearing the “still small voice,” and whispering responsively to our Lord. These are authentically precious moments, but we soon learn that we cannot have Jesus all to ourselves. If we are to get in on all that is going on in this adventure called life that we live responsively into, we must extend the conversation to include the others whom God is calling, the others who are walking in response to the call. The life into which we grow to maturity in Christ is a life formed in community.

The Ephesians letter shapes our imaginations to an awareness not only of ourselves but of all the other pilgrims on the road in simultaneous diversity and unity. This company of called fellow-travelers, all different and all one, is the church. Paul’s metaphor for it is a human body to which Christ is the head, “the body of Christ” (Eph 4:12). Everybody different, everyone organically connected. Shimmering diversity and harmonic unity – “joined and knit together by every ligament” is Paul’s vivid metaphor (4:16). “Christ and the church” (5:32) is the paradigmatic form for this multitudinous and yet improbably unified company.

Common worship, that is, corporate worship (worship “in common”), gives the basic form and provides the essential content for this aspect of “growing up” to the “full stature of Christ.” Private worship while alone in semi-paralysis before a TV screen is not mature worship. Certainly we can worship in solitary. Some of our richest moments of worship will come while strolling on a beach or wandering in a garden or perched on a mountain peak. What we must not do is deliberately exclude others from our worship or worship selectively with like-minded friends. These are not options on offer in Ephesians. Maturity develops in worship as we develop in friendship with the friends of God, not just our preferred friends. Worship shapes us not only individually but as a community, a church. If we are going to grow up into Christ we have to do it in the company of everyone who is responding to the call of God. Whether we happen to like them or not has nothing to do with it.

Eugene Peterson, Practice Resurrection: a conversation on growing up in Christ, 35, 36.

prayer for the fourth Sunday in Easter/of Pascha

O God, whose Son Jesus is the good shepherd of your people; Grant that when we hear his voice we may know him who calls us each by name, and follow where he leads; who, with you and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Book of Common Prayer

embracing all of life

Something God has been working at in my life is for me to not only work through difficulties when they come, but to embrace those difficulties. We can do so by faith in God through Jesus. We know that God is at work in all that comes our way. The devil may be in the details, but God is present and active always in everything. We need to take that to heart.

Life doesn’t come to us wrapped in the way we like. We’d like rain at night for three or four hours while we’re sleeping. And a gentle rain at that. Though we might want to see a spectacular, harmless thunderstorm here and there along the way. We want to see sunny days, filled with light, something people don’t take for granted where I live due to the large number of cloudy days we have because of the big lake nearby.

This is a choice we in Jesus need to make. We don’t wait for some special revelation from God, nor do we wait for it to be easy. That is not faith, not the faith God calls us to. We have enough from his word, and we need to act on that. Of course God compensates for those who do not have the same access to his word. But it is essential for our growing up in Christ, to continue through the trial by faith.

We live in a strange land, a lost world, an existence of “the world, the flesh and the devil.” But this same world is the one in which Christ came to bring redemption, reconciliation and new creation.  Christ took on himself our sin, and also defeated the powers and all that stands opposed to God and God’s good will, at the cross. We have to stand on this truth and move on, come what may.

As we do, sooner or later a new world opens up to us. All appears to be the same, yet all has changed because of Christ. And we need to learn to live more and more into and in that change. A big part of that is a matter of perspective. But it’s more than seeing the glass half full rather than half empty. It’s faith that God is at work for good always in all things. And this involves perception, or discernment. God helps us grope toward the sense of the new reality, indeed the new world that has come through Christ. And to help us live in that world which someday will completely swallow up the old in the new in Jesus.

So in reflecting on embracing all of life, I want to embrace all that comes my way, the thorns as well as the pleasant things, knowing that God is using everything to make me more like Jesus and more acclimated to the new world in Jesus and less to my own.

What do we do when hit with a trial or difficulty? Though not good in itself, why can we accept it by faith as within the good will and work of God?

thinking from God’s word

We need to think from the church, which means thinking from God’s word, and precisely thinking along with the church from God’s word. This means we have to take into consideration what we have learned and what has been taught by the entire church since the beginning into the present day. The church is not infallible, but the Spirit guides the church so that we can learn much from its teachers, and from our sisters and brothers in Christ’s Body.

God’s word needs to set the table for the agenda of our thoughts. And indeed for our meeting with God and with others. We do need to think creatively on the issues of our time, and keep working on them. But only from and in fellowship with God and his word. Only from Scripture do we try to think deeply and ponder the times in which we live, and what we as God’s people should do.

When I stray from this, I can go off in all sorts of directions which may or may not be helpful. But what ends up inevitably not being helpful is failing to think from God’s word. The whole word, from Genesis through Revelation. We need it all, and we need to ponder it, and seek to live in interactive relationship with God through it.

This is what I believe Jesus did. And all the people of God in Scripture in seeking to walk with God. So that we need to see our lives, our stories within the framework of God’s Story, and God’s good will through Jesus.

This helps keep us anchored. Our anchor is in Christ, but it’s through the word that we both know and seek to live by the Spirit in God’s grace and truth found in Jesus. And it’s how we get back into the path and the way in Jesus, when we stray.

What might you like to share from your own life or thoughts on this?

Earth Day

Today is Earth Day, and Sunday is Creation Care Sunday.  What place does the earth and nature/creation have in our thinking? How do we look at the earth and why? These are good questions to ask and ponder. Christians see the earth as part of God’s good creation. But we don’t necessarily agree across the board on just what that means for our activities now.

Some stress that the earth is resilient, forgiving, that we can take what we need from it now, that indeed God supplies that for us. That this earth will be burned in judgment and what we do now does not matter in the end. Though most would not go that far, but instead hold to a viable view that we need to manage the resources we have in our use of them.

When one deviates from this norm, often they are looked at as “tree huggers”. That is environmentalists as in environmental extremists. This can be allied to a pantheistic view in which nature is considered sacred in itself. And one dare not deface what is sacred or one will be out of sync with the oneness of everything.

But over against both of these views is the position that God has called humanity to creation care seen in the early chapters of Genesis. And that though the earth is now under God’s curse so that work is fraught with difficulty, yet we still have that same call from God to be stewards of the earth. Renewed in Christ in humankind once again being placed over all things under heaven. But in a place of taking care of God’s good gifts, and using them in a way that is not about “the bottom line”, but about caring for all of God’s creation.

There are fewer things better than going on vacation to visit some magnificent part of creation, such as a park. There is nothing I like more than visiting a place in which nature is preserved in its original or normal habitat. And we are blessed to live in a world in which life teems everywhere and often in spite of ourselves, I think now of all the trees and plants in the city in which I live.

We may think we can do little to help against pollution and overuse of earth’s resources. But we need to think again. Because just changing one habit at a time can contribute toward others doing the same, and can cascade into a lifestyle for us, in which we more and more think along these lines, and do little by little more what we can do.

I don’t expect many Christians I know will give any more than at the most a passing glance to Earth Day, and Creation Care Sunday. This does not fit well into our theological understanding, or how we work out that understanding. We who see differently need to hold to our view and promote it as those who hold to a biblical view. These days can be good, apt reminders of the calling from God we have to be stewards of his good gift of the Earth and creation.

What does “Earth Day”, or “Creation Care Sunday” mean to you? Does our theology exclude such considerations and why? What can we do to change that?

A great blog to help us from a friend who also works at RBC Ministries: The Wonder of Creation, by Dean Ohlman. You can find some good links on his blog as well, for helping us in this.