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[The gospel] is not a question to be answered or a puzzle to be solved. It is a paradox to be relished, a wild, outrageous secret to be astonished at and then snitched to the world as the greatest joke ever told...The Mystery of Christ is a festival of weakness and foolishness on the part of God...something that makes no more sense than the square root of minus one--something that is deaf to our cries for intelligible explanations but that works when it is put into the equation of the world--something that can only be marveled at because it is preposterously Good News. The Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, has one Word for us: God has upped and done the damnedest thing. Or, to get the direction and adjectives right, God has downed and done the blessedest thing we could ever not have thought of.
-Robert Farrar Capon
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Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Monday, November 16, 2009
Step Seven
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I have been reading 12 Steps For The Recovering Pharisee (like me), John Fischer. This book uses the 12 step model of recovery, though he rewrites the steps to be applicable to Phariseeism and overcoming such legalistic, self-righteous habits in our own life. The following is chapter 7. I know it's a rather lengthy passage, but hopefully you can find the time to read and consider it. It has especially spoken to me.
Step 7
We embrace the belief that we are, and will always be, experts at sinning.
In the course of one private conversation between the two of them, my mother informed my wife that I didn’t sin. Now, my wife had been married to me for over ten years at the time, and, as you can imagine, she had a somewhat differing opinion on the subject of my sinfulness or lack of it. I was pretty shocked myself to hear of my supposed perfection, and though I would love to believe my mother, I’m afraid my wife knows better. Though we often joke about this now, I wonder what would bring my mother to pose such a preposterous claim about me. Aside from the expected parental my-son-can-do-no-wrong myth, was there anything more indicated in this dubious assessment? I believe that there might have been.
Many evangelicals mistakenly believe that a person’s spirituality and closeness to God are inversely proportionate to the amount of sin in that person’s life. More sin, less of God; more of God, less sin, the ultimate goal being sinlessness—a state that no one we know has actually achieved, but is theoretically plausible nonetheless. I guess my mother had me so close to God that I had to be sinless in her mind.
This equation is carefully bolstered by glowing testimonies and the close-to-perfection reputations of those who are close to God. Ministers and those in “full-time Christian service” are closer than anybody and thus the furthest from sin. This is why it is so devastating to the church when these close-to-perfect people fall prey to a terrible moral failure. The result is shock and disbelief. They were so spiritual; how could this have happened?
The big Christian lie
In his charming coming-of-age novel, Portofino, Frank Schaeffer, son of Francis and Edith Schaeffer, two of the most important Christian thinkers in the last three decates, strips the veneer away from what many must have thought was the ideal Christian family.
Frank—formerly Franky—paints a picture in this novel of a fundamentalist evangelical family on vacation in Italy over the course of two summers. The parallels between the story and what I know about Frank’s own family and childhood are everywhere. In the story we see a distant, silent father, who in public is fighting for a culturally relevant biblical orthodoxy but in private is prone to huge mood swings and a violent temper, a wife who fights with him over which one of them is more spiritual, and children who are forced to be “biblical” before they know what any of it means. Though some of the situations are humorous and charming, others are too painfully real to just be funny. Having grown up in a similar evangelical family caught in a public and private dichotomy, I find Portofino cathartic, to say the least.
In looking into this story, I discovered that I have two reactions to this dysfunctional Christian family. The first is to take some pleasure in their shortcomings because then I can feel somehow better about mine. The second reaction is to be disappointed. Something inside me wishes Frank hadn’t uncovered this flawed family portrait because then I could go on believing that at least someone I revered, like Francis and Edith Schaeffer, had gotten it right.
It occurs to me that this second reaction could be thought of as the big Christian lie. That is, the belief that somebody, somewhere, got it right. Don’t we flock to speakers and singers who are up front and important because they are getting it right, and aren’t they up ther be we expect that of them? When it comes painfully obvious that in some area of their lives they did not get it right, aren’t they promptly removed from their place? Aren’t all those smiling people on the covers of Christian books telling us how we, too, can get it right if we follow their advice? If we didn’t worship at the altar of getting it right, there wouldn’t be a market for half this stuff.
But have no fear, Christian entrepreneurs, the market is not in any danger, because this appeal has held human beings in its grip ever since Moses came down the mountain with God’s top ten list for getting it right. And we all carry on with the lie.
The lure of ‘almost’
Unfortunately, getting it right is not the issue. If we were all facing sin more realistically, we would not be so surprised when it shows up in the life of a spiritual leader. (I sometimes fear what my children will write about me!) If we were being truthful about who we really are—all of us—we would know that our leaders are human, just as we are.
Sometimes I wonder if we want our spiritual leaders to be perfect so we don’t have to be. As long as we believe somebody’s perfect, we can go on perpetuating the myth that perfection is possible and keep on shrouding our own sin safely behind the lie of ‘almost.’ We are almost there. We have almost arrived. We are almost holy. One more book, one more seminar, one more revival service, and we will be just like the person on the cover of the book or the brochure. That’s why when leaders fall, it blows the cover on this charade. Suddenly this elusive spiritual life we are trying to lead is further away than we thought. ‘Almost’ is not even close. If the pastor can fall, what does that say about our chances?
If we were more honest with ourselves, we would know that the real question is not how someone so high could fall so far, but rather why hasn’t it happened sooner in such an atmosphere of denial? What were these people doing up there in the first place; and what were we doing putting them up there? The real problem in this case is not with sin, it is with our false idea of who we think we are. We need to understand that wnen someone falls, it’s not the end; it’s just the truth finally being known. It’s actually a good thing if it sends us all back to the gospel, where we should have been all along.
I often wonder how a gospel based solely on the merits of one who has died to forgive sin could be perpetuated on the merits of those who don’t seem to need it. If the whole point of the gospel is forgiveness of sin, then why do we insist on continually parading these almost perfect lives in front of each other? How has it happened that the people who proclaim forgiveness of sin don’t seem to have any sins to be forgiven of themselves? How has a church that once was the happy possession of common fishermen and prostitutes and tax collectors become the home of the spiritually elite? There are, undoubtedly, numerous and complicated answers to these questions, but I believe at the root of them all is lurking the issue of the Pharisee.
The call of the ancient Pharisee
Sin has a way of showing up only on the front end of salvation. Sinners are those who need saved, but once they are saved we rarely hear about sin anymore. Yes, sin still turns up in the context of those sinners ‘out there’ who need Jesus, but don’t we ‘in here’ need Jesus just as much after we’re saved?
It’s as if we believe another standard takes over once we become Christians. The unbeliever receives forgiveness of sins; the believer, however, must simply stop sinning. The blood of Jesus Christ covered my sins when I became a Christian, but now that I am saved I’d better straighten up and fly right. Salvation is for those who need to be saved, not those who already have been. And whenever not sinning takes precedence over the forgiveness of sins…beware the Pharisee.
‘Who among you is without sin?’ is the damning question Jesus posed to the Pharisees. We should ask ourselves the same question. John put it another way: ‘If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves’ (1 John 1:8). And yet we continue to want to be deceived—to perpetuate a myth about ourselves and our leaders that keeps our sin hidden from view because the alternative—to come clean—is just too scary. Although not sinning is not possible, we choose to perpetuate the false belief that it is, rather than face the truth. We created these perfect spiritual leaders in the first place to prove that it can be done; but they are living way beyond their spiritual means. If my assessment is true, it may actually be the grace of God that brings them down so we can all start facing the truth.
I grew up on hymn lyrics like, ‘What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.’ I noticed the hymnist put this in the present tense, meaning that sin is a daily reality in the believer’s life. But I have a hunch most people don’t sing it that way. We sing it as if it were, ‘What has washed away my sin?’ As if sin were now behind us—a remnant of our non-Christian past.
One can see how subtly we become prime candidates for the fraternity of Pharisees. When being perfect is more important than being saved—when not sinning takes precedence over honestly dealing with sin—all the same dynamics that tantalized Saul of Tarsus are waiting to empower us falsely. The supposed perfection, the arrangement of the standard so as to make the breaking of it almost impossible to do, the judgment of others, the hiding, and, of course, the hypocrisy, are simply too alluring to refuse.
Foolish Galatians
‘You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you?’ wrote Paul in his letter to the same. ‘Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?’ (Galatians 3:1, 3)
Apparently this is not a new problem. We start with the Spirit; we start with salvation; we start with the undeserved grace of God, but then human effort creeps back into our spiritual lives like weeds returning to a weeded garden. We start looking to ourselves again, thinking we have to come up with what we need to be good Christians, and the minute we start looking to ourselves, we start covering up and being defensive and comparing ourselves to others, just like Pharisees. It’s inevitable: Where there is spirituality mixed with human effort, there will be all the pitfalls of the Pharisees, writhing like a brood of vipers waiting to entangle those who fall in.
If it took the Spirit to saves, Paul points out, it’s going to take the Spirit to keep us saved. Start with the Spirit, stay with the Spirit; start with salvation, stay with salvation; start with grace, stay with grace. How can we add to what Christ has done? We are saved each day the same way we were saved the first time. We brought our sinful lives before God, turned from relying on ourselves to relying on him, and received his life in exchange for ours. It’s no different now. It’s a moment-by-moment transaction.
The Galatians were trying to perfect through human effort what the Spirit had begun without their help, while all along denying that very Spirit the right to their lives. Their problem was the same as the Pharisees: they wanted to be in control of the process. They wanted to take back what they gave up in the beginning. Apparently they were too uncomfortable not being in control. Who else would turn down the grace of God but someone who didn’t want to be vulnerable to it? It’s a tragedy that while there is grace to cover all our sin, there are still sinners who don’t know about it and Pharisees who don’t want to know.
Salvation: then, now, and later
Confession of sin in our churches most often comes from those who are just being saved. We hear their stories as the equivalent of the ‘before’ pictures in liposuction ads with all that detestable flab hanging out over the edges of ill-fitting bathing suits. The assumption is that the rest of us have had all the sin sucked out of our abs and buttocks and are currently enjoying our slim, trim ‘after’ bodies. If sin does happen to show up later in a believer’s life, it is the result of a temporary backsliding. It happens to the best of us now and then. This is ‘solved’ by a simple rededication of our lives to God—a sort of ‘salvation refresher’. Sin is rarely, if ever, addressed as a normal part of a believer’s everyday experience.
Is salvation a one-time experience or something that we need every day of our lives? Yes and yes. These are actually two aspects of a three-pronged process of salvation—past, present and future. The theological names for these three aspects of salvation are justification, sanctification, and glorification. Justification is what has happened to us in relation to our sin, once and for all, on the cross. Jesus Christ’s death in our place has justified us forever before God and made possible our fellowship with him.
But this does not mean that we are sinless. Paul calls it a ‘body of death’ that we still have to carry around in this life even though we have received the firstfruits of the Spirit in our hearts (Romans 8:23). We are currently caught between our ultimate glorification when we will receive our resurrection bodies like Christ, and the past-justification of ourselves through the finished work of Christ on the cross. Everything in between is our present-tense experience of the process of sanctification. That experience includes both sin and forgiveness of sin as a daily occurrence. Though our salvation is secured in heaven, we experience it currently as we struggle with our sin nature and feel God’s knife cutting more deeply into the subtleties of our flesh.
The experience of sin in a believer’s life is not always backsliding. Nor is it always willful disobedience. Often it is what is simply revealed or brought into view because of the Holy Spirit’s work at peeling away our sin nature like the layers of an onion. The longer we follow Christ the more we discover how deep the sin goes and how deep and wide are his mercy and love. Realization of sin, confession, and forgiveness continue as we find out more about ourselves. This is why this process is both painful and rewarding. Painful because we keep discovering how far we still have to go, but rewarding because we keep discovering, as well, how far Christ has gone for us. This is also why the older believer always has an affinity for the new believer. It’s the same process. The new believer may be experiencing God’s forgiveness for the first time, but the experience is immediate, real, and necessary for both of them.
This is also why the new believer and the old believer can both sing the same song, tell the same gospel story, and talk of the same forgiveness fresh from each one’s current experience of it. Take the following hymn:
At the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light,
And the burden of my heart rolled away;
It was there by faith I received my sight,
And now I am happy all the day.
Does a twenty-year believer sing this song thinking back on twenty years ago when she received her forgiveness? Is the twenty-year believer remembering and vicariously experiencing her former forgiveness through the tears of the new convert? Or does the twenty-year believer have her own tears welling up in her eyes as she sings this hymn for the umpteenth time, realizing it’s implications even more deeply than the last time she sang it because of the sin for which she has just received fresh forgiveness? This is how our salvation continues to be alive in our lives.
‘Tell Me the Old, Old Story’ is another old hymn I remember singing often as a child. Well, the old, old story has a way of always being a new, new song when we understand and experience the painful and glorious process of our sanctification.
More sin; more God
‘The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more’ (Romans 5:20).
At the beginning of this chapter I talked about this erroneous equation: More sin, less of God; more of God, less sin. I would like to suggest at this point a totally different equation. I would like to suggest that more of God in my life actually means more sin, if by more sin it is clear I mean the awareness of sin. The person who is closer to God is more aware of sin than the one who is distant, and thus that person will be having a more relevant experience with God as he or she grows in the faith.
This is why older Christians keep getting more humble as they grow older. They keep finding out how much of a sinner they are and how patient God is with them.
Paul puts it this way. ‘Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life’ (1 Timothy 1:15-16).
Here Paul makes a truly daring claim. One would think great leaders like Paul would be able to claim themselves as examples of righteousness and holiness, but Paul does not. He claims quite the opposite; he brags about being the worst sinner among sinners. He chose to exemplify himself in this manner so that others might have hope. If Christ would have patience with Paul—the worst of sinners—then no sinner could claim to be outside the reach of God’s grace.
These are truly unusual bragging rights. In essence Paul is saying he has more sin than anyone so no one can have any legitimate reason not to believe the forgiveness of God. If there’s hope for him, the worst of sinners, there’s hope for anyone. ‘For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect’ (1 Corinthians 15:9-10).
To extrapolate somewhat on Paul’s statement, I offer the following paragraph:
You think your sin is so great that God could never forgive you? Well, think again. I murdered Christians for their faith. I carried out the judgment of God upon the very people he was calling out to do his work. The cloaks of the murderers ended up at my feet. Awful things were done, at my command, to more people that I can count who were and are now my brethren, and the responsibility for all these things rests on me.
More of God, more awareness of sin. The more I see of God, the more I am aware of that in me that is not of God. That’s why Paul’s statement is in the present tense: ‘Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.’ Paul experiences a continual awareness of his sin nature. I would want to say I was the worst of sinners…but not Paul. The reality of his sin was as current and fresh as the reality of God’s grace. Paul knew that he couldn’t really know God’s grace without knowing his sin and how little he deserved what he was receiving. Deserve it, and it is no longer grace.
If we are going to recover from this pharisaical phoniness, we are going to have to get a present-tense awareness of our sin. We need to be experts at finding and rooting out our own sin—no one else’s. We have plenty to deal with right here in our own heart without having to take on anyone else’s sin as our personal campaign. I am the worst sinner I know, simply because I know myself better than anyone. My sin is the worst because it is mine. I am intimately involved with it. I know all its subtle nuances, its illusions, its rationalizations, and its cover-ups. Of my sin I am an expert. Anyone else’s sin is not my business to evaluate.
And follow this: Jeremiah informs us that our ‘expert’ knowledge of sin is still limited at best. Deeper than what we know about our sin lies that which we don’t know. ‘The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure,’ cried Jeremiah. ‘Who can understand it?’ (17:9). This is a reminder that, however much we know about our sin, we still do not know it all.
Paul picks up this theme in 1 Corinthians 4:4: ‘My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me.’ Paul never claims sinlessness, but he does claim a clear conscience. The sin Paul knows about, he has brought to the Lord already and received forgiveness; what he doesn’t know about is known by God and will be revealed in due time.
A clear conscience, therefore, does not mean we are sinless. It means we are covered by the blood of Jesus for what we know and what we don’t know. That should keep us humble until the time when the Lord returns. ‘He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and expose the motives of men’s hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God’ (1 Corinthians 4:5).
The recovering Pharisee’s creed
When I speak of sin, I will no longer talk of it as something in my distant past. When I speak of forgiveness, I will not speak of it as something I received years ago when I became a Christian. I will speak of the sin and forgiveness I experienced today—that I am experiencing right now—that enable me to be human and real and truthful with who I am and who I am becoming. And when the conversation turns to talk of sinners, I will realize the conversation is really about me. I will always know that I am the worst of sinners. I put Jesus on the cross; my sin nailed him there. And if I ever catch myself thinking that there exists, somewhere in the world, a worse sinner than I, regardless of the gravity of the crime, it is at that point that I have stepped over the pharisaical line and am speaking about something of which I know nothing. When it comes to sin, I can only speak of myself with absolute certainty, and in regard to myself and sin, I am certain of this: that I am an expert in both my sin and my forgiveness. One brings me sorrow; the other brings me great joy. The remarkable thing is not that I sin, but that, in spite of my sin, I am capable of having fellowship with God and being used by him for his purposes in the world.
‘So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!’ (1 Corinthians 10:12)
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I have been reading 12 Steps For The Recovering Pharisee (like me), John Fischer. This book uses the 12 step model of recovery, though he rewrites the steps to be applicable to Phariseeism and overcoming such legalistic, self-righteous habits in our own life. The following is chapter 7. I know it's a rather lengthy passage, but hopefully you can find the time to read and consider it. It has especially spoken to me.
Step 7
We embrace the belief that we are, and will always be, experts at sinning.
In the course of one private conversation between the two of them, my mother informed my wife that I didn’t sin. Now, my wife had been married to me for over ten years at the time, and, as you can imagine, she had a somewhat differing opinion on the subject of my sinfulness or lack of it. I was pretty shocked myself to hear of my supposed perfection, and though I would love to believe my mother, I’m afraid my wife knows better. Though we often joke about this now, I wonder what would bring my mother to pose such a preposterous claim about me. Aside from the expected parental my-son-can-do-no-wrong myth, was there anything more indicated in this dubious assessment? I believe that there might have been.
Many evangelicals mistakenly believe that a person’s spirituality and closeness to God are inversely proportionate to the amount of sin in that person’s life. More sin, less of God; more of God, less sin, the ultimate goal being sinlessness—a state that no one we know has actually achieved, but is theoretically plausible nonetheless. I guess my mother had me so close to God that I had to be sinless in her mind.
This equation is carefully bolstered by glowing testimonies and the close-to-perfection reputations of those who are close to God. Ministers and those in “full-time Christian service” are closer than anybody and thus the furthest from sin. This is why it is so devastating to the church when these close-to-perfect people fall prey to a terrible moral failure. The result is shock and disbelief. They were so spiritual; how could this have happened?
The big Christian lie
In his charming coming-of-age novel, Portofino, Frank Schaeffer, son of Francis and Edith Schaeffer, two of the most important Christian thinkers in the last three decates, strips the veneer away from what many must have thought was the ideal Christian family.
Frank—formerly Franky—paints a picture in this novel of a fundamentalist evangelical family on vacation in Italy over the course of two summers. The parallels between the story and what I know about Frank’s own family and childhood are everywhere. In the story we see a distant, silent father, who in public is fighting for a culturally relevant biblical orthodoxy but in private is prone to huge mood swings and a violent temper, a wife who fights with him over which one of them is more spiritual, and children who are forced to be “biblical” before they know what any of it means. Though some of the situations are humorous and charming, others are too painfully real to just be funny. Having grown up in a similar evangelical family caught in a public and private dichotomy, I find Portofino cathartic, to say the least.
In looking into this story, I discovered that I have two reactions to this dysfunctional Christian family. The first is to take some pleasure in their shortcomings because then I can feel somehow better about mine. The second reaction is to be disappointed. Something inside me wishes Frank hadn’t uncovered this flawed family portrait because then I could go on believing that at least someone I revered, like Francis and Edith Schaeffer, had gotten it right.
It occurs to me that this second reaction could be thought of as the big Christian lie. That is, the belief that somebody, somewhere, got it right. Don’t we flock to speakers and singers who are up front and important because they are getting it right, and aren’t they up ther be we expect that of them? When it comes painfully obvious that in some area of their lives they did not get it right, aren’t they promptly removed from their place? Aren’t all those smiling people on the covers of Christian books telling us how we, too, can get it right if we follow their advice? If we didn’t worship at the altar of getting it right, there wouldn’t be a market for half this stuff.
But have no fear, Christian entrepreneurs, the market is not in any danger, because this appeal has held human beings in its grip ever since Moses came down the mountain with God’s top ten list for getting it right. And we all carry on with the lie.
The lure of ‘almost’
Unfortunately, getting it right is not the issue. If we were all facing sin more realistically, we would not be so surprised when it shows up in the life of a spiritual leader. (I sometimes fear what my children will write about me!) If we were being truthful about who we really are—all of us—we would know that our leaders are human, just as we are.
Sometimes I wonder if we want our spiritual leaders to be perfect so we don’t have to be. As long as we believe somebody’s perfect, we can go on perpetuating the myth that perfection is possible and keep on shrouding our own sin safely behind the lie of ‘almost.’ We are almost there. We have almost arrived. We are almost holy. One more book, one more seminar, one more revival service, and we will be just like the person on the cover of the book or the brochure. That’s why when leaders fall, it blows the cover on this charade. Suddenly this elusive spiritual life we are trying to lead is further away than we thought. ‘Almost’ is not even close. If the pastor can fall, what does that say about our chances?
If we were more honest with ourselves, we would know that the real question is not how someone so high could fall so far, but rather why hasn’t it happened sooner in such an atmosphere of denial? What were these people doing up there in the first place; and what were we doing putting them up there? The real problem in this case is not with sin, it is with our false idea of who we think we are. We need to understand that wnen someone falls, it’s not the end; it’s just the truth finally being known. It’s actually a good thing if it sends us all back to the gospel, where we should have been all along.
I often wonder how a gospel based solely on the merits of one who has died to forgive sin could be perpetuated on the merits of those who don’t seem to need it. If the whole point of the gospel is forgiveness of sin, then why do we insist on continually parading these almost perfect lives in front of each other? How has it happened that the people who proclaim forgiveness of sin don’t seem to have any sins to be forgiven of themselves? How has a church that once was the happy possession of common fishermen and prostitutes and tax collectors become the home of the spiritually elite? There are, undoubtedly, numerous and complicated answers to these questions, but I believe at the root of them all is lurking the issue of the Pharisee.
The call of the ancient Pharisee
Sin has a way of showing up only on the front end of salvation. Sinners are those who need saved, but once they are saved we rarely hear about sin anymore. Yes, sin still turns up in the context of those sinners ‘out there’ who need Jesus, but don’t we ‘in here’ need Jesus just as much after we’re saved?
It’s as if we believe another standard takes over once we become Christians. The unbeliever receives forgiveness of sins; the believer, however, must simply stop sinning. The blood of Jesus Christ covered my sins when I became a Christian, but now that I am saved I’d better straighten up and fly right. Salvation is for those who need to be saved, not those who already have been. And whenever not sinning takes precedence over the forgiveness of sins…beware the Pharisee.
‘Who among you is without sin?’ is the damning question Jesus posed to the Pharisees. We should ask ourselves the same question. John put it another way: ‘If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves’ (1 John 1:8). And yet we continue to want to be deceived—to perpetuate a myth about ourselves and our leaders that keeps our sin hidden from view because the alternative—to come clean—is just too scary. Although not sinning is not possible, we choose to perpetuate the false belief that it is, rather than face the truth. We created these perfect spiritual leaders in the first place to prove that it can be done; but they are living way beyond their spiritual means. If my assessment is true, it may actually be the grace of God that brings them down so we can all start facing the truth.
I grew up on hymn lyrics like, ‘What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.’ I noticed the hymnist put this in the present tense, meaning that sin is a daily reality in the believer’s life. But I have a hunch most people don’t sing it that way. We sing it as if it were, ‘What has washed away my sin?’ As if sin were now behind us—a remnant of our non-Christian past.
One can see how subtly we become prime candidates for the fraternity of Pharisees. When being perfect is more important than being saved—when not sinning takes precedence over honestly dealing with sin—all the same dynamics that tantalized Saul of Tarsus are waiting to empower us falsely. The supposed perfection, the arrangement of the standard so as to make the breaking of it almost impossible to do, the judgment of others, the hiding, and, of course, the hypocrisy, are simply too alluring to refuse.
Foolish Galatians
‘You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you?’ wrote Paul in his letter to the same. ‘Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?’ (Galatians 3:1, 3)
Apparently this is not a new problem. We start with the Spirit; we start with salvation; we start with the undeserved grace of God, but then human effort creeps back into our spiritual lives like weeds returning to a weeded garden. We start looking to ourselves again, thinking we have to come up with what we need to be good Christians, and the minute we start looking to ourselves, we start covering up and being defensive and comparing ourselves to others, just like Pharisees. It’s inevitable: Where there is spirituality mixed with human effort, there will be all the pitfalls of the Pharisees, writhing like a brood of vipers waiting to entangle those who fall in.
If it took the Spirit to saves, Paul points out, it’s going to take the Spirit to keep us saved. Start with the Spirit, stay with the Spirit; start with salvation, stay with salvation; start with grace, stay with grace. How can we add to what Christ has done? We are saved each day the same way we were saved the first time. We brought our sinful lives before God, turned from relying on ourselves to relying on him, and received his life in exchange for ours. It’s no different now. It’s a moment-by-moment transaction.
The Galatians were trying to perfect through human effort what the Spirit had begun without their help, while all along denying that very Spirit the right to their lives. Their problem was the same as the Pharisees: they wanted to be in control of the process. They wanted to take back what they gave up in the beginning. Apparently they were too uncomfortable not being in control. Who else would turn down the grace of God but someone who didn’t want to be vulnerable to it? It’s a tragedy that while there is grace to cover all our sin, there are still sinners who don’t know about it and Pharisees who don’t want to know.
Salvation: then, now, and later
Confession of sin in our churches most often comes from those who are just being saved. We hear their stories as the equivalent of the ‘before’ pictures in liposuction ads with all that detestable flab hanging out over the edges of ill-fitting bathing suits. The assumption is that the rest of us have had all the sin sucked out of our abs and buttocks and are currently enjoying our slim, trim ‘after’ bodies. If sin does happen to show up later in a believer’s life, it is the result of a temporary backsliding. It happens to the best of us now and then. This is ‘solved’ by a simple rededication of our lives to God—a sort of ‘salvation refresher’. Sin is rarely, if ever, addressed as a normal part of a believer’s everyday experience.
Is salvation a one-time experience or something that we need every day of our lives? Yes and yes. These are actually two aspects of a three-pronged process of salvation—past, present and future. The theological names for these three aspects of salvation are justification, sanctification, and glorification. Justification is what has happened to us in relation to our sin, once and for all, on the cross. Jesus Christ’s death in our place has justified us forever before God and made possible our fellowship with him.
But this does not mean that we are sinless. Paul calls it a ‘body of death’ that we still have to carry around in this life even though we have received the firstfruits of the Spirit in our hearts (Romans 8:23). We are currently caught between our ultimate glorification when we will receive our resurrection bodies like Christ, and the past-justification of ourselves through the finished work of Christ on the cross. Everything in between is our present-tense experience of the process of sanctification. That experience includes both sin and forgiveness of sin as a daily occurrence. Though our salvation is secured in heaven, we experience it currently as we struggle with our sin nature and feel God’s knife cutting more deeply into the subtleties of our flesh.
The experience of sin in a believer’s life is not always backsliding. Nor is it always willful disobedience. Often it is what is simply revealed or brought into view because of the Holy Spirit’s work at peeling away our sin nature like the layers of an onion. The longer we follow Christ the more we discover how deep the sin goes and how deep and wide are his mercy and love. Realization of sin, confession, and forgiveness continue as we find out more about ourselves. This is why this process is both painful and rewarding. Painful because we keep discovering how far we still have to go, but rewarding because we keep discovering, as well, how far Christ has gone for us. This is also why the older believer always has an affinity for the new believer. It’s the same process. The new believer may be experiencing God’s forgiveness for the first time, but the experience is immediate, real, and necessary for both of them.
This is also why the new believer and the old believer can both sing the same song, tell the same gospel story, and talk of the same forgiveness fresh from each one’s current experience of it. Take the following hymn:
At the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light,
And the burden of my heart rolled away;
It was there by faith I received my sight,
And now I am happy all the day.
Does a twenty-year believer sing this song thinking back on twenty years ago when she received her forgiveness? Is the twenty-year believer remembering and vicariously experiencing her former forgiveness through the tears of the new convert? Or does the twenty-year believer have her own tears welling up in her eyes as she sings this hymn for the umpteenth time, realizing it’s implications even more deeply than the last time she sang it because of the sin for which she has just received fresh forgiveness? This is how our salvation continues to be alive in our lives.
‘Tell Me the Old, Old Story’ is another old hymn I remember singing often as a child. Well, the old, old story has a way of always being a new, new song when we understand and experience the painful and glorious process of our sanctification.
More sin; more God
‘The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more’ (Romans 5:20).
At the beginning of this chapter I talked about this erroneous equation: More sin, less of God; more of God, less sin. I would like to suggest at this point a totally different equation. I would like to suggest that more of God in my life actually means more sin, if by more sin it is clear I mean the awareness of sin. The person who is closer to God is more aware of sin than the one who is distant, and thus that person will be having a more relevant experience with God as he or she grows in the faith.
This is why older Christians keep getting more humble as they grow older. They keep finding out how much of a sinner they are and how patient God is with them.
Paul puts it this way. ‘Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life’ (1 Timothy 1:15-16).
Here Paul makes a truly daring claim. One would think great leaders like Paul would be able to claim themselves as examples of righteousness and holiness, but Paul does not. He claims quite the opposite; he brags about being the worst sinner among sinners. He chose to exemplify himself in this manner so that others might have hope. If Christ would have patience with Paul—the worst of sinners—then no sinner could claim to be outside the reach of God’s grace.
These are truly unusual bragging rights. In essence Paul is saying he has more sin than anyone so no one can have any legitimate reason not to believe the forgiveness of God. If there’s hope for him, the worst of sinners, there’s hope for anyone. ‘For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect’ (1 Corinthians 15:9-10).
To extrapolate somewhat on Paul’s statement, I offer the following paragraph:
You think your sin is so great that God could never forgive you? Well, think again. I murdered Christians for their faith. I carried out the judgment of God upon the very people he was calling out to do his work. The cloaks of the murderers ended up at my feet. Awful things were done, at my command, to more people that I can count who were and are now my brethren, and the responsibility for all these things rests on me.
More of God, more awareness of sin. The more I see of God, the more I am aware of that in me that is not of God. That’s why Paul’s statement is in the present tense: ‘Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.’ Paul experiences a continual awareness of his sin nature. I would want to say I was the worst of sinners…but not Paul. The reality of his sin was as current and fresh as the reality of God’s grace. Paul knew that he couldn’t really know God’s grace without knowing his sin and how little he deserved what he was receiving. Deserve it, and it is no longer grace.
If we are going to recover from this pharisaical phoniness, we are going to have to get a present-tense awareness of our sin. We need to be experts at finding and rooting out our own sin—no one else’s. We have plenty to deal with right here in our own heart without having to take on anyone else’s sin as our personal campaign. I am the worst sinner I know, simply because I know myself better than anyone. My sin is the worst because it is mine. I am intimately involved with it. I know all its subtle nuances, its illusions, its rationalizations, and its cover-ups. Of my sin I am an expert. Anyone else’s sin is not my business to evaluate.
And follow this: Jeremiah informs us that our ‘expert’ knowledge of sin is still limited at best. Deeper than what we know about our sin lies that which we don’t know. ‘The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure,’ cried Jeremiah. ‘Who can understand it?’ (17:9). This is a reminder that, however much we know about our sin, we still do not know it all.
Paul picks up this theme in 1 Corinthians 4:4: ‘My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me.’ Paul never claims sinlessness, but he does claim a clear conscience. The sin Paul knows about, he has brought to the Lord already and received forgiveness; what he doesn’t know about is known by God and will be revealed in due time.
A clear conscience, therefore, does not mean we are sinless. It means we are covered by the blood of Jesus for what we know and what we don’t know. That should keep us humble until the time when the Lord returns. ‘He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and expose the motives of men’s hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God’ (1 Corinthians 4:5).
The recovering Pharisee’s creed
When I speak of sin, I will no longer talk of it as something in my distant past. When I speak of forgiveness, I will not speak of it as something I received years ago when I became a Christian. I will speak of the sin and forgiveness I experienced today—that I am experiencing right now—that enable me to be human and real and truthful with who I am and who I am becoming. And when the conversation turns to talk of sinners, I will realize the conversation is really about me. I will always know that I am the worst of sinners. I put Jesus on the cross; my sin nailed him there. And if I ever catch myself thinking that there exists, somewhere in the world, a worse sinner than I, regardless of the gravity of the crime, it is at that point that I have stepped over the pharisaical line and am speaking about something of which I know nothing. When it comes to sin, I can only speak of myself with absolute certainty, and in regard to myself and sin, I am certain of this: that I am an expert in both my sin and my forgiveness. One brings me sorrow; the other brings me great joy. The remarkable thing is not that I sin, but that, in spite of my sin, I am capable of having fellowship with God and being used by him for his purposes in the world.
‘So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!’ (1 Corinthians 10:12)
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Saturday, October 24, 2009
Dietrich and Jace's Perspective?
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Say, I've got a little brother,
Never teased to have him, nuther,
But he's here;
They just went ahead and bought him,
And, last week the doctor brought him,
Wan't that queer?
When I heard the news from Molly,
Why, I thought at first 'twas jolly,
'Cause, you see,
I s'posed I could go and get him
And then Mama, course, would let him
Play with me.
But when I had once looked at him,
"Why!" I says, "My sakes, is that him?
Just that mite!"
They said, "Yes," and, "Ain't he cunnin'?"
And I thought they must be funnin',--
He's a sight!
"Why'd they buy a baby brother,
When they know I'd good deal ruther
Have a dog?"
He's so small, it's just amazin',
And you'd think that he was blazin',
He's so red;
And his nose is like a berry,
And he's bald as Uncle Jerry
On his head.
Why, he isn't worth a dollar!
All he does is cry and holler
More and more;
Won't sit up--you can't arrange him,--
I don't see why Pa don't change him
At the store.
Now we've got to dress and feed him,
And we really didn't need him
More 'n a frog;
Why'd they buy a baby brother,
When they know I'd good deal ruther
Have a dog?
__________________________________________________
Say, I've got a little brother,
Never teased to have him, nuther,
But he's here;
They just went ahead and bought him,
And, last week the doctor brought him,
Wan't that queer?
When I heard the news from Molly,
Why, I thought at first 'twas jolly,
'Cause, you see,
I s'posed I could go and get him
And then Mama, course, would let him
Play with me.
But when I had once looked at him,
"Why!" I says, "My sakes, is that him?
Just that mite!"
They said, "Yes," and, "Ain't he cunnin'?"
And I thought they must be funnin',--
He's a sight!
"Why'd they buy a baby brother,
When they know I'd good deal ruther
Have a dog?"
He's so small, it's just amazin',
And you'd think that he was blazin',
He's so red;
And his nose is like a berry,
And he's bald as Uncle Jerry
On his head.
Why, he isn't worth a dollar!
All he does is cry and holler
More and more;
Won't sit up--you can't arrange him,--
I don't see why Pa don't change him
At the store.
Now we've got to dress and feed him,
And we really didn't need him
More 'n a frog;
Why'd they buy a baby brother,
When they know I'd good deal ruther
Have a dog?
__________________________________________________
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Pride and Prejudice
__________________________________________________
There seems to be two attitudes hidden the heart of every man. Pride and prejudice. No attitude seems to be worse to accept in others than pride. Pride, and specifically spiritual pride, is a stench in the nostrils of every individual when present. Second to that, and often a counterpart to spiritual pride, is prejudice. Jesus must have known this when using the parable found in Luke 10:25-37. This parable, often refered to as The Parable of the Good Samaritan, seems to address both of these issues head on.
Let’s look first at the cast of characters in this incident. We find Jesus having a conversation with an unnamed lawyer. In this conversation Jesus introduces four fictitious characters to weave a story in which to make a point. These four characters are as opposite of one another as any four individuals you could choose. First Jesus introduces a ‘certain man’. Joe Average Citizen. This man was given no description, no features, no defining details and no name. Secondly He introduces a priest. Priests were the ones responsible for the sacrifices in the temple. No doubt everyone revered these men as ‘men of God’. Thirdly Jesus introduces a Levite. The Levites and the priests worked closely with one another in temple work. While the priests were responsible for the sacrificial duties, the Levites were the oil that made the whole machine of Jewish worship run. The Levites were responsible to see that all the little details were attended to, including, but not limited to, making sure the right vessels were at the right places with the right contents at the right time, and on, and on, and on.
Next, however, Jesus introduces someone quite different than a nameless, faceless (presumably Jewish) citizen, or a priest, or a Levite. A Samaritan. You can almost hear the hiss in the term. Derogatory and demeaning hardly describe the tone and manner in which the Samaritans were referred to. You can imagine the young boys calling each other ‘Samaritans’ as they had their petty disagreements. Tossing the term around with the assumption that Samaritans weren’t worth anything. No, it wasn’t assumption, they knew the Samaritans weren’t worth anything. Half-breeds at best, the Samaritans were ½ Jew, ½ Gentile, ½ idolatrous, ½ orthodox. No one knew for sure what they were, and quite frankly, no one cared.
Why would Jesus use such a motley cast of characters? What lesson needed such contrast to be articulated?
Let’s remember back the first person we were introduced to, the lawyer. Verse 25 tells us that the lawyer asked Jesus what needed to be done to inherit eternal life, simply to test him. Jesus knew this; he had dealt with these tactics before. Being a lawyer, obviously this man knew the written Mosaic Law; therefore Jesus simply asked the question back at him, ‘What does the Law say?’ Like a simple game of pass with a lob one direction and a return pitch, nothing seems amiss. Possibly realizing that his ‘trap’ didn’t spring as desired he was left with no choice but answer. ‘Love God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind and love your neighbor as yourself.’
Possibly this lawyer was in the crowd when Jesus was asked ‘what is the greatest command’ (Mark 12:28-31) and he answered in the same manner. ‘Right’, Jesus answers, ‘do this and you will live.’ But wishing to justify himself…… the lawyer was still intent on trapping Jesus. ‘Who is my neighbor?’ he asked. Jesus experienced the same thing again in Luke 16:14-15, Now the Pharisees…were listening to all these things and we scoffing at Him. And He said to them, ‘You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts…’ Some people simply don’t know when it’s time to quit pushing the issue. How often are each of us exactly like this? Each time we are Jesus responds in the same way as he responded this time………directly.
Jesus replied and said, ‘A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among robbers, and they stripped him and beat him, and went away leaving him half dead. And by chance a priest was going down on that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him; and when he saw him, he felt compassion, and came to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them; and he put him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn and took care of him. On the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I return I will repay you.’
With no less than 12,000 priests and Levites living in Jericho, and with the temple being in Jerusalem, it’s not a hard to imagine a priest or a Levite being on this particular road. Remember who Jesus is talking to? A Jewish lawyer. To this man the most shocking event in Jesus’ little story was the fact that a Samaritan ‘felt compassion’, while we are appalled that the priest and Levite lacked compassion. No doubt this man knew Numbers 19:11 said the one who touches the corpse of any person shall be unclean for seven days. He also knew Deuteronomy 21:1-9 said If a slain person is found lying in the open country…and it is not known who has struck him, then your elders and your judges shall go out and measure the distance to the cities which are around the slain one. It shall be that the city which is nearest to the slain man…shall take a heifer of the herd…and the elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a valley with running water…and shall break the heifers neck there in the valley. Then the priests…shall come near…and all the elders of that city…shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley; and they shall answer and say, ‘Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it. Forgive your people…and do not place the guilt of innocent blood in the midst of your people Israel.’ And the blood guiltiness shall be forgiven them. So you shall remove the guilt of innocent blood from your midst, when you do what is right in the eyes of the Lord.
Quite possibly this lawyer would have been thinking that there was nothing strange at all with the behavior of the priest and Levite. Being ‘men of God’ it would have been unwise for them to have intentionally made themselves unclean for this stranger. Not just unwise, it would have been simply irresponsible. Likewise, he may have thought it equally irresponsible that the Samaritan showed mercy to the presumably dead man, and further evidence of Samaritans ignorance to the things of God. How could the elders measure to the city so that the blood guiltiness of innocent blood could be properly removed if this Samaritan moved the corpse? Obviously this Samaritan lacked proper religious etiquette and manners. Many, many times in our lives as well, official religiousness kills common humanity. Spiritual pride, coupled with our preferred prejudice, kills God’s work of mercy and compassion for our fellow man.
Another scripture which shows this is 2 Timothy 3:1-5 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be loves of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power… We have heard this scripture often to explain and define the current times. Somehow, though, I’ve always missed the point that this isn’t talking about the heathen, unbelieving people around us, but rather it’s obviously talking about professed Christians. In the last days men will have all these wicked attitudes while professing the name of Jesus. They will be so wrapped up in their official religiousness that they miss the call of God to a life of transformation and power.
While there could have been any number of excuses for the priests and Levites neglect of the beaten, unfortunate man, Jesus didn’t consider any of them worth mentioning. What he did consider worth mentioning was the fact that a Samaritan, of all people, who was simply travelling through, was willing to come to this mans assistance. The lawyer probably turned his head away in disgust when Jesus mentioned the idea of a Samaritan. Being ½ Jewish, ½ Gentile, ½ involved in pagan idolatry and ½ orthodox the Samaritans were indeed a despised race. The idea of Samaritans having any qualities worth imitating was unthinkable; preposterous; insane! Anyone who would have even suggested such a ridiculous idea would have been considered almost equally despised.
Yet, somehow this didn’t bother Jesus. He continued on with his story, explaining how the Samaritan was willing to interrupt his scheduled travel for a day or so; willing to further risk his reputation by being involved with this man; willing to reach into his own funds in order to support a stranger; willing to commit to further repayment over and above the initial investment. Jesus was actively arresting this lawyer’s pride and his prejudice and he’s willing to address our similar attitudes when they present themselves.
Proverbs 11:17 says that the merciful man does himself good, but the cruel man does himself harm. While it may stretch our minds a little to consider religion cruel, it is nothing less if that religion keeps us from common human kindness. When we become so entangled with our own religious ideas of what God wants that we can’t see past our official service to him to see the needs of humanity around us we are exhibiting both pride and prejudice.
Jesus said in Matthew 25:34-46 Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of my Father…For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited me in; naked, and you clothed me; I was sick, and you visited me; I was in prison, and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see you…? The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of mine, even the least of them, you did it to me.’ Then he will also say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, accursed ones, into eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry…I was thirsty…I was a stranger…naked…and in prison and you did [nothing for me]. Then they themselves also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you…? Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’
Blessed are the merciful, Jesus says, for they shall receive mercy.
Jesus, willing to further challenge the lawyers prideful position of prejudice then asks, ‘Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers’ hands?’, trying to force the him into admitting and affirming the Samaritans mercy. However, the lawyers pride wasn’t going to fall that easy. His prejudice was too deep to be given up the quickly. His religious position required them both. ‘The one who showed mercy toward him’, he answered, unable to even breath the word ‘Samaritan’. Jesus, willing to give one last challenge, but characteristically unwilling to force him into any acknowledgement simply said, ‘Go and do the same.’
The conversations over. We know nothing more of the lawyer. Did he give up his pride? Did he overcome his prejudice? Did he go and extend mercy to his fellow humans? We’ll never know, but we do know this, the message is the same to us as it was to him.
Will we give up our spiritual pride? Will we overcome our religious prejudices? Will we become more concerned with common human compassion and less concerned with official religiousness?
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There seems to be two attitudes hidden the heart of every man. Pride and prejudice. No attitude seems to be worse to accept in others than pride. Pride, and specifically spiritual pride, is a stench in the nostrils of every individual when present. Second to that, and often a counterpart to spiritual pride, is prejudice. Jesus must have known this when using the parable found in Luke 10:25-37. This parable, often refered to as The Parable of the Good Samaritan, seems to address both of these issues head on.
Let’s look first at the cast of characters in this incident. We find Jesus having a conversation with an unnamed lawyer. In this conversation Jesus introduces four fictitious characters to weave a story in which to make a point. These four characters are as opposite of one another as any four individuals you could choose. First Jesus introduces a ‘certain man’. Joe Average Citizen. This man was given no description, no features, no defining details and no name. Secondly He introduces a priest. Priests were the ones responsible for the sacrifices in the temple. No doubt everyone revered these men as ‘men of God’. Thirdly Jesus introduces a Levite. The Levites and the priests worked closely with one another in temple work. While the priests were responsible for the sacrificial duties, the Levites were the oil that made the whole machine of Jewish worship run. The Levites were responsible to see that all the little details were attended to, including, but not limited to, making sure the right vessels were at the right places with the right contents at the right time, and on, and on, and on.
Next, however, Jesus introduces someone quite different than a nameless, faceless (presumably Jewish) citizen, or a priest, or a Levite. A Samaritan. You can almost hear the hiss in the term. Derogatory and demeaning hardly describe the tone and manner in which the Samaritans were referred to. You can imagine the young boys calling each other ‘Samaritans’ as they had their petty disagreements. Tossing the term around with the assumption that Samaritans weren’t worth anything. No, it wasn’t assumption, they knew the Samaritans weren’t worth anything. Half-breeds at best, the Samaritans were ½ Jew, ½ Gentile, ½ idolatrous, ½ orthodox. No one knew for sure what they were, and quite frankly, no one cared.
Why would Jesus use such a motley cast of characters? What lesson needed such contrast to be articulated?
Let’s remember back the first person we were introduced to, the lawyer. Verse 25 tells us that the lawyer asked Jesus what needed to be done to inherit eternal life, simply to test him. Jesus knew this; he had dealt with these tactics before. Being a lawyer, obviously this man knew the written Mosaic Law; therefore Jesus simply asked the question back at him, ‘What does the Law say?’ Like a simple game of pass with a lob one direction and a return pitch, nothing seems amiss. Possibly realizing that his ‘trap’ didn’t spring as desired he was left with no choice but answer. ‘Love God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind and love your neighbor as yourself.’
Possibly this lawyer was in the crowd when Jesus was asked ‘what is the greatest command’ (Mark 12:28-31) and he answered in the same manner. ‘Right’, Jesus answers, ‘do this and you will live.’ But wishing to justify himself…… the lawyer was still intent on trapping Jesus. ‘Who is my neighbor?’ he asked. Jesus experienced the same thing again in Luke 16:14-15, Now the Pharisees…were listening to all these things and we scoffing at Him. And He said to them, ‘You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts…’ Some people simply don’t know when it’s time to quit pushing the issue. How often are each of us exactly like this? Each time we are Jesus responds in the same way as he responded this time………directly.
Jesus replied and said, ‘A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among robbers, and they stripped him and beat him, and went away leaving him half dead. And by chance a priest was going down on that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him; and when he saw him, he felt compassion, and came to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them; and he put him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn and took care of him. On the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I return I will repay you.’
With no less than 12,000 priests and Levites living in Jericho, and with the temple being in Jerusalem, it’s not a hard to imagine a priest or a Levite being on this particular road. Remember who Jesus is talking to? A Jewish lawyer. To this man the most shocking event in Jesus’ little story was the fact that a Samaritan ‘felt compassion’, while we are appalled that the priest and Levite lacked compassion. No doubt this man knew Numbers 19:11 said the one who touches the corpse of any person shall be unclean for seven days. He also knew Deuteronomy 21:1-9 said If a slain person is found lying in the open country…and it is not known who has struck him, then your elders and your judges shall go out and measure the distance to the cities which are around the slain one. It shall be that the city which is nearest to the slain man…shall take a heifer of the herd…and the elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a valley with running water…and shall break the heifers neck there in the valley. Then the priests…shall come near…and all the elders of that city…shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley; and they shall answer and say, ‘Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it. Forgive your people…and do not place the guilt of innocent blood in the midst of your people Israel.’ And the blood guiltiness shall be forgiven them. So you shall remove the guilt of innocent blood from your midst, when you do what is right in the eyes of the Lord.
Quite possibly this lawyer would have been thinking that there was nothing strange at all with the behavior of the priest and Levite. Being ‘men of God’ it would have been unwise for them to have intentionally made themselves unclean for this stranger. Not just unwise, it would have been simply irresponsible. Likewise, he may have thought it equally irresponsible that the Samaritan showed mercy to the presumably dead man, and further evidence of Samaritans ignorance to the things of God. How could the elders measure to the city so that the blood guiltiness of innocent blood could be properly removed if this Samaritan moved the corpse? Obviously this Samaritan lacked proper religious etiquette and manners. Many, many times in our lives as well, official religiousness kills common humanity. Spiritual pride, coupled with our preferred prejudice, kills God’s work of mercy and compassion for our fellow man.
Another scripture which shows this is 2 Timothy 3:1-5 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be loves of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power… We have heard this scripture often to explain and define the current times. Somehow, though, I’ve always missed the point that this isn’t talking about the heathen, unbelieving people around us, but rather it’s obviously talking about professed Christians. In the last days men will have all these wicked attitudes while professing the name of Jesus. They will be so wrapped up in their official religiousness that they miss the call of God to a life of transformation and power.
While there could have been any number of excuses for the priests and Levites neglect of the beaten, unfortunate man, Jesus didn’t consider any of them worth mentioning. What he did consider worth mentioning was the fact that a Samaritan, of all people, who was simply travelling through, was willing to come to this mans assistance. The lawyer probably turned his head away in disgust when Jesus mentioned the idea of a Samaritan. Being ½ Jewish, ½ Gentile, ½ involved in pagan idolatry and ½ orthodox the Samaritans were indeed a despised race. The idea of Samaritans having any qualities worth imitating was unthinkable; preposterous; insane! Anyone who would have even suggested such a ridiculous idea would have been considered almost equally despised.
Yet, somehow this didn’t bother Jesus. He continued on with his story, explaining how the Samaritan was willing to interrupt his scheduled travel for a day or so; willing to further risk his reputation by being involved with this man; willing to reach into his own funds in order to support a stranger; willing to commit to further repayment over and above the initial investment. Jesus was actively arresting this lawyer’s pride and his prejudice and he’s willing to address our similar attitudes when they present themselves.
Proverbs 11:17 says that the merciful man does himself good, but the cruel man does himself harm. While it may stretch our minds a little to consider religion cruel, it is nothing less if that religion keeps us from common human kindness. When we become so entangled with our own religious ideas of what God wants that we can’t see past our official service to him to see the needs of humanity around us we are exhibiting both pride and prejudice.
Jesus said in Matthew 25:34-46 Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of my Father…For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited me in; naked, and you clothed me; I was sick, and you visited me; I was in prison, and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see you…? The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of mine, even the least of them, you did it to me.’ Then he will also say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, accursed ones, into eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry…I was thirsty…I was a stranger…naked…and in prison and you did [nothing for me]. Then they themselves also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you…? Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’
Blessed are the merciful, Jesus says, for they shall receive mercy.
Jesus, willing to further challenge the lawyers prideful position of prejudice then asks, ‘Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers’ hands?’, trying to force the him into admitting and affirming the Samaritans mercy. However, the lawyers pride wasn’t going to fall that easy. His prejudice was too deep to be given up the quickly. His religious position required them both. ‘The one who showed mercy toward him’, he answered, unable to even breath the word ‘Samaritan’. Jesus, willing to give one last challenge, but characteristically unwilling to force him into any acknowledgement simply said, ‘Go and do the same.’
The conversations over. We know nothing more of the lawyer. Did he give up his pride? Did he overcome his prejudice? Did he go and extend mercy to his fellow humans? We’ll never know, but we do know this, the message is the same to us as it was to him.
Will we give up our spiritual pride? Will we overcome our religious prejudices? Will we become more concerned with common human compassion and less concerned with official religiousness?
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Sunday, October 4, 2009
A New Command
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"One wonders why no one in church history has ever been considered a heretic for being unloving. People were anathematized and often tortured and killed for disagreeing on matters of doctrine or on the authority of the church. But no one on record has ever been so much as rebuked for not loving as Christ loved. Yet if love is to be placed above all other considerations (Col. 3:14; 1 Peter 4:8), if nothing has any value apart from love (1 Cor. 13:1-3), and if the only thing that matters is faith working in love (Gal. 5:6), how is it that possessing Christlike love has never been considered the central test of orthodoxy? How is it that those who tortured and burned heretics were not themselves considered heretics for doing so? Was this not heresy of the worst sort? How is it that those who perpetrated such things were not only not deemed heretics but often were (and yet are) held up as "heroes of the faith"?
The Myth of a Christian Nation, Gregory A. Boyd
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"One wonders why no one in church history has ever been considered a heretic for being unloving. People were anathematized and often tortured and killed for disagreeing on matters of doctrine or on the authority of the church. But no one on record has ever been so much as rebuked for not loving as Christ loved. Yet if love is to be placed above all other considerations (Col. 3:14; 1 Peter 4:8), if nothing has any value apart from love (1 Cor. 13:1-3), and if the only thing that matters is faith working in love (Gal. 5:6), how is it that possessing Christlike love has never been considered the central test of orthodoxy? How is it that those who tortured and burned heretics were not themselves considered heretics for doing so? Was this not heresy of the worst sort? How is it that those who perpetrated such things were not only not deemed heretics but often were (and yet are) held up as "heroes of the faith"?
The Myth of a Christian Nation, Gregory A. Boyd
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Sunday, September 20, 2009
Life is a Church
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Watching the surf cover up my toes
Breathing the salt air from the coast.
Ten years old with my eyes pressed closed.
Life is a church.
Remembering first love’s tender kiss.
Mourning the loss of my innocence,
The bittersweet taste of it on my lips.
Life is a church.
These are the sacraments.
This is the altar.
Love is the spirit
Making the blue planet turn.
Life is a church.
Chorus
Watching my baby being born
Written all over you, pain and joy
Holding your hand, it’s a little boy.
Chorus
Ashes to ashes, earth to earth.
The preacher throws in the first handful of dirt.
My little boy asks me, “does goodbye always hurt?”
Chorus
-David Phelps
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Life happens all around us every day. Do we make the mistake of thinking we're trapped in a logical life of cause and effect or do we recognize that EVERYTHING that happens is a reflection of things happening in the REAL world; the SPIRITUAL realm?
__________________________________________________
Watching the surf cover up my toes
Breathing the salt air from the coast.
Ten years old with my eyes pressed closed.
Life is a church.
Remembering first love’s tender kiss.
Mourning the loss of my innocence,
The bittersweet taste of it on my lips.
Life is a church.
These are the sacraments.
This is the altar.
Love is the spirit
Making the blue planet turn.
Life is a church.
Chorus
Watching my baby being born
Written all over you, pain and joy
Holding your hand, it’s a little boy.
Chorus
Ashes to ashes, earth to earth.
The preacher throws in the first handful of dirt.
My little boy asks me, “does goodbye always hurt?”
Chorus
-David Phelps
________________________________________
Life happens all around us every day. Do we make the mistake of thinking we're trapped in a logical life of cause and effect or do we recognize that EVERYTHING that happens is a reflection of things happening in the REAL world; the SPIRITUAL realm?
__________________________________________________
Monday, September 7, 2009
Let The Worshippers Arise
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Revelation 4:8-11, 5:9-14, 7:9-12 And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!" And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying, "Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created."
And they sang a new song, saying, "Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth."
Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!" And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, "To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!" And the four living creatures said, "Amen!" and the elders fell down and worshiped.
After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!" And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, "Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen."
My intent is not to teach you how to worship, but rather to challenge each of us to worship. Upon self-examination I’ve come to realize that worship, true heart-expression worship is sadly lacking in my life. With that realization comes a myriad of other confessions which are intimately connected with that thought: I’ve lost my sense of awe of who God is; the respect for God’s word in my life has waned; my heart has become complacent in its awareness of His presence, etc. Are these things the cause of my lack of worship or the effect of it? Who can know, and who needs to differentiate to that extent? I know, without doubt, that a heart worshipping God and these life expressions are so diametrically connected that where one exists the other must also exist.
What is worship? How is it defined and/or explained? The Webster’s definition is ‘to give obeisance to’. The complicated thing about worship is this, everything that IS worship can also NOT be worship. Let me explain, as we saw in the above quoted passage the elders fell on their faces before the throne of God but falling on our face before God is not necessarily giving obeisance to Him. We also saw that the angels, the elders, the ‘living creatures’ and the multitude each took their turn singing (and sometimes simultaneously sang) the accolades of God, however vocal praise and the enumeration of His blessings is not necessarily worship. Have you ever sung a ‘worship song’ with your mind a million miles away giving solution to some great conflict? Have you ever bowed your head in prayer while your heart was screaming its dissatisfaction with the situation? Have you assumed a humble prayer posture while in your imagination you were doing house or yard work? Clearly true worship is beyond anything physical we can or will do. Worship is an attitude of the heart.
In a series of private conversations regarding worship this definition was expressed: to do something that unquestionably directs attention to God, who He is, and what He has done. Anything that magnifies God and minimizes me is worship. I’ll add this small edit – Anything that INTENTIONALLY magnifies God and minimizes me. Singing God’s accolades can accomplish that. Verbally expressing our appreciation of God’s character and faithfulness can accomplish that. Assuming a prostrate position in His presence can accomplish that. ‘Worship songs’; holy hands lifted in prayer in honor of Him; even simple obedience to the most menial of tasks can be worship if the heart attitude is that of minimizing the worshipper and magnifying the worshipped! Contrariwise, though, these things can all become rote exercise if the heart is disconnected from the action, or inward focused. Worship is the automatic response of a heart that has seen God’s glory!
Isaiah had an experience, in the year that King Uzziah died, that caused him to worship. He states that [he] saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him…and the house was filled with smoke. Isaiah 6:1, 4 Isaiah saw God’s glory. No man can remain indifferent after experiencing God’s glory. It’s almost arguable that man is obligated, required to worship when once God has revealed His glory to him; as if worship is almost an involuntary response to seeing God’s glory. God has said, 'To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear allegiance.' Isaiah 45:23b Paul has reiterated the thought in Philippians 2:10-11 …at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
In response to this awareness the question isn’t ‘will you worship’ but rather ‘have you seen God’s glory’. Have you; have I, seen God ‘high and lifted up’? If I have then why is my ‘worship’ experience so mundane? If God’s glory has been revealed to me genuinely, should my heart response not be one of awe and reverence? Indeed it should and indeed it will!
Consider Gideon. Gideon is a coward. Gideon is a whiner. Notice what Gideon says to the angel of the Lord when the angel claims God’s presence with Israel, ‘And Gideon said to him, "O my lord, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, 'Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?' But now the LORD has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.’ Judges 6:13 Yet all it took was one small display of the power of God and Gideon transformed from a whiner to a worshipper. Then the angel of the LORD reached out the tip of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes. And fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes. And the angel of the LORD vanished from his sight. Then Gideon perceived that he was the angel of the LORD. And Gideon said, "Alas, O Lord GOD! For now I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face." But the LORD said to him, "Peace be to you. Do not fear; you shall not die." Then Gideon built an altar there to the LORD and called it, Jehovah (Yahweh) Shalom. To this day it still stands at Ophrah, which belongs to the Abiezrites. Judges 6:21-24 One small display of the power available from God and Gideon is ready to worship. One glimpse of the glory of God and Isaiah is in confession mode.
One passing glance at the back side of God and Moses is so aglow that he has to veil his face so that people can look at him. Do you suppose Moses worshipped on that mountain? Exodus 34:8-9 says that when the goodness of God was seen by Moses that Moses made haste to bow low toward the earth and worship. He said, ‘If now I have found favor in Your sight, O Lord, I pray, let the Lord go along in our midst, even though the people are so obstinate, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us as Your possession. Moses worshipped. Moses saw how worthy God was of honor and how unworthy he and his people were of favor and Moses confessed it and worshipped. True worship of the true God creates a noticeable external difference; our countenance WILL change if we have worshipped. Moses’ did. So when Aaron and all the sons of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him……When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face. But whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with Him, he would take off the veil until he came out; and whenever he came out and spoke to the sons of Israel what he had been commanded, the sons of Israel would see the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face shone. So Moses would replace the veil over his face until he went in to speak with Him. Exodus 34:30, 33-35
What about David? David was a mumbling, fumbling idiot at times. Yet Samuel insinuates that God said David was a man after His own heart in 1 Samuel 13:14. How can this be? David was a wretch. I think that God could have that attitude toward David because David was a regular worshipper of God. Sure, David had a few hard knocks. David had some bumps and bruises. David even had some outright, undeniable sin. But in spite of ALL that, David worshipped. We could go on and on through the book of the Psalms elaborating on David’s worship of God. David was truly seeking God’s heart and as a result of that God saw that David’s heart was becoming more like His. What about you? Will you worship?
What keeps us from worshipping? With all this positive evidence in favor of worshipping, what could possibly keep us from it? One thing that could keep us from worshipping God is a lack of compassion from other believers. Notice in Matthew 15:22-23 that a Canaanite woman…came out and was crying, "Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon." But he did not answer her a word. And his disciples came and begged him, saying, "Send her away, for she is crying out after us." What would you have done? I would have gone away and counted my losses, not this woman. While lack of compassion from other believers can tend to drive us FROM worship, it should have just the opposite affect. This woman knew that God loves to bless a worshipper so she did just that… she came and worshipped Him, saying, "Lord, help me." Then Jesus answered her, "O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire." And her daughter was healed instantly. Matthew 15:25, 28
Another hindrance to our worship could be scoffers. Remember the man in John 9 that was born blind? Let’s take a peek at him and see if he thought that scoffers could keep him from worshipping. John 9:24-25 So for the second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, "Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner."
He answered, "Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” Remember what worship is, INTENTIONALLY magnifying God and minimizing me! This man’s attitude was simple; you can’t make me quit magnifying the man who gave me sight! Our attitude should parallel that, but how often when someone scoffs about our Savior do we sulk? Why do we allow another’s opinion of Him direct our actions? Could it be because we haven’t really seen His glory?
How often do we allow a ‘divine delay’ to interfere with our worship? Remember Martha and Mary and their brother Lazarus? Remember how Jesus knew for three days that Lazarus was dying and yet he made absolutely no attempt to get there. Consequently Lazarus died and THEN (a little late now) Jesus heads off to see what’s going on. Mary was not going to allow a little delay interrupt her worship. Remember that as soon as she heard Jesus was there she ran out and fell at his feet and worshipped. (John 11:32) Why do we not do likewise? Why do we allow a little wait to interfere with our heart desire to magnify our Father?
Sin. Unconfessed sin will kill worship faster than anything. The problem is if there is unconfessed sin in our life we will continue in the motions of worship. In Isaiah 1:10-15 God enumerates all the things that he’s tired of them doing…sacrifices, offerings, new moon festivals, appointed feasts, Sabbaths, assemblies, incense. These things are all specific ingredients of worship which God had told them to do. However, these people were trying to pretend to worship God while living lives that didn’t coincide. They weren’t ‘after God’s heart’. Consequently, God says, ‘When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you multiply prayers, I will not listen’ Isaiah 1:15
What will keep you from worshipping? Will you allow one of these hindrances to interfere with your heart’s desire to honor and worship your Father, or will you use them as springboards to ‘magnify God and minimize you’? Will you beg God to reveal His glory and power in your life so that your heart will respond? Will you stand as one who is willing to worship God or will you remain seated with the millions of others? Remember, someday every knee will bow and every tongue will swear allegiance to God, why wait?
Sooner or later you will call Him Lord
Why not do it now?
Sooner or later you’ll stand in His presence
And on your knees you will bow.
Sooner or later your eyes will be opened
And then for yourself you will see.
Sooner or later the choice is yours
My friend, which will it be?
Let the worshippers arise!
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Revelation 4:8-11, 5:9-14, 7:9-12 And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!" And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying, "Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created."
And they sang a new song, saying, "Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth."
Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!" And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, "To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!" And the four living creatures said, "Amen!" and the elders fell down and worshiped.
After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!" And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, "Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen."
My intent is not to teach you how to worship, but rather to challenge each of us to worship. Upon self-examination I’ve come to realize that worship, true heart-expression worship is sadly lacking in my life. With that realization comes a myriad of other confessions which are intimately connected with that thought: I’ve lost my sense of awe of who God is; the respect for God’s word in my life has waned; my heart has become complacent in its awareness of His presence, etc. Are these things the cause of my lack of worship or the effect of it? Who can know, and who needs to differentiate to that extent? I know, without doubt, that a heart worshipping God and these life expressions are so diametrically connected that where one exists the other must also exist.
What is worship? How is it defined and/or explained? The Webster’s definition is ‘to give obeisance to’. The complicated thing about worship is this, everything that IS worship can also NOT be worship. Let me explain, as we saw in the above quoted passage the elders fell on their faces before the throne of God but falling on our face before God is not necessarily giving obeisance to Him. We also saw that the angels, the elders, the ‘living creatures’ and the multitude each took their turn singing (and sometimes simultaneously sang) the accolades of God, however vocal praise and the enumeration of His blessings is not necessarily worship. Have you ever sung a ‘worship song’ with your mind a million miles away giving solution to some great conflict? Have you ever bowed your head in prayer while your heart was screaming its dissatisfaction with the situation? Have you assumed a humble prayer posture while in your imagination you were doing house or yard work? Clearly true worship is beyond anything physical we can or will do. Worship is an attitude of the heart.
In a series of private conversations regarding worship this definition was expressed: to do something that unquestionably directs attention to God, who He is, and what He has done. Anything that magnifies God and minimizes me is worship. I’ll add this small edit – Anything that INTENTIONALLY magnifies God and minimizes me. Singing God’s accolades can accomplish that. Verbally expressing our appreciation of God’s character and faithfulness can accomplish that. Assuming a prostrate position in His presence can accomplish that. ‘Worship songs’; holy hands lifted in prayer in honor of Him; even simple obedience to the most menial of tasks can be worship if the heart attitude is that of minimizing the worshipper and magnifying the worshipped! Contrariwise, though, these things can all become rote exercise if the heart is disconnected from the action, or inward focused. Worship is the automatic response of a heart that has seen God’s glory!
Isaiah had an experience, in the year that King Uzziah died, that caused him to worship. He states that [he] saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him…and the house was filled with smoke. Isaiah 6:1, 4 Isaiah saw God’s glory. No man can remain indifferent after experiencing God’s glory. It’s almost arguable that man is obligated, required to worship when once God has revealed His glory to him; as if worship is almost an involuntary response to seeing God’s glory. God has said, 'To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear allegiance.' Isaiah 45:23b Paul has reiterated the thought in Philippians 2:10-11 …at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
In response to this awareness the question isn’t ‘will you worship’ but rather ‘have you seen God’s glory’. Have you; have I, seen God ‘high and lifted up’? If I have then why is my ‘worship’ experience so mundane? If God’s glory has been revealed to me genuinely, should my heart response not be one of awe and reverence? Indeed it should and indeed it will!
Consider Gideon. Gideon is a coward. Gideon is a whiner. Notice what Gideon says to the angel of the Lord when the angel claims God’s presence with Israel, ‘And Gideon said to him, "O my lord, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, 'Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?' But now the LORD has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.’ Judges 6:13 Yet all it took was one small display of the power of God and Gideon transformed from a whiner to a worshipper. Then the angel of the LORD reached out the tip of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes. And fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes. And the angel of the LORD vanished from his sight. Then Gideon perceived that he was the angel of the LORD. And Gideon said, "Alas, O Lord GOD! For now I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face." But the LORD said to him, "Peace be to you. Do not fear; you shall not die." Then Gideon built an altar there to the LORD and called it, Jehovah (Yahweh) Shalom. To this day it still stands at Ophrah, which belongs to the Abiezrites. Judges 6:21-24 One small display of the power available from God and Gideon is ready to worship. One glimpse of the glory of God and Isaiah is in confession mode.
One passing glance at the back side of God and Moses is so aglow that he has to veil his face so that people can look at him. Do you suppose Moses worshipped on that mountain? Exodus 34:8-9 says that when the goodness of God was seen by Moses that Moses made haste to bow low toward the earth and worship. He said, ‘If now I have found favor in Your sight, O Lord, I pray, let the Lord go along in our midst, even though the people are so obstinate, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us as Your possession. Moses worshipped. Moses saw how worthy God was of honor and how unworthy he and his people were of favor and Moses confessed it and worshipped. True worship of the true God creates a noticeable external difference; our countenance WILL change if we have worshipped. Moses’ did. So when Aaron and all the sons of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him……When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face. But whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with Him, he would take off the veil until he came out; and whenever he came out and spoke to the sons of Israel what he had been commanded, the sons of Israel would see the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face shone. So Moses would replace the veil over his face until he went in to speak with Him. Exodus 34:30, 33-35
What about David? David was a mumbling, fumbling idiot at times. Yet Samuel insinuates that God said David was a man after His own heart in 1 Samuel 13:14. How can this be? David was a wretch. I think that God could have that attitude toward David because David was a regular worshipper of God. Sure, David had a few hard knocks. David had some bumps and bruises. David even had some outright, undeniable sin. But in spite of ALL that, David worshipped. We could go on and on through the book of the Psalms elaborating on David’s worship of God. David was truly seeking God’s heart and as a result of that God saw that David’s heart was becoming more like His. What about you? Will you worship?
What keeps us from worshipping? With all this positive evidence in favor of worshipping, what could possibly keep us from it? One thing that could keep us from worshipping God is a lack of compassion from other believers. Notice in Matthew 15:22-23 that a Canaanite woman…came out and was crying, "Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon." But he did not answer her a word. And his disciples came and begged him, saying, "Send her away, for she is crying out after us." What would you have done? I would have gone away and counted my losses, not this woman. While lack of compassion from other believers can tend to drive us FROM worship, it should have just the opposite affect. This woman knew that God loves to bless a worshipper so she did just that… she came and worshipped Him, saying, "Lord, help me." Then Jesus answered her, "O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire." And her daughter was healed instantly. Matthew 15:25, 28
Another hindrance to our worship could be scoffers. Remember the man in John 9 that was born blind? Let’s take a peek at him and see if he thought that scoffers could keep him from worshipping. John 9:24-25 So for the second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, "Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner."
He answered, "Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” Remember what worship is, INTENTIONALLY magnifying God and minimizing me! This man’s attitude was simple; you can’t make me quit magnifying the man who gave me sight! Our attitude should parallel that, but how often when someone scoffs about our Savior do we sulk? Why do we allow another’s opinion of Him direct our actions? Could it be because we haven’t really seen His glory?
How often do we allow a ‘divine delay’ to interfere with our worship? Remember Martha and Mary and their brother Lazarus? Remember how Jesus knew for three days that Lazarus was dying and yet he made absolutely no attempt to get there. Consequently Lazarus died and THEN (a little late now) Jesus heads off to see what’s going on. Mary was not going to allow a little delay interrupt her worship. Remember that as soon as she heard Jesus was there she ran out and fell at his feet and worshipped. (John 11:32) Why do we not do likewise? Why do we allow a little wait to interfere with our heart desire to magnify our Father?
Sin. Unconfessed sin will kill worship faster than anything. The problem is if there is unconfessed sin in our life we will continue in the motions of worship. In Isaiah 1:10-15 God enumerates all the things that he’s tired of them doing…sacrifices, offerings, new moon festivals, appointed feasts, Sabbaths, assemblies, incense. These things are all specific ingredients of worship which God had told them to do. However, these people were trying to pretend to worship God while living lives that didn’t coincide. They weren’t ‘after God’s heart’. Consequently, God says, ‘When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you multiply prayers, I will not listen’ Isaiah 1:15
What will keep you from worshipping? Will you allow one of these hindrances to interfere with your heart’s desire to honor and worship your Father, or will you use them as springboards to ‘magnify God and minimize you’? Will you beg God to reveal His glory and power in your life so that your heart will respond? Will you stand as one who is willing to worship God or will you remain seated with the millions of others? Remember, someday every knee will bow and every tongue will swear allegiance to God, why wait?
Sooner or later you will call Him Lord
Why not do it now?
Sooner or later you’ll stand in His presence
And on your knees you will bow.
Sooner or later your eyes will be opened
And then for yourself you will see.
Sooner or later the choice is yours
My friend, which will it be?
Let the worshippers arise!
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