A Dirty Secret – A Stinky Secret

 

Most Christians do not bathe regularly. They don’t take a shower or bath or even sponge down. Consequently, when they show up for church services they stink, but since most everyone stinks no one notices, except sometimes the pastor notices but he’s too polite to say anything. Sadly, some pastors give up trying to get their folks to practice Christian cleanliness and start to stink themselves.

 

But there’s hope, because there are all kinds of air fresheners on the market, plus perfumes and colognes.  After all, if you can’t smell then the stink the stink ain’t there…is it?

 

Paul writes of Jesus cleansing His People, His Church, “by the washing of water with the word” (Ephesians 5:26). Jesus says that we are clean through the word which He speaks to us (John 15:3) and He prays that we may be sanctified (made holy and consecrated to God) through the Word of God (John 17:17).

 

The Word of God cleanses us as we bathe in it, shower in it, and even take a sponge bath in it throughout the day (I’m thinking that meditation is a good sponge bath). God’s Word refreshes and renewals our minds, our hearts, our souls; it enlightens our eyes, and it continually unveils Jesus Christ to us, drawing us ever closer to Him and in Him.

 

But he who does not bathe stinks, no matter how often we may change our outward appearance, we will stink. No matter how we might change our programs, our music, our order of worship, our activities; no matter how much air freshener or perfume or cologne we may purchase or hype, we will still stink – for only God’s Word renews and cleanses a person or a people.

 

This is a challenge for preaching and teaching, because when people arrive for worship or teaching they do not come as people who have been bathing in God’s Word on a daily basis, but as people who have gone at least week without a bath – and they are stinky! They need to be washed up all over again, and by the time their hearts and minds are cleaned up a bit it is time to leave and get dirty and stinky all over again.

 

In other words, most people don’t arrive for corporate worship ready to worship and hear the Word of God because they don’t arrive having spent the week bathing in the Word of God, they arrive stinky. While many people look at going to church the way they look at filling up their vehicles with gasoline, the church isn’t meant to be a filling station, it is meant to be an overfilling station, a place where we come full so that we may leave fuller – fuller in order to share and give to others. As a rule, every Christian disciple who comes to church ought to arrive with a mentality of “giving” rather than “attending” and “consuming.” We ought to arrive with something to share with others, with praise and thanksgiving to God, with a song in our hearts.

 

We really ought to gather as a people who are cleansed daily in the Word of God. Have you taken a bath or shower today? Will you pass the sniff test this Sunday?

 

Now you know a dirty and stinky little secret.

 

 

Overwhelmed With Thanksgiving

 

I started writing this Monday morning as I pondered this Thanksgiving week, I finished it just now.

 

Sometimes when I awaken in the morning my immediate goal is to make it from our second-floor bedroom to the coffee pot in our first-floor kitchen. In the midst of this groggy journey I am saying, “Good morning” to my Father, the Lord Jesus, and the Holy Spirit; trying not to trip over our dog Lily or to fall down the stairs.

 

Then there are those other mornings in which I may awaken with a song in my heart; it may be an old glorious hymn, one of more recent vintage, or one birthed in my soul by our Lord for that particular morning.

 

But then…but then…there are those overwhelmingly glorious mornings when I awaken with fresh vision; a vision of Christ, a vision of His Word, a vision of His People, a vision of Others. To be sure, there are times when I wake up to a counterweight to this, to a burden for others, but burdens usually come a bit later in the day – I suppose our Lord knows that we can only bear so much and so He normally reserves the deep burdens and concerns for a bit later. These visionary mornings are exciting and overwhelming, my heart is alive, my soul has turned to spring – it is as if I am watching the first scenes of the Wizard of Oz straightway in Technicolor rather than black and white. This is one of those mornings.

 

This morning I have been seeing the many people I’ve known in my business career (multifamily management) who have been a blessing to work with, who have cared about others and who have made my life richer. I’ve been touching the texture of their lives, hearing their voices, seeing their smiles, tears, anxieties for others, concern for others and…yes…love for others. I have worked with people who have “rejoiced with those who have rejoiced, and who have wept with those who have wept,”

 

I have known people who, when presented with the opportunity to help others, have done so – all I needed to do was to ask, to show a client, the owner of an apartment community a need, and watch the response. I’ve had the honor of working for a man who built his company on a sincere desire to help others while providing his family and employees with a good living and his clients a good return on their investment. I have worked with countless good women and men, from the lowest paid to the highest paid in organizations, who have paid attention to others, tried to encourage others, and who have sought to make the lives of those around them just a little bit better. These are the people who have enriched my life. 

And the thing is, that much of whatever I’ve seen is only a small part of what has actually been there because I’ve always just been a visitor, always an outsider because of my organizational positions. A forty-hour workweek equates to 2,080 hours per year. If I spent one hour each week with each of my managers on their properties, that is 52 hours a year, 2.5% - a sliver of time, a window of time. As for the staffs of those managers, my interactions with them was more limited, but meaningful to me and I hope to them. Of course, as you weave a fabric of relationship with others you see patterns and depths, but you miss more than you’ll ever see or know about.

 

When I have seen studies of charitable giving over the years, one constant has been that “those who have less give more.” That is, people in states who have lower per capita income tend to give a greater percentage of their income to those in need. A long-time social worker once told me that this was very much her observation – whether it was financial giving or the sharing of other resources. I have seen this pattern in organizations too, those outside the corporate office tend to do more for others, tend to be more centered on others, than those closest to corporate power. Those in power tend to mouth the words, those in the nitty gritty of life don’t talk about giving to others, they just do it.  I imagine this is the way we are in society, including the church.

 

I write the above because I’m thinking about the time a resident was in the hospital and there was no one to take care of his dog, and the staff stepped up to the plate. I’m thinking about all the back-to-school backpacks I’ve seen filled by apartment community employees for the children in their communities. I’m picturing a manager deeply concerned over the care of a senior couple with disabilities, seeking help for them to transition to another living environment that would better suit their needs. There are the countless times people I have worked with have comforted their residents who have lost loved ones. The many times they have sought to provide food for others, especially during this season of the year. The times they have gathered around coworkers who have suffered the loss of family, collecting money for funerals.  

 

Then there has been the listening ear, the times when residents walk into a management office just to talk…because they may have no one else to talk to.

 

As for praying, in many of my apartment communities prayer was a way of life, it was natural for employees to pray with each other and with residents. This also meant that when I prayed with employees, or prayed with employees and residents, that I often wasn’t introducing anything new or novel into the work environment, I was simply doing what others were already doing.

 

The more I ponder all the people I am thankful for, the larger the group becomes – both within my business career and outside it. It is pretty much never-ending, for no sooner do I think of one person than I think of another. Yes, there are some particularly significant women and men, but then there is also the tapestry of them woven together.

 

As I write this at home, I’m reminded of the joy Vickie and I received from the last group of property managers I worked with before I retired. While I enjoyed being with each manager individually, I absolutely loved being with them as a group – I have never laughed with and enjoyed a group of people the way I laughed with and enjoyed this group – anywhere at any time – including in pastoral ministry – it was the best six or seven years I’ve ever had with a group of people.

 

I say “as I write this at home,” because we had them in our home many times over the years for breakfast, including the holidays – these were always special times with much laughter; yes we worked, but we worked in an atmosphere of joy. Whether we gathered in our home, in our corporate conference room, or in a restaurant, there was always laughter – what a memory to be thankful for!

 

I loved seeing them challenged, I loved seeing them grow, I loved seeing them interact with each other, encourage each other, and care about each other. I loved them, I really loved them. As a group I told them that I loved them. In fact, at other times when we had all of our employees together I told all of them that I loved them. God gave me a wonderful gift during those last few years before my retirement – he gave me a wonderful group of people to work with.

 

I think that I have always cared about the people who worked for me, but it wasn’t until those final years of my career that I came to deeply love people. This wasn’t my doing, it was the work of Christ, and particularly the work of Christ through others, and most especially the work of Christ through a colleague who has been a friend to Vickie and me over the years – a friend to me when I didn’t deserve it. As Jesus observed, “This one loves much because he/she has been forgiven much.” When we realize the depth of love that Christ gives us, both directly and through others, what else can we do but pass it on?

 

I have much to be thankful for today – most especially God’s gift of other people.

Reflections on Hebrews with Andrew Murray (8)

 

 

“God, having spoken long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son…” Hebrews 1:1 -2a.

 

In Murray’s second expositional meditation he wants us to see that it is, “The Son, who is God, [who] brings us into the very presence of God.”

 

“The one object of the Epistle is to set before us the heavenly priesthood of Christ and the heavenly life to which He in His divine power gives us access. It is this [which] gives the Epistle its inestimable value for all time, that it teaches us the way out of the elementary stage of the Christian life to that of full and perfect access to God.”

 

Christ is all, we are nothing outside of Christ. As the Epistle to the Hebrews teaches; Christ is greater than angels, greater than Moses, greater than Joshua, greater than the Levitical Priesthood, greater than our sins.

 

Later in Hebrews the author says, “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food” (5:12).

 

The author of Hebrews will warn his readers about a number of things, he will point out areas in which his readers are falling short in their Christian lives, and he will present the same solution to each problem – “Look at Jesus! See Jesus! See Jesus as the Son. See Jesus as the Heir of all things. See Jesus as the Creator. See Jesus as our Apostle and High Priest. See Jesus as the One to Whom the house belongs. See Jesus as our Sabbath. See Jesus as the Author and Perfecter of our faith.”

 

As the sons and daughters of the Living God we are called to live a heavenly life here and now, but we can only live this life as we “see Jesus” in His unfolding beauty and glory. For you see, we cannot actually live this life, only One can live this life – and He desires to live this life, His Life, within us, his sons and daughters, His People (Galatians 2:20; John 15:1ff).

 

Our language and teaching are often, “One day I’ll live in His presence. One day I’ll have eternal life. One day I’ll know His fulness. One day I’ll build on the elementary principles of the oracles of God. One day I’ll know what it is to live in the heavens, to be heavenly – minded.” And yet the Bible teaches us that, in Christ, that Day has come…and is coming….even as Christ Jesus has come…and is coming…and will yet come again.

 

The writer of Hebrews does not intend to leave us with an excuse for not leaving behind the elementary principles of the Word of God and moving forward into growth and maturity in Jesus Christ. The author does not intend to leave us with an excuse for compromising with the world – system, nor with a legitimate reason for us to return to our old way of religious thinking with its perpetual consciousness of sin and guilt.

 

Indeed, the epistle’s author has us on a trajectory that will take us to Hebrews chapters 11, 12, and 13 – a life in the communion of the saints, with our eyes fixed on Jesus, the same yesterday, today, and forever; a life joyfully lived outside the camp, bearing His reproach. In Christ we are called to forget those things which are behind, and reach forward to that which lies ahead, the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Phil. 3:12ff).

 

The “one object” of the Epistle, the one object of all Christian preaching and teaching, the one object of our fellowship with one another – is to see Jesus, to behold Jesus, to know Jesus, to worship Jesus, to love Jesus, to belong to Jesus – for God has spoken to us in Jesus Christ, the Word has been made flesh and has lived among us…and is living within us.

 

A few years ago I was a guest speaker at a church in Richmond, VA. As I approached the pulpit to begin my message I looked down at a brass plate on top of the pulpit. The congregation could not see the plate, it was there to be seen by the speaker. Engraved on the plate were these words from John 12:21, “Sir, we would see Jesus.” That was a sobering reminder of what I was there for – that is a reminder of what we are all here for – to see Jesus and to make Jesus known to others.

 

Election Week Musings (7)

 John Piper writes in his article, Policies, Persons, and Paths to Ruin:

 

“Is it not baffling, then, that so many Christians seem to be sure that they are saving human lives and freedoms by treating as minimal the destructive effects of the spreading gangrene of high-profile, high-handed, culture-shaping sin?”

 

“Freedom and life are precious. We all want to live and be free to pursue happiness. But if our freedoms, and even our lives, are threatened or taken, the essence of our identity in Christ, the certainty of our everlasting joy with Christ, and the holiness and love for which we have been saved by Christ — none of these is lost with the loss of life and freedom.

 

“Therefore, Christians communicate a falsehood to unbelievers (who are also baffled!) when we act as if policies and laws that protect life and freedom are more precious than being a certain kind of person. The church is paying dearly, and will continue to pay, for our communicating this falsehood year after year.

 

“The justifications for ranking the destructive effects of persons below the destructive effects of policies ring hollow.

 

“I find it bewildering that Christians can be so sure that greater damage will be done by bad judges, bad laws, and bad policies than is being done by the culture-infecting spread of the gangrene of sinful self-exaltation, and boasting, and strife-stirring (eristikos).

 

“How do they know this? Seriously! Where do they get the sure knowledge that judges, laws, and policies are less destructive than boastful factiousness in high places?” John Piper.

 

While I agree with John Piper on what he has written above, I think he missed an important point, being pro-birth is not the same as being prolife, and therefore we need to weigh the total legislative agenda of a person or party when considering the sanctity of life. Of course, Piper’s thrust is elsewhere and no one can cover all the bases in an article, but I do want to point this out. If we are prolife, then healthcare matters, housing matters, employment matters, education matters, equitable economic policy matters. If we are prolife, then the arbiter for our decision making is not the dollar, it is truth and justice and righteousness and equity – and love for God and our neighbor…all of our neighbors. Regardless of the economic policies of the world, 2 Corinthians chapters 8 and 9 ought to be the economic policy of the Church.

 

We have made an idol of “freedom,” especially our personal freedom. Freedom has become license for unbridled sin and the rejection of God and our neighbor. As John Newton pointed out, the idol freedom has become our goddess Diana.

 

One attack on John Piper suggested that he wants us all to be martyrs. When we consider Mark 8:34 – 38, and the entire ethos of the Gospel, we are all called to be martyrs in the sense that our lives do not belong to us, our possessions do not belong to us, whatever political or economic “freedoms” we may have do not belong to us – for we have been bought with a price and we belong to Jesus Christ. We are not members of a club, we are the slaves of Jesus Christ, the property of Jesus Christ. Every day we are to live in the freedom that Christ gives us, not the freedom that the world gives us, and the freedom we have in Christ is the freedom to be obedient to Him, by His grace, and that means the imperative that we worship God and serve others…not serve ourselves.

 

One of the more heart – wrenching and troubling aspects of the identification of many Christians with the president, and sadly his party, over the past few years has been the promotion and fostering of racial divide and the belittling of minorities. This sickens me. The disciple of Jesus Christ is called to always stand by the least of Christ’s brethren – the least economically, the least educationally, the least racially, the least politically, the least with disabilities, the least regarding citizenship; wherever the least  is, that is where the follower of Jesus Christ ought to be.

 

This means, among other things, that if I am going to vote with the sanctity of life in mind, that I am going to vote to protect the least of those among us – whether they are in an inner city, Appalachia, living on a reservation, in an immigrant detention camp separated from parents or children, in a nursing home, or unemployed or homeless. If I love the least of those who are among us, then I will vote to protect them…and I will live in such a way, and teach and preach in such a way, as to protect them.

 

The least globally will also influence my vote and my life – if we can have Doctors Without Borders, certainly we must have Christians Without Borders…for we are called to serve the world…not our national interests. The interests of Jesus Christ are not the same as our national interests…occasionally they may coincide, but make no mistake, that it is occasional – and make no mistake, our national history testifies to this. To serve our nation is to call our nation to Christ, to live differently than our society in witness to Christ, and to live as strangers in a strange land while we seek the good of the land and its people. A sick physician is impaired in his healing ministry; so is a sick church.

 

I need not understand nor agree with the perspectives of my neighbors who come from different backgrounds, but something is deeply amiss if I do not stand with them when they are attacked and marginalized by the highest authority in our nation with the acquiescence of a significant element of the professing church. Perhaps we think we are exempt from Matthew 25:31 – 46, not to mention the Law and the Prophets. There ought to be a deep shame enveloping much of the “white” professing church, instead we revel in our deception.

 

John Piper is baffled, when he wrote his article he was clearly frustrated. I thank our Lord Jesus that there are some men and women who have a platform who are not afraid to say that the emperor is stark naked, that elements of the church are miserable and blind (Rev. 3:17). I have never sensed that Piper has wanted to make himself his message, that he has sought the centers of worldly power. I am sure that John Piper is not perfect and that he would be the first to say so – but I am also certain that God has something to say to us through John Piper.

 

It is, after all, a simple question, whose mark and image will we bear? That of the Lamb or that of the beastly system? (Revelation 13:16 – 14:5)

 

What is your answer? What is the answer of your congregation?

Election Week Musings (6)

 John Piper writes in his article, Policies, Persons, and Paths to Ruin:

 

“In fact, I think it is a drastic mistake to think that the deadly influences of a leader come only through his policies and not also through his person.

 

“Flagrant boastfulness, vulgarity, and factiousness are not only self-incriminating; they are nation-corrupting…

 

“This is true not only because flagrant boastfulness, vulgarity, immorality, and factiousness are self-incriminating, but also because they are nation-corrupting. They move out from centers of influence to infect whole cultures. The last five years bear vivid witness to this infection at almost every level of society.

 

“This truth is not uniquely Christian: “A little leaven leavens the whole lump” (1 Corinthians 5:6). “Bad company ruins good morals” (1 Corinthians 15:33). Whether you embrace that company in your house or on social media, it corrupts. There are sins that “lead people into more and more ungodliness” as “their talk [spreads] like gangrene” (2 Timothy 2:16–17).

 

“There is a character connection between rulers and subjects. When the Bible describes a king by saying, “He sinned and made Israel to sin” (1 Kings 14:16), it does not mean he twisted their arm. It means his influence shaped the people. That’s the calling of a leader. Take the lead in giving shape to the character of your people. So it happens. For good or for ill.”  John Piper

 

I am incredulous at the dismissal of Piper by many on this point. We saw this in the 2016 election, and we continue to see it. Can we not read and “see” the Scriptures? Just as truth and light and wisdom are personified, so are deceit and darkness and the counsels of wickedness (see Proverbs Chapter 9).

 

Consider these personifications:

 

“Then the king will do as he pleases, and he will exalt and magnify himself above every god and will speak monstrous things against the God of gods…He will show no regard for the gods of his fathers…he will magnify himself above them all..” Daniel 11:36 – 37.

 

“There was given to him a mouth speaking arrogant words and blasphemies…and he opened his mouth in blasphemies against God” Revelation 13:5 – 6.

 

“Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself about every so-called god or object or worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.” 2 Thessalonians 2:3 – 4.

 

To those who discount John Piper’s concern, please explain to me the apparent error in the Bible in the above verses, for if a ruler does not affect his people, and peoples beyond, then the above passages are foolish. (Of course Piper supplied other passages, but I want to take this to another level because of the blindness and deception prevalent in the professing church.)

 

Note what follows in 2 Thessalonians 2:11 – 12, “For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false, in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but had pleasure in wickedness.” As Piper outlined in the beginning of his article (see previous post), what we are dealing with is sin, evil, and death-dealing wickedness.

 

We have Jezebel, Balaam, and the Nicolaitans in our midst and we arrogantly proclaim that we are “alive” and rich and have need of nothing (Revelation chapters 2 – 3). If Christ did not tolerate apostasy in the church 2,000 years ago, what makes us think that He will tolerate it today?

 

What happens when there are those who will not bow down to the images of the world (Daniel 3, Revelation 13)? What happens when those who are faithful to the True and Living God worship Him and not the images of the world and Satan?

 

Much of the American church is like Colonel Nicholson, played by Alec Guinness, in the Bridge over the River Kwai, who is transformed into an agent of the enemy, fanatically intent on building a bridge to defeat his very own people. Colonel Nicholson came to himself before it was too late…I’m not sure about the church in my own nation.

 

Election Week Musings (5)

 

I’ve been putting off writing more on Election Week Musings, the burden and sorrow are great, and the subject matter is distasteful to me, but this is about more than an election, it is about the church’s fidelity to Jesus Christ, about our not loving the world (1 John 2:15ff), and about not being seduced by the things of the world, including worldly power. It is also about the purity of the church (2 Cor. 6:14 – 18), and about us knowing the difference between the Lamb of God and the beast that comes up out of the sea of Revelation 13:1. Let’s consider what John Piper wrote a few weeks ago:

 

“Actually, this is a long-overdue article attempting to explain why I remain baffled that so many Christians consider the sins of unrepentant sexual immorality (porneia), unrepentant boastfulness (alazoneia), unrepentant vulgarity (aischrologia), unrepentant factiousness (dichostasiai), and the like, to be only toxic for our nation, while policies that endorse baby-killing, sex-switching, freedom-limiting, and socialistic overreach are viewed as deadly.

 

“The reason I put those Greek words in parentheses is to give a graphic reminder that these are sins mentioned in the New Testament. To be more specific, they are sins that destroy people. They are not just deadly. They are deadly forever. They lead to eternal destruction (2 Thessalonians 1:9).

 

They destroy persons (Acts 12:20–23). And through persons, they destroy nations (Jeremiah 48:29–31, 42).” John Piper

 

Like Piper, I have also been baffled. It is as if “Christians” have never read the Bible. Perhaps we have come to the place where the term “Evangelical” no longer means “Christian,” where it no longer means a commitment to the Bible and to proclaiming the Gospel? Of course I recognize that there are Evangelicals who are appalled by the sin they see, but when they do speak out, as John Piper did, they face swift retribution. While Piper is of such a standing that many of those who disagree with him have been careful in their responses, not everyone enjoys John Piper’s relative position of protection. The average pastor is risking his job if he questions the assumptions under which many Evangelicals live their lives and think about their nation and political and economic policies.

 

“Forgiveness through Christ is always possible where there is repentance and childlike trust in Jesus. But where humble repentance is absent, the sins condemn.

 

“The New Testament teaches that “those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Galatians 5:21) and that “those who practice such things deserve to die” (Romans 1:32).

 

“To which you may say, “So what? Rejecting Jesus as Lord also leads to death, but you are willing to vote for a non-Christian, aren’t you?” I am, assuming there is enough overlap between biblical uprightness and the visible outworking of his character and convictions.

 

“My point so far is simply to raise the stakes of what is outwardly modeled in leadership, so that Christians are given pause. It is not a small thing to treat lightly a pattern of public behaviors that lead to death.” John Piper

 

I don’t know where the idea originated that if a Christian and non-Christian are running for the same political office that we ought to vote for the Christian, but I consider that ill-advised thinking. Why would I not vote for the best qualified person? I have had more than one bad business experience with “Christian” business owners and “Christian” employees – usually because they thought they got a free pass because they were Christians. In fact, I often had to guard against “Christians” presuming that because I was also a Christian that I would hold them to a lesser standard than other employees or other business owners. I know that I am not the only one with this experience – I have heard it from other Christians and non-Christians.

 

Frankly, in government and politics I have seen more concern and compassion for others from those outside the white Evangelical community than from those within it – why would I vote for a “Christian” who cares more about “things” than people? Why would I vote for a “Christian” who doesn’t know the functional difference between the Bible and the U.S. Constitution, or between the Cross and the American flag?

 

If you are reacting against what you’re reading, then may I ask “Why?” If you call Jesus Christ Lord then you should be no more offended at what I’m writing than I should be offended should someone say to me, “Vickie is your wife, you need to be faithful to her. Your actions, your attention to other women, do not demonstrate faithfulness to Vickie.”

 

The Church of Jesus Christ is to be wedded to Jesus Christ and only to Jesus Christ; not to a nation, not to an economic system, not to a political party, and not to any other individual…including a president of the United States of America. When a segment of the professing church becomes so closely identified with a person or agenda outside the Bible, the Cross, and the Person of Jesus Christ that that element of the church is virtually indistinguishable with the outside person or agenda – that, my dear friends, is idolatry and spiritual adultery…that is a picture of the beast, the false prophet, and the great whore of Revelation. We need look no further for the “abomination of desolation” than our own hearts.

 

We who accuse others of insisting on “political correctness” have become masters of it ourselves! What irony! We who have taken the sword of political correctness will die by that very sword. We who are engaging in mutual assured destruction are blind to our own sin. We who functionally believe that “might makes right” have abandoned the holiness and virtue of our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

In a broken world that needs peacemakers and reconcilers, we have become destroyers.

 

Yes, like John Piper, I am also baffled.

 

I’ll return to Piper’s article in the next post.

Reflections on Hebrews with Andrew Murray (7)

 

“God, having spoken long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds.” Hebrews 1:1 – 2.

 

Murray begins his actual exposition with a focus on “God has spoken to us in His Son”; here are some excerpts:

 

“God has spoken! The magnificent portal by which we enter into the temple in which God is to reveal His glory to us!

 

“God has spoken!  Speaking is the vehicle of fellowship…Man was created for fellowship with God.

 

“God has spoken! When God, who dwells in light that is inaccessible, speaks out of the heights of His glory, it is that He may reveal Himself.

 

“God has spoken in His Son! The ministry of angels and prophets was only to prepare the way; it never could satisfy the heart either of God or man…The Son Himself had to come to bring us into living contact with the divine Being, to dwell in our heart, as He dwells in God’s heart, to be in us God’s word as He is in God, and so to give us the living experience of what it means that God speaks to us.”

 

“God has spoken!  When God speaks in His Son, He gives Him to us, not only for us and with us, but in us. He speaks the Son out of the depth of His heart into the depths of our heart.”  Andrew Murray (Bold is Murray’s; italics are mine).

 

I recall a conversation I had with a dear friend sometime around 1995 regarding discipleship and small group material I was writing. My emphasis was life “in Christ.” My friend, for whose ministry I was contributing this material, in essence said to me, “You can’t emphasize “in Christ” because people won’t know what you mean. I said, “But this the way the Bible is written.”

 

Andrew Murray uses the language and images of the Bible as He communicates the Christ of the Bible, and that includes our calling into organic union with Christ. Murray writes that Christ Jesus has come “to dwell in our heart, as He dwells in God’s heart.” As Christ is in the bosom of the Father, Christ is in the bosom of our soul. We have communion with the Father as we abide in Christ and as Christ abide in us. As we will see in Hebrews, Christ has come to remove all barriers to us having an intimate relationship with God, and with God having an intimate relationship with us. The veil in the Temple has been split from top to bottom – not simply the veil of the earthly Temple, but more importantly, the veil of the Heavenly Temple.

 

Murray writes that Christ has come “to be in us God’s word as He is in God.”  In Hebrews 4:12 we see that God’s Word is “living and active,” in 1 Peter 1:23 we see that the Word is “living and enduring”; and yet how many professing Christians know the Bible as simply ink on paper and treat knowledge of the Bible as they treat any other subject, as a quest for information rather than a quest for relationship? How tragic to have Bibles and not to read them. How tragic to read them and not to experience Jesus Christ in them! The scribes and Pharisees searched the Scriptures because they thought that knowing the ink and paper would lead them to eternal life, and yet they missed the Living Word in the Scriptures, they missed the Messiah – and when the Messiah came they  rejected Him (John 5:39 – 40). The Scriptures were read every Sabbath in the ancient world, and yet those who heard them read did not “hear the voices of the prophets” – the Word was not living to them and in them (Acts 13:27).

 

The Word of God comes to us from eternity (John 1:1 – 18), and this Word is God. When this Word enters our souls we are touched by the Divine and this implanted Word works the mystery of salvation within us (James 1:21). What a tragedy to be in Sunday school all of our lives and not to experience the Living Word. What a tragedy to attend church for decades and not the see and hear the Living Word of God. O what a joy to have Christ living in us and through us as the very Word of God, always and forever communicating Himself to us, enveloping us in His love and light and glory and tenderness and care!

 

Murray writes that Christ has come so that we might know “the living experience of what it means that God speaks to us.” Jesus says, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life” (John 6:63). We ought not to be afraid of the Voice of God, the speaking of God to us through His Son Jesus Christ. We ought not to fear listening to Him, trusting Him, responding to Him in obedient love – empowered by His Spirit. The Father has said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him!”

 

Dear friends – how is the Father speaking to you through His Son today? How is the Word of God living in you today? What living bread is God giving to you for you to share with others? What does this “living experience” look like in you life today?

 

O heavenly Father, teach us to hear You in Your Son, to know You in Your Son, to live in holy and sweet communion with You, in and through Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Election Week Musings (4)

 

This is not an easy series to write. It is not easy because my heart has been breaking for the professing church in the U.S.A. It is not easy because it goes against a significant segment of this professing church, which includes many friends and acquaintances. It is not easy because the shear complexity and chaos is overwhelming to me. On the other hand, this is what is not complex, the Church of Jesus Christ is to belong to Him and Him alone – and that is what is at the heart of this series.

 

I am not sure that there is any hypocrisy in one segment of the professing church as blatant as the prolife hypocrisy – a hypocrisy which I used to practice…for what is usually termed prolife in this segment of the church is actually pro-birth and not prolife.  That is, this way of thinking and living insists that the baby be carried to term and born, but after that they wash their hands of the life that has been brought into the world.

 

There has always been a radical element of the prolife movement, radical in action, radical in language, and radically unthinking in its position. However, what was once radical is now the unthinking knee – jerk reaction norm. I might add that it is a group that insists on its own brand of politically – correct speech and woe is you if you cross them, for they will work to have your radio program canceled; they will threaten other pastors, teachers, and leaders to disassociate themselves from you; they will work to have the video of a presentation you did at a university removed from the school’s website – and they will do these things by the exercise of intimidation. So much for charitable Christian discourse. Dare any pastor suggest to them that maybe, just maybe, there is more to being prolife than they understand? That would take a lot of courage and trust that Christ will provide for you should you be fired by christians [the lower-case “c” is not a typo.]

 

Of course, there has always been hypocrisy in churches who style themselves prolife, but it has not been so radicalized. What do I mean that “there has always been hypocrisy?” Over the past few decades I have been involved in Pregnancy Support Centers (formerly Crisis Pregnancy Centers) in various areas, and just as in the case with missions, what churches say and what they do are two different things. The level of funding these centers receive is often deplorable. The conditions some volunteers and staff work in are often not conditions we would expect ourselves to work in – dilapidated offices, antiquated furnishings and equipment, little or no room to store items to help families in crisis, poor compensation for paid staff. A few dedicated staff and volunteers often carry a huge load – why no significant support from the churches and Christians who style themselves prolife?  Yes, there has always been hypocrisy – we think we get a free pass if we are pro-birth voters.

 

I once managed a 288 – unit apartment community in which at least 80% of the adults were single mothers. The property manager of this community called just about every church in this mid-sized city, looking for help with after school programs, weekend programs, vacation Bible school, Bible teaching, etc. We had a community center that we would make available to any group who wanted to use it for outreach to these mothers and their children. Our desire was, by God’s grace, to change the fabric of this community. Do you know how many churches positively responded? ZERO. Yes, I realize that there are exceptions to this experience, but the fact that they are exceptions makes the point. Voting pro-birth is not the same as voting and living prolife.

 

In my property management career, I was often asked to review credit reports of marginal applicants for apartment rentals. Increasingly the applicants who had bad credit had it not because they had made frivolous consumer purchases for which they could not make payments, but rather because of catastrophic medical bills. Often their inability to pay medical bills not only led to bankruptcy, but also to the loss of their homes via foreclosure – thus further damaging their credit. Furthermore, since a credit rating is often used by employers in selecting job applicants, many of these people encounter difficulty in obtaining employment. In a company I worked for, I saw a number of qualified people turned down for employment due to their credit rating – in spite of my appeals to common sense and compassion.

 

How can a nation as materially rich as ours not have universal health care? Why do our neighbors have to make a choice between purchasing insulin and eating? Between going to the doctor and paying the rent or mortgage? How can we be so deaf and blind as not to see and hear that this is a prolife issue? This is hypocrisy and it is a stain on the professing church.

 

If we want to be single – issue voters, and if we insist that the single – issue is the sanctity of life, then let us not confuse pro-birth with prolife; let us not use the term “prolife” to advance other agendas – such has not caring for the poor, the sick, the alien, those without adequate food, housing, or education – for a true prolife way of living encompasses the total person, the total community.

 

How am I going to measure up to Matthew 25:31 – 46? What about you? What about our churches? I don’t think Christ is going to accept our sinful excuses.

 

 

Election Week Musings (3)

 

A couple of weeks ago I asked folks to read an article by John Piper regarding the election and the president. I wondered whether or not I should make any comments about the piece and I decided not to because I didn’t want to filter Piper’s words. In retrospect maybe I should have, I’m not really sure. I received comments that ran the spectrum, including; “I don’t understand this and it’s confusing,” “This has me reconsidering not only my thinking, but also the way I’ll vote,” “I couldn’t disagree more,” and then there was, “Piper is spineless and disgusting.”

 

How anyone could call Piper spineless when he went against the grain of much popular “Christian” thinking is beyond me. It isn’t just that he went against the grain, it is that the grain he went against is often vitriolic, contra James 3:13 – 18.  I am going to return to some specific points of Piper’s piece in a future post, but of the responses I received that were vehemently opposed to his article, here were two elements that they had in common:

 

The first element in the responses opposed to the article was that there was no tension, no doubt, no question, as to the rightness or wrongness of the many issues that Piper raised – Piper was totally wrong. There was no acknowledgment of the possibility that Piper was concerned about legitimate issues. There was no consideration that just maybe we ought to think through what he was writing. Why this refusal to consider the thinking of a man whose life and ministry ought to, at the very least, provide warrant for a fair hearing? I do not “follow” or read John Piper closely, and we likely have different approaches to some elements in the Kingdom, but I certainly respect him and his fidelity to Jesus Christ and the Gospel, and I have never sensed that John Piper seeks to make himself the center of attention, the center of his ministry and message, or to manipulate others by hyperbole and fear.

 

These responses are troubling to me because we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God, and if we do not acknowledge that we “see through a glass darkly” and that “the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked,” and that “he who trusts in his own heart is a fool,” then we are in the fast lane of arrogance and self-deceit. When professing Christians style others as their enemies, when they vilify them, when they want to “call down fire” on others, we ought to be afraid of what we have become.

 

This is one of many reasons that we need our Lord Jesus Christ, because it is only in His Light, the Light of His Presence,  that we can begin to see anything for what it really is, and this itself is a journey, a pilgrimage, a process. It is also a pilgrimage that requires others, we cannot make this journey alone.

 

The second common element in the responses that rejected Piper’s piece was that they accused others of socialism and warned that if the “left” was not stopped that we’d have another Hitler. The irony here is that the Nazis were not of the “left” but of the “right” and that in their quest to Make Germany Great Again they employed a Red Scare.

 

Many in the German church aligned themselves with the Hitler regime because it was all about Making Germany Great Again. Ponder that one. Excuses were made for Hitler’s words and actions. Those who stood against the merging of church and state were marginalized and persecuted – ponder that. Much of the German church failed to distinguish between the German nation and the Kingdom of God. Let’s remember that Germany was the birthplace of the Reformation – the German Church could look back and say, “We are God’s chosen nation!” We, in the United States, seem to have forgotten this. Did we ever know it?

 

Another irony is that many who think John Piper unquestionably wrong are quick to hold Dietrich Bonhoeffer up as an example of faithfulness to Christ in the midst of state persecution – this includes a recent biographer of Bonhoeffer (a poorly written biography). This fails to acknowledge Bonhoeffer’s view of a Church without national borders, and of a church within national borders that eschews “cheap grace” and seeks to mediate God’s grace to all segments of society, most especially to the disenfranchised and threatened. Dietrich Bonhoeffer did not confuse the state with the church…and he was increasingly in the minority.

 

The heart and soul of the Church of Jesus Christ can only be wedded to one spouse, which is it? If we truly care about our earthly country, then we must first and foremost be the Bride of Jesus Christ, and there should be no question about this. Nothing in life should compete with Jesus Christ. If we are to be decent citizens of an earthly country, we first must be whole – hearted, heavenly – minded, citizens of the Kingdom of God (Phil. 3:20) and there should be no question in our words, our deeds, our singing, our worship – that we belong to Jesus Christ.

 

Syncretistic Christian nationalism, in any form, is poison. We may as well say that it is okay for a married Christian spouse to date others, to sleep with others (2 Cor. 11:1 – 15).

 

Have we come to the place where we need to apologize to other Christians that our hearts and souls belong to Jesus, and to Jesus alone?

 

I do not fear the persecution of the Church; I do fear its seduction.

Election Week Musings (2)

 

I’ve been amazed and saddened at how many folks bandy about the term “socialism,” using it as a canard for those with whom they disagree. I’ve had friends and acquaintances equate the term with Hitler and Venezuela (I’ll come back to this in another post) as they pass on fear to others – this is hardly thoughtful nor is it likely to produce constructive dialogue. What is socialism? Don’t we know that when we have regulations and Federal programs – including Federal bailouts of Wall Street – that we are seeing degrees of socialism?  What is unemployment insurance? Workers compensation insurance? Antitrust regulations? Consumer protection? The role of the FDA?

 

Do we not see the irony that many of us rail against socialism if we think it will help those economically below us, but have little to say if it benefits ourselves or those above us? If we are truly a capitalistic society, then if the small business owner is not to have financial protection, why give protection to mega-corporations? If an individual with a mortgage is not to receive financial protection, why provide protection to the lender? Why are institutional investors protected but not individual investors? What about the principle of risk?

 

And consider, the Scriptures teach us again and again that we are to care for the poor, the widow, the orphan, and the alien – but we rationalize this away…and call ourselves Christians. Really?

 

God’s economic plan for the Church is in 2 Corinthians chapters 8 and 9. Hey, I didn’t write these chapters, the Holy Spirit through Paul wrote them. Are we living them? Do we even think about them? What do you think? What does your congregation think about them?

 

One of my points is that these things hardly lend themselves to sound bites, and that if we pass along sound bites then we are simply being used by others…not by Christ. Sounds bites are what I typically hear from a certain group of professing Christians. They cry the canard “socialism,” but when I ask what they mean they don’t really know, they haven’t thought it through. The Bible teaches us not only to be socially responsible, but also socially merciful.

 

Here is an excerpt from the letter to a young pastor that I quoted from in the previous post:

 

A Word About Economics:

 

I have long been troubled by our nation’s propensity to monetize life, and I’ve said on Sunday mornings that we ought to stop kidding ourselves and just put a dollar sign on the Cross so we’ll stop pretending. There is much I could write here, but I’ll keep it short, For Christians, if our attitudes about money and material things haven’t been crucified then we have a problem. As to economic systems, most systems are hybrids and are in the eye of the beholder – but for the disciple of Jesus Christ,  2 Corinthians chapters 8 and 9 present us with teaching on how we as congregations, Christians in regions, and Christians in nations ought to view money and possessions. This passage is typically manipulated by preachers to focus on individual attitudes and actions, but it goes beyond the individual to the local and regional Body of Christ – the Macedonians and the Greeks are helping their brethren in Galilee and Judea. The principle (2 Cor. 8:13 – 15) being “…by way of equality…”

 

How does this apply to suburban and inner – city churches? To affluent city churches and poverty – stricken areas in the same city?

 

To churches in prosperous regions and to those in regions like Appalachia?

 

To the Church in the U.S.A. and churches elsewhere in the world?

 

Perhaps 2 Corinthians chapters 8 and 9 are the two most intentionally ignored chapters in Bible. Perhaps we are afraid of them.

 

 

 

Election Week Musings (1)

 

O my, where to begin? This is like trying to walk across an eight-lane interstate highway without being hit by a car or truck. I have a number of thoughts; perhaps I’d better do a series of posts, otherwise it will be too much.

 

 

For the record, the United States of America and the Kingdom of God are not the same, they are not even close, and they never have been. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God; that’s me, that’s you, and that is any and all political systems and governments of this world which are, of course, made up of people born in sin.

 

Now if you are reacting against the above notion, and you are a professing Christian, I’ll have to ask why you have heartburn? Ought Christians not to be clear that we are to have no other gods in the Presence of the One True God? We can’t serve two masters. Ought not our testimony to the world be clear and certain that the Church and Gospel transcend borders, ethnic groups, economics, and political preferences?

 

I realize that this is difficult for those of us raised in the United States, I can’t speak for those raised in other countries, I can only speak from my own experience. As I have written before, I was raised to think and feel as if the United States of America and the Kingdom of God were, to all intents and purposes, synonymous. Just as someone once said that what is good for General Motors is good for the United States, I was functionally raised to think that what is good for the United States is good for the Kingdom of God. I saw no functional distinction between the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bible. It was not until I was in my early 50s that I began to question my uncritical outlook on politics, government, and syncretistic Christian - nationalism. Here is an excerpt from a letter I wrote to a young pastor earlier this year:

Some Background:

I was not only raised to think and believe that the United States of America and Christianity were virtually (and certainly functionally) synonymous; I was also raised by a politically conscious mother. I vividly recall wearing presidential and senatorial campaign buttons to school during the election of 1960 (we could still do that back then without fear that we’d bruise feelings). Kids who displayed buttons for other candidates were still friends – we didn’t let our campaign buttons come between us. I imagine the buttons were more for fun than for anything else, but at least the experience made us aware that there were political campaigns in process.

I recall watching political conventions on television as a child – when such conventions still actually mattered.

I recall, as a child, going to hear candidates speak.

I recall, as a child, my mother talking to me about politics.

I recall, as a child living in the Washington, D.C. area, countless trips to memorials and museums.

I have loved history since my early days, and have read history, including U.S. history, since I was a child. I was so well – versed in U.S. history, that I recall an occasion in the sixth grade when a fellow student did not have his oral report ready on U.S. history and I volunteered to give it on the spot…and did so. (As I write this it appears that I was arrogant, but I really didn’t have that feeling at the time – though I know what it is to be arrogant! – I simply loved history and wanted to talk about the subject – I think it was the Missouri Compromise).

I volunteered for the Army during Vietnam (I was stationed in Germany and the States).

Both of my two brothers volunteered for the Army and one was a career solider.

Many of my ancestors have served in both political and military arenas: My Dad in WWII, my grandfather in WWI, my great-grandfather (and others on both sides) in the Civil War (my great-grandfather was captured during Pickett’s Charge).

My great-great-great grandfather Withers (and others) served in the Revolution.

Patrick Henry, my fifth great-grandfather, who did much more than his famous “Liberty and Death” speech, was a father of the Revolution. He was a member of the First Continental Congress, and a multi-term governor of Virginian who helped keep Washington’s army supplied during the war. (Story for another time – Henry came to see how “patriotism” could be a cloak for avarice and injustice and contrary to Christianity!).

My point in all of this is the same as Paul’s point in Philippians Chapter 3, I have a pedigree and I am about to make some statements that are contrary to the common assumptions of my pedigree. Goodness, I’ll soon be 70-years old and I don’t need someone to say, “Wow, Patrick Henry is your fifth great-grandfather!” I’ll be dead sooner than later and on my face before our Lord Jesus…not before Patrick Henry or anyone else – though I do believe Henry came to know our Lord Jesus (story for another time).

 

My First Watershed Moment:

My first watershed moment came during the President Bill Clinton – Monica Lewinsky scandal. I was home one afternoon watching C-Span on television. The channel was showing a national conference of a “Christian” organization whose focus was “family values” and politics. Speaker after speaker was attacking President Clinton with vitriol and disrespect. As I watched and listened to the venom I thought, “What is a non-Christian thinking who is watching this? How is this portraying Jesus Christ? Where is a heartfelt appeal to the President and Ms. Lewinsky that acknowledges that we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God, including the speakers? Where is the message to Mr. and Mrs. Clinton that God heals marriages?”

Before this particular afternoon I had been disrespectful of the Clintons on many occasions and I was deeply convicted of my own attitudes and words as I watched, as it were, myself in this succession of speakers.

I still thought that Mr. Clinton should have resigned or been removed from office, and I still hold that position, but I realized that a call for accountability and repentance should be imbued with mercy, hope, and communicated by messengers with broken hearts before our Lord Jesus Christ.

I’ll also mention that during this time a nationally - prominent “Christian” leader was spending much of his television time, and the resources of his formidable network of Christian organizations, relentlessly attacking Mr. and Mrs. Clinton – without mercy, without charity, without brokenness, without the hope of the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ.

While the Clintons were being attacked by one “Christian” element, a group of pastors and other followers of Jesus were meeting with the Clintons on a regular basis trying to help them. I knew one of the people in this network and I recall him saying, “One of the questions the Clinton’s ask us is, ‘Why do so many Christians hate us?’” (Titus 3:1 – 2 has become a “go-to” passage for me).

However, as you will now see, I am a slow learner and our merciful Father had to once again convict me of my attitude toward the affairs of politics and government – this had to do with the Bush – Gore election.

 

My Second Watershed Moment:

I wanted George Bush to win the election – period. I’ll not explore why I wanted this because it really isn’t important, but I wanted him to win. When the problem with Florida voting became known and the issue worked its way to the United States Supreme Court, I wanted Mr. Bush to win and Mr. Gore to lose. I was intensely passionate about this; it was something that took residence in my mind and heart. When Mr. Bush won the election, or at least when the Supreme Court decided in his favor, I was relieved and happy…for a short time, for a very short time. Isn’t it a grand and wonderful thing that our Father and Lord Jesus love us enough to show us who we are outside of Him? Isn’t it marvelous that they do not leave us to ourselves?

Within perhaps a week of the Supreme Court’s decision, the Holy Spirit essentially said to me (in my heart and mind), “You didn’t care what the truth was about the votes. You didn’t care about the facts. You simply wanted George Bush to win and Al Gore to lose no matter how it happened. You didn’t care about righteousness and justice.”

Well Jeremy, my soul was smitten, and I was convicted. I thought, “O my! I am not only a Christian, a son of the Living God, but I am a pastor – and I don’t care about the truth!”

This frightened me, it scared me, and it broke my heart before our Lord Jesus. This wound that heals remains with me and is a reminder that when I touch the politics and governments of this world - that I am to live in the Cross and the Cross is to live in me.

Reflections on Hebrews with Andrew Murray (6)

 

            As Murray moves toward the conclusion of his Introduction, he asks the reader to consider the relationship of the book of Hebrews to the church of his day. As we read what Murray writes, we can decide if our own day is similar to Murray’s day.

 

            “In the Christian Church of our day the number of members is very large, whose experience corresponds exactly with that which the Epistle pictures…How many Christians are there yet who, after the profession of faith in Christ, come to a standstill…So many rest contented with the thought that their sins are pardoned, and that they are in the path of life, but know nothing of a personal attachment to Christ as the Leader, or of a faith that lives in the invisible and walks with God…

 

            “But [the Epistle] is a glass too, thank God, in which we can also see the glory of Jesus on the throne of heaven, in the power that can make our heart and life heavenly too…It is Jesus Christ we must know better. It is He who lives today in heaven, who can lead us into the heavenly sanctuary, and keep us there, who can give heaven into our heart and life. The knowledge of Jesus in His heavenly glory and His saving power; it is this our Churches and our Christians need.”  Andrew Murray

 

            It has been said that it is hard to argue with success. Yet, what is success? Is not success reaching our goal? But then what is our goal? What are our goals?

 

            Paul writes that he and his associates want to “present every man complete in Christ” (Col. 2:28). In Romans 8:29 we see that it is our Father’s purpose that we might be “conformed to the image of His Son.” In Ephesians 4:11 – 16 we see that we, as a people, as the Body of Christ, are to grow to become “a mature [corporate] man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.”

 

            Yet perhaps our own notions of success cloud the Biblical vision of our calling and destiny. Don’t we tend to look at numbers, whether numbers of people or amounts of money? Don’t we measure success in terms of how large something is, of how much we’ve accumulated, of how we measure up according to the values of society?  It is hard to argue with success because success looks so good, it feels so good.

 

            Consider Christ’s words to the Christians in Laodicea (Rev. 3:17 - 18), “Because you say, ‘I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,’ and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may cloth yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.”

            Or again consider these words of Christ to the Christians in Sardis, “I know your deeds, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead” (Rev. 3:1).

            The church in Sardis had a good reputation, a good name; but it was dead. The church in Laodicea considered itself rich and wealthy and in need of nothing, yet in the eyes of Christ it was wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. Christ argues with success, Christ argues with how things appear to the natural eye, Christ argues with numbers, He argues with natural estimates of wealth.

            This is a hard truth for those of us in the West to assimilate for it is contrary to the ethos of our consumeristic self - centered culture, including our church culture.

            In Murray’s day there were many professing Christians who “after the profession of faith in Christ, come to a standstill…So many rest contented with the thought that their sins are pardoned, and that they are in the path of life, but know nothing of a personal attachment to Christ as the Leader, or of a faith that lives in the invisible and walks with God…”

            Is this true in our day?

            Could it be that our emphasis on a “profession of faith” is misplaced? Could it be that what passes today for a “profession of faith” is no more than seed falling on rocky ground where it does not have much soil, and that it immediately springs up but does not last? (Mark 4:5 -6).

            If we hear the call of Jesus Christ to deny ourselves, take up our cross daily, and follow Him; if we hear His call to lose our lives for His sake and the Gospel’s (Mark 8:34 – 80) – does this really sound like a call to utter a simple “profession of faith” and go our merry way?

            Yes, of course those who “call on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Acts 2:21), but the context of Acts 2, Romans 10, and Joel 2 is certainly of a weightier gravity than what we typically consider a “profession of faith.” Peter, Paul, and Joel are calling for an “all – in” repentance and commitment to the True and Living God, with Peter pleading (Acts 2:24), “Be saved (escape!) from this perverse generation!”

            Dietrich Bonhoeffer spoke of “cheap grace,” a grace that doesn’t cost anyone anything. Jesus Christ paid a terrible and glorious price so that we might receive grace and mercy, and when we are touched by His grace and mercy, when we come into a relationship with Him – it will cost us our lives…let us make no mistake about it.

            How do I know that I have received the costly grace of Jesus Christ? How do I know that I have, in some small measure, appreciated and apprehended the glorious and costly grace that Christ paid an unfathomable price to give me? One way I know is that it begins to cost me something to submit to the working of His grace in me and through me – for the working of that grace will lead me to lose my life for His sake and the Gospel’s. It cost Jesus Christ His life to give me grace and mercy, it will cost me my life, my soul, in surrender to Him and death to myself, to allow that grace to work within me and through me.

            Is this what we see today when we speak of professions of faith? Is this what we truly see?

            Jesus says, “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it” (Matthew 7:13 – 14).

May I gently ask myself, and may I ask you, “Which does our contemporary practice of “profession of faith” most resemble, the preaching of a wide gate or a small gate, a broad way or a narrow way?” If the discipleship of the Bible is our standard of measurement, what shall be our answer?

            O how we need so desperately to know Jesus, to live in vital and vibrant relationship with Him, that our faith may be anchored in the invisible ascended Christ and that we might live in God and in Divine community with one another.