Category Archives: Faith

When Your Doing is Your Undoing

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This beloved portion of Scripture was part of this morning’s reading (1 Peter 1:3-4) :

3 His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, 4 by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.

Many will tune out after the first major phrase: God gives us all we need.  Within itself, that is a wonderful truth, capable of fostering trust in God as the kind and capable Provider of all, to all.

However, Peter’s line of teaching goes a fair bit further.

Not only is God committed to providing life’s needs.  He is committed to making provision for each of us to journey into godliness, the state of God-likeness for which every human being has been designed.  To approach God is to open the door for Him to give you what you need for an existence of “glory and excellence”, even before we have any aspirations or desires for such a life.

The heavyweight phrase in this passage is undoubtedly “partakers of the divine nature”.  One could muse endlessly over the implications of such a five-word package.  But at least two points are clear:

  1. God has made outrageous promises that He intends to keep.
  2. These promises center upon delivering people into this form of existence: Partakers of the divine nature.

Then, in a clarifying statement, Peter expresses that one mark of this type of life is an escape from the corruption caused by sinful desires.  This corruption is in our world because it is in our hearts, and it is God’s intention on neither public nor private scales.  The one who knows anything about God will know this, and the one who values anything about God will make every move they can think of, in that direction.  This is where Peter’s list (faith, virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection, and love) finds its spot within the text: Pursue these qualities in your quest to experience both freedom and fruitfulness in Jesus Christ.

Efforts aside (and there are many to make), this escape from the dark and distorting desires of our hearts unfolds only as we:

  1. Embrace the promises of God (most call this “faith”).
  2. Seek to partake in the divine nature.

This second line matters greatly, as it speaks to the motivation behind every move we make.  Minus this motivation, we fall back into lesser motivations that actually undercut the transformation process:

  • Satisfaction in self, based upon some unwritten scoring system.
  • Reputation based on others’ perceptions of us or on inner illusions of ourselves.

Both of these can motivate us, but neither of them have anything to do with being freed from tainted desires.  In truth, both of them actually feed the corrupt (ie: Self-centered) tendencies that so easily sabotage our escape route into the God-designed life of “glory and excellence”.

“Make every effort”, to be sure.  But make them with measured focus, or our doing will actually be our undoing.

Grace is What Works

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There is a pragmatist within each of us.

Bent toward the rational and the results,this inner dweller unintentionally opposes some of God’s most profound movements in our lives.

This logic-loving, get-the-job done approach to life, a staple of the Western society in which I’ve grown up, struggles to grasp the life-Creator, who strangely–yet frequently–insists on operating in “obviously” impractical ways.

Grace is the finest of examples.

The careful reader of the New Testament will quickly observe the inadequacy of human efforts toward salvation. However, that doesn’t stop us from trying! Bent on saving ourselves, proving ourselves, and sustaining ourselves, responsibility and duty–praiseworthy qualities within themselves–kick into hyper-gear.  In the process, pride awakens and pressure builds, all the while we are unaware that we are building brick walls between God’s salvation and our souls.

Legalistic tendencies seem wired into the human hardware.

The hymn-writer called grace “amazing”. We call it “unbelievable”. We may never use the word, but we feel incapable of grasping the concept, and embracing it feels even less likely.  That is the pragmatist within us, speaking with conviction: “Grace is impractical.”  You hear it in the push back we feel obliged to offer against grace, particularly religious or responsible citizens: “What about discipline? Grace alone is too soft; it won’t take people where they need to be. It takes more than grace to transform a life.”

Grace is not practical enough for our liking.

Or perhaps we are not nearly practical enough.

The dynamic at work here is something like John Piper describes in “Desiring God”, a book carrying the subtitle of “Meditations of a Christian Hedonist”. Piper argues that hedonism, the pursuit of pleasure, is an attitude built into the very human nature. Other than spiraling our souls into self-destruction, this pleasure-seeking drive is what drives the soul toward God.  Paradoxically, Piper suggests that the reason we get lost along the way is that we are not nearly hedonistic enough!  Settling for watered down forms of satisfaction, our pursuit of pleasure is revealed as too weak, rather than too strong. We chase happiness like slackers, at the expense of our souls.

C.S. Lewis was developing the same thought when he famously observed:

“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

So back to where we began: We resist grace because it seems out-of-touch. “This won’t work in real life,” we critique.  Even more common might be the unspoken thought that Christ’s role in our lives is to provide a much-needed “reset” button. By his death and resurrection, he presses it and we sigh with relief.  We can take another kick at getting things right, in practical and reasonable ways, of course, powered by the fuel of self.

In this sense, we are part of a rich heritage of Christians who don’t get it.  Paul’s question to such folks:

Who has cast an evil spell on you? For the meaning of Jesus Christ’s death was made as clear to you as if you had seen a picture of his death on the cross. 2 Let me ask you this one question: Did you receive the Holy Spirit by obeying the law of Moses? Of course not! You received the Spirit because you believed the message you heard about Christ. 3 How foolish can you be? After starting your Christian lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort? (Gal.3:1-3)

Beyond the Galatian goofballs, is anyone else’s “reset” button worn out from use?

“Seeking free-flowing forgiveness so we can take another futile kick at life on our terms”: Give me Impractical for $1000, Alex.

And there’s the rub.

Grace, in all its mystery and apparent irrationality, is the most practical of solutions to the human predicament.  The God we dismiss as idealistic or illogical actually, shock of shockers, knows what He’s doing, with His “power move” of offering freedom through surrender and victory through defeat.  Much to our surprise, perhaps chagrin, grace works.

In fact, it is only grace that works.

YOUR TURN: Why does humanity buck so hard against God’s grace?  What do you grasp about grace today that God has faithfully taught you over time?

Please leave your comment below, and enter the conversation.

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Closing a Massive Gap

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A favourite Scripture for many is Isaiah 55:8-9:

8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Typically, this passage causes reverence, even worship toward this God so vastly different from ourselves.  Any who choose to pursue Him will experience wonder and taste mystery; sometimes the encounters are downright bewildering, but the sentiment in Isaiah 55 is that we are grateful that God is unlike us.

Within context, the surrounding verses place the emphasis squarely upon God’s unlike-us characteristics toward compassion, pardon, and forgiveness. In these ways particularly, God’s ways are vastly removed from ours. And that is reason to praise him.

But when we are not hailing hallelujahs, we may be moaning for mercy. The possibility of enjoying intimacy and walking closely with this God of outrageous grace hinges upon significant shifts in our mindsets. To the extent that our touch is ungracious with our fellow creatures, we can expect Creator God, the One who deals in the currency of grace, to undertake the work of renovating our lives with an incessant force.  Among the first parts of Creation that the Creator longs to make new are the hearts of those who wear His name.

His thoughts may not be our thoughts, and His ways may not be our ways.  But you can bet that He is dedicating His power and focus to closing that massive gap.

Miraculously Natural

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With three daughters under the age of four, I have read “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” more times than the average man. For the uninformed, this is the tale of caterpillar who breaks free from his egg with a serious hunger. After five days of colourfully-sketched fruit, he goes on a dietary tear, eating his way through desserts and delicacies, meats and treats. A stomachache lands him back at a green leaf feast. By this time, our tiny protagonist has become a pudgy worm on the verge of cocooning. The finale of the book begins on the second-last page:

Then he nibbled a hole in the cocoon, pushed his way out, and… (final page turn here)

He was a beautiful butterfly!

 

[The story can be viewed HERE, if you wish.]

A colourful story of how worms become butterflies, this children’s book has yet to educate me on what really happens.  How does a slinking and slimy caterpillar become a soaring and stunning butterfly?  What magical tailor lives in that cocoon to design, craft, and attach those wings to that thing?

It is no error that we use the word metamorphosis to describe this process:

A change of the form or nature of a thing or person into a completely different one, by natural or supernatural means.

No exaggeration is necessary to tie the term “miracle” to such a definition, yet the reminder quickly follows: “This is natural.”

Miraculously natural.

A paradoxical phrase. Continue reading →

A Pastor’s Private Thoughts

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I enjoy my church.

I also enjoy vacations.

I especially enjoy going to church while on vacation. For this pastor, there is a particular pleasure to attending a service as a guest. Trading my pastor’s hat for my participant’s hat often serves up fresh experiences within a worship assembly.

There is a shallower level of experience too. It is the comparing and contrasting of how “church is done” in this new setting versus my home congregation.  This includes styles, logistics, tradition, and such.  A recent such experience was unusually impacting, moving dramatically beyond such mental note-taking of operational details from an unfamiliar venue. Such casual observation is typically comfortable and harmless.  But God was waiting for me on this particular day at this particular church, and neither comfort nor harmlessness was on the menu.

Imagine my shock when the path to God led through Satan’s playground.

All was normal for an abnormal Sunday.  My children were settled in alongside unfamiliar tots in a children’s service, my sermon was not waiting to be preached, and I was seated beside my wife with no duties to fulfill up front. We sang, we read, we prayed, we listened.

And one of us got to wondering.

This particular church was booming.

The website had described a few years of existence with rapid growth from tiny church plant to multiple building projects, one of which we had witnessed in the parking lot. If the building project needs a parking lot crack filling albuquerque nm, visit 109 Love Road SW, Albuquerque,NM or contact (505) 877-0380. A sense of optimism was evident. Life appeared to be flowing here. A casual observer like myself picked up an obvious focus and excellence within the structures and ministries supporting the congregation.

The truly marvelous thing about thought is its speed, isn’t it?  Nearly instantly, a process of private assessment regarding this church was unleashed, involving hundreds of thoughts within a second. “Speed kills” is nowhere more true than in my own head. It was the speed of the thoughts and the unforeseen, though quickly approaching, corner that blew my wheels off.

Don’t misunderstand: There is something quite natural about a pastor gauging a given church environment. We swim in such details everyday. We are always hunting for ideas, critiquing our status quo, aspiring toward better. Much of this is normal, like a mechanic intrigued by cars or a retail manager wanting to peek in shops’ back rooms.

But normal can mutate.

It does everyday. And when it does, it brings dysfunction and death.

Listening to Scripture proclaimed in a sermon can quickly become a thumbs-fest with Roger Ebert. Mark it down: Many pastors have a horrible time listening (I mean, genuinely listening) to preaching. Their time spent “behind the curtain” often robs them of the simple pleasure and power that can arrive with the Word of God falling like rain.

An entire worship service can become a wrestling match. Despite efforts to stifle this critic’s posture, judgments are snapped, assessments are made, variations are noted, and the one fatal worship-hijacking act is committed.

Comparisons are drawn.

Reasons to avoid this deadly movement are plentiful. You know them. I know them.

But still my mind embarked on the journey, innocently at first:

This is a sweet little church.

I could imagine attending a place like this if I lived here.

What is behind that positive feeling I have toward a place that I hardly know?

I wonder what tone people perceive when they visit my church.  What feeling do we give off?

That building project is impressive. People are obviously invested to make that happen.

They sure are dreaming of how they can impact their community.

Some of the staff sure strike me as impressive.

I wonder where they trained. How did they become “who they are”?

What would it feel like to work on a large staff?

I wonder if I could even qualify to work in such a setting.

It sure is great to see a church that is growing.

I wonder how they’re doing it.

I hope they’re not watering anything down.

My church hasn’t grown in years.

In fact, it’s shrunk during my time there.

I wonder how we are doing it.

I wonder how I am doing it.

That was where the pit really began to develop.  It’s slopes were subtle but steep.

Our family vacation was filled with fun. The pace was relaxed, the weather was pleasant. We walked and shopped. We played and ate. We lingered and toured. It was a perfect holiday for two parents and two small ones.

And I was present for most of it.

There was just a sliver of me that lived in that hole by himself.

He couldn’t get free of Sunday’s stream:

Why is my church shrinking?

Why do we seem stuck?

What is different about our church “culture” from those that appear to be thriving?

Can a church’s culture be changed?

Am I a part of the problem?

What if I am holding the church back?

Do we even want to grow?

Do I?

What our church really needs may be several things that I am not. 

What do I do with that?

How am I such a poor leader?

You’re making this too much about yourself.  It is God who brings the growth.

That is true, but what is keeping Him from bringing it our way?

Are we destined for nothing nobler than a slow decline?

Surely we are.

How do we get there?

Do I even know?

Sigh.

Comparison is a killer. I knew that, but I confess that I could not free myself from those jaws.   Eventually, the grip released, and I pulled myself home to lick my wounds.

And now six months later, I’m still licking.  The place of grace?

God found me on that tangent of a trail.  Satan may have queued the confusion and envy, but the inner turmoil led me a God who had a number more questions for me:

Do you think this is about you?

You think real fruit can be grown by your groans?

What is the place of your best-but-insufficient efforts in the building of my Kingdom?

Do you believe that I can make you into exactly what you need to be: You as a pastor, and your congregation as a church?

As has become my nearly standard experience of God, the message was astoundingly accurate in its tone: It was completely convicting and entirely encouraging (well, almost entirely).

When God met Jacob unexpectedly one night (see Genesis 32), Jacob departed the next morning with a lasting limp.

Over the past two years, I have felt a number of moves from God’s grappling arsenal.  He is amply able to get a hold on me, to confront with perfectly balanced fierceness and affection.

Along the way, a limp has certainly developed.  But I have a growing awareness that walking strong and straight was never all it was cracked up to be.  Divine strength flexes most mightily in human weakness.  Resurrection power only flows through the collapsed vessels of corpses.pa