Matthew 28: 18-20 - And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."
The basis of missionary appeals is the authority of Jesus Christ, not the needs of the heathen. We are apt to look upon Our Lord as One Who assists us in our enterprises for God. Our Lord puts himself as the absolute sovereign supreme Lord over His disciples. He does not say the heathen will be lost if we do not go: He simply says – “Go ye therefore and teach all nations.” Go on the revelation of My sovereignty; teach and preach out of a living experience of Me.
Chambers points out a subtle but critically important point about the missionary call. Before Christ says anything else to His disciples, He says “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” The matter is not that we are to save the lost, but that we are to obey Christ by witnessing to them. “Saving” them is God’s bit; we are called to simply share Christ in a real way that reflects who He is and all He has called us to. Jesus is not to be relegated to the role of one who simply “assists us in our enterprises for God.” He IS the enterprise! He is the Almighty God! Some months ago our pastor brought up the “God is my Copilot” bumper stickers and pointed out how THAT mentality is the problem for many of us. We’ve relegated God to the passenger seat, while we see ourselves as the one really running the show. This mindset flies in the face of what Christ says here in verse 18: “All authority has been given to me.” Jesus didn’t say “All authority has been given to YOU and I’ll be here if you need me” – and yet, how often do we live out our Christian walk just that way?
Chambers goes on to say:
If I want to know the universal sovereignty of Christ, I must know Him for myself, and how to get alone with Him; I must take time to worship the Being Whose Name I bear.
Whether we are called to witness for Christ in the African Jungle, the Corporate Jungle or simply to the people we come in contact with each day in our communities, we must first and foremost KNOW HIM. This means time spent alone with the Savior in prayer and in worship. If we aren’t spending time alone with Him, our efforts to be an adequate and an accurate witness will be disappointing at best.
For several years I waited tables, and I am very sad to say that the shift dreaded above all others was Sunday brunch. The “after church crowd” would descend on the restaurant in droves and come 12:30 the restaurant would be packed with the faithful. It was common topic of conversation amonst the primarily unchurched serve staff that this group above all others was often difficult, demanding – and notoriously stingy with their tips. Perhaps the greatest puzzle to me at the time was how an hour of edification in the presence of the Lord could put people in such a dreadful mood. Exasperated parents corralling unruly children and the demanding middle aged man seated at the end of the table with his Bible occupying a seat next to him, barking orders as if I were unworthy of civility. Not to mention the server’s favorite: the little piece of paper that at a glance appeared to be a $20 bill, but when picked up, it was actually a tract. “You were probably disappointed when you realized that this wasn’t really money” it said “but this message is more valuable than any amount of money you can imagine” (unless there is a real $20 visibly tucked in this little gem, I guarantee you it is thrown away without a thought to the message contained inside). Most of those customers probably didn’t (and don’t) realize that their “brunch” is all of Jesus many people will ever see. And the “witness” I received during all those Sundays is part of the reason I steered clear of the church for so long.
Our LIVES are our witness. Our true witness occurs not in the church parking lot, but in the parking lot of the restaurant we eat in after church. In the department store when the clerk is overworked and overwhelmed and we have to wait in line longer than we’d like to. In the grocery store when our items don’t ring up for the sale price. In the park when we are playing with our children. At the ballgame. Even at work. As Christians we must be keenly aware of the witness we provide, because we are always providing one whether it is one that truly reflects the grace and love of our Lord or not.
To provide a true witness of our Lord, as Chambers says, we must know Him for ourselves. We must spend time alone with Him, and take the time to worship Him. Only then can we hope to reflect who He truly is.
Friday, October 23, 2009
Sunday, October 18, 2009
October 13, 2009 INDIVIDUAL DISCOURAGEMENT AND PERSONAL ENLARGEMENT
Exodus 2:11-12 - One day, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their burdens, and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people. He looked this way and that, and seeing no one, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.
Moses had compassion for his people. His passionate concern for their suffering drove him to seek a way to deliver them from it, but his act of “deliverance” (murder) was not God’s will nor was it God’s timing – it was an act of passion and not of obedience, and as a result Moses was forced to go into hiding to save his life. This “exile” of sorts lasted 40 years – and then God called him to actually do the thing he’d felt called to all along. Chambers explains:
We may have the vision of God and a very clear understanding of what God wants, and we start to do the thing, then comes something equivalent to the forty years in the wilderness, as if God had ignored the whole thing, and when we are thoroughly discouraged God comes back and revives the call...
God gave Moses this passion for his people and a call to deliver them, but he decided to try to do it in his own strength and his own timing rather than waiting on God to lead him. Whenever we try to do God’s work in our own strength – and our own timing – the results are always disastrous. It is then that he may take us back a bit, humble us, exile us, and then, if we allow Him to do His work in us, he will revive the call.
I believe that God equips us with passions that inspire us to pursue the calling he’s placed on our hearts – some people have a passion for the lost, some for youth, some for the homeless, some the unborn – wherever we find our passions I think our calling is close by. But when we catch that glimpse of our “divine purpose” we need to take care that we are first and foremost on our knees before the Savior. The temptation may be to rush into the thing and work it as best we can in our own strength, but this is never what God calls us to do. We have to be willing to seek God before our own desires and allow HIS will to motivate us and not our personal agendas. We simply can’t effectively serve God in our own power and if we try, he will allow us to fall and send us into our own “forty-year exile.” Chambers says:
We have to learn that our individual effort for God is an impertinence; our individuality is to be rendered incandescent by a personal relationship to God. We fix on the individual aspect of things; we have the vision – “This is what God wants me to do”; but we have not got into God’s stride.
The key is always to get “into God’s stride” and that stride is as important as the call itself. Have we tried and failed? We must pull ourselves into the presence of God, allow Him to do what He will in us and wait for Him to revive that call. He will, in His timing!
October 12, 2009 GETTING INTO GOD’S STRIDE
Genesis 5:24a - Enoch walked with God…
The test of a man’s religious life and character is not what he does in the exceptional moments of life, but what he does in the ordinary times, when there is nothing tremendous or exciting on. The worth of a man is revealed in his attitude to ordinary things when he is not before the footlights.
The truth about the state of our faith is revealed not on Sunday morning when we sit in church clean and scrubbed and on our best behavior, but rather in our living rooms on Saturday night, in traffic on Monday morning and in the office on Wednesday afternoon. If we were to honestly answer the question: “How do I live out my faith day to day?” does our answer extend beyond where we spend our Sunday mornings?
A runner runs every day, not just on race day. Every day reflects the preparation for that race – the food he eats, the sleep he gets, the training he does. The runner runs whether people are watching or not, whether it is raining or not, whether it is cold or hot. The runner knows that if he wants to be ready for the race, he’s got to do more than simply show up on race day in the right outfit.
Our faith is the same. We have to practice it every single day. Our God is an every day God and our faith should permeate even the most insignificant minutiae of our daily life. We are called to walk with Him regardless of our feelings or our circumstances - or our audience. Sometimes we begin to see our “religious life” as a performance – our “spirituality” becomes a coat we put on or take off dependent upon those around us, but when we do this we are confusing a religion with a relationship. Our “religious life” is a living, breathing relationship with the Almighty God! A God who wants to walk with us through the simplest of our day-to-day tasks, and when we learn to walk with Him through the ordinary times, we are infinitely more prepared for those extraordinary times he may call us to.
Chambers provides further insight:
[God] has different ways of doing things, and we have to be trained and disciplined into His ways. It was said of Jesus – “He shall not fail nor be discouraged,” because He never worked from His own individual standpoint but always from the standpoint of His Father and we have to learn to do the same.
How true this is! We DO need to recognize that many times our plans are nothing more than an inhibition to Gods plans. We often think that WE know the best way to go about something, or that WE know the best timing, the best plan, and we can soon find ourselves second-guessing the wisdom of an all-knowing infinite God – I think we’ve ALL done that. Consider how different the Messiah was from what the Jews expected Him to be. They envisioned him arriving on a fiery horse, overthrowing the Roman Government and claiming the kingdom for the Jews. But God’s plan was not to free them from a political oppression, but a spiritual one! Many did not recognize Jesus as the Messiah because they were so sure they knew what God would do, that they were unable to accept what he actually did when it differed from their expectations. How many of us are so handicapped by our preconceived notions of how God will act, that we fail to see His hand at work right in front of us?
We simply have to learn to live life from the standpoint of the Father – and live it every day.
Friday, October 9, 2009
October 9, 2009 PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER
Romans 6:13 - Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God.
When we read this verse, we must be keenly aware of what it is really asking of us. The first part of the verse asks us not to allow any part of our bodies to “become an instrument of evil to serve sin.” It is our rationale and our love of symmetry that wants us to make the second part of this verse say “but allow your bodies to be an instrument of good to serve righteousness.” But that isn’t quite what it says. What it says first and foremost is “give yourselves completely to God.” The most important point here is not what good we might do for the sake of righteousness, but rather that we surrender ourselves to the Lord that he might do HIS work through us. What is the difference? It is a significant difference indeed. The former has us as nothing more than “good-deed-doers,” constantly seeking those “works” WE determine as righteous and good. The latter has us surrendered to God first, and doing only that which He would have us do for HIS glory. The former gives us too much credit for our ability to discern what needs doing. The latter gives God the power to direct us in our walk.
Chambers says beautifully what we need to take from this verse:
I cannot save and sanctify myself; I cannot atone for sin; I cannot redeem the world; I cannot make right what is wrong, pure what is impure, holy what is unholy. That is all the sovereign work of God. Have I faith in what Jesus Christ has done? He has made a perfect Atonement, am I in the habit of constantly realizing it? The great need is not to do things, but to believe things (emphasis mine).
When we truly believe what Christ has done for us, the outflow of that inevitably is altered behavior, but we must focus first on this sovereign work of God and allow his work in us to impact our actions. If we simply focus on the behavior aspect without dealing with the issue of our hearts, we are following a legalistic approach to religion and we aren’t saved through legalism, but by grace.
When we read this verse, we must be keenly aware of what it is really asking of us. The first part of the verse asks us not to allow any part of our bodies to “become an instrument of evil to serve sin.” It is our rationale and our love of symmetry that wants us to make the second part of this verse say “but allow your bodies to be an instrument of good to serve righteousness.” But that isn’t quite what it says. What it says first and foremost is “give yourselves completely to God.” The most important point here is not what good we might do for the sake of righteousness, but rather that we surrender ourselves to the Lord that he might do HIS work through us. What is the difference? It is a significant difference indeed. The former has us as nothing more than “good-deed-doers,” constantly seeking those “works” WE determine as righteous and good. The latter has us surrendered to God first, and doing only that which He would have us do for HIS glory. The former gives us too much credit for our ability to discern what needs doing. The latter gives God the power to direct us in our walk.
Chambers says beautifully what we need to take from this verse:
I cannot save and sanctify myself; I cannot atone for sin; I cannot redeem the world; I cannot make right what is wrong, pure what is impure, holy what is unholy. That is all the sovereign work of God. Have I faith in what Jesus Christ has done? He has made a perfect Atonement, am I in the habit of constantly realizing it? The great need is not to do things, but to believe things (emphasis mine).
When we truly believe what Christ has done for us, the outflow of that inevitably is altered behavior, but we must focus first on this sovereign work of God and allow his work in us to impact our actions. If we simply focus on the behavior aspect without dealing with the issue of our hearts, we are following a legalistic approach to religion and we aren’t saved through legalism, but by grace.
October 8, 2009 THE EXCLUSIVENESS OF CHRIST
Matthew 11:28 - Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
So simple and yet so difficult – Christ calls us simply to come. We don’t need to prepare, we don’t need to dress up, put on makeup or vacuum the dog hair off the couch. We just need to come to him, transparent and open to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Yet so often we just won’t. We cling to our struggles and miseries, seemingly unwilling to let them go. Chambers says:
In every degree in which you are not real, you will dispute rather than come, you will quibble rather than come, you will go through sorrow rather than come, you will do anything rather than come the last lap of unutterable foolishness – “Just as I am.” As long as you have the tiniest bit of spiritual impertinence, it will always reveal itself in the fact that you are expecting God to tell you to do a big thing, and all He is telling you to do is to “come.”
It is a bit like a woman in a bad relationship. She knows it is terrible, but she knows it. She knows what to expect there. She knows what it is and how it goes. To abandon it is to seek the unknown - sometimes the known misery is somehow more palatable than the unknown mystery. “What if I end up all alone?” she wonders. And in contemplating changing my life and living out my faith, sometimes I’ve wondered “What if I end up all alone?” My husband once said “I never want to be the guy who when I walk up to the group, everyone else stops talking” and admittedly, I’ve never wanted that either. There are always “reasons” we can stay the course we’ve chosen apart from Christ: fear, pride, selfishness, but the truth is that we will never find what we are looking for until we answer that call to come – simply come to Christ and he will give you rest.
“Come unto Me.” When you hear those words you will know that something must happen in you before you can come. The Holy Spirit will show you what you have to do, anything at all that will put the axe at the root of the thing which is preventing you from getting through.
So what is it that holds us back from coming to Christ? It isn’t just the “unsaved” that need to answer this question. Even as believers, many times we hold back from truly submitting to Christ – we come to Him, but only so far. We try to give “just enough,” to do “just enough,” but if we seek the peace and rest Christ offers, “just enough” is everything we have and are. The Holy Spirit will show us what we are clinging to, and sometimes we want to ignore it and pretend we don’t sense what it is, but when we are honest with ourselves, we always know what it is that is holding us back, and until we are willing to “put the axe at the root of the thing” we won’t experience the fullness of our relationship with God. Chambers closes saying:
…God has stood with outstretched hands not only to take you, but for you to take Him. Think of the invincible, unconquerable, unwearying patience of Jesus – “Come unto Me.”
God never gives up on us. Jesus never turns His back and says “Too Late!” He waits for us, with outstretched arms, offering all He is for all we are. There is nothing we have that is more precious than what He is offering us – nothing we cling to in this world even comes close to what He offers us in exchange. The peace and rest of Christ awaits us if we will simply answer His call “come to Me.”
So simple and yet so difficult – Christ calls us simply to come. We don’t need to prepare, we don’t need to dress up, put on makeup or vacuum the dog hair off the couch. We just need to come to him, transparent and open to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Yet so often we just won’t. We cling to our struggles and miseries, seemingly unwilling to let them go. Chambers says:
In every degree in which you are not real, you will dispute rather than come, you will quibble rather than come, you will go through sorrow rather than come, you will do anything rather than come the last lap of unutterable foolishness – “Just as I am.” As long as you have the tiniest bit of spiritual impertinence, it will always reveal itself in the fact that you are expecting God to tell you to do a big thing, and all He is telling you to do is to “come.”
It is a bit like a woman in a bad relationship. She knows it is terrible, but she knows it. She knows what to expect there. She knows what it is and how it goes. To abandon it is to seek the unknown - sometimes the known misery is somehow more palatable than the unknown mystery. “What if I end up all alone?” she wonders. And in contemplating changing my life and living out my faith, sometimes I’ve wondered “What if I end up all alone?” My husband once said “I never want to be the guy who when I walk up to the group, everyone else stops talking” and admittedly, I’ve never wanted that either. There are always “reasons” we can stay the course we’ve chosen apart from Christ: fear, pride, selfishness, but the truth is that we will never find what we are looking for until we answer that call to come – simply come to Christ and he will give you rest.
“Come unto Me.” When you hear those words you will know that something must happen in you before you can come. The Holy Spirit will show you what you have to do, anything at all that will put the axe at the root of the thing which is preventing you from getting through.
So what is it that holds us back from coming to Christ? It isn’t just the “unsaved” that need to answer this question. Even as believers, many times we hold back from truly submitting to Christ – we come to Him, but only so far. We try to give “just enough,” to do “just enough,” but if we seek the peace and rest Christ offers, “just enough” is everything we have and are. The Holy Spirit will show us what we are clinging to, and sometimes we want to ignore it and pretend we don’t sense what it is, but when we are honest with ourselves, we always know what it is that is holding us back, and until we are willing to “put the axe at the root of the thing” we won’t experience the fullness of our relationship with God. Chambers closes saying:
…God has stood with outstretched hands not only to take you, but for you to take Him. Think of the invincible, unconquerable, unwearying patience of Jesus – “Come unto Me.”
God never gives up on us. Jesus never turns His back and says “Too Late!” He waits for us, with outstretched arms, offering all He is for all we are. There is nothing we have that is more precious than what He is offering us – nothing we cling to in this world even comes close to what He offers us in exchange. The peace and rest of Christ awaits us if we will simply answer His call “come to Me.”
October 7, 2009 RECONCILIATION
2 Corinthians 5:21 - God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Chambers opens by explaining:
Sin is a fundamental relationship; it is not wrong doing, it is wrong being, deliberate and emphatic independence of God.
His statement is a powerful one that hits at the very core of what we are without Christ. The issue is not simply that we commit sins, but that we are inherently driven to that behavior because of our sinful nature. This is why a legalistic approach to Christianity is so misguided. If we focus on a list of behaviors and think that adherence to those “rules” is the key to redemption, perhaps we don’t really understand why Christ died on the cross at all. Legalism allows us to keep God at arms length and never do the real work – the heart work – that is the foundation for our Christian walk.
Most all of us can live “right” under our own power for a limited time. We can hold our tongues for a day, be patient for an afternoon, but that doesn’t get to the core of WHY we are so driven to the behavior - and that “why” is what Chambers calls “the heredity of sin.”
Talking about “sin” – especially in these days – isn’t very popular. We prefer the relative morality that doesn’t really hurt anybody’s feelings. It’s non-confrontational, non-judgmental and perhaps most of all, undemanding. We can excuse any number of behaviors simply by pointing out our difficult circumstances or less than stellar upbringing, and there is no expectation of us to do or be any better because we are supposedly chained to those behaviors because of our past. But this is not the message of Christ! Jesus died on the cross and took on those sins and when we allow Him to do His work in us, He can free us from those chains!
This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ. (2 Corinthians 5:17,21)
We claim a new heredity – that of a child of God. When we accept him as our savior, we accept the redemption that Christ did for us on the cross, and that work alone is what saves us. Chambers explains:
A man cannot redeem himself; Redemption is God’s “bit,” it is absolutely finished and complete; its reference to individual men is a question of their individual action. A distinction must always be made between the revelation of Redemption and the conscious experience of salvation in a man’s life.
It is true that our behaviors SHOULD change, but we must never confuse the cause and the effect. That is, we aren’t saved because we claim a list of things we are no longer allowed to do, and another list of things we must do, NO, we change because we allow Christ to do His work on our hearts. My daily prayers are a continual submission of my heart to the Savior, so that He can do His work, and His grace and love will shine through my life.
Chambers opens by explaining:
Sin is a fundamental relationship; it is not wrong doing, it is wrong being, deliberate and emphatic independence of God.
His statement is a powerful one that hits at the very core of what we are without Christ. The issue is not simply that we commit sins, but that we are inherently driven to that behavior because of our sinful nature. This is why a legalistic approach to Christianity is so misguided. If we focus on a list of behaviors and think that adherence to those “rules” is the key to redemption, perhaps we don’t really understand why Christ died on the cross at all. Legalism allows us to keep God at arms length and never do the real work – the heart work – that is the foundation for our Christian walk.
Most all of us can live “right” under our own power for a limited time. We can hold our tongues for a day, be patient for an afternoon, but that doesn’t get to the core of WHY we are so driven to the behavior - and that “why” is what Chambers calls “the heredity of sin.”
Talking about “sin” – especially in these days – isn’t very popular. We prefer the relative morality that doesn’t really hurt anybody’s feelings. It’s non-confrontational, non-judgmental and perhaps most of all, undemanding. We can excuse any number of behaviors simply by pointing out our difficult circumstances or less than stellar upbringing, and there is no expectation of us to do or be any better because we are supposedly chained to those behaviors because of our past. But this is not the message of Christ! Jesus died on the cross and took on those sins and when we allow Him to do His work in us, He can free us from those chains!
This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ. (2 Corinthians 5:17,21)
We claim a new heredity – that of a child of God. When we accept him as our savior, we accept the redemption that Christ did for us on the cross, and that work alone is what saves us. Chambers explains:
A man cannot redeem himself; Redemption is God’s “bit,” it is absolutely finished and complete; its reference to individual men is a question of their individual action. A distinction must always be made between the revelation of Redemption and the conscious experience of salvation in a man’s life.
It is true that our behaviors SHOULD change, but we must never confuse the cause and the effect. That is, we aren’t saved because we claim a list of things we are no longer allowed to do, and another list of things we must do, NO, we change because we allow Christ to do His work on our hearts. My daily prayers are a continual submission of my heart to the Savior, so that He can do His work, and His grace and love will shine through my life.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
October 6, 2009 THE BENT OF REGENERATION
Galatians 1:15-16 - "But when God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not consult any man.
Chambers calls Christ the “Regenerator,” “One Who can put in me His own heredity of holiness.” Chambers suggests that if Christ calls us to holiness in our own power, it is pointless and cause for despair. But, God has “revealed his Son in me” – that is, we receive Christ’s holiness, we live a holy life through Christ Himself, not through our own power. It is this regeneration in Christ that makes this holy life possible.
Paul tells us that God has called us “by his grace.” It isn’t because of anything we do. We can never earn this grace because our human frailties keep us in a condition of constantly falling short in our efforts. But when we recognize the weakness in ourselves and allow God to do his work in us, we can accomplish anything. One need only consider the massive impact Paul had on the Christian movement. It is difficult to imagine our faith as we know it without the very real impact of this completely human man. He spread the word amongst the Gentiles and wrote much of what was to become the New Testament. Did Paul know in his lifetime what a massive impact his work would have on the future of Christianity? Probably not, but making history was never Paul’s intent. Rather it was his willingness to allow God “to reveal his Son in [him]” that gave Paul’s entire life it’s purpose, and it’s impact.
That said, before God can do a work in us, we must first recognize the need for a work to be done. Chambers explains:
The New Testament teaching about regeneration is that when a man is struck by a sense of need, God will put the Holy Spirit into his spirit, and his personal spirit will be energized by the Spirit of the Son of God, ‘until Christ be formed in you.’…when I reach the frontier of need and know my limitations, Jesus says – ‘Blessed are you.’ But I have to get there. God cannot put into me, a responsible moral being, the disposition that was in Jesus Christ unless I am conscious I need it.
The only limits on what God can do are those we place on Him by refusing to allow Him to do His work in us. When we allow God to bestow upon us Christ’s “heredity of holiness” there is no limit to what God can do through us. Corrie Ten Boom once said “It is not my ability, but my response to God’s ability, that counts.” I must get to a point where I allow God to use me and regenerate me as His child.
Chambers calls Christ the “Regenerator,” “One Who can put in me His own heredity of holiness.” Chambers suggests that if Christ calls us to holiness in our own power, it is pointless and cause for despair. But, God has “revealed his Son in me” – that is, we receive Christ’s holiness, we live a holy life through Christ Himself, not through our own power. It is this regeneration in Christ that makes this holy life possible.
Paul tells us that God has called us “by his grace.” It isn’t because of anything we do. We can never earn this grace because our human frailties keep us in a condition of constantly falling short in our efforts. But when we recognize the weakness in ourselves and allow God to do his work in us, we can accomplish anything. One need only consider the massive impact Paul had on the Christian movement. It is difficult to imagine our faith as we know it without the very real impact of this completely human man. He spread the word amongst the Gentiles and wrote much of what was to become the New Testament. Did Paul know in his lifetime what a massive impact his work would have on the future of Christianity? Probably not, but making history was never Paul’s intent. Rather it was his willingness to allow God “to reveal his Son in [him]” that gave Paul’s entire life it’s purpose, and it’s impact.
That said, before God can do a work in us, we must first recognize the need for a work to be done. Chambers explains:
The New Testament teaching about regeneration is that when a man is struck by a sense of need, God will put the Holy Spirit into his spirit, and his personal spirit will be energized by the Spirit of the Son of God, ‘until Christ be formed in you.’…when I reach the frontier of need and know my limitations, Jesus says – ‘Blessed are you.’ But I have to get there. God cannot put into me, a responsible moral being, the disposition that was in Jesus Christ unless I am conscious I need it.
The only limits on what God can do are those we place on Him by refusing to allow Him to do His work in us. When we allow God to bestow upon us Christ’s “heredity of holiness” there is no limit to what God can do through us. Corrie Ten Boom once said “It is not my ability, but my response to God’s ability, that counts.” I must get to a point where I allow God to use me and regenerate me as His child.
October 2, 2009 THE SPHERE OF HUMILIATION
Mark 9:22b - Have mercy on us and help us, if you can.
After the transfiguration, Jesus, James, Peter and John came down the mountain to find the other disciples involved in an argument with some of the religious teachers and a crowd of onlookers growing around them. When Jesus asks what the argument is about, a man from the crowd speaks up and tells him that he’d brought his son to the disciples to have an evil spirit cast out of him, but that they were unable to do it. Jesus is exasperated with his disciples for their lack of faith, and tells the man to bring the boy to him. When asked about the boy’s condition, the father explains that he’s suffered since he was a small child and that he is often thrown into fire or water, nearly dying. The father begs Jesus “Have mercy on us and help us, if you can” to which Jesus replies:
“What do you mean, ‘If I can’?” Jesus asked. “Anything is possible if a person believes.” The father instantly cried out, “I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!” (Mark 9:23-24)
Jesus immediately rebukes the evil spirit, and the boy is freed.
Peter, James and John had just had a remarkable experience. They’d seen Christ revealed as he truly was and heard the voice of God proclaim His love for Jesus. But there is no time to bask in the glow of their time on the mountain. The minute they rejoin the other disciples they are in the midst of an argument and in the presence of a demon-possessed boy. If they thought the emotional “high” of their experience would continue when they came down the mountain, they were mistaken. And it is no different for us in our spiritual “moments on the mountain.” Chambers explains:
After every time of exaltation, we are brought down with a sudden rush into things as they are where it is neither beautiful nor poetic nor thrilling. The height of the mountain top is measure by the drab drudgery of the valley; but it is in the valley that we have to live for the glory of God. We SEE His glory on the mount, but we never LIVE for His glory there. It is in the sphere of humiliation that we find our true worth to God, that is where our faithfulness is revealed. Most of us can do things if we always at the heroic pitch because of the natural selfishness of our hearts, but God wants us at the drab commonplace pitch, where we live in the valley according to our personal relationship to Him.
“We see his glory on the mount, but we never live for His glory there.” Isn’t that so true? I think of my own “spiritual highs” – the times I’ve felt powerfully moved by worship, or felt God’s hand on me during a time of prayer and then find myself jolted to reality by a crying infant and dirty diapers and a stressed out husband and not enough money and, and, and…What am I doing with those mountain top moments when I find myself in the valley of everyday life? I wish I could say that I always rise above, that I always see His purpose in those valley moments. Although I am learning to, I’ve still got a ways to go.
Chambers reminds us that “it is in the sphere of humiliation that we find our true worth to God.” When I hear the word “humiliation”, I tend to think of it in terms of profound embarrassment, though I don’t think that is what he means here at all. I believe it is more in terms of humbleness: we need to come down from our inflated sense of entitlement to recognize what and who we are without God. When we can recognize the truth of His grace and how lost we are without it, it is only THEN that we can truly live for His purpose.
There is another message Chambers shows us here – the lesson we learn from the distraught father of the demon-possessed boy. The man wanted Jesus to do something for his son, but wasn’t entirely sure that he could. He’d watched the disciples try and fail – perhaps he was afraid of getting his hopes up, afraid of the disappointment if Jesus also failed him, afraid that his son was simply doomed to live out his life as a prisoner to his affliction. When he expresses uncertainty about Christ’s power, Jesus says “Anything is possible if a person believes.” The father answers with desperate honesty “I believe but help me overcome my unbelief.” Note that Jesus didn’t chastise him for his answer. He didn’t say “well, that’s not good enough, call me back when you have rooted out all of your unbelief.” No, He honored the man’s request. He helped the man with His unbelief and saved his son. We need to approach God with this same raw honesty. We need to say to Him in times of struggle “Jesus, I believe but help me overcome my unbelief!”
It takes the valley of humiliation to root the skepticism out of us. Look back at your own experience, and you will find that until you learned Who Jesus was, you were a cunning skeptic about His power. When you were on the mount, you could believe anything, but what about the time when you were up against facts in the valley?
How true this is! It is easy to spout proverbs and biblical truths in those moments when our lives are rolling along and things are all sunshine and daisies. But when things in our world begin to fall apart a bit, it is THEN that we see who we truly depend on. Do we seek our security in our “stuff,” in our jobs, in our bank accounts, in our relationships or do we believe in Jesus for His promises? When we come to the point where we’ve learned who Jesus is on the mount, we need to remember that He doesn’t change simply because our circumstances have. The times on the mount show us who HE is, the times in the valley show us who WE are. When we allow God to be God and submit ourselves to His plan (because He does have one) it is then that He can do His work in us and for us. We don’t have to come to God with a plastic smile and a perfect faith – He knows the depths of our struggles. We must simply come to Him with honesty – “Jesus, I believe but help me overcome my unbelief.”
After the transfiguration, Jesus, James, Peter and John came down the mountain to find the other disciples involved in an argument with some of the religious teachers and a crowd of onlookers growing around them. When Jesus asks what the argument is about, a man from the crowd speaks up and tells him that he’d brought his son to the disciples to have an evil spirit cast out of him, but that they were unable to do it. Jesus is exasperated with his disciples for their lack of faith, and tells the man to bring the boy to him. When asked about the boy’s condition, the father explains that he’s suffered since he was a small child and that he is often thrown into fire or water, nearly dying. The father begs Jesus “Have mercy on us and help us, if you can” to which Jesus replies:
“What do you mean, ‘If I can’?” Jesus asked. “Anything is possible if a person believes.” The father instantly cried out, “I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!” (Mark 9:23-24)
Jesus immediately rebukes the evil spirit, and the boy is freed.
Peter, James and John had just had a remarkable experience. They’d seen Christ revealed as he truly was and heard the voice of God proclaim His love for Jesus. But there is no time to bask in the glow of their time on the mountain. The minute they rejoin the other disciples they are in the midst of an argument and in the presence of a demon-possessed boy. If they thought the emotional “high” of their experience would continue when they came down the mountain, they were mistaken. And it is no different for us in our spiritual “moments on the mountain.” Chambers explains:
After every time of exaltation, we are brought down with a sudden rush into things as they are where it is neither beautiful nor poetic nor thrilling. The height of the mountain top is measure by the drab drudgery of the valley; but it is in the valley that we have to live for the glory of God. We SEE His glory on the mount, but we never LIVE for His glory there. It is in the sphere of humiliation that we find our true worth to God, that is where our faithfulness is revealed. Most of us can do things if we always at the heroic pitch because of the natural selfishness of our hearts, but God wants us at the drab commonplace pitch, where we live in the valley according to our personal relationship to Him.
“We see his glory on the mount, but we never live for His glory there.” Isn’t that so true? I think of my own “spiritual highs” – the times I’ve felt powerfully moved by worship, or felt God’s hand on me during a time of prayer and then find myself jolted to reality by a crying infant and dirty diapers and a stressed out husband and not enough money and, and, and…What am I doing with those mountain top moments when I find myself in the valley of everyday life? I wish I could say that I always rise above, that I always see His purpose in those valley moments. Although I am learning to, I’ve still got a ways to go.
Chambers reminds us that “it is in the sphere of humiliation that we find our true worth to God.” When I hear the word “humiliation”, I tend to think of it in terms of profound embarrassment, though I don’t think that is what he means here at all. I believe it is more in terms of humbleness: we need to come down from our inflated sense of entitlement to recognize what and who we are without God. When we can recognize the truth of His grace and how lost we are without it, it is only THEN that we can truly live for His purpose.
There is another message Chambers shows us here – the lesson we learn from the distraught father of the demon-possessed boy. The man wanted Jesus to do something for his son, but wasn’t entirely sure that he could. He’d watched the disciples try and fail – perhaps he was afraid of getting his hopes up, afraid of the disappointment if Jesus also failed him, afraid that his son was simply doomed to live out his life as a prisoner to his affliction. When he expresses uncertainty about Christ’s power, Jesus says “Anything is possible if a person believes.” The father answers with desperate honesty “I believe but help me overcome my unbelief.” Note that Jesus didn’t chastise him for his answer. He didn’t say “well, that’s not good enough, call me back when you have rooted out all of your unbelief.” No, He honored the man’s request. He helped the man with His unbelief and saved his son. We need to approach God with this same raw honesty. We need to say to Him in times of struggle “Jesus, I believe but help me overcome my unbelief!”
It takes the valley of humiliation to root the skepticism out of us. Look back at your own experience, and you will find that until you learned Who Jesus was, you were a cunning skeptic about His power. When you were on the mount, you could believe anything, but what about the time when you were up against facts in the valley?
How true this is! It is easy to spout proverbs and biblical truths in those moments when our lives are rolling along and things are all sunshine and daisies. But when things in our world begin to fall apart a bit, it is THEN that we see who we truly depend on. Do we seek our security in our “stuff,” in our jobs, in our bank accounts, in our relationships or do we believe in Jesus for His promises? When we come to the point where we’ve learned who Jesus is on the mount, we need to remember that He doesn’t change simply because our circumstances have. The times on the mount show us who HE is, the times in the valley show us who WE are. When we allow God to be God and submit ourselves to His plan (because He does have one) it is then that He can do His work in us and for us. We don’t have to come to God with a plastic smile and a perfect faith – He knows the depths of our struggles. We must simply come to Him with honesty – “Jesus, I believe but help me overcome my unbelief.”
Friday, October 2, 2009
October 1, 2009 THE SPHERE OF EXALTATION
Mark 9:2 - …Jesus took Peter, James, and John, and led them up a high mountain to be alone.
Only days before, Jesus had revealed to His disciples the plan for His death and subsequent resurrection. He laid out for them the true cost of discipleship and what they stood to gain – and lose – if they chose to follow Him. It is only after all of this that He takes Peter, James and John up to a high mountain where His full glory is revealed to them.
Chambers opens by saying:
We have all had times on the mount, when we have seen things from God’s standpoint and have wanted to stay there; but God will never allow us to stay there. The test of our spiritual life is the power to descend; if we have power to rise only, something is wrong. It is a great thing to be on the mount with God, but a man only gets there in order that afterwards he may get down among the devil-possessed and lift them up.
Spiritually speaking, I think many of us work for the mount as our ultimate goal, not as a springboard to the times in the valley. We think that once we “arrive” we should set up a shelter and get comfortable for the long haul, but that isn’t what Jesus did with the disciples the day of the transfiguration and that isn’t what He calls us to do today. Christ is revealed to us in spectacular ways in those times, and we are to use that revelation as an inspiration for our work in the very ordinary circumstances of life. We need to recognize the “descent” as a normal part of it, and recognize that we can’t make use of our experience on the mount until we come down from it.
My wedding day was truly, next to the day my son was born, the happiest day of my life. I distinctly remember the feeling of walking down that aisle towards my husband-to-be as the most joyful moment I’d had in my life up to that point – and I took every step with the intention of remembering those moments and the feelings I had. Thirteen years later, I do, almost as if it were yesterday. But as wonderful as those moments were for me, they weren’t what makes my marriage what it is. The strength of our marriage comes from the work and effort we put in every day, and though I cherish the memory of the day Dave and I became husband and wife, we couldn’t stay there in the church forever – we had to move on into real life and live as a married couple. A lot of people have extravagant weddings and a lousy marriage afterwards. They put all of their energy into their moment on the mountain and nothing into their time in the valley of daily life.
I don’t think our faith is all that different – we focus so much on either attaining or retaining that extraordinary spiritual experience with God, that we fail to recognize why we really have those in the first place. We can - and should be – affected by our “moments on the mount” but we shouldn’t just live for those moments. We need to be able to descend from the heights of Spiritual experience to live it in the valley of day-to-day life. If we are always focused behind us, on that great moment we had with God back in ’02, or focused ahead on recreating that moment again, we will entirely miss what God is trying to do with us in our everyday existence. It is our faith lived out in the small stuff of our daily routine that allows those around us to see the extraordinary grace of God through an ordinary life.
Only days before, Jesus had revealed to His disciples the plan for His death and subsequent resurrection. He laid out for them the true cost of discipleship and what they stood to gain – and lose – if they chose to follow Him. It is only after all of this that He takes Peter, James and John up to a high mountain where His full glory is revealed to them.
Chambers opens by saying:
We have all had times on the mount, when we have seen things from God’s standpoint and have wanted to stay there; but God will never allow us to stay there. The test of our spiritual life is the power to descend; if we have power to rise only, something is wrong. It is a great thing to be on the mount with God, but a man only gets there in order that afterwards he may get down among the devil-possessed and lift them up.
Spiritually speaking, I think many of us work for the mount as our ultimate goal, not as a springboard to the times in the valley. We think that once we “arrive” we should set up a shelter and get comfortable for the long haul, but that isn’t what Jesus did with the disciples the day of the transfiguration and that isn’t what He calls us to do today. Christ is revealed to us in spectacular ways in those times, and we are to use that revelation as an inspiration for our work in the very ordinary circumstances of life. We need to recognize the “descent” as a normal part of it, and recognize that we can’t make use of our experience on the mount until we come down from it.
My wedding day was truly, next to the day my son was born, the happiest day of my life. I distinctly remember the feeling of walking down that aisle towards my husband-to-be as the most joyful moment I’d had in my life up to that point – and I took every step with the intention of remembering those moments and the feelings I had. Thirteen years later, I do, almost as if it were yesterday. But as wonderful as those moments were for me, they weren’t what makes my marriage what it is. The strength of our marriage comes from the work and effort we put in every day, and though I cherish the memory of the day Dave and I became husband and wife, we couldn’t stay there in the church forever – we had to move on into real life and live as a married couple. A lot of people have extravagant weddings and a lousy marriage afterwards. They put all of their energy into their moment on the mountain and nothing into their time in the valley of daily life.
I don’t think our faith is all that different – we focus so much on either attaining or retaining that extraordinary spiritual experience with God, that we fail to recognize why we really have those in the first place. We can - and should be – affected by our “moments on the mount” but we shouldn’t just live for those moments. We need to be able to descend from the heights of Spiritual experience to live it in the valley of day-to-day life. If we are always focused behind us, on that great moment we had with God back in ’02, or focused ahead on recreating that moment again, we will entirely miss what God is trying to do with us in our everyday existence. It is our faith lived out in the small stuff of our daily routine that allows those around us to see the extraordinary grace of God through an ordinary life.
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