On The Way To Perfect

Remember the bumper sticker, 'Not perfect, just forgiven'?  Well, take that bumper sticker off because it's bad theology.

We ARE being perfected.  Jesus tells us to be perfect.  Forgiveness may be in a moment but perfection, which is sanctification, is happening our whole lives.  Sanctification means being separate and holy.  We are people who are constantly being separated from the ways of the world to be more conformed into the likeness of Christ.  Our character is becoming more like Christ's.

When Paul writes in Philippians 2 that we are to work out our salvation, that is what sanctification is about.  For not only are we making an effort but God is working his will in our lives.  It's God's work of grace that allows us to keep working out our salvation.  Remember that our effort to be more like Christ is not 'earning' salvation.  That was done for us by God through Christ.  Now the Holy Spirit is alive and at work within us to bring us into an ever deeper relationship with God.  And, as the Keith Green song lyrics tell it, 'You give God your best and he'll take care of the rest.'

Only A Suffering God Can Help Us

Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion.   Philippians 2:5-8

[Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German Lutheran pastor, was condemned to death on April 8, 1945 in Flossenbürg concentration camp by SS judge Otto Thorbeck. There were no witnesses, no records of proceedings nor a defense at his court-martial. He was executed there by hanging at dawn on April 9, 1945, just two days before soldiers from the United States 90th and 97th Infantry Divisions liberated the camp. Within three weeks the Soviets would capture Berlin and within a month Nazi Germany would capitulate.]

“Only a suffering God can help us.”

Recently I have been talking with people who are going through particularly horrible times of suffering — for themselves and for their families — and they are looking for a word of consolation and comfort.  Sometimes all one can do is give a warm embrace and speak a word of love into their spirits.

But then I thought of Bonhoeffer and his quote (see above) and realized that he is so on target.  It is only when we consider that God entered this world to suffer along with us that we can even bear to think about suffering and God together.  His life, in Christ, is the greatest comfort.  He was not immune to suffering.  He lived in it and with it for other people.  He took suffering into his body and bore the pain, rejection, and death that is part of this world.

Christ is the High Priest who sympathizes with us because he is with us in the suffering, dying, and the establishing of life for all who would place their confidence in him.  Without suffering we would never know his love; the love that led him to lay down his heavenly powers and take up residence in human flesh.

Yes, only a suffering God can help us.  And such is the God we worship.  The God who is ultimately good.  The God from whose love we can never be separated.  Bonhoeffer knew suffering — it was all around him and, finally, it was his own.  All the while he helped others to live and believe.  Oh, he sorrowed but he kept faith in the goodness of a suffering God.

Keeping faith is our profession of confidence in the work and presence of Christ.  Keeping faith is our trust that the goodness of God will prevail over all evil.  Keeping faith is living life with Christ in this present moment without regret for the past or anxiety for the future.  Keeping faith is not always easy but the alternative is to live in darkness or to attempt to satisfy our deepest longings with the most shallow of comforts.

We read in Romans 5:1-5 that the greatest comfort comes from God's love poured into our hearts through His Spirit. May such comfort be our ultimate sustenance.

The Last Word -- Kingdom Living

Spiritual disciplines are simply exercises that allow us to deny our own self-needs and draw closer to God. They are the ways in which we let go of our Kingdom and live in God's Kingdom, where we learn that indeed “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.”

One of the most wonderful disciplines is silence; in not having to fill the voids with words, not having to fill our minds with noise.  This discipline can be practiced in a group of people or between two people in which we discipline ourselves to NOT HAVE THE LAST WORD. Ask yourself why you or I need to jump in with our opinion or our story or our last calamity.  It is because we would like our Kingdom to reign, our “selfs” to rise to an importance above others. Jesus would say “deny yourself” so that you may actually discover in yourself the presence of a greater 'self' – God’s self.

So give it a try when there is a group discussion going on or just when you are with other people.  Let someone else have the last word or any words.  Try being quiet and see if the world will not keep turning without your wisdom.  You will be surprised at how deeply God dwells in such silence.

Yours in Christ,
George

Anger

So today I was thinking about anger. I would like to define it as our response to that which trespasses on our own will.

Our own will is our Kingdom.  We like our Kingdom territory and we don't like it when someone or some circumstance attempts an overthrow of our sovereignty.

For example, a driver cuts in front of us; a rainstorm cancels our golf outing; a spouse asks for a favor that cuts into our plans.  Anger can also be a response during an argument when our being right is questioned or we are confronted by someone else's contrary ideas. When a little child commences rule over his or her kingdom they might throw a tantrum if their toys are taken by another child or if they’re told it’s nap time.

No one in the human situation really wants their Kingdom threatened, even by God's will. We like to say we trust God but the truth of our Kingdom is that we will like God and believe as long as God's will conforms pretty much with ours.  Terms like submit, surrender, give up, and relent are not a natural part of our vocabulary. Sovereigns don't do that kind of thing.  We are the Generals of our own armies and we don't cower under any other power.

So if we are to be less angry, here's what we will need to do.  Say to God, “your will, not mine be done”.  We will need to stop thinking mine, my plans, my way. Instead, trust God for each moment of our lives, believing that He looks out for us, that he cares for us and that his Kingdom is best. See, nothing can thwart the Kingdom of God.  Not a rude driver, or a natural disaster; not  infirmity, or any rude, pushy person.

Keep believing that you are loved and that God is setting your way in life.

Being “born again” means seeing that there really is a bigger and better Kingdom than our measly little plot of ground we call “our will”.

So start today by examining what it is that makes you angry and why it does.

Let the word surrender become a regular part of your vocabulary.  Learn in little ways to go out of your way to care about someone else.

One more thing. Since you are loved by God, take care of yourself. Part of your own Kingdom issue may be your need to meet others’ needs — and that may not always be God's will for you.  So stop, be still and realize that you are not God.  That's found in Psalm 46.

Anger as a response to wrong against the will of God can be trusted to people like Jesus but not to us.  So take a look at ole mr. or miss anger and say, 'get back Jack.'

Yours in Christ,
George

It’s Not What You Know But . . .

Give Christ his place then but deny entry to all others.  – Thomas à Kempis

When Jesus spoke the words we now know as the Sermon on the Mount, he explained the availability of the Kingdom of God for everyone, many who before that time had been shut out, marginalized as it were. He announced to the people around him that the Kingdom, the Reign, the Love of God was literally “in their midst”.  No matter who they were, they were all invited into God's presence, to be children of God whether they were descendants of Abraham or not. Jesus invited them to himself, to have confidence in him, to follow him.  He told the people that to follow him meant to walk in the light, being able therefore to see the way into God's love received and given.

That same message, the Good News, is also for us today.  We are invited, literally, to follow this Jesus into life, real life, the truest life, abundant life, the life in the Spirit, the life now and for all eternity.
Before we embark on this life we ought to carefully read Jesus words that come at the end of the Sermon on the Mount in chapter 7 of Matthew's Gospel.  He tells his audience that not everyone who calls him “Lord” is a member of the Kingdom, but only those who do the will of God.

Read the last verses of chapter 7.  They are instructions for building a good life, an acceptable life to God.

That's all there is to it.  It's not about what you know but about how you live.  And Christ desires to be right there in the center of YOU.