DEFINITIONS

Since at least 2 people read this blog, I guess you are due for some definitions:

Sisyphean-Laborious, endless, futile

Vilipend-To despise or disparage mockingly

Tregetour-Trickster or deceiver

Omphaloskepsis-a very rare word literally meaning 'navel-gazing'. Used by philosophers to refer to the sort of introspective self-analysis that ignores the real world.

Farrago-A confused mass of any disordered mixture.

(Caveat-this is what I think they mean, if indeed they are words at all. They are words to me-does that make them real words?)

SUNDAY POST-SCRIPT

Some left-over random thoughts...

The disciple of Jesus is on a journey to experience a radical change at a level the law cannot reach. There is of course nothing wrong with the law, as it is as righteous as God Himself.

But the law cannot change the things inside us, which cause the cauldron of evil simmering in the heart to over-flow into actions. Things like duplicity, malice, guile, manipulation of people, the desire to get even, hostility and cultivated sexual lust. These are the things the law cannot address that are wrong in the heart of man.

The disciple in contrast to trying to keep the law learns of the good heart, the well-kept heart and the well-nourished soul.

The disciple is with Jesus learning how to be renovated at the deepest levels of who they are-the cause of the actions the law can only proscribe but not control. The disciple finds actions being produced they can no more explain than the miraculous catch of fish Peter encountered.

The choice of discipleship is the choice of freedom and fulfillment no law, no rule, no religion can provide. One really needs to decide if they have some better way and something better to do with the rest of their life?

I addressed briefly the issue of Peter’s lack of faith in this endeavor of launching into the deep and putting down the nets. Part of this difficulty of belief is the tension between the visible and the invisible. We belong to an invisible Kingdom not of this world, worshipping a God who is invisible because He is Spirit. One of the ways the enemy defeats us is by instilling guilt in us for not believing. Don’t feel guilty because you have a hard time believing. That doesn’t accomplish anything but to get us into more guilt.

The enemy says, “You worm, you should have believed, what kind of person are you anyway?” And the answer to that is, “I’m not much, just a sinful man, who gets His acceptance from the One who has said, ‘I did not come into the world to condemn the world…’”

May you truthfully address the question;
Have I ever decided to be a disciple of Jesus?

FRIDAY NIGHT AT ECOLA

Since I am sure nobody even reads this-I will let you in on EXACTLY how I ‘feel’ when I have finished ‘teaching’ or as some euphemistically call it ‘giving a speech’, ‘preaching’, or fill in the blank. I have finished my duties at Ecola and on the basis of feelings…

· I vilipend myself as a pathetic excuse of Sisyphean thought.

· The idea that I could have a part in anything of eternal value is Omphaloskepsis.

· I am not sure I am capable of original thought. Everything borrowed, used or cast off. A veritable thrift store of stolen ideas and thought.

· I am filled with doubt. A tregetour,trickster and deceiver. My name may as well be 'Jacob'.

· I should go back to suing people for a living, making a lot more money and doing what I am trained to do.

· My mind a farrago of lamentation.

· Yet strangely in love with a God that would create in me a desire to glorify Him, praise Him and proclaim His name as great. One who could make me love Him could make others love Him as well, if they would but give Him a chance. A marvelous God I serve. A Trinitarian God of unique beauty and power and grace.

Thank You Donnelly Bible Church for hanging in there with me. I love you.

THURSDAY AT ECOLA

Galatians reminds me...

• To spend some time thanking God for who I am and who He made me and to say, "God, you have done well by me".

• My redemption and the work of God in my life is based on His
promise, not on my performance. I was not the one who promised Him He would forgive my sins. I did not promise Him I would reign with Him for ever and ever. I did not promise Him that my needs would be met. He promised these things (and oh so many, many more) and He has to perform them. Like Abraham, what God promised, He is able also to perform.

• That Christ literally, not figuratively, dwells in me. 2:20.

• God is not my responsibility, I am His responsibility.

• That God has a plan for me in eternity, He has invested heavily in me and He likes me a lot.

• If I let Him, the character of Christ will be my character.

Being here reminds me...

• How much I miss being home and how very much I love the Church I serve.

• I am called to Donnelly Bible Church, not just to ministry.

• While, as an unlikely candidate as they come, I am still the “Light of the World”. Did God really know what He said?

WEDNESDAY AT ECOLA

It is about now I start the panic (not worry mind you!!) as I have fully departed from my prepared syllabus and have more to say than I have time. Please pray that in the time left I will say what is most important.

Things I have learned in Galatians I thought I already knew…

• If everything I possessed in the world were taken from me would I still proclaim and find Jesus to be sufficient?

• Do I love those I am speaking to more then I love what I am saying to them?

• Do I really want to become the kind of person who loves others like I love myself? Could I really stand it?

• Am I quicker to judge others, react to others then I am to be concerned where they are coming from?

• I will not become like Christ if I do not intend to.

TUESDAY AT ECOLA

Thank you for your prayers as I head into my second day of teaching here. It is a refreshing time for me to revisit Galatians (a book we spent a year going through) and the exciting truths that it is Christ and Christ alone who redeemed us and it is Christ and Christ alone who will bring us to perfection.

Christ living in me, the staggering truth that I have the fullness of Christ. That the same Christ (the same Jesus who IS the smartest man who ever lived) who lived then in perfect flesh prepared and planned for Him by the Trinitarian God now lives in my redeemed flesh. Now I am a human vehicle of Divine Life. I am the light of the world.

Last night I challenged the students, as I have challenged you, to look in the mirror and say, ‘I am the light of the world.’ They chuckled...the ‘cringe factor’ at work. ‘Who me, you mean I am the light of the world?’ Yes, such is the complete redemption and authority of the Christ we serve who now indwells us. All that He demands of us He will be in us. ALL that He is, He is in us.

So much better than living a life trying not to do anything wrong-or conforming to a list of rules, especially the man made variety, He is making me into the kind of person who is simply prepared to do always what is right.

Isn’t true salvation breathtaking?

I would like to respond to the questions and inquiries as to why I am not more overtly political. Of course, I assume that means why am I not quicker to express my agreement with a certain political viewpoint that just so happens might agree with the ones who raise the question. I doubt if I would find my friends quite so solicitous if I held contrary views.
Perhaps, but I doubt it. Yet, the question is appropriate.
Let me provide my top 3 reasons (winnowed from a list of 12):

1. Washington and what occurs there, along with the other centers of political power (all of the good and even the very best) cannot change hearts. Until hearts change, the world cannot change. I will choose to focus on WHO has given me life-and the ONE who is continually saving my life, changing my heart.

2. Building relationships is more important to me than building a barrier with someone having a different political point of view. In an open relationship I can share the real and only answer to the needs of humanity. Jesus as Messiah is the solution to the human problem. The solution to the human problem of sin, the solution to the race wars, market wars and economic challenges. HE STILL is the way, the truth and the life.

3. What happens on Wall Street, Pennsylvania Avenue and on Capitol Hill is not going to effect or affect God's Kingdom in anyway. 'The heart of the King is in the hands of the Lord and as the rivers of water He turns it anyway He desires' Proverbs 22:1 Paraphrase-The markets, congress, judiciary and executive branches do NOT control my future or my character. I believe Jesus was pretty smart and knew what He was talking about when He said to me-my advice to you is not to worry!!

So, when appropriate I will say without anger or condemnation, ‘No, it is not that way, it is this way’. The church is still to be the educator of our society and the conscience of the community. We do that primarily by being filled with Agape Love and loving each other in the same way He has loved us.
It is in this type of love we can speak with authority to the great cultural wars of the day and point them to the Messiah-and proclaim Him to be the only solution to the human problem. (Oh and by the way-He is neither American, Republican nor Democrat. He is the King of the Kings of the Earth. Revelations 1:5.) That is where I stand before my Lord.

We have accepted today as normal thought that Christians are different from the world in one respect; They have a religious component to their lives. They go to church (albeit when convenient), own a bible (they may even occasionally read) and when really brave (or simply out of a sense of guilt) tell others of their need for religion (you want to go to heaven when you die, don’t you?)

The concept of actually becoming like Christ is either a mere ideal that might happen in heaven, or a heresy that should get one burned at the stake, albeit in a completely acceptable 21st century way.

The sad truth why people do not become like Christ is that they do not intend to. The agonizing truth of why they do not intend to is that they really don’t want to.

What lies at the heart of neither wanting nor intending to become like Christ? They simply do not see the need to. After all, my sins are forgiven, aren’t they? Am I not going to heaven when I die?

This is the inevitable result of a view of salvation that has replaced the new life we now have in Christ for one of its effects (forgiveness of sins).

When Peter denied Christ, he went out and wept bitterly. Why?
Because he had been warned? Because he had failed?
Rather, because he realized he was the kind of person who could do such a thing. And he wept at the person he still was and his need to become a different kind of person.

Jesus, his companion in life was not finished with him-he would make a ‘rock’ of him yet. Not for him, to him or without him. But the One that has say over everything would be with him every step of the way. If you know anything of church history-you know the kind of person Peter became.

Redemption is the impartation of life (forgiveness but one of its effects). A new kind of a life that will be poised to become like Christ’s very life, because it IS HIS LIFE. He really does live in you.

“Take my yoke upon you and learn of me. For I am meek and lowly in heart; and you will find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” Mt. 11:29-30

Perilous world we live in, strange times; terrorist concerns abroad and at home, economic collapse on a world scale, market fraud and investments in free fall, real estate markets in quick sand (is that enough or do I need to keep going?). And of course, this is just the global disturbance. Our Valley and the lives of people I love are not immune and I am not insensitive to the great struggles going on in homes and hearts.

So, am I naïve to state that in the Kingdom of God we live beyond harm in His hands? Really? Serious? We can live without an anxious moment?

Of course, if you do not live in the realm of His Kingdom you have every right to be anxious. You should be anxious (although it will be really bad for your health), because you have to run all of this on your own steam. You are in charge-the King with the answers. If it falls a part, your desk is where the buck stops.

But, in the Kingdom of the Heavens, the Kingdom not of this World that Jesus came to make available to us, He promises there is not one thing that can happen to us that He will not turn out for good. (Just read Romans 8:28 and try and figure out how much ‘all things’ leaves out!) He has assured us that we will not miss out on anything important or anything good. Psalms 23:1. He told the lady at the well, that those who drink of the water He makes available (speaking of His life, which gives entrance into the Kingdom He preached) will never again be driven, harassed and controlled by unsatisfied desires. John 4:14. He is now the King, not me.

This does not mean we live beyond hurt, pain or loss. It means that none of those can destroy our eternal purpose. Nothing; absolutely nothing can happen to us that He is not responsible to make into something good.

So when these perilous times invade our peaceful existence and we start to worry about what is going to happen to us, we can pause and realize, we know what is going to happen to us; He is going to take care of us.

I can look at worry and say, I recognize you for what you are and you will no longer control me. Anxiousness, I see what you are, I identify you and you will no longer rob me of the peace that passes understanding.

When the feelings and emotions come; stop and put a label on them, give them an identification card and call them out for what they are. They do not control you; they do not have say over what happens to you. Don’t let them.

John 17:17-19

As promised here are the notes, references and quotes from our Wednesday evening study...

While sanctification is 'to be set apart', we must understand that like spiritual formation and education, everyone gets one. It just depends on what kind of education or spiritual formation you get. Everyone gets sanctification as well-it just depends on whether you are being sanctified in truth or sanctified in the stream of shimmering illusions which characterize the world. Sanctification is neither magical nor is it an experience (though there may be some really good experiences along the way). Sanctification is not perfection but the progress of the divine life towards it. It is, as one writer said, 'the Christianizing of the Christian'. We can become like Christ in character and power and this is the process by which it happens as we realize our highest ideals of well-being in His Kingdom. 

We have to know the truth (Psalm 119:11; Joshua 1:8) but knowledge alone is insufficient. We must cooperate with Him. While it is error to think that we can sanctify ourselves it is equally destructive to think that God is just going to do it to us or without us. (Thinking that He will just do it to us one day as we sit in church or read the bible is why there is such an unhealthy emphasis on experience today.)  We looked at and discussed the following verses...

Philippians 2:12-12; Galatians 2:16-20; Galatians 4:19; Romans 6:12-13

Sanctification is a consciously chosen and intentionally maintained relationship between what we have control over (ourselves) and the indwelling Christ, in which we are progressively able to do spontaneously 'truth' or what we know to be right before God because we have been substantially transformed in the inner man. 

Hello...

Matthew 11:29-30; Take my yoke upon you and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

Our new website asks the question; Who are we and where are we going?
As we look at the chaos of the world around us it is fundamentally evident that both the world’s and the individual’s problems cannot be left to the diplomat or the political and business leaders of today. We certainly cannot abandon ‘truth’ to the current lords of knowledge in our academic settings or worse to Hollywood to define the nature of reality, who is well off, who is a really good person and how do you become one.

The Church stands unique as the only avenue by which God has chosen to answer the deep and compelling needs of human beings. The Church as a whole and DBC particularly must be schools of learning and places of genuine worship from which people will go forth who are in the process of being radically changed into Christlikeness and equipped in character to be lights in the midst of a ‘crooked and depraved generation’. It is a time for those who claim the name of Christ as their own to be heroes of the faith in character, having the power to be the demonstration of the reality of God unto complete salvation. Redeemed people who are caught up in the life that Jesus is now living here on earth-the life He is living through His special people who have placed their confidence in Him.

That we are to BE different because we ARE different. When we call men and women into relationship with Christ we are offering to them what we ourselves have been offered and responded to; the greatest opportunity any human being could ever have.

The teachings of Jesus are accessible and nothing is cut off from us. The ones we read about in the book of Acts were real life, flesh and blood people like us. When we step into ‘The Kingdom Not of this World’, the Kingdom of Truth (John 18:36-37) we step into the life of Christ who will actually so radically transform us that we, as ordinary people, become a demonstration of the love characterized by the Trinitarian God we worship.

However-either through indolence or well meaning but misguided teaching we have accepted His life and the grace He makes available as something that should make us different and transform how we live not that does or realistically can make us different in every area of our being.

My central claim is that we indeed can become like Christ in character and power. He intends it to happen. He will teach us. This is actually the easy way to live and it is the way of the transgressor that is hard. Proverbs 13:15.

We become like Him together, as a body drawing on the rich resources of the still living Christ who indwells us. We need each other in this endeavor and the One who said He has been given say over everything will be with us every step of the way, even until the end of this present age. Matthew 28:18-20.

He wishes to be not just our Saviour, not just our Lord, He intends to be our Teacher as well in the serious business of life. As spiritual beings who will never stop existing we will one day realize our full destiny in His created universe-and His redeemed will stand out and be displayed to all of His creation as the greatest testament of His wisdom and power. We will be His greatest treasure. He is right now training us and preparing us for that day.

This is where I stand before my Lord-this is my passion.