First, check out Steve McVey's blog post today, Holiness, It's What I Long For! (Well, don't do that.)
Then, check out this video with new/alternate words to this song. This is from a friend of mine (that many of you may also know), singer/songwriter/performer Tony Allen (AKA Allen Lee Anthony).
Grace Roots Blog
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Rooted in Grace, Fresh and Flourishing
Would you describe your daily life as "fresh" and "flourishing?" Is your life rooted and established in God's love and grace, or is it rooted in your own performance and fleshly attempts to please God? Could that be the difference?
Friday, March 26, 2010
Grace Book Vol. 2 (free e-book)!
Our Norwegian brother has done it again! Ole Henrik Skjelstad first compiled a series of writings from multiple authors, and called the compilation The Lord Your God Is In Your Midst, and you can find a link to it here. And now Ole Henrik has published a follow-up to that book entitled Rivers of Living Water. Check out his blog post here to download the book. Both books are a must read! And they're absolutely FREE for downloading and passing around to others. Please spread the word.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
It's a Sin
This song says so much. A constant focus on sin, sin, sin in the church (no matter what denomination or background) only breeds guilt, shame, blame, more sin, etc. The blood of Jesus was meant to do away with us having a consciousness of sin so that we could live free, with a focus on the life of Christ and not a focus on trying to overcome sin.
When I look back upon my life
It's always with a sense of shame
I've always been the one to blame
For everything I long to do
No matter when or where or who
Has one thing in common, too
It's a, it's a, it's a, it's a sin
It's a sin
Everything I've ever done
Everything I ever do
Every place I've ever been
Everywhere I'm going to
It's a sin
At school they taught me how to be
So pure in thought and word and deed
They didn't quite succeed
For everything I long to do
No matter when or where or who
Has one thing in common, too
It's a, it's a, it's a, it's a sin
It's a sin
When I look back upon my life
It's always with a sense of shame
I've always been the one to blame
For everything I long to do
No matter when or where or who
Has one thing in common, too
It's a, it's a, it's a, it's a sin
It's a sin
Everything I've ever done
Everything I ever do
Every place I've ever been
Everywhere I'm going to
It's a sin
At school they taught me how to be
So pure in thought and word and deed
They didn't quite succeed
For everything I long to do
No matter when or where or who
Has one thing in common, too
It's a, it's a, it's a, it's a sin
It's a sin
GIG 233 - Fear Comes from a Wrong Perspective of God
Many people unfortunately live with a very unhealthy fear of God (being afraid of Him), all because of a wrong perception of who He is and how He sees us and relates to us. A message of law and of God's wrath and anger toward sinful behavior is taught as a means of trying to stop people from sinning and to keep in a right relationship with Him. But that message doesn't stop sinful behavior and it doesn't help people turn to God or draw close to Him, not to mention that it doesn't represent God or His good news!
This week we talk about how a true biblical 'fear' of God does not mean that we are to be afraid of Him, but rather is more closely defined as "awe and reverence" or "worship." Joel's recent Growing in Grace Together guest Doug Meeker gave a great definition of the essence of worship - "love responding to love." The message of a God who is angry with us and who we are to be afraid of certainly doesn't cause people to respond in love! And that message comes from a wrong perception of God.
We encourage you to believe God's astounding opinion of you! (in the words of another recent guest, Ralph Harris). Believe His love for you and believe how He passionately pursues you!
gigcast.graceroots.org
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
One John One Nine - Part Four
My main purpose for writing this series of posts was to expose how a huge and deceptive doctrine has been built in the church based upon one lone Bible verse, and it's a doctrine that is simply not supported in the rest of the New Covenant scriptures and in fact stands in opposition to them. If we're honest with ourselves, where did we Christians get the idea that we need to confess our sins again and again in order to be cleansed and forgiven again and again? Is it not from this solitary verse? But if we've missed the point of this verse (and surrounding passage), then we're doing something that God never intended for us to do.
One might say, "What's the big deal with confessing our sins, even if we don't 'have' to?" Well, wouldn't it be a big deal if a man asked his wife every day if she would marry him? I don't mean a romantic gesture in which he lets her know in a playful way that he loves being married to her. I mean, what if a man seriously asked his wife to marry him every day, as if somehow they became 'unmarried' every day. The whole idea of that is an insult to the union that became a reality once and for all on their wedding day. The point of Part Three of this series was to show how we never become 'unclean' or 'unforgiven' before God, and we always remain in union with Him. Our attempts at trying to get Him to make us clean and forgiven again and again show that we don't understand the reality of what is already true of us, and is an insult to the Spirit of grace.
In reality, we have been separated from sin. Our sin has been taken away. A one-time event took place in which all our sins were dealt with once and for all. What a wonderful thing that has been accomplished through the blood of Jesus! Just think, if our daily sinful behavior negated the effects of that one time sacrifice, and made us unclean and unforgiven again and again, then Jesus would have to come back and die for our sins over and over again! Our behavior didn't make us clean in the first place, and cannot make us unclean. Only the blood of Jesus made us clean and has, in fact, cleansed us forever. God does not see any sin in us.
So what do we do when we don't live according to the clean, righteous, forgiven people that we truly are? Well, after several chapters of showing all that the one-time blood sacrifice of Jesus accomplished, the writer of Hebrews says this: "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful" (Heb 10:23). He continues on with another highly decontextualized and misunderstood passage that begins with "For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins..." (Heb 10:26-31). The whole point of that passage is that there is no other sacrifice for sins other than the once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus. So when we do sin, let us hold fast the confession of our HOPE (not of our sins) that we have in the ever-cleansing blood of Jesus.
What if I don't feel cleansed and forgiven? What if I'm carrying around the weight of my sinful behavior? Some might say that confessing their sins makes them feel better or lifts that heavy burden. I do understand the idea of confessing sins making a person feel clean and forgiven, but I while I understand it, I want to strongly challenge that notion. We're not meant to bear the weight of our sin. Again, we have been cleansed and forgiven solely by the blood of Jesus - not by how we feel. I would say that if we truly want to feel forgiven and cleansed, then we must accept the truth, by faith, that even though our actions are sometimes contrary to our righteous, perfect, holy state, we are in reality always forgiven and cleansed. Our feelings come and go. The fact is that everything has been accomplished solely and sufficiently through the blood of Jesus and nothing less than that! (Including, and even especially, our feelings). The truth trumps feelings every time.
Back to the marriage illustration. I've heard it said that in any relationship, it's good and healthy to confess to one another and to ask for forgiveness and to apologize when we've messed up. And so it's said that in our relationship with God, it's good and healthy for the relationship if we confess and ask for forgiveness and apologize when we've sinned. Well, human-to-human relationships are one thing, and sometimes those things may be good, healthy or necessary. That's a whole 'nother discussion. But based upon all that I've shared in this series about our union with God and with how He has taken away our sin and has perfected us forever, and on how our actions don't separate us from Him or cause Him to put us back into the 'unforgiven and unclean' category, it's my conviction (I'm convinced) that there is nothing to confess or to ask forgiveness for.
I see nothing wrong with acknowledging that what we've done does not line up with who we truly are, as long as we're not putting ourselves under condemnation and shame. Self-pity, self-condemnation and a sense of guilt and shame are all contrary to what God wants from us! Do we really 'get' this? He has gone to great lengths to take our sin and guilt away!!! His Blood... remember??? Have you ever heard people say that guilt is a good motivator? They say that guilt helps drive a person to "do the right thing." Please don't fall for that lie! That is not the way of Christ!
But if we acknowledge our sinful behavior with a sense of something like, "I don't want to live like that; I want to live out of the life of Christ in me," and if we continue to hold fast the confession of our HOPE in the finished work of Jesus, then we're walking in grace. If we continue to trust in the fact that He never leaves us nor forsakes us and that even our fleshly thoughts and behavior never change who we truly are in Him, then we're walking in truth that will truly set us free. Instead of going around with a sin-consciousness all the time, we can go around with a righteousness-consciousness, because that is the 100% reality of who we are. That freedom will bring us to a place where we live from that place of righteousness and holiness, rather than trying to attain it.
Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4
One might say, "What's the big deal with confessing our sins, even if we don't 'have' to?" Well, wouldn't it be a big deal if a man asked his wife every day if she would marry him? I don't mean a romantic gesture in which he lets her know in a playful way that he loves being married to her. I mean, what if a man seriously asked his wife to marry him every day, as if somehow they became 'unmarried' every day. The whole idea of that is an insult to the union that became a reality once and for all on their wedding day. The point of Part Three of this series was to show how we never become 'unclean' or 'unforgiven' before God, and we always remain in union with Him. Our attempts at trying to get Him to make us clean and forgiven again and again show that we don't understand the reality of what is already true of us, and is an insult to the Spirit of grace.
In reality, we have been separated from sin. Our sin has been taken away. A one-time event took place in which all our sins were dealt with once and for all. What a wonderful thing that has been accomplished through the blood of Jesus! Just think, if our daily sinful behavior negated the effects of that one time sacrifice, and made us unclean and unforgiven again and again, then Jesus would have to come back and die for our sins over and over again! Our behavior didn't make us clean in the first place, and cannot make us unclean. Only the blood of Jesus made us clean and has, in fact, cleansed us forever. God does not see any sin in us.
So what do we do when we don't live according to the clean, righteous, forgiven people that we truly are? Well, after several chapters of showing all that the one-time blood sacrifice of Jesus accomplished, the writer of Hebrews says this: "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful" (Heb 10:23). He continues on with another highly decontextualized and misunderstood passage that begins with "For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins..." (Heb 10:26-31). The whole point of that passage is that there is no other sacrifice for sins other than the once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus. So when we do sin, let us hold fast the confession of our HOPE (not of our sins) that we have in the ever-cleansing blood of Jesus.
What if I don't feel cleansed and forgiven? What if I'm carrying around the weight of my sinful behavior? Some might say that confessing their sins makes them feel better or lifts that heavy burden. I do understand the idea of confessing sins making a person feel clean and forgiven, but I while I understand it, I want to strongly challenge that notion. We're not meant to bear the weight of our sin. Again, we have been cleansed and forgiven solely by the blood of Jesus - not by how we feel. I would say that if we truly want to feel forgiven and cleansed, then we must accept the truth, by faith, that even though our actions are sometimes contrary to our righteous, perfect, holy state, we are in reality always forgiven and cleansed. Our feelings come and go. The fact is that everything has been accomplished solely and sufficiently through the blood of Jesus and nothing less than that! (Including, and even especially, our feelings). The truth trumps feelings every time.
Back to the marriage illustration. I've heard it said that in any relationship, it's good and healthy to confess to one another and to ask for forgiveness and to apologize when we've messed up. And so it's said that in our relationship with God, it's good and healthy for the relationship if we confess and ask for forgiveness and apologize when we've sinned. Well, human-to-human relationships are one thing, and sometimes those things may be good, healthy or necessary. That's a whole 'nother discussion. But based upon all that I've shared in this series about our union with God and with how He has taken away our sin and has perfected us forever, and on how our actions don't separate us from Him or cause Him to put us back into the 'unforgiven and unclean' category, it's my conviction (I'm convinced) that there is nothing to confess or to ask forgiveness for.
I see nothing wrong with acknowledging that what we've done does not line up with who we truly are, as long as we're not putting ourselves under condemnation and shame. Self-pity, self-condemnation and a sense of guilt and shame are all contrary to what God wants from us! Do we really 'get' this? He has gone to great lengths to take our sin and guilt away!!! His Blood... remember??? Have you ever heard people say that guilt is a good motivator? They say that guilt helps drive a person to "do the right thing." Please don't fall for that lie! That is not the way of Christ!
But if we acknowledge our sinful behavior with a sense of something like, "I don't want to live like that; I want to live out of the life of Christ in me," and if we continue to hold fast the confession of our HOPE in the finished work of Jesus, then we're walking in grace. If we continue to trust in the fact that He never leaves us nor forsakes us and that even our fleshly thoughts and behavior never change who we truly are in Him, then we're walking in truth that will truly set us free. Instead of going around with a sin-consciousness all the time, we can go around with a righteousness-consciousness, because that is the 100% reality of who we are. That freedom will bring us to a place where we live from that place of righteousness and holiness, rather than trying to attain it.
Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
One John One Nine - Part Three
Throughout the entire book of Hebrews we see the superiority and complete sufficiency of the finished work of Christ, and specifically in chapters 9 and 10 we read about all that was accomplished through the blood of Christ. With His own blood, Jesus "obtained eternal redemption" (Heb 9:12). The blood of Christ cleanses our conscience from dead works to serve the living God (Heb 9:14). Heb 9:22 says "almost all things are purified with blood and without shedding of blood there is no remission. In the Old Covenant, the blood of animals had to be offered often and yet never took away sin, but through one offering Jesus has "put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself" (Heb 9:26). In those Old Covenant sacrifices, "there is a reminder of sins every year, for it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins" (Heb 10:3-4). But our sin has been taken away, once and for all, with the blood of Jesus. Through the one sacrifice we have been perfected forever (Heb 10:14).
The point in all of this is that our redemption, our cleansing, our purification was all accomplished through nothing but the blood of Jesus. Through the blood, our sins have been taken away and we have been perfected forever. Before we were saved by grace through faith, as sinners we could do absolutely nothing to clean ourselves up or to make ourselves righteous or forgiven. Even if we behaved 'righteously' 99% of the time, it did absolutely nothing to make us clean and righteous, and to receive the forgiveness provided for us through the cross of Jesus Christ. The only thing that made it possible for us to be cleansed and forgiven was the blood of Jesus.
Now, as saints who have received all of this freely, all of these things are factually true about us. Even when we don't behave like who we truly, factually are, our unrighteous behavior does not negate what the blood of Jesus has accomplished. We are not made unrighteous through our unrighteous behavior. We don't become unclean. We don't lose the fact that all of our sins have already been dealt with and taken away. We don't become 'unforgiven.' We are in the light. We do have fellowship with one another and with God. Our actions don't cause us to lose fellowship with God. It's all based, not upon our behavior, but upon the blood of Jesus.
To say that that's an important truth is to greatly under-exaggerate it! In our lives in Christ, the economy that we live in is not based upon our behavior, but upon the finished work of Christ. His blood has accomplished what our behavior never could, and so to say that our behavior can negate what His blood did is to "trample the Son of God underfoot, counting the blood of the covenant by which we've been sanctified as a common thing, and to insult the Spirit of grace" (see Heb 10:29).
What John writes in the first chapter of his first epistle does not fit into the Christian life. It does fit the truth that can be told an unbeliever to show him how he may come into the light, have fellowship with God, practice the truth and to receive the forgiveness provided for him at the cross and be cleansed of all sin.
The believer is already in the light. "You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness" (1 Thess 5:5). "For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord" (Eph 5:8). The believer already has fellowship with God. "God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord" (1 Cor 1:9). "But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him" (1 Cor 6:17). "Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another — to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God" (Rom 7:4).
The believer is already forgiven and cleansed of all sins:
As a saint, you are pure, holy, righteous, clean, forgiven. That's who you are. So what do we do when we don't behave as who we are? If confession of sins is not the answer, then how do we respond when we miss the mark? I'll get into that in the fourth and final part of this series.
In the meantime, I love linking to this blog post from Bino Manjasseril: Dismantle the Confession Booths. He posted this almost three years ago and I still go back and refer to it often. It's a scripture-only post that shows how we've already been completely forgiven, redeemed, cleansed, made complete, made alive with Christ, made righteous, etc.
Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4
The point in all of this is that our redemption, our cleansing, our purification was all accomplished through nothing but the blood of Jesus. Through the blood, our sins have been taken away and we have been perfected forever. Before we were saved by grace through faith, as sinners we could do absolutely nothing to clean ourselves up or to make ourselves righteous or forgiven. Even if we behaved 'righteously' 99% of the time, it did absolutely nothing to make us clean and righteous, and to receive the forgiveness provided for us through the cross of Jesus Christ. The only thing that made it possible for us to be cleansed and forgiven was the blood of Jesus.
Now, as saints who have received all of this freely, all of these things are factually true about us. Even when we don't behave like who we truly, factually are, our unrighteous behavior does not negate what the blood of Jesus has accomplished. We are not made unrighteous through our unrighteous behavior. We don't become unclean. We don't lose the fact that all of our sins have already been dealt with and taken away. We don't become 'unforgiven.' We are in the light. We do have fellowship with one another and with God. Our actions don't cause us to lose fellowship with God. It's all based, not upon our behavior, but upon the blood of Jesus.
To say that that's an important truth is to greatly under-exaggerate it! In our lives in Christ, the economy that we live in is not based upon our behavior, but upon the finished work of Christ. His blood has accomplished what our behavior never could, and so to say that our behavior can negate what His blood did is to "trample the Son of God underfoot, counting the blood of the covenant by which we've been sanctified as a common thing, and to insult the Spirit of grace" (see Heb 10:29).
What John writes in the first chapter of his first epistle does not fit into the Christian life. It does fit the truth that can be told an unbeliever to show him how he may come into the light, have fellowship with God, practice the truth and to receive the forgiveness provided for him at the cross and be cleansed of all sin.
The believer is already in the light. "You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness" (1 Thess 5:5). "For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord" (Eph 5:8). The believer already has fellowship with God. "God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord" (1 Cor 1:9). "But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him" (1 Cor 6:17). "Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another — to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God" (Rom 7:4).
The believer is already forgiven and cleansed of all sins:
"But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God" (1 Cor 6:11).Look especially at those last two verses. They both essentially say, "forgive others because God has already forgiven you." It's no longer, "For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses" (Matt 6:14-15). That was before the cross. Now, after all that has been accomplished through the blood of Jesus, we're exhorted to forgive others because in Christ, God has forgiven us. We don't forgive to get forgiven. We forgive because we've been forgiven.
"And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, 'Drink from it, all of you; for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins'" (Matthew 26:27-28).
"In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us" (Ephesians 1:7-8).
"I write to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name" (1 John 2:12).
"...then He adds, 'Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.' Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin" (Heb 10:17-18)
"Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you" (Ephesians 4:32).
"Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you" (Colossians 3:13).
As a saint, you are pure, holy, righteous, clean, forgiven. That's who you are. So what do we do when we don't behave as who we are? If confession of sins is not the answer, then how do we respond when we miss the mark? I'll get into that in the fourth and final part of this series.
In the meantime, I love linking to this blog post from Bino Manjasseril: Dismantle the Confession Booths. He posted this almost three years ago and I still go back and refer to it often. It's a scripture-only post that shows how we've already been completely forgiven, redeemed, cleansed, made complete, made alive with Christ, made righteous, etc.
Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4
Monday, March 15, 2010
One John One Nine - Part Two
When reading different parts of the Bible, it's always important to keep various things in mind, such as:
- To whom are the words spoken or directed?
- Which Covenant is represented in the teaching?
- What is the overall point being made?
- Context, including surrounding sentences, the entire book, etc.
It's also important to note that the various books of the Bible, not the least of which include the New Testament epistles, were not written in a void. That is, when a writer wrote an epistle, he didn't simply sit down and say to himself, "hmm, which topics and doctrines of the Christian life should I write about today?" Most often the epistles were, in fact, responses to questions from the church, and to events that were happening within the church. John's first epistle was no exception. The first part of this epistle was directed toward a certain group of people within the church he was writing to. Gnostics had come into the church with some erroneous beliefs and false teachings about Jesus, and John addressed these head-on.
Unfortunately, a "face value" reading of this epistle, without a knowledge of this first century Gnostic infiltration of the church, has (not surprisingly) led to a misunderstanding of the first ten verses that make up Chapter One. Study aids are very helpful in understanding these things. In the introduction to 1 John, the Nelson's Study Bible says:
It's not until the second chapter that John redirects his thoughts and begins talking to the believers. "My little children..." And he even tells them quite directly, "I write to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name's sake." (1 John 2:12). How does he know whether or not they've individually done their continued confessions? :) He doesn't, nor does it matter in the least. It's irrelevant. What he does know is that those who believe (those who he is now speaking to) have already been forgiven once and for all, and he assures them of that.
Then later, in chapter 4, he reminds them to beware of the false prophets/Antichrist spirit, and it seems he's speaking in large part about the Gnostics:
Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4
- To whom are the words spoken or directed?
- Which Covenant is represented in the teaching?
- What is the overall point being made?
- Context, including surrounding sentences, the entire book, etc.
It's also important to note that the various books of the Bible, not the least of which include the New Testament epistles, were not written in a void. That is, when a writer wrote an epistle, he didn't simply sit down and say to himself, "hmm, which topics and doctrines of the Christian life should I write about today?" Most often the epistles were, in fact, responses to questions from the church, and to events that were happening within the church. John's first epistle was no exception. The first part of this epistle was directed toward a certain group of people within the church he was writing to. Gnostics had come into the church with some erroneous beliefs and false teachings about Jesus, and John addressed these head-on.
Unfortunately, a "face value" reading of this epistle, without a knowledge of this first century Gnostic infiltration of the church, has (not surprisingly) led to a misunderstanding of the first ten verses that make up Chapter One. Study aids are very helpful in understanding these things. In the introduction to 1 John, the Nelson's Study Bible says:
"Gnosticism was a teaching that blended Eastern mysticism with Greek dualism (which claimed that the spirit is completely good, but matter is completely evil)... Based on the concept that matter is evil and spirit is good, some Gnostics concluded that if God was truly good He could not have created the material universe. Therefore, some lesser god had to have created it... The dualistic views of Gnosticism were also reflected in the prevalent belief that Jesus did not have a physical body."In addition, since the Gnostics believed all matter to be evil, then "sin" wasn't an issue, as it didn't matter what a person did with their body. To address all of this heresy, John writes:
"That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life — the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us — that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ." (1 John 1:1-3)He is telling the Gnostics that indeed they had seen and touched Jesus - He had truly come in the flesh - and then he said he was declaring this to them so that "you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ." He then went on in the last few verses to tell the unbelievers/Gnostics how it is that they could come into the light and be forgiven and cleansed of all unrighteousness.
It's not until the second chapter that John redirects his thoughts and begins talking to the believers. "My little children..." And he even tells them quite directly, "I write to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name's sake." (1 John 2:12). How does he know whether or not they've individually done their continued confessions? :) He doesn't, nor does it matter in the least. It's irrelevant. What he does know is that those who believe (those who he is now speaking to) have already been forgiven once and for all, and he assures them of that.
Then later, in chapter 4, he reminds them to beware of the false prophets/Antichrist spirit, and it seems he's speaking in large part about the Gnostics:
"Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world." (1 John 4:1-3)Regarding all this, Paul Anderson-Walsh, in his book Safe and Sound, writes:
"It is clear to me, at least, that the Apostle John's concern was not to instruct the church in the way of asking God for daily forgiveness but rather, to bring the Gnostic anti-Christs to heel and to salvation and the reception of their forgiveness.Regarding the "new and living way" by which we have "boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus," the writer of Hebrews writes, "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering..." He doesn't say "Let us hold fast the confession of our sins." He has spent several chapters talking about the finished work of Jesus and how we have been perfected and made eternally clean by the blood of Jesus. More about that in Part Three.
The Apostle John's purpose here in the fourth chapter was not to show the naïve young saints how to get forgiven but how to protect themselves from interlopers."
Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4
One John One Nine - Part One
"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 1 John 1:9
Under the Old Covenant, the very best the people could hope for was for their sins to be temporarily covered. Through various rituals and animal sacrifices, they could be ceremonially cleansed but yet even with the blood of bulls and goats their sin could never be taken away. In fact, through those sacrifices there was really only a reminder of sins (Heb 10:3-4). Contrast this with "the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). It's interesting to me that the same Greek word used in Hebrews 10:3, in which it's said that the blood of bulls and goats only provided a reminder ("anamnēsis") of sins is the very same Greek word used by Jesus in the account of the Last Supper in Luke 22:19 and that Paul also spoke when he repeated Jesus' words, "Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me" and "This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me."
See the contrast? The blood of bulls and goats only provided a reminder of sins, but through the broken body and shed blood of Jesus, our sins were taken away, and this is now what we are to remember and be reminded of often. Our sins were taken away. They no longer exist. They were not simply "covered," as was the case under the Old Covenant, but they have been taken away. To bring them up again is to deny the finished work of Jesus. To do so is to not remember His broken body and shed blood through which our sins have been taken away.
When, then, about 1 John 1:9? Aren't we to bring up our sins again, by "confessing" them in order to be cleansed and forgiven? There are several problems with building a doctrine of confession-for-Christians from this lone verse. First off, nowhere else in the New Testament is there instruction for Christians to confess their sins in order to be cleansed and forgiven. Even in all of Paul's writings and in all of his dealings with sinful behavior in the church (and he dealt with a lot of it), not once does he give any instructions for confessing sins. In fact, time and time again he reminds the church of the finished work of Jesus and that they are already holy, righteous, cleansed, forgiven, sanctified, justified, and so on and so on. For example, in 1 Cor 6:9-11 he exhorts them to not live as those who have not yet been washed, sanctified and justified --- because they themselves have been washed, sanctified and justified. That's already who they are, so go ahead and live like it!
Paul goes on to say that "all things are lawful." There's no condemnation and we remain cleansed even when we don't live like who we are. "But," he says, "not all things are helpful... not all things edify... I won't be brought under the power of any." The issue isn't one of losing our righteousness, sanctification or justification, or of no longer being clean. The issue is living out who we truly are because that's who God literally made us to be. The issue isn't a matter of being cleansed and forgiven over and over again, each time we sin! We have been cleansed once and for all and we have been forgiven once and for all. "And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross." (Col 2:13-14).
With all of the rest of the truth of the New Covenant, it should be plain to see that John was not addressing Christians in the first chapter of his first epistle. Since Christians are already forgiven and cleansed from all unrighteousness, there would have been no reason for John to instruct them on how to become forgiven and clean! But the church that he was writing to was a mixed church, as many churches are, made up of not only believers but of unbelievers too. And among those in the church were some Gnostics, who, among other things, didn't believe that Jesus had come in the flesh. John addressed them, and I'll get into that in Part Two.
Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4
Under the Old Covenant, the very best the people could hope for was for their sins to be temporarily covered. Through various rituals and animal sacrifices, they could be ceremonially cleansed but yet even with the blood of bulls and goats their sin could never be taken away. In fact, through those sacrifices there was really only a reminder of sins (Heb 10:3-4). Contrast this with "the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). It's interesting to me that the same Greek word used in Hebrews 10:3, in which it's said that the blood of bulls and goats only provided a reminder ("anamnēsis") of sins is the very same Greek word used by Jesus in the account of the Last Supper in Luke 22:19 and that Paul also spoke when he repeated Jesus' words, "Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me" and "This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me."
See the contrast? The blood of bulls and goats only provided a reminder of sins, but through the broken body and shed blood of Jesus, our sins were taken away, and this is now what we are to remember and be reminded of often. Our sins were taken away. They no longer exist. They were not simply "covered," as was the case under the Old Covenant, but they have been taken away. To bring them up again is to deny the finished work of Jesus. To do so is to not remember His broken body and shed blood through which our sins have been taken away.
When, then, about 1 John 1:9? Aren't we to bring up our sins again, by "confessing" them in order to be cleansed and forgiven? There are several problems with building a doctrine of confession-for-Christians from this lone verse. First off, nowhere else in the New Testament is there instruction for Christians to confess their sins in order to be cleansed and forgiven. Even in all of Paul's writings and in all of his dealings with sinful behavior in the church (and he dealt with a lot of it), not once does he give any instructions for confessing sins. In fact, time and time again he reminds the church of the finished work of Jesus and that they are already holy, righteous, cleansed, forgiven, sanctified, justified, and so on and so on. For example, in 1 Cor 6:9-11 he exhorts them to not live as those who have not yet been washed, sanctified and justified --- because they themselves have been washed, sanctified and justified. That's already who they are, so go ahead and live like it!
Paul goes on to say that "all things are lawful." There's no condemnation and we remain cleansed even when we don't live like who we are. "But," he says, "not all things are helpful... not all things edify... I won't be brought under the power of any." The issue isn't one of losing our righteousness, sanctification or justification, or of no longer being clean. The issue is living out who we truly are because that's who God literally made us to be. The issue isn't a matter of being cleansed and forgiven over and over again, each time we sin! We have been cleansed once and for all and we have been forgiven once and for all. "And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross." (Col 2:13-14).
With all of the rest of the truth of the New Covenant, it should be plain to see that John was not addressing Christians in the first chapter of his first epistle. Since Christians are already forgiven and cleansed from all unrighteousness, there would have been no reason for John to instruct them on how to become forgiven and clean! But the church that he was writing to was a mixed church, as many churches are, made up of not only believers but of unbelievers too. And among those in the church were some Gnostics, who, among other things, didn't believe that Jesus had come in the flesh. John addressed them, and I'll get into that in Part Two.
Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Killer in the Home
Another song in which you can feel the tension of a life that has been bound up - tamed if you will - and not been lived freely, and is dying to get out and be liberated and to live free.
Adam and the Ants - Killer in the Home
I live the life that I've been left
I leave most things unspoken
But deep inside Geronimo is tearing me apart
I've seen him in the streets
And I've seen him in the pictures
Killer in the home
Killer in the home
Now's the time I must digress
From going through the motions
Take my head out of its sling
Free the warrior
I'll fight him in my dreams
And I'll fight him till he kills me
Killer in the home
Killer in the home
Oh well they cut you in half with a gun
And give you a bandaid
Yeah they cut you in half with a gun
And give you a bandaid
Adam and the Ants - Killer in the Home
GIG 232 - Let Love Displace Fear
Fear can be crippling. There's no doubt about that. The sad fact is that even many believers live in fear (afraid) of God, and don't understand all that He's done for us and that He is for us, not against us. It's easy for many to believe He loves them when they're doing 'right,' but it's harder to accept the reality of His love when they're not. But He loves us unconditionally. He is love. We were never meant to live in fear of Him, even when we've done wrong. God is not the "accuser of the brethren." Satan is. God is not our destroyer; He's our deliverer.
There are too many people living in fear and condemnation. Fear changes our perception of our loving Father. It negatively changes how we see Him and relate to Him. But fortunately it doesn't change the reality of His unconditional love and it doesn't change His view of us. It doesn't change how He relates to us. So we need to let love have it's way with us. We need to displace fear with love.
gigcast.graceroots.org
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Doug Meeker - Worship is About Jesus - Part 2
When Doug Meeker visited my home a couple of weeks ago, and when we sat down to talk about the topic of "worship," I had no idea how rich the time and conversation would be! You're not going to get the usual, common, standard thoughts and perspectives from Doug when it comes to talking about worship. In this chat we discuss the question of "what worship looks like," and Doug gives an illustration that shows how it doesn't have to look any certain way and in fact can look lots of different ways to different people.
While our conversation is mainly in the context of corporate worship, in which people get together to sing and praise God, everything that is said is easily translated into our life in Christ in general as well. In the end, if our focus is on Christ (with worship being defined as "whatever you ascribe worth to"), then we don't have to be worried or concerned about what it looks like. Doug shares things that are helpful in moving away from being self-conscious about what worship looks like and instead to having a Christ-consciousness. That is, simply being focused on the object of our worship - Christ Himself - and simply responding to Him and His life and love.
Find out more about Doug Meeker at dougmeeker.com.
Listen here: gigcast.graceroots.org
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
ABC's and 123's
My friend and co-host of Growing in Grace, Mike Kapler and I have often talked together about how we purposely stay focused on the ABC's and 123's of the gospel of God's grace and peace. We intentionally keep it simple and we stay focused on the foundational, elementary aspects life in Christ. This includes our identity in Christ and it includes a view of grace not as simply a "topic" to be covered now and then but as the very essence of every last aspect of life in Christ.
This is also what Grace Roots is to me at it's core. As far back as I can remember, ever since I began growing in grace myself, my desire has always been to stay focused on getting rooted, grounded and established in the fertile soil of God's grace. Hebrews says that "it is good that the heart be established in grace." But to some, grace is simply one topic of many in the Christian life. We can talk about 'law' one week and 'giving' the next week and then 'marriage' the next week, and we'll make sure we cover the "topic" of grace in there sometime as well. But I don't think we should do that. I believe there are many people who have been in church for a long time, who know all the "topics" of life in Christ, but are not rooted and established in grace.
Some would say the "topic" of grace is nice, and is indeed necessary to talk about, but we eventually need to "move on" to other things. But again, I would say that grace is the essence of life in Christ, and you cannot look into any corner, nook or cranny in your life in Christ without it necessarily being saturated in grace. Apart from Christ we can do nothing and in Him we can do all things. That is the essence of the living out of the Christian life, and that is all about grace! The Apostle Paul said plainly, "by the grace of God I am what I am," and he said that all his labors were not even his labors - it was the grace of God at work in him.
Using the English language, whether you spell out a simple sentence such as "I am Sam," or whether you spell out a sentence that includes all the letters of the alphabet such as, "The quick red fox jumps over the lazy brown dog," there is one particular thing at the core of it all: a necessity of the use of the alphabet (the ABC's). Whether you want to use the English language to spell the biblical city of Ai or the Welch village of Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch (an actual community in Wales), again at the root is the same thing - the alphabet. And when it comes to numbers, you'll get nowhere with either 1 + 1 or 4,986,156 x 569,549 unless you have a basic understanding of the numbers 0 through 9.
Although my illustration may perhaps be found lacking, as many illustrations do, the point is that just as no part of spelling or mathematics can be done apart from the ABC's and 123's, you also cannot live any part of your life in Christ apart from the grace of God. The simple ABC's and 123's are the foundation for every word and sentence and mathematical equation, and in the same way the grace of God is the root and foundation and essence of everything in our lives in Christ.
What I've found - and this could be a whole 'nother blog post or three - is that many Christians do not even seem to have a basic understanding of God's grace and their identity in Christ. Many Christians do not seem to be established in grace. I don't say this patronizingly by any means. It's just that the truth of the pure grace and unconditional love of God are not necessarily being taught as the foundation of life in Christ in many places. Again, they are 'subjects' that are taught about or given mention now and then, but only as one topic of many, and then the church "moves on" to other "topics," and therefore people do not get the much needed opportunity to become grounded in grace.
And so... that is why Kap and I have, for five years, continued to keep the conversation simple. We understand that there are certain "topics" in the Christian life that are worth discussing. We understand that we could always branch off into certain "deeper" issues, and sometimes we do. But throughout it all, we've remained focused on the ABC's and 123's, and so far we're nowhere near to exhausting our thoughts and reflections on the pure grace and unconditional love of God! One wonderful fruit of all this is that this pure and simple message, in and of itself, causes freedom transformation in the lives of Christians like we've never seen or experienced in all our previous combined years of law- and performance-based teachings!
Monday, March 08, 2010
Cloneliness is Next to Godliness, Right? ;)
I've posted the video below (Steve Taylor - I Want To Be A Clone) in the past and I thought I'd post it here again.
This song reminded me of some other notes that I'd taken recently, but had lost - and then found again - that had to do with my recent Wild Thing series. Actually, I thought my wife had conveniently, I mean, 'accidentally' lost those notes of mine, since they contained stuff about her (see the first two posts). :) Ok, I'm just kidding! I knew I had put them somewhere but I couldn't remember where. Anyway, when I found them, I had already posted the final part of that series so I decided to just drop it all.
But now with the notes resurrected, and this video fresh in my mind, why not write some more! The bottom line of the Wild Thing series was essentially "be the 'wild,' unfettered person who God created you to be." Don't let rules and laws - which you were never meant to live by in the first place - "tame" you and keep you from being the "wild" (natural) person that God wired you to be. Don't get me wrong - I do think there's a place for practical guidelines and such in life. But I don't believe they were ever meant to be the basis of daily living in Christ. HE HIMSELF is the basis of our entire life in Him! And He is enough.
I Want To Be A Clone is a tongue-in-cheek song about a person learning the ways of the Christian life such as "Christianese" and going down the "assembly line" of his church, and not rocking the boat. You know, just doing what other Christians say and do - being a clone. Of course that's not what we were created to be! We weren't individually created to be clones of other Christians, and we weren't even created to be clones of Christ. Didn't He tell His disciples that they'd do the same things He did... and even greater things? If they had stuck with only the things they'd seen Him do, they never would've seen that in the present day, there are all kinds of new things just waiting to happen, daily.
I'm not meant to replicate what Jesus did in the Bible. I'm not even meant to replicate what I did last week or last month or last year! As much as I may have been led to do those things, and as much as Christ's life might have been in those things, today is a new day and has its own new things. Pastors, teachers, leaders, mentors - they're not meant to get others to replicate what Jesus did. They're not meant to get others to replicate what they do. As a body, we're not meant to go around trying to clone each other or to clone past experiences.
I remember one time a few years ago when my son Jared asked me, "What does Mini Me mean?" The reason he wondered was because he had heard countless people calling him "Mini Me" when they saw him and me together. He got really blessed with his father's looks... haha! When my daughter Noelle was younger, she was looking at pictures on my parents' hallway wall, and when she saw a picture of me as a young boy, she thought it was her brother. But looks can be very deceiving. Or let me put it this way - you can't judge a book by its cover. Or said even another way - from now on we regard no one according to outward appearances.
As Jared has grown, it's been obvious that his likes, dislikes, gifts and talents, desires, callings, etc, are so very different than mine have ever been. In some ways, we're alike, but in many ways we're not. The worst thing I could do to him as I raise him would be to try to get him to be a clone of me. Now be quiet; I hear all the amen's out there! "One" of me is enough, I hear you collectively say! And you're right. Thank God there's only one of me!
My "job" as a parent is to help him discern who he really is, and to guide him to be that person. "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree" may indeed sometimes be the case. But he's got to grow up and be his own tree. And so it is with all of us. "Who I am" and "who you are" may very well work together in life, and as Paul said, we are "individually members of one another." But that doesn't mean we're the same. We've got to give one another the freedom to be who they are, and even encourage one another in who they are without trying to make them be like us! There's nothing wrong with influencing one another with who we are, but in the end God's got a great big, inexhaustible paint palette, with which He never creates clones!
This song reminded me of some other notes that I'd taken recently, but had lost - and then found again - that had to do with my recent Wild Thing series. Actually, I thought my wife had conveniently, I mean, 'accidentally' lost those notes of mine, since they contained stuff about her (see the first two posts). :) Ok, I'm just kidding! I knew I had put them somewhere but I couldn't remember where. Anyway, when I found them, I had already posted the final part of that series so I decided to just drop it all.
But now with the notes resurrected, and this video fresh in my mind, why not write some more! The bottom line of the Wild Thing series was essentially "be the 'wild,' unfettered person who God created you to be." Don't let rules and laws - which you were never meant to live by in the first place - "tame" you and keep you from being the "wild" (natural) person that God wired you to be. Don't get me wrong - I do think there's a place for practical guidelines and such in life. But I don't believe they were ever meant to be the basis of daily living in Christ. HE HIMSELF is the basis of our entire life in Him! And He is enough.
I Want To Be A Clone is a tongue-in-cheek song about a person learning the ways of the Christian life such as "Christianese" and going down the "assembly line" of his church, and not rocking the boat. You know, just doing what other Christians say and do - being a clone. Of course that's not what we were created to be! We weren't individually created to be clones of other Christians, and we weren't even created to be clones of Christ. Didn't He tell His disciples that they'd do the same things He did... and even greater things? If they had stuck with only the things they'd seen Him do, they never would've seen that in the present day, there are all kinds of new things just waiting to happen, daily.
I'm not meant to replicate what Jesus did in the Bible. I'm not even meant to replicate what I did last week or last month or last year! As much as I may have been led to do those things, and as much as Christ's life might have been in those things, today is a new day and has its own new things. Pastors, teachers, leaders, mentors - they're not meant to get others to replicate what Jesus did. They're not meant to get others to replicate what they do. As a body, we're not meant to go around trying to clone each other or to clone past experiences.
I remember one time a few years ago when my son Jared asked me, "What does Mini Me mean?" The reason he wondered was because he had heard countless people calling him "Mini Me" when they saw him and me together. He got really blessed with his father's looks... haha! When my daughter Noelle was younger, she was looking at pictures on my parents' hallway wall, and when she saw a picture of me as a young boy, she thought it was her brother. But looks can be very deceiving. Or let me put it this way - you can't judge a book by its cover. Or said even another way - from now on we regard no one according to outward appearances.
As Jared has grown, it's been obvious that his likes, dislikes, gifts and talents, desires, callings, etc, are so very different than mine have ever been. In some ways, we're alike, but in many ways we're not. The worst thing I could do to him as I raise him would be to try to get him to be a clone of me. Now be quiet; I hear all the amen's out there! "One" of me is enough, I hear you collectively say! And you're right. Thank God there's only one of me!
My "job" as a parent is to help him discern who he really is, and to guide him to be that person. "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree" may indeed sometimes be the case. But he's got to grow up and be his own tree. And so it is with all of us. "Who I am" and "who you are" may very well work together in life, and as Paul said, we are "individually members of one another." But that doesn't mean we're the same. We've got to give one another the freedom to be who they are, and even encourage one another in who they are without trying to make them be like us! There's nothing wrong with influencing one another with who we are, but in the end God's got a great big, inexhaustible paint palette, with which He never creates clones!
Sunday, March 07, 2010
GIG 231 - Love vs. Fear
"We need have no fear of someone who loves us perfectly; his perfect love for us eliminates all dread of what he might do to us. If we are afraid, it is for fear of what he might do to us and shows that we are not fully convinced that he really loves us. So you see, our love for him comes as a result of his loving us first." (1 John 4:18-19 TLB)
It could be argued that the one thing that will hinder a relationship more than anything else is fear. God's perfect love for us is meant to drive away all fear (being afraid). We're not meant to be afraid of Him. But from the very beginning, man has hidden from God even while God has relentlessly pursued a love relationship with man. Adam and Eve hid from God in fear and shame, even when He went out looking for them, and we often do the same.
This week we talk about how a view of God as a harsh, mean taskmaster who we are to be afraid of, is a faulty view of God. We're not meant to be afraid of God or what He'll do to us! What we should be entrenched in is not fear, but in the perfect love and acceptance of God. A relationship based upon love, not fear, is what life in Christ is about.
gigcast.graceroots.org
Saturday, March 06, 2010
Wild Thing (Not Meant To Be Tamed) - Part 3
I agree with Walter Brueggemann's description of God that I started out with in this series - "wild, dangerous, unfettered and free" - and I believe that is how God intended for us to live too. And I believe that if each of us would discover the wild, dangerous, unfettered and free person that we truly are, that life would be expressed in the form of love and grace that far exceeds what we could ever even hope to express through adherence to laws and rules.
But in order to bring that person out into the beautiful experience of that life, we've got to get over our obsession with God's laws and man's rules and regulations! Neither of these things can ever produce what our lives joined with the Spirit can produce. "For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh..." (Rom 8:3). What could God's law not do? It could not produce righteousness. It could not produce Life. It could not produce Love. So we had to die to the law in order to become married to (joined together with) Life and Love (Jesus). (See Rom 7:4-6).
As for the rules, regulations and traditions of man, "these things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh" (Col 2:23). God's laws and man's rules and regulations have absolutely no power to cause the new-creation life within to truly live as it was intended to live. That life is only stifled by laws and rules. Indeed, for many of us, that life is lying beneath the surface, suffering underneath the weight and burden of law and rules, dying to get out and be free, and truly, finally live!
Dangerous and wild. I'll give a little attention to those words. First off, of course I'm not using those words in the sense of advocating licentiousness or senseless endangerment of anyone's life. What I'm talking about is a "dangerous" God who says that as the wind blows and you can't see where it's coming from or where it's going, so it is with those who are born of Him. You can't control the wind. You can't predict its every move. You never know what will happen next! We tend to live safe, "controlled" lives, whether based on laws and rules, or based on fear or a desire to be in control or any number of other things. We're afraid of stepping out into adventure because we don't know what will happen, and so we remain stuck with the so-called "security" of seeing (or at least being able to try to predict) how things will turn out.
And if we don't impose laws and rules, won't people just get out there and go crazy and get all licentious and sinful? We at least need to shackle them a little bit, so they remember how to behave, right? And so they don't go flying off the handle and getting themselves into trouble. We need to keep them in an enclosure, kind of like the one that held the lonely Bald Eagle I saw at the Omaha Zoo a few years ago. Poor thing. He just sat there, perched on a piece of bark, fettered and unfree (not unfettered and free), not able to soar high up in the sky like he was born to do. Not able to hunt. Not able to be natural.
What I'm getting at with all of this is that rules and regulations and laws are not meant to be the basis for our lives. Again, we've got to get over that so we can focus on the true basis and essence of our lives: Christ in us. He is enough. He is our everything. He is our life. The reason we find ourselves not keeping the rules is because we're focused on the rules and not on Him! And if we would simply focus on Him, our faith would naturally express itself through love. "For in Christ, neither our most conscientious religion nor disregard of religion amounts to anything. What matters is something far more interior: faith expressed in love" (Gal 5:6, The Message).
Rest in the Vine and be who you were created to be. Don't let anyone else tell you who you're supposed to be. It might sound strange, but my thoughts on all this got started a few days ago when I was listening to a replay on the radio of Casey Casem's Top 40 Countdown from some week in the 1980's. For some reason he was talking about the band from the 60's, The Troggs, who are most definitely best known for their smash hit Wild Thing. What stuck out to me was that Casey said the band had lots of other records over the years, but due to their 'suggestive' lyrics and vulgarity, most radio stations didn't play their music. However, the band didn't try to change in order to be accepted. They kept on being who they were, not conforming to the standards of the music industry, even if that meant their songs wouldn't be played on the radio.
Now of course I'm not suggesting that vulgarity and suggestive talk is what Christ's love being expressed through us looks like! But I do want to use this example to encourage Christians to not give in to being "conformed" to what others think you should be. Paul used the words, "be transformed (not conformed) by the renewing of your mind." Renewed to what? Renewed to the truth of who God is and to the truth of who we are in Him. Live from your true identity. Live from your new-creation nature. Don't allow yourself to be tamed and domesticated through a life of useless, and even crippling laws and rules that we were never meant to live by anyway. Get out there and be wild. Be dangerous. Which way will the wind blow? Who the heck knows! Live unfettered and free!
But in order to bring that person out into the beautiful experience of that life, we've got to get over our obsession with God's laws and man's rules and regulations! Neither of these things can ever produce what our lives joined with the Spirit can produce. "For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh..." (Rom 8:3). What could God's law not do? It could not produce righteousness. It could not produce Life. It could not produce Love. So we had to die to the law in order to become married to (joined together with) Life and Love (Jesus). (See Rom 7:4-6).
As for the rules, regulations and traditions of man, "these things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh" (Col 2:23). God's laws and man's rules and regulations have absolutely no power to cause the new-creation life within to truly live as it was intended to live. That life is only stifled by laws and rules. Indeed, for many of us, that life is lying beneath the surface, suffering underneath the weight and burden of law and rules, dying to get out and be free, and truly, finally live!
Dangerous and wild. I'll give a little attention to those words. First off, of course I'm not using those words in the sense of advocating licentiousness or senseless endangerment of anyone's life. What I'm talking about is a "dangerous" God who says that as the wind blows and you can't see where it's coming from or where it's going, so it is with those who are born of Him. You can't control the wind. You can't predict its every move. You never know what will happen next! We tend to live safe, "controlled" lives, whether based on laws and rules, or based on fear or a desire to be in control or any number of other things. We're afraid of stepping out into adventure because we don't know what will happen, and so we remain stuck with the so-called "security" of seeing (or at least being able to try to predict) how things will turn out.
And if we don't impose laws and rules, won't people just get out there and go crazy and get all licentious and sinful? We at least need to shackle them a little bit, so they remember how to behave, right? And so they don't go flying off the handle and getting themselves into trouble. We need to keep them in an enclosure, kind of like the one that held the lonely Bald Eagle I saw at the Omaha Zoo a few years ago. Poor thing. He just sat there, perched on a piece of bark, fettered and unfree (not unfettered and free), not able to soar high up in the sky like he was born to do. Not able to hunt. Not able to be natural.
What I'm getting at with all of this is that rules and regulations and laws are not meant to be the basis for our lives. Again, we've got to get over that so we can focus on the true basis and essence of our lives: Christ in us. He is enough. He is our everything. He is our life. The reason we find ourselves not keeping the rules is because we're focused on the rules and not on Him! And if we would simply focus on Him, our faith would naturally express itself through love. "For in Christ, neither our most conscientious religion nor disregard of religion amounts to anything. What matters is something far more interior: faith expressed in love" (Gal 5:6, The Message).
Rest in the Vine and be who you were created to be. Don't let anyone else tell you who you're supposed to be. It might sound strange, but my thoughts on all this got started a few days ago when I was listening to a replay on the radio of Casey Casem's Top 40 Countdown from some week in the 1980's. For some reason he was talking about the band from the 60's, The Troggs, who are most definitely best known for their smash hit Wild Thing. What stuck out to me was that Casey said the band had lots of other records over the years, but due to their 'suggestive' lyrics and vulgarity, most radio stations didn't play their music. However, the band didn't try to change in order to be accepted. They kept on being who they were, not conforming to the standards of the music industry, even if that meant their songs wouldn't be played on the radio.
Now of course I'm not suggesting that vulgarity and suggestive talk is what Christ's love being expressed through us looks like! But I do want to use this example to encourage Christians to not give in to being "conformed" to what others think you should be. Paul used the words, "be transformed (not conformed) by the renewing of your mind." Renewed to what? Renewed to the truth of who God is and to the truth of who we are in Him. Live from your true identity. Live from your new-creation nature. Don't allow yourself to be tamed and domesticated through a life of useless, and even crippling laws and rules that we were never meant to live by anyway. Get out there and be wild. Be dangerous. Which way will the wind blow? Who the heck knows! Live unfettered and free!
ZOEGirl - You Get Me
I may be misunderstood
'Cause I wouldn't ever fake it
You're the only one who understands my pain
'Cause You get me
Doesn't matter what they do
What they think
What they say
At the end of the day I'm ok anyway
'Cause Lord You get me
Thursday, March 04, 2010
Doug Meeker - Worship is About Jesus - Part 1
I recently had the privilege of having Doug Meeker in my home when he came to Iowa to lead a worship workshop at a church in a nearby town. We had a great time together, and had some very wonderful conversations about many things, including the topic of 'worship.' We sat down to record some of our thoughts, and here is Part 1 of 2 of our recorded chat.
When it's said that "worship is about Jesus," some might say, "Well, duh!" :) But Doug has a great way of distinguishing between what worship is and what it isn't, as compared to what it seems to have become for many in the church today. For some, worship seems to be more about "the music" or about the style or the atmosphere. And it's not as if those things can't play an important role in worship. Music is a very powerful thing that can truly be used by God to move us. But yet music is not what worship is about. Worship is about Jesus.
And so even though Doug is gifted as a musician, he's the first one to try to help us get our thoughts off of the music, and instead to draw our attention to what true worship is. He says the word 'worship' means "whatever you ascribe worth to." Listen in to see the thoughts he draws from that definition. In the end, worship is about relationship. It's about intimate fellowship with Jesus. It's about love responding to love.
We also talk about a few other things, so I invite you to join me and Doug on this Growing in Grace Together discussion and then join us next week to for Part 2!
Find out more about Doug Meeker at dougmeeker.com.
Listen here: gigcast.graceroots.org
Wednesday, March 03, 2010
Wild Thing (Not Meant To Be Tamed) - Part 2
What really made me feel worse about myself than anything else during the low part of my marriage that I left off with in Part 1 was that here I was, preaching and teaching the good news - the gospel of grace and the power of the grace of God when we rest in Him and trust, rather than trying to produce godly fruit on our own, and yet in this important aspect of my life I felt like grace wasn't "working." If indeed Christ's love dwelled in me, then where was the love? Why was it so difficult to love when I had all this love and grace living in me?
Well, the last thing I wanted to do was to see a Christian counselor about all this. My reason was pretty simple: I didn't want more of the same. I didn't want more principles to try to follow. I didn't want someone telling me all the things I needed to do to show love to my wife. I knew ALL the do's. Throughout my Christian life, I'd heard it all. The church had not held back on teaching me do after do after do after do. And here I was, knowing all the do's and yet feeling lost when it came to living it out in my marriage.
But even though the thought of seeing a Christian counselor turned me off, I agreed to do it knowing that I would stop right away if it turned out like I thought it would. But thankfully it didn't turn out like I thought it would! God sent us to the right counselor. This man asked lots of questions and really dug in to get to the root of things, and he did so in a very graceful way. And as I talked things through with him one on one, there was one thing that he said to me that made the lights finally turn on in my head. It was really a "duh!" moment for me. As soon as he said it, I knew it was exactly what the problem was.
The essence of the problem was that rather than living out of my true Identity in Christ - the New Creation that I truly am - I was trying to be all the things that I thought I was supposed to be for my wife. Even though I knew the church was wrong with their treadmill approach to the Christian life that was based on a continuous cycle of living from principles for Christian living, and even though I was teaching about living by grace myself, and in most ways was truly appropriating it personally, I had yet been sucked into "trying to live the Christian life" when it came to the most important relationship in my life - my marriage. Again, the church was unknowingly trying to 'tame' me into being a good Christian husband and was in effect keeping me from being the true wild-at-heart person who I was created to be. I don't think anyone was intentionally trying to lead me or anyone else astray, but the focus on rules and principles to try to keep people close to Christ actually keeps people from a focus on Christ's pure and simple devotion to us that leads to our pure and simple devotion to Christ!
The key word the counselor used when he spoke with me was "identity." That's actually the word that made everything else fall into place and make sense. My identity is not "good Christian husband" (or "good Christian father" or "good Christian anything." My identity is who God made me to be, not only in regard to my union with Him that I have in common with all His other children, but also in the ways that He has uniquely wired me as an individual. See, I "got" the whole identity issue when it came to the biblical definitions of who we all are in Christ. But I wasn't seeing clearly how we are all uniquely built and shaped by God, and how that's such a huge part of living out the Christ-life.
My mind was stuck on generic (albeit really great and true) definitions of who we are in Christ and what it looks like when lived out. I also had this generic view of what a Christian husband was supposed to be and what he was supposed to do, and I sincerely wanted to be that man for my wife. But in trying to be that man, I found that I wasn't living up to it and I felt like such a fake and a phony - which is exactly what I was! Through the counselor, God woke me up to see that what my wife needed from me was not for me to strive to live according to so-called "biblical principles," but to be who He made me to be.
God has taken great care and put great work into the way He has wired me. The best gift I can give my wife (or anyone else) is to be the person He created me to be. Said another way, I am robbing her of what God has given her if I try to be something else! He has not fallen short in the way He has made me. He doesn't make junk. And so to try to live superficially from a set of rules or principles is to deny my wife of the gift that God has given her. That's not my ego talking. That's the Redskin in me talking - even crying out - who's been suffering beneath the white (see previous post) and is longing to live the rightful life that it was created to live, from my heart.
My wife and I are very different people. So I do want to say that as we've learned (and continued to learn) to be the unique individuals that God created us to be and to allow each other to be who God created them to be, there have been some fleshly clashes and there has been some friction! I don't always like who she is and she doesn't always like who I am. But more and more, as we let go of expectations of who the other is supposed to be, the grace and love of God in us allows us to see that it's absolutely fine - and a good, wonderful thing - for the other to be who they are. And there are indeed times when love will cause us to bend a little so as not to upset the other. I think that's legitimately what love will do. But overall, the days of walking on the eggshells of the expectations that come from a generic view of how we're "supposed" to be and behave have been replaced by days of true love and acceptance.
I didn't quite finish all my thoughts on this, so there will be a third and final part to this coming up.
Well, the last thing I wanted to do was to see a Christian counselor about all this. My reason was pretty simple: I didn't want more of the same. I didn't want more principles to try to follow. I didn't want someone telling me all the things I needed to do to show love to my wife. I knew ALL the do's. Throughout my Christian life, I'd heard it all. The church had not held back on teaching me do after do after do after do. And here I was, knowing all the do's and yet feeling lost when it came to living it out in my marriage.
But even though the thought of seeing a Christian counselor turned me off, I agreed to do it knowing that I would stop right away if it turned out like I thought it would. But thankfully it didn't turn out like I thought it would! God sent us to the right counselor. This man asked lots of questions and really dug in to get to the root of things, and he did so in a very graceful way. And as I talked things through with him one on one, there was one thing that he said to me that made the lights finally turn on in my head. It was really a "duh!" moment for me. As soon as he said it, I knew it was exactly what the problem was.
The essence of the problem was that rather than living out of my true Identity in Christ - the New Creation that I truly am - I was trying to be all the things that I thought I was supposed to be for my wife. Even though I knew the church was wrong with their treadmill approach to the Christian life that was based on a continuous cycle of living from principles for Christian living, and even though I was teaching about living by grace myself, and in most ways was truly appropriating it personally, I had yet been sucked into "trying to live the Christian life" when it came to the most important relationship in my life - my marriage. Again, the church was unknowingly trying to 'tame' me into being a good Christian husband and was in effect keeping me from being the true wild-at-heart person who I was created to be. I don't think anyone was intentionally trying to lead me or anyone else astray, but the focus on rules and principles to try to keep people close to Christ actually keeps people from a focus on Christ's pure and simple devotion to us that leads to our pure and simple devotion to Christ!
The key word the counselor used when he spoke with me was "identity." That's actually the word that made everything else fall into place and make sense. My identity is not "good Christian husband" (or "good Christian father" or "good Christian anything." My identity is who God made me to be, not only in regard to my union with Him that I have in common with all His other children, but also in the ways that He has uniquely wired me as an individual. See, I "got" the whole identity issue when it came to the biblical definitions of who we all are in Christ. But I wasn't seeing clearly how we are all uniquely built and shaped by God, and how that's such a huge part of living out the Christ-life.
My mind was stuck on generic (albeit really great and true) definitions of who we are in Christ and what it looks like when lived out. I also had this generic view of what a Christian husband was supposed to be and what he was supposed to do, and I sincerely wanted to be that man for my wife. But in trying to be that man, I found that I wasn't living up to it and I felt like such a fake and a phony - which is exactly what I was! Through the counselor, God woke me up to see that what my wife needed from me was not for me to strive to live according to so-called "biblical principles," but to be who He made me to be.
God has taken great care and put great work into the way He has wired me. The best gift I can give my wife (or anyone else) is to be the person He created me to be. Said another way, I am robbing her of what God has given her if I try to be something else! He has not fallen short in the way He has made me. He doesn't make junk. And so to try to live superficially from a set of rules or principles is to deny my wife of the gift that God has given her. That's not my ego talking. That's the Redskin in me talking - even crying out - who's been suffering beneath the white (see previous post) and is longing to live the rightful life that it was created to live, from my heart.
My wife and I are very different people. So I do want to say that as we've learned (and continued to learn) to be the unique individuals that God created us to be and to allow each other to be who God created them to be, there have been some fleshly clashes and there has been some friction! I don't always like who she is and she doesn't always like who I am. But more and more, as we let go of expectations of who the other is supposed to be, the grace and love of God in us allows us to see that it's absolutely fine - and a good, wonderful thing - for the other to be who they are. And there are indeed times when love will cause us to bend a little so as not to upset the other. I think that's legitimately what love will do. But overall, the days of walking on the eggshells of the expectations that come from a generic view of how we're "supposed" to be and behave have been replaced by days of true love and acceptance.
I didn't quite finish all my thoughts on this, so there will be a third and final part to this coming up.
Monday, March 01, 2010
Wild Thing (Not Meant To Be Tamed) - Part 1
"Wild, dangerous, unfettered and free." That's Walter Brueggemann's description of God as quoted in John Eldredge's book, Wild At Heart. And that's a description of who we are as well, as children of this wild, dangerous, unfettered, free God. It's in our spiritual DNA. He has passed His nature onto us, His children. We were created to live from this new nature.
However, many in the church today would try to tame us, often unknowingly but sometimes knowingly. Rules and restrictions are set in place to try to bridle and train the flesh, as if the flesh is who we are and therefore needs to be disciplined and managed. But the flesh is not who we are. We are wild creatures, not meant to be domesticated and caged, but meant to live as free beings. We need not worry about taming the flesh (nor can we do it anyway) when we are living as the (super)natural sons of God that we truly are.
In the song Kings of the Wild Frontier by Adam and the Ants, Adam cries out, "I feel beneath the white there is a Redskin suffering from centuries of taming." When I first wrote about this three years ago, I interpreted those lyrics this way: "In the song, it’s as if Adam is saying that beneath his modern day white man’s skin, there’s an Indian Warrior hidden deep inside, dying to get out, but yet he suffers because he’s been tamed by many years of white man’s culture."
To translate this into life in Christ, I feel that by trying to train the flesh through countless rules, laws, methods, principles, restrictions, disciplines, etc, the modern church has stifled the true living out of the wild (unfettered, free) life that God created us to live. The teachers and preachers of all this may even have the best of intentions, but the best of intentions will never change the fact that we live from our union-life with God, not from a list of do's and don'ts and from our attempts to live by principles for good Christian living.
This became ever so clear to me a few years ago when my wife and I hit a very low point in our marriage. I wrote more in-depth about it in the article from three years ago, but for now I'll just say that Motown recording artists The Supremes sang about our problem 40 years prior to it happening. "Baby, baby, where did our love go?" Now here's the thing. We weren't angry with each other. We weren't fighting. There was no animosity. But where did the love go? The answer lies in some other lyrics that I'm pretty sure I'm taking out of context, but nevertheless they fit here. In the song Baker Street, Gerry Rafferty sang, "You used to think that it was so easy; You used to think that it was so easy; But you're trying, you're trying now."
Turns out that that truly was the problem. "Love" had become hard, and even an impossibility, all because I was trying to love my wife. Before I had come to know all the 'rules' for love and marriage, love had been easy because I had been devoted to her and not to rules for loving her! But then what happened was this. Week after week, month after month, year after year, the church (good-intentioned teachers and preachers) kept on giving me rule after rule, method after method and principle after principle for "how to be a good Christian" and "how to be a good husband." And truthfully, it's not as if it was bad stuff. I really wanted to be all those good things for my wife. And so my focus slowly changed from pure devotion to my wife to my own fleshly attempts to try to be a good husband, and the result was that over and over again, I found that I could do "good" for a while, but ultimately I would fail at living up to being the good husband I wanted to be.
I'll pick up on this, and how we began to overcome all of this, in Part 2.
The ever-eccentric Adam Ant performs on a Motown special in 1983.
However, many in the church today would try to tame us, often unknowingly but sometimes knowingly. Rules and restrictions are set in place to try to bridle and train the flesh, as if the flesh is who we are and therefore needs to be disciplined and managed. But the flesh is not who we are. We are wild creatures, not meant to be domesticated and caged, but meant to live as free beings. We need not worry about taming the flesh (nor can we do it anyway) when we are living as the (super)natural sons of God that we truly are.
In the song Kings of the Wild Frontier by Adam and the Ants, Adam cries out, "I feel beneath the white there is a Redskin suffering from centuries of taming." When I first wrote about this three years ago, I interpreted those lyrics this way: "In the song, it’s as if Adam is saying that beneath his modern day white man’s skin, there’s an Indian Warrior hidden deep inside, dying to get out, but yet he suffers because he’s been tamed by many years of white man’s culture."
To translate this into life in Christ, I feel that by trying to train the flesh through countless rules, laws, methods, principles, restrictions, disciplines, etc, the modern church has stifled the true living out of the wild (unfettered, free) life that God created us to live. The teachers and preachers of all this may even have the best of intentions, but the best of intentions will never change the fact that we live from our union-life with God, not from a list of do's and don'ts and from our attempts to live by principles for good Christian living.
This became ever so clear to me a few years ago when my wife and I hit a very low point in our marriage. I wrote more in-depth about it in the article from three years ago, but for now I'll just say that Motown recording artists The Supremes sang about our problem 40 years prior to it happening. "Baby, baby, where did our love go?" Now here's the thing. We weren't angry with each other. We weren't fighting. There was no animosity. But where did the love go? The answer lies in some other lyrics that I'm pretty sure I'm taking out of context, but nevertheless they fit here. In the song Baker Street, Gerry Rafferty sang, "You used to think that it was so easy; You used to think that it was so easy; But you're trying, you're trying now."
Turns out that that truly was the problem. "Love" had become hard, and even an impossibility, all because I was trying to love my wife. Before I had come to know all the 'rules' for love and marriage, love had been easy because I had been devoted to her and not to rules for loving her! But then what happened was this. Week after week, month after month, year after year, the church (good-intentioned teachers and preachers) kept on giving me rule after rule, method after method and principle after principle for "how to be a good Christian" and "how to be a good husband." And truthfully, it's not as if it was bad stuff. I really wanted to be all those good things for my wife. And so my focus slowly changed from pure devotion to my wife to my own fleshly attempts to try to be a good husband, and the result was that over and over again, I found that I could do "good" for a while, but ultimately I would fail at living up to being the good husband I wanted to be.
I'll pick up on this, and how we began to overcome all of this, in Part 2.
The ever-eccentric Adam Ant performs on a Motown special in 1983.
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