GIG 203 - I Give My Life To God?

We've all heard expressions like "I gave my life to God" and "God, I give my life to you." But is it really true that we give our lives to God? Do we really think that we are the ones who offer our lives to Him? Or is it the other way around? The good news of the exchanged life is not that we had something to offer God for Him to use but that we had nothing to offer Him, and instead He gave His life to us and came to live in us! We didn't give our lives to God. Rather, we died - we were crucified with Christ - and the lives we live are no longer our lives but are His life in us.

Many people are trying to do their best to offer their "all" to God. They're trying to "do" in order to become something. But in Christ we've already become something (complete in Him, new creations, etc), and the lives we live are not a matter of performing for God or offering our "best" to Him, but rather resting in Him and having Him live His life through us!

gigcast.graceroots.org

"God is kind to the unthankful and evil."

"...If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 34 And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive back, what credit is that to you? For even sinners lend to sinners to receive as much back. 35 But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil. 36 Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful. (Luke 6:32-36)

I'm not sure if some people notice, but the above passage doesn't say, "Be kind to others only if they're Christians or display good morals. Protest the evil behavior of society. Shut out everyone who doesn't agree with you."

But oh my, don't we have too much of that in the church today, and too little of the words that Jesus spoke here?

What I like is the "why" here. Why love our enemies? Why lend expecting nothing in return? Why be merciful to others? Is it because God expects or demands us to be that way? Is it a command to follow? Will it make us better Christians?

I think it's none of that! Rather it's because God is kind. Period. He is kind to the unthankful and evil. He is kind to the people we consider our enemies. He gives, expecting nothing in return. He loves, not with the motive of getting something back, but because He is love. God is love, and love is kind.

God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself --- not protesting their sins!!! While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Can we at least understand, then, that when we're out there protesting the bad morals of others, that's not Christ in us?

Can we talk about the issues and discuss the doctrines with believers and non-believers alike? Sure! But when there's a choice between getting bent out of shape over the ideas and lifestyles of others, and loving them and being kind and merciful to them, I think the latter is much more of a display of the life of Christ in us!

Whatcha think?

Fake it till you make it? (repost)

I think this goes along somewhat with my last post, Love is Supernatural.

Have you ever heard (or used) the phrase, "fake it till you make it," in regards to the living out of the Christian life? Although I've heard the actual phrase used only a handful of times, I've seen the Christian lifestyle that's represented by the phrase in action all throughout my Christian life. And it's sad, because it's nothing less than a fleshly attempt at living the Christian life.

One of the times I heard the phrase used in a sermon, the pastor was talking about the various family qualities and values that we are to live out as Christians. Loving our spouses, loving our kids, "one anothering" each another, and so on. When we find ourselves falling short in our love relationships with each other, what should we do? According to this pastor, we just "fake it till we make it." :( I was very disheartened to hear that. If we're having a hard time loving and showing appreciation to our spouse, for example, we just fake it till we make it. We go through the motions until we find ourselves genuinely loving our spouse.

I'm sorry, but this totally misses the point of Christianity! It sure may appear right to some, since it's an appeal to us to do good things. But all it really is is a fleshly attempt to do these things. The flesh, no matter how good and wonderful it appears, will never, ever, EVER produce what the Spirit can and does produce in us!

Another time I heard the phrase was in a small group setting. We were talking about the gifts of the Spirit, and "how" to walk in them. (shudder) One man suggested the "fake it till you make it" method. ((double-shudder)) For example, if it's the gift of tongues that's in question, just start muttering some words and eventually it will come. Or whatever the gift, just go through the motions enough, and eventually it will become real.

I'm all for "growing" in our gifts, and in the living out of the Christian life. But not through FAKING it! See, there is absolutely nothing fake about love. If we feel we have to fake love in order to grow in love, then we'll never come to a true living out of a love-life.

I can see why the "fake it till you make it" mentality is so prevalent in the church today (even if the phrase itself isn't used a whole lot). The focus in the church today is behavior modification. Sermons, seminars, meetings, exhortations, articles, radio and TV programs, and so on and so on... all focus on getting us to change our behavior from one way ("bad") to another way ("good"). Do I want to stop doing bad and start doing good? Of course! But you can teach me all you want about what is bad behavior and what is good behavior (what I should stop doing and what I should start doing), and yet you will give me no power whatsoever to change my behavior!

Christ in us - and His grace - is the power to live a godly life. There is nothing fake about Christ in us! But when the constant focus is behavior modification, people will take their eyes off of the One who IS the way, the truth and the life and will always be attempting to change themselves. This constant focus on behavior modification, leaves people with, well, a constant focus on behavior modification! They are deceived into thinking that by focusing on good behavior they're focusing on Christ. But since they're not really looking to Christ and His life that miraculously and abundantly indwells us, but rather are focusing on change, then all that's really left is a life of faking it till they make it.

Growing in true love and true godly behavior doesn't come from attempting or faking love or godly behavior. True love and true godly behavior comes over a period of time as we look to Christ, who is in us, to live His life in us, and it comes as we grow in God's unconditional love.

Paul Young on the 700 Club

You won't regret watching this interview. William Paul Young (author of The Shack) on the 700 Club. He talks about the reality of Christians living with much pain and sadness and how he wants to help others get past the perception or preconception that there is some sort of separation between us and God. He is asked about the characters in the book, and he talks about how our life in Christ is not "What Would Jesus Do" but rather "What Will Jesus Do," as we don't try to "be like Him" but rather "allow Him to be Himself in the uniqueness of our own personhood." We're not looking to Jesus as a model of what to do, but rather "He has actually come to live inside of us."

Fake it till you make it?

Have you ever heard (or used) the phrase, "fake it till you make it," in regards to the living out of the Christian life? Although I've heard the actual phrase used only a handful of times, I've seen the Christian lifestyle that's represented by the phrase in action all throughout my Christian life. And it's sad, because it's nothing less than a fleshly attempt at living the Christian life.

One of the times I heard the phrase used in a sermon, the pastor was talking about the various family qualities and values that we are to live out as Christians. Loving our spouses, loving our kids, "one anothering" each another, and so on. When we find ourselves falling short in our love relationships with each other, what should we do? According to this pastor, we just "fake it till we make it." :( I was very disheartened to hear that. If we're having a hard time loving and showing appreciation to our spouse, for example, we just fake it till we make it. We go through the motions until we find ourselves genuinely loving our spouse.

I'm sorry, but this totally misses the point of Christianity! It sure may appear right to some, since it's an appeal to us to do good things. But all it really is is a fleshly attempt to do these things. The flesh, no matter how good and wonderful it appears, will never, ever, EVER produce what the Spirit can and does produce in us!

Another time I heard the phrase was in a small group setting. We were talking about the gifts of the Spirit, and "how" to walk in them. (shudder) One man suggested the "fake it till you make it" method. ((double-shudder)) For example, if it's the gift of tongues that's in question, just start muttering some words and eventually it will come. Or whatever the gift, just go through the motions enough, and eventually it will become real.

I'm all for "growing" in our gifts, and in the living out of the Christian life. But not through FAKING it! See, there is absolutely nothing fake about love. If we feel we have to fake love in order to grow in love, then we'll never come to a true living out of a love-life.

I can see why the "fake it till you make it" mentality is so prevalent in the church today (even if the phrase itself isn't used a whole lot). The focus in the church today is behavior modification. Sermons, seminars, meetings, exhortations, articles, radio and TV programs, and so on and so on... all focus on getting us to change our behavior from one way ("bad") to another way ("good"). Do I want to stop doing bad and start doing good? Of course! But you can teach me all you want about what is bad behavior and what is good behavior (what I should stop doing and what I should start doing), and yet you will give me no power whatsoever to change my behavior!

Christ in us - and His grace - is the power to live a godly life. There is nothing fake about Christ in us! But when the constant focus is behavior modification, people will take their eyes off of the One who IS the way, the truth and the life and will always be attempting to change themselves. This constant focus on behavior modification, leaves people with, well, a constant focus on behavior modification! They are deceived into thinking that by focusing on good behavior they're focusing on Christ. But since they're not really looking to Christ and His life that miraculously and abundantly indwells us, but rather are focusing on change, then all that's really left is a life of faking it till they make it.

Growing in true love and true godly behavior doesn't come from attempting or faking love or godly behavior. True love and true godly behavior comes over a period of time as we look to Christ, who is in us, to live His life in us, and it comes as we grow in God's unconditional love.

Does God inhabit our praises? (Or do we have it even better!)

My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?
O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent.
But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.
(Ps 22:1-3 KJV)

Throughout my evangelical and pentecostal life, I've heard verse 3 above quoted many times. The application of the verse has generally been this: When we praise and worship God, He is actually right there in our praise. He inhabits our praise. And so we get the idea that either when we're alone or in a gathering of the saints, worshiping God together, God 'comes down' or manifests Himself in our praises.

I was listening to a tape of a sermon from an old pastor of mine in the late 90's, "Pastor Mark," and he gave a somewhat lengthy talk on this at the beginning of the hour long sermon. He spent about 18 minutes on this. At the time (back in the 90's), this gave me a whole new view of this.

My quick summary of his words would be to say that we don't praise and worship God for the purpose of "bringing Him down to us" or to cause Him to come to us. As people who have been joined to the Lord (1 Cor 6:17), He doesn't inhabit our praises. He inhabits us!

When we worship Him and praise Him, sometimes we may feel or experience wonderful things (and we may not!). If we do feel or experience things, it's not that He has come down to us, but rather that Christ in us is coming out of us, so to speak. In other words, Christ is in us, and He may manifest Himself through us in various ways... prophecy, praise, exhortation, word of knowledge, tongues, healing... or in other ways such as feelings of peace, comfort, joy, calmness, etc. While this particular list of the ways He may manifest Himself is small, I want to say again that there also may be absolutely no extra sensation or feeling, or manifestation. And that's quite OK! The overall point is that God inhabits us and we're not praising Him in order to get Him to do something that He's already done, which is that He has already come to be with us and in us!

I've made the tape into an mp3, and below you will find a link to the part in which Mark gives this exhortation. There are many little nuggets in this, so feel free to give it a listen. I edited it down to 17 minutes, and just less than 3MB.

As always... my purpose and hope here is to edify and bring encouragement. If you don't agree with any of what I've said or what's in the audio, that's quite ok with me!