CANNED CHRISTIANS

“For in Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set you free from the law of sin and death.”  (Romans 8:2)

I used to think when someone becomes a Christian he must submit to the traditional picture.  He must "fit in" with all the rest of us.  He must be labeled "Christian," so that anyone can recognize him as a Christian.  Every Christian must look and act alike, and be as easily recognizable as the same company cans on the supermarket shelf.  He has to conform to a certain size can.  Some things he can do, other things he cannot; some thou shalts, and quite a few thou shalt nots.

Of course, he must give up his "worldly habits" and "worldly friends," and if, for example, he still drinks or smokes, he will not quite fit into the can.  We will have to compress him a little further.  So, all of my Christianity reduces itself to one long exercise of compressing and squeezing into a can labeled, "Christian."

But I can't find anything about this in Your words, Lord … Nothing about a canned Christian.  You never bound Your disciples.  You set them free.  You told us to deny ourselves, but You said it in the positive context of following.  You strike at the core of our pride.  You do not want us to chop off a few habits and then sneak that core of pride into the can.  How subtle and sinful we are!  You have come to release us; not to repress us.  You have come to set us free.  "If then the Son sets you free, you will indeed be free." (John 8:36)

-- H.S. Vigeveno in “Jesus the Revolutionary”

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HONESTY AND CONFESSION

“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, God who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  (1 John 1:8-9 NRSV)

The discipline of confession brings an end to pretense.  God is calling into being a church that can openly confess its frail humanity and knows the forgiving and empowering graces of Christ.  Honesty leads to confession, and confession leads to change. 

-- Richard Foster in “A Celebration of Discipline” 

#5382

PASSION AND COMPASSION

Just as the healed, healthy body gets up, stretches, and moves, so does the human personality healed by God long to be involved in loving, creative encounter with other human beings.  Reaching out to heal others is a spontaneous development in the growing wholeness of our spirits.  Just as the yeast kneaded into the dough acts, grows, and manifests itself throughout the changing loaf, so does the radical act of God within us work change in us and through us. This change is that of passion and compassion as we encounter the agony of the torn, fragmented world around us.

Within a few months after consenting to God's deep healing within myself, I began to notice a new, painful awareness of the hurting people around me. On buses, in airports, on the busy sidewalks of the city I began to notice faces lined with pain and weariness. It became painful to open the newspaper and to watch the evening news. As the healing deepened within me, the sensitivity grew. I began to want to do something for the wounds of others. I began to realize that this longing was an inseparable part of growing within the healing of God's love. 

-- Flora Slosson Wuellner in “Prayer, Stress, and Our Inner Wounds”, published by The Upper Room, Nashville, TN.   Used with permission.

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FREE AND RESPONSIBLE

“Do nothing from selfishness or conceit, but in humility count others better than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.”  (Philippians 2:3-4 RSV)

Don’t be afraid of yourself, live your individuality to the full -- but for the good of others. Don’t copy others in order to buy fellowship, or make convention your law instead of living the righteousness.

To become free and responsible. For this alone were human beings created, and he who fails to take the Way which could have been his shall be lost eternally. 

-- Dag Hammarskjold in “Markings”

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ABIDING IN GOD’S WORD

“Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, ‘If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.’”  (John 8:31-32 NKJV)

Many Christians remain in bondage to fears and anxieties simply because they do not avail themselves to the discipline of the study [of God’s Word]. They may be faithful in church attendance and earnest in fulfilling their religious duties and still they are not changed… They may sing with gusto, pray with the Spirit, live as obediently as they know, even receive divine visions and revelations, and yet the tenor of their lives remains unchanged. Why? Because they have never taken up one of the central ways God uses to change us: study. Jesus made it unmistakably clear that it is the knowledge of the truth that will set us free. 

-- Richard J. Foster in “Celebration of Discipline”

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TESTIFYING TO THE TRUTH

Jesus answered Pilate, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to Me.” (John 18:37)

When Jesus says that He has come to bear witness to the truth, Pilate asks, “What is truth?” (John 18:38) Contrary to the traditional view that his question is cynical, it is possible that he asks it with a lump in his throat. Instead of Truth, Pilate has only expedience. His decision to throw Jesus to the wolves is expedient. Pilate views man as alone in the universe with nothing but his own courage and ingenuity to see him through. It is enough to choke up anybody.

Pilate asks, “What is truth?” And for years there have been politicians, scientists, theologians, philosophers, poets, and so on to tell him. The sound they make is like the sound of empty pails falling down the cellar stairs.

Jesus doesn’t answer Pilate’s question. He just stands there. “Stands,” and stands “there.” 

-- Frederick Buechner in “Wishful Thinking”

#5378

GOD GUIDES US

“Yet I still belong to You; You hold my right hand. You guide me with Your counsel, leading me to a glorious destiny.”  (Psalm 73:23-24 NLT)

God guides us, despite our uncertainties and our vagueness, even through our failings and mistakes. He often starts us off to the left, only to bring us up in the end to the right; or else He brings us back to the right, after a long detour, because we started out by mistake to the left in the belief we were obeying Him. He leads us step by step, from event to event. Only afterwards, as we look back over the way we have come and reconsider certain important moments in our lives in the light of all that has followed them, or when we survey the whole progress of our lives, do we experience the feeling of having been led without knowing it, the feeling that God has mysteriously guided us. 

-- Paul Tournier in “Reflections”

#5377

TURNING AWAY FROM GOD

“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”  (Isaiah 53:6)

Augustine shows clearly the religious character of sin. Sin for him is not a moral failure; it is not even disobedience.  Disobedience is a consequence but not the cause. The cause is: turning away from God, and from God as the highest good, as the love with which God loves Himself through us. For this reason, since sin has this character -- if you say "sins", it is easily dissolved into moral sins; but sin is first of all basically the… turning away from God.  For this very reason, no moral remedy is possible.  Only one remedy is possible: return to God.  But this of course is possible only in the power of God.

-- Paul Tillich (1886-1965) in “A History of Christian Thought”

#5376

A SEARCH FOR MEANING

“Now this is eternal life: that they know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.”  (John 17:3 NIV)

It is not only those who are growing old, finding the shadows of life lengthening, who are in search of meaning; there is a desire in every human being to find some kind of unity and coherence, some meaning in the diverse experiences of life. All of us instinctively want to find some kind of key that will unlock the secret and meaning of good days and bad, joy and sorrow, youth and old age, sickness and health, life and death. We want some kind of framework of understanding within which we can find perspective, and be freed from the delusion of confusing that which is truly important with the monumental trivia of life. It is, I think, only the overview of faith that can provide for us this insight into life, this meaning of life. As Dag Hammarskjold recalled in his book, “Markings”, “On the day I first really believed in God, for the first time life made sense to me and the world had meaning.” 

-- John Powell in “A Reason to Live! A Reason to Die!”

#5375

GLORY AND MAJESTY

“Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to God our Savior, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen.  (Jude 1:24-25 NKJ)

Christianity today is [human]-centered, not God-centered. God is made to wait patiently, even respectfully, on the whims of [humanity]. The image of God currently popular is that of a distracted Father, struggling in heartbroken desperation to get people to accept a Savior of whom they feel no need and in whom they have very little interest. To persuade these self-sufficient souls to respond to His generous offers God will do almost anything, even using salesmanship methods and talking down to them in the chummiest way imaginable. This view of things is, of course, a kind of religious romanticism which, while it often uses flattering and sometimes embarrassing terms in praise of God, manages nevertheless to make [humanity] the star of the show. 

-- A.W. Tozer

#5374

EAR-TICKLING

“For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.”  (2 Timothy 4:3 NIV)

The devil is not fighting religion. He's too smart for that. He is producing a counterfeit Christianity, so much like the real one that good Christians are afraid to speak out against it. We are plainly told in the Scriptures that in the last days men will not endure sound doctrine and will depart from the faith and heap to themselves teachers to tickle their ears. We live in an epidemic of this itch, and popular preachers have developed “ear-tickling” into a fine art. 

-- Vance Havner

#5373

CHRIST LIVING IN US

“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”  (Galatians 2:19b-20 NRSV)

The great difference between present-day Christianity and that of which we read in these letters (New Testament Epistles) is that to us it is primarily a performance; to them, it is a real experience. We are apt to reduce the Christian religion to a code or, at best, a rule of heart and life. To these men it is quite plainly the invasion of their lives by a new quality of life altogether. They do not hesitate to describe this as Christ living in them. 

-- J.B Phillips in his introduction to “Letters to Young Churches”

#5372

CHRIST-CENTEREDNESS

“See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.”  (Colossians 2:8 ESV)

Our journey toward balance and centeredness is a lifelong journey. While we may join others as we travel, and while fellow travelers may provide valuable support, our journey will belong to us and will be unlike any other person's. 

We will encounter obstacles, both from within ourselves and from the outside world. We will face forces that hinder our growth and seek to mold us into images that do not fit. 

But if we work to discover who we are, if we desire to come into relationship with God with our authentic selves, we can then find and live from Christ, our center. 

-- Kimberly Dunnam Reisman in “The Christ-Centered Woman” 

#5371

THE SPIRIT OF PENTECOST

“When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.”  (Acts 2:1-4 NIV)

Too many churches have become mausoleums for the dead rather than coliseums of praise for a living God. They have lost the spirit of Pentecost! They have lost their enthusiasm. They have lost their joy for Jesus and find themselves suffering from what William Willimon calls “Institutional and spiritual Dry Rot.” If the Church is to survive the next millennium it must recapture some of the praise and enthusiasm it had two millennia ago. 

-- Carlyle Fielding

#5370

THE POWER OF THE SPIRIT

“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”  (Acts 1:8 NIV)

We are God’s people. We are not in the Secret Service; we are in the Spirit’s Service. Touched by the Spirit we can think more clearly; feel more deeply; speak more truthfully; love more extravagantly; serve more creatively; give more lavishly; live more fully.

James A. Harnish [wondered], “Where do you find the power to hang in there in this world? Where do you find the power to keep going? Where do you find the power to continue to believe in love in a world that is filled with hate? Where do you find the power to continue to work for peace in a world that is addicted to violence? Where do you find the power to continue to believe in good in a world that is filled with so much suffering and pain? Where do you find the power to continue to believe that ultimately God’s Kingdom will come and God’s will, as revealed in Jesus, will be done in all of the creation? Where do you find the power to be a disciple of Jesus in this world?”

The power comes from the Spirit of God, indwelling and empowering us. 

-- Leonard Sweet in “A Cup of Coffee at the Soul Cafe”

#5369

FOOD FOR SPIRITUAL GROWTH – Part 2

“Solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.”  (Hebrews 5:13-14 NIV)

Now each of these four needs is met by a different type of prayer. The right attitude of the soul to God is secured and supported by the prayer of adoration. The necessary food for growth is obtained through our spiritual reading and meditation, as well as by more direct forms of communion. Such meditation will also form an important stage in the education of the spiritual faculties; which are further trained in some degree by the use of such formal, affective, or recollective prayer as each one of us is able to employ. Finally, the work which can be done by the praying soul covers the whole field of intercession and redemptive self-oblation. 

-- Evelyn Underhill in “The House of the Soul and Concerning the Inner Life”

#5368

FOOD FOR SPIRITUAL GROWTH – Part 1

“Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.”  (Hebrews 5:13-14 NIV)

It seems to me that there are four main things which must have a place in any full and healthy religious life: and that a remembrance of this will help us to make our own inner lives balanced and sane. We require, first, the means of gaining and holding a right attitude. Secondly, right spiritual food -- real nourishing food with a bite in it, not desiccated and predigested piety. “I am the food of the full grown,” said the voice of God to St. Augustine: “Grown and feed on Me.” Thirdly, we need an education which shall help growth; training our spiritual powers to an ever greater expansion and efficiency. Fourthly, we have or ought to have some definite spiritual work, and must see that we fit ourselves to do it. 

-- Evelyn Underhill in “The House of the Soul and Concerning the Inner Life”

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AN OPENING TO GOD

“Be still, and know that I am God.”  (Psalm 46:10a)

For as long as I can remember, I have not feared silence but welcomed it as a source of spiritual deepening. Like other people living in the world, I’ve grown accustomed to the noise in my place of work, to the raucous sounds of the city, to the inner disquiet stirred up by busy thoughts and earnest projects. Silence can be an escape from the functional responsibilities and physical demands of listening and conversing with colleagues, friends, and family members. But it can also be an opening to God. 

-- Susan Annette Muto in “Pathways of Spiritual Living”

#5366

RECOGNIZING OUR NEED FOR GOD

"We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”  (Isaiah 53:6 NIV)

Complete sincerity is an unattainable ideal. But what is attainable is the periodic moment of sincerity, the moment, in fact, when we confess that we are not as we have sought to appear; and it is at those moments that we find contact with God once more. The progress of our spiritual life is made up of these successive discoveries, in which we perceive that we have turned away from God instead of going towards Him. That is what makes a great saint like St. Francis of Assisi declare himself chief among sinners.

We cannot, indeed, be content with the fluctuating condition, any more than we can resign our self to always rediscovering discordances between our personage and our person. We hear Christ’s command: “Be therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). We find this intuitive aspiration towards perfection in unbelievers as well as in believers. It implies especially a complete concordance between personage and person.

Now it is precisely because we feel the impossibility of following this call that we recognize our need of God and His grace, of Jesus Christ and His atonement. If we thought we did not need God, should we still have a spiritual life? 

-- Paul Tournier in “Reflections”

#5365

CALLED TO SELF-DENIAL

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.”  (Philippians 2:3-4 NIV)

Self-denial conjures up in our minds all sorts of groveling and self-hatred. We imagine that it most certainly means rejection of our individuality and will probably lead to various forms of self-mortification.

On the contrary, Jesus called us to self-denial without self-hatred. Self-denial is imply a way of coming to understand that we do not have to have our own way. Our happiness is not dependent upon getting what we want…

Self-denial is not the same thing as self-contempt. Self-contempt claims that we have no worth, and even if we did have worth we should reject it. Self-denial declares that we are of infinite worth and shows us how to realize it. Self-contempt denies the goodness of the creation; self-denial affirms that it was indeed good. Jesus made the ability to love ourselves the prerequisite for our reaching out to others. (Matthew 22:39) 

-- Richard J. Foster in “Celebration of Discipline”

#5364

A GENEROUS HEART

"Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.  But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”  (Matthew 6:1-4 NIV)

Jesus obviously expected His disciples to be generous givers. His words condemn the “selfish stinginess of many,” as one author put it.

Generosity is not enough, however. Our Lord is concerned throughout this Sermon on the Mount with motivation, with the hidden thoughts of the heart. In His exposition of the sixth and seventh commandments He indicated that both murder and adultery can be committed in our heart, unwarranted anger being a kind of heart-murder and lustful looks a kind of heart-adultery. In the matter of giving He has the same concern about secret thoughts. The question is not so much what the hand is doing (handing over some cash or a check) but what the heart is thinking while the hand is doing it. There are three possibilities. Either we are seeking the praise of men, or we preserve our anonymity but are quietly congratulating ourselves, or we are desirous of the approval of our divine Father alone. 

– Adapted from John R. W. Stott in “The Message of the Sermon on the Mount”

#5363

FAITH AND WORKS

"But someone will say, 'You have faith and I have works.' Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works."  (James 2:18 ESV)

Faith and works should travel side by side, step answering to step, like the legs of men walking. First faith, and then works; and then faith again, and then works again -- until they can scarcely distinguish which is the one and which is the other.  

-- William Booth in “The Founder’s Messages to Soldiers” 

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