Stray Thoughts: Tension

I bumped into a bit of Scripture recently that stood out to me.

For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. Philippians 1:21–24

I'm sure that this is familiar to many of you. Paul is reflecting on his life. For Paul, life is about Jesus. That's what defines his attitude about life and about death. And it's why he can honestly say that, as far as he is concerned, it is gain to die. And the reason for that is obvious. Dying means being with Jesus, face to face. So, Paul writes that he wants to die. That's his heart's desire. He looks forward to it. He longs for it.

But being the kind of person that he is, he doesn't stop there. He knows that there is more that needs to be considered. So, he goes on to write that, if he sticks around, he will be able to help the saints a bit more. And he knows that they really could use his help.

Paul is caught betwixt and between. Which does he choose? This is where I get my title for this post. There is a tension in his life. He really wants to be with Jesus. That is a very deep desire for him. And yet, he also wants to be able to help the saints who had been so dear to him. Tough place to be. But he does resolve this tension. Listen.

Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith, so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again. Philippians 1:25–26

Because of his love for the saints, he puts aside, for the time being, his desire to be with Jesus and all that goes with that.

Here's what I noticed. I don't hear many Christians express this sort of tension these days. Who eagerly looks forward to dying so that they can be with Jesus? How often do you hear such a thing? But it's not that there is this great desire to remain so that the saints can be served and helped. What I tend to hear more of is the desire to remain in order to enjoy the pleasures of this life. That doesn't seem right. It seems rather selfish.

A word that comes to mind here is the word 'worldliness', pursuing life in the way that the unbelievers around us pursue life. I suspect that the Church in America won't be the salt and light that Jesus has called it to be until this attitude is repented of and replaced with the tension that we see in Paul. Something to pray for.

Stray Thoughts: Praying Like a Disciple

I'm sure that, if you've been a Christian for any decent length of time,  you've heard a sermon or at least a devotional on these words of Jesus.

If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. Mark 8:34–35

So, Jesus calls for self-denial. That's saying, 'No', to our desires. He also calls for cross-bearing. That's being ready to die. (Remember that those condemned to crucifixion carried their crosses to the place of execution.) And then, just to make matters abundantly clear, Jesus calls for His disciples to lose their lives.

Now, let's take all of that and apply it to your prayers. What do you pray for when life takes a turn for the worse? For example, what do you pray for when you find yourself receiving medical news that really isn't at all good? Do you pray something like this? 'Don't let this news be true. Heal me so that I can avoid this plight.' Or to be more blunt, do you find yourself regularly praying that life would remain fairly safe and comfortable?

I'm not saying that you should pray for terrible things to happen to you or even that it's necessarily wrong to ask God to keep you safe. It's all about the attitude. Which or these is the priority as reflected in your prayers: the advance of the Gospel even if it costs you or staying as comfortable as possible? Do your prayers reflect the life of a disciple as Jesus defines that? Maybe, as a first step, it would be good to pray for the ability to want to pray like that.

Stray Thoughts: Jesus' Call to Hate

During my daily Bible reading recently I bumped into something that made me pause and question. Here’s what I read.

If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. Luke 14:26

One of the words stood out to me. It was the word ‘hate’. Really? Jesus wants me to hate? And to hate people who are the closest to me? This can’t be right. If I did this wouldn’t I be disobeying some commands from God, like honoring father and mother? But there it is in the Bible.

I think that you can see why I had to stop and think about this.

Stray Thoughts: What Do We Do? Follow Jesus

For the past couple of ‘Stray Thoughts’ posts, I’ve been considering our situation and what we as Christians are to be doing in response. Thus far, I’ve encouraged you to rejoice in what Jesus is doing even as you need to grieve because of the evil that He is using to accomplish His goal. That leaves one more thing for me to add to that list. We need to follow Jesus. That may sound obvious, but there is more involved in that than what many think.

So, follow Jesus. And what does that mean? I think that it would be fair to say that one common answer to that question would go something like this. We need to take the truths revealed in the Bible and apply them to life. How’s that sound? Well, to be sure, it’s true. It’s true but incomplete. And that is the source of so many problems: providing true but incomplete answers. Including what is missing makes all the difference. And that missing part is what I want to talk about.
 

Stray Thoughts: So, What Do We Do? Grieve

Last time I answered the question in my title by talking about rejoicing. I tried to be careful to make clear that rejoicing isn’t the same as being happy. It was suggested to me that I needed to say more about that before I move on to what I was planning on writing next: following Jesus. So, here I am. (And thanks to the person who made the suggestion. You know who you are.)

What I’m going to do is talk about grieving.

Stray Thoughts: So, What Do We Do? Rejoice!

So, here we are in the midst of some dramatic events going on all around us. It is a striking understatement to say that we live in a nation that is in transition. To be sure, there have been some evil things that needed to be pointed out so that they could be addressed and changed for the better. But there are some other things that are also undergoing change. And not for the better. Then, of course, there is this pandemic. Wherever we end up, when life calms down a bit, it won’t be what normal used to be.

So, here we are, Christians, in the midst of all of this upheaval. What are we to do? How are we to respond to and interact with all that is going on around us? What does faithful living to look like now? Let me offer some thoughts.

Stray Thoughts: Enough talk! Action now!

It is clear (or should be) that there is much evil all around us and that it is imperative that it be dealt with and defeated. Christians should take the lead in this. Can any among us disagree with this?

With such a need before us, it is understandable for some to raise what may seem to be an obvious question, one that should be addressed particularly to someone like me.

In light of the desperate needs that are all around us, why bother to spend the time writing about Bible verses? Action is needed, not discussions about the Bible.

It’s good that such a question be raised. In fact, it’s something that I have even asked myself. As I have considered this and discussed it in my prayers with the Father, He has given me some good answers.

Stray Thoughts: Religion

So, what is religion? Not a specific religion. Just religion. I think that most people use that word to mean something like this: a set of beliefs about a God or gods, along with certain rituals and behaviors that follow from those beliefs.

I think that most people would agree with something like that. I would like, however, to suggest an alternative definition that I think is actually a bit more helpful.

A religion is an organizing principle (along with what follows from that principle) by which a person works to understand reality. If this definition is accurate, it means that everyone has a religion, even the atheist. Everyone is, to a greater or lesser degree, religious. And I say that because everyone has some way of understanding the reality that they live in. Religion is about understanding reality.

A person’s religion is the eyeglasses through which he views reality in the hope of understanding that reality and thus being able to live in it well enough.

Stray Thoughts: Change

We live in distressing times. We hear about, and sometimes even see, wicked injustice. And we witness the responses. Some respond by protesting the evil. Others go beyond that and add to the evil.

As we consider what is going on, we find it troubling. A call for change makes sense. Life in America cannot continue like this. We will, no doubt, hear more about the need for change as election day draws near.

And yet, I think that it is important to ask, ‘What kind of change do we need? What kind of change should we seek?’ It is not enough to change some laws. It’s not even enough to change some institutions. If we are to have real change, lasting change, then it is people who must be changed. But that isn’t clear enough. Merely changing some behaviors or some habits won’t do the trick. That won’t result in real, lasting change to our world. A set of bad behaviors changed for better ones, will, in time, simply slip into a different set of bad behaviors. What is needed is change down deep, a change that will remake the heart. And that can only happen by the Gospel.

But we don’t see the Gospel doing as much deep heart-changing as one might expect after even a quick read through the New Testament. Why is that? The reason seems clear to me. The problem is the Church. If the world is going to be changed by the Gospel then what will be needed is the Church being changed by the Gospel - and that isn’t happening so much.

Stray Thoughts: Pentecost

This Sunday is Pentecost. It is on this day that the Church remembers the striking events of that first century Pentecost when the Spirit came upon the apostles. Something dramatic was happening. But what was it? Here’s one answer to that question that is common enough. This is the birthday of the Church. However, a closer look will show that that actually doesn’t work. That isn’t what is going on.

So, why do I say that? Well, the first thing to do is to be clear on what our words mean. Agreed upon definitions are always important. So, what is the Church? A common enough definition might go something like this. ‘The Church is that group of people who believe in Jesus.’ So, it’s obvious, if you define ‘Church’ in that way, that Pentecost has to be the beginning of the Church since people didn’t believe in Jesus before. How could they? He hadn’t come yet.

So, what’s wrong with that? Well, consider this question. What about those saints who lived before Jesus showed up? I’m thinking about people like Abraham, Moses, David, you know, Old Testament saints. If they didn’t believe in Jesus, then they are now in hell, right?

Stray Thoughts: Ascension Day

Tomorrow is Ascension Day. It celebrates the crowning act of Jesus' work of redemption. But for so much of my life, I attended churches that ignored this day and its significance. And that's why I want to write something about it.

What this day remembers is recorded in Acts 1.

And when [Jesus] had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. Acts 1:9

Okay. So, having finished what He came to do, Jesus goes into heaven to patiently wait there until it's time for Him to come back. Right? Well, not exactly. There's more to the story. (This is why it's important to understand any one part of Scripture in the context of other parts.)

This is what some of the rest of Scripture has to say about Jesus ascending into heaven.

[Jesus], for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:2

What is this 'seated at the right hand of the throne of God'?

Another Scripture explains by saying more.

[Jesus] has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him. 1 Peter 3:22

This 'seated' has to do somehow with authority being granted to Jesus.

This from Peter's Pentecost sermon summarizes things well.

Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. Acts 2:36

Did you catch it? Jesus has been made Lord and Christ. Something happened to change Jesus' status. At one point He wasn't Lord and Christ and then, at another point, He was made Lord and Christ. When was this? It was when He was 'seated at the right hand of the throne of God'. And as a result, Jesus can now say,

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Matthew 28:18

Ascension Day.

Now, for the money question. What difference does this make? Well, Jesus rules from the throne of God. He has 'all authority'. He is Lord over everything. And that everything includes well, everything, all of heaven and earth. So, submission to Him, in everything, is not limited to Christians. Everyone and everything is to submit to Him: every person, institution, nation, organization, government and club. Everything is to submit to Jesus as Lord.

That lays out the game plan for us. We who are Christians are to work at submitting every aspect of our lives to Him. What does He call for in this area of my life? And what about that area? How does His being Lord define my life?

But that is not all. We are also to work at getting everyone else to submit to Him. (That kind of broadens what evangelism is about, no?) And this makes sense since Jesus really is Lord - over everyone and everything.

We work at this knowing that the day will surely come when this goal will be achieved, everyone will submit to Jesus.

For this reason God highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow - in heaven and on earth and under the earth - and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:9–11

So, next time you list what Jesus has come to do, don't just refer to Jesus' birth, death and resurrection. Add His ascension to the end of that list. It really is that important.

And happy Ascension Day!

Stray Thought: How to take apart a collect

I am new to Anglicanism. The style of worship is significantly different from what I've been used to. I do find, however, that I am able to engage more emotionally with God during worship these days. And while one reason for that is that I have been changed in important ways, another is the kind of worship I now participate in, Anglican worship.

As I continue to explore Anglican worship, I have one particular guiding light that is important to me. Before I adopt a particular worship practice, I need to understand it. I need to understand the significance of what I would be doing. Without this, my worship would become empty, just going through the motions. Worship - the worship that pleases God - is, first and foremost, a matter of the heart. A heart engaged in the worship of God needs a measure of understanding.

Before I moved to Peoria, I thought about crossing myself before my personal prayers. Understanding what that signifies, I decided to adopt that habit. Each Sunday there is water at the entrance of what will, in a few moments, become the sanctuary where we will worship God. The water is for a worshipper to apply to himself before entering. This was new to me. But again, once I was able to understand what it signifies, I decided to make that a practice of mine also.

Now, I want to take all of this and apply it to something else that Anglicans do: collects. A collect is a certain kind of prayer with a certain kind of structure. I think that it can be quite helpful to take a look at what that structure is. Having done some research (Let's hear it for the internet!) this is what I found.

A collect usually has five parts.

1. Address - The prayer begins by naming the God of our worship.

2. Acknowledgement - The quality or characteristic of God is mentioned upon which the prayer request is based.

3. Petition - We ask for a specific thing that we need: guidance, forgiveness, faith, etc.

4. Aspiration - The result that we hope will come out of the granting of our petition.

5. Pleading - The prayer is said through Jesus Christ.

You can see this structure in the Prayer of Preparation that we pray.

1. Almighty God,

2. to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secrets are hid:

3. Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit,

4. that we may perfectly love you, and worthily magnify your holy Name;

5. through Christ our Lord.

My goal in writing this goes beyond simply explaining an Anglican-style prayer. I'd like to suggest that this may have lessons about your personal prayers as you consider the structure of a collect.

1. How do you understand the God whom you are addressing?

2. What is He like and what has He done for you? How does that relate to what you will request?

3. What exactly are you asking for?

4. What are you hoping for if He grants your request?

5. Do you understand how Jesus' intercession affects your prayers?

I think that some quiet meditation on questions like these can lead to a richer prayer life which, in turn, will lead to a richer relationship with the God who hears our prayers.

Stray Thoughts: Encouragement

We've all been taught about the importance of being encouraging to each other. And we've all heard Scriptures like this one to prove that it really is that important.

Therefore encourage one another with these words. 1 Thessalonians 4:18

But how are we to actually do this thing called encouragement? Too often, the default notion is that we are to somehow make the other person feel better about life. So, we'll say things like, 'It's not all that bad' or 'This too shall pass' or even something theological sounding like 'Well, God is in control'. The goal of these and other similar phrases is to minimize or even remove the sad or troubling feelings, to somehow help the person to set them aside and thus (hopefully) feel better about life.

I really don't think that that is what the Spirit had in mind when He had Paul write those words I quoted above. I actually think that encouragement is something very different. It's a matter of reminding the needy saint what is real.

There are a couple of steps to this.

The first thing is to acknowledge the evil that the person is facing. If you look at the larger context of what I quoted above, you'll see that what the saints in Thessalonica were struggling with was the death of their friends. Some Christians in that church had died, and those who remained were grief-stricken.

Here's the paragraph that Paul wrote.

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 1 Thessalonians 4:13–17

You'll note that Paul doesn't write, 'Oh, it's no big deal', following that up with some reason to ignore it all. No. Rather, he writes to them about grief, their grief. He doesn't minimize the evil that they were experiencing. (After all, they were dealing with death.) Paul acknowledges what is real.

But then, he goes on to describe more of what is real. Because they are the saints of God, they can have hope. God has promised something. He has promised that they will be reunited with their friends when Jesus returns. Paul points them to Christian hope. And such hope is simply waiting expectantly for God to keep His promise.

Doing something like this, pointing a discouraged saint to an appropriate promise, makes the battle clear. Life for the discouraged saint isn't to be a matter of somehow getting on with things, struggling into tomorrow. No. The battle is all about this question that a saint should ask himself: Do I believe this promise of God? That's the real battle. It's a battle to believe God. And seeing this will help prayers to become more focused. 'Father, grant me the ability to believe You. Grant me the ability to repent of any unbelief.'

You can see how that plays out in what Paul wanted those Thessalonian saints to do to help each other. Point each other to the promises of God and put your hope in them.

So, encouragement is about reminding a saint about reality. Yes, there is evil. We must never minimize it. It is very real. But there is also Jesus and His Gospel promises that deal with the evil that confronts us all. A Christian may have to wait for some promise to be kept, but knowing that Jesus will deal with whatever that saint is facing will encourage him to keep on going even in the midst of evil and the pains it brings.

Stray Thoughts: Faith and Hope

I am a word nerd. So, I think that it's so very important to be clear about the words that we use to understand life. Here are a couple of words that I think you need to be clear on. 

Faith: Accepting as true all that God says and acting on it. 

Here are two things to notice from that definition: 

Faith does not pick and choose what to believe from the Bible. It accepts all that God says. And, in fact, it is important to include all that God has said relative to a particular topic so that you can understand that topic accurately and thus live well. So, just to take one example, it is important to accept as true the fact that God has decided everything about your life before you were born AND the fact that you can make real choices for which God will hold you accountable. God speaks both facts.

Faith is more than accepting something as true. Satan accepts all of the Gospel as true. That 'faith' is worthless. And, sadly, that is the kind of 'faith' that too many have. A real faith, one that actually connects to Jesus, is very different. Real faith acts. So, when the Spirit points a saint to some aspect of the Gospel He wants that Christian to work on, real faith responds with action. Some shy away from that kind of faith because putting the truth into action can be very demanding. But Jesus warned us about that, didn't He?

 Hope: Hope is waiting for God to keep a promise. 

Here's a promise for you to hold on to as you grow older. 

Listen to me, house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been sustained by Me from the womb, carried along since birth. I will be the same until your old age, and I will bear you up when you turn gray. I have made you, and I will carry you; I will bear and rescue you. Isaiah 46:3-4

Prayer: Is it worth a shot?

So, the forlorn sailor, stranded on some desert island, writes a letter describing his plight, puts it in a bottle, seals the bottle and then tosses the bottle into the sea in the hope that someone will find it and will come to rescue him. Who knows what will happen, but it's worth a shot.

I suspect that that image describes what prayer is for too many people. They pray about life but who knows if their pleas will be answered. Sometimes they are, but other times they aren't. Now, no one will actually say that their prayers are anything like this, but for so many this is exactly what they are.

But that can't be what prayer is about.

A better image would be a conversation. Two people talking. First, one says something and the other responds to that. Then, it's back to the first one to respond. Prayer is a conversation between the Father and one of His saints. And if there is a lull in the conversation - by either party - it is best to see that as a pause in the speaking because time is being given to thinking how best to respond. But both know that the conversation will be continued.

Disappointments

Life is filled with - defined by? - disappointments; what could have been but is not. There are the large disappointments. For me, that means the many ways in which I was not as good a husband to my wife as I could have been, along with the fact that she is no longer here. And then, there are the little disappointments, everyday sorts of things. These aren’t about large issues, but are rather little annoyances, pebbles that find their way into your shoe. And every life – even every day – has its fill of such things.

It is trying to ignore these disappointments that is an impediment to Christians living well, Christians developing into pious people. Ignoring the reality of our situation encourages us to hope for more than what this life can deliver. It is an impediment to letting this life go in the hope of gaining the next which is far better, a time and a place where there are no disappointments.

​Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Jesus

A Stray Thought

During a walk this week I was thinking about how I have been feeling about things and the notion of weariness came into view. As I thought about it, a sense of weariness makes sense. Life for me is dealing with my sin, trying to help others deal with their sin, dealing with desires that are good and right but unmet, and longing for the age to come when all of this 'dealing with …' will be over.

This is when a verse that I have known and used more than a few times came to mind.

And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. Galatians 6.9

And with the verse came this thought: Am I sinning by being weary? And I 'growing weary of doing good'? I decided to take a closer look at the verse, especially what the Greek word translated 'weary' was all about. I came up with this. The basic idea of that Greek word is 'to be discouraged'. It shows up only 5 times in the New Testament. Here's one of those times in the ESV.

And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. Luke 18:1

Our word is here translated 'lose heart'. And it is translated that way (in the ESV) three of the five times it shows up.

I found this heartening. Paul's point is not that we should never feel tired of the effort it takes to live faithfully in this fallen world. His point is that we should never give up. I rather think that feeling a measure of weariness is an indicator that we are actually doing something right. Living faithfully now is hard. It should tire us out. But we should never quit. After all, 'in due season we will reap'.