Monthly Archives: October 2014
Why Are We Afraid of Intimacy With God?
Discussion and Devotional Thoughts of the Day:
11 I will live among you in my sacred Tent, and I will never turn away from you. 12 I will be with you; I will be your God, and you will be my people. Leviticus 26:11-12 (TEV)
What does it mean to have a god? or, what is God? Answer: A god means that from which we are to expect all good and to which we are to take refuge in all distress, so that to have a God is nothing else than to trust and believe Him from the [whole] heart; as I have often said that the confidence and faith of the heart alone make both God and an idol. (1)
78 Heroism, sanctity, daring, require a constant spiritual preparation. You can only ever give to others what you already have. And, to give God to them, you yourself need to get to know him, to live his Life, to serve him. (2)
I have pondered why the church is anemic in America.
We have incredible theologians, great exegetes, and emphasis on apologetics. We have Church Growth studies and strategies, church planters, church restorers, more seminaries than anywhere else in the world.
Yet the church in America still is in decline. It is so bad now, that we actually have experts in church viability, and strategies to close churches. The key phrase these days is a legacy church – a church which realizes it isn’t viable, and therefore determines how to will its assets to something that will live and thrive.
We’e forgotten His promises, we’ve forgotten that this faith we have, is faith in those promises, a trust that is based in not knowing about God
A trust not founded in theological treatises, or exegeting the word skuballw correctly, or in knowing which studies to use to understand a church, or which programs might work in which context. It’s a trust that isn’t dependent on using a 14th century liturgy, (or one from a red, blue or maroon hymnal) or haing the right contemporary service order. All these things are tools, they can be used in our churches, But we never, ever dare put our trust in them. They are not what we count on, they are not whom we believe on, and they will let us down.
It is a trust that comes from knowing God, and knowing Him intimately.
It is then we can study His promises and claim those promises (not promises we or others create) as His promises to us.
But it still isn’t about the promises. They are incredible, they are awesome… but our faith isn’t in them.
It is in Him.
It is in realize that He lives with us, in us, that He has come to us, and saved us, cleansed us, is healing us, and is shepherding us, His church, that we come to know Him. Yes, intimately, and we know He knows us more intimately that we will ever know ourselves. It was that knowledge that caused Him to comes to us, to die for us, for in knowing us, He loves us, and we… amazed, in awe, begin to learn to love Him back.
That love of His for us is what makes us holy.. It is what drives missionaries and martyrs. It’s what makes grandma’s and great aunt’s pray for their prodigals on their knees, It is what makes all the heroes of the faith trust in God in their darkest hour. It is what is causing the church in the “third world” or the Global South, to grow in the face of persecution, in the face of famine, in the face of spiritual warfare.
It’s time we remembered that…. its times we shared that, in chruches, and restaurants, in our homes, our workplaces.
God is with us. God loves us… and share the extent of that love.
(1) The Large Catechism of Martin Luther.
(2) Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). The Forge (Kindle Locations 493-495). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Simul Iustus Et Peccator (simultaneously justified and sinner) Not a Justifiable reason for sinning
Devotional?Discussion THought of the Day:
30 And do not make God’s Holy Spirit sad; for the Spirit is God’s mark of ownership on you, a guarantee that the Day will come when God will set you free. Ephesians 4:30 (TEV)
1 What shall we say, then? Should we continue to live in sin so that God’s grace will increase? 2 Certainly not! We have died to sin—how then can we go on living in it? 3 For surely you know that when we were baptized into union with Christ Jesus, we were baptized into union with his death. Romans 6:1-3 (TEV)
12 So then, dear friends, as you always obeyed me when I was with you, it is even more important that you obey me now while I am away from you. Keep on working with fear and trembling to complete your salvation, 13 because God is always at work in you to make you willing and able to obey his own purpose. Philippians 2:12-13 (TEV)
20 God has raised from death our Lord Jesus, who is the Great Shepherd of the sheep as the result of his blood, by which the eternal covenant is sealed. May the God of peace provide you with every good thing you need in order to do his will, and may he, through Jesus Christ, do in us what pleases him. And to Christ be the glory forever and ever! Amen. Hebrews 13:20 (TEV)
59 If you respond to the call the Lord has made to you, your life—your poor life!—will leave a deep and wide furrow in the history of the human race, a clear and fertile furrow, eternal and godly.
In the last month I’ve seen an alarming trend. It is what I call the “Romans 7 defense”
People defending their sin, and even their intent to sin, by quoting the passage about the things we don’t want to do we, do, the things we do want to do, we don’t. They stop there, They don’t admit that being in that situation is a wretched, horrible, and wrong.
I’m a sinner, I can’t help it, so why should I?
Ill just go on as if nothing ever happened, and being a wretch is our normal state. Right? “It’s just the way I am wired….” (funny, that excuse doesn’t fly for the sins we aren’t as appreciative of…) Or the new favorite (said by at least 3 people recently) “I just don’t have a filter”
While they would deny trying to justify themselves, they will try an excuse themselves from their sin. After all, it isn’t murder, or perversion, or gossip. Or I will here, “well I know its wrong, but it is not as wrong as xxx”. The basic line, is a claim that since we can’t save ourselves, we don’t have to struggle to live as saints, right? Those considered theologians will argue that there is no “3rd use” of the law. Why is it, we want to make not just the norm of the Christian life, but the goal, a life of wretchedness?
But Scripture teaches differently, it calls us to have a mind like Christ Jesus. Scripture reminds us of being bound to Christ, by being transformed by the Spirit. It instructs us that we are given the desire and the power to leave God pleasing lives. The author of Hebrews even makes that his parting blessing.
Why would these passages, and so many more in the Epistles and the OT prophets, describe a life lived in love and peace, if God just was satisfied with sin-dominated lives?
Why not live life where we are not satisfied with the wretchedness. Where like Paul we recognize the struggle, and then focus our attention on His work in our lives. Cleansing, Healing Justifying, Indwelling, Empowering a life where we have that attitude of Christ.
He broke the bonds of sin, why do we settle for staying in the prison?
The way out of this isn’t disciplining ourselves to stop sinning. The answer isn’t found in having an accountability partner, (those can help) or even knowing God’s mercy will cover those sins. The way to hear the author of Hebrews prayer for you to be answered is simple, keep hearing of God’s love, His mercy, His faithfulness. Strive to be aware of the Holy Spirit’s actie presence in your life, know Christ’s presence as well.
Grieve over your sin, and that of the world, and look to Christ, where there is no condemnation, but there is mercy and love.
Live in Christ Jesus.
And when sin, confess and be cleansed….. but look to Christ for the power not to sin anymore….
(1) Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). The Forge (Kindle Locations 436-438). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
The Lord is With You? What you say matters….?
Devotional Thought of the Day:
45 A good person brings good out of the treasure of good things in his heart; a bad person brings bad out of his treasure of bad things. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. Luke 6:45 (TEV)
7 LORD, you have deceived me, and I was deceived. You are stronger than I am, and you have overpowered me. 9 But when I say, “I will forget the LORD and no longer speak in his name,” then your message is like a fire burning deep within me. I try my best to hold it in, but can no longer keep it back. Jeremiah 20:7a,9 (TEV)
26 It is painful to see that after two thousand years there are so few people in the world who call themselves Christians and that of those who do call themselves Christians, so few practise the true teaching of Jesus Christ. It is worth while putting our whole life at stake!: working and suffering for Love, to accomplish God’s plans and co-redeem.(1)
I hear people claiming they know God, that they invited Him into their heart, that respond, “and also with you” or “and with your Spirit. I do as well, and yes, this blog is written at me, as well as many of you.
If this is true, an I read the first quote from St. Luke’s Gospel correctly, then what should flow out of our mouths should be Christ Jesus’s words. Words that encourage, words that heal, words that forgive and reconcile, words that invite people on a journey with Christ, towards the Father, towards eternity.
But what comes out of our mouth more often is complaining, criticising, lofty words that extol theological treatises, but never point to Christ. Words that are full of innuendo, cheaping the blessing that God gives in the intimate relationship between a man a woman that He has joined together in marriage. Words that lie, or gossip (is there a difference?) the demean, or dominate. Curses, swears, false oaths. Words dripping with sarcasm, not realizing the blood those words can draw. Words that not only judge, but condemn and call for death to those whose sins are different than us. Words that betray a heart that doesn’t trust in anything, nevermind praising God for the promises He is fulfilling in our lives.
When I was a younger pastor, I would suggest that we just need to be disciplined. That we struggle to be righteous in our words by simply a force of will. Except that I didn’t quite get that the words are but a symptom of a heart and soul issue. We might be able to discipline our tongues in some things like word choice (though we will slip out now and then…) But what about our thoughts, our attitudes, and what we truly trust in? Those still will betray us unless there is a change.
Unless our souls, our hearts, our minds find themselves being conformed to the mind of Christ. Unless we see the cross, and its suffering that Christ embraced as an example of His love and desire for us. It is there, in awe of the Body of Christ broken, the blood of Christ shed for the forgiveness of sins, that change begins to happen. It is as we realize that God has marked us, claimed us, sealed us as His in Baptism, that He has reconciled and absolved us in sin. That the Father in Heaven calls us His children, that Jesus will call us His brothers, that the Holy Spirit will reside in us; this is when this transformation, this metamorphosis happens.
it is them, like St Josemaria encourages, that we begin to desire to put our whole life on the line, and work and sacrifice in ways without even considering that it is work, that it is sacrificing our lives. It is then, tired, weary, even burnt out, that what comes from our hearts, souls and minds are the words of God. The miraculous words that bring to Him a people, who weren’t a people.
The Lord is with you always, dwell on that, recognize its truth, meditate on the blessing that is, a blessing revealed in God’s word, and delivered in the sacraments.
The Lord is with you…and He has brought you many gifts, the gift of faith, and the gift of repentance, the gift of reconciliation, the gift of life. ….
The Lord is with you, showing you the depth, the height, the width and breadth of God’s love you…. dwell on this, as often as you can……and then watch what happens to your words, and your thoughts.
The Lord is with you…
AMEN!
(1) Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). The Forge (Kindle Locations 329-333). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
