Recently, it came to my attention that there was some conflict amongst some people I knew at church, and it spilled into what could be characteristically called - a blog war. Accusations, sniping and who knows what else was thrown on each side. To date, it still has not been resolved.
One of the good and bad things about the internet is that it has given voice to the dienfranchised. If I feel wronged, I blog, email, twit about it. Far more effective than making 100 phone calls or writing 100 letters (and a lot cheaper too). The problem here is the phrase "If I feel wronged"
Rather than talk about that. Let me point to the Word of God as usual (yes, yes, I know..we Calvinists always go on and on about the Word). Throughout the story of the Bible, it has been one of humanity feeling 'wronged'. Eve feel wronged for being duped by the serpent. Adam felt wronged by being sucked in by his wife. I bet both of them felt wronged when God gave them marching orders out of Eden. Cain felt done in by Abel, then did him in. Esau - done in by his deceitful brother Jacob. The list goes on...
History is one whole litany of man feeling he's been 'wronged'. Well, sorry, my Oprah sensitised touchy-feely people..there's only one who's been 'wronged' here - and it's God. Somehow or another, from day 1, we have been the abject failure of whatever it is we were supposed to be. We kill with words, then objects, or both. Hate, discord and greed is what we are best at sowing, not seeds of grace and love
And then we committed the ultimate wrong - we sent the Son of Man to the Cross.
Yes, you, chum. With your filthy, sick sins. You and I might as well have pounded the nails into his hands, or picked up the scourge to whip and tear his flesh. We are stand condemmned; and rightly so.
However, Jesus, the only man to have been wronged by every person in existence, bore the wrath that was due to us and took our sins. He who was justifiably wronged and should have exacted just retribution to us for our inquities gave his life for us instead. What grace..what mercy..what humanity. The truest sense of it. And beyond.
In finality, I am not saying that we shouldn't seek justice, resolution, reconciliation or dialogue. All of those things under the banner of Christ is all good. Damn good. What I am leaving you with is this - there is a bigger picture, and it goes beyond some bits of jottings on a blog. We should all seek to remember that, including me
SDG
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
At times, I have asked why I nit-pick over certain points or words in the Bible. I suppose it is a sign of the times that this current generation seems to eschew the practice of careful thorough analysis, as opposed to a cursory reading with an emphasis on the subjective experiential result at the end. Their feeling is: “ Why do you want to argue so much, I mean, can’t we all just stick to John 3:16, hold hands and sing ‘Kumbaya’?”
Unfortunately, I would call them out of their own hypocrisy. They say that words don’t really matter. Really? Ask your girlfriend or boyfriend how they felt about you. And if they said they ‘liked’ you when they meant they ‘loved’ you or vice-versa, can you see how much confusion and grievance that could possibly cost? Words, and their correct definition and placement within a context are tremendously important, and no more so than in God’s Word
One word that, by the grace of God, has made a comeback is “Propitiation”. It is not a word that we use very much any more but one that is vitally important in understanding the whole message of the Gospel. To ‘propitiate’ is to make a sacrifice to avert some form of judgement, wrath or anger. It is a word used to describe the conciliatory and atoning sacrifices made in order to avoid a divine punishment.
In recent times, this word was seen as primitive and not representative of what a ‘loving’ God should look like. So, it is no wonder that as some translations of the Bible omitted the aforementioned word, and used the term ‘expiate’ instead. This was seen in the New English Bible, where it is mentioned:
“ For God designed him to be the means of expiating sin by his sacrificial death, effective through faith. God meant by this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had overlooked the sins of the past..” ( Romans 3:25 : NEB )
What is the difference? To ‘expiate’ means that sin is removed, or put out. The root word ‘ex-’ is the same as the one used in words like ‘extinguish’ and ‘exhale’. Is a wrong word to describe God’s saving grace? No. Christ’s death on the cross indeed cancelled the debt of sin over us. It was redemptive in the removal the sin curse.
Is the word sufficient? No. It hardly does justice in depicting the real nature of his death. In using the word ‘propitiation’, as seen in the ESV translation below, we finally see that Christ’s death did not just remove the sin debt, but also appeased the wrath of God who previously had judged us all as sinners worthy only of receiving death. It also depicts that the very act of sending his own son is a testament to his loving grace and mercy and also characteristic of God as a just being. It is crucial that we see this, otherwise our depiction of God will be a one dimensional, mono-perspective one and our whole understanding of the Gospel will have been built on shaky foundations
“ whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance, he has passed over former sins.” ( Romans 3:25 : ESV )
‘Expiation’ is insufficient because it does not refer to the satisfaction or appeasement of God’s wrath, turning it to favour. God’s righteous anger needs to be appeased before sin can be forgiven (note the sequence), and God in his love sent his Son (who offered himself willingly) to satisfy God’s holy anger against sin. In this way, God demonstrates his righteousness, which here refers to his inate nature of being holy, and just.
Thus, one word is of matter of grave importance. At the very heart is the nature of salvation itself, and if one lacks a proper understanding of it, one does not have the correct understanding of God. It is that important, and it is that serious
SDG
Unfortunately, I would call them out of their own hypocrisy. They say that words don’t really matter. Really? Ask your girlfriend or boyfriend how they felt about you. And if they said they ‘liked’ you when they meant they ‘loved’ you or vice-versa, can you see how much confusion and grievance that could possibly cost? Words, and their correct definition and placement within a context are tremendously important, and no more so than in God’s Word
One word that, by the grace of God, has made a comeback is “Propitiation”. It is not a word that we use very much any more but one that is vitally important in understanding the whole message of the Gospel. To ‘propitiate’ is to make a sacrifice to avert some form of judgement, wrath or anger. It is a word used to describe the conciliatory and atoning sacrifices made in order to avoid a divine punishment.
In recent times, this word was seen as primitive and not representative of what a ‘loving’ God should look like. So, it is no wonder that as some translations of the Bible omitted the aforementioned word, and used the term ‘expiate’ instead. This was seen in the New English Bible, where it is mentioned:
“ For God designed him to be the means of expiating sin by his sacrificial death, effective through faith. God meant by this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had overlooked the sins of the past..” ( Romans 3:25 : NEB )
What is the difference? To ‘expiate’ means that sin is removed, or put out. The root word ‘ex-’ is the same as the one used in words like ‘extinguish’ and ‘exhale’. Is a wrong word to describe God’s saving grace? No. Christ’s death on the cross indeed cancelled the debt of sin over us. It was redemptive in the removal the sin curse.
Is the word sufficient? No. It hardly does justice in depicting the real nature of his death. In using the word ‘propitiation’, as seen in the ESV translation below, we finally see that Christ’s death did not just remove the sin debt, but also appeased the wrath of God who previously had judged us all as sinners worthy only of receiving death. It also depicts that the very act of sending his own son is a testament to his loving grace and mercy and also characteristic of God as a just being. It is crucial that we see this, otherwise our depiction of God will be a one dimensional, mono-perspective one and our whole understanding of the Gospel will have been built on shaky foundations
“ whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance, he has passed over former sins.” ( Romans 3:25 : ESV )
‘Expiation’ is insufficient because it does not refer to the satisfaction or appeasement of God’s wrath, turning it to favour. God’s righteous anger needs to be appeased before sin can be forgiven (note the sequence), and God in his love sent his Son (who offered himself willingly) to satisfy God’s holy anger against sin. In this way, God demonstrates his righteousness, which here refers to his inate nature of being holy, and just.
Thus, one word is of matter of grave importance. At the very heart is the nature of salvation itself, and if one lacks a proper understanding of it, one does not have the correct understanding of God. It is that important, and it is that serious
SDG
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Chicken or beef, sir?
Picture this:
You're at your wonderful, large comfortable middle class church with numerous programs. You've got programmes coming out of the wazoo. And all of them look good. Maybe a worship workshop? How about a power prayer seminar? Or maybe a retreat for some spiritual invigoration? Sounds good, right?
Decisions, decisions. Choice after choice
And yet..all so wrong
When you are faced with alternatives, and all those alternatives look good - how do you choose? I mean, it's not as though I've a choice between church or drugs, right? They are all 'spiritual' and 'godly' choices
Oh,oh..my normal readers (about 1 or 2 in the world..:-) )know that when I start using quotation marks, I'm about to get snarky, and they would be right
Listen very carefully:
If you choose what your heart is telling you to..chances are...it's the wrong choice.
Remember what it says in Jeremiah: "The Heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick. Who can understand it?" (Jeremiah 17:9 ESV )
Your choice should be the one thing that you find boring, painful, a chore you wrestle with and the very thing you fear
For most people in church, it's serious Bible study. The one with no jokes, no trendy topics and dazzling music or video. Just you, a Bible and God. That's it.
I have seen the most spiritual looking and sounding people suddenly go weak at the mention of reading the Bible seriously. I have seen the same people in worship, raise their hands in glorious ecstasy to the King of Kings, promise that they will go to the ends of the earth for their Lord and fall to their knees in supplication..
..but they will not pick up his Word to know him better. His very precious divine word that has come through millenia, literal blood, sweat and tears and now is neatly bound in leather and sits in front of us in an airconditioned study room at church. We will not touch it.
Why? I've been asking over the weeks. Why is that?
Paul knew the answer, and it is a sobering one indeed:
" For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.."
( 2 Timothy 4:3 ESV )
Think about that for this week
SDG
You're at your wonderful, large comfortable middle class church with numerous programs. You've got programmes coming out of the wazoo. And all of them look good. Maybe a worship workshop? How about a power prayer seminar? Or maybe a retreat for some spiritual invigoration? Sounds good, right?
Decisions, decisions. Choice after choice
And yet..all so wrong
When you are faced with alternatives, and all those alternatives look good - how do you choose? I mean, it's not as though I've a choice between church or drugs, right? They are all 'spiritual' and 'godly' choices
Oh,oh..my normal readers (about 1 or 2 in the world..:-) )know that when I start using quotation marks, I'm about to get snarky, and they would be right
Listen very carefully:
If you choose what your heart is telling you to..chances are...it's the wrong choice.
Remember what it says in Jeremiah: "The Heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick. Who can understand it?" (Jeremiah 17:9 ESV )
Your choice should be the one thing that you find boring, painful, a chore you wrestle with and the very thing you fear
For most people in church, it's serious Bible study. The one with no jokes, no trendy topics and dazzling music or video. Just you, a Bible and God. That's it.
I have seen the most spiritual looking and sounding people suddenly go weak at the mention of reading the Bible seriously. I have seen the same people in worship, raise their hands in glorious ecstasy to the King of Kings, promise that they will go to the ends of the earth for their Lord and fall to their knees in supplication..
..but they will not pick up his Word to know him better. His very precious divine word that has come through millenia, literal blood, sweat and tears and now is neatly bound in leather and sits in front of us in an airconditioned study room at church. We will not touch it.
Why? I've been asking over the weeks. Why is that?
Paul knew the answer, and it is a sobering one indeed:
" For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.."
( 2 Timothy 4:3 ESV )
Think about that for this week
SDG
Monday, June 29, 2009
Really Radical Youth - Part 2
Imagine a youth who is well behaved, polite and properly attired. Someone who listens and obeys their parents. Works as a volunteer at church and social organisations on the weekends. What would you call him or her?
An oddball. A freak. A nerd.
Can we just take a breath and a pause to reflect on what has happened to our perception of moral values and cultural mores? The absurdity of taking what looks to be a more biblical model for behaviour and saying that it is out of the norm? We sometimes need to step back and take a look in the mirror to see how warped we've become, because we have accepted the lowest common denominator of social behaviour, applied the weakest of standards to our youth, and deemed it okay; even worth developing
It is the equivalent of giving everyone an 'A' because we don't want to damage their precious self esteem.
I see this in many instances. When a youth event is Bible study, hardly anyone turns up. When it is a 'fun' event involving worship, food and what-not; the place is filled to the brim. The watchwords of this age are fun, good feelings and being happy. To which I say: Beware - these will not get you the Kingdom of God.
Look, I don't have just classical music on my iPod. Nor do I dress like someone out of 'Revenge of the Nerds'. What's on the outside doesn't always reflect the inside but it is folly to suppose that there is no connection between the two whatsoever. You are what you eat. You dress and behave the way you feel and think. Perhaps, we need to think about that a little and check the way we portray ourselves to the world.
I gauge it very simply. Whenever I drop my 89-year old grandmother at church on Sunday, hardly anyone ever bothers to open my car door to help her out. They just walk by caught in their own little world. So, really , there is nothing radical about our faith when this happens, nothing radical about our church and nothing radical about our people
To paraphrase a song, 'We are the World', and that is a sad indictment indeed according to biblical standards
An oddball. A freak. A nerd.
Can we just take a breath and a pause to reflect on what has happened to our perception of moral values and cultural mores? The absurdity of taking what looks to be a more biblical model for behaviour and saying that it is out of the norm? We sometimes need to step back and take a look in the mirror to see how warped we've become, because we have accepted the lowest common denominator of social behaviour, applied the weakest of standards to our youth, and deemed it okay; even worth developing
It is the equivalent of giving everyone an 'A' because we don't want to damage their precious self esteem.
I see this in many instances. When a youth event is Bible study, hardly anyone turns up. When it is a 'fun' event involving worship, food and what-not; the place is filled to the brim. The watchwords of this age are fun, good feelings and being happy. To which I say: Beware - these will not get you the Kingdom of God.
Look, I don't have just classical music on my iPod. Nor do I dress like someone out of 'Revenge of the Nerds'. What's on the outside doesn't always reflect the inside but it is folly to suppose that there is no connection between the two whatsoever. You are what you eat. You dress and behave the way you feel and think. Perhaps, we need to think about that a little and check the way we portray ourselves to the world.
I gauge it very simply. Whenever I drop my 89-year old grandmother at church on Sunday, hardly anyone ever bothers to open my car door to help her out. They just walk by caught in their own little world. So, really , there is nothing radical about our faith when this happens, nothing radical about our church and nothing radical about our people
To paraphrase a song, 'We are the World', and that is a sad indictment indeed according to biblical standards
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Really Radical Youth - Part 1
This is a follow up to my previous post on Radical Youth Ministry. Some questions were posed to me once when I mentioned the example of Mark Dever's youth ministry at his church. Primary among them was : " Is it really possible that these kind of youth exist?"
You see, the problem with youth these days is that we are prepared to accept the lowest common denominator from them in terms of behaviour and attitude. Adults have already inwardly typecasted them as rude, rebellious self-centered individuals with a short attention span. But, so as not to alienate them or make them worse; they obligingly pander to these characteristics by giving them at church the music they want to hear, the topics they think they can relate to and the latitude to dress in the manner that they choose to.
What poppycock.
It is not that I think the youth today do not display all those aforementioned characteristics. They do. I did, when I was young. At times, I stil do. But the answer does not lie in mere capitulation to the mores and ways of the world and admit defeat in the cultural wars. This does not mean locking citadel doors and bringing up the drawbridge over the moat as well. You can't effectively shut out the world, even if you were Amish. But you can engage it from a Christian perspective and win; especially if your base is Biblical
What do I mean? Let's take an example.
Now I can tell you to turn off the TV when hot chicks on MTV in skimpy outfits start prancing around in a Jay Z vid. But that doesn't really work. Nor will browbeating you with Christian alternatives. I've known people who started lusting after singers on the Christian Contemporary Music scene just because that's all they were able to see and listen to. It doesn't make it any holier or rightheous; it's just transference
The key is to apply good, solid biblical teaching on this issue. I would talk about a simple issue; why are those dancers on MTV dressed in hardly anything at all? You mean they can't dress in a full dress and dance? In fact, why do they have to dance like that? And furthermore, what are those lyrics about? Why is it always about ho's and bling? Pardon the street vernacular.
In short, a process of enquiry through the whole issue will reveal certain points.
1) You're being manipulated hook, line and sinker by media companies and a greedy system
2) The singer and dancers don't care two-hoots about your wellbeing or love you. They really don't. They just want you to buy their CD's
3) My weaknesses are being exploited. How do you feel about that?
All this comes about because the Word of God makes one think differently about how the world is viewed. It's not an amazing revelation. It's a Biblical one because somewhere along the line, the Word of God has been used for teaching, exhorting and guidance in it's proper context.
A youth who subscribes to that view is not going to be the same. His or her world will slowly turn upside down, and they will start on the path to be really radical. But more about that in part 2.
You see, the problem with youth these days is that we are prepared to accept the lowest common denominator from them in terms of behaviour and attitude. Adults have already inwardly typecasted them as rude, rebellious self-centered individuals with a short attention span. But, so as not to alienate them or make them worse; they obligingly pander to these characteristics by giving them at church the music they want to hear, the topics they think they can relate to and the latitude to dress in the manner that they choose to.
What poppycock.
It is not that I think the youth today do not display all those aforementioned characteristics. They do. I did, when I was young. At times, I stil do. But the answer does not lie in mere capitulation to the mores and ways of the world and admit defeat in the cultural wars. This does not mean locking citadel doors and bringing up the drawbridge over the moat as well. You can't effectively shut out the world, even if you were Amish. But you can engage it from a Christian perspective and win; especially if your base is Biblical
What do I mean? Let's take an example.
Now I can tell you to turn off the TV when hot chicks on MTV in skimpy outfits start prancing around in a Jay Z vid. But that doesn't really work. Nor will browbeating you with Christian alternatives. I've known people who started lusting after singers on the Christian Contemporary Music scene just because that's all they were able to see and listen to. It doesn't make it any holier or rightheous; it's just transference
The key is to apply good, solid biblical teaching on this issue. I would talk about a simple issue; why are those dancers on MTV dressed in hardly anything at all? You mean they can't dress in a full dress and dance? In fact, why do they have to dance like that? And furthermore, what are those lyrics about? Why is it always about ho's and bling? Pardon the street vernacular.
In short, a process of enquiry through the whole issue will reveal certain points.
1) You're being manipulated hook, line and sinker by media companies and a greedy system
2) The singer and dancers don't care two-hoots about your wellbeing or love you. They really don't. They just want you to buy their CD's
3) My weaknesses are being exploited. How do you feel about that?
All this comes about because the Word of God makes one think differently about how the world is viewed. It's not an amazing revelation. It's a Biblical one because somewhere along the line, the Word of God has been used for teaching, exhorting and guidance in it's proper context.
A youth who subscribes to that view is not going to be the same. His or her world will slowly turn upside down, and they will start on the path to be really radical. But more about that in part 2.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Really Radical Youth Ministry - another perspective
When a nationally renowned and respected youth worker in the U.S one day paid a visit to Mark Dever's Capitol Hill Baptist church youth program in Washington D.C. he was shocked. They were studying Wayne Grudem's "Systematic Theology" quietly and earnestly and discussing the subject of the atonement on the book of Romans
He admitted a little embarassedly that at his church, he had to rely on all the normal stereotypical elements to keep the youth interested in church; loud music, games, drama skits, exciting topical sermons etc. When he asked Pastor Dever about what special planning he instituted to get the youth to be like this, and what program he put in place - this was his response:
" I have 150 youth doing bible study on a Saturday afternoon and after that, we sing hymns written by people who have been dead for over a 100 years. And you ask me if I planned this? "
The ironic point here is that we have been conditioned to believe that the youth of today cannot take bible study, that the old techniques are passe. And we need a new approach, radical ideas and constantly changing techniques to keep them interested. Thus, a whole new industry based on keeping the youth in church has surfaced. And it is based on the premise that youth today have short attention spans, an incapacity to digest complex and tedious information and are inclined to the experential rather than the intellectual.
Mark Dever's approach takes the opposite approach, and it is a uniquely Calvinist one. God is sovereign. He does not need to pander to you, or study you. You need to study him. And worship him reverentially.
Thus, the program (if I may call it so), has the paramount aim of going back to the basic fundamentals of knowing God through his primary source; The Bible. All other stuff is then built on it. How different this is from the modern day church where it is the other way around. We design our activities first, then fit the Bible around it, or as an afterthought.
I admit that as a one time youth counsellor, I have been guilty of doing that. In an effort to keep the youth interested, I had committed the gross sin of putting God into the background, and then wondered why the program was ineffective. But there was this great fear that every counsellor felt, that if they did what Mark did, then the youth would find it boring, irrelevant and leave for another more fun church
In the end, I realised that if this was the case, then so be it. The Word says : "The heart is deceitful above all else, who can understand it". We have made the classic error of thinking that the heart is essentially not-too-bad, and that if we tweak it through some cool church programs; the youth will see that Jesus is the way to go.
Not so. The heart is deceitful. Mine, yours and that seemingly innocent kid in your youth group. All of us deserve God's wrath, and would surely get it if not for his amazing and salvific grace. That is the failure of modern programs. Man, or in this case, the youth is placed first, not God. I don't care these days if your youth assembly is growing by the multitudes or even if they are laughing and crying in the streets. If God is not primary, all is secondary and an illusion; no matter how real it seems
I don't know whether the youth worker went back to his church and instituted a program like that. More than likely, he would have been shouted down by the church board and deemed a heretic for curtailing their 'dynamic' youth ministry. I hope not but I am not too optimistic. Which is why I still pray for really radical youth ministry like Mark Dever's to have more followers, and more truly radical youth to follow
SDG
He admitted a little embarassedly that at his church, he had to rely on all the normal stereotypical elements to keep the youth interested in church; loud music, games, drama skits, exciting topical sermons etc. When he asked Pastor Dever about what special planning he instituted to get the youth to be like this, and what program he put in place - this was his response:
" I have 150 youth doing bible study on a Saturday afternoon and after that, we sing hymns written by people who have been dead for over a 100 years. And you ask me if I planned this? "
The ironic point here is that we have been conditioned to believe that the youth of today cannot take bible study, that the old techniques are passe. And we need a new approach, radical ideas and constantly changing techniques to keep them interested. Thus, a whole new industry based on keeping the youth in church has surfaced. And it is based on the premise that youth today have short attention spans, an incapacity to digest complex and tedious information and are inclined to the experential rather than the intellectual.
Mark Dever's approach takes the opposite approach, and it is a uniquely Calvinist one. God is sovereign. He does not need to pander to you, or study you. You need to study him. And worship him reverentially.
Thus, the program (if I may call it so), has the paramount aim of going back to the basic fundamentals of knowing God through his primary source; The Bible. All other stuff is then built on it. How different this is from the modern day church where it is the other way around. We design our activities first, then fit the Bible around it, or as an afterthought.
I admit that as a one time youth counsellor, I have been guilty of doing that. In an effort to keep the youth interested, I had committed the gross sin of putting God into the background, and then wondered why the program was ineffective. But there was this great fear that every counsellor felt, that if they did what Mark did, then the youth would find it boring, irrelevant and leave for another more fun church
In the end, I realised that if this was the case, then so be it. The Word says : "The heart is deceitful above all else, who can understand it". We have made the classic error of thinking that the heart is essentially not-too-bad, and that if we tweak it through some cool church programs; the youth will see that Jesus is the way to go.
Not so. The heart is deceitful. Mine, yours and that seemingly innocent kid in your youth group. All of us deserve God's wrath, and would surely get it if not for his amazing and salvific grace. That is the failure of modern programs. Man, or in this case, the youth is placed first, not God. I don't care these days if your youth assembly is growing by the multitudes or even if they are laughing and crying in the streets. If God is not primary, all is secondary and an illusion; no matter how real it seems
I don't know whether the youth worker went back to his church and instituted a program like that. More than likely, he would have been shouted down by the church board and deemed a heretic for curtailing their 'dynamic' youth ministry. I hope not but I am not too optimistic. Which is why I still pray for really radical youth ministry like Mark Dever's to have more followers, and more truly radical youth to follow
SDG
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Take a break before it really breaks
Imagine this. Maybe you've had a series of spritual highs in the past. Been to 50 church camps in a row, sang Hillsong till you dream the lyrics and read the Bible back to front - what, only 66 books?!? ). Along the way, you've told anyone and everyone about the gospel, your nickname is Hudson Taylor and your parents are already packing your bags to the seminary
But now you're frustrated. Your spiritual life seems to be stuck in neutral gear, your haven't opened your Bible in a while and prayer seems to be something said just to get it over and done with. What do you do?
Nothing. That's what
When I gave this advice to a friend of mine, I bet he thought I was the anti-Christ (Sinner! You want to stumble me!!! ) Surely I should have been exhorting him to pray more, sing harder, read more books, get more involved in church. Was I being a stumbling block?
No, I was trying to be a friend
Take it from someone who has been burntout and injured from sports in the past - the same thing can happen to your spiritual life. The only difference is whether you want to admit it or deny it. Many Christians refuse to confess that they are burnt out or have hit a plateau - they rather say that they are a little "tired" or just need to have more "faith".They see it as weakness if they have to admit otherwise
In sports, this overtraining and non-recognition that you have hit a plateau can have devastating and debilitating consequences. Lets say I am already tired, a little injured, weary and frustrated that I can't progress in my training. I urge myself on, pushing on, berating myself for being weak, shouting "ganbattei" all the way...until something snaps. Like an achilles tendon or a bone
And then suddenly, I am out for two years. Bitterness and woe sets in. Why? Not because I wasn't strong, it's because I wasn't smart. I was egoistical, thinking that I was invincible and super tough, only to find out that I was just a lump of clay. Broken clay now. It's all pride
It is much the same with our spritual growth. We sometimes hit a plateau. It's natural and is because we are flesh and blood. Push the rubber band that is your body, mind and spirit beyond the breaking point and be prepared to suffer the consequences
We live in a world that prizes fast paced spiritual growth, action and doing rather than being. Ironicaly, all this serves to place more faith in one's own ability rather than God. In other words, it's what the devil wants. All we want to do is "kar yow" (add oil) when you drive but do you know where you're going?
The most interesting thing about this is that when an injury occurs, it's usually not because it happened there and then. Usually, it was slowly occuring over a period of time, sort of like a small crack in a dam finally leading to it's collapse.
On the positive side, a time of rest where you go about living a Godly life (without being overtly Christian - I will write more about this one day) might be the tonic needed to heal you. It's much the same way that cross training prevents injuries by working other muscles that strenghthen the ones you use all the time. God is building you up behind the scenes, quietly.
You just don't see it but he is there. That is the essence of faith
But now you're frustrated. Your spiritual life seems to be stuck in neutral gear, your haven't opened your Bible in a while and prayer seems to be something said just to get it over and done with. What do you do?
Nothing. That's what
When I gave this advice to a friend of mine, I bet he thought I was the anti-Christ (Sinner! You want to stumble me!!! ) Surely I should have been exhorting him to pray more, sing harder, read more books, get more involved in church. Was I being a stumbling block?
No, I was trying to be a friend
Take it from someone who has been burntout and injured from sports in the past - the same thing can happen to your spiritual life. The only difference is whether you want to admit it or deny it. Many Christians refuse to confess that they are burnt out or have hit a plateau - they rather say that they are a little "tired" or just need to have more "faith".They see it as weakness if they have to admit otherwise
In sports, this overtraining and non-recognition that you have hit a plateau can have devastating and debilitating consequences. Lets say I am already tired, a little injured, weary and frustrated that I can't progress in my training. I urge myself on, pushing on, berating myself for being weak, shouting "ganbattei" all the way...until something snaps. Like an achilles tendon or a bone
And then suddenly, I am out for two years. Bitterness and woe sets in. Why? Not because I wasn't strong, it's because I wasn't smart. I was egoistical, thinking that I was invincible and super tough, only to find out that I was just a lump of clay. Broken clay now. It's all pride
It is much the same with our spritual growth. We sometimes hit a plateau. It's natural and is because we are flesh and blood. Push the rubber band that is your body, mind and spirit beyond the breaking point and be prepared to suffer the consequences
We live in a world that prizes fast paced spiritual growth, action and doing rather than being. Ironicaly, all this serves to place more faith in one's own ability rather than God. In other words, it's what the devil wants. All we want to do is "kar yow" (add oil) when you drive but do you know where you're going?
The most interesting thing about this is that when an injury occurs, it's usually not because it happened there and then. Usually, it was slowly occuring over a period of time, sort of like a small crack in a dam finally leading to it's collapse.
On the positive side, a time of rest where you go about living a Godly life (without being overtly Christian - I will write more about this one day) might be the tonic needed to heal you. It's much the same way that cross training prevents injuries by working other muscles that strenghthen the ones you use all the time. God is building you up behind the scenes, quietly.
You just don't see it but he is there. That is the essence of faith
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)