Isaiah 42:20 - He sees many things, but does not observe them; his ears are open, but he does not hear.
Those who can only “see”, only find what it is they are in search of. Those who grow to “observe”, have learned through humility born of suffering, what was brought to them to understand. Openness is only the first part of a two-part equation, both of which are equally dependant upon grace. The second part, actually “hearing” (understanding) only occurs when you first are brought to the point that you truly have no idea what it is that you are looking for, or actually need.
This is often times the where the crucible of given trial finds us, with us, rarely understanding that through it, the humility and tenderness to the spirit that is required for observation, is cultivated.
Isaiah 42:25- it set him on fire all around, but he did not understand; it burned him up, but he did not take it to heart.
When all my eyes and heart have time for seeing is pleasure and comfort, and this is what we undoubtedly look for most days, (and subconsciously believe is God’s will for our lives), then it is probably safe to say that my “observation and hearing” are self-realized rather than spirit led. This should cause us to take a serious halt and ask to be led by the spirit consider what parts of my life (maybe all of it?), are living under this delusion.
Observing and truly hearing are products of revelation not self-motivation. That means truly hearing starts with asking questions and waiting for answers rather than “hunting” for truth you could no sooner find on your own than you could speed up going through puberty.
Isaiah 42:16 -And I will lead the blind
, in a way that they do not know,
in paths that they have not known
, I will guide them.
I will turn the darkness before them into light,
the rough places into level ground.
These are the things I do, and I do not forsake them.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Silence gives way to silence. Absence gives way to presence.
This is a letter that I wrote and old friend. He and I don't see much of one another in this season of our lives. I am aware that the past few years have been quite difficult for him for a variety of reasons. His wife asked myself and a handful of other men to write him a note of encouragement. This is what came out. The Lord ministered to me deeply through listening to him in order to write it. I needed to receive what was wrote as much as my friend. thought I'd pass it along. Below is the letter.
To be honest I have really struggled to know what to put on this page, knowing from a somewhat safe distance that much of the past few years have been a struggle, one which at times has left you quite speechless and directionless. It seems arrogant or insensitive to write you a “note of encouragement” when I truly am so relatively uninvolved in your day-to-day life and journey. That said, I hope this note will come to you not as anything but a letter from a fellow pilgrim, who has journeyed through some long and low seasons at this point, who longs to rally hope in your heart. The handful of times the Lord has given us over the past few years I have always enjoyed and He has impressed upon me in those times the deep weight of the somewhat undefined struggle that marks this season of your life, vocation, and marriage. I remember being on the farm, after being, for all realistic purposes, fired from Christ Pres, knee deep in hog shit cleaning a hog barn, and feeling so lonely and sad that I was unsure of everything in my life. I remember many times falling to my knees in complete isolation screaming at God for answers to my questions, so broken down at that point that even posturing myself reverently before God was a complete impossibility. I was so fucking scared. I wondered if this was the rest of my life. For many days my cries were met with silence. Many days.
Sometime, there wasn’t a particular day, or even event, but something slowly began to give way. I was out of tears and out of words. I was finally silent. Finally quiet. Done talking, thinking, processing, wrestling, arguing, demanding, expecting. God’s silence gave way to my silence and I was finally able to hear Him, maybe for the first time. When I started to hear, it wasn’t big sentences or even answers to any of the questions I had been asking, in fact, all the sudden He was asking the questions. They were deeper questions, ones that penetrated my questions. Questions that left me silent, left me in a posture to receive not the answers, but finally experience He who is behind all questions and answers. This was something I had never before experienced. It was something that slowly and painstakingly over time became life to me in that season. Jesus, for possibly the first time, had broken into my life, slowly, painfully, broken through. In spite of me, my arrogance, my self-sufficiency, my pride, he broke through. He led me through suffering to silence and I finally heard His voice. And the fact that I actually heard all of the sudden was more important than what I heard. Just hearing brought a new sense of joy and peace untied to my need for answers. We started this long walk. Along the way Jesus has addressed some of the things I was pleading about. Many of those things are still uncertain. The difference is his presence in the silence, and the growing experiential reality that his presence was what all my pleading was truly all about. And so we walk.
Praying that God’s silence will give way to yours. That you could rest there. Experiencing Jesus in that silence, and the peace that comes with his presence. You’re not alone. Dave – Psalm 46:10
“ Beneath our clothes, our reputations, our pretensions, beneath our religion or our lack of it, we are all vulnerable both to the storm without and the storm within, and of we are ever to find true shelter, it is with the recognition of our tragic nakedness and need for true shelter that we have to start. Thus it seems to me that this is also where anyone who preaches the gospel has to start too- after the silence that is truth comes the news that is bad before it is good, the word that is tragedy before it is comedy because it strips us bare in order to ultimately clothe us.” -Frederick Buechner
To be honest I have really struggled to know what to put on this page, knowing from a somewhat safe distance that much of the past few years have been a struggle, one which at times has left you quite speechless and directionless. It seems arrogant or insensitive to write you a “note of encouragement” when I truly am so relatively uninvolved in your day-to-day life and journey. That said, I hope this note will come to you not as anything but a letter from a fellow pilgrim, who has journeyed through some long and low seasons at this point, who longs to rally hope in your heart. The handful of times the Lord has given us over the past few years I have always enjoyed and He has impressed upon me in those times the deep weight of the somewhat undefined struggle that marks this season of your life, vocation, and marriage. I remember being on the farm, after being, for all realistic purposes, fired from Christ Pres, knee deep in hog shit cleaning a hog barn, and feeling so lonely and sad that I was unsure of everything in my life. I remember many times falling to my knees in complete isolation screaming at God for answers to my questions, so broken down at that point that even posturing myself reverently before God was a complete impossibility. I was so fucking scared. I wondered if this was the rest of my life. For many days my cries were met with silence. Many days.
Sometime, there wasn’t a particular day, or even event, but something slowly began to give way. I was out of tears and out of words. I was finally silent. Finally quiet. Done talking, thinking, processing, wrestling, arguing, demanding, expecting. God’s silence gave way to my silence and I was finally able to hear Him, maybe for the first time. When I started to hear, it wasn’t big sentences or even answers to any of the questions I had been asking, in fact, all the sudden He was asking the questions. They were deeper questions, ones that penetrated my questions. Questions that left me silent, left me in a posture to receive not the answers, but finally experience He who is behind all questions and answers. This was something I had never before experienced. It was something that slowly and painstakingly over time became life to me in that season. Jesus, for possibly the first time, had broken into my life, slowly, painfully, broken through. In spite of me, my arrogance, my self-sufficiency, my pride, he broke through. He led me through suffering to silence and I finally heard His voice. And the fact that I actually heard all of the sudden was more important than what I heard. Just hearing brought a new sense of joy and peace untied to my need for answers. We started this long walk. Along the way Jesus has addressed some of the things I was pleading about. Many of those things are still uncertain. The difference is his presence in the silence, and the growing experiential reality that his presence was what all my pleading was truly all about. And so we walk.
Praying that God’s silence will give way to yours. That you could rest there. Experiencing Jesus in that silence, and the peace that comes with his presence. You’re not alone. Dave – Psalm 46:10
“ Beneath our clothes, our reputations, our pretensions, beneath our religion or our lack of it, we are all vulnerable both to the storm without and the storm within, and of we are ever to find true shelter, it is with the recognition of our tragic nakedness and need for true shelter that we have to start. Thus it seems to me that this is also where anyone who preaches the gospel has to start too- after the silence that is truth comes the news that is bad before it is good, the word that is tragedy before it is comedy because it strips us bare in order to ultimately clothe us.” -Frederick Buechner
Monday, February 23, 2009
“At our most primitive we are storytellers and dancers.” – Anne Lamont
I had a good friend tell me once that if we could see our best attempts to communicate truths that are eternal, through the eyes of Him who is eternal, the greatest thoughts grasped, would in our feeble attempts to express and convey them, be as a child scribbling with crayons. It’s a humbling thing to come to grips with the profound limitations of our human self, and to realize that although everything within our flesh wants to deny such limits, we are here by grace, getting through this by grace, and therefore must communicate what we have received not “thought”, only from a posture of such grace.
I was exposed to the above quote by another good friend. She is someone who is clearly on the journey of not just cognitively knowing, but experientially understanding, what I stated in the above paragraph. So what exactly is a storyteller and a dancer? Why would I compare that with a child scribbling with crayons? A child only attempts to draw what he or she has seen, and often struggles to recreate on paper what is so clearly in their minds.
I have often times tried to guess what my son has drawn on a piece of paper. Due to the limits of his two-year-old vocabulary and ability to string words together, this can lead to a great deal of frustration for both if us. He becomes quite annoyed when he is trying his best to help me understand what he has drawn and I’m not getting it. It’s easy in the moment to forget that it is not just me, but in fact he, that is having the communication problem. Every part of my adult self is far further developed and capable to that of my toddler son. Consequently, in that moment, seeing him suffer, to help me know what He is trying to communicate, I rarely feel it is my fault, my inability, my lacking, that is causing this misunderstanding.
Yet when I try and communicate with him, the same tension applies. I search for ways and words to communicate what it is I am trying to get him to understand, but often times my most creative efforts simply have no ability to overcome the developmental gap. We are at an impasse of communication, unable to understand one another. Sounds simple and straightforward when looking at this in the picture of a two year old and an adult. But this picture may be far closer to the reality of our situation with communication with the Lord. But in this instance, the communication gap is entirely more one sided. The Lord is trying to communicate with us, and we are the ones with no capabilities; we need outside help, we need the Holy Spirit. He’s the only one who can teach us what “our” stories are really about, and why we are free to dance.
1 Corinthians 2:14 -man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.
The tension is created when my perspective is that the ability to communicate any truth, or understand that truth, lies within my natural self. Even in saying this must be careful because I believe scripture is clear that it is the “indwelling” of the Holy Spirit that makes truth proclaimed or understood possible (John 14:20). When I am saying “lies within my natural self,” I am saying without need of anything by my own rational, faculties, and capabilities, uninfluenced by Gods grace. We are so desperately dependent upon the Holy Spirit to guide us, and it is our pride-laced unwillingness that manifests itself in frustration that proves it. So what’s the alternative?
To hear (to listen, receive, and understand) the larger redemptive story, and tell our stories to one another in light of the larger story (proof of understanding). And as a result respond to what we have received by dancing (celebration and gratitude).
Dancing is the ultimate expression of being lost in something larger than you. We only dance when we are free and uninhibited, when we have slipped from the center of our focus and realize the truth that our story, is a valued part of the greater redemptive story that God has been writing since the creation of the world. It is when we experientially “brush up” against this truth that we stop being simply peddlers of our own limited tale, and begin to speak as humble co-authors or the great story that is being told to all the earth. When this shift occurs for us, the pressure of the “story is all about me” and all it’s of narcissism-paralyzing-side-effects begins to wane. We dance because we are free from the weight of a self-centered existence. We tell our stories with freedom and humility, soaked with the grace in which they are wrought. And we call others to be storytellers and dancers as well. Dancing is only foolishness if the cross isn’t real.
2 Samuel 6: 16- 22
As the ark of the LORD was entering the City of David, Michal daughter of Saul watched from a window. And when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the LORD, she despised him in her heart.
They brought the ark of the LORD and set it in its place inside the tent that David had pitched for it, and David sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings before the LORD. After he had finished sacrificing the burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the LORD Almighty.Then he gave a loaf of bread, a cake of dates and a cake of raisins to each person in the whole crowd of Israelites, both men and women. And all the people went to their homes.
When David returned home to bless his household, Michal daughter of Saul came out to meet him and said, "How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, disrobing in the sight of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!"
David said to Michal, "It was before the LORD, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the LORD's people Israel—I will celebrate before the LORD. I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor."
1 Corinthians 1:18 -the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
I hope you wore comfortable shoes.
I was exposed to the above quote by another good friend. She is someone who is clearly on the journey of not just cognitively knowing, but experientially understanding, what I stated in the above paragraph. So what exactly is a storyteller and a dancer? Why would I compare that with a child scribbling with crayons? A child only attempts to draw what he or she has seen, and often struggles to recreate on paper what is so clearly in their minds.
I have often times tried to guess what my son has drawn on a piece of paper. Due to the limits of his two-year-old vocabulary and ability to string words together, this can lead to a great deal of frustration for both if us. He becomes quite annoyed when he is trying his best to help me understand what he has drawn and I’m not getting it. It’s easy in the moment to forget that it is not just me, but in fact he, that is having the communication problem. Every part of my adult self is far further developed and capable to that of my toddler son. Consequently, in that moment, seeing him suffer, to help me know what He is trying to communicate, I rarely feel it is my fault, my inability, my lacking, that is causing this misunderstanding.
Yet when I try and communicate with him, the same tension applies. I search for ways and words to communicate what it is I am trying to get him to understand, but often times my most creative efforts simply have no ability to overcome the developmental gap. We are at an impasse of communication, unable to understand one another. Sounds simple and straightforward when looking at this in the picture of a two year old and an adult. But this picture may be far closer to the reality of our situation with communication with the Lord. But in this instance, the communication gap is entirely more one sided. The Lord is trying to communicate with us, and we are the ones with no capabilities; we need outside help, we need the Holy Spirit. He’s the only one who can teach us what “our” stories are really about, and why we are free to dance.
1 Corinthians 2:14 -man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.
The tension is created when my perspective is that the ability to communicate any truth, or understand that truth, lies within my natural self. Even in saying this must be careful because I believe scripture is clear that it is the “indwelling” of the Holy Spirit that makes truth proclaimed or understood possible (John 14:20). When I am saying “lies within my natural self,” I am saying without need of anything by my own rational, faculties, and capabilities, uninfluenced by Gods grace. We are so desperately dependent upon the Holy Spirit to guide us, and it is our pride-laced unwillingness that manifests itself in frustration that proves it. So what’s the alternative?
To hear (to listen, receive, and understand) the larger redemptive story, and tell our stories to one another in light of the larger story (proof of understanding). And as a result respond to what we have received by dancing (celebration and gratitude).
Dancing is the ultimate expression of being lost in something larger than you. We only dance when we are free and uninhibited, when we have slipped from the center of our focus and realize the truth that our story, is a valued part of the greater redemptive story that God has been writing since the creation of the world. It is when we experientially “brush up” against this truth that we stop being simply peddlers of our own limited tale, and begin to speak as humble co-authors or the great story that is being told to all the earth. When this shift occurs for us, the pressure of the “story is all about me” and all it’s of narcissism-paralyzing-side-effects begins to wane. We dance because we are free from the weight of a self-centered existence. We tell our stories with freedom and humility, soaked with the grace in which they are wrought. And we call others to be storytellers and dancers as well. Dancing is only foolishness if the cross isn’t real.
2 Samuel 6: 16- 22
As the ark of the LORD was entering the City of David, Michal daughter of Saul watched from a window. And when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the LORD, she despised him in her heart.
They brought the ark of the LORD and set it in its place inside the tent that David had pitched for it, and David sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings before the LORD. After he had finished sacrificing the burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the LORD Almighty.Then he gave a loaf of bread, a cake of dates and a cake of raisins to each person in the whole crowd of Israelites, both men and women. And all the people went to their homes.
When David returned home to bless his household, Michal daughter of Saul came out to meet him and said, "How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, disrobing in the sight of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!"
David said to Michal, "It was before the LORD, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the LORD's people Israel—I will celebrate before the LORD. I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor."
1 Corinthians 1:18 -the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
I hope you wore comfortable shoes.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
You don't know nothing about this, take me home, home, home, home. - Marc Broussard
Proverbs 14:10-Each heart knows its own bitterness, and no one else can share its joy.
Over the past year of my life, I have spent countless hours processing the idea of what community is and can be, and the possibilities that exist to have a deeper experience of God through our relationships with one another. Others and myself have dialogued, prayed, look at scripture, and wrestled greatly with this reality and have asked the Lord to reveal to us what it is that true “gospel-centered, transformational community” looks like.
It is within this context that the above verse was brought to me by the Lord through meditation on the scriptures one day in the past month, and through the Holy Spirit’s revelation, I felt as though I had stumbled upon something so true and pure it terrified me. And that some things are so true you have to learn them again every day.
The gospel-centered, transformational community that I have been seeking to understand and desiring to cultivate for our church is ultimately subservient to a community with Christ himself that isn’t just beneficial to, but wholly essential to the formation of the latter. Simply put, if my community with Christ himself isn’t growing at least to the degree that my community with others within whom Christ dwells is, the community with others is destined to disappoint.
Avoiding disappointment isn’t the object of what I am stating, rather a seemingly subtle, yet massively important shift, is the nature of this revelation and consequent invitation. Namely, do you understand your need to experience the person of Christ firsthand, and the catastrophic impact of not doing so, on even the greatest most godly of relationships.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his book life together states talks about our “life together under the Word.” It is a simple statement but carries with it massive implications for it assumes that for us as Christ followers, true community is only had when both parties are “under” the Word. Another way of stating this is that the vantage point from which we view relationships and our lives together is viewed exclusively through the lens of scripture. The problem with that is that we have in modern times treated scripture as a text to be learned, rather than a relationship to be experienced. It is the difference between approaching scripture for information to take with us and go “work”, or approaching scripture relationally for formation, that the truth found within the scriptures needs to and can “work” us.
John 1:14-The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
It is hard at times to remember that when we approach scripture we aren’t coming to a text to be mastered, but to be mastered by a person who in Spirit inhabits our very selves and purposes to transform not just our minds but bodies into His very likeness. We come to scripture be taught not to self-teach. We come to receive, not to self-discover, to be revealed to, not self-enlighten. We come to experience someone rather than learn about them. And if we don’t, we will and do spend all of our lives seeking that experience though something temporal and unable to fulfill our desire. And why is because the desire inside of us is not something we conjure, but something lodged within the very fabric of our selves by God himself.
Ecclesiastes 3:11b- He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.
This is why understanding Proverbs 14:10 is so essential. Without a daily experiential recognition of the fact that no one but Christ himself knows the depths of my heart, the sorrow that resides there, and the joy that it experiences, I will undoubtedly look to something or some one temporal to satisfy this eternal longing. It is only living first personally “under His Word” that we then are able to receive and cultivate healthy, gospel-centered, transformational community. It is only when through our community with Christ himself, and his transformation of us, that we can move into “life together” with one another and not make an idol of community, and consequently killing it and ourselves, trying to get from it, what it cannot give.
Over the past year of my life, I have spent countless hours processing the idea of what community is and can be, and the possibilities that exist to have a deeper experience of God through our relationships with one another. Others and myself have dialogued, prayed, look at scripture, and wrestled greatly with this reality and have asked the Lord to reveal to us what it is that true “gospel-centered, transformational community” looks like.
It is within this context that the above verse was brought to me by the Lord through meditation on the scriptures one day in the past month, and through the Holy Spirit’s revelation, I felt as though I had stumbled upon something so true and pure it terrified me. And that some things are so true you have to learn them again every day.
The gospel-centered, transformational community that I have been seeking to understand and desiring to cultivate for our church is ultimately subservient to a community with Christ himself that isn’t just beneficial to, but wholly essential to the formation of the latter. Simply put, if my community with Christ himself isn’t growing at least to the degree that my community with others within whom Christ dwells is, the community with others is destined to disappoint.
Avoiding disappointment isn’t the object of what I am stating, rather a seemingly subtle, yet massively important shift, is the nature of this revelation and consequent invitation. Namely, do you understand your need to experience the person of Christ firsthand, and the catastrophic impact of not doing so, on even the greatest most godly of relationships.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his book life together states talks about our “life together under the Word.” It is a simple statement but carries with it massive implications for it assumes that for us as Christ followers, true community is only had when both parties are “under” the Word. Another way of stating this is that the vantage point from which we view relationships and our lives together is viewed exclusively through the lens of scripture. The problem with that is that we have in modern times treated scripture as a text to be learned, rather than a relationship to be experienced. It is the difference between approaching scripture for information to take with us and go “work”, or approaching scripture relationally for formation, that the truth found within the scriptures needs to and can “work” us.
John 1:14-The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
It is hard at times to remember that when we approach scripture we aren’t coming to a text to be mastered, but to be mastered by a person who in Spirit inhabits our very selves and purposes to transform not just our minds but bodies into His very likeness. We come to scripture be taught not to self-teach. We come to receive, not to self-discover, to be revealed to, not self-enlighten. We come to experience someone rather than learn about them. And if we don’t, we will and do spend all of our lives seeking that experience though something temporal and unable to fulfill our desire. And why is because the desire inside of us is not something we conjure, but something lodged within the very fabric of our selves by God himself.
Ecclesiastes 3:11b- He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.
This is why understanding Proverbs 14:10 is so essential. Without a daily experiential recognition of the fact that no one but Christ himself knows the depths of my heart, the sorrow that resides there, and the joy that it experiences, I will undoubtedly look to something or some one temporal to satisfy this eternal longing. It is only living first personally “under His Word” that we then are able to receive and cultivate healthy, gospel-centered, transformational community. It is only when through our community with Christ himself, and his transformation of us, that we can move into “life together” with one another and not make an idol of community, and consequently killing it and ourselves, trying to get from it, what it cannot give.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Mind The Gap.
Romans 7:19- For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing
Modern Translation- Why the $%!@ do I keep on doing this…#@$%?
“There has always been a gap between the ideals people espouse and the way they live, between knowledge and behavior, intellect and character. The difference today is not that the discrepancy exists but that our modern expectations do not cater to it. Ancients understood that it was only in admitting the gap between what you profess and how you perform that growth and maturity could take place.” –Rebecca Manley Pippert
Are you ever surprised by your sin? I often times find myself completely jaw-dropped at my capacity to live completely counter to what I know in my heart to be the truth. Do you know why we are surprised? Pride. I hate to make it that simple, but it is. And the fact that you are fighting right now to make it something more than that, to find some more complicated explanation, proves that very point.
Ecclesiastes 7:29 –“This only have I found: God made mankind upright, but men have gone in search of many schemes."
Psalm 10: 4-“In his pride the wicked does not seek him; in all his thoughts there is no room for God”
Our scheming hearts are relentless factories of deception, constantly pumping out false confidence in a “self,” that if we were to see through the pure lens of the gospel, would cause us without question or reservation to cast all of our hope fully on God’s grace. We simply can’t believe that we are really that fallen, that broken, that desperate, that needy, that helpless, that powerless, that depraved. But that’s exactly what we are apart from Christ.
That is what Pippert is referring to in the above quote when she states, “The difference today is not that the discrepancy exists but that our modern expectations do not cater to it.” The modern mind is fixated on the idea that although we may need some help (grace) from time to time, ultimately with a little more fine tuning we can actually get our lives and sin under control. We are immersed in a self-help society that believes with the right plan, and some good old-fashioned hard work, we can fix this. Were wrong. And the ever-undulating state of our visceral lives is often all the proof we need.
This begs the question, so what do we do? We repent and rest (in Christ himself), as opposed to self-flagellate and double the effort. And we do so often.
Isaiah 30:15 "In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it.”
We can’t truly repent if we can’t acknowledge our real need and its scope. We can rest unless we know the truth.
Psalm 16:9-11 “Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay. You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.”
It is in our need of Christ, in our posture of humility, in our honesty of our utter inability to within ourselves to live out what He has led us to believe, that we find the starting line, the often “daily” repeated first steps into a deeper journey of seeing our lives in the physical world, begin to reflect what we have more fully grasped in the spiritual.
Romans 7:24-25 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
Modern Translation- Why the $%!@ do I keep on doing this…#@$%?
“There has always been a gap between the ideals people espouse and the way they live, between knowledge and behavior, intellect and character. The difference today is not that the discrepancy exists but that our modern expectations do not cater to it. Ancients understood that it was only in admitting the gap between what you profess and how you perform that growth and maturity could take place.” –Rebecca Manley Pippert
Are you ever surprised by your sin? I often times find myself completely jaw-dropped at my capacity to live completely counter to what I know in my heart to be the truth. Do you know why we are surprised? Pride. I hate to make it that simple, but it is. And the fact that you are fighting right now to make it something more than that, to find some more complicated explanation, proves that very point.
Ecclesiastes 7:29 –“This only have I found: God made mankind upright, but men have gone in search of many schemes."
Psalm 10: 4-“In his pride the wicked does not seek him; in all his thoughts there is no room for God”
Our scheming hearts are relentless factories of deception, constantly pumping out false confidence in a “self,” that if we were to see through the pure lens of the gospel, would cause us without question or reservation to cast all of our hope fully on God’s grace. We simply can’t believe that we are really that fallen, that broken, that desperate, that needy, that helpless, that powerless, that depraved. But that’s exactly what we are apart from Christ.
That is what Pippert is referring to in the above quote when she states, “The difference today is not that the discrepancy exists but that our modern expectations do not cater to it.” The modern mind is fixated on the idea that although we may need some help (grace) from time to time, ultimately with a little more fine tuning we can actually get our lives and sin under control. We are immersed in a self-help society that believes with the right plan, and some good old-fashioned hard work, we can fix this. Were wrong. And the ever-undulating state of our visceral lives is often all the proof we need.
This begs the question, so what do we do? We repent and rest (in Christ himself), as opposed to self-flagellate and double the effort. And we do so often.
Isaiah 30:15 "In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it.”
We can’t truly repent if we can’t acknowledge our real need and its scope. We can rest unless we know the truth.
Psalm 16:9-11 “Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay. You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.”
It is in our need of Christ, in our posture of humility, in our honesty of our utter inability to within ourselves to live out what He has led us to believe, that we find the starting line, the often “daily” repeated first steps into a deeper journey of seeing our lives in the physical world, begin to reflect what we have more fully grasped in the spiritual.
Romans 7:24-25 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
Friday, January 2, 2009
This ain't no chicken before the egg question.
Psalm 4:5- Offer right sacrifices and trust in the Lord.
Psalm 4: 7 -8: You have filled my heart with greater joy than when their grain and new wine abound. I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.
It is hard to comprehend at times the connectedness between our ability to trust the Lord and our apparent need to act “right”. For real trust to be birthed and experienced, the “right” sacrifices are necessary, but what we have often determined are the “right sacrifices”, are in fact, pride-born self-righteous acts that can never lead us to the joy and peace marked real trust in the Lord.
Psalm 51:17- the sacrifices of the Lord are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart you will not despise.
The “right sacrifices” that the Lord is after have nothing to do with our actions but more a state of heart that leads to a acting posture of trust. For real, whole-hearted trust to be present, it is marked by a complete and utter un-self righteous dependence. This is where it gets tricky in our self-sufficient society, which teaches us through self-help techniques, and positive reinforcement we can create, manifest, and “live out” with confidence the cognitive and emotional state of joy, peace and trust. When we inevitably fail to do so, and our lack of joy, peace, and trust is exposed, we become prime candidates for needless loathing in guilt and shame. Yet scripture is clear that true joy and peace is the by-product, not predecessor, of trust. And trust is preceded by grace, not effort.
It’s hard to quantify how much time I spend feeling ashamed that my feelings and emotional state don’t often reflect what I believe. I can spend endless amounts of emotional energy trying to change how I feel to reflect what I “believe”, rather than shamelessly taking my fear, anger, and doubt (unbelief and brokenness) to the Lord for him to comfort, and therefore give way to trust (belief).
The conflict is twofold. It is one of order and origin. First lets deal with order. As the psalmist states, “right sacrifices” precede trust, and that the sacrifices of the Lord are a broken and contrite heart. Therefore we can see that attempting to produce an emotional state of “joy” which reflects trust is not just unnecessary, but impossible. It also shows us that we still have a deep seeded resistance to needing God for anything, and our relentless desire to “prove” to God that although others need his grace to trust, we somehow have escaped and are above such poverty of self.
Yet scripture is clear that it is in our brokenness, in our contriteness (marked by sorrow, not joy), that is the road (“right sacrifice”) to real trust, which gives birth to joy and peace.
We have the order backwards. Joy only after sorrow. Trust only after humility and brokenness. Trust never is born on strength of self, but weakness given way to firm reliance in someone truly strong. We must understand this order, for if we don’t, needless hours, days and even years of our lives can be marked by trying to trust in God, rather than letting him lead us into trust, trying to live with joy and peace, rather than assuming a posture that allows Him to “fill our hearts with greater joy” and cause us to “sleep in peace.”
This answers our origin question. The origin of joy, or trust, of peace, for the Christ follower is never found or had without the “right sacrifices.” It is our pride and unwillingness to approach Christ broken that keeps us from experiencing Christ and consequently the peace and joy we desire. Christ himself is the author of our peace, joy and trust. It is only in his presence that we have a hope of experiencing such states of grace, which transcend our daily circumstances. All else is self-motivated, soon to let down, frail, humanistic shadows of the ruddy grace and God-given trust that we need to get through this broken life.
Psalm 5: 5 – The arrogant cannot stand in your presence.
Mark 9:24 – I do believe, help me overcome my unbelief.
Psalm 4: 7 -8: You have filled my heart with greater joy than when their grain and new wine abound. I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.
It is hard to comprehend at times the connectedness between our ability to trust the Lord and our apparent need to act “right”. For real trust to be birthed and experienced, the “right” sacrifices are necessary, but what we have often determined are the “right sacrifices”, are in fact, pride-born self-righteous acts that can never lead us to the joy and peace marked real trust in the Lord.
Psalm 51:17- the sacrifices of the Lord are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart you will not despise.
The “right sacrifices” that the Lord is after have nothing to do with our actions but more a state of heart that leads to a acting posture of trust. For real, whole-hearted trust to be present, it is marked by a complete and utter un-self righteous dependence. This is where it gets tricky in our self-sufficient society, which teaches us through self-help techniques, and positive reinforcement we can create, manifest, and “live out” with confidence the cognitive and emotional state of joy, peace and trust. When we inevitably fail to do so, and our lack of joy, peace, and trust is exposed, we become prime candidates for needless loathing in guilt and shame. Yet scripture is clear that true joy and peace is the by-product, not predecessor, of trust. And trust is preceded by grace, not effort.
It’s hard to quantify how much time I spend feeling ashamed that my feelings and emotional state don’t often reflect what I believe. I can spend endless amounts of emotional energy trying to change how I feel to reflect what I “believe”, rather than shamelessly taking my fear, anger, and doubt (unbelief and brokenness) to the Lord for him to comfort, and therefore give way to trust (belief).
The conflict is twofold. It is one of order and origin. First lets deal with order. As the psalmist states, “right sacrifices” precede trust, and that the sacrifices of the Lord are a broken and contrite heart. Therefore we can see that attempting to produce an emotional state of “joy” which reflects trust is not just unnecessary, but impossible. It also shows us that we still have a deep seeded resistance to needing God for anything, and our relentless desire to “prove” to God that although others need his grace to trust, we somehow have escaped and are above such poverty of self.
Yet scripture is clear that it is in our brokenness, in our contriteness (marked by sorrow, not joy), that is the road (“right sacrifice”) to real trust, which gives birth to joy and peace.
We have the order backwards. Joy only after sorrow. Trust only after humility and brokenness. Trust never is born on strength of self, but weakness given way to firm reliance in someone truly strong. We must understand this order, for if we don’t, needless hours, days and even years of our lives can be marked by trying to trust in God, rather than letting him lead us into trust, trying to live with joy and peace, rather than assuming a posture that allows Him to “fill our hearts with greater joy” and cause us to “sleep in peace.”
This answers our origin question. The origin of joy, or trust, of peace, for the Christ follower is never found or had without the “right sacrifices.” It is our pride and unwillingness to approach Christ broken that keeps us from experiencing Christ and consequently the peace and joy we desire. Christ himself is the author of our peace, joy and trust. It is only in his presence that we have a hope of experiencing such states of grace, which transcend our daily circumstances. All else is self-motivated, soon to let down, frail, humanistic shadows of the ruddy grace and God-given trust that we need to get through this broken life.
Psalm 5: 5 – The arrogant cannot stand in your presence.
Mark 9:24 – I do believe, help me overcome my unbelief.
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