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.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
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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