Not sure how long this entry will be, but I have been pondering of late how important it is to "keep listening" to Holy Spirit's nudges, all the time, without restricting what He might say with assumptions as to what He couldn't possibly say (other than the boundaries of Scripture, and even there we have to be careful that we aren't mistaking our understanding of Scripture for what it really says--think about it).
A number of things of late have re-awakened this common theme in my life and blogs (I know I often remind you to live loved, listening and surrendered!), but perhaps the most prominent one is how God has led me to stay connected to more traditional forms expressions of the church while also deepening my convictions about organic church life. Those two facts would create a lot of tension in me if I weren't able to hear God's voice!
Perhaps there are areas in your life where tension and apparent contradiction make you perplexed from time to time. I am fairly sure there are areas like this in all of our lives since, as Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 13:12, we see everything now only dimly. "Keep listening" is what Papa would be saying to you as well, then, I think!
Why wouldn't God just make everything clear so we can plan out our lives accordingly? I think you know the answer to that, but in case you don't, here are a couple of my thoughts about this. First, God knows it's best for us to live in ever increasing trust in Him. Life is never certain, dear ones, it only appears to be more uncertain at various times. Who are we to think that we can really anticipate what life will throw at us today or tomorrow? But Papa knows all things and is infinitely committed to what's best for us. And the way we "access" what is best is to live trusting Him, and that means listening each day for the words that continually proceed from His mouth to our hearts (Deuteronomy 8:3). To live trusting is to live listening. Second, God knows that even if He chose to show everything to us, we wouldn't understand it! Think of all the ways that God works at once in just one human life! Now add to that life all the other people's lives that intersect with that one life and then add all the other factors of life, including the unseen spiritual dimension which is far larger than the seen dimension. Do we really think we could grasp all of that even if Papa showed it to us? Nope! So living listening seems to be a much better approach to life and the only reasonable one. I could add more reasons, of course, but the bottom line is that God's answer to all of life is quite simple and all-encompassing: "I will be with you." So keep listening!
And the really cool thing about all of this listening? It's a remarkably peaceful and joyful way to live! We don't have to figure things out. I find that the only time anxiety or discouragement really gets hold of me is when I forget that I don't have to lean on my own understanding (Proverbs 3:5-6), and that I really can trust God to speak to me and guide me and change me and... Am I the only one that finds that fear increases to the extent that I think that I am alone in facing whatever? No wonder God's continuing promise is "I will be with you." And how amazing that He is communicating with us all along the way and that we can trust Him to get through to us as we choose to live in a listening mode.
So how do you listen? I have written about this before, and there are many good books on hearing God (Dallas Willard and Mark Virkler come readily to mind as good resources here). For me, though, the one key factor above all others is the inner stillness that Papa has helped me cultivate over the years. When the stillness is disrupted, it becomes an immediate invitation to stop and re-center my life (not by trying but by resting, collapsing and surrendering). I trust that you have found the same thing to be true.
Listening in the stillness.
Tom, one of Abba's little children
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Friday, October 21, 2011
Harmful Clichés of the Christian Religion
I have written before about how deadly the Christian religion is, being a terrible substitute for the vibrant and transforming walk with Jesus that the Bible describes (April 8, 2011). Today I felt I should tackle some of the sad, silly but harmful clichés that express religious rather than relational thinking. You may question why I bother doing so, but I hope to answer that question as I debunk some of these common sayings. The truth is, they not only belie the depth of our religious thinking but they perpetrate it every time we club someone or ourself with one of these clichés. So here's just a few of many.
"I am so unworthy!" Sigh...if you or any human being had no worth (the meaning of unworthy) then why did Jesus die for you? The worth and value of every single human being ever to live on this planet has been eternally established as "priceless" by the infinite price that Jesus has paid to reconcile us to Father. I took a swipe at this one earlier in the week via Twitter. What we are really trying to express is that we are undeserving, not without worth--that what God has done for us through Jesus is far beyond what we deserve. But it's our value and worth to God in His love for us that gives us worth. Why bother correcting this one? I hope the answer is obvious, but in case it isn't, seeing ourselves as "worthless" prevents us from being in a healthy relationship with God and with others. It also tends to make us grovel before God rather than coming boldly as beloved (and highly valued) sons and daughters.
"I just want God to use me. Use me, Lord!" Every believer has probably said this one, I think, and from a sincere desire to honor the One who redeems and heals us. But in any other context, one person "using" another is a negative and undesirable thing. How many times have we heard it rightly said, "We use things, we love people"? So why would it be any different for God? What God desires is to flow through us and partner with us to see His Kingdom come and His will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. We humans were not created to be God's servants, but God's children and friends. God created angels to be His servants. He created you to be in intimate relationship with Him. Yes, from that relationship we will gladly serve Him (Paul gladly described himself as a bond-slave), but we serve Him as free sons and daughters, not mere slaves. And we serve Him from intimacy not by being "used." I think you can see why this one is important to get right.
"If we don't, He won't." This one shows up in various forms but the basic idea is that God is somehow unable or unwilling to accomplish His purposes unless we pray, or witness, or whatever...(anyone else suffered through the evangelist painting the picture of people falling into the fiery pit because you didn't share your faith? The problem with this kind of thinking is threefold. First, it flies in the face of God's sovereignty. Ephesians 1:11b describes God as the "One who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will." This leaves no doubt that our failures or successes in doing His will are not going to hinder His purposes. Second, this kind of thinking motivates people to action via shame or guilt or duty, and Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 13 that anything not motivated by and through love brings nothing to us. Third, the whole idea of needing to be motivated by shame or obligation exposes a "slave" mentality rather than a son/daughter relationship with a loving Papa. If I find myself having to be motivated by external pressure, the solution is not more external pressure but to press in even more deeper into Papa's heart so that His love compels me by its overpowering, overwhelming goodness to care about what He cares about and therefore to obey Him with joy and passion. (Ideally! Yes, sometimes the obedience starts from a pure act of the will, but even that can flow from genuine love, not a fear that "if I don't, He can't!" I think you get the picture.
Okay, I think you get the picture here. Or I hope you do. It might be good to ask Holy Spirit to ring your bell when you say some of the things "Christians" commonly say and ask you, "Does Father really say that, mean that?" You might find yourself debunking your own set of clichés--or at least that's what I am hoping :-)
Learning to live loved...
Tom, one of Abba's little children
"I am so unworthy!" Sigh...if you or any human being had no worth (the meaning of unworthy) then why did Jesus die for you? The worth and value of every single human being ever to live on this planet has been eternally established as "priceless" by the infinite price that Jesus has paid to reconcile us to Father. I took a swipe at this one earlier in the week via Twitter. What we are really trying to express is that we are undeserving, not without worth--that what God has done for us through Jesus is far beyond what we deserve. But it's our value and worth to God in His love for us that gives us worth. Why bother correcting this one? I hope the answer is obvious, but in case it isn't, seeing ourselves as "worthless" prevents us from being in a healthy relationship with God and with others. It also tends to make us grovel before God rather than coming boldly as beloved (and highly valued) sons and daughters.
"I just want God to use me. Use me, Lord!" Every believer has probably said this one, I think, and from a sincere desire to honor the One who redeems and heals us. But in any other context, one person "using" another is a negative and undesirable thing. How many times have we heard it rightly said, "We use things, we love people"? So why would it be any different for God? What God desires is to flow through us and partner with us to see His Kingdom come and His will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. We humans were not created to be God's servants, but God's children and friends. God created angels to be His servants. He created you to be in intimate relationship with Him. Yes, from that relationship we will gladly serve Him (Paul gladly described himself as a bond-slave), but we serve Him as free sons and daughters, not mere slaves. And we serve Him from intimacy not by being "used." I think you can see why this one is important to get right.
"If we don't, He won't." This one shows up in various forms but the basic idea is that God is somehow unable or unwilling to accomplish His purposes unless we pray, or witness, or whatever...(anyone else suffered through the evangelist painting the picture of people falling into the fiery pit because you didn't share your faith? The problem with this kind of thinking is threefold. First, it flies in the face of God's sovereignty. Ephesians 1:11b describes God as the "One who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will." This leaves no doubt that our failures or successes in doing His will are not going to hinder His purposes. Second, this kind of thinking motivates people to action via shame or guilt or duty, and Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 13 that anything not motivated by and through love brings nothing to us. Third, the whole idea of needing to be motivated by shame or obligation exposes a "slave" mentality rather than a son/daughter relationship with a loving Papa. If I find myself having to be motivated by external pressure, the solution is not more external pressure but to press in even more deeper into Papa's heart so that His love compels me by its overpowering, overwhelming goodness to care about what He cares about and therefore to obey Him with joy and passion. (Ideally! Yes, sometimes the obedience starts from a pure act of the will, but even that can flow from genuine love, not a fear that "if I don't, He can't!" I think you get the picture.
Okay, I think you get the picture here. Or I hope you do. It might be good to ask Holy Spirit to ring your bell when you say some of the things "Christians" commonly say and ask you, "Does Father really say that, mean that?" You might find yourself debunking your own set of clichés--or at least that's what I am hoping :-)
Learning to live loved...
Tom, one of Abba's little children
Saturday, October 15, 2011
The Power of Healthy Transparency
Anyone who reads this blog or my Facebook posts knows that I very much believe in and practice transparency. Big revelation, eh? :-)
Why am I so transparent? Because I believe that healthy transparency is an essential gift to others. My deep conviction is that as a leader I need to model reality and give hope to others. Being artificial gives a false view not only of me, but of life in Jesus. If I appear to be better than I am then I portray something about the Christian walk that may be unattainable or at least unrealistic for most people. What a cruel thing to do! If I appear to have it all together, which is certainly not true, then I make others feel terribly defective. Another negative outcome of such artificiality is that others put me on a pedestal thinking that by some great power of achievement I have attained what they can never hope to attain. I cannot tell you how distasteful all of this is to me. Thankfully, I have many good examples in Scripture to encourage me in being transparent: David comes to mind (talk about transparent--some of his psalms are scorching examples of what he was feeling, thinking and doing at the time!). And Paul's letters are filled with remarkably transparent insights into his life and emotions. So...I will be transparent as a gift of encouragement to others and as a testimony of Papa's grace at work in my very ordinary life.
On the other hand, I once heard a very prominent pastor claiming to advocate transparency by stating that he believed in being transparent but only about things he had already gained victory over. I remember thinking at the time that something was very wrong with that statement. Now I know that what he was describing isn't even being transparent! To allow people only to see the victories God has granted us is not transparency. The truth is that we are always fighting something, I think, and sometimes allowing others to peer into the battle is the healthiest thing we can do, both for them and for us.
Perhaps you have noticed that I am writing here about "other-oriented" transparency. There is, of course, healing that comes to us through our being transparent. In fact, we cannot make real progress in our Jesus journey without being transparent with some trusted others. That's what the books, Truefaced and Bo's Cafe describe so well. (By the way, Truefaced has now been rewritten and will be released around Thanksgiving under the title, The Cure. I am looking forward to reading it). I love this amazing description of a healthy culture of transparency in Bo's Cafe (p. 74): "What if there was a safe enough place where you tell the worst about yourself and not be loved or respected less, but more? You know what happens...? Hidden junk we've been carrying around for years begins to melt away. People come alive. They start to discover who they really are. They start doing good stuff with their lives. They find their future. They stop needing to be right. They stop trying to fix their symptoms, and pushing everyone away.... They get loved."
But I haven't seen many folks write about the blessing to others that transparency brings, so I thought I would highlight it today. Healthy transparency becomes more about you than me as I mature. Healthy transparency is filled with hope, not just misery. As I mature my transparency becomes more and more infused with the promises of God and awareness of His faithfulness even as I also reveal my struggles to lay hold of them. Healthy transparency is as much about you as it is about me, and it is laced through with hope and God's fingerprints! Healthy transparency is strategic in that it matches the ability of others to handle and benefit from it rather than just blurting out anything to anyone. Healthy transparency is shared without the need for a positive reaction from everyone (those still hiding are not comfortable around transparent people, for obvious reasons). I could go on, but you get the picture, I think.
Note, however, that we don't get to the place of healthy transparency overnight. For most people "sharing their stuff" and being accepted instead of rejected because of it is such a new and wonderful experience that at first they just blurt it out. (Because I am so safe I often have people offload everything and then say in amazement, "I don't know why I told you all of this!" I just smile. :-)) But as they heal up some they realize that transparency is indeed as much about others as about them, and healthy sharing begins to become the norm for them. It's a beautiful thing to see that happen. Papa's fingerprints are wonderfully prominent!
What about you? Do you have a safe group of friends who love you more not less as you are vulnerable and transparent? I certainly hope so. And are you learning to see that your transparency, wisely exercised, is a gift to others? This is certainly my hope and prayer for you. Let it be, Papa, let it be so!
Transparently...
Tom, one of Abba's transparent children
Why am I so transparent? Because I believe that healthy transparency is an essential gift to others. My deep conviction is that as a leader I need to model reality and give hope to others. Being artificial gives a false view not only of me, but of life in Jesus. If I appear to be better than I am then I portray something about the Christian walk that may be unattainable or at least unrealistic for most people. What a cruel thing to do! If I appear to have it all together, which is certainly not true, then I make others feel terribly defective. Another negative outcome of such artificiality is that others put me on a pedestal thinking that by some great power of achievement I have attained what they can never hope to attain. I cannot tell you how distasteful all of this is to me. Thankfully, I have many good examples in Scripture to encourage me in being transparent: David comes to mind (talk about transparent--some of his psalms are scorching examples of what he was feeling, thinking and doing at the time!). And Paul's letters are filled with remarkably transparent insights into his life and emotions. So...I will be transparent as a gift of encouragement to others and as a testimony of Papa's grace at work in my very ordinary life.
On the other hand, I once heard a very prominent pastor claiming to advocate transparency by stating that he believed in being transparent but only about things he had already gained victory over. I remember thinking at the time that something was very wrong with that statement. Now I know that what he was describing isn't even being transparent! To allow people only to see the victories God has granted us is not transparency. The truth is that we are always fighting something, I think, and sometimes allowing others to peer into the battle is the healthiest thing we can do, both for them and for us.
Perhaps you have noticed that I am writing here about "other-oriented" transparency. There is, of course, healing that comes to us through our being transparent. In fact, we cannot make real progress in our Jesus journey without being transparent with some trusted others. That's what the books, Truefaced and Bo's Cafe describe so well. (By the way, Truefaced has now been rewritten and will be released around Thanksgiving under the title, The Cure. I am looking forward to reading it). I love this amazing description of a healthy culture of transparency in Bo's Cafe (p. 74): "What if there was a safe enough place where you tell the worst about yourself and not be loved or respected less, but more? You know what happens...? Hidden junk we've been carrying around for years begins to melt away. People come alive. They start to discover who they really are. They start doing good stuff with their lives. They find their future. They stop needing to be right. They stop trying to fix their symptoms, and pushing everyone away.... They get loved."
But I haven't seen many folks write about the blessing to others that transparency brings, so I thought I would highlight it today. Healthy transparency becomes more about you than me as I mature. Healthy transparency is filled with hope, not just misery. As I mature my transparency becomes more and more infused with the promises of God and awareness of His faithfulness even as I also reveal my struggles to lay hold of them. Healthy transparency is as much about you as it is about me, and it is laced through with hope and God's fingerprints! Healthy transparency is strategic in that it matches the ability of others to handle and benefit from it rather than just blurting out anything to anyone. Healthy transparency is shared without the need for a positive reaction from everyone (those still hiding are not comfortable around transparent people, for obvious reasons). I could go on, but you get the picture, I think.
Note, however, that we don't get to the place of healthy transparency overnight. For most people "sharing their stuff" and being accepted instead of rejected because of it is such a new and wonderful experience that at first they just blurt it out. (Because I am so safe I often have people offload everything and then say in amazement, "I don't know why I told you all of this!" I just smile. :-)) But as they heal up some they realize that transparency is indeed as much about others as about them, and healthy sharing begins to become the norm for them. It's a beautiful thing to see that happen. Papa's fingerprints are wonderfully prominent!
What about you? Do you have a safe group of friends who love you more not less as you are vulnerable and transparent? I certainly hope so. And are you learning to see that your transparency, wisely exercised, is a gift to others? This is certainly my hope and prayer for you. Let it be, Papa, let it be so!
Transparently...
Tom, one of Abba's transparent children
Sunday, October 9, 2011
A Time For Everything
"The season of mourning is over." Those words from Papa God, whispered to me a few days ago were a bit of a surprise to me, but not entirely, and they were powerfully confirmed to me this morning during the message by our guest speaker who encouraged us to "let go of the old and step into the new" and "let go of the grief, pain and sorrow and step into the future," etc. Don't you love the way God orchestrates things so that He speaks to so many of us at the same time in the same way, yet with each of us in different situations? I am sure that many in the room this morning were making their own transitions into the future even as I was. Only Papa could have made sure that I was here in Houston, today, to hear Joshua Mills say those words on the one year anniversary of Jettie's departure!
So this will be the last time that I address anything specifically related to the journey of sorrow related to Jettie's death. These are random thoughts, too, so there may be some repetition from previous posts, but I wanted to put in one place some of the most important things I have learned.
First, I have definitely learned that "ain't over until it's over." I smiled (and sighed) as I looked back at my words on April 29 where I was celebrating how healed up I already was. Maybe I was healed up a lot at that time, but I can assure you that the season of mourning continued on for several more months after that date! Now, however, I can tell that it really is time to move ahead. Why I thought I could speed up the one year process of "firsts" is a mystery to me, but I am a humbled and better instructed man now! When God says something is over, it's over, but not before.
Second, we know that healing is happening when we are able to enjoy life without guilt and remember things without sorrow. This is how I know that I have indeed finally turned a corner and entered a different season. At the same time I heard those words from Papa about the season of mourning being over, a dear older friend of mine gently told me that I was still holding onto Jettie in some way. That triggered a highly important time with Papa that led to some final surrender that I cannot even explain, but on the other side of it, I knew I was in a different place because I stopped feeling guilty for enjoying the new life that is unfolding for me here in Houston. And only in the past couple of days have I noticed that I can remember things about life with Jettie without sadness. Maybe some folks can get to that place sooner, but it has taken me until now to do so. But I know from both experience and from my reading about grief that enjoying life and remembering without sorrow are big milestones in this journey. And I am so grateful for what God has done (and continues to do) as He brings me into a "time to laugh" and a "time to dance."
Third, I have said this before but I need to say it again: regret is a real hindrance to getting on with life and into wholeness. Thankfully, God addressed this early on in my journey, but it's amazing how many times He had to re-address it before I finally let go of it for good. I realize now that regret is a subtle form of shame, and shame keeps us terribly locked into self-focus and bound up in the past. Jesus died to take away our shame, including the shame of "I wish I had" and "I could have" and "I should have," etc.
Fourth, God is the best grief counselor in the Universe, but He uses His people as part of His healing process. I could write volumes about this, and maybe some day when I write my book about the journey, I will. For now I simply elaborate on these two points. 1) God will for sure lead you through the grieving process as you lean into Him, collapse onto Him, cry out to Him, listen to Him. Some of my deepest healing moments have come after I wept and even shouted at Him but then stopped and listened to Him--amazing! And He has led and continues to lead this entire journey. The Counselor, the Holy Spirit, really is the best counselor in all of creation! He alone can lead us into the truth that sets us free. 2) God also heals us through other people. One of the things people naturally do during grief is isolate themselves from others (for many reasons), but I don't know of anyone who has been healed up in a truly healthy manner apart from lots of interaction with and support from others. The illustration of the input from my older and wiser friend (thanks, Ray!) is just one example of dozens of how this has been true for me. So I encourage the grieving to reach out, I encourage those who are not grieving to reach out as well, even if all you are able to do is weep with those who weep and hold their hearts close to yours.
Finally, the past year has only made me appreciate more than ever what an amazing woman Jettie was and is. I will always respect, honor and esteem her and always be thankful to God for giving me 41 years with her. But I will not cling to her, live in regret nor fail to move into my future (that would actually dishonor her). And so I step into the future, treasuring the memories while living in the joyful fullness that life in Jesus always brings.
Tom, one of Abba's children
So this will be the last time that I address anything specifically related to the journey of sorrow related to Jettie's death. These are random thoughts, too, so there may be some repetition from previous posts, but I wanted to put in one place some of the most important things I have learned.
First, I have definitely learned that "ain't over until it's over." I smiled (and sighed) as I looked back at my words on April 29 where I was celebrating how healed up I already was. Maybe I was healed up a lot at that time, but I can assure you that the season of mourning continued on for several more months after that date! Now, however, I can tell that it really is time to move ahead. Why I thought I could speed up the one year process of "firsts" is a mystery to me, but I am a humbled and better instructed man now! When God says something is over, it's over, but not before.
Second, we know that healing is happening when we are able to enjoy life without guilt and remember things without sorrow. This is how I know that I have indeed finally turned a corner and entered a different season. At the same time I heard those words from Papa about the season of mourning being over, a dear older friend of mine gently told me that I was still holding onto Jettie in some way. That triggered a highly important time with Papa that led to some final surrender that I cannot even explain, but on the other side of it, I knew I was in a different place because I stopped feeling guilty for enjoying the new life that is unfolding for me here in Houston. And only in the past couple of days have I noticed that I can remember things about life with Jettie without sadness. Maybe some folks can get to that place sooner, but it has taken me until now to do so. But I know from both experience and from my reading about grief that enjoying life and remembering without sorrow are big milestones in this journey. And I am so grateful for what God has done (and continues to do) as He brings me into a "time to laugh" and a "time to dance."
Third, I have said this before but I need to say it again: regret is a real hindrance to getting on with life and into wholeness. Thankfully, God addressed this early on in my journey, but it's amazing how many times He had to re-address it before I finally let go of it for good. I realize now that regret is a subtle form of shame, and shame keeps us terribly locked into self-focus and bound up in the past. Jesus died to take away our shame, including the shame of "I wish I had" and "I could have" and "I should have," etc.
Fourth, God is the best grief counselor in the Universe, but He uses His people as part of His healing process. I could write volumes about this, and maybe some day when I write my book about the journey, I will. For now I simply elaborate on these two points. 1) God will for sure lead you through the grieving process as you lean into Him, collapse onto Him, cry out to Him, listen to Him. Some of my deepest healing moments have come after I wept and even shouted at Him but then stopped and listened to Him--amazing! And He has led and continues to lead this entire journey. The Counselor, the Holy Spirit, really is the best counselor in all of creation! He alone can lead us into the truth that sets us free. 2) God also heals us through other people. One of the things people naturally do during grief is isolate themselves from others (for many reasons), but I don't know of anyone who has been healed up in a truly healthy manner apart from lots of interaction with and support from others. The illustration of the input from my older and wiser friend (thanks, Ray!) is just one example of dozens of how this has been true for me. So I encourage the grieving to reach out, I encourage those who are not grieving to reach out as well, even if all you are able to do is weep with those who weep and hold their hearts close to yours.
Finally, the past year has only made me appreciate more than ever what an amazing woman Jettie was and is. I will always respect, honor and esteem her and always be thankful to God for giving me 41 years with her. But I will not cling to her, live in regret nor fail to move into my future (that would actually dishonor her). And so I step into the future, treasuring the memories while living in the joyful fullness that life in Jesus always brings.
Tom, one of Abba's children
Saturday, October 1, 2011
The Transfer of Trust
I will probably repeat myself in this post because I am once again going to write about "faith," and I wrote quite a bit about that during the season of testing our family went through in 2009-2010. But I thought it would be good to write about trusting God on the other side of things during a time when I am once again being challenged to trust Him at uncomfortably deep levels. So here's a few things I am learning.
First, more than ever I am aware that "faith" is something that is present in every human being. The question, of course, is where a person chooses to place his/her trust. We exercise enormous amounts of faith every day. We trust other drivers to stay alert and in their own lane of traffic, we trust those who worked on the airplane we are boarding to be responsible, we trust those who prepare our food to exercise good hygiene practices, etc. And, most of all, we trust ourselves and our own perception of things. It's that last truth that creates the challenges for us as we hear God invite us to trust Him. We are conditioned all of our lives to trust "self" and self alone, and this self-trust is so automatic as to be almost invisible and unconsciously exercised. But God invites and challenges us to transfer trust from a very limited and highly ignorant person (that would be you or me!) to Himself, the infinite, all-knowing, completely loving One. Sounds good when we say it, eh? But learning to transfer trust to Him is a lifelong process that is often fought tooth and nail by both our adversary and our self. Big revelation there, eh? We all know this fact all too well. But it does help to bring this to the light, I think. When I realized that I wasn't trying to create faith or generate more faith but rather transfer my trust from self to God, it helped me both to want to do so and made me see how possible it is to trust God (I just shift my trust from unreliable self to totally reliable Papa God!).
Second, "faith" is best built mostly during the good times so that it's there to sustain during the bad times. This isn't what I was taught in church, though. I was told that times of testing come to grow my faith (exercise my faith muscle, etc.). But this isn't what scripture says, and it isn't what life experience teaches us! Trust grows in our lives in response to our experience of another's trustworthiness. We learn to trust another person by their showing us through their actions that they are trustworthy. The more experience we have of their trustworthiness, the more we grow to trust them. Eventually our trust is deep enough that even when they ask us to trust them in something we haven't previously experienced with them, we do so because their character has been revealed through our experience with them up this point. I think you can see how this applies to the God journey, too. And Scripture bears this out, showing us God's trustworthiness over and over again as experienced by people just like us, and telling us that struggles come not to grow our faith but to reveal it in the midst of the test (see, for example, 1 Peter 1:6-7).
But how does the above truth help us? I am learning that paying attention to God's faithfulness during the good times, taking time to be grateful and to reflect on His goodness when things are going well can actually build my trust level in Him in wonderful ways. That is indeed what happened during the season of pain that we went through. The trust that had already grown in our hearts sustained us and invited us to trust in uncharted waters even in the midst of the storm. And God, of course, was also continuing to reveal His trustworthiness during the troubled times in many different ways. (So, in fact, faith can grow during times of testing, too, but that shouldn't be the primary place, in my opinion).
Third, by its very nature, faith is meant to increase and grow in any relationship, and especially in our relationship with God. We were meant to trust God, born for that very purpose because we were born in order to be in relationship with Him! But because increase is part of the journey, we will often find ourselves faced with a new choice to trust God in a new way. Personally my sense of self trust is so deeply ingrained in me that I find God's invitations to trust Him in new ways rather stretching at the very least and downright annoying and scary at the most! Yet the invitation continues all the days of our lives: "Trust in the LORD with all of your heart and don't trust in your own understanding." And so my anxiety becomes God's call to trust Him more deeply, not blindly but based upon His character as revealed by our experiences of His faithfulness and the testimony of many others. (But it's still scary and annoying at times! It wouldn't be faith if the need to trust weren't involved!).
Finally, I have discovered again that it really does help to translate belief, believe and faith as "trust" when we read scripture. There is something wonderfully down to earth and easy to understand about Jesus asking the disciples, "Where is your trust?" instead of "Where is your faith?" Because of our religious conditioning, faith often sounds like a commodity or something we do, whereas "trust" is easy to understand as a relational concept. Try it, you may like it. The word "trust" will fit in all of those places where believe, belief or faith show up.
And so here I am, facing the uncertainty of life in multiple dimensions, with no sure end in sight. But as happened during the painful journey, I hear again the words of Lamentations 3:57 and cannot do otherwise than transfer my trust once again to the One who alone is trustworthy.
Tom, one of Abba's children
First, more than ever I am aware that "faith" is something that is present in every human being. The question, of course, is where a person chooses to place his/her trust. We exercise enormous amounts of faith every day. We trust other drivers to stay alert and in their own lane of traffic, we trust those who worked on the airplane we are boarding to be responsible, we trust those who prepare our food to exercise good hygiene practices, etc. And, most of all, we trust ourselves and our own perception of things. It's that last truth that creates the challenges for us as we hear God invite us to trust Him. We are conditioned all of our lives to trust "self" and self alone, and this self-trust is so automatic as to be almost invisible and unconsciously exercised. But God invites and challenges us to transfer trust from a very limited and highly ignorant person (that would be you or me!) to Himself, the infinite, all-knowing, completely loving One. Sounds good when we say it, eh? But learning to transfer trust to Him is a lifelong process that is often fought tooth and nail by both our adversary and our self. Big revelation there, eh? We all know this fact all too well. But it does help to bring this to the light, I think. When I realized that I wasn't trying to create faith or generate more faith but rather transfer my trust from self to God, it helped me both to want to do so and made me see how possible it is to trust God (I just shift my trust from unreliable self to totally reliable Papa God!).
Second, "faith" is best built mostly during the good times so that it's there to sustain during the bad times. This isn't what I was taught in church, though. I was told that times of testing come to grow my faith (exercise my faith muscle, etc.). But this isn't what scripture says, and it isn't what life experience teaches us! Trust grows in our lives in response to our experience of another's trustworthiness. We learn to trust another person by their showing us through their actions that they are trustworthy. The more experience we have of their trustworthiness, the more we grow to trust them. Eventually our trust is deep enough that even when they ask us to trust them in something we haven't previously experienced with them, we do so because their character has been revealed through our experience with them up this point. I think you can see how this applies to the God journey, too. And Scripture bears this out, showing us God's trustworthiness over and over again as experienced by people just like us, and telling us that struggles come not to grow our faith but to reveal it in the midst of the test (see, for example, 1 Peter 1:6-7).
But how does the above truth help us? I am learning that paying attention to God's faithfulness during the good times, taking time to be grateful and to reflect on His goodness when things are going well can actually build my trust level in Him in wonderful ways. That is indeed what happened during the season of pain that we went through. The trust that had already grown in our hearts sustained us and invited us to trust in uncharted waters even in the midst of the storm. And God, of course, was also continuing to reveal His trustworthiness during the troubled times in many different ways. (So, in fact, faith can grow during times of testing, too, but that shouldn't be the primary place, in my opinion).
Third, by its very nature, faith is meant to increase and grow in any relationship, and especially in our relationship with God. We were meant to trust God, born for that very purpose because we were born in order to be in relationship with Him! But because increase is part of the journey, we will often find ourselves faced with a new choice to trust God in a new way. Personally my sense of self trust is so deeply ingrained in me that I find God's invitations to trust Him in new ways rather stretching at the very least and downright annoying and scary at the most! Yet the invitation continues all the days of our lives: "Trust in the LORD with all of your heart and don't trust in your own understanding." And so my anxiety becomes God's call to trust Him more deeply, not blindly but based upon His character as revealed by our experiences of His faithfulness and the testimony of many others. (But it's still scary and annoying at times! It wouldn't be faith if the need to trust weren't involved!).
Finally, I have discovered again that it really does help to translate belief, believe and faith as "trust" when we read scripture. There is something wonderfully down to earth and easy to understand about Jesus asking the disciples, "Where is your trust?" instead of "Where is your faith?" Because of our religious conditioning, faith often sounds like a commodity or something we do, whereas "trust" is easy to understand as a relational concept. Try it, you may like it. The word "trust" will fit in all of those places where believe, belief or faith show up.
And so here I am, facing the uncertainty of life in multiple dimensions, with no sure end in sight. But as happened during the painful journey, I hear again the words of Lamentations 3:57 and cannot do otherwise than transfer my trust once again to the One who alone is trustworthy.
Tom, one of Abba's children
Friday, September 23, 2011
The Discerning Community, Part Two
"Test everything!" Today I continue my thoughts about how we as the people of God can be a discerning community.
This time I simply write out some questions/reflections that we in the discerning community can use when we are "testing everything." Some of these may repeat what I said in part one, but I felt the need to list out some basic questions to use in evaluating things, whether it's a prophetic word, dream or vision or a teachings or book or anything else, so here goes. Some of these questions are without comment because they are rather obvious.
- What is the fruit of the person's life who is bringing this? In Matthew 7:15-23 Jesus warns His followers to be on the alert for false prophets and tells them that false teaching can be detected by looking for false living: "thus by their fruit will you recognize them." I could write a book about this passage, but for now note that the warning here is not just about false teaching but false prophets--the people themselves. We recognize these people by inspecting the fruit of their lives. This requires us to know something about their lives, of course, and also the effect their lives have on others. Does this person's life bring peace, love, joy, etc. to others? Do they live a life of integrity and healthy transparency?
- Do other, honest and godly, people endorse this? I am not suggesting that every honest and godly person has to endorse everything. Perfect agreement will not happen this side of Heaven! For example, I know of very few people who adhere to Calvinism who would endorse The Shack, but there are many other trustworthy folks who do (including yours truly!). But generally there should be some sense of broad agreement by healthy followers of Jesus.
- Does this _______ promote humility or pride in those who accept it?
- Who is lifted up by this ________, the Lord Jesus or someone else?
- Does this _______ promote a sort of elitism, i.e., assert that only certain special people "in the know" are buying into this teaching? Does it imply that special revelation has been given to a chosen few? The sense of "being special" or having "special knowledge" is as old as the Church itself. The early Christian heresy known as Gnosticism appealed to people's prideful desire to be part of the elite group composed of those who know special, deeper truth. Note that this call to elitism (the very opposite of the Good News) can be very subtle, but for me it's a dead giveaway that something is fishy. Note, however, that something can be new and embraced early by early adopters and not be elitism. The Pentecostal and Charismatic movements are proof that old truth, long hidden, can be unveiled to God's people and not be accepted by everyone. I believe that new understanding will indeed continue to be revealed to sincere followers of Jesus, but it won't promote elitism, nor will it disagree with the basic tone of Scripture or the character of God.
- How does this ______ fit with the whole of Scripture? I touched on this last week, but I bring it up again. The devil knows the Bible and felt free to quote it even to Jesus during the wilderness temptations. But Jesus knew His Abba so well, and He knew Scripture and well enough to fend off the enemy's deceptive use of Scripture. As a discerning community we will do well to ask Him to enable us to do the same.
Okay, that's enough for now, I think. No one gets everything right, of course, and focusing only on doctrine and teaching will divide us rather than unite us, but we can certainly learn to be a discerning community. We can, as Paul stated, be people who as a community are testing everything and holding fast to the good while discarding the bad. When we do so, the result will be deep transformation of lives and cultures, an abundance of the fruit of the Spirit, increasingly healthy relationships and the shattering of the kingdom of darkness.
Learning to discern in love, in community...
Tom, one of Abba's children
Friday, September 16, 2011
The Discerning Community
"Don’t suppress the Spirit, and don’t stifle those who have a word from the Master. On the other hand, don’t be gullible. Check out everything, and keep only what’s good. Throw out anything tainted with evil." (1 Thessalonians 5:19-22, The Message)
I am sometimes fascinated and sometimes frustrated by the gullibility of church folks. As one who visits many different streams in Christ's body, I have discovered that gullibility seems to be widely distributed throughout the various expressions of the church. Although some suggest that Pentecostal-Charimatic folks are more likely to be gullible and led astray into strange beliefs and behaviors, I haven't found that to be the case. Anti-supernatural folks are just as deceived as those who see God in everything supernatural! They are merely deceived about a different aspect of God's truth (a de-supernaturalized God is a serious deception and one that the devil loves to promote, methinks).
With the increasingly unsettled nature of our times, people seem to be even more open to strange things. Jesus and His Apostles predicted this, of course, warning us that in the last days the enemy would ramp up his attempts to lead people astray (see, for example Jesus' discourses in Matthew 24 and Luke 21 and 1 Timothy 4:1 ff., 2 Timothy 3:1-9, etc.).
So what are we to do about this? Certainly we are not to live in fear of deception, but just as certainly we do need to be sure that we become an increasingly discerning community. That's what Paul is saying to the Thessalonians in the passage above. Writing to the community of believers in Thessalonica, Paul admonishes them, as a community, to be open to the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit while also testing everything, holding onto that which is good but discarding that which is evil. It's clear, then, that an important part of our becoming a healthy community of believers requires us to to be testing things as a community. So how do we do that? What measurements do we use for our testing? Here are a few of my thoughts. Note that I am assuming that this testing is being done by the community, not just by one self-appointed "guardian of truth"--no one can discern rightly apart from the larger Christian community.
First, Paul himself gives us the first measurement in this passage from 1 Thessalonians: good and evil. This may seem like a no-brainer, but I have seen unthinking believers embrace things that, while not blatantly evil, clearly led in that direction. Usually the reason they embraced these things was that they hadn't fully thought out the implications of what they were hearing, seeing, reading, etc. Testing something means using our minds to carry it out to its full and logical conclusion. Some things that start out looking good can end up looking very strange or downright evil.
Second, it's good to test things with plain old common sense. Many years ago I heard a woman give a prophetic word saying that financial prosperity would be ours if we would all just take out our wallets and jump up and down on them in Jesus' name. I still smile as I think of the expression on the senior pastor's face :-) Thankfully, common sense prevailed and our wallets were spared. This is a humorous example, but other examples are not so obvious. For example, I have heard it said in some circles that "God wants to destroy your dignity in order to humble you." How ridiculous is that? Why would a loving Father destroy the dignity of one of his children? God may want to dismantle pride in some of His kids, but He protects the dignity of those He loves (those who wait for Him are never put to shame! Psalm 25:3). Other assaults on our common sense come when people suggest that God "took someone home" through death (Jesus died to conquer death, not use it to get someone to Heaven!), or when folks suggest that natural disasters are God's judgment (see my friend Steve Hill's excellent comments on this by clicking here.)
Third, we can test things against history. Church history and history in general have many lessons to teach us about how people are led astray and the tragic results when that happens. History also helps us be alert to patterns that may help us become more discerning. For example, throughout the past few hundreds years of Western civilization, every time things have looked really bad there have been those who predict that Jesus' return is near. Now we all know that His return is certainly nearer now than ever before, but before we listen to those who drag out their charts and proof texts, we may want to consider that this has always happened when things get bad. Similar charts and prophecies of doom have occurred before. (I am not saying that we shouldn't pay attention to the signs of the times but that we will do well to take historical context into account when we do).
Fourth, we can depend upon the spiritual gift of discernment. I personally think this is one of the most important gifts for believers to value and exercise, not just to detect error, however, but also to discern the good. A believing community will also do well to pay attention to those credible people in their midst whose "discernment-o-meters" sound yellow alerts at various times.
Finally, and most importantly, we can test things against Scripture. Again, this may seem like a no-brainer, but I am amazed at how rarely this is done, especially in terms of things supernatural. Just because something appears to be a supernatural experience (like trips to Heaven, out of body experiences, seeing angels, etc.), doesn't mean that it shouldn't be weighed against Scripture. Paul said that even an angel who announced a different gospel should be eternally condemned (Galatians 1:8-9), and 1 Thessalonians 5:21 says to "test everything" which would include visions and other supernatural experiences. And when we test such things, we test them against the whole of Scripture, not just a few short verses, comparing such things to what Scriptures shows us about the character of God and the nature of the New Covenant given to us through Jesus. I recently came across an example of this. I heard or read about a little child's trip to Heaven in which s/he was told that Christians are to start keeping the feasts of Israel! Anyone familiar with Paul's letters knows that such a statement is not trustworthy (Galatians comes to mind, along with Colossians 2:13-23), yet, because the false teaching is couched in supernatural language, some folks will naively embrace this and become entangled in something that will lead them away from the grace-filled life in Jesus.
I could go on with many more examples, but this is getting pretty long already. Can you tell I am passionate about this? Yes, Tom, the man who emphasizes intimacy with Papa God as primary, still very much believes that what we believe about God matters! Mere intellectual belief is not biblical faith, but thinking about what is true and trustworthy is part of a healthy Christian life and healthy community of believers. Paul made it clear that we as Christ's people are not only to be open to the supernatural working of the Spirit but also to be open to testing everything that comes our way. Gullibility may be cute when we are teasing someone, but it can be dangerous when we are dealing with the deeper things of life.
I will write more about all of this next week. This is part one :-)
Thankful to be part of the larger, discerning community.
Tom, one of Abba's children
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