Year: 2015

“His track I see and I’ll pursue,” sang our fathers only a short generation ago, but that song is heard no more in the great congregation. How tragic that we in this dark day have had our seeking done for us by our teachers. Everything is made to center upon the initial act of “accepting” Christ (a term, incidentally, which is not found in the Bible) and we are not expected thereafter to crave any further revelation of God to our souls. We have been snared in the coils of a spurious logic which insists that if we have found Him, we need no more seek Him.
–A. W. Tozer

The language of this quote by Tozer may be a bit difficult, but I think it points out a great tragedy that has occurred in the lives of many people due to a failure of God-honoring teaching in the church. The teaching is that as long as we “accept” Christ and gain our “fire insurance” to keep us out of hell, then we don’t need to continue “working out our salvation with fear and trembling.”

I hope that you haven’t stepped into a relationship with Jesus and then you just sat down. I pray that you will desire to go deeper and deeper in your relationship with Him. That you’ll hear Him calling to you: “Farther Up and Further In” as you strive for more spiritual maturity and as you seek to become more like Christ daily.

Pain.
Hurt.
Suffering.

Have you ever noticed that there’s a kind of secret society you enter once you’ve suffered? The particulars of your story don’t matter as much as the simple fact that you and someone else have felt the same deep pain. Though initiation stinks, there are benefits to membership. Camaraderie is one. You also become more aware of other sufferers around you and feel less self-conscious about offering sympathy. You get to hear their own heart-wrenching stories and learn along with them. You get to rejoice with those who overcome. And in your own darkest moments…you get to draw from the deep wells of authentic wisdom that come from walking through the fire.
–Anonymous, Embracing Obscurity

None of us hope to join the Secret Society of Those Who Suffer, but we all will become members before we end this life.

But instead of worrying about the suffering that is coming, or even the suffering we are in the midst of, how about we think about the benefits of being in the club. The benefits that are mentioned in the above quote: Camaraderie with others. A deeper awareness of the needs of others. Less self-conscious about being sympathetic. And gaining wisdom that can be shared with others due to your own walking through the fire.

Take Jesus’ hand, and let Him lead you safely through the fire, through the darkness, through the suffering that you definitely will experience in this life (or may be experiencing even right now). On the other side are benefits for yourself and others. Be willing to share your experiences with others to help them know how to navigate the treacherous waters with Jesus.

Ten thousand people telling a lie do not turn the lie into truth.
–Bruce Shelley

What is the standard for truth?
It must be something outside of myself, otherwise I am the creator of truth.
2+2=4, not because I agree or disagree with the statement, not because I like or dislike it.

So what is the standard?

The unchanging character of God determines truth and morality.
What He says is true. Who He is is true.
Anything that goes against His nature, character, word, or will is not truth.

The problem is that we don’t want it that way.
But just because I want 2+2=7.5, won’t make it so.
And just because all of society wants to redefine truth or morality, won’t make it so.
Therefore, look to God’s Word, learn His truth, and hold it up as what you will trust and believe and follow.

To do otherwise is to hope that you can change the truth by majority opinion.
And worse, it will put you outside of God’s will and His plan for your life.

The gospel declares that we are not a perfect people; this is foundational to our understanding. In fact, the gospel unashamedly pronounces our lack of perfection and affirms that our hearts have been soiled with sin. But Christ has died for this and has given us a new heart. We are not the same people. Morality and integrity are the by-products — not of our own effort, but of the work of the Spirit. A man who is above reproach, then, is a man who is united to Christ.
–Matt Chandler

And so, we are not perfect people.
We are unrighteous.
We are soiled with sin.
We have rotten hearts.

But… Jesus died to change all of that!
He has given us new hearts, so that we are changed… transformed, even… into something new.

Now, by being united to Christ,
We have His righteousness.
Our sins have been wiped away to be remembered no more.
Our hearts are becoming more like His each day.
Perfection is knowing Christ and letting Him continue to transform us into that new creation.

That is why He can say to us:
“Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
The only way this is possible is with Him living in us and through us and making us new.

Yesterday, I wrote:
It is not that we don’t know how to live for God.
It is not that we don’t have enough information about what He wants us to do.
It is not that we don’t understand the difference between right and wrong.
These are not our problems, because God has clearly revealed His will to us. Rather,
“Our problem is not an inadequate education. It is a rebellious heart” (Ravi Zacharias).

(click here if you missed yesterday’s post and want to read it first)

Today’s quote contains a similar idea, but goes a step further:
One can know a great deal about godliness without much knowledge of God.
–J. I. Packer

What Packer means is that we can have a head knowledge of God, or information about God, without truly having an intimate relationship with Him. Packer explains it a bit more fully:

     It depends on the sermons one hears, the books one reads, and the company one keeps. In this analytical and technological age there is no shortage of books on the church booktables, or sermons from the pulpits, on how to pray, how to witness, how to read our Bibles, how to tithe our money, how to be a young Christian, how to be an old Christian, how to be a happy Christian, how to get consecrated, how to lead people to Christ, how to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit (or, in some cases, how to avoid receiving it), how to speak with tongues (or, how to explain away Pentecostal manifestations), and generally how to go through all the various motions which the teachers in question associate with being a Christian believer. Nor is there any shortage of biographies delineating the experiences of Christians in past days for our interested perusal.
     Whatever else may be said about this state of affairs, it certainly makes it possible to learn a great deal secondhand about the practice of Christianity. Moreover, if one has been given a good bump of common sense one may frequently be able to use this learning to help floundering Christians of less stable temperament to regain their footing and develop a sense of proportion about their troubles, and in this way one may gain for oneself a reputation for being quite a pastor. Yet one can have all this and hardly know God at all.
     We come back, then, to where we started. The question is not whether we are good at theology, or “balanced” (horrible, self-conscious word!) in our approach to problems of Christian living. The question is, can we say, simply, honestly, not because we feel that as evangelicals we ought to, but because it is a plain matter of fact, that we have known God, and that because we have known God the unpleasantness we have had, or the pleasantness we have not had, through being Christians does not matter to us? If we really knew God, this Is what we would be saying, and if we are not saying it, that is a sign that we need to face ourselves more sharply with the difference between knowing God and merely knowing about him.

I don’t want to know about God.
I want to know Him.
I want to be so content in my relationship with Him that neither “the unpleasantness I have had” nor “the pleasantness I have not have” matters, but only that I am walking with Him daily – learning that His Presence in my life is enough and meets all my needs.

God, I want to know you more. Help me to never settle for just knowing about You.