Simpler Phrases...

So there is this little thing that bothers me. I usually don’t mind convention or quaint cliché (btw Microsoft inserts the umlaut automatically, awesome) but the implications of ideas are usually more far reaching than people realize. It starts with a famous phrase that goes to the effect of:

“There’s a God shaped hole in our hearts that only God can fill.”

While I get the sentiment the idea is expressing it gives a false view of the reality of our situation. Some Christians are under the impression that people can’t do anything fulfilling or meaningful apart from Christ. This is simply untrue. Egyptians built the pyramids without Christ, (although they used a lot of other Jews strangely enough), scientists construct theories without Christ; today a mother will give birth to her daughter “without Christ”. People will find a multitude of things to fill up their hearts with and assuage the biting truth of mortality and many if not most will be comforted outside of the reality of Christian truth. The more pressing issue is our devotion to comfort and our devotion to truth. The truth is that though we may find solace and affirmation in the things we put in our hearts (i.e. work, family, charity, friendships, learning, religion, etc.) our purpose and value as individuals is not tied to those things (unless you are a Marxist). A more accurate picture that actually represents the Gospel more honestly is:

“There is a ‘you’ shaped hole in the heart of God that only you can fill”

Our innate value and purpose is tied to this. His love for us is attractional and without condition. He makes room in holiness, in perfection; in Himself (some could say that he has ‘carved us out’). He draws us in and those who see Him as this God of love and redemption are completely reliant on this perspective. The first sentiment is wishful thinking geared at trying to convince people that they need God, the second is a life-changing truth revealing that God wants us. The Christian or the Jew is not special, the individual is special, you, wherever you are, whatever you are doing, however you have come to ‘be’, YOU have a specific place in the heart of God, don’t let anyone tell you different.

-these and other truths brought to you by the Bible, now in Technicolor!

The New Way of Becoming Bold(er). . . "Discipline pt.3"

This is the third blog wrapping up this topic, here are the previous sections: Part 1, Part 2

So what is spiritual discipline?

In simple terms the disciplines are – practices built on principle applied practically to our daily lives. (like the alliteration, I learned that in 8th grade English class and every pastor known to man. Thanks Mr. Bradford.) 

An example of this would be:

-principle- Tim. 3:15-17 you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. 

-practice- I read the bible consistently 

-applied practically- Daily bible reading with the purpose of revelation and the expectancy of something being deposited in me that will not only make me a stronger Christian but a better human. 

That would be reading the bible, a very important discipline, and the list goes on and on, I don't have time to get into journaling, critical thinking, fellowship, serving others, fasting, offering, worship, questioning everything, love, etc. etc, you get the point. 

Now everything in the mature Christian life is a discipline.  And it would be impossible for me (or anyone else) to tell you which ones you need to work on the most.  The whole point of this text is to get you to start pouring these things into your life, to start asking yourself the hard questions of faith. 

It is all so much but so worth it.  Start finding the things in your life that need it and apply discipline to them (hint: everything requires discipline, from how you spend your money to your sleeping schedule, God has a purpose and will for it, it's our job to find it). 

These things are what give you the authority and power to reach the lost, encourage the weak, feed the hungry, accept the outcast, challenge the faithful, and be the church. When we get to this place together, falling back won't be an option because your faith will be at a place where mature belief sustains your relationship with God.  Weakness swallowed up in power (1 Corinthians 15:54).  Instead of relying on people and your circumstances to pull you through life, you'll be the one others rely on to encourage them.  But you'll never get to that place without spiritual discipline. 

You have to start considering this now, and thinking on this level.  This isn't the type of thing that you put off until you're "ready" or "mature enough" because until you devote yourself to this purpose you will never mature spiritually.  It's all about devotion, committing to something.  God's judgment lies in our motive, it hinges on what you are committing yourself to.  Are you committing yourself to this world and its obligations?  It's system of greed and strife, self-motivation and lust?  Or can you want what God wants. Can you commit to His standards, not a pastor's or your friend's, but His discipline? His motives. The long-lasting effects of that kind of faith are evident in lives like Mother Teresa, Billy Graham, AW Tozer, Moody, and Thomas Aquinas.  These people got it, that discipline isn't something that others can force on you to get you closer to God, these things are what you place on yourself to get others closer to God. To “know Him, and make Him known.”

The Act of Acting. . . aka the "myth of natural devotion"

Where does Jesus Christ figure in when we have a concern about our natural relationships? Most of us will desert Him with this excuse—”Yes, Lord, I heard you call me, but my family needs me and I have my own interests. I just can’t go any further” (see Luke 9:57-62). “Then,” Jesus says, “you ’cannot be My disciple’ ” (see Luke 14:26-33).

True surrender will always go beyond natural devotion. If we will only give up, God will surrender Himself to embrace all those around us and will meet their needs, which were created by our surrender. Beware of stopping anywhere short of total surrender to God. Most of us have only a vision of what this really means, but have never truly experienced it.

-Chambers

He did it again. there is no natural. a lot of us have a natural affinity for the things of God and we take such deep advantage of this gift and eventually believe the deceipt that this has something to do with spiritual power but all and all it's not the acolades or abilities but total surrender in the "other" places where we are weak, where we are desperate, where we are vulnerable. That's God's measure of surrender for us, not in our obedience to the call but our surrender to everything else.

To be more precise the "educated, mature christian" thinks himself fairly capable of being close to God and (almost without thinking) defends the eternally secure position of devotion. We think ourselves worthy of some credit, our walk has been tested, our character intact, and our failures swept under the rug, we think ourselves in some ways almost commendable, but "the trap lies in wait for those most unawares". We are never farther from God than when we lose account of our desperate need of mercy and grace and we are never closer than when the complete gulf of his holiness and our filth is blatantly on display before us and the world. I have friends who have fallen fast and hard, shaming themselves and the gospel they so willingly proclaimed, and in a way that fall is the thing that saved them, it proved God's grace isn't for the quick or the talented or even the adequately equipped, His grace is for fallen man, period, whatever place, whatever circumstance, his grace cuts through the B.S. of our pretenses and our excuses and our disbelief and rescues us from ourselves. 

This is the God i fell in love with, not the one who is impressed with my theology or the god of false hope, but the God who sees me for what i truly am and loves me. and it's not in spite of myself it's because of my self. The reason i called this blog the smallest peace was this very idea. that christianity isn't the sum of it's parts as a whole, it truly is the smallest piece. The piece that sees value and worth in unmerrited brigands and bandits (i.e. humanity). We don't make a mockery of the gospel when we fail, we make a mockery of the smallest truth (and the most relevant one) when we succeed and think it has anything to do with us.