Seasoned Veracity

Leading With God Watching

It is very easy for our circumstances or for the expectations of others around us to control our lives. If we are honest, we will admit that our self-esteem is often bound up with our popularity, or our status, or our income.

We need to hold the things of this world lightly, for if we are concerned with our own reputation or honor, with material comfort and security, then it is unlikely that we will live a life worthy of the gospel.

If we judge Christians by the superficial criteria of the world—titles, clothes, bank balance—we have missed what really matters. Our calling to serve Christ is likely to be very different. It might cost us our comfort, our security, or our health, and maybe even our family or life itself. We do not measure the effectiveness of leaders by the indices of worldly success, but by their conformity to the way of the cross…

Integrity as a way of life means living contentedly whatever our circumstances. It means that we rely on God’s resources, live under his watchful eye and enjoy his fatherly care.

 -- Jonathan Lamb, from Kairos Journal

Believer Or Disciple?

At some point we stopped calling Christians disciples and started calling them believers. A disciple is one who follows and imitates Jesus. She loses her life in order to find it. She steeps in the language and culture of Christ until his Word and his world reshape hers, redefine her, change inside out how she sees and thinks and dreams and, finally, loves...

A believer, not so. She holds certain beliefs, but how deep down these go depends on the weather or her mood. She can get defensive, sometimes bristlingly so, about her beliefs, but in her honest moments she wonders why they've made such scant difference...

You can't be a disciple without being a believer. But -- here's the rub -- you can be a believer and not a disciple. You can say all the right things, think all the right things, believe all the right things, do all the right things, and still not follow and imitate Jesus.

The kingdom of God is full of disciples, but our churches are filled with believers.

  -- Mark Buchanan, from Your Church is Too Safe

Book Recommendation: Beautiful Outlaw

In Beautiful Outlaw, John Eldredge wants us to “experience the playful, disruptive, extravagant personality of Jesus.” He presents familiar episodes from the gospels  in a way calculated to display these various aspects of Jesus’ personality.

Eldredge is very critical of “religion,” for he sees this as a barrier to a real relationship with Jesus. Rather than becoming “religious,” Eldredge wants us to encounter Jesus as he is revealed in the gospels, and so come to love him and experience his presence in our lives day by day.

Selected quotes:

“Jesus came to reveal God to us. He is the defining word on God – on what the heart of God is truly like, on what God is up to in the world, and on what God is up to in your life.”

“Late into the night, early in the morning, walking down the road, in the middle of his supper, at home, abroad, Jesus offers. His time, his words, his touch, flowing like the wine at Cana. To appreciate the reality of it all, remember, this is not Superman. Remember his loneliness, his weariness, his humanity. This is utterly remarkable – particularly in light of the fact that this is a man on a life-or-death mission. He is lavish with himself.”

“Jesus is not strolling through the Israeli countryside offering poetry readings. He is on a mission to rescue a people who are so utterly deceived most of them don’t even want to be rescued. His honesty and severity are measured out precisely, according to the amount of delusion and self-deception encasing his listener.”

 “Neither success nor opposition have power over Jesus. One day the crowds love him, the next they are shouting for his crucifixion. Jesus is the same man – the same personality – through the whole swirling tempest. Jesus is free from the fear of man. It is something more than integrity, though it certainly encompasses that. He is true to himself, true to his Father, true to what the moment most requires, true to love. In this forest of fig leaves, where you are never sure you are getting the true person, there is nothing false about Jesus.”

“The purpose of his life, death, and resurrection was to ransom you from your sin, deliver you from the clutches of evil, restore you to God – so that his personality and his life could heal and fill your personality, your humanity, and your life. This is the reason he came.”

“Jesus established a whole new way of relating to God. He often reclined at meals with people; he stopped along the road to chat; he touched them, embraced them. He called them by name, and they him. Jesus is always closing the distance. The encounters in the Gospels are intimate. My goodness, the whole incarnation is intimate. Immanuel, God with us.”

“Jesus stands first in the line of humanity that God is restoring. He is not merely a model – that would be unreachable, crushing. He is the means by which God is restoring our humanity. That is what Christianity is supposed to do to a person. This happens as his life invades ours.”

“This is the point of encountering those things in your life you cannot handle – you are forced to turn to Christ. Your brokenness and your sin are not something you overcome so that you can walk with God. They are the occasions for you to cry out for the life of God in you to rescue you. Let this sink in: Jesus has no intention of letting you become whole apart from his moment-to-moment presence and life within you.”

 

Book Recommendation: Jesus + Nothing = Everything

In Jesus + Nothing = Everything, Pastor Tullian Tchividjian describes how a crisis in his church brought him to the end of himself and to the brink of despair, but ultimately drove him back to the gospel and led him to find there greater riches and resources than he had ever realized.

Primary themes of the book: 

1) Finding everything we need in Christ brings deliverance from bondage to the idols of position, popularity, preeminence, power, praise, etc., and leads to true freedom.

2) We must continually battle the powerful tendency to seek personal sanctification or divine approval on the basis of our performance, by preaching the gospel to one another and to ourselves daily.

3) The gospel of God’s grace in Christ is the key to sanctification as well as to justification, and spiritual growth comes not by focusing on our own performance but by looking to Christ, to all He has done and all He is for us.

Selected quotes:

“Moralistic preaching only reinforces our inner assumption that our performance for God will impress him to the point of blessing us. A Christian may not struggle with believing that our good behavior is required to initially earn God’s favor; but I haven’t met one Christian who doesn’t struggle daily with believing – somehow, someway – that our good behavior is required to keep God’s favor.”

“The modern church is all too often guilty of producing worship services that are little more than motivational, self-help seminars filled with “you can do it” songs and sermons. But what we find in the gospel is just the opposite. The gospel is good news for losers, not winners. It’s for those who long to be freed from the slavery of believing that all of their significance, meaning, purpose, and security depend on their ability to ‘become a better you.’”

“Progress in obedience happens only when our hearts realize that God’s love for us does not depend on our progress in obedience.”

“Sin turns us inward, while the gospel causes us to look up and out, away from ourselves. It turns our gaze upward to God and outward to others. The gospel causes us to love God and to love others, which of course is how Jesus summed up the entirely of the law.”

“Real spiritual growth happens as we look up to Christ and what he did, out to our neighbors and what they need, not in to ourselves and how we’re doing.”

“The determining factor in my relationship to God is not my past or my present, but Christ’s past and his present.”

“The Bible never starts with what we need to do; it always begins with what God has already done. Most of us become guilty of Christless Christianity because we look at the Bible and we see all of the imperatives without first being washed by the indicatives. We spend more time asking what would Jesus do instead of what did Jesus do.”

“The Bible makes it clear that if we’re a Christian, we’re already truly changed – but not yet totally changed. Each of us is a genuinely new creature, but we’re not yet a totally new creature. Though we’re fundamentally new, we’re not yet completely new. We still struggle with sin because sin has not yet been destroyed in our lives, though it has been dethroned. Sin remains in us, though it no longer reigns in us.”

“Guilt doesn’t produce holiness; grace does.”

 

 

Book Recommendation: Not a Fan

Not a Fan: Becoming a Completely Committed Follower of Jesus by Kyle Idleman

Kyle Idleman points out that Jesus came looking for followers, not fans. Unfortunately, He has plenty of the latter, not so many of the former. Idleman takes pains to show us the difference, and how to move from fan to follower.

Key quotes:

"When Jesus had a large crowd, he would most often preach a message that was likely to cause them to leave. It wasn't the size of the crowd Jesus cared about; it was their level of commitement."

"The biggest threat to the church today is fans who call themselves Christians but aren't actually interested in following Christ. They want to be close enough to get all the benefits, but not so close that it requires anything from them."

"Most of us don't mind Jesus making some minor change in our lives, but Jesus wants to turn our lives upside down. Fans come to Jesus thinking tune-up, but Jesus is thinking overhaul. Fans think a little makeup is fine, but Jesus is thinking makeover. Fans think a little decorating is required, but Jesus wants a complete remodel. Fans want Jesus to inspire them, but Jesus wants to interfere with their lives."

"Biblical belief is more than just an intellectual acceptance; it is a commitment to follow. Following by definition requires more than mental assent, it calls for movement. Our churches will contine to be full of fans until we make it clear that following is part of believing. To truly believe is to follow. In the gospels, Jesus says 'Believe in me' about five times, but he says 'Follow me' about twenty times."

"There is no forgiveness without repentance. There is no salvation without surrender. There is no life without death. There is no believing without committing. There is no John 3:16 without Luke 9:23."

"You can't call Jesus Lord without declaring yourself his slave. We are by nature comfort seekers, not cross bearers. But there is no comfortable way to carry a cross; I don't care how you position it."

"A consultant is someone whose wisdom we highly value and listen to, but at the end of the day, we make the final decision. God doesn't do consulting. Never has. Never will. He does God. When we treat him as a consultant, he simply stops showing up for the meetings."

 

Book Recommendation: The King Jesus Gospel

The King Jesus Gospel by Scot McKnight

Scot McKnight  examines the gospel as preached by Jesus and presented by the apostles, and finds it different from the "plan of salvation" typically offered by evangelists today. 

Key Quotes:

"I believe the word gospel has been hijacked by what we believe about 'personal salvation,' and the gospel itself has been reshaped to facilitate making 'decisions.' The result of this hijacking is that the word gospel no longer means in our world what it originally meant to either Jesus or the apostles."  

"Evangelism that focuses on decisions short circuits and -- yes, the word is appropriate -- aborts the design of the gospel, while evangelism that aims at disciples slows down to offer the full gospel of Jesus and the apostles."

"Gospeling declares that Jesus is the rightful Lord, gospeling summons people to turn from their idols to worship and live under that Lord who saves, and gospeling actually puts us in the co-mediating and co-ruling tasks under our Lord Jesus. When we reduce the gospel to only personal salvation, we tear the fabric out of the Story of the Bible and we cease even neeeding the Bible. I don't know of any other way to put it."

"The apostolic gospel can't be reduced to a gospel of sin management because it was a gospel of Jesus-declaration (that included the defeat of sin and death)."

"The entire sweep of the Story of Israel and the Story of Jesus ushers us into a world where God's people rely on and trust in God, and such a trusting relationship generates a life of obedience, holiness, and love."

"The gospel is framed by Israel's Story: the narration of the saving Story of Jesus -- his life, his death, his resurrection, his exaltation, and his coming again -- as the completion of the Story of Israel."

"The gospeling of the apostles is bold delcaration that leads to a summons while much of evangelism today is crafty persuasion."

"The gospel propels us into mission, into the holistic mission of loving God, loving self, loving others, and loving the world." 

As presented by McKnight, the gospel does not issue in a plea to accept Jesus as Savior, but a summons to submit to Jesus as Lord.

Book Recommendation: Red Like Blood

Red Like Blood by Joe Coffey and Bob Bevington

Sub-titled Confrontations With Grace, this book features exchanges  by a pastor and self-confessed prodigal on the amazing ways in which God's grace has entered and transformed their lives, and the lives of people they know. These are stories of the good, the bad and the ugly, stories of real life and real grace. 

Selected quotes:

"Ultimately, our displays of sin reveal the fact that although we say we love God, we love ourselves more. Our default mode is self-centeredness. Our sins throw us out of tune, out of touch, and eventually out of joy and out of hope because we are not doing what we were created to do. Our happiness, pleasure, and contentment are either artificial or short-lived or both. And collectively we account for the brokenness of the world."

"You have felt deep down that longing to be loved and that fear of being known. If you really know me, will you love me? I doubt it because, put in your place, I wouldn't love me either. I long for the experience of really being loved and yet all I give is the image of myself I hope others will find most attractive. The love I feel is muted at best, simply because I know that the person they love is not the person I am. I merely pretend to be me so I can pretend to be loved, and I starve."

"Grace is not solid, it is liquid. It flows. But grace does need one thing. It needs cracks. The bigger the crack, the deeper grace will penetrate. It is our cracks that might be the most important thing about us. It is cracks that let grace in. It is cracks that eventually show forth glory. Grace in and glory out."

"Our brokenness forms the cracks through which grace flows in and joy pours out."

"You are made for nothing less that to partner with the God of the universe in sewing back together the pieces of the torn-up world we have. The torn part of the fabric is very close to you. Don't miss it."

"If you are going to ever experience the effect of the gospel, you must have a Savior with both power and love. Grace always flows red like blood. That is why there is a cross. But for grace to have the power to save we need a risen Savior. That is why the tomb is empty today."

Red Like Blood available here.

 

Book Recommendation: Life With God

With: Reimagining the Way You Relate to God, by Skye Jethani

We live in a world of chaos and danger, and therefore seek control in order to mitigate our fears. Religion offers the promise of enhancing our control through putting us in touch with supernatural or divine forces. However, the original fall of humanity resulted from the attempt to seize control instead of trusting in and relying on God. Therefore “seeking control is not the solution to the human condition, but is part of the problem.”

Jethani describes five common approaches in relating to God, four of which miss the mark, and only reflect and reinforce our sinful desire for control.

Approach #1: Life Under God

This approach consists in obeying religious rules and observing religious rites in order to get God to do what we want. The (unarticulated) goal is to put God in our debt, expecting him to do our bidding in exchange for worship and obedience. Life under God often produces legalistic Christians, who become disillusioned when God fails to come through on what they perceive as His part of the bargain.

Approach #2: Life Over God

This approach seeks to discover the ultimate laws and principles which lead to success and achievement. The Bible is viewed as a source of principles for living, rather than a vehicle for coming to know God and communing with Him. If one can learn and implement the divinely ordained principles for marriage, child-rearing, finances, leadership, church growth, etc., then one is assured of success in these areas. But God’s role is reduced to that of law-maker, and His presence is no longer required or sought.

Approach #3: Life From God

This approach rightly views God as the source of all good things, but the focus is on God’s gifts more than on God Himself. The self takes center stage, and God functions as a “divine butler” to supply our needs and wants, and as a “cosmic therapist” to solve our problems. “The Life From God posture is so appealing because it doesn’t ask us to change. What we desire, what we seek, what we do, and how we live – all shaped by consumerism – are not disrupted.” God Himself becomes a means to help us achieve our ends.

Approach #4: Life For God

This approach is often contrasted with Life From God, as a shift from taking to giving, from being consumers to being servants. Responding to God’s call and fulfilling His mission become central. This may sound good, but it is wrong and idolatrous to allow the mission to replace God at the center of life. Our significance is not to be found in achieving the mission. We may accomplish a lot with this approach, but at what cost? (See Matthew 7:22, 23.) Such “missionalism” can become all-consuming and destructive, leading to the sacrifice of health, family, integrity, and fellowship with God.

Approach #5: Life With God

This approach recognizes that relationship is central to reality (think Trinity). Redemption is all about restoring our broken relationship with God.

"God’s plan to restore his creation was not to send a list of rules and rituals to follow (Life Under God), nor was it the implementation of useful principles (Life Over God). He did not send a genie to grant us our desires (Life From God), nor did he give us a task to accomplish (Life For God). Instead God himself came to be with us – to walk with us once again as he had done in Eden at the beginning."

The goal of life is to seek God himself. God himself becomes our treasure, and life is devoted to experiencing fellowship and union with Him. Living with God, we demonstrate faith in joyfully surrendering control of our lives. We experience freedom from fear in His presence with us. We find hope in the midst of chaos, knowing that He is in control. And we learn to share with others the love we receive from Him.

"What brings a person value, significance, and hope is not what he does but with whom he does it. The call to live in continual communion with God means that every person’s life, no matter how mundane, is elevated to sacred heights."

 

The Trinity is Not Just for Theologians

I really like Fred Sanders' book, The Deep Things of God: How the Trinity Changes Everything.

He takes the doctrine of the Trinity out of the realm of abstract theology and shows how it relates to everything evangelicals believe about preaching, prayer and Scripture.

He shows how our relationship with God is a relationship with Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

He shows that the gospel is thoroughly Trinitarian, God-shaped and God-sized, a revelation of God Himself.

Most strikingly, he shows that the gospel is not merely the good news of what God has done to save us, but the astounding news that God has given Himself to us to be our salvation.

I really like this book.

Wide-Eyed Wonder

In Notes from the Tilt-A-Whirl, N. D. Wilson compares the earth to a carnival ride, and delivers observations on each season as the twirling planet careens through its year-long orbit around the sun. Along the way he dabbles in Cosmology and Nuclear Physics, Entomology and Linguistics, Apologetics and Philosophy, and manages to correct Leibniz, tweak Hume, and laugh at Nietzsche.

Wilson approaches the world with the wide-eyed wonder of a G. K. Chesterton, prodding us to appreciate the marvels all around us. For Wilson, the universe is God's grand artistic project, each object spoken into existence and woven into an interlocking narrative designed to reflect the infinite aspects of His glory. This perspective sheds a new and different light on such troubling matters as the problem of evil and the fear of death. It also encourages us to greet each day with anticipation, turning a new page to see what surprises (and challenges) the Author has in store.

A few quotes to whet the appetite:

"This world is beautiful but badly broken. St. Paul said that it groans, but I love it even in its groaning. I love this round stage where we act out the tragedies and the comedies of history. I love it with all of its villains and petty liars and self-righteous pompers. I love the ants and the laughter of wide-eyed children encountering their first butterfly. I love it as it is, because it is a story, and it isn't stuck in one place. It is full of conflict and darkness like every good story. And like every good story, there will be an ending. I love the world as it is, because I love what it will be."

"Imagine a poem written with such enormous three-dimensional words that we had to invent a smaller word to reference each of the big ones; that we had to rewrite the whole thing in shorthand, smashing it into two dimensions, just to talk about it. Or don't imagine it. Look outside. Human language is our attempt at navigating God's language; it is us running between the lines of His epic, climbing on the vowels and building houses out of the consonants."

"What is the best of all possible things? That which is infinite, always present and undecaying. That which is both many and one. That which is pure, ultimate, and yet humble. That which is spirit and yet personal. That which is just and yet merciful. Yahweh, God. Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. What is the best of all possible Art? That which reveals, captures, and communicates as many facets of that Being as is possible in a finite frame."

"Step outside your front door and look at today's stage. Speak. God will reply. He will speak to you. He gave you senses. Use them. He will parade His art. He will give you a scene, a setting for the day. He will give you conflict to overcome, opportunities for your character to grow or fail. But do not expect Him to stay on whatever topic you might choose. His attention is everywhere and no story should be easy, as every reader knows."

"Do you dislike your role in the story? What complaints do we have that the hobbits could not have heaved at Tolkien? You have been born into a narrative, you have been given freedom. Act, and act well until you reach your final scene."

"In this story, the Author became flesh and wandered the stage with Hamlet, offering His own life. In this story, the Author heaped all that He loathed, all that displeased Him, all the wrongness of the world, onto Himself. Evil exists so that He might be demeaned and insulted, so that the depth of His love and sacrifice could be expressed as much as is possible in the small frame of history."

"I fill my lungs with the world, with this life, with this gift beyond containing. There is only one thing I can say. Thank you. And I must say it with my life. Through my life. To the end of my life. And after."

Notes from the Tilt-A-Whirl is a soaring, spinning book, well worth the price of admission.