Category: christianity

Number 6

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Our church has recently been hashing through the relationship of mission and community, and its practical implications for our church body. It sounds like the diagnosis has been made: The American church for the most part has lost its mission, and our communities of faith have reflected that either by neglect of the “Go therefore and make disciples” (more fundamentalist and introverted churches) or by disregard for the “teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you” (more mainline denominational or liberal type churches).

From conversations I’ve had with our pastoral staff, it seems like we are arriving at the point that “community is the vehicle for mission”. Pushing just a little deeper into the idea, I asked why? The conclusion I arrive at is this: a missional community is the outflow of a covenantal community composed of individuals whose identity is found in Jesus Christ. Perhaps this is evidence of the total saturation of my mind by “individualistic” western thought, but I’m not sure I can see community aside from its composition of individuals. I’ll try to explain where I’m going with this, but it’s not entirely clear in my mind just yet, and I need some help fleshing it out.

I’ve been starting to think through how the Doctrine of Justification and the Atonement fit into this discussion. If we begin to think that community is something more than the sum total of its parts, I think something (to my knowledge, which isn’t incredibly deep) there needs to be something more than simply particular redemption and forensic justification of individuals. It seems like if you affirm that community is something that exists outside the context of individuals, you are almost forced to come up with a view of the atonement which provides for some general redemption. I guess my question runs along these lines: Is our corporate identity as a body with Christ as our head somehow something more than just the composition of individuals whom Christ has redeemed? I realize this may seem semantic and I’m probably not explaining my thoughts perspicaciously, but I think I need some help sorting through the rat’s nest of my brain.

Theologians, help.

Number 5

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Nehemiah 1
1The words of Nehemiah the son of Hacaliah Now it happened in the month Chislev, in the twentieth year, while I was in Susa the capitol, 2that Hanani, one of my brothers, and some men from Judah came; and I asked them concerning the Jews who had escaped and had survived the captivity, and about Jerusalem. 3They said to me, “The remnant there in the province who survived the captivity are in great distress and reproach, and the wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates are burned with fire.” 4When I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days; and I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven. 5I said, “I beseech You, O LORD God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who preserves the covenant and lovingkindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments, 6let Your ear now be attentive and Your eyes open to hear the prayer of Your servant which I am praying before You now, day and night, on behalf of the sons of Israel Your servants, confessing the sins of the sons of Israel which we have sinned against You; I and my father’s house have sinned. 7″We have acted very corruptly against You and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the ordinances which You commanded Your servant Moses. 8″Remember the word which You commanded Your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful I will scatter you among the peoples; 9but if you return to Me and keep My commandments and do them, though those of you who have been scattered were in the most remote part of the heavens, I will gather them from there and will bring them to the place where I have chosen to cause My name to dwell.’ 10″They are Your servants and Your people whom You redeemed by Your great power and by Your strong hand. 11″O Lord, I beseech You, may Your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your servant and the prayer of Your servants who delight to revere Your name, and make Your servant successful today and grant him compassion before this man ” Now I was the cupbearer to the king.

Nehemiah did some absolutely astounding things for the Lord, but what I want to point out is how Nehemiah’s activity and success in leadership were sourced in his contemplative, disciplined heart. His great character was developed prior to accomplishing what he did for the Kingdom of God.

Specifically, there are four things I see through this passage:

1.) Nehemiah knows God’s character and personality (verses 4-5)
a. Nehemiah’s heart was moved as God’s heart is moved, and it pains him grievously to see the state of Israel.
b. He spent time in the Word of God to know His character, and time in prayer where God’s face was revealed to him.

2.) Nehemiah confesses not only individual sin, but corporate sin as well (verses 6-7)
a. Because of the knowledge that Nehemiah has about God’s character, he understands who bears the responsibility for the current situation.
b. Confession is not simply a personal act…what would it look like if we were men and women who not only accepted responsibility for our own sin, but also the sins of former generations?

3.) Nehemiah knows God’s promises revealed through the Word (verses 8-9)
a. This again highlights Nehemiah’s command of the Word of God.

4.) Nehemiah asks God for success after all these things (verse 11)
a. Only after all these things does Nehemiah pray to be heard.

The major point I have learned from Nehemiah is that his inward disciplines of prayer, fasting, meditation and study preceded and directed his active and outward disciplines of leadership and ultimately his great accomplishment of rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem.

I hope that we are becoming men and women like Nehemiah, who are being developed in the character of Godliness through discipline prompted by the Spirit of God.  We must understand the point of a disciplined life is not discipline itself. To think this is to act like body-builders: people who confuse physical conditioning done to obtain purposeful strength and make the physical conditioning (or some grotesque simulation of it) the end in itself. Rather, discipline is useful only to the extent that it causes you to be more of a disciple: a follower of Jesus.

Number 4

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2 Timothy 1:7
“For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but of power, of love, and of self-discipline”

Most people love parts one and two of the Spirit God gives us, but part three tends to be their least favorite, and likely it is glossed over because we have already heard about the good stuff, power and love. We are, however, forced right here to deal with the naked truth that God’s gift of the spirit to us is also on of discipline, or being of sound and sober mind.
There are two major points that I want to address with this particular verse that inform us about the nature of Spiritual Discipline.

1.) The Spirit of Discipline is God given, not man derived.
-This flies in the face of much of the preaching around Spiritual discipline. The end of the view of spiritual discipline as something we do ourselves ultimately leads to self-righteousness and robs God of His due glory.
-The spirit of discipline is not reading Scripture daily, having a quiet time every day, and fasting regularly. These are specific manifestations of the spirit of discipline. When we confuse acting out the fruit of the spirit of discipline without the spirit itself is exactly the point when we become Pharisees, holding the letter of the law and not the spirit.

I would encourage you, rather than to go on a crusade for a week saying “I’m going to get up tomorrow at 6 a.m., read my bible, and pray for an hour and a half”, to instead begin humbly asking God that He would begin to reveal in you the spirit of discipline, and give you the ability to fix your hope on His grace. Pursue the inward heart change rather than the outward expressions of that heart. As long as we continue to pursue the outward expressions of discipline devoid of the spirit of discipline, we will continually fail.

Ultimately, as we begin to experience this spirit of discipline, the result will be the centering of our life on the grace of Christ, and a mind tuned moment by moment to the will of God, ready for the action of sharing the Gospel.

2.) The nature of the Spirit in us is one of discipline, and our process of sanctification should exemplify this truth.
-God has given you the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is disciplined, therefore you should exemplify these traits as you work out your salvation.
-As we grow in our faith, the Spirit is more manifest in our lives, and therefore fruits of the spirit ought to be more manifest as well. If discipline is not evident in your life, we need to ask ourselves some serious questions.
-Quite simply, discipline is not inherent in our nature, which leads to most of us really disliking the idea of discipline, I think because it carries a lot of baggage with it by intoning the idea of drudgery and boring work. Most of us think of our failed quiet times, our inconsistent Scripture reading, and our inability to memorize Scripture.

Number 3

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Here’s another post along the lines of some of my theological musings over the past few months.  This is excerpted from some other writing I did, so I apologize if it doesn’t entirely make sense…hopefully at some point I’ll make time to actually fully develop ideas into coherent arguments and points.

“I think I have been overly dismissive of the biblical doctrine of election, or at least have failed to see the practical implications of it worked out in daily ministry. The revelation I had was mainly related to the idea of a seeker sensitive or attractional model of church. The question really boils down to our view of salvation. If we believe that God preserves free will above all, then we must therefore make the Gospel as attractive as possible to win as many as possible. Perhaps ministries will grow numerically, but I think my observation is that personal holiness and obedience is frequently not the hallmark of churches with that mentality. If instead you believe in the saving power of the unadulterated Word through God, your task is to simply preach that clearly and faithfully, with full reliance on the power of God to effect salvation. I want to trust the saving power of God rather than gimmicky ministry ideas and the titillation of worldly desires. Let those whom God has brought forth come, because He is sovereign over the salvation of all. Pragmatism didn’t have a lot of place in the ministry of Jesus (what is pragmatic about the call he gives?).

I guess there is still room for a discussion on Paul’s idea of becoming all things to all men, but somehow I’m not sure we can arrive at a justification for much of what we see in modern ministry methods. Biblical faithfulness and obedience often is not championed, rather pop psychology enshrouded in biblical wrapping. Do we view Scripture as some good suggestions, or the very command of God which He effectively accomplishes in the life of a believer through the power of the Holy Spirit?

Also, to tie into my thought from the other day about the form of ministry being predicated by one’s theological bent, I want to add the concept that it also is intricately tied to one’s Christology. Keeping a balance of Christ incarnate and Christ exalted leads to a balance ministry of missional and victorious. We are to work with our hands in mission but proclaim a victorious King. I pray that we would not err on the side of only being warriors for Christ, but also as humble, hard-working peasants who are subject to their King.”