Finding Fellowship

Love is a funny thing.
It is easier to "love" in theory than in nitty gritty practice. It is easier to love an idea or an ideal than people with warts and blemishes. It is easier to love "back" than it is to tentatively reach out and offer love not knowing what the response will be.

I'm not (now) talking about romance. I'm talking about looking people in the eye when you are going into church and on the way out and saying, from the heart, "Hello!" Maybe even with a little smile.

Life in the Spirit: A Holiness Sermon

Life in the Spirit

Romans 8:6 - 9 For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mindset on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the fleshis hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law ofGod, for it is not even able to do so; and those who are in the fleshcannot please God. However, you are not in the flesh but in theSpirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone doesnot have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.

THE MIND SET OF BELONGING

When we read Romans 8, seeking to find out what it means to know the sanctifying grace of God, it is all too easy to begin anywhere and end up exactly where we want to come out.

There are some strong statements in this opening part of Romans 8 that, taken out of context, contradict common sense and experience. One such statement is: "They that are in the flesh cannot please God."
What this is sometimes interpreted to say is: As long as we are flesh and blood, here in this life, we can not hope to please God. Even Christians are under sin's dominion!
But the very next statement is also easy to misunderstand: "You are not in the flesh if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you."--which is misinterpreted to say that people who are inhabited by God's Spirit are somehow "other-worldly" and so they do not fully enter into life here on earth.
What we can understand immediately is that there is conflict and struggle, tension and even warfare that we experience even as we seek to know God's sanctifying grace.

THE BATTLEGROUND OF THE HUMAN PERSONALITY

Why there should even be a battle of good and evil is a mystery.Occasionally even little children will ask profound questions like:"Why doesn't God just squash the devil?"
Why this battle should continue even after a person has chosen to go with God is beyond our understanding. But the battle continues. And the center of the battle, at least so far as we mortals can understand, seems to be our very minds and souls, the human personality.
Romans 7:21 declares there is a principle that good is alway sopposed: "I find then a principle that when I would do good, evil ispresent with me." God's Word reveals the true extent of thestruggle. Our minds become a microcosm of the mystery of good andevil.
This struggle sharpens with the revelation of a God who IS, andwho is GOOD, and who SPEAKS to us, who challenges us to believe in Him, to KNOW Him, and to come to LOVE Him and TRUST Him.
You are personally involved in this titanic battle.

THE BATTLE OF GOOD AND EVIL INTRUDES INTO EVERY ASPECT OF LIFE AND LIVING
Philosophers and peasants, great men and little children- all of us have tried to understand the dimensions of the warfare of good andevil.
Our society has largely taken the approach to the problem of denying that it exists. With no absolute good and no absolute evil,each individual in our society is free to do as he/she pleases, justso long as no absolute standards are proclaimed.
And consequently we have the tragic enigma of parents berating their children for doing drugs, when they themselves are addicted toalcohol; of public officials whose personal and private lives are full of broken promises and rotten selfishness making pronouncements on what is and what is not "moral" for society; we have liberal church leaders speaking for God who have lost all personal contact with God; we have fundamentalists who know all the answers even before the questions are asked. And the heart of the whole matter is this thing Paul calls "mind set!"
All these failures are merely human solutions to human problems.All these are evidence of lack of trust in a God Whose Word reaches towhere we live!

We cannot be truly good without God! We have forgotten that the One who made us knows us better than we know ourselves. We have forgotten the instructions that come with the Manufacturer's Guarantee. And whatever we may think or say about ourselves, human beings still respond at the deepest level to what is right and what is wrong. Our souls bear witness to a battle that we do not ever fully understand. We are a bundle of contrasts.

So we are called on to choose. This is the message of the Evangelist. God has spoken; His way is GOOD. All other ways lead todeath. (Deuteronomy 30:19-20) "I call heaven and earth to witnessagainst you today, that I have set before you life and death, theblessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live... "

This Golden Chapter of the Bible is a litany of the personal fallout of our choosing: (v 1) contrasts of condemnation/freedom; (v 26) ofweakness/attainment; (vv 2,6, 13, +) of death/life; (v 18) of suffering/glory; (vv 35-39) of separation/love.
All of these contrasts come to a focus in what Paul calls "mindset." ( KJV = "carnal mind" and "Spiritually minded".) There are only two ways to think about life, so far as Paul is concerned-- inthe flesh, or in the Spirit.

Several statements are made about THE MIND SET ON THE FLESH.
(1) It has as ITS LIFE GOALS (verse 5) the things of the flesh; temporal things, things that will pass away. It believes that THINGS are the cause of joy.
(2) It has as ITS BASIC TEMPER (verse 7) a hostility toward God. It sees God as the enemy, the One who takes away joy.
(3) It has as ITS LIFE STYLE (verse 7) a law-breaking way of living; in fact it couldn't keep the law if it wanted to.
(4) IT CANNOT PLEASE GOD (verse 8) even though God loves the sinner, and seeks his salvation, the way the sinner LIVES is not pleasing to God.
(5) THE MIND SET ON THE FLESH IS DEATH (verse 6.) Not just "will be" death, nor "leads to" death-- which are both true-- but is NOW spiritually DEATH!

In contrast, here is what is said about THE MIND THAT IS SETON THE SPIRIT:
(1) It is LIFE and it is PEACE (verse 6.)
(2) It has as ITS LIFE-GOALS the things of the Spirit (verse 5.) "But you can't eat "love and Joy and Peace..." Perhaps not, but don't forget Matthew 6:33! (Seek God's kingdom first and all these things will be added unto you!)
(3) The mind set on the Spirit is WHERE GOD LIVES. The Christian is possessed BY GOD HIMSELF! God comes to live in us! (verse 9.)
(4) PLUS ... all the other benefits of this chapter!!
So, how may we come down on the side of God, and of good-- not just on Sunday when we're all dressed up-- but out there on the jobwhere the rubber meets the road?

THE BATTLE BOILS DOWN TO: WHO SHALL BE GOD?!
Is it really possible to be 'Spiritually minded'? Those who are in Christ Jesus HAVE ENCOUNTERED THE LIVING GOD. And so they have aparticular way of looking at God. And because they do, they also havea particular way of looking at all of life.

GOD CAN/MUST BE ENCOUNTERED AS A PERSON If you are a Christian it is not (just) because of WHAT you have believed, but because of WHOM YOU HAVE ENCOUNTERED! If you have met the living God who is bigger than all your universe, you have been introduced to the way of the 'spiritually minded.'
If you have a lesser god who perhaps serves to make you healthier and wealthier andwiser, but does not fill all the Universe, then you are still "in theflesh!"
THERE IS NO 'MIDDLE GROUND:'
TO BE SPIRITUALLY MINDED IS TO SEEKTO LIVE IN GOD'S REALITY.
TO BE FLESHLY MINDED IS TO TRY TO SERVE AGOD WE CAN BRING INTO OUR REALITY.

The challenge is to let God truly BE GOD!
THIS IS NOT A NEW THING, THIS "STRUGGLE OF REALITIES."
The First Commandment is still the hardest one to truly keep!
NO OTHER GODS!
Every generation of God's people has had its brand of "secular humanism" under one form or another. It seems so simple to follow Jesus Christ: But there are always logical, attractive, compromising alternatives to following God with all our hearts.
There are many"lesser gods." There always have been.
Jesus said we are to be "In the world but not of the world." One Jewish historian saw it as a battle between the children of Zeus and the Children of YHWH: between the people who saw their gods as super-humans, needing to be placated, but serving to define the ideal Man and the ideal Woman, and the people who saw human beings as made in the image of the Invisible and Holy One who said "I AM THAT I AM"and "BE YE HOLY FOR I THE LORD YOUR GOD AM HOLY!"
IN THE WORLD!
Christians can buy and sell for profit, can run computers, can compete in the marketplace and the arenas of life."All truth is God's truth--" and certainly not all pagans aredeliberately God's enemies, and not all the world outside these doorsis evil.
BUT NOT OF THE WORLD!
Christians are different! They havea different mind-set. They refuse to bow down and worship anyCreature. Only the Creator is worthy of that loyalty.

To be Christian, then, to have one's mind set on God, MEANS THAT WE HAVE A PERSONAL, LIVING, VITAL CONNECTION WITH GOD ALMIGHTY!

THE BATTLE IS WON AS WE CONTINUE TO BE PRESENT TO GOD

To "be saved" is to encounter God. It is to be "present" whenHe calls ... and not just believing a creed or joining a church.

But to be 'being sanctified' is to continue to be "present" to God in the out-living of our lives. [I need to be careful here--careful and kind. I am dealing with some of the finest Christian people I know. People who are highly motivated and actively engaged inthe work of God's kingdom.] WHAT we do may or may not be exactly what we need to be doing. But HOW we go about doing what we do-- the SPIRIT we demonstrate-, and especially WHY we go about doing what we do will reflect whether or not we really know God! That is what "mind-set on God" is all about!

And there simply is no short-cut to "being present" to God. There is no "fool-proof" formula, no ritual that will not dry up and become an end in itself, no "prayer wheels" we can leave on while we go about doing as WE please. We simply have to spend some time with God. If we will take time to "be present" to God, He will dominate our lives and make us like Himself.

When we are "in Christ" the battle is won, but it is not over. There is still suffering to face. There are weaknesses to be endured. There are separations that will come. But be assured: GodIS! God LOVES YOU! If our minds are stayed on the God who transcends, we will find that He is the God who never, ever leaves us nor forsakes us.

I really believe this! It is where I am just now! Amen!

New Release: FC Word Action

The current Faith Connection illustrated Bible Life from Word Action has the following article on what might be perceived as "unanswered prayer." What do you think?

PRAYING WITH CONFIDENCE
Addressing the issue of “Unanswered Prayer”)
14 Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.
When I was a young boy my parents bought a large set of books called Junior Classics. Among the many different types of children’s literature they contained were Grimm’s fairy tales, and magic stories like Aladdin and his wonderful lamp. I remember thinking how shrewd I would be if ever I got to make three wishes, or even just one. I would wish for a magic wand that would then give me all the wishes I could ever wish. There is a temptation, perhaps, to think of using prayer like that magic wand. We think we may lift some of the mighty promises of the Bible out of their contexts and wave them about and name and claim any and everything we can make ourselves believe is for our good and, of course, for God’s glory.

There are superficial similarities, I suppose, between wishing and praying. Both wishing and praying involve a desire for something presently unseen. . But there is a world of difference between magic and miracle.
True praying reaches beyond what we can immediately see, and taps into truly miraculous, life-changing power. The Bible makes it clear that we may come to God with our petitions and intercessions. We can, we should, tell the heavenly Father all that is in our hearts, and ask Him to hear and answer our prayers.

But what about the times we pray and claim the promises and nothing seems to happen? What about unanswered prayer? I think I want to put quotes around “unanswered prayer,” because I’m not sure there are very many prayers God does not answer. It is not a copout to say that “No!” is a legitimate answer.

Do you pray for God to help you find some little thing you have lost or misplaced? I do. Perhaps some schools of thought would see that as a pitifully naïve concept of dealing with the Sovereign of the Universe. I see it as taking literally the lesson Jesus taught us: to think of the Father as “Abba” or “loving Father.” Ideally, God’s children can keep a running conversation going with Him all through the day. But at the same time that simple trust must never cross the line to suppose that the Father bends his will and knowledge of what is truly best for individuals and for all humankind to suit the whim and fancy of self-centered, self-seeking wish lists.

Does this mean we cannot pray specific prayers for the things we want? How about prayers for healing from disease? How about financial or material needs? Can we pray to find work? Will these prayers be answered?

Jesus taught us it is all right to ask for provision, for forgiveness when we sin, for guidance, and for deliverance from evil. In the spirit of the Lord’s Prayer it is safe to say there is nothing we cannot make a matter of prayer. But what about those “unanswered” petitions and intercessions?

Paul solicited prayers for himself, and evidently believed other people’s praying for him made a difference. But even Paul did not always get what he asked for. In 2 Corinthians 12 Paul wrote that he asked the Lord three times to remove what he termed “a thorn in the flesh” and each time he was denied. The denial itself was an answer. It was a loving answer that came with the promise of sufficient grace.

Jesus himself prayed what could be called an unanswered prayer, if by answering we mean He received what He first asked for. But in that awful moment in Gethsemene Jesus provided the pattern for taking us through any and all seeming unanswered prayer as He prayed, “Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done.”(Mark 14, Matthew 26)

Ultimately, whatever we pray, for whatever motive, must pass this ‘nevertheless’ subjection, trusting that the God we know and love will answer our sincere prayer in the way that is in keeping with our best and his glory. Effective prayer is centered in the heart of a loving God. The promises of God to answer prayer are linked to God’s good, effectual, and perfect will (see Romans 12:1-2) which only the God-committed know. Look at the context of the great promises through the scriptures. Without exception they are not merely blank checks for selfish exploitation, but invitations to partner with God in the Plan of redemption.


For example, John 15:7 promises If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you may ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you. But, profound to say, the very next verse is John 15:8: Herein is the Father glorified, that you bear much fruit; so shall you be My disciples. The promise is (1) in the context of abiding in the words and love of Jesus, and (2) in the prospect of bearing much fruit, which is to say, carrying out God’s best will for one’s life. (I like to emphasize that word much!)

Here in this passage I John 5:14 and 15 are followed by verses 16-17, which link the promise of answered prayer to interceding for brothers and sisters who have stumbled or even backslidden, with the clear intent of their restoration to grace. We are to pray (1) asking according to His will, and (2) asking for the restoration of those who have sinned.

Prayer is daring to ask for the miraculous. It is entering into partnership with God in releasing the powers of heaven into situations and relationships that would otherwise remain unchanged. Prayer is not the magic wand that gets us anything we think we need or want. With complete trust we can pray to the Father about everything in our lives, and let Him know our deepest desires. Some of our prayers will receive a gentle but firm “No!” But nothing must stop us from asking with the confidence that we are being tenderly heard. Nothing must stop us from making intercession for those we love, knowing it is God’s will for them to be saved. Nothing must stop us from lifting up our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Such praying with power, “praying through!”, is the most powerful force that has been trusted to God’s children. Use it well.

* * *


-by Russell Metcalfe

Dunning and Wiley

I've been re-reading Wiley's book on "Hebrews" and Dunning's "Grace, Faith, and Holiness" and appreciate so much their emphases on the simple faith without losing sight of the profound mysteries of grace. I still very much believe we are called to holy living, and that that holy life is covenent- promises made and kept- and that like marriage, the covenant with God mmust be a growing, learning, and often a stumbling, humbling thing. It is worth it all! Love!!

An "Icon" over my desk . . .

THERE IS A REALM
B’yond space and time
where neither tongue nor pen can fairly grasp
The scope of hope for us whose lives are God-
committed, and who dare to ask
Him for the faith we need to see His Glory
when we meet life’s hardest test.
He knows our every weakness, and with
Love and tenderness He gives His best.
And so, dear friend, if you are filled with
fears and questions cutting to the bone,
Remember it is God who loves you, and
who really wants His Glory shown.
-meditation on John 10:40 by Alvin Kauffman

-this hangs over my desk . . .an encouragement from a friend who ran the race well…

Russell

Dynamic Tension

Our walk with God is at one and the same time very personal, (One on one), and very connected, (in the Body of Christ.) If our goal is to please God and spend eternity in his Presence, the choices we make will depend on how we come to know God in both these ways.

I know it takes time to be holy. In my personal walk I need to give God access to my soul. Day by day I need to open my very heart to God. The Lord's Prayer, so simple, so easily said like a child's Christmas poem, when prayed...really prayed...will often help me know where to put the day's prayer emphasis.

It also takes the church to make a Christian whole. Our completeness, our wholeness, is not independent of the gifts and graces of the Body. The church of Jesus Christ is bigger than any of us can understand. No matter how large or small the congregation , it has its contribution to the whole church, but it also has things to learn from other members that may be different in many ways.

My own denomination has a tension between what might be terms sacramental and celebratory elements; or, between Methodistic-Episcopal roots and Revivalist-Pentecostal roots from the 19th century movement. A humble, even gentle dialogue between sincere brothers and sisters with strong feelings either way might reveal the possibilities of a both-and approach to worship, rather than an either-or. Two-thousand years of faith and wisdom belong to the whole body, and not just to those who consciously term themselves catholic. Catholic, by the way, is one mark of the one true church, and not the property of any denomination.

Bessie Martin

Today, Thursday, February 12, 2009, there was a funeral in Glasgow, Scotland. It was a celebration of the life of Elizabeth (Bessie) Martin, who with her husband, Sydney, who died in 2004, were pastor family for the Parkhead Church of the Nazarene, there in the largest city in Scotland.

It would take a writer with considerably more than my skill to tell the story of these two people from the north of England (County Durham) who early on made their way to Scotland in the Church of the Nazarene, pastoring first in Twechar, a tiny town east of Glasgow, then for many years in the Parkhead church, which is the "mother church" in many ways of Nazarene churches in the British Isles, at least in the northern regions.

Sydney was a preacher, a preacher's preacher. The denomination chose him to be the "model preacher" in 1981 for the all the regional pastors' meetings, long after he had retired from active pastoring. Eastern Nazarene honored him with the Doctor of Divinity in 1983. He was the very epitome of powerful, reasoned, dignified pastor. Bessie was the perfect "other half" of the team. She organized countless district assembly details when their church was host to all the other Nazarenes in Scotland. She kept at least one set of feet on the ground when Sydney's mind was dealing with profound themes. Far from being an ideal dreamer, however, Sydney and Bessie had the gift of cvhallenging and inspiring many younger pastors and wives to excellence in ministry.

My own acquaintance with the Martins was fairly limited- beginning with the above named lectures, then extending to visits both ways and frequent times of fellowship, manitained by continual letters and phone calls. But the influence of Bessie and Sydney will linger in my own life. I loved them, and felt a love from them that continues beyond the mysterious boundaries they have already crossed, into the Church Triumphant.

Say a prayer of thanks today for people like Bessie, and Sydney, and the faithful you have known that pull you toward higher things. Pray, too, for Elizabeth, Jennifer, Jon, and their families who sorrow today, but, I assure you, do not have any bitterness in that sorrow, only joy and hope.