Monday, December 19, 2011

Praying for Patience


On Facebook today, I saw a post by a friend who's name will go unmentioned.  It was essentially a reminder to Christians not to ask for patience or humility, because God will put you through great trials to produce it.  I've heard variations of this over the years.  The most common one I've heard goes like this: "Never pray for patience, because God will bring you trials!" It's cute and everything, but as a Christian, it actually has begun to make me angry whenever I hear it.  It's implications are disastrous.

When a person says that, they are, in effect, saying: "Do not pray that God would make you more like Jesus, because in order to do that, He'll have to refine you through pain and difficulty.  You don't want that.  It's better to lie in the sloth of your flesh, and go to heaven a spiritual infant."  Of course, no Christian would ever say that.  But this is what people mean when they say it, whether they mean to mean it or not.

The gifts of the Spirit (healing, prophecy, tongues, etc.) are gifts.  They are given, and they are available to anyone who has the faith to exercise them.  However, the fruit of the Spirit are, well, fruit.  They are grown over time through processes that God ordains in our lives.   Both are important, but the fruit of Spirit are attributes of Christ's character.  When we say that someone is like Jesus, this is most of what we mean.  Jesus worked miracles in addition to being patient and such, but anyone with an ounce of faith can do this.  The disciples were doing miracles long before they displayed much of the fruit of the Spirit.  ....But maturity is in the development of the fruit

Also, the real pleasure of being a Christian is in becoming more like Christ.  (For heaven's sake, that's what it means to be called a Christian!)  When you realize that the things that used to throw you into a tantrum no longer do...when you care about souls...when you find yourself hating what Jesus hates and loving what He loves....when you actually learn to love someone who  may never love you back...when you really learn how to forgive....that is satisfying.  Then you are free.

That, beloved, is why we should pray for patience, and all the other fruit of the Spirit.  When we pray for those things, we are praying to be more like Jesus, and when that happens, we can know Him and enjoy Him more fully.   Screw selfishness.  Ask for patience.

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Expulsive Power


Check out what I read this morning:


Only by a stronger passion can evil passions be expelled, and .... a soul unoccupied by a positive devotion is sure to be occupied by spiritual demons.  The safety of the Master in the presence of temptation lay in his complete and positive devotion to his mission: there was no unoccupied room in his soul where evil could find a home; he knew what Dr. Chalmers called, "The expulsive Power of a new affection."  When Ulysses passed the Isle of Sirens, he had himself tied to the mast of and had his ears stopped with wax, that he might not hear the sirens singing - a picture of many man's pitiful attempts after negative goodness. But when Orpheus passed the Isle of Sirens, he sat on the deck, indifferent, for he too was a musician, and could make melody more beautiful than the sirens, that their alluring songs were to him discords.  Such is the Master's life of positive goodness, so full, so glad, so triumphant, that it conquered sin by surpassing it.  Have you such a saving positiveness of loyal devotion in your life?  (Harry Emerson Fosdick, The Manhood of the Master)

I think this "saving positiveness" is something we must ask for, but must also cultivate if we are to experience it.  Our heart becomes softer toward Him through the discipline of moving it close to His flame day by day.  This is why the probationary period that so many of us put ourselves into after a failure is so damaging - it is keeping us from the one thing that will ultimately conquer sin in our lives: a new affection.  We must run into the presence of God after we fall, not away from it.  He is not shocked by our weakness.  He knew what He was getting when He paid for us.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Good Interpretation

As I have been ministering on campus with InterVarsity for roughly a year and half now, I have fallen more deeply in love with the Bible.   I have been spending much time in the gospels with my students, and before this, I had spent the past few years reading through all the narrative portions of the Old Testament, as well as spending a lot of time in Psalms.  It is also important to mention that I grew up on a steady diet of scripture from a very young age (I have my mother to thank for this).  This has resulted in a pretty decent accrual of scriptural knowledge up to this point.  One of the most exhilarating things about all this has been that I am constantly seeing more continuity in the Word than I have ever seen before.  The Bible is continually making more sense to me, not less.  If you have not read it, or have not been spending much time in it recently, I plead with you to do so!  I am convinced that this is the most amazing work of literature in the world!


That said, I read portions of  a book recently that has confirmed a lot of what I have been learning about the study to scripture, and I wanted to share a few paragraphs of it with all of you teachers, preachers, and passionate studiers out there.  The book is called How to Read the Bible for All It's Worth by Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart.  This is an excerpt from Chapter 1:

We agree that Christians should learn to read, believe, and obey the Bible.  And we especially agree that the Bible need not be an obscure book if studied and read properly.  In fact, we are convinced that the single most serious problem people have with the Bible is not with a lakc of understanding, but with the fact that they understand most things too well!  For example, with such a text as "Do everything without grumbling or arguing." (Phil 2:14), the problem is not understanding it but obeying it - putting it in to practice.

We also agree that the preacher or teacher is all too often prone to dig first and look later, and thereby cover up the plain meaning of the text, which often lies on the surface.  Let it be said at the outset - and repeated throughout - the aim of good interpretation is not uniqueness; one is not trying to discover what no one else has ever seen before.

Interpretation that aims at, or thrives on, uniqueness can usually be attributed to pride (an attempt to "outclever" the rest of the world), a false understanding of spirituality (wherein the Bible is full of deeply buried truths waiting to be mined by the spiritually sensitive person with special insight). or vested interests (the need to support a theological bias, especially in dealing with texts that seem to go against that bias).  Unique interpretations are usually wrong.  This is not to say that the correct understanding of a text may not seem unique to to someone who hears it for the first time.  But it is to say the uniqueness is not the aim of our task.

The aim of good interpretation is simple:  to get at the "plain mean meaning of the text."  And the most important ingredient one brings to this task is enlightened common sense.  The test of good interpretation is that it makes good sense of the text.  Correct interpretation, therefore, brings relief to the mind as well as a prick or prod to the heart.



Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Two Things

No real post today like I would normally do.  (This is late, I know)  But you should go to my facebook and read my note called Simeon's Story - According to Joan. You should especially read the Wednesday Morning update. 

Also, I am considering making this a weekly blog instead of three times a week.  This has turned out to be a lot of work!  If you have been reading it each time, and find this disappointing, let me know and I might reconsider.

Monday, January 31, 2011

Ceremonies of the Sword

Are religions of the world similar?  Many will tell you that they are.  I have heard it again and again during many an oration at Berea College.  From a distance, this might seem so.  But is it really true?  I don't think anyone answers this question more concisely than the author quoted below.  Ladies and Gentlemen, from the turn of the last century, I give you Gilbert Keith Chesterton! :

The things said most confidently by advanced persons to crowded audiences are generally those quite opposite to the fact; it is actually our truisms that are untrue. Here is a case. There is a phrase of facile liberality uttered again and again at ethical societies and parliaments of religion: "the religions of the earth differ in rites and forms, but they are the same in what they teach." It is false; it is the opposite of the fact. The religions of the earth do not greatly differ in rites and forms; they do greatly differ in what they teach. It is as if a man were to say, "Do not be misled by the fact that the CHURCH TIMES and the FREETHINKER look utterly different, that one is painted on vellum and the other carved on marble, that one is triangular and the other hectagonal; read them and you will see that they say the same thing." The truth is, of course, that they are alike in everything except in the fact that they don't say the same thing. An atheist stockbroker in Surbiton looks exactly like a Swedenborgian stockbroker in Wimbledon. You may walk round and round them and subject them to the most personal and offensive study without seeing anything Swedenborgian in the hat or anything particularly godless in the umbrella. It is exactly in their souls that they are divided. So the truth is that the difficulty of all the creeds of the earth is not as alleged in this cheap maxim: that they agree in meaning, but differ in machinery. It is exactly the opposite. They agree in machinery; almost every great religion on earth works with the same external methods, with priests, scriptures, altars, sworn brotherhoods, special feasts. They agree in the mode of teaching; what they differ about is the thing to be taught. Pagan optimists and Eastern pessimists would both have temples, just as Liberals and Tories would both have newspapers. Creeds that exist to destroy each other both have scriptures, just as armies that exist to destroy each other both have guns.

Students of popular science, like Mr. Blatchford, are always insisting that Christianity and Buddhism are very much alike, especially Buddhism. This is generally believed, and I believed it myself until I read a book giving the reasons for it. The reasons were of two kinds: resemblances that meant nothing because they were common to all humanity, and resemblances which were not resemblances at all. The author solemnly explained that the two creeds were alike in things in which all creeds are alike, or else he described them as alike in some point in which they are quite obviously different. Thus, as a case of the first class, he said that both Christ and Buddha were called by the divine voice coming out of the sky, as if you would expect the divine voice to come out of the coal-cellar. Or, again, it was gravely urged that these two Eastern teachers, by a singular coincidence, both had to do with the washing of feet. You might as well say that it was a remarkable coincidence that they both had feet to wash. And the other class of similarities were those which simply were not similar. Thus this reconciler of the two religions draws earnest attention to the fact that at certain religious feasts the robe of the Lama is rent in pieces out of respect, and the remnants highly valued. But this is the reverse of a resemblance, for the garments of Christ were not rent in pieces out of respect, but out of derision; and the remnants were not highly valued except for what they would fetch in the rag shops. It is rather like alluding to the obvious connection between the two ceremonies of the sword: when it taps a man's shoulder, and when it cuts off his head. It is not at all similar for the man. These scraps of puerile pedantry would indeed matter little if it were not also true that the alleged philosophical resemblances are also of these two kinds, either proving too much or not proving anything. That Buddhism approves of mercy or of self-restraint is not to say that it is specially like Christianity; it is only to say that it is not utterly unlike all human existence. Buddhists disapprove in theory of cruelty or excess because all sane human beings disapprove in theory of cruelty or excess. But to say that Buddhism and Christianity give the same philosophy of these things is simply false. All humanity does agree that we are in a net of sin. Most of humanity agrees that there is some way out. But as to what is the way out, I do not think that there are two institutions in the universe which contradict each other so flatly as Buddhism and Christianity.

Friday, January 28, 2011

Daddy, Catch Me!

Can you see faith?  What does it look like?  The Bible tells us that it is the "assurance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen," (Heb 11:1) - but what does it look like in real life?  Check out this song by Jars of Clay (lyrics are in the video)



When four friends brought their paralytic companion to Jesus, the gospels say He "saw their faith."  What did He see?  Was their something immaterial that He could observe?  Or was it just that these guys made the effort to carry their friend all the way there, push through the crowd, and destroy some property just so they could get there friend in front of Him?  Hmm.  There was only two things that the gospels ever report that amazed Jesus: 1.) faith  or 2.) a lack of faith.  Faith is the most striking immaterial thing I can think of.  I was once told: faith is sitting on the limb of tree - while doing this you saw the limb off, expecting the tree to fall over while the limb hangs in mid air.  There is a touch of the insane when it comes to faith.  Here's a true story I heard once: 

There was once a father and a little boy.  Everyday, the father came home from work through the front door, which was at the bottom of the stairs to the second story of the house.  Each day, when his father came in, the son would stand at the top of the stairs and say, "Daddy, catch me!" He would jump, and his father would catch him.  One day, the boy was a bit late in doing this, and the father began to take off his coat and hang it on the peg on the wall.  Meanwhile, the little boy came to the top of the stairs and jumped, without saying anything.  As he flew through the air, his dad turned around just in time, and caught him! 

How strong was this child's confidence in his father's strength and attention to him!  Even without asking for it, he expected his dad to take care of him.  He didn't even hesitate.  Faith is the stuff that fills the gap between reality and possibility.   Sometimes it's almost electric - you can feel it in the room when people are believing to receive something from the Lord.   Sometimes it's just simple and unblinking - like that little boy.  Whatever it feels like, it is a confidence in God's grace that has very little respect for facts.  Its personality simple and trusting.  It assumes things that the religious may find presumptuous, unwise, or even insensitive.  It is counter-intuitive.

As the song alludes, God sometimes will not move on a situation until it's so bad that only He could fix it.  God could have had Abraham and Sarah conceive Isaac when they were both still young, but He decided to wait.  He did similar things in the case of Hannah (Samuel's mother) and Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist.  Moses was born during the wholesale slaughter of Hebrew babies.  God seems to prefer situations that are tilted against His success.  Earlier I said that faith is the stuff that fills the gap between reality and possibility.  Well, I believe that sometimes the Lord will make that gap bigger by allowing the situation to get more impossible.  Why?  Because He wants our faith to grow bigger! 

Faith in God glorifies Him intrinsically.  In fact, without faith it is impossible to please Him. (Heb 11:6)  Faith says to Him: "You are bigger than this."  And He is.  "...the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him."  Chronicles 16:9  Will you be loyal to Him?  Will you believe?  Will you let Him stretch your faith to fill a bigger gap this time?  Trust Him!

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Soaking in the River

This is going to sound like an advertisement at first, but it's not.  Just bear with me:  I work at Berea College as an InterVarsity Campus Staff worker.  InterVarsity is an amazing campus ministry organization with 70-year history and chapters all over England, the US, and Canada.  One of the things that impresses me about it the most about it is how comprehensive it is.  They pull so many important disciplines together: prayer & meditation, evangelism & justice, even activism founded on strong theology.  (The video  below will give you a snapshot of of we do on campuses.)  There are so many important Christian ideals that InterVarsity embodies.

Anyway, I attended Nation Staff Conference in St. Louis earlier this month, and it was AMAZING!  It was sort of like drinking from a fire hose.  And honestly, when I walked away, although I was inspired and enriched, I was overwhelmed. Stressed out, even.  How in the world was I going to do all this?  I wanted so badly to do ALL the things they were talking about - right away.  But where could I even start?

I need to insert here (in case you didn't know) that ministry has a way of bringing you face to face with your own ugliness.  Around the same time I was at National Staff Conference, all my pride and hypocrisy and general fleshliness was parading itself in front of my face.  Don't get me wrong, things on campus are going well, but what was bothering me were heart issues that aren't so obvious on the surface, and these things were being brought to the surface largely because of being in ministry. 

So, I come back from National Staff conference, and I have lots of great ideas to implement on campus, and I have a self that I can barely stand to work with, and there are so many things to improve on.  I take a look at Jesus as the example of the perfect minister, and ouch!  I mean, look at all the things He embodied that rarely come together in human beings:  bold but meek, brilliant but patient, powerful but restrained, critical but kind, strong but compassionate, silent in suffering, but victorious in the resurrection.  He completely wins my heart as Master and Friend, but He intimidates me as a minister, you know?  I am so unbalanced in comparison.

Jesus did a masterful job at embodying all these realities in perfect balance, but any one of these would have had a hollow ring if it had not been permeated by His life in God.  From The Manhood of the Master by Harry Emerson Fosdick, this quote was a great relief to me:

"The Master's preeminance comes not cheifly from His describable virtues, but from those deep sources of His life with God, out of which His virtues flowed, begotten, not made, and fragrant, every one of them, with the quality of His perfect fellowship with the Father."

I can discipline myself in certain ways, and I will, but my life in Him must saturate all of it, for it is He that is perfecting the good work He began in me, and therefore, He must bring it to pass.  I can't be the perfect IV staff worker any more than I can be the perfect Christian.  I must continually soak in the river of His blood, being washed and cleansed.

Monday, January 24, 2011

Welcome!

Welcome to my first blog. (Yay!)  This is the result of a conversation with my pastor, Tim Lawson.  I don't remember the exact words now, but a few months ago, he said something like, "Jess, you should start a blog."  I think he also said something like "You have a lot of ideas rolling around, and you should get them out there more."  Yeah, something about needing a creative outlet for the stuff in my head.  I'm also hoping that what I have to say will help some other people on their journey.  

In any case, here is what I hope you can expect from me: thoughtful, provocative reflections on God and Christian growth, triggered by books and scriptures I read, movies, songs, and other media, powerful quotes from great thinkers, etc, along with the occasional dose of conviction or just good ideas for practical application.  Or sometimes, just interesting thoughts that make you stop and go: "Hmm."            

See, I think that the "Hmm"s are really valuable, even without immediate application.  If something I have said causes you to stop and really challenge the way you think about life, just for a minute, that change in thinking will ultimately change the way your respond to life at some point.  I think that is often how God transforms us: big encounters combined with lots of little "tweaks" in our thinking.  It is my aspiration to provide a handful of those "tweaks."         

Another thing I hope you can expect from me is a fairly regular schedule.  Here is what I have in mind:   Mondays:  A powerful quote, paragraph from a book or a news article, and hopefully some provocative questions, - or - an apologetics Q and A; that is, a common challenge that is leveled against Christianity (or a scriptural concept) and an answer to that challenge.  Wednesdays: A devotional pulled from my times with God, or something He is teaching me in light of my experience.  Fridays:  a song, a reflection from a movie or TV show, - or - possibly a podcast, video, or sermon I think you might enjoy (it might be serious or just something funny).  In summary, the schedule is: Monday:  something intellectual, Wednesday: something devotional, Friday: something cultural, or media oriented.  This is a rough schedule, I may fail make entries at times, and the lines between these areas are often blurry, but my intention here is to give you guys a blog that is stimulating in a number of ways, and is fairly comprehensive in its scope.

What I would like from you is conversation.  I heartily welcome responses to my articles, even those that disagree with what I am trying to say.  I hope that my blog can be a safe place for healthy discussion.  If you like what I have to say, tell me!  

One more thing: the title.  I wanted to name my blog something that would combine themes of biblical Christianity, devotion, thoughtfulness, and discussion.  Solomon is the biblical embodiment of wisdom, and tradition has that Solomon's Porch was: Attached to the original temple of Solomon was "the porch of judgment" where king Solomon had constructed a large hall 50 cubits long and 30 cubits wide because of the enormous porch in front. Originally there was cedar from floor to ceiling. This was the hall of judgment where the king would make judgments and exercise justice. (From bible-history.com)  Thus, I hope this will be a place of Christian wisdom, thought, discussion, and devotion.

So, again, welcome to my blog, and I'll see you Wednesday!