More thoughts on the Bride

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Recently Blest wrote a post called Stoning the Bride. She’s speaking my language. Amen x a million:

I’m not saying there isn’t anything wrong with the Christian church. And perhaps God has called someone to be like Jeremiah, prophetically called to denounce the sins of the many. But I don’t think as many people have been called to denounce as enjoy doing the denouncing. After all, it’s a lot more fun to feel like a rebel and a sage while you point out someone else’s sins. Why spend time staring in the mirror working on my own sins when I can think on the sins of the church? But honestly, we don’t need more polished and piercing posts on what’s wrong with the church. We don’t need songs like Todd Agnew’s My Jesus, with its self-righteous “My Jesus wouldn’t be welcome at my church”.

We can denounce the group to our heart’s content, but the solutions have to come at the individual level. What would happen if each Christian stopped looking for the sins of the establishment, and simply worked on rooting out their own sins? What if each church member worked to the best of their abilities to be what they think a good church member should be? I have to take my own advice and ask myself – Am I doing all I can in the church? Do I pray for my leadership? Do I participate in small groups? Am I committed to reaching out to unbelievers and in to my church family? Because that’s what the church is, you see. A family. God placed us in a family with a vast array of brothers and sisters. And the beauty of it is that these new siblings are not always ones we would have chosen for ourselves.

Amen times a trillion.

My wife was telling me tonight about some negative comments some Christians we know were making about some decisions our church recently made. After hearing it I thought, “Fine. I’m not going to listen to these comments anymore”. I even asked Jill to be a filter for me. I don’t need to hear this stuff.

I’m done. The Christian blogosphere is, at times, one long torrent of slander against the church. But I’m not part of that club.

I know the church isn’t perfect. I know that it needs reform. But in my opinion, less than 10% of the criticism in the blogosphere or by churchmembers is either warranted or given in a spirit of humility or a desire to actually make the church better. Most of it’s just talking to talk. Some of it is hugely destructive.

I’m done with that. If you want my opinion, here it is: The Bride is Beautiful. Not perfect. But being perfected. If you want to make the Bride better, look at yourself first. Examine your motives. Compare the obedience you desire of the church to your own obedience to God. Compare the boldness you desire from church leaders to your own boldness. Compare the faithfulness to Scripture that you desire of the church to your own faithfulness. Learn church history. Learn how to separate essentials from non-essentials. And learn to take concerns, in person and in private, to those who need to hear them.

Anyone can write a post.

For some more good reading on a related topic, check out this post from Jared: Trusting God for the Sanctification of Others.

It’s not just that we should respect our brothers and sisters in Christ enough to assume they are capable, it’s that we ought to trust the Holy Spirit with these folks’ sanctification, just like we trust Him with ours. Not that we don’t get all discerning up in their grill (provided it’s real discernment). Not that we don’t rebuke or correct or criticize or even contend when all those things are really called for. But that we do not condemn as if we know God’s gameplan for people outside our own box of discernment.

Dismissal is not one of the fruits of the Spirit. But patience is. People are going to screw up, and they’re going to have some screwy ideas. We can help them, no doubt. But let’s trust that God knows how to finish the good work He began in believers we think aren’t as far along as we are. He will certainly be better at working their perseverance than we are.

The scandal of grace

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I can’t think of anyone who writes about grace better than Jared these days.

The following is from an excellent post he wrote a few days ago: The Scandal of Grace:

Isn’t that completely illogical? What weirdos this following Jesus thing makes us. C.S. Lewis was once asked what the main difference between Christianity and all other religions was, and he answered, “Oh, that’s easy — grace.”

Grace isn’t just amazing; it’s ridiculous. It’s revolutionary to our thoughts and feelings. It humbles the powerful and empowers the humble.

Jesus didn’t die so you could learn how to be a better person. He died because you can’t be. (That’s grace offending your sensibilities right now.)

The grace of Jesus is a foolishness that, when believed, brings power to save (1 Cor. 1:18).

Grace is that bizarre missing ingredient that mucks up all human foibles, flaws, and fears. Grace is the thing that turns lives upside down. It is a sweet, beautiful irritant.

Grace is scandalous. It makes murderers into apostles, it makes victims into forgivers. It takes “never the twain shall meet” and makes “reunited and it feels so good.” 😉

Have you been scandalized by grace lately? Has Jesus shocked you through someone’s granting grace to you?

When was the last time you offended someone’s expectations by extending grace to them?

That last question is a very good one.

Rethinking my advice

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In the past year and a half or so I’ve had conversations with two people who were strugging with issues at our church. They were both hurting and disillusioned. Although our church is a good church, Biblically sound and full of lots of good people, in both of these instances I encouraged them in their desire to find another church. “The Kingdom is big” I said.

I guess I thought that finding a new place that fit them better and offered healing would be a good thing.

The problem is, neither of these people – to my knowledge – is going to church anywhere now. I should have urged them (as others did) to stay at the church and work things out. I thought I was being the less legalistic one, the more gracious one. Boy was I wrong.

I really regret my advice now. I think it was used for evil, and not for good. And I’ll never give advice like that again.

Ashira l’adonai

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Ashira l’adonai ki ga’oh ga’ah

I will sing unto Adonai for He has triumphed gloriously

Ashira l’adonai ki ga’oh ga’ah

I will sing unto Adonai for He has triumphed gloriously

Michamocha, ba-elim adonai

Who is like You, O Adondai, among the gods?

Michamocha nedar-bakodesh

Who is like You, glorious in holiness?

Nachitah v’chasd’cha, am zu ga’alta

In Your mercy, you lead the people You redeemed

Nachitah v’chasd’cha, am zu gaalta

In Your mercy, you lead the people You redeemed

Ashira, Ashira, Ashira…

I will sing, I will sing, I will sing…

Take your kid to blog day

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well its take your kid to blog day so im gonna write on this blog. im bills 3rd oldest child and i love theatre and music. currently my dad is teaching me the guitar and i’ve been playing piano for about 3 years. today i just started voice lessons and hopefully i’ll get better at that. so i am totally musiced out! i love to write and sing and act and dance and draw. all of the arts. well thats a little about me. not much has been going on in my life. i just started 8th grade and its really different. most of my teacheres are cool and all but like not really all of them. Yo tomo espanol dos. translation: I take spanish two. its pretty easy right now. basically we’re just reviewing. but very annoying people sit near me. oh well. im currently and almost finished reading uglies-a book by scott westerfeild. its really good. i am very entertained easily and i LOVE to laugh. im kinda shy at first but then when you really get to know me im not. so yeahh

my family is great. they crack me up. i love my family. each and every one of them. and my friends. they rock. junior high is a blast with my friends. i don’t want to leave arnold. even though its really ghetto. but like- im in A.L.O.T.T. [arnold leaders of today and tomorrow] and we basically help the sixth graders and our the leaders of the school. im playing volleyball and am shooting for the A team but don’t think i want or am gonna make it. life at home seems at lot easier for me then it does for others and like i feel very fourtunate that im happy to go home. yes anyways. well yes. i must be going. i would write more but not much to say and no time.

The future writer-

bethany

Hey

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Oh yeah . . . I have a blog!

Note to my three readers: I’m still around. I just have very few mental cycles to devote to blogging.

Hope to rev back up in the next few days!

Jesus.

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He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities–all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

– Colossians 1:15-20 (ESV)

Paul continues here his letter to the Colossians, comprised of more compact, powerful truth than would seem possible in just a few short verses. Here he affirms the deity of Christ in no uncertain terms. Jesus is “the image of the invisible God”. By Jesus all things were created, both of the physical world we see and the unseens spiritual world that swirls all around us and is, I believe, far more solid than what we call reality. Jesus is the beginning, both the creator and the “firstborn of all creation”, meaning not that he himself was created (how could he be? He is the Creator), but that in his incarnation he is the firstborn of a new kind of creation: the creation of redeemed sons and daughters of God in the Kingdom of God. If you know him you are not just his child but also his brother or sister.

And in him “all things hold together”. This vast and elegant universe in its unimaginable complexity, the very cells of your body, our world, the seas, the lands, molecules, everything holds together in him. He is the Logos, the Word spoken by the Father that created and maintains all things and for which all things were made. “In him we live and move and have our being . . .”.

In this humble carpenter from Nazareth God incarnated himself into this world. and in him all the fullness of God dwells, though it was veiled while he walked with us. The world sees this as foolishness, but in Jesus we have our King, the head of his church, and the very One who through his own sacrifice rescued us from death and has reconciled us (and, indeed, all things) to God.

I don’t even know what all that means, fully. I just know the peace of the cross, and the joy of redemption, and the wonder of my King, who allowed himself to be humbled beyond words so that you and I could be redeemed beyond all understanding.

Under the Acacias

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Keith writes about why he is a missionary in his blog Under the Acacias (now on the Bloogroll). Wow . . .

But there has also been the thrill of seeing people’s lives change as they started to make good decisions, excitement as people began to understand and respond to the message of Christ and find his blessing, satisfaction as individuals and families gained access to health or education or basic needs that would transform their lives. There has been the privilege of friendships and relationships made across vast cultural divides, the honour of being accepted into a culture so different from my own, the pleasure of watching the carnival of colour and humanity at the local market, or of sitting under the vast starry canopy, drinking tea on a mat in the bush among the cows with Fulani herders. And there have been the many unique opportunities for pure fun and wonder that life in Africa provides.

And there has always been God’s presence. And the more I have walked with him along that path, the more my perspective has changed on what is important in life, and the more I have got to know God in a way I could not have done if I had remained in the UK.

Life is not found in the amount of stuff you can acquire. Nor is it found in getting the highest high. Nor in the honour and comfort the world can bestow. All those things are temporary and fragile. Life is found in abandoning yourself totally to Christ and his way, living for others and not for yourself. In being willing to lose all we can have in this world, we are given a different sort of life – one that flows from the throne of heaven. It is painful to acquire because it is only found through death – the death of the cross. But it is the life that God gives.

That has been my experience. In spite of my failures and inadequacy, God’s faithfulness has been constant and dependable.

[Hat tip: Jesus Creed]

The Pastoral Prayer of Paul

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And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

– Colossians 1:9-14 (ESV)

This is one of the best and most succinct examples in Scripture of the heart of a pastor for his people. How this must have encouraged the Colossians!

Take a moment to look at the attributes of Pauls prayer, as he describes it. The first thing you notice is that it was ceaseless. Do you know what it feels like to be prayed for always? I hope you do; it is a wonderful thing to have another believer lift you up to the Lord ceaselessly. And it’s a wonderful thing to be the one doing the praying too.

And look at the things Paul was asking God to give them. The first request is that they be filled with knowledge of God’s will and spiritual wisdom and understanding. Have you ever watched, helplessly, the life of a Christian who lacks wisdom? It’s either like watching a slow-motion train wreck or it’s just a further testament to God’s amazing grace that the train wreck is averted. How we need wisdom today! So many times you or I will say “I wish I knew what God’s will is”. I like the way Paul puts it: the knowledge of God’s will is something that we can be “filled” with. In other words, spiritual wisdom is not so much a checklist of truths as it is a living, active Presence in our lives, an overflow of the Spirit that guides our steps and deepens our knowledge of the Father’s ways.

The result of wisdom is, of course, not just more brain activity. It is that high calling of every Christian: to walk in a manner worthy of our Lord, fully pleasing to him. A friend of mine once said “the smile of God is the goal of my life.” So well said – the thought of being fully pleasing to God can seem far away from us when we are in the pit of sin, yet it is possible. It flows out of the filling of spiritual wisdom that God offers us, to point us in the way that is most pleasing to him.

The crescendo continues! Paul prays that the Colossians will be fully pleasing to God, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. In other words, as we live and walk in the spiritual wisdom God supplies, and live it out in obedience, the end-result is fruit that is pleasing to him and that results in a yet larger increase in the knowledge of God, and the blessed circle widens. For as we walk in his ways we become more and more like him.

Paul ends his pastoral prayer with a heartfelt blessing for these people that he loved so much. “May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.”

Strength, power, endurance, patience, joy, thankfulness. These are the marks of the blessed child of God, one who shares in the unfathomable inheritance of the saints in light.

If you are a redeemed citizen of the kingdom of Jesus, may the blessings Paul prayed for the Colossians also fill your life. Many Christians have gone deep in their relationship with the Lord, others of us have only scratched the surface. Yet none of us can fully comprehend the glories, the riches, and the wisdom, understanding, and incomparable love our Father offers us.

“He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

May wisdom, understanding, obedience, fruit, and ever increasing patience, joy, endurance and thankfulness be yours today.