Leap into the Void, Yves Klein, 1960

What causes the UK to blaspheme God?

Could it be true that a bad church puts good people in a bad light, while a good church puts even bad people in a good light - that is, the light of Christ? The gospel is, after all, good news for bad people. And a church is the carrier of that gospel, or it is nothing at all.

And what is a "bad church", we might ask? Only judging ourselves and our work, could it suffice say that a “bad church” is where the abiding Word is:

• more about the calibre of our lives than about the potency of His death?
• more about qualification than about justification?
• more about modification than about transformation?
• more about subjection than about resurrection?
• more about the envy of comparison than the charity of the Samaritan?
• more about inspection than introspection?
• more about Form than Fire?

The feather or the whole bird, sir?

Why settle for a feather - a remnant - when the whole bird is offered? Why be happy hearing the occasional coo when the dove wants to come and roost?


It beats me. Why my heart so often misses the impulses of the Spirit. Why I do things that make an agency fly away, which is also the only agency that can stop me doing those things. 


Has a western world surrogate emerged in creating centres where we can go and find a whole load of cowbell...sorry, I mean dove, dove feathers and much cooing? Is it that why we now need the power gifts and the prophetic conferences - being hogged by saints at the expense of sinners on the streets - just to remind us that He exists and to experience some down-time-dove-time, before the humdrum and hooting set in again? 


Surely the idea of the Dove abiding, the presence remaining, is pretty strong in God's mind for us?


Or is it that we too often only associate the Dove with our experiences and the feather with our thoughts? So many of us have experienced the power of God in healing and deliverance and tinglings. I have (I am sorry, but I can never not be 'charismatic' in that sense) - we serve the living God who is lively! But what happens when the dunamis power is not manifest in the time-space world? Does that mean that the dove has flown, and we must keep a feather for good luck? Is not the first seal of the dove found in an ease, a peace and an inner fellowship through a conscience with wide-open windows? Is it not a knowing, a conviction even, that I am a child of God and - just as our own children experience this imperfectly - an unworried walk in this world under God's umbrella of love?


Surely there are "more evidences of the Dove" than healed or falling bodies, shakedowns and take-downs? What about...

• in conversations with God: “Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.” (Hebrews 10:22)
• in truthful speech with others: “I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying, my conscience confirms it in the Holy Spirit—” (Romans 9:1)
• in stepping out in faith: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
  (Romans 15:13)
• in keeping an even keel in dangerous times: “But now I urge you to keep up your courage, because not one of you will be lost; only the ship will be destroyed. Last night an angel of the God whose I am and whom I serve stood beside meand said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand trial before Caesar; and God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you.’” (Acts 27:22–24)
• in holding strong views that are not carnal: "The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith" (1 Tim 1:5)
• in believing the invisible with visible joy: “Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” (1 Peter 1:8–9)
• in fruitful characters that can only spring from a roosting Dove: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” (Galatians 5:22–23)

Methinks this list is as endless. I hope this boosts your roost quotient somehow.


Nick

At the End of Man's Prospects, there lies Faith

From Publicity to Intimacy

This slide is from a 4-pane powerpoint display that my friend Mike Ward passed on to me.  It lured me back to my psych 1&2 studies I took in uni to break the boredom of engineering modules (anyone remember the bending schedules?). The mysteries of the human soul, ah! I still think so many of us underrate the powerful role the "psuche" plays in our relational dynamics (i.e. In the overall success or failures of our LIVES!).

As Mike spoke to these slides, it was an "Aha!" moment for me. I love those moments. Simply put, this presentation illustrates the 4 levels of human relationship...from the closest ('intimate'), to the furthest in our sphere of community (‘public’). We like being in public meetings, such as church gatherings, where we can mingle with people in our 3 to 8 metre zone. We can go home and say with relief, “ I am part of a community”. Then we can enjoy developing social friends, and drawing each other into our 1 to 3 metre zone. We have barbeques and home groups for that sort of thing. But then we have closer conversations and sharing moments, one on one, and things become personal in the 0,3-1m zone. And, for a few such as children and spouses, comforters and counsellors, we are drawn into the most intimate of relationships.

Where does effective discipleship take place? Well, we could get hung up on exact distances from ‘a’ to ‘b’, but the truth is personal and intimate access is the harbinger of discipleship. Preaching and teaching doesn’t need the personal and intimate zones. God can get really close with anointed messages. But the discipleship that makes church an acts-experience, person to person, only takes place in the closer zones.
You can’t force a person from public- to personal/intimate space and expect anything other than harm. Mike called this “rape”, that being ‘forced intimacy’.

• When we insist on all members being part of a home group – i.e. going from public to social space in the church – without the grace of God drawing them in – it is a violation of the inside-out gospel that draws wounded people close to a warm-hearted Jesus.
• When we only reserve personal space for our fellow elders, thereby holding out the incentive for public and social members to find intimacy and personal identity by chasing the dream of becoming an elder, it is relational abuse.
• Or maybe we can fake intimacy with warm language, while keeping the unsuspecting brothers well outside of our true personal space.
• When we expect people to be vulnerable with us without us showing our shame or our weak leg, it is an illegitimate relationship, or something professional at best.
• When we crash counsel upon a saint for whom we have not wrestled and with whom we have not built and shared personal or intimate space, it is precarious at best.

It is these relational errors that so often oblige others to become ‘robots’ or ‘rebels’.

Where do we spend the most of our energy? For many pastors, it is in the big Sunday meeting. This is largely the public space. This is a sacred meeting undeniably, but unless the pastor is willing to go the painful route of opening up the table of his heart and the guts of his time to some for personal space, discipling will be stunted and the people will continue to lean upon public spaces and social gatherings. They will not become “telios” – mature and complete.

This also implies that   discipling occurs where these personal-space relationships exist. No-one can contrive them, nor presume them into being; nothing can be forced and produce the life of God. So, where a mature saint, a home group host, a deacon, a mother, a uni student, has this relationship, he or she is the discipler.  “Then they can train the younger women” (Titus 2:4). For all primary discipling to “hub” around one man (the senior pastor), or the pastors (plural), zones of belonging will be continually violated, and discipling will be ineffective (unless the church has 12 members or less, so to speak). Nothing could more stunt the gospel bearing fruit through discipleship than a man insisting that he is the psychological hub of all “significant relationships” (see my blog, "No Dominant Synapse", 15 March, below). 


How then can the Spirit blow where he pleases?

Undoubtedly, reformation starts with a man or woman, someone who brings the power of the gospel to a place and time. But, from that time on, as he or she preaches and lives and goes from house to house, he or she should have the same heart as Paul...

“ You are witnesses, and so is God, of how holy, righteous and blameless we were among you who believed. For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children, encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory.” (1 Thessalonians 2:10–12)

Jesus, Son of God, knew the most effective way for the gospel to take root and spread all over the world was not to forsake the man for the crowds, but to invest his life and finest time to a few individuals. These days, success paradigms embedded in our hippocampus from an early age drag us incessantly towards crowded places and popular applause. But Bill Hybels’ confession in 2010 that Willow Creek had blessed pre-Christians but been of negligible help in developing “fully devoted followers of Christ” should show us the folly of shifting the focus from intimate Truth to sovereign Audience. One day, if we refuse to surrender our core ambitions to the broad path of the public space, we too might be able to say with Charles Spurgeon, “Here I am Lord, and the children thou hast given me”!


Thanks Mike


N

Leaving no Room for "Janctification"

QUESTION FROM A PASTOR, FOLLOWED BY MY RESPONSE:

In Michael Eaton's book ("No Condemnation") it seems like Genesis 22 has special significance in the release of the covenant promise. Could you comment on this? Is it like a promotion via figurative death? Why such an extremity apart from the typology to atonement?

I agree with the 2 stations of faith doctrine. Trusting God in his heart - though his body was as a good as dead - saved Abraham. But taking Isaac up the mountain (a WORK of faith) made him the father to all who believe. In all my New Testament studies I see this same line of separation in the gospels, as well as the Pauline, Peter, James and Hebrews letters. In the gospel of John, Jesus uses “drink”, “eat bread”, “believe” and “come” as metaphors for saving faith in Jesus.

John 5:24 as an example shows us Jesus knew it was the "glance of faith" (like the bronze snake in Sinai) that saved the sinner forever… “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.”  But then He also called those converts to follow him, to persevere, to enrol in His rabbinic school.

As was then, so is now. Baptism is the initiation into that school, but not part of salvation - only believing on Christ is.

The great commission shows this separation between salvation and reward. All converts are going to heaven because they trusted God for the life of Jesus in them, like Isaac the child of promise, but not all are disciples. Only after a year of submitting to Paul and Barnabas teaching them were the disciples called Christians at Antioch.

Paul - no other author makes salvation by faith apart from works (including works of faith) clearer. Eph 2:8-9 is classic. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.”

But Paul too beat his body and urged his churches towards holiness; towards walking by the Spirit! This is the PURPOSE of our saving faith - to mature into serving, stretching faith; for the new babe not to remain at birth weight. My newborn is forever my son but he might not become a good son. Some enter the glory; some will escape through the flames.

This is the context for Christ's parables too. See John 8:30-31… “Even as he spoke, many put their faith in him. To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.” People "believed on Him" - the little Greek phrase John always used to denote salvation - but to those converts, Jesus pronounced verse 31! This verse was not a condition of their salvation; it was the purpose!

James carries on the 2-stage theme. Jas 1v17-18 tells us that James knew beyond doubt that salvation is a free gift. Bible scholars who view this letter as a parenesis to ethical conduct are wholly wrong! But his letter is a reminder that we are called to persevere under trial and persevere in loving others! As with Paul who narrowed down the 2-step great command of Christ from "love the Lord/love thy neighbour" just to "love thy neighbor", so too does James. “By this shall all men know that you are my DISCIPLES, ("mathetes", not just converts), if you love one another” (John 13:35)…. and not just those who greet you - even love for your enemies (see Matt 5:44-48).

These are not works of the flesh; they are fruit of the Spirit - of fellowshipping with, obeying and walking with the Spirit. This work is not automatic as with salvation (a perfect finished work of the Trinity into which we are forever swept up by one cry). No, sanctification requires my enrollment into the rabbinical school of the Holy Spirit.

As God's virtues are made manifest in me, I am "justified not only by my faith, but by my works" - see James 2:24. This is NOT the legal justification before the throne of God, no! Paul says Jesus is that Justification. Romans 3:28. Bible scholars worth their salt have correctly argued that “justified” in this verse should have been translated, “vindicated”. This is the gospel being ‘justified’ – or vindicated - through me, to His glory. This is God’s saving work and power being vindicated – and thus God Himself being vindicated – through my transforming life. This is Purpose: By their fruits you shall know them.

James also picks up an important parallel theme of life vs death. Paul wrote of this too, for the believer - sin can cost you your life (but not your salvation). Ananias and Sapphira come to mind. As well as millions of Christians who have buried their talents, not kept extra oil, stayed friends with the world, not run a straight race. For example, Romans 8:13 says: “For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live”. No Jewish believer would have taken this theme as "heaven or hell" but literal life vs death. “As the body without the spirit is dead”... or: “C'mon guys, let there be no place for dead faith with such a lively gospel! This ought not to be!”

Peter picks up exactly the same parallel theme - see 1 Peter 1:2-6, and all of 2 Peter 1.

·     “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To God’s elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.” (1 Pet 1:1-5)

·     “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (2 Pet 1:3-8)

We were chosen, but he wants His virtue in us now "in increasing measure" so we will not be "ineffective and unfruitful in the gospel".

We ought to know well that justification and sanctification are two separate things. You did not choose to be conceived and be born. This was "according to the will and foreknowledge of the Father". But “now you are a son, grow up in the same grace that saved you”. Men have done great damage by putting grace and works in opposition. These are works of faith, not works of the flesh. I preached on this very thing recently.

And what of the epistles of John? We see the two stage theme in my favorite book of the Bible - 1 John! Wahoo - the whole theme he states right up front - fellowship with God!

·      “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us— that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.” (1 John 1:1-3)

One can be saved but out of fellowship with Him. Friendship with Jesus is not guaranteed by salvation - only sonship is. John 14. Fruitfulness is not guaranteed. John 15 – the whole passage is appropriate:

·     “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.” (John 15:13-16)

Abiding in Christ is not HOW to get saved; it is WHY we are saved!

Paul called believers to "the obedience of faith". So much confusion has come from mixing up Gen 21:1 and 22:2. Thousands of preachers are misusing all the above authors to put works and worry onto God's people. "Will I be saved on the Final Day?!". John 5:24 and the whole seal of the new covenant says YES!! Settle it once and forever. No man is ever justified before God by the law. But now some preachers only want to "preach grace" (i.e. saving grace). We preach Christ. We preach salvation. We preach sanctification by the same Spirit, Word, faith and grace that saves us. That is not "adding to the Cross". It is growing up in grace, even to the place of loving the unlovable and walking on water. The world is not changed or shaken by sinning saints. Holiness apart from the law - that can only flow from a righteousness apart from the law - shakes cities. The little faith cry that activated all the resurrection power of Christ, can grow to become faith that "overcomes the world".

Love N

PS. John 15:1-8 is surely the most misused passage of the bible for Arminian preachers to caution and corral their congregations into fear and semi-catholic nervousness about watching out we don't "lose it". Tragedy. The whole context of John 14-17 was assurance. We can become withered branches. I write on this in my essay, "Once Saved Probably Saved". There are so many ways preachers these days are adding subtle circumcision to the gospel, but with the same devastating consequences.... "what has happened to all your joy?"!