Faith Reflections

Sun, Wind, and Soil

I recently took a walk in the fields and woods behind our house. The sun was setting, but was still high enough for me to feel its warm glow. I often allow the sun shining on me to remind me of the Son, the Son of God, Christ, who said He’s the true light of the world. “Lord, Son of God, shine upon me,” I prayed. 

I was still reflecting on this analogy of sun/Son when I came into an open area where the wind blew gently. It reminded me of the Holy Spirit of God, something I often allow it to do. In both the Old and New Testament original languages “spirit” is translated from the same word as is “wind” so, again, I had an analogy. I prayed something to the effect, “Blow upon me and through me, O Holy Spirit of God.” 

Interesting, I thought. I had just encountered nature’s reminders of two members of the triune God. What about the Heavenly Father? I searched for an analogy, and quickly found one. There was the soil of a field spread out before me. I can still remember taking lunch out to my farmer father in such a field. We would both lean against the large tractor tire, sitting in the fresh earth, as he ate. I picked up a clod of earth, crushed it in my hand and smelled it. Yes! It had the same aroma as did the field my father tilled. The smell of fresh earth always has reminded me of my father, and it did again this day. I made the connection as I had in the previous two experiences. I allowed the fresh earth aroma remind me of my Heavenly Father. I prayed something like, “O God, you are my Father and I am your child.” 

The walk that afternoon turned out for me to be a walk celebrating the triune nature of God. I don’t pretend to understand much about God’s triune nature. I’ve just come to accept it as the way God has revealed Himself, the way He is - Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 

What is it about God being Heavenly Father that is so attractive? What is there about God being the Son of God, come as one of us, that’s so appealing? What’s positive in thinking of God the Holy Spirit being in us and with us? 

Sometimes people resist taking God seriously because they can’t understand all that they are asked to believe about Him. This, it seems to me, is pure silliness, and worse! We use computers we don’t fully understand and ride in cars we could never fix because they’re too complicated. It’s only appropriate to worship and be in relationship with a God whom I can’t fully understand, His triune nature being a prime example. In fact, He wouldn’t be God if I could fully comprehend Him! I’m just glad He fully understands me, and still loves me! You too? 

I recently took a picture of some giant windmills in Southern Minnesota (photo above). The sun was shining upon them as the wind turned the blades, all the while they were planted firmly upon the soil of a farmer’s field. It’s a reminder to me of the triune God.
Dave

Exercising Faith

There seems to be only one way to build stronger muscles, and that’s by exercising them, which means pushing them beyond the point where they start complaining to us.  It’s not fun!

It seems to me that exercising faith presents us with much the same experience.  We have to trust, have patience, put ourselves out on a limb and in other ways live out our faith in God that takes us beyond our comfort zone.  Faith is not something that can usually be described as cozy and comforting as much as it can be described with terms such as blood, sweat, and tears!  It’s not easy exercising faith.

The results, however, are worth it!  We end up having a closer walk with the Lord, seeing a higher degree of Christ-likeness in ourselves, and rejoicing in seeing fruit to our lives that would not have been there if we had not put forth extraordinary effort.
Dave

Two Kinds of Religious Questions

I’ve come to the conclusion that when someone asks me a religious question it is either an open door or a locked door with which they present it. Let me explain. 

Someone can ask me, “Why do you believe Jesus is the only way to God?” I immediately try to determine if they are really looking for an answer or are making an accusation (“You can’t REALLY believe Jesus is the only way to God!”). 

Jesus was asked questions by both cynics and seekers. Some Pharisees asked Jesus, “Tell us, then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” (Matthew 22:17) Their question was not put to Jesus to learn truth but to trick. On the other hand, people would ask Jesus genuine questions. Another Pharisee named Nicodemus asked Jesus, “How can a man be born when he is old?” It was a response to Jesus’ statement that Nicodemus needed to be born again. Nicodemus’ question was a real question. He wanted to know. 

It’s OK to question God, but we should ask ourselves - is it an open door question where we genuinely want to learn more or is it a locked door question where we ask it out of disbelief or even anger? Searching questions or defensive questions - what kind are we asking God? 

People of faith are always going to be living with questions, many of which will not be fully answered this side of heaven. This is OK. Honest questions acknowledge a mystery we can’t wrap our thinking around. Why should we think we can fully understand God or His ways? Honest questions are an open door through which God may give us anything from an answer to a fresh and deeper sense of His presence so we can live with the mystery.
Dave

“Spiritual” or “Religious”?

“I had long claimed to be ’spiritual’ but not religious,” writes author Kathleen Norris of an earlier time in her life in her book Amazing Grace: a Vocabulary of Faith. It’s a phrase you’ll hear from many people you bump into, “I consider myself spiritual, but not religious.” What do we make of it? 

I suspect such people come from a painful experience with church or “organized religion” as it’s sometimes referred to. They may also come with no such painful past but have bought into the current negative “in” view of secular thought about organized religion. My own sense is that people who go for “spirituality” but not “religion” want to hold to a very vague and general idea of spiritual matters. They may consider a spiritual experience to be anything from being at peace with themselves to viewing a sunset. Usually (again, my sense of it) is that there’s very little emphasis on a personal God. Being “spiritual” seems to be people-centered while I think of religion or a religious faith as having a God-focus to it. Kathleen Norris earlier mentions “the narcissistic babble that masks itself as spirituality.” 

It’s been said, “I love humanity, it’s people I can’t stand.” That, to me, summarizes the difference between being spiritual and being religious. It’s easy to be spiritual but being truly religious, that, it seems to me, is where the rubber hits the road. 

True religion is practical. It’s nitty gritty. It’s not always cozy and comfortable. It’s a relationship with the living God who will not be conformed to our image but calls us to be conformed to His image. This is what makes faith vital and alive! 

I suppose it would be easier to enjoy a private spirituality where the great personal trinity of Me, Myself, and I rule supreme but you and I serve the true Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit where the second member of that triune nature of God came into this world as a very distinctive person known as Jesus. Ours is not a vague “spirituality” focused on our own ideas and feelings but a faith in the One who puts God in clear focus. 

What this means in a very practical way is that as you walk through your day today you do not walk in a vague fog of your own “spirituality” but in the footsteps of the One you follow, Jesus, who is the light of the world. Enjoy His presence and leading today!
Dave

Addicted to the Spectacular

J. I. Packer references something fellow author Dallas Willard wrote with the theme of being “addicted to the spectacular.”  I found the phrase intriguing — “being addicted to the spectacular.”  Earlier Packer refers to it as “lusting after the spectacular.”

We read the Biblical accounts of the great saints and we yearn for the kinds of miracles they experienced.  It must have made God seem so obvious, so real.  How we wish for miracles today!  Certainly miracles can still occur, no doubt about that.  Should we yearn for them?  I think we should keep a couple of facts in mind.  First of all, the Bible collects together stories that happened over centuries.  It’s not that they happend every day.  Even the spiritual greats of the Bible sometimes went a long time without a miracle.  Second, since we have their accounts and can have our faith strengthened by those recorded miracles, God shouldn’t have to repeat Himself if He doesn’t want to.

Again, God can and does do miracles (I’m convinced that life itself is an ongoing miracle that we’re just so used to seeing that we no longer see it as miraculous).  What I’m getting at is that we can miss so much of what God is doing and wants to do because we’re waiting for something bigger to happen.  Packer quotes Dallas Willard who comments on how the desire for always wanting a big and obvious miracle “generally goes along with the less mature levels of the spiritual life…”  We’re sort of like children, always wanting to be wowed and impressed, otherwise we’ll lose interest and be bored.  Ouch!  I don’t want to be immature in Christ but mature in Christ!

Most of our life in Christ will be played out on the stage of ordinary days.  The day-to-dayness of life offers abundant opportunities to sense God’s presence, to be guided by Him and to seize occasions to carry out His will.  This was even true of the Biblical greats.  The apostle Paul had many exciting experiences with healings, being led out of prison, etc.  What we also need to keep in mind, however, is that he spent many a day trudging on foot or sailing by ship to get where he was going on his long missionary journeys.  It wasn’t all excitement.  Then, again, who wants some of the excitement he had – being beaten, jailed, going hungry, dealing with a storm at sea, etc!

Sometimes ordinary days aren’t so bad.  Sometimes they give us the best opportunity to live for the Lord.
Dave

Update on My Health

I write this on Saturday morning at 10:40.  I continue to improve after having gall bladder surgery on Wednesday.  Again, thanks for all your prayers.  I’m trying to use some of my “down time” for reading.  Of course, being the writer I am, I can’t help but respond to what I read by writing something, hence a couple of new posts you’ll find just below this one.

I won’t be in church tomorrow, and that will seem strange.  However, it’s a good reminder to me that God’s work (and worship at Mayfair-Plymouth) goes on without little ol’ me having to push, push it!
Dave

Continuing Our Conversion

“Conversion is a process” writes Kathleen Norris in her book Amazing Grace: a Vocabulary of Faith.  It’s a good reminder for all of us.  Frequently we think of conversion to Christ as an event.  There’s that moment when a person decides they need God’s forgiveness and that this comes through Christ’s redemptive work that was accomplished for them on the cross and that now they are to live for Him and no longer for self.  That is, indeed, often a once-and-for-all decision.

But conversion to Christ does not end at this point.  It’s only the beginning!  We keep on converting to becoming more and more like Christ, at least that’s to be the idea.  Norris writes, “In living out my conversion as a daily and lifelong process, I treasure most the example of my grandmother Totten, who dwelled in one marriage, one home, one church congregation for over sixty years.  Her faith was alive for anyone to see; her life demonstrates that conversion is no more spectacular than learning to love the people we live with and work among.” (p. 44)

Our ongoing conversion to being more and more like Jesus is going to have to happen in our ordinary day-to-day experiences, as humdrum as they might seem to be.  It will be played out among the people and in the midst of the circumstances we find ourselves today, for where else can it happen?

Norris concludes her thoughts on conversion by quoting the apostle Paul.  “Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed — not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence — continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.” (Philippians 2:12-13)

“Work out your salvation,” Paul says.  Of course he doesn’t mean we work to gain our salvation.  What he does mean is that once we enjoy the Lord’s salvation we commit to working it out in our day-to-day lives.  We act as if we really believe He’s acted in our lives, and continues to act in our lives!  Yes, conversion is more than a once-and-for-all event.  It’s an ongoing process.  Let’s keep converting!
Dave

Resisting Positive Change

We resist change for the better because we are more comfortable with a familiar and controlling demon than we are with an unfamiliar and beckoning angel.
Dave

Delayed Gratification of a Divine Order

I’m writing this on Wednesday morning because I’ll be in surgery for the removal of my gall bladder this afternoon (1:30). I appreciate your prayers! 

It’s rather strange preparing for surgery and hospitalization (hopefully, just one night) when I feel perfectly fine. The gall bladder’s caused me extreme pain on three occasions, however, and so needs to come out. 

This business of voluntarily subjecting myself to surgery when I feel great got me to thinking about how this is so much like our experience with the Christian walk. Following Jesus often seems to require of us that we think and act in ways that are difficult and seemingly costly. The easy way would be to follow our own whims and wishes which, often at the time, seem to be just fine, even desirable. The Lord’s teachings that we follow warn us, however, that we should know better. 

We try to teach children about the value of delayed gratification. Sometimes you have to put off what seems to be the good that is at hand for the very best which is in the distance. We call it part of growing up. This, it seems to me, is what the Lord often asks us to do. 

God frequently calls us to work hard and wait long. We, on the other hand, prefer results now, instant satisfaction and immediate gratification with a minimal of work involved. It may be something as simple as wanting to tell a person exactly what’s on our mind at the moment instead of holding our tongue and giving it some prayerful thought. It may mean we want to buy an item we really don’t need with money which we really don’t have, putting it on the credit card. It may mean fantasizing about the ideal friend, relative, co-worker, or mate instead of investing the time and effort in the relationships the Lord has put into our lives. 

Jesus is the ultimate example of seeing beyond the moment who“for the joy set before him endured the cross…” (Hebrews 12:2) Part of faith is trusting God when He says time and time again in His Word that we are to deny and resist that which would be easy to give in to and aim, instead, for His best that will take some time, effort and sacrifice. Jesus tells us, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.” (Luke 9:23-24) 

The doctor says that the surgery should take care of my problem. I believe him. I’ll go through with it, though it won’t be easy. I believe Jesus even more! I want to carry through with His plans for me, though I know it won’t always be easy. You too?
Dave

“I Knew That!”

I was struck by something the apostle Paul wrote to the young preacher Timothy.  “Keep reminding them of these things.” (2 Timothy 2:14)  Young Timothy was to have a ministry of reminding!

If you listen regularly to me preach and teach, or any other preacher or teacher, you’ve probably thought to yourself partway through the presentation, or at least at the end, I knew that.

As a preacher, teacher, and writer, I’m well aware I’m not always dispensing new material.  That’s good!  My job’s not to come up with brand new material but to proclaim the best material ever put to paper, the Bible.

When someone’s new to faith much of what they hear and read is going to be new stuff.  That’s exciting.  At some point of spiritual growth, however, we discover we’re hearing and reading the same ideas over and over again.  We have a choice at this point.  We can become bored and tune it out or we can open up ourselves to deeper thinking on the familiar and greater application of that which we already know.

As a speaker and writer I try to come up with fresh ways of expressing the same old truths.  I’m OK with that.  It seems to me that God’s saying to all of us, “And I’m going to keep repeating myself until you get it right!”
Dave