Don't Make Yourself at Home

When the Israelites entered the Promised Land, they were commanded,

“In the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes, but you shall devote them to complete destruction, the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, as the Lord your God has commanded, that they may not teach you to do according to all their abominable practices that they have done for their gods, and so you sin against the Lord your God” (Deut. 20:16-18).

God had promised to drive out the nations as long as Israel obeyed His commands, but they gave up too quickly. Right after Joshua died we read,

“But the People of Israel made themselves at home among the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. They married their daughters and gave their own daughters to their sons in marriage. And they worshiped their gods” (Jud. 3:5-6 MSG).

They didn’t just tolerate these other nations and their beliefs, they actually welcomed them and joined them. This led to repeated cycles of idolatry, judgment, captivity, and restoration.

In our world today, toleration of every belief (except Christianity) is the new “gospel.” But simple tolerance is never seen as enough. We are expected to conform to the beliefs of those around us. In far too many cases, Christians have capitulated, to our own detriment. Often times Christians are indistinguishable from the culture around us. Our priorities look the same—work, entertainment, social media, family, etc. Even our fears and anxieties often look the same. Not many are asking for “a reason for the hope that is in you” (1 Pet. 3:15), because they don’t see anything different in us.

We’ve made ourselves at home in this world, but as the old gospel song says, “This world is not my home.” We weren’t meant to blend in, but to be set apart as representatives of the heavenly kingdom. We are God’s ambassadors on earth (2 Cor. 5:20) with the job of bringing people into His kingdom, not living like the natives here.

May we each examine our lives and our priorities and make sure we haven’t made our homes in the wrong place, “but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven… For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matt. 6:20-21). Our Father’s house is so much better than anything we can ever hope to build here!

“For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens… So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please Him” (2 Cor. 5:1, 9).

© 2022 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture are ESV and all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

Honor Abounding

I’ve been enjoying the TGC podcast “You’re Not Crazy.” The recent episode “Staying Honest, Showing Honor” has stayed on my mind for a couple weeks for multiple reasons.

For much of the episode they reflect on Romans 12:10, “Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor,” and they note how rare this is even within the church. “Churches typically live on a starvation diet of encouragement and honor, and being lifted up by one another.” We’re much better at sarcasm and poking fun at people or just remaining silent than in honestly and publicly letting people know what we love and appreciate about them.

There are people living out their faith all around us, and many of them need to be reminded and encouraged that what they are doing matters. We need to let go of our reluctance to say something and start building one another up in love. There’s so much negativity in the world already. Let’s not add to that, but let’s become a refuge for the weary and worn by setting the example of outdoing one another in showing honor.

Another comment Ortlund makes in the episode is this: “One of the most important things right now in my existence is preparing to die well. I want to die honorably.” How often do any of us think about the personal and spiritual legacy we will leave for our family and friends? The Apostle Paul wrote on this theme repeatedly in Philippians:

“It is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death… Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel… that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain… that by any means possible I may attain from the resurrection from the dead… What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you” (1:20, 27; 2:15-16; 3:11; 4:9).

I confess there are many times when I succumb too easily to temptation, when I avoid the good works set before me, when I don’t pursue the means of grace in the spiritual disciplines, when I don’t want to sacrifice comfort and pleasure for the sake of holiness and the growth of the Kingdom of God. I think far too much of my own interests and far too little of living (and eventually dying) honorably in the sight of God and man.

If we all focused more on honoring God in our lives and honoring others with our words, think how much more pleasant the world would be! What if we approached social media each day with the thought “Who can I honor?” instead of “Who do I disagree with?” What if we made our daily decisions in light of what would most honor God instead of our own preferences and desires? How would our work places, churches, and homes be different?

“Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others” (Phil. 2:3-4).

***

© 2021 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture are ESV and all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church

The Right Harvest

Have you ever read a familiar Scripture and suddenly realized you’ve never really paid attention to it before? That happened to me this week with 2 Corinthians 9:10 (ESV):

“He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness.”

In the context of the chapter, it’s easy to focus on the ideas of giving and tithing and to overlook the last few words. One commentary notes, “Righteousness shall be itself the reward, even as it is the thing rewarded.” Do we really believe that righteousness is a desirable reward, or are we interested only in more tangible rewards? Are we working to cultivate righteousness? The prophet Hosea wrote, “Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the Lord, that He may come and rain righteousness upon you” (Hosea 10:12). Righteousness does not grow where it is not cultivated.

As I think about some of the challenges of life in the world today, perhaps we’ve been asking the wrong questions at times.

• Not “what is legal,” but “what would contribute to righteousness?”
• Not “how can we protect our children,” but “how can we teach them to love righteousness?”
• Not “how can I avoid sin,” but “how can I develop a greater desire for righteousness?”

If the pursuit of righteousness were our first priority, how might that influence our daily choices? I’m always convicted when I read Psalm 101:3a, “I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless.” There are plenty of worthless things all around us. We could resolve not to look at any form of media, but avoidance is not necessarily the same as seeking righteousness and holiness. (Here’s an article that differentiates these two similar terms.) We can also do all kinds of religious activities without having any real interest in righteousness. I fear that the modern church often contributes to religiosity and self-righteousness without relationship to God.

If I’m honest, most days I’m more concerned with doing my job to the best of my ability and simply surviving another day or week or year. If someone asked, “What are we here for?” I would probably say something about glorifying God, but I wouldn’t even think about cultivating righteousness. And yet Jesus said, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33). I suspect most of us are more interested in “all these things” than we are in the kingdom of God and His righteousness. For many people, the image of eternal life is more about our own hobbies and pleasures than it is about the promise of “new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (2 Peter 3:12).

The Apostle John reminded his readers, “Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as He is righteous… Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God” (1 John 3:7, 10). Thankfully, the practice of righteousness does not depend on our perfect obedience to the law, because we are incapable of doing that. We receive the righteousness of Christ (imputed righteousness), and we live it out by the power of the Holy Spirit (progressive righteousness). John Piper said,

“[We] can’t make any progress in practical, lived-out righteousness until we are accepted by God, forgiven for our sins, and declared to be perfectly righteous with the imputed righteousness of God in Christ. That’s tremendously important to see because it means that the effort that we make by faith through the Holy Spirit to put to death sins and become more and more practically righteous is not the basis of our right standing with God. It is the consequence or effect of our right standing with God.

How do we pursue righteousness? It’s not by trying harder to avoid sin, but by nurturing our relationship with God. The more we get to know and love Him, the more we will desire to please Him. We will seek His power to overcome temptation, and we’ll become more sensitive to the Spirit’s leading in our lives. None of that can happen apart from the spiritual disciplines of Bible reading, prayer, and involvement with the Body of Christ. We become Christians by simply accepting what Christ has done for us, but it takes a lifelong process to be transformed by the renewal of the mind and to be conformed to the image of Christ (see Romans 8:29 and 12:1-2).

May we never be satisfied with a faith that doesn’t cause us to change and grow, but may we seek a harvest of righteousness for the glory of God.  

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied” (Matthew 5:6).

© 2019 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

Brokenness, Surrender, Holiness

Following are several quotes worth pondering from Brokenness, Surrender, Holiness: A Revive Our Hearts Trilogy, by Nancy Leigh DeMoss:

“Broken men and women don’t care who finds out about their sin; they have nothing to protect and nothing to lose. They are eager for God to be vindicated. David’s response when confronted with his wrongdoing was that of a humble, broken man. And his was the heart that God honored. Again and again, God’s Word reveals that He is not as concerned about the depth or extent of the sin we commit as He is about our attitude and response when we are confronted with our sin” (52). “But once we have really been contrite and humble before God, it will not be threatening to be humble and honest with others—we have nothing to lose, no reputation to protect—because we have died. The broken person is willing to say, ‘Will you pray for me? I have a need in my life—God is dealing with me in this specific area’ ” (94).

“Because God is holy, we must be holy. And here’s the good news—because God is holy, we can be holy. If you are a child of God, the Holy God lives in you. He is the standard for your holiness, and He is the source of your holiness—He is your righteousness. He can wash your unholy heart with the blood of Jesus and make you clean—so the world will know what He is like… To be holy is our created purpose. It is our destiny. And it will be the outcome for every true child of God and for the entire body of Christ” (293-294).

“As Christians, we have not been left alone to deal with our sin. God has graciously put us into a body of believers who are called to look out for one another and to stand together against the enemies that would threaten our holiness. This family—the body of Christ—is a vital provision God has given to help us in our pursuit of holiness. This is why it is essential for every believer to be in a committed relationship to a Christ-centered local church. Many believers today think nothing of jumping from one church to another every time they find something not to their liking. In fact, a growing number of Christians don’t see the need of plugging into a local church at all. Some are disillusioned with their local church experience. They think they can have an independent relationship with God or that their spiritual needs can be met simply by plugging into the Internet. Being disconnected from the local church, for whatever reason, is a dangerous way to live. Not only do these ‘lone rangers’ miss out on the blessings of functioning within the context of the body of Christ, but like lone sheep away from the safety of the flock and the watchful care of the shepherd, they are vulnerable to predators of every sort” (344).

“We have tiptoed around Old and New Testament passages that proclaim the holiness of God, His hatred of sin, and His wrath and judgment against unrepentant sinners, preferring to consider only references to His mercy, grace, and love. We have promoted a ‘gospel’ that says it is possible to be a Christian while stubbornly refusing to address practices or behaviors we know are sinful. We have accepted the philosophy that it’s OK for Christians to look, think, act, and talk like the world” (368).

What more can be said?

“Surely that man must be in an unhealthy state of soul who can think of all that Jesus suffered, and yet cling to those sins for which that suffering was undergone. It was sin that wove the crown of thorns; it was sin that pierced our Lord’s hands and feet and side; it was sin that brought Him to Gethsemane and Calvary, to the cross and to the grave. Cold must our hearts be if we do not hate sin and labour to get rid of it, though we may have to cut off the right hand and pluck out the right eye in doing it” (J. C. Ryle, Holiness).

© 2019 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

Walk with Me

Lately it seems like quotes from Fred Rogers pop up on Facebook every week. Perhaps that’s because there have been some new biographies released in the past couple years. In the past few months I’ve read The Good Neighbor by Maxwell King, as well as an older biography, The Simple Faith of Mister Rogers by Amy Hollingsworth. One comment he made often in Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood was “I like you just the way you are.” I have a lot of respect for Fred Rogers and his legacy, and I remember watching him when I was little (and not-so-little).

However, I have to wonder about what I call the “Mister Rogers’ mentality” that seems prevalent among many Christians. By that I mean the idea that God loves us just the way we are and does not ask us to change. Some sectors of the church have drifted into a kind of universalism that accepts any kind of lifestyle and refuses to call anything sinful. There are those who cling to John 3:16, “God so loved the world…” and yet ignore the context:

“And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God… Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him” (19-21, 36 ESV).

God sent Jesus to proclaim His love and redeem us out of sin, not to leave us in our sinful ways. As someone said (and has been attributed to various people), “God loves us the way we are, but too much to leave us that way.” The Apostle Paul wrote:

“But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:4-5).

“Or do you presume on the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?” (Romans 2:4).

God loves us unconditionally, but He also expects us to change. By His grace and mercy we can turn from sin and learn to overcome temptation. This sanctifying process will not be finished in this lifetime, but if we are not seeing any progress over time we should be concerned. That’s one of the main reasons we are to be active members of a church that recognizes its responsibility to the Body of Christ. We need those in our lives who will “exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today,’ that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin” (Hebrews 3:13).

We all need people who will remind us that they love us no matter what stupid thing we’ve said or what sinful thing we’ve done. But if they truly love us, they should also be willing to admonish us for the patterns of sin they see in our lives. Some have said that love which is not expressed is not love. I would expand that to say that love which does not confront is not love. You may tell me, “I like you just the way you are,” but I hope there are some who will also say, “I love you too much to not point out this sin.” And ideally those same people will say, “Let me point you to the Savior and walk beside you as we both grow in faith and obedience to Him.” I know a few people like that, do you?

“Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into Him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love” (Ephesians 4:15-16).

© 2019 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

Pursuing Holiness

CCEF recently posted this podcast on addictions with Alasdair Groves and Mike Emlet. They made several good suggestions in how to cope with addictive patterns and behaviors:

• Recognize the triggers in your life—specific stresses that contribute to a desire to escape.
• Walk in the light with others about how you’re struggling. “Sometimes we put just enough on the table to keep people from looking under the table.”
• Fail well—using failure as an opportunity to turn away from sin and back to holiness, not minimizing sin or diving back into addiction.
• Watch out for the “micro-steps” in the wrong direction—is my heart inclining toward sin?
• Celebrate “micro-steps” in the right direction—changes in attitude and heart.

We all have some addictive tendencies (sin patterns) though they have varying degrees of intensity and consequences. I know my own “preferred sins” and I know many of the stresses that lead me to desire sin. I often think of a comment C. S. Lewis made in one of his letters that when he had made some progress against obvious temptations the devil then had to resort to “stratagems and ploys” to trip him up. Over time the ploys change, so we have to “be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8 ESV).

 “[What is] miserable is when we go for years and years in the bondage of sin and see no way out. Of course the enemy wants us to believe that ‘this is just the way I am’ or ‘this is the best I can hope for’ when in reality that is the furthest thing from the truth… Sin has a way of keeping us subdued and alone—even in a crowd—by threatening to expose us and humiliate us.” –Dennis Jernigan (Daily Devotions for Kingdom Seekers, Nov. 27-28).

“What a person needs is not an expert [on sin] but a friend to walk with them.” –Christopher Yuan

I think one of the biggest hindrances to the pursuit of holiness is the lack of close friends we can trust to keep us accountable and walk in the light with us. We all need a few such people in our lives.

Listening to Alistair Begg’s messages on Remorse or Repentance this week on Truth for Life, I pictured some people I know who seem to have fallen off either side of the narrow road. Some made a declaration of faith, but later withered away because they had no root (Matthew 13) and today are nowhere to be seen around the church. Others appear to be actively involved in ministry, but below the surface they are living in unrepentant sin. Both types of people are in danger of eternal judgment, and often only God knows their hearts. If they had maintained close relationships with strong Christians, they would have been much less likely to slide off the path.

May we be quick to repent to God and to a close friend, and may we be the kind of friends who can be trusted to listen and help those who are struggling.

“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few” (Matthew 7:13-14).

© 2018 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

On the Road

I just read this article on The Gospel Coalition: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/lessons-church-recovery-boys/  The author writes:

“One of the great challenges in ministry today is that ‘authenticity’ is more prized than holiness. Recurring struggles and ‘mess’ are more compelling and animating than the prospect of growth and the process of sanctification. Brokenness is simply a more credible currency than righteousness in many churches today, to our shame. Suburban youth pastors feel they must have tattoos and intense testimonies in order to be relatable. But shouldn’t churches and ministers be in the business of making growth, healing, maturity, and wholeness more compelling than sin and brokenness? Can’t righteousness be authentic too? …Pictures of healing are compelling. Growth should be celebrated more than brokenness.”

I understand what he’s saying, but I think he’s overstating the case. Perhaps it’s a matter of perspective. I think most churches struggle to embrace true authenticity. It’s far easier to hide our brokenness and fake our growth. It is true that real growth and healing should be celebrated, but not to the exclusion or shame of those who are still struggling. For most of us, growth comes in small steps that may not really be measurable. It may take years before we realize we’ve made significant change, so it can be hard to celebrate slow growth.

Certainly we want to make “growth, healing, maturity, and wholeness more compelling than sin and brokenness,” but we also need to communicate that it’s okay to not be okay. We are all broken sinners in need of supernatural help to change, and no one has yet arrived at perfection. We are all in process. Some may be further along the path, and they can encourage those of us who come behind them. Every believer is part of the “cloud of witnesses” to what God is doing in our lives and in the lives of those around us (Hebrews 12:1). We need to be authentic so that we can testify to where we’ve come from but also how much further we need to go. While there can be brokenness without sanctification, you can’t have sanctification without acknowledging brokenness.

I’m sure there are some churches where authenticity is “more prized than holiness,” just as there are some churches where sin is embraced rather than crucified, but I think they are comparatively small in number. Any church that values the whole council of God’s Word should be communicating: God loves you just as you are, and He loves you too much to let you stay there. And we as His Body love you in your brokenness, and we will do everything we can to help you grow in healing and holiness, however long it takes.

We’re all in this together. Wherever we’ve started from we should each be learning, growing, and changing by God’s grace and for His glory. Let’s encourage one another and celebrate even the small victories!

“Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:12-14 ESV).

© 2018 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated all images are copyright free from pixabay.com.

Be First

There are preachers who quote 1 Peter 1:15-16 (ESV), “...Be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy,’” as a basis for works righteousness. God is holy so He wants us to live holy lives, or so the argument goes. However, that little word “since” makes a big difference in these two verses, meaning that verse 16 is the reason for verse 15. The Greek word translated “You shall be” in 16 is not a command, but future indicative tense. In essence Peter is saying, “Because you will have the holiness of God, therefore you can live holy lives now.

We also can’t ignore the greater context of Peter’s letters, as well as the rest of the New Testament. Peter started his first letter by stating who we are in Christ. “According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead... who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1:3b, 5). On the basis of our identity, “Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded... As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance” (13-14). Peter uses a similar format in his second letter, “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence... For this very reason make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue...” (2 Pet. 1:3, 5). Only because of who we are in Christ and all the blessings we have received from Him can we then pursue holy living.

Paul’s letters are also full of reminders of who we are in Christ. “But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God... [He] who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with Him... Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:11b, 17, 19-20). Because of who you are in Christ you can glorify God. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come... Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ” (1 Cor. 5:17, 20a). As a new creation you can represent Christ to the world.

It’s so easy to get it all backward and think that we have to live holy lives in order to be made right with God, that we must behave a certain way so that we can one day be accepted into His kingdom. But Scripture says that being precedes doing. We are made able to obey because of who God says we already are. This is a truth that I never knew until was an adult. The preachers and teachers I heard in many different churches while growing up never bothered to tell me who I was in Christ. All they seemed to care about was how people acted, and for many of us it was truly an act. We tried to look good so that people would believe we were saved. It created a lot of fear, wondering “How good is good enough?”

This world we live in today is even more confused. Identity gets tied to education, career, sexuality, family role, economic status, etc. Christians need to remind one another of who we are in Christ, because that is the only thing that will last. Everything else will pass away. In the Kingdom, we won’t be known as doctor, lawyer, gay, married, wealthy, or anything else like that. We will be—and already are—children of God, loved, accepted, new creations, righteous, redeemed, free, heirs, brothers and sisters, made alive, faithful, reconciled with God, saints and overcomers. That alone is our motivation for how we should live. If we are living out of any other identity, we have to constantly perform a certain way in order to maintain it.

Sam Allberry said, 

“I’m defined by who I am before God the Father in Jesus Christ... Who I most truly, ultimately, and fundamentally am is someone who is in Christ. And therefore when I’m striving to be holy, when I’m striving to be Christlike, I’m not going against the grain of who I really am, I’m going with it. As someone who is in Christ I am most being me when I am pursuing godliness, not when I am pursuing sin.”

For the person who is in Christ, sin is no longer “natural,” regardless of how it may feel. Instead, righteousness is our new nature and the life we are meant to pursue. Yes, it takes effort, but it is an effort that is guaranteed to pay off as we become more and more like God made us to be.

“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10).

© 2017 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated all images are copyright free from pixabay.com.

Daily Revival

I recall a time in college when another Christian college was experiencing a time of revival on their campus. Some of our students organized prayer meetings in hopes that something similar would happen for us. The results were less than stellar and actually created some disturbing scenes due to misguided beliefs and expectations.

Recently I’ve been reading the challenging little book The Calvary Road by Roy Hession. The introduction by Norman Grubb summarizes it well:

“I had regarded revival only from the angle of some longed for, but very rare, sudden outpouring of the Spirit on a company of people… I learned and saw that revival is first personal and immediate. It is the constant experience of any simplest Christian who ‘walks in the light,’ but I saw that walking in the light means an altogether new sensitiveness to sin, a calling things by their proper name of sin, such as pride, hardness, doubt, fear, self-pity, which are often passed over as merely human reaction.”

He also points out that revival is not really the conversion of non-believers, because one must already have the new life before that life can be revived in them. So events that we might be inclined to call revivals are more often crusades. Churches holding “revival” services need to be clear as to what their expectations really are.

In one way, it takes some of the pressure off of an event if we realize that revival is not often a “sudden outpouring” and major change in the lives of a group. But that pressure instead is found in a constant nudging of the Holy Spirit redirecting lives day after day. The weekly routine of preaching, teaching, Bible study, worship, and prayer is most often the method by which the Holy Spirit revives the people of God. Those are the tools through which sin is revealed and confessed. If a person gets to the point of needing a sudden outpouring of the Spirit to cause them to change, they have probably been ignoring the Spirit and allowing sin to build up for quite some time. Thankfully God can still work and change lives in any condition, but how much better would it be to cultivate this daily sensitivity to sin and responsiveness to the Spirit?

Hession makes a couple comments that are particularly convicting:

“Anything that springs from self, however small it may be, is sin. Self-energy or self-complacency in service is sin. Self-pity in trials or difficulties, self-seeking in business or Christian work, self-indulgence in one’s spare time, sensitiveness, touchiness, resentment and self-defence when we are hurt or injured by others, self-consciousness, reserve, worry, fear, all spring from self and all are sin and make our cups unclean.” (13)

“Such a walk in the light cannot but discover sin increasingly in our lives, and we shall see things to be sin which we never through to be such before.” (19)

Most church members probably don’t have a problem with the “big” sins like murder or adultery, but we all have issues with pride and self-seeking. I’ve become increasingly aware of the selfish motivations in my life and how that hinders me from truly loving others as I should. Hession presses the point a little further when he writes:

“That means we are not going to hide our inner selves from those with whom we ought to be in fellowship; we are not going to window dress and put on appearances; nor are we going to whitewash and excuse ourselves. We are going to be honest about ourselves with them. We are willing to give up our spiritual privacy, pocket our pride and risk our reputations for the sake of being open and transparent with our brethren in Christ.” (20)

Fear of vulnerability is probably the greatest hindrance to spiritual growth for a lot of Christians. By keeping ourselves at a safe distance we not only lose fellowship, we also refuse to let anyone speak into our lives with correction or encouragement, and we miss the opportunity to do the same for others. “There is no doubt that we need each other desperately. There are blind spots in all our lives that we shall never see, unless we are prepared for another to be God’s channel to us” (50).

I want to have this experience of daily revival—walking in “newness of life” as Paul said in Romans 6:4, being aware that His mercies are “new every morning” (Lamentation 3:22-23), and having fellowship with one another as with Jesus Christ (1 John 1:7). No one needs to wait for once a year revival services, or even once a week revivifying, because we have daily access to God, His Word, and one another.

“Seek the Lord and His strength; seek His presence continually!” –Psalm 105:4 ESV

Already But Not Yet

In a recent sermon on Hebrews 7, it was pointed out that we often go through life with a vague sense of guilt. This can be true even of those who are confident of their salvation. There have been times when I’ve found myself praying “Lord, forgive me,” but then realize that I am not aware of any sin for which I need forgiveness. I could interpret that one of two ways. Either the Holy Spirit is prompting me to search myself for some hidden sin (and I’m sure I’d find something eventually), or the enemy is prodding me with guilt and shame in order to keep me from being effective for the kingdom. Most of the time it’s the latter, and it clearly takes discernment to distinguish which it is (Hebrews 5:14).

A verse came to mind recently when the enemy was attempting to sidetrack me with old sin: “And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:11 ESV). Paul makes it plain (using the aorist indicative) that these things have been accomplished and are not something awaiting future fulfillment. The author of Hebrews makes a similar statement, but puts it in the tense of a completed action with continuing effects (perfect middle participle): “And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all… For by a single offering He has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified” (Hebrews 10:10, 14).

Such statements are hard to wrap our brains around when we’re aware of our own sinfulness. How can something be categorically true and yet false in our daily experience? I don’t pretend to have all the answers, but I believe it hinges upon the fact that God is outside of time (though proponents of “openness theology” would disagree). He can look at the entirety of human history as we might look at a printed timeline. In His view, Jesus’ death on the cross was sufficient to cover all our sins past and present, so our sanctification has been purchased once and for all. But we can’t see the end from the beginning. What we see is the daily struggle to resist temptation and to glorify God.

John Piper says of Hebrews 10:14, “This verse means that you can stand perfected and completed in the eyes of your heavenly Father not because you are perfect now but… that, by faith in God’s promises, you are moving away from your lingering imperfection toward more and more holiness” (http://www.desiringgod.org/sermons/perfected-for-all-time-by-a-single-offering).

On one hand, it can be discouraging to know that we’ve not yet arrived and the struggles persist. But on the other hand, we should find great encouragement in knowing that God sees us as we will be for eternity—perfected in Christ Jesus. He doesn’t get tired of our frequent falls and pleas for grace. I imagine it’s a bit like a parent who says, “I can put up with the terrible twos (or teens) because I know that it won’t last, and something better is coming.” But it’s even better than that because God has perfect knowledge of what is coming, and one day there will be no more disappointment for any of His children.

In the meantime, we can keep on pressing on, claiming the forgiveness that is ours in Christ. And when the enemy tries to trip us up and drag us down into despair, we can ignore him because we know the truth and the truth has set us free.

“Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me His own” (Philippians 3:11).

Abide in Me

Once again circumstances have converged to make me think about a particular topic, in this case, what is abiding in Christ? One trigger was an email from Pastor Matt and the other was the book Growing in Grace, by Bob George. What they said was that abiding in Christ (John 15:4), abiding in the Vine (John 15:5), abiding in the Word (John 8:31), abiding in love (1 John 4), and abiding in the truth (2 John) are all essentially the same thing. But only one of those things really tells us something we can do to abide, and that is to abide in the Words of Scripture. As Pastor Matt said, “Reading them, meditating on them, reminding ourselves and each other of them is abiding in Jesus and allowing His words to abide in us.” And that is certainly something we ought to pursue.

Bob George gives the illustration of a baby in the womb. It is abiding there, with all its needs provided, and there’s nothing it can do or needs to do to maintain the connection with its mother. If you’re like me, it’s hard to believe that abiding in the Vine doesn’t take some real effort to hold on. But as I thought about it, I realized that several of those verses that talk about abiding in Him also say that He abides in us (John 6:56, John 15, 1 John 2, 1 John 3:24, 1 John 4). Even if we could somehow fail to abide in Christ, we can’t force Him to stop abiding in us. John 10:27-29 says, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand” (ESV). Other good images are found in Deuteronomy 33:27, “The eternal God is your dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms,” and Psalm 37:23-24, “The steps of a man are established by the Lord, when He delights in his way; though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong, for the Lord upholds his hand.”

Now I’m not advocating a laissez faire, do-nothing attitude. I think Scripture is pretty clear that we should endeavor to resist sin (Romans 6:1-2), draw near to God (James 4:7-8), study the Word (2 Timothy 3:16-17), and assemble together to encourage one another (Hebrew 10:25). But we can tend to make things harder than they need to be. Sometimes we fall back into the trap of thinking we need to earn our way or we believe the lie that “God helps those who help themselves.” Then too we can start second guessing God and take matters into our own hands if He doesn’t seem to be working fast enough or doing what we think needs done. So it’s hard to abide and rest when we’re waiting for something to happen.

In a recent Christianity Today blog, Mark Galli says this about the pursuit of holiness:

“Then, in one of [Paul’s] last letters, he says he is the ‘worst’ of sinners (1 Tim. 1:15). I don’t know that we can chalk that up to false humility. I think Paul, the older he got, the more he saw all those layers of sin and wickedness in himself and realized that for all the progress he might have made, in the end, he knew he felt like the greatest of sinners. This is not a picture of the ‘victorious Christian life.’ Yet so much preaching and teaching in American churches seem to suggest that if we just do this or that more fervently—always depending on the grace and power of the Holy Spirit!—we can make significant progress in the life of holiness. We Americans are a very optimistic bunch with a can-do spirit. But I’m wondering if we’re overpromising, with the result that we’ll eventually underdeliver. This can only lead us into despair… Our real hope—and the real reason for our lack of despair and our continuing joy—is the promise of future transformation in Christ. ” (http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2014/may-web-only/real-transformation-happens-when.html)

I struggle to discover some balance between “trying” and “abiding.” Scripture indicates that God has done all that is necessary for our salvation and eventual sanctification, but as Galli points out in this article, the vast majority of our sanctification will take place after the Second Coming of Christ, not during this earthly life. That’s both reassuring and frustrating. It’s wonderful to know that we are saved by grace and not by our attempts to be good enough. But it’s also humbling to realize that we may have to face the same temptations and struggles for a lifetime. We’re forced to cling to our hope for that soon-coming day when God’s grace will be fulfilled and we’ll abide with Him forever in perfect holiness.

“Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God” (Revelation 21:3).