Deflated

Last Sunday’s sermon included Mark 11:25 (ESV), “And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses,” along with the question, who do you need to forgive? I confess that my first thought was “myself.” As I thought about it further, I realized that my problem was not unforgiveness but wounded pride. Guilt and shame feel a lot alike. One difference is that shame is not necessarily tied to any actual sin. Many of the things that plague me are not sins but mistakes or errors in judgment—giving an answer that is based on incomplete knowledge of the facts; not anticipating the impatience of angry drivers on busy roads; or misjudging someone’s intentions. In my imaginary world, I would always have perfect knowledge and therefore would always do what is best and would please everyone all the time. Even as I write that, I realize that God’s perfect knowledge and perfect actions still don’t please everyone, and I am far from being God.

In the midst of my ponderings, I read the following in Lysa TerKeurst’s book Uninvited:

“Anything that infuses us with humility is good. Even if it feels a bit like humiliation in the moment, the workings of humility within are a gift. The tweaking of us by God in the quiet is the saving of us in public. The only difference between humility and humiliation is that one chose to bow low while the other tripped and fell there. Either way, the sweetest grace lifted my face, and I saw that on the other side of the stripping of pride are some of the best gifts God gives us.

“The Bible reminds us that on the other side of humility we find wisdom (Proverbs 11:2). We will be lifted up by God Himself in due time (1 Peter 5:6). ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble’ (James 4:6 NLT). Humility isn’t a place of weakness but rather a position that will come with honor (Proverbs 18:12). And humility is an absolute requirement for those who ask God to heal their land (2 Chronicles 7:14)” (pp. 108-110).

Humility is one of those things that is mentioned often in Scripture but rarely discussed in the church. It’s not really something we are interested in pursuing, perhaps because we think of it as the opposite of pride. Tim Keller, in his helpful little book on 1 Corinthians 3:21-4:7, The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness, rightly criticizes the modern self-esteem theory.

“The person with the superiority complex is overinflated and in danger of being deflated; the person with an inferiority complex is deflated already... Deflated or in imminent danger of being deflated—it is all the same thing. And it makes the ego fragile... Trying to boost our self-esteem by trying to live up to our own standards or someone else’s is a trap. It is not an answer... [The] essence of gospel-humility is not thinking more of myself or thinking less of myself, it is thinking of myself less. Gospel-humility is not needing to think about myself.”

The answer according to the Apostle Paul is that God’s opinion is the only one that matters. “It is the Lord who judges me” (1 Cor. 4:4b). And as Keller puts it,

“Do you realize that it is only in the gospel of Jesus Christ that you get the verdict before the performance? … In Christianity, the moment we believe, God says, ‘This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.’ … ‘Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.’ … You see, the verdict is in. And now I perform on the basis of the verdict. Because He loves me and He accepts me, I do not have to do things just to build up my resume. I do not have to do things to make me look good.”

I will be the first to admit that this is far easier said than done when the ego starts getting even slightly inflated. The Apostle John wrote, “For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever” (1 John 2:16-17). I’m striving to learn to welcome the little (or big) humiliations that remind me that I am weak but that I serve a strong God. It is indeed a gift of God to remember that He is in control and I’m not. And I need constant reminders that my identity is not determined by my competence at work, having all the right answers at the right times, pleasing everyone, or even my ability to resist some temptation. My identity is determined solely by my relationship with my Father in heaven, and His love for me is unchanging. Therefore I can say with Paul, “But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself” (1 Cor. 4:3).

“Before destruction a man’s heart is haughty, but humility comes before honor” (Proverbs 18:12).

“But He gives more grace. Therefore it says, ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble… Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will exalt you” (James 4:6,10; see also 1 Peter 5:5-6).

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

Who Can Satisfy?

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the disappointments Jesus encountered with His friends and family while on earth:

• “He said to [His parents], ‘Did you not know that I must be in My Father’s house?’” (Luke 2:49 ESV).
• “And when His family heard it, they went out to seize Him, for they were saying, ‘He is out of His mind.’ …And He answered them, ‘Who are my mother and my brothers? …Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of God, He is my brother and sister and mother” (Mark 3:21, 33-35).
• “For not even His brothers believed in Him” (John 7:5).
• “And He said to them, ‘Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?’” (Matthew 8:26).
• “And Jesus answered, ‘O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you?’” (Matthew 17:17).
• “Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?” (John 14:9).
• “He rebuked Peter and said, ‘Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man” (Mark 8:33).
• “Judas, would you betray the Son of Man with a kiss?” (Luke 22:48).
• “And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how He had said to him, “Before the rooster crows today, you will deny Me three times” (Luke 22:61).

These few quotes have really reminded me that Jesus was indeed “despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3). He identified fully with our human experiences, not just by being tempted or being weak and weary, but in being alone, misunderstood, betrayed, and rejected.

Sometimes reading through the Gospel accounts we may get the idea that Jesus and the disciples were a fun-loving group of guys who always got along and never had any conflict (well, except for that little “arguing who’s the best” thing). I’m sure Jesus did enjoy being with them for the most part, though He also liked to get away to pray on a regular basis. But there are no relationships free from conflict and disappointment, and the closer the relationship, the more likely there will be troubled times.

When loneliness and relational disappointments strike, I take comfort in knowing that Jesus not only knows, but He’s experienced all that and more. I’m also reminded that Jesus came as “Immanuel, God with us” (Matthew 1:23) and before He left earth He promised, “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). And even beyond that, He is “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27). It doesn’t get any more intimate than that, and nobody on earth can satisfy my soul as He can. He is the only One who can truthfully claim to be the Bread of Life and the Living Water.

“Let them thank the Lord for His steadfast love, for His wondrous works to the children of man! For He satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul He fills with good things” (Psalm 107:8-9).

[As a side note, one of my favorite songs is “Who Can Satisfy My Soul” by Dennis Jernigan. Listen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wc0_9kKZq0c ]

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

Waiting with a Purpose

This week in our House to House group’s sermon discussion 2 Peter 3:9 was brought up, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (ESV). I have to admit that this verse bothers me a bit. Maybe it’s my accountant brain, but statistically this statement doesn’t make sense. The world population is expected in increase by an estimated 35% by 2050; however, the population growth of Muslims is so much faster that their total numbers will nearly equal the number of Christians by that time. (See Wikipedia article.) So even though there will be more people “reaching repentance,” there will be even more who are lost.

Another difficulty I have with the verse is that it makes God sound a little wishy-washy, as if He’s trying to decide exactly when to put an end to things but is hoping to get a few more converts first. Obviously that doesn’t square with the rest of Scripture and the problem is our English translation. The Greek word translated wishing actually has the connotation “to will deliberately, have a purpose, be minded” (Strongs 1014). It is not merely wishing for something to happen, but working out the purposes already determined.

This verse from 2 Peter can’t be taken out of the greater context of Scripture. In speaking of the last days, Jesus said, “For then there will be great tribulation… And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short” (Matthew 24:21-22). By His mercy God will not let the fallen creation drag on indefinitely. There is a day of judgment that has already been determined by God, and none of us know when that day will be. He will bring everything to an end in His perfect timing.

Recently I was looking at a church website for some other denomination (I’ve forgotten what it was) that implied that they had historically had a strong emphasis on the Second Coming of Christ but had found that to be an inadequate message to motivate believers. I can certainly see how this can happen. If Christ is returning this week, then why bother with developing leaders or creating denominational structures? (And as a fifth generation Advent Christian, I can say that William Miller and his early followers made some significant mistakes!) But the fact is that Jesus’ soon return, whether it’s next week or next millennium, should be motivation to do whatever is necessary to bring as many people to Christ as possible in the time allowed.

God has been graciously waiting until His purposes are fulfilled, but each passing day brings us closer to the end of time. Are our goals aligned with His purposes? Are we living in accordance with those purposes?

“But the Day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar… Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the Day of God…” (2 Peter 3:10-12).

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

Friends or Friended?

Recently I had the experience of feeling more kinship on a particular issue with someone who lives 4,000 miles away than I do with people within a 4-mile radius. While it is true that the Body of Christ transcends national, cultural, and language barriers, it is also true that local churches often fail to create a sense of true community. Rosaria Butterfield has commented that church members are often on a “starvation diet” of fellowship, assuming that an hour or two per week is all that is needed. A recent article on Christianity Today states:

“Technology affords us the opportunity to become involved in multiple communities… groups with a feeling of exclusivity create an illusion of infinite belonging and opportunity for cooperation… These groups reflect a powerful truth in a world that often is shaped by a lack of understanding: You are not alone. In fact, our sense of loneliness, especially in the presence of others, is often due to ignorance. We struggle to invest in the kind of face-to-face conversations that can help us truly know each other. Such conversations require time and psychological effort, and entail not a little discomfort.”

However, this is not a new problem. The following quotes come from Henri Nouwen in personal letters he wrote nearly 40 years ago:

“Mostly we are so afraid of our weaknesses that we hide them at all cost and thus make them unavailable to others but also often to ourselves. And, in this way, we end up living double lives even against our own desires: one life in which we present ourselves to the world, to ourselves and to God as a person who is in control and another life in which we feel insecure, doubtful, confused and anxious and totally out of control… It is amazing in my own life that true friendship and community became possible to the degree that I was able to share my weaknesses with others. Often I became aware of the fact that in the sharing of my weaknesses with others, the real depths of my human brokenness and weakness and sinfulness started to reveal itself to me, not as a source of despair but as a source of hope. As long as I try to convince myself or others of my independence a lot of my energy is invested in building up my own false self. But once I am able to truly confess my most profound dependence on others and on God, I can come in touch with my true self and a real community can develop” (Love, Henri, 46).

“I myself experienced some real affectionate, caring acceptance from my friends during a difficult time in my own life. It was this human acceptance that helped me see God in a new way and allowed me to have a better experiential knowledge of what it means that God’s love is deeper and stronger than any love that humans can give to one another; but without the experience of human love, the experience of God’s love is very hard to come by” (50).

I would question whether we are truly able to fulfill Jesus’s command to “Love one another” if we are merely acquaintances who see each other once a week in the church building. How can we bear one another’s burdens if we don’t know what those burdens are? Can we exhort, encourage, stir up, and pray for one another when we are all keeping our true selves hidden behind a mask? 

I confess this is a constant frustration for me in a culture where the nuclear family has far surpassed the Christian family in people’s priorities. There is little or no recognition that biological families are temporary, but God’s family is eternal. And we don’t even realize that we’re missing out on our calling to be brothers and sisters and fathers and mothers for one another (Mark 10:29-30).

“So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God, but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us” (1 Thessalonians 2:8 ESV).

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

A Prayer Refresher

I’ve read several things recently on the subject of prayer in general, and I’ve been thinking about the Lord’s Prayer in particular. I don’t come from a tradition that recites the Lord’s Prayer on a regular basis, so I haven’t spent a lot of time thinking about it. I’ve also been cautious because there are other traditions that use the Lord’s Prayer in rote repetition that can quickly lose all meaning. However, since these words came from Jesus Himself, perhaps they are worthy of a little extra attention.

It hadn’t really occurred to me before that there are just three main petitions in the prayer, “Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts… And lead us not into temptation” (Matthew 6:11-13 ESV). On the prayer for our daily bread, C.S. Lewis wrote,

“It means, doesn’t it, all we need for the day—‘things requisite and necessary as well for the body as for the soul.’ I should hate to make this clause ‘purely religious’ by thinking of ‘spiritual’ needs alone” (Letters to Malcolm Chiefly on Prayer, 27).

While we can drift to one extreme or the other, I think there is a greater tendency to focus on physical needs rather than spiritual needs. I was struck by the fact that Jesus said, “I am the Bread of Life; whoever comes to Me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in Me shall never thirst” (John 6:35). In a counterintuitive way, praying for our daily bread is a prayer for more of Jesus. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled” (Matthew 6:6). He is sufficient for all our deepest needs, though we may not always think so. I am challenged to pray that I would find my fulfillment in Him alone.

Thinking about the request for forgiveness, again the answer is found in the person of Christ. Because of His death and resurrection, the Old Testament sacrificial system was no longer needed. “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that He opened for us through the curtain, that is, through His flesh” (Hebrews 10:19-20). Following the Sermon on the Mount, we get this brief response, “The crowds were astonished at His teaching, for He was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes” (Matthew 7:28-29). No doubt this prayer for forgiveness without corresponding sacrifices must have raised a few eyebrows. I am thankful that forgiveness is just a prayer away!

The third petition, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,” I suspect is the least used part of the Lord’s Prayer, though it should be significant to us. We all need protection from temptation. Paul said, “Let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall” (1 Corinthians 10:12). I’ve learned from many falls that it is far easier and more effective to pray for protection from temptation than to pray for deliverance once temptation has already appeared. I have no idea how many times God has diverted me away from temptation—probably far more than I could even imagine. The frequent appeal for protection serves to draw my attention back to Christ and has increased my dependence on His strength in my weakness.

Although the Lord’s Prayer is so named because it was spoken by Jesus, the fact is that every part of it points us back to our Lord and Savior through whom we receive the Bread of Life, forgiveness of the guilt of sin, and deliverance from the power of sin. Apart from Him they are just empty words.

“Yours is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever and ever. Amen.”

© 2017 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.

The Real Heaven

It occurred to me recently how incredible it is that we live in a society that is relatively moral and self-controlled. Having witnessed firsthand the rebellion that leads some people to do stupid things (in this case, a reckless driver endangering pedestrians), it’s actually amazing that the vast majority of people are usually law-abiding citizens. I think that’s why it is so often hard to convince people that “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23 ESV). People who are outwardly “good people” don’t want to be told they are sinners. People wonder how God could send “good people” to hell when they can come up with a long list of things that they think justify their entrance to heaven. We can all think of people who “deserve” hell far more than the average moral person.

The irony is that many of the same people who think they deserve heaven would be appalled to think that they’d spend eternity praising God and growing in knowledge of Him. If you aren’t interested in a relationship with God in this life, why would you want to spend eternity with Him? The church has not always done a very good job of explaining what eternal life is all about. We’ve adopted images of heaven that have more in common with Islam than with the Bible. (See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaven.) We don’t even know how to deal with stories of near death experiences or how they relate to the real afterlife as described in Scripture. Scot McKnight writes, “It seems to me in the flourishing of these [near death experiences], many Christians will want once again to take a whole new look at what the Bible says about heaven. What they will find, in almost all cases, is a view of heaven that is quite unlike what is experienced in the [near death experiences].”

C.S. Lewis wrote:

“God, who has made us, knows what we are and that our happiness lies in Him. Yet we will not seek it in Him as long as He leaves us any other resort where it can even plausibly be looked for. While what we call ‘our own life’ remains agreeable we will not surrender it to Him. What then can God do in our interests but make ‘our own life’ less agreeable to us, and take away the plausible sources of false happiness?” (The Problem of Pain, 96–97)

Many people want eternal happiness on their own terms, apart from any relation to the God who created us. They want to edit Romans 8:21-23 to say “the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain freedom,” and conveniently ignore the fact that it is the “children of God” who “wait eagerly for adoption as sons.” Only those who know God as Father want the kind of life that He offers. Some preachers try to convert people by saying in essence, “Do you want to avoid hell and go to heaven? Then just believe in Jesus.” What they leave out is a biblical description of eternity as children of God who love and glorify Him.

“But according to His promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (2 Peter 3:13). Many who long for what they call heaven are completely uninterested in the dwelling place of righteousness. They’d rather have a place of free license to do whatever they want. People want the promises of Revelation 21:4: “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away;” but they don’t care about the presence of God described in 21:3: “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.” We can’t one without the other.

The older I get and the more I see the brokenness of this world, the more I long for the Second Coming of Christ, not just so the brokenness will be fixed and the earth made new, but so I can enjoy the presence of the One I’ve come to know and love. I’m coming to understand what John Piper calls the “superior pleasure” of knowing God, or as Thomas Chalmers called it, “The expulsive power of a new affection.” One day the true desires of our hearts will be revealed and either fulfilled in Christ or destroyed in judgment.

“‘Surely I am coming soon.’ Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!” (Rev. 22:20).

© 2017 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise noted all images are from pixabay.com.