Fruitful Growth

A recent issue of Christianity Today included the article “The Science of Sinning Less” which cites various studies on self-control. The author states, “One key recent discovery is that self-control is an exhaustible but buildable resource.” Like a muscle, self-control that is exercised regularly becomes stronger. I’m not sure that’s really a new discovery, but there is truth there. And while that is good to know, it doesn’t address the fact that Scripture talks about self-control not just as self-effort but as a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). That led me on a search for a description of biblical self-control and how it should work. Here are some of the quotes I found:

David Mathis wrote,

“True self-control is a gift from above, produced in and through us by the Holy Spirit. Until we own that it is received from outside ourselves, rather than whipped up from within, the effort we give to control our own selves will redound to our praise, rather than God’s… Ultimately, our controlling ourselves is about being controlled by Christ. When ‘the love of Christ controls us’ (2 Corinthians 5:14), when we embrace the truth that he is our sovereign, and God has ‘left nothing outside his control’ (Hebrews 2:8), we can bask in the freedom that we need not muster our own strength to exercise self-control, but we can find strength in the strength of another.”

John Piper put it this way:

“The key to a transformed mind is the steady gaze at the glory of Jesus Christ. For that to happen, we need a double work from the Holy Spirit… We need the Holy Spirit to work from the outside in by putting before us Christ-exalting truth in the gospel, and we need the Holy Spirit to work from the inside out by humbling our hard hearts. Both have to happen.”

One particularly helpful article was written by Ed Welch in The Journal of Biblical Counseling. He wrote:

“[Genuine] self-control… is not the same as relying on yourself and working up the willpower to control yourself. Instead, self-control is a gift of the Holy Spirit, through faith in Jesus Christ. It is a side effect of the fear of the Lord… The real prize is Christ Himself. So, with Jesus in view, we do those things that are important, true, and good, rather than those things that feel urgent but are ungodly… Although our cravings go deep, they are no match for the Spirit of the living God. This, of course, does not mean that the battle is over and we can ‘let go and let God.’ Rather, it means that we are now empowered to engage in the battle. As the Hebrews were promised the land, but had to take it by force, one town at a time, so we are promised the gift of self-control, yet we also must take it by force. Only the grace of God takes self-control out of the realm of hopeless self-reformation into that of great confidence that we can be transformed people.”

For practical application, Welch suggests:

“[The] desire for self-control must be accompanied by a plan… It is one thing to make a resolution; it is something completely different to repent diligently, seek counsel, and, in concert with others, develop a plan that is concrete and Christ-centered. The heart of any plan, of course, must be Jesus Christ. Self-control is like any other feature of wisdom in that it is learned by contemplating a person… Rather than give us twelve steps on which to rely, he gives us a Person to know. As Jesus is known and exalted among us, you will notice that self-control becomes more obvious. The double cure for sin is the foundation for all change. That is, in the gospel, we have been released from both the condemnation and the power of sin.”

As we contemplate Jesus Christ, His soon return, and the surpassing worth of knowing Him, may we find His fruit steadily increasing within our lives.

“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession who are zealous for good works” (Titus 2:11-14 ESV).

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

Standing Firm

Lately I’ve been thinking about Truth; not just facts but Scriptural truth as taught and personified in Jesus Christ. Jesus prayed for His followers, “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth” (John 17:17 ESV). Biblical truth matters for all who call themselves Christians, and yet there are so many ways in which Christians fail to cling to the truths of Scripture out of fear, conformity, or ignorance.

In today’s news, Lifeway will probably stop carrying Eugene Peterson’s books because of his recent comments that he doesn’t think homosexuality is wrong: “…it’s not a right or wrong thing as far as I’m concerned.” For someone who considers himself a theologian and a Bible translator to make such a statement is baffling. [Update- Peterson has since retracted his statements.] Yet there are many who agree with him for one reason or another. When those who proclaim to be Christians can’t even agree on what the Bible actually says, our witness in the world is greatly hindered.

Ed Shaw, a person who experiences same-sex attraction, wrote in Same-Sex Attraction and the Church:

“We have a plausibility issue: what the Bible clearly teaches sounds unreasonable to many of us today. And so it is (not unreasonably!) being rejected all over the place. A few high-profile leaders in our churches have already broken ranks…” (21).

“But what helped me was that, back then [the 1990s], embracing a homosexual lifestyle was clearly a no-go area for an evangelical Christian like me… The parameters set out for me were crystal clear—celibacy and a daily battle to avoid even a hint of sexual immorality in what I thought or did (Ephesians 5:3)… And although I found the consequences of that clarity immensely hard, the lack of ambiguity was incredibly helpful. It made the choice I’d taken seem plausible” (25-26).

Whether we’re talking about homosexuality, marriage, the sacraments, the nature of God, the structure of the church, or any other matter addressed in Scripture, we should be clear about what the Bible says and how it should inform our beliefs and actions. Then from the solid ground of Scripture we should have no fear in stating our beliefs.

It seems to me that fear is a driving force behind a lot of people who are bending to cultural norms. I understand that we don’t want to cut off opportunities for ministry and sharing the Gospel, but I think that we are presuming too much about our own ability to convert people. Only the Holy Spirit can bring someone to repentance and faith, not any human effort. Trying to sugarcoat Scripture is not sharing the Gospel. If a clear statement of the truth of Scripture causes someone to pull away, then it is still in God’s hands to soften their heart. If the seeds we are trying to plant are not grounded in Scripture, then they shouldn’t be bearing fruit anyway, and I don’t think God will allow them to bear fruit if it compromises His Word or His sovereignty and glory.

Jesus came as the embodied Word of God (John 1:1-14), and because of the Spirit’s work in the early believers we have the written Word as our foundation for faith and practice. The Word matters because it is the Truth of God. If we choose to abandon the truths of Scripture we might as well stop calling ourselves Christians, because it is not Jesus Christ we are representing but ourselves. Jesus repeatedly stated the importance of abiding in the Word:

• “If you abide in My word, you are truly My disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31-32).
• “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you. By this is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be My disciples… If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love” (John 15:7-8, 10).
• “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:24).

In 2 Corinthians 4, Paul reiterates the fact that only God can open the eyes of the blind. Our responsibility is to be true to the Word of God:

“But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake” (4:2-5).

May we not be tempted to tamper with the Word, but “do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15).

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

Still Waiting

I was reading in John 9 of the man born blind. “‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ Jesus answered, ‘It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him’” (2-3 ESV). Obviously this man and his parents were not completely free of sin, but their sin was unrelated to his blindness. We can’t read too much into this, but it is apparent that the brokenness of this world is used to display God’s works. He uses all things for His purposes (Rom. 8:28). He can use physical, mental, and emotional brokenness, and He can even use our sinfulness in ways that will bring Him glory.

I’m sure I’ve contributed to my own “blindness” through the ways I’ve behaved or things I have mistakenly believed, but the story doesn’t end there. Each piece of my story is an opportunity for God to display His glory. Whether He heals the brokenness or not, He gets the ultimate glory for whatever works He does in and through me. There are parts I am fairly certain will not be “fixed” in this lifetime, but that will just make eternity that much better. Some things I’ve experienced in the last few days have made me yearn even more for the day when all will be made perfect—where people won’t misunderstand one another or say things that are incorrect; where we won’t overreact to words or deeds because all the old wounds will be healed; where we won’t have anything to hide from one another; where fear will be a thing of the past; where our bodies and minds will function perfectly as God intends. I long for that day to come.

As I was skimming through some Scriptures I’ve read this week, it struck me how often we take Isaiah 40:31 out of context. “They that wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with winds like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” That is an inspiring picture, but we can’t divorce it from verse 30, “Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted.” In this life we are guaranteed to encounter weariness, exhaustion, pain, and trials. The promises of verse 31 won’t truly be fulfilled until we receive our new bodies and the earth is made new. Even Jesus grew weary while He walked this earth.

So we are called to persevere in faith until that final day, trusting that everything will be made clear and God’s purposes are revealed so that He will be glorified. There are days I don’t want to persevere, days when everything seems pointless and hopeless. But I’m reminded, “For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised” (Heb. 10:36). I imagine the man who’d been born blind got tired of the routine of his life. The man who’d been an invalid for 38 years (John 5) certainly had reasons for complaint. I wonder how much the difficulties in Joseph’s life influenced the way he manipulated his brothers (Gen. 42-44) before he revealed who he was? (Somehow I don’t think God told Joseph, “Let’s string them along for a while until they really appreciate your position”!)

One day “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” (Rev. 21:4). But until that day we endure, we wait, and we pray for His will to be done and His glory to be revealed.

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

Sufficient and Necessary

The lessons have been piling up lately. Actually I should say lesson, because it is all part of one larger picture. It started with comments in a couple different sermons from Sam Allberry. In one he referred to John 6:35 (ESV): “Jesus said to them, ‘I am the Bread of Life; whoever comes to Me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in Me shall never thirst,’” and he reminded me that Jesus is the only one who truly fulfills all our needs. In the New Testament context bread was a staple of life, not an incidental item. Jesus is not just some side dish, but He is the main course. Everything else is secondary. Later I read this: “‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I will hope in Him’” (Lamentations 3:24). How often have I looked to something else to satisfy me rather than waiting on God to do what only He can do, when I’ve thought that some need or desire was more urgent than it really was?

In another sermon on Luke 22:39-46 he said,

“‘Pray that you may not enter into temptation.’ It highlights for us the importance of prayer. [The disciples] need to pray so that they will not enter into temptation, so that they will not fall, so that they will be faithful to their master. And that is no less true for us. We will face trials. In His executive summary of what we’re to pray for, Jesus tells us to pray about temptation, that we would be delivered from the evil one [Matthew 6:9-13]. We need to be people of prayer so that when the temptation comes, we will not fall into it. A verse that has been really challenging and haunting me, actually, recently on prayer is James 4:2, ‘You do not have because you do not ask God.’ You do not stand because you do not pray.”

I wonder how often I have missed out on God’s provision, protection, and deliverance because I have not asked Him. How often have I fallen because I didn’t pray or because I was praying for something less than God’s best?

As I’m reading through Isaiah again this verse caught my attention. “Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore He exalts Himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for Him” (30:18). And He not only waits to be gracious, but He also says, “I will rejoice in doing them good…” (Jeremiah 32:41). I wonder how long God has been waiting to show me grace and mercy and do good for me while my attention has been focused somewhere else.

It’s interesting that by showing mercy God exalts Himself. Through encountering His mercy and grace we see God for who He really is and we’re reminded of who we are both with Him and apart from Him. On our own we are weak, sinful, hungry, and needy. But in Christ we have strength, forgiveness, satisfaction, and fulfillment. It’s easy to forget that Christ is sufficient for all our needs. I need frequent reminders of His sufficiency, but those reminders usually come in the form of tripping and falling flat on my face. That’s always a good time and place to pray.

“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you” (John 15:7).

“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil” (Matthew 6:13).

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

Refreshed

I recently read this article from John Piper, http://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/i-know-god-loves-me-but-does-he-like-me, and I appreciate his reminder that God takes great delight in His children. I was reminded of Hebrews 2:11 (ESV): “For He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why He is not ashamed to call them brothers.” Or as the NIV puts it: “Both the One who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers [and sisters].” It seems to me that our modern, Western idea of family has not only diminished the depth of our relationships within the Church, but has also depreciated our understanding of God as our Father and Jesus as our Brother. God’s love for us is not an obligation, but a deep affection flowing from the heart of a father.

As Piper mentions in his article, our own awareness of our sinfulness hinders our perception of God’s love. How could He desire to be with a person who keeps breaking the law? But that reveals an underlying misunderstanding (or doubt) about what Scripture says of those who are in Christ. Galatians 2:20 (ESV) says, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” We have more knowledge of our sinful condition than we do of our holy position in Christ.

In his commentary on Galatians 2:17-20, Martin Luther made the following comments:

“The Law drives us away from God, but Christ reconciles God unto us, for ‘He is the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of the world.’ Now if the sin of the world is taken away, it is taken away from me. If sin is taken away, the wrath of God and His condemnation are also taken away. Let us practice this blessed conviction” (48). 

“Faith connects you so intimately with Christ, that He and you become as it were one person. As such you may boldly say: ‘I am now one with Christ. Therefore Christ’s righteousness, victory, and life are mine.’ On the other hand, Christ may say: ‘I am that big sinner. His sins and his death are mine, because he is joined to me, and I to him’” (53). 

“For Christ is Joy and Sweetness to a broken heart. Christ is a Lover of poor sinners, and such a Lover that He gave Himself for us. Now if this is true, and it is true, then are we never justified by our own righteousness. Read the words ‘me’ and ‘for me’ with great emphasis. Print this ‘me’ with capital letters in your heart, and do not ever doubt that you belong to the number of those who are meant by this ‘me.’ Christ did not only love Peter and Paul. The same love He felt for them He feels for us” (57).

You can begin to sense some of the amazement Luther felt when he realized that justification is by grace through faith, not by works. And it’s not just that we are legally made right with God, but that He truly loves us, accepts us, and delights in us. He doesn’t just take away our guilt for sins we’ve committed, but He adopts us into His family on equal footing with His beloved Son, Jesus Christ (Rom. 8:16-17).

Though I’ve known these truths for many years, lately I’ve encountered several refreshing reminders in Scripture (eg. Eph. 1:4-5; Gal. 4:7; Isaiah 43:4; 1 Cor. 6:11) and in other reading. We can quickly forget who we are and as Piper noted, we need to take a “Bible bath” to renew our minds with the truth.

“And because of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption” (1 Cor. 1:30).

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Cor. 5:17).

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

Out of the Darkness

“He brought me out into a broad place; 

He rescued me, because He delighted in me” (Psalm 18:19 ESV).

I read this verse last night and saw it in a new light. Usually when I’ve read it I’ve thought to myself, “I hope that will be true one day.” The cares and pressures of today often leave me looking for a way out of what feels like a narrow valley. But as I looked at it from a bird’s eye view I thought about it a little differently.

Looking back over my life, and particularly the last few years, I can see many examples of ways that God has rescued me and brought me out into open spaces. He’s lightened heavy burdens; He’s brought freedom from some areas of sin and fear; He’s opened doors for honesty that I never imagined. He’s torn down many of the walls I had built to protect myself—walls that restricted me more than I realized. Today I am in a much broader place than I have been before.

In a very real way, God has rescued me from myself. But from an even higher perspective, He has also rescued me from the enemy—from sin and death. As Paul said, “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:13-14). We have been rescued and made citizens of a new country full of light and open places. I was reminded of the scene from Pilgrim’s Progress when Christian journeys through the Valley of the Shadow of Death in pitch darkness:

“Now, morning being come, he looked back, not out of desire to return, but to see, by the light of day, what dangers he had gone through in the dark. So he saw more perfectly the ditch that was on the one hand, and the quag that was on the other; also how narrow the way which led betwixt them both. Also now he saw the hobgoblins, and satyrs, and dragons of the pit, but all afar off; for after break of day they came not night; yet they were shown to him according to that which is written, ‘He showeth deep things out of darkness, and bringeth out to light the shadow of death” (Part 1 Chapter IV).

The valley is dark and full of dangers, but the road ahead is wide open and brightly lit.

But perhaps the best part of Psalm 18:19 is the ending, “because He delighted in me.” God rescues and delivers us not out of pity or obligation, but out of delight. That is almost incomprehensible to us if we’re honest. There’s not much within us to make us “delightful,” but God sees something we can’t. Jesus endured the cross “for the joy that was set before Him” (Hebrews 12:2), and that joy was in the salvation of the children of God.

So I’m reading Psalm 18 differently these days and seeing how God is continually at work rescuing us and bringing us out into open, safe places. Although God doesn’t always deliver us the way we want or expect, there are probably many “little” rescues that we aren’t even aware of. Other rescues happen so gradually that we don’t see them unless we are specifically looking. And then there is the eternal rescue that has been transacted and will be fully realized in eternity. That one makes it worth it all.

“For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness” (1 Thessalonians 5:5). “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9).

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

Gifted to Serve

Lately I’ve been thinking about spiritual gifts. Back in the 90s there was a big push for spiritual gift tests, which has largely died down now. Coming of age in that era, I remember taking several different tests, not because I was all that concerned about my gifts but mostly because I enjoyed tests that had no wrong answers. Each test seemed to have a slightly different list of the gifts. Some of them included teaching on how the gifts apply to the church today and how the test results might be used.

Although I agreed with the idea of gift assessments at the time, I now approach them with far more skepticism. For one thing, in the primary passages used to justify these tests, Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12, the Apostle Paul makes no claim to be providing a comprehensive listing. The Greek word used here is χαρίσματα, literally meaning a gift of grace. The root χαρίσμα is used elsewhere such as Romans 5:15-16 to refer to gifts in a very different sense, so I’m not convinced that Paul was intentionally setting apart these “spiritual gifts” as unique abilities divvied out to every believer. I believe that every Christian does have spiritual gifts, of which these lists are just a sampling. Therefore, spiritual gift assessments have a very limited application and can actually lead to faulty thinking.

One peril is that of thinking of the gifts as prescriptive rather than descriptive. In taking those tests I always got the feeling that the results meant I needed to change my major and pursue a different career. I did in fact end up in a far different career than I’d planned on, but that was because God kept giving me new experiences and changing interests, not because some test said I was suited for something different. If I were using a spiritual gift test today, I would be sure to interpret it as “If these are activities you enjoy, here are some ways they might contribute to the Body of Christ.”

Another pitfall that I’ve witnessed on more than one occasion is pride. People I loved basically said, “I have the gifts of discernment and wisdom, so you have to agree with my views on everything.” Only later did I find out that their views were highly colored by the benefits they received. I think pride often plays a role in the groups that insist that Christians must be able to speak in tongues.

Then there is the danger of segregation of gifts. One might come to the conclusion, “Service is not my gift so I don’t need to help with that project,” or “I don’t have the gift of generosity so I don’t need to give more than the bare minimum.” As a result, people and things get neglected. As Alistair Begg pointed out on today’s broadcast, if you think you can claim “I don’t have the gift of hospitality,” read 1 Peter 4:9.

Some of the gift tests include the gift of celibacy, based on 1 Corinthians 7:7. A recent Gospel Coalition podcast by Sam Allberry, 5 Misconceptions about Singleness, points out the problem with this view. If someone is single but longing for marriage, they conclude they don’t have the gift of singleness, which only compounds their discontentment. In addition, a correct reading of that Scripture would imply that marriage is also a gift. So if a married person decides they don’t have the “gift of marriage,” what are they supposed to do? How far should we take the language of “gifts”?

I’ve written before about the idea of a person’s calling, and I think gifting falls in the same category. Gifts and calling are best revealed by responding to our current circumstances in whatever way God may lead. If you see a need and have the ability to respond, just do it. Henry Blackaby wrote in Experiencing God,

“I believe many people today are seeking God’s call to ministry or an assignment backwards. We teach people to discover their spiritual gifts and then look for an assignment in which they can use their gifts. That can be a frustrating experience... When God gives an assignment, a person obeys and God accomplishes what He intended through the person” (46).

The way forward is usually discovered one step at a time, not by following a road map (or Siri) that has each turn laid out. No two people have identical gifts and calling, and every person is needed to serve the Body of Christ. Ironically the June issue of Christianity Today has an article on the subject of spiritual gifts. Andrew Wilson wrote,

“Spiritual gifts, like manna, point forward to the day when they will no longer be needed. So believers, in the meantime, should receive and rejoice in God’s gifts, but without fixating on them as the primary tests of spirituality. Love, not the gifts, is the mark of the Spirit’s work that will last forever.”

“And I will show you a still more excellent way... So now faith, hope,and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 12:31b-13:13 ESV).

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