Life and Peace

A verse I've been chewing over these last couple of days:

"For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace."
Romans 8:5-6

This verse has really spoken to me as I definitely feel the weight of conviction that I'm more caught up in the physical world (the flesh) than I should be. Preoccupied with material possessions, benefits, pursuits and pleasures, the Spirit is so often shoved into second place.

And this verse says that is death.

Death!!!

That's not good. And the truth is you can feel a death within you when you get preoccupied with the physical. Because it doesn't satisfy, at all. When time with God gets squeezed out you feel very hollow.

These last few days I've reprioritised a few things and it's been really liberating. Setting my mind on the Spirit has been very refreshing. Physical, material things fall out of focus. All of a sudden, they're not so important. Your weight, fitness, bank balance and leisure time — when you set your mind on the Spirit you remember they're just temporary things. This physical world is all passing away.

"but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace" — how awesome is that promise! Life and peace are two things that everybody craves. To be alive spiritually and at peace with God is very, very good. There's an eternal ring to that phrase.

Remembering Death

Steve Jobs had some good wisdom. I've read numerous articles on him since he passed away a couple of months back. Here are two quotes I found that are particularly striking. I love his awareness of death – that you can't take anything with you. But it's unbelievably sad that he left this earth without knowing Jesus.

“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life.”
Steve Jobs

“Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”
Steve Jobs

Reality

"My friend who owns the coffee shops told us, in a tone of kindness and truth, that nobody he knows who is successful gambles; rather, they work hard, they accept the facts of reality, they enjoy life as it is. "But the facts of reality stink," I told him. "Reality is like a fine wine," he said to me. "It will not appeal to children."

Searching For God Knows What, Donald Miller, p11.

Clogged with Good Things

". . . shun anything that distracts you from seeking first the kingdom of God. It is so easy to lose focus in the pursuit of legitimate, even good things. Job, position, status, family, friends, security - these and many more can all too quickly become the centre of attention. George Fox warns, '. . . there is the danger and the temptation to you, of drawing your minds into your business, and clogging them with it; so that ye can hardly do anything to the service of God."
Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline, p115

Your Head In The Game

When we think of Heaven it's so easy to yearn to be there and almost wish this life away. But it's really important to remember that all the action takes place here. There's a passage in the bible that describes the saints in Heaven looking down and cheering us on. It's almost like a huge sporting event with a stadium full of heaven's saints and us as the players on the field. We have to remember that we only get one shot at this. When the whistle is blown, the score is final and our performance is over. Whether we scored goals, defended well, or put in a totally half-hearted effort, it's all scrutinised on the action replays. When you're on the pitch, you've got to have your head in the game and give it everything, rather than wishing it all away.

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us"
Hebrews 12:1

Edwards, Resolved

"In his early twenties, Edwards composed a set of life resolutions. One read, "Resolved, to endeavour to obtain for myself as much happiness, in the other world, as I possibly can."
Heaven, Randy Alcorn, page 5

The Everyday Things (Part 2)

Health and Fitness - I've realised that it's crazy to think that God's not interested in you being slim, fit and healthy. The only reason Jesus was able to carry his cross an endure the beatings was because he was in shape. The only reason he was able to walk all those miles and execute his ministry well was because he was a healthy man and a good steward of his body.

I've realise that I've been holding on to my gym routine with a closed fist, not showing it to God. I felt a while back that God whispered 'three times a week' in my ear, regarding how many times I should crank out my routine. I ignored that for a while and kept going everyday.

However, I've now tried the three-times-a-week approach and realised how utterly vital it has been to have that extra time for reading, meditation and prayer. It's so refreshing. And it's perfectly doable from a weight-control point of view. It helps you feel more well-rested and peaceful. Listening to God is always best. Sometimes it just takes a while for the penny to drop.

Lessons From Clinton E. Arnold

Some great quotes and one-liners I lifted from 3 Crucial Questions about Spiritual Warfare by Clinton E. Arnold...

"The Christian life is a lifelong struggle, not a one-time fix."
p36

"The struggle is a daily affair. The wrestling event for the Christian is not over in twelve minutes or even half an hour."
p38

"This is not a time to settle down and relax. This is a time for mission and doing the work of the kingdom."
p38

"There are certain periods of time, however, when Christians face a flurry of terrible difficulties or when temptation seems to come with unusual power."
p38

"We often do not realize the extent to which naturalistic assumptions have permeated our thinking."
p30

"Very little of what we do is disconnected from how we think."
p66

"Eternal life is just as much a present experience as a future aspiration (cf. John 17:3)."
p21

"Spiritual warfare is an integral part of the entire Christian experience. It is a fact of life. To think that a Christian could avoid spiritual warfare is like imagining that a gardener could avoid dealing with weeds."
p19

Pain, Suffering and Sanctification (Part 2)

Very apt and made me laugh:

"Sanctification is a dirt path that lasts until God kills you."

Matt Chandler, 'What Are We Doing Here?', preached 31/10/2010.

The Everyday Things – Health and Fitness

"I wrestle solely for the strength and coordination of muscle tone that the body receives while working out, with the ultimate end that of presenting a more useful body as a living sacrifice. This God knows, and even though He chose to allow it to be strained, the motive was for His glory and the faith he honors. Simplicity of heart and freedom from anxiety He expects of us, and he gives us grace to have both."
Through Gates of Splendor, p7

Taking care of your body should be done with the motive of honouring God, and being a good steward of what He has given us. Being fit and healthy will enable us to be more effective in God's work throughout our lives. It can also release us from so many unnecessary health burdens such as obesity, depression and lethargy, which will no doubt hinder us in all we do. Jesus himself would never have survived the flogging he received before crucifixion if he wasn't so physically fit.

I suppose I always struggle with niggling doubts about spending too much time at the gym. And the issue is time. Anything that eats away hours every day could be painfully distracting from your walk with Jesus. Which leads to this – a verse for the gym rat:

"Rather train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come."
1 Timothy 4:10

A physically fit body does have value, and should be pursued, but godliness is eternal in nature. There's something of eternal significance with every minute spent in the bible, in prayer, in meditation. However dedicated you are to the gym, be a thousand times more dedicated to Jesus.

Evangelism – Chain Connections

I've been musing over the nature of evangelism, and how one life inevitably rubs up against another. We have some sort of an effect on everyone we meet, for better or for worse. It's said that through the people we know, we're only six connections away from every person on earth.

If we are used instrumentally by God to make disciples of Jesus Christ, and these new believers are used likewise, there's a massive chain reaction that eventually unfolds. We could eventually influence thousands of lives for Christ. It may be hard to underestimate the impact our lives can have. Whether we like it or not, we're either pointing people to Christ or diverting them away on a scale that's both large and out of sight.

Expendable

I've just finished reading this book – Through Gates of Splendor – about five missionaries who set out to reach the savage Auca tribe in Ecuador. These guys gave themselves to a specific task, spent years in preparation, and then got massacred on pretty much their first point of contact with the tribe on the ground.

As far as the book details, no Auca ever became a Christian, or even had the gospel presented to them in an intelligible, meaningful way*. But thousands of Christians were struck by their sacrifice, commitment, and all out abandonment for Christ. Lives were changed and redirected through their testimony. And the story was big news in the secular press at the time (1950s).

So all in all, as far as it is visible to us at the present time, their life and mission bore much fruit. Just not in the way they had planned or envisioned.

Their story also stands out in direct contrast to that of Hudson-Taylor, John Wesley, and all the guys that spent long, fruitful, gifted lives working incredibly hard for the cause of Christ. It stands in contrast because they were very ordinary people, they were young and their story was so utterly short. And yet they were prayerfully led by God throughout it.

It seems this was His will, His way. Their sacrifice, their story, was one He permitted and intended.

It just makes you think – anything that we could accomplish or do with our lives is all in the hands of God. It's His story, not ours. He writes the script, and we're utterly expendable.

––––––

"Wherever you are, be all there. Live to the hilt every situation you believe to be the will of God."
Jim Elliot, p11

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."
Jim Elliot, p173

"During the last war we were taught to recognize that, in order to obtain our objective, we had to be willing to be expendable ... This very afternoon thousands of soldiers are known by their serial numbers as men who are expendable ... We know there is only one answer to our country's demand that we share in the price of freedom. Yet, when the Lord Jesus asks us to pay the price for world evangelization, we often answer without a word. We cannot go. We say it costs too much."
Nate Saint, p53

"A call is nothing more nor less than obedience to the will of God, as God presses it home to the soul by whatever means He chooses."
Pete Fleming, p13

"The old life of chasing things that are of a temporal nature seemed absolutely insane."
Nate Saint, p62

––––––

* 7th August 2011: I've just read in Randy Alcorn's book Heaven that some Auca's (or at least one) did become Christians:

"Mincaye, the Auca Indian who speared Nate Saint, is now a follower of Jesus. When Mincaye was asked what he's going to do when he meets Nate Saint in Heaven, he replied, "I'm going to run and throw my arms around Nate Saint and thank him for bringing Jesus Christ to me and my people." He added that Nate Saint would welcome him home."

Heaven, Randy Alcorn, page 336

Hope set slightly off

I was on a preaching course back in February with the founding pastor of my church, and he's an absolutely awesome guy. At one point he was talking about hope, and his musings on why a lot of people become grumpy in old age. His theory is this: you're hope must be in Jesus Christ alone. But it's easy set it very slightly off. You can add something else into the equation, like being a preacher, an evangelist or a church leader. The older you get, the more it dawns on you that those things may never happen. And a despair sets in.

That totally hits the nail on the head. It's good to be ambitious for Christ, but we have to tread very carefully not to let those things creep in as a source of assurance and right-standing before God. We come empty handed, not by works.

The king is not saved by his great army;
   a warrior is not delivered by his great strength.
The war horse is a false hope for salvation,
   and by its great might it cannot rescue.

Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear him,
   on those who hope in his steadfast love,
that he may deliver their soul from death
   and keep them alive in famine.

Our soul waits for the LORD;
   he is our help and our shield.
For our heart is glad in him,
   because we trust in his holy name.
Let your steadfast love, O LORD, be upon us,
   even as we hope in you.

Psalm 33:16-22

Overcoming Mediocrity

The threat of a mediocre Christian life is one of my greatest fears. There's a sleepiness and a lethargy that is so easy to slip into. You get consumed with day-to-day life and the simple matters of provision. It's a toil and it's wearisome. You spend little time walking with God, seeking out His plan and His purpose. And the years roll by. We may spend our whole lives in that state, die, and stand before the judgement seat of Christ.

"I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of my God. Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; obey it, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you."
Revelation 3:1-3

It seems this lethargic, lukewarm Christian life comes about when we take our eyes off Jesus and fix them on our day-to-day needs. We don't trust God to provide. Just like Peter when he steps out of the boat and onto the water. He starts in faith, but sees the wind and becomes afraid. He immediately starts sinking (Matthew 14:22-33).

"I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father."
John 14:12

So how do we overcome this sluggish mediocre Christian life? How do we break through this sleepiness? Our whole lives should be caught up imitating Christ and continuing His work. Jesus sets the bar high in John 14:12. I have a few practical thoughts which I'm seeking to apply to my own life:

– We place our relationship with God above all other things. We walk with Him every day, side-by-side, in constant, continual fellowship. If we're too busy, we systematically delete the less important things from our lives to make room. It's far better to be materially poor and spiritually rich.

– We stand on Matthew 6:25-34 for our provision. If our chief goal is to glorify Jesus Christ, to spread the message of salvation and extend His kingdom, we have assurance from God that He will meet our basic needs. (Note to self: this may not include a 40" flat-screen TV with Sky+ subscription, gym membership, a holiday to the Carribean; all of which probably compromise our walk with God anyway!)

– We pursue holiness and the continual filling of the Holy Spirit.

– We learn to love the reproach of God and let Him drive our sanctification. This is the hallmark of a true believer.

– We seek excellence in all the things God has set before us at this present time. Be an excellent husband, an excellent father, an excellent life group leader, a great youth worker. Be excellent at handling your finances. Be excellent in your giving. Everything.

Notes on Proverbs 3

"Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
   and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him,
   and he will make straight your paths.
Be not wise in your own eyes;
   fear the LORD, and turn away from evil.
It will be healing to your flesh
   and refreshment to your bones.

Honor the LORD with your wealth
   and with the firstfruits of all your produce;
   then your barns will be filled with plenty,
   and your vats will be bursting with wine.

My son, do not despise the LORD's discipline
   or be weary of his reproof,
   for the LORD reproves him whom he loves,
   as a father the son in whom he delights."
Proverbs 3: 5-12

Absolutely packed full of goodness! So much there. Here are my own thoughts on this passage of Scripure:

"Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding."

It says to trust with you heart. Interesting that it says 'heart' and not 'head'. If we trusted with our head, our trust would be based on knowledge, rationality and understanding. But we are denied all three. Instead, we are commanded not to lean on our own understanding, which is another way of saying we may have no clue what's going on.

Quite liberating in a way, because we're not then limited by our own IQ, but rather God's, which is infinite.

I would describe the heart as your innermost convictions, beliefs and desires that underpins your entire person. In this your heart is much deeper that your head. It's the 'wellspring of life' (Prov 4:23). If this heart is set trusting in the Lord, you are anchored well.

"In all your ways acknowledge him" - it's a deliberate act. It takes a decison. We can acknowledge him in some of our ways, that's easy. We give the easiest things over to Christ's headship. Things we don't really mind, that we don't feel the cost of handing over control. But the more precious things, these we can hold onto in a fashion that's "off-limits" for Jesus.

"and he will make straight your paths." - what an awesome promise. The Lord will draw a line in front of you and show you the way. We will know where we're going. Our path will be a simple one. But simple doesn't mean easy. We could have many battles along the way. Perhaps our biggest battle is faith in God when it really counts.

"Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD, and turn away from evil."

Three specific commands that will safeguard our soul through life. All three require a conscious effort, and the reason they're listed must be because we have a natural inclination to do the opposite. Holiness will not happen on it's own, our flesh will not take care of itself. We have to walk humbly and make war on sin.

In the next verse we are given a serious incentive:

"It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones"

Love it! Who wouldn't want that? Having your bones refreshed - who else can give you that level of refreshment? Only Jesus!

"Honor the LORD with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce"

Giving to God is honour to God. It's so easy to forget! We can fall into thinking that it's just something we're supposed to do. But no! It's personal, a display of love and service to our illustrious Master. Honouring God extends to the whole of our wealth, it's not just our giving. It's all of our expenditure executed as an act of worship.

"Firstfruits" - give to God before anything else. Slip the giving in there before the rent, the electricity bill, the weekly food shop. In this God is the number one priority. Other things can fall by the wayside. And this is one of the ways we acknowledge him.

A brilliant guide to giving is found in 2 Corinthians 9:6-7

"The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver."

We are under no law as to what we give, but simply to decide in our heart. We should be lead by the Spirit and prayerfully submit it to God. We can give as much or as little as we want, in the knowledge that we will reap what we sow. Generosity is the issue, rather than a hardline legalistic percentage of your income.

Our giving should be a joy to us. Your heart, your desires and your passions need to be aligned with the Kingdom of God. Faith needs to override fear when money's tight. If giving is painful and a chore, we should get time to check our hearts, our faith in God, our true desires.

"then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine."

We see the same promises in the Old and New Testaments. And they're pretty amazing. It's the whole idea that you can't out-give God.

"My son, do not despise the LORD's discipline or be weary of his reproof, for the LORD reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights."

The beginning of Proverbs is like a father instructing a son. It's done in love. We all need discipline and correction from time to time. The question is, are we prepared to walk in humble repentance?

Proverbs 9:8-9 says

"Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you;
   reprove a wise man, and he will love you.
Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser;
   teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning."

It's not easy to be a wise man. Sometimes a rebuke is like a slap in the face. Your gut feeling is to strike back, especially if they've touched on an area that's very sensitive. It takes a lot of self-control and humility to simply take the hit, and then thank the person.

The conviction of the Holy Spirit is similar. It pin-points the sore spots, like a surgeon with a scalpel. It's very sharp and is delivered with pin-point accuracy. Our natural reaction can be to wince, curl up in a ball and sulk.

Stumbling in the dark

It occurred to me recently that on the days you choose not read, or forget to read God's word, it's like turning off all the lights at night and stumbling around in the dark. You can't see where you're going. At best, you can get a feel of those things immediately around you. But even these things look very different in the dark. The light reveals things as they truly are.

"Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path."
Psalm 119:105

If the devil is the father of lies (John 8:44), and the whole world is under his power, then life in this world, without God's light in our daily life, is one of delusion, distortion and blindness.

"We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one."
1 John 5:19

Finite Time

"You never get it back... waisted time"

This is a line from the film Benjamin Button which really jumped out at me. It echoes Psalm 144:4

"Man is like a breath;
his days are like a passing shadow."

We have a very small and finite amount of time in which we can live on this earth and serve God's purposes. We only get so many opportunities to walk in his plans, trusting and living by faith. Soon our days will be over and all those opportunities will be taken from us. The adventure that might have been slips by. Our life's work ended and recorded as we stand before the judgement seat of God.

We should dread the thought of waisted time – years spent asleep, drifting and spinning our wheels. How many of us have spent 5, 10, 20 years in this condition?

"For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; for it is written,

"As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me,
and every tongue shall confess to God."

So then each of us will give an account of himself to God."

Romans 14:10-12

Working Backwards

I watched the film "Knowing" last week (the film with Nicolas Cage, with the picture of the world in meltdown). It was a rubbish film so don't watch it! But one part really stuck out. It was a scene where we encountered a woman who had known the exact date of her death all her life. She was a young woman and the date was close at hand. And it was accurate to the exact day.

If we knew our exact death date, like "Thursday 10th October 2019", that would change everything. After you got over the initial freaking out period, you would probably plan everything around that date. You might think of everything you wanted to do and work backwards from the day you die.

When you're young you don't think like that. We're naive enough to think that time is on our side and we'll actually do something with our lives later on. But maybe working back from our death is the exact approach we need to take. How do we want to serve God for the next 50 or 60 years? What do we want to achieve in the next three years? Maybe we need to put actual dates in the diary and work backwards. Otherwise we'll wake up when we're 60 and say an almighty "D'oh!".

Trajectory

"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

This is nothing to do with salvation (which is a free gift by grace alone); it's about the purposes of God for your life, the path you walk and the works you actually complete. It's like you can start out walking the path and completing the works God prepared for you to do. But maybe something in your trajectory is slightly off.

Maybe it's something in your mindset, habitual sin, or a lack of zeal. Slowly but surely, if you don't course-correct, you end up miles off course. You might not even notice until you're 40 or 50, and you realise that you've missed much of the purposes God had for your life. The gap from what might have been is larger than ever. And perhaps unobtainable.

James Hudson Taylor seemed to course-correct very early on. And he walked this way throughout his life. His trajectory was probably very very similar to God's plan A for his life.

At church last Sunday (15.11.09) Andrew Wilson was speaking and read a verse from Genesis 5. It was 5:23-24 and reads "all the days of Enoch were 365 years. Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him".

That key phrase for me was "Enoch walked with God". It fires off a real ache in your gut. A real desire to have that. If there was one line written about you after you're gone surely it would be "[your name] walked with God".

Same old stuff

"If you're not satisfied with the permanent output of your life it could be that you're just spinning your wheels, never engaged in what really counts."
G Campbell White

Most of life just seems to be dealing with the same old stuff: busyness, temptations, struggles, tiredness and such. What sparked off this thought was reading my journal from 5 years ago. I read it, and I realised it's all the same old stuff! Over and over, round and round. It's easy to think "when I get past this issue [insert your issue] life will be better and I can really focus". But maybe those same struggles will be there for the rest of our lives. Maybe we'll never get past them, maybe we can only get on top of them.

Maybe we have to shape-up and realise that all of life is a fight. Rather than be all overcome, living a half-hearted Christian life, we have to get on top and beat all of that stuff into submission. Otherwise, in 20 years time, it's going to be the same old story.

Again, it seems to come down to this whole analogy of a fight, or a war. It's so easy to forget, yet so prominent in the bible:

"the whole world is under the control of the evil one"
1 John 5:19

"For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."
Ephesians 6:12