Nevertheless I Live, Part III

So, then, this is the thing - to abandon your faith for His.

Of course, this does not come all at once. The answer to the old riddle, "How do you swallow an elephant," is "One piece at a time." But, what you can do for the moment is to determine that when there is a conflict between what you believe and what Jesus believed, that he is not the one who is wrong. When Paul says eye has not seen, ear has not heard, nor has it entered in to the hearts of men the things that God has prepared for those who love Him, he is saying that the way that God thinks is different than the way we think. if we are going to find open windows into the heart and mind of God, we are going to have to concede that we cannot know Him without His help. God did not decide that His Spirit would lead and guide us into "all truth" because He didn't want to take a chance that we might make a mistake or two. It was because it is absolutely necessary. Left to our own hearts, our own minds, we go hopelessly astray.

Just how much do you suppose that you know about God? Each of us come to Christ with our own imaginations, our own guesses about God and how He is or should be. Where did we get these notions from? Rumor? A child's-eye view from Sunday School? A Bible Story book? Or is it something that we have cooked up in our own brains as to what God " ought" to be like? Maybe a little of each?

One thing is certain. God has always been what He is since longer than I have been.

But, if in the middle of my crisis of faith, I ask the question, "What did Jesus believe?," and rest in it when I cannot find my way, sooner or later I will come out of the mist that blocks my view and find that His way was not merely a good, not merely a better way, but the best and only true way. As He said, "I am the way... (John 14:6a)

And there is a great benefit to this: for when I find that His way works, that his way is the best, I have no reason to return to my own. Further, what we believe rules us, so that when we embrace his faith, our lives are transformed. We will live and think in a new and living way we never had thought of before. As Paul says, our minds must be renewed. (Romans 12:2)

" Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:

6, Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery

to be equal with God: 7, But made himself of no reputation,

and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made

in the likeness of men: 8, And being found in fashion as a

man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death,

even the death of the cross." - Phillipians 2:5-6.

It's all easy to say, but the doing of it is the thing. It says, "Let." That means that there is a choice to be made We need to allow God to put His mind in us. That is the great act of faith.

For some of us this comes easier than for others. Our stubbornness, our ignorance, our misunderstandings stand in our way. Sometimes it is more our stubbornness than anything. We came to Jesus for relief and release from our sin and its consequences, but we did not exactly sign on for the tough stuff. When we read passages like this, we imagine that this was meant for others - those with stronger constitutions, for those who are braver. We can sit on the sidelines for most of our Christian lives because we are convinced that this scripture was made for others. And so, we live out our Christian lives in disappointment and frustration. it wasn't meant to be that way.

Nevertheless I live, Part II

(If you haven't read Part I first, this is going to be hard to follow. Please go back to the previous blog - it is not very long).

When we look at the two possible meanings, we need to find the onus - who is responsible for bringing Paul to where He is when he is writing this letter.

The verse makes it very easy. There are only two who are mentioned in the passage - Paul and Jesus, the Son of God.

So, Paul, or I (or you) are responsible for our faith in Christ and if we can find enough faith, believe hard enough, then we can have a successful Christian life and live in Jesus' love and sacrifice and our Christian lives will forever be tied up in our own limitations. I will forever be going around telling myself, "If only I could believe a little more," and punishing myself for not having been able to do so. I know that some teach that faith is an act of the will, but have you ever tried to increase your faith by a sheer act of your will? Doesn't work very well, does it? Well, at least not for me. But, where do I find more faith? Read the Bible more? Yes, but it depends on where you read and what you are searching for when you read.

Have you ever tried quoting Bible verses back to God to try to get Him to do what you want? That doesn't work very well either, most of the time. When it does it is because your heart has become His heart in the matter at hand.

No, living by the faith of the Son of God is what is required. Asking the question, "What did Jesus believe about the things before me?," then getting behind what He believed. Jesus said, "If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, you shall ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you. " If that's not working for you, it is because His words have not yet come to abide in you. You may say you know the words "by heart," when you have merely memorized them. More...

Nevertheless I Live, Part I

Sometimes the difference between success and failure is in the details. Small differences may have large consequences.

Nearly all Christians are familiar with Galatians 2:20. It is one of the verses commonly memorized in churches that put a strong emphasis on verse memorization. It is also one of the most important verses to know and know well. But often memorization leads to a knowledge of the words without a grasp of the meaning and a verse often repeated can seem more obvious than it really is.

This verse, in particular, is a problem, because there are two ways that it has been translated, one being more fruitful than the other. Let's look at them.

All translations start out pretty much the same:

"I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live: yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life that I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." (AV( KJV))

" I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." (NIV)

All modern translations I have seen follow the example of the NIV. Can you see the difference?

In one it says that Paul lived by the faith of the Son of God and in the other it says he lived by faith in the Son of God. Think about it. Does it make a difference? To be continued...

Everyone has a Personal Theology

There is an awful lot of bad theology in the church and it is hardly surprising. Each of us, when we come to Christ, comes with some preconceived ideas about God. Some are more wrong than others, but they are all wrong. How much could you really know about someone you are just meeting for the first time? I imagine that there may be so many denominations because we are attracted to others that share our misconceptions.

As we go on in our Christian lives, one of two things can happen. We can become more convinced of our misconceptions. We may even become harden and defensive, debative, trying to show everyone that we are right. Sometimes it seems to me that we are like flies fighting to protect an elephant. It can be done but it is a lot of wasted effort. It is not that good doctrine is not important - it is extremely so - but it is important to know the difference between when you are defending the faith and when you are defending your take on the the faith.

God is not so small that he is easily understood merely by reading. Paul said toward the end of his ministry that the one thing he wanted was that he might know Him and the power of His resurrection...

This is staggering. After having written and spoken some of the most profound things about God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and the church, as well, he sees his great lack is in knowing God in Jesus Christ. So, why is it that so many who have given so much less feel as though they know so much more?

This entire Christian life that we find ourselves in is one of finding out who He is and ministering grace in ever increasing measure as we do. If we decide that we have it all down pat, we will not "follow on to know the Lord," as Hosea put it. And the tragedy of that is that we will miss the blessing that is promised in Hosea - "He will come to us as the spring rain watering the earth." The time of refreshing does not come. We become hard, parched ground; hardly what others are looking for. Or, what we want for ourselves.

Back Again

Last year, I started this blog, but apparently no one was reading it, so I stopped. Now I have decided to reopen it and take some proactive steps to get readers. One change I want to make is to make this site available for those who have questions about the Bible and doctrine and if you are having problems that you want some counsel on, to have a place where we can begin to make contact. I must warn you though, that I am not a trained counsellor, nor a theologian. But I have spent many years searching out answers for myself and waiting on the Lord for understanding.

But, in addition, I have lived, at this point, just short of sixty-five years, forty-eight of them as a man who has given his life to Jesus Christ and most of the rest in the church. I've seen the good, the bad and the ugly, and, also, that which has seemed good but turned out not to be so in the end. Moreover, I have not merely been an observer. I suppose, I have done my share of each.

I am hoping that all of this may be of help to you the reader and I do invite you to ask unrelated questions which I may be able to get to in time.

I have a few rules. The first is that I do not respond to profanity at all and will remove posts that are filled with obscenities without comment, for several reasons. Firstly, profanity is profane and wrong. Secondly, it has been shown that the place in the human brain where profanity is stored is different from the place where rational thought is stored. It is a lazy brain that substitutes a profanity for a proper word. In those years of my life where I was in public schools ( I still substitute), I noticed that students frequently used a profane word or strings of profanity when they could not dig the proper word out of their brains. And, lastly, profanity belittles the one it is used on, and, perhaps, strangely, also the one who uses it. Despite outward braggadocio and vanity, you cannot elevate yourself, if you put so little value on others. If you don't believe this is so, it is probably due to youth or a poorly observed life.

So, do feel free to respond, not only to my blog itself, but also to challenge me or ask questions you might want to have answered.