Is This What It Means to Simplify?

Here's one for American Christianity! 

I just read a brief testimony from a Pharmacist who returned from a short term missionary trip with a renewed desire for living a more simplified life. I am attracted to living simply, especially after the hectic holidays have left us a bit haggard. But I think he's missed the point of simplification. He's certainly to be commended for attempting to live the more simplified life per Scriptural injunction, "To whom much is given, much is required." But his answer to this is to sell one of his four cars leaving only 3 for him and his wife. OK . . . ? He had (at writing) "tentatively sold one of our three houses (do we need that many when most of the world has none?)." So, two people have narrowed down their possessions to three cars and maybe two homes? Now, I'm not haranguing him for what he HAS done (I mention no names). 

That's not my point. We all need to make steps in the right direction, even if only baby steps. Revelation comes to us in degrees to be sure. What I don't want to do is to rest satisfied that by comparison to my rich neighbors, I have really given something up, pacifying my conscience in the process. Perhaps as we look further into this new year, we could ask our Father in heaven what He would have us to do so that we might have less clutter in our lives and thus, enable ourselves to see Him more clearly. It's a spiritual "can't see the forest for the trees" kind of thing. I think Thomas 'a Kempis encapsulates this well:

This is the greatest wisdom—to seek the kingdom of heaven through contempt of the world. It is vanity, therefore, to seek and trust in riches that perish. It is vanity also to court honor and to be puffed up with pride. It is vanity to follow the lusts of the body and to desire things for which severe punishment later must come. It is vanity to wish for long life and to care little about a well-spent life. It is vanity to be concerned with the present only and not to make provision for things to come. It is vanity to love what passes quickly and not to look ahead where eternal joy abides.
(The Imitation of Christ)

Life can become very distracting. We must simplify in order to really "see" what's around us, and to recognize the Christ within us, clamoring after Him and not after temporary things. 

God help us.
 

 

You Can Always Tell a Dane . . .

My Dad's a half Dane, and I'm, therefore, one quarter. Our last name is really spelled Nielsen, but it (like so many) was inadvertently changed at Ellis Island into the typical English spelling. We chuckled one day when we saw a mug that read, "You can always tell a Dane, but you can't tell him much!" Cute, huh? OK, well, that may be true of any Svinska, Italian, German, or anyone else for that matter! But it brings up something that we all need to assess in ourselves, that is, our own willingness to learn, a willingness that stems from humility and submission. The wise person will listen, but the fool knows everything. Ever run into a fool? It's hard to talk with them; they're too busy blathering about something they imagine they know (when often they know very little). The Scripture teaches us to be wise, and warns us about being foolish. Read Lloyd-Jones' comment on fools from his Sermon on the Mount sermons:

What are the characteristics of the foolish man? The first is that he is in a hurry. Foolish people are always in a hurry; they want to do everything at once; they have no time to wait. How often does the Scripture warn us against this! It tells us that the godly, righteous man 'shall not make haste'. He is never subject to flurry and excitement and hurry. He knows God and he knows that the decrees and purposes and plan of God are eternal and immutable. But the foolish man is impatient; he never takes time; he is always interested in short cuts and quick results. . . . We are all familiar with this kind of person in ordinary life and quite apart from Christianity. He is the type of man who says, 'I must have a house at once; there is no time for foundations.' He is always in a hurry.

Perhaps, in 2011, we might learn a lesson here and listen well, rest in the Lord and not give in to frenetic busyness. Your heart will feel better and your love for Christ open up.

Another Ten New Year's Questions . . .

The following comes from a minister in our fellowship (Rich Sharpe):

Quote from Don Whitney: Once, when the people of God had become careless in their relationship with Him, the Lord rebuked them through the prophet Haggai. "Consider your ways!" (Haggai 1:5) he declared, urging them to reflect on some of the things happening to them, and to evaluate their slipshod spirituality in light of what God had told them. Even those most faithful to God occasionally need to pause and think about the direction of their lives. It's so easy to bump along from one busy week to another without ever stopping to ponder where we're going and where we should be going. The beginning of a new year is an ideal time to stop, look up, and get our bearings. To that end, here are some questions to ask prayerfully in the presence of God.

1. What's one thing you could do this year to increase your enjoyment of God?

2. What's the most humanly impossible thing you will ask God to do this year?

3. What's the single most important thing you could do to improve the quality of your family life this year?
 
4. In which spiritual discipline do you most want to make progress this year, and what will you do about it?

5. What is the single biggest time-waster in your life, and what will you do about it this year?

6. What is the most helpful new way you could strengthen your church?
 
7. For whose salvation will you pray most fervently this year?
 
8. What's the most important way you will, by God's grace, try to make this year different from last year?
 
9. What one thing could you do to improve your prayer life this year?
 
10. What single thing that you plan to do this year will matter most in ten years? In eternity?

Good questions, don't you think?

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God Must Reveal Truth to Even the Most Intelligent

God's truth, it is a mystery Which only God can show

The Bible says quite plainly and frankly that man is totally incapable of arriving at a knowledge of truth by means of scientific theory, and that if he would arrive at a knowledge of truth, he must submit himself to revelation. In other words, he must admit that he cannot arrive at truth unaided. He must cease to have self-confidence; he must cease to trust his own intellect and his power of reason.... The Bible starts by telling men just that.... Man has got to submit himself to revelation. For truth is a mystery, and if man would have any knowledge of it, he must submit in humility, and in reverence....

I always think that one of the greatest statements [of this Bible teaching] is in that picture of Moses at the burning bush. With the typical scientific attitude Moses said when he saw that phenomenon, 'Ah! I will turn aside, and examine this curious phenomenon that I am seeing.' . . . He was about to advance and investigate when the voice came, saying, 'Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground' (Exodus 3:1-5). You do not investigate here, you worship, in reverence and in awe. . . . [Jesus] taught the same truth in His interview with Nicodemus, who was a very able and erudite teacher of the Jews, and who came along desiring to investigate, and wanting to understand. It was to him that Christ said: 'Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.... .The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth. . . .' (John 3:3-8). 

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, The Approach to Truth: Scientific and Religious, pp. 21-3

What Kind of "New Years'" Resolutions?

I've often asked of the church, "A year from now, will you be where you want to be spiritually?" Or, put another way, 

When you get to a year from now, as you look back over the previous year, what will you need to have put into place in order to grow in your love and affection for Jesus Christ?

I've "lifted" the following (in part) from Church & Culture Blog. Please go HERE to read it in it's entirety. My additional comments are in [brackets].

New Year’s Resolutions for You and Your Church

It’s that time of year again.

We’re going to lose weight, exercise more, get out of debt, stick to a budget, stop smoking, save for the future and spend more time with family.

We make resolutions because we want to bring change to bear on our circumstances.  We want to improve ourselves and our quality of life.  And the top resolutions, for most people, tend to revolve around the same three poles:  money, health and family.

But what would a set of New Year’s resolutions look like for you and your church, your role as a leader, or simply as someone who wants to live a life of strategic Kingdom investment?

Though many more could be added, here are fifteen to consider:

1. Pray more.
So he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord…‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty." (Zechariah 4:6, NIV)

2. Invest in my spiritual gift(s).
Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through a prophetic message when the body of elders laid their hands on you. Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. (I Timothy 4:14-15, NIV)
 

3. Get more intentional about evangelism.
I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. (I Corinthians 9:22, NIV) [Be a walking testimony to your love for Christ. What we believe about Jesus WILL most certainly evidence itself, so aim to live in love for Him and you will become the most effective witness TO him].
 

4. Care for myself spiritually.
[I like to put it this way, "Learn the art of spiritual progress for yourself. That is, learn what does and does not help you toward Christ, and do it]. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. (Philippians 3:12, NIV)
 

5. Make the tough decisions I know are best.
[No small matter here. Do what's right simply because it IS right and NOT because YOU can see the advantage in doing so. Such an attitude reveals our lack of trust in God]. And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there.  I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me.  However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me — the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace. (Acts 20:22-24, NIV)
 

6. Confront debilitating patterns of sin.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. (Hebrews 12:1, NIV) [It's amazing how many "Christians," instead of "throwing off" sins, drag them around, apparently because they do not realize 1) the detriment, and 2) the potential freedom that could've been theirs.
 

7. Do the hard work needed to build community.
If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. (Matthew 18:15, NIV) [Don't shirk your duty here, by putting it off on the leadership of the church. They have their responsibilities, true. But so does EVERY believer. And what is that responsibility? It is to maintain the happiness and holiness of the body by helping rid it of impurities. Honestly, how many really do not take sin seriously as being the greatest hindrance to our happiness? Joy is at stake].
 

8. Keep in touch with contemporary culture.
From the tribe of Issachar, there were 200 leaders…All these men understood the signs of the times and knew the best course for Israel to take. (I Chronicles 12:32, NLT). [I take this verse to mean that we should be aware of what God is doing in this world and go about finding ways to bring that to pass].
 

9. Quit comparing myself to other Christians, other leaders and other churches.
Turning his head, Peter noticed the disciple Jesus loved following right behind.  When Peter noticed him, he asked Jesus, “Master, what’s going to happen to him?”
Jesus said, “If I want him to live until I come again, what’s that to you? You—follow me.” That is how the rumor got out among the brothers that this disciple wouldn’t die. But that is not what Jesus said. He simply said, “If I want him to live until I come again, what’s that to you?” (John 21:20-23, Msg) [See also 2 Cor. 10:12].
 

10. Read more.
Timothy, please come as soon as you can…When you come, be sure to…bring my books,… (II Timothy 4:9, 13, NLT) [That Paul knew his surroundings is evidenced in part in Acts 17 when he pointed out the Athenian religious attitude and quoted one of Crete's poets (Epimenides?). Now, there's much we shouldn't read, but that must not deter us from good reading. "Those who will not read have no advantage over those who cannot read."]
 

11. Prioritize my family.
A leader must be well-thought-of, committed to his wife,…attentive to his own children and having their respect. For if someone is unable to handle his own affairs, how can he take care of God’s church? (I Timothy 3:2-5, Msg) [Here is where we might add, learn to apply the faith to every area of life and not to selected portions].
 

12. Refuse to use ministry to satisfy my personal ambition.
Should you then seek great things for yourself? Seek them not. (Jeremiah 45:5, NIV) [Love this verse!! 'Nuff said].
 

13. Love people, not just crowds.
If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.  If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing.  If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love. (I Corinthians 13:1-3, Msg) [A good application of this passage certainly. But only one. The larger issue is the very presence of such an all-encompassing, soul-satisfying love for God that transcends and, really, defines all outer expressions of faith. No expression of faith can be divorced from heart affection toward God].
 

14. Be more open to change.
See, I am doing a new thing!  Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? (Isaiah 43:19, NIV) [Again, the larger issue here is not just our ability to SEE change, but the necessary virtue of submission which paves the way for its acceptance].

15. Stay focused on the vision.
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. (Acts 2:42-47, NIV)

A Sober Side of "A Christmas Carol"

Church & Culture

Vol. 6, No. 48

"The Real Christmas Carol"

Most people have seen one or more versions of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.

Hands down, it is among my favorite Christmas tales: the story of Ebenezer Scrooge having his conscience reawakened through the apparition of his former partner, Jacob Marley, and the ghosts of Christmases past, present and future.

I like the characters.

I like the Victorian-era Christmas charm, complete with frosted windows, mistletoe and plum pudding.

I love the streets of Old London.

But when I first read the novel itself, after viewing various editions of the movie, I was shocked.  Scrooge was not the buffoonish, almost cartoon-like character some of the movies made him out to be.

He was genuinely evil.  Cruel.  Malicious.  He was a dark and sinister man.  The story actually reads more like a Stephen King novel.

When you study the era itself that Dickens wrote about – and he published A Christmas Carol in 1843 as a social statement against harsh child labor practices – you realize that it was dark and evil as well.

Historian Lisa Toland once wrote a fascinating essay on the reality behind the story.

Almost 75% of London’s population was considered working class, many of them children laboring in the factories.  In fact, every member of a family had to work in order to survive.  Dickens himself worked as a young boy to support his family while his parents were in debtor’s prison.

The time was known as the Hungry Forties, because there was a depression along with a time of poor harvests.  The London skyline was little more than smokestacks putting out clouds of sooty grit that covered rooftops and the cheeks of the young chimney sweeps.

It was the coal-dependent nature of these factories that created the famed London Fog.  It wasn’t fog at all, but a combination of smoke and soot and grit.  The streets were covered in rainwater, the contents of chamber pots, and animal waste.  Rats were abundant.

Small, often emaciated children sold flowers and matches while the wealthy class’s horse-drawn carriages swept past.  London’s poor were forced into shrinking housing districts.  Multiple families lived in single rooms in rundown buildings.

That was Dickens’ London.

And people had turned a blind eye, because supposedly there were “services.”  When the two men ask Scrooge for money, and he says, “Are there no prisons?  And the Union workhouses?  Are they still open?...The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigor, then?”  There is much there that we fail to understand.

What makes Scrooge’s comments so biting is that the Poor Law, with its accompanying workhouses, were despised by the poor.  The driving principle was to make the conditions in those places worse than how they would have lived and worked had they had a job.  And in trying to determine who did deserve to go there, the group that fell through the cracks was children.  The father or mother would be sent to the workhouse, leaving the children alone to beg in the streets.

Or worse.

If you died while laboring in a workhouse, your body was automatically turned over for dissection.  You wouldn’t even receive a burial.  The conditions were so bad, and people there were treated so poorly, that many of London’s poor chose to beg on the streets or enter into prostitution in order to avoid them.

From that darkness, Dickens gives us a tale of redemption.

The story of someone being saved.

There is another story we tend to romanticize.

We’ve all seen the Christmas cards that go out; pictures of Mary in flowing robes, gentle animals gazing lovingly down on the baby, who is always blue-eyed, blonde-haired, and while supposedly newborn, has the look and weight of a six-month old.

That's not the way it was.

They were desperate to find a place for her to give birth, and couldn’t find one.  They ended up in an outdoor livestock area.  Unclean, unkept, unwelcome.  Tradition, dating back to Justin Martyr in the second century, says it was probably some kind of cave.  Smelly, damp, cold.

They had to use a feeding trough as a bassinette.  The word “manger” is very warm and fuzzy, but don't romanticize it - a manger was a feeding trough for the animals.

This was a desperately stark and sad scene.

And lonely.

The Bible tells us that Mary wrapped the baby in cloths.  That was common for the day.  Long strips of cloth that were used to wrap the baby tight and keep their legs and arms straight and secure.  The process was called swaddling.

It tells us something of the lonely nature of Mary's motherhood that Luke records that she was the one who wrapped Jesus up after His birth - there was no midwife or relative helping, which would have been the norm.

And she was young.  Very young.

Engagement usually took place immediately after entering puberty, so Mary may have just entered her teens - 13, 14, or at the most 15.

And from that darkness, we also are given a picture of redemption.

Another story about being saved.

Another story that can be romanticized, but was very, very real.

Real in a way that drives us further on our knees to marvel at God come to earth to save…us.

James Emery White

Sources

Lisa Toland, “The Darker Side of A Christmas Carol,” Christianity Today, December 2009, pp. 44-48.

Exciting Holy Spirit Power!

Please take the time to read this. I admit it, I too hesitate when I see so much writing. But please don't do that today. We at church have been wrestling with how the critical and prevailing power of the Holy Spirit's should go so unnoticed, even suffering from outright neglect! This reading from Octavius Winslow brings home some of what we've been missing, and gives us hope. Did I ask, "Please read this?" :-)

Now he who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, is God; who has also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts. 2 Corinthians 1:21, 22

IT is, and has long been, the solemn conviction of the writer, that much of the spiritual darkness, the little comfort and consolation, the dwarfish piety, the harassing doubts and fears, the imperfect apprehensions of Jesus, the feeble faith, the sickly, drooping state of the soul, the uncertainty of their full acceptance in Christ, which mark so many of the professing people of God in this our day, may be traced to the absence of a deep sealing of the Spirit. Resting satisfied with the faint impression in conversion, with the dim views they then had of Christ, and the feeble apprehension of their acceptance and adoption, is it any marvel that all their lifetime they should be in bondage through slavish doubts and fears?—that they should never attain to the “stature of perfect men in Christ Jesus”—that they should never rise to the humble boldness, the unwavering confidence, the blest assurance, and the holy dignity of the sons of God? Oh no! They rest short of this blessing. They hang upon the door of the ark—they remain upon the border of the goodly land, and not entering fully in, the effects are as we have described.

But, beloved reader, the richest ore lies buried the deepest—the sweetest fruit is on the higher branches—the strongest light is near the sun. In other words, if we desire more knowledge of Christ—of our full pardon, and complete acceptance—if we desire the earnest of our inheritance, and even now would taste the “grapes of Eshcol,” we must be “reaching forth unto those things that are before,” we must “press toward the mark,” and rest not until that is found in a clear, unclouded, immoveable, and holy assurance of our being in Christ; and this is only experienced in the sealing of the Spirit. Again we say, with all the earnestness which a growing sense of the vastness of the blessing inspires, seek to be sealed of the Spirit—seek the “earnest of the Spirit”— seek to be “filled with the Spirit”—seek the “anointing of the Spirit”—seek the “Spirit of adoption.” Say not, it is too immense a blessing, too high an attainment for one so small, so feeble, so obscure, so unworthy as you.

Oh, impeach not thus the grace of God. All His blessings are the bestowments of grace; and grace means free favor to the most unworthy. There is not one lowly, weeping eye that falls on this page, but may, under the blessed sealing of the Spirit, look up through Jesus to God as a Father. Low views of self, deep consciousness of vileness, poverty of state or of spirit, are no objections with God, but rather strong arguments that prevail with Him why you should have the blessing. Only ask—only believe—only persevere, and you shall attain unto it. It is in the heart of the Spirit to seal “unto the day of redemption” all that believe in Jesus. May it be in the heart of the reader to desire the blessing, seeing it is so freely and richly offered!

Reader, whose superscription do you bear? It may be your reply is—“I want Christ; I secretly long for Him; I desire Him above all beside.” Is it so? Then take courage, and go to Jesus. Go to Him simply, go to Him unhesitatingly, go to Him immediately. That desire is from Him; let it lead you to Him. That secret longing is the work of the Spirit; and having begotten it there, do you think that He will not honor it, and welcome you when you come? Try Him. Bring Him to the touch-stone of His own truth. “Prove me now herewith,” is His gracious invitation. Take His promise, “Him that comes to me I will in no wise cast out,” and plead it in wrestlings at the mercy-seat, and see if He will not “open the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.” Go to Him just as you are; if you cannot take to Him a pure heart, take an impure one; if you cannot take to Him a broken heart, take a whole one; if you cannot take to Him a soft heart, take a hard one—only go to Him. The very act of going will be blessed to you. And oh, such is the strength of His love, such His yearning compassion and melting tenderness of heart for poor sinners, such His ability and willingness to save, that He will no more cast you out than deny His own existence. Precious Jesus! Set us as a seal upon Your heart, and by Your Spirit seal Yourself upon our hearts; and give us, unworthy though we are, a place among “those who are sealed.”