Get Off The Religious Treadmill

 

Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden,

and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28).

Recently I was told that a pastor I knew years ago had walked into the woods, pulled out a gun and killed himself. The man was known in his community as a busy, sincere and hard working pastor, but behind the scenes he had struggled with self-doubts, emotional and mental fatigue.

Sometimes there’s a short step between spiritual service and a religious treadmill and that short step makes all the difference. Real love motivates authentic service while religious laws power the religious treadmill. Desire leads the first but duty drives the latter. It’s the difference between a tiring sense of “ought-to” and thrilling sense of “want-to.”

Are you on the religious treadmill? Get off. You may find it gratifying in the short run but over the long haul it'll drain you. Driven religious fervor becomes a one-night stand repeated over and over and over again. There may be a shallow gratification in one-night stands, but nobody would ever mistake it for genuine intimacy.

God offers you much more than that. He wants you to experience Him as a soothing rhythm of grace. However, to know that kind of intimacy, you must stop any religious hyperventilating you’ve mistaken for a grace walk, calm down, and do what is born from the expression of Christ within you. God doesn’t need you to break the three-minute mile for Him. He just wants you to enjoy Him, knowing that everything else in your life will flow out of that.

The fact remains, however, that a religious rat race is a tick that slowly sucks the lifeblood out of our intimacy with God.  God didn’t invite you to be His maid, but His bride. Of course you will serve Him, but is to be the natural expression of your love for Him. Otherwise, it becomes a stumbling block in your grace walk.

Well meaning believers often find themselves in a place which can be compared to the man adrift at sea in a life raft. Because he is dying of thirst, he begins to drink the seawater around him. The salt water causes him to become increasingly thirsty and his thirst causes him to drink more seawater. This vicious cycle will ultimately bring death.

This will be the fate of anybody who believes that doing more is the remedy for his thirst.  Sometimes the answer to our deepest need is met when we understand that the best way to advance may be to retreat, remembering that God’s ways are not our ways.

Blaise Pascal said, “The sole cause of man’s unhappiness is that he does not know how to stay quietly in his room.” It isn’t frenzy, but faith that facilitates intimacy.

Don’t allow yourself to be pressured by the religious machinery so prevalent in modern Christian culture. It’s not that you are to become spiritually passive. Christ within you will see to it that no such thing happens.  On the other hand, you are free to step away from any demand to do more than His Spirit is leading you to do.

Don’t let other people manipulate you into doing what they think you need to do. That’s not their call. That matter rests between you and the Holy Spirit. To stand on this fact sometimes requires that you be willing to accept the disapproval of others who try to pressure you into doing what they think is right for you.

Jesus didn’t come to help us be religious superstars. Far from it, He came to deliver us from empty religion, even orthodox, time honored religion. Jesus came to bring us into intimacy with God through Himself. In His earthly days, as in our day, those most offended by Him have been the religionists who have built their reputation around keeping their golden idols polished to a brighter shine than anybody else in town.

The idols are their own particular rules of the religious road-race that must be observed as they speed down the highway they call “Christian living.” Their display case is filled with the specific idols that most easily fit their own personality and temperament. They judge everybody else by whether or not they live up to their own personal standards. People are incidental. What matters is how you are behaving.

The fact is that even Jesus wasn’t a good churchman by the standards of the religionists of His day. He didn’t live up to what they thought He ought to be. To them, He had no convictions. He appeared to compromise the purity and integrity of their values by doing things like healing people on the Sabbath, by eating with the crooks (Publicans) and party-animals (sinners) of His day. He was a friend of the hookers and homeless. He didn’t separate Himself far enough from the riffraff, as every good churchman knew one should do. Consequently, He lost His testimony with the Pharisees, an incidental matter which didn’t seem to bother him at all. Jesus cared more about relationships than reputation. He still does.

A legitimate grace walk gently flows like water along a riverbank, refreshing all who happen to stumble upon our banks. It isn’t a flash flood of activity that honors God. He doesn’t lead us that way, but instead He has chosen to make “[us] lie down in green pastures. He leads [us] beside the still waters [where] He restores [our] soul” (Psalm 23).

Get off the religious treadmill and just put your eyes on Him. He will do "the rest" in you.  Do the things God asks but don’t confuse His voice with the demanding voice of dead religion.

Taken from The Grace Walk Devotional. To get the book, click here

Rethinking What We've Believed

            I want to tell you a story – this is “a big story.” I think you agree after you’ve read it. 

           One of my adult children has a friend who, while she was in our home, broke something very valuable in my house. As much as I hated it, I had to tell her that she owed me for the cost of the thing she had broken. It wasn’t a pleasant situation for anybody but she broke the thing and it is what it is.

            Months passed and she wouldn’t pay. Finally, I took the necessary steps to recover my loss legally. Before the day came for me to recover the debt she owed me in court, my own child came to me and said, “Dad, I don’t want you to sue her over this. I know she owes you, but this is my friend, somebody I love.”

            “I know, but she owes me the money. To pay it back is only fair,” I answered.

            “Yes, but this is my friend,” my daughter answered.

            While I appreciated her compassion for her friend, the situation was what it was. In the end, my daughter paid me what her friend owed me and I forgave her friend’s debt. The odd thing is that the “friend” of my daughter never even thanked me. Can you believe that? I was that kind to her and she didn’t even appreciate it? So much for showing her mercy.
            Okay, let’s stop. I can’t continue. I'm feeling disgusted even writing about that. Here’s the truth: It never happened. I made up that story to illustrate a point.

            What kind of feelings did that story evoke in you as you began to read it? Did it affect what kind of person you perceived me to truly be? Did you think it was horrible for me to take a legal approach toward a problem in which the relationship should have been the most important thing to consider? Did you see the foolishness of me saying that “I forgave her friend the debt” when, in fact, the debt had been paid by my daughter? Did you think it was ridiculous that I would even suggest I showed her mercy?

            Why is it that we can see the absurdity of this sort of thing when it comes to people but, on the other hand, have no problem believing these very things about God? Here’s the beliefs of many, many Christians today:

1.     Mankind broke something important to God (His command not to eat from the forbidden tree) and as a result owed God something for it.  God hated that but, “it is what it is.”

2.     Humanity had to pay God for what we did. “That’s only fair.” (We’re told that somehow God’s “justice” demands payback.)

3.     Jesus steps up on behalf of the friend (mankind) and pleads our case, finally paying back God what He was owed so that we no longer owe the debt and God will be satisfied.

4.     Now, we’re supposed to thank God for His kindness and mercy for forgiving the debt that Jesus paid.

It’s insanity. Some offer their parroted response, “God’s ways are not our ways.” It the description above was correct, that response would be true. And I’d respond to it by saying, “You’re right. God is meaner than I am.” But it’s not true; not at all.

This Western World theology of retribution has created a concept of our Father that is totally demonic. Think of it: Satan has been able to cause much of the church world to believe that, although Jesus is a nice guy, His Father is one demanding deity who was so ready to fling His rage into us with a vengeance that He couldn’t rest until He could discharge (get it out of His system) that anger in some way.

There is another way to see God the Father. It’s how the early church saw Him before Anselm came along at the end of the 11^th century and detonated this blasphemous bomb of penal substitution – the idea that God punished Jesus instead of us.

Jesus did take our place and was punished by sin, not His Father. As I’ve said, “there is another way to see God the Father.” It is a theology of affection. It would be a great thing if we all were willing to consider that there may be another way of seeing things – a way that is consistent with the teaching of the Bible and the understanding of the early church.

Sometimes this sort of post can trigger an instant reaction from the “Save The Sacred Cow” group, but remember this: “Spouting off before listening to the facts is both shameful and foolish”  - Proverbs 18:13. Most people have never seriously studied or considered views that contradict what they’ve been taught and believed all their lives. Do we want to know the truth, or not? Don't take anybody's word for it. Study. Pray. Learn. You have the Teacher who will guide you into all truth. What is He saying about the Father of Love?

Charity In The Midst of Diversity

The first half of the 1950’s was a time many Americans are still embarrassed, if not ashamed about in terms of our historical blunders. “McCarthyism” took the stage front and center during that time because of intensified fears about Communist infiltration in this country through institutions and influential Americans.

The Online Dictionary defines “McCarthyism” as:

1. The practice of making accusations of disloyalty, especially of pro-Communist activity, in many instances unsupported by proof or based on slight, doubtful, or irrelevant evidence.
2. The practice of making unfair allegations or using unfair investigative techniques, especially in order to restrict dissent or political criticism.
As time passed, the term came to be associated with reckless, uninformed and unsubstantiated accusations. During the McCarthy era, many Americans were falsely accused and aggressively scrutinized by those who had already passed verdict in their own minds concerning those who were being accused. Despite assertions under oath concerning their innocence, many people lost their jobs, saw their reputations destroyed and some were even imprisoned.

“Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist party? was often nothing less than an accusation posed as a question. Undoubtedly, there were those whose allegiance to the United States was exposed but, in the process, many others were unfairly persecuted to the point of great personal loss.

The irony of the ugly tactics sometimes used during that shameful time in American history is that it was carried forward under the banner of “the fight for America.” While “the Red Scare” may have turned over rocks and exposed some, the fear-based passion among many left other innocent people with the tag of “Communist Sympathizer” even if there was no basis for such a judgment. 

Regardless of ones political predisposition concerning American politics today, almost all Americans readily recognize the excessive and unfair abuse of many people during the fifties who didn’t deserve to be judged and found guilty using such spurious claims against them.

This is the kind of thing nobody is surprised about when it comes to the steely, cold hand of politics. As deplorable as it is, this sort of thing goes on across the world in governmental offices, agencies and committees every day. It’s “the nature of the beast.”

Sadly, this same calloused witch-hunt seems to have moved into the church world. The modern “Fight for Othodoxy” has often brought forth the same kind of tactics employed by those in the “Fight for America” six decades ago. The sad thing that is simultaneously amazing and horrifying is that it often exists among those who profess to belong to “the grace community.”

“Are you now or have you ever been a Universalist?” “Do you or do you not believe in a literal hell?” “Is it your viewpoint that everybody has already been saved? These type questions seem to be the order of the day for many. A forthright and avowed denial of such accusations is often still met with the cold verdict of guilt or, at the least, the lingering murmur that those in question surely are “Universalist sympathizers” if not themselves Universalists. It doesn’t matter that the accused affirms confidence in the Scripture and in the historic stand of the church on these matters. If the accuser can’t fit it into the religious, cultural boundaries of his own background and experience, no amount of clarification or explanation is enough. To the contrary, the accused is deemed guilty without even an opportunity for a fair hearing. Then the guilty verdict is spread through the rumor-mill under the guise of concern for the accused or those who could potentially be exposed to the teaching in question. Statements are lifted out of context or refitted into a contextual format for which they were never intended.

Reckless accusation abounds. State that you believe every person was included in the finished work of Christ and that you believe the benefits of the cross are already efficacious for every person and you will likely find that no amount of explanation in the world will cause some to believe that you are not a Universalist. Tell somebody you don’t agree with the Augustinian understanding of the nature of hell, and they may well then announce that you don’t believe it hell. Fail to give adamant, ironclad, dogmatic answers to questions that have been debated for millennia and you run the risk of being called a heretic simply because you don’t express politically correct certitude on the matter. The unforgiveable sin in the Gracestapo today is to leave a question open-ended. There can be no unanswered questions. It’s all perfectly clear to those for whom it is clear.

I cannot count the times I’ve heard Rob Bell called a Universalist despite his repeated insistence that he is not. Answering the straightforward question "Are you a Universalist?" posed by Newsweek's Lisa Miller Monday night, Bell said, "No, if by Universalist we mean there's a giant cosmic arm that swoops everybody in at some point whether you want to be there or not," he elaborated. Despite his answer, many (including a great number who have never even read his book) insist that he is a Universalist to this day. Evidence, schmevidence. "The man’s a Universalist and a heretic." So goes the momentum.

I’ve seen that tactic myself. One “grace teacher” even said that Steve McVey is a Universalist in the same way that one is a legalist even if he doesn’t know it. My response was that his accusation impugned either my integrity or my intelligence. The accusation suggested that I was either lying about my views or else that, unlike my better-informed critic, I don’t know even understand what Universalism is.

This is the climate in which we find ourselves and it’s unfortunate. No, on second thought, it’s tragic. While we get bogged down in sectarian arguments over things that neither deny the supremacy of Christ’s finished work nor the necessity to believe it in faith, the rest of the world is starving to taste the love of God.

Ignorance is a curse, regardless of which position we take on a matter. In some instances, modern Evangelicalism is no different from the very cult groups we have often criticized or condemned. We have a position and that position cannot be reexamined, questioned and certainly not renounced without serious repercussions.

Truth never changes. It is an absolute that stands the test of time. On the other hand, our understanding of truth does evolve. There was a time when the church accepted slavery, misogyny, the lack of civil rights, and other unbiblical positions that we now know were wrong. It is unrealistic to believe that there still may be areas of truth that need further exploration while maintaining complete trust in the Spirit who will guide us and holding a high view of Scripture which will instruct us?

Show me a man who becomes angered by a different viewpoint and I’ll show you one who is insecure in his own position. If truth can’t withstand scrutiny, examination and the give and take of varying interpretations then truth isn’t all we’ve had it cracked up to be. But it can. Truth will outlast all our discussions and debates.

In my own journey, the greatest surprise has been the ungracious way some “grace people” have responded when others spoke something that contradicted the party line. Pejorative labels have been assigned. Integrity has been questioned. People have been renounced, expelled and shunned by those who fear that exposure to the person they believe has erred may lead people astray.

These words may sound self-serving but what I’ve witnessed reaches much further than my own experience. I could list names of others who have become castaways to those who once professed to be fellow laborers in the gospel, if not friends. These expulsions often have happened without so much as a word. Read a blog. Ask somebody else who doesn’t know the facts either. Have your opinion validated. Pass verdict and sentence. Done. End of discussion. Attack.

It feels and looks like McCarthyism all over again. None of us have a corner on the truth, but are all in a process of personal growth and development. If a person hasn’t changed his view in any way in twenty years, I submit that that he hasn’t grown. Growth is impossible without change, but that’s a scary proposition to those who have become comfortable in their existing paradigm.

Some who want to continue to grow in their understanding of grace have learned that Bilbo Baggins was correct: “It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to." (The Fellowship of The Ring) It’s so true that once you are willing to submit your journey to The Wind and give up your own footing, you can’t know where He may carry you.

I submit a proposal to each of us who love the grace of God. Let’s not vilify each other, not even with cunning words cloaked in a gracious tone and vocabulary, couched under the pretense of concern.  If we have a problem with each other, let’s talk about it with each other and not to others. Let’s agree to trust the Holy Spirit with His people and realize it’s not up to us to protect them from one another. Let’s realize that we may be wrong in some of our existing views, admitting that we each are where we are in our understanding after sincere and heartfelt study, prayer and confidence that His Spirit is leading us. Let’s not take offense that somebody else's view contradicts our own and let’s not feel a need to respond every time we read or hear something we disagree with. Let’s each proclaim the love of God to the extent and within the framework of what we believe the Bible teaches. Let’s not distance ourselves from each other over style, mannerisms, personality or methods by which we share the truth but instead appreciate the value of the Treasure we each are seeking to share in our respective ways. Let’s respect each others sincerity and embrace each others hearts even when our heads can’t quite make a connection. Let’s feed those who are starving to taste true Agape. Let’s lay aside offended pride, bruised egos and the urge to react to somebody just because we know we can win the argument. Let's not try to build ourselves up by bringing somebody else down. Let’s love. Because if we fail to do that, the rest of this is just a big pile of “dung” (KJV) that nobody except us even cares about.  They just want Jesus and, in that way, they are ahead of all the rest of us who would rather spend our time denigrating, dissecting, and debating.

    I offer my sincere apology to those who would contend that I, myself, have failed in this area. I have, but this is where I am at this point. By God's grace, I hope to stand here. Will you join me?

(For those who don't even know what all this is about, thank God for having shielded you from some of the ugliness among His people.)

Finding Absolute Truth on the Internet

Across the terrain of the cyber world today, we all have a piece of the property and are free to build anything we want on it. Facebook, Blogger, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest,, MySpace, Google + . . . pick your plot. The acreage available for raising our own theological constructs (or any other kind, for that matter) is free for the taking. The opportunity to have voices equal in volume all over the Internet is up for grabs, and it doesn’t have to be orthodoxy that puts you at the top. After all, we live in a culture that loves TV shows where Master Chefs scream, swear and belittle the wannabes who will take that crap just to get their chance at being the head-spaghetti-cooker in a fancy restaurant in a big town. A culture where anorexic models or hissy-fit-pitching tailors stake their future lives on the opinions of judges whose own sane connection to the real world is highly dubious. A culture where that which is grotesque, vulgar, garish, and ridiculous is likely to have a higher TV rating than something classic, of substance, and proven to be life giving does. It is to *that* contemporary culture that we’re trying to break in and speak theological reality, i.e. “the truth about whom God is.”

A guy can eat a slightly spoiled pizza, have a fitfully sleepless night in which his hyperactive thoughts runs all over the theological playground of his unconscious (and uninformed) mind and wake up the next day convinced he was shown a perspective on who God is that the world needs to hear about and, in a matter of minutes, it’s out there for everybody on FaceBook or Twitter to see. It’s a *revelation!* When his friends on Facebook who ate the same pizza give him the high-five, that’s all the validation he needs to now turn this revelation into a revolution that only “those who understand” can understand. The rest of we unenlightened ones just don’t’ get it.

Absolute truth still exists among us, as has been the case throughout history. The relevant question is, “How do we know that truth?” In a world of contradicting, clamoring voices, how do we know which voice to heed? Is it the voice based on rationale? The one based on religion? The one that’s based on rites and ritual?

The answer to that question isn’t a complicated solution. The way you can trust in knowing Absolute Trust is none of the options listed in the paragraph above. The key to knowing the truth is relationship – a dynamic, present-moment, relationship with the Spirit of God who lives inside you.
It’s amazing to see how much theology today is embraced secondhand. Somebody respects somebody else and that somebody else says so-and-so, thus the respecter embraces the theological viewpoint of the respected and now clings to it to the point that he will even argue that viewpoint with others.

There are two completely trustworthy witnesses to The Truth. First, there is the Scripture. Some, having realized that they have wrongly held the Bible in a place equal to God Himself, have now overreacted by discounting or even dismissing the place of the Bible in the life of the believer. While *the Word of God* is Jesus and not the Bible, don’t let the enemy of your soul steal away your Bible.

For the record, I have a high view of Scripture and don’t embrace the views of those who insult the Bible. I’ve repeatedly said that it is Jesus who is the Word of God, not the Bible, but don’t mistake that assertion as a slam on the Bible because it’s not. It is, rather, to give Jesus His preeminent place and the Bible its secondary place as a testimony to Him. The Bible can be called “the word of God” (small “w”) in the sense that it is the inspired communication to us about Himself, but it is the witness to Christ not a co-Christ. Some speak of “the living Word and the written word” as if they are on par with each other. Such a comparison is an insult to the One who inspired the Bible. When John said, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God,” you can be sure he wasn’t talking about a Bible. That doesn’t diminish Scripture, but exalts Jesus. Jesus doesn’t have a twin Savior called, “The Holy Bible.”

The greatest teacher of grace who ever lived had this to say about our Bibles: “All Scripture is given by inspiration and is profitable…. “ There is nothing grace-filled about rejecting the Scriptures that our loving Father has given us. To the contrary, to reject the Scriptures is to cut ourselves off from one of the greatest grace gifts we have available to nurture and encourage us in our walk with Jesus. Don’t trash talk the love-letter given to you by the One who is the very topic of the Bible.

The primary reliable witness to Absolute Truth is the Holy Spirit. Jesus said that when came He would “guide us into all truth.” You have the Holy Spirit as your teacher. It’s not up to you to figure out the truth through intellectual pursuit. Study is important, but the tipping point in knowing the truth is inspiration and revelation that can only come from the Spirit. Study, pray and ask Him to teach you and He will. Don’t take your favorite teacher’s word for it. Study, pray and ask The Teacher *and He will* show you.
Overconfidence in a human teacher insults The Teacher who has come to guide you into the truth. Trust Him.

Does that mean that it’s wrong to learn from human teachers? Of course, it isn’t. People sometimes say, “I don’t need a teacher. I have the Bible and the Spirit.” That’s true, but I wonder about these things. Does that person go to the doctor? After all, God is the healer. Does she gain help and comfort from friends in times of pain? God’s Spirit is the comforter. I wonder if that person receives anything from anybody since they know that it’s God who is their ultimate source in everything.

The point is that our Father has designed community for a purpose. Do we need each other? That question misses the point. The wonder of His grace is that *we have each other.* We are gifts to one another. Need has nothing to do with it. As the old saying goes, “We are blessed to be a blessing.” You can benefit from others and they can benefit from you. Isolation is not the way of the Triune God who exists in community and has brought us into His shared Community of Love. If God’s nature teaches us anything, it teaches us that we are made for community, not isolation.

How, then do we learn Absolute Truth? By encountering Him in relationship. By engaging with Him through the Scriptures. By seeing and hearing Him in each other. Beware of the isolationist mentality and be wary of those who seem to define themselves by the criticism of others. There is a time for all of us to speak out against error but many speak from their own hurt. Deeply wounded people don’t make capable leaders. They need to heal first.

Grace speaks from love and, as such, lifts and leads others into the gentle embrace of the One about whom it speaks. This is something I’m still learning and I hope you are too. We all are where we are by the grace of God. None of us have determined the direction in which we would grow anymore than the tree outside my window made that decision. Let’s each seek truth, learn truth and teach truth based on that fact. “Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind,” the Apostle Paul wisely admonished.

“What is truth?” Pilate once asked while Truth was standing eighteen inches in front of his nose. Don’t miss Truth. He isn’t a proposition or a principle, but a Person.

Ask yourself when you read theological opinions on the Internet, “Will this cause people to more clearly see the love of God? Does this build up or tear down? Does it come from a place of help or hurt? Is this what Jesus Himself would say to me? Does it cause me to love Him more and to love others more?” If we were even remotely as concerned about being sure people see God’s love as we are about making sure they get “the truth” as we understand it, things would be different on so many levels.

None of us need to feel that we must be exactly right on everything. Let’s just share where we are in our own understanding and leave it at that. (If that sounds New Agey or Emergent Churchey to you, it may be helpful to look up the word “humility” in your dictionary.) Nor do we need to protect others from those who differ with us. I had lunch with a “long time friend” some time ago who told me that he now cautions others about my ministry because they might be led astray by my understanding of the cross. While I was troubled by his arrogance, the Spirit in me soon reminded me that I’ve done the same thing with others. I’ve found myself rejecting those who have rejected me and, worse than that, hoping others will reject them too. I know, it’s messed up, but please try to remember that we all hold this “treasure in *jars of clay.*” At least I see it and don’t want to feel or think that way. I hope they will too. **What are we so afraid of???** The Kingdom of God is not going to crumble because we didn’t do a good job of policing it. His Kingdom will do fine whether people love or hate us.

The fact is that it isn’t up to any of us to protect God’s people. He’s been doing that a long time before we got here and I suspect He’ll keep on doing that after we’re gone. Our role is to proclaim His grace to the extent we can see it and leave the results up to Him.

There’s a lot we can differ about, but one thing is certain: The very essence of our God is Love. Let’s agree to focus on that, because anything else is a distraction and *that* is the Absolute Truth.

Sweet Tea: Heaven's Vintage

(In the past 23 years I've been teaching grace, this is *by far* the most popular illustration I've shared...)

The most loved and delicious beverage in the southern part of the United States is a perfect metaphor for the union with share with Christ. It is a delectable treat that all self-respecting southerners enjoy without restraint or embarrassment. It is a vintage worthy of The Marriage Feast of The Lamb. Surely, the River of Life in heaven must exist as the main ingredient in this holy tonic.

What is this nectar of heaven? This wine of the angels?
It is "Sweet Tea." I'm not talking about iced tea with sugar added at the table. That is a sad and abominable substitute for the nectar of heaven I will describe here. *Note:* For sweet tea to be authentic, it must be properly made. Follow this recipe and you'll thank me for the rest of your life (even if it is shortened by diabetes).

Step 1: Boil 2 family size tea bags in a pan of water.
The first step in making sweet tea is to turn up the heat so that the water will boil. The sugar and tea won’t permeate the water unless it is very hot. This is the same way that God works in a person when He is preparing to create something wonderful of his life. Have you ever noticed how much more receptive you are to God when the heat is turned up high in your life? When we are in hot water, we usually get in the receiving mode fast! If you have ever asked God to use your life, don’t be surprised when trouble comes. God may turn up the heat in our circumstances to prepare us to experience His life. The glory of having Jesus expressing His life through us requires that we pass through the fire that destroys self-sufficiency. It’s not pleasant while it is happening, but when the process is complete the finished product is quite a treat!

The Apostle Peter said:

“Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you; but to the degree that you share in the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing; so that also at the revelation of His glory, you may rejoice with exultation” (1 Peter 4:12-13).

The fire may be hot, but don’t despair in your troubles. God often orchestrates the events of our lives to bring us to the end of confidence in our own ability so that He may readily complete His recipe for godliness within us. “The revelation of His glory” that Peter mentions is not a reference to heaven, but to the discovery of the sweet truth of our union with Christ. However, it is impossible to make sweet tea without hot water.

2. Add Two Cups (2) of Sugar And Stir
Unlike cold tea, hot tea and sugar are totally compatible with each other. In fact, the sugar quickly dissolves when stirred into the hot tea. Once the sugar has dissolved into the water, the very nature of the liquid is changed. The tea and sugar have become one and cannot be separated again. Their distinct elements have merged together in such a way that they are now one new entity. This isn’t the case with iced tea. It is impossible to get sugar to dissolve into tea once it has been served over ice. No matter how much you stir it, the two just won’t mix.

When God prepares to manifest the sweet presence of His Life within us, He uses heat to cause us to be compatible with Him permeating our being. He will often stir things in our lives when He turns up the heat. Then we don’t resist His sweet presence like we would when we are spiritually cold. To recognize His life within us is to see that our very nature has been changed. Just as the sugar and tea have become one, we have been united with Him in His Incarnation and can never again be separated from Him.

1 Corinthians 6:17 says, “But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him.” There is no longer my life and Christ’s life. Jesus lives in us and has changed our very nature so that one may say quite literally that Christ is our Life.

I was teaching this truth in a Grace Walk Conference once and a man whose field of study was chemistry said, “It is a fact that tea has its own distinct chemical composition and sugar has its own unique chemical composition, but when you put the two together in the way you have described, a totally new chemical composition is created which is neither tea or sugar.” Do you know what it is called? Sweet tea!

Because of Christ within us, we have a new identity. When have you ever heard someone refer to tea as “water with tea and sugar in it”? It’s nature has been changed, therefore it is identified by its new identity — sweet tea.

3. Fill The Pitcher With Water

Once the sugar has been placed into the tea, the pitcher must be filled with water, then the tea is ready to be shared with others. Water is a type of the Holy Spirit in the Bible. The Bible says that the treasure of the life of Jesus is contained in the earthen vessels of our bodies. (2 Corinthians 4:7) Yet we must be filled with the Holy Spirit if people are going to be attracted to Christ within us. (Ephesians 5:18) To be filled with the Holy Spirit means nothing less than Jesus Christ consuming our total being and expressing His life through us.

It is the Holy Spirit who dwells within our spirit. That same Spirit is the very spirit of Jesus. His presence has given us a new nature. We possess the nature of God. By the death and resurrection of Jesus, God has created a new race of people who possess His nature. 2 Peter 1:4 says that through the Spirit of Christ we have “become partakers of the divine nature.” Our new nature is a holy nature.

4. Tea With Sugar Just Isn’t The Same
I enjoy sweet tea, but I don’t like tea with sugar in it. Some may ask, “Isn’t it the same thing?” Not at all. When I’m traveling, I sometimes order iced tea and put sugar in it, but the tea never gets sweet enough for my taste. I sometimes have a glass of iced tea on the table with a half inch of sugar settled at the bottom of the glass. That is tea with sugar, but it’s not sweet tea. It is only when the sugar has dissolved in the tea that it receives a sweet nature.

Some people think in terms of Christ being in their life. However, the finished work of Jesus didn’t simply facilitate Him being in our lives. He has so filled our being that the Bible teaches that Christ is our Life. The very essence of our being has been changed through this supernatural union with Him through His finished work on the cross.

If I held up a glass and declared it to be full of sweet tea, someone might argue that it isn’t the tea that is sweet, but it’s the sugar in the tea. I would disagree. The sugar has so diffused its life into the tea that the nature of the tea has changed. Yes, the tea is sweet.

The Bible teaches that because Christ is in us, we have been made righteous. Some may argue that it isn’t we who are righteous, but rather it is only Jesus within us who is righteous. This is a mistake. We are righteous because of the presence of His Life within us.

Paul said, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21) If a person perceives his own identity only in terms of Jesus being present in his life, he will fail to understand the radical transformation which took place through the cross. God didn’t simply improve you by His finished work. He created a brand new you — one like Jesus!

Many fail, however, to understand the reality of the righteousness which has become ours through Christ. Because they don’t feel righteous, they interpret what the Bible says about the matter in a way that falls short of the truth. It is vital for us to recognize that God took away the unrighteousness we possessed in Adam. In Christ, we have been given His righteous nature. Those who fail to understand this gift are doomed to a legalistic lifestyle, always trying to achieve righteousness by their works and dead to the reality of what He has accomplished.

Your life is a divine treat that offers Jesus to a thirsty world. Our joy is to declare, "Oh taste and see that the Lord is good!" (Psalm 34:8)

Influences In My Life

During my 20 plus years as a local church pastor, I read three books a week every week, every year. (Now, I take some of that time to write instead of read.) Who are the writers that have greatly influenced my thinking? Moving from many years ago until today, here are some of the key people: Early ministry during my 20s' and early 30's: R.A. Torrey, Charles Finney, E.M. Bounds, B.B. Warfield, Charles Spurgeon, F.B. Meyer, J. Sidlow Baxter, Leonard Ravenhill, Carl F.H. Henry, Loraine Boettner, John Owen.

Mid-years from my mid-30's to 50ish: Hudson Taylor, Hannah Whitehall-Smith, Watchman Nee, Andrew Murray, Bill Gillham, F.J. Huegel, Ruth Paxton, Roy Hession, Amy Carmichael, Norman Grubb, Jessie Penn-Lewis, William Law.

The past decade: Robert Capon, Baxter Kruger, Thomas F. Torrance, Karl Barth, C.S. Lewis, Thomas Merton, Richard Foster, Jürgen Moltmann, N.T. Wright, Dallas Willard, Athanasius.

I'm sure I've left out some who may have been more important to me than these names. I don't agree with all these authors wrote, nor did I agree with everything when I first read them. However, they are people who influenced my thinking at the time I read their works.

Some people say we should only read the Bible. Personally, I think that's an immature approach. Our Father has put us in community with a purpose. One aspect of that purpose is that we might learn from each other. None of us "have it all" but as we humbly consider what others have to say, we are able to learn - to grow.

The most important piece of practical advice I could give to anybody, particularly younger people, is to READ. I have four degrees beyond high school and heartily affirm formal education, but I can say unequivocally that the things I have learned from books have educated me in an exponentially greater way than what I've learned in a classroom.

I'm thankful for all these writers I've listed and many others too. Whether I agree with them on every point or not, they have helped to shape me and each is an element of who I am in my mind and ministry today. Who are the people whose writings have most influenced you?

Starting From Idleness

In Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, there is an intense scene where Captain Ahab’s whaling boat presses through a churning sea in pursuit of the great white whale, Moby Dick. One can almost smell the salt air and feel the ocean spray as Melville describes the chase. For the sailors onboard at that moment, nothing else exists apart from the pounding waves, violent winds and the great sea monster beneath the water.

Bulging muscles are taunt and determined minds are irrevocably resolved to do whatever necessary to triumph in this cosmic battle between good and evil. The swells of the ocean waves lift the whaleboat high above the water’s surface, only to slam it back down again. But the morally outraged Captain Ahab will not give up. Everything that matters is in the balance at this moment. No energy or determination can be spared. The boat may break apart, but to forfeit the fight is out of the question.  The demon beneath must be destroyed. As Eugene Peterson notes:

"In this boat, however, there is one man who does nothing. He doesn’t hold an oar; he doesn’t perspire; he doesn’t shout. He is languid in the crash and cursing. This man is the harpooner, quiet and poised, waiting. And then this sentence: “To insure the greatest efficiency in the dart, the harpooners of this world must start to their feet out of idleness, and not out of toil.”

Nobody would dispute that a cosmic battle exists today between the forces of good and evil. We see this struggle on the sea of humanity in every culture of the world.  Pastors and churches urge us to not give up the ship, but to labor on, to fight at all costs to ensure victory. Recruiters appeal to our sense of what is moral and right to enlist us in the struggle.

Every Sunday in churches across the world, sincere Christians rededicate themselves with a renewed determination to become more involved and consistent in the battle against evil. Their hearts are in the right place. They feel the need to do something, but where can they be most effective in the boat?

The majority are determined to become better oarsmen who will work harder. A few are sure they sense the calling of Captain Ahab on their lives. They express their intent to attend a religious naval academy where they can learn to be the skipper of their own boat. They want to lead other sailors and together conquer the demon of the depths. . . . thus goes contemporary church life in the world today.

The problem isn’t that there’s something wrong in the scenario described, but that something is  missing. Where are the harpooners of the 21st century church?  How are we supposed to overcome the demons of the depths?  In many instances, we often don’t even know how to strike a death blow against the carnality of our own behavior, much less admonish others about theirs or lead others like ourselves into battle. Note Melville’s statement again: “To insure the greatest efficiency in the dart, the harpooners of this world must start to their feet out of idleness, and not out of toil.”

Idleness? When a violent storm is raging; when our enemy is so close that our very lives are in danger; when everybody else around us is frantic with hyperactivity; idleness is not a natural  response. Yet surely it is indeed to an “idleness” of sorts that we are all called.  For the person who wants to know triumph in the struggle, this idleness is indispensable. Those who are weary with fatigue are in no position to strike the fatal blow against the enemy. It is in a certain idleness that we find our strength. It is the spiritual practice of sitting still, silently staring into our Father's face. It is from that place that we find the strength we need to face the tasks life presents. It is from that place that we move into action out of supernatural power. Indeed, it is from that place that we find our very identity and destiny for time and eternity.