As the Area Representative for the CCCC I am occasionally called upon to do an interview with a prospective candidate who is seeking to be credentialed for ministry within the conference. One of the questions I am supposed to ask the interviewee is whether or not he has ever “led anyone to Christ.” The question slightly rankles my Calvinist sensibilities for it raises other questions about how someone is saved and who is doing the saving. But I am not criticizing the question. It is intended to find out if the candidate is willing and able to share the Good News with someone else. One who is seeking to enter into the ministry of the Word should be willing and able to share the faith. But someone recently offered an insight to me and I pass it along to you. When such a question is asked of him his response is, “Every day.” What does he mean? He is suggesting that leading someone to Christ is not a particular kind of activity, such as getting someone to pray the “sinner’s prayer.” Rather, he realizes that every day he is either leading someone to or away from Christ. This he is doing by his words and actions.
The woman who was healed of the hemorrhage of blood (Mark 5:25-34) was emboldened to seek out Jesus and touch the hem of his garment because “she had heard the reports about Jesus” (v. 27). Clearly, what she had learned about Jesus was compelling. Note that this being exposed to Jesus by secondary means (i.e., she did not see him personally prior to her going out to find him) was sufficient to birth faith within her heart. That faith was motivating enough to cause her to leave her law-imposed isolation and risk embarrassment and rejection in order to receive the life that was in Jesus.
This reporting and receiving of the truth of Jesus is the lifeblood of the church. We see in Paul’s teaching from Romans 10, if a soul is to be saved from death by the life that is in Christ they must have faith in him. And yet, for someone to believe in Christ they must learn who he is; and, for one to learn who he is another must tell him. This is the process summed up by the words, “faith comes through hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17).
But what the fellow was suggesting to me when he acknowledged the daily responsibility of leading people to Christ is that we should not think that our preaching is done only with our mouths. What we say and what we do are inextricably linked. The emphasis that James makes in his letter is to the point: “someone will say, ‘You have faith and I have works.’ Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works” (James 2:18).
For the woman, faith was engendered in her soul and she was led to the savior through her learning about what Jesus had been teaching and doing. What report do we offer to those around us who are as burdened down by their circumstances as she? Let us ask God for the grace to lead them to Christ.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Self-Salting
In the closing words of Mark 9 , Jesus exhorts, "Have salt in yourselves." In its context I believe this is a call to purifying self-examination. We are to actively purify ourselves by examining our motives and actions in the light of Jesus' call to humble service in his kingdom. If his followers would do this then pride (the source of contention among his disciples, Mark 9:34) would be tempered and we will "be at peace with one another."
I came across the following from this morning's entry of Spurgeon's "Morning and Evening." He gives a helpful and humbling means by which we might do this:
"June 12 | Morning | 'Thou art weighed in the balances and art found wanting.' - Daniel 5:27
It is well to frequently weigh ourselves in the scale of God’s Word. You will find it a holy exercise to read some psalm of David, and, as you meditate upon each verse, to ask yourself, 'Can I say this? Have I felt as David felt? Has my heart ever been broken on account of sin, as his was when he penned his penitential psalms? Has my soul been full of true confidence
in the hour of difficulty as his was when he sang of God’s mercies in the cave of Adullam, or in the holds of Engedi? Do I take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord?' Then turn to the life of Christ, and as you read, ask yourselves how far you are conformed to his likeness. Endeavor to discover whether you have the meekness, the humility, the lovely spirit which he constantly inculcated and displayed. Take, then, the epistles, and see whether you can go with the apostle in what he said of his experience. Have you ever cried out as he did-'O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?' Have you ever felt his self-abasement? Have you seemed to yourself the chief of sinners, and less than the least of all saints? Have you known anything of his devotion? Could you join with him and say, 'For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain'? If we thus read God’s Word as a test of our spiritual condition, we shall have good reason to stop many a time and say, 'Lord, I feel I have never yet been here, O bring me here! give me true penitence, such as this I read of. Give me real faith; give me warmer zeal; inflame me with more fervent love; grant me the grace of meekness; make me more like Jesus. Let me no longer be "found wanting," when weighed in the balances of the sanctuary, lest I be found wanting in the scales of judgment.' 'Judge yourselves that ye be not judged.'”
In other words, "have salt in yourselves."
I came across the following from this morning's entry of Spurgeon's "Morning and Evening." He gives a helpful and humbling means by which we might do this:
"June 12 | Morning | 'Thou art weighed in the balances and art found wanting.' - Daniel 5:27
It is well to frequently weigh ourselves in the scale of God’s Word. You will find it a holy exercise to read some psalm of David, and, as you meditate upon each verse, to ask yourself, 'Can I say this? Have I felt as David felt? Has my heart ever been broken on account of sin, as his was when he penned his penitential psalms? Has my soul been full of true confidence
in the hour of difficulty as his was when he sang of God’s mercies in the cave of Adullam, or in the holds of Engedi? Do I take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord?' Then turn to the life of Christ, and as you read, ask yourselves how far you are conformed to his likeness. Endeavor to discover whether you have the meekness, the humility, the lovely spirit which he constantly inculcated and displayed. Take, then, the epistles, and see whether you can go with the apostle in what he said of his experience. Have you ever cried out as he did-'O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?' Have you ever felt his self-abasement? Have you seemed to yourself the chief of sinners, and less than the least of all saints? Have you known anything of his devotion? Could you join with him and say, 'For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain'? If we thus read God’s Word as a test of our spiritual condition, we shall have good reason to stop many a time and say, 'Lord, I feel I have never yet been here, O bring me here! give me true penitence, such as this I read of. Give me real faith; give me warmer zeal; inflame me with more fervent love; grant me the grace of meekness; make me more like Jesus. Let me no longer be "found wanting," when weighed in the balances of the sanctuary, lest I be found wanting in the scales of judgment.' 'Judge yourselves that ye be not judged.'”
In other words, "have salt in yourselves."
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Free Will?
What is the relationship between our will and God’s will? Just how “free” are we to act contrary to the will of God? The subject of the human will and how it functions in a universe that is governed by a sovereign God has been well treated by greater minds than mine (if you want to explore the subject more fully I would encourage you to pick up a copy of Martin Luther’s Bondage of the Will and Jonathan Edward’s Freedom of the Will). However, let me offer a few frail observations using the book of Jonah offers a helpful starting place to examine this complex subject.
Firstly, in this brief book we discover that human beings are very capable of making decisions that are contrary to the will of God. In the story, Jonah determines to go in the opposite direction than the one directed by God. At another point, mariners, with Jonah on board, struggle to row their boat back to shore in the face of the threatening storm though they had been told that the way to save their lives was to toss Jonah over the side. Both of these incidents demonstrate that human beings are capable of using their will in ways that are contrary to the will of God. This is important to keep in mind when we assert the sovereignty of God. We should not think that because he is governing all things to his good end that this turns humans into robots. The book of Jonah illustrates otherwise.
But does this mean that man’s will is “free”? In the two instances I related above, the best we can say is that humans can act against but not overcome the will of God. Both Jonah and the mariners are eventually brought to the place intended for them by God. Clearly, their will is not truly free. Though they try, they are not able to accomplish what they want to accomplish. In Jonah, God is the superintending agent who is bringing his will to pass no matter how hard anyone tries to prevent it.
There is another way in which the story of Jonah demonstrates that human will is not completely free. When Jonah exercises his will in a manner contrary God’s he becomes subject to other forces that are in place. Try this exercise to get a sense of what I mean. Hold a book aloft in your hand. As soon you remove your hand, what happens? The book falls to the ground. Why is that? Because the book is subject to the law of gravity and only your hand causes it to be anywhere else than where it is destined to be, on the floor.
In a similar manner, the Bible describes the world, and every human being in it, as being corrupted by sin. As we push off from the safe harbor of God’s will, like Jonah, we are inevitably battered about by the winds of sin that are resident with our heart. This is to say that our will is not some neutral, independent force within us. Like gravity working on the book, our will responds to our desires. When God’s desires are not our desires then we will use our ability to act in ways that our innate sin drives us to act.
Lastly, we see in Jonah, that even though we are capable of conceiving and acting upon choices as individuals we are not free to act as independent agents, operating within our own private sphere. As we exercise our will we must be mindful that our choices, though we might make them as individuals, are not solitary. They are felt by others and seen by God. This is inescapable for this is the way we are made. Being made in the “image of God” we reflect the one in whose image we are made. The God who has made us, and given us his will to obey, dwells in relationship as three-in-one.
So, in the end we would have to say that our free will is not so free. It is certainly not free enough to evade God’s will. The one who sits in the heavens and laughs at the futile schemes of men (Psalm 2) will have his way.
Firstly, in this brief book we discover that human beings are very capable of making decisions that are contrary to the will of God. In the story, Jonah determines to go in the opposite direction than the one directed by God. At another point, mariners, with Jonah on board, struggle to row their boat back to shore in the face of the threatening storm though they had been told that the way to save their lives was to toss Jonah over the side. Both of these incidents demonstrate that human beings are capable of using their will in ways that are contrary to the will of God. This is important to keep in mind when we assert the sovereignty of God. We should not think that because he is governing all things to his good end that this turns humans into robots. The book of Jonah illustrates otherwise.
But does this mean that man’s will is “free”? In the two instances I related above, the best we can say is that humans can act against but not overcome the will of God. Both Jonah and the mariners are eventually brought to the place intended for them by God. Clearly, their will is not truly free. Though they try, they are not able to accomplish what they want to accomplish. In Jonah, God is the superintending agent who is bringing his will to pass no matter how hard anyone tries to prevent it.
There is another way in which the story of Jonah demonstrates that human will is not completely free. When Jonah exercises his will in a manner contrary God’s he becomes subject to other forces that are in place. Try this exercise to get a sense of what I mean. Hold a book aloft in your hand. As soon you remove your hand, what happens? The book falls to the ground. Why is that? Because the book is subject to the law of gravity and only your hand causes it to be anywhere else than where it is destined to be, on the floor.
In a similar manner, the Bible describes the world, and every human being in it, as being corrupted by sin. As we push off from the safe harbor of God’s will, like Jonah, we are inevitably battered about by the winds of sin that are resident with our heart. This is to say that our will is not some neutral, independent force within us. Like gravity working on the book, our will responds to our desires. When God’s desires are not our desires then we will use our ability to act in ways that our innate sin drives us to act.
Lastly, we see in Jonah, that even though we are capable of conceiving and acting upon choices as individuals we are not free to act as independent agents, operating within our own private sphere. As we exercise our will we must be mindful that our choices, though we might make them as individuals, are not solitary. They are felt by others and seen by God. This is inescapable for this is the way we are made. Being made in the “image of God” we reflect the one in whose image we are made. The God who has made us, and given us his will to obey, dwells in relationship as three-in-one.
So, in the end we would have to say that our free will is not so free. It is certainly not free enough to evade God’s will. The one who sits in the heavens and laughs at the futile schemes of men (Psalm 2) will have his way.
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