Lack of Direction

In attacking Christianity, Nietzsche suggested there is no such thing as “faith,” there is only instinct which Christians cover up as “faith.” For instance, a man decides in his own heart what he should do, prays that God will make it so, and then calls this “faith.”

It was an unfortunate experience to read this and realize that Nietzsche, the Christian-hating nihilist, had defined me so well.

So, really, how faithful are we? How much do we “faithfully” rearrange our lives to fall under God’s plan rather than our own instincts? On the other hand, how often do we presume, practically expect, God will join us on our own quest for success, bless all we touch like Midas, and keep us comfy along the way. He’s little more than a Christian’s Dionysus.

Makes it convenient, huh? Especially when we act so ungodly about our failures and never praise Him for accomplishments.

Here’s what I mean by that: I think we best demonstrate our trust in God and our obedience to his guidance in our attitudes, actions, and the kinds of plans we make. This means that we always filter ourselves through the Word of God irrespective of failure and success. We always align ourselves with his character. We always praise Him. We always live in love. We always exude patience. We always remember that we are citizens of a kingdom, a kingdom whose concerns, intentions, and agenda in no way match the frantic busyness of our American Dream consumerism.

I was thinking about all this because I recently stumbled across an old favorite of mine in the scriptures -

Proverbs 19:3
“A man’s own folly ruins his life, yet his heart rages against the LORD.”

Do you ever feel as though you’re always blaming God for the tragedies and never praising him for the gifts? What if it was ME who made the tragedy by my own folly and a bit of wisdom would have transformed the whole situation (or at least wisdom might have transformed the way I perceived the situation).

Sadly, we so easily drift from God when the sly waters of our lives unmoor us from godliness and redirect our course to some chaotic sea, and only then do we cry out.

Often, when my life has been so cast aside I do return to God, but I return angry, embittered, disillusioned, undone and messy. He, the gracious one, so kindly ties me back together and reminds me that he is the single rock, the single fixed point that never falters.

The peace that exists

John 14
27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

Fascinating – if you remember from the previous study, Jesus had just promised the coming of the counselor, the Holy Spirit, who is God, who would indwell and instruct and remind us of all he, Jesus Christ, had said. Then, immediately following that verse, he states, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you.”

I just think it’s so interesting because two gifts are promised in proximity to one another – The Holy Spirit and Peace – and I think there’s some connection between them.

Firstly, Peace is a fruit of the Spirit. Galatians 5:22-23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”

Peace, the desire to create peace, to diffuse conflict, to restore relationships, to overlook offence, to refuse gossip, to curb our own anger – these are direct outcomes of the Spirit’s work in our lives. He lives with us, reminds us of the scriptures, and prompts us towards living out the peace they require (among other things).

Secondly, Christ, in his death and life, cancels the enmity which exists between the sinner and God. Not only does Christ cancel it, he transforms it from enmity to friendship; and even more, to sonship – Christ has given us the option of transitioning from being the enemies of God to becoming his children.

And there are benefits!

As children, we have an inheritance. Guess who is our guarantee: “Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.” Ephesians 1:13-14

The Spirit is the deposit guaranteeing we will receive the full benefits of what Christ accomplished on the cross.

Later in this same letter, Paul writes further on the role of the Spirit – he grants us intimate access.

13But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. 14For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, 16and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. 17He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.

Man’s greatest problem is not that he is sinful; his greatest problem is that, because of his sin, he is far from God.

God’s greatest gift is that he’s offered us a means to peace with him. Though we were the enemies of God, the objects of his wrath, Christ absorbed that wrath onto himself in our stead and thereby created Justice and Peace between us and God.

What saddens and convicts me is that even though all history hinges on this peace, even though all humanity holds its breath in search of it, even though the cost was so high, even through Christ himself suffered so much simply to create peace between me and God, to reconcile the both of us, to restore our relationship, how rare is it that I actually plunge into that relationship? When do I ever take advantage of that relationship? Do I live as if one in love? As one who has the great privilege of spending time with God?

“Peace I leave with you”

Does that peace even seem present?

The Father’s, The Son’s, and The Holy Spirit’s Bible

Recently in my personal studies I’ve come across one of the verses that has been, for many years, one of the most important verses in my life. So I’m pretty glad to have a chance to share it with all of you.

John 14:24-27
“He who does not love Me does not keep my words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me. These things I have spoken to you while being present with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all the things that I said to you.”

Remember what I wrote to you last time – the counselor is with us always. This fascinates me, that this counselor is ever present, not matter how I live, where I go, or how confused my life becomes; he is here to guide me according to the word of God.

I’ve sometimes heard the accusation that some Christians worship “God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Bible,” eliminating the role of the Holy Spirit. The belief, and perhaps it is not entirely misleading, is that some Christians have no use of the Holy Spirit. It’s like the resist him, resist his leading, and, perhaps, don’t even know how to listen to him, listening instead to the scriptures alone. I’ll be honest, I think I probably, according to some of these people, fall into that category.

I trust the word of God; I trust it is what God has said; I also trust what God says regarding the role of the Holy Spirit in my life.

I believe the saddest reality is not when people “resist” the Spirit and cling to the Word of God (since the Word of God explicitly directs people towards Spiritual living) but when people reject the word of God for what they believe is the Spirit. It is worst when a Christian clings to what he or she believes is the Spirit when this leads to particular actions, directions, or beliefs that are contrary to the word of God.

Here’s the reality – the Bible is NOT a member of the trinity. Rather, all the members of the Trinity communicate to you and me THROUGH the Bible. ALL of them use the Bible to instruct us about them, to guide us in living and loving, to let us know how to test for what is THEM and what is NOT them.

Remember verse 24? Everything Christ says is not his own, it’s from the Father, but Christ says to follow it. Guess what happens next. He says he’ll send the Spirit who’s first and primary role will be to “bring to your remembrance all the things” that Christ (and therefore, The Father) have said. The first time Jesus gives any detailed instruction as to the Holy Spirit and his role, he first says that the Holy Spirit will remind you of the Word. We cannot divorce the Word of God from our relationship of God – it is intimately interwoven with each member of the Trinity.

So the Bible is not a replacement for anyone in the trinity; rather, it is the instruction that all the members of the Trinity guide us towards. Why would they want that? Because when we know the word and when we obey the word, that’s when we are truly loving God (John 14:24).

My recommendation? Get into the word, pray through it, study it, and worship. This is exactly where the Spirit wants you to go.

Money

Let me know what you think about this – agree/disagree/why

~

The Christian presented with an opportunity to make great wealth is obliged to take it; in what clearer way could God say, “You will be the financier of my kingdom.”

Regained Sensitivity

Lately I’ve been thinking about how sensitive people and history have been to their own impurity. Even the history of the word “sin” has a striking moment in one of Sophocles play.

Read Oedipus. You know, the guy who killed his father and married his mother. Notice at the moment the full weight of his mistakes is made perfectly clear to him, he twists in a common word we’ve heard so many times and he screams out, “I have sinned such sins that even strangling cannot punish.” This is one of the earliest uses of the Greek word “Harmatia” as a reference to moral wrong and notice how closely it is philologically linked not only with punishment, but with the idea that the acts are so vile they can’t even be fully punished.

In Luke, when the tax collector stands before God in the temple he doesn’t even dare to look towards heaven and he cries out, beating his chest, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”

Paul writes of himself as the chief of sinners, as a wretch, as the least of God’s people.

The prodigal son, when he returns, does not have the audacity to saunter back home as a son. Knowing the gravity of what he has done he comes back with the intention not of being received as a son, but as a mere servant.

What saddens me is that I don’t know if I always have this same sensitivity or brokenness over my sin. Not that I want to be burdened with melancholy over my weaknesses; no, I simply want to desire purity with a strong passion and yearning. More importantly, I want to worship God more intimately as I more fully come to understand exactly what I deserved verses what he has so kindly given me.

The weirdness of the classroom

Though I’ve seen students do some incredibly rude things to teachers, I’ve never actually seen a student scream at and criticize a teacher openly in front of the whole class. That was, until one of my students did it to me.

I started class exactly at 12:30pm – exactly. The clock ticked; I started talking, and we immediately began an activity. In the middle of that activity, about 5-7 minutes into the class, a student walked in, shuffled himself into his seat and loudly asked, “What are we doing?”

I said, calmly, “I’ll let you know in a minute.”

“No,” he explained, “I don’t know what we are doing. Tell me, what are we doing?”

Attempting to be teacherly, I said, “I explained the assignment at the beginning of class, you came in late, so I will explain it in a second when we’re done with this part of the activity.”

“This is the first time I’ve been late; explain to me what we are doing!” The more he talked the louder her got.

I felt bullied; I really didn’t want to cave to a bully. “I don’t want to take up time to explain this again, so I’ll let you know what we’re doing after I’m done with this part of the assignment.”

He broke into an all out roar -
“NO! THIS IS THE FIRST TIME I HAVE BEEN LATE! WHY CAN YOU NOT TELL ME WHAT WE’RE DOING? YOU ARE NOT HELPING ME! YOU ARE NOT TEACHING US!” He was shouting, full tilt, and then he started to stand, “YOU ARE A BAD TEACHER!”

wow… this is weird… this is crazy… is this really happening? What really creeped me out was that he started to stand.

Bewildered, I caved. I raised my hands in peace and calmly said, “Hey, hey, no worries. I’ll explain what we’re doing.”

“Thank you.”

Immediately after class he left and went to the teacher of record with this complaint:

“Ben is not helping me. I think it is my accent and he does not understand what I ask. When I ask something he ignores my question and moves on to something else. You need to talk to him about this.”

Peter Denies Christ

John 13:33
“My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come.”

I gotta be honest with you, I don’t think the disciples had any clue what Jesus meant by this. So many of the things that happened subsequent to the crucifixion tell us that the death of Jesus had taken them completely by surprise – Peter denies him, the disciples end any prospect of ministry and go fishing, they recoil at his death and revert back to living their quiet lives.

They didn’t realize what he was suggesting, so when Peter boldly exclaims, “Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you,” I don’t doubt that he means it. He had no idea, even though Christ had explained it many times, that Jesus would suffer and die and that Peter would eventually do the same. He knew Jesus would inaugurate a kingdom – he just didn’t realize how.

And then Jesus says to him what must have been the most discouraging prophesy ever given a man, “Will you really lay down your life for me? I tell you the truth, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times!”

Ouch. I cannot imagine the humiliation and embarrassment, even more, the doubt. I’m sure Peter was thinking it wasn’t possible. But Jesus knew Peter wasn’t prepared for what he was about to see – he knew the disciples didn’t understand – he knew his death would devastate their faith since they could not understand how Christ’s death would have anything to do with God’s economy of redemption.

And after saying what I believe was the most discouraging thing Peter could ever hear, Christ says this:

John 14:1-4
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.”

I love that. Do not be troubled. Trust in God. For you have a future in my Father’s house; essentially, you will be adopted as sons and daughters, and will have you very own rooms and your proper place within the household of God. Amazing!

The disciples needed one piece of advice in order to make it through the horrific scenes they would soon see. The needed to not be troubled. Why? Because they could trust God. No matter what would happen, they could trust God. Regardless of whatever torture would befall either Christ or them, they had a future hope that would be far more glorious than his death would be gruesome.

And remember, in verse 13:36, Jesus said, “Where I am going you cannot follow.” And that is true for all of us. It was impossible to follow Christ to heaven until he had accomplished an atoning work. Notice he said, where I am going you cannot follow, but he then says, “I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.”

It is only when he prepares that place and when he brings us, that we can go where he is going. How did he prepare our place? By dying in our place on the cross. We need an atonement to satisfy justice before we can enter the house and family of God.

Last Command

As Christ nears the hour of his death, he gives these few brief statements in the upper room:

When [Judas] was gone, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once.
“My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:31-35).

A little odd, huh? We know what event he means; we know he is speaking of the crucifixion, so why on earth does he talk about the most horrific, humiliating experience in human history as “glorifying?” Because this is the moment when Christ hung upon a cross as a substitute for you and me, absorbing the wrath of God in our place.
The single greatest act of grace the universe will ever know, the act for which God wants the most praise and attention, is the moment he kindly, lovingly, and sacrificially offered himself so that we might be cleansed of sin.

That is why Christ can refer to his brutal death as something glorious. This moment is huge; not just for the world, it’s huge for God. We should pay close attention to what he’s saying.

Christ brings up these really intense ideas, says he’s about to go somewhere they cannot follow, and then says, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

“Love” – that might be easy if we could define the word love by our own whims, but we cannot. Christ says we must love AS HE LOVED, and that’s a tall order. Not only does this mean we must love by washing feet and serving, it means we must imitate and emulate the love he showed when he died on the cross. But do we care about others enough to sacrifice that much? To experience so much humility? So much pain?

Can I love someone so much that I would do exactly what Christ did? By that, I mean, could I bear the wrath of God in place of someone else? Can I love them that much?

I’m reminded of the instance in Romans, where Paul writes of his love for Israel, saying “I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, the people of Israel” (Romans 9:2-4).

Paul essentially says, “I love these people so much, I have so great a burden for the lost, that I wish I, myself, could go to hell, losing my salvation, if that meant they could have it.”

If Christ says, “Love as I have loved,” I think Paul is moving in the right direction.

Detail two: Loving one another marks the Christian. This is how the world knows we are his disciples. That means Jesus is including “the world” in the measurement of a Christian. How scary is that? Jesus turns to the world, to the non-believer, and says, “This will be your job, your task, and I entrust this to you – you shall judge whether anyone is a Christian on the basis of his or her love for fellow Christians. That is how you will know.”

Ouch…

Would you pass that test? Do you have brothers and sisters you despise? Maybe you even have good reason to. But here’s my advice: Love every Christian… no matter the cost.

slideshow of some of my recent work

Check it out, let me know what you think : )

www.aperfectimpression.com/benjamin

The most powerful image I’ve ever seen

Kevin Carter, a famous photojournalist, took this shot when documenting the Sudan famine. He won the pulitzer prize for taking it but killed himself 6 weeks later; his critics said he had lost his humanity for the sake of a picture.