Holiness By Grace - Delighting In The Joy That Is Our Strength

Greetings All!

     This week's "thought" comes from a book well worth the time it takes to read: "Holiness By Grace - Delighting In The Joy That Is Our Strength" by Bryan Chapell.  It has to do with God's grace and favor toward us, and the common misconceptions we often have about what it is that causes that grace to come our way.  There are very few who do not desire God's grace.  Few who do not yearn for His favor.  Yet, as Chapell points out, in our attempts to attain it, we often drive it further from us.  We often go astray in the ways we seek to become recipients of it.  I found his instruction in this regard helpful.  I pray that you might also.  Enjoy.

     "Despite the teaching of Scripture, I am at times no less troubled than Christ's disciples were with God's determination to resist human efforts to purchase his love.  I want to believe that God must be good to the organizations I serve, to the family I love, and the career in which I seek to advance, because I have tried to be good. Such reasoning abandons me, however, when I honestly compare my righteousness to Christ's standards... When I face the reality of the inadequacy of my works to merit God's favor, then I recognize that I must depend on his goodness and not my own. At times this dependence (on his goodness) is scary because it lifts control from me, but there is no other choice when I recognize the true character of my good works. For according to Scripture, even my best works are only "filthy rags" (Isaiah 64:5). There is too much human imperfection and mixed motives in my best deeds to have them obligate God to do as I wish...

     That does not mean, however, that God never desires or blesses our goodness.  Walking in God's ways is itself a blessing (Ps. 1, Matt. 5:3-10). For example, being faithful to one's spouse brings integrity to a marriage that is a blessing.  Speaking honestly can enhance one's reputation and help secure faltering relationships... Still, no degree of human goodness will lock God into a pah of blessing according to our choosing, as though we have become his master through our merit.  God promises to bless obedience by using it for his purposes, but the blessings that result should be seen less as credit for our goodness, and more as evidence of his faithfulness to his purposes... Divine blessing flows from God's mercy rather than from our merit. Thus, we cannot guarantee that his care will flow according to our plans simply because we conform in some degree to biblical standards. Our works do not obligate God to care for us in the way WE think is best... God blesses according to the wisdom of his eternal mercy rather than in proportion to our works of earned merit...

     [In Luke 17:11-19 ten lepers cry out to Jesus in desperation, "Jesus, master, have mercy on us!"]... What does Jesus do when these desperate people plead with him for mercy? He shows them mercy.  Jesus shows pity to those who have nothing to claim but desperation.  He is moved by their desperate cry for help.  What is the message to us?  Our God is not moved by the deeds we trophy, but by the desperation we acknowledge as our own....

     God's heart is moved, not when we protest our innocence by pointing to our inadequate good deeds, nor when we promise that we will do better in the future. Though there is no reason for God to love us, yet he does.  This is the nature of grace that we must treasure to know the joy that God wants for our lives. Until we recognize that there is no reason God will be moved to love us other than the spiritual need we acknowledge, we have no good news to tell others or ourselves. How could it be good news that God waits to love us until we reach an unattainable standard of righteousness, or that he counts our "filthy rags" as meritorious?  Biblical faith is most evident not when we demand that God honor our flawed deeds, but when we trust that he will mercifully respond when we humbly and helplessly cry out, "Jesus, Master, have pity on us!"

     Those who cry out in desperation have more hope of moving God's heart than any who would trophy their own righteousness before him.  Those who face the hopelessness of their spiritual condition apart from God's mercy are nearer to experiencing his grace than those who pride themselves on their goodness. Not beyond God's mercy is the homosexual dying of AIDS, who says in a broken spirit, "People may condemn me for a life they do not approve, but to tell you the truth, I would have loved anyone that loved me back."  In fact, such a man may be nearer to expressing what melts the heart of heaven, than I am on the days that my preaching, my position (as a seminary president), and my righteousness, swell my pride to make me think I am deserving of God's blessing.

     To experience God's blessing I must readily and repeatedly confess my own hopeless condition. What makes me willing to do this is the knowledge that it is my desperation that inclines God's heart toward my own.  The awareness that he does not turn away from my desperation will actually draw me to confession and deep repentance. The assumption that God only loves the righteous will tempt me to hide from him (and myself) the flaws under the public veneer of my character and my fears of deeper failures... 

     Our Lord's response to the leper's cry for mercy should compel us to confess our sin to him no matter its degree or persistence. We need not have corrected the wrong in our lives to ask him to forgive us We should not attempt to try and compensate for our sin before we ask him to love us. Remember that Jesus cleansed all the lepers when they cried out for his mercy, even though in his divine nature he could have known that only one would return to thank him.  Neither past failing nor future weakness will dissuade our Savior from showing us mercy when we honestly acknowledge our desperate need for his grace."

     One only needs to glance at the any of the four Gospels to see the truth of what Chapell says.  God inclines his ear and opens his heart to the desperate, but resists the proud. He embraces the sinful man who won't even look up to heaven but in shame cries out, "Lord be merciful to me a sinner," yet refuses to listen to the Pharisee who looks down on that heart-broken man and brags inwardly that he is so much better and thanks God he is not like him.  Pride and self-righteousness (that is, thinking we can make ourselves acceptable to God by our personal deeds and efforts) pushes the divine hand of grace away, it does not (as many curiously think) bring God's favor and blessings near.  We must always remember: "God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble."   It is the acknowledgment and confession of our sin, deep need, and personal inadequacy that draws close the grace and mercy of God, and the vain illusion that we have all our moral and spiritual ducks in a row that drives it away.

     If you would like to pray for grace, here is a simple prayer I often use: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Eternal God, be merciful to me a sinner." 

For His name's sake,  Pastor Jeff 

Praying Backwards - Transform Your Prayer Life By Beginning in Jesus' Name

Greetings All,

     This week's thought comes to you from Bryan Chapell's book on prayer: "Praying Backwards - Transform Your Prayer Life By Beginning in Jesus' Name."
     The book has many helpful insights, is informed by a good contextual understanding of Scripture passages often misused, and thus corrects many assertions regarding prayer that are a bit off-base. Today's selection confronts one of them! Enjoy.

Believing Prayer

     "The Bible teaches us to believe in prayer without abandoning our beliefs about God and ourselves. Faithful prayer hinges on how we understand the terms belief and doubt. Well-meaning persons sometimes try to explain believing prayer with examples of persons who prayed that something would happen, expressed unwavering confidence that it would happen, and then watched it happen. It may be difficult to consider any alternative teaching, but when we weigh the consequences of making an infinitely wise God subject to our finite wisdom and human wants, then we must seek other descriptions of faithful prayer.

     Pastor Ken Smith tells of a meeting with the head of a security company that shared space with survivors of the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center... The survivors remained both grateful and troubled for the circumstances that separated them from the tragic deaths of their co-workers:

The head of the company got into work late that day because he wanted to be with a child starting kindergarten.

Another man is alive because it was his turn to bring donuts.

A woman survived because her alarm clock didn't go off in time.

Another was delayed because of an accident on the New Jersey Turnpike.

One missed his bus.

One spilled food on her clothes and had to take time to change.

One person's car wouldn't start.

One went back to answer the telephone.

A mother had a child who dawdled and didn't get ready as soon as he should have.

A man with a new pair of shoes developed a blister. He stopped at a drugstore to buy a band-aid. That is why he is alive today.

     If any of these persons were regularly praying Christians, they might have prayed for God to spare them the inconvenience of that morning. But that inconvenience spared their lives. Before we adopt a prayer philosophy that requires God to provide all our wants, we must adjust our thinking to consider the limitations of our understanding. In our finite wisdom, we may least want what an infinitely wise God will most bless!

     The basic problem with all definitions of believing prayer that make God the servant of our will is that the object of belief is misplaced. Proper belief is not unwavering confidence that something we want will happen, nor is it doubtless trust that we know what is best. Our trust is not in the thing we want or our sufficient faith. The success of our prayer does not lie in exceptional confidence that WE have pumped enough of our own faith into our prayer (and extracted enough doubt) so that now God must respond. Our belief must be in God. He, not our desire, is the object of our faith.

     We pray believing that God is all-powerful, all-wise, and infinitely loving -- and that we are not. We tell God our desires for matters large and small, but always our greatest desire is that his will be done. We yield to God's will because we believe that the Good Shepherd will provide only the absolute best. Thus when Jesus teaches us to ask and we will receive (Luke 11:9-10), he does so only after telling us that those who believe in him ask for the will and purpose of God above all things (vv. 2-4). Praying in Jesus' name requires seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness with the absolute trust that God will then add all that is best for us (Matt. 6:31-33). This is the way that Jesus prayed and the way he taught us to pray."

     As one who has seen many people disillusioned because they were taught God had to answer their prayer exactly as they stated it if they only had enough faith, and removed all doubt (which, by the way, makes one's faith sovereign, rather than God), his balance and biblical words of wisdom help.

     Verses taken out of their context are often the cause of much pain to those who them misunderstand and misapply them. This means that although it is important to pray believing, our believing is centered in a Father in heaven who is not like Aladdin's Lamp which we magically "rub" by our conjured up faith, and thus get whatever we wish for.  Our faith is in an all-wise and loving God who will not give us what we ask for if what we ask for if it would be harmful to others, hurt our character, feed sin, or weaken our commitment to Him.

     We must thank God that He was, and is, so loving that He will refuse to answer unwise, selfish, or harm bringing prayers -- even if we had complete confidence and no doubts in our asking (James 4:2-3). We are to want what He wants above all else, and He often lets us know precisely what that is or is not by how He answers our prayers.

To Him who is worthy of all our complete confidence and trust, Pastor Jeff

Holiness by Grace

Greetings All,

     This week's 'thought' comes to you from Bryan Chapell.  It is found in his superb book entitled: Holiness by Grace. This book (in my opinion) is a must read for all who are looking for good, solid, practical, Gospel-centered advice on how to grow in godliness. I have left out some sections to make this entry shorter -- merely hoping to whet your appetite for more!  Enjoy.

     "Early in my ministry I didn't recognize how damaging it is to threaten people with God's judgment (or my disapproval) as the primary means for motivating Christian obedience. I used lots of this kind of guilt as a pastor. And I saw people's behavior change... for a while. Still, I often discovered later that he people who did change simply because I had made them feel guilty did not mature. Those whom I pressured with guilt did not grow in faith nor seem more spiritually whole even though their outward actions may have changed.

     For instance, I might deal with a married couple whose relationship was coming apart because they were not being faithful to each other.  I would tell them that if they changed their behaviors God would bless them, but as long as they pursued sinful relationships they could not expect him to love them. With this threatening advice, such a couple might very well cease their immoral activities, but I would later see that their abandonment of the immorality did not necessarily better their lives spiritually. A year of two down the road these same people were often locked into depression, pursuing other addictive behaviors, or were simply disinterested in godly priorities. 

     It took me a few years (we preachers can be notoriously dense), but finally I figured out what was happening. I was telling people that the way to get rid of guilt before God, and assure his blessing, was to change their behaviors. But what did this imply?  If people expect behavior change to get rid of their guilt, then whom are they trusting to take away their guilt?  Themselves!...  I was encouraging people to look to themselves rather than to the cross as the place for guilt's erasure.

     Only Christ can remove the guilt of our sin. By letting people think that what they did made them right with God, I was driving a wedge of human works between them and God. The people who listened to me, though they may have changed some aspect of their lives to get my approval, or secure God's affection, were actually further away from God spiritually than when I began to 'minister' to them. When mercy got out of view, grace went away and a works-righteousness jumped into its place before I even knew it.  My words were making people try to become acceptable to God by being good enough... I was teaching that if people just did things right, they could make things right with God. How foolish was my instruction.

     The Bible says that when we have done all we can do, we are still unworthy servants (Luke 17:10), and our best works are only filthy rags to God (Is. 64:6). I was teaching people that if they just offered God more filthy rags he would favor them more, or smile more, or love them more. What an eccentric and cruel God I painted for them!

     I denied people grace by teaching them that God's love was dependent on their goodness. It was I who had made them intolerant of less mature believers. By listening to me, they had to gauge their holiness by their works. And what better way is there to confirm your own righteousness than by finding fault in others!...

     We should know from our own family experiences how unproductive is obedience motivated by guilt. What happens to a child who obeys only out of fear of parental rejection -- a child who stays good to stay loved? He may obey when he is young, but he is scarred for life. Because such parental love is never more certain than the child's actions, acceptance is always in doubt. As a result, the child grows up calloused or weakened -- hating his parents and doubting himself.

     Many of us know these truths very well because we were manipulated by guilt as children and we may still bear the scars.  We hate what makes us feel guilt to gain favor... We cannot offer loving service to a God who loves us only when we are good.

     If God's love is conditional, if he is only waiting to get us if we step out of line, if avoidance of his rejection, or relief of our guilt is our reason for serving him, then we may obey him for a time, but we will not like him very much....

     Paul exhorts us to keep mercy in view because grace alone will keep us serving the Lord. If we try to compensate for the guilt that only Christ can remove, then we will lose the capacity to love him and to serve him rightly. God doesn't want us to punish ourselves to erase our guilt. He punished his Son to cancel our guilt. God will not build his kingdom on our pain, because he is building it on his mercy."

     One of the most spiritually hurtful ideas (and it's common in the Church) is the idea that by our efforts, or by greater efforts, we can "purchase" more of God's love.  That by repenting, reforming, or performing better we can earn more of His love (at least until we mess up the next time).

     Yet, though it is the cause of much striving and effort in church circles, it would do us good to pause and then counter such un-Gospel-like notions by remembering and believing the Gospel truth that in the economy of grace there is no place for merit (Luke 17:10). That we can never obtain even the smallest fraction more of God's love than what Christ both displayed, and irrevocably secured for us, when He went to the cross to pay the sin-debt for all our innumerable transgressions.

     We do well to remember the love of God is given, not earned. It's a gift of grace, not pay for increased effort or attempts at greater moral renovation. It isn't ours if we "fix" ourselves, it was there long(!) before we ever even come to the conclusion we were in dire need of fixing!

     We work FROM grace, not FOR grace.  We stand in grace, we don't have to strive for it. By faith we discover ourselves to have been the undeserving objects of a free love, not hired hands called to make ourselves worthy of a conditional love.

In the Service of the Gospel, Pastor Jeff