Reading Scripture Cruciformly

"Being disguised under the disfigurement of an ugly crucifixion and death, the Christ upon the cross is paradoxically the clearest revelation of who God is." - Hans Urs von Balthasar.
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"...our reading of Scripture must be centered at the cross...So where shall we center our reading of Scripture? Where is the touchstone? What is the definitive lens for interpretation?  Where shall we point in Scripture and say, 'There is God! That is what God is like!' I agree with Hans Urs von Balthasar that it is the cross. It is in the ugly brutality of crucifixion that the beauty of God's love is most clearly revealed.

Of all the possible ways of understanding the nature of God, I insist that none is more complete than when we see Jesus Christ hanging upon the cross with his arms outstretched in a loving embrace of the whole world - an embrace that included his enemies.  To understand God best, we should look to Christ upon the cross forgiving a world that has rejected him.  This is the love that saves us."

   - Brian Zahnd, Unconditional, page 190

The Mighty Fire of the Gospel

"The chief and fundamental thing in the Gospel is this, that before you take Christ as your example, you recognize and accept Him as God's gift to you; so that when you see or hear Him in any of His work of suffering, you do not doubt but believe that He, Christ Himself, with such work or suffering of His, is most truly your very own, whereon you may rely as confidently as if you had done that work. . . . See, this is to understand aright the Gospel, that is, the infinite grace of God. . . . This is the mighty fire of God's love toward us whereby He makes the conscience confident, joyful, and content."

                   - Martin Luther

From:  Strawberry-Rhubarb Theology: The Mighty Fire of God's Love

You Might Be an Idolator If…

Here's a healthy (but painful) self-test for idolatry:  You Might Be an Idolator If…

"How do we know if we love something too much? Where is the line between a healthy enjoyment and an idol? Idolatry is often subtle. It can creep up on us in the form of good desires, like getting married or excelling in the work place. You may have created idols for yourself if:

• You are crushed when you don’t get what you want. When that end of the year bonus you have been anticipating for months is taken from you, does it shatter your joy?
• You stake your happiness on getting what you want. All of your friends are finding their soul mates and getting married, and you can’t even find a date. Do you resign to bitter hopelessness in your singleness?
• You grumble and complain when you don’t have what you want. Are you angry with God for not creating you with the supposed external beauty that everyone around you seems to have?
• You demand what you want. Have your humble prayers for healing from a physical ailment turned to angry demands of God? Do you feel you deserve to be healed?

When good gifts (like marriage, beauty, healing, or money) turn into idols, they become terrible and consuming masters. To destroy these idols, we must put them off by the power of the Holy Spirit. We need the Holy Spirit to give us a deep love for God that drives out all lesser loves and gives us power over our idolatrous desires, in both our thoughts and actions. Through the Holy Spirit, we find contentment.

If we have made an idol out of something good that does not need to be driven from our lives entirely, such as a desire for children, repentance comes in the form of prayer. Stop demanding that God give you children, but rather pray humbly, offering your requests to God but submitting to his all-knowing plan for your life."

Excerpt modified from chapter 4 of The Greener Grass Conspiracy, by Stephen Altrogge

It's the Beginning, Middle, and End

Some good teaching by David Paul Dorr  on "Justification’s Beginning, Middle, and End:

Most of us learned justification as the beginning of our relationship with God, saying “we trusted Jesus alone for our salvation; we were declared “righteous” in God’s sight, given the very righteousness of Jesus as a gift.”

But what if justification by faith has a beginning, middle, and ending? Meaning this: when we initially believe that Jesus is Lord and Savior and receive Him by faith we are in, what Douglas Moo, calls, “the initial phase of justification.” But our justification is proved true as we walk out our life by faith, all the way to our death.....

After some more good teaching from Galatians (read it at the link) he concludes:

So how do you know if you are a living a life of faith after beginning by faith? Look at the fruit of your life. If the fruit of your life is fear then you are not living by faith. If what is coming out of you is the works of the flesh: jealousy, envy, strife, hatreds, sexual immorality, impurity and other things like these — then you can know that you are not living by faith. But if the fruit of your life is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control as a whole, then you can know that you are living by faith.

These are not emotions. They are motives. If you are motivated by fear (If I don’t get life right then I won’t get the life I want) then you can must assuredly know that your initial faith is a of little use.. You are trusting the law, heaping condemnation on yourself.

Amen

Missionary Turf Wars.

Jamie the Very Worst Missionary  (a pretty good missionary IMHO) is complaining about missionary "turf wars," where one mission group claimed "ownership" of a group of poor children, not wanting other missions to work in their turf.

But, seriously? Missionaries fighting over poor kids? Tell me you see how messed up that is. Tell me you know, deep down inside, how ridiculous it is. Tell me, please-oh-please, tell me, that this is all a bad joke and that you know that there’s no such thing as too much Jesus… Tell me we’re on the same team, fighting for the same side – tell me we can work together to bring Faith, Hope and Love to the least of these…

Tell me this is not a competition.

Tell me we are the Church.

Then, let's act like it’s true.

Go get 'em, Jaime! (If you are not reading her blog, check it out- both funny and inspiring)

Bent Upon Myself

I was feeling selfish today. Surprise - I'm a SINNER! Then I read this:

"The biggest difference between the practical effect of sin and the practical effect of the gospel is that sin turns us inward and the gospel turns us upward and outward. Martin Luther picked up this imagery in the Reformation, arguing that sin actually bends or curves us upon ourselves (homo incurvatus in se). We were designed to embrace God and others, but instead we are now consumed with ourselves. The gospel causes us to look up to Christ and what he did, out to our neighbor and what they need, not in to ourselves and how we’re doing. There’s nothing about the gospel that fixes my eyes on me. Any version of Christianity, therefore, that encourages you to think mostly about you is detrimental to the faith–whether it’s your failures or your successes; your good works or your bad works; your strengths or your weaknesses; your obedience or your disobedience."

Forgive me, Lord, for focusing solely on myself today. That last sentence hits hard.  May Christ be Glorified!

Quote from:  Up And Out, Not In – Tullian Tchividjian

Praying the "Smite Them" Psalms

More powerful words about forgiveness and justice from Unconditional? by Brian Zahnd:

"...The choice to forgive is not an exoneration of the criminal; it is a choice to end the cycle of revenge and leave the matter of justice in the hands of God.

This perspective on justice helps us understand what is know as the imprecatory psalms- the cursing psalms.  These are the angry psalms that plead for God to do justice by inflicting his wrath upon the wicked. What we learn from the imprecatory psalms is that rage against injustice belongs before God.  Instead of holding rage against injustice in our heart where it is allowed to fester and corrupt, we place our rage before the throne of God, recognizing that God and God alone is capable of judging the world in righteousness. Anger against deep injustice is unavoidable.  That anger can be brought before God in an appropriate way through the imprecatory psalms..." 

"...The purpose of the 'furious parts of the Psalms,' as C. S. Lewis called them, has to do with placing our anger concerning violent injustice before God and trusting God to bring about justice.  But a word of caution: The imprecatory psalms are how the saints have prayed concerning violent and murderous injustice - from ancient Semitic warlords to Nazis.  But is is not how we are to pray concerning our brothers and sisters in Christ with whom we simply cannot get along. How Dietrich Bonhoeffer might pray concerning Hitler is not how we are to pray concerning irritating church members. The prayer of imprecatory rage is a response to the monstrous, not the petty."

          (from pages 118-119, italics in the original)

 If you have not read this book, I cannot praise it highly enough. Get it! Read it!

Free Audio Download for May

This month's Free Downloads on christianaudio is The Next Story by Tim Challies

Even the least technical among us are being pressed from all sides by advances in digital technology. We rely upon computers, cell phones, and the Internet for communication, commerce, and entertainment. Yet even though we live in this “instant message” culture, many of us feel disconnected, and we question if all this technology is really good for our souls.

In a manner that’s accessible, thoughtful, and biblical, author Tim Challies addresses questions such as:
• How has life—and faith—changed now that everyone is available all the time through mobile phones?
• How does our constant connection to these digital devices affect our families and our church communities?
• What does it mean that almost two billion humans are connected by the Internet … with hundreds of millions more coming online each year?

Providing the reader with a framework they can apply to any technology, Tim Challies explains how and why our society has become reliant on digital technology, what it means for our lives, and how it impacts the Christian faith.

Did you notice I said FREE! You can't beat that price!

Worth Hearing

Surprisingly to me, the Bishop of London's sermon at the royal wedding of Will & Kate was well worth hearing, and hearing again with deeper concentration.

...William and Catherine, you have chosen to be married in the sight of a generous God who so loved the world that he gave himself to us in the person of Jesus Christ.

And in the Spirit of this generous God, husband and wife are to give themselves to each another.

A spiritual life grows as love finds its centre beyond ourselves. Faithful and committed relationships offer a door into the mystery of spiritual life in which we discover this; the more we give of self, the richer we become in soul; the more we go beyond ourselves in love, the more we become our true selves and our spiritual beauty is more fully revealed. In marriage we are seeking to bring one another into fuller life......

....As the reality of God has faded from so many lives in the West, there has been a corresponding inflation of expectations that personal relations alone will supply meaning and happiness in life. This is to load our partner with too great a burden. We are all incomplete: we all need the love which is secure, rather than oppressive, we need mutual forgiveness, to thrive.

As we move towards our partner in love, following the example of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit is quickened within us and can increasingly fill our lives with light. This leads to a family life which offers the best conditions in which the next generation can practice and exchange those gifts which can overcome fear and division and incubate the coming world of the Spirit, whose fruits are love and joy and peace.

Here's a link to the whole message. Perhaps my surprise at the quality of this message says something uncomplimentary about me.  If so, I admit it.  God bless the royal couple, may they take these words to heart and show a better pattern and example of marital commitment than so many other celebrities (and ordinary people) do.

Hat tip: A Place For The God-Hungry » Blog Archive » Words Worth Hearing–The Royal Wedding Sermon:

Lovely Source of True Delight

Thou lovely source of true delight whom I unseen adore
Unveil Thy beauties to my sight that I might love Thee more
Oh that I might love Thee more

Thy glory o'er creation shines yet in Thy sacred word
I read in fairer brighter lines my bleeding, dying Lord
Oh my bleeding, dying Lord

'Tis here whene'er my comforts droop and sin and sorrows rise
Thy love with cheering beams of hope my fainting heart supplies
My fainting heart's supplied

And ah too soon the pleasing scene is clouded over with pain
My gloomy fears rise dark between and I again complain
Oh and I again complain

Jesus my Lord, my life, my light, oh come with blissful ray
Break radiant through the shades of night and chase my fears away
Won't you chase my fears away

Then shall my soul with rapture trace the wonders of Thy love
But the full glories of Thy face are only known above
They are only known above

Oh come let us adore
My bleeding dying Lord
© 2005 Essential

(As heard on Redemption Songs by Jars of Clay )