Spirit of the Disciplines

OK, so I have chunks of quotes I planned on posting today, but God revealed a pretty heavy truth to me today. So, there's all these spiritual disciplines in life, like bible reading, prayer, fasting, solitude, etc. It is very hard to discipline myself to do one of these on a regular basis, much less all of them. Maybe I need to think of these spiritual disciplines as things I do in a life of training. In my walk with Christ, I'm in training. As I continue to train, God continues to mold me into the image of Christ. (Dallas Willard's book entitled Spirit of the Disciplines explains this concept much better than me. Check out the excerpt at amazon.com.)

Needless to say, this concept has shed some light on a couple of scripture passages.

1 Corinthians 9:24-27 - "Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize."

Hebrews 12:1-3 - "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart."

2 Timothy 4:7 - "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith."

The Bible, the Word of God

"First, I want to confess quite simply that I believe the Bible alone is the answer to all our questions, and that we only need to ask persistently and with some humility in order to receive the answer from it. One cannot simply read the Bible the way one reads other books. One must be prepared to really question it. Only then will it open itself up. Only when we await the final answer from the Bible will it be given to us. That is because in the Bible it is God who speaks to us. And we cannot simply reach our own conclusions about God; rather, we must ask him. He will only answer us if we are seeking after him. Naturally, one can also read the Bible like any other book---from the perspective of textual criticism, for instance. There is nothing to be said against that. But that will only reveal the surface of the Bible, not what is within it. When a dear friend speaks a word to us, do we subject it to analysis? No, we simply accept it, and then it resonates inside us for days. The word of someone we love opens itself up to us the more we "ponder it in our hearts," as Mary did. In the same way, we should carry the Word of the Bible around with us. We will only be happy in our reading of the Bible when we dare to approach it as the means by which God really speaks to us, the God who loves us and will not leave us with our questions unanswered."

-Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Meditating on the Word, quoted in The Art of Astonishing: Old Testament Preaching.

Black Sea Restaurant

I just went to a fantastic little Turkish restaurant on Snelling and Minnehaha in St. Paul called the Black Sea restaurant. If ever anybody is visiting the Twin Cities for any reason, I highly recommend it. It is a very inexpensive place to eat with great food. The place is small, so be prepared to enjoy the company of the people you dine with before getting your food.

Happy Easter!

Just wishing a Happy Easter! to everybody who reads this blog. May the risen Christ make Himself present in your life this season. May the risen Christ draw you closer to Himself this season. May the risen Christ use you to reach others this season.

Happy Easter!

A week since the last post

It's been a week since the last post. I had to have another conversation with my contextual education supervisor again tonight after 9th grade confirmation. We were talking about relationships tonight, things that make a good relationship. The students came up with a list of terms, maybe about 20. As I sat there listening, I thought back to the over-arching topic from last week: knowing. It reminded me of a conversation I had last week with some people around the lunch table. We were talking about original sin and some other stuff. Somehow, there was a point in the conversation where it seemed fitting for me to talk about the conversation from confirmation the previous Sunday evening. One of the passages we looked at that week was Matthew 7:21-23, which says: "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'"

During the conversation, somebody mentioned that they believed that God knows them. Tonight's conversation reminded me of that and got me thinking. What is the definition of knowing? When we say that God knows us, what are we really saying? Are we talking about God knowing the number of hairs on our heads, knowing what we've done and what we will do, or are we talking about a relational kind of knowing? It makes me wonder what kind of knowing that somebody was talking about because I don't believe God can have a relationship with us through Christ if we're not talking to Him, allowing ourselves to be known by Him. I don't believe God can have a relationship with us through Christ if we don't respond to that call to be in that relationship through Christ.

My apologies if the above thoughts do not make sense or sound coherent. Tomorrow I'll post something about mission, lifeboats, and denominations.

4 fingers pointing back at myself

Okay, I know this is a long title, but this is exactly what happened to me at confirmation tonight. The 9th graders were dealing with this question: Why does God send some people to hell? To help answer this question, the youth director began by defining hell as separation from God. He then went on to talk about eternal life. John 5:24 was the first stop. The NRSV says, "Very truly, I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and does not come under judgment, but has passed from death to life." The Greek word used for the opening phrase is AMEN. Eternal life is not a future thing, but a present thing. The Greek word that explains this is exei, which means "he continues to have". The translation should then read, "anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me continues to have eternal life." The Greek word for "believe" is pisteuon, which means to rely on, adhere to, or trust in. It's really not simply believing, but relying on and trusting in which gives us eternal life.

We also visited Matthew 7:21-23, which says in the NIV, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me you evildoers!' It's not just simply knowing about, but about knowing intimately. It's not about anything we do, it's about being in relationship with Jesus Christ.

This fit really well with what the 10th grade students talked about this evening. John 15:1-8. The word "remain" is in that passage 8 times. The connection with Romans 12:2 was striking. Being transformed by the renewing of our minds can only happen if we remain, abide, stay in Christ. By sticking close to the vine, Christ is able to cut off the stuff that doesn't bear fruit and prune the stuff that does bear fruit so it can bear more fruit.

Compare this to what I'm learning in Lutheran Confessions about Christ imputing his righteousness onto me. Basically, when God looks at us, he doesn't see our sinful desires and evil deeds, he sees Christ because Christ has bestowed upon us his righteousness. I have a problem with this that I don't know how to explain right now. All I know is that I just wish Lutherans would shut up about evangelicals being all about works righteousness, because from my experience, they're not. They're very much about being in a relationship with God and allowing God to transform them by sticking to the vine. Everything that comes out of that relationship may very well come across as works righteousness, but speaking from experience, it's conviction we have about how we choose to live our life as Christians. On the same token, I wish evangelicals would shut up about Lutherans, though at this point in time I can't explain why. On that one I have 4 fingers pointing back at myself.

Article on feminism

As with any other issue, I always enjoy reading articles written by people who are in the process of being transformed by the power of God. Today, I read an article about a woman with whom God is dealing with the issue of feminism.

http://www.cbmw.org/Blog/Posts/Confessions-of-a-Recovering-Feminist

I dug myself into a hole

Yesterday I dug myself into a hole. I was sitting at a table in the cafe waiting for a friend to get done with her catechism memorization. When she got done, she set up another appointment to complete more of her memorization work. I decided I probably should do the same thing. My TA informed me he would only be here on Monday for people to recite. I set up an appointment for 3:15 p.m., after my 6 hours of class.

And then it dawned on me. I had 3 days to memorize the Lord's Prayer and all of its definitions, Baptism, and Lord's Supper and all of their definitions. At this point in time, I am through the intro and the first 6 petitions of the Lord's Prayer and the first 2 questions regarding baptism.

Believing vs. following

Tonight at youth group, the youth director talked about the passage where Jesus calls Simon Peter to follow him, not to believe him, but to follow him.

Just something that struck me in a fresh way.

Focus on the Center

Today in my Lutheran Confessions lecture, my professor was talking about the 4th article of the Augsburg Confession. This particular article talks about being justified through faith alone. This article is the center of our teaching. We begin here and move outwards. Later on at lunch, I had a conversation with my contextual education supervisor about how my time with the youth director was going. My supervisor basically said the same thing. When you look at the catechism, what's located in the center? None other than the 2nd article of the Apostle's Creed, which talks about Jesus Christ and what He's already done for us. When the director of youth ministries teaches confirmation, that's where he starts, without using the catechism. From there, he moves outward. I think that's truly awesome!

10 Commandments and Works Righteousness

One of the things I hear at Luther Seminary is that it's all about God and not about us. It's not anything we do that gets us salvation, but everything God does. Basically, works righteousness is not something people speak highly of here at Luther. So then I come to the 10 Commandments in Martin Luther's Small Catechism. Here is what is written at the end of that section.

What does God say of all these Commandments?
He says: "I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast
love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments."
What does this mean for us?
God warns that he will punish all who break these commandments. Therefore we are to fear
his wrath and not disobey him. But he promises grace and every blessing to all who keep
these commandments. Therefore we are to love and trust him, and gladly do what he
commands.

It's obvious to me that this sounds like works righteousness, but I have to remember the order things were placed into the catechism. The commandments lead us to our sin, and the Apostle's Creed leads us to the One who brings us redemption from our sin and our disobedience. I might have more to say about this when I'm more awake.

Justification by Faith: A Matter of Life and Death

"If we can begin to wrap our minds around (justification by faith) perhaps we can be grasped by the radicality, the audaciousness, the explosiveness of the confessional point. When God imputes righteousness he makes us sinners at the same time. He makes it quite plain that we do not have righteousness in ourselves and never will. By declaring us righteous unilaterally, unconditionally for Christ's sake, he at the same time unmasks sin and unfaith. By forgiving sin, sin is revealed and attacked at the root in its totality: our unfaith, rebellion, and blindness, our unwillingness to move out of the legal prison, our refusal of life. God's justification, you see, is fully as opposed to human righteousness and pretense as it is to human unrighteousness. It cuts both ways, both at the ungodly and the super-godly. The battle is not against sin merely as 'moral' fault but against sin as 'spiritual' fault, against our supposed 'intrinsic righteousness,' pretense and hypocrisy, our supposed movement and progress, our substitution of fiction for truth. The totality of the justifying act reveals the totality of sin. Imputed righteousness makes it plain that all such 'piety' is just as sinful, indeed even more sinful, than out-and-out godlessness and denial of grace altogether. Only faith in the flat-out judgment of God is equipped to do battle with human sin. One can only be still and listen to the judge. That is the only salvation from both despair and presumption, immorality and super-morality. In the light of the creative, unconditional divine act it becomes clear not just that we have sinned and fallen short of the law, but precisely that 'all have sinned and fallen short of the glory [precisely the glory] of God' and all he has created. By speaking unconditionally, the Creator is doing again a new thing." - Gerhard Forde