Spiritual growth happens when we obey God. In the Old Testament, God commanded his people to obey his commands, to "walk in" them. Walking in God's commands is a way of saying that your whole life is characterized by obedience to God.
The Hebrew word for "walking" is halakah. Jewish teachers came to use this term to describe a life of obedience. The halakah was a life lived in obedience to God's commands, and therefore it was the best life that one could find.
For some reason, we Protestants (Evangelicals particularly) don't often think that obedience is a necessary component to a spiritually healthy and vibrant life. Maybe it's the ideal of American individualism, or postmodern anti-authoritarianism, or a misunderstanding of salvation by grace alone, but we just don't think about obedience. We don't have a well-defined halakah.
But I can't think of any better way to grow spiritually than to obey God. Obedience often demands that we risk a step of faith or that we die to ourselves in some way. Obedience is active faith, and any time we take a step of faith, we walk with God.
If you're frustrated with where you're at spiritually, and you feel like you're not growing, it's probably because you're refusing to do something God is telling you to do. You need to take that step. You need to do that thing God is urging you to do. Only when you step out in obedience, when you live the halakah life, will you begin to see the transformation of character you're longing for.
Friday, October 1, 2010
Monday, September 27, 2010
Rasslin' With the Kiddos
Fall is here, and that means a new ministry year has begun, and my work schedule has kicked into overdrive. It seems like everyday I come home exhausted, ready to lay down on the couch or just go to bed. I hate that feeling. I hate not having energy for Breena and the kids.
Today was probably the most exhausted I've been in a while. Ezekiel was up at about 4:30 last night, and then Eisley woke up at 6:20, afraid that the rain would bring thunder. We also went to bed super late because we stayed up watching a movie. Ah, the price you pay for some quality time as a married couple with kids.
But I was able to do something I haven't done in a long time--wrestle with the kids. Cyrus and Eisley are at that really fun age when you can pick them up and throw them on the couch. I call this Ba-Dooming them. Tonight the three of us were down in the basement for a solid half hour, wrestling, tickling, and having a great time. Eisley wanted me to throw her softly on the couch, which I did in slow motion. Then Cyrus said, "Throw me hard", so I picked him up high and threw him down on the old, raggedy sofa. They both screamed with laughter.
I thank God for moments like these--unorchestrated, unplanned moments of wrestling and fun. I love what I do, but I love spending time with my kids even more. Nothing heals my soul or revives my spirit quite like their laughter and delight.
Today was probably the most exhausted I've been in a while. Ezekiel was up at about 4:30 last night, and then Eisley woke up at 6:20, afraid that the rain would bring thunder. We also went to bed super late because we stayed up watching a movie. Ah, the price you pay for some quality time as a married couple with kids.
But I was able to do something I haven't done in a long time--wrestle with the kids. Cyrus and Eisley are at that really fun age when you can pick them up and throw them on the couch. I call this Ba-Dooming them. Tonight the three of us were down in the basement for a solid half hour, wrestling, tickling, and having a great time. Eisley wanted me to throw her softly on the couch, which I did in slow motion. Then Cyrus said, "Throw me hard", so I picked him up high and threw him down on the old, raggedy sofa. They both screamed with laughter.
I thank God for moments like these--unorchestrated, unplanned moments of wrestling and fun. I love what I do, but I love spending time with my kids even more. Nothing heals my soul or revives my spirit quite like their laughter and delight.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
The Story of God
I run a program at church called e4. It's sort of like a seminary-meets-local-church program designed to take people deep into the heart of Christianity. It's divided into three tracks, each ten weeks long, and the first track, the one we're in now, is all about the Bible.
One of the things that I hope God will do in these ten weeks is help each of us to find our story in his story. By that I mean that we will find how our story fits into the larger story that God is telling in history, and specifically in the Bible. The Bible is, after all, a story. It's the story of God creating, then redeeming, now renewing the world. And our stories are both a small part of that larger story (the meta-narrative) and miniature versions of it.
We can't know our stories if we don't know God's story, and we can't know God's story if we don't know the Bible. Most of us engage with the text of Scripture in a fragmented way. That is, we read it until something jumps off the page at us. By doing this, however, we're ignoring 99% of the Bible, and when we ignore that much of God's Word we can't possibly know God's story. A fragmented reading of Scripture leads to a fragmented life. How can you know your own story and how you fit into what God is doing in history if you only read the Bible devotionally? e4 brings you present to the other 99%.
God's story is remarkable. It's full of pain and redemption, death and resurrection, darkness and light, ignorance and wisdom. It's the story of broken eikons of God (that's you and me!) becoming whole, finding healing, love, friendship, wholeness, courage, compassion. It's the story of which all other great stories are but a seed or a shadow. And it's your story. It's the story that makes sense of your life, who you are and where you're going. You really should read it. All of it.
One of the things that I hope God will do in these ten weeks is help each of us to find our story in his story. By that I mean that we will find how our story fits into the larger story that God is telling in history, and specifically in the Bible. The Bible is, after all, a story. It's the story of God creating, then redeeming, now renewing the world. And our stories are both a small part of that larger story (the meta-narrative) and miniature versions of it.
We can't know our stories if we don't know God's story, and we can't know God's story if we don't know the Bible. Most of us engage with the text of Scripture in a fragmented way. That is, we read it until something jumps off the page at us. By doing this, however, we're ignoring 99% of the Bible, and when we ignore that much of God's Word we can't possibly know God's story. A fragmented reading of Scripture leads to a fragmented life. How can you know your own story and how you fit into what God is doing in history if you only read the Bible devotionally? e4 brings you present to the other 99%.
God's story is remarkable. It's full of pain and redemption, death and resurrection, darkness and light, ignorance and wisdom. It's the story of broken eikons of God (that's you and me!) becoming whole, finding healing, love, friendship, wholeness, courage, compassion. It's the story of which all other great stories are but a seed or a shadow. And it's your story. It's the story that makes sense of your life, who you are and where you're going. You really should read it. All of it.
Monday, September 20, 2010
A New Look at Love
As a language, I really like English. You can make up words, a process I like to call "enwordenate". But for some reason English has only one word (love) to express a wide range of concepts. Greek had four words (storge, eros, philos, agape) to express that range. We translate all of these words as "love". Needless to say, love can be confusing.
Why haven't we come up with a new word to accompany love? We used to have one, actually. It was "charity". It was probably the best way to translate the Greek word agape that we find in the New Testament. But then that became something else. And nothing else seems to fit the bill.
Coming up with a new word is a bit audacious, so I won't try that. But I do want to help people understand what the New Testament means when it talks about [agape] love. 1 John 4:7-21 has, I'm guessing, the most agapes per capita of any passage in the Bible. But if we don't know what that word really means, and we just fit it into our preconceived notions of what love is, then we're probably going to miss the meaning. So I'm going to take "love" out of this text and put in something that might help you understand it better.
A bit wordy, perhaps. But it changes the game entirely, I think. Love is suddenly much more concrete. It's easy to get around obeying this passage when we think of love as some inner feeling or warm sense of affection. But that's not the love of the New Testament. That's not agape. I hope this little exercise in rewriting the Bible (actually, just the NIV translation) helps you to take a new look at love.
Why haven't we come up with a new word to accompany love? We used to have one, actually. It was "charity". It was probably the best way to translate the Greek word agape that we find in the New Testament. But then that became something else. And nothing else seems to fit the bill.
Coming up with a new word is a bit audacious, so I won't try that. But I do want to help people understand what the New Testament means when it talks about [agape] love. 1 John 4:7-21 has, I'm guessing, the most agapes per capita of any passage in the Bible. But if we don't know what that word really means, and we just fit it into our preconceived notions of what love is, then we're probably going to miss the meaning. So I'm going to take "love" out of this text and put in something that might help you understand it better.
Dear friends, let us lay down our lives for one another, for self-sacrifice comes from God. Everyone who doesn't demand his rights has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not lay down his life but clings to his rights does not know God, because God is the very definition of self-sacrifice. This is how God showed his willingness to lay down his life among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is self-sacrifice: not that we died for God, but that he died for us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so laid down his life for us, we also ought to lay down our lives for one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we surrender our rights for the sake of one another, God lives in us and his sacrifice is made complete in us.
We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. And so we know and rely on the sacrifice God has made for us.
God is self-sacrifice. Whoever lives in self-sacrifice by surrendering his rights and even his very life lives in God, and God in him. In this way, the lifestyle of laying down our lives for one another is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. There is no fear in dying to yourself. But perfect sacrifice drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in self-sacrifice.
We lay down our lives and surrender our rights for others because he first laid down his life and surrendered his rights for us. If anyone says, "I would die for God," yet wouldn't give up anything for his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not lay down his life for his brother, whom he has seen, cannot lay down his life for God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever sacrifices everything for God must also sacrifice everything for his brother.
A bit wordy, perhaps. But it changes the game entirely, I think. Love is suddenly much more concrete. It's easy to get around obeying this passage when we think of love as some inner feeling or warm sense of affection. But that's not the love of the New Testament. That's not agape. I hope this little exercise in rewriting the Bible (actually, just the NIV translation) helps you to take a new look at love.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Enthrone
Your heart is a throne room, and what you desire most sits on that throne. Whoever, or whatever, sits on the throne of your heart is the king of your life. If your greatest desire is to be happy, then happiness is your king. If it's to be wealthy, then money is your king. If it's to be a good person, then morality is your king. Your deepest desire rules over you.
As you grow older you find that these deep desires are not benevolent monarchs. They are malevolent tyrants. They don't lead you with a gentle hand, they crush your neck under their boot. They infest your soul and dominate your mind. You obsess over these desires until they make you their slave.
But did you know that you are created in the image of God? Of all the things God has ever created, of all the things that exist in the universe, only human beings are made in his image. You are the greatest thing in creation, and nothing less than you has any right to sit on the throne of your heart. That throne belongs to the only one who is greater than you--God himself. Remove the low things from the throne room of your heart, and invite God to take his rightful place as your King.
As you grow older you find that these deep desires are not benevolent monarchs. They are malevolent tyrants. They don't lead you with a gentle hand, they crush your neck under their boot. They infest your soul and dominate your mind. You obsess over these desires until they make you their slave.
But did you know that you are created in the image of God? Of all the things God has ever created, of all the things that exist in the universe, only human beings are made in his image. You are the greatest thing in creation, and nothing less than you has any right to sit on the throne of your heart. That throne belongs to the only one who is greater than you--God himself. Remove the low things from the throne room of your heart, and invite God to take his rightful place as your King.
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