Failure and Success: Godliness Is Not Valued

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day....

2 Timothy 4:7-8

After more than thirty years of observing the religious scene I have been forced to conclude that saintliness and church leadership are not often synonymous....

Were the church a pure and Spirit-filled body, wholly led and directed by spiritual considerations, certainly the purest and the saintliest men and women would be the ones most appreciated and most honored; but the opposite is true. Godliness is no longer valued, except for the very old or the very dead. The saintly souls are forgotten in the whirl of religious activity. The noisy, the self- assertive, the entertaining are sought after and rewarded in every way, with gifts, crowds, offerings and publicity. The Christlike, the self-forgetting, the other-worldly are jostled aside to make room for the latest converted playboy who is usually not too well converted and still very much of a playboy....

The wise Christian will be content to wait for that day. In the meantime, he will serve his generation in the will of God. If he should be overlooked in the religious popularity contests he will give it but small attention. He knows whom he is trying to please and he is willing to let the world think what it will of him. He will not be around much longer anyway, and where he is going men will be known not by their Hooper rating but by the holiness of their character.

[Man: The Dwelling Place of God, 97-99.]

"What a sad statement, Lord, that 'saintliness and church leadership are not often synonymous.' Again we're forced to recognize that if we serve You as You want, we may have to wait for recognition. Help me today to focus on 'holiness of... character' whether I'm valued by people or not. Amen."

Blessed are the Meek

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.... Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.—Matthew 5:5-8

We have but to become acquainted with, or even listen to, the big names of our times to discover how wretchedly inferior most of them are. Many appear to have arrived at their present eminence by pull, brass, nerve, gall and lucky accident. We turn away from them sick to our stomach and wonder for a discouraged moment if this is the best the human race can produce.

But we gain our self-possession again by the simple expedient of recalling some of the plain men we know, who live unheralded and unsung, and who are made of stuff infinitely finer than the hoarse-voiced braggarts who occupy too many of the highest offices in the land. . . .

. . . the church also suffers from this evil notion. Christians have fallen into the habit of accepting the noisiest and most notorious among them as the best and the greatest. They too have learned to equate popularity with excellence, and in open defiance of the Sermon on the Mount they have given their approval not to the meek but to the self-assertive; not to the mourner but to the self-assured; not to the pure in heart who see God but to the publicity hunter who seeks headlines.

[Man: The Dwelling Place of God, 96-97]

"Lord, I thank You this morning for all the unknown but faithful pastors serving churches in quiet places. We do place a lot of emphasis on the 'personalities' and big-church leaders. Thank You for the 'quiet heroes' and their faithful service; give them great encouragement today. Amen."

Francois Fenelon's Spiritual Progress: Instructions in the Divine Life of the Soul, Chapter 10, On Self-Abandonment

To abandon one's self to to count one's self as nothing.  Those who have learned what that renunciation is, knows it revolts our nature.  The origin of our trouble is, that we love ourselves with a blind passion that amounts to idolatry.  If we love anything beyond, it is only for our own sakes. We must be undeceived respecting all those generous friendships, in which it appears as though we so far forgot ourselves as to think only of the interests of our friend. The more delicate, the more concealed, and the more proper in the eyes of the world it is, the more dangerous does it become, and the more likely to poison us by feeding our self-love.

However little we may have looked within to study the occasions of our pleasures, we shall have no difficulty in admitting that pride, as it is more or less delicate, has various tastes. But give it what taste you will, it is still pride; and that which appears the most restrained and the most reasonable is the most devilish. 

We may be sure, then, that it is only the love of God that can make us come out of self. If his powerful hand did not sustain us, we should not know how to take the first step in that direction. There is no middle course; we must refer everything either to God or to self; if to self, we have no other God than self; if to God, we are then in order, and regarding ourselves only as one among the other creatures of God, without selfish interests, and with a single eye to accomplish his will, we enter into that self-abandonment which you desire so earnestly to understand.

The reason why no creature can draw us out of ourselves is, that there is none that we perceive is more worthy than ourselves.  But God does two things, which He only has the power to do. First, He reveals himself to us, with all his rights over the creature, and in all the charms of his goodness. Then we feel that, not having made ourselves, we are not made for ourselves; that we are created for Him who was pleased to form us.  He is too great to make anything except for Himself, and therefore all our perfection and our happiness point to Him.

This is what no created thing, dazzling though it may be, can make us realize in respect to itself. Far from finding in them that infinity which so fills and transports us in God, we discover only a void, a powerlessness to fill our hearts, an imperfection that continually drives us into ourselves.

The second miracle which God works is, to operate in our hearts that which He pleases, after having enlightened our understanding. He is not satisfied with having displayed his own charms; He makes us love Him by producing, by his grace, his love in our hearts; and He thus himself performs within us, what He makes us see we owe to Him.

There is little difficulty in comprehending that we must reject criminal pleasures, unjust gains, and gross vanities, because the renouncement of these things consists in a contempt which repudiates them absolutely, and forbids our deriving any enjoyment from them; but it is not so easy to understand that we must abandon property honestly acquired, the pleasures of a modest and well-spent life, the honors derivable from a good reputation, and a virtue which elevates us above the reach of envy. The reason why we do not understand that these things must be given up, is, that we are not required to discard them with dislike, but, on the contrary, to preserve them to be used according to the place where God places us.

We have need of the consolation of a mild and peaceful life, to console us under its troubles; in respect to honors, we must regard "that which  is convenient," and we must keep the property we possess to supply our wants. How then are we to renounce these things at the very moment when we are occupied in the care of preserving them? We are to do what is in our power to retain them, in order to make a sober use of them, without desiring to enjoy them or placing our hearts upon them.

[Chart by Steve Hudgins, http://executableoutlines.com/charts.htm]

I say, a sober use of them, because, when we are not attached to a thing for the purposes of self-enjoyment and of seeking our happiness in it, we use only so much of it as we are necessarily obliged to; as you may see a wise and faithful steward study to use only so much of his master's property to meet his necessary wants.

The abandonment

  of evil things then, consists in refusing them with horror;

  of good things, in using them with moderation for our necessities, continually studying to reduce all those imaginary wants which comes from a greedy nature.

Remember that we must not only renounce evil, but also good things;for Jesus has said, "Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all he hath, he cannot be my disciple." (Luke 14:33) It follows, then, that the Christian must abandon everything that he has, however innocent.  For if he does not renounce it, it ceases to be innocent. He must abandon those things which it is his duty to guard with the greatest possible care, such as the good of his family, or his own reputation, for he must have his heart on none of these things; he must preserve them for a sober and moderate use; in short, he must be ready to give them all up whenever it is the will of God to deprive him of them.

He must give up those whom he loves best, and whom it is his duty to love; and his renouncement of them consists in this, that he is to love them for God only and be ready to part with them whenever God wills it, and never to seek in them the true rest of his heart. It is thus that we use the world and the creature as not abusing them, according to Saint Paul. (1  Cor. 7:31) We do not desire to take pleasure in them; we only use what God gives us, what he wills that we should love, and what we accept with the reserve of a heart, receiving it only for necessity's sake, and keeping the heart for a more worthy object. It is in this sense that Christ would have us leave father and mother, brothers and sisters, and friends, and that he is come to bring a sword upon earth.

God is a jealous God; if, in the recesses of your soul, you are attached to any creature, your heart is not worthy of Him: You must reject it as a spouse that divides her affections between her bridegroom and a stranger.

Having abandoned everything exterior, and which is not self, it remains to complete the sacrifice by renouncing everything interior, including self. The renouncement of the body is frightful to most delicate and worldly-minded persons. They know nothing, so to speak, that is more themselves than this body, which they flatter and adorn with so much care; and even when deprived of its graces, they often retain a love for its life amounting to a shameful cowardice, so that the very name of death makes them shudder.

Your natural courage raises you above these fears, and I think I  hear you say, I desire neither to flatter my body, nor to hesitate in consenting to its destruction, whenever it shall be the will of God to waste and consume it to ashes.

You may thus renounce the body, and yet there may remain great obstacles in the way of your renouncing the spirit. The more we are able, by the aid of our natural courage, to despise the body, the greater tendency we have to set a higher value our understanding, our wisdom, and our virtue, as a young and worldly woman values her beauty. We take pleasure in them; it gives us a satisfaction to feel that we are wise, moderate, and preserved from the worldly excitement which we see in others; we are intoxicated with the pleasure of not being intoxicated with pleasure; we renounce with courageous moderation the most flattering temptations of the world; we are content with the satisfaction that we are able to practice self-control.

What a dangerous state! What a subtle poison! How prideful are you to God, if you yield your heart to this refinement of self-love! You must renounce all satisfaction of self-worth.

Remember, the purer and more excellent the gifts of God, the more jealous He is of them. He showed mercy to the first human rebel, but denied it to the angels. Both sinned by the love of self, but as the angel was perfect, and regarded as a sort of divinity, so God punished his unfaithful angels with a fiercer jealousy than He did man's disobedience. We may infer from this, that God is more jealous of his most excellent gifts than He is of the more common ones; He would have us attached to nothing but Himself, and to regard his gifts, however excellent, as only the means of uniting us more easily and  intimately to Him. Whoever contemplates the grace of God with a satisfaction and sort of pleasure of ownership, turns it into poison.

Never credit exterior things to yourself then, such as favor or talents, nor even things the most interior. Your good will is no less a gift of God's mercy, than the life and being which you receive direct from his hands. Live, as it were, on trust; all that is in you, and all that you are, is only loaned you; make use of it according to the wi ll of Him who lends it, but never regard it for a moment as your own.

Herein consists true self-abandonment.  It is the use of ourselves with a single eye to the movements of God, who alone is the true master of all his creatures. Self-abandonment is not accomplished by means of painful reflections and continual struggles; it is only by refraining from self-contemplation, and from desiring to master ourselves in our own way, that we lose ourselves in God.

[Francois Fenelon's Spiritual Progress: Instructions in the Divine Life of the Soul, Chapter 10, On Self-Abandonment, paraphrased]

Failure, Disappointment, and Grace

Yesterday was the day Christians celebrated Christ rising from the dead, demonstrating the victory he has over death and hell.  That victory he shares with everyone who believes in Him.  Victory that is real and that is experienced by so many.  A victory that I didn’t experience yesterday.  See, what happened was I had the privilege of leading the church in singing worship songs, songs that told the story of the risen Lord and his triumph over sin and death.  The problem was, I made some mistakes that threw off the flow of singing, not coming in on time, skipping a line.  I thought afterward, something threw me off.  Was it the extra loud stage volume?  Not enough monitor?  Not enough practice?  Too many new songs?  If you know me, I’m typically prepared, calm, collected.  I take things as they come and find contentment in it all.  Zen master Chen.  I go with the flow.  I let things flow.  But this time, no flow.  This time, failure and disappointment started to set in.  I couldn’t help but feel I’ve let everyone down.  The worship team, the congregation, even God.  Even God?  Can God be disappointed?  I believe so, but there is something greater, something that overcomes the failures and disappointments that we experience – grace.

 Earlier that day, Daniel taught a lesson on John 21.  It’s the story of the disciples going back fishing.  Jesus had died on the cross and had already risen.  He had told them earlier that they would no longer be fishermen, but fisher of men.  You would think by now they would have started their mission of fulfilling their purpose of preaching the good news to the world.  Oh, and by the way, Jesus had already appeared to them twice (v.14) after he was raised from the dead.  They already saw him alive again after he died!  Twice!  Instead of passionately going out and changing the world, Simon Peter says, “I’m going out to fish.”  And the disciples responded, “We’ll go with you.”  So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.  Utter failure.  Not fulfilling the mission.  Not catching anything.

Here is when grace, the unmerited favor of God, dawns on the scene.  Early the next morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus.

   He called out to them, “Friends, haven’t you any fish?”
  “No,” they answered.
He said, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.”  When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish (John 21:4-6).  Jesus reenacts his first personal miracle with the disciples.  Excited, they met Jesus on the shore, where a breakfast of fish and bread was already prepared for them.  I like how Jesus tells them, "Bring some of the fish you have just caught (v.10)."  He could have said, "Bring me the fish that I just miraculously gave to you."  Our Lord is so tender and gracious.  He cares intimately about our humanity.  He is God, but not a God that is aloof.  It was when God showed up that their joy was restored.  It was here where Jesus restores Peter and redirects him to feed Jesus’ sheep and follow Him.

Without grace, the disciples would have been left with no fish.  The message of hope and reconciliation would have never spread.  We would all be left to wallow in our failures and disappointments.  Our only destiny would be to die in our sins.  We would only be looking forward to a sunless dark morning.  Joy and peace would only be elusive ideals never to be fully grasped.  But that’s not how the story ends.  The Lord is risen and a new day has dawned.  The message of hope and reconciliation is alive and life’s failures and disappointments are only but a vapor.  The journey across the valley of the shadow of death is temporary and the destiny of those in Christ is not death, but eternal life.  God has not left us abandoned, but has given us much grace, and is faithful to give us more.  “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” (Psalm 16:11)

Overcoming Hindrances on the Path to God's Presence

"Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will."

(Hebrews 2:1-4 ESV)
 

The heart is a leaky thing.  You have good intentions and at times a strong spiritual desire for God, but your heart is like a sieve, and pretty soon it all leaks away.  Soon there is no desire left at all.

The difference between spiritual things and earthly things is that the things of the spirit are so modest; the things of the spirit are not pushing in on you; they are not singing commercials to you; they are not knocking on your door and urging you to buy; they are simply waiting for you to notice.  The things of the flesh are so insistent, so clamorous.  Everybody is singing to you, urging you, pushing you, trying to get you to go certain ways and do certain things.

Our Lord is never intrusive; but the things of the world are intrusive.  Here is the point I'm trying to make: If you are going to give attention to the things of God, you must shake yourself and say, "Now, I don't know what others are going to do, but as for me, I'm going to seek the face of God." Some will confess, "I intend to ... later."  However there may be no later time.  "I didn't understand," they may say, but they understood enough at the time.  "I was too busy." But at last they found time to die.

Somebody else says, "Nobody in my crowd paid any attention to these things," but it is always so.  The saving voice of God speaks to a crowd of men, but only one here and there hears it.  When the voice of God spoke to the antediluvian world, only Noah and his family heard it.  The rest of them perished in the flood.

Somebody else says, "If I pay attention to this, I'll lose my job."  Chances are, you will not, but if you do, any job you lose saving your soul certainly will be a wonderful bargain.

Somebody else says, "I want to have some fun now.  And then I'll become a Christian."  This is meaningless, lacking in significance to warrant any serious answer.

Somebody else says, "I was afraid of what people would say."  Afraid of what people would say?  What about what God says?

Society is in an elaborate conspiracy to make us alike.  Society is in a conspiracy to make us all bad; not too bad, because if we get too bad, we become a problem to the police.  But not too good, for if we get too good, we are fanatical, so they say.  So society wants to keep us nice, trimmed down, going to church, supporting boys' clubs and girls' clubs and hospitals.  Certainly those things are all right.  The general society wants to keep us good enough not to be a problem to the police but bad enough not to bother their conscience.

I hear the voice of God calling us to a higher kind of life.  The book of Hebrews is an urgent, vibrant, living book that speaks to those that are on the border and says, "Go on over.  You can dare to do it.  Go on over."  And it speaks to those who could not quite make up their minds whether they wanted to obey and believe God, and says, "You dare obey.  You dare believe."

We who overcome all hindrances is handsomely rewarded when we break through to the glorious sunshine of His blessed presence.

[A.W. Tozer, Experiencing the Presence of God]

With you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared.

If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared.

(Psalm 130:3-4)

How could the forgiveness of God cause us to fear Him?  Most people have this notion that it's God's wrath and anger that causes us to fear Him.  Wouldn't the love and forgiveness of God produce opposite results, causing us to love Him back?  Yes, that does happen.  But that's not all that happens.

The problem is, without forgiveness, we would become desperate and feel a sense of hopelessness.  Without hope, many would continue down the path of sin and destruction, and depart from their faith in and worship of God.  Just as devils have no fear of God because they have not been granted forgiveness, we would not fear God either.  There might be dread and trembling, but no godly fear.

If God did not grant forgiveness, there would be no godly fear, because condemned humanity will forever hate God and be cut off from him.  But because God took the step of pardoning sin through the sacrifice of his Son, the discovery of this gospel causes us to fear Him.  How can we not fear one who is not only infinitely powerful and just, but also infinitely loving and merciful?  How can our hearts not melt, causing us to fear to offend Him and want to serve Him with gratitude?

There is no God like the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, revealed in the pages of Holy Scripture.  In the latter days, he has revealed Himself in the flesh, through His Son Jesus Christ, in whom is the fulness of God.  He has come to forgive us and offer salvation to the world.  And by doing this, we can only stand in awe, in reverent fear of the only one who is worthy to be praised.

When God's Will Isn't Clear

Most of the decisions you will make today aren’t explicitly addressed in the Bible. Questions like, should I eat out today? What should I wear? Should I respond to this instance of my child’s sin with correction or forbearance? Should I shop today or tomorrow? Should I check my email again?

The Bible doesn’t even give specific guidance on huge, life-shaping decisions like should I marry this person? Should I give more or save for retirement? Should we adopt a child? Should I pursue a different vocation? Should we homeschool? Should I pursue chemo or try an alternative cancer treatment? Should we buy this home or a less expensive one? Which college should I attend? Is it time to put my elderly parent in a nursing home? Should I go to the mission field? Should I separate from my spouse while we work on these very painful issues?

These kinds of decisions tend to have multiple acceptable options within the scope of God’s revealed moral will, his commandments. Yet he cares deeply about the details and course of our lives. So what guidance does he give to help us navigate ambiguous decisions? He says,

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect (Romans 12:2).

What does this mean? It means that God has a design in the difficulty of discerning. The motives and affections of our hearts, or “renewed minds,” are more clearly revealed in such decision making.

If God made more things explicit, we would tend to focus more on what we do rather than what we love. Like Pharisees, we would tend to whitewash our tombs with the appearance of obedience — to impress others — rather than deal with the dead bones of our self-righteous pride.

But in decisions that require discernment, the wheat is distinguished from the tares. We make such decisions based on what we really love. If deep down we love the world, this will become apparent in the pattern of decisions that we make — we will conform to this world.

But if we really love Jesus we will increasingly love what he loves — we will be transformed by renewed minds. And our love for him and his kingdom will be revealed in the pattern of small and large decisions that we make.

I say “pattern of decisions” because all of us sin and make mistakes. But conformity to the world or to Jesus is most clearly seen in the pattern of decisions we make over time.

That’s why God makes us wrestle. He wants us to mature and have our “powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil” (Hebrews 5:14).

The wonderful thing to remember in all of our decisions is that Jesus is our Good Shepherd. He laid down his life for us so that all of our sins (including every sinful or defective decision) are covered. He will never leave or forsake us. He has a staff long enough to pull us out of every hole and a rod to guide us back when we stray.

And someday we will see that it really was him leading us through the confusing terrain of difficult decisions.

[written by Jon Bloom of desiringGod.org
http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/when-gods-will-isnt-clear]

Reverse Thinking

Brad Pitt: Why Emphasize God’s God-Centeredness

In a 2007 interview for Parade, actor Brad Pitt describes how he stumbled, as C.S. Lewis and Michael Prowse and Erik Reece before him, over God’s ego.
Pitt was raised a conservative Southern Baptist. For a while, his religion worked. But not for long.

Religion works. I know there's comfort there, a crash pad. It's something to explain the world and tell you there is something bigger than you, and it is going to be alright in the end. It works because it's comforting. I grew up believing in it, and it worked for me in whatever my little personal high school crisis was, but it didn't last for me.

Why not? He points to the ego of God.

I didn't understand this idea of a God who says, “You have to acknowledge me. You have to say that I'm the best, and then I'll give you eternal happiness. If you won't, then you don't get it!” It seemed to be about ego. I can't see God operating from ego, so it made no sense to me.

So there it is again.
God is infinitely wise, just, holy, strong, and good. But God’s command that we see him for what he is, and be glad about it, is the reason Pitt found God unintelligible. God’s god-ness has always been the main problem.
There is an answer to the seeming egomania of God, and his demand that we embrace him as the supreme—and supremely satisfying—Treasure of the universe:

Reason #1 — He is supremely valuable and supremely satisfying.
Reason #2 — Receiving him as such is the only way we will find full, everlasting joy.
Reason #3 — Therefore, his demand that we do so is love, not egomania.

Pray for the thousands of Brad Pitts to see that God’s demand for worship is a demand that we enjoy what is supremely enjoyable.

[John Piper - www.desiringgod.org]

Relationship Between the Shepherd and the Sheep

Palestine has always been known for large flocks of sheep, and the people of the Bible lands have been largely dependent on sheep for their living throughout the centuries. Read the following description of the relationship between a shepherd and his sheep and see if you can see why Jesus calls himself the Good Shepherd and us His sheep.

In selecting pasture for the flock, it is an absolute necessity that plenty of water is provided too. Flocks are often stationed near a stream of running water, but the sheep can be afraid of water that is running to quickly or that is roiled up with mud. The shepherd looks for pools of water or provides some quiet place where the sheep can quench their thirst.

More than one flock may be kept in the same fold. Often flocks are even mixed while being watered at the well. No attempt is made to separate them. When it is time to separate the sheep, one shepherd after another will stand up and call out: "Tahhoo! Tahhoo!" or a similar call of his own choice. The sheep will lift their heads, and after a scramble each one will begin following his master.

The Eastern shepherd has a personal relationship with his sheep. Not only does the shepherd often know his sheep by name, he never drives them, but leads them instead. This does not mean that he is always in front of them. He may walk by their side or sometimes follow behind.

The shepherd is so acutely aware of each of his sheep that often he doesn't even need to count them. He is able to feel the absence of any one of his sheep. When a shepherd of Lebanon was asked how he could keep track of his sheep if he didn't count, he replied, "If you were to put a cloth over my eyes, and bring me any sheep and only let me put hands on its face, I could tell in a moment if it was mine or not."

The shepherd plays with his sheep to pass the hours. A shepherd does this by pretending to run away. The sheep will soon overtake him and completely surround him, jumping and twisting with delight. The sheep know their shepherd will not leave them or turn them away.

[Jerry MacGregor and Marie Prys, 1001 Surprising Things You Should Know about the Bible, 213-214]