Gods and Generals

Gods and Generals

Gods and Generals is an historical novel by Jeff Shaara about the first few years of the Civil War. One particular passage in the book is quite compelling. Some time after the Battle of Manassas (Bull Run) where General Thomas Jackson is given the name “Stonewall Jackson” one of his aides is asking him how he could remain so serene during the battle. Jackson’s reply was he faith taught him to know he was as safe lying in bed as when he was doing his duty – he entrusted his life into the Hands of God. As a military officer Jackson’s life verse was:
Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed,
we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven,
not built by human hands. (2 Corinthians 5:1)

Throughout the book one is impressed with the deep faith of men like Generals Lee & Jackson of Virginia as well as Joshua Chamberlain of Maine.

How is it that with people of such faith they were drawn to resolve their difference through war? Remember the magnitude of the Civil War war. In our present war we learn of a few casualties on a daily basis:
In three days at Gettysburg there were twenty-three thousand casualties;
In two days at Shiloh, a battle that proved nothing, there were twenty-three thousand casualties;
In ONE DAY at Antietam there were twenty-four thousand casualties.
In just three battles over six days more than seventy thousand casualties.

I do realize that looking back at circumstances is all together different than living in our present circumstance. Even so, I am convinced that our only hope to not repeat the mistakes of the past is living the life in Christ.

It seems to me that the faith of the Generals was centered on the sovereignty of God. I agree that God is sovereign over all. However, the Apostle Paul says that it is at the name of Jesus that every knee will bend and every tongue will confess that He is Lord, to the glory of the Father. Paul said that “. . . in him (Christ) we live and move and have our being.” (Acts 17:28)

I believe that a passion to live the Life in Christ will lead us to rightly order our lives to live to know Christ; to come to Him to celebrate His glory (not just to make our life better;) to trust His provision; to expect to become like Jesus; and to always affirm Thy will be done.

Selah,
Alex

The Simplicity of the Gospel of Grace

When I was attending a preaching conference earlier this year United Methodist Bishop Will Willimon was remembering a conversation he had while he was Dean of the Chapel at Duke University. He said he had been lamenting that despite all that he had tried, he could not increase student attendance at Chapel Services. One of his colleagues told him, “Will, you have to remember that Duke is an exclusive private university and the kids that come here are very smart – that’s why they don’t go to chapel.”

Bishop Willimon said he started to feel the sting of that comment until his friend continued, “They are smart enough to know that if they started to attend Chapel Services they would need to change they way they were living.”

I recalled Bishop Willimon’s comments this week as I thought about the simplicity of the Gospel of Grace. The essence of the new life in Christ the Apostle Paul continually affirms is quite simple. Dr. Larry Crabb in his book, The Pressure’s Off, summarized it by setting forth the foundational principals of life in Christ:

Core Passion: I live to know Christ
Core Experience: I come to Him to celebrate His glory
Core Strategy: I will trust His provision
Core Hope: I expect to become like Jesus
Core Attitude: Thy will be done

Admittedly, putting those principals into daily living is difficult because they are clearly counter cultural. There is much to ‘un-learn’ to make room for the new way of living. But, as G. K. Chesterton noted, "The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried."
There’s the rub. For so many people it is not that they do not believe the Gospel message; it is that they do not want to believe it. They don’t need Bonhoeffer to tell them about cheap grace and the cost of discipleship. Intuitively, they know they would have to change the way they are living and they are not ready to do that.

Hopefully, prayerfully, there will be a remnant living the Life in Christ when they have ears to hear.

Selah,

Alex

For Freedom Christ Has Set Us Free

If you have used a personal computer for awhile you have experienced the dreaded ‘slow down.’ The pc seems to take longer, sometimes much longer, to process or retrieve information – it just isn’t operating as efficiently as it was designed to operate. People are like that too. No, I don’t mean we slow down as we age – I mean we realize we are not operating as efficiently or as effectively as we are able.

With computers there are many reasons why they slow down, not the least of which is the pc becomes infected with a computer virus that causes the operating system to lose efficiency. The human operating system can also be compromised with a virus – the disease we call sin. Remember, sin isn’t something on a list of stuff we are not supposed to do – sin is anything that interferes with loving God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength,

Sometimes computers slow down gradually and we become accustom to their reduced effectiveness. Then something happens and we realize something is wrong and we can take the necessary steps to fix the problem.

Sometimes we become accustomed to our own sins that prevent us from fully being the people of God. But God, who is rich in mercy, is working to help us realize something is wrong in our life. Then we can remember Jesus gave his life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us his very own people, totally committed God.

Maybe there is something God wants you to see in your life. Don’t be afraid to ask God to show you – remember He is rich in mercy.

Selah,

Alex

Is the Christian Faith Meant to be Personal or Corporate?

Is the Christian Faith Meant to be Personal or Corporate?

Yes.

Some writers can be so focused on the followers of Jesus fully understanding the fullness of a personal relationship with Christ that they seem to forget Jesus teaching his followers to pray, “Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

Brennan Manning comes to mind. He is one of my favorite authors. His books Ragamuffin Gospel; Abba’s Child; and Ruthless Trust have been very helpful to me in my journey. Currently I am reading his newest book, The Furious Longing of God. His suggestion of a daily meditation focusing on the affirmation, “Abba, I belong to you” is powerful and can certainly be used by God to help people claim their true identity as God’s beloved children.

The Apostle Paul continually stressed the importance of the followers of Jesus understanding, appreciating, claiming and living out of their core identity as the children of God. 'For in him we live and move and have our being.' is how he put it in Acts 17:28.

However, Paul also stressed that God has adopted us as his children so that we can live in community as we build for the Kingdom of God. For Paul, the clearest evidence that we are being transformed into the life of Christ is in our adopting the mind of Christ and become willing to live self sacrificing lives for the good of others. (Philippians 2: 5-11)

Rejoicing that we are God’s beloved is simply self indulgent if we are not living for others out of the Christ life.

And living for others without being grounded in the truth of our identity as the Beloved of God is tiring, frustrating, and lacking in fruit.

The Christian faith is deeply personal and lived and expressed corporately.

Selah,
Alex

Zephaniah 3:17

Zephaniah 3:17

Below are two renderings of Zephaniah 3:17.

First, from the King James Version of the Bible:

(Zep. 3:17 KJV) The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing.

Second, a paraphrase of Zephaniah 3:17 from worship leader and song writer Dennis Jerrigan:

(Zep. 3: 17 Dennis Jerrigan) "The eternal self existent God, the God who is three in one, He who dwells in the center of your being is a powerful, valiant warrior. He has come to set you free, to keep you safe and to bring you victory. He is cheered and He beams with exceeding joy and takes pleasure in your presence. He has engraved a place for himself in you and there He quietly rests in His love and affection for you.

He cannot contain Himself of the thought of you and with the greatest of joy spins around wildly in anticipation over you and has placed you above all other creations and in the highest place in His priorities. In fact He shouts and sings in triumph, joyfully proclaiming the gladness of His heart in a song of rejoicing.

All because of you. "

Now, what if the second rendering is an accurate interpretation of Zephaniah 3:17?

If it is in fact an accurate interpretation and you believed it, how might your life be different?


Selah,
Alex

Grace Sufficient

“Grace Sufficient”
2 Corinthians 12: 7-10

Someone asked President Lincoln if he was troubled by all the parts of the Bible that were so difficult to understand. President Lincoln replied, “No. What concerns me are all the parts I do understand.”

That simple exchanged reveals two important truths. First, there are teachings of Scripture that are fairly straight forward and simple to grasp – such as love God and love your neighbor – that can keep us busy 24/7 for the rest of our lives. And, there are other parts of the Bible that are a mystery to us. If we are not careful we can spend more time trying to solve the mysteries of God than we do fulfilling the commands of God.

In 2 Corinthians 12 Paul says that he has a thorn in his flesh that has caused him great pain. There have been many theories as to what exactly this thorn was—so many theories in fact, that it is impossible to diagnose Paul's situation with complete assurance. But that hasn't stopped people from speculating. Google the phrase "thorn in the flesh" and you will get 316,000 hits. Some have suggested that Paul's thorn came in the form of Jewish persecution, or maybe that Paul's own remembrance of his past was his thorn; Paul's past included the persecution of the church which may have continually haunted him and kept him humble. Some even propose that Paul dealt with either carnal temptation or depression. Others suggest a physical ailment such as malaria, Malta fever, epilepsy, convulsive attacks, and chronic problems with his eyesight.

All of this speculation is evidence of our human need to try and understand everything that touches our lives. We can get so caught up in trying to understand why one person seems blessed and another person has a life of trouble that we miss the point Paul is making when he shared this part of his life. Paul experienced the sufficiency of God’s grace. God has promised His presence is always with us – through the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives – and His presence is grace sufficient to meet every need of our life.

Someone said that a person with an experience is not at the mercy of a person with an argument. I think for Paul that meant that neither the arguments of his opposition or the difficulties of his circumstances were able to diminish the sufficiency of his personal experience in God’s grace.

In our present time Matt Redman has captured this thought in his song of praise, “Blessed Be Your Name.” The lyrics include these words:

Blessed Be Your Name;
In the land that is plentiful;
Where your streams of abundance flow;
Blessed be your name

Blessed Be Your name;
When I'm found in the desert place;
Though I walk through the wilderness;
Blessed Be Your name
Blessed be Your name;
When the sun's shining down on me;
When the world's 'all as it should be';
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be Your name;
On the road marked with suffering;
Though there's pain in the offering;
Blessed be Your name

Every blessing you pour out;
I'll turn back to praise;
When the darkness closes in;
Still I will say;
Blessed be the name of the Lord

Selah,
Alex

“Dandelions”

“A man who took great pride in his lawn found himself with a large crop of dandelions. He tried every method he knew to get rid of them. Still they plagued him. Finally he wrote the Department of Agriculture. He enumerated all the things he had tried and closed his letter with the question: “What shall I do now?”

In due course the reply came: “We suggest you learn to love them.”

“I too had a lawn I prided myself on and I too was plagued with dandelions that I fought with every means in my power. So learning to love them was no easy matter. I began by talking to them each day. Cordial. Friendly. They maintained a sullen silence. They were smarting form the war I had waged against them and were suspicious of my motives. But it wasn’t long before they smiled back. And relaxed. Soon we were good friends. My lawn, of course, was ruined. But, how attractive my garden became.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“He was becoming blind by degrees. He fought it with every means in his power. When medicine no longer served to fight it, he fought it with his emotions. It took courage to say to him, "I suggest you learn to love your blindness.”

It was a struggle. He refused to have anything to do with it in the beginning. And when he eventually brought himself to speak to his blindness his words were bitter. But he kept on speaking and the words slowly changed into words of resignation and tolerance and acceptance . . and, one day, very much to his own surprise, they became words of friendliness . . . and love. Then came the day when he was able to put his arm around his blindness and say, “I love you.”

That was the day I saw him smile again. His vision, of course, was lost forever.

But how attractive his face became!”

(Anthony DeMello, “The Song of the Bird”)

***
"Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me." (2 Cor 12:8-9 NIV)

Is there anything in your life that you need God to help you love?

\O/

Selah

Alex