Today’s photo of a spectacular nighttime sky over
the silhouette of a mountain horizon comes to us from an unknown FB friend with
a really good camera, mad photography skills, or both, who shared this scene on
social media on or around April 23rd, 2021.If this beauty is yours and you would like the photo credit you deserve,
let me know and I will update the blog after the fact.
Well, It’s Saturday and I share today’s photo
because of the awe it inspires and how it points to the Lord. Our created
universe points to a Creator and when you take a moment to look beyond yourself
it is natural to come to a conclusion that there is a God and He is good.
Yesterday, I drove up to my countryside home because
in spite of the rain I encountered on the way, I knew that the trip would be
worthwhile because of the company I would find there, that of my beloved wife,
TammyLyn. Regardless of the weather, I find peace and joy in the presence of
the woman I love, and it is only natural to express my affection for her when
we are together. When I am with her I express my appreciation for her with
compliments, acts of service, and physical touch. My love for her causes me to do these things
naturally and doesn’t much matter what we have planned for our time together, I
find peace and joy just being with her.
Similarly, I can find peace and joy when I go out
into nature and take a hike and start to appreciate that the beauty of what I
found there was provided for us through God’s handiwork.
After dinner last night, the rain stopped and in
despite the flooding from the downpour that created rushing streams of water
running over the countryside, my canine friend, Harley, and I took our walk
down “Freedom Road” and as we made our return trek from the clearing at the end
of that old wheel rutted dirt and gravel pathway, I stood in awe over the
beauty of the overall scene of the surrounding farmlands and how the sky was
filled with clouds in motion and how the last lights of day was breaking
through them all as they dispersed themselves on the horizon.As I slowly walked back I marveled over beauty
of the scene before me but before I reached the roads end, I started thanking
God for the wonder of the world He created, my life, and all that I have been
blessed with as I have walked through my life’s journey up to that point. My
sense of peace, joy, and gratitude over that present moment was deep and I just
had to how I reached out to God to know I appreciated it and Him.
When we get out of our heads and just notice what’s
going on around us – the wonder of God’s creation and the miracles of our
everyday lives, it is only natural to worship the Lord.
These experiences all happened yesterday but I
encounter similar moments of peace and joy quite often because I “practice presence”
with the Lord. I live in the context of my Christian faith by literally “walking
and talking with God” – what I think of as the essence of a discipled or
surrendered Christian life – but it also could be considered as the “essence of
worship” which is only natural when we contemplate or spend time with God.
Neil Anderson shares similar thoughts from his latest
blog this week and I felt to share the good doctor’s thoughts here to emphasize
just how natural it should be to worship God.Neil Anderson writes:
“The Essence of Worship
When
I taught at Talbot School of Theology there was a student on campus who was
seven feet six inches tall. I felt sorry for him, because people would stare,
i.e. until he looked back. They probably didn’t want to, but they could hardly
keep themselves from doing so. I found myself sneaking glances at him. Most
strangers said nothing to him other than an occasional, “How is the weather up
there?” Everyone thought, “That man is really tall!” That is the natural
response to attributes that are unusual or outstanding, which is the essence of
worship.
Worship
is ascribing to God His divine attributes. God doesn’t need us to tell Him who
He is. He is completely secure within His own Godhead. Nor do we worship God to
appease Him. Some believe that if they keep telling God how good He is, He
won’t deal harshly with them, or will grant them favors. That is spiritism, and
that is not why we worship. We worship God, because we need to keep fresh in
our minds the divine attributes of God. You will never be alone if you know
that God is omnipresent. You will never feel powerless if you know that God is
omnipotent. You will never feel unloved if you know that God is love.
Suppose
you saw the student mentioned above, but he was a mile away. He would appear to
be similar to any other mortal, and seeing him from a distance would solicit
very little response. If you were standing next to him, you would be in awe.
Your natural inclination would be to say or think, “Man, you are really tall!”
The dominant thought in your mind would be on that singular attribute.
Such
is our relationship with God. If you are not practicing His presence, He would
seem to be a distant figure, and not too large. He would be easy to ignore. But
if you were ushered into His presence you would be overwhelmed by His
attributes. If that happened you wouldn’t say, “Praise You.” You would say,
“Holy, beautiful, wonderful, powerful, etc.” Nobody would have to tell you to
do that. Angels are not forced to worship God. In God’s presence they naturally
proclaim His divine attributes.
When
I first saw a giant redwood tree in the Sequoia National Park, I stood at its
base and was overwhelmed by how big it was. I wanted to tell everyone, “Look at
the size of that tree. It would take more than twenty men to put their arms
around it!” I don’t worship trees or people. I am naturally in awe of nature,
but it is just showing forth the glory of God (Ps. 19:1). I worship God who
created trees, sunsets, and rainbows.
The
closer I draw to my Creator, Redeemer, Savior, and Lord, the more natural it is
to worship Him, and share Him with others. Should I feel disconnected from Him,
I recall to my mind His divine attributes and “therefore I have hope” (See Lam.
3:21-24).(https://blog.ficm.org/blog/the-essence-of-worship)”
That was from Neil Anderson, and I hope it
encourages all my friends to take some time this weekend to draw close to God
and to worship Him. When we recall to mind His divine attributes and realize He
is with us, we can connect with Him and enjoy His peace, His joy, and His hope.
For
those who want more evidence for Christianity than my simple encouragements provide,
I offer apologist, Frank Turek’s website, https://crossexamined.org/ .
Today’s
Bible verses come to us from “The Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling” By
John G. Kruis.
This
morning’s meditation verses come from the section on Death and Eternal Life
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 (ESV) 13 But we do not want you to
be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as
others do who have no hope. 14 For since we believe that
Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him
those who have fallen asleep. 15 For this we declare to you
by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming
of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself
will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel,
and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise
first. 17 Then we who are alive, who
are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord
in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore encourage one
another with these words.
Today’s
verses fall under the sixth point of our counseling reference guide resource’s
section on Death
and Eternal Life.
7. Believers who have died are absent from the body, but at home
with the Lord.
Today’s
verses command us to encourage one another with the fact that Jesus will return
one day, causing those who place their faith in Him to rise from the dead and
to meet Him in the air before He reclaims the earth to rule and reign with us
for 1,000 years.Death is not the end. And
for the Christians who have left this mortal coil, their “eternal rest” in
heaven will be interrupted as they follow Jesus into resurrected life.They may be absent from their bodies currently,
but they are present with the Lord and will come with Him at His glorious
return.And whether we pass before Jesus
comes back or not, that’s good news.
As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.org where I
always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to
assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk.
Today we continue sharing from “According to Your
Word: Morning and Evening Through the New Testament” By Stephen F. Olford – A
Collection of Devotional Journals: 1940-1941.
As always, I share this information for educational
purposes and encourage you all to purchase Olford’s books for your own
private study and to support his work. This resource is available online
for less than $10 at many sites.
MORNING READING: JOHN 17
“These are in the world … They are not of the world
…
I also have sent them into the world… . That the world
may believe that You sent me.” – John 17:11, 16, 18, 21
“These are
in the world” (v. 11). This is the believer's presence in the world. It is the
sphere into which every man is born. It is the place in which he has to live.
If he is to be kept from evil, he must seek the necessary power through the
name of God.
“They are
not of the world” (v. 16). This is the believer's position in the world. He is
not of it, so must live entirely independently of it.
“I also
have sent them into the world” (v. 18). This is the believer's purpose in the
world. As Christ was sent with and for a purpose, even so is the believer sent,
“That the world may believe …” (v. 21).
I do pray for power and grace to live in relation
to the
world as You have taught me here in Your Word. Amen.[1]
“The views, opinions, and commentary of this
publication are those of the author, M.T. Clark, only, and do not purport to
reflect the opinions or views of any of the photographers, artists, ministries,
or other authors of the other works that may be included in this publication,
and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities the
author may represent.”
Encouragement
for the Path of Christian Discipleship
Today’s
photo of sunrise from the vantage point of the Panther Top Tower in Murphy NC
comes to us from Fred Dimmick who shared this scene on social media back on May
12th with the following prose:
“Fire in the sky
From the morning sun
As whippoorwills sing
The day’s begun”
Well It’s Saturday and while I am
happy the day has begun, because I have to work today, I am looking forward to
the end of my shift because I will be headed north to join my wife at our countryside
home to celebrate the 18th birthday of her son Jakob with a
barbeque.Although the local forecast is
calling for showers today, you can’t rain on my parade because, as long as the
Lord wills it, rain or shine I will be in the company of the one I love.
And this is how you know that you are
in a love relationship, you find peace in the other person’s presence no matter
what the circumstances are.It doesn’t
matter if it rains or it’s sunny and it doesn’t really matter what you are
doing, when you love someone you long for and enjoy their company.A love relationship’s “quality time” is not
necessarily based on the things you do or the places you go to as much as it
has to do with being with the other person.
Early on in my relationship with TammyLyn,
we recognized that often couples worry about what plans they could make, what
things they could do, or what places they could go and are busy trying to “make
one another happy” by creating circumstances for happiness and when those
activities stop they don’t know what to do with one another. But we agreed that true intimacy, true love
was found in just being at peace in one another’s presence. So early on we took
some time to grow closer together by just being with one another, talking,
looking in one another’s eyes, embracing, and just “hanging out”.We tried to establish being comfortable with
one another by just “doing nothing” and “hanging out” and I think we have
benefitted from it because now whether we are “just hanging out”, or working on
something together, or going out to explore and enjoy God’s creation or the
things men have built, we are “together in it” because we know one another and focus
on that aspect – we aren’t striving to accomplish “some thing to make us happy”
because we already have peace being with one another.
Likewise our relationship with God shouldn’t
necessarily “doing everything right” to “make God happy” where we feel good if
we are doing everything we think we should to please God and where we feel
condemned when we mess up, step out of line, or make a mistake.We are not in a relationship based on performance.
God has sought our love and presence by revealing the truth of Jesus to us and
He has fully accepted us the moment we put our faith in Christ. However, most Christians forget about God’s
grace the moment they receive it and quickly make their walk of faith about “doing
everything right”where they judge their
relationship with God on the things they do – I’m not praying, I’m not reading
my Bible, My attitude isn’t right, I should give more, I should do more. I got
to clean up my act.I have to learn
more.
Now don’t get it twisted because, I usually
define the path of Christian Discipleship by some of the things listed here as
they are “disciplines of our faith”.But
a love relationship isn’t about discipline, it’s about being in love and acting
in love.It’s not about getting approval
or acceptance; you already have it. Its about being at peace in God’s presence.Prayer, Bible Study, serving, giving and
living for God are not things we do to earn the love of God, they are the
things we do because we already have it and desire “to be with Him”and “to be together in” whatever it is you
are doing.Whether you are just hanging
out, working, or going somewhere or doing something “fun”, no matter the
circumstances or outcomes, when we are “with God”, we already have what we
need: peace in His presence.
And that
brings us to our current
series the “Lies of the Enemy”, which is an examination of some of the common lies, sometimes
sneakily whispered into our minds as “first person” statements, that the enemy
tells us to cause us to doubt our faith, lose our peace, cause division, or
influence us to not follow the Lord with the way we live our lives.
So today’s big lie is:
Lie #36: You Can’t “Be with God”.
This lie of the enemy is the foundation of “religion”
where the only relationship you have with “god” is by trying to please him
through performance, where the foundation of one’s faith is little more than
following rules and often degenerates on looking good on the outside but having
little or no changes on the inside, perhaps other than the puffing up of one’s
pride if one is able to “do everything right” or the establishment of a double
life as secret sin and shame are stewing just below the surface of what would
look like a “normal Christian life”.
Church sex and financial scandals and abuses testify
to the fact that things were actually not “okay” when it seemed everything was
good, righteous, and holy.Although the people involved in these scandals
seemed to be walking with God, it turns out that they were putting on a show as
large portions of their lives were not spent “being with God.” because their
attitudes and behaviors in some areas demonstrated that they chose to not
follow the full counsel of God and twisted things to have their will be done
rather than His.
This is an extreme example however and as much as it
may be popular to go after the “mighty who have fallen” I would choose to go
after those whose “simple faith” sneers at the idea of “being with God” as
something extreme and our as artificial as the “seeming faith” of those who
have fallen in to sin.
These “regular Christians”are wary of any claims of intimacy of God and
treat the subject as “hocus pocus” and reduce their relationship with God to “just
being good people”.They “just believe”.
They don’t pray. They never read the Bible (Why would I? I’m not the priest).
They give sparingly. They never serve. Their
church attendance can vary.These “believers”
could go to church a couple of times a year or could go to “the building” once
a week or even every day but that’s as far as they will go with their intimacy
with God.God apparently lives in the
church building so that’s where you can “be in His presence” but the moment you
step beyond the threshold of the local cathedral or sanctuary, you are no
longer with God as “normal resumes.”Regular
Christians like this honestly don’t even understand what someone is talking
about when someone mentions their “relationship with God”. How can you have a
relationship with someone who is invisible? Impossible! I’m pretty sure those
people are cuckoo!”
Now before anyone gets upset. I have to admit that I
lived most of my life with similar attitudes.My liturgical church tradition was a religion not a relationship. We went
to church; we weren’t the church. That’s crazy how can we be a building! Church
was for Sundays and the occasion weird non-Sunday Holiday like Ash Wednesday,
Not every day.
You can’t be with God.You can’t have a relationship with Him. He’s
in heaven.
OF course that all changed back in 2010. I was so
far from God it wasn’t even funny; I had basically stopped believing in “a God”
and had adopted a spiritual philosophy that denied the Creator as a mystical
unseen impersonal force that was too mysterious to know, Karma. I was wrong of course but many “regular Christians”
still believe this lie – of an impersonal God, a distant God, or a Super-Mysterious
God that you can’t know, that you can’t have a relationship with, that you can’t
“be with”.
God is alive and well and is available to those who
seek Him.But if you believe the lie
that “You can’t be with God”, you will never even try to have relationship with
Him.
God revealed Himself to Abraham, Moses, the nation
of Israel, and to all of us through His divine interventions, His word, and the
word made flesh, Jesus Christ. We can know Him and when we put our faith in Jesus
we can “be with Him”.
Jesus is also known as Our Immanuel – which means “God
with Us”.So don’t believe the lie that
you can’t “be with God”.God gave us
His word and His Son and the Holy Spirit to believers so we could be with Him.SO when we treat our Christian faith as a set
rules or empty disciplines to appease an unseen entity, we deny and fail to
receive the fullness of God’s love.
We can “be with God” but it does require our interest
and desire to know Him.Contemplative
prayer or listening prayer is heralded as one way that you can know God’s
presence. Googling “being with God” turned up several books on the subject, in
the fact. Liberating Prayer by Dr. Neil T. Anderson is good book on prayer but
reading the book won’t do much good unless you decided to actually pray and to
do it as a means to “be with God” rather than by trying to do something.
My basic instruction for “being with God” is to “seek
Him” and to do so in whatever ways the Lord guides you to – whether through
prayer, Bible study, thinking about God, listening to sermons, reading Christian
books, or by serving His will in some way – all of these “activities” as long
as they are done from a heart that wants to know and connect with God can be
means to be with Him.Give it a try because
I assure you that when you seek Him, you will find Him.
For those who want more evidence for Christianity
than my simple apologetic will provide, I offer apologist, Frank Turek’s
website, https://crossexamined.org/ .
Today’s
Bible verse comes to us from “The NLT Bible Promise Book for Men”.
This
morning’s meditation verses are:
Psalm 23:1-3 (NKJV) 1 The LORDis my shepherd; I shall not want. 2 He makes me to lie down in
green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. 3 He restores my soul; He
leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name's sake.
Today’s verses were offered
by our resource under the heading: when you feel burned out in your job…. And direct
us to focus on the peace that we have when we stop the striving (I shall not
want) and rest (lie down in green pastures) in the Lord’s peace. When we do
this we will be renewed (He restores my soul) and gives us a direction for the
future (He leads me in path of righteousness).
Notice this dichotomy of
rest and walking -God leads us to lie
down but also to get up and walk in righteousness.To be restored and to “not want” we need to
follow the Lord’s lead and live with and for Him.
As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.org where I
always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to
assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk.
Today we continue sharing fromThe Holy Spirit By A.W. Pink.
If we were asked to state in a comprehensive form what
constitutes (according to our views of Scripture) the blessedness of the Lord’s
people on earth, after His work of grace is begun in their souls, we would not
hesitate to say that it must be wholly made up of the personal knowledge of and
communion with the glorious Trinity in their Persons in the Godhead—for as the
church is chosen to be everlastingly holy and everlastingly happy, in uninterrupted
communion with God in glory when this life is ended, the anticipation of it now
by faith must form the purest source of all present joy. But this communion
with God in the Trinity of His Persons cannot be enjoyed without a clear
apprehension of Him. We must know under Divine teaching God in the Trinity of
His Persons, and we must also know from the same source the special and
personal acts of grace by which each glorious Person in the Godhead has
condescended to make Himself known unto His people before we can be said to
personally enjoy communion with each and all.
We offer no apology,
then, for devoting a separate chapter to the consideration of the personality of the Holy Spirit, for
unless we have a right conception of His glorious being, it is impossible that
we should entertain right thoughts about Him, and therefore impossible for us
to render to Him that homage, love, confidence, and submission, which are His
due. To the Christian who is given to realize that he owes to the personal
operations of the Spirit every Divine influence exercised upon him from the
first moment of regeneration until the final consummation in glory, it cannot
be a matter of little importance for him to aspire after the fullest
apprehension of Him that his finite faculties are capable of—yea, he will
consider no effort too great to obtain spiritual views of Him to whose Divine
grace and power the effectual means of his salvation through Christ are to be
ascribed. To those who are strangers to the operations of the blessed Spirit in
the heart, the theme of this chapter is likely to be a matter of unconcern, and
its details wearisome.[1]
For those who require the assistance of a Deeper
Walk International Prayer Minister to experience healing or your freedom in
Christ, I highly recommend Christy Edge’s Life on the Edge Freedom Prayer
Ministry. You can schedule a session by going to : https://cedge216.wixsite.com/life-on-the-edge
“The views, opinions, and commentary of this
publication are those of the author, M.T. Clark, only, and do not purport to
reflect the opinions or views of any of the photographers, artists, ministries,
or other authors of the other works that may be included in this publication,
and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities the
author may represent.”
Encouragement
for the Path of Christian Discipleship
[1]
Arthur Walkington Pink, The Holy Spirit
(Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, n.d.).
Today’s photo of the late afternoon clouds set
ablaze by the setting sun over the fields along Waite Rd comes to us from yours
truly as I took several shots of the marvel of creation before me as I was out
walking my canine friend, Harley, in the aftermath of the Friday’s snow storm,
on Saturday afternoon. By sunset time on Saturday, the plows had cleared the
roads but there was still a hush over the land as it seemed like the heavens
were recovering from the down pour of snow and the Lord was blessing us with a
magnificent light show to encourage us that we “made it” and we could rejoice
that life, and He, was still good.
Well, it’s Monday again and even though you may
wonder if there will ever be an end of the regular routine of “working” we can
be assured of two things on this second to last Monday morning of December 2022:
1.Things will change
2.God is good
As much as we may feel hassled with our regular
routines of work or taking care of our responsibilities at home, with the
passage of time we could very well long for the days we are struggling to get
through today.
I recall the burdens of caring for my children on a
continuous basis, with them in my presence, when I wasn’t working, from the
time they woke up to the time they went to sleep, and now I live with two adults who I barely
see.
Just this past Sunday, I was reflecting with the
Cincotti’s on how I no longer go to the school assemblies and Christmas
concerts that were attended out of obligation but were also a comfort that
marked the season and the aging of all the kids from year to year as they progressively
moved ever closer to graduation and “no more “homework” and no more “books”,
and presumably “no more teacher’s dirty looks”, as we may not have quite
realized that school would be out “forever” someday.
Likewise, as we go forward in time and space, our
professional lives are gaining years and will someday come to an end. Although, I find it hard to imagine,
apparently the routine and purpose that we serve in making our ends meet at our
“day jobs” can be so much a part of our lives that we will one day miss “working,”
This really is a thing and the corroborating statistical evidence that supports
it is that many people die very shortly after retirement.
This weekend as I was musing over the coming
Christmas holiday weekend and the passage of another year, I started to get
anxious in considering the questions of the future as I contemplating what
would happen with my family and my professional career in the days, months, and
years ahead. I got suddenly anxious for a moment when I realized that I had
positively no idea what our kids would do or even where my wife and I would be
in 5 years, and could only imagine a lot of changes between here and that relatively
short distance down the road.With so
many possibilities before us, I was hard pressed to think of something that
wouldn’t change or of something I could control.
I came to the conclusion that I couldn’t “hold on” to
anything, necessarily.My wife and I
made a life long commitment to one another in our marriage so I found comfort
in that, God willing, we could be one another’s “constant”, that even though we
are not currently residing under the same roof 24/7, we have agreed that we
would be “together” come what may. I
have found the love of my life in TammyLyn and holding her in my arms and in my
imagination as my life travelling companion gave me a lot of peace.As much as it is up to us, we have agreed to
count on each other.I have gotten more
than I could have dreamed with TammyLyn as my wife.
But, you never know how long we will be together and
the more we love something or someone the more we can be anxious over the possibility
of losing them.But the good news is
that I was walking and talking with God long before I ever met TammyLyn and I
credit Him with bringing this me far in life and for bringing her into my life.
That second thing we could be sure of, other than
that things will change, is that God is good.Now if you notice, especially considering we are in the Christmas
Season, the “Emanuel” season, maybe I should have said “God is with us” rather
than just “God is good” but the thing is that while I know that God is
omnipresence, somehow paradoxically everywhere at once, I know that His
presence, His abiding presence, His manifest presence, in our lives has a lot
to do with us and how we interact with Him.
God is good, for sure.God is omnipresent, for sure.But I haven’t always enjoyed His presence or
wanted to invite Him into my lifeOut of
ignorance, confusion, or rebellion, I thought He didn’t exist or didn’t care about
me, or I didn’t want Him to. But He
does exist and He does care about everyone of us.That is in itself sort of amazing, I mean
there is just so many of us!
But we do know He cares and we should know He cares
about us, especially this time of year, because He sent Jesus into the earth to
live a sinless life, to pay for our sin debt, and to welcome us into His kingdom.
Regardless of “our relationship status”, God is our
constant and when we make peace with Him through putting our faith in Jesus
Christ as our Lord and Savior, we can have a “constant assurance” of His
goodness and presence in our lives.
In the ever changing world, we need something we can
hold on to. While we may have lots of family, friends, or loved ones, the winds
of change are going to blow and from year to year we just don’t know who will remain
in our company.But when you are
connected to God, the Constant One, you never have to fear being alone or where
the days, weeks, months, and years will take you.
In Christ, God is with us. And on the path of
Christian Discipleship, we can walk and talk with Him every day! That’s what
our life of faith is supposed to be all about, the fruit of the Spirit growing
in our lives, because we decide to follow Him and never leave His
presence.
So, I know how the uncertainty of life, Christmas this
weekend, and the changing years ahead of us can utterly freak us out and make
feel “groundless”.But we have a “constant’.
We have an eternal companion in God and we can cast all fear invthe presence of
His perfect love for us and face the day with confidence knowing that in this
groundless world, we have a Rock to stand and build our present and future
upon.
So take a breath and remember, although things may
change, God is good and if you choose to, He can be with you all the days of
your life. So keep on walking and talking with Him.
Today’s Bible verse comes to us from “The NLT Bible
Promise Book for Men”.
This morning’s meditation verse is:
Psalm 42:4-6 (NLT2) 4 My heart is breaking as I
remember how it used to be…5 Why
am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? I will put my hope in God! I will
praise him again— my Savior and 6 my God! …
Today’s verse reminds us that when our heart is breaking as we
contemplate the “good old days” to put our hope in God and to praise our Savior
and our Lord.
As, I indicated in the first part of the message, even I who like
to think that I have learned how to navigate through life in relative peace and
joy, can run into anxiousness and teeter on the edgy of heartbreak as I
consider the days behind me and the uncertainty of the days ahead.
Let’s face it, while it is awesome to accumulate “life experience”
the draw back is that we leave our youth behind and become schooled in the
impermanent way of the world.
To echo the sentiments of Old Father O’Hara from “Gone with the
Wind” we might see that nothing in this world lasts.As a plantation owner, O’Hara stressed the importance
of Land: because he saw the earth beneath his feet as “the only thing in the world that amounts to anything,
for 'Tis the only thing in this world that lasts, 'Tis the only thing worth
working for, worth fighting for - worth dying for.” (https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/margaret_mitchell_157605)
To see the civilization of the South forever
changed by the Civil War, broke his heart and possibly his mind, as he
undoubtedly wanted to live in the prosperity of former days.
Remembering the “good old days” can
really break our hearts when we ground our identity in times, seasons,
relationships, or things that fade away.
And Thus today’s verse, encourages
the broken hearted to remember our God and Savior whose kingdom will never fade
away.The remedy for those broken
hearted over remembering the way things were is to focus on and to praise God,
the one who is good and eternal.
So, it’s Monday so do what you have
to do, but if you feel low, focus on the One on high and praise Him for He last
forever with us.
___________________________________________
As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.org where I
always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to
assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk.
Today we continue sharing from Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s
“Discipleship”, also known as “The Cost of Discipleship”
As always, I share this information for educational
purposes and encourage all to purchase Bonhoeffer’s books for your own
private study and to support his work. This resource is available on
many websites for less than $20.00.
The
Church of Jesus Christ and Discipleship
Chapter
Eleven
The
Visible Church-Community, Concludes
Christians are to
remain in the world, not because of the God-given goodness of the world, nor
even because of their responsibility for the course the world takes. They are
to remain in the world solely for the sake of the body of the Christ who became
incarnate—for the sake of the church-community. They are to remain in the world
in order to engage the world in a frontal assault. Let them “live out their
vocation in this world” in order that their “unworldliness” might become fully
visible.[70] But this can take place only through visible membership
in the church-community. The world must be contradicted within the world. That
is why Christ became a human being and died in the midst of his enemies. It is
for this reason—and this reason alone!—that slaves are to remain slaves, and
Christians are to remain subject to authority.
This is also entirely
consistent with what Luther, in those decisive years after leaving the
monastery, has to say about a secular vocation. He did not repudiate the very
lofty standards set by monastic life, but that obedience to the command of
Jesus was understood as an achievement of individuals. Luther did not attack
the “unworldliness” of monastic life, but the fact that within the confines of
the monastery this estrangement from the world had been turned into a new
spiritual conformity to this world. This, to Luther, was the most insidious
perversion of the gospel. The “unworldliness” of the Christian life is meant to
take place in the midst of this world. Its place is the church-community which
must practice it in its daily living. That is what Luther thought. And that is
why Christians ought to carry out their Christian life in the midst of their
secular vocation. That is why they ought to die to the world in the midst of
their worldly calling. The value of the secular vocation for Christians is that
it allows them to live in the world by God’s goodness and to engage more
fervently in the fight against the things of this world. Luther did not return
to the world based on a “more positive assessment” of this world, or even by
abandoning the expectation of the earliest church that Christ’s return was
imminent. His return rather was meant as a protest and criticism of the
secularization of Christianity within the monastic life. By calling Christians
back into the world, Luther in fact calls them to become unworldly in the true
sense. This actually proved to be his own experience. Luther’s call to return
into the world always was a call to become a part of the visible
church-community of the incarnate Lord. And the same is also true of Paul.
It is, therefore,
also evident that in living out their secular vocations, Christians come to
experience very definite limits, and
that in certain cases the call into a secular vocation must of necessity be
followed by the call to leave that worldly vocation. This is entirely in
keeping with both Luther’s and Paul’s thinking on the matter. What defines
these limits is our very belonging to the visible community of Christ. The
limits are reached wherever there is a clash between the space the body of
Christ claims and occupies in this world for worship, offices, and the civic
life of its members, and the world’s own claim for space. That this state of
affairs has been reached becomes at the same time evident in two ways. First,
it becomes necessary for members of the church-community to make a visible and
public confession of faith in Christ. Second, it becomes necessary for the
world either wisely to withdraw or to resort to violence. This is the point
where Christians are drawn into public suffering. They who died with Christ in
baptism and whose secret sufferings with Christ had thus far not been noticed
by the world are now publicly dismissed from their profession in this world.
They join their Lord in a visible community of suffering [Leidensgemeinschaft].
They now need even more the full fellowship and support of brothers and sisters
in the church-community.[75]
But it is not always
the world which expels Christians from their professional life. Even as early
as the first few centuries of the church, certain professions were considered
incompatible with being a member of the Christian community. Actors who had to
portray pagan gods and heroes, teachers who were forced to teach pagan
mythologies in pagan schools, gladiators who had to take human life for
entertainment’s sake, soldiers who carried the sword, police officers and
judges—they all had to leave their pagan professions if they wanted to be
baptized. Later the church—or rather the world!—managed to give Christians
permission again to take up most of these professions.[77]
Rejections were from now on more and more enacted by the world rather than the
church-community.
But the older this
world grows, and the more sharply the struggle between Christ and Antichrist
grows, the more thorough also become the world’s efforts to rid itself of the
Christians. To the first Christians the world still granted a space in which
they were able to feed and clothe themselves from the fruits of their own
labor. A world that has become entirely anti-Christian, however, can no longer
grant Christians even this private sphere in which they pursue their
professional work and earn their daily bread. It feels compelled to force
Christians to deny their Lord in exchange for every piece of bread they want to
eat. In the end, Christians are thus left with no other choices but to escape
from the world or to go to prison. But when they have been deprived of their
last inch of space here on earth, the end will be near.
The body of Christ is
thus deeply involved in all areas of life in this world. And yet there are
certain points where the complete separation remains visible, and must become
even more visible. However, whether in the world or separated from it,
Christians in either case seek to obey the same word: “Do not be conformed to
this world, but be transformed into a new form (μεταμορφοῦσθε)
by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God”
(Rom. 12:2). There is a way of living in conformity with this world while being
in it, but there is also a way of creating for oneself the spiritual ‘world’ of
the monastery. There is an illegitimate way of remaining in the world, just as
there is an illegitimate way of escaping from it. In either case we become
conformed to the world. But the community of Christ has a ‘form’ that is
different from that of the world. The community is called to be ever
increasingly transformed into this form. It is, in fact, the form of Christ
himself. He came into the world and in infinite mercy bore us and accepted us.
And yet he did not become conformed to the world but was actually rejected and
cast out by it. He was not of this world.[81] If it engages the
world properly, the visible church-community will always more closely assume
the form of its suffering Lord.
Christians must
therefore be aware that “the time has grown short. In addition, I hold that
from now on, let even those who have wives be as though they had none; and
those who mourn as though they were not mourning; and those who rejoice as
though they were not rejoicing; and those who buy as though they had no
possessions; and those who make use of this world take care not to misuse it. For
what is of this world is passing away. I want you to be free from anxieties” (1
Cor. 7:29–32a). This describes the life of Christ’s community in the world.
Christians live just like other people. They marry, they mourn and they
rejoice, they buy and they make use of the world for their daily needs. But
whatever they possess, they possess only through Christ, and in Christ, and for
the sake of Christ, and are thus not bound by it. They possess it as though
they did not possess it. They do not set their heart on their possessions, and
thus they remain entirely free. This is why they are able to make use of the
world and why they ought not to escape from it (1 Cor. 5:10). But since they
are free, they are also able to abandon the world whenever it prevents them
from following their Lord. They marry; the apostle, however, thinks it is more
beneficial if they remain unmarried provided this can be done in faith (1 Cor.
7:7, 33–40). They buy and engage in commerce, but they do this only to provide
for their daily needs. They do not store up treasures for themselves nor set
their hearts on them. Christians work since they are called not to be idle. But
their work is, of course, for them not an end in itself. The idea of work
simply for work’s sake is foreign to the New Testament. Everyone ought to
provide for themselves through their labor. And each ought to earn enough to be
able to share something with other Christians (1 Thess. 4:11f.; 2 Thess.
3:11f.; Eph. 4:28). Christians ought to remain independent of “those on the
outside,” that is, the pagans (1 Thess. 4:12). In this they follow the example
of Paul himself, who took special pride in earning his daily bread by the work
of his own hands, and thus even maintaining his independence from the church
communities he had founded (2 Thess. 3:8; 1 Cor. 9:15). Paul insists on this
independence, hoping that it will prove that his preaching is not motivated by
the desire for financial gain. All work is done in service to the
church-community. The commandment to work is accompanied by another
commandment: “Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and
supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God” (Phil.
4:6). Christians know: “Of course, there is great gain in godliness combined
with contentment; for we brought nothing into the world, so that we can take
nothing out of it; but if we have food and clothing, we will be content with
these. But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by
many senseless and harmful desires” (1 Tim. 6:6–9). Christians make use of the
things of this world as things “that perish with use” (Col. 2:22). And they do
so with thanksgiving and prayer to the creator of all the goodness of creation
(1 Tim. 4:4). But all the while they are nonetheless free. They can cope with
being well fed and with going hungry, with having plenty and with being in
need. “I can do all things through the one who empowers me, Christ” (Phil.
4:12f.).
Christians are in the
world and they need the world; they are fleshly; for the sake of their fleshly
nature, Christ came into the world. They do worldly things. They marry, but
their marriage will look different from that of the world. Their marriage will
be “in the Lord” (1 Cor. 7:39). It will be sanctified through being in the
service of the body of Christ, and it will be subject to the discipline of
prayer and abstinence (1 Cor. 7:5). In this, Christian marriage will become a
parable of Christ’s self-sacrificial love for his church-community. Indeed,
their marriage will itself be a part of the body of Christ. It will be church
(Eph. 5:32). Christians buy and sell, they are engaged in trade and commerce.
But even this they will practice in a different way than the pagans. Not only
will they refrain from taking unfair advantage of one another (1 Thess. 4:6),
but they will even do what must seem incomprehensible to the world, namely, to
prefer to be taken advantage of and to suffer injustice rather than to insist
on their rights before a pagan court of law over “things that are only of
temporary significance.” If it is unavoidable, they will settle their disputes
within the church-community, before their own tribunals (1 Cor. 6:1–8).
The Christian
community thus lives its own life in the midst of this world, continually
bearing witness in all it is and does that “the present form of this world is
passing away” (1 Cor. 7:31), that the time has grown short (1 Cor. 7:23), and
that the Lord is near (Phil. 4:5). That prospect is cause for great joy to the
church-community (Phil. 4:4). The world becomes too confining; all its hopes
and dreams are set on the Lord’s return. The community members still walk in
the flesh. But their eyes are turned to heaven, from whence shall return the
one whom they await. Here on earth, the church-community lives in a foreign
land. It is a colony of strangers far away from home, a community of foreigners
enjoying the hospitality of the host country in which they live, obeying its
laws, and honoring its authorities. With gratitude it makes use of what is needed
to sustain the body and other areas of earthly life.[90] In all
things the church-community proves itself to be honorable, just, chaste,
gentle, quiet, and willing to serve. It demonstrates the love of its Lord to
all people, but “especially for those of the family of faith” (Gal. 6:10; 2
Peter 1:7). In suffering it is patient and joyful, taking pride in its
tribulation. It lives its own life subject to a foreign authority and foreign
justice. It prays for all earthly authority, thus rendering this authority the
best service it can offer (1 Tim. 2:1). But it is merely passing through its
host country. At any moment it may receive the signal to move on. Then it will
break camp, leaving behind all worldly friends and relatives, and following
only the voice of the one who has called it. It leaves the foreign country and
moves onward toward its heavenly home.
Christians are poor
and suffering, hungry and thirsty, gentle, compassionate and peaceable,
persecuted and scorned by the world. Yet it is for their sake alone that the
world is still preserved. They shield the world from God’s judgment of wrath.
They suffer so that the world can still live under God’s forbearance. They are
strangers and sojourners on this earth (Heb. 11:13; 13:14; 1 Peter 1:1). They set
their minds on things that are above, not on things that are of the earth (Col.
3:2). For their true life has not yet been revealed; it is still hidden with
Christ in God (Col. 3:3). Here on earth, they only see the opposite of what
they are to become. What is visible here is nothing but their dying—their
hidden, daily dying to their old self, and their public dying before the world.
They are still hidden even from themselves. The left hand does not know what
the right hand is doing.[97] As a visible church-community, their
own identity remains completely invisible to them. They look only to their
Lord. He is in heaven, and their life for which they are waiting is in him. But
when Christ, their life, reveals himself, then they will also be revealed with him
in glory (Col. 3:4).
They
wander this earth, but their life lies in heaven;
powerless
though they be, their weakness protects the world.
While
turmoil rages around them, they taste only peace;
poor
though they be, they possess what gives them joy.
Suffer
though they may, they remain joyful;
They
seem to have died to the natural senses,
and
instead live the internal life of faith.
When
Christ, their life, will be revealed,
when
someday he will show himself in glory,
then
together with him as princes of the earth,
they
will appear in glory while the world gazes in wonder.
Then
shall they reign in triumph with him,
as
glorious lights adorn the heavens.
Openly
then shall joy burst forth.
—Chr.
Fr. Richter
This is the community of those who have been
called out of this world, the ecclesia, Christ’s body on earth, the followers
and disciples of Jesus.[1]
Encouragement
for the Path of Christian Discipleship
[1]
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Discipleship,
ed. Martin Kuske et al., trans. Barbara Green and Reinhard Krauss, vol. 4,
Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2003), 244–253.
