don't go back

I find during those inevitable low points that come, that I'm tempted to give up "good" ground gained when all seemed well in the sense of following on with the Lord. For me the key is whether or not I'm going on with the Lord. The arrows sent my way by the evil one, often challenge the good I see in my following of Jesus, even while at the same time knowing I've not (and never will in this life) arrive.

The point in this post: Don't go back. As Ben Witherington points out in the commentary I'm reading, the posture of the Christian in the spiritual warfare passage of Ephesians 6 is one of resistance and of standing in defending one's ground. This will involve struggle as the passage plainly says, and it certainly is not a kind of push button strategy to take care of the problem. We must be engaged- in the strength and armor of the Lord, with prayers.

So, don't go back. When you are in the darkness, don't abandon what God has revealed to you in the light. Or abandon the freedom God has given you in the light (I heard this said in the past, by Chuck Swindoll). And hang in there in the dark valleys. Hopefully I can learn to negotiate such valleys better, though I think I've come a long way in doing so over the years.

What would you like to share on this that can help us, or any thoughts about this?

not only about me and God

Yes, the faith in Jesus is about us, each of us individually and our God in Jesus. God's love is intensely personal, beyond what is stamped in us as human beings made in God's image. So God cares about us to the most minute details of life.

But God's salvation in Jesus involves more than just "me and God." It involves the world. In Jesus, God has reconciled the world to himself, not counting people's sins against them (2 Corinthians 5) and has reconciled all things to himself in Jesus, in heaven and on earth (Colossians 1). In other words the great salvation in Jesus is cosmic in scope.

This is why I think it's so important that we care about what is going on in the world: among the inhabitants of the world as well as all of creation itself. Yes, including the spotted owl as we try to arrive to solutions in being good stewards of all of God's creation while helping people retain or have a livelihood- sufficient work (Genesis 1-3; Psalm 8).

We need more hymns and Christian songs that reflect this reality of the scope of God's great and good salvation in Jesus which begins even now, in this fallen world, destined someday to take over the world completely in shalom.

What thought might you like to share here?

Tomorrow: chapter 5: "Sword in the Stone: resistance" from L.L. Barkat's book, Stone Crossings: Finding Grace in Hard and Hidden Places.

God's peace

There is nothing we need more of than God's peace, a peace which surpasses all our understanding. So that even when we don't understand, we can have God's peace.

I experience more and more of this peace as I go along in my life in Jesus, especially compared to the past, though I'm sure I have plenty of room to grow in this. It's a prevailing sense of God's rest and assurance. Of course a peace of mind and heart, in spite of the problems present.

But I also experience at times a lack of peace. Struggling to understand is one of the biggest hinderances I find to having peace. What we need to trust in is not our own understanding, but in the Lord and in his word.

The mind here is important. We need a steadfast mind which comes from trusting in God and results in perfect peace. It's a mind that acts in faith, and rests in faith. And it's helpful and important to think of this in terms of community. We don't live this out and experience this peace as solitary individuals, in our own private world. But as those together with others in Jesus, in relationships, seeking to live out the faith in Jesus in the world.

God's peace will prevail as we look to God in his grace to us in Jesus.

What would you like to add to this?

like the flu

Like the flu can be that issue that puts us on our bottoms so to speak, down but not out, in our walk in God. I encountered that again yesterday evening in a rare bout of anxiety. That's not why I've posted late. I actually am trying to do better in getting enough sleep, and am determined to do so. But back to the point. I know God is good. I know God is God. And therefore I know I should not worry. In fact, as a friend has pointed out to me in the past, it is a sin. And a sin is to be repented of.

I used to worry on a regular basis. A chronic worrier. It seems at least in comparison to that that I'm hardly a worrier at all anymore. So when this newest episode hit me, it probably hit me in more ways than one. "Here we go again! Same old, same old, and I hate it." I have to say I'm now over it by grace and by grace alone. Like the flu is what I call "anxiety" or the anxious feelings, or fear, which follow worry. And after sincere repentance of our lack of faith in God it takes some time for that emotion of fear to dissipate and be gone, as my friend pointed out. Maybe I have just some of the aftereffects of anxiety left, but in answer to prayer and by faith, I believe the Lord has taken care of it. Though I'm not sure how much faith I exercised in this; maybe more than I think as I'm used to such attacks coming and going fairly soon; this one held on longer.

This ended up being a case of others praying for me I think, or at least my wife doing so, although in the past I bombarded her with so many requests for such prayer, that it had become kind of an ongoing request. I'm sure she did, though. It's also an opportunity to grow so that I will be less likely to worry next time that temptation arises, and if I do to get over it sooner with the proper repentance needed. I hardly know how that growth occurs; it's more like an assimilation of truth as revealed by God from Scripture and in Jesus. It more and more seeps into our hearts and lives, becoming more and more a part of who we are.

Any of you out there with anything to say on this?

keeping a clear conscience

But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.
1 Peter 3:15-16

Keeping a clear conscience, or the importance of conscience is a theme that runs through Scripture, particularly in the New Testament. Conscience "refers here to genuine inward purity, not to a mere feeling of innocence" (J. Ramsey Michaels, p 216).

Conscience could be definied as the moral sense of right and wrong that individuals and societies have (see Romans 2:14-15).

Conscience in itself is not infallible or foolproof. Simply following it in something like "following the angels of our better nature" is simply not enough. One needs the presence of God (lost the good quote I had in front of me, I think from Scot McKnight) and the cleansing work of the Spirit through the blood of Christ, i.e., the saving work of Christ for us in his perfect offering of himself unto death.

I like the thought I heard in the past, from Warren Wiersbe I believe, that we should let the Bible, God's word, be our guide, and not our conscience. But our conscience is to become more and more on our side, since Scripture takes conscience quite seriously as something that is an aspect of us, that we can sin against and damage, as well as something that by grace we need to keep clear. We do this by seeking to follow Christ in obedience, seeking to obey God's word to us, Scripture. And as we do, then by God's grace in Jesus we will begin to have a good conscience and peace that we are right with God, ourselves, others and the world.

But we must ever depend on the Spirit and the word to help us, and never on ourselves. And as we do that we will find our conscience sensitive more and more to God's will revealed in Jesus and in his word. And we will be helped to walk in the way of Jesus, more faithfully.

I'm working on this, as I think over the years I've not taken conscience as seriously as Scripture does. What would you add here for us to ponder and grow on in regard to keeping a clear conscience?

finding God's peace

To want to live in God's peace is a part of seeking to find God's will, I believe. We want the peace of God in our hearts with the sense of security, wholeness, and love of God that goes with that.

But I think we too often want just a singular, individual peace, when surely we should be looking for it in community with each other in Jesus.

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace, Paul "wrote" to the Colossians. There are times when we can find God's will and his peace in seclusion, but normally, I believe, God wants us to learn how to live in his will, finding his peace in community.

This involves a whole host of things, such as encouraging each other, praying for one another, confessing sins to another, and so on as we read in the New Testament, all in the love of Christ which we give and receive from each other.

And it's not like we arrive, and that's it. It's continual, we must continue on in this way, learning more and more what it means to live in God's will, together, as we seek to follow Christ in mission to the world.

This has helped me in my life. Though I'm still working on what all this means as well as how it is worked out in life. What about you?

God's peace

God's peace. It is shalom in the Old Testament, meaning God's blessing transforming all creation. In the New Testament influenced by Greek culture, peace takes on both an intrinsic and extrinsic meaning, for us as individuals and for us as community in Jesus.

But peace is not meant to stop there, as really is especially evident in shalom yet likewise is carried over in the New Testament meaning of it. In Christ we're to be proclaimers and bearers of God's peace, extending it to every sphere of life and activity that is ours, and beyond.

At its heart it is a peace that is healing the brokenness of creation, beginning with relationships of humans to God, then humans to each other (including ourselves), humans to God's creation and the healing of creation itself- all in the new creation in Christ.

When people see us they should see little christs (C.S. Lewis). And especially should this be so when they see us together in mission to the world. As we give ourselves even as the Lord gave himself in such mission, God's peace we'll be made known to many and will begin that work of transformation that is someday to cover all the earth.

What do you see in this peace of God that can help us better understand and live in it?