The World's Most Dangerous People

I don't do many posts on current events.  But one has caught my eye and my heart this week, and I feel I cannot remain silent about it. 

If you read many Christian blogs, you've probably already heard about 7 year-old Lydia Schatz.  She was being raised by what were, by all accounts, a very sweet, loving set of Christian parents.  And she was horrifically, torturously murdered by those parents.

In an effort to save her soul.

Let me say it again.  The parents who systematically, coolly beat that little girl to death were quite normal, well-liked people in the Christian and homeschooling circles where they lived their lives.  And their decision to beat the child the way they did was based on the teachings of a couple named Michael and Debi Pearl, who are apparently very popular in conservative Christian circles. 

How can this be?  How does it happen?  Because from what I'm reading, the Schatzes were no different from a whole lot of Conservative Christians.  And I say that as a conservative Christian homeschooler myself.

What happened?  Did they "snap," as many are describing it?

I don't think they did. 

I think they beat that child because they had come to believe that that's what love does.  Worse, they believed that that's what God wanted them to do.

A blogger called "Water Lilly" says it best (emphasis added by me):

The plumbing-supply-line whippings went on for several hours. To me, this would indicate that it is more likely that the parents were calm rather than angry. I’ve been angry with my children…but that anger burns hot and FAST… Anger and rage are exhausting, and they don’t last long...I want to suggest that only two types of people will beat their children for hours. The first type are sadists who enjoy hurting others…  The second type are parents who desperately care for their children and their eternal salvation. They believe that this world is but fleeting, and that their children’s eternal salvation is the most important parenting goal.

I know from reading a few more of her entries that "Water Lilly" cares as deeply about the salvation of her children as any godly parent does.  Indeed, any truly godly parent longs with all their hearts to see their children saved.  It's one of the most powerful instincts in a Christian parent's being.

Nothing is more powerful than love, and that power has worked tremendous good in the world.  It was because of love that God sent Jesus!  But when love gets twisted, perverted, confused and distorted, its power makes it incredibly dangerous.

I am coming to believe that there are no more dangerous people on the face of the earth than those who believe that love and God are on their side while they pursue an evil which they've mistaken for goodness.  How can they repent, when they believe they're holy warriors?

How does it happen?  How does a loving parent get convinced that beating their child for hours over a minor infraction is an act of love?  (In the case of the Schatzes, the "infraction" was mispronouncing a word!)

I can think of several key ingredients for this horrific stew:

• The parents are deeply religious in a legalistic way, not living as people saved by the grace of God.
• They see how the concept of grace has been abused, and they conclude that grace is nothing more than permissiveness.  They do not know what grace does, and they fear it is only a get out of jail free card.  So they reject it, and will not even consider anything other than punitive measures.
• They are terrified about their children's eternal destinies.
• They know that sin is the problem, but they believe in manmade solutions.
• They believe that they have the power to rescue their children from Hell, and that love requires them to use whatever force is necessary to save them from it.
• They do not know that salvation is a miraculous work of the Spirit which only God can accomplish.  They believe it their duty to force their children to accept Christianity, rather than leading them toward a real relationship with the only true Savior (who saves by grace).

There was a time in my life when all of the above described me.  You know the proverbial road to Hell that is paved with good intentions?  I was firmly on it, and was paving it further under my children's feet.  I thank God that I never heard of the Pearls before I was truly saved, because I would quite possibly have fallen for their schemes.

Listen to how it works.  One mother asked on the Pearls' website, "How do I deal with an angry child? When he doesn't get his way, when I fix a breakfast he's not fond of, he acts angry and blames me.  He often tells me that spankings only makes him angrier. What am I missing?" 

Here are excerpts from the Pearls' response:

"He is manipulating you…He controls his weak mother, but the world is not made up of weak mothers…I regularly go to a prison that has over 1200 men in it. Many of them were just like your son when they were his age...  Mother, I am trying to make you angry—not hurt, not guilty, and certainly not timid. The Devil is running away with your child. You can stop it. You can break the spell." (emphasis added)

(Note the appeal to fear…that would have hit me hard.  If I don't follow the Pearls' methods, my kid will end up in prison!  The devil is running away with him, and it's my fault! Note also the idea that the parent is the messiah, the savior, the answer.  And see…the answer is found in the parents' anger!  To the Pearls, the wrath of man does produce the righteousness of God.  I used to believe that, too.  Note also the insults and accusations heaped on this presumably "weak" mother.  It gets worse.)

Your son needs to run smack dab into a big, high, unmoving fence of authority. You, mother, are a pushover, a sucker…To give over to his demands, even once, is like a mother giving drugs or alcohol to her addicted child…Display indifference with dignity… Like an army Sargent [sic], state your will and accept nothing less…If you think it is appropriate and you spank him make sure that it is not a token spanking.  A proper spanking leaves children without breath to complain. (Emphasis added.)

(The Pearls often make statements against child abuse, and many people use those statements to try to absolve them. But the ugly truth of what they advocate can't be buried under the nicer words they sometimes publish. Their advice is rife with counsel that is abusive, no matter what they may say in other places. Lydia was not the first child to be murdered by a parent under their approach.)

So here is a mother who wants what is best for her children, and who knows that her children need to be made right with God somehow.  Along comes an "expert" with:

• a self-assured style,
• proud boastful assertions of what he himself could do to miraculously transform her child in a mere 10 days (further on in the same article),
• an arsenal of fear, guilt and insults which he sprays liberally at her, calling her a sucker and a drug pusher!
• tantalyzing promises that, if she only had the backbone to beat her child until he "had no breath to respond," and to be "indifferent" to him, she too could be her child's savior. 

As I said, there was a time in my life when I might have fallen for it.  I had never experienced the transforming work of the Spirit in my own life, so what did I know of what my children really needed?  I knew that sin was the problem, but I knew nothing of grace, so why wouldn't I have believed the lovely promises of all the beautiful results that would come if only I loved my kids enough to…(fill in the blank with any atrocity you like.)

Do you see how it happens?  Love can be convinced to do even unspeakable horrors if it believes it's acting in a child's best interests and in obedience to God.  Praise God I have not been an abusive parent, but reading even a small amount of the Pearls' advice left me speechless with gratitude that God kept their influence out of my life back when I might have been deceived by it. 

It could have happened.  It could have.  That's why, as horrified as I am by what the Schatzes did, I can't think myself superior.  It is God's truth which is superior.  His love and wisdom are pure and peaceful, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy… (Jas 3:17).  And while the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God (Jas 1:20), a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace (Jas 3:18).

People of God, live grace!  Teach grace!  Love grace!  And just as importantly, understand what grace truly is.  If people knew its transforming power, they would realize that the hope for their child comes from Christ, not a lash.

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Please do not use the "Comments" section to debate corporal punishment.  I'm not saying that it never has its place, within reason (though right now I'm not sure exactly what I believe about its place and its reason.)  But I do know that corporal punishment in and of itself never saved a soul, and trusting it to save is a deadly error and an idolatrous defection from the only One who saves.

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Grace that Empathizes

 

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. (Hebrews 4:15 NIV)

In His time on Earth, Jesus of course endured lots of temptations.  Hebrews tells us that He was tempted in all points, just as we are.  People rubbed Him the wrong way…no doubt even worse than they do to us, because His holy nature would be far more repulsed by sin than ours is.  There were days in his youth when the drudgery of the carpenter's shop must have been hard to bear, with all the wide world calling to Him.  As a man He doubtless saw the local prostitutes skulking in alleys, and heard their darkly alluring invitations.  Holy nature or not, He still wore human flesh, with all its weaknesses. 

He did not give in to it.  But He knows the pull, the yearnings, the hungers, the pain of unfulfilled desires that we all feel.

Is that the full extent of His sympathy?  Does He understand merely because He was tempted too?  Or is there even more to it than that?

Jesus bore our sins (1 Pet 2:24).  Was that just a legal transaction?  Or did He also bear the sufferings that our sins cause?

You know, I have been tempted to doubt Heb 4:15 on one point.  How could Jesus know my temptation to feel discouraged and quit because of personal failure?  He never failed.

But what if His understanding goes far beyond His personal life experiences?  What if part of the hell of Calvary for Him was the experience of every soul agony you and I ever felt?  Even the discouragement, the failure, the guilt?

Surely he has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows (Isa 53:4).

Not just His own sorrows, as similar as they may have been to our own.  He bore our sorrows.

Ours.

Why not?  If the Lord could lay our iniquities on Him, could He not also lay our griefs and sorrows on Him? 

God's Word says He did.  Do you believe Him?

He says that believers are His body.  Is that just a metaphor, or is there some miraculous sense in which He has encompassed all who believe, and has made us a part of Himself? 

How closely has He identified Himself with us?

When you picture Him dying for you, do you see it as a transaction carried out from a distance?  Is it as if He were a philanthropist who heard that a stranger was wearing the chains of slavery, and sent money to have her freed?

Or do you see Him as one who loved so much that He came and married the slave, giving her His Name and completely identifying with her…even, shall we say, becoming one flesh with her, so that she became a part of His body? 

Did Jesus really leave His Father and come down to do that for me?  For you?

Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. (Eph 5:31-32)

Do you see Him as a husband who wraps Himself protectively around His wife as the whips lash at her, so that the blows fall on Him too?  Do you see Him wrapping us up in Himself in an embrace so firm that death itself could not break it?  Do you see Him bringing us with Him back out of the grave, resurrected with Him to a new life as part of His own body?

Is that really what it means to be "in Christ?"

For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. (Col 3:3)

If He has identified Himself that closely with us who believe, then isn't it true that our sufferings become His, just as His became ours?

But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. (Isa 53:5)

Listen to these holy words from the Apostle Paul:

Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church. (Col 1:24)

How could anything be lacking in Christ's sufferings?  Surely His sufferings were sufficient, weren't they?

Well of course they were.  Christ has done all of the paying for sin, and all of His part of the experiencing of our sorrows.  All that is lacking is our part of the experience.  And why do we have to suffer at all, if He suffered already?  So that we can experience the sweet fellowship with Him that only comes through suffering (Php 3:10), and so that we can comfort others (2 Co 1:3-5).

We may not be able to understand it all, but if we truly see how much He shares our afflictions and bears our burdens, and how much love accompanies all of the suffering that He allows into our lives, surely it will make our hurts more bearable, and our loving Father more precious in our sight.

He asks nothing of us that He has not already borne for us.  Go to Him, heavy-burdened one, and let Him give you rest.

Grace and the Fellowship of His Sufferings

Yesterday turned into a rough day.

Some of you already know that, because you saw my pleas for prayer on Facebook and Twitter.  (Thank you so much for your prayers and words of encouragement in response.  They meant so much!)

Most of the fault was my own.  Oh, it's true that my kids were acting up terribly (one in particular).  It's true that I had reached a certain tipping point of physical fatigue.  And it's true that I've reached a stage of life in which I can blame mid-life hormones for just about anything.  (That may come in handy for the next decade or so!)

In all seriousness, there were a lot of extenuating circumstances.  Nevertheless, yesterday proved the truth of the statement I quoted a few days ago:

The trial is usually never as bad as the unbelief during the trial.

Yesterday became a day of unbelief for me.  Not the kind of unbelief that denies God entirely, but the kind that denies Him practically.  Unbelief which relies on self rather than God, which frets and fumes instead of resting, which seeks strength in anger rather than in the joy of the Lord.  And my unbelief hurt me far worse than any of my circumstances did.

When will I ever learn?

I pled for prayer because my heart felt hard towards God, and I needed others to come alongside.  After all, we don't ever arrive, right?  We just learn to depend more, love more, obey more.  Well, my friends did pray, far better than I could at that time, and the softening began even as the chaos of life rolled on. 

And, showing the kind of grace that just boggles this poor undeserving mind, the Lord deigned to speak a word of truth to me.

You don't want the fellowship of My sufferings as much as you want relief from your own.

Oh, ouch.

I was in no frame of mind for even shallow thought, much less the kind of meditation that such an insight deserves.  So all I could do was throw a prayer back upwards.  What is the fellowship of Your sufferings?  Help me to understand it and want it.

The Apostle Paul stated that this unique fellowship was one of his life's highest aims (read this verse in its context if you want to catch just how fervently Paul desired this):

that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death
(Php 3:10 NKJV)

Last night I crashed onto the pillow almost as soon as my kids did.  But one thought did come to me just before sleep overtook me:

The fellowship of His sufferings is the opposite of the aloofness of my own.

Are you like me?  Do you withdraw into a furiously stewing cauldron in the hidden depths of your soul when you're suffering?  I know I tend to.

What do I miss out on while I'm there?

A few days before, I had experienced a much more "victorious" time of suffering.  I described it to a friend as a day in which God's grace did not replace the pain, but came alongside it and made it bearable.  On that day, I tasted just a sip of the fellowship of His suffering.  Not because I deserved that fellowship (I could never do that), but because that's what His grace does.  He comes alongside and gives the kind of comfort the world cannot give.

"But is that really the fellowship of His sufferings?" you may ask.  "You weren't being persecuted for Jesus. You were just having a rough day with the kids, like lots of other moms.  How is that 'His sufferings?'"

Could it be that we don't have to suffer because of Jesus (such as being persecuted) in order to suffer for Him and with Him?  What makes any suffering a part of "His sufferings?"

Could it be that, just as Jesus' sufferings brought glory to God the Father, we too can bring glory to Him if we allow His Spirit to sustain us?  Do we share in His sufferings that way…the sufferings which declare His worth by refusing to abandon Him in favor of the relief that sin provides?

Could it be that His agony on the cross was not just bearing the eternal penalty of my sin, but even bearing the temporary earthly sufferings that all my sin brings?  Does He enter into my sufferings so deeply that they become His own, and I can share them with Him and call them His?

And could it be that the fellowship of His sufferings is something so inexpressibly sweet that we can begin to yearn for it as one of life's highest goals?

I don't think the Apostle Paul was a fool.  He had tasted something far richer than my spiritual palate has ever known.  I want to get better acquainted with this fellowship, even though it means giving up my treasured "stewing cauldron."

Faith says He will be infinitely worth the exchange.

More to come…

The Grace That Cuts Away

It's been a while since I participated in any writing "Memes," but today's writing prompt at "Monday Manna" was too good to resist, and it ties in very well with our current series on grace.  We were prompted to write something on this verse:

Deuteronomy 30:6

And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.

That's one of my very favorite verses, and it's so rich in theology, so rich in assurance, so rich in JOY that there's no way to cover it all in one little blog post.  But here's the angle that the Lord is prompting me to take today.

Why in the world did the Lord use the term "Circumcision" to describe what He does to our hearts?  And for that matter, why did He ordain the act of male circumcision in the first place?  Isn't it rather bizarre?  Some would even say it's a brutal thing to do to an unsuspecting infant who cannot possibly give consent.  What's the meaning of it all?

I've usually heard the whole idea of circumcision presented as a theological "negative."  Something is cut away to remind us to get rid of the filth of sin in our lives.  And that's definitely part of it (Col 2:11).  It makes sense why a certain body part would be chosen for such a procedure, doesn't it?  If a young man decides to go astray, we can be pretty certain of at least one type of sin he's guaranteed to choose.  Enough said?

Sin needs to be cut away, so circumcision is primarily a lesson in self-denial and loss, isn't it?

What if it's more than that?

Today's verse hints at a much deeper and more joyous meaning.  Look at it again.

And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the LORD your God…

Love is not a negative.  This verse begs us to look at the positive, at the yearnings of our heart.  Everyone longs to love, unless they've hardened their hearts so much that they've denied even that most fundamental desire.

"But wait a minute," you may protest.  "If an 8-day-old baby were capable of speech, do you think he'd cry 'I love you' to the Mohel who just circumcised him?"

Nope.  I don't.  And when God began the process of circumcising my heart, it didn't exactly bring me into poetic ecstasies of love for Him, either.  (I believe my words to Him were, "I hate You!")

But the purpose of God still stands.

And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the LORD your God…

God cuts away, and He commands us to cut away.  In physical circumcision, what gets cut is…how shall I say this delicately?  A major pleasure center?  And in heart circumcision, He cuts away at the center of our being, at the place where pleasures and pains go deeper than the merely physical.

Why??  Why all of this loss and sacrifice and blood (or at least emotional bleeding)?

so that you will love the LORD your God…

Oh, how prone we humans are to focus on loss, and lose sight of gain!  Yes, a bit of flesh is lost in physical circumcision, and there is pain.  But what is gained?  A lifetime as a member of a covenant community.  God's covenant community.  And, of course, plenty more flesh remains than what was lost, with lots of potential for future enjoyment.

The pain is quickly forgotten.

Now, think about the focus of so much of Scripture.  We are to be wholly given to the Lord.  We are to delight in Him, take pleasure in Him, value Him above all else, rejoice in Him (Deut 6:5, Jos 23:11, Matt 22:37-38, Psa 37:4, Php 4:4, just to name a few examples). 

He is to be our "pleasure center."

What if that's the lesson?  What if injury must be done to the sources of some of our human pleasures, in order to remind us that we can know deeper pleasures than the ones mere flesh can bring?  What if the ultimate goal isn't losing something, but gaining something?

For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ…(Php 3:8)

No physical circumcision can save anyone's soul, but it can serve as a vivid reminder that our physical pleasures are to be submitted to the One who is the source of all pleasure (Jas 1:17).

And the miraculous work of the Spirit, which God describes here as circumcision of the heart, does save souls.

And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.

Heart circumcision cuts away at our loves…our idols…so that we can be brought to love the only One who is truly worthy of our heart's whole commitment and devotion.  The process is often painful, but take it from one who has gone from hating God to loving Him…it is so worth it all!  And think how quickly the pain will be forgotten when we enter Eternity!

Always remember, true salvation is accompanied by an ever growing love for God.  The inability to love God is part of the curse of sin, and those who will not come to love God through Christ will be accursed (1 Co 16:22, John 3:19).  Head knowledge without love for God is not saving faith.  That's the kind of knowledge that demons have…call it "demon faith."

If you do not love God through Christ as you wish you did (and none of us loves him perfectly), pray for this wonderful "circumcision made without hands."

Dear Lord,

Thank You for Your sacrificial death for me on Calvary.  Please forgive me for my sinful lack of love for You.  Please, oh LORD my God, circumcise my heart so that I will love You with all my heart and with all my soul, so that I may live!  Cut away my idols, and teach me to find my deepest pleasure and joy and hope and love in You!

No request could please Him more!

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To read other participants' blog entries on this verse, please visit Joanne Sher's blog, "An Open Book," here.

Gracious Hands That Hurt

He finds the places where I hurt, and he makes me hurt worse.

His hands find sensitive spots, and he presses, leans weight into them, almost takes my breath away sometimes.

Why do I pay for pain?  Why do I look forward to these sessions?  Because even though they hurt, they hurt good.  I love deep-tissue massages.  Nothing helps my back problems more.

My massage therapist has told me that much of my pain comes from tension and stress. 

He has also said, "I know great big men who can't handle the kind of pressure I put on you!" 

I reply, "I know the difference between good pain and bad pain, and this is the good stuff." 

The good pain relieves the bad.

After a lifetime of sometimes severe discomfort, I've learned very well to surrender myself in trust to those gracious hands that hurt.  It's a surrender so complete that I even cooperate, commanding my muscles to relax into the pain to gain maximum benefit.

After I came home from today's desperately-needed massage, I soon encountered a very different kind of pain.  The source?  One of my own children raging at me about homework, kicking at me (deliberately missing me, but still impacting my soul), and worst of all, being incapable of getting past his own autistic/bipolar mindset enough to actually do his homework.  Again.  A not-uncommon evening with my child who is frequently his own worst enemy and hates those who try to help him.

It hurts.

What will I do with the pain?

It all boils down to how much I trust my Physician, doesn't it?

Do I trust Him enough to relax into the pain, or will I grit my teeth and bear it resentfully?  Or will I insist upon escapism (as I usually do)?

Normally such an event would spell the end of any efforts I might have been making towards keeping house.  I'd feel too angry, too unappreciated, too soul-weary to face any more chores. 

But my gracious Physician keeps pressing on the places that hurt.  He's been doing it for years, and He's been relentless.  He's pinpoint-accurate, too.  And slowly, slowly, just a month away from my 45th birthday, I might actually be letting go of some of the knots in my soul.

By His grace, I was able to let the tears come when I could get some time alone, and I was able to give them to the Healer without resentment or demands. 

And then I made a conscious decision to do some more chores.

It wasn't an act of martyrdom.  It was an act of trust, of hope.  And it was an act of defiance against the slithering serpent of despair who has so often convinced me that I am alone in the universe and can't handle another thing.

I guess you could say that, for the first time in my life, I relaxed in the Great Physician's hands, trusting that the good pain would relieve the bad.

And of course it did.  Jesus knows how to heal better than anyone. 

As His child, I am assured that no pain comes to me except through His loving endowment (Lam 3:38).  And so, ultimately, all the pain that He brings into my life is gracious.  It is good.

I cause the "bad pain" by fighting, by resenting, by struggling, by fleeing and escaping. 

I'm reminded of a quote, and I'm afraid I don't know who said it.  But there's a lot of truth packed into this short sentence:

The trial is usually never as bad as the unbelief during the trial.

How much of my soul's pain comes from the tension and stress that God never intended me to have?  Tension and stress which, I must add, are multiplied by my lack of trust?

Let not your hearts be troubled.  Believe in God; believe also in Me.

(John 14:1)

Tonight I sit here with a quietness in my soul that I could never have expected on such an evening. 

I only have the good pain.  And it hurts so much less than the bad.

Grace and the Fallacy of "Arrival"

All of my adult life, I've been wondering why I haven't "arrived" yet. 

For many people, their 30th birthday is a crisis because they don't want to admit they're getting older.  For me it was a crisis because I had always thought that 30-year-olds would have it all together…and I knew I didn't!  (I didn't have it all together at 40 either, and the prospects for 50 aren't very hopeful.)

So when do I arrive?  What will it look like when I get there?

It's an embarrassing feeling, you know…thinking you're falling short, you're immature, you're a disappointment, or whatever.  I should be past this temptation.  I shouldn't struggle with this any more.  You know the song?

Modern Western "feel-good Christianity" would tell me I need to just rest in God's love and realize that I'm okay just the way I am.  And Scripture definitely does teach us to rest in God's love if we are His children (Rom 8:31-39).

But an honest look at Scripture does not support the idea that, "I'm okay just the way I am."  If I were okay, there would be no need for me to be humble (Jas 4:10, 1 Pet 5:6), to grow (Eph 4:15-16, 1 Pet 2:2, 2 Pet 3:18), to accept correction (Heb 12:5-11), to confess sin (Jas 5:16, 1 John 1:9)…but I am commanded to do these things!  I am unquestionably loved and accepted (Eph 1:6 NKJV), but I'm not yet what I should be.  Scripture warns that I should not be complacent (and implies that I'm a fool if I am – see Pr 1:32).  I am to press on (Php 3:12-14), to strive (Lk 13:24, 1Co 14:12, Heb 4:11), to "work out" my salvation as God works it in me (Php 2:12-13).  I am to walk in a manner worthy of Him and His calling (Eph 4:1, Php 1:27, Col 1:10, 1Th 2:12).  I know these things, so when people tell me to quit concerning myself with my sin, and to work on improving my self-esteem instead, it falls flat on my ears. 

So if I have more striving and working out to do, and more discipline to endure, then how am I to rest in His love and acceptance?  Must I choose between the two truths, or perhaps shuttle between them depending on what kind of day I've had?

Or have I been looking at grace all wrong?

The other day I was having one of those self-disgusted, "I shouldn't still struggle with this" kind-of moments, feeling humiliated that I had to go to God for forgiveness and help once more.  But then the Holy Spirit nudged me with a perspective-changing question:

Do you really think you should have grown beyond needing My grace?

That was a lightning-bolt question, wasn't it?

Into my mind flashed all of the things I've been learning about what grace does.  Grace is the outpouring of God's kindness to us, enabling us to serve Him acceptably, to resist sin, to love Him, to grow, and so much more.

I should outgrow needing grace?  Really?  What foolish, prideful thinking!

Grace isn't a "thing," you know.  It's not a neatly wrapped package that God hands to us from Heaven. 

Grace is nothing less than an undeserved taste of God.

Whatever attribute of His wonderful Self we need, He gives to us…whether it's His kindness, His strength, His mercy, His love, His forgiveness, His wisdom…He gives us a tiny touch of Himself, and everything changes.  That's grace.  To say we ought to outgrow our need of grace is to say we ought to outgrow our need of Him.

We are not just commanded to grow, we are commanded to grow in grace (2 Pet 3:18).  What does that mean?

Can it mean anything less than learning to be utterly dependent on the grace of God, and to draw our lives from Him every moment? 

To answer that question, just ask yourself the opposite.  How much does God want us to walk in our own strength, our own wisdom, our own understanding, our own way?

What if "needing to draw on grace again" is not defeat or a sign of immaturity?  What if a life of moment-by-moment dependence isn't just the route to victory…what if moment-by-moment dependence upon His grace IS victory?  What if "arrival" has nothing to do with reaching a certain level of perfection, and everything to do with maintaining the kind of humble, childlike faith that expects nothing from itself and relies totally on God?  Isn't this what Jesus talked about in John 15, when He said we should abide in Him the way a branch abides on a vine?  Did He ever tell us we should aspire to detach ourselves and go it alone?

If sin is defined as turning away from God, then what is the opposite of turning away?  Isn't it abiding in Him and drawing our every need…drawing constant strength, wisdom, forgiveness, courage, guidance…drawing life itself from Him? 

Doesn't God accept us in the Beloved…in Jesus? 

Perhaps it's time we defined "arrival" by understanding where our destination truly lies.

In Him.

Eager Grace

Image by OZinOH via Flickr

Consider these two scenarios:

1.  A rebellious child greedily abuses the common graces he is shown, and refuses the extra graces he could have received if he'd been right with his parents.  His parents are angry, fed up.  They're cutting off communication, taking whatever jabs they can take at him, and trying to figure out how to make him suffer enough to…(they might tell themselves they want him to suffer enough to repent, and that may be partially true, but if they take an honest look at themselves, they will see that they really want him to suffer enough to pay for all of the suffering he's caused them.)

2.  A rebellious child greedily abuses the common graces he is shown, and refuses the extra graces he could have received if he'd been right with his parents.  His parents are eager to show him special grace, but he just spurns it.  Grace flows from them, but he will not repent.  The parents provide loving discipline and are not permissive, but always exude eagerness to show as much grace as the child is able to receive.

At this point, you might want me to draw some sort of prophetic picture, telling the future of these two families based on how the parents responded.  But I can't do that.  The most perfect parent who ever existed (God Himself) had kids that went horribly astray.  Children are not modeling clay, and we can't form them into whatever we choose.  The child whose heart seems to be with you at first may turn out to be a rebel.  And the rebel may repent (Matt 21:28-32).  God alone knows.

I can tell you that I have tended to be more like parent #1, but I want to be more like parent #2.  Why?

1.  I no longer believe that parent #2 is a sucker.

2.  I want to present God's grace in a tangible way, so that my children will perceive God as gracious and willing…no, eager to forgive.

3.  I want to remain in God's grace myself, enjoying Him as He flows through me to others.

4.  I want to know that I did the best I could for my children.

How eager are we to be gracious?

While he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.'  But the father said to his servants, 'Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.' And they began to celebrate."  (Luke 15:20-24, emphasis added.)

I wonder, would the son have even bothered coming back, if he'd had a father like parent #1?

Can we extend these thoughts beyond our families?  How eager are we to extend God's grace to our neighbor, to the homeless, to the elderly infirm, to the debauched, to our enemy?  I didn't ask, "how willing," but "how eager?"

How different would we be if such eagerness characterized us?  What expression would habitually shape our faces?  What softness would sound in the tone of our voice?  What hopefulness would shine from our eyes?  How different would we be from the world around us?

Would those who long for grace feel drawn to us?  Do they feel that way now?

I'm sure some of you are quite free with God's grace, and I am thankful for you.  But as for the rest of us, why are we not more eager to extend God's grace to others?  Having received it freely from Him, are we now going to be stingy about giving it (Matt 10:8 NKJV)?  Are we afraid of people abusing His grace?  Do we resent the burdens others place on us, or are we hindered by selfish motives (1 Pet 5:2)?

Could it be that we've never tasted His grace at all?  We've taken His common graces for granted, and perhaps…dare I say it…perhaps there are some among my readers who have named the name of Christ for years, but do not really know Him?  Perhaps some have no overflow to give, because there's no flow coming from Above.  That was my story, for most of my life.  I would be guilty of great sin if I didn't at least ask sometimes for people to examine themselves, as Paul commanded (2 Co 13:5).

Whatever the reasons, I know that today was the first day in my life that I was ever aware of eagerness to show grace.  It is a wonderful feeling, and I know it is nothing short of a miraculous answer to prayer.

I also have felt the usual old flesh coming through plenty of times, of course.  So can we keep praying for one another…not just that we would show common grace, but that we would be eager to show it, and eager to show special grace whenever we possibly can?

If the whole body of Christ were like that, what would happen in our world?

Grace and Persistence

“Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, 'Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him'; and he will answer from within, 'Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything'? I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence he will rise and give him whatever he needs. And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. (Luke 11:5-9)

Why does God value persistence? When Jesus said to "ask" and "seek" and "knock," He spoke in a tense that implied continuous, persevering action.

Why must we persist?

Does God like seeing His kids bloodying their knuckles on the Pearly Gates? Is He so overworked that He can't answer right away?

Does He need for us to prove just how badly we want the thing we're asking for? Must we earn our answers with "sincere enough" desire?

Or do we just wear Him down by our whining and wheedling, like spoiled children whose parents finally give in so they'll shut up?

What's gracious about that?

Like so many other parts of the Bible, texts like this one used to give me a lot of trouble. I didn't like the God that they seemed to present. I thought that Jesus was saying, "God is like that unwilling friend who doesn't want to help." But He wasn't saying that at all.

As usual, my difficulties existed only because I was reading the Bible as a man-centered book, not a God-centered one. A man-centered soul views God in all of the insulting ways mentioned above (unwilling to give, forcing us to jump through hoops), and does its best to manipulate Him. It also pridefully congratulates itself whenever God answers its prayers, and boasts to others about how its persistence paid off.

Heaven help us!

The fact is, people are pretty persistent, even stubborn. If we give up on one desire, it's only because we've decided to substitute a different one that we think will serve us as well. The child who begs for an ice cream may switch to begging for candy if the ice cream is denied. Either way, he persists in his demanding. Give me pleasure!

Humans are demanding by nature. We never stop asking, never stop seeking, never stop knocking. More pleasure…more comfort…more this…more that. We're like nursing babies…always hungry, and not subtle about it (Prov 30:15-16 NKJV). Meanwhile, we're dealing with a God who works on His own timetable. He has a master plan, with minute details beyond anything we can even imagine, and yet with a sweeping scope that covers all of the grand pageant of time and eternity.

He has made everything beautiful in its time (Eccl 3:11)

God is the one who decides when it's your time, and mine, to see our answers come, to see our desires fulfilled.

My times are in Your hand (Ps 31:15)

Sometimes, our desires are for exactly the thing which God wants to give us, but we're going to have to wait. And while we're waiting, trust me…we will not stop seeking, craving, striving. Do we really need more persistence?

Or should we be asking what God wants us to do with the incredible persistence that He has built into us? Does He merely want us to keep asking, seeking, and knocking, as if tenacity alone were enough? Or does He want us to keep asking, seeking, and knocking at His throne?

Is it the fact of persistence that matters to Him, or is it the orientation of our persistence that He cares about? Because if we are, by nature, endlessly searching, and we stop seeking our desires in God, then by default we will start looking elsewhere.

When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, “Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” (Ex 32:1)

The root of all idolatry is the desire to find what we want somewhere other than from God, or sometime other than when He is willing to give it.

Next time you and I find ourselves tempted to give up on a prayer, let's ask ourselves some important questions:

• Has God given us a definite "no?" That can happen (2 Co 12:8-9), and when it does, then it's right to surrender our desire.
• If God hasn't told us "no," but we're discouraged with His lack of answers and want to quit, are we truly giving up on the desire, or are we seeking satisfaction in some other form, from somewhere else?

The question is not, "How persistent can we be?" as if we should exercise a man-centered trust in our inner strength. The question is "Who deserves our persistence?" That's where grace comes in! Grace orients us to God, when our natural tendency is to focus on ourselves. The man in the parable did not go anywhere else in his tenacious search…he kept knocking at this door, even when it seemed like his friend didn't care. God, in His grace, assures us of His love, so (the parable asks by inference), how much more persistent should we be than the man with the uncaring friend? And grace, not the brute force of our will, is behind every answer, whether it's the "yes" we long for, the "no" we dread, or the "wait" that keeps us hanging. All work out for our good.

While we are seeking, where do we seek? Are we before the throne, or are we buried in the TV advice-mongers? Are we dipping into the Living Waters, or into the chocolates?

After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the Twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” (John 6:66-69)

See how Peter's faith and his persistence went hand-in-hand? He didn't persist because of faith in his own tenacity. He persisted because of faith in Jesus. When we put faith in our own endurance, we are idolaters. When we put faith in Jesus, our persistence at His feet comes naturally.

To whom else would we go?

Grace and Last Night's Homework

Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another (Jas 5:16)

Last time, I mentioned my need for prayer because of easily-provoked anger and a legalistic parenting style. And after what happened last night, I can't help believing that some of you prayed for me. Thank you.

Homework with one precious son started out horribly…autistic obsessiveness, screaming, tantruming, and all of the usual indications that no work would actually get done.

I was working up a good head of steam (no surprise), counting on the idea that the right consequences combined with the right level of anger would change things for the better. The wrath of man does produce the righteousness of God, doesn't it? (Ummm…see Jas 1:20)

Tell me I'm not the only one who does that!

Anyway, right in the middle of this awful mess, when it looked like we were destined to be at each other's throats, God intervened by His grace.

I can think of no other explanation. There's no way I could have stepped myself back from my anger, or seen so clearly what was needed, or even desired to do what was needed if I had seen it. It was definitely a God thing, a change of heart, a dawning of light.

"Son," I said, "I'm making a very foolish mistake, thinking I'm going to make this better by being angry. And you're making foolish mistakes, too. What do you think we need to do?"

I don't remember what he answered, but it wasn't quite what I had in mind, so I asked him, "Who is the only one who can help us?"

"God," he replied.

"I think we should pray," I agreed.

He nodded, looking a little repentant, and then bowed his head and squeezed his eyes shut tight.

I prayed aloud something like this, "Lord, please forgive me for my anger, and for trusting in my anger to make things right. And please forgive my son for his rebellion against doing his homework. Help us both to be wiser, and to remember to look to You for help, and to be humble and obedient."

After the "Amen," there was a complete 180 for both of us.

Folks, that's not the power of prayer. That's the power of GOD, accessed through prayer. Prayer is only as good as the one being prayed to. And our God is not only good; He is also gracious.

What's the difference between "good" and "gracious?" It's simply this: if God had chosen to say "no" to my request, He would still have been good. He cannot be other than good. His "no" would have had some glorious purpose behind it. He didn't have to say "Yes," but He did.

That's grace. Undeserved kindness.

We worked together for almost two hours, my son and I, with no more anger, no more tantruming, no more ugliness. And when it was over, we bowed our heads and thanked the Lord for helping us.

So now I want to thank all of you who prayed to our God through the Lord Jesus Christ. You had a hand in giving us this priceless moment in time. Who knows how deep an impression it may have made on a young heart?

I know it made quite an impression on mine.

Giving Common Grace

I don't have a clue how grace goes with parenting.

Really, not a clue.

Lately, as I've studied and prayed more about grace, I've felt increasingly convicted about my easily-provoked anger and my legalistic style of parenting.

But what do you do when kids don't respond to anything but legalism?  What do you do when grace is abused and turned into an excuse to sin?

What does God do?

We've already discussed that a bit in this series, but how can I learn from what He does?  After all, I'm not all-knowing and all-wise.  I can't utilize the perfect balance of kindness and severity like He can (Rom 11:22).  And if I can't dispense grace in the same way He does, then what am I supposed to do with it?

I don't know yet, but I do know one thing…one answer that the Holy Spirit put in my heart the other day.

Give common grace.

That was it.  Give common grace.  That's what God does, isn't it?  He gives a certain amount of grace to everybody…common graces like beauty to behold, people to love, tastes to savor, successes to celebrate (see Matt 5:45).

How, as a parent, do I give common grace?

I give it by washing dishes, cleaning rooms, scrubbing toilets, cooking meals…and doing it all graciously.

Well, I don't do it that way, but I should.

It's easy to do these things resentfully, and to neglect doing them whenever possible.  It's also easy to do them in a half-baked way, figuring that the people who are going to destroy all of my hard work really don't deserve my best.

When I have a bad day, does God shrink the glorious Rocky Mountains down to a size I deserve to look at?  Does He make my favorite meal taste like Brussels Sprouts if I've been disobedient?  Does He spitefully refuse to care for me on days when I've failed Him? 

Doesn't He give good things even to those He knows will perish eternally?

My fear of seeing grace abused has often kept me from showing grace to others.  My horror at being "walked all over" like a doormat has often made me protest against the very thought of graciousness.

But God gives common grace…to everyone.  Even to the most undeserving souls.

Like me.

Shouldn't I give common graces to my children just as graciously, regardless of how they've behaved that day?  True, I probably can't give them all of the special graces they might have enjoyed if they had been of a mind to receive them, but can't I give those ordinary, humble acts of love with a willing heart and a cheerful Spirit?

No.

I can't.  I'm too selfish, too naturally angry, too lazy.

But Christ can, through me. 

And I'm beginning to want to spread more of His grace around, because God is no fool.  If He gives common grace to me, then He can give it through me, and He won't be made a "sucker" no matter how poorly His grace is received.  I can leave the consequences up to Him.

And you know what?  I bet those "consequences" will end up being far better than anything my anger could have created (Jas 1:19).

Give common grace!  And pray for me that I will do the same.  Please.  I really, really need it.

My children will thank you…

The Blessing of Hunger (Pt. 2)

Way back in March of this year I wrote an entry called "The Blessing of Hunger."  In it, I promised that a "Part 2" was coming, in which we would talk about the blessing of spiritual hunger.  

Somehow, it never happened, and I didn't even realize my omission until recently.

God, of course, knew all about it.  And maybe He just wanted it to be written now, while we're talking so much about grace.  Because without God's grace, we could never hunger for Him as we should.  Hunger for God is a gift of grace. 

And of course, this strong desire that we call "hunger" is sometimes described with another powerful word…thirst.

"As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for You, Oh God.  My soul thirsts for God, for the living God." (Ps. 42:1-2)

As a child I used to read that verse with a touch of pity for David…not because his hunger wasn't being satisfied, but because he was so strange to feel such hunger in the first place!  He seemed like a bit of a weirdo, out of touch with what really matters in the world.  After all, I already had my head stuffed full of Christianity, and I couldn't see anything to get that excited about.

Pretty sorry testimony, isn't it? 

There are those who would have prescribed more exciting music, more fun and games in Sunday School, or maybe a good dose of guilt to cure my malady, if they had known about it.  I wonder if anyone would have realized that what I needed was grace.

And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live. (Deut 30:6)

Love for God, and the resulting desire for God, are a gift from God!  (So is salvation…and many of us would argue that there's a strong bond between the two.)

Most of my career was spent working in nursing homes, so naturally I saw a lot of people who were approaching the end of their lives.  And one of the more ominous signs we saw was the loss of appetite.  When people lost the desire for food, we grew concerned that the end was near.  And it goes without saying that we worry terribly about infants who have no desire for food.  Clearly their lives are in jeopardy.

How's your appetite?

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. (Matt 5:6)

There's more than one way to lose your appetite, you know.  One way is, frankly, to be dead.  Those who are spiritually dead have no hunger for the one true God, except what the Spirit miraculously gives to them as He's drawing them towards life.  But what about those of us who are spiritually alive?  We have tasted and seen that the Lord is good (Ps 34:8), and yet sometimes we still feel no desire for Him.  What's that about?

Sometimes, of course, it's outright sin and rebellion.  Sometimes it may be a God-ordained "dry spell" that He gives us for His own gracious reasons.  But often, I suspect, it's because we've glutted ourselves on the spiritual equivalent of junk food.

“Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food." (Isa 55:1-2)

Give a kid enough nutritionless candy, and he'll turn up his nose at what his body really needs.

What's the "candy" in your life?  What do you spend money for even though it's not bread?  What do you work for that doesn't satisfy?

One who is full loathes honey, but to one who is hungry everything bitter is sweet. (Prov 27:7)

What is making you loathe the honey?

There's one more reason I can think of why people don't hunger for God more.  They don't understand the truth that Oswald Chambers expressed so beautifully when he said, “Eternal life is not a gift from God. It is the gift of God.”  In the Gospel, God gives us Himself.  Yet we have stocked our churches full of people who believe that the gospel is about getting them off the hook, saving them from Hell, and giving them worldly prosperity.  No wonder they squirm in their seats when they hear that they're supposed to hunger for God Himself!  What could "hungering for God" possibly mean?

I've heard well-meaning people try to whip up enthusiasm for God by reminding others of how He saved them from Hell, and nothing else. Well of course we should never tire of rejoicing in that salvation.  But do we neglect the truest meaning of salvation…not the lack of Hell, but union with God through Christ? 

And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. (John 17:3)

Do we realize there is a God to be loved, savored, treasured, cherished, and enjoyed ecstatically for all of eternity?  Does this God, who makes Heaven heavenly, seem as tasteless as the white of an egg to us?

If so, the problem is not with Him, but with our appetite.  And for us the apostle Paul prays,

And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. (Php 1:9-11)

Will you pray that for yourself as well?  Will you pray for hunger and thirst…not just for Heaven, but for Him?  Will you pray that for all believers?

I know it would mean a lot to me if you were praying that for me!

Grace and Humility

Last time I mentioned that there were two thoughts which had kept coming into my mind lately.  Here is the second, and I hope you'll take note of where the emphasis is placed on various words.  Really think about this question, as it relates to loyalty to God:

Am I most troubled because

I am not

perfectly loyal to God,

 

Or am I most troubled because

I am not perfectly loyal

to God?

Have you taken the time to really examine yourself on this question?

When you think of loyalty to God, where is your focus?  Is it on yourself, and the quality of your loyalty, and how it measures up to other people's loyalty or to your own expectations?  Do thoughts of loyalty make you feel burdened…or proud?

Or is your focus on Christ, and how worthy He is of all loyalty?  Do thoughts of loyalty revolve around love and admiration?  Is loyalty a joy?

Your answer to that question will reveal to a large extent whether you function by law or by grace. 

Do you agree?  Please post your comments below.

Grace, Love, and Loyalty

Two thoughts have kept coming to me this week as I've worked on this series.  They've struck me pretty hard sometimes, and this morning they got me out of bed with the need to write about them.  I'll only have room for one today, and here it is.

Imagine yourself living a normal life, just the way you typically live it.  And then, one day, a hostile government swoops down on your home, hauls you away to their facilities, and tells you that you must deny Christ in some way in order to be released.  You steel yourself and say, "No, I cannot turn against Christ." 

You expect them to be angry, but instead they laugh and say, "Why not?  Why should today be different from yesterday?"  And as you stand there, your recent loyalty to Christ runs through your mind…how often you've denied Him in the angry words you've spoken to others, in the choices of entertainment you've made, in the priority you have given to other things over Him.

Yesterday, those little denials seemed to be worth it, yet they gained you only minor benefits…the chance to blow off steam, to enjoy a few laughs, to pursue your own agenda.  Today, a seemingly small denial will win you back your freedom and your family.  How much would that denial be worth to you?

Why should today's loyalty to Christ be different from yesterday's?  Do we have any right to expect that we would be more loyal under persecution than under ordinary circumstances?  Perhaps we might be.  But there's no peace in that "perhaps."

Let's look at it another way.  Have you ever wondered if you would have enough strength to run out in front of a speeding car to push your toddler to safety?  If you're a parent reading this, you probably think, "Of course I would!  Fear or no fear, cost or no cost, I'd just do it naturally because I love him!"

Dear Reader, how often have you wondered if, under persecution, you would have enough strength to stand?  Has it ever occurred to you to wonder if you would have enough love for God to stand?

If a person decides to gain strength, how do they go about it?  They focus on themselves…their diet, their exercise, how much weight they can lift, how much their muscles bulge when they admire themselves in the mirror.

If a person decides to gain love, how do they go about it?  Do they focus mostly on themselves?  Well, they might, if they're trying to gain love out of a sense of legalism.  But that would be a futile attempt.  Legalism is all about work and bondage.  Love is free, spontaneous, and joyful.  (Do you recognize the photo above?  It's the gate to the Dachau Concentration Camp in Nazi Germany.  The words on the gate say, "Work will set you free."  It was a lie then, and it's a lie now.)

In order to grow in love with God, we need a miraculous work of the Spirit (Deut 30:6).  And His Spirit speaks most through His Word.

Be in the Word, and if necessary, change the reason why you're there.  Open the pages every day with a prayer that the Spirit of God would teach you to love Him!  Search the Word hungrily for who He is, the same way devoted teenagers search the fan magazines for the smallest bits of trivia about their idols.  Make it your prayer throughout the day as you work and as you rest: "Lord give me a heart that loves You as You deserve to be loved!" 

How would such a constant prayer focus change your life?

Now let me ask you this: when you imagine praying for God to help you love Him, how does that feel to you?

Does it feel like a desperate plea to learn to love the unlovable, sort of like praying that God would help you to love headaches?  If so, you've got plenty of sad company.  I felt that way about it for a long time myself.  It's the best the flesh can muster.

Instead, pray desperately that God would forgive your love for sin and self which blind you to His beauty.  Ask Him to open your eyes to how infinitely worthy He is of your lifelong love and devotion.  He is that worthy, you know.  Ask Him for the kind of love that will strengthen you in persecution, in part by asking Him for the kind of love that will govern how (and how much) you entertain yourself this afternoon. 

After all, if love for God guides your decisions throughout your normal days, what do you think will happen when persecution comes?  Will you be thinking mostly in terms of mustering up strength on that day?

Or would your loyalty to Christ come naturally, fear or no fear, cost or no cost, because you love Him?

Grace, Felt and Unfelt

Sunday night held a wonderful moment of "felt grace."

Night owl that I am, I crawled between the sheets shortly before midnight; my heart full of the devotions I'd just finished, my brain fogged with sleepiness, and a 6 a.m. alarm awaiting me all too soon.

In other words, it was a fairly normal night.

As usual when my brain is too tired to stay awake much longer, I had a choice to make.  Should I spend my remaining waking minutes in prayer, or in reviewing the many memory verses I hadn't gotten to yet that day?

I usually default to the memory verses.  But last night the Holy Spirit wouldn't allow it.

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding."  It wasn't just a random childhood memory verse coming to the fore.  It was a verse powerfully brought to mind by the Spirit, illuminated in a whole new way.

You want to fill your head with my Word, but you don't want to bring your heart to Me.

When the Spirit speaks, His conviction feels cleansing, purifying, even freeing.  Not at all like a guilt trip.  So this Word felt like the wonderful act of grace that it was.

He was right, of course.  Memorization is wonderful and necessary, but it's not enough.  I tend to trust in my own understanding of Scriptures, apart from the Spirit's application of it in my life, and I tend to feel (subconsciously) that reviewing verses is just as helpful to me as praying.  Wrong!  When I think that way, I'm leaning on my own understanding of Scripture more than trusting in Him.

By all means, memorize!  Memorize tons!  But let memorization bring you to the throne of grace.  Come to Christ with what the Scripture reveals to your heart.  Ask for His transforming work.  That's what grace taught me last night.  (Oh sure, I'd heard that truth before, but it didn't sink in until grace touched it.)

I wrote the previous paragraphs early Monday morning.  And Monday turned out to be a really, really rough day.  The kind of day that often sends me plummeting into a morass of simmering rage, basted with self-pity.

On this particular bad day, I did blow my top a couple of times, but overall, I felt God's grace more than I ever have on a day like that. 

You see, sometimes grace is about giving us happy times, but if that's all grace could be, then it would be pretty shallow.  Sometimes, like on Monday, it's about bringing us closer to Our Loving Father and seeing the change that His touch can make in even the worst of days.  And it's about empowering us to love, even when those we love are driving us nuts.

Grace moves us Godward.  It could not do less and still be gracious.

But what about those times when we don't feel God's grace?  Has He abandoned us? 

If we are truly God's children, adopted through faith in Christ Jesus (Eph 1:5), then He promises to complete the good work which He began in us (Php 1:6).  And sometimes that means bringing us to the end of ourselves.

In my life it meant years of depression, believing that death would be preferable to life, rage at God for all of my troubles, and eventually stripping away my prideful religious veneer until I heard myself saying with all the venom in my soul, "God, You're a cosmic sadist and I hate You!"

Amazingly enough, if you were to ask me when was the first time I ever truly felt the grip of God's love, my mind would instantly go back to the moment I said that.  (Please read the entry called "Feeling His Grip" to get that whole story.)  I had to get to that moment in order to finally be freed of my own misconceptions about my spiritual superiority.  It was grace that broke me, so that I would stop my headlong rush toward destruction.  It was grace that eventually turned me Godward.

Now, God may not need to use a sledgehammer approach on you like He did with this old tough nut, but in every life there are times when grace must be firm.  Love must be tough.  And when we're hurting, grace may seem completely absent until the suffering ends and hindsight shows us how He led us through it all.

Always remember, whether it's pain or pleasure, loss or gain, joy or grief…

anything that moves you toward the only True God, through Jesus Christ His Son, is grace! 

Conditional Grace?

Everybody tastes God's grace, every day.

Most don't recognize it for what it is.

God could have made the world monochrome. He could have made the atmosphere of our planet only 200 feet above the ground, eliminating mountains (not to mention all sense of grandeur). He could have made us eat nothing but flavorless paste all the time.

What explanation can there be for the riotous explosion of colors all around us, for the majesty of the heavens both day and night, for the blessings of food and flowers and music, for the wonder of snowflakes, or for any of the countless glories that He gives to the world each day?

It's all grace. Theologians call it "Common grace," because it is given to all, unconditionally (Matt 5:45). What man ever earned a sunset?

Like the wonderful examples of grace that we discussed last time, common grace is designed to tell people about God (Acts 14:17). The beauty of creation glorifies the Creator (Ps. 19:1, Ps 139:14) This fact is plainly visible to anyone who is willing to see it (Rom. 1:19-20)

But is all grace "common?" Or is there a more extraordinary grace -- call it "special grace" -- available?

And what about those verses in the Bible that make grace sound conditional? Is there some grace that's given freely, and other grace that's earned?

God's Word makes it clear that grace and "earning" are polar opposites. You can't have both at the same time (Rom 11:6). So then what do you with verses like Dan 9:4 and Neh 1:5 which make it seem like grace is conditional?

Is it possible for something to actually be conditional, without being earned?

Let me answer this question by setting up a rather absurd image. Suppose one of my children came up to me and said, "I need to borrow a washcloth so I can unlock the car door." I would look at him in confusion and say, "washcloths don't unlock car doors," and I wouldn't give it to him. Or, if I did give it to him, his futile attempts to use it would present a sad spectacle.

Suppose that same child kept coming up to me for weeks on end, requesting washcloths to do all sorts of bizarre things like making phone calls or cooking dinner. Aside from worrying about his sanity, what would I do?

I probably wouldn't keep giving him washcloths, but if I did, he wouldn't benefit from my actions. The washcloths would do him no good.

But suppose one day he came to me and said, "Mom, I need a washcloth because I'm dirty and I want to get clean!" Would I give it to him? Of course, and gladly!

How many people daily request grace from God for incongruous reasons, so that they can use it in ways incompatible with grace? Does God give it to them? Sometimes no. Sometimes the Scripture says, "I will not grant you grace" (Jer 16:13).

When He does grant grace to the wicked, it does the wicked no good at all (Isa 26:10), because he doesn't know what to do with it. He takes something that is supposed to make him clean, and he uses it to try to unlock the doors of worldly success, or to thicken the padding in his comfort zone, or whatever.

But back to my silly washcloth scenario. If my son were to ask me for a washcloth to make him clean, would I give it to him because he "earned" it? Could anyone say that it was awarded to him based on merit, or even that I was making him jump through hoops to get what he wanted? Of course not! The washcloth was given without any merit or earning in mind, simply because he wanted it for what it was designed to do.

And so "conditional" grace is given as well. God's purposes for grace are always to bless us, which inevitably means bringing us closer to Him. He may not give us this "conditional" grace if we're going to use it in ways that take us further away from Him (Jas 4:3). He loves us too much to do that to us.

So, in our day-to-day lives, we constantly receive common grace. And in all those areas where we are set on doing His Will, we will find His special, "conditional" grace freely available to us, unearned by us. Our past failures do not inhibit this grace, and our past successes don't grant us more. What God offers is what we need for accomplishing His Will in the moment at hand.

And at those times when we are not pursuing His Will, He may withhold certain kinds of grace from us. But even His withholding will be a gracious deed, though we may not feel it as such.

But please don't misunderstand me here. In no way do I mean to imply that there's an "Easy Street" waiting for you if you just determine to do His Will. Remember, please, what His grace is sent to accomplish for you.

• Grace enables your obedience when the flesh could not possibly obey
• Grace empowers you where your flesh is weak
• Grace opens the Word of God to your heart and mind, where the flesh only sees gibberish
• Grace gives bold access to God's throne room
• Grace keeps you from being destroyed when your flesh has abundantly earned destruction
• Grace shines the light of truth in your heart
• Grace enables you to worship God instead of turning to idols
• Grace enables you to love your enemies, when the flesh wants to despise them
• Grace enables you to love God when the flesh can only feel cold toward Him
• Grace enables you to bear witness for Him when your flesh is afraid
• Grace enables you to mourn over sin and repent of it.

Do you see where I'm going with this? Don't search your life for evidences of grace by asking yourself how comfortable you are, how pleased your flesh may feel, how well your plans are working out, or how admired you are. Search your life for evidences of grace by looking for the Godwardness that grace supplies.

So what about those inevitable "dry spells" that all Christians go through? What about those times when God feels a million miles away no matter how hard we pray? What about when Scripture seems as parched as the Sahara, and we just feel dead inside? Does that mean we've "fallen from grace?"

Hopefully I'll address that in the near future. In the meantime, you might enjoy this entry, especially the second half, which was written from my own "dry dock."

And now it's your turn. How have you experienced "special," unearned grace in your life? Please leave your comments below.

What Does Grace Do?

If grace isn’t just God’s way of getting us off the hook, then what is it for?

Does grace have a purpose?

I’ve been putting a good bit of time into studying what the Bible has to say about the purposes of grace. I’ve even put it together into a spreadsheet which is still taking shape. There’s much more to study. It’s been slow going, with much to absorb, and many other things competing for my attention. I had thought about waiting to complete the spreadsheet before writing another entry, but that would take too long. So you’re welcome to peek at the work in progress, knowing that it will be rough.

But even unfinished, the chart is showing an undeniable trend.

Grace is all about God’s enablement of man’s participation in the marvelous truth of Rom 11:36.

For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

I think we all understand that grace is something that comes from God. But do we realize that it goes back to Him as well?

Grace has a purpose.

As I’ve said, my study isn’t complete. But let’s look at what sorts of things God has given grace for in the verses I’ve studied so far (note that sometimes "grace" is referred to as "favor." Also note that the word "gracious" means "full of grace"):

• Allowing people to see God (Ex 33:19)
• Compassion, survival, access to God (2Ki 13:23)
• Covenant blessings restored (2Ch 30:9)
• Preservation of a remnant to be saved, a stake in the Holy Place, new life, light to the eyes (Ezra 9:8)
• The ability to rebuild Jerusalem (Ezra 9:9)
• Favor in the King’s sight and strength in God (both given so that Nehemiah could accomplish what God wanted him to do) (Neh 2:8)
• Not being abandoned or destroyed (Neh 9:17, Neh 9:31)
• Being saved from eternal ruin (Job 33:24)
• Causing God’s wonderful works to be remembered (Ps 111:4)
• Light shining in the darkness (Ps 112:4)
• Instruction to keep us from the way of deceit (Ps 119:29)
• Being led on level ground and taught to do God’s Will (Ps 143:10)
• (By implication) being able to worship God instead of idols (Jer 16:13)
• The ability to recognize the Messiah, to mourn over past sins, and to repent with weeping (Zec 12:10)
• The ability to love our enemies because of God’s grace toward His enemies (Luke 6:35)
• Love for God (Luke 7:42)
• The ability to bear powerful witness for God (Acts 4:33)
• Power to perform miracles to the glory of God (Acts 6:8, Acts 14:3)
• Salvation (Acts 11:23, Acts 15:11, Acts 18:27, Rom 5:21)
• Empowerment to do the work God has assigned us (Acts 14:26, Acts 15:40, 1Co 3:10)
• Bringing about the obedience of faith on behalf of His Name (Rom 1:5)
• Justification (Rom 3:24)
• Righteousness, reigning in life (Rom 5:17)
• Victory over sin (Rom 6:14)
• Having the ability to say what God wants us to say (Rom 12:3)
• Boldness for God (Rom 15:15)
• Becoming what God wants us to be. Becoming hard workers (1Co 15:10)

This is just some of what I’ve found, and I haven’t finished working my way through the New Testament yet.

Do you see the pattern? What sorts of purposes for grace did you see in the list above? Being brought into God's family, being made right with God, becoming obedient to God, having the ability to remember His works, being able to understand His Word and His ways, having fellowship with God and others, effectively serving God…is this Godwardness what you think of when you think of grace?

Grace is not just from God. It’s accomplishing a work for God in bringing us to God. Just as His Word does not return to Him without doing what He wants it to do (Isa 55:11), so His grace has a purpose to accomplish (2Ti 1:9), and our grace-empowered work will prove that the grace was not given to us in vain (1Co 15:10).

Grace is undeserved favor given with a goal in mind.

“Wait,” you may say. “Does that mean that God expects payback, like a negotiator who says, ‘I’ll give you grace if you give me X?’”

No, that’s not it at all. But you may have noticed that there are verses which make grace sound conditional, like it’s something to be earned. Some examples from the spreadsheet are Amos 5:15, Joel 2:13, Ps 119:132, and Pr 3:34.

So which is it? Is grace freely given and un-earned? Or is it given with preconditions, with some kind of "catch?"

Our next entry will look at the apparent paradox of "conditional grace."

Grace – More Than “Get Out of Jail Free!”

In “Resisting Grace,” we talked about the misguided desire some of us have to protect God and His Gospel from being abused.  We see the potential in our own hearts to abuse grace, so we conclude that grace is God’s dirty little secret, one best kept under wraps so no one will make a sucker out of Him.

In “Why Grace? we began to see just a tiny bit of the reason why Grace can never turn God into a sucker.  Grace freely pardons, saves, and transforms those who receive it.  But those who abuse it don’t make a fool of God.  They only make fools of themselves as grace does its other work…that of revealing the true condition of a person’s heart. 

Hopefully that’s enough of a review.  Today’s subject is one I hadn’t anticipated writing, but it came up because of a famous Spurgeon quote I read in someone’s blog…one of the few Spurgeon quotes I have ever disapproved of.  I feel the need to write about it here because it helps to explain why many Christians have a distorted view of God’s grace in salvation. 

Spurgeon relates the following scene (I’ve edited it for brevity’s sake):

Once a poor Irishman came to me in my vestry.

“I'm come to ax you a question. You say, and others say too, that God is able to forgive sin. Now, I can't see how he can be just, and yet forgive sin: for I have been so greatly guilty that if God Almighty does not punish me as he ought, I feel that he would not be just. How, then, sir, can it be true that he can forgive, and still retain the title of just?"

"Well, then," said I, "This is the way Christ is able to forgive. Suppose you had killed some one. You were a murderer; you were condemned to die, and you deserved it."

"Well, her Majesty is very desirous of saving your life, and yet at the same time universal justice demands that someone should die on account of the deed that is done. Now, how is she to manage?"

Said he, "That is the question.”

"Well," said I, "suppose, Pat, I should go to her and say, "Here is this poor Irishman, he deserves to be hanged, your Majesty. I don't want to quarrel with the sentence, because I think it just, but, if you please, I so love him that if you were to hang me instead of him should be very willing.

"Pat, suppose she should agree to it, and hang me instead of you, what then? would she be just in letting you go?"

"Ay" said he, "I should think she would. Would she hang two for one thing? I should say not.  I'd walk away, and there isn't a policeman that would touch me for it."

"Ah!" said I, "that is how Jesus saves.”

Have you ever heard the Gospel presented this way?  How does it sit with you?

This is what I wrote in response to the blog entry that offered this Spurgeon quote:

As much as I love the doctrines of grace; as much as I love Calvin and Spurgeon and the like; as much as I am banking my eternal soul on the substitutionary atonement of Christ... I still HATE the "gospel" explanation Spurgeon gave here.

Sometimes those of us who love the Gospel are so eager to see it vindicated that we will be pleased with the sort of scheme presented here, even though we would be appalled at it in any other setting.

If your loved one was murdered, and the identity of the murderer were known, and the government came to you and said, "Good news! An innocent party came and offered to be executed in place of your loved one's killer, and we agreed! So now the innocent party is dead, the killer is back loose on the streets, and isn't that great?"

Would you agree that justice was done? Wouldn't you be horrified? Imagine if that official looked at you in confusion and said, "Well, we had to kill SOMEBODY for the crime, and we did! How could you not be satisfied with that?"

 
Stay with me here, because I fervently believe in the substitutionary atonement. But the explanation Spurgeon gave was not adequate, as an honest look at the hypothetical situation above would show. What Spurgeon described was a gross miscarriage of justice. The substitutionary atonement which happened at Calvary was absolutely just. So something more happened at Calvary than what Spurgeon described there.

 
What happened at Calvary was this: An innocent party, completely identified with the murderer, stepped up to take the murderer's punishment and die in his place. BUT THAT'S NOT ALL! He also gave a "heart transplant" (if you will) to the murderer! The murderer's own heart was to be taken out (in essence, "killing" him), and the innocent man's heart was given to him, changing him forever. When he was turned loose, no one could rightly say that a murderer was out on the streets. Instead, a new life, with a new nature, was turned loose on the streets. (It's better than just killing the murderer, if you get a better man added to the scene in his place!) AND the innocent party who died was raised again from the dead, and now enjoys the well-deserved love and adoration of all those whom He has redeemed in this fashion.

Tell me, is this a miscarriage of justice? Could you, even as a relative of the murder victim, object to this arrangement? This is the brilliant, incredibly wise, justice-serving, grace-giving, fully divine Gospel that no human could ever dream up. It should make people admire, praise, love, and joyfully receive the God who came up with it. And it should be attractive to more murderers than just those interested in getting off scot-free. (Think about it. Doesn't the version of the gospel presented there by Spurgeon inadvertently support the very same kind of easy-believism that Spurgeon himself despised?)

 
Of course Spurgeon knew the true Gospel. Why he presented this illustration is beyond me, but I know it's been used by many people over the years, and every time I hear it, it makes me queasy. If just one person re-thinks this whole thing and decides not to present this distorted view of the Gospel again, it will be worth whatever ire I may bring on myself here.

If we think that the grace of the gospel is merely “getting us off the hook,” then no wonder we look at it as something potentially embarrassing to God!  The “salvation scheme” that so many people have heard all their lives is embarrassing, because it’s so blatantly wrong and unjust!  The true Gospel is glorious beyond words.  If people are offended by it (and they will be), then they will answer to God for that.  But let them be offended by the true Gospel, and not by an unjust caricature of it.

Grace is so much more than we think it is!  Next we’ll look at some wonderful ways that God, through His grace, works on our behalf, far above and beyond a “get out of jail free” card.