Entries in Grace (51)
Provoking God's Mercy
Thursday, July 21, 2011 at 08:56AM 
Are there any limits to human wickedness? Imagine a guy who practices witchcraft and seances, fortune-telling and necromancy. Picture him engaged in human sacrifice by burning is own children on altars of fire. Give him nationwide authority and influence, so that he not only practices these things, but encourages and trains others to do the same. Now, if there is room left in your imagination, envision this man finding a way to win God’s affection.
What moves God’s heart? Buried deep in the Chronicles of Israel is the story of a despicable ruler guilty of such things. Yet he captured the Father’s grace and mercy by humbling himself before God. His name is Manasseh; you can read about him in 2 Chronicles 33. In the space of one chapter King Manasseh was transformed from a man who provoked God to anger to one who caught God’s attention because of his humble heart. There is a lesson here for every Student of Jesus: it’s not that Manasseh simply experienced God’s mercy, he provoked it.
The Father loves humility. It turns his head. Jesus tried again and again to share this secret pathway to God’s heart: “the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” He used this phrase no fewer than four times. Jesus demonstrated humility as he lived in the low places of Israel’s society. He portrayed children as exemplars of humble trust in the Father’s care. He derided self-sufficiency.
Humility is an expression of truth and integrity. People intuitively hunger for humility in their spiritual and political leaders. It seems this hunger for authentic humility is growing stronger: the Google search-phrase that has most often brought people to this blog is the simple phrase, “How can we Humble Ourselves?” Although that post is more than two years old, people find their way to it week after week. All over the world people enter search phrases like, “how to be humble like Jesus,” and “how do we humble ourselves before God?” There is beauty in the humble way.
Humility is the sail that captures the grace and mercy of God. His ear is tuned to hear the weakest words of a humbled heart. In King Manasseh’s story we find hope for everyone who has wondered if they could possibly grab God’s attention. Here are four sure lessons from Manasseh (2 Chronicles 33) for those whose hearts are inclined:
- Even in the midst of gross iniquity, God is still speaking: (v10) Even after a long list of rebellious acts against God, the text reveals that God was still reached out to Manasseh. If you’ve been told that God hides from your sin, you’ve been misled. Our sin is one of the very reasons God continues to reach out to us. He loves us and refuses to give up on us. But it's not just that his love reaches down; a humble heart reaches up.
- God knows how to humble us: (v11) There’s a massive difference between being humbled by the Almighty and humbling yourself before him. God may arrange circumstances that bring us low in the eyes of others, but only we can lower ourselves before God. He can extend severe mercy, in C.S. Lewis’ phrase, but we remain in control of our own thoughts and hearts.
- Our hearts can move God’s heart: (v13) This is an astounding revelation! God is not impressed by human power, wealth, or wisdom, but he is impressed by the human heart. When a man or woman chooses contrition, the Father tells all heaven to be quiet. Our prayers never have more power than when we take our proper place before him.
- Our humble example can influence the generations to come: (v25) Manasseh had a grandson named Josiah, who (as a child) sparked a nationwide revival. I like to imagine that Josiah heard first-hand from his grandfather the horrors of rebellion and the grace of humility. Our life-lessons can become the seed that springs up thirty, sixty, and a hundred fold in the lives of those who follow.
These are more than theological considerations, they are postures of the heart. They are examples for Students of Jesus. Jesus embodied the life of humility before the Father. It worked out pretty well for him--he demonstrated that the humble path leads to glory, a glory unimagined by the wisdom of men.
Even more than Manasseh, Jesus modeled the way of humility. Consider Paul’s magnificent description of the humble way:
In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2: 6-11)
and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2: 6-11)
What is whispered in the Old Testament is shouted in the New: humility is the doorway to God’s Kingdom. Humility spared Manasseh's life. It was the way of life for Jesus. It is no less the way for us.
Monday's Meditation: In Which I Am Mostly Sad, and a Little Angry
Monday, July 18, 2011 at 12:00PM 
Last week a nationally-recognized pastor posted comments that were insensitive and unwise. Later, a nationally recognized blogger labeled the pastor with an unflattering name and suggested readers contact the pastor’s church to complain about his actions. In the borough of the blogsophere where I live, it was a pretty big deal.
On Thursday I decided I would try to start my own controversy by wondering out loud why North American Christians seem to be incapable of raising the dead. No one noticed, but these events were related. If the connection seems too subtle, here it is--written plain: the North American church finds itself largely powerless because we are so mean to one another. We have lost sight of what it means to honor one another.
The nationally-recognized blogger is someone whom I’ve never met, but is deserving of honor. This blogger has written one fine book and undoubtedly will write plenty more. The nationally recognized pastor is someone whom I’ve never met, but is deserving of honor. This pastor reaches thousands of people I could never reach. They both have the goods. They both love Jesus. They both deserve respect. The two of them are brother and sister, and I think Dad isn’t happy when his kids fight publicly.
There is room for disagreement within the body of Christ. When Christians work through disagreement with grace and truth it can be an example to the watching world of how the two can walk hand in hand. We owe it to one another to speak the truth in love. If our words are not the truth, then they are not really loving; if our words are not loving, then they are not really the truth. When we walk with both grace and truth we walk in maturity.
We need to examine the connection between lack of honor and lack of power within the church. Consider these words from Holy Spirit:
Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. (Ephesians 4: 29-32)
Hidden in the middle of this passage is an important truth: we do not grieve the Holy Spirit by our doctrines or opinions, but by how we speak to one another. When I speak poorly of my brother or sister, I hurt God’s feelings. Is it too hard it imagine that when we grieve the Holy Spirit he says, “I’m outta here?”
Our western world is word-weary, and the path to their hearts packed hard with the weight of argument after argument. Arguments are easy because everyone thinks they are right--otherwise, why argue? Honor is difficult because it forces us to find practical ways to live out the verse, “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.” (1 Peter 4:8)
Pastors and writers have this in common: where there is a multitude of words transgression is unavoidable. It’s going to happen. It comes with job, and it comes through our frailty. The larger question is, do we have grace for one another?
Last week’s dust-up is one of many, too common among brothers and sisters. Wait a week and there will be another. And another. Meanwhile the world is waiting for us to raise the dead.
Monday's Meditation: Grace for Birth, Grace for Life
Monday, June 27, 2011 at 02:57PM 
A parable: two students each received scholarships to Harvard University. Full rides, every possible expense paid. Both were bright kids, and both felt intimidated by the reputation of such a great college. They each thought, “I don’t deserve to be here.”
One student studied day and night. She gave it all she had. The other student began to enjoy the thrill of college life: parties, the big-city and the freedom of being on his own for the very first time. By mid term the first student was still working hard, earning C’s and B’s in her classes. The other was failing every class and placed on academic probation. By Christmas the first student had earned a 3.0 GPA, but the second had flunked out of Harvard. Which of these two students laid hold of the opportunity given to them?
Of course the answer is the first student, humble and hard working. The gossips wagged their heads over the second: “How could he throw away an opportunity like that?”
The scholarship to Harvard was a gift of grace, but the truth was the work was just beginning. God’s grace does for us what we could not possibly do for ourselves. What is beyond our reach is joyfully paid in full by Jesus Christ, but the work is just beginning. The new birth is by grace, but what lies ahead is growth in Christ. God’s grace stands ready to supply the energy needed to navigate new life in Jesus, yet we must sadly acknowledge that there are many who squander the possibilities of new life in him.
Some people might object to the close association between grace and work. God’s grace comes with no strings attached, doesn’t it? No amount of effort on our part could win his pardon. True enough—it’s just not the whole story.
Consider another young man who received a full ride from Jesus: “For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.” (I Corinthians 15: 9-10) The Apostle Paul had no trouble seeing the connections between grace and work.
The grace of God is a calling to a new life. The only reasonable response to such grace is gratitude that moves us to action.
Why I Changed Doctors Years Ago
Thursday, March 31, 2011 at 11:22AM 
A few years ago I had to find another doctor. My previous one couldn’t help me. He was able to diagnose the problem, but not able to suggest a remedy that would fix things once and for all. I kept going back to him week after week. My appointments began to sound like an old vaudeville routine:
“Your problem is you’re sick.”
“Of course I’m sick,” I replied. “That’s why I’m here.”
“Have you had this before?”
“You know I’ve had this before. I had it the last time I was here.”
“Well, you’ve got it again.”
I tried demonstrating the problem: “It hurts when I do this.”
“Well, don’t do that,” he advised.
“Doctor, is there any hope for me?”
“Of course there is. Take two aspirin. You’ll feel better when you’re dead.”
After 15 years of being told I was sick, always receiving the same prescription, and always coming back with the same complaint, I began to wonder if my doctor knew what he was talking about. I’m one of the lucky ones because it only took me 15 years to wonder what was going on.
OK . . . I made that up. But many of us have been returning to the same place, year after year, with the same problem. We are offered the same solution and we leave feeling as if there should be a better remedy available, but the professional assures us that we are on the right track. If you haven’t guessed already, the professional is not a doctor but a pastor, and the “doctor’s office” is our regular gathering for church.
Whether it is the repetition of liturgy separated from our daily experience, or it is the repetition of preaching that finds new ways to express the same old message, many followers of Jesus go to church only to experience what Yogi Berra called “Déjà vu all over again.” We are reminded of our sin and God’s grace toward that sin.
Of course this is correct: we are sinful, and the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross pays the price for our redemption. And, of course, the grace of God should be celebrated and declared by the church. But grace, understood as the one-time event of redemption, is not the sole message the church or the full content of the gospel of the Kingdom of God. It is the common experience of church-goers to re-enact the drama of forgiveness each week, or to hear the gospel presented again and again as the call of God to wayward sinners to make things right. If the preaching ever varies from this content, then we are told that we need to carry this good news of God’s grace into our community so that others may be forgiven and redeemed.
This is a great challenge facing followers of Jesus today: we have a limited view of God’s grace. The grace of God, which is a reality greater than the human intellect can gasp and more accessible than the air we breathe, has been captured and domesticated for weekly use. To those of us who have been in church for some time, grace means that Christians have gotten a great deal. In church circles, grace has variously been defined as “not getting what we deserve,” or “God’s unmerited favor,” or “God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense.” I am coming to see that all of these ideas about grace are true, but tell only half the truth.
The more I read the New Testament, the more all-encompassing grace becomes. Instead of presenting grace as a repeatable sin-cleansing bargain, the Bible seems to present a grace that continues to reach into our lives day after day and in more ways than we expect. The Apostle Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, wrote to a young pastor:
For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age (Titus 2:11-12)
What kind of grace is this? If grace means getting off scott-free, why is grace appearing to me and teaching me a new way to live? Most believers are very comfortable with “the grace that brings salvation,” but why would grace instruct us to “deny ungodliness?” Isn’t that a little judgmental? I thought God loved me just the way I am.
Apparently God’s grace is after more than wiping the slate clean week after week. The grace of God wants to teach us a new way to live. “God loves me just the way I am.” Everyone is comfortable with that statement, but how about this one: “God loves me so much he won’t let me stay just the way I am.” First his grace saves, then it teaches. I think everyone is OK with “being forgiven,” but perhaps we skip school when it comes time to learn how to deny ungodliness, deny worldly passions, live sensible and upright lives.
Richard Foster, a man who has spent his adult life encouraging Christians to grow in the grace of God, points out that the message of grace is something more than merely a means for gaining forgiveness. Sadly, many Christians have been taught that any effort to learn how to live a holy life right now runs counter to God’s forgiving grace. Many church-goers are told week after week that they are miserable sinners in need of the grace of forgiveness. They are told week after week that that there is nothing they can do apart from the grace of forgiveness. And, hearing the same message week after week, along with the same remedy, they remain in the same place. “Having been saved by grace,” Foster writes, “these people have been paralyzed by it.”
Do you have any examples of grace teaching you a new way to live?
Infinite God, Infinite Grace.
Thursday, August 5, 2010 at 11:09AM When I decided to take seriously the call to follow Jesus I left God’s grace behind for a while. I thought grace was what God did for me the day I was born from above. I thought grace was only about forgiveness. I thought grace was a ticket to heaven. How little I knew about God’s grace. Decades later I’ve discovered his grace is the air I breathe."In the terrain of life with God, grace is not a ticket to heaven, but the earth under our feet on the road with Christ . . . Grace saves us from life without God--even more it empowers us for life with God." ~ Richard Foster (with Kathryn Helmers) in Life with God
God’s grace starts well before we come alive to his call; it is the power to forgive and save at the new birth; and it is the pathway to walk with him forevermore. As mentors like Richard Foster and Dallas Willard have pointed out time and again, the spiritual disciplines are practices that put us into position to receive more of his grace--the disciplines are not spiritual hurdles to be cleared by the “serious” student of Jesus. The startling truth is that those who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus need more of God’s grace than others who have no interest in spiritual transformation.
May I share three surprising passages about God’s grace?
- “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age” (Titus 2: 11-12) Simply put, Paul reminded Titus that God’s grace is available to teach us how to live right now. Do we ever think of grace as a teacher? What have we learned from grace? God’s grace stands ready to teach us even after we turn to Jesus: we can learn how to say ‘no’ to ungodliness. We can learn from God’s grace how to live upright lives. We need not be forever trapped in a cycle of same-sin, same-forgiveness, same-life. This too is part of the good news.
- “From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another” (John 1:16) Apparently the good folks who translated the New International Version were challenged by the more literal rendering of this verse, “From his fulness we have all received, grace upon grace.” (NRVS) The NIV substitutes “one blessing after another” for “grace upon grace.” But why argue over translation? I believe John was searching for a way to communicate that God’s grace is multi-layered. If we walk with him 50 years we will discover again and again the God who beckons us (in C.S. Lewis’ happy phrase) to come “farther up and farther in.” But take note: if we are determined to think of grace as merely a ticket to heaven there is no farther up and farther in--either in this life or the next. Why come to the shores of God’s grace only to dip our toes in the ocean?
- “But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’” (James 4:6) More grace. Greater grace. All the more grace. I believe James was speaking from experience, not theory. I think he discovered the multi-layered grace of God as he learned to humble himself again and again. When we humble ourselves we position ourselves for greater grace. One sure indicator of a religiously closed mind is the firm conviction that we have this Jesus-thing figured out. The religiously closed mind is only interested in exporting it’s brand of spirituality. We need to discover that it’s impossible to drink in God’s grace if we do nothing but tell others how to live.
What kind of Father would tell his child, “I’ve done all I’m going to do, the rest is up to you?” Our transformation is his work, accomplished as we present ourselves to greater grace again and again. If we limit his grace to the work of forgiveness, then forgiveness is all we will know. If we open ourselves up to his infinite grace then our destiny is the infinite God.
Infinite God. Infinite Grace. Infinite Destiny.