From: The Upper Room Daily Devotional
Colossians 3:17 "And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him."
The Bible tells us that while we are here our time is to be spent making disciples for Jesus Christ and being His witnesses, loving one another, praising God in all ways possible, laughing, living in peace, and doing good.
How many days have I wasted in complaining, demanding my own way, withholding love and goodness? How many hours have gone by while I wallowed in self-pity, plotted revenge, or pushed others aside to be in first place?
I cannot go back and retrieve those lost days and hours, but I can make the most of this day and every day that I have from now on.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
A New Beginning
From: New Life Daily Devotions - Steve Arterburn
Psalm 30:5 "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning."
At times we get so caught up in our pain that we forget that life comes in seasons. No one is happy all the time. We may be paranoid and gloomy today, but that can change. Being upset and disturbed doesn't have to be forever.
When David was a young boy he lived a relatively carefree life, tending his father's sheep. He believed in his own goodness and expected the best. Later he realized his own frailties and faced many enemies. These pressures darkened his life. He cried out to God, "O Lord, don't rebuke me in Your anger or discipline me in Your rage. Have compassion on me, Lord, for I am weak. Heal me, Lord, for my bones are in agony. I am sick at heart. How long, O Lord, until You restore me?" (Psalm 6:1-5) David did come out of this dark season of life and was able to share his experience, strength, and hope with others.
If we're in a season of mental anguish, we need to remember that we haven't always felt this way and we won't always feel this way. We can cry out for help and expect God to rescue us. Someday we will share our experience and hope with others.
When we are at the end of ourselves, God creates a new beginning.
Psalm 30:5 "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning."
At times we get so caught up in our pain that we forget that life comes in seasons. No one is happy all the time. We may be paranoid and gloomy today, but that can change. Being upset and disturbed doesn't have to be forever.
When David was a young boy he lived a relatively carefree life, tending his father's sheep. He believed in his own goodness and expected the best. Later he realized his own frailties and faced many enemies. These pressures darkened his life. He cried out to God, "O Lord, don't rebuke me in Your anger or discipline me in Your rage. Have compassion on me, Lord, for I am weak. Heal me, Lord, for my bones are in agony. I am sick at heart. How long, O Lord, until You restore me?" (Psalm 6:1-5) David did come out of this dark season of life and was able to share his experience, strength, and hope with others.
If we're in a season of mental anguish, we need to remember that we haven't always felt this way and we won't always feel this way. We can cry out for help and expect God to rescue us. Someday we will share our experience and hope with others.
When we are at the end of ourselves, God creates a new beginning.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Obstacle Management
From: The Word For Today - Bob Gass Ministries
Habakkuk 2:3 "For the vision still has its time, presses on to fulfillment and will not disappoint; if it delays wait for it, it will surely come, it will not be late."
Visions come with obstacles and opportunities! After decades in America, Raymond Dawson inherited his English grandparent's estate. Returning home he found a run-down farmhouse and barns on land covered with rocks. Disappointed and about to return to America, he decided to walk his worthless inheritance one final time. Pausing on a remote corner of his property he noticed a stream coming from beneath some rocks. He investigated, uncovered some hot springs, and guess what? Today he's the owner of a lucrative resort, right on the sight of his former disappointment!
A vision gives you direction, motivation, creativity and resilience. Without one you become passive, aimless, bored, and vulnerable to quitting. God can give you a vision instantly but its fulfillment will require a lifetime of learning, practicing and managing life's daily challenges.
When you ask God for a vision, you're likely to be placed in a field of opportunities concealed under acres of obstacles; a place of possibilities hidden beneath piles of problems. Then He will stand back and watch how you engage in the ministry of obstacle management!
Habakkuk 2:3 "For the vision still has its time, presses on to fulfillment and will not disappoint; if it delays wait for it, it will surely come, it will not be late."
Visions come with obstacles and opportunities! After decades in America, Raymond Dawson inherited his English grandparent's estate. Returning home he found a run-down farmhouse and barns on land covered with rocks. Disappointed and about to return to America, he decided to walk his worthless inheritance one final time. Pausing on a remote corner of his property he noticed a stream coming from beneath some rocks. He investigated, uncovered some hot springs, and guess what? Today he's the owner of a lucrative resort, right on the sight of his former disappointment!
A vision gives you direction, motivation, creativity and resilience. Without one you become passive, aimless, bored, and vulnerable to quitting. God can give you a vision instantly but its fulfillment will require a lifetime of learning, practicing and managing life's daily challenges.
When you ask God for a vision, you're likely to be placed in a field of opportunities concealed under acres of obstacles; a place of possibilities hidden beneath piles of problems. Then He will stand back and watch how you engage in the ministry of obstacle management!
Monday, December 28, 2009
Wiser Than Your Prayers
From: Ambassadors For Christ International - John North
Isaiah 55:8-9 "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts."
We can trust God because He knows what He is doing even when we don't!
Sometimes we just can't understand why God would do certain things, or how He could love us and still allow something exceedingly painful to occur in our lives. But think about it, if we could understand everything about God and His actions, He wouldn't be God! The fact that He is God automatically means that He is beyond our understanding and sometimes He will do things based on His wisdom and insight and absolute knowledge that we will not be able to understand.
When pain comes into your life, you have a choice. You can drag God down to your level and say, "I will not trust until I understand!" Or you can acknowledge God's greatness and say, "I don't understand it Lord, but I trust you and your good purpose in my life."
William Culbertson once said, "Keep praying, but be thankful that God's answers are wiser than your prayers!"
Isaiah 55:8-9 "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts."
We can trust God because He knows what He is doing even when we don't!
Sometimes we just can't understand why God would do certain things, or how He could love us and still allow something exceedingly painful to occur in our lives. But think about it, if we could understand everything about God and His actions, He wouldn't be God! The fact that He is God automatically means that He is beyond our understanding and sometimes He will do things based on His wisdom and insight and absolute knowledge that we will not be able to understand.
When pain comes into your life, you have a choice. You can drag God down to your level and say, "I will not trust until I understand!" Or you can acknowledge God's greatness and say, "I don't understand it Lord, but I trust you and your good purpose in my life."
William Culbertson once said, "Keep praying, but be thankful that God's answers are wiser than your prayers!"
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Sufficient Grace
From: Our Daily Bread Ministries - Anne Cetas
2 Corinthians 12:9 "My grace is sufficient for you."
We long to “shred” memories of bad things that others have done to us or difficult circumstances we’re going through. The apostle Paul wanted relief from his present suffering, an infirmity that made him feel weak (2 Cor. 12:7-10). "But God said to him, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.'"
God didn’t take away the problem. Instead, He gave Paul the grace to live with it.
Difficulties burden us as we mull them over in our minds, affecting our relationships and our outlook on life. We as believers in Christ have a place to take these burdens. First Peter 5:7 tells us, "Cast all your care upon the Lord, for He cares for you."
Whenever life’s burdens oppress you
And trials seem too much to face,
Remember God’s strength in your weakness;
He’ll give you His power and grace.
2 Corinthians 12:9 "My grace is sufficient for you."
We long to “shred” memories of bad things that others have done to us or difficult circumstances we’re going through. The apostle Paul wanted relief from his present suffering, an infirmity that made him feel weak (2 Cor. 12:7-10). "But God said to him, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.'"
God didn’t take away the problem. Instead, He gave Paul the grace to live with it.
Difficulties burden us as we mull them over in our minds, affecting our relationships and our outlook on life. We as believers in Christ have a place to take these burdens. First Peter 5:7 tells us, "Cast all your care upon the Lord, for He cares for you."
Whenever life’s burdens oppress you
And trials seem too much to face,
Remember God’s strength in your weakness;
He’ll give you His power and grace.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Light Always Overpowers Darkness
From: Bryant Wright Ministries
John 1:5 "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it."
The candle lighting service is a beautiful moment of our church’s Christmas Eve celebration. When all the lights are out in the Sanctuary, we light a single candle, and that one candle overcomes all the darkness of the entire room. It’s a wonderful demonstration of this fact - darkness cannot overpower light. Well, it’s the same with spiritual darkness and spiritual light of Jesus Christ. His Light will overpower the darkness.
There have been times in history where it seemed like the spiritual darkness was overpowering the spiritual light. For instance, in the 20th century Marxism had great momentum. The Soviet revolution, then the Communist revolution in China, then Cuba, Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia soon tumbled after.
It seemed like that darkness of atheism was overpowering the light within the church. But by the end of the 20th century, the Soviet Union was no more and Eastern Europe became the birthplace of many fledgling democracies. Even though it sometimes seems darkness wins for a time, it never permanently overpowers the Light.
Of course, the greatest example of that is the cross. For a moment, it appeared that the devil had won. But two days later, the Light was turned on, never to be snuffed out again. For in the end, the Light of Jesus always overpowers the darkness.
John 1:5 "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it."
The candle lighting service is a beautiful moment of our church’s Christmas Eve celebration. When all the lights are out in the Sanctuary, we light a single candle, and that one candle overcomes all the darkness of the entire room. It’s a wonderful demonstration of this fact - darkness cannot overpower light. Well, it’s the same with spiritual darkness and spiritual light of Jesus Christ. His Light will overpower the darkness.
There have been times in history where it seemed like the spiritual darkness was overpowering the spiritual light. For instance, in the 20th century Marxism had great momentum. The Soviet revolution, then the Communist revolution in China, then Cuba, Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia soon tumbled after.
It seemed like that darkness of atheism was overpowering the light within the church. But by the end of the 20th century, the Soviet Union was no more and Eastern Europe became the birthplace of many fledgling democracies. Even though it sometimes seems darkness wins for a time, it never permanently overpowers the Light.
Of course, the greatest example of that is the cross. For a moment, it appeared that the devil had won. But two days later, the Light was turned on, never to be snuffed out again. For in the end, the Light of Jesus always overpowers the darkness.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Love Must Become Your Habit
From: The Purpose Driven Life Ministries
1 John 4:7-8 "Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God and everyone who loves is begotten of God and knows God. Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love."
When you realize how much God loves you - with an extravagant, irresistible, unconditional love - then his love will change you're entire focus on life. If we don't receive God's love for us, we'll have a hard time loving other people. I'm talking about loving the unlovely; loving the difficult; loving the irritable; loving people who are different or demanding.
You can't do that until you have God's love coming through you. You need to know God's love so it can overflow out of your life into others.
Love must become your lifestyle, the habit of your life. Are you ready?
Your life is worth far more than you think, and by learning to love others with the love God gives you, you will have an influence far greater than you could ever imagine. If you will commit to this, you will experience love as God means it to be, filled with hope, energy, and joy.
1 John 4:7-8 "Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God and everyone who loves is begotten of God and knows God. Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love."
When you realize how much God loves you - with an extravagant, irresistible, unconditional love - then his love will change you're entire focus on life. If we don't receive God's love for us, we'll have a hard time loving other people. I'm talking about loving the unlovely; loving the difficult; loving the irritable; loving people who are different or demanding.
You can't do that until you have God's love coming through you. You need to know God's love so it can overflow out of your life into others.
Love must become your lifestyle, the habit of your life. Are you ready?
Your life is worth far more than you think, and by learning to love others with the love God gives you, you will have an influence far greater than you could ever imagine. If you will commit to this, you will experience love as God means it to be, filled with hope, energy, and joy.
Monday, December 21, 2009
Acknowledge God In Everything You Do
From: Ambassadors For Christ International - John North
Proverbs 3:5-6 "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not rely on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight."
Focusing on God helps you to reach up! Your life today can be so much more than you can make of it.
"In all your ways acknowledge God." As you wake up, acknowledge God—"Good morning Lord." As you eat breakfast with your family, acknowledge God—"Lord, we thank You for providing all of our needs." As you have your daily quiet time, acknowledge God—"God, I don't want to just read words on the page; I want to hear from You. Please speak to me from Your Word."
As you go about the business of your day, acknowledge God—"Lord, I know that every person I encounter today is someone You want to minister to through me. Please show me how I can minister to this person spiritually right now in a way that will move them closer to You."
As you experience problems or hardship or deep personal struggles, acknowledge God—"Lord, I know that You are in control of all things, and so I know that You have allowed this difficulty into my life for a reason. I can't see the reason but I will respond to this by trusting You and looking for ways to glorify You to others in the midst of this."
Proverbs 3:5-6 "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not rely on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight."
Focusing on God helps you to reach up! Your life today can be so much more than you can make of it.
"In all your ways acknowledge God." As you wake up, acknowledge God—"Good morning Lord." As you eat breakfast with your family, acknowledge God—"Lord, we thank You for providing all of our needs." As you have your daily quiet time, acknowledge God—"God, I don't want to just read words on the page; I want to hear from You. Please speak to me from Your Word."
As you go about the business of your day, acknowledge God—"Lord, I know that every person I encounter today is someone You want to minister to through me. Please show me how I can minister to this person spiritually right now in a way that will move them closer to You."
As you experience problems or hardship or deep personal struggles, acknowledge God—"Lord, I know that You are in control of all things, and so I know that You have allowed this difficulty into my life for a reason. I can't see the reason but I will respond to this by trusting You and looking for ways to glorify You to others in the midst of this."
Sunday, December 20, 2009
One Day At A Time
From: New Life Daily Devotions - Steve Arterburn
Romans 8:38 "For I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons . . . not even the powers of hell can separate us from God's love. . . ."
Sometimes we may feel like giving up the struggle. We try, only to fall once again. We take two steps forward, but then stumble backwards. At times there are so many difficulties, so many issues to work through, so many patterns in our lives that have to be changed, we begin to feel like we're going crazy.
God acknowledges the difficulties we may face, but He also promises us victory in the end. The apostle Paul once wrote, "Overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. For I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons . . . not even the powers of hell can separate us from God's love. . . . Nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:37-39)
Paul also said, "I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue His work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns." (Philippians 1:6)
When we feel like we're going crazy and don't think that we can handle life, God is there. He will not give up on us. We can rely on his persistent love. God has promised to keep working on us until we are whole. There will still be crazy times, but with His help we can handle life, one day at a time.
Romans 8:38 "For I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons . . . not even the powers of hell can separate us from God's love. . . ."
Sometimes we may feel like giving up the struggle. We try, only to fall once again. We take two steps forward, but then stumble backwards. At times there are so many difficulties, so many issues to work through, so many patterns in our lives that have to be changed, we begin to feel like we're going crazy.
God acknowledges the difficulties we may face, but He also promises us victory in the end. The apostle Paul once wrote, "Overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. For I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons . . . not even the powers of hell can separate us from God's love. . . . Nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:37-39)
Paul also said, "I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue His work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns." (Philippians 1:6)
When we feel like we're going crazy and don't think that we can handle life, God is there. He will not give up on us. We can rely on his persistent love. God has promised to keep working on us until we are whole. There will still be crazy times, but with His help we can handle life, one day at a time.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
No Panic In Heaven
From: Love Worth Finding Ministries
Isaiah 41:13 "For I the Lord your God, will hold your right hand, saying unto you, Fear not; I will help you."
Once I had the rare opportunity of visiting with Corrie Ten Boom. I drank in her words. I listened and kept my mouth shut. One of her statements went straight to my heart: "There is no panic in heaven, only plans."
That is how God operates — no panic.
Did you know the Holy Trinity never meets in an emergency session? God has never stepped down from His throne. Jesus has not left His right hand, and the Holy Spirit has not stopped interceding for you, His child.
Refuse to listen to Satan's lies of fear, discouragement, and despair. You are a victor. And God is in control!
Repeat the following throughout the day today, "God is in control of my life. He will not leave me. His right hand will sustain me all the length of my days."
Isaiah 41:13 "For I the Lord your God, will hold your right hand, saying unto you, Fear not; I will help you."
Once I had the rare opportunity of visiting with Corrie Ten Boom. I drank in her words. I listened and kept my mouth shut. One of her statements went straight to my heart: "There is no panic in heaven, only plans."
That is how God operates — no panic.
Did you know the Holy Trinity never meets in an emergency session? God has never stepped down from His throne. Jesus has not left His right hand, and the Holy Spirit has not stopped interceding for you, His child.
Refuse to listen to Satan's lies of fear, discouragement, and despair. You are a victor. And God is in control!
Repeat the following throughout the day today, "God is in control of my life. He will not leave me. His right hand will sustain me all the length of my days."
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
How Can I Serve God Today?
From: Ambassadors For Christ International - John North
Psalm 118:24 "This is the day which the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it."
Motivational speaker Jim Rohn points out that one of the reasons that many people are not doing well is that their outlook on life is wrong. They are simply trying to get through the day.
Instead we should be looking for what we can get out of the day! As you think about this day today, God wants you to recognize that it is His day. He has brought you into it; He has things in store for you today that will bless you and strengthen you. Rejoice in God's plan for your life today.
As you begin today with the anticipation of God's involvement with you throughout the day, it will change your whole perspective on life. Life becomes, not drudgery, but anticipation of God at work.
How would your day be different if you woke up thinking: "God made this day. How does He want to use it in my life? How does He want to use me in someone else's life? What is He going to bring to my mind for prayer about? What challenge will require His intervention? How will I see God at work today?
Psalm 118:24 "This is the day which the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it."
Motivational speaker Jim Rohn points out that one of the reasons that many people are not doing well is that their outlook on life is wrong. They are simply trying to get through the day.
Instead we should be looking for what we can get out of the day! As you think about this day today, God wants you to recognize that it is His day. He has brought you into it; He has things in store for you today that will bless you and strengthen you. Rejoice in God's plan for your life today.
As you begin today with the anticipation of God's involvement with you throughout the day, it will change your whole perspective on life. Life becomes, not drudgery, but anticipation of God at work.
How would your day be different if you woke up thinking: "God made this day. How does He want to use it in my life? How does He want to use me in someone else's life? What is He going to bring to my mind for prayer about? What challenge will require His intervention? How will I see God at work today?
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Put His Word In Your Heart
Psalms 119:11 "I have hidden Your word in my heart that I might not sin against You."
Daily devotionals are powerful tools in the living out of our daily lives. Devotions can be found more easily these days than just about any time in our history. This truly remarkable way to pause for a moment in our lives to turn ourselves inward and renew our devotion to our Lord and Savior is simple and easy.
Not only does it renew our devotion to our God, it also gives us a chance to reinvigorate our spiritual selves. When we are feeling sad or discouraged, fearful or anxious, a daily devotion can help us renew our spirits and remember that the Lord watches over us in all things."
Do we start our day with the right attitude, perhaps by spending time with God and hiding His word in our heart?
"Train yourself for devotion, for, while physical training is of limited value, devotion is valuable in every respect, since it holds a promise of life both for the present and for the future." (1 Timothy 4:8)
"The Bible is the only book whose Author is always present when you read it."
Daily devotionals are powerful tools in the living out of our daily lives. Devotions can be found more easily these days than just about any time in our history. This truly remarkable way to pause for a moment in our lives to turn ourselves inward and renew our devotion to our Lord and Savior is simple and easy.
Not only does it renew our devotion to our God, it also gives us a chance to reinvigorate our spiritual selves. When we are feeling sad or discouraged, fearful or anxious, a daily devotion can help us renew our spirits and remember that the Lord watches over us in all things."
Do we start our day with the right attitude, perhaps by spending time with God and hiding His word in our heart?
"Train yourself for devotion, for, while physical training is of limited value, devotion is valuable in every respect, since it holds a promise of life both for the present and for the future." (1 Timothy 4:8)
"The Bible is the only book whose Author is always present when you read it."
Monday, December 14, 2009
Wrong Motives
From: Oswald Chambers - My Utmost For His Highest
Mark 4:19 "They have listened to the Word but anxieties over life's demands, and the desire for wealth, and cravings of other sorts come to choke it off; it bears no yield."
Our state of mind is powerful in its effects. It can be the enemy that penetrates right into our soul and distracts our mind from God. There are certain attitudes we should never dare to indulge. If we do, we will find they have distracted us from faith in God. Until we get back into a quiet mood before Him, our faith is of no value, and our confidence in the flesh and in human ingenuity is what rules our lives.
Beware of "the cares of this world . . ." They are the very things that produce the wrong attitudes in our soul. It is incredible what enormous power there is in simple things to distract our attention away from God.
Another thing that distracts us is our passion for vindication. St. Augustine prayed, "O Lord, deliver me from this lust of always vindicating myself." Such a need for constant vindication destroys our soul’s faith in God. Don’t say, "I must explain myself," or, "I must get people to understand." Our Lord never explained anything— He left the misunderstandings or misconceptions of others to correct themselves.
When we discern that other people are not growing spiritually and allow that discernment to turn to criticism, we block our fellowship with God. God never gives us discernment so that we may criticize, but that we may intercede by reflecting His influence.
Mark 4:19 "They have listened to the Word but anxieties over life's demands, and the desire for wealth, and cravings of other sorts come to choke it off; it bears no yield."
Our state of mind is powerful in its effects. It can be the enemy that penetrates right into our soul and distracts our mind from God. There are certain attitudes we should never dare to indulge. If we do, we will find they have distracted us from faith in God. Until we get back into a quiet mood before Him, our faith is of no value, and our confidence in the flesh and in human ingenuity is what rules our lives.
Beware of "the cares of this world . . ." They are the very things that produce the wrong attitudes in our soul. It is incredible what enormous power there is in simple things to distract our attention away from God.
Another thing that distracts us is our passion for vindication. St. Augustine prayed, "O Lord, deliver me from this lust of always vindicating myself." Such a need for constant vindication destroys our soul’s faith in God. Don’t say, "I must explain myself," or, "I must get people to understand." Our Lord never explained anything— He left the misunderstandings or misconceptions of others to correct themselves.
When we discern that other people are not growing spiritually and allow that discernment to turn to criticism, we block our fellowship with God. God never gives us discernment so that we may criticize, but that we may intercede by reflecting His influence.
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Spiritual Maturity
From: The Purpose Driven Life Ministries
Matthew 5:9 "God blesses those who work for peace, for they will be called the children of God."
God sent Jesus into the world so that our relationship with God could be restored. Christmas is about restoring relationships and many of us have relationships that need mending.
God wants us to value relationships and make every effort to maintain them instead of discarding them whenever there is a rift, a hurt or a conflict. In fact, the Bible tells us that God has given us the ministry of restoring relationships. For this reason a significant amount of the New Testament is devoted to teaching us how to get along with one another.
The Apostle Paul taught that our ability to get along with others is a mark of spiritual maturity. Since Christ wants his family to be known for our love for each other, broken fellowship is a disgraceful testimony to unbelievers. This is why Paul was so embarrassed that the members of the church in Corinth were splitting into warring factions and even taking each other to court.
He wrote, "Shame on you! Surely there is at least one wise person in your fellowship who can settle a dispute between fellow Christians." (1 Cor. 6:5) He was shocked that no one in the church was mature enough to resolve the conflict peaceably. In the same letter, he said, "I'll put it as urgently as I can: You must get along with each other." (1 Cor. 1:10)
If you want God's blessing on your life and you want to be known as a child of God, you must learn to be a peacemaker. Jesus said, "God blesses those who work for peace, for they will be called the children of God."
Notice Jesus didn't say, "Blessed are the peace lovers," because everyone loves peace. Neither did he say, "Blessed are the peaceable," who are never disturbed by anything. Jesus said, "Blessed are those who work for peace" - those who actively seek to resolve conflict.
This Christmas is a good time to actively work toward restoring broken relationships.
Matthew 5:9 "God blesses those who work for peace, for they will be called the children of God."
God sent Jesus into the world so that our relationship with God could be restored. Christmas is about restoring relationships and many of us have relationships that need mending.
God wants us to value relationships and make every effort to maintain them instead of discarding them whenever there is a rift, a hurt or a conflict. In fact, the Bible tells us that God has given us the ministry of restoring relationships. For this reason a significant amount of the New Testament is devoted to teaching us how to get along with one another.
The Apostle Paul taught that our ability to get along with others is a mark of spiritual maturity. Since Christ wants his family to be known for our love for each other, broken fellowship is a disgraceful testimony to unbelievers. This is why Paul was so embarrassed that the members of the church in Corinth were splitting into warring factions and even taking each other to court.
He wrote, "Shame on you! Surely there is at least one wise person in your fellowship who can settle a dispute between fellow Christians." (1 Cor. 6:5) He was shocked that no one in the church was mature enough to resolve the conflict peaceably. In the same letter, he said, "I'll put it as urgently as I can: You must get along with each other." (1 Cor. 1:10)
If you want God's blessing on your life and you want to be known as a child of God, you must learn to be a peacemaker. Jesus said, "God blesses those who work for peace, for they will be called the children of God."
Notice Jesus didn't say, "Blessed are the peace lovers," because everyone loves peace. Neither did he say, "Blessed are the peaceable," who are never disturbed by anything. Jesus said, "Blessed are those who work for peace" - those who actively seek to resolve conflict.
This Christmas is a good time to actively work toward restoring broken relationships.
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Ecumenism Without Compromise—Transcription
Peter Kreeft, Ph.D., is a professor of philosophy at Boston College and at the King's College (Empire State Building), in New York City. He is a regular contributor to several Christian publications, is in wide demand as a speaker at conferences, and is the author of over 55 books including:
Handbook of Christian Apologetics
Christianity for Modern Pagans
Fundamentals of the Faith
Ecumenism
I’d like to give a fairly short, fairly formal semi-lecture followed by an interesting discussion about ecumenism. If we are to witness to the world, the problem is not only the world, the problem is in us. And the problem in us is not just that we are wicked and foolish, that’s always the case. We are also split, we’re divided. We can ignore that, we can be dishonest and compromise our convictions, but obviously that’s not going to do any good.
Is there any hope for reunion? I am increasingly convinced that there is much more hope than most of us think. And my hope is based most fundamentally on the fact that the most passionate ecumenist in all of existence is Jesus Christ. We all know His prayer to His Father just before His Crucifixion in John 17, “That they may be one even as Thou the Father art in me and I in Thee, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe.” He explicitly connects apologetics and ecumenism. “I in them and Thou in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that Thou has sent me and has loved them even Thou hast loved me.”
If you read the first three chapters of 1 Corinthians, you will see that denominationalism was not just a scandal, but absolutely unthinkable and intolerable to St. Paul. Because denominationalism is not the multiplying of subdivisions in an organization, it’s the amputation of limbs from an organism. Just as no sane person loves war, so no sane Christian loves the war among Christians that so scandalizes the world and weakens our witness to it. How could a divided church unify a divided world? No more than an infected physician can heal himself. But our divisions seem as intractable as war!
Here are 9 grounds for hope for ecumenical reunion that are commonly given, and not a one of them has worked:
1. Reasonable compromises.
2. Understanding and education: the hope that deep down, we’ll find that we don’t really disagree. That we’re all saying the same thing in different words but just misunderstanding each other.
3. Mystical experience: if you only have one, you’ll see that the previous point is true.
4. Tolerance: like a mutual non-aggression pact. Why can’t we just get along?
5. Subjectivism: reduction of THE Truth to “my truth” or “your truth” or “our truth.”
6. Skepticism: no one knows the truth anyway.
7. Rational argument: perhaps we can persuade each other as in a scientific laboratory.
8. A vague optimism: Dickon’s Mr. McColbers, “Something will turn up!”
9. Merely a temporary tactical and pragmatic union to fight a common enemy: an ecumenical jihad.
Good but not enough. None of these is the golden key to reunion.
The Golden Key
There is a golden key! His name is Jesus Christ. We can’t do it. And He can. We must be very clear about those two truths. The main reason it hasn’t happened is that we do not fully believe both those two truths.
Christ Himself is the most powerful source of reunion in the world because it comes not from the world but from Heaven. And He will have His way with us sooner or later, one way or another. We don’t know whether it’s going to be sooner or later, and we don’t know if it will come by one way or by another. But we do know that it will come because it is his will. We don’t know when and we don’t know how, but we know who.
Pope John Paul II has voiced the bold hope that as the first thousand years of Christian history were the millennium of Christian unity, and the second thousand years were the millennium of Christian disunity, 1054, 1517, and the over twenty-thousand denominations that came from 1517, so the third thousand years may be the millennium of Christian re-unity, reunification.
But how? The deepest division is obviously between Catholics and Protestants, for the Eastern Orthodox Churches have all remained one, not split into twenty-thousand in creed, code, or cult. They have preserved the fullness of Catholic faith. Except for universal papal authority, but that has changed its form quite a bit throughout Christian history, though not its reality, and it can change again. The pope himself explicitly said that in Ut Unum Sint. But how can Catholics and Protestants achieve reunion? I will prescind entirely from the question whether Anglicans are Catholics, Protestants, both, or neither. Well it cannot be by yielding or weakening or compromising one iota of divinely revealed truth!
All the serious differences between Protestants and Catholics concern how much territory this category of divinely revealed truth covers. For instance, the Church’s doctrines about Mary, and the saints, and the seven Sacraments, and Transubstantiation, and purgatory, Catholics accept them because they believe they are true and divinely revealed. Protestants reject them because they believe they are not true and not divinely revealed. Protestants say Catholics believe too much. Catholics say Protestants believe too little. Protestants say the Church added to Christ’s original, pure and simple revelation in the New Testament. Protestantism is thus Catholicism stripped down: the Catholic Ark with what Protestants claim are the non-scriptural barnacles scraped off of it.
When I was at Calvin College and investigating things Catholic and falling in love with them and feeling guilty about it, because this was the wrong church, I took a course in church history to try to get things clear. And the very first day of the course, the wise-old professor said, “What is the Church?” And we were all just freshman, we didn’t know for nothing so nobody answered. So he said, “Well, you’re going to meet a Roman Catholic someday and he’s going to say, ‘You’re in the wrong church! You’re a Calvinist, you’re in the church John Calvin founded 500 years ago. We’re in the church Jesus Christ founded 2000 years ago.’ What do you say to him?” Nobody had an answer. I said to myself, “I’m in the right class.”
He said, “Well, here’s what the Catholics will say: the church today is a great big thing and it looks very different from the simple thing you read about in the New Testament, but it’s the same just as that oak tree is the same organism as that little acorn. What’s wrong with that picture? The Catholic will say that Luther and Calvin broke off some branches of the church because it was really rotten and they tried to start a new one, but that can’t be done cause there’s only one Jesus. And therefore, only one church. What’s your answer to that? What’s wrong with that picture?” And nobody had an answer. I said to myself, “I’m in the right class!”
And he said, “Well, here’s what’s wrong with that pictures, here’s what happened: Jesus founded one church indeed and it is the church described in the New Testament, and it’s like Noah’s Ark, and it did get rotten, and Luther and Calvin and Knox and others said, ‘Gee, this Ark is sinking! We gotta scrape the barnacles off!’ So they scraped the barnacles off and restored it to its simple, pure, primitive, New Testament essence. So we’re in the right church! It’s the Catholics who are the upstarts. They’re the ones who added all those pagan barnacles.” I said, “Oh that makes me feel good.” I remember asking a question, I said, “Professor, do you mean to tell me that, if my Catholic neighbor and I both found a time machine and went back to the first century,” I still remember his look, “What’s this guy, a weirdo? Science fiction?” “…and worshipped together, that I as a Protestant would feel more at home in that church than he as a Catholic would?” And then he smiled. He said, “That’s exactly what I’m saying.” I said to myself, “Good, that means that I don’t have to be a great theologian to figure out who’s right. All I have to do is read the Church Fathers to prove to myself that they were all Calvinists.” Well, I read the Church Fathers and proved to myself they were all Catholics, so that’s why I’m here.
But the very word “Protestant” means protesting, refusing some of the Catholic whole because they think it’s anti-scriptural and unscriptural barnacles added to what Christ gave us. While the very word “Catholic” means universal, or whole. The whole deal. So this has a problem, apparently without a possible solution because no faithful Catholic could dream of unity with Protestants except on Catholic grounds. For to be a Catholic is to believe that those grounds are holy grounds, divinely revealed. It is the Protestants who must remove their shoes. Catholics cannot negotiate away any of the deposit of faith because it is not theirs, it is Christ’s! The divinely appointed mail carriers may not edit God’s mail.
Common Ground
So the reunion must be on Catholic grounds. That is, complete, universal grounds. That is the essentially and distinctively Catholic point: essential Catholic point and it is non-negotiable for any faithful Catholic.
But at the same time, reunion must be on Protestant grounds. And these are equally non-negotiable. What I mean by that is the essentially and distinctively Protestant point: the central Protestant point seems to be the opposite of the Catholic one, namely the simple all sufficiency of Christ alone. Jesus only. Jesus plus nothing. Jesus straight, not mixed drink. If reunion is possible, that is its only foundation. The Church’s one foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord.
Now of course that doesn’t have to mean, and it shouldn’t mean “no creed but Christ” or “Jesus only and therefore no Church” or “Jesus only therefore no Sacraments” for most Protestants do have a creed and a church and sacraments.
So perhaps those two central points already overlap a bit, or more than a bit. In fact they overlap so much that we can say, without trickery, that the whole reason for being a Catholic is to be the best possible evangelical Protestant.
What I mean by that strange statement is that the essence of evangelical Protestantism is to be one with Christ, to meet Christ, and that’s the best reason to be a Catholic. That’s the reason for the Mass, and the Eucharist, namely the Protestant thing of meeting Christ. That’s the whole point of the Catholic thing of the Church, and of the Sacraments and of the Saints and all of the rest. Take the Eucharist. Christ is no great because of the Eucharist, the Eucharist is great because of Christ. We Catholics don’t try to squeeze Christ out of the Church like orange juice out of an orange, Christ gave us the Church. We got the Church from Christ first of all. Only then do we get Christ from the Church because He put Himself into her. The Church is the servant, the messenger. The Church is Christ’s body, but the body is the head’s body. We don’t idolize anything. Protestants accuse Catholics of idolatry, ecclesiolatry, sacramentiology, Mariolatry, Christ is the only “idol.” The total “idola” or “icon” or “image” of God. We do not idolize, for instance, the doctrine of the Real Presence. It’s only a doctrine, though it’s a true doctrine. We worship Christ not doctrines about Christ. The Real Presence is the real presence of Christ. Christ alone is the absolute everywhere in Catholicism. Mary for instance, is holy only because of her relationship to Christ. She gave us Him by freely consenting to be His mother. And He gave us her, from the Cross. “Behold, your mother.”
A Surprising Clue
But reunion without compromise between Catholics and Protestants still seems impossible. Yet, here’s a surprising clue that it may be possible after all: the main point of what I said in the last few minutes “Jesus only,” “the all sufficiency of Christ,” that’s the essential Protestant point and it was just made by me, a Catholic.
That point seems to be an essential dividing point for Catholicism seems to Protestants to violate that point. Catholicism seems to Protestants to be “Christ plus paganism,” “the Ark plus the barnacles,” or “Christ plus many human traditions and historical accretions,” “Christ plus the pope,” “Christ plus Mary,” whatever. The most serious Protestant objection to Catholicism as a religion, not just as a theology, is that it violates the scriptural teaching of the all sufficiency of Christ, the teaching that there is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.
To Protestants, Catholicism seems to add other mediaries, other intermediaries between man and Christ: Mary, the saints, the Church, Sacraments, priests, human traditions.
But I suggest that if Protestants make just one single adjustment in their vision, they will see the possibility of reunion. Not just theologically, but more deeply religiously and spiritually, without any compromise at all. And that one adjustment is not to see Christ in any different way at all, but to see the Church in a different way. Not as an obstacle between us and Christ, not even as an intermediary between us and Christ, but as the very body of Christ Himself.
And why would they make that adjustment? Well, which of these two concepts of the Church is the scriptural way of seeing it? Come on, answer honestly. You read the Bible and isn’t the Bible the supreme authority for any Protestant? Once Protestants see the Church’s identity, they can love her instead of fearing her because the body of Christ is Christ as your body is you. It’s not an alien, it’s not an obstacle. How can your own body be an obstacle? How Gnostic! The body is not your prison house, or your coffin, or your punishment. It’s not even your tool, or your clothing, or your house. It’s not This Old House. It’s you. Although it’s not the whole you. It’s not your head, or your soul. The same is true of Christ’s body which is what the New Testament calls the Church. It is Christ. Though it’s not the whole Christ. He is her head. And the Holy Spirit is her soul.
Protestants will not and should not stop protesting against the Catholic Church until they see the totally Christocentric character of her and all her teachings. Sometimes, the understanding of the Church’s Christocentrism can be the key to understanding the Christocentric nature of each of the Church’s teachings. And sometimes, it works the other way around. Doctrine by doctrine, yielding its Christocentric treasure at the heart as it is more deeply explored and understood. As Christ the teacher appears at the heart of each of the Church’s teachings. I know a number of Protestants who have read the Church’s new Catechism and had been amazed at how consistently Christocentric everything in it is. And unless Protestants see this, how could they think of reunion with Catholics? And how can they see this, unless Catholics show it to them? And how can Catholics show it to them, unless they see it themselves? And how can they see it, unless they have a teacher, a preacher? As it is written, “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of them that preach the good news.”
In this light, it seems to me, clearly Providential that God has raised up for our time, the time of the end of the second millennium, the millennium of Christian disunity, and the beginning of the third millennium, hopefully the millennium of Christian re-unity, has raised up John Paul the Great. The most Christocentric pope of modern times, probably of all times. The most ecumenical pope of all times, and yet one who is totally and traditionally and enthusiastically Catholic. Is the pope Catholic? There have been times in the Church’s dark history when that joke was not funny. Today it’s funny.
Why Not Now?
Well, if God can do this, if God can effect an ecumenical reunion, why not now? Why does he delay? God never delays. Well then if the teachings of the Church are true, why doesn’t God convince Protestants of those truths? I think the reason is spiritual and personal, more than theological.
Why should God let Protestants become Catholics when many Protestants, perhaps most, already know Christ more intimately and personally than many Catholics, perhaps most! How can God lead Protestants home to the fullness of faith in the Catholic Church until the Catholic Church becomes that fullness that they knew as Protestants plus more, not any less! When Catholics know Christ better than Protestants do, when Catholics are better Protestants than Protestants, then Protestants will become Catholics in order to become better Protestants!
When Catholics are evangelized, Protestants will be sacramentalized. But not before! Evangelizing comes first.
So I think we Catholics have to change first. But that change involves not the slightest compromising with anything Catholic: no dumbing down of the faith and no addition from without, no paganization nor secularization nor negation not weakening. Only a rediscovery of our own essence from within. Frankly, it is the Protestants who are going to have to add to the doctrines they rejected by seeing them differently. What we have to add, or rather, rediscover is something even more important then doctrines: namely the relationship that we have neglected. A truer relationship with a person is even more important than a truer concept about him. So that point will probably make many Protestants cheer.
But any good Protestant who is hearing this ought to protest one thing I said a few moments ago: namely that Protestantism is essentially a protest movement, essentially negative. Protestants defend Protestantism as essentially positive. Why? Not because it doesn’t have a pope or Transubstantiation or purgatory or rosary, that is negative. But because it knows Christ, because its essence is the absolute all-sufficiency of Christ.
But that means that good Protestants are Protestants for exactly the same good reason that good Catholics are Catholic: out of fidelity to Christ. So if the Protestant and the Catholic are both totally sincere about this Christocentrism, If both sections of Christ’s orchestra want only to follow the baton of Christ the one conductor, and if they never yield on this holy fanaticism of love and loyalty to Christ, then they will play in harmony. For we know that Christ’s will is harmony, and unity. Look at that most intimate glimpse of the inner life of the Trinity that we have in Scripture: Christ’s high priestly prayer to His Father just before His death in John 17. Unity is central to it. Departure from Christ was the fundamental cause of the Church’s tragic divisions in the first place. Another word for departure from Christ is “sin.” Therefore, return to Christ will be the cause of the Church’s return to unity. That is simple logic. I could put that into a syllogism. It is also simple sanity and sanctity. Another word for “return to Christ” is “sanctity.”
When bishops and theologians become saints, then Catholics will become Evangelicals and Evangelicals will become Catholics. When both Protestants and Catholics become saints they will become one. For a saint means only an “alter Christos,” another Christ, a little Christ, and Christ is not divided. Christ’s body is not divided. When Christ comes at the end of the world to marry His Church, He will not be a polygamist. The Church will not be His harem.
Recap and Example
Let’s go through the whole thing one more time in a somewhat different way because it’s an apparently an impossible, unbelievable point: this hope for ecumenical reunion without compromise.
Already ecumenism has defied predictions and expectations. Apparently easy bridges have not been built, for example between Catholics and Orthodox. While apparently impossible ones have been built, for instance the Catholic-Lutheran agreement on Justification.
In my individual experience I find the same surprising principle to be true. I often find more mutual understanding between myself and a fundamentalist Southern Baptist who sincerely believes I am worshipping the great whore of Babylon and on my way to Hell, or with a Muslim who uncompromisingly rejects my belief that Christ is Lord as utter pagan blasphemy, than I find with some active Catholic laity, nuns, especially ex-nuns, priests and even bishops! As fellow Catholics we may agree on more articles of faith than I do with the Protestant or the Muslim, yet I sense we disagree more fundamentally than I do with the Protestant or the Muslim, and not just by personal temperament.
Here’s a mystery and when I try to unravel it, here’s what I came up with.
Let’s begin at the beginning with God, and the nature of God, and the will of God. God is Love and God wills above all for us all to enter into that Love forever: to incorporate us into the very mystery of the life of the Trinity. Everything that God does, from banging out the big bang, to incarnating His own Son, to arranging for each and every hair that falls from our head, everything He does is done for that end. Now with this general and very Heavenly principle in mind, let us look at something very earthly and very particular.
Let’s look at the ecumenical situation in a very local time and place. Latin America today. Catholics are complaining that Evangelical, Fundamentalist, and Pentecostal sects are stealing sheep. Protestant sects are growing and Catholic percentages are declining. Well, instead of complaining, let’s look deeper at the reality. Why is this happening? I think the ultimate reason is because God is Love. Because God wills to draw all men to Himself. Because of that spiritual gravity, because nature abhors a vacuum, spiritually as well as physically, and because the Catholic Church has been so remiss in giving God’s children the fullness of the spiritual food that God has given the Church to give out, therefore, the children have been going elsewhere to eat it.
And God has allowed this because God is a good father. And a good father would rather see his children go away from home and live, than stay home and die. Of course things are not that simple, of course motives for leaving the Church and joining the sects are many and mixed and some are simply bad, but still I think the main force that’s driving these events is in the realm of the spirit is the Spirit. When these sheep find little or no Christ in the Catholic Church, whoever’s fault that is, and find Christ more really in a sect, more really objectively and not just subjectively, and certainly not just emotionally, then they’re moving closer to and not farther from the fullness of the Catholic faith. They may have left the Eucharist, the real presence of Christ in the Catholic Church, and that is the fullest presence of Christ in this world, but they did not know the Person who is present there, and whose body they ate with their bodies, but not with their souls.
When these starving sheep leave home to find the manna of Christ in the sects, they are learning the lesson one that should have learned as Catholics but didn’t. And that lesson one is the only possible foundation for lesson two and three and four. That is, the fullness of the faith that the Catholic Church has, the building, rests on one foundation. As Catholics, these people may have gotten the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, but they didn’t get the real presence of Christ in their hearts and in their lives. They got the upper stories of the Catholic skyscrapers, but not the foundation. Not the faith and the hope and the love relationship with Christ as Lord and Savior. Therefore, in order to become good Catholics, they must first become good Protestants.
Spiritual Gravity
God pulled them out of a Catholic Church and put them into a Protestant sect because God is spiritual gravity and God pulls us towards Himself, like a massive sun. If His rays are blocked in one place, we must go elsewhere to find them, for find them we must! They draw us, they give us life. They are a matter of life or death, not a religious shopping mart. You may think this God-Gravity somewhat speculative, but why should God have less gravity than the sun? Why should there be less gravity in grace than in nature? Why should the spiritual universe be less united by gravity than the physical universe? The parallel works perfectly.
Look at physical gravity carefully. It’s like love. It bring together. Time and space are principles of dispersion, separation that prevent complete union. Time disperses our being out into past and future. Space disperses matter out into various places. Those two dispersions make death possible. Time and space enable death to insert its destructive sword between one year, when you live and one year, when you die. And between one material part of you, let’s say your head, and another, your body.
Yet, despite these dispersions, the physical universe is still united by a universal, gravitational attraction which is a real force of love and union. A non-random, directed, purposive movement or tendency towards all other matter. All matter is in love with all other matter. That is, the universe wants to return to the big bang unity, the one divine source of the many. In the act of creation, the physical universe runs by the love of God. “The love that moves the sun and all the stars,” in Dante’s words.
For gravity is not just like love, but gravity IS love on a material level. In fact, it has two movements: one is towards union, back to the center, the big bang, the past by gravity. And the other is to give itself out to all other beings, out into the future, the expanding universe, by energy, and by entropy, which is energy giving itself out to the empty places. Aquinas says, “The good is diffusive of itself.” On every level, from the Trinity to subatomic particles.
Thus the light that leaves the star goes everywhere in the universe forever. A dropped rock on earth goes to the moon and makes the rocks on the moon shudder just a little. We can calculate how much, it’s a function of the two variables of mass and distance. Every mass at any distance exerts some gravity. When I drop a pebble into a pool, I make ripples all the way to the shore. And when I drop a good deed into another person’s life, those ripples, tiny and imperceptible though they may be, do not stop short of the shore of death. And even then, they proceed on to the “third and fourth generation of those who hate God and goodness onto thousands of generations of those who love God and keep His commandments.”
God is the source of all spiritual gravity and God touches us only through Christ. “No one can come to the Father but by me.” Thus all spiritual gravity, including ecumenical gravity is through Christ. All return, all homecoming, all reconciliation, all mutual understanding, all healing of wounds in the body of Christ, is through the gravity of grace in the body of Christ. Now this is a largely unconscious and invisible thing, this gravity of grace. We don’t see it and we don’t even know what is happening when our spirit is drawn, just as we don’t know when our body falls. It’s not our conscious knowledge that is the prime mover of spiritual events.
When the human race first learned the law of gravity through Newton, it was a scientific and technological revolution. When we will learn the law of spiritual gravity, when we learn that it is a person and His name is Jesus, there will be a greater revolution. He promised that revolution. “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth will draw all men to myself.” “Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.” Those are divine promises. Why do we limit them to what we have already seen, or to what we can imagine or comprehend?
All God’s deeds transcend our vision, our imagination, and our comprehension. Christ is the golden key to all of history and therefore, to future ecumenism. Let us not dare to cut down the full Christ into understandable and predictable pieces. That’s exactly what all the heresies tried to do.
I think this ecumenical unity must wait until Christ in Protestants and Christ in Catholics see each other. That is, until they see the same Christ, until you have what you might call “evangelical intimacy.” And see more Christ in the other. The same is true of Eastern Orthodox. They must see the adoration and the beauty of Christ in us or else reunion will be a watering down. And with the Jews! The Jews must see us as more Jewish, more faithful, more martyrs, than the Jews. The same with the Muslims. They must see their “islam,” their absolute submission to God in us, and their spiritual warfare, their right jihad. And the Buddhist must see in us a greater peace, a greater mindfulness. And even the worldings and sex maniacs. They must see in us the joy that they’re seeking and not finding.
That’s necessary, that’s not an option, not an ideal, it’s necessary because of gravity. There’s not choice, it’s the nature of things. Like physical gravity. It can be impeded, just as gravity can be impeded by a hand catching a falling apple, but only temporarily. Art can’t change the nature of things, nature always take over eventually. Grass grows through abandoned buildings, and Christ is more like grass than like buildings.
So let’s not limit His growth.
Handbook of Christian Apologetics
Christianity for Modern Pagans
Fundamentals of the Faith
Ecumenism
I’d like to give a fairly short, fairly formal semi-lecture followed by an interesting discussion about ecumenism. If we are to witness to the world, the problem is not only the world, the problem is in us. And the problem in us is not just that we are wicked and foolish, that’s always the case. We are also split, we’re divided. We can ignore that, we can be dishonest and compromise our convictions, but obviously that’s not going to do any good.
Is there any hope for reunion? I am increasingly convinced that there is much more hope than most of us think. And my hope is based most fundamentally on the fact that the most passionate ecumenist in all of existence is Jesus Christ. We all know His prayer to His Father just before His Crucifixion in John 17, “That they may be one even as Thou the Father art in me and I in Thee, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe.” He explicitly connects apologetics and ecumenism. “I in them and Thou in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that Thou has sent me and has loved them even Thou hast loved me.”
If you read the first three chapters of 1 Corinthians, you will see that denominationalism was not just a scandal, but absolutely unthinkable and intolerable to St. Paul. Because denominationalism is not the multiplying of subdivisions in an organization, it’s the amputation of limbs from an organism. Just as no sane person loves war, so no sane Christian loves the war among Christians that so scandalizes the world and weakens our witness to it. How could a divided church unify a divided world? No more than an infected physician can heal himself. But our divisions seem as intractable as war!
Here are 9 grounds for hope for ecumenical reunion that are commonly given, and not a one of them has worked:
1. Reasonable compromises.
2. Understanding and education: the hope that deep down, we’ll find that we don’t really disagree. That we’re all saying the same thing in different words but just misunderstanding each other.
3. Mystical experience: if you only have one, you’ll see that the previous point is true.
4. Tolerance: like a mutual non-aggression pact. Why can’t we just get along?
5. Subjectivism: reduction of THE Truth to “my truth” or “your truth” or “our truth.”
6. Skepticism: no one knows the truth anyway.
7. Rational argument: perhaps we can persuade each other as in a scientific laboratory.
8. A vague optimism: Dickon’s Mr. McColbers, “Something will turn up!”
9. Merely a temporary tactical and pragmatic union to fight a common enemy: an ecumenical jihad.
Good but not enough. None of these is the golden key to reunion.
The Golden Key
There is a golden key! His name is Jesus Christ. We can’t do it. And He can. We must be very clear about those two truths. The main reason it hasn’t happened is that we do not fully believe both those two truths.
Christ Himself is the most powerful source of reunion in the world because it comes not from the world but from Heaven. And He will have His way with us sooner or later, one way or another. We don’t know whether it’s going to be sooner or later, and we don’t know if it will come by one way or by another. But we do know that it will come because it is his will. We don’t know when and we don’t know how, but we know who.
Pope John Paul II has voiced the bold hope that as the first thousand years of Christian history were the millennium of Christian unity, and the second thousand years were the millennium of Christian disunity, 1054, 1517, and the over twenty-thousand denominations that came from 1517, so the third thousand years may be the millennium of Christian re-unity, reunification.
But how? The deepest division is obviously between Catholics and Protestants, for the Eastern Orthodox Churches have all remained one, not split into twenty-thousand in creed, code, or cult. They have preserved the fullness of Catholic faith. Except for universal papal authority, but that has changed its form quite a bit throughout Christian history, though not its reality, and it can change again. The pope himself explicitly said that in Ut Unum Sint. But how can Catholics and Protestants achieve reunion? I will prescind entirely from the question whether Anglicans are Catholics, Protestants, both, or neither. Well it cannot be by yielding or weakening or compromising one iota of divinely revealed truth!
All the serious differences between Protestants and Catholics concern how much territory this category of divinely revealed truth covers. For instance, the Church’s doctrines about Mary, and the saints, and the seven Sacraments, and Transubstantiation, and purgatory, Catholics accept them because they believe they are true and divinely revealed. Protestants reject them because they believe they are not true and not divinely revealed. Protestants say Catholics believe too much. Catholics say Protestants believe too little. Protestants say the Church added to Christ’s original, pure and simple revelation in the New Testament. Protestantism is thus Catholicism stripped down: the Catholic Ark with what Protestants claim are the non-scriptural barnacles scraped off of it.
When I was at Calvin College and investigating things Catholic and falling in love with them and feeling guilty about it, because this was the wrong church, I took a course in church history to try to get things clear. And the very first day of the course, the wise-old professor said, “What is the Church?” And we were all just freshman, we didn’t know for nothing so nobody answered. So he said, “Well, you’re going to meet a Roman Catholic someday and he’s going to say, ‘You’re in the wrong church! You’re a Calvinist, you’re in the church John Calvin founded 500 years ago. We’re in the church Jesus Christ founded 2000 years ago.’ What do you say to him?” Nobody had an answer. I said to myself, “I’m in the right class.”
He said, “Well, here’s what the Catholics will say: the church today is a great big thing and it looks very different from the simple thing you read about in the New Testament, but it’s the same just as that oak tree is the same organism as that little acorn. What’s wrong with that picture? The Catholic will say that Luther and Calvin broke off some branches of the church because it was really rotten and they tried to start a new one, but that can’t be done cause there’s only one Jesus. And therefore, only one church. What’s your answer to that? What’s wrong with that picture?” And nobody had an answer. I said to myself, “I’m in the right class!”
And he said, “Well, here’s what’s wrong with that pictures, here’s what happened: Jesus founded one church indeed and it is the church described in the New Testament, and it’s like Noah’s Ark, and it did get rotten, and Luther and Calvin and Knox and others said, ‘Gee, this Ark is sinking! We gotta scrape the barnacles off!’ So they scraped the barnacles off and restored it to its simple, pure, primitive, New Testament essence. So we’re in the right church! It’s the Catholics who are the upstarts. They’re the ones who added all those pagan barnacles.” I said, “Oh that makes me feel good.” I remember asking a question, I said, “Professor, do you mean to tell me that, if my Catholic neighbor and I both found a time machine and went back to the first century,” I still remember his look, “What’s this guy, a weirdo? Science fiction?” “…and worshipped together, that I as a Protestant would feel more at home in that church than he as a Catholic would?” And then he smiled. He said, “That’s exactly what I’m saying.” I said to myself, “Good, that means that I don’t have to be a great theologian to figure out who’s right. All I have to do is read the Church Fathers to prove to myself that they were all Calvinists.” Well, I read the Church Fathers and proved to myself they were all Catholics, so that’s why I’m here.
But the very word “Protestant” means protesting, refusing some of the Catholic whole because they think it’s anti-scriptural and unscriptural barnacles added to what Christ gave us. While the very word “Catholic” means universal, or whole. The whole deal. So this has a problem, apparently without a possible solution because no faithful Catholic could dream of unity with Protestants except on Catholic grounds. For to be a Catholic is to believe that those grounds are holy grounds, divinely revealed. It is the Protestants who must remove their shoes. Catholics cannot negotiate away any of the deposit of faith because it is not theirs, it is Christ’s! The divinely appointed mail carriers may not edit God’s mail.
Common Ground
So the reunion must be on Catholic grounds. That is, complete, universal grounds. That is the essentially and distinctively Catholic point: essential Catholic point and it is non-negotiable for any faithful Catholic.
But at the same time, reunion must be on Protestant grounds. And these are equally non-negotiable. What I mean by that is the essentially and distinctively Protestant point: the central Protestant point seems to be the opposite of the Catholic one, namely the simple all sufficiency of Christ alone. Jesus only. Jesus plus nothing. Jesus straight, not mixed drink. If reunion is possible, that is its only foundation. The Church’s one foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord.
Now of course that doesn’t have to mean, and it shouldn’t mean “no creed but Christ” or “Jesus only and therefore no Church” or “Jesus only therefore no Sacraments” for most Protestants do have a creed and a church and sacraments.
So perhaps those two central points already overlap a bit, or more than a bit. In fact they overlap so much that we can say, without trickery, that the whole reason for being a Catholic is to be the best possible evangelical Protestant.
What I mean by that strange statement is that the essence of evangelical Protestantism is to be one with Christ, to meet Christ, and that’s the best reason to be a Catholic. That’s the reason for the Mass, and the Eucharist, namely the Protestant thing of meeting Christ. That’s the whole point of the Catholic thing of the Church, and of the Sacraments and of the Saints and all of the rest. Take the Eucharist. Christ is no great because of the Eucharist, the Eucharist is great because of Christ. We Catholics don’t try to squeeze Christ out of the Church like orange juice out of an orange, Christ gave us the Church. We got the Church from Christ first of all. Only then do we get Christ from the Church because He put Himself into her. The Church is the servant, the messenger. The Church is Christ’s body, but the body is the head’s body. We don’t idolize anything. Protestants accuse Catholics of idolatry, ecclesiolatry, sacramentiology, Mariolatry, Christ is the only “idol.” The total “idola” or “icon” or “image” of God. We do not idolize, for instance, the doctrine of the Real Presence. It’s only a doctrine, though it’s a true doctrine. We worship Christ not doctrines about Christ. The Real Presence is the real presence of Christ. Christ alone is the absolute everywhere in Catholicism. Mary for instance, is holy only because of her relationship to Christ. She gave us Him by freely consenting to be His mother. And He gave us her, from the Cross. “Behold, your mother.”
A Surprising Clue
But reunion without compromise between Catholics and Protestants still seems impossible. Yet, here’s a surprising clue that it may be possible after all: the main point of what I said in the last few minutes “Jesus only,” “the all sufficiency of Christ,” that’s the essential Protestant point and it was just made by me, a Catholic.
That point seems to be an essential dividing point for Catholicism seems to Protestants to violate that point. Catholicism seems to Protestants to be “Christ plus paganism,” “the Ark plus the barnacles,” or “Christ plus many human traditions and historical accretions,” “Christ plus the pope,” “Christ plus Mary,” whatever. The most serious Protestant objection to Catholicism as a religion, not just as a theology, is that it violates the scriptural teaching of the all sufficiency of Christ, the teaching that there is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.
To Protestants, Catholicism seems to add other mediaries, other intermediaries between man and Christ: Mary, the saints, the Church, Sacraments, priests, human traditions.
But I suggest that if Protestants make just one single adjustment in their vision, they will see the possibility of reunion. Not just theologically, but more deeply religiously and spiritually, without any compromise at all. And that one adjustment is not to see Christ in any different way at all, but to see the Church in a different way. Not as an obstacle between us and Christ, not even as an intermediary between us and Christ, but as the very body of Christ Himself.
And why would they make that adjustment? Well, which of these two concepts of the Church is the scriptural way of seeing it? Come on, answer honestly. You read the Bible and isn’t the Bible the supreme authority for any Protestant? Once Protestants see the Church’s identity, they can love her instead of fearing her because the body of Christ is Christ as your body is you. It’s not an alien, it’s not an obstacle. How can your own body be an obstacle? How Gnostic! The body is not your prison house, or your coffin, or your punishment. It’s not even your tool, or your clothing, or your house. It’s not This Old House. It’s you. Although it’s not the whole you. It’s not your head, or your soul. The same is true of Christ’s body which is what the New Testament calls the Church. It is Christ. Though it’s not the whole Christ. He is her head. And the Holy Spirit is her soul.
Protestants will not and should not stop protesting against the Catholic Church until they see the totally Christocentric character of her and all her teachings. Sometimes, the understanding of the Church’s Christocentrism can be the key to understanding the Christocentric nature of each of the Church’s teachings. And sometimes, it works the other way around. Doctrine by doctrine, yielding its Christocentric treasure at the heart as it is more deeply explored and understood. As Christ the teacher appears at the heart of each of the Church’s teachings. I know a number of Protestants who have read the Church’s new Catechism and had been amazed at how consistently Christocentric everything in it is. And unless Protestants see this, how could they think of reunion with Catholics? And how can they see this, unless Catholics show it to them? And how can Catholics show it to them, unless they see it themselves? And how can they see it, unless they have a teacher, a preacher? As it is written, “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of them that preach the good news.”
In this light, it seems to me, clearly Providential that God has raised up for our time, the time of the end of the second millennium, the millennium of Christian disunity, and the beginning of the third millennium, hopefully the millennium of Christian re-unity, has raised up John Paul the Great. The most Christocentric pope of modern times, probably of all times. The most ecumenical pope of all times, and yet one who is totally and traditionally and enthusiastically Catholic. Is the pope Catholic? There have been times in the Church’s dark history when that joke was not funny. Today it’s funny.
Why Not Now?
Well, if God can do this, if God can effect an ecumenical reunion, why not now? Why does he delay? God never delays. Well then if the teachings of the Church are true, why doesn’t God convince Protestants of those truths? I think the reason is spiritual and personal, more than theological.
Why should God let Protestants become Catholics when many Protestants, perhaps most, already know Christ more intimately and personally than many Catholics, perhaps most! How can God lead Protestants home to the fullness of faith in the Catholic Church until the Catholic Church becomes that fullness that they knew as Protestants plus more, not any less! When Catholics know Christ better than Protestants do, when Catholics are better Protestants than Protestants, then Protestants will become Catholics in order to become better Protestants!
When Catholics are evangelized, Protestants will be sacramentalized. But not before! Evangelizing comes first.
So I think we Catholics have to change first. But that change involves not the slightest compromising with anything Catholic: no dumbing down of the faith and no addition from without, no paganization nor secularization nor negation not weakening. Only a rediscovery of our own essence from within. Frankly, it is the Protestants who are going to have to add to the doctrines they rejected by seeing them differently. What we have to add, or rather, rediscover is something even more important then doctrines: namely the relationship that we have neglected. A truer relationship with a person is even more important than a truer concept about him. So that point will probably make many Protestants cheer.
But any good Protestant who is hearing this ought to protest one thing I said a few moments ago: namely that Protestantism is essentially a protest movement, essentially negative. Protestants defend Protestantism as essentially positive. Why? Not because it doesn’t have a pope or Transubstantiation or purgatory or rosary, that is negative. But because it knows Christ, because its essence is the absolute all-sufficiency of Christ.
But that means that good Protestants are Protestants for exactly the same good reason that good Catholics are Catholic: out of fidelity to Christ. So if the Protestant and the Catholic are both totally sincere about this Christocentrism, If both sections of Christ’s orchestra want only to follow the baton of Christ the one conductor, and if they never yield on this holy fanaticism of love and loyalty to Christ, then they will play in harmony. For we know that Christ’s will is harmony, and unity. Look at that most intimate glimpse of the inner life of the Trinity that we have in Scripture: Christ’s high priestly prayer to His Father just before His death in John 17. Unity is central to it. Departure from Christ was the fundamental cause of the Church’s tragic divisions in the first place. Another word for departure from Christ is “sin.” Therefore, return to Christ will be the cause of the Church’s return to unity. That is simple logic. I could put that into a syllogism. It is also simple sanity and sanctity. Another word for “return to Christ” is “sanctity.”
When bishops and theologians become saints, then Catholics will become Evangelicals and Evangelicals will become Catholics. When both Protestants and Catholics become saints they will become one. For a saint means only an “alter Christos,” another Christ, a little Christ, and Christ is not divided. Christ’s body is not divided. When Christ comes at the end of the world to marry His Church, He will not be a polygamist. The Church will not be His harem.
Recap and Example
Let’s go through the whole thing one more time in a somewhat different way because it’s an apparently an impossible, unbelievable point: this hope for ecumenical reunion without compromise.
Already ecumenism has defied predictions and expectations. Apparently easy bridges have not been built, for example between Catholics and Orthodox. While apparently impossible ones have been built, for instance the Catholic-Lutheran agreement on Justification.
In my individual experience I find the same surprising principle to be true. I often find more mutual understanding between myself and a fundamentalist Southern Baptist who sincerely believes I am worshipping the great whore of Babylon and on my way to Hell, or with a Muslim who uncompromisingly rejects my belief that Christ is Lord as utter pagan blasphemy, than I find with some active Catholic laity, nuns, especially ex-nuns, priests and even bishops! As fellow Catholics we may agree on more articles of faith than I do with the Protestant or the Muslim, yet I sense we disagree more fundamentally than I do with the Protestant or the Muslim, and not just by personal temperament.
Here’s a mystery and when I try to unravel it, here’s what I came up with.
Let’s begin at the beginning with God, and the nature of God, and the will of God. God is Love and God wills above all for us all to enter into that Love forever: to incorporate us into the very mystery of the life of the Trinity. Everything that God does, from banging out the big bang, to incarnating His own Son, to arranging for each and every hair that falls from our head, everything He does is done for that end. Now with this general and very Heavenly principle in mind, let us look at something very earthly and very particular.
Let’s look at the ecumenical situation in a very local time and place. Latin America today. Catholics are complaining that Evangelical, Fundamentalist, and Pentecostal sects are stealing sheep. Protestant sects are growing and Catholic percentages are declining. Well, instead of complaining, let’s look deeper at the reality. Why is this happening? I think the ultimate reason is because God is Love. Because God wills to draw all men to Himself. Because of that spiritual gravity, because nature abhors a vacuum, spiritually as well as physically, and because the Catholic Church has been so remiss in giving God’s children the fullness of the spiritual food that God has given the Church to give out, therefore, the children have been going elsewhere to eat it.
And God has allowed this because God is a good father. And a good father would rather see his children go away from home and live, than stay home and die. Of course things are not that simple, of course motives for leaving the Church and joining the sects are many and mixed and some are simply bad, but still I think the main force that’s driving these events is in the realm of the spirit is the Spirit. When these sheep find little or no Christ in the Catholic Church, whoever’s fault that is, and find Christ more really in a sect, more really objectively and not just subjectively, and certainly not just emotionally, then they’re moving closer to and not farther from the fullness of the Catholic faith. They may have left the Eucharist, the real presence of Christ in the Catholic Church, and that is the fullest presence of Christ in this world, but they did not know the Person who is present there, and whose body they ate with their bodies, but not with their souls.
When these starving sheep leave home to find the manna of Christ in the sects, they are learning the lesson one that should have learned as Catholics but didn’t. And that lesson one is the only possible foundation for lesson two and three and four. That is, the fullness of the faith that the Catholic Church has, the building, rests on one foundation. As Catholics, these people may have gotten the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, but they didn’t get the real presence of Christ in their hearts and in their lives. They got the upper stories of the Catholic skyscrapers, but not the foundation. Not the faith and the hope and the love relationship with Christ as Lord and Savior. Therefore, in order to become good Catholics, they must first become good Protestants.
Spiritual Gravity
God pulled them out of a Catholic Church and put them into a Protestant sect because God is spiritual gravity and God pulls us towards Himself, like a massive sun. If His rays are blocked in one place, we must go elsewhere to find them, for find them we must! They draw us, they give us life. They are a matter of life or death, not a religious shopping mart. You may think this God-Gravity somewhat speculative, but why should God have less gravity than the sun? Why should there be less gravity in grace than in nature? Why should the spiritual universe be less united by gravity than the physical universe? The parallel works perfectly.
Look at physical gravity carefully. It’s like love. It bring together. Time and space are principles of dispersion, separation that prevent complete union. Time disperses our being out into past and future. Space disperses matter out into various places. Those two dispersions make death possible. Time and space enable death to insert its destructive sword between one year, when you live and one year, when you die. And between one material part of you, let’s say your head, and another, your body.
Yet, despite these dispersions, the physical universe is still united by a universal, gravitational attraction which is a real force of love and union. A non-random, directed, purposive movement or tendency towards all other matter. All matter is in love with all other matter. That is, the universe wants to return to the big bang unity, the one divine source of the many. In the act of creation, the physical universe runs by the love of God. “The love that moves the sun and all the stars,” in Dante’s words.
For gravity is not just like love, but gravity IS love on a material level. In fact, it has two movements: one is towards union, back to the center, the big bang, the past by gravity. And the other is to give itself out to all other beings, out into the future, the expanding universe, by energy, and by entropy, which is energy giving itself out to the empty places. Aquinas says, “The good is diffusive of itself.” On every level, from the Trinity to subatomic particles.
Thus the light that leaves the star goes everywhere in the universe forever. A dropped rock on earth goes to the moon and makes the rocks on the moon shudder just a little. We can calculate how much, it’s a function of the two variables of mass and distance. Every mass at any distance exerts some gravity. When I drop a pebble into a pool, I make ripples all the way to the shore. And when I drop a good deed into another person’s life, those ripples, tiny and imperceptible though they may be, do not stop short of the shore of death. And even then, they proceed on to the “third and fourth generation of those who hate God and goodness onto thousands of generations of those who love God and keep His commandments.”
God is the source of all spiritual gravity and God touches us only through Christ. “No one can come to the Father but by me.” Thus all spiritual gravity, including ecumenical gravity is through Christ. All return, all homecoming, all reconciliation, all mutual understanding, all healing of wounds in the body of Christ, is through the gravity of grace in the body of Christ. Now this is a largely unconscious and invisible thing, this gravity of grace. We don’t see it and we don’t even know what is happening when our spirit is drawn, just as we don’t know when our body falls. It’s not our conscious knowledge that is the prime mover of spiritual events.
When the human race first learned the law of gravity through Newton, it was a scientific and technological revolution. When we will learn the law of spiritual gravity, when we learn that it is a person and His name is Jesus, there will be a greater revolution. He promised that revolution. “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth will draw all men to myself.” “Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.” Those are divine promises. Why do we limit them to what we have already seen, or to what we can imagine or comprehend?
All God’s deeds transcend our vision, our imagination, and our comprehension. Christ is the golden key to all of history and therefore, to future ecumenism. Let us not dare to cut down the full Christ into understandable and predictable pieces. That’s exactly what all the heresies tried to do.
I think this ecumenical unity must wait until Christ in Protestants and Christ in Catholics see each other. That is, until they see the same Christ, until you have what you might call “evangelical intimacy.” And see more Christ in the other. The same is true of Eastern Orthodox. They must see the adoration and the beauty of Christ in us or else reunion will be a watering down. And with the Jews! The Jews must see us as more Jewish, more faithful, more martyrs, than the Jews. The same with the Muslims. They must see their “islam,” their absolute submission to God in us, and their spiritual warfare, their right jihad. And the Buddhist must see in us a greater peace, a greater mindfulness. And even the worldings and sex maniacs. They must see in us the joy that they’re seeking and not finding.
That’s necessary, that’s not an option, not an ideal, it’s necessary because of gravity. There’s not choice, it’s the nature of things. Like physical gravity. It can be impeded, just as gravity can be impeded by a hand catching a falling apple, but only temporarily. Art can’t change the nature of things, nature always take over eventually. Grass grows through abandoned buildings, and Christ is more like grass than like buildings.
So let’s not limit His growth.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
"Pay It Forward"
From: Greg Laurie Ministries
Acts 20:35 "And remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.' "
When you are very young, you are usually preoccupied with what you are getting for Christmas. But as you get older, you start learning the joy of giving, and you actually find that it is indeed more of a blessing to give than it is to receive.
We need to learn to be generous with everything that God has given to us. Jesus said, "Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you." (Luke 6:38) You can't outgive God.
So let's learn the joy of giving. Let's learn the joy of giving of our time, our resources, our talents and abilities—whatever God has given to us. Some hoard what God has given them, not wanting to give, not understanding that as you give out, more is given to you: "The generous soul will be made rich, and he who waters will also be watered himself." (Proverbs 11:25)
We don't know how long we will live. But I believe that if we live each day as unto the Lord, then we won't have to worry about the length of our lives. So make every day count. Don't waste your life. Give out of what God has given you.
"It is not that I am eager for the gift; rather, my concern is for the ever-growing balance in your account." (Philippians 4:17)
Acts 20:35 "And remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.' "
When you are very young, you are usually preoccupied with what you are getting for Christmas. But as you get older, you start learning the joy of giving, and you actually find that it is indeed more of a blessing to give than it is to receive.
We need to learn to be generous with everything that God has given to us. Jesus said, "Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you." (Luke 6:38) You can't outgive God.
So let's learn the joy of giving. Let's learn the joy of giving of our time, our resources, our talents and abilities—whatever God has given to us. Some hoard what God has given them, not wanting to give, not understanding that as you give out, more is given to you: "The generous soul will be made rich, and he who waters will also be watered himself." (Proverbs 11:25)
We don't know how long we will live. But I believe that if we live each day as unto the Lord, then we won't have to worry about the length of our lives. So make every day count. Don't waste your life. Give out of what God has given you.
"It is not that I am eager for the gift; rather, my concern is for the ever-growing balance in your account." (Philippians 4:17)
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
A Better Strategy
From: New Life Daily Devotions - Steve Arterburn
Matthew 6:34 "Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes."
All of us may find our courage tested by the inevitable disappointments and tragedies of life. After all, ours is a world filled with uncertainty, hardship, sickness, and danger. Trouble, it seems, is never too far from the front door.
When we focus upon our fears and our doubts, we may find many reasons to lie awake at night and fret about the uncertainties of the coming day. A better strategy, of course, is to focus not upon our fears, but instead upon our God.
God is as near as your next breath, and He is in control. He offers salvation to all His children, including you. God is your shield and your strength; you are His forever. So don't focus your thoughts upon the fears of the day. Instead, trust God's plan and His eternal love for you. And remember: God is good, and He has the last word.
Matthew 6:34 "Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes."
All of us may find our courage tested by the inevitable disappointments and tragedies of life. After all, ours is a world filled with uncertainty, hardship, sickness, and danger. Trouble, it seems, is never too far from the front door.
When we focus upon our fears and our doubts, we may find many reasons to lie awake at night and fret about the uncertainties of the coming day. A better strategy, of course, is to focus not upon our fears, but instead upon our God.
God is as near as your next breath, and He is in control. He offers salvation to all His children, including you. God is your shield and your strength; you are His forever. So don't focus your thoughts upon the fears of the day. Instead, trust God's plan and His eternal love for you. And remember: God is good, and He has the last word.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
So Many Choices
From: New Life Daily Devotions - Steve Arterburn
Matthew 6:33 "The thing you should want most is God's kingdom and doing what God wants. Then all these other things you need will be given to you."
Your life is a series of choices. From the instant you wake up in the morning until the moment you nod off to sleep at night, you make countless decisions—decisions about the things you do, decisions about the words you speak, and decisions about the way that you choose to direct your thoughts.
As a believer who has been transformed by the love of Jesus, you have every reason to make wise choices. But sometimes, when the daily grind threatens to grind you up and spit you out, you may make choices that are displeasing to God. When you do, you'll pay a price because you'll forfeit the happiness and the peace that might otherwise have been yours.
So, as you pause to consider the kind of Christian you are—and the kind of Christian you want to become—ask yourself whether you're sitting on the fence or standing in the light. The choice is yours . . . and so are the consequences.
Life is pretty much like a cafeteria line—it offers us many choices, both good and bad. The Christian must have a spiritual radar that detects the difference not only between bad and good but also among good, better, and best. Dennis Swanberg
Matthew 6:33 "The thing you should want most is God's kingdom and doing what God wants. Then all these other things you need will be given to you."
Your life is a series of choices. From the instant you wake up in the morning until the moment you nod off to sleep at night, you make countless decisions—decisions about the things you do, decisions about the words you speak, and decisions about the way that you choose to direct your thoughts.
As a believer who has been transformed by the love of Jesus, you have every reason to make wise choices. But sometimes, when the daily grind threatens to grind you up and spit you out, you may make choices that are displeasing to God. When you do, you'll pay a price because you'll forfeit the happiness and the peace that might otherwise have been yours.
So, as you pause to consider the kind of Christian you are—and the kind of Christian you want to become—ask yourself whether you're sitting on the fence or standing in the light. The choice is yours . . . and so are the consequences.
Life is pretty much like a cafeteria line—it offers us many choices, both good and bad. The Christian must have a spiritual radar that detects the difference not only between bad and good but also among good, better, and best. Dennis Swanberg
Monday, December 7, 2009
Persevere To The End
From: Today God Is First - Os Hillman Ministries
Romans 5:2-4 "And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope."
Perseverance is the key to every great accomplishment because nothing of lasting value has ever been achieved without it. Industrialist Henry Ford is one of the great success stories of American history, but he failed in business five times before he succeeded. A Ford Motor Company employee once asked his boss the secret of success, and Henry Ford replied, "When you start a thing, don't quit until you finish it."
The path ahead of you is strewn with obstacles. People will oppose you. There will be financial setbacks, time pressures, illnesses and misfortunes. Some of the biggest obstacles will be inside of you: self-doubt, insecurity, procrastination, and worry.
Life is a marathon, not a sprint. The race doesn't go to the swiftest, but to those who don't give up. We need endurance in order to deal with the stress of adversity. We must maintain a balanced diet, exercise regularly, and get plenty of rest. People give up or give out when they feel depleted - when they physically, emotionally and spiritually run out of gas.
When going through adversity, watch out for pessimists, blamers and toxic personalities. Beware of people who try to talk you out of your dreams and goals. Spend time with optimists and encouragers. Seek out people of faith.
Perseverance is a refusal to quit. It's falling down 100 times and getting back up 101 times. Persevere to the end.
Romans 5:2-4 "And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope."
Perseverance is the key to every great accomplishment because nothing of lasting value has ever been achieved without it. Industrialist Henry Ford is one of the great success stories of American history, but he failed in business five times before he succeeded. A Ford Motor Company employee once asked his boss the secret of success, and Henry Ford replied, "When you start a thing, don't quit until you finish it."
The path ahead of you is strewn with obstacles. People will oppose you. There will be financial setbacks, time pressures, illnesses and misfortunes. Some of the biggest obstacles will be inside of you: self-doubt, insecurity, procrastination, and worry.
Life is a marathon, not a sprint. The race doesn't go to the swiftest, but to those who don't give up. We need endurance in order to deal with the stress of adversity. We must maintain a balanced diet, exercise regularly, and get plenty of rest. People give up or give out when they feel depleted - when they physically, emotionally and spiritually run out of gas.
When going through adversity, watch out for pessimists, blamers and toxic personalities. Beware of people who try to talk you out of your dreams and goals. Spend time with optimists and encouragers. Seek out people of faith.
Perseverance is a refusal to quit. It's falling down 100 times and getting back up 101 times. Persevere to the end.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Eternal Perspective
From: New Life Daily Devotions - Steve Arterburn
Colossians 3:1 "Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits at God's right hand in the place of honor and power."
If a temporary loss of perspective has left you worried, exhausted, or both, it's time to readjust your thought patterns. Negative thoughts are habit-forming; thankfully, so are positive ones. With practice, you can form the habit of focusing on God's priorities and your own possibilities. When you do, you'll soon discover that you will spend less time fretting about your challenges and more time praising God for His gifts.
When you call upon the Lord and prayerfully seek His will, He will give you wisdom and perspective. When you make God's priorities your priorities, He will direct your steps and calm your fears. So today and every day hereafter, pray for a sense of balance and perspective. And remember: no problems are too big for God—and that includes yours.
Instead of being frustrated and overwhelmed by all that is going on in our world, go to the Lord and ask Him to give you His eternal perspective. Kay Arthur
Colossians 3:1 "Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits at God's right hand in the place of honor and power."
If a temporary loss of perspective has left you worried, exhausted, or both, it's time to readjust your thought patterns. Negative thoughts are habit-forming; thankfully, so are positive ones. With practice, you can form the habit of focusing on God's priorities and your own possibilities. When you do, you'll soon discover that you will spend less time fretting about your challenges and more time praising God for His gifts.
When you call upon the Lord and prayerfully seek His will, He will give you wisdom and perspective. When you make God's priorities your priorities, He will direct your steps and calm your fears. So today and every day hereafter, pray for a sense of balance and perspective. And remember: no problems are too big for God—and that includes yours.
Instead of being frustrated and overwhelmed by all that is going on in our world, go to the Lord and ask Him to give you His eternal perspective. Kay Arthur
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Overwhelmingly Conquer!
From: Bryant Wright Ministries
Romans 8:31 "What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?"
I have always been inspired by people who faced great challenges and setbacks in their lives, who fought hard and achieved amazing comebacks. There is along list of people who have done this, both real and fiction, secular, as well as biblical, and from centuries in the past, as well as recent heroes.
I have tremendous news for you. These comebacks are not just for people you read about in the history books or the latest edition of Newsweek. This very day, God is in the business of turning your setbacks into comebacks! Note what Paul wrote to the Christians being persecuted: "… we are being put to death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered. But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us." (Romans 8:37) Realize that God doesn’t say, "Well, I’ll arrange it where you can just squeak by!" Neither does He say, "I’ll arrange it where you can just barely endure."
No! He doesn't say any of that! But what He does say is: “In All these things, we overwhelmingly conquer!” And it is this amazing power – the power of the Creator of the universe – that will help you pick yourself up, brush yourself off, and turn your setback into an overwhelming victory. May that victory be triumphed for the glory of God!
Romans 8:31 "What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?"
I have always been inspired by people who faced great challenges and setbacks in their lives, who fought hard and achieved amazing comebacks. There is along list of people who have done this, both real and fiction, secular, as well as biblical, and from centuries in the past, as well as recent heroes.
I have tremendous news for you. These comebacks are not just for people you read about in the history books or the latest edition of Newsweek. This very day, God is in the business of turning your setbacks into comebacks! Note what Paul wrote to the Christians being persecuted: "… we are being put to death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered. But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us." (Romans 8:37) Realize that God doesn’t say, "Well, I’ll arrange it where you can just squeak by!" Neither does He say, "I’ll arrange it where you can just barely endure."
No! He doesn't say any of that! But what He does say is: “In All these things, we overwhelmingly conquer!” And it is this amazing power – the power of the Creator of the universe – that will help you pick yourself up, brush yourself off, and turn your setback into an overwhelming victory. May that victory be triumphed for the glory of God!
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
God's Detours
From: Ambassadors For Christ International - John North
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 "Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."
When things do not go exactly as you planned, thank God that His goals for you are better than yours!
"In everything give thanks." Notice that the Lord is not saying to us, "Thank Me for the nice, pleasant things in your life". Of course we should thank Him for those things too, but they are just a part of "everything".
It is good to have goals and to be moving with purpose in your life, but sometimes God's plans are different than ours. When that is the case, the Lord wants us not to resent His plans, but to recognize that He has plans we know nothing about, and to embrace His plan for our lives with even more motivation than the ones we came up with.
It may mean a change of directions. It may not be comfortable, but if you embrace God's plans, you will find yourself living out what He made you for. That may not be clear at first, but that is what faith is all about.
As you consider your current station in life, move with purpose to fulfil your God-honoring plans, but be prepared to accept God's detours and changes of order with joy and thanksgiving. Those you live and work with will be thankful!
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 "Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."
When things do not go exactly as you planned, thank God that His goals for you are better than yours!
"In everything give thanks." Notice that the Lord is not saying to us, "Thank Me for the nice, pleasant things in your life". Of course we should thank Him for those things too, but they are just a part of "everything".
It is good to have goals and to be moving with purpose in your life, but sometimes God's plans are different than ours. When that is the case, the Lord wants us not to resent His plans, but to recognize that He has plans we know nothing about, and to embrace His plan for our lives with even more motivation than the ones we came up with.
It may mean a change of directions. It may not be comfortable, but if you embrace God's plans, you will find yourself living out what He made you for. That may not be clear at first, but that is what faith is all about.
As you consider your current station in life, move with purpose to fulfil your God-honoring plans, but be prepared to accept God's detours and changes of order with joy and thanksgiving. Those you live and work with will be thankful!
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Wisdom
From: New Life Daily Devotions - Steve Arterburn
Proverbs 13:20 "He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm."
Wisdom does not spring up overnight—it takes time. To become wise, we must seek God's wisdom and live according to His Word. And, we must not only learn the lessons of the Christian life, we must also live by them.
Do you seek to live a life of righteousness and wisdom? If so, you must study the ultimate source of wisdom: the Word of God. You must seek out worthy mentors and listen carefully to their advice. You must associate, day in and day out, with godly men and women. And, you must act in accordance with your beliefs. When you do these things, you will become wise...and you will be a blessing to your friends, to your family, and to the world.
The theme of Proverbs is wisdom, the right use of knowledge. It enables you to evaluate circumstances and people and make the right decisions in life. Warren Wiersbe
Proverbs 13:20 "He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm."
Wisdom does not spring up overnight—it takes time. To become wise, we must seek God's wisdom and live according to His Word. And, we must not only learn the lessons of the Christian life, we must also live by them.
Do you seek to live a life of righteousness and wisdom? If so, you must study the ultimate source of wisdom: the Word of God. You must seek out worthy mentors and listen carefully to their advice. You must associate, day in and day out, with godly men and women. And, you must act in accordance with your beliefs. When you do these things, you will become wise...and you will be a blessing to your friends, to your family, and to the world.
The theme of Proverbs is wisdom, the right use of knowledge. It enables you to evaluate circumstances and people and make the right decisions in life. Warren Wiersbe
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