spirituality

The Funeral of Your Own Independence

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“The things that are right, noble, and good from the natural standpoint are the very things that keep us from being God’s best. Once we come to understand that natural moral excellence opposes or counteracts surrender to God, we bring our soul into the center of its greatest battle. The cost to your natural life is not just one or two things, but everything. Beware of refusing to go to the funeral of your own independence” (Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest).

A lot of what passes for Christianity is simply behavior modification. Back in the day, there were a lot of don’ts. Don’t drink, don’t gamble, don’t play cards, don’t dance, etc. As one pastor put it, we’d get to church on Sunday and celebrate that we hadn’t done anything.

But Christianity is a lot more than being moral. If you want to play that game, the standard is impossibly high, as in be perfect as God in heaven is perfect. Simply put, you can’t be good enough. But Jesus could. And Jesus was.

Christianity is not behaving better. It’s not being an upstanding citizen or a good moral human being. It’s about surrender. It’s about dying to self. It’s about letting God form the Christ-life within you and make you more like Jesus.

As my friend says, it’s not about making bad people good. It’s about making dead people alive. It’s about being transformed rather than just upgraded. And Christmas is the season where we celebrate the hope that means that we can be better or more improved but made brand new.

Fall On Your Knees

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Tonight is a post from a sort of guest blogger. Basically, I saw something in a post that I knew needed to be shared and copied and pasted. It’s from three years ago and it spoke to my heart, so I hope it will speak to yours:

The words ‘the weary world rejoices’ have been on a constant replay in my mind today. I finally stopped long enough to figure out what song it comes from … ‘O Holy Night’. It’s not necessarily one of my most favorite Christmas songs to sing simply because as an alto I don’t prefer the key it’s often played in. I try to avoid making my vocal cords bleed from trying to sing notes I can’t hit! Nevertheless, I love hearing the song sung by sopranos and tenors. 😊

Once I remembered where the lyrics came from, I thought about the first words of the chorus … ‘fall on your knees’ … I’ve always interpreted those words to mean we should bow in reverence and awe to the Lord. I believe that’s what the author meant but I was struck by another thought. What if ‘fall on your knees’ is also an invitation for the weary soul to rest?

All is well. Our Salvation has come in the form of a baby. He is the One who will restore what has been broken. He is the only One who can offer “a thrill of hope” in a world full of “sin and error pining”. We no longer must strive to make things right. He has come to make all things new. We can fall on our knees in rest, worship, and restful worship.

Only then from that place of restful worship, will we be able to “hear the angels sing”. We will live from a place of Gospel-bought peace and live out His ‘law of love’. As Ann Voskamp says, ‘Peace is not the absence of problems, but the presence of God.’ Through His presence and peace, we can break the bondages we have been living in and join with fellow believers to “praise His holy name”.

Whether you are in a place of deep pain, all-encompassing grief, soul-weariness, or great joy, I am praying you can find the time to receive His invitation to rest, worship, and “praise His holy name”.

‘Then Jesus said, ‘Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light’. Matthew 11:28-30

Just a thought for this Tuesday in December” (Melody Amason).

Check this version out of “O Holy Night (Hear the Gospel Story)”. I love what they did with the other two verses and choruses. It’s incredible!

(Also from her post).

What Rocking Chair is This?

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I had a bit of a surreal, random moment earlier today. I was at one of my favorite places in Nashville, the Rabbit Room. I was sitting in a rocking chair on the wraparound porch, basking in the blazing sun on a wintry day.

Suddenly, I heard a sound as if it were coming from a distance. It took me a while to place the melody — Greensleeves, or as it is more commonly known, What Child is This. Whatever it was sounded like either a trumpet playing low or a trombone playing high. I sat there and let the words fill my mind as the music played:

“What Child is this who, laid to rest
On Mary’s lap is sleeping?
Whom angels greet with anthems sweet
While the good shepherds watch are keeping?

This, this is Christ the King
Whom shepherds guard and angels sing
Haste, haste, to bring Him laud
The Babe, the Son of Mary

So bring Him incense, gold and myrrh
Come peasant, king to own Him
The King of kings salvation brings
Let loving hearts enthrone Him

This, this is Christ the King
Whom shepherds guard and angels sing
Haste, haste, to bring Him laud
The Babe, the Son of Mary

Raise, oh raise, the song on high
His mother sings her lullaby
Joy, oh joy, for Christ is born
The Babe, the Son of Mary

What Child is this
What Child is this (what Child is this)

This, this is Christ the King
Whom shepherds guard and angels sing
Haste, haste, to bring Him laud
The Babe, the Son of Mary” (William Chatterton Dix).

Advent needs to be a time of reflection rather than a time of rushing around. I get that people are busy, but if there’s no margin for marveling at the mystery of the incarnation, then we’re too busy. We’ve let too many unimportant things get in the way of the main thing.

So let us come and adore the Christ child this Advent season in the midst of all the buying and wrapping and decorating and baking. Let us remember He’s why we’re celebrating.

Season’s Greetings?

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A few years ago, it seemed like everybody was getting bent out of shape over retail workers not saying Merry Christmas to every customer. It was a thing.

Apparently, life was a lot easier then so that there weren’t more pressing issues or more dire problems to deal with other than people who may or may not know about the Christ of Christmas getting the semantics right.

Don’t get me wrong. I love hearing Merry Christmas. I sometimes even remember to say it. Sometimes I just say, “Have a good day” and then walk away wondering why I didn’t say Merry Christmas.

But I do think that believers have been known to expect lost people who don’t have a regenerated heart and mind to act saved when people who are supposed to be the ones who know Jesus are the most obnoxious and rude customers. There’s a reason why people at restaurants hate working on Sunday.

I still think that just possibly instead of expecting to hear Merry Christmas everywhere we go, we should instead exhibit the qualities of the Christ in Christmas. Maybe we need to be a little kinder or a little more patient. Perhaps instead of forcing someone to parrot Merry Christmas, we do our part to make their Christmas a little merrier by how we live out Jesus in front of them.

People might want to know Jesus if they saw Him lived out by the people who profess to know Him. They might want to follow Jesus if they saw a real difference in the lives of those who go to church every Sunday. What turns them off isn’t Jesus, but people who profess Jesus with their lips and deny Him by their lifestyle (thanks to Brennan Manning for that one).

Oh, and don’t get me started on the whole Xmas thing. By the way, you do know that X is also a Greek letter and can be used as an abbreviation for Christ, right? Just checkin’.

Christian Celebrity

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“Christian perfection is not, and never can be, human perfection. Christian perfection is the perfection of a relationship with God that shows itself to be true even amid the seemingly unimportant aspects of human life. God’s purpose is not to perfect me to make me a trophy in His showcase; He is getting me to the place where He can use me. Let Him do what He wants” (Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest).

I heard something on a podcast that’s been living in my head rent-free ever since. Basically, we weren’t made to be famous. It’s not something that most of us can handle well. To put people on a pedestal because of the ability to sing or act or preach is contrary to what the gospel of Jesus Christ is all about.

One thing we do is immediately upon finding out someone believes in Jesus and can sing is to put them in front of a lot of people without any kind of discipleship or even finding out what they actually believe. The result is a whole myriad of trainwrecks of people who derailed morally or have deconstructed to the point where they no longer believe anything or have watered down the faith to the point that it’s basically meaningless.

We weren’t called to be famous. We were called to be faithful. Maybe what we need are less singers and actors and dancers and people on a stage with a spotlight and more people behind the scenes serving and washing feet. We need less Christian celebrities and more servants.

Hopefully, this is not a bashing session. I hope it’s to get us to the point where we don’t seek to elevate people to the place that only God deserves and in the process put tremendous pressure on them to somehow be all things to all people and be perfect instead of allowing them to be human.

I still remember one year how I commented one year that so many celebrities were passing away. One friend wisely commented that every day a hero passes and very few people know about it. The real heroes are the ones who often go unnoticed and unacclaimed because they’re not seeking attention but to make the world better. So many are doing the faithful work of faith in secret and are themselves unaware of the eternal impact they’ve made.

I love that people get a chance to represent Jesus well in front of a camera or a crowd, but better yet is a live of sacrifice that that leads to the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

Gratitude on Thanksgiving Eve

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I know it’s not officially a thing, but Happy Thanksgiving Eve, everyone! I figure if Christmas can have a Christmas Eve, then Thanksgiving should as well. It’s time Turkey Day got some love after years of being overshadowed by all the glitz and glamor of Christmas.

But on this particular Thanksgiving, I want to take time to focus on gratitude. Even as my temp job came to an end yesterday, I am still thankful. I know that people out there around the world would love to have one of my bad days where I still slept in a warm bed with a roof over my head and a full stomach. They’d love to have access to clean drinkable water while I can’t decide between brands of sparking water.

It’s impossible to give thanks and be envious or entitled in the same breath. You can’t actually do both. You will either live in a world of resentment and bitterness over what you don’t have that you think you deserve, or you will live in a world where anything good is a gift from God not to be taken for granted.

If I’m honest, I know what I am apart from the grace of God. I know I deserve nothing good from the hand of God. I also know I have been the recipient of grace upon grace. Even the next breath is a gift that I don’t deserve but that I will receive gladly. That is not me beating myself up. It’s me admitting that I am a member of the human race that is fallen and is unable to save itself and needs Jesus.

If I took the time to list out all the gifts I’m grateful for from the biggest to the smallest, I imagine I could spend the rest of my life writing it all down. I could even take the rest of eternity coming up with more reasons for gratitude. I think that even forever in heaven all our thanks will fall short of naming all the goodness of God to us or uncovering all that He truly is.

But I can say thank you. I can live in gratitude. I can remember that people all over the world would love to have my bad days that would be better than their best days. I can pray for them and pray that God can use me and my little gifts possibly to make an impact in their world as I continue to pour out thanksgiving.

Pure in Heart

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“Who is pure in heart? Only those who have completely given their hearts to Jesus, so that he alone rules in them. Only those who do not stain their hearts with their own evil, but also not with their own good. A pure heart is the simple heart of a child, who does not know about good and evil, the heart of Adam before the fall, the heart in which the will of Jesus rules instead of one’s own conscience.… A pure heart is pure of good and evil; it belongs entirely and undivided to Christ; it looks only to him, who goes on ahead. Those alone will see God who in this life have looked only to Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Their hearts are free of defiling images; they are not pulled back and forth by the various wishes and intentions of their own. Their hearts are fully absorbed in seeing God. They will see God whose hearts mirror the image of Jesus Christ” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer).

I read one time that purity of heart is to will one thing. There is no divide between my will and God’s will or what I want versus what God wants for me. True purity of heart means living surrendered to the point where God’s will is my will and God’s desire for me is my desire.

That’s not something I think we completely achieve in this life, but as we have this Christ life continually formed inside of us, we get closer to being pure in heart. Also, maybe being pure in heart is to grow so transparent that people who look at us see less and less of us and eventually only Christ in us.

“God blesses those whose hearts are pure,
    for they will see God” (Matthew 5:8, NLT).

The Real Country

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“Peter,” said Lucy, “where is this, do you suppose?”. . . “If you ask me,” said Edmund, “it’s like somewhere in the Narnian world. Look at those mountains ahead—and the big ice-mountains beyond them. Surely they’re rather like the mountains we used to see from Narnia, the ones up Westward beyond the Waterfall?”. . .

“And yet they’re not like,” said Lucy. “They’re different. They have more colors on them and they look further away than I remembered and they’re more . . . more . . . oh, I don’t know . . .”

“More like the real thing,” said the Lord Digory softly. . . .

“But how can it be?” said Peter. “For Aslan told us older ones that we should never return to Narnia, and here we are.”

“Yes,” said Eustace. “And we saw it all destroyed and the sun put out.”

“And it’s all so different,” said Lucy.

“The Eagle is right,” said the Lord Digory. “Listen, Peter. When Aslan said you could never go back to Narnia, he meant the Narnia you were thinking of. But that was not the real Narnia. That had a beginning and an end. It was only a shadow or a copy of the real Narnia which has always been here and always will be here: just as our own world, England and all, is only a shadow or copy of something in Aslan’s real world. You need not mourn over Narnia, Lucy. All of the old Narnia that mattered, all the dear creatures, have been drawn into the real Narnia through the Door. And of course it is different; as different as a real thing is from a shadow or as waking life is from a dream.” His voice stirred everyone like a trumpet as he spoke these words: but when he added under his breath “It’s all in Plato, all in Plato: bless me, what do they teach them at these schools!” the older ones laughed. It was so exactly like the sort of thing they had heard him say long ago in that other world where his beard was grey instead of golden. He knew why they were laughing and joined in the laugh himself. But very quickly they all became grave again: for, as you know, there is a kind of happiness and wonder that makes you serious. It is too good to waste on jokes. . . .

It was the Unicorn who summed up what everyone was feeling. He stamped his right fore-hoof on the ground and neighed, and then cried:

“I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now. The reason why we loved the old Narnia is that it sometimes looked a little like this. Bree-hee-hee! Come further up, come further in!”

From The Last Battle, C. S. Lewis

One day soon. One day soon.

Worship

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That’s worship. It’s an every day event.

I know these days there’s an entire industry built around worship and worship music. So many people view worship as an event at a specific location with certain emotions. If you don’t have all three, you don’t have worship, according to these people.

But true worship isn’t an event. It’s not just singing on Sunday at a church building. It’s living in a way that declares the ultimate worth of God to everyone watching. And it expresses itself in everything you do that’s done unto the Lord, from cleaning toilets to emptying the trash to serving your neighbors to singing songs.

True worship is as natural as breathing. In fact, you could say that worship is giving God His breath back. I love that imagery. God breathed life into us. Without that, we’re as dead as any corpse in a graveyard. And when God breathed the Holy Spirit into us, we became spiritually alive.

After that, how can we not offer God’s breath back as a kind of thank you? Even if it’s off-key singing or serving with a bit of self mixed in, God accepts it. Just as any parent treasures the scribblings of their little children presented as pictures, so God accepts our frail and finite offerings of worship, whether it’s in a church building or where we live, work, and play.

May the songs we sing tomorrow be an offering of God’s breath back to God, an extension of a lifestyle of declaring God’s worth every day of the week.

A Love that Conquers the World

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“The love for equals is a human thing–of friend for friend, brother for brother. It is to love what is loving and lovely. The world smiles.

The love for the less fortunate is a beautiful thing–the love for those who suffer, for those who are poor, the sick, the failures, the unlovely. This is compassion, and it touches the heart of the world.

The love for the more fortunate is a rare thing–to love those who succeed where we fail, to rejoice without envy with those who rejoice, the love of the poor for the rich, of the black man for the white man. The world is always bewildered by its saints.

And then there is the love for the enemy–love for the one who does not love you but mocks, threatens, and inflicts pain. The tortured’s love for the torturer. This is God’s love. It conquers the world” (Frederick Buechner, The Magnificent Defeat).

I think I know what kind of love I want. It’s the same kind of love that I need every single day. It’s the kind of love that infuriates the world, but also the kind of love that can save the world. Give me that kind of love.