The Secret: Part 2

When secrets come up, there is the aspect of them that we’re on the outside of something important. There’s also something about finding “the secret” which portends to drive into the very essence of something. Consider how often we use this idea:

“What’s the secret to having a good marriage?”

“You have such a great way at responding to that person! What’s your secret?”

“If you buy my book, I’ll share with you the secret to my success in business.”

“The secret” in each of the above (and like situations) is the key to unlocking what each one is really about. The sermon series mentioned yesterday aims at exactly the same idea: what is the key to getting at being a Christian? I’d like to consider the following 3 thoughts 3 different people have shared with me in the last year:

THOUGHT 1: My philosophy professor

I took a class on the relationship between God + time this Spring. It was fantastic and terribly difficult. One day, as was pertinent, the professor stopped and said something I remember more than anything else we discussed, “The most important thing in your life is this: Friendship with God. Concern yourself with that and you’ll find yourself addressing everything else of importance.”

THOUGHT 2: My friend on the night before his wedding

We had gathered around the fire towards the end of the bachelor party the night before Sam (not his actual name) was to pack away bachelorhood forever. We kidnapped Sam from the rehearsal dinner (much to the bride’s dismay) and sped from the parking lot with him in the trunk. Though we stopped and let him out, he remained blindfolded until we arrived at the abandoned house by the river owned by his soon-to-be in-laws. There we put him through grueling tests symbolizing his journey towards marriage and the sort of man he’d need to be to lead his family. We got muddy. He was exhausted at the end and almost threw up a few times. His gauntlet ended with a fantastic prize he’ll treasure for life and we celebrated around the fire. On the ride home, he said, “That was perfect.”

As we sat there, the conversation moved from frivolity and jesting to the sharing of marital advice from the married. Sam then stood up and shared his hopes for the decades he and his family would have. In the middle, he said this, “Most of us grew up hearing that Christianity is not a religion, but a relationship. The people I’ve heard it the loudest from, though, are probably the worst friends to God. If that’s how they treat their friends, they are terrible friends.” He went on to talk about the sort of love he hoped to embody towards God and his wife. What he said sticks with me though and it raises a poignant question: If we treated our friends like we treat God, how long would we keep them? What sort of friend would we be?

THOUGHT 3: Eugene Peterson

Many of you know this name because of The Message, a stylistic rendering of the biblical text in contemporary language (though it’s not a translation - even the preface affirms this). Nonetheless, Peterson is a prolific and gifted writer. In a book of essays on the life of Jeremiah (“Run with the Horses”), he says this,

“A relationship with God is not something added on after we complete our basic growth, it is the essential core of that growth. Take that core out, and there is no humanity at all but only a husk, the appearance, but no the substance, of the human.”

The Secret to Life = Friendship with God

How good of a friend are you being to Him?

Think on these things.

The Secret: Part 1

I went to a different church on Sunday which is starting a new series called ‘The Secret.’ As you may have guessed, it is a play on the book which got some notable popularity a few years back, but the name (and graphics of the title) is the end of the similarity. Whereas the book declares that the secret of living the life of your dreams is “the law of attraction” which allows you to draw the things you want to yourself by believing you’ll get them (which is a load of hooey - but that would require another post(s) to demonstrate), his series is getting at the core of living the Christian life. Today and tomorrow, we are going to look at this concept.

The first look we’ll take is an aerial view of secrecy because something struck me as fascinating. If someone came to us and said, “Hey, in this envelope, I’ve got the SECRET to impressing your boss and never failing at work. In this one, I’ve got the SECRET to finding love and living every day in it. And this last one has something you’re really going to like, it’s the SECRET to getting personal messages from God on a daily basis.” How eager would we be to open those? Don’t we want to be in a vibrant love daily, to never fail at work, to talk to God daily? If there’s a secret, we want to know it.

But there’s something funny about all of this. Implicitly nested in these desires to open the envelopes is a suspicion of a really important conversation we’ve been left out of. Not only that, when the desire to know really rises powerfully, it seems that we are just one secret away from living the life we should be. If only we could know it! And deep inside this cry are two truths and a lie:

1. There is something wrong and life is supposed to be better than this (truth)

2. The something wrong is fixable, but the answer is outside of us (truth)

3. If someone would just tell us, it would all be better (lie)

The two truths are worth camping on briefly. These are two things which are universally believed and which, in one way or another, constitute what it means to hope. Hope is faith applied to the future about a present situation which could be better; it is this aspect which should be defining for us. We still grieve, but as those who have hope (1 Thess. 4:13). We suffer, but know that hope isn’t eradicated in its midst (cf. Rom. 8:28-30). We even rejoice in hope (Rom. 5:2). It is hope (the recognition that things are not best, but that they can be) which is implicit in every secret, but where do we find the lie and should we expunge it?

The pastor leading the series posted this as his Facebook status a day or two ago, “Taking spiritual shortcuts makes your journey longer than it needs to be.” The lie which sometimes exists in our view of “the secret to this or that” is the expectation of a silver bullet or magic pill - that the hard part is finding the secret, not living it. And when one turns to the Bible, we find that this sort of view of the secret to life is a broad, easy, and wide road, while the way Jesus walked and the road He carved is narrow and hard. There is a secret out there and it is the answer to what’s wrong with life, but it would be a mistake to think it to be a quick fix.

So, what do you think this secret is? If it’s not a “quick fix,” why not? How is the secret applied if not quickly?

May 7: The Prayers of the Saints

I want to share with you something which I've found to be of inestimable worth in my own walk with the Lord, a little book of prayers called "The Valley of Vision." It is a collection of prayers from different saints from that era, mostly pastors, and is divided up somewhat categorically. The richness of the prayers of these men is wonderfully encouraging and arresting when I think about my own devotional life and level of conviction about the same topics these believers discuss when they come before the throne. After your Bible reading this morning, read the prayer below. I hope you enjoy it as well.

"The Servant in Battle"

O Lord,

I bless thee that the issue of the battle

between thyself and Satan

has never been uncertain,

and will end in victory.

Calvary broke the dragon's head,

and I contend with a vanquished foe,

who with all his subtlety and strength

has already been overcome.

When I feel the serpent at my heel

may I remember him whose heel was bruised,

but who, when bruised, broke the devil's head.

My soul with inward joy extols

the mighty conqueror.

Heal me of any wounds received in the great conflict;

if I have gathered defilement,

if my faith has suffered damage,

if my hope is less than bright,

if my love is not fervent,

if some creature-comfort occupies my heart,

if my soul sinks under pressure of the fight.

O thou whose every promise is balm,

every touch life,

draw near to thy weary warrior,

refresh me, that I may rise again

to wage the strife,

and never tire until my enemy is trodden down.

Give me such fellowship with thee

that I may defy Satan,

unbelief, the flesh, the world,

with delight that comes not from a creature,

and which a creature cannot mar.

Give me a draught of the eternal foundtain that lieth in thy immutable, everlasting love and decree.

Then shall my hand never weaken,

my feet never stumble,

my sword never rest,

my shield never rust,

my helmet never shatter,

my breastplate never fall,

as my strength rests in the power of thy might.

Amen.

30 April: Assignment 1

Any introduction into Bible study will tell you there are 3 basic stages: Observation, Interpretation, and Application. This weekend in these devotions, we are going to spend a little time in putting these into practice. Today, read through Genesis 48-50 and write down 5-10 observations about ch. 50. Do this and you're done for the day.

Now, suppose this is someone's first time doing observation, what would he do (let's call him Josh)? Let's also suppose, for sake of example, that he wants to draw some observations from Ps. 39. First Josh would read the Psalm (and, because it's short and amazing, he'll read it a few times). Next, Josh will write down a few things he notices. His list may start out looking something like this:

1. The author starts with a decision to be silent.
2. The opening verses each have a certain, 3-phrase format.
3. The closing verses don't.

His list can also include questions which he hopes further study to address:

4. Why is there an interplay of silence and speaking?
5. What significance does the 3-phrase format have?

But also notice what sorts of things do not make the list; questions or assertions which would belong in one of the other two categories. For instance, Josh is not trying to make sense of what he's seeing in Ps. 39 (that's for interpretation) nor is he wondering if this Psalm is telling him that he needs to be silent (that's for application). He only notes what he sees and what interests him and that's exactly what you should do in today's assignment to have 5-10 observations from Genesis 50. Just read that chapter (more than once if you have time) and write down what you see. You'll use this list for Saturday's lesson.

Happy seeing.

April 23: Home and the Heart

I have been to about 10 conferences since I started working for Apologia (most of them last year). I have set up hundreds of books, described notebooking journals again and again, and downed gallons of coffee. It wasn’t until this weekend that I have been invited to someone’s home (multiple homes, actually). I don’t begrudge any past conference planners or the locals for not extending invitations; we were there on business, had hotel rooms and meals - we obviously were not in want. It just struck me how beautiful hospitality can be.

Hospitality, it seems, is not just opening up your house; hotels and restaurants do this and we don’t think them more virtuous for doing so. Hospitality is opening up the home, where you live and what’s close to you; in a sense, it’s opening up yourself to others. But it’s not self-disclosure or being friendly (if it were, we wouldn’t have much use for the word ‘hospitality’); it’s something more, it’s inviting someone to be with you in an atmosphere warm and comfortable because you’ve lived there.

Hospitality is an invitation into your peace. Think about it for a moment, if you go over to a home with subtle or overt tension between children and parents (or husband and wife), there’s no place for you to sit, and the dog keeps growling at you - do you walk away from this experience thinking you’ve just tasted premier hospitality? Doubtful; we know it’s something better than that. Hospitality is a warmth which welcomes YOU, this points to another one of its aspects, attentiveness.

All of the great hosts I’ve ever had always took especially good care of me. They welcomed me, fed me, talked with me, and made sure I was never inconvenienced. I got a good seat, a full glass, a thick slice of cake, and God was thanked because I had come over. I was receiving special honor as the guest and I sure knew it. I remember being in a homeschooling house a few years ago and seeing one of the most beautiful moments of parenting as the mom called her girls into a schoolroom and talked to them about how to be gracious to guests. I don’t recall her specific instructions, but the theme was inescapable: hospitality is about serving and giving. Though this sums up more than just hospitality, one cannot be hospitable without it.

Eugene Peterson talks about giving as he recalls seeing a pair of adult birds feeding their chicks for hours. At one point, they decided mealtime had ended and it was time to fly. One by one the little birds were muscled off the limb, left hurtling to the ground until, in some frantic, mid-air epiphany, they began flapping their wings and stopped their crash. He writes, “Some of us try desperately to hold on to ourselves, to live for ourselves. We look so bedraggled and pathetic doing it, hanging on to the dead branch . . . for dear life, afraid to risk ourselves on the untried wings of giving. We don’t think we can live generously because we have never tried. But the sooner we start the better, for we are going to have to give up our lives finally, and the longer we wait the less time we have for the soaring.”

We had dinner one night with the family who planned the conference. Before we left, the hostess made sure we understood that her door and family were as open to us as if they were our own. We had no need for loneliness; family was close. It is in this aspect, the availability of an inviting family, that allows us to be hospitable people, regardless of whether we are home, working a conference booth, getting mail from the mailbox, or anywhere we go. More than anything else, it is a perspective which asks, “How can I serve you, give to you, so that you know you are welcome? How can I do good by you? How can I share the peace I have with you, so that you are blessed?” If home is where the heart is, then the quality of the home comes from the health and attitude of the heart. When people meet you and talk with you today, will they know that you count it an honor to have gotten to spend some time with them? Will they feel welcomed into your day, your life? They should.

Read these Scriptures (John 14:1-4; Phil. 2:1-5; Heb. 12:1-2). Then, in your journal, articulate a Bible-based view of hospitality. Then answer the question, “Do I do this?”

April 16: Superheroes

I grew up reading comic books. I can still remember being introduced to them by my childhood friend, Ken, and discovering this imaginative world of people who stood out from the populace because of unusual powers and insights. It never crossed my mind that the trade off for this life was an inescapable wardrobe of spandex; they could fly, shoot things out of their eyes, lift oil tankers and look cool doing it. These heroes seemed other worldly (sometimes they were), even to the other characters. They were better than the world they protected and it did not deserve them, whether or not it knew or acted like it.

More than half of my time of leafing through comics was to learn from the artists on how they drew my heroes. I would spend hours sitting cross-legged at the coffee table trying to improve my renderings of human proportions so that these sketches would look slightly believable. Sometimes I would erase holes through the paper trying to get certain lines just right. There were a lot of failures.

Recently, a cousin of mine asked me to draw her a picture of Batman (which I’ll post on my other blog if I ever do). After a little casual research, I found out that one of my favorite artists from childhood had actually drawn a few issues and that my local library would let me check those out. I read them all today on my travels and found something I had not really expected: great writing. I don’t think I’ve ever turned pages with such eagerness. The art was still phenomenal, but so was the plot. What I missed all through my youth now was inescapable: the heroes on my five-year-old pajamas and lunch pails suffered silently and greatly to be who we loved them to be. What strikes me now is how clearly comic book writers identify this trial intimately with heroism. Part of humanity is that greatness will cost you - our heroes most of all (cf. Luke 12:48; 22:24-27; John 12:24).

The Bible has a significant place for the rewards and praises which God bestows on men. Though not an inspired title, “The Hall of Faith” in Hebrews 11 shows us some of the greatest displays of valor, honor, and faith. Each person there receives his or her acclaim because of belief in God, no matter what he or she had to suffer and give to do so. The hall closes when the author says he lacks the space for a full treatment of the subject and hastens to cover his ground by just listing their trials. In his final phrases, he describes them as those “of whom the world is not worthy” (v. 38); for whom only heaven is the appropriate place (cf. v. 40). If this world does not deserve them, they must be a gift to it, but of what sort?

I still have a certain, nostalgic fondness surface every time I pass the comic book store up the road from my house. I still occasionally visit that world of the imaginary and delight in the artistic presentation of great feats I could never do. But two-dimensional heroes hold the attention for only so long. They are good anecdotes and illustrations, but they eventually become hollow - I want flesh and blood to show me a heroism a man can reach. That’s why I appreciate the Bible; that’s why I appreciate getting to know the people I do - because what I see there are benchmarks of nobility made by men. Not only that, it’s a nobility that I just might be able to reach because of the God I know. These are the heroes, more than the masked ones, worth knowing.

Journal: Who inspires you? Write out a few people and why they do.

April 9: Why Bother?

We were rounding up our last night of review for Senior Seminar (our exit exams for grad school)when Jim asked a question a lot of us sometimes think about certain doctrines. “I understand why the school believes in its position on End Times prophecy, but what is the use in getting into all of those details? I mean, if we believe that Jesus is coming back and God making everything perfect in the end (i.e., New Heavens and New Earth), why do we need to get into to the rest of it since it causes such division and seems to have little bearing on our daily life?”

Before you read on, write out your own answer to the questions Jim raised: What should be done about a doctrine which serves as the basis for so much disagreement?

My professor, an insightful, old Messianic Jewish man responded in a fantastic way,

“Your point is well-taken. Your point is well-taken. First, I would say this: It’s there, so we have to climb it. We can’t do anything about it being there except recognize that God inspired a tough topic to be in the Bible, but we can try to understand and deal with it.

“Next, all of the times the New Testament mentions End Times, it does so in connection with a practical application, so this should not be a concern.

“Last, sometimes it seems that we can achieve godliness if we stay away from doctrines (like this one), but I think you’ll find that the closer you get into seeking out the truth, the more you’ll find it helping your closeness with God. Jacob didn’t wrestle with God at a distance (but up close) and saw God’s face because of it.”

I would add, too, that truth is a worthy pursuit regardless of its practical application. Also, if unity is something we seek, we should note that people unify AROUND something. If we do not do it around truth, what do we use? Silent agreement that certain topics ought not be discussed? I don’t think that is the sort of unity Jim had in mind when he asked his question.

What I find sometimes in my own study is a tendency to skip over what I don’t know or understand when I’m reading my Bible. My reading may raise a question in my mind, but I keep on, after all, I need to finish my reading for the day. In the process, I do complete my reading goal for the day, but if I never go back to chase some of those questions, I miss out on chances to grow in their investigation.

So, how about you? When’s the last time you studied something you didn’t understand about your faith? When is the next time you will? In your journal, write out a prayer to the Lord. Pray to Him about what you want out of your time in the Bible and ask Him to teach you through it. (this next part is optional) Ask Him to show you something to study which causes you to dig into His Word to find the answer. Write out a few ideas of things to study (if you are not currently chasing down something) and pick a date when you’ll start on one.

Get ready for the chase. It will be good.