What difference does it really make, finally?

Tags

"fruit of the Spirit of God", "more basic - less basic", "so what if you know what your spiritual gift is", "spiritual priorities"

I have been asking myself what difference does it really make, finally, to know what our spiritual gifts are.  If I have become convinced (however that might have come about) that the Holy Spirit has given me the gift of miracles (which by the way I don’t think I have) how does that change what I do in my daily living, or monthly living, or yearly living?  Do I go out looking for places to do miracles?  Do I avoid situations where I can’t exercise the gift of miracles?

Or, does propriety mean that I permit the fruit of the Spirit (as seen in Galatians 5) to lead me to use whatever gift I have in accord with Godly morality?  If I have love, mercy, patience, etc., I simply allow those virtues to guide my decision making.  If the decision leads me to exercise a gift of the Spirit, so be it.  If the decision leads me to act without a gift of the Spirit being involved, so be it.  Does it make sense to avoid acting in a loving manner because such action would not “permit” me to use a particular gift that I think I have?  The answer should be obvious!  The decision as to when and how a gift of the Spirit is to be used or not used is determined by the fruit of the Spirit of God.

The fact is that the gifts can be abused, neglected, or appropriately used.  Such abuse, neglect, or use will happen due to the fruit of the Spirit being or not being in active place.  It is the fruit of the Spirit that matters more than the gifts.  This comes out at the end of 1 Corinthians 13, where faith, hope, and love are emphasized, with love being the greatest of the three.  Even these three virtues are prioritized in some fashion.

There simply is a scale of what is more or less important, or more or less basic, in the Christian life.  The fruit of the Spirit supersedes the gifts of the Spirit.  That may make life interesting and/or frustrating, but such is life with the Spirit of God.

 

 

Life and a train trip

Tags

"a beginning and an end", "finishing with what we had when we began", "traveling by train", time

In some ways, life is like a train trip.  Although never taking a train from the East coast to the West coast, I have taken enough to have an idea of what is involved.  Some were in Argentina, like an overnight trip Joyce and I took from Buenos Aires to Cipolletti.  But, most of my train rides in Argentina were on the commuter lines in Buenos Aires.  Here in the States, I have taken train trips of various lengths.  Joyce had a period when she was frequently taking the train from St. Paul to Milwaukee (and back again to St. Paul) so she could help one of our daughters who had given birth to twins.  At the same time Joyce was receiving chemotherapy, and I am still amazed at her fortitude and stamina as she undertook that service to and for our daughter.

But as I said at the top of this entry, life is somewhat like train trip.  There is a schedule.  There is a beginning and an end.  You frequently meet people along the way.  You can have unexpected stops and starts.

There is a significant difference, of course, between the train trip and life.  When taking the train trip, you hope to arrive with the same luggage you had when you began.  But, the trip of life is different.

Regardless of how the schedule of life turns out, I am forced to realize that we began with nothing, and if one lives long enough, our life ends with our having nothing.  We make a full circle.  What we have obtained as we grow from infancy is, as we age, slowly stripped from us – that employment that we thoroughly enjoyed slips away.  Our parents who nourished us and prayed for us, and gave us some financial help have made the trip Home.  A spouse makes the same trip.  Our robust health of one era slowly gives way to aches, pains, and worse.  The quickness and endurance that we had in sports is no more, our procreational abilities are a memory.  It is the circle of life, and the wise person accepts its inevitability.

And, one day the train will pull out of the station with us on it.  But, we will not be on the return trip.  We will have completed the full circle.  And, someone else will be sitting in the seat that we called “ours.”

“So, Lord, teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.”  Amen.

 

 

Money and power – an unholy alliance???

Tags

"approaching omnipotence", "money - a power tool", "need satisfaction and power", "power and money", "when we refuse to act out of love - then what?", "Why do we want so much money?", Judas, values

It doesn’t take much effort to find various Biblical texts in which, in some shape or form, money plays the bad guy.  When we don’t limit our search to the word “money”,  other terms such as “wealth”, “riches”, “poverty” “plenty” “lack”, etc, add just that many more Biblical texts to the list.  For example:

Through wisdom a house is built…and by knowledge the rooms shall be filled with all precious and pleasant riches (Proverbs 24:3-4) . . . The thoughts of the diligent tend only to plenty; but the thoughts of everyone who is hasty only to poverty (Proverbs 21:5) . . . You shall not oppress your neighbor, nor rob him. The wages of a hired man are not to remain with you all night until morning  (Leviticus 19:13) . . . Better is a little with righteousness than great income with injustice (Proverbs 16:8) . . .  Woe to him who… who uses his neighbor’s services without pay and does not give him his wages  (Jeremiah 22:13) . . . . The cries of the unpaid harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty (James 5:4) . . . Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income. This too is meaningless (Ecclesiastes 5:10) . . . Keep your life free from the love of money, and be content with what you have (Hebrews 13:5). 

And, who can forget that Judas betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver.

One day, I heard a speaker refer to greed of money, raising the question “Why do we want so much money.”  I was pleased that he wisely was taking the discussion to the issue of values rather than just the quantity of money.  To myself I noted that one of the reasons we want money, whether we consciously think of it or not, is that we sense that money is a basic tool for exercising power.  Of course, many things can be used to force someone to act in a particular way. Whatever we have that they may “need” can be a tool in our hands to force a specific action from them. We may use affection, “not snitching”, food, public office, a promotion, sex, drugs, publicity, exemption from a rule, popularity . . . and the list of what we can use to force another person to do something can go on and on.

But, money is in a category all its own.  So many people want it.  The desire for money goes beyond wanting to add more toys to our collection.  We know that if we have money we can use it to force action by someone else.  They want the money because it can be used in so many ways to satisfy their “needs”.   In other words, with money comes the possibility of exercising power.  Consequently, we humans can easily put money in the place of God and think that with it, we can achieve our desires; God is not necessary.  The more money one has, the stronger the temptation to turn away from God, turn into ourselves, and see ourselves as approaching omnipotence.

Is a rich person, by definition, guilty of rejecting God?  We would be foolish to assert that.  But, when the riches become a power tool which we use to force action according to our personal agenda, and we refuse to act out of love (what is in the best interest of the other person), simply stated we are both anti-God and anti-human in our behavior and values.

Any comments?  Please share them.

Is there something beyond “quid pro quo”?

Tags

"birthed in love", "chocolate chip cookies", "hi grandpa", "means or end", "quid pro quo"

Is everything that we do for someone else a transaction, a barter, a tradeoff?  It would be easy to come to that conclusion.

So much of our interaction with others has a certain amount of “I am expecting something in return.”  “I scratch your back, you scratch mine.”  “I’ll tell you if you tell me.”  “I’ll cover your back, you cover mine.”  “I’ll do the job for $75.”  “I’ll hire you if you have an in with the senator.”  There is even a Latin expression that everyone in politics knows very well – quid pro quo – “this for that”.

The list could go on, and on, and on.  You could even do an experiment in a group activity to see how many illustrations would be given in 5 minutes.  In fact, the “never ending examples” might reinforce the initial question – everything, it appears, has its price even in personal relations.

But, there is good news!!!  The trade-offs might be wide spread, but I am happy to say that they are not a universal nor inescapable fact of life. . . . .

He walks into the house after a tiring day, and he is greeted by a beautiful smile from his wife birthed only in love. . . . .  He walks up behind his six year old granddaughter without her knowing it, touches her shoulder while saying, “Joy.”  She turns around with a grin from ear to ear and says, “Hi, grandpa” and lifts her arms to be picked up so she can give him a hug.  She is simply happy to see grandpa. . .   He finishes reading a book and says to himself, “This book is too good to not tell Jim about it.  In fact it is too good to not buy a copy for Jim.  I think he would really enjoy it.”  . . . . He says to himself, as he mixes the eggs into the sugars while making the dough, “The kids will like these chocolate chip cookies.”

These were not quid pro quo actions.  They weren’t done looking for a pay-back.  They were generated in a love that did not need to be to be bought.  They were done because the other persons deserve expressions of love.  They were done because it was simply appropriate to recognize their worth.

Why make this point?  I do so because our quid pro quo outlook on life can even characterize not only our relationships with other people, but also our relationship with God.  I asked a group of students to do a little analysis of their relationship with God in terms of how much they envision God as a means to their ends.  The question surprised them.  But, once they understood what is involved in seeing God as a means versus being the end, they had the new surprise of realizing that “buying God” is more ingrained than they realized.  Then, they were ready to consider that giving ourselves to God is not meant for what we get out of it, but because “loving God” and “giving to God” is simply what is appropriate for who God is.

God smiles at me, He gives me a hug, I smile at God, I give God a hug.  We are loving each other, not buying each other. . . . And God said, “that is good.”

 

Thoughts – or – Has any of the following crossed your mind?

Tags

"explaining the miracles", "I'm glad you are catching on", "solid and predictable", "talk about frustration", suffering

He asks himself, “If I had been the first to pass, would she have been pondering very much, ‘Oh, how good it was when he was still alive.  If only he were still here.’”  He knows that the answer is most likely, “No.”  . . . . . The fact is that the past is solid and predictable, something it seems difficult to say about the future.  When in the midst of what he doesn’t know (which is so big he doesn’t have the slightest idea of how much he doesn’t know), he feels more comforted having something solid, something predictable.  . . . . . But, as he reflects, he realizes the future is not any more unpredictable than it was when she was still alive and with him!!!  So, there is no reason to be more fretful now than there ever was then. . . . . . And, she would tell him, “I am glad you are catching on.”

The fewer the miracles, the easier it is to say they are simply random and inexplicable.  The more frequent they are, the easier it is to say that they are not miracles, but natural events even although still not understood.  In other words, if a person won’t recognize the reality of God intervening in the course of created reality, there is always some way of legitimatizing such incredulity, some way of their being able to say, “I gotcha.”

What would the rebellious person do if suddenly there were no laws against which the rebellious person could fight, and all were anarchy?  Talk about frustration!!!

Suffering is inescapable.  Also, there are many different kinds of causes.  Some causes are beyond our control.  Some of our suffering is traceable to our own conscious decisions.   . . . . . The issue is what we will do with the inescapable suffering, whether self caused or caused by something or someone else.  We can reject whatever value system and personal choices that gave birth to the suffering.  We can continue with the same value system and choices that gave birth to the suffering, but think that somehow the next time the results will be different.  Although absurd, this approach is, nonetheless, common.  And, they say that we learn by our experiences????

 

Iron sharpening iron – and marriage????

Tags

"castle or monastery?", "invasion of privacy", "marriage and monotheism", "squandering one's life on another", marriage, proverbs

“Iron sharpening iron”- we are familiar with the expression.  In its full form, as found in the Biblical book of Proverbs 27.17,  it reads, “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” (NIV).  But, what is the scope of its application?  Is it true where we work, where we work-out, where we worship, where we study, where we go for vacation, etc.?

A number of years ago, Mike Mason published a book that proposed that it is relevant for spouses.  The book was entitled The Mystery of Marriage : As Iron Sharpens Iron.

Here are several quotes from Mason’s book –

Marriage is to human relations what monotheism is to theology.  It is a decision to put all the eggs in one basket, to go for broke, to bet all the marbles.  Is there any abandonment more pure, more supreme, more radically self-abnegating than that of putting one’s entire faith in just one God, the Lord of all, in such a way as to allow that faith have a searching impact on every corner of one’s life?  On the level of human relations, there is only one act of trust which can begin to approach this one, and that is the decision to believe in one other person, and to believe so robustly as to be ready to squander one’s whole life on them.

Marriage is an invasion of privacy.  No one has ever been married without being surprised, and usually alarmed, at the sheer intensity of this invasion.

Holy matrimony, like other holy orders, was never intended as a comfort station for lazy people.  On the contrary, it is a systematic program of deliberate and thorough-going self-sacrifice.  A man’s home is not his castle so much as it is his monastery.

It seems to me that Mason is a realist.  To the degree Mason is correct, we do a disservice to those planning to marry if we don’t counsel them that among other things, marriage is where and when iron sharpens iron.  Of course, if spouses don’t sharpen each other, things will get pretty dull!!!

 

 

Feeling certain may be a sign of a serious illness

Tags

"assurance as a psychological state", "depression and uncertainty", "living in a dream world", "what does a sensation guarantee?", forgiveness

Picture being in a Bible study (could be a Sunday School class, a neighborhood Bible study, a married couples group, etc.).  The study addresses the issue of how sure we can be that we are God’s children.  The Scripture passage being considered comes from the Apostle John’s first letter in the New Testament.

Many of those in attendance are “cool’.  They don’t express many, or any, uncertainty about being “saved” or “being a Christian”.   Their explanations as to why they are so sure about their relationship with Jesus appear to satisfy them.

Then at a particular point in the discussion, the leader of the group, who in this case is a fellow, mentions  that he had gone through a severe case of depression several years ago, and assurance of salvation was a significant component of all the affected sides of his life.

Well, that statement and the ensuing elaboration by the leader, broke the ice, and various folk expressed that they too had experienced doubts.  It became quite a session of people saying, “Yes, I know what it means to be unsure about what would happen to me if I were to die tonight.”

It may be that by the time the study had concluded some of the attendees were feeling more secure than they were earlier.  On the other hand, some left with a level of doubt they did not have when they walked into the room.  Some were newly settled; others were newly unsettled.

The fact is that assurance is a psychological state.  We feel sure of something, such as being God’s redeemed children.  That sense of assurance, however, only guarantees that we have a particular sensation.  Having the sensation doesn’t guarantee that we are God’s redeemed children.

The sense of assurance, to be valid, must correspond to reality.  One can feel loved without being loved.  Of course that state of affairs would be tragic.  But the fact is that for the sense of assurance to be substantive, we  actually have to be loved.  To feel married requires being married.  Otherwise, if we feel married without being married, we are fooling ourselves.  To feel sick requires being sick (in some way).  Otherwise, we are living in a dream world.

To feel that we are God’s children requires being God’s child.  Without the reality, the assurance may or not be there.  But, without the reality, there is no reason to feel assured.  In fact, to feel assured without the corresponding reality is a serious sickness or anomaly.

 

 

Several quotes from and reflections about Malcolm Muggeridge’s ‘Jesus Rediscovered’

Tags

"Edmund Leach", "Jesus Rediscovered", "Malcolm Muggeridge", "no worse tragedy"

Malcolm Muggeridge, in his Jesus Rediscovered, makes a strong case for turning our back on physical pleasures.  His involvement in mass communications enabled him to see walking disasters, the consequences of dedication to sensuality.  I was struck by his comment that there can be no worse tragedy in a person’s life than to feel completely at home on Earth.  What an arresting thought!

Muggeridge takes seriously the fact that we are not finally made for the kind of existence we are presently living.  Neither the beginning nor the end are like what we now have.  This life is the parenthesis in the larger sentence.  Or as Muggeridge himself expresses it,

“The only ultimate disaster that can befall us, I have come to realize, is to feel ourselves to be at home here on earth.  As long as we are aliens, we cannot forget our true homeland, which is that other kingdom.”  (“Jesus Rediscovered”)

Muggeridge expresses his deep disenchantment with being “at home” here on earth in these words –

It was the picture palaces, their fronts so brilliantly lighted, inside so mysteriously dark, that provided our true churches and chapels.  There we sat, separately or clasped together . . . and worshiped our tribal gods – sex, money and violence – as they were projected onto the screen and entered into our own minds and bodies.  And the new gospel was propounded: in the beginning was the Flesh and the Flesh became Word . . . There was no more ardent acolyte than I, and yet, trudging homewards late at night along empty tramlines, a fearful sense of desolation would fall on me. (ibid)

But, Muggeridge did experience, in spite of his sense of lostness, God’s love.  Here is one of his very interesting ways to  refer to the command to love.

Only as children of God are we equal; all other claims to equality – social, economic, racial, intellectual, sexual – only serve in practice to intensify inequality.  For this reason the commandment to love our fellow men follows after, and depends upon, the commandment to love God. (ibid)

Muggeridge knew much about the contemporary human desire to put people in the place of God.  In this context he refers to Dr. Edmund Leach, a British social anthropologist, who has, says Muggeridge, “been voicing a certain anxiety about the human takeover.”  Muggeridge agrees with Leach’s verdict that “Unless we teach those of the next generation that they can afford to be atheists only if they assume the moral responsibility of God, the prospects for the human race are decidedly bleak. Bleak indeed!”   (“Men like gods” in Jesus Rediscovered)

Note –  Both “Jesus Rediscovered” and “Men like gods” are chapters of the book Jesus Rediscovered which is available online at  www.worldinvisible.com/library/mugridge/jred/jredcont.htm