| quote of note |
| “The nature of a paradigm is such that it cannot change unless it is replaced" - Sarah Sumner |
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| Saturday, June 25, 2011 |
| John Wesley Did Not Hold to Instantaneous Sanctification |
From his letter to the Bishop of London, 1747...
"I am not one jot more concerned in instantaneous justification as your Lordship explains it — namely, ‘A sudden, instantaneous justification, by which the person receives from God a certain seal of His salvation or an absolute assurance of being saved at last’ . ‘Such an instantaneous working of the Holy Spirit as finishes the business of salvation once for all’. I neither teach nor believe it, and am therefore clear of all the consequences that may arise therefrom. I believe ‘a gradual improvement in grace and goodness,’I mean in the knowledge and love of God, is a good ‘testimony of our present sincerity towards God’; although I dare not say it is ‘the only true ground of humble assurance,’ or the only foundation on which a Christian builds his ‘hopes of acceptance and salvation.’ For I think ‘other foundation’ of these ‘can no man lay than that which is laid, even Jesus Christ."Labels: holiness, John Wesley, sanctification, theology |
posted by Unknown @ 6:36 PM   |
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| Thursday, June 23, 2011 |
| Just Stop |
While cutting the grass the other day, my two sons were attempting to climb a tree in our front yard. My eldest son (6yrs old) had climbed this tree before by himself, but for whatever reason, was having a trouble this time around. He had his hands on a limb and kept trying, feverishly, to use his feet to move up the trunk of the tree. His feet kept slipping, over and over. I could see the frustration that was growing, and that this was going to end badly. He kept moving his feet faster and faster, yet they kept slipping.
What he had failed to see was that where he was placing his feet on the trunk, was smooth and too slick to gain traction. He didn't notice a knot in the tree, just to his right...a place to gain traction and get up the tree. I walked over to help him see what he wasn't seeing, and ease the frustration. As I walked toward him I told him, "Cole, Daddy can help you". He didn't hear me, he kept with his plan even though his anger was growing. "Cole, Daddy can help you get up there." Still there were no signs that he heard me. At this point he had become so frustrated he was beginning to cry, yet still, he kept with the frantic movement of his feet, trying to climb that tree.
"Cole, stop, listen to daddy, I can help you, I know where you need to put your feet." By this time I was standing right next to him as he was throwing a fit, while still trying the same unsuccessful method of climbing. His anger and frustration kept growing, yet he wouldn't stop and listen to what I was telling him. Finally, I reached up and grabbed him around his mid section, holding him firm but gently and pulled him down from the limb he was hanging on, talking to him the whole time. "It is OK, let me help you, let me show how to climb it." Crying, he fought my embrace, trying to continue in what had only frustrated him. All the while I held him in his frustration.
Finally, he calmed down, and looked at me, and I was able to tell him how to climb that tree. After listening to me, he was able to get up the first time.
As frustrating as it was to me to see him struggle when all he had to do was listen to me, I wonder how frustrating it is to our Heavenly Father when He is wanting to guide us in life, but we are too busy following our own plans, even if they only frustrate, to listen. We struggle, cry, and fight, doing the same things over and over again, getting the same unfulfilling results, all while ignoring the truth that there is a Heavenly Father who wants to embrace us, to hold us, and is saying to us, "child stop, and listen".
The Psalmist reminds us of this in Psalm 46, verse 10. "Be still, and know that I am God!" If you are struggling with something, wether it be something new or a habitual problem, hear the God who loves you calling now to be still and listen. By the way, being still should not only happen when we are at our wits end, but should be a part of our everyday. When we practice being still, listening in prayer and with God's Word, and calling out to him on a daily basis, we find peace instead of frustration, no matter what problem we are faced with.
I hear him saying to me "Ben, just stop".....stop moving, stop filling your days with so much busy work, stop relying on your own knowledge, stop believing you can figure things out on your own, stop forgetting that I love you and am right here....just stop your struggling and listen."
What do you hear him saying?Labels: listening, psalm 46, struggle, submission |
| posted by Unknown @ 2:12 PM |
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| Monday, June 06, 2011 |
| Standing Far Enough Away |
I have been wrestling in my own life, as a pastor, husband, father, and person, with the idea of being a peacemaker. At NPC we have been going through Jesus' sermon in Luke 6, and most recently his words on loving your enemies. We have been wrestling with what this means, to truly love your enemies. One of the truths that have come out of this for me is that it is not enough when it comes to loving my enemies, to stand far enough away so that I can't get hit. I am supposed to be doing active good toward those that are hostile to me. Jesus said, "Do good to those that who hate you." What does it mean to do good?
I of course am not advocating that people stay in situations where they are getting physically, or emotionally abused. However, it is not enough to just remove ourselves from the hostility of the enemy, we are called to "do good". Of course, what "doing good" looks like is going to be specific to every situation. I do, however, believe that it will always involve praying for those that hurt us. Prayer should be the most active and first step taken in enemy love. The call to pray for one's enemies is not as much a call for God to change them, but a call for God to help us see them as he does. We need God to help us see them within the same grace offered to us. This is difficult no doubt.
Where is God leading us to do good toward those that have acted as our enemies?Labels: forgiveness, Jesus, love your enemies, Luke 6 |
| posted by Unknown @ 11:07 AM |
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| Friday, June 03, 2011 |
| The difficult peace |
I've been working through Jesus' words in the Sermon on the Mount, as described by Luke in his Gospel. The last two weeks have been around the idea of loving one's enemies and responding differently to those that stand against you. Jesus' ethical teaching is forming a group of peacemakers; those who set aside violence, self defense, and rights, and trade them for grace, mercy and love.
I have found that reading and studying about loving your enemies is much easier than actually living it out. Being a peacemaker is hard. It is hard to be a peacemaker that lives with this kind of love, because we have a hard time accepting the "other". What I mean by the "other", is those that are different from us. The difference might be in ideas, or practices. The differences might be in worldview or religion. Whatever the differences are, we allow the differences to separate us to the point we see them as "the others', not recognizing common ground.
Of course, when someone is hostile towards us, it is easy to see them as "the other", yet Jesus' call in Luke 6 is to see them as friend or family. We can achieve this radical idea if we allow God to show us what we have in common with the one(s) who have harmed us. We are both in need of grace....we are both imperfect in our actions...we are both children of God. When we focus on what we have in common, and that we are both in need of forgiveness and grace, we can truly see our enemy as someone that can be forgiven and even take the further step of understanding them, and where they come from.
So the most important step in being a peacemaker is not focusing on the one that hurt us, but on God. When we focus on him we see ourselves for who we truly are, people in need of forgiveness and grace, and we see the commonality we share those that stand against us.Labels: etc., love your enemies, Luke 6, peacemaking |
| posted by Unknown @ 4:33 PM |
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