Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Know Your Poverty

We know our bodies wage war against our spirit. We know we're "in" battle constantly, and that we conform more times than not. But how do we have total "conformation to Christ" in our bodies?

We also know that the Spirit is willing but the body is weak (Matthew 26:41). How then can we move and use our "body" to interact with God for his glorification? This something I've been reading about from all sorts of literature. I try to grasp it, yet my grip is loosened almost immediately. And that is why I write about this topic...

I was reading in Luke today about Jesus' first great big sermon to the mulititudes who follow him. He said Blessed are you who are poor. Blessed are you who are hungry, who weep and who are spit on you for the sake of Me (Jesus). Poor, hungry, weep. Those aren't exciting words. But they are words of poverty, the emptying of "self." Jesus then gives the "woes." Woe to you who are rich, who are full, who laugh now and speak well of yourself. Woe to us who think we are self-relient and who are self-glorifying. It makes so much sense that he says these right after one another. We must be poor, self-emptied before we may follow him.

Oswald Chambers wrote: "We are apt to say that because a man has natural ability therefore he will make a good Christian. It is not a question of our equipment but of our poverty, not of what we bring with us, but of what God puts into us; not a question of natural virtues of strength of character, knowledge and experience - all that is of no avail in this matter. The only thing that avails is that we are taken up into the big compelling of God and made his comrades. The comradeship of God is made up out of men who know their poverty."

For me as of late, it is going back to the first "beatitude": blessed are the poor in spirit. I have to start there. I have to wake up everyday and know that I am not capable - in my carnal flesh - to bring glorification to God. I actually "need" God and have to be God-reliant, not self-reliant. Do we have this attitude when life goes well? I tend to forget to tell you the truth. But it is imperative that the first of the beatitudes is implemented daily. We already are prone to evil... that is why we need to start at the bottom, to re-prioritize and re-plan our days.

Dallas Willard says the habit of self-indulgence can be broken if we train our thoughts by appropriate disciplines of study, meditation and service. Once we start there it will be a "place where faith meets grace to achieve conformity to Christ."

He also states: "In our fallen world this life is prepossessed by evil, so that we do not have to think to do what is wrong, but must think and plan and practice - and receive grace - if we are to succeed in doing what is right."

I have to end with this because it is so good...

"Learning Christ-likeness is not passive. It is active engagement with and in God. And we act with our bodies. Moreover this bodily engagement is what lays the foundation in our bodily members for readiness for holiness, and increasingly removes readiness to sin - so that "Christ will be exalted now as always in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain" (Philippians 1:20-21).

I will continue in striving to know my poverty. Knowing who I am to Christ, but knowing who I am IN Christ as well. I want to be Christ-like. I want to be active, not passive. I want to have that comradeship that Chambers speaks of. I want to wake up everyday and be Christ-reliant. I have to relocate and reorient my body in this world to achieve that. I need to participate in these disciplines so that I will finally conform to Christ.

My goal, may it be yours as well...
Blessings.

Sunday, August 3, 2008

Why Would He?

There comes a time in life when we ask why hasn't God shown me His answer. That time for me has been now. I have been discussing with my wife and with my covenant brother why God hasn't "shown" me what to do with my life. I mean, I know what I'm supposed to do daily, but there are specific things in my life I want answers for...for the future. I know others who are struggling with the questions: "When and how will I know this is from God?" or "What if I missed that opportunity?"


I do wonder these at times, I do. I wonder why God doesn't "speak" to me more often. Then it hit me. Why would He? Why would he if I am not actively seeking Him in his Word and in prayer? Seriously, here I am asking (in my stupid self-righteousness) the God of the universe to speak to me about my life when I'm not committing my everyday to him. How can I hear him if my ears aren't tuned to his voice? Then I remembered I need to be meditating on his Word day and night... And this is where scripture comes in:

"Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers." - Psalms 1:1-3

I don't think I walk in the counsel of the wicked or sit in the seat of mockers. BUT, blessed is you and me when we delight in the law of the Lord. Read it again. It says we will prosper. Our fruit will be IN season. Our future, God has ahold of. Being IN season is about being in his perfect timing.


The bible has all the answers. I have been asking God for insight, wisdom, knowledge which I know he gives freely. I just need to "tap into" it more often, I need to MEDITATE ON HIM DAY AND NIGHT. Oh, think of the blessings. Think of how grateful we'd be for everything we already have.

Be Blessed. Be meditating...

And that's why he would...