by RobertCummins | Oct 6, 2016 | 40. Moving Through Suffering
But Thou, O God, the Lord, deal kindly with me for Thy name’s sake. (Psalm 109:21)
“For Thy name’s sake” is a key phrase in this passage. David spends a good portion of his psalm petitioning God to absolutely pulverize those who have slandered him—for Thy name’s sake, of course. I imagine a scene wherein David—king of Israel, meets Jesus – king of the universe. To the bowing Jewish king, Jesus says, “David, I know this will be different for you, but instead of me destroying these people, I would like you to just forgive them. I want you to love them, turn the other cheek and then ask how you might serve them. I want you to start praying for these people not against them. Oh yes…just one more thing—I love your heart.”
With his God-approved heart, I believe David would eventually have moved beyond his desire for revenge and personal vindication. So, what was it about David’s heart God liked? For starters, I believe it was David’s habit of regularly presenting his heart to Him. God applauded David because he lived presumptuously, like a child, regarding God’s favor (see Acts 13:22).
Knowing that he was safe with God, David confessed to Him that his own heart was wounded, that he was weak and shaken. He wanted relief from his suffering. He wanted God to improve his circumstances. I believe God also loved a certain motive of David’s. David wanted everyone to see an outcome in his life that reflected well on God. It seems David is not too different from you and me.
We don’t know what percentage of David’s heart was motivated exclusively by a concern for God’s glory, but we do know a portion of it burned with that ambition: “And let them know that this is Thy hand; Thou Lord hast done it.” Even though David’s motives were mixed, like ours, God endorsed David’s heart.
What percentage of our hearts are fueled by concern for God’s glory? Do we see our hearts well enough to even know how divided they are? Are we conscious that we do many things for our name’s sake? Even if we could discern our vested self-interest in singing that “special” or preaching that sermon or appearing in this or that light, could we then just flip a switch and be all in for His namesake? If it were that easy, those of us on our way back to Paradise would forfeit the opportunity to know God’s intimacy, which was the essence of Eden.
In another psalm, the writer places his petition before God, “Unite my heart to sing Thy praise.” It seems this writer understood his duplicitous motives. He was crying out for purification and refinement in the deepest part of himself. It is in this space where motivations reside—where deep calls unto deep. It is in this place that Jesus either becomes Lord or just a consultant we bring in on an as-needed basis. Since we will one day see Him face to face, “Lord, unite my heart to sing Thy praise” is a very sane prayer for us to be praying.
Having one’s heart united is painful. Being disentangled from previous alliances is death to our old selves. The suffering involved in this dying process is one of the things God uses to refine our heart-motives. If we will process our sufferings in the Lord’s presence, as David did, we will come to know Him more intimately. When we stand before Him, a greater portion of our hearts will have been united—desiring to have seen His name exalted above our own. Is Jesus our Savior and Lord, or is He our Savior and consultant?
Father, help us to cooperate as you unite our hearts. Retrieve them from all the things we have given them over to—our reputations, our success, our ambition, our need for approval, our own comfort, and our own glory. May we grow to live for Thy name’s sake. Unite our hearts to sing Your praise. Amen.
by RobertCummins | Oct 5, 2016 | 40. Moving Through Suffering
Not too many years ago I would occasionally find myself behind the pulpit, delivering the word, as sermons or teachings were referred to in our church. I vividly recall my final word. I was well into my message when it dawned on me, mid-sentence, that those rows of people in front of me could have taken the same time I had with the scriptures and been much better off.
The timing of this revelation was disastrous! While I was just trying to keep the show on the road, I was being interrupted by one hostile thought after another: “They will never learn to feed themselves or fly if they are not shooed from the nest.” “Baby birds will perish and it will be Mama’s fault if she doesn’t do the shoving.” It struck me that in delivering the weekly word I was complicit in maintaining a spiritual welfare culture. Since that memorable day, I have often thought: I must learn how to keep my thoughts from myself. I unknowingly crossed a line that day and I haven’t been able to find my way back.
Today, my yardstick for measuring a shepherd’s effectiveness is not how many people attend his gatherings or how much money has been collected. (Any church can achieve those things with a strong speaker and a good worship band.) It is how many convert/attenders they have transformed into disciples. How many believers have they taught to feed themselves and fly? The best preachers are not just conveyors of Bible gems. They also ask penetrating, equipping heart-level questions which send believers off to their prayer closets, bible-in-hand, to consider what God has spoken to them and how they shall obey that word.
So, today I’ll take my own council and simply offer you some questions relating to our passage. Over time, this practice of personally asking and seeking causes our wings to grow because we are being nourished in ways that passive listening (to even to the best sermons) cannot accomplish. In this mode, believers eventually hear their own word, from God. This habit is key to enjoying a personal relationship with Him.
According to Paul, what are normal emotions for a follower of Christ?
If we have not prayed with accuracy or eloquence, why might this passage offer us hope?
What can separate us from God’s love?
In what set of circumstances does Paul say we will overwhelmingly conquer?
To what is Paul asking us to compare our “present” circumstances?
What are we to anticipate between predestination and glorification?
What future event are believers and creation greatly anticipating?
On what basis might a follower of Christ take courage when the events of their life seem wasteful, unfair or painful?
Importantly: What is God speaking to you?
Most importantly: What is God asking you to do?
When we take the time to search the scripture’s we will taste the meat. As we meditate and wrestle with God, in His Word, we will draw from it the essential nourishment our spirits require. Believers who do this long enough become disciples and are weaned from dependency upon pastor’s milk. Truth and revelation become our own. A pastor’s goal should be to eventually wean each young Christian from him, bringing them to appropriate levels of independence and maturity.
Father, bring many sons into maturity for Your name’s sake. Amen.
by RobertCummins | Oct 4, 2016 | 40. Moving Through Suffering
How is it that bad things happen to us when we have angels looking out for us, when Christ himself intercedes for us, and when God, who is all-powerful and all-knowing is all for us? If God is my fortress, how did this stuff get over the moat and into the fortification?
How are we to respond to suffering? What value, if any, does it have? The answer we get from the scriptures may not be what we’ve been taught, and it may not be what we’d prefer, but if we will listen to Peter, he will answer the questions so many of us have asked, and may be asking still. Peter tells us that 1) since Jesus has suffered, arm yourself with the very same purpose 2) don’t let suffering catch you off guard as if a test were an unexpected thing 3) when you suffer according to God’s will, entrust yourself to him 4) Christ shares his suffering with some; if you are privileged to be one of them, stay current in your rejoicing, knowing that exultation awaits you 5) trials and suffering are necessary sometimes 6) suffering serves as a refining fire for our faith which will prove more precious than gold 7) responding well to suffering will result in the eternal benefit of praise and honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
I will once again reference two classic books by the late Paul Billheimer: Don’t Waste Your Sorrows and Destined for the Throne. These books hammered home a spiritual reality: out of life’s painful experiences, God somehow creates current intimacy as well as eternal blessing. Consequently, when suffering has come into my life, there has always been a hope, albeit at times faint, that God was in the midst of the fire with me. Thanks to the scriptural teaching on suffering, there has always been an understanding that God was at work in the midst of unwanted circumstances.
Thanks to Paul, the apostle, Romans 8:28 contribution, there has always been the anticipation that proof of redemption would one day become evident, accruing to God’s glory and contributing to the furtherance of God’s kingdom. Viewing suffering through this lens exposes a deep mystery and encourages the perseverance required by faith—that thing which is so pleasing to God.
Sufferings are intersections where the believer finds a stoplight. He can turn either left or right. Or, preferably, he can proceed straight ahead on the main highway. The left turn has the believer closing his heart off to God because bad things transpired under the watch of a supposedly good Father. These travelers have no answer to suffering other than disappointment and even anger.
The right turn has the believer doubling down on false gospels that conveniently avoid the subject of suffering altogether or explain it away as satanic-theft. In this hyper-religious response, a God who must be good (all the time), by our temporal measurement, is rescued. This imagined deity’s throne is secure as long as believers can keep Satan at bay with their authority in Christ.
I don’t believe either of these directions honors the scriptures. I don’t know where they ultimately lead and I don’t want to find out. However, I do believe the Parable of the Sower sheds some light. Whether it was in bitterness or denial, the talent got buried. In the heart, where it might have grown, faith lay fallow. Neither the left nor the right turn will bring a return of investment to the Master.
Just as I have a low tolerance for physical pain, I also have a low tolerance for spiritual pain. At one level I despise suffering; I tremble for myself and others as I watch them dealing with it. I am keenly aware of both the left and right turn temptations. But, deeper in my heart, I recall that suffering may be necessary. I recall that redemption is embedded in all things (which includes suffering). I believe I will see this redemption if I will only respond to Jesus—as opposed to reacting to my circumstances in bitterness or religious-denial.
I don’t want to squander my sorrows. The scriptures tell me they are treasures in disguise. This is a place where we can advance in loving God with all our hearts, with all our strength and with all our minds. These intersections are where Jesus can become our all in all. Mysteriously, suffering can produce intimacy—God’s anticipated return-on-investment.
Admittedly, suffering is a cosmic mystery and we are right there, with Christ, in the middle of it. Responding to it correctly is how we are to stay on the main highway. My thanks go out to Peter, to both Paul A and Paul B, and to my other spiritual fathers for your navigational assistance.
Father, we really don’t need to know why painful experiences come our way. Regardless of our poor initial reaction to suffering, help us to recover quickly, realizing we are being raised as sons of God, as brothers and sisters to Jesus Christ and that you are a competent and loving parent who is capable of making use of everything that touches our lives, regardless of where it comes from. Amen.
by RobertCummins | Oct 3, 2016 | 40. Moving Through Suffering
Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives. (Hebrews 10:14-15)
When we look at humanity, we see so many radically different groups and we wonder if harmony will ever be possible on earth. We see the ancients and the moderns, the communists and the capitalists, the Hindus and the Muslims, the young and the old, the devout and the debauched, and a hundred other breakdowns. I wonder though, in light of verse 15, if there really aren’t just two categories of men: those who are free and those who are slaves. We know Jesus came to set captives free and we know Satan has come to prolong our slavery with the fear of death. Let’s explore just how he’s pulling this off.
Let’s review. We know the devil is the spiritual father of all lies. His lies are disseminated in the form of myths, errors, and distortions. His power rests in deception. His mission is to persuade men that God does not exist or to distort God’s actual nature.
What do you believe are Satan’s greatest lies? Those causing the most suffering to the most people over the longest period of time? I believe a case can be made that the greatest lies are those keeping Christians enslaved—lies keeping the light of the world glowing at low wattage. Satan’s worst nightmare is that the children of God discover the fullness of life in Christ, who is in them. Liberated children of light, free from the fear of death, are big trouble for Satan. Fearless citizens of God’s kingdom will wreck the kingdom of darkness because truth sets captives free. What are the greatest lies told on earth? I believe some of them are the myths, errors, and distortions currently entertained by the Body of Christ.
That might be hard to swallow. Let me restate my point by asking another question: What is the greatest evil that could be perpetuated on a community infected with Ebola? Simple: it would be to withhold from it an available Ebola vaccine. Without the vaccine, the virus will systematically ravage and kill everyone. Similarly, our world is infected with a fatal spiritual virus which is destroying us. Jesus Christ is this earthly community’s only cure. The Body of Jesus Christ is this infected and dying world-community’s only hope. We are Christ’s Body and we possess the earth’s long awaited vaccine.
Yet, slavery within the Church is not a popular topic. How can a pastor speak to his congregation who is free in Christ (at least in Bible-theory) and insinuate that lies being entertained in their hearts are causing the most suffering to the most people over the longest period of time? If these lies exist as I have proposed, what would they look like? First of all, they would not be obvious to us because they would have become our normal. Promoting lies until they become norms is how the enemy enslaves men. Let’s look to Jesus for help.
Jesus was tempted just as we are. He understands the temptation to sell out to the devil better than we do. He was assaulted with lies in the wilderness. Recall, these temptations each began with, “If you are the Son of God, then you will…” There is a satanic bull’s-eye painted on our identities. How we see ourselves is one of Satan’s primary targets – where he doth seek to work us woe. We have not yet prevailed over our enemy as Jesus has. Over our lifetimes, myths, errors, and distortions about God and ourselves have taken precedence over God’s words. These thoughts are our enslaving norms.
Slave–thoughts can become so engrained in our identities questions about our legitimacy and God’s goodness can become normal. I have been shocked in my personal journey from slavery into freedom, how frequently, even as a Christian, I have lived in agreement with the father of lies. This is why Psalm 139: 23-24 is such a pivotal prayer to me:
Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me and know my anxious thoughts;
And see if there be any hurtful (enslaving) way in me,
And lead me in the everlasting (liberated) way.
When we break into freedom, and we shall, because he is bringing many sons to glory, light will be released through the Church, not through better programs and sermons, but through the lives of those who are being transformed into the image of Jesus. God is seeing to it that His children spread out strategically into all the earth. Like a positive virus, the Church is being poised to infect the world with Jesus Christ. We have each been relationally positioned to infect others with the love of God—which is our ultimate cure.
Father, through your suffering, you have removed the basis of our fear of death. Let us give ourselves unreservedly to Your life. Go after the enslaving half-truths and blatant lies the enemy has sold us. Liberate us into the freedom of the sons of God, which all creation and we ourselves long to experience. Amen.
by RobertCummins | Oct 2, 2016 | 39. Spaciousness
Last night my wife and I watched Lady In A Van, a mostly true story about an odd woman and an author – an indecisive man who has conversations with himself. These conversations were the genesis of his writing. Writing is how the author untangled the inner contradictions which kept him in perpetual neutral. His neighbors saw his introspection as his own crippling oddity. The film resonated with me.
This past week a caring friend told me (once again) that I was very hard on myself. I was puzzled by this comment since much of MwM is about how I have been becoming much less hard on myself. After further review of this conversation I have come to think that being-hard-on-myself was actually a comparative statement – code, in fact, for you are being-very-hard-on-me. (When will I ever learn to keep my inner contradictions to myself.) The last thing I want to do is be hard on others. I had thought I was making headway in this department as well.
What I would like to say to my caring friend is that there is no need to compare how you process truth with how I go about it. God simply made us differently. There are those who, by nature, have conversations with themselves. They see the gray and must ponder both the black and the white that comprise it. And there are those who do not. For them, all this supposed deeper thought is a colossal waste of time. While I get it, I can’t change it.
I recall the deep sigh of relief I had after finishing The Myth of Certainty by Daniel Taylor. This book is a lifeline to reflective Christians – those believers who cannot help but see the absurdity and the glory in both the black and the white. They cannot avoid the inner contradictions so they must meditate and write (if it comes to that) to disentangle fact from fiction. Truth, as they understand it, insists on this inner dialogue.
Taylor’s book allowed that there was even a place for the reflective Christian within the Body of Christ. He suggested their role may be more indirect as they try and attract others out of their black and white dogma into the more mysterious gray tones, where they have personally been driven (or led) and have discovered the most truth.
My friend’s faith is untethered from complexity, eloquent in its simplicity and effectual in its application. I honor him in this and by no means wish to impose my introspections upon him as some standard of spirituality. I am simply doing the best I know how to pursue truth as an older (and slightly odd) man with many questions who is fortunately (or unfortunately) still on speaking terms with himself. While my process may look like a burden to others, it has been a path of life for me.
Father, I pray that we might learn to trust in You and do good; to dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness. Teach our hearts to delight in You. Teach us to commit our way to You and to trust that You will bring forth Your righteousness and judgment as the noonday light of our lives. Show us how to rest in You and wait patiently for You. Please give us this desire in our hearts. Amen. (a prayer born of Psalm 37:1-7)
