Monthly Archives: April 2011

Just one beggar

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Following up on the theme from Monday’s post – I mentioned then that my ministry is primarily that of “One beggar telling another begger where I found bread.”  Here’s a little illustration:

We don’t really like the idea of begging.  When we see beggars in the city, usually we walk a little faster, make sure the doors are locked in the car, pretend they’re not even there.  Maybe we think that if you have to beg, then you’ve failed at something in life.  We tell our children, “Don’t beg” when they are pestering us for the latest toy begin advertized every five minutes.  If you are working hard enough, keeping on the straight and narrow, you should never have to beg, right?

I wonder how many of us feel like begging might become a viable option in the near future.  Jobs are scarce, gas is expensive, money’s tight.  The thought is terrifying, but “Brother Can you Spare a Dime” might hit the Top 40’s again.

But for just a moment, if we can get past all of the social and cultural stigmas that are associated with begging, we might begin to see how this picture is a pretty accurate description of the Christian life.

Consider for a moment the language that is used in the old prayer books of the church.  Today, prayer books are filled with the words like “pray,” “ask,” and “seek;” all very good and appropriate words.  But they’ve lost some power.  The Presbyterian Book of Worship from 1943, on the other hand, uses words like, “beseech,” “entreat,” “implore,” and even “beg” in its prayers.  How many of you would be confortable if your pastor prayed this Sunday, “God we are on our knees begging for your mercy and grace”? 

The things is, while these words are out of fashion today, they teach us a lot about how we ought to depend upon God.  God is the source of all goodness and life, if there is anything we are wanting, we must turn to God.  Bring before God the longings of your heart, look to God for those things which will bring your peace, security, and comfort in life.  Come to God with empty hands, asking to be filled.

Then perhaps, as the beggar pictured above, you may find the food you truly desire, the bread of life, the end of hunger and thirst (John 6:35).

SDG

Feelings, nothing more than feelings…

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“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places…”
(Ephesians 1:3 ESV)

Paul’s letter to the Ephesians begins with one of the most effusive expressions of praise ever found, “Blessed be God… who had blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing… as he chose us… predestined us… adopted us… to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he as blessed us.”  Volumes of books are necessary to unpack this simple yet eloquent explosion of praise to God.  You’ll find the opening verses of Ephesians to be a “Cliff’s Notes” guide to covenantal reformed theology, and without crossing the line into plagiarism, every candidate for ministry should use these verses as the basis for their statement of faith.

We have been blessed by God in Christ with every spiritual blessing.  This could be read, with every blessing of the Spirit, the Greek is a little ambiguous here, but ultimately it all means the same thing.  Paul unfolds the blessings that God has showered upon us.  We have been chosen by God to be holy and blameless.  In love, he predestined us to be adopted at sons, for the praise of his glorious grace.  I know words like “chosen” and “predestined” make some people shy away muttering “free will” under their breath.  But this is the word of God, His promise to us.  It is meant as good news.  God’s will is that we know His love, encounter His grace, be called His children – and God determined this when our will was set against Him.  That’s good news.

Moreover, we have redemption in Christ Jesus, the forgiveness of trespasses, and the revelation of the will of God with all wisdom and insight.  The blessings of God go on and on throughout Paul’s letter – Praise be to God for His goodness and grace!

Except –

There are times when we don’t feel blessed.  The world seems set against us.  Money’s tight, or even non-existent.  Friends are few and far between, and those you thought were close only got there so they could stab you in the back.  Anxiety and stress rise up around you, you feel lost and tossed around in the storm.  The winds blow and your life is turned upside down (literally here in NW Iowa).  It’s hard to echo the words of Paul, it’s hard to say that we’ve been blessed with every spiritual blessing.

There are times when we are in the desert.  We feel dry, spiritually – we’re thirsty for closeness with God.  We want to know those blessings that Paul is talking about here, but it’s just not connecting.  We hear about the blessings, why don’t we see them?

It’s at times like these that it is important to remember this truth, God’s word is true regardless of how we feel about it.  So often we think that our religious affections (to borrow the phrase from Jonathon Edwards) all rely on how I feel about God at this particular moment.  If I feel passionately about God, then I must be close to Him and He to me.  If I’m feeling distant from God, then there must be something wrong in my life.  While there may be some truth to this, I think that sometimes we may put a little too much emphasis on our feelings.  If I don’t feel like I’ve “connected” to God in prayer, does that mean that God didn’t hear my prayer?  If my heart wasn’t really in my worship and preaching last week, does that mean that God wasn’t still glorified by my preaching and in our worship?

One of my favorite quotes in literature comes from Dickens’, A Christmas Carol.  Scrooge has just encountered the ghost of Bob Marley, his former business partner who warns him of the coming visits in the night.  In disbelief Scrooge replies, “You may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of underdone potato. There’s more of gravy than of grave about you, whatever you are!”  How many times are our feelings, either positive or negative, toward God based on our lack of sleep, our indigestion, or the run-in we had at the supermarket yesterday?

The truth of the matter is, regardless of how you feel about it today, for those who are alive in Christ Jesus, God has blessed you with ever spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.  This doesn’t mean that we won’t encounter poverty and pain, it doesn’t mean that we won’t face hardship and setback.  But it does mean that God to supplies all our needs “according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:19). It does mean that regardless of what we face, we may say, as did Job, “the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”

Friends, when you don’t feel it, know it.  Know that God has blessed you in Christ Jesus our Lord, and you are blessed indeed!