Struggling with the Devil or Struggling with God

I read a great article this morning on Ethics Daily by Chuck Queen that shares the story of a young man who goes to live for the summer in a monastery in the mountains of Greece.  There's a famous old monk there named Father Makarios and Nikos, the young man, engages the monk in the following conversation:

One day, Nikos asked Father Makarios, "Do you still wrestle with the devil?"

Father Makarios said, "No. I used to wrestle with the devil all the time. But now I have grown old and tired, and the devil has grown old and tired with me. So I leave him alone and he leaves me alone."

Nikos asked, "Then life is easy now?"

Father Makarios responded, "Oh, no. Life is much harder now. For now I wrestle with God."

Nikos exclaimed, "You wrestle with God and hope to win?"

"No," said Father Makarios, "I wrestle with God and hope to lose."

There's a real sense in which this struggle with God is one in which we all participate, hopefully with the same desire to lose.  The yielding of our lives completely to His will and greater purpose for us is something we battle daily to achieve.  That anguished struggle is echoed by the Apostle Paul in Romans 7 with his confession that the good he wants to do he finds himself not doing, and the evil that he wishes to avoid he finds himself committing.  The only hope for victory in this arena lies in the daily surrender of our will, our desires, our time, our energy, and our actions to the control of the indwelling Holy Spirit.  When we do so, we can say together with Paul, "But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place" (2 Cor. 2:14).

Frank Viola interviews Scot McKnight

I wanted to call your attention today to a couple of great blogs to which I subscribe, as I find each of the authors provide some great insights into the Scriptures as well as interacting with modern evangelical thought.  Frank Viola's interview with Scot McKnight allows McKnight to respond to some questions that have arisen about his book, The King Jesus Gospel.  I hope you'll click on the link above to read the interview.

Annie Dillard quote

I’ve been seriously pondering something I read last week and referenced in the previous post.  The imagery of the quote has been bouncing around in my head for several days.  It’s from a book by Annie Dillard entitled, Teaching a Stone to Talk.  She asks the penetrating question about our worship, “Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke?”  In other words, do we approach worship with a ho-hum attitude and no expectation of God actually showing up?  Her response is that if we really took seriously what we say we believe, we should all be wearing crash helmets—and ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares and lash us to the pews. 

I’m not advocating chaos and disorder, for Paul writes in 1 Cor. 14:40 that all should be done properly and in an orderly manner.  And yet, I can’t help wondering what a difference it would make if we entered into worship in a spirit of expectancy, anticipating that God would meet us in all of His power and majesty.  Psalm 22:3 says that God inhabits or is enthroned upon the praises of His people.  As we praise Him in spirit and in truth, we can anticipate His power and presence to be displayed among us.  May it be so this and every week as we gather to worship Him!

Worship at Gate A-3

Let me encourage you to read this piece from Bill Wilson about an experience of worship he had at an airport as a family gathered to receive the body of their military son who died in Afghanistan.  You might want to make sure you have a Kleenex or handkerchief at hand.

I was reading along in the article, still caught up in reflecting on the quote from Annie Dillard about churches needing to pass out crash helmets at the door and install seat belts in the pews if we were really serious about what we say we believe regarding worship, when Wilson shifted his focus to his experience of worship at Gate A-3 in the Charlotte airport.  I wasn't quite prepared for the emotional impact of reading about what he witnessed, but I'm grateful that he shared these thoughts.

A Symphony Performed by Misfits

The title of this blog post comes from a blog by Ian Ebright on the Red Letter Christians blog.  The final paragraph of that post reads as follows:

"The body of Christ is not intended to be a singular noise hummed by perfect people, but rather a full symphony performed by misfits, and that’s going to include some subtle tones that take a little extra effort to hear, and some sour notes that are initially uncomfortable. But God is speaking, also through people and in ways that we may not prefer."

You've probably heard the old adage that describes the church as a hospital for the broken and ill.  I really like the imagery suggested by Ebright of a symphony performed by misfits, and the notion that we must make special efforts to ensure that everyone's voice (or musical notes in this context) is heard.  Sour notes may be sounded, but that's preferable to excluding some from playing in the orchestra.  The body of Christ is rich in its diversity, and is enriched spiritually when all of its members join in the song.

Some Guidelines for this Election Season

The following are some thoughts I shared in the latest edition of our monthly senior adult newsletter.

Well, just in case you’ve been totally isolated from a television in recent weeks, I thought I’d clue you in that we’re in the midst of an election year.  It seems it’s possible lately to watch a lively debate among presidential hopefuls at least a couple of times a week if one is so inclined.  And that’s before the GOP has even selected its party’s candidate and the real political fireworks begin.  It seems we’re in for a long season of negative attack ads and impassioned rhetoric.

So where does all of this leave us as followers of Christ?  At the risk of being shot at by both sides, let me offer a few guidelines and suggestions. 

1.      Be informed.  That doesn’t mean you have to watch every single minute of political coverage, but learn about the candidates and their platforms in order to vote intelligently.

2.      Vote your conscience.  As much as possible, let your vote reflect support for the individual you feel best embodies sound principles and character.

3.      Recognize that there are no perfect people—including (or maybe especially) politicians.

4.      Acknowledge that God isn’t the exclusive possession or supporter of either major party.  This one may be the trickiest and most difficult, as we tend to assume that God is on our side.

5.      Recognize that other sincere Christians can differ with your political persuasion without being heretics or insane.  This is a logical corollary of the previous guideline.

6.      Leave your penchant for political debate at home when you come to church.  We gather to worship the God of all creation—not a political messiah. 

7.      Pray earnestly for all those elected to serve in the political arena.  That’s a biblical command.

Baptists have been in the forefront historically of the fight to ensure separation of church and state, and we do well to remember that as the political fever rises this year.  Let’s keep our focus on lifting up the Lord and exalting Him rather than the political party of our choice.

Another Great Conference in Guatemala

I had the opportunity this past week to travel once again to Quetzaltenango, Guatemala for another round of leadership training conferences with pastors and leaders in that western region of the country.  My colleague, Verlyn Bergen, and I each led 2 sessions (with me translating for Verlyn in his two), and then we combined for a question and answer time in the final session.  We usually have a lot of dialogue and give and take in these conferences, but this was the first time we deliberately planned into the schedule one entire session for responding to questions and addressing concerns that the leaders raised.

For clarification, we spent a few minutes in the initial session asking them to suggest themes or issues that they wanted us to cover in that final session, so we had at least a few waking hours to think about those concerns before covering them in our final session together. 

Altogether, we had 75 pastors and leaders from 27 different churches and missions represented.  That's about the same total number of participants as usual, but a larger number of congregations present.  As always, the fellowship and camaraderie shared was wonderful.  Many of these men and women have attended every conference for the past 6 years or so.  It's great as well to see new leaders emerging who are attending these conferences.  They are eager learners, hanging on every word and soaking up the content like sponges.  Verlyn talked about 8 characteristics of healthy churches and teaching for results, while I led two sessions talking about the missional church--seeking to define it somewhat and describing the practices of missional churches.  I borrowed heavily from a great book by Milfred Minatrea entitled Shaped by God's Heart: The Passion and Practices of Missional Churches.  It's a great resource from Leadership Network that identifies 9 practices of growing missional churches based on research of a number of churches in the U.S.

We returned home on Friday afternoon, fairly exhausted from the travel schedule, but very content with the conference and the opportunity as well to visit the Tabitha Ministry again in Guatemala City that I've spoken of in previous posts.  They are having to vacate the building they currently occupy by the end of February, but it looks like they will be able to secure a house just a short distance away to continue the ministry of providing 2 meals and early childhood education to around 90 children.  In addition, some 50 women who are mainly the mothers of these youngsters are meeting weekly for Bible study. 

All in all, it was another blessed and productive week in Guatemala.  I appreciate the prayers of those who lifted us up to the Lord as we went.