by Elizabeth | Jul 27, 2010 | Learning Story
“What is your only comfort in life and in death?” Heidelberg Catechism, Question 1
I am back to Heidelberg. Probably not a daily series as I’ve done before, but a few quotes from this great little book a friend just told me about: Kevin DeYoung’sThe Good News We Almost Forgot. (What a great title, right?)
Here’s what he says about Heidelberg Question 1:
“Heidelberg’s first question is so striking because of the word ‘only.’ If it asked ‘what comforts’ you, that would be a polite but underwhelming question. I’m comforted by sleep, chocolate chip cookies, a good book, the soundtrack to The Mission. But when the Catechism asks what is your only comfort, it is getting at something deeper. ‘Comfort’ translates the German word trost, which was in turn, rendered consolatio in the first official Latin version. ‘Trost’ is related to the English word ‘trust’ and has the root meaning of ‘certainty’ or ‘protection.’ Heidelberg is asking, ‘What is your solace in life? What is your only real security?’
…[it] poses the most important question we will ever face. What enables yoiu to endure life and face death unafraid? Is it that you read your Bible every day? That you attend church every Sunday? That you give to the poor? That you have a cushy retirement account saved up? That you haven’t committed any of the big sins of life?
We live in a world where we take comfort in possessions, pride, power, and position. But the Catechism teaches us that our only comfort comes from the fact that we don’t even belong to ourselves. How countercultural and counterintiuitive! We can endure suffering and disappointment in life and face death and the life to come without fear or judgment, not because of what we’ve done or what we own or who we are, but because of what we do not possess, namely, our own selves.”
WOW, WOW, WOW, and WOW!!
Think about it: What gives you comfort in life? What difference does it make in the challenges and joys of the day ahead that you belong to Christ?
“That I am not my own, but I belong, body and soul, in life and in death, to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ.” (First part of Heidelberg Answer #1)
by Elizabeth | Jul 24, 2010 | Learning Story
“Again, this is God’s command: to believe in his personally named Son, Jesus Christ. He told us to love each other, in line with the original command. As we keep his commands, we live deeply and surely in him, and he lives in us. And this is how we experience his deep and abiding presence in us: by the Spirit he gave us.” I John 3:24, The Message
The author continues his argument that love lived is the only sensible way for a follower of Christ to live. We obey his commands, not because it GETS us what we ask for but because it is the natural outflow of God’s giving us what we needed. And as we do so, we receive more of what we need — the assurance that we are living in him. Listen to this hymn, ponder the lyrics (yes, it’s FOUR whole minutes, but I’ll tell you, I tried it, and sitting still for four minutes listening to the truth that Christ abides with us through storms and sun is a gift my unsteady soul needs to receive. Take some deep breaths. Ask God for His presence, and try to receive it — because He will give it. This is the logic of love and living for a follower of Christ.
by Elizabeth | Jul 23, 2010 | Learning Story
18-20 “My dear children, let’s not just talk about love; let’s practice real love. This is the only way we’ll know we’re living truly, living in God’s reality. It’s also the way to shut down debilitating self-criticism, even when there is something to it. For God is greater than our worried hearts and knows more about us than we do ourselves.
21-24 And friends, once that’s taken care of and we’re no longer accusing or condemning ourselves, we’re bold and free before God! We’re able to stretch our hands out and receive what we asked for because we’re doing what he said, doing what pleases him. Again, this is God’s command: to believe in his personally named Son, Jesus Christ. He told us to love each other, in line with the original command. As we keep his commands, we live deeply and surely in him, and he lives in us. And this is how we experience his deep and abiding presence in us: by the Spirit he gave us.” I John 3:18-24, The Message
I included yesterday’s verses from I John because they lead into and up to the final point of Chapter 3, which is something like this — when we do what makes sense because Christ loved us, that is, LOVE, we begin to feel more assured of God’s love and worry less about accusing voices that would tear us down.
THEN, we are “bold and free” before God. We stretch out our hands toward God, not in a grasping, demanding way, but palms up, receiving, imbibing is not too strong a word — and this is amazing — receiving ANYTHING HE ASKS. That takes us into a most difficult realm for every Christian, the promises that we will receive what we ask, which appear in various places throughout the Bible. What does this mean?
I don’t know for sure. I do have a hunch it DOES NOT mean that every time we ask that our friend be healed of cancer or that we be blessed with a spouse or a child, we will receive those good gifts. On the other hand, it also doesn’t mean we won’t receive them. I also know it DOES NOT mean we receive what we asked BECAUSE we did something for God. God is not a tit-for-tat God, nor does He need our help to show His grace.
Something of what it might mean — first, notice the word “receive.” Why does it say we will “receive” rather than He will “give.” I think there may be a clue there. My hunch is, backed up somewhat by various commentaries, that this receiving has something to do with our hearts being changed by the process of loving like Jesus did — after all, he gave up his life voluntarily and RECEIVED the reward of sitting at the right hand of the father. Perhaps this verse is telling us that instead of refusing God’s good gifts to us, we will receive them. Sometimes I don’t want what God gives me. I want an easy day at work where all the files are ordered and each task is neatly accomplished. Instead, He gives me a child who needs to be taken to the doctor and completely throws off my schedule. These verses say something about the intimacy of our relationship with God, about how we approach God and how we receive what He gives us, because He is our Father and we are His beloved children. I’ll finish by quoting the IVP Commentary on this:
“We do not come to God as strangers pleading for special favors, but as those whom God calls “children.” Just as requests and petitions com prise much of the language of children to their parents, so petitionary prayer constitutes much of the address of Christians to their heavenly Father. When we are told that we receive . . . anything we ask, we are not promised that every item on our wish list will be granted to us. We are, rather, reminded of the intimate bond that we have with God, a bond that makes it possible for us to bring our petitions to God at all. For petition does not bring about intimacy, confidence and trust; rather, intimacy and trust elicit petition. We can bring our requests to God with confidence because we indeed belong to the truth: we belong to God.”
For reflection:
What kinds of requests do you make of God? On what basis do you make them? Have you ever approached God with the sense that doing something for Him will get Him to do something for you?
What are you learning about love and your relationship with God and how it frees you to live “bold and free”?
by Elizabeth | Jul 22, 2010 | Learning Story
My dear children, let’s not just talk about love; let’s practice real love. This is the only way we’ll know we’re living truly, living in God’s reality. It’s also the way to shut down debilitating self-criticism, even when there is something to it. For God is greater than our worried hearts and knows more about us than we do ourselves. I John 3:18-20
Continuing the thought from yesterday, there is further logic in love:
When we know Christ’s love, it is only logical to love.
When we love, several things happen:
1. We know we’re living, really living — in God’s reality — living His story, not a small one of our own making.
2. It shuts down “debilitating self-criticism,” as Peterson puts it in The Message. This is big. Ever struggled w/ self-criticism? Voices that tell you you can’t do something because it’s impossible? Or shouldn’t do something because you’re no good? I’m not talking about the kind but firm reminders of the Holy Spirit that it’s wrong to cheat on your income taxes. I mean that chorus of the old man (woman) voice and the accuser’s voice that kills hope, the dreaming of gospel possibilities, like, “You will NEVER stop nagging your husband.” Those voices can be lethal to love.
3. We stop worrying. (Well, maybe not completely till the story reaches its culmination, but worry can be destroyed.) Why is it logical that knowing Christ’s love and living it out frees us from worry? “Because God is greater than our worried hearts and knows more about us than we do ourselves.” AMAZING. WONDROUS. Stop and worship in that thought for a moment. Isn’t it good, if you can humble yourself to believe God knows more about you than you do yourself, to rest in that? Just when you’re thinking, “I’ve blown it again, and there ain’t nothin’ that’s ever going to make me love well,” John pipes up with, “Not so fast. The logic of love says that God is working in you by Christ’s love through the power of the Holy Spirit far beyond what you know. And one day you will not even recognize yourself, because dear children, we will be like him when he comes!”
For Reflection:
Read these verses aloud several times.
Write down anything you are worried about today. As the worry arises, pray a simple prayer, something like, “God forgive me for worrying, for thinking I know more about myself than I know about you. Help me to keep loving you, which means trusting you have my good and your glory in mind, all the time. Show me the logic of love. In your powerful, oh so loving, name. Amen.”
by Elizabeth | Jul 21, 2010 | Learning Story
“This is how we’ve come to understand and experience love: Christ sacrificed his life for us. This is why we ought to live sacrificially for our fellow believers, and not just be out for ourselves. If you see some brother or sister in need and have the means to do something about it but turn a cold shoulder and do nothing, what happens to God’s love? It disappears. And you made it disappear.” 1 John 3:16-17 The Message
What John seems to be saying here is that love just makes sense, way more sense than hatred, at least from the point of view of someone who follows Christ as King. After all, Christ sacrificed HIS LIFE for us. And in that, we experienced love, truly discovered a love unlike any other love. When we grasp even the hem of such flowing love, how could we help but also live sacrificially? What else would we do but sacrifice for our brothers and sisters in Christ? (And elsewhere, sacrifice for those who aren’t in Christ, since, after all, that is what our Lord did?)
This is where we start to get uneasy. “What do you mean by that, Elizabeth?” Might as well ask the Holy Spirit what God means by that. I didn’t say it, He did. This is where the gospel gets a little uncomfortable, very offensive. I think, “I mean what I says and I says what I mean” (to quote ??? who was that Popeye?) applies here.
Do you know a brother or sister in need? What is their need? How can you show them the love of Christ in the midst of this need? Give them money? Possibly. Help them move? Maybe. Bring them a meal? Sure. Watch their cat while they vacation in Europe? (Well, that may be going a little too far:).
Love makes sense. We do what makes sense when we get our eyes off ourselves and on our brothers and sisters.
by Elizabeth | Jul 19, 2010 | Learning Story
As I reread this passage in 1 John 3, I realize I posted parts of it last week, but to tell you the truth, I’m not tired of it yet. Are you? I’m pretty sure I need to read it and ponder it over and over again. I am surprised by how much I forget and how quickly.
Here is 1 John 3:11-15 followed by the Tyndale commentary notes on this passage. Don’t be surprised, dear brothers and sisters, if the world hates you. But do not go out of your way to offend people. The gospel does that by challenging people to believe they are too weak to save themselves. Instead, go out of your way to love people. That will confuse folks and possibly offend them, but it is by this we know that we are Christians.
Love One Another
11 This is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another. 12 We must not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and killed his brother. And why did he kill him? Because Cain had been doing what was evil, and his brother had been doing what was righteous. 13 So don’t be surprised, dear brothers and sisters,* if the world hates you.
14 If we love our Christian brothers and sisters,* it proves that we have passed from death to life. But a person who has no love is still dead. 15 Anyone who hates another brother or sister* is really a murderer at heart. And you know that murderers don’t have eternal life within them.
“John warned believers not to “be surprised” if the world’s hate is experienced (3:13). One who has an attitude of hatred toward Christ and Christians is potentially capable of murdering Christians (cf. Matt. 5:21–22). Such a person demonstrates that he is not a possessor of eternal life. The readers had a problem with being hated. It made them wonder if they were really recipients of God’s redemption. This explained why love of Christian brothers was so important to John. In a world controlled by the evil one’s power, anti-Christian teachings and acts are to be expected. Only the children of God can bring comfort and instruct in truth. John showed that the teachings of both God and the devil centered on the truth of God’s incarnation in Christ.” Tyndale Concise Bible Commentary, Logos
