by Elizabeth | Apr 27, 2010 | Learning Story
“For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. 4Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” Romans 12:3-5, NIV
Living with a westernized worldview, we struggle to understand what Paul means when he says to use the “measure of faith” God has given us. Tim Keller, in his study on Romans, helps us with this thought.
Paul is saying: “All of you have been given your saving faith in Christ crucified, and that is how you are to measure yourself.”
That means we are first to realize we are all the same. Regardless of our background, abilities, etc., we are all saved in Christ. God loves us equally “in Christ.” So we should also think of ourselves. This is then a very direct command to start our self-appreciation by remembering who we are in the gospel. The first “measure” by which we evaluate ourselves is the gospel in which we believe.
Secondly, we are to think of ourselves as having distinct gifts and abilities within the Body of Christ. In other words, we are all different as well. We are not “clones.” Paul elsewhere says that “you are God’s workmanship, created in Christ for good works that God has prepared beforehand for us to do.” Isaak Dinessen put it: “Pride [good pride] is faith in the idea God had when he made you.” We have each been given distinct personalities and temperaments and histories and abilities that equip us for doing a particular set of good works in the world that God has created us to do. So the second way to get a good “self-image” is to get to work in ministry, find out what God has equipped you to do best, and do it with all your might!” Tim Keller, Romans study
by Elizabeth | Apr 26, 2010 | Learning Story
“So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life — your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life — and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him.” Romans 12:1-2, The Message
I’m returning to this core verse about how we are to view and live our lives. Today Eugene Peterson offers some thoughts on what this means:
“Paul summarizes Christian living in a sentence: ‘Take your ordinary life — your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around-life — and place it before God as an offering.” (Romans 12:1)
God doesn’t throw out the past and tell us to forget about it. He uses all the material, but he rearranges it, and in his hands it becomes new. The vocabulary in Romans 12:1 uses the same words from the sacrificial system of the past: life and offering. But each of these words is given a radically new orientation.
Life. Substitute sacrifices will no longer do. It’s your life God wants, and it’s mine. Cows, birds, goats, and sheep will no longer be acceptable. It must be your life. By using the word life, Paul leaves no room for escape. LIfe includes our whole self, the entire collection of feelings, actions, ideas. Brain, nerves, muscles, drives, instincts, perceptions. Life. It is me that’s offered up — all of me.
Offering. The drama of the blood flowing out of a sacrificial animal was impressive in its symbolism, but the animal was worthless from that time on, except to be eaten. A short-lived usefulness. This new concept is no less a sacrifice, but the blood stays in the veins and continues to nourish the life of the individual. Thus, this new offering becomes an extended one.
This offering of the whole of our lives is a worshipful act that’s pleasing to God.” Eugene Peterson, Conversations
Wow. Typing Peterson’s sentence brought this wild reality back to me in a new way — our life-blood is not shed as we become an offering — BECAUSE the blood of Jesus was shed for us, because Jesus was raised for us, because we are raised to new life in him. It is love incomprehensible. May we soak in the wonder of the offering God has made for us that we might become a living sacrifice for God. To be continued tomorrow…
by Elizabeth | Apr 24, 2010 | Learning Story
Thirteen point one miles of hilly country in humid conditions, I am THANKFUL! Thankful to God our Provider who held the rain until many if not most had finished the half. (I am sad for those marathoners who trained so hard but were prevented finishing because of severe weather spotted:(. I’ve done a number of half-marathons in the past twenty years, coming out of running retirement on occasion to run with a friend or to mark a milestone, or in this case, because my eldest daughter was running her first half (and she completed it with great success), but the Country Music Half remains one of the toughest courses because of the hills. What gets me through those ups and downs of the course are the wonderful spectators, the “great cloud of witnesses” who line the course cheering us on, telling us we’re doing well, encouraging us that we can make it. So again I thank those who lined the roads today, risking being rained upon, and I offer all of us the reminder that whether in life’s journey or a morning run, we need the “cloud of witnesses.” Who are the people who cheer you on on life’s strangely contoured journey? Thank God for them (and thank them) today!
“Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we’d better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!”
by Elizabeth | Apr 23, 2010 | Learning Story
The passage I post today is more than a lovely litany to be read at a wedding. It is exhortative, that is, a call to live what we believe. It defines external markers of Christianity and tells us we are really expected to put these ideas into actions. And that is a hard thing to do. Read the passage, read it slowly. Ponder. Reflect. Where does it catch you? And then ask yourself, “how indeed is it possible to live out this call to love?” At the end, a short short story of one woman doing just that.
1If I speak in the tonguesof men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”
Yesterday, I received an email. The subject line read “Grace.” I opened it quickly, since I always need more grace. The writer of the letter wanted to tell me a story of grace and love. She had had a rough month after losing a loved one. What was more difficult than the death she grieved was the response of other family members. She bears a fierce love for family and works hard to bring together the separate strands. But, as any of us who have ever labored to love our entire families well, she struggled at times.
She wrote to tell me of a revelation that led her to love these people with a new heart, with new eyes. It wasn’t terribly complex, but it was rich. She remembered their stories. She remembered what they had suffered. She began to understand why they might respond the way they did to life’s tragedies and triumphs. She spoke a story of grace toward them that she had never expected. She said it was God’s grace that must have done it because she knew she couldn’t have come to love that way on her own.
The “Love” passage of I Corinthians 13 calls us to do many impossible things. One way this happens is by remembering God’s grace and kindness to us. What stories of grace will you remember today?
by Elizabeth | Apr 22, 2010 | Learning Story
Yesterday, I mentioned the Redeeming Sexuality conference taking place Friday and Saturday at Christ Community Church in Franklin, TN, with Dan Allender and Scotty Smith. Both remarkable teachers who understand the interweaving of sexuality and the gospel, they will engage myths, shame, and struggles authentically and compassionately. Today I offer you a little foretaste of what you are likely to hear, this from Dan Allender and Tremper Longman III’s book, The Intimate Mystery.
“The most crucial theological truth about sexuality is that God loves sex and evil hates it. God made us sexual, and he glories in his plan for our union and joy. Evil hates what God loves, and it has found that more harm can be done through sex than perhaps any other means. Often the chief battleground for the human soul is the terrain of sexuality….”
“Sex changes when it is seen as a gift from God. As a gift, it is to be honored and cherished as bearing the glory of the One who gave it. Many times even expensive gifts are tucked away in an attic because the gift or the person who gave it is not valued. Yet an inexpensive photograph, if it was given to us by an extraordinary person, like the president of the United States, is framed and set in a prominent place. And if a gift is priceless AND the giver highly prized, its mere presence brings delight and it is carefully protected. One simply wouldn’t toss around a Stradivarius or let a neighbor’s son take it to show and tell.” Dan Allender and Tremper Longman III, The Intimate Mystery
The question is, what do we do with and about our sexuality? What does it mean for a single person to live with this “gift” when it may not feel like a gift? What do we do with brokenness and shame resulting in abuse? Difficult questions abound. These questions will be engaged with the “crucial theological truth about sexuality.” To sign up, go to Redeeming Sexuality.
by Elizabeth | Apr 21, 2010 | Learning Story
Romans 12:1 ”I appeal to, therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”
I posted this verse yesterday along with some thoughts from Tim Keller and John Stott on presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice to God. Stott left out an essential part of our body in his thoughts — our sexuality. This weekend, two men gifted with real stories and deep understanding of Scripture will present a gift to our world, a seminar on Redeeming Sexuality. I urge you, brothers and sisters, if you can make this conference, clear your schedule and prioritize it. Here is a prayer Scotty wrote:
A Prayer About the Beauty and Brokenness of Sexuality
By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.” But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit. Flee from sexual immorality. 1 Corinthians 6:14-18
Dear Lord Jesus, there are so many thoughts swirling through my head this morning. For sure, I’ve never been more aware of the pervasiveness of sexual brokenness—everywhere I go… everywhere I look, including in the mirror. It’s like we’re actually living in the Corinth of Paul’s day. Promiscuity, perversion and prostitution are no longer the exception, but the rule. So many of us bear the wounds… feel the shame… know the disconnect of our sexual brokenness and sin. And yet… and yet, the gospel dares us to hope.
Hope… along with astonishment… that’s the greater impulse of my heart this morning. In fact, as I ponder what Paul was saying to the Corinthians, it leaves me undone—overwhelmed with beauty, Lord Jesus… the beauty of what it actually means to belong to you… to be desired by you… to “known” by you in the most intimate of all ways. Dare I say it, Lord Jesus? Whatever the “best sex” is between a husband and wife, it’s only a hint and a whisper of the intimacy you intend for yourself and your Bride. Jesus, enlarge the chambers of my heart to understand, believe and enjoy what this actually means. I’ll not live by cliché, metaphor, spin or hype, but by the truth… your truth.
Why should I flee all forms of sexual immorality? Simply because it’s what I’m supposed to do so a Christian… it’s the rules? Jesus, that would never be enough to keep me from acting out in selfish and destructive ways. I’ll flee sexual immorality because you flee to me in the gospel.
You have died for me… you have been raised for me… you have married yourself to me… you have united my whole being to yourself. I am already one with you “in spirit”, and I await your return and my resurrection to know the fulfillment of everything you have purchased and planned for your beloved Bride. Whatever the future and fulfillment of sexuality is, it belongs to you…
Until then, Lord Jesus, help me and my friends flee all forms of sexual immorality by fleeing to you, our great and gracious Bridegroom. In our marriages… in our singleness… in our brokenness… in our need for repentance and healing… be glorified. So very Amen, I pray, in your peerless name.
