Growth

sit, walk, stand–with Jesus

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I like to walk fast.  Sure I enjoy the journey, but I like to get there too.  Its part of my problem in leading and life.  Let’s get into the battle and get something done.  But I’ve been reminded over and over that I am at risk both in the walk and the fight if I have not also sat with Jesus.

A few years ago my youngest would interrupt a walk with the plea…”Sit down Daddy.  Let’s see what we can see.  Sit down with me Daddy.”  And I had to make a choice.  I could keep walking without him, or I could sit down with him.  For you see, he had already found a log, or a bench at the beach, and he had sat down.

One of my favourite commentaries on the book of Ephesians is Watchman Nee’s little book, Sit, Walk, Stand.  In the book, part commentary and part testimony of God’s activity in China, he outlines Ephesians according to these three verbs:  sit, walk, stand.  These three verbs have been regular reminders from Ephesians of how I am to live with Jesus Christ.

Sit
“–it is by grace you have been saved.  And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him int he heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.”  Ephesians 2:5-7  NIV

Unless I make it my habit to be still and to sit with Jesus in communion and prayer I will live poorly.  Unless I sit with Him at His throne of grace or at His banquet table and receive His lavish gifts of forgiveness, grace, truth, healing, right perspective, I will live like a wealthy pauper, ignorant of the riches and status I have inherited as His child.

Walk
“I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called with all lowliness, and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”  Ephesians 4:1-3 NKJV

Unless I have sat with Jesus I will definitely have trouble in the command to “walk this way.”  Walking requires that I enter from solitude into the fellowship of the saints.  It requires that I keep in step with the Spirit by engaging people in a manner consistent with the truth and love I have received from Jesus.  Walking means I don’t walk alone but that I walk with the company of the committed; it means that I share life with a collection of people who share the same calling from Jesus to be His–that would be the church.  Surprise.  If you have spent much time with the church you quickly realize that those modifiers in verses 2-3 are extremely important–humilty, gentleness, patience, bearing with one another–if love and truth are going to inhabit the community and our relationships in church, marriage, home, or work.  Our life with the church becomes the training ground for a new way of living in relationship with all of society. 

Stand
“Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.  For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the power of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.  Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.”  Ephesians 6:11-13

Welcome to the resistance movement that Jesus started.  We are to stand together in the ground that he takes back from the darkness and the devil.  We are to infiltrate every domain of our cities with the truth, righteousness, peace, faith, and salvation that accompanies the Kingdom of Jesus Christ.  Unless you and I sit with Jesus, and walk with Jesus together, it is unlikely that we will stand our ground when the day of evil comes.  There will be little readiness unless we have become familiar with each part of this armor that God has given us.  There will be little familiarity with the “sword of the Spirit which is the word of God.”  And there will be little alertness for engaging in the battle through intercession.  Standing requires the fortification that comes through sitting and walking with Jesus.  Without these disciplines of sitting and walking I believe we will be easily persuaded to not stand with Jesus.  Instead we will give up the pursuit of justice for those who are being devoured by injustice; we will give up trying to communicate the Gospel to those who have no stomach yet for Jesus; we will be pushed back into our circles of comfort and familiarity, whispering empty platitudes to each other, and hoping that someone will rescue us from our momentary discomforts.

Ugh!  Oh please Lord, not me, not us.  Let me sit, walk, and stand with you.  And grant to each of us a community that also sits, walks, and stands with you.

Oswald Chambers on Temptation

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A few people have asked for the Oswald Chamber’s quote on temptation that I used in the sermon yesterday.  It is contained in a devotional that I have used for over 20 years, My Utmost for His Highest.  This particular quote is marked September 18th, His Temptation and Ours.  I have included Oswald Chambers in my list of “dead” mentors.  These men and women have influenced me with their writings and their life stories.  One of the best biographies of Oswald Chambers that I have read is, Oswald Chambers: Abadoned by God, The Life Story of the Author of My Utmost for His Highest.  “September” in the devotional has been one of my favorate months as well. 

Until we are born again, the only kind of temptation we understand is that mentioned by St. James—”Every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.”  But by regeneration we are lifted into another realm where there are other temptations to face, viz., the kind of temptations Our Lord faced.  The temptations of Jesus do not appeal to us, they have no home at all in our human nature.  Our Lord’s temptations and ours move in different spheres until we are born again and become His brethren.  The temptations of Jesus are not those of a man, but the temptations of God as Man.  By regeneration the Son of God is formed in us, and in our physical life He has the same setting that He had on earth.  Satan does not tempt us to do wrong things; he tempts us in order to make us lose what God has put into us by regeneration, viz., the possibility of being of value to God.  He does not come on the line of tempting us to sin, but on the line of shifting the point of view, and only Spirit of God can detect this as a temptation of the devil.            –Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest.

if i were you, i’d be…

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“If I were you, I’d be somebody else.”  This bit of wisdom was profoundly stated by my 5 and a half year old in a song he was spontaneously creating.  This “calebism” sets me to laughing just about every time I have repeated it.  For him it was an innocent literal observation.  For those of us listening with an adult ear, it was a statement loaded with both the truth and a possible critique.  Tonight at dinner I repeated it in a conversation and he said, “Hey why did you steal that from me?”  We all laughed and I assured him I have given him credit for it.

Laughing aside, the matter of letting the true me emerge is huge.    A few months ago I really enjoyed how the movie Akeelah and the Bee addressed the conflict we face internally and externally in fully enjoying and releasing what we do well.  But don’t be confused, its not just an issue of what we are going to produce.  Great lasting product in our relationships and life grows from strengths in our character.  A poem quoted and adapted in the film illustrates the fear that must be conquered by other aspects of our character and the general longing that exists among us.

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking
so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine, as children do.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
 – by Marianne Williamson

 A Christian world-view compels me to believe that the true me can only be ultimately and most profoundly created, uncovered, and sustained in an on-going dynamic life with Jesus Christ.  For example, many phrases in the book of Colossians lead me to seek my true identity in Christ. 

  • “He has rescued us and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”  1:13-14
  • “All things were created by him and for him.”  Col 1:15-16
  • “He has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation”  Col 1:22
  • “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”  Col 1:27
  • “Just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.’ Col 2:6-7
  • “You have been given fullness in Christ.”  Col 2:9
  • “God made you alive with Christ.” Col 2:13
  • “For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.”  Col 3:3
  • “You have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.”  Col 3:10
  • “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”  Col 3:17

 A common misunderstanding in the matter of being who God would have us be in Christ is built around our dismay or perhaps even disdain of some aspect of who we are in the realms of our physical, emotional, mental, social, or cultural sense of personhood.  I don’t believe most of us are simply critical of others.  WE are critical of ourselves.  WE wish that we were somebody else.  I meet people regularly who seem to be “uncomfortable in their own skin.”  Well, I’m like that sometimes and in some settings.  And what I’ve discovered is that I have some unreconciled matter with me and God.  Perhaps I’ve not yet seen His redemptive power at work; perhaps I have some longing or expectation that is unfilled and so lay blame or find fault with myself or the many sources that have shaped me over the years. 

I am learning to use that “dis-ease” as a moment of discover and adventure into God’s grace and Jesus’ redemptive and recreative work.  I am most able to forget about myself when I sense in every situation that I am rightly enjoying and participating in the Kingdom of Jesus right here and now.  Then I’m able to abandon the wish that I was somebody else for genuine acceptance that I am the Father’s deeply loved child simply by the virtue of God Himself expressed through Jesus.  It is no wonder then that Jesus says to grown men and women, “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.  Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”  (Luke 18:2-4)  Jesus lived like this all the time.  His dependency on the Father was not his weakness but his strength.  HIs ability to hear the Father’s affirmation, “This is my Son, whom I love” set the course for his life and ministry.  That is the love and truth Jesus invites us to live in.

pray for us

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This week I will be away on Vancouver Island with our friends at Tsawout Assembly of Praise running a children’s camp with them.  Pray for the group going over from Cityview and for the church.  Recently there has been a tragedy among the Tsawout.  A fire at a home took the life of a mother and daughter.  We really do ask that you would pray for us as we share LIFE together.

missional discipleship

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You get what you inspect, not what you expect.  With that leadership lesson I have too often realized my own agreeable nature fails to be as loving as Jesus is.  Jesus has great expectations for his disciples; expectations that pushed their minds and captured their hearts.  However when it comes to the inspection of his expectations in their lives Jesus follows through.  Jesus calls the Twelve that they might be with Him and that He might send them out and that they may have authority… 

While they are with Him Jesus makes the most of every teachable moment.  As I read the Gospels I find that He is inspecting their lives for faith, servanthood, clarity about His identity, kingdom values such as obedience to Him and sacrificial giving.  As well His teaching seems to constantly seek to realign their worldview to the coming reality of the cross and the resurrection.  It’s as if Jesus confronts them with pain and their need for change daily:  “You thought God was like this, but He is not;  He is like me.”  The disciples are being confronted with forgiveness, grace, and the incarantion of God in flesh.

When it comes to discipleship and the question of missional or incarnational living, I find that I am of two minds.  I am right brained and left brained.  Moses came down the mountain with the Law and I want the disciple of Jesus to know the Word of God.  Jesus came down from Heaven as the fulfillment of the Law and I want the disciple of Jesus to know Him.  I want their knowledge to be formed by their experience of the Word and Him by the Spirit and I want their experience to be formed by the knowledge of Him and the Word.

This requires inspection of the most crucial expectations.  So Paul says to Timothy, “Watch your life and doctrine carefully that you might save some.”  Obediece to Jesus as a response to grace is the fruit of a regenerate and Spirit-filled life.  As we have been seeking to work this out at Cityview we have landed on three words to describe our congregation’s strategy for pursuing our vision of L.I.F.E. as a follower of Jesus Christ:  stances, spaces, and domains.  More on each of these later.

We have some huge challenges to missional discipleship.  But the biggest of these has nothing to do with our access to the Scripture.  Rather it has to do with the amount of time we make available to the people with whom we would share our lives and our walk with Jesus.  Then it has to do with the kinds of activities and conversations we actually engage in together.