Strengthening Ourselves in the Lord

And when David and his men came to the city, they found it burned with fire, and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive. Then David and the people who were with him raised their voices and wept until they had no more strength to weep. David's two wives also had been taken captive, Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail the widow of Nabal of Carmel. And David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because all the people were bitter in soul, each for his sons and daughters. But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God. (1 Samuel 30:3-6)

Give ear to my prayer, O God,

    and hide not yourself from my plea for mercy!

Attend to me, and answer me;

    I am restless in my complaint and I moan,

because of the noise of the enemy,

    because of the oppression of the wicked.

For they drop trouble upon me,

    and in anger they bear a grudge against me.

(Psalm 55:1-3)

Two Roads

All too often weeping and grieving turn into bitterness.  Bitterness turns into blame and blame into abuse.  Abuse often begins with the leadership.  This is the road that David's people took.

Quite simply the story shows something entirely different in David from his people.  The words "but David" is the story of a good leader, but even more importantly, a good person.  "But David" indicates that something else was at work in David that moved him from weeping and distress to strength and encouragement.  "But David" most remarkably shows that he was prepared in the midst of trial and trouble and persecution to do what his people were not prepared to do: seek God.  David was ready; his people were not.

David found his strength in God.  He did not have a series of religious activites that he would drop when he got stressed or when difficulties came.  He found encouragement in what he did.  Whatever practices David had were not stressful or "just one more thing to do";  they were life-giving.  They relieved his stress.  Spiritual practices when rightly practiced provide strength, encouragement, and relief.  They open up a pressure relief valve in a life well-trained in them.

Because of the many different influences around us, the idea of David strengthening himself probably brings up the wrong sort of picture.  If it's like most movies, David got mad and powerful enough to get even.  If it's like most self-help, David found his own truth and was "himself" in spite of everyone else.  If it's like most workplaces, David found someone to complain about or blame.  Such actions seem to bring a certain sort of strength from anger, but lead down a more dangerous road: pride and self-justification.

The Easier Way

David did strengthen himself, though.  Plainly, he could not deal with his situation on his own or in his own way, but he did have to take action.  He could not get pulled down into bitterness with his people.  Here is where soul-strengthening practices come in.  David strengthened himself because he knew he was weak and vulnerable and through practice knew what to do about it.  David strengthened himself because he knew no one would do it for him.  The easy yoke of life with God is not easy because it takes no effort, but because God always lifts the heavier load.

David's strengthening was "in the Lord."  He needed to reorient his focus to the Lord.  The beginning of David's practice is not with making the situation better, but refraining from making it worse.  Before he did something, he did nothing.  He retreated to God.  He knew that in the Lord he was safe and strong because he knew the Lord, so he pulled away from the situation and drew near to God.  David was warrior enough to know when he was threatened with defeat, so he found refuge in the Lord.  Such knowledge and ability does not usually come during trouble without some level of training.  Battle is not the time to learn to use your sword.  Prayers for help and guidance are important, but without the context of an interactive relationship with God, they are often abandoned.

Finally, David did not just find strength in the Lord, but "in the Lord his God."  It was not in the Lord Abraham's God, or in the Lord the priest's God or in the Lord Israel's God.  On this all spiritual practice stands.  Fundamentally, we cannot approach or depend on the Lord as someone else's God.  Perhaps the people wanted to stone David because they had come to rely too much on him and he failed them.  Perhaps they idolized him too much, so they sought their strength in David rather than God.  Perhaps one way of knowing who we have as our God is watching ourselves when we go for strength and encouragement in the midst of trouble and persecution.

David's Practice

We find a lot of information about the right practice of soul-building exercises in this little phrase about David: "But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God."  We find that such exercises prepare us to face grief and distress without falling into bitterness and blame.  We find them to be relief and strength rather than more stress in out lives.  We find them to be necessary effort we put out in response to God's ever-present grace

and strength.  We find them to be based in the knowledge of the Lord as a refuge and the source of our strength.  We find them to be effective only in the context of a personal relationship with the Lord our God.

We wonder what David actually did to strengthen himself.  Quite likely, he did what he had practiced so often.  He sang and worshiped and prayed.  What calmed Saul in his madness may have also calmed David in his own distress.  No wonder we are encouraged to do the same.  "Let the word of Christ dwell richly in you. . . as you sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God." (Colossians 3:16)  Perhaps the word of Christ is not only what we might read in our Bibles, but also the praise of God we find coming from our own mouths, truly dwelling richly in us and breaking out in gratitude from us as we daily practice our trust in the Lord.

A New Life with Jesus: Jesus Moves In

Mortifying earthly things certainly sounds unpleasant.  We were given new life, and yet some of our old life remains.  New life does not mean that the "sin in our members," most noticed as habits, suddenly disappears.  No, we are given the task of working out our deliverance with God.  Kind of like "Hogan's Heroes" plotting our escape from sin and its accomplices.

The tide has turned.  Victory is at hand.  A new value system has entered us by the light and revelation of God in the life and company of Jesus.  God is not just a word.  Our own pleasures are not the most important thing.  Someone else has moved in and he's not planning on leaving.

Suddenly the presence of Someone so important, so delightful, and so interesting has turned our lives upside down.  What seemed so important shrinks before our eyes.  Deep longings and hopes surface that are greater than even our own lives.  Something big is happening and now we are in the middle of it, since we have new roommates.  So it is with new life.

Since you were lifted up into life

  in the company of Christ,

seek all the things of that higher life,

  living before Christ,

    who is seated at God's right hand

    as Lord of the whole world.

Mind each detail of that life,

  not all the desires, worries, and threats 

    that continue on earth.

You can seek and be mindful this life

  because your life on earth is over and done.

Your new life is more than it seems

  hidden even as Jesus is hidden

  in his Father's company.

Your life will not always be hidden,

  but will appear before everyone,

    even as Christ will,

  for approval before the Father

  and full of all that is truly good and beautiful.

(Colossians 3:1-4)

Let Jesus and the Father move in.  Take up their life as your own.  Give up on what used to work.  It won't anymore.  You will find that this new life is hidden, not because it is somehow unreal, but because the world and your old life are based on lies and illusions.  Real life is hidden from the world like reality is hidden from a psychopath.

May you find your new roomies a great comfort and of great interest this week.

(A letter written to my group of spiritual companions.)

Small Steps in Discipleship to Christ: Trust, the Response to God's Love

Trust Jesus.  Hospitality is my job in discipleship.  As I grow to understand God's devotion to me, hospitality is a natural outcome.  Story upon story reflect this understanding of what it means to "receive Christ."  From Jesus' story the owner of the vineyard who sends his son, hoping they will receive him to Jesus' teaching that "he who receives me receives the one who sent me,"  Jesus explains a humble God, who knocks at our doors, hoping that we will let him into our lives.  Such hospitality to God is what motivates and invigorates my love for other people as well.  "Anyone who gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward."  (Matthew 10:42)

This is why God "gave his only begotten Son."  His love is one that hopes to be received.  His Word made flesh came to us to be invited in.  His Spirit was sent from this glorified man to scour the earth for those who would welcome God sincerely from their hearts.  The reception of Christ relies mostly on what I think of the God who sent him.  His devoted love is what lays the foundation for my welcoming Christ into my life.  Jesus' living and teaching demonstrate how God really is.  His Spirit takes that teaching and life and immerses me in it, making it "real" to me.

"Whosoever believes" in Jesus as a Teacher trusts what he says, learning it, and practicing it.  Anyone who has taken a class knows the difference between trusting a teacher and pleasing a teacher.  I can work to please a teacher and not trust him.  By trusting a teacher, I also will please him.  Jesus is like this.  He doesn't want me merely to try to please him by doing what he says.  He wants me to trust him and what he says.  The pleasing and doing will follow the trust.

 "Whosoever believes" in Jesus as a Friend confides in him and listens for his comfort and answers.  I must learn to trust that Jesus is on my side.  He said that he did not come to condemn, but to save.  His work has got him the reputation of being a "friend of sinners."  Sinners can trust Jesus to talk with them, be with them, and hear them when they call.  The gospel is an open door for sinners, whether recovering of not.

 "Whosoever believes" in Jesus as his Savior admits his hopelessness without him and embraces his hope with him.  Trusting a savior begins with seeing my lost and broken situation.  One thing will not change through all eternity: Jesus saves.  This marvel only deepens as I grow.  I see that his salvation is not the mere removal of guilt, but the removal of sin from my life with a promise of perfection.  I deepen in my trust of a savior as I grow in my awareness of his love for me in spite of me.

 I receive Jesus as Lord when I set my mind and heart on things above and beyond this age and leave it behind.  Jesus is Lord.  His name is above every name, meaning his nature and character define all reality as I know it.  He created everything.  He sustains everything.  He will bring everything to its conclusion.  In Christ all wisdom begins and ends.  Everything I see is temporary and passing away.  A new age is coming with Jesus as the Ruler and Lord.  I must live in this age holding things lightly and clinging to the things that are above and beyond it, "where Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father."  (Colossians 3:1)

 None of these are mutually exclusive, but all work together.  The separation is arbitrary since I am welcoming and trusting a person, Jesus, and not just something about him, in my life.  All of these pictures show how great God's gift of Christ is to me and how satisfying and full my relationship with him can be.

Do you find yourself pleasing Jesus with trusting him?  Do you ever find yourself professing what you don't really believe?  God wants you to trust him.  What would it take for you to trust him?

Sin Management versus Self-Sacrifice

God did not give me grace so I could manage my sin, but so I could put my sin to death. The grace to manage my sin is grace I give to myself. The grace I depend on when putting sin to death must be God's grace. Self-management is what I do instead of living sacrifice.

Sin management comes in several flavors. One is exchange; I give up a bad habit and replace it with a "good" one, or least, another one less lethal. The key words are, "I used to[something], but now I [something]." Another flavor is comparison: I look for some person or group of people that I feel I am better than them. This is a way to management the guilt of sin. The key words are, "But at least I am better than. . . ." Another kind is masking: I try to cover up my sin with doing other good things. The keywords are, "But at least I do. . . ."

All of these methods try to retain the self and its goals, but hope to "pretty it up enough" for God. All of these are waiting for eternal life rather than trying to live eternal life. All of these methods are comparison to people and not to Christ. Exchange compares my present state with my past state. Comparison sees only the bad things and worse things; it tries to make bad things good by comparing them to worse things. Masking sees good things I do as way of excusing the bad things I do.

Sin management does not use God's grace sufficiently. It only dabbles in it, using it as fuel for self-transformation, an excuse for bad things while avoiding worse things, or a cover-up of bad things while I try to do good things. God's grace can only be used to make us into Christ. It has no other purpose. Whatever is done on the way is secondary to Christ-likeness.

So the insufficiency of grace comes from an insufficient view of Christ. Inherently we see Christ-likeness as merely "being good." Just being good enough. Christ is so much more than a mere do-good-er. Jesus did not just go around doing "random acts of kindness." His goodness was defined by his purpose. He did not come just to be good in front of us. He did not come just to say, "It's ok that you're so bad." He did not come to give us a method for self-transformation, primarily. He came that we would have life, and life abundantly. This life is one in his kingdom, under God's rule, at God's side. His deeds, his forgiveness, his promise of transformation all point to this life with God, working with him, and loving him. I must seek things above, that is, "where Christ is seated at the right hand of God."

When I manage my sin, I remain in control of my life. I rule. I have tried to give up certain things, or do certain things so I can retain my own life, my own kingdom where God does not have a say. I think I can mange sin because I think I can manage myself. I manage sin because I think I can manage God himself.

To find my place in God's kingdom, I must give up my own kingdom. To live in God, I must die to myself. To find what I really need, I must give up what I think I want. To have a life with Christ, I must leave everything else behind.

extremesports

Sin management dabbles at the edge of the pool. Sacrifice dives in the middle. Sin management only intends to try. Sacrifice intends to accomplish.

Rather than trying to retain control of my life and deal with sin on the side, I must throw out my own ideas of what life should be and look to what Jesus said life is. Living the "good life" is not getting what I want when I want it, but getting what God wants when God wants me to have it.

If I try to manage sin, I will find that sin manages me. Sin must be put to death unmercifully.