robwilkerson.net: perseverance

Thoughts on the Doctrines of Grace

Sunday, July 01, 2012

Perseverance (4): The Results of Perseverance

Tuesday, March 06, 2012

The Results of Perseverance: Satisfaction in God’s Sovereignty

Perseverance is true submission to God’s sovereignty. True submission to God’s sovereignty brings true shalom. A word not often used outside of its Jewish context and culture, shalom is a word I am coming to understand more of…a word I am coming to pray for. It stands for a concept I am wanting now more than anything else in this life. More than a great income and wealth…more than a nicer and bigger house…more than solid and clear direction for the future…more than a bigger church family…more than a “successful” business…more than peace and quiet in my neighborhood…more than anything.

Shalom means peace, completeness, wholeness and a deep, abiding sense of well-being. It is about more than just a state of mind or being, or a good state of affairs. It is a deep, inner, abiding sense of calm and peace in spite of outward circumstances, because of the deep-rooted settling in the sovereignty of God. Shalom encapsulates a reality of unimaginable peace, where enemies are reconciled, injustices are made right, hurts are healed, fears are calmed, and communities are prospering in righteousness. It is the whole creation in harmony, peace with God, peace with each other, peace among the nations, peace with the planet.

To be sure, much if not most of this shalom will not and cannot occur in this broken world as long as broken people are living in it. So the gospel of God’s grace goes out to the nations to heal and save broken people, who then heal and rescue a broken world, along with its cultures, art forms, music, governments, economies, etc. This is what the prophets of the OT looked forward to. And it has been initiated in the first coming of the person of Jesus Christ, is now carried out in the people called the church of Jesus Christ, and will be consummated one day by the second coming of Jesus.

Until then, the Bible gives us a picture of saints enjoying inner shalom, despite the outward chaos of non-shalom around the world. That is a state of living which attracts people to Jesus Christ. Most people live in drama and chaos, and peace is attractive. Being introduced to it through the good news, and then being sanctified in it through perseverance in the good news, eventually leads to a harvest of peace, the fruit of shalom.

Repeated choices to submit to God’s sovereignty instead of to our own feelings of discouragement, depression, disparagement, discontentedness, and disrespectfulness is perseverance. And perseverance grows the fruit of inner shalom we can call satisfaction. It is an ever-deepening sense that all is well, that all will be well despite whatever is not well right now. It is not turning a blind eye to injustice, unrighteousness, evil, wickedness, conflict, greed, and mankind’s ongoing lust for power and sex. Inner shalom and satisfaction and peace do not ignore any of this. Rather, they are the Spirit’s work of stabilization and security in God’s promises. The saint deepens in his inner sense of satisfaction in being a part, however great or small, in God’s sovereign plan.

Paul had this shalom, this deep, abiding, lasting sense of satisfaction. We see it in his letter to the Philippians, to whom he was writing while he was sitting in Roman prison. In chapter one, Paul demonstrates breath-taking shalom. Here he is in prison and he’s joyful about the Philippians! He’s praying for them, thinking of them, rejoicing over them (1:3-4). He’s confident that no matter what condition he’s in that God will complete the work He’s started in them (v. 5). He has a longing to be with them, the kind that is filled with tender compassion (v. 8).

Then his inner shalom comes out in his view of his own deplorable circumstances. Unjustly convicted of a crime he didn’t commit, just like his Master, he has an all-consuming joy about those very circumstances. He has chosen to submit to God’s sovereignty in all of it realizing that, “everything that has happened to me here has helped to spread the Good News” (v. 12). On the one hand, every lost person around him knows that Paul is in prison for Jesus Christ, so that the imprisonment is actually an evangelistic tool (v. 13). On the other hand, believers everywhere are being strengthened in confidence as they “boldly speak God’s message without fear” (v. 14).

While he was in prison however, there were some pretty arrogant fellows taking advantage of Paul’s absence in the Philippian church. Pointing more to themselves than to God, Paul didn’t get worked up about that!

“It is true that some are preaching out of jealously and rivalry…Those others do not have pure motives about preaching Christ. They preach with selfish ambition, not sincerely, intending to my make my chains more painful to me. But that doesn’t matter…the message about Christ is being preached either way, so I rejoice. And I will continue to rejoice” (vv. 15-18).

And as far as his own life goes, it hung in the balance. Yet this too was just another opportunity to see this deep, abiding, lasting sense of inner peace, joy and shalom…a satisfying sense that God was in control of everything that everything was going to be okay, simply because God has promised the resurrection life of His Son, Jesus, to Paul…and to us.

“And I trust that my life will bring honor to Christ, whether I live or die. For to me, living means living for Christ, and dying is even better. But if I live, I can do more fruitful work for Christ. So really I don’t know which one is better. I’m torn between two desires: I long to go and be with Christ, which would be far better for me. But for your sakes, it is better that I continue to live” (vv. 21-24).

This was a life that he wasn’t just living as an example to them from afar off. You’ll recall that imprisonment was the very manner in which the gospel was introduced to the city of Philippi in the beginning! Luke tells the story in Acts 16. In Paul’s second missionary journey he and Silas are preaching the gospel in Phillipi and are arrested and imprisoned for causing a riot after casting a demon out of a slave girl and crushing the dreams of wealth her master had.

“A mob quickly formed against Paul and Silas, and the city officials ordered them stripped and beaten with wooden rods. They were severely beaten, and then they were thrown into prison. The jailor was ordered to make sure they didn’t escape. So the jailor put them into the inner dungeon and clamped their feet in stocks. Around midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening” (vv. 22-25).

So here these two guys are, severely beaten, bleeding, oozing sores and running wounds. They may have had a concussion. But they were singing. They weren’t preaching to other prisoners. They were worshiping. Why? Because deep within their souls was a powerful, abiding, unrelenting sense of peace and shalom. If they died, then God would have used them as far as He desired, and He would continue the mission with someone else. If they didn’t die, then they would go on to live and die another day. This example he and Silas had set for them was rooted in a persevering submission to God’s sovereignty. That’s why he closed his letter to them by writing these encouragements.

“Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again, rejoice! Let everyone see that you are considerate in all that you do. Remember the Lord is coming soon. Don’t worry about anything: instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

“And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me…Then the God of peace will be with you” (4:4-9).

True shalom brings true joy.

About the Author: Rob is a entrepreneur in Statesboro, GA, where he envisions and pursues missional-shaped business for the kingdom. He and his wife Sherri have been married for 18 years and together have three sons and a daughter. Rob believes the mission of the gospel is summed up in four simple phrases: know God, obey Jesus, make disciples, and plant churches. This is the pursuit of his life, as well as the point of his blog.

1 Samuel 30

Perseverance (3): The Response of Perseverance

Monday, March 05, 2012

The Response of Perseverance: Submission to God’s Sovereignty

True success in following Jesus means signing up for and running the marathon of life of following Jesus. You know you’re one of hundreds, if not thousands, in the day’s race. I will probably not “win” the race, or even place in the top ten, top fifty, or top hundred.

I often envision men like the twelve disciples, Paul, Barnabas, Silas, Timothy, Justin Martyr, the early church martyrs, Augustine, John Wycliffe, John Huss, Martin Luther, John Knox, Henry Martyn, Robert Murray M’Cheyne, Charles Spurgeon coming in “first”; mostly guys who either burned themselves out for the kingdom, or were martyred while pursuing it.

But I’m in the race, for heaven’s sake! I signed up! I’m running it with all those other guys. I had the guts, like they did, to put pen to paper, sign the commitment form, enter the race, and show up at the starting line! I ran as fast as I could when the gunshot was fired. I have the perseverance to continue to run through the cramps.

I’m in the same “Hall of Faith” as the many saints listed in Hebrews 11. I am “surrounded by such a huge cloud of witnesses to the life faith,” and am making efforts to “strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that easily trips us up.” I am trying to “run with endurance the race God has set before us.” I am doing this “by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne.” I must “think of all the hostility he endured from sinful people,” and then I “won’t become weary and give up” (Heb. 12:1-3).

And when I’m winded and need to sit down on the curb, I have the perseverance to get back up and continue running. When I get so tired that I trip on the curb or over a manhole cover, I wipe the blood from my scraped hands and broken nose and keep on running. When I happen to look away to pay attention to the restaurants along the way or the pretty lady waving on the sidewalk so that I run into another runner, making us both trip and fall, I shake my head in frustration with myself, help him up, get myself back up, and get back to running.

Perseverance. It’s what following Jesus is all about. Perseverance means not feeling like I have to have all the answers. It even means not feeling like I must look for all the answers. It is driven by the clutches of God’s sovereignty in my life, which carry me like the wings of an eagle (Isa. 40:26-31); clutches which dig deeper than the clutches of culture, which seek to drag and weigh me down with tempting, seductive, false promises of success, wealth, perfection, answers, and a sense arrival.

The only proper response to God’s sovereignty in perseverance is submission, then. It is submitting myself – my heart, mind, will, emotions, strength – to the promise that God wants to help, protect, remember, and bless me. He is for me, and not against me. He wants a “peaceful harvest” for me and wants to train me in this way, along this path (v. 11). The right response is to submit to this truth and submit to God’s sovereignty, no matter how strange it may seem. The right response is to

“take a new grip with your tired hands and strengthen your weak knees. Mark out a straight path for your feet so that those who are weak and lame will not fall but will become strong” (vv. 12, 13).

Submitting once more, each time you fall down, each time you’re frustrated, each time you don’t have answers, each time you’re confused, each time you sin again…submitting to God each and every time is in and of itself perseverance! Choosing to believe His promises over you feelings…that’s submission to the sovereignty of God. This act, in and of itself, is perseverance. It is the very substance, the nucleus, the “nitty-gritty”, the ABC’s, the fundamentals, boot camp training, and the meat and potatoes of perseverance. Getting back up…every time…and following Jesus…afresh…renewed in and by the sovereign goodness of God…choosing to believe His intentions of grace toward you…no matter what everything else in life seems to say…no matter how “bad” it seems to get. That is what perseverance looks like.

“Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? I will put my hope in God! I will praise Him again – my Savior and my God” (Psa. 42:5, 11; 43:5).

“Now I am deeply discouraged, but I will remember you…” (42:6).

“I hear the tumult of the raging seas as your waves and surging tides sweep over me. But each day the Lord pours his unfailing love upon me, and through each night I sing his songs, praying to the God who gives me life” (vv. 7, 8).

Persevering means submission which is exercised by getting up again and strengthening myself in the Lord, in the midst of all the noise, chaos, discontentment, frustration, and confusion surrounding me (1 Sam. 30:6).

The American Dream has lied to us. It is not biblical. It is just another generational way of saying that we can find peace and our purpose in life through another idol. This generation it is the American Dream. It’s also democracy and conservatism and technology and anti-terrorism. A generation before it was anti-communism. A generation before that, industrialization. Before that, the idol was scholarship and academia. And before that, commerce and railroads. Before that, independence. And before that, colonization. Before that Puritanism, and before that Reformation, and before that Renaissance. And on and on it goes. Every generation has idols it worships, idols which lie to us and tell us everything will be alright if we just achieve such-and-such, or pour our resources into this or that.

Culture constantly lies to us and tells us that the way we are living is not the best way to live. Subtly, slowly, and surely each generation swallows the marketing, advertisement, and oration until we come to believe more and more that the stuff about life that stinks shouldn’t be there and that we can all change it if we do A, B, or C.

But the Spirit stands there, silently, convicting, convincing, persuading, and telling us that this world is broken, people are broken, and there is much about life that does stink. But He also proclaims to us the promise that Jesus is Lord of all, that the Father loves us so much that no matter how back life stinks, the stink cannot separate us from His love. The Spirit proclaims the absolute sovereignty of God over His world, and reminds us that our good God exercises His right to graciously rule His world in order to bring the world to know His goodness, grace and mercy. Jesus-followers know this, and they choose each day to submit to God’s sovereignty and His rule in His world. Making that choice, every single day, in light of the culture’s lies, and in spite of them, is perseverance.

About the Author: Rob is an entrepreneur in Statesboro, GA, and pursues business in a missional way for the kingdom. He and his wife Sherri have been married for 18 years and together have three sons and a daughter. Rob believes the mission of the gospel is summed up in four simple phrases: know God, obey Jesus, make disciples, and plant churches. This is the pursuit of his life, as well as the point of his blog.

1 Corinthians 2

Perseverance (2): The Roots of Perseverance

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

The Roots of Perseverance: The Sovereignty and Grace of God

Success as a follower of Jesus means keeping pace with the sovereignty of God. I plan my course, but the Lord directs my steps. I make my plans, but God’s sovereign purposes will prevail. He is directing my course, so I don’t have to try to understand everything along the way. These truths stated in Proverbs arise from deep theological roots in the sovereignty of God. But what exactly does this mean?

First, the sovereignty of God is explained by His supremacy.

Sovereignty simply refers to the right of God as King to do whatever He deems best and most appropriate for His glory. In short, it means that God can and will do whatever He must to make Himself famous. Psalm 113 is a great starting text for understanding our God. Verse 5 praises a God who, “is in the heavens, and he does as he wishes.” Ordinarily, any human being would squirm in great discomfort at a phrase like this. Why?

Because we are generally ruled in our governments, rule in our work, ruled at school, and in many other places throughout life by men who believe themselves to be sovereign without any regard for the One who gave them the authority they possess. Consequently they abuse it. Most people in authority use their sovereignty for themselves, to promote themselves, build their own wealth, pad their own retirement, elevate their own reputation. They give credence to the saying that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

We cringe with a deepening sense of rebellion arising within our hearts when we think of one’s sovereign right to do whatever they wish. Even though they may not actually or legally have such power, they act as if they do. What can be more frustrating is that most of the wealthy who show no regard for the law get away with breaking it, while most of the poor who do the same are never treated as such.

That is because human beings who have sovereignty only seem to help and protect each other and those they are close to or have interest in. If others can do nothing for them, then they use their sovereignty to reject them, but work diligently and often illegally to help and protect those who have something to offer when it benefits them.

Second, God’s sovereignty is energized by His character.

The Psalmist in 115 knows this full well. Israel’s history is one bookended by the sovereignty of fallen kings within its own realms, as well as realms beyond, in the kingdoms of those that oppressed and enslaved them. And Samuel warned them well about this when they demanded a king like all the other nations had (1 Samuel 8).

This wandering from the sovereignty of God to the seduction of the sovereignty of man, and the consequential and painful pinch in which it constantly put Israel, is no doubt the reason why the Psalmist repeats the refrain in the song three times in verses 9-11: “O Israel, trust the Lord! He is your helper and your shield.”

Since it is the God of the universe, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of Israel we are talking about here, it should not make us squirm, cringe, or rebel one bit that our God has the right to do as He wishes. Why?

Because as the Psalmist clearly proclaims, the thing He wishes to do is to help and protect us. Unlike the human rulers of this earth who use their derived authority to use and abuse people, God uses His to help and protect us. He is not like the other mythological gods of folklore, nor the pagan gods of the demonic realm, using His power to fight other gods or spirits for the right to continue to exploit those under his realm.

Our God helps us! Our God protects us! This is why He can be trusted! Our God is Jesus Christ who did not count equality with God as something to be held on to. Instead, He gave it up to take on the nature of a human being so that He could suffer with us and for us, rather than making us suffer for Him, as the other gods do. Our God became a servant, rather than making us the slaves. Our God chose to be murdered and suffer a public, gruesome, irreverent execution for us, instead of subjecting us to the same, as other gods do. This is our God, according to Philippians 2:5-8. He can be trusted, because He is humble…because He loves us.

The Psalmist then moves on to verses 12-13 to proclaim that our sovereign God also, “remembers us and will bless us. He will bless the people of Israel…He will bless those who fear the Lord, both great and lowly.” He is no respecter of persons. He is not partial. He does not choose to honor only, or even mostly, the wealthy and famous. He remembers every type of person, especially those who are poor in spirit, as Jesus taught in the opening words of the Sermon on the Mount.

“For since the world began, no ear has heard, and no eye has seen a God like you, who works for those who wait for Him” (Isa. 64:4). “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Cor. 2:9). “’For I know the plans that I have for you,’ says the Lord. ‘They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope’” (Jer. 29:11). This is why David exclaims in 1 Chronicles 17, “O Lord, there is no one like you. We have never even heard of another God like you!” (v. 20).

That’s because of the simple fact that there is no other God like our God! He is the only God, and has total sovereignty to do whatever He wishes, and tells us that all He wishes to do for us is to help us, protect us, remember us, and bless us! Surely our God can be trusted in all things, at all times, in all places, in every situation, and through every question, frustration, conundrum, and discouragement.

Therefore, “We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed…We know that God, who raised the Lord Jesus, will also raise us with Jesus and present us to himself together with you…That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are small and won't last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don't look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever” (2 Cor. 4:8, 14, 16-18). In short, we persevere, because God is sovereign, and because He is sovereign for us, to help, protect, remember, and bless us.

Third, his sovereignty is exercised in His grace.

The most comforting thing about the character of God which drives His sovereignty is His grace. Because of the substitution of Jesus Christ for us on the cross and His victory for us out of the empty tomb, God treats us as if we were Jesus Christ. He gives us all the rights, privileges, benefits, and rewards that He also gives His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ never disobeyed and never fell. But we do. Yet God treats us as if we had never disobeyed and as if we have never fallen!

“He does not punish us for all our sins; he does not deal harshly with us, as we deserve. For his unfailing love toward those who fear him is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth. He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west. The Lord is like a father to his children, tender and compassionate to those who fear him. For he knows how weak we are; he remembers we are only dust” (Psa. 103:10-14).

Yet because He is sovereign, and because He does what He wishes, it may feel at times as if He has abandoned His essential character of helping, protecting, remember, and blessing us. I have very much and very deeply felt at times as if God has been against me, out to harm me, forgetting about me, and cursing me. I recall thinking and even crying out many times when I was younger, “why is your hand against me, God?!” You and I are in good company when the Son of God, Himself, cried out, "My God! My God! Why have You forsaken me?!"

However, remembering that God is sovereign means that He can do whatever He deems best for me. And if that should include difficult circumstances, falling to sin, struggling in temptation, or financial poverty, none of that changes His essentially good character. All of these things are allowed if not designed by God to continue to help me, remember me, bless me, and protect me. In other words there are things my good God knows He must do to me, with me, and through me in order to bring me to know more of His goodness. As the expression in our culture goes, “no pain, no gain.” In Jeremiah’s day the expression went something like this, when he was my age.

"The faithful love of the LORD never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning. I say to myself, "The LORD is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in him!" The LORD is good to those who depend on him, to those who search for him. So it is good to wait quietly for salvation from the LORD. And it is good for people to submit at an early age to the yoke of his discipline: Let them sit alone in silence beneath the LORD's demands. Let them lie face down in the dust, for there may be hope at last. Let them turn the other cheek to those who strike them and accept the insults of their enemies. For no one is abandoned by the Lord forever. Though he brings grief, he also shows compassion because of the greatness of his unfailing love. For he does not enjoy hurting people or causing them sorrow” (Lam. 3:23-33)

The act of God treating us like this all the time, despite our failures and frustrations and feelings, is the very essence of grace. The roots of God’s sovereignty consist of the giant redwood of unending grace and mercy toward us. And it’s not a reluctant grace or mercy, the kind that some give because they feel obliged or required to, or because they want to look good in front of everybody else. No, it’s a grace and mercy that He loves to exercise toward us. He actually wants to flood us with it.

About the Author: Rob is a church-planter and entrepreneur in Statesboro, GA. He and his wife Sherri have been married for 18 years and together have three sons and a daughter. Rob believes the mission of the gospel is summed up in four simple phrases: know God, obey Jesus, make disciples, and plant churches. This is the pursuit of his life, as well as the point of his blog.

perseverance

Perseverance (1): Introduction

Sunday, February 19, 2012

I don’t think I realize how much my culture has its claws in me. Perhaps none of us really does. In particular, Westernism, with its promises of wealth and success through its messages of motivationalism and self-help indoctrination, somehow mysteriously end up creating a host of expectations that I don’t even realize I’m carrying around most of the time. These expectations come to be developed, some even to maturity, as I do not check them at the Bible’s doorstep. The result is often frustration, confusion, discouragement, and even depression when I wake up and realize that things are not going the way I expected them to.

I feel like I get knocked down pretty often, honestly. There are at least a couple of days each month when I end up face down with a reality check. Like most of us I push it pretty hard from sun up to sun down. Getting so caught up in the events, demands, tasks, and goals of the day it becomes frustratingly easy to drift spiritually. I can wake up in prayer, think through the day with God, ask Him for His blessing, plan with His glory in mind, only to find myself by lunch-time never having given Him another thought. The result is working for my kingdom to come and my will to be done…on earth as I assume it’s being done in heaven.

A few days of drifting one degree off course eventually means a mile or two off course by the end of a month. And mentally grasping the course is rather simple for the follower of Jesus. It’s simply understanding and agreeing with key theological concepts about the sovereignty of God which slowly shape what our expectations should be. Three texts from Proverbs make this plain enough.

“We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps” (Prov. 16:9). “You can make many plans, but the Lord’s purpose will prevail” (Prov. 19:21). “The Lord directs our steps, so why try to understand everything along the way” (Prov. 20:24)?

This is just one of my many flaws. But it’s one that causes no small degree of emotional and mental and spiritual suffering about once-a-month, or so it seems. Getting thrown from my horse while trying to make a jump on a path I feel like I should have never been down in the first place is bewildering. Seeing stars I regain consciousness and think to myself that all along I’ve just been trying to feed my family, shepherd God’s flock, disciple my family, grow a business, love my wife, raise my children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, make wise decisions, etc.

Here’s where my culture has spread its claws and sunk them deep into my soul. It preaches a doctrine of success that leaves me feeling that if I done things differently I wouldn’t be in a particularly rough spot. There’s a little wisdom to that, when it comes to clear-cut issues, as long as those issues are biblical. But what about issues that are not?

That’s a key question, because there are a ton of issues that are not addressed in the Bible, like should I or should I not go after this or that potential client? Should I or should I not spend another hour or two counseling with a seemingly rebellious person? Should I or should I not have implemented that disciplinary measure with my child? Could I have loved my wife in a more impacting way in this or that act? Obviously one can see the almost endless degree of “what if’s” we could ask ourselves. The result often leaves me, personally, in a spiritual conundrum…frustrated, confused, discouraged, and sometimes depressed. Constantly questioning is not helpful at all, I suppose. Proverbs 20:24 made that pretty clear...but it gets cloudy as the days unfold. My expectation is that I should eventually get the right answer to all of these questions all of the time.

There’s also a little wisdom in my culture’s indoctrination, when it is connected to learning how to listen to the Holy Spirit and follow His still-small voice of guidance and direction. But even here there is bewilderment. The Holy Spirit does not speak to us about every single little thing, despite the best intentions and desires of some of the greatest teachers on this subject.

He’s sovereign. So He can determine to speak and to be silent as He wills. And in so doing He is just as good to us when He is silent as when He speaks. When He is silent however, I mistakenly assume – almost every single time, it seems – that I have missed Him. My expectation is that I will hear Him correctly every single time on every single thing. My expectation is that I should be disciplined to pray or think or a certain way about everything all the time.

My expectation is that I should be disciplined so that I manage my time the perfect way each and every day…that I will be able to make the wisest parenting decision each time an issue arises…that I will be able to tell the right fit between my business and a potential customer so I don’t waste my time…that I will be able to do just the right thing for my wife when I desire to serve her…that I will say and do just the right thing for someone I’m counseling or discipling so they will obey Jesus more consistently. My expectations however, seem more driven by the Western, American doctrine of motivation, success and self-help rather than a biblical doctrine of God’s sovereignty.

After turning forty years old I had an epiphany one day. It was a rather large epiphany, a massive “AHA!” moment. What’s funny is that I had the same epiphany about eight or nine years ago after I had crossed the thirty mark. Maybe there’s something about crossing another decade that makes a person reflect back on the last ten years, sometimes in regret, but always in hopes of getting it “right” or making it better on the next ten. Regardless, the fact that I had the epiphany again as well as the nature of the epiphany have made a deep impact on my thinking. The epiphany, as best as I can state it, is this: perseverance with the sovereignty of God is what following Jesus is really all about.

Life is not about succeeding, as my culture makes it out to be. My culture tells me that if I do certain things right I will eventually “arrive”, whatever that’s supposed to mean. Constant, consistent comparison is the primary education method of my culture. It keeps putting out books, billboards, radio ads, commercials, magazine ads, magazine articles, internet videos, and blog posts on how everyone else is doing something. For some that may be helpful, especially if it emphasizes that so-and-so’s way of doing something is just one way of doing it. But instead, our culture spins all this stuff in such a way that we come to believe that so-and-so did it the “right” way. Why? Because of their “success.” After all, one can’t argue with “success”, right?

I can. And I will.

Two epiphanies, ten years apart, both rooted in and springing from Scripture, both filling me with joy and peace, tell me I can. And I will in the posts that follow in this brief series. Stay tuned.

perseverance

Perseverance: What Following Jesus is Really All About

Sunday, February 19, 2012

2 Corinthians 4

Perseverance and Resurrection: The Two Simplest Reflections of How Jesus-Followers Deal With Our Bully Named Satan

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

I hate bullies. Well...I don't hate them, per se. I just extraordinarily despise them. I hope that's not the same thing as hate.

Bullies are mean. "Bullies are buttholes," my little brother used to say. They take some sort of sadistic joy in belittling other people, making them feel about an inch tall, and encouraging them to go spend the rest of their life in a hole somewhere. And the emotional abuse is just for starters!

They move on to take pride in making others suffer physically. It's a badge of twisted courage. Can they hurt others who are weak? And can they do it long enough so that everyone around fears them? This is how they earn "respect."

Bullies have enemies though. Do you know who they are? The enemy of a bully is one who refuses to be bullied. Now, they may not be big enough or strong enough to put the bully in his place. But there are two features about him that make him a constant threat to any bully.

1. Perseverance. They can take it. They can take the emotional and physical abuse, and they keep on rockin'-n-rollin'. They are able to withstand it. I'm not talking about them being a doormat. No, the enemy of a bully takes the abuse and continues on with life as if he is unafflicted. When he goes on with life, acting unafraid, this threatens any bully who's delight is to make others cower. When the victim doesn't cower, the bully grows afraid inwardly. His very respect is dependent on making others afraid.

2. Resurrection. They get back up. Not only do they take the abuse, but they just...keep...getting...back up. Somehow, the perseverance enables them to arise from the ashes of abuse, time and time again. In so doing, they are proving that the bully has no ultimate power of them. Regardless of how many times the bully screams, "Just stay DOWN!!!" the enemy of the bully, also the victim of malicious intent, will simply not stay down. This makes the bully grow fearful even more. His very respect is dependent on keeping others down.

I remember enduring some significant bullying in my life as a kid. And there's always one particular bully which stands out. His name was Bert Mullins. We called him Bert Mullet because he had a mullet with a duck tail. His home life was a wreck, so I was told. He was just plain mean, pretty much all the time. And like most bullies, he took pride in finding the skinniest, weakest kid in school and spending extra time singling that one out. That one was me. He would dish out his recipe for suffering each day...but I would just keep moving forward. I had stuff to do, friends to hang out with, and basketball to attend to. My dad gave wise counsel when I was younger: "don't let 'em get a rise out of you!" he said. What he meant was, "don't let 'em see that they are getting to you." Eventually Bert, frustrated at my perseverance finally yelled at me during P.E. one day, "why don't you just f------ get it that you're a f------ idiot!"

He would taunt me, make fun of me, put me down, single me out, and take every opportunity he could to punch me in the arm, or pop me upside the back of the head, and embarrass me in front of God and everybody. One day, we ran into each other in the bathroom. I caught him tucking a finger full of Kodiak snuff in his lower lip. He saw me looking at him in the mirror, squinted his eyes at me with a murderous look, and then turned around and tried to act all cool with me. "Just our secret, okay?" as he lifted up his hand to high-five me. "NOW he wants to be buddies," I remember thinking to myself. So I high-fived him. And then I took the opportunity to get him suspended and out of my life by talking to the principal about his little habit on school grounds.

That obviously wasn't the greatest idea, to say the least. He did get suspended. But as with all suspensions, when they're over, you come back to school. And he came back. He knew there was only one kid in school who could have known about his habit. Me. And he let me know the first day back from suspension that he would be kicking my ass. We both knew where that would take place: in the basement resembling something off The Silence of the Lambs, where we dressed out for P.E. He also made it public, so that it was going around the whole school that there would be a fight before P.E. in boys' "locker room".

I dreaded it all day long. I was miserable. I seem to remember having diarrhea. When the bell rang to go dress out for P.E. I think I developed stomach ulcers. And there we were, moments later, in the basement. My friends gathered around me, eager to see me fight, only because they were bloodthirsty spectators. One grabbed my glasses, so they wouldn't get broken. Not that I would be able to see out of them anyway, once he was done with me. Then they nudged me out to meet him where he was waiting on me in the middle of the basement.

Enter Steve Belyew. I had no earthly idea that he had been developing a grudge against Bert for a variety of reasons. And God moved on Steve's heart to take up another grudge. Just as Bert was cussing me out and moving in for the first punch, Steve literally jumped in front of me and made a few remarks I don't recall at the moment. All I remember next is some tussling and noises. I grabbed my glasses back and watched them exchange some incredibly hard blows to the face and stomach. Watching Bert fight, I knew I would have been hospitalized. Watching Steve fight, I was so thankful I wasn't.

The fight ended almost as quickly as it started. The sound of fist bone hitting face bone was interesting. I hadn't heard it before. I didn't sound at all like two billiard balls being struck together. At least that's how it sounded when Chuck Norris punched those "commie bastards" in Invasion USA, or when Clint Eastwood knocked out those redneck truck drivers in Any Which Way You Can. Regardless, Steve and Bert ended up in the principal's office. Bert was expelled that day and never came back. Steve took his suspension and then came back....welcomed by all, and especially me. It was a real life chapter in one of my favorite movies to this day, My Bodyguard.

The incident with Steve and Bert has stuck with me to this day. It was an extremely profound illustration of Bert as Satan, and Steve as Jesus. And I have found that the simplicity of the Christian life is reflected in terms of these two reflections of perseverance and resurrection, as it relates to our bullying enemy, Satan. It is his sheer delight to make the children of God suffer. He shamefully draws his twisted respect among the demons by modeling for them emotional, mental, spiritual, and even physical abuse. He is called the "accuser of our brothers and sisters" (Rev. 12:10). He is a "your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour" (1 Pet. 5:8). In Matthew 4:3, he is the temper, and in 13:38-39, he is the enemy. In John 8:44, he is a murderer. In Colossians 1:13, he is the power of darkness, and in Hebrews 2:14, the power of death. Simply put, Satan and his demons are bullies. And I extraordinarily despise them. No...I hate them.

Those who persevere through the sufferings and tortures of Satan are the enemies of Satan. Why? Because they continue to crawl out the other side. Somehow, they survive. And that's a very threatening thing for someone whose eternal title is "a murderer from the beginning." When he tries to murder me - spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and even physically - and does not succeed, there is great hatred in his heart against me...simply because I survived. Simply put, surviving Satan's attacks makes me a victor and conqueror over him, if for no other reason than that I survived. His plans of death for me did not succeed. I am still alive.

This simple truth is key for living in the simple Kingdom for one simple reason: no matter what I feel like, or no matter what I think about myself, or no matter what I look like, and no matter what kind of sin I committed in the process of being tempted and tortured by this bully, I have survived. I am not dead emotionally, though I may feel superbly numb. I am not dead mentally, though I may feel unbelievable void of thought. And I am not dead spiritually, though I may feel little toward God. And I am not dead physically, because that one is the in the hands of God, and never in the hands of Satan. Satan and his demons will continue to assault us in every way possible, and they will almost always use other people to do it. But Jesus promised, "And all nations will hate you because you are my followers. But everyone who endures to the end will be saved" (Matt. 10:22).

Then there's simple reflection of resurrection. This is where Steve Belyew was a picture of Jesus, jumping in front of the enemy of our souls, taking the torture for us, and bringing victory over it for us. Not only did Jesus promise that I will rise again with Him after I'm dead. But included in that promise are the promises that I will continue to rise again in this life. Time after time after time, torture after temptation after tribulation, suffering after pain after defeat... I... will... rise... again. And again. And again. And again. Can you imagine what kind of hatred must seethe in the heart of Satan for you and me when we just simply will not stay down, but continue to stand up over and over and over again? The simple act of rising up, of standing up again, is a spit in the face of the devil. We can NOT be killed. We can NOT be put down once-and-for-all. We WILL rise again, both in this life, and in the life to come.

This is crucial for living in the simple kingdom. Why? Because getting back up again, and again, and again is what the resurrected life is all about. Now that you and I have been crucified with Christ, we now move on to being resurrected with Christ. And that resurrection is not just about physical death. It is about any kind of death. And death is anything that wants to suck the life out of us. Death is temptation looking to suck the joy out of our lives. Death is tribulation looking to make us suffer. Death is persecution trying to marginalize us. In short, death is anything that dehumanizes us, and reduces us to nothing but blubbering, mute idiots. Listen to Paul's amazing words about us in Romans 8:

"You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all.) And Christ lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God. The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you."

The simple kingdom is simply about persevering through the bullying of the enemy. And it is about rising up again after each sampling of his suffering. Even if I am defeated in my dealings with this bully, that defeat does not represent who I am. It is not the big picture of my life. It isn't my story. What I DO after each go-round with this bully is what depicts, reflects, and illustrates my life. Do I get back up again? Or do I stay down? If you get back up again and continue on with Jesus, you have persevered and risen again. Both reflections, regardless of how you feel, are reflections of who you really are. It isn't defeat that describes you. It's how you respond to the defeat that does. And if you persevere and rise again, then you have the very Spirit of Jesus Christ inside of you, for only HE has the supernatural power to make a person persevere and rise again after such intense bullying by our supernatural arch nemesis.

It feels good to think about it in this simple way. This simple truth brings hope and courage. It says that even though we screw up, fail, get our butts kicked, our heads kicked in, and even though we may feel beaten down over and over again, just simply persevering and rising up again shows the bully of the universe does not own us. And this makes us a massive threat to him. Why? Because if this message got out, it would create such a grassroots groundswell among people who've felt enslaved their whole lives, that they just might rise up and revolt against him and his reign of terror. Jesus was the first to do just that. And His message, the gospel of the kingdom, invites us to draft behind His eternal victory of this great bully, and persevere and rise again with Him. I'll close with Paul's words in 2 Corinthans 4.

"Yes, we live under constant danger of death because we serve Jesus, so that the life of Jesus will be evident in our dying bodies. We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies."

Thoughts on the Doctrines of Grace

Perseverance (4): The Results of Perseverance

Perseverance (3): The Response of Perseverance

Perseverance (2): The Roots of Perseverance

Perseverance (1): Introduction

Perseverance: What Following Jesus is Really All About

Perseverance and Resurrection: The Two Simplest Reflections of How Jesus-Followers Deal With Our Bully Named Satan

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