church in the boro
As we launch into a new (and much-needed) series on grace in our local church, one of the most fundamental truths that will make or break the implementation of grace is understanding that grace is a process...with progress.
In 1 Corinthians, Paul uses three analogies with the local church to help them understand how they...and every local church...functions.
The first two of these analogies occurs in1 Corinthians 3:9. Here's what Paul writes: "For we are both God's workers. And you are God's field. You are God's building" (NLT). The point in the context Paul is making is simple. Whether it was Apollos or Paul, both are simply workers, planting and watering among the same field of God's people...working and building on the same building of living stones, the church.
The third analogy occurs in 1 Corinthians 12:12 and 27. In that verse Paul writes, "The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ...All of you together are Christ's body, and each of you is a part of it." (NLT). The context here is, of course, spiritual gifts. And Paul is explaining how each saint in the church has a spiritual gift. The Spirit's design in all of this is for all the saints to use their spiritual gifts through loving one another, which will have the effect of making them act as one body...rather than just a collection of various body parts.
Now, while the contexts of these passages does not make this explicit point, there is one kernel of truth inherent in each of these analogies which helps us see a bigger picture which the Spirit surely implies. And here's the point: the church of Jesus Christ is built and grown in process, and that process is all about progress.
A field grows...over time...until it matures...and is ready to be harvested.
A building is built...over time...until it's completed...and ready to be occupied.
A body grows...over time...until it reaches adulthood...and is ready to take on life.
And all of this is only made possible by the grace of God, which Paul prays over the Corinthian church, as well as every other church to whom he writes.
Grace is God's love poured out on us because of what Jesus has done for us. God is always pouring out that grace on us. God never changes. So there will never be a time when God is not pouring out grace on His precious saints.
Grace is the water and fertilizer which grows the plants in the field to full maturity.
Grace is the cement and labor that builds us together into a completed structure.
Grace is the vitamins and minerals that grows the body into adulthood.
Since God's grace will always be pouring out upon us, we will always be growing...we will always be in the building process...and we will always be in the maturing process.
This means things will always be getting better!!! They HAVE to get better...or else God's grace is not really being poured out on us. Or else God is not God. Or else God is not good.
The one thing about process is that it can be maddening when there's no progress. But since GOD is the one pouring out grace, there will ALWAYS be progress. There cannot NOT be progress. Or else God is not God. Or else God is not love.
YOU will always be in process.
YOU will always be in progress.
YOU will always be in grace.
So be patient with yourself.
Be patient with one another.
STOP imposing standards or rules of grace upon one another such that you actually become separated from one another if those standards or rules are not followed...right then...in your time frame...in your world.
Since this is GOD who's doing all the work here, we are all on HIS time frame...we're all in HIS world.
So stop putting your own time frame on yourself, also. Live in God's grace each day. Simply make it your one aim to receive the love He has for you. THIS will change you. THIS is what speeds up the process. THIS is what produces progress. It is God's LOVE that compels you...nothing else. Not your efforts...not your resolve...not your resolutions...not your plans...or your strategies. It's just God's love.
So receive it. Expect it to take a lifetime, since it's a process. And definitely expect progress, since it's a process.
God loves you more than you can ever imagine. You WILL grow. You WILL grow UP in Jesus. You WILL succeed. You ARE a super-conqueror. You WILL win. You WILL persevere.
Praise God for grace!!!
In 1 Corinthians, Paul uses three analogies with the local church to help them understand how they...and every local church...functions.
The first two of these analogies occurs in1 Corinthians 3:9. Here's what Paul writes: "For we are both God's workers. And you are God's field. You are God's building" (NLT). The point in the context Paul is making is simple. Whether it was Apollos or Paul, both are simply workers, planting and watering among the same field of God's people...working and building on the same building of living stones, the church.
The third analogy occurs in 1 Corinthians 12:12 and 27. In that verse Paul writes, "The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ...All of you together are Christ's body, and each of you is a part of it." (NLT). The context here is, of course, spiritual gifts. And Paul is explaining how each saint in the church has a spiritual gift. The Spirit's design in all of this is for all the saints to use their spiritual gifts through loving one another, which will have the effect of making them act as one body...rather than just a collection of various body parts.
Now, while the contexts of these passages does not make this explicit point, there is one kernel of truth inherent in each of these analogies which helps us see a bigger picture which the Spirit surely implies. And here's the point: the church of Jesus Christ is built and grown in process, and that process is all about progress.
A field grows...over time...until it matures...and is ready to be harvested.
A building is built...over time...until it's completed...and ready to be occupied.
A body grows...over time...until it reaches adulthood...and is ready to take on life.
And all of this is only made possible by the grace of God, which Paul prays over the Corinthian church, as well as every other church to whom he writes.
Grace is God's love poured out on us because of what Jesus has done for us. God is always pouring out that grace on us. God never changes. So there will never be a time when God is not pouring out grace on His precious saints.
Grace is the water and fertilizer which grows the plants in the field to full maturity.
Grace is the cement and labor that builds us together into a completed structure.
Grace is the vitamins and minerals that grows the body into adulthood.
Since God's grace will always be pouring out upon us, we will always be growing...we will always be in the building process...and we will always be in the maturing process.
This means things will always be getting better!!! They HAVE to get better...or else God's grace is not really being poured out on us. Or else God is not God. Or else God is not good.
The one thing about process is that it can be maddening when there's no progress. But since GOD is the one pouring out grace, there will ALWAYS be progress. There cannot NOT be progress. Or else God is not God. Or else God is not love.
YOU will always be in process.
YOU will always be in progress.
YOU will always be in grace.
So be patient with yourself.
Be patient with one another.
STOP imposing standards or rules of grace upon one another such that you actually become separated from one another if those standards or rules are not followed...right then...in your time frame...in your world.
Since this is GOD who's doing all the work here, we are all on HIS time frame...we're all in HIS world.
So stop putting your own time frame on yourself, also. Live in God's grace each day. Simply make it your one aim to receive the love He has for you. THIS will change you. THIS is what speeds up the process. THIS is what produces progress. It is God's LOVE that compels you...nothing else. Not your efforts...not your resolve...not your resolutions...not your plans...or your strategies. It's just God's love.
So receive it. Expect it to take a lifetime, since it's a process. And definitely expect progress, since it's a process.
God loves you more than you can ever imagine. You WILL grow. You WILL grow UP in Jesus. You WILL succeed. You ARE a super-conqueror. You WILL win. You WILL persevere.
Praise God for grace!!!
I knew the title would be catchy...and I got your attention, didn't I? But hang on because this isn't a bait-and-switch post.
Christians who practice magic are those who view their Christian life through the lenses of decision and instant gratification. Think about it for a minute. Is not our American, 21st century, westernized version of Christianity largely, if not almost completely, based upon decisionalism and instant gratification? We raise a hand, say a prayer, walk an aisle, throw a pinecone in the fire, sign a card, shake a preacher's hand, rededicate our life, etc... and inside we think that everything is supposed to be different or will somehow change...simply because we made a decision. Then when the going gets tough, the tough get going...in the other direction. They leave frustrated, confused, bewildered, irritated....all because they expected their Christian life to somehow - magically - be different.
Then there's the other lens of instant gratification, which goes right along, hand-in-hand, with decisionalism. When we make a decision, things are supposed to be instantly different....magically different. So with these two lenses sitting in the frame of American Christianity, the average Christian here lives out a view of sanctification that is more magical, more superstitious, than biblical and successful.
Compare that to the naked eyes of Jesus Christ who knows that process is where the progress is. And that's where the power is also, to live the Christian life. Reconsider a few statements by Jesus as a correction to this magical Christian life many of us have grown up with here in America.
wrong when they fail to see or embrace the plain fact that process is built into every anointing. The husband who asks the pastor to pray for a special anointing on his marriage and parenting will get it from the Spirit (just as Jesus promised in Luke 11), but it always comes with process. It's not some magical act of me taking my hands off my marriage and parenting, somehow expecting that Jesus will just "take the wheel." It's not the Keswick version of sanctification that just lets go and lets God.
Christians who practice magic are those who view their Christian life through the lenses of decision and instant gratification. Think about it for a minute. Is not our American, 21st century, westernized version of Christianity largely, if not almost completely, based upon decisionalism and instant gratification? We raise a hand, say a prayer, walk an aisle, throw a pinecone in the fire, sign a card, shake a preacher's hand, rededicate our life, etc... and inside we think that everything is supposed to be different or will somehow change...simply because we made a decision. Then when the going gets tough, the tough get going...in the other direction. They leave frustrated, confused, bewildered, irritated....all because they expected their Christian life to somehow - magically - be different.Then there's the other lens of instant gratification, which goes right along, hand-in-hand, with decisionalism. When we make a decision, things are supposed to be instantly different....magically different. So with these two lenses sitting in the frame of American Christianity, the average Christian here lives out a view of sanctification that is more magical, more superstitious, than biblical and successful.
Compare that to the naked eyes of Jesus Christ who knows that process is where the progress is. And that's where the power is also, to live the Christian life. Reconsider a few statements by Jesus as a correction to this magical Christian life many of us have grown up with here in America.
- Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. (Matthew 16:24, ESV). Following...that's about process. The word "would" in the English is the Greek thelei, which is in the present active...ongoing...never ending...process. And "follow" is in the present active...again about process. So here's this denying and taking up of the cross going on...both sandwiched between two present active Greek words which communicate that the whole deal here is about process. Yes, there's a decision here...to deny yourself and take up your cross and follow Jesus. But it's ongoing. There's no magical, instant gratification going on here. In fact, it's quite the opposite...because you're dragging a cross in order to be nailed to it.
- "And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened" (Luke 11:9-10, ESV). The verbs - ask, seek, and knock - are all...once again...present active verbs. This is a process occuring here. There's no magical decisionalism and instant gratification in continuing to beg, search, and knock.
- Prayer is all about process. "And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart" (Luke 18:1, ESV). Praying and not losing heart are present tense, process words. There's no magic in continuing to persistently ask for the same thing, not giving up no matter how difficult it gets. Jesus set that example for us in Matthew 6 by telling us, "Pray then like this..." (6:9). There's a present tense word again...prayer is about process. Asking for food everyday is a process. Asking for forgiveness and forgiving others is about process. Asking to not be led into temptation is a process. Asking to be delivered from the the devil everyday is a process. Asking for God's kingdom and will in heaven to be done on earth is a process. There's no magic in this, friend. No instant gratification here.
wrong when they fail to see or embrace the plain fact that process is built into every anointing. The husband who asks the pastor to pray for a special anointing on his marriage and parenting will get it from the Spirit (just as Jesus promised in Luke 11), but it always comes with process. It's not some magical act of me taking my hands off my marriage and parenting, somehow expecting that Jesus will just "take the wheel." It's not the Keswick version of sanctification that just lets go and lets God.This only produces and reproduces Christian magic. Christians ask and expect God to act magically, to magically perform sanctification, and godly parenting, and loving marriages, and healthy churches, etc. An excellent example of the logical end of this lifestyle is the prosperity gospel, the "name-it-and-claim-it" religion that is utterly magical in almost every aspect. I ask for something (I probably shouldn't ask for in the first place), and then sit back and expect God to just - "presto! whammo!" - give it to me...instantly. It's off the deep end because it fails to recognize again that our God is a God who builds into His answers to our prayers a process that must not be superceded, though He Himself, as sovereign God of the universe, is free at anytime to supercede it for reasons He hardly, if ever, reveals to us.
In short, the gospel is a call to process for Christians. We pray for instant healing, but live with the process of being sanctified in our sickness. We pray for a job to fall out of the sky and hit us in the head, but we work full-time at finding a full-time job. We pray for God to drop a financial blessing on us so we can get out of debt, but we pay steadily and consistently on the bills until they are all paid off. We pray for God to invade our kids' lives and suddenly - even instantly - change them (and I pray often!), but we shepherd and love and manage them toward the Savior.The gospel is all about process. The gospel promises progress in process. And it also promises power in the process. Let us embrace the splintered cross on the long road to certain death and resurrection with Jesus. And let us cast off any notion of the the styrofoam, fluffy, frilly cross that promises instant yet empty gratification. And let us especially rid ourselves of idea of some once-and-for-all decision I can make that will suddenly and magically change everything about us and for us.
Take up the cross...every day...and deny yourself...every day...and follow Jesus...every day.
