A HOLINESS VOCABULARY

It is God’s will that you should be sanctified . . .

1 Thessalonians 4:3

Do we need a new vocabulary for teaching holiness?  This is what I’ve been hearing for the past few years when the topic of holiness comes up.  God has a great many things to say about holiness throughout scripture. He says four times in Leviticus (11:44,45; 19:2; 20:7), “Be holy, for I am holy.”  The Apostle Peter quotes the Leviticus passages and adds, “But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do” (1 Peter 1:15,16).  The Apostle Paul makes it clear that this was God’s plan from the very beginning when he writes “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight . . . to the praise of his glorious grace” (Ephesians 1:4,6).  And Peter again proclaims the privilege of God’s people of faith.  We “may participate in the divine nature” (2 Peter 2:4) which we understand is holy love.  Holiness “to the praise of God’s glory” (Eph. 1:14) is the “not-so-new” normal throughout scripture. 

We understand holiness to be a major, underlying theme throughout the Scriptures.  William Francis, in his essay “Being Like God . . . Holy,” states “The Hebrew word for holy (qadesh) and its derivatives is used more than 700 times in the Old Testament.”  Its importance to the Christian life is easily notable throughout the life and teachings of Jesus, the New Testament writings of Paul, Peter, James, John, the author of the book of Hebrews, and the patristic literature of the early church fathers.  The history and biblical vocabulary of holiness is long and established as inspired and gifted by God.  But, nevertheless, there is the concern that the language of holiness is out-of-date and ineffective in communicating the idea of holiness to present and future generations.

I am strongly inclined to respond with a sophisticated theological expression: “Baloney!”  The idea of an established vocabulary being outdated is largely bogus.  The problem is not with the long established vocabulary, but with our benign neglect of teaching holiness using the words, concepts, and ideas that the use of Scripture and historical writings occasion.  If we look to other areas of knowledge and understanding, we find a richness of vocabulary with long histories of practical value.  These include medicine, engineering, architecture, information technology, literature, philosophy, business, economics, psychology, and so on.  No one says, “the vocabulary of medicine, or economics, or engineering is outdated. Let’s make-up a new one.”  I concede that each area of learning increases in new words and concepts as understanding and discovery progresses, but that takes place on a preexistent foundation of learning. 

There is a deeper problem.  In his letter to the Ephesians (3:18), in talking about the magnitude (high, wide, long, deep) of God’s love, the Apostle Paul, in reference to love, suggests that there is “knowledge that surpasses knowledge.”  It is not a cognitive knowledge of mere intellect.  Rather, it is the deep knowledge of the heart. Whether a new or old vocabulary were used in the teaching of holiness, the failure of discipleship would be the same if it did not convey a personal understanding of holiness as a knowledge that surpasses knowledge, an experiential knowledge of the heart communicated beyond a particular vocabulary.  The essence of holiness is the essence of God, pure love.  It must be taught with a pure heart and as early as possible in a child’s life.  That topic is worthy of follow-up postings. 

Do we need a new vocabulary? I’d be grateful to hear what you think!

For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life.

1 Thessalonians 4:7

HINDSIGHT & HEALING: HE MAKES THE LAME TO WALK AGAIN

Hindsight & Healing

God is the giver of good gifts.  This Christmas I am thanking God for the gifts of hindsight and healing.  Hindsight is a great gift. It informs giving thanks when we remember how God is faithful.  The Apostle Paul wrote to the church at Corinth (2 Cor. 9:8), "God is abel to make all grace abound toward you . . ." The verse goes well with a song sung years ago and reminds me of God’s ability to do remarkable things beyond belief.  The song goes like this:

He’s able. He’s able. I know he’s able.

I know my Lord is able to carry me through.

(Repeat)

He heals the broken hearted, and sets the captives free.

He makes the lame to walk again, and causes the blind to see.

He’s able. He able. I know he’s able.

I know my Lord is able to carry me through.

On June 30 of 2013, I officially stepped down from the privileged post of President of Trinity Western University in Langley, British Columbia (Canada).  At the time, my health was a train wreck.  It had been deteriorating over the previous two years. The  likelihood was continuing decline.  With the job laid down, Irene and I moved back to the United States and took up residence in Wilmore, Kentucky.  We were then in striking distance to some of the best medical care in the states in nearby Lexington.  My new rheumatologist’s diagnosis of my condition was bleak: “stage four, severe RA, rheumatoid arthritis.”  Great pain accompanied getting out of chairs, buttoning my shirt, working zippers, going up or down even two or three steps at a time, getting out of the car, and even the simplest duties of personal hygiene.  My diet had totally changed to the complete avoidance of any foods that inflamed my body.  Severe pain all the time in every joint was the norm.  Yet, God was faithful.  The pain was a reminder of the pain our Lord when through.  It brought me closer to Christ.

Gluten & Cow Dairy

It’s been two and one half years since and I see clearly God’s faithfulness.  Several things happened along my five year journey from the time in early 2011 when I thought something was seriously wrong.  First, while still in Canada, Irene introduced me to excellent naturopathic physicians who tested me for food sensitivities.  I am allergic to gluten (especially wheat products)and cow dairy (cows milk, cheese, butter, ice cream, yogurt).  They rev-up my inflammation like a pottery kiln. Over the years my wife has been amazing at shifting our food selections and diets, finding recipe alternatives, managing the quality of our intake, and avoiding foods that inflame my RA.  This continues today.

Secondly, I was blessed to find an excellent rheumatologist at the Lexington Clinic whose care has been remarkably helpful, actually transformational.  It’s been a gradual process of prescribing integrated amounts of three types of medication (one daily, one weekly, and an IV infusion once every eight weeks).  This combination of meds looks like the path I’ll be on to for the foreseeable future.

Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, two good friends from my college days, in their lives as pastors, have blessed many with their healing ministries.  Soon after moving to Wilmore, they took an interest in my condition and were willing to lay their hands on me and pray for my healing (one with anointing of oil).

The way I see it, God is faithful.  He engaged four key people as human agency, means of grace, in the improvement of my health.  Today, I am almost completely without pain, only a tweak now and then.  I am totally mobile, no longer crippled.  I am functioning normally, something I thought would never be possible again.  God sometimes heals through a multivariate equation, in my case a combination of the food consumed, medical care received, and the prayers of petition for healing by good friends.  Upon reflection God is faithful.  Now, looking back, this scripture has even greater meaning:

Now unto him who is able to do immeasurably more

than we ask or imagine . . . to him be GLORY!

Ephesians 3:20 & 21

PREMEDITATED LOVE

The word “premeditated” is almost always used in relation to murder.  Its use is not restricted though. The whole event of Christmas may be viewed as divinely premeditated.  While murder is the taking of life, Christmas is God's gift of everlasting life (John 6:40).  The irony is that man’s premeditated act of Christ’s murder made possible God’s premeditated gift of our salvation.  It was a reality that God envisioned and intended from the very beginning.  "For God so loved the world . . ."

 Christmas is far from a celebration of divine impulse.  Our Father did not make a spur of the moment decision to send Jesus his Son to earth for our salvation.  We see this in God’s premeditated plan for John The Baptist, the cousin of Jesus, to go before Jesus with the message of repentance and the good news of the Messiah’s coming.  Well before that, seven hundred years before, He told the prophet Isaiah about his plans (Isaiah 40:3 & 53).  God’s deep love for us has always been premeditated.  He planned our salvation from the very beginning. 

Over the millennia, our Father God has been faithful.  Now his prevenient grace calls us to respond.  How are we to respond to such lavish love?  We respond in his likeness as a people of intentional, premeditated love in celebration.  In his likeness, filled to the measure of the fullness of God, we arise each morning meditating on and remembering how long, wide, high, and deep is the love of God.  Then we go forward faithfully into his day with anticipatory thanks and praise as celebratory expressions of our love for Him and for all others.   We are a people of hope grounded in the optimism of God’s grace.  Hope anticipates. Hope expects.  Regardless of the circumstances, hope believes that God loves us and is faithful. 

Christmas focuses light on God’s premeditated love.  It calls us to celebrate his never failing love seen in His great gift of His Son and the continuing gift of the Holy Spirit.  Thanks be to God for his premeditated love!

THE COMPANY YOU KEEP

IT'S THE COMPANY YOU KEEP

We become the company we keep.  It can be our glory or our demise.  The people with whom we spend time can bring health and healing.  And yet some people’s toxicity can be like the slow workings of arsenic poisoning spirit, soul, and body.  The company we seek for friendship and fellowship makes all the difference.  It is a matter of healthy or toxic exposures and encounters.

For two years, 1980 & ‘81, I served in an adjunct faculty position at the University of Hawaii while at the same time Chief Administrator of an array of mental health, drug, and alcohol recovery programs.  In the eight programs operated by The Salvation Army on the Island of Oahu, it was the Womens' Way residential program that worked exceptionally well with addicted women and their children to restore them physically, socially, and spiritually to health and wellbeing.  Womens' Way diverted women from the criminal justice system into treatment permitting them to bring their children with them. A woman's stay in the  program was only temporary lasting nine to twelve months.  It was artificial in not being the reality in which they would live for the remainder of their lives.   Eventually the women had to enter back into the real world.  But there would be variations on their real world going foreward depending on the company they chose to keep.  

A major principle of the program was to help the women and their kids eventually become established in a healthy, positive social and spiritual context that would continue the process of healing and lead to complete restoration.  This included avoiding the old life, the old neighborhood, and old toxic friends.  It meant helping them keep company with those who are healthy, loving, kind, generous, and affirming rather than others who were like social/spiritual Ebola, toxic, exploitive, and dangerous .  The company they were to keep going forward would make all the difference.  It would ensure the glory of recovery and restoration or their recidivism, exploitation, and demise.

At the heart of the program was introducing the women and their children to Christian faith communities.  We knew that there were grace filled, Bible believing fellowships on Oahu  who would embrace them, love them, and give the support that would strengthen them in their faith.  The social/spiritual milieu of a church family would help them discover Jesus and accept his loving embrace.  It would nurture and strengthen their faith and help them see the esteem that God has for them.  The company they would keep in such a faith community and the glory of God revealed in their love would be their glory as well.  The women and children who recovered from the trash bins of life would discover the love of Christ in the presence of His company.  His company today is their glory.  It's all about the company they keep!

"Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness
and all life will be added to you."  Matthew 6:33

PARIS IRONY?

"WHO WILL KISS THE DEVIL?"
1 PETER 5:8 (KJV)

Europe is a post-Christian continent of declining culture.  Churches are empty or they’ve been converted into concert halls, antique shops, and even upscale homes and condos.  Most people are agnostic at best.  Atheism is pervasive.  Islam is the fastest growing faith due to immigration and escalating birth rates among Muslim families.  In such a social/spiritual context.  Imagine a large gathering of young people, hands raised in the air, singing their hearts out while the band sang and played a very upbeat tune.  It sounds like enthusiastic worship of a faith community at a local, contemporary church.  Look at the photo taken at a concert just moments before the terrorist attacks began in Paris.  Look closely as the symbolism of the hand gestures of devil’s horns.  It’s a photo of fans at the Eagles of Death Metal concert.  Here’s some of the lyrics of the tune being sung:

Who’ll love the Devil?  Who’ll sing his song?

Who will love the Devil and his song?

I’ll love the Devil.  I’ll love his song.

I will love the Devil and his song.

Who’ll kiss the Devil?  Who’ll kiss his tongue?

Who’ll kiss the Devil on his tongue?

I’ll kiss the Devil.  I’ll kiss his tongue.

I will kiss the Devil on his tongue.

As the crowd sang along with these lyrics in a love offering to Satan, “all hell broke loose.”  The concert hall became a terrorist target.  Hundreds were killed or wounded.  It poses a question that an agnostic or atheist likely would avoid.  Did the Devil respond in a way not surprising with destruction and death? Some might dismiss massacre as total coincidence.  Others may say they know exactly what happened that Friday night at 9:40 pm GMT in Paris.  Did the crowd at the concert unwittingly ask for intimacy with the Devil in a form of worship and he didn’t disappoint?  Is that irony?  It is something to ponder.

Source: JULIE BROWN PATTON (NEWS@GOSPELHERALD.COM) Nov 18, 2015

GROWING SAINTS: MAKE DISCIPLES, NOT JUST CONVERTS!

Add https://www.asbury.edu/salvationa…/growing-saints-conference

General John Gowans (1934-2012), the 16^th international leader of The Salvation Army, once said, “The Salvation Army was invented to save souls, grow saints, and serve suffering humanity.”  The same may be said for the church universal regardless of doctrine or denominational distinctives.  The fact is that these three aspects of mission are not to be separate initiatives, but a continuum of conviction and covenant for all Christians and every faith community.  When people come to faith in Christ, it is the mission and obligation of every Christian to help new believers become established in the Kingdom.  The ministry of every faith community is to come along side of new followers of Christ to help them stay on the journey with Christ, and to help them get beyond the siren songs of temptation and sin to a spiritual place of power over sin.

The challenge is to help saved souls to grow on to become mature, Spirit-filled disciples who can disciple others.  This means tossing out the self-serving idea that the only importance to becoming a Christian is to get saved and go to heaven, and maybe even save others who can go to heaven.  Getting into heaven is not the goal of the Kingdom.  Such a goal is self-serving and narrow-minded.  As someone said, "It's getting heaven into us."  The actual goal is Christ-likeness and purity of heart, filled with the Holy Spirit “to the measure of the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:19).  Why?  So that then God can do immeasurably more that we could ask or imagine. (Ephesians 3:20&21). Ultimately, the goal is glory to God. In other words, the goal is to multiply Spirit guided, Spirit compelled, Spirit empowered servants whose service brings glory to God, who let their light shine in such a way, the way of holiness, that seeing the glory of God is inescapable.

So we take Jesus seriously (Matthew 28:18-20).  Faithfully, we lovingly obey Christ’s Great Commission.  We make disciples.  It is a directive, not a great suggestion take it or leave it.  It means making disciples not just converts.  It means walking along side new believers to help them make a decision of faith and repentance, and then to continue the journey with them as they become rooted and established, built-up, mature in Christ, and transformed by the Holy Spirit, restored to the image of God (Imago Dei).  This is the calling of every Christian, to spiritually reproduce and grow saints who reproduce and grow more saints.

So then, just as you received Christ 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.

Colossians 2:6&7

Come to the Growing Saints Conference, January 29&30, 2016
https://www.asbury.edu/salvationa…/growing-saints-conference