Convenient belief

We live in a world that operates a great deal on "smoke and mirrors". For instance, our banking institutions are discovering that one cannot ignore sound financial principles in business. A false economy was created by cheap and easily available credit. However the lenders should have known that loaning people money that had no ability to repay can not be a sustainable practice. However, instead of operating according to truth, they created an illusion of something in order to justify their continued behavior.

Unfortunately, I find the same kinds of wishful illusions in the church world as well. It never ceases to amaze me how people can declare that they believe in something deeply but when that "deeply held belief" becomes inconvenient, suddenly they no longer hold to that belief. I call it the phenomena of convenient belief.

Convenient belief is never centered on God. The foundation of convenient belief is self (or as I like to put it, the self-god). This kind of belief maybe defended vociferously at times. However the since basis for convenient belief is not built on truth as defined by God but on the preservation of self, it can change quickly. The self-god seeks to self-preserve, self-determine, and self-justify at all costs. Therefore nothing is as important as self.

However, the self-god also desires to hide behind a facade of godliness and goodness. Therefore the self-god will gravitate toward beliefs that benefit self while appearing God-centered. The intensity with which the self-god defends these convenient beliefs is directly tied to the amount of benefit received from defending them. If there is no longer any personal benefit from a particular belief, that belief is quickly discarded.

For instance, we frequently pride ourselves in the fact that we are full of grace toward people. We put ourselves forward as loving people unconditionally. However, when the time comes to put our reputation on the line in the restoration of those who have become lost, we quickly distance ourselves from those people.

On the other hand, belief centered on God, belief that arises from literally and practically following Jesus will always lead to the death of the self-god. While following Jesus transforms and adjusts our belief system, those changes and adjustments are not based on convenience. They occur as a natural part of the transformation that occurs as Christ is formed within us.

Apple pie and the goodness of God

This past week on a cold rainy fall day, I walked into the house. As soon as I approached the kitchen, I could smell that Bev had spent the afternoon engaging in one of her hobbies. The aroma of chicken roasting in the oven filled the room. Something about the aroma made my heart sing.

Several days later I came into the kitchen to the smell of freshly baked apple pie. We were visiting with friends later in the evening and Bev had baked a pie to share with them. When we left, Bev carried the pie to the car. She put her nose toward the pie and inhaled deeply and promptly proclaimed, “I smell the goodness of God!”.

This past weekend we were at our lakefront property in New York to close down the camper and take the docks out for the season. Sunday morning was rather brisk with temperatures in the high teens. Once the sun rose, I cooked breakfast outside and we ate around the fire. Coffee, homefries, bacon, eggs and toast mixed with the smell of wood smoke from the fire and oak leaves on the ground on a crisp morning to create another aroma moment. Everything about that moment pointed to the goodness of God.

The more “God-conscious” I become; the more aware I am of His goodness. The more aware I am of His goodness, the more “God-conscious” I become. I don’t think that God is “any more good” now than in the past. It’s just that I am more aware of it. Neither does the heightened sense of His goodness mean that life is easier than it used to be. I face perhaps more personal struggles than ever. However, the awareness of God’s goodness toward me helps me incredibly in the midst of those struggles.

Last spring, I watched a video for work at our Eastern Sales Meeting. It was done by Dewitt Jones, a photographer for National Geographic. The theme of the video was “Celebrate What’s Right with the World”. At one point he made a profound statement. He spoke of growing up with the philosophy of “I have to see it to believe it”. However, he admitted that philosophy limited him from seeing the potential that really exists. He spoke of a new reality that opened new potential. It was a philosophy of “we need to believe it to see it”.
And so it is with the goodness of God. If we don’t really believe that He is good, we will never see His goodness. We will be stuck in the humdrum of life, missing the aroma of His goodness in apple pies, in wood smoke on a crisp morning, and in the smell of freshly brewed coffee

destabilization

As I learn from the life of Jesus and allow Him to impact me more fully, I have become aware of what I call the "ministry of destabilization". It seems as if everywhere Jesus went, He destabilized the established systems and thought processes. (i.e. - touching untouchables, overturning money tables, teaching with authority, healing on the Sabbath, redefining the family, challenging the paradigms of the religious.) Jesus spoke of the destabilizing effect of His life when He stated that He did not come to bring peace but a sword. I am convinced that true followers of Jesus will have the same effect today. We are a living prophetic example that brings destabilization to both people and institutions.

Every time God does a new thing, it is birthed in the midst of chaos. While this is true historically, it is also spoken of in the current/future sense in the book of Hebrews. (12:25-28)

See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven, whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, "Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven." Now this, "Yet once more," indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain.Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.

If we are to participate with God in His work in the world, we must participate in His "shaking ministry" that destabilizes the established ways to reveal them for what they really are. If we are to walk with God, we must submit to His shaking in our own lives, a shaking that reveals much about the true nature of our motives and actions. I regularly hear Christians refuse to wrestle with the difficulty of God, choosing instead to live in the safety of their established view of God. We must allow God to shake us, to destabilize us in order to discover what cannot be shaken. We must also embrace the destabilization ministry that results as we pursue God practically. This frequently puts us at odds with our own need for validation from people as well as with the people being destabilized.

There is another ministry, a ministry contrary to the ministry of destabilization in which we engage. I call it the ministry of preservation. In the ministry of preservation, we attempt to preserve the status quo. I am convinced that a very large percentage of the church engages in the ministry of preservation. We put much effort into maintaining ministries within the church. Let an elder suggest that the time for having a children's church program is over and therefore it needs to be ended! Let a pastor suggest that God is sending the entire church out into the world to expand God's kingdom and therefore the church will no longer meet on Sunday morning. The very suggestion of these things will bring out the ministry of preservation in a hurry!

We cannot be involved in both the ministry of preservation and the ministry of destabilization/shaking. We embrace one and resist the other. We cannot be motivated by the need for things to run smoothly. Each of us must realize that the ministry of preservation is rooted deeply in us. Yet if we are to be involved with God today, we MUST embrace the shaking spoken of in Hebrews. In the shaking we find the things that are the eternal realities that come from the heart of God.

The proliferation of stupidity

The writer of the Proverbs gives the following insight - The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. The word fear is not an unhealthy fear that immobilizes people but rather it implies a healthy respect.

If these words are true then the opposite is true as well. If there is no reverence/respect for God, if there is no acknowledgement of Him there is no wisdom and understanding. To put it more bluntly, if there is no God consciousness or God awareness there is much stupidity!

One of my observations has been that there seems to be a proliferation of stupidity recently. One of my clients faces financial disaster and makes decisions that create even more difficulty. He has no God-awareness. Instead of seeking God's wisdom for his situation, he makes decisions based on his self-centered desires. As a result, stupidity abounds.

The stupidity is not just limited to the world "out there". I find it in the church world as well. Christians say and do stupid things under the guise of godliness. However, they have no God-awareness. When crisis arises, they panic instead of watching for the hand of God. In the place of panic they say and do stupid things that only magnify the crisis.

If we choose the way of self over the way of God, we are doomed to stupidity.

transformation of the mind

God’s ways and methods are incomprehensible to the natural mind. Perhaps the most difficult of all transformations is the transformation of the mind. Every inclination of the natural mind rebels against transformation.

The transformation from living from natural mind to being Christ-minded (I call it being God conscious) requires a great deal of submission to the ways of God. Walking in harmony with Him feels unnatural and dangerous to the natural mind. At the point of these feelings arising, we have a choice to make – will we subdue our feelings and trust that God knows what He is doing or will we take matters in our own hands in order to feel better?

When we decide to take matters in our own hands, we are choosing independence from God. To mask our desire for independence from God, we create a façade that looks godly. We sit in the place of God putting ourselves forth as God. In other words we live from the natural mind but call it God. In our own mind, our thought processes and actions are justified if we attach God to them.

During a gathering of church leaders, there was debate over how to handle a situation. One of the leaders spoke rather emphatically the following words. “We can do things Glen’s way and wait for God to move or we can take care of it ourselves.” These words came from the natural mind, a mind that was unwilling to wait on God. The inclination of the natural mind is to forge ahead in action since God seems to be absent at the time. Scripture repeatedly tells the stories of people who took matters into their own hands and acted independently of God. Every one of those stories ends in disaster.

For me, the greatest transformation of my mind occurred, not on some mountaintop, but in a several periods that I call my valleys of the shadow of death. Even though I had been a pastor and a church planter, yet my mind was still primarily operating in a state of self-consciousness. God began to invite me to walk and live in a different way, not according to my thought patterns but according to His paradigms. For a time, I felt like He was my enemy as He targeted my natural mindsets. He took aim at what I had become as I had followed the dictates of the natural mind. However, Each time I have walked through one of the valley periods, I have emerged transformed.

As you enter your own valley of the shadow of death, allow the transformation of your mind by living according to the invitation of God. Resist the urge to take matters into your own hands. As you find yourself in the depths of despair, resist the urge to give up on God. When you finally feel like you cannot go on, look up, breakthrough is near. The entire journey through the valley of the shadow of death will transform your mind.

I'll try

The greatest battle in this life is not a struggle between God and the devil but a battle between myself and God. Everything within me wants to live independently of God, to make my own decisions, to determine my own version of right and wrong. The self-god attempts assert itself, creating a god in our own image.

I've recently noticed one of the manifestations of the self-god recently in conversations with people. A common phrase I hear is "I'll try..." I'll try to forgive. I'll try to love. I'll try respect. The starting point of "I'll try" is self.

Notice that scripture never tells us to try to love or to forgive. The expectation of God is that we love, that we forgive. Now I realize that we frequently feel like God demands the impossible and truly it is impossible to love from a center of self. Yet in the expectation of the impossible we become faced with our inability to to do the expected. In that place of inability, we can either draw close to God and allow Him to work the impossible into us or we can try to do the impossible in our own strength.

Unfortunately we do not possess the wherewithal to be what God expects. Quit trying and allow Him to transform you!

demonization, shunning and an apology

Perhaps the greatest learning opportunities are not found in a school, but rather in the observation of the world around us. I have learned more by keeping my eyes and ears open and allowing the Holy Spirit to teach me in whatever circumstance I find myself. Additionally, much can be learned from the experiences of others, in hearing their story.

One of the observations I have made over the past several years has to do with religion and religious mindsets. Unfortunately, religion in general frequently goes hand in hand with control. Just like in Jesus day, religious people today use control techniques to attempt to keep people (and God) within the accepted boundaries.

The stories of numerous people align with my own experience in this. When one chooses to step outside the institutionally accepted parameters to follow Jesus, almost immediately an uproar ensues. If one does not quickly step back into line, they will be demonized by the religious crowd. That demonization will justify all sorts of ungodly behavior by the religious even though the demonization is not even based on fact. If none of this works to bring a person in line, then they are shunned. Religious people will warn others not to associate with the "deceived" person. They will refuse to interact in a healthy way.

I have discovered the church world to be much more savage than the business world. Very good people began to act out of character as their religious paradigms are threatened. Nice, gentle people will spew venom toward the one perceived as a threat; they would be aghast if they really saw how they were acting. In their protection of a religious system, they engage (and feel justified in doing so) in behaviors that are far from godly.

All this grieves my heart. Malachi speaks of the hearts of the fathers being turned toward the children and vice versa. When the fathers (leaders in the church) begin to control and manipulate people, then a curse comes on the land. If you have been wounded by controlling religious leaders attempting to make you conform to their perspective of God, I apologize to you. If you have been shunned by "Christians" because you think outside of the box, I apologize to you. What was done to you was wrong. God forgive us!

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