Maintaining a false unity

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I’m learning about some pretty horrific stuff that’s been allegedly going on in the Sovereign Grace Ministries circles. Not that I was unfamiliar with the problems there—SGM Survivors have been blogging since about 2007, and I’ve known about the blogs and occasionally looked at them. But recently the details have been described more graphically, and the case is going to court. With Facebook, especially, the situation has become ever more public.

At the same time, I’m studying Ephesians, in chapter 4 about maintaining unity in the bond of peace.

At the same time I’m researching for Hidden Heroes #6, based in Colombia. Reading about believers who refused to take up arms against those who came against them and joyfully, gladly gave their lives for the cause of Christ. Christians who give all their time, effort, money so that the gospel could go forward, seeing amazing results as lives were truly transformed.

As usual, as I cogitate, and as the Holy Spirit reveals, seemingly unrelated areas of my life tend to intersect.

Suppose a church or ministry says to its people, “Don’t say anything about _____________ [fill in the blank with a scandalous, heinous activity within the church], because if you do, the ministry will suffer. The cause of Christ will suffer. The outside world won’t understand. People will go to hell.” The unspoken message is, “If our lives are a mess, we can’t let anyone know. We’ve got to keep giving the impression that we’re unified in love and cheerful obedience.”

What they don’t say, and what many church people don’t catch, is that they’re demanding unity on the basis of what a man says rather than what Christ had done. They’re maintaining a façade of unity, a veneer of the Christian life, when there’s a rot at the core that desperately needs to be torn out and replaced with a good strong foundation. A foundation like the one the Colombian believers so obviously had.

What’s going on when a young woman finally has enough courage to take her rapist to court, but he happens to be a pastor . . . or a missionary . . . or a ministry leader . . . and in the courtroom not a single Christian is sitting with that young woman—they’re all maintaining their unity by sitting with the accused? Is this the kind of unity David talked about, Jesus talked about, Paul talked about?

What’s going on when some absolutely shockingly heinous accusations are being brought against a ministry that has been able to maintain a good reputation among evangelicals (in spite of a rumbling amongst the bloggers) and almost no one in the larger Christian community calls them to account? Is that considered an admirable unity? I’m not talking about claiming their guilt before a trial. I’m talking about people saying “Abuse is wrong. Horribly wrong. Sovereign Grace needs to be willing to let this case move forward. They need to show the transparency that they demand of others. The leaders cannot be at a different level of accountability.” Where is the outcry? Why the deafening silence among those who have rubbed shoulders with Sovereign Grace leaders? Do they think they’re maintaining unity in the bond of peace? Do they realize that they are the ones hurting the cause of Christ?

They may start an organization called “Together for the Gospel,” emphasizing their unity, but the people who so desperately need this gospel—alleged victims of some of the very men in positions of leadership, are being shunned. Some of them have said, “If this is your Christianity, if this is your Jesus, I’m not interested.”

What kind of unity is this? It’s the difference between being unified around the Savior, an eternal Cause, like the Colombian believers, and being unified around a “Leader,” a cause made by man. The unity that truly together lifts up the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ will show an outpouring of love to the weakest among us (and who is weaker than our children?) rather than keeping silence so that a “ministry” won’t be toppled.

Do we think that the “outside world” can’t tell the difference?

Fifty years since the Peace Child

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peace childTomorrow, when I introduce my newest Hidden Heroes book to Greenville Classical Academy, I’ll be telling the Peace Child story publicly for the first time. The story took place in 1962, as this video shows.

Last year, in 2012, the Sawi tribe celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the coming  of missionaries Don and Carol Richardson. Don and his three sons returned to witness the changes that Jesus Christ accomplished through His powerful gospel. This inspiring video shows the change that has taken place in the last fifty years.

I hope that many people will be encouraged by the great work God has been doing among the tribes of Papua, Indonesia. I’m privileged to be able to share these stories with a new generation.

What about church attendance?

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A friend brought to my attention a very legalistic article,  Why Should Christians Attend Church? by Dale Robbins. Each statement  is flawed, and on that friend’s blog I answered each one point by point. Now I’m reposting here.

(1) Is church attendance an expression of our love for God? No. Worship is the expression of our love for God. Many people who “go to church” do it for various wrong reasons rather than to worship. Saying that this activity is an expression of our love for God is making worship into an outward thing rather than a heart thing.

(2) Does church attendance build up spiritual strength? No. Jesus Christ is the sole source of our spiritual strength, rather than any activity that we do. Can I build up my spiritual strength by doing a hundred push-ups a day? Neither can I build it up by driving to a building and walking into a building and sitting in a chair and opening my Bible.

(3) Does church attendance bring a special visitation of the Lord’s presence? No. A special visitation comes with a gathering in the Name of Christ, which is more than just in words. This can happen anywhere with any Christians, and may not happen “at church.” (There are churches that have “Ichabod” written over the doorposts.)

(4) Does church attendance provide fellowship with other Christians? Sometimes, but often not. The very way that most church meetings are designed seem to be trying to eclipse fellowship with other Christians. Come. Sit quietly. Shake hands. Sing. Sit quietly. Shake hands again. Go home and watch the football game.

(5) Is church attendance an act of obedience to God? No, certainly not in and of itself. How desperately the Christian community needs to understand and recognize that outward acts of “obedience” are utterly noxious to God when there is no faith. God calls them “dead works” and commands us to repent of them.

(6) Does church attendance provide accountability to spiritual leadership? No, though church involvement could, if it’s the right kind of church.

(7) Does church attendance combine our spiritual strength in prayer? No. However, corporate prayer could do that. Do we even have any spiritual strength to combine? Are we praying together? Are we REALLY praying together? Are we even praying? Is this accomplished by church attendance?

(8) Does church attendance honor the Lord’s Day? No. There is nothing in the Scripture that even hints at this. But Hebrews 4 tells us that Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the Sabbath rest.

So why do I want to “attend church”? That term is too passive, and I never use it. What I say is “be connected with a church” or “be part of a church,” because a church is a living, breathing organism, rather than simply a meeting.

Here are some reasons:

1. I want very much to find and connect with other like-minded Christians. Through the church, especially one like ours that fosters relationships, I can meet needy people–those who need mentoring or monetary help or physical assistance–that I can help. I can meet women who can help and encourage me.  The church gathering, especially the hallways and lobbies and cafes and nurseries and aisles and prayer rooms, is an ideal venue for meeting these people.

2. I want my children to learn more who God is. The church we’re a part of has a primary pastor who is very clear in his presentation of the truth of who Jesus Christ is and how the good news of the gospel applies in our everyday lives. It’s important for them to hear it from some other authority figure other than just us.

3. I want to worship God with other believers. True corporate worship really is strengthening to the faith of all of us.

4. I want to pray with other believers. Our church may have a ways to go in developing believers in this department, but they’re making the attempt, and they provide opportunities and places to go to pray two or three together. It’s not unusual at our church to see people clustered here and there spontaneously praying together.

5. If I ever were in a situation that needed church discipline or crisis counseling, I would be in a sad state if I didn’t have a connection with a church that had pastors who took their job of discipling seriously. Though all pastors make mistakes, some of them grave, the pastors of the church we’re in  still try to counsel in love and wisdom and follow the Matthew 18 protocol in their dealing with difficult discipline situations.

In Dale Robbins’ article,  a number of statements revealed an underlying worldview built on a shaky foundation. But I’ll address here only part of one of the statements:

“For believers, there is no substitute for attending church. Besides something that pleases God, it is necessary for a believer’s spiritual well-being.” All three of these concepts are problematic, but I want to address here the phrase that church attendance is “something that pleases God.” The Christian community desperately needs to understand and internalize the crucial fact that without faith it is IMPOSSIBLE to please God. It is only those works that spring out of FAITH in Jesus Christ that are pleasing to God.

Can a woman who has a sterile relationship with her husband decide that she’s going to produce a baby to please him? She could produce a lifeless doll (“dead faith, dead works”) and pretend that it’s a baby, and maybe everyone around her will even pretend along with her, because they’re all carrying their own lifeless dolls, but the real baby will be produced from the intimate trusting relationship born of mutual love. The loving husband is pleased in that intimate relationship, and then, ultimately, the husband is pleased in the beautiful fruit, a living, breathing human being, that is born out of that intimate relationship.

Though there is work involved in having a baby (just as there is work involved in the Christian life), a woman cannot produce that fruit of the womb in her own strength: that fruit of her life is a gift of God. The fruit of our lives that is well-pleasing to God is the works that are born out of our faith relationship in Jesus Christ, “Christ in you.” Those works, those living works, are a sweet savor in the nostrils of God, because they are produced from the intimate relationship of mutual love.

The lion roared

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roaring lionIt’s Passion Week, and I’ve been thinking about lions.

In Philippians 2 I was reading about how our Lord Jesus humbled Himself to the death of the cross, so God highly exalted Him.

That made me think about I Peter 5:6-9. It says, “Humble yourselves, therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time . . .”

Of course this passage applies to us, but this time I thought about how that “you” is true of Jesus as well. He humbled Himself. He was exalted. So I read the whole passage in I Peter as if it were about Jesus.

“ . . . casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.”  Didn’t He always cast all His care on His Father?

“Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, like a roaring lion walketh about, seeking whom he may devour; . . .” Didn’t He stand sober and vigilant against His adversary? Didn’t He resist that adversary steadfast in the faith? And what about that lion?

I looked up some old notes of mine from I Peter 5:6-9. I had written, “I went through the time of the roaring lion trying to devour my soul.” And again, another time, “I have been in the presence of the roaring lion for an extended period, more than ever before in my life. It emphasized to me the importance of that sobriety and watchfulness of spirit in this passage.”

And throughout the life of Jesus, and especially as Jesus went to the cross, the lion roared. Roared to split the earth in two.

“ . . . whom resist steadfast in the faith . . .”  He stood against that enemy. He resisted him.

“ . . . knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.”  Certainly Jesus knew that his brothers all over the world would also be facing off with the enemy, in His strength. They would also face persecution. They would die for His sake.

Then, thinking about that made me think about Psalm 22, the perfect psalm for Passion Week, where Jesus talks about “declaring your name to my brothers, praising You in the midst of the great congregation.” That psalm begins with one word from the cross, ends with another word from the cross, and in between describes everything that was going in Jesus’ heart . . . in between.

And look—there was that roaring lion again. Not once, but twice.

“They gaped upon me with their mouths, like a ravening and a roaring lion.”

 “Save me from the lion’s mouth.”

In the death of Christ, the lion roared. The lion roared, as if he had gotten the victory.

But through the very thing that he thought had gained him the victory-—the bloody death of Christ—he was trounced.  And then the triumphant resurrection of Christ, which delivered the death blow to that lion.

In the suffering of Christians, that lion roars. Always looking for some victory, trying to devour some believer—even in his death throes. But ultimately he will be forever defeated, in the very thing in which he thinks to gain the victory, as suffering believers resist him steadfast in the faith. Even in suffering, the work of God is accomplished.

So we remember that ultimately—Passion Week and always—the lion roars in vain.  Never forget that, even when the battle is fierce. In Christ, we are completely victorious, because that lion has already been defeated.

 

We are not able

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That’s what the Israelites said after they got the report from the spies about those giants in the land of Canaan. Eight or nine feet tall. Made the spies feel like grasshoppers.

“Who is God trying to kid? There’s no way we can go in there and take the land of Canaan from people like that. We are not able.”

This in spite of the fact that Caleb and Joshua had just said, “We are well able to overcome them.” After all, they had recently been delivered from the mightiest army in the world. Miriam had sung in Exodus 15, “The peoples have heard; they tremble; pangs have seized the inhabitants of Philistia. . . . all the inhabitants of Canaan have melted away.” Canaan—the land where they were headed. The land of giants. Giants who, for all their towering bravado, in the secret places of their hearts were trembling with fear.

Forty years later when all those Israelite doubters were dead and the new generation arose, they prepared to go into the very same land, with the very same giants. But this time they said, “Truly the Lord has given all the land into our hands. And also, all the inhabitants of the land melt away because of us.” This time, they were able.

I’m sure it didn’t hurt that Rahab of Jericho had said, “We’ve all heard about what your God did to the Egyptians, and our hearts melt with fear.” What? You mean to say that for all this past forty years, ever since the first spies gasped at sight of the giants, this is what was really going on? Even those people in Jericho, the city with two walls, each at least six feet thick and 45 feet high—even they were trembling with fear? That’s what she said.

When the Israelites heard this report, they knew. “The Lord has already given all the land into our hands.” They knew in their own strength they weren’t able—it was ridiculous to think of their motley band taking such a city. But the Lord . . . now that’s a different story. He would fight the battle, just as He had at the Red Sea. In Him, they were able.

Almost five hundred years later, we hear an eerie echo when Saul said to David, “You are not able to go up against this giant.” David knew that perfectly well. But he also knew God. He told the story about the lion and the bear and said, “God will deliver this giant into my hands.”

I’m not able in my own strength, but that’s beside the point. God is. And I believe Him. He’ll accomplish this work through me.

The New Testament shows it again and again. Even though in our own strength we’re not able, God is. Ephesians tells us that He’s able to do far more than we ask or think. Ephesians is also the place that we read, “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. . . . Take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day.”

It’s an evil day. There are giants in the land. In our own strength, we are not able to face them. There’s no way.

But in Christ, through His strength, by His holy armor, we are well able to overcome them. Deliverance comes through faith in Him alone.

 

 

 

 

What does it mean to be spiritually dead and alive?

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Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

When a young friend of mine became discouraged about the smallness of her love for God, I asked her, “Before you were saved, how much did it bother you that you didn’t love God?”

She laughed. “It didn’t bother me at all. I never even thought about Him.” She was in the night of the living dead. Like a zombie, never knowing that she was spiritually dead, when there was no response to God.

I’ve always heard of spiritual death described as “separation.” The argument runs:  “Just as physical death is the separation of the soul from the body, so spiritual death is the separation of the spirit from God.” Of course this is strictly true, but maybe when God talks in His Scriptures about spiritual death, maybe He’s primarily talking about unresponsiveness.

When ravens go after a dead body, why do they always attack the eyes first? They’re looking for a response. If there’s no response, they’re sure the creature is dead.

Abraham had to trust God to bring a son from his body, because he was “as good as dead.” What is that but lack of his body’s ability to respond?

You were unresponsive to the love of God in Christ. You were dead. But now, but now, sweet friend, you’ve come alive. You’re responding to the love of God. Take heart that the very fact that you feel concern that your response isn’t what you want it to be, that very fact is evidence that you have been made alive to His love for you.

But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were unresponsive to Him in sins, hath caused us to become responsive to Him, together with Christ.

Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be unresponsive indeed unto sin, but responsive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Spiritual death? Unresponsive to God, being drawn unthinkingly, unseeingly, always in the direction of sin.

Full spiritual life? Responsive to God in awareness and joy; unresponsive to the attractions of sin. Doesn’t that sound like heaven on earth?

Jesus said, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it fully and abundantly.”

 Fully alive. Fully and completely responsive to Jesus Christ through the power of His Holy Spirit.

When my body parts (my “members”) begin to respond to temptation, begin to be pulled in the direction of sin, I can remind myself that I am dead, buried, raised, ascended, and seated with Christ, as Ephesians says. In faith, desperately dependent, I can stand on the truth of God that I am made new and have the power to refuse to respond to the siren calls of sin. I can trust that He will eventually make true in my experience that one day I will no longer feel any sort of response to that attraction. My spirit—and yes, even my body—can respond in joyful faith to the love of Jesus Christ in me, the Hope of Glory.

Yes, when I sin I’ll repent. But I’ll also remind myself that in the death and resurrection of Christ, I’m free from sin, as Romans 6 tells me. I don’t have to respond to sin. I don’t have to experience the night of the living dead.

Do you say, “God, make this true in my life”? But if you are in Christ, at least to some extent this is already true in your life. Believe Him, and stand on faith. Trust Him to make it more and more true in your experience.

You are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.