What does it mean to live by faith?

I don’t know about you but I am not exactly sure what it means for me to live by faith.  I guess it will be different for all of us but I wonder if all those who walk by faith do share certain characteristics.    Spent the morning in Hebrews 11 and I find it to be a challenging chapter.  It goes well with my Psalm for the week–Psalm 89, on the faithfulness of God.

One very small thing I have done in the last few weeks that seems to be producing positive returns is making sure that I read my Bible first thing in the morning.  It is not that I have not been reading my Bible in the morning but it is the order of my Bible reflections.   Until recently, when I would get up, I would make my coffee and then while drinking my first cup of coffee, I would check emails, check the baseball scores, how the market did overnight and maybe even my blog.  Then, I would read.  For me, I had it reversed.  It seems that my appetite for being “connected” has dwarfed even my relationship with God.  And, I really am not one of these 24/7 connected kind of guys.

After a few weeks, I find that most of the time, I am less distracted than before.  That first step to meet with God is all crucial and once it is made, God does the rest.  Actually, he is the one who arouses the desire in me to meet with him–sort of like, “we love because he first loved us.”  I admit that one day I did open up the computer first, “just for a minute,” but for the most part, this has been a good thing for me.  I know how easily this could slide into legalism and so will need to be aware of that–the warning sign of that is when I begin thinking that my pattern should be followed by others and find myself secretly judging them or feeling pride about my spiritual practices.

Since I had decided what I was going to write on this morning, I checked the internet before blogging to see how the market did last night (Monday in U.S.) and was not totally surprised to see a huge drop.  So, here is a good first case study on what it means to live by faith.  I wonder if the market volatility has revealed to some of us where are heart really is–”where your treasure is, there is your heart,” said Jesus?  What a great opportunity for those of us who call ourselves believers to not live in fear and anxiety about possible market collapses.  Why?  Because we trust that “God exists and is a rewarder of those who seek him.” (Heb 11:6)  Because we admit that we truly are strangers and aliens on this world and we are looking forward to to a home God is preparing for us (11:14), “one that cannot be shaken!” (Heb 12:28)

Comments, reactions?

Sharing our faith

Some links to ideas about sharing our faith.

Read The God Debate–an interview with Rick Warren and Sam Harris (well-known athiest) at the newsweek website.

La Shawn  Barber talks about sharing her faith with a stranger

In her post, La Shawn points you to an interesting website called The Way of the Master which has a variety of tools that help us to share our faith.  One they suggest “Einstein + Sex = God” as a tool to share our faith.

Another tool that I discovered when we were in Singapore–an article about using four circles rather than the four laws as a tool to share our faith.

Finally, a book I picked up this weekend at a friend’s house, called Un Christian: What a new generation really thinks about Christianity . . . and why it matters. David Kinnaman says Christians are viewed by many people today as 1. Hypocritical 2. Too focused on getting converts 3. Anti-homosexual 4. Sheltered 5. Too political 6. Judgmental   He is suggesting that we must understand how we are perceived before we can work to change these perceptions.  A book worth examining!

Lord, let me be fully present in my world today, with eyes open to the opportunities you bring.

A culture of wanton consumption

Chilling words from Daniel Koffler about the conspicuous consumption of America on culture11.com

Koffler describes the real crisis facing the U.S.  as one being “a near total erosion of our concepts of personal responsibility, accountability, and self-sufficiency.” He concludes his article with the following:

There remains the core problem: we are embedded in a culture of wanton consumption for no other purpose than itself. The time we enjoy most consumer goods we purchase is breathtakingly short – and having degenerated into a nation of consumerist appetitive beasts, the American people are incomparably better equipped to blunder our way into a crisis that threatens our economic or political system than we are to solve one.

We are a national emergency waiting to happen unto ourselves.

Practice in receiving reproof

“Let the godly strike me!

It will be a kindness!

If they reprove me, is soothing medicine.

Don’t let me refuse it.”  Psalm 141:5 New Living

A few weeks ago, I spent some time meditating on this verse–even used it in a couple of devotional message. So, it was only a matter of time before the test came!

“That is dishonest.  Don’t you know that is breaking the law.  I am surprised that you, a person in authority would do such a thing.”  Those were the words that a friend spoke to me a few weeks ago after she discovered that I had–photocopied a book for our library here.   One reason that she may have reacted so strongly is due to the fact that she is an editor for a book publisher.  She spoke with a smile and spoke, I believe with love.  I did okay (not great, just okay) in receiving her rebuke and with some time past, I can see what a gift her words were for me.

And yet, today, I have been misunderstood a couple of times as I spoke the truth in love–well at least I thought it was in love.  So, I will have practice tomorrow at applying, “a gentle word turns away wrath!”

Safer fairy tales and poorer stories

Joanna Weiss at the Boston Globe writes about sanitized non-scary, modern versions of classic fairy tales–presumably edited to protect the sensibilities of our children.  Yet, when the tension is removed, do we still have a fairy tale or just a tool to sell merchandise?

Weiss writes,

So there it is: a way to speed straight to the happy ending, without stopping to think about the story along the way. It’s a great way to sell just about anything, but it’s also precisely the opposite of what makes fairy tales compelling in the first place. The modern, commercial fairy tale contains no conflict, no resolution, no questions unresolved, no larger issues to explore.

Weiss discusses how important are the dark elements of fairy tales. “Rich in allegory, endlessly adaptable, fairy tales emerged as a framework for talking about social issues.”  What is the attraction of fairy tales, “It’s because they raise questions that we have not resolved.”

Check out the full article but be aware that you will have to register to read all four pages.

Living with the fear of a loss of wealth

Ok, I admit that most days when I get up, I check online to see what the U.S. stock market did over night (since I live in Asia) and how my retirement funds have been affected.   That is really foolishness since I have a strategy I am following and day to day events do not affect my actions.  Ok, again–rarely affect my actions!

The last week (really, the last six months) have sorely tested this kind of thinking!  It was a good thing that I was out of touch with the internet last week and didn’t know the ups and downs.

My wife sent me the following article on living within your means by Cal Thomas that made me want to do a post on this topic.  Then, this morning, I was reading in Luke 12:13-21.  What powerful words by Jesus in verse 15

• Watch out and guard (not your wealth but) yourself from all types of greed
• one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions

And then the parable in vv16-21. Who knows whether we will even benefit from those efforts at building up our wealth.  Hopefully, Thomas suggestion to focus on living within our means will help us overcome the threats of fear in this financial uncertainty.  And, a trust in the goodness and generosity of God! (Psalm 86:15 as one example)

From World Magazine by Cal Thomas

“Greed is good.” (1987 film Wall Street)

“Whoever loves money, never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income. This too is meaningless.” (Ecclesiastes 5:10)

The financial “crisis” on Wall Street has provided another teachable moment. It turns out that greed is not good after all.

While the media and politicians blame the usual suspects, greed, like illicit sex, is not held in copyright by either party or political persuasion.

Barack Obama partially and predictably blamed the Bush administration, but it was the policies of the Clinton administration (as detailed in the Sept. 15 issue of Investors Business Daily) that sowed the seeds for the subprime mortgage collapse.

John McCain wants more regulations. What McCain should be demanding is an investigation, especially of those members of Congress who failed to provide oversight. It also wouldn’t hurt to recommend more self-control and an embrace of the Puritan ethic of living within one’s means.

Modern Western culture has been built on the success ethic, which says the acquisition of material wealth produces happiness and contentment and that the value of a life is to be measured not by one’s character, but the size of his bank account, the square footage of his home, the cost of his clothes, and the cars in his garage. The Puritan Thomas Watson addressed this notion when he said, “Blessedness … does not lie in the acquisition of worldly things. Happiness cannot by any art of chemistry be extracted here.”

Christianity Todaymagazine noted in a 1988 article, “The Puritan Critique of Modern Attitudes Toward Money”: “American culture has been strangely enamored of the image of ‘the self-made person’—the person who becomes rich and famous through his or her own efforts. The idea of having status handed over as a gift does not appeal to such an outlook. Yet the Puritans denied that there can even be such a thing as a self-made person. Based on an ethic of grace, Puritanism viewed prosperity solely as God’s gift.”

The writer might have added that prosperity should not be seen as an end, but a means. Throughout Scripture, people are warned that money is a false god that leads to destruction. Wealth is best used when it becomes a river, not a reservoir; when it blesses and encourages others and does not solely feed one’s personal empire.

The modern business ethic seems to be to make as much money as possible, but with little purpose for making that money other than to enhance the wealth and status of those who make it. No wonder Paul the Apostle wrote that “the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil” (1 Timothy 6:10). It isn’t money itself that is evil. Money, like fire or firearms, can be used for good or ill, depending on the character of the person who possesses it. But money can be worshipped with as much fervency as that golden calf in Moses’ time. In Dow we trust!

Part of our problem is a failure to distinguish between needs and wants. Until the last century, most people were familiar with the Puritan ethic of living within one’s means. The Gilded Age in the late 19th century demonstrated the folly of rapacious living, yet the Roaring Twenties generation had to learn the lesson anew from the Great Depression.

When the Forbidden Fruit was handed to Adam and Eve, they were allowed the moral choice to accept or decline. I know people who have refused to feast on the money tree. They live simply, within their means, and seem far more content than those who are trying to horde their wealth while clinging to the ladder of “success,” terrified to let go. That isn’t real living. The Puritans rightly saw that as covetousness.

Saving your life

I promise that this is my last post from Luci Shaw’s The Crime of Living Cautiously. In her final chapter, she is challenging the reader (us) to choose live a faith-filled, risk-taking life for God. Isn’t this what Jesus said, “If you want to save your life, you must lose it.”

“The life we hoard, clutch, protect, safeguard out of fear or timidity ends up being of little use to us or anyone else, least of all to God and his kingdom.”

“The cliff edge of our anxiety about the future may indicate that Dod is calling us to a new and different level o faith. When we walk, praying for guidance, to the edge of all the light we have and breathlessly take that first step into the foggy mystery of the unknown, we must believe that one of two things will happen: either God will provide us with something rock-solid to land on and stand on, or he will teach us how to fly.” 137

Two alternatives

Luci Shaw in The Crime of Living Dangerously says there are two alternatives for the followers of Jesus today.

” . . . to continue merely existing in the dull, assumed safety of what we think we know, a stagnant pond of sameness, remaining blindly complacent about our unfruitful, conventional (though still uncertain) little lives, or to dive into the unknown and unexpected, trusting God to carry us along on his rushing river of living into the freshness of new realms, larger horizons.”  115

Wow, this sounds just like what I was reading last night in Ruth Barton’s Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership. She is writing about responding to the calling of God.

“Some people seem to make it though life without ever having to wrestle with the fatal question. They seem to move through life with ease–making a living, enjoying the fruits of their labor, taking what seems to be an easy or at least a clearly marked path to security and success–while others seem to be called to make committments that require us to do strange things and orient our lives toward realities that others do not see.” 83

“It’s hard to keep answering a calling that continually takes us right out to the edge of our faith and our human limitations. Sometimes we are tempted to feel resentful.

“But a true leader is one who has heard the fatal question.  This is a person who has seen a vision of what could be and who continues to take steps in that direction against all odds.  . . . because every time we go deep to listen, we know that what God is calling us to do is ours to do and the path before us is ours to walk.  We know it is the meaning of our life.  And so we say yes.  For better and for worse, we say yes to meaning.  We say yes to God.” 84

Let me not refuse correction!

Spent last week in Psalm 141 and I continue to be very challenged by verse 5. Here it is from the New Living translation.

Let the godly strike me!
It will be a kindness!
If they correct me, it is soothing medicine.
Don’t let me refuse it.

As I read this Psalm it is about a man struggling with living in an evil world.  He is asking God for deliverance from attacks by evil men and is asking that he himself be delivered from speaking evil, doing evil, lusting for evil, enjoying evil etc.  Well, in the middle of this Psalm is verse 5 and I think in the context of the Psalm, these words are about friends who correct or rebuke us to keep us away from evil.  When people do this, the Psalmist says they do us a great kindness, their correcting words are like a soothing medicine.  And then David prays, “Don’t let me refuse it.”

What I realized last week is that I don’t have anyone that is speaking into my life about my personal involvement with evil–be it words of evil, evil thoughts or evil actions.  In a small group we came up with a number of possibilities for personal evil–dishonesty, withholding love, deception, manipulation, pride and arrogance, lust, greed, envy, hatred, bitterness, anger, rage, etc.  So, my excuse cannot be that I am not in danger of personal evil!

Other related questions–do I have anyone in my life that would be willing or courageous enough to speak a rebuke or give me a correction?  (not counting my wife!) And, how receptive would I be to correction?  Lord, I am willing to pray, “Deliver me from evil (and the evil one),” but I help me to be willing to receive your deliverance through the correction and rebuke of my brothers and sisters.  Do not let me refuse it!

The value of dissent

Finished Luci Shaw’s The Crime of Living Dangerously a few weeks back but there are a couple of sections that I wanted to blog about and then I can put her book away.  For many Christians (in my circles anyway), dissent seems to be a word that is fitting for the political sphere but is not appropriate for the church–maybe it has connotations of rebellion against authority?  As Shaw points out (as she does numerous times in this little book), the motivation for dissent matters.   “If your dissent is in service to self-centered interests, it may well be destructive of the good of others.” 72  But it can reflect a concern for the welfare of others.  In our dissent, follow the example of Jesus (argued with philosophers, challenged rabbis, socialized with disenfranchised, rebuked hypocrisy, touched untouchable, etc).

Maybe it is a matter of understanding the term.  Shaw helps us here.

Dissent–the word has a prickly sound, a negative, rebellious intransgient tone. It is neither complacent nor compaisant.  It fights back at injustice, at wrong-headedness, at inequity.  It questions the status quo even though that may promote discord. It may even feel un-Christian.” 79

“Assent–the hearty yes that we give to God, our willing aquiescence, our obedience, our diving into the swift water of his desire for us, may also involve risk.  Assent is the opposite of dissent.  God can look with approval and blessing on either one, depending on its purpose and motivation.”  79

Shaw recognizes that dissent may move into dissension–creating strife, disturbances and being destructive.  The test, “If we thoughtlessly, even habitually, promote dissent without a divine prompting in that direction, we may be adding to the fragmentation of community.” 80  Fair enough, not easy but fair.

Why do we need to be involved in dissent?  Because we follow Jesus.

“. . . when dissent contributes to health and wholeness it is in service to the kingdom of God.  Dissent in the face of injustice, dissent to right an egregious wrong, dissent to challenge a selfish lifesylte, dissent to promote a healthier balance between the advantaged and the disadvantaged–these are some of the varieties of dissent that God will bless.” 80

I must admit that I am very challenged by Shaw’s words.  Too often my dissent is for the wrong reasons, to make my wounded pride feel better, to make a statement about me!  And how blind I seem to be to those areas in which God would call me to give a dissenting voice.  Even though my spiritual temperement is not that of a social activist, I would like to see God bring a greater balance in this area.   Much holiness yet to be worked out.

The Shack, revisited

Sitting in an uncomfortable plastic chair, in a noisy hospital corridor that was too narrow for more than one person to get through at a time, requiring me to constantly shift and juggle my feet, I was determined that I was not going to entertain anyone with my tears as I re-read the early chapters of The Shack.  Since I had virtually read it through in one sitting the first time through, I wanted this reading to be leisurely and reflective, scribbling notes and various squiggles in the margins.  Alas, I had given away my copy and was reading a borrowed copy, that I had borrowed away from my wife.  In the end I had to satisfy myself with a few pen pricks in the last few chapters.

Tomorrow I am going to scan the pages in which the main character, Mack, wrestles with forgiveness for one who caused such pain into his life.  Hope to give them out to a group I have been doing some teaching with on forgivness and healing, as a case study.  Expect that it will generate some discussion.  I am surprised what a profound impact this section had on me and in the middle of the night, I found myself praying, “I forgive you.”  Amazing the stuff that God brought to mind.

I think I understand why some are troubled by this book–Young tries to explain that which perhaps is unexplainable and in attempting to do so, some have likely taken offense and think he confuses categories within the Trinity.  Does he over-emphasize the social trinity? Make it seem too analagous to human relationships?  With what else do we have to compare?  I must admit he gets a little weird for me with all those colors and lights in chapter 15.  At the end of chaptert