Monday, January 28, 2008

We are reading Ephesians for our community group. While recapping 2:8-10 I noticed a new way to think about the concept that salvation can be achieved by works, but by faith alone. Never before had I seen a connection between the process of salvation-sanctification-glorification and works. Finally, it became, for me, at least, that works do have a place, as James 2 suggests, but, in the proper context, works have no value.

Salvation is received by faith and faith alone. We cannot earn salvation through acts of righteousness. The path to salvation has but on door and that is through faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and savior. No work can be involved in receiving this gift of grace. Now, back to that three part process: salvation-sanctifiation-glorification. Salvation is spiritual birth, a singular event with eternal and life-long consequences. Sanctification, however, is a much more expansive, enduring state, covering everything that occurs between birth and transcendence into the heavenly realms.

Though works have no part in that first stage of the process, works are the necessary, external evidence of one's faith in the second part of the process, sanctification. As James notes, "faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead." If you look at the two scriptures without the three-part theological perspective I hinted at, they do not reconcile. How can works be valueless and necessary at the same time? They can't. Each truth has its place in the proper perspective and do not contradict or invalidate the other. For me, it took a while to realize this process was the perspective that cleared the confusion up on this matter.

Praise God.

Saturday, January 26, 2008

China (again)

While considering how to deal with the issue of praying against an entire national assault it came to mind that it would really fall under the category of an Ephesians 6:13 type prayer. Praying against an entire national intent is hardly a wise idea. That pretty directly aligns with trying to individually overthow a high level spirit that stands over 1/6th of the earth's population. So, that leaves me with the question. If I have revelation that an assault of that scale and of that nature is happening against our country, how do I pray for it? How do I begin trying raise up my spirit in a way that would stop this gap? Lord, raise up prayers of intercession, prayers or protection for our country. May the praise of American people screaming your name with power, with passion and with hope be the shield raised to protect our country. Lord, be our shield.
Random thoughts:

Genius (again). This one keeps coming up because I think of the saints as spiritual geniuses. That being said, I keep seeing this image of geniuses as being tuned into a things that are always there, things we normally dismiss or are too engrossed in our normal lives to perceive. They have a higher sensitivity to these things. Take Elijah for instance. The passage where the servant goes out and sees the armies surrounding them. Elijah perceived something that was there while the servant didn't. Elijah did not change the circumstances for the servant to see. he did not make the Lord's army come. He merely gave the servant eyes to see (allowed him to possess higher sensitivity). Fasting has really been on my mind ever since I heard John Paul talk last August. One side effect of fasting is it increase one's sensitivity in all areas. I've never done any significant fasting and I am praying for people to support me in this effort through prayer, but I truly believe that fasting will begin to help me get in touch with this higher order of sensitivity.

Another variation on that theme, something that popped into my mind as I considered what I wrote about above, was the concept of memory. Many geniuses have memories that far surpass what normal people can even think of. I can't recall his name, but a mathematician who worked on the Manhattan project was tested in his 20's by being given phone books. He read them and memorized entire phone books and could recite sections of them. Some 30 or 40 years later he was able to perform the same feat without having looked at them ever again. In a way, this is superhuman. There are countless stories of this kind of astounding recollection, but, what I saw was that most people inefficiently use their memories. Most people are not truly engrossed enough in the things they are experiencing to truly recollect things in this manner. Sure, there are some abilities, not matter how much normal people practice, train and develop their memories, they will never possess or even come close to. That's why the people who have those rare gifts are one in a billion. Once in a lifetime type minds. Nonetheless, if people truly engaged themselves more completely in the life they are living instead of a conversation they had or hope to have, their moods, their obsessions, their distractions, then, memory, or the energy that could be channeled into more fully remembering things, could be of a different order. There's something about people not tuning in, being here now that I see as being a major impediment to the full use of their ability to remember things.

Good books

A few months ago our church was getting rid of its library in preparation for our upcoming move as well as a garage sale to try and raise funds for the new children's playground. Among the books I found two that are really speaking to me: Warren Wiersbe's Be Mature, about James, and a compilation called Disciplines for the Inner Life by Bob and Michael Benson. Wiersbe's book takes a no non-sense, meaty look at the letter. I have yet to see what other titles he's done, but, I love his style and writing. Perhaps I am just at a place where meaty is satisfying in ways I have never been able to appreciate until now. Nonetheless, a terrific resource. The Benson and Benson book, however, is a much larger object for me. It is a 52-chapter (one year) book discussing several areas of the spiritual life. The writing is a collection of various authors, church fathers etc. It seems to be filling my void for good writing (I miss Kierkegaard) and meaningful reflection (did I say I missed Kierkegaard). Anyway, they've been speaking to me of late and are some good books. I recommend checking them out...or, if you live near me, borrowing them.

Tuesday, January 01, 2008

A comment was posted the other day that I wanted to which I wanted to reply. After Kerri and I had a few days to discuss it I realized the response deserved its own post.

The comment was, "As I feel I do take an active role in having peace from God, I wonder how do you apply this within discernment?!?!?! I know what my spiritual gift is, but I am having a difficult time in knowing how to apply it!"

In response to the blogger, I don't mean to sound condescending with my response. If you have already considering what I am about to write, understand it's hard to know what people know and don't know in this medium. So, if I am recovering your tracks, forgive me.

In the end, I see two ways of considering the gift of discernment.

Fruit of the Spirit confirm one's walk

Looking at the fruit of the Spirit, it appears the characteristics outlined in the Galatians passage are not so much gifts since they are available to all Christians. These traits--love, joy, peace, patience, etc--do more to confirm a Christian is walking with the Holy Spirit than anything else. The presence of these gifts merely show one is truly living a holy life.

Spiritual gifts on the other hand can be possessed by people who are not in a holy, vibrant relationship with God. Jesus himself says there will come a time when some arrive in heaven to be judged and Christ himself will reject them even though the walked in power. Christ would more liekly not reject one whose life was marked by the demonstrative presence of the fruit of the Spirit.

Spiritual gifts edify the Body of Christ

All the lists of spiritual gifts I have ever seen do not include anything about any of the fruits as belonging on that list. Discernment, noted in 1 Corinthians 12:10, does fall into this list. When Paul talks about gifts in general he does mention that "to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good." (1 Cor 12:7) Prior to that he outlines, what I have seen scholoars categorize, one of the the three persons of the Godhead under whose authority each gift belongs.

Discernment falls into the area of the service gifts. A good reference article I find informative is John MacArthur's The Permanent Edifying Gifts -- The Serving Gifts: Mercy, Faith, and Discernment. From this it seems reasonable to infer that serving is the basis for developing the gift of discernment. As the 12:10 verse suggests, all spiritual gifts, including discernment, are meant to edify the Church as a whole.

To me, discernment ties in very closely with the revelatory gifts and the intertwined workings of apostles and prophets. Of course, the issue of what one believes on these matters determines how applicable discernment is in today's church, but, recognizing truth from falsehood is the essence of discernment. If this recognition has no "next step", I see it as being dead in today's church. In other words, if falsehood is recognized but there is no authoritative response to this falsehood, what good is the gift of discernment? Additionally, discernment allows for powerful intercession through words of knowledge and revelation as well as an added dimension no other gift can mimic.

I know this may sound crazy, but, Googling gift of discernment offers some interesting starting points. One I liked about the true gift says,

I'm guessing that you're talking about the spiritual gift of discernment (a rare thing) rather than the Spirit-led process of day-to-day discernment. A lot of people really believe that they or their pastor or a friend have been given a special gift for discerning the Godliness of the spirit of something or someone. Very few have shown this gift when they try to put it to work. It tends to break down into an internal political thing. Gift-discernment is often sent by the Spirit for situations rather than full-time, and works like a strong intuition (but more Spiritually focused, like a laser). When it's there, it's to be used, like other gifts, to build others up, and it's always to be used in a very Christ-like manner (but you have to read the Gospels a lot to catch what that is).

Gifts are a mystery, to be lived rather than understood.


Source: http://www.spirithome.com/letters5.html

Again, I want to be clear discernment is not one of my giftings, but, a close relationship with the Spirit is key. Remembering that the edification of the Church is key as it keeps on humble and constructive in the use of this gift, like all others. And, continued development of one's character over one's gift is a surefire way to built any gift, regardless of the existing measure of a gift.

These are my first thoughts on the matter.

Lastly, an article from Paul Keith Davis, on of the few people I have actually heard and know something about. http://www.charismamag.com/display.php?id=8564