A New Heart and a New Spirit

Our Daily Bible reading this week has ventured into the book of Ezekiel, where God's anger against Israel continues to be revealed. In direct contrast to what we often assume about God, his anger is not incidental or without great justification. Quite the contrary, God has been overwhelmingly patient in sending a message of repentance to his people, and, instead of listening to His prophets' message - a call to repentance - the Israelites choose to listen to other false prophets who suggest that "all is well; those other prophets are just negative naysayers."

There is a warning for us in this teaching from the Old Testament (see Romans 15:4). When we are comfortable, enjoying the luxuries of life, and seemingly all is well, it may be good to ask if we are pleasing ourselves or pleasing the Lord. Are we hearing what we want to hear? Do we disdain the Lord's message: to repent, to come out of the world, to be God's people?

At the end of Ezekiel 18, God says, "Rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committed, and get a new heart and an new spirit." This Old Testament admonition is a powerful message for me today - to seek out a new "heart" and a new "spirit." It reminds me of the words of Paul in Romans 12:2:

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - his good, pleasing and perfect will.

A recurring theme in the Old Testament is Israel falling into idolatry - even though God, through his covenant, has promised them blessing beyond comprehension. Thankfully, we don't have that challenge today.....do we?

A Heart That Seeks God

Hezekiah, the King of Judah and a religious reformer without equal during the era of the kings, dedicated himself to bringing his wayward people back to God and recommitting the nation to its covenant responsibilities. In the midst of this great return to law-keeping and right worship, the following episode, part of this week’s reading, is recorded:

Hezekiah invited the northern tribes to join Judah in celebrating Passover. Many of them accepted, but of the people who did, most did not purify themselves before eating the Passover meal, a clear violation of God’s commands.

But Hezekiah prayed for them, saying “May the Lord, who is good pardon everyone who sets his heart on seeking God -- the Lord, the God of his fathers -- even if he is not clean according to the rules of the sanctuary.” And the Lord heard Hezekiah and healed the people.

There’s an important principle here, one that Hezekiah understood. The external does matter. But the internal -- having a heart that seeks God -- is what matters most. Keeping God’s commands is as vital under the New Covenant as it was under the Old, but God is most concerned, now as then, with your heart.

To sincerely desire, out of love and gratitude, to keep his commands is the true sign of a heart that seeks Him. Neither a legalistic obsession with rule-keeping nor a cavalier disdain for the very notion of rules -- tendencies that are alive and well in the Church -- are possible for that kind of heart.

Limits?

If you love living on the edge, you should trying letting God take the reigns of your life. The thing to expect with God is the unexpected, and that’s the thrill of the Spirit-led life.

I’m not talking about the thrill extreme sports enthusiasts seek jumping out of airplanes at 10,000 feet with snowboards strapped to their feet. With God, it’s not about cheating death; it’s about altogether accepting it.

The excitement begins when we finally realize it’s not about our weakness but about His strength. With God, Gideon defeated an entire middle-eastern coalition of hundreds of thousands with just 300 men. With God, Moses freed over a million slaves from Egypt with nothing but a stick in his hand. With God, Paul, a Pharisee of Pharisees, went from hunting Christians to baffling the Jewish world in his defense of Jesus, the Christ. The point is God does immeasurably more than all we could ever ask or even imagine.

The thrill is being a part of God’s work, knowing by faith that He moved and you were there. As gruesome as it sounds, imagine David’s thrill carrying Goliath’s head and laying it down in front of Saul. David didn’t kill Goliath, and David knew it! God moved, and David was there. They did it together – the unimaginable!

I refuse to believe the unimaginable was reserved for those who lived thousands of years ago when Peter says it was our time that all the angels and prophets longed to look. We live in the time of the glories that follow the sufferings of the Christ (1 Pet.1:10-12). We live in the time of the Spirit, the time of “Christ in you” (Col. 1:27), the time when the power of God is at work within us (Eph. 3:20). No! There is no greater time in the history of all mankind than right now!

So how do we do it? How do we do the unimaginable with God?

The one common denominator among all the “greats” of the Bible is that they all had to step into the unreasonable unknown with total trust in God. Gideon had to send away over 30,000 men before he could fight with God, because God said his army was too big. Moses had to return to the land where he was a wanted man, and face the very man he had defied and who had the power to kill him at will. David had to stand before his brothers, his nation, a giant and the giant’s army alone. Paul had to renounce almost all he knew. And, Jesus had to work his way to Jerusalem to die on a cross.

None of it made sense at the time. No one knew any of the outcomes beforehand – except God. But these faithful stepped forward. The only question is, will we?

There is no limit to what God can do. The only limit is what we believe he can do.

Calls to Action

John's lesson today created a lot of thought. The primary message, it seems to me, is that God - in appearing to individuals throughout the Scripture - always included two "calls to actions": a call to repentance and a call to service.

His appearance to Saul on the road to Damascus is a good example. The Lords asked Saul to quit persecuting the church, turn away from a lifetime of Judaism, and serve Him in the spreading of the gospel of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles.

The example of Abram stirred my thinking the most. In Genesis 10, God asked Abram to pick up and leave his native country along with the bulk of his family - without telling him exactly where he wanted him to go or what his specific mission would be. Although God did promise Abram that there would be blessings for him, the Scripture doesn't indicate that Abram had any more details upon which to make a decision.

This, however, is not our nature. It certainly isn't MY nature. Yes, I want to do God's will, but I want all the details! I want to figure out if God needs my help with His plan. I want to weigh the pros and the cons, and I definitely want to know where I will wind up...

However, God has called me just like He called Abram: he has asked me to pick up and go; he has asked me to keep my eyes open along the way and do those works He has prepared for me (Ephesians 2:10); and, He has asked me to look at people much differently - to love them as He loved me (John 13:34). And, he has promised me enormous blessing, just as He did Abram...

Such is the nature of faith - as Paul told the Corinthian church: "We live by faith, not by sight" (1 Corinthians 5:7). I suspect that God knows the journey will require effort, even sacrifice, on my part, and it is in my best interest not to know the destination until I have arrived. I suspect that our Father is probably teaching me that the journey itself is just as important as the destination.

"Thank you, Father. Give me strength for the journey - and the faith to repent, to go, and to serve."

Peace Beyond Harvest

Many are asking, “Who can show us any good?”

Let the light of your face shine upon us, O Lord.

You have filled my heart with greater joy

Than when their grain and new wine abound.

I will lie down and sleep in peace,

For you alone, O Lord,

Make me dwell in safety.

(David, from Psalm 4)

Laced through the chronicles of David, where we are currently reading, are many of David’s Psalms.

At first, I was struggling with them. What did they mean? Not just what did they mean, but what do they mean for me? Honestly, David rants a lot. And, I was growing weary. But then, as my heart softened, I started to hear his honesty, and faith, and love for a God that was too much for David…too good, and too gracious, and patient.

Then David’s heart started speaking to mine, and suddenly I was feeling David’s words. I was sharing his longing and awe for God.

This is the miracle of God’s living Word: He writes it on our hearts!

We are still asking, “Who can show us any good?” We spend much time looking to the better time – the time to come – when things won’t be so hard, when our harvest of grain and new wine, which might be for us that new job, or the end of a project or activity, or a raise, or whatever -- will come and bring us peace and joy.

David’s thought is that while others spend their time and energy looking for what will bring them peace and joy, David spends his time with the One who is peace and joy.

So "tonight" -- every night -- David slept well, because God is, and David knew Him. (2 Tim.1:12)

How are you sleeping?

More of Him is your answer. You have to give Him time -- time to let the light of His face make His impression on your heart. And that will make all the difference.

Note: Many at Open Door are reading through the Bible this year. We’re using The Daily Bible, arranged by F. Lagard Smith. He has organized the text chronologically to give readers the sense of scope and sequence of God’s work for the world through the generations of the Hebrews. Why don’t you join us and share in our blessings...?

DIY Sanctification

The post on Tuesday, April 29 got me to thinking:

We know there’s nothing we can do to earn justification from God. He declares us guilt-free as an act of sheer grace, not because he’s obligated to us or because we deserve it.

I have to wonder, though: Once we’re saved, do we revert to do-it-yourself mode? Are we in some sense trying to earn our sanctification? I don’t think it’s intentional. But I do think it’s the natural consequence of our traditionally conflicted attitude toward the Holy Spirit.

We concede the Spirit has a role to play in principle, but let’s face it — in practice, we’ve been at best reluctant recipients of this gift. At worst, we’ve effectively shut Him out altogether, I fear.

Divine mysteries don’t fit so well in the fixed easy-to-follow formulas we crave.

But if the Spirit’s not driving us, a state of arrested spiritual development is the best we can hope for. We can go through the motions, do the overt acts of service which in themselves are good. But if the Spirit isn’t generating them, do they point to real internal transformation?

Don’t we often wonder why we don’t love more, give more, why our assemblies seem perfunctory and joyless, why our numbers are declining, why the truths we hold dear seem increasingly irrelevant to the culture at large, why we search our souls for answers but they elude us — why we demand lockstep allegiance on doctrine and yet so readily ignore the weightier matters when somebody, God help him, disagrees.

Maybe it’s the best a spiritually stunted people can do.

Is the Spirit Working?

Have you ever found yourself asking if God is truly working in your life? Have you ever wondered if the Spirit is really influencing your thoughts or your actions?

I have. There was a point in my life where I found myself in prayer asking God for wisdom and for spiritual discernment. I asked God to help me grow spiritually. As I studied the Scripture, I tried to "make every effort" to add to my faith the traits outlined in 2 Peter 1: goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love.

One evening, as I was reading Scripture, I found myself in Galatians 5:22 where the "fruits" of the Spirit are recorded. I would be proud to say that I had them memorized; yes, indeed, I have been able to recite them for years. But, that day, I was struck by something profound. As I looked at those "fruits" that my mind had committed to memory - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control - I realized that I was sorely lacking in many of them.

Joy? Not so stellar. Peace? Occasionally. Patience? Nope. Kindness? If absolutely necessary. Goodness? Yes, I think so. Gentleness? Ouch. Faithfulness? Again, I think so. Self-control? Seriously? Why did self-control have to be in this list?

Is the Spirit working in your life? It shouldn't be a difficult question to answer. You can readily tell by the evidence of "fruit." As trees grow and mature, so does the fruit produced by the tree. At that moment I looked at my life and realized that I was not allowing the Spirit to manifest His works in my life. I needed to make significant strides in patience and kindness and gentleness. And definitely in self-control.

So, I made that my priority. It is always a huge victory for me, and a source of thanksgiving, when I recognize that the Spirit produces behavior in these areas that I could never produce on my own. Those are the times that I am completely assured that He is influencing my thoughts and actions.

And when I fail, sometimes miserably so, I thank God for the pruning and pray that the Spirit will call me to be more faithful.

Heart of darkness

John’s lesson this past Sunday referenced David’s appeal to God to “create in me a clean heart.”

Sometimes we forget just how badly we need God to do that. In his book Heart of Darkness, one of my favorites, Joseph Conrad uses a steamboat voyage into the heart of darkest Africa as a metaphorical vehicle for transporting readers into a region no less dark and savage: the human heart.

The idea is that if you look deep inside yourself — beyond the make-up and stage props, past the civilizing effects of law and social convention, right through to the real you, your innermost self, what you discover will frighten you. It’s a jungle in there. Sinful desires that could swallow a man whole prowl there freely.

A common conceit we Christians, and most everyone else for that matter, indulge in is that because we keep the law, work hard and provide for our families we must be generally good people. But Conrad’s nightmarish images are sobering. They remind us what we’re really capable of — what we must look like to God and what he finds after he takes up residence in our hearts when we put on Christ.

Scripture tells us our heart becomes the sanctuary of the Spirit. It also tells us that some major changes are in order, if we let the Spirit work.

About those sinful desires that could swallow you whole: The cage of law and social convention we erect and maintain to keep them at bay does permit civilization to continue functioning. But external restraining devices like laws and social norms lack real transformative power. For that kind of change to happen, someone has to descend into those deep-down scary places and drive out the dark things personally.

Hence David’s appeal to “create in me a clean heart.” The Man After God’s Own Heart had to face a bitter fact: After all the triumphs God had granted him, after all the time he'd spent in His presence, he was still, in his weaker moments, capable of unimagineable evil. And he was powerless, by himself, to change that fact.

That’s the way it works. We can follow the motions and rituals to perfection, but real change must occur on the inside and it must come from another Source.

Joseph Conrad didn’t believe in that Source. But his insights into life without it were prophetic; his book essentially forecasts the coming 20^th Century, a time when humankind’s capacity for evil would prove not only fathomless but capable of endless reinvention.

Fish tales

Before I launch into this, one disclaimer:

If you have one of those Ichthys fish on your car, I don’t have a problem in the world with it. There’s not anything inherently wrong with sticking a shiny Ichthys emblem on your bumper. It’s a symbol and conveys something about what you believe, similar in that sense to wearing a cross around your neck. You may fail to live up to your symbols, just don’t bow down to them. Our fellowship is using a symbol of its own, an open door, to send a message about what we believe, who we are and what sets us apart. But Christians, we’d all agree, should be known primarily for their words and actions, not by an insignia.

And that’s just where the fish gives me pause.

While there are more fish emblems and other assorted Christian symbols out there than ever, it doesn’t translate to a rise in Christian influence. Whatever the symbol means, it doesn’t appear to mean we’re changing anything. Starting humbly, from a few fishes and loaves, Christianity converted the Roman Empire from the ground up. Now our civilization is busy converting back.

That’s the irony of the fish. Centuries before some marketing savant foresaw a fast buck in it, it served as an identifying mark for first-century believers, allowing them to find each other when dangerous times demanded secrecy. As such, the symbol was a harbinger of a coming revolution.

With its modern reemergence, however, if there’s a revolution afoot, we’re on the wrong end of it. Christianity is rapidly losing its influence in the West. If it sends us back to our roots, though, the decline may not be an altogether bad thing.

The Spirit-driven early Christians won the west for Christ through words and deeds, one pagan heart at a time. The difference today, I believe, is while our emblems are everywhere, we don’t back them up with the words and deeds. We can pepper the world with symbols, but it’s no substitute for salt — for the purifying, redemptive influence only the Spirit-led sons and daughters of the King can bring.

At Open Door, with our focus on that first-century spirit, I think we have a clear grasp of this and are demonstrating our faith by keeping words and actions central. Let's pray we continue.

Spiritual Growth

If there is any one barometer of spiritual growth, it may be the way we approach and resolve conflict. The fruit of the Spirit identified in Galatians 5:22ff are identified as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control. Look at how many of those Spirit-inspired traits are useful - and evident - when dealing with conflict!

Conflict, however, is often where our sinful nature overwhelms us. The acts of the sinful natured are also identified in Galatians 5, and they included hatred, discord, fits of rage, jealousy, selfish ambition and dissension.

I tend to have little trouble with patience, kindness and self-control if everyone is getting along. On the other hand, if conflict arises, it is naturally much more difficult to live those traits. "Naturally" because my nature wants to take over and control my response. This, I think, is exactly how God demonstrates to us where we are on the road of spiritual growth.

I am convinced that God uses conflict to allow me to check my progress on the road to becoming more and more like the Christ as Paul discusses in Philippians 2. In fact, I think that the awareness of my failures during conflict are a sure sign of the convicting work of the Spirit.

The question is, do I seek forgiveness for my failures and make changes in my actions in future conflict - allowing the Spirit to produce fruit in my life - or do I make excuses and claim "this is just the way I am?"