Tag: Holiness

Lent 2009 and Walking with Peter

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The forty days of Lent for this year begin next week on Ash Wednesday, February 25th. Though Lent as a church observation has fallen from favor in many evangelical churches, I like to follow the Church calendar. It delineates the seasons of the year and helps us to focus on seasons in our lives. Traditionally, Lent is a period of sacrifice leading up to Easter in which we do without and practice penance as a reminder once again to die to self. It is a named period in which we recommit ourselves to holiness…though, this should be our daily vocation.

This year, the Spirit has brought the life and ministry of Simon Peter to my heart as my guide through the Lenten season. I suspect that many of us find a kindred spirit in Peter. He is a bit gruff and rough around the edges. Jesus does not pluck him out of the ivory towers of religiously trained nor was he an important thinker of his time. Just a guy with a boat who spent his cold, dark nights out of the water trying to make his livelihood by netting fish and selling them.

Saint Peter’s mouth is known to have run before his brain and his impetuous behaviors make us initially wonder what Jesus saw in him to validate his selection as an Apostle. As one of His closest disciples, we learn of a man of commitment who shares the same fears and failures that we do. To be with Peter as he abandons his Lord at a crucial moment is to be with us as we question our own commitment when it seems that God’s love should preclude some of the struggles and strife that visit our own lives. Who among us has not stepped from the boat onto the water proclaiming “I believe, I believe” only to falter a few steps in and find ourselves with the waterline quickly approaching our necks?

Lent is a time for us to once again to renew ourselves to the words that Peter left us in his first epistle:

But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.  1 Peter 3:15

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The Psalms

image The one hundred and fifty psalms collected in the scriptures are very nearly a bible unto themselves. These praises, prayers, and laments have spoken to the spectrum of human emotion and experience century after century as God’s people try to comprehend what it means to be just that, God’s people. The psalms have been a part of devotional bible reading and cried out as individual prayer because of the depth of the psalmists soul that the Spirit revealed for inclusion in the Word. The Psalter has a revered place in worship beyond the pulpit as well. The psalms often find their way into the call to worship and the musical selections. The Psalms provide us with God’s word for all seasons of life.

My next series of bible study posts will be on the psalms, one at a time. I invite you to contribute to a dialog on the meaning and theology of each of these important portions of scripture. Have they affected your life or your relationship with God? How does your church utilize this book? Will we be different when we finish this time together.

Lent with Leonard

The Church can ask herself today, is this what our Savior sacrificed His life for? Did He give us the Church so that we can be comfortable, occasionally running guerilla missions out into the world and then returning to the safety of the sanctuary? As I think about the spiritual state of much of today’s Church, I am reminded of Ravenhill’s words:

The true man of God is heartsick, Grieved at the worldliness of the Church,

Grieved at the blindness of the Church, Grieved at the corruption in the Church,

Grieved at the toleration of sin in the Church, Grieved at the prayerlessness in the Church.

He is disturbed that the corporate prayer of the Church no longer pulls down the strongholds of the devil.

He is embarrassed that the Church folks no longer cry in their despair before a devil-ridden, sin mad society, “Why could we not cast him out?” (Mt 17:19)

Before we pray for the change in others, let us each pray for the transformation of ourselves. Let the tears come searing hot down our cheeks at the mockery our own lives make of the holiness that grace offers to us. Let it begin with me.

The Year of Immanuel

The name Immanuel is familiar to almost all Christians, though it appears infrequently in the Bible. We first encounter the name in Isaiah 7:14, most recently heard as a part of the Advent readings:

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign; The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. (Isa 7:14)

Here we are generally provided with an explanatory note that the name given is actually a combination of words, important ideas, that spell out God is With Us. The fact that the young women will name her child so is either an expression of faith in the face of adversity or a prayer for mercy and help (God Be With Us). Of the coming of our savior satisfies this sign as Jesus becomes one of us and is with us. Is this ideal just a sentiment of is it a theological fact that remains true today?  Theologically, God is with us as believers in the Holy Spirit but in a greater sense, God the Father is present with us intimately every moment of every day. Our response to this promise and its reality to large numbers of people is often quite different.

Many times we are guilty of living as though the Father was distant in heaven, tabulating our behavior from afar, listening to our prayers but not present. We do not consider His immediacy when we sin and we fail to acknowledge his presence surrounding those we do not minister too. Would we bypass the homeless man sprawled out on the sidewalk if the Father appeared as a specter, beckoning us to polish the imago dei for a fellow person? Would we casually continue our bigotry, divisive theological wars, oppression of gifted women, et. al. if we sensed that truly God was with us?

God with us is a profound theological truth that has many implications for our lives and ministry in our current day. It is our call to make it clear to the world at large that not only is God alongside and around us, but as Christian believers, He is in us! We live without condemnation for our past sins and we are empowered to turn from our daily temptation. We can walk into any situation as the Spirit leads without fear — God Is With Us. Why then, don’t we live this truth out in such a meaningful way that we change the world radically so that it nearly shimmers with kingdom values?

God with us has implications for our personal piety as well. Often we see the walls around us as come kind of shield between the God who is with us but not near us. If we truly sensed the presence of God, how would our pursuit of personal holiness be affected? Would we take sin more seriously? Would our devotion to personal and constant worship increase? Would we know in the depths our hearts that God is Truly With Us?

This can be our year of Immanuel, a year of radical change in ministry and a monumental transformation in holiness. I, for one, will be aligning my ministry with the burdens that God has placed on my heart. My pursuit of holiness will be an increased priority. God is With Me is going to be the most profound theological truth that I will pursue this year.

Join me.