"If our religion is something objective, then we must never avert our eyes from those elements in it which seem puzzling or repellent; for it will be precisely the puzzling or repellent which conceals what we do not yet know and need to know." -- C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory
Missionary/martyr Jim Elliot once said, “I think the devil has made it his business to monopolize on three elements: noise, hurry, crowds... Satan is quite aware of the power of silence.”
Is it possible to go through one's life without ever experiencing silence? Yes. Was this the example that Jesus set for us? No.
Luke 5:16 says that “Jesus often withdrew to lonely places."
The Bible describes multiple benefits of purposeful silence, including: hearing from God (1 Kings 19:11–13), waiting patiently for the Lord to act (Lamentations 3:25–28), worshiping God (Habakkuk 2:20), knowing God better (Psalm 46:10), praying effectively (Luke 5:16)
Without silence, will we be able to hear God speak? I don't think so.
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—————————————————– PRECIOUSNESS OF SILENCE “But Jesus was silent.” Mt 26:63 —————————————————–
The Silence is Meekness. When you do not defend yourself against offenses; When you do not claim your rights; When you let God defend you; The Silence is Meekness.
The Silence is Mercy. When you do not reveal the faults of your brothers to others; When you readily forgive without inquiring into the past; When you do not judge, but pray in your heart; The Silence is Mercy.
The Silence is Patience. When you accept suffering not with grumbling but joyfully; When you do not look for human consolations; When you do not become too anxious, but wait in patience for the seed to germinate; The Silence is Patience.
The Silence is Humility. When there is no competition; When you consider the other person to be better than yourself; When you let your brothers emerge, grow and mature; When you joyfully abandon all to the Lord; When your actions may be misinterpreted; When you leave to others the glory of the enterprise; The Silence is Humility.
The Silence is Faith. When you keep quiet because you know that the Lord will act; When you renounce the voice of the world to remain in the presence of the Lord; When you do not labor yourself to be understood; because it is enough for you to know that the Lord understands you; The Silence is Faith.
The Silence is Adoration. When you embrace the cross without asking “Why?”; The Silence is Adoration. ---From the Missionaries of Charity prayer book
1 Corinthians 15:54-57 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:
“Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
The word sting comes from the word that we get poison from. A bee sting. It is not a bee's sting that hurts, but the poison in the sting. Death is bad, but there is a sting attached to death. What is the poison of death? Sin and its power: the Law (1 Cor 15:56).
The Law is internal (an oughtness - a conscience) AND external (God's commands). The law collectively is a mirror showing us our shortcomings, showing us where we are law-LESS. The law shows that there must be justice, an accounting. The STING. This 'sting' is previewed when we feel distant from God... when we think about death... "If we can be sure that death was extinction or annihilation, then we should not have fear of it." -- a philosopher. There should not be near the fear we have of death. This is the sting. You cannot be sure of an accounting after death.
The idea of death, the fear of it, haunts the human animal like nothing else. It is the end all goal of denying that this is the final destiny of man. The sting... and the poison after the sting...
Jesus died in our place for our sins. He came to bear the judgment and account for sin. Your sin must be accounted for! Are we trying to make the debt up on our own or we trusting God's provision for it?
Paul says, "If Christ is not raised from death then our faith is futile!" It is the cosmic receipt the God has dealt with our two main problems: sin and death...
But what about tomorrow (on earth and not just the later reward)?? God has not only dealt with the penalty of sin, taking us out of this sinful world and giving us a new body in the coming age (bringing us to be holy (set apart))... BUT God also has dealt a decisive blow to the power of sin in our life right now...
Becoming a Christian is not just deciding to be good.
This is what most people think. That is NOT what it means to be Christian! What it means is to give up control to the ONE who is good. It is not going to work, us being good. Sin is our fatal flaw... We are dieing! We are trying to be our own savior, but yet have absolutely ZERO capacity to do so. We are trying to take our 'goodness' and have him accept it as our atoning worth -- the opposite of Christianity!!
Christianity says you cannot save yourself, you are not good enough. You need a leader. You need forgiveness... When you get this, you trust Christ and He becomes your savior... In this God doesn't just give you a nice place in Heaven. He LITERALLY gives you Himself through the Holy Spirit.
He begins to move through you and activate the Resurrection power that is within us. An inside out deal! Most American religion is outside - in. 'If I do such and such externally, it will transform me on the inside'... Simply this is duty... obligation... God literally, through the Resurrection, is coming form the inside out in the regenerated believer. The dominate value here is delight. There is a place for duty. Visit this place, but do not live there. Live in delight.
"God's work in us does not eliminate our work, it enables it. We work because He is the one at work in us. Our fight is only possible because He is fighting in us and through us." -- John Piper
The Resurrection power living through us does not just want to work in our will, but wants to work in your motivation.
Obedience is usually dealt with two ways. One: LAZINESS - ignoring motivations and continually looking back and pointing to a prayer to claim Christian status. Two: Legalism - A pattern in obeying God without desiring God. This is what we are when we are bored Christians! Boredom is how you can be certain that this is the case with most American Christians. A lot of us are entertaining our selves to death because this is the case. The Christian Church impact is minimal on the lives of others. The Divorce rate is the same as compared to others. Kids in the Church get eaten alive in the world...
Both laziness and legalism both have to do with DESIRE. Rarely do you hear a Christian asking for God to intervene in their desire. We don't pray that way! We mostly pray that He will make us to do something we SHOULD do. Please HELP ME. This is okay to pray. BUT there is a deeper prayer -- To ask God to intervene in your very desire. God wants to help us to where we want to obey. Externally "Christians" act, but internally it is not real. We all know it because we are BORED! All the right stuff and it is boring! No joy, no excitement -- most of the CHURCH!
Romans 8:11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
The same spirit who raised Jesus from the dead is in YOU (the Christian)! The Resurrection is applicable for ALL. Those looking forward and back. Community and counseling is often needed within the Church, but they will tap into that Resurrection power that is within you, the Christian. To help you live a new identity in Christ.
It is ALL about the Resurrection! It is not try harder, do better. Don't clean up your act.. Get impassioned by GOD!! Get a hold of what raised a dead body!!!
'I am not saying smile and be nice' and do nice church things. We need less of that stuff! The Church has niceness issues! We say we are fine when we are not! Some spend an hour getting ready for Church...
What are we doing? This is not going to help us with life. We need God. If you are a Christian you have Him... rather He has you!
Christianity rises and falls on the Resurrection. 1 Corinthians 15:18-19 -- We are all crazy if we are following Christianity AND Jesus did not rise again! We are fools if this is the case!!
If you are not tapping into the Resurrection power as a Christian then you are missing the boat. You are then tapping into duty, BUT not delight. Full of boredom and not adventuresome.
Keller writes about responding to concerns, 'I like Christianity BUT... I like this but I don't like this...' Usually he would respond similar to, 'IF Jesus rose from the dead then you are going to have to accept all that He said. IF He didn't rise from the dead then why worry about anything. The issue that everything hangs upon is not whether you like the teaching, but whether or not He rose form the dead.'
Did Jesus rise form the dead? -- it stops all problems with Christianity dead in their tracks
IF we are just following a dead guy, you can stay in control and pick and choose... IF the Resurrectiion is true, THEN God broke into our world and conquered the thing we are deathly afraid of. He is telling us that we do not get to be Lord. He proves it by getting up form the grave and emptying the tomb. Christianity rises and falls with it. It is not just important, without it Christianity does not exist!!
Skeptic go to the Resurrection. Study it!
Believer - Are you tired of feeling bored? Something is wrong if we do not feel joy in walking within the commands of God. Legalism has overtaken us. Walking in this duty-laden spirituality without any delight, comes about by serving God in our own strength. Trying to do the right thing with the wrong power. We have a cosmic power source (the Holy Spirit). The same power that raised Christ form the dead! We don't have to be defined by our passed and freaked out about our future. We can be assured that Jesus, empowering us with His Spirit, is emboldening us to do exactly what He has asked us to do in His sovereignty. And nothing is above what He has given the power for us to do so... if you trust Him... It really is about control. Religion makes us use God and make him a means to our own end. The Resurrection breaks into that with Jesus saying 'you are not in control and things work a lot better when I am in control. I have power, energy, delight, joy... Give up control!'
But it was the Lord’s good plan to crush him and cause him grief. Yet when his life is made an offering for sin, he will have many descendants. He will enjoy a long life, and the Lord’s good plan will prosper in his hands.
I like making music and bands to play that music; I like sports teams from San Francisco; I am substitute teaching in the Oakland Public School District and I hope I will get a job as a teacher someday; I have a wife who is beautiful, smart and compassionate; I have this blog to wrestle with, make sense of, and heartfully worship Jesus who was foretold about in Isaiah 53.
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