Category Archives: Teaching

Some tips I’ve learned to rule my Imagination

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People today struggle a lot with various mental disorder. (notice I didn’t say disorders) Disorder in the brain meaning, things not being ordered in our thoughts, (formulation of ideas) imagination (playing out of pictures and scenes and stories in our minds) and internal worlds (the way we perceive, process, and respond to the world around us). There are ways to gain order in these realms that are not actually that difficult if you’re a Christian. If you’re a Christian you’ve got someone living within you that is actually strong enough to handle them and can strengthen you to take charge of your inner world. After all,

“The Spirit of a man is the lamp of the Lord, searching the innermost depths of his being.” (Proverbs 20:27)

The Holy Spirit can influence our spirit to search the depths of our being, so that every “thought can be captive to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor 10:15) Not many people do this for a variety of reasons.

  1. They don’t know they can. It’s like when people say “Don’t think about elephants” but you have to think of elephants in order to figure out what NOT to think about. There are ways that you can deal with lasting scars and images and things you wish you could just put away. It is possible.
  2. They don’t know how. They try things but they don’t know for sure if they’ll work. Example: They try to distract themselves from thinking about things. That works short term, but what about when you’re lying in your bed, and your thoughts are decompressing? How do you “shut off the voices”?
  3. They are afraid that their thoughts or imagination will overwhelm them. Some people have trouble dealing with silence for this same reason. They don’t want to face certain things, so they expend so much energy trying to get away from themselves, and the voices they cannot shut off.
  4. They think they shouldn’t. People think, “This is just the way I am. I have to surrender to this.” And so they just let things play out. I think this roughly the equivalent of letting a street gang pillage a city with no protection any time they want. The street gang does not belong in this city, and so we need to establish Law and Order so that thoughts don’t have just any recourse they want in our minds.

On that note, let me continue with the analogy and say your inner world is like a city. Your city needs to be protected and managed. As it says, in Proverbs:

“Like a broken down city without walls is a man who has no control of his spirit.” (Proverbs 25:28)

Now here’s one thing you can do on the front end to manage what comes into the city: Be careful what you pay attention to. Right? If you haven’t paid attention to the News, you won’t be dwelling on that story that worries you late into the night. If you haven’t paid attention to that lovely, beautiful person, you won’t be fantasizing about it later.

But we live in a world that throws tons of stuff at us, and we can filter some of it out, but not all of it. So what do we do with the bandits that get inside our minds.

  1. Acknowledge that they’re in there. Why yes I do have a thought about doing this utterly unthinkable act! Why yes I do think of this person in an immoral light. Why yes I do wish this person would have something bad happen to them. This gets them out of the houses and into the streets. You can’t deal with them until you acknowledge them.
  2. Bring Jesus with you. Jesus has claimed all authority in Heaven and on Earth. That includes your mind, your spirit, especially if Christ’s spirit is in you. Any time you have a memory, or a feeling, you’re using your imagination to play the image of the video tape back, BRING JESUS and put Him in the picture and video with you. He’s already there, you’re just choosing not to look at him in the image. He’s the only one who has the power to deal with it. This is part of “In all of your ways acknowledge Him, and He’ll make your path’s straight” (Prov 3:6). So, once you bring Jesus into the picture, watch what He is doing in the picture.
  3. Talk with Him about the image. If you feel shame, that’s good. Just don’t use it as an excuse to run FROM Jesus. Use it as an excuse to run TO Jesus instead. That’s what the shame is good for. Submit the image to His rule.
  4. Ask Jesus to embolden, authorize, empower, and invigorate you. Asking is the prerequisite to receiving. All power, not just some is belonging to Jesus now. He is the broker, and he’s on your side, but you have to ask.
  5. Then take firm control of the imagaination. Turn to the image and emboldened, authorized, and empowered by Jesus, take control of that image. Example: Say you have a lustful fantasy about someone. Right in the middle of what ever they are doing, put Jesus right there in the room, and start to do what He would do in the imagination. Push the person away, and take a blanket and throw it over them. Sit them down, and explain to them (as if they were a real person) why you can’t do this to them. Put your heart and soul into it. What this will do, is it will rewrite in your imagination the significance of what the flesh wants to get out of it, and rewrite it into what the Lord God actually wants for the situation. It will not only tell your head what to think, but allow your heart to feel the emotions needed to heal.
  6. Test the image again and see if it still has a draw or “power” to you. If it does, go to Jesus, and examine the emotional, spiritual, or mental aspects of the image that seem to have a pull on you.
  7. Take the image in your hand and cast it into something to represent giving it to Jesus. I like to use the Cross, taking nails and nailing the image like a cloth or a creature to the cross. Or sometimes a filing cabinet labeled, “Sanctified images.”

That is how you deal with one thought. Chances are, when you bag these gang robbers, they will scatter and multiple other things will pop up. Deal with each one as efficiently, passionately, and aggressively as you can, until your mind can focus on one image of the Cross without it getting fuzzy. Don’t let it overwhelm you. It’s not forever. Eventually, your imagination will be under your own control.

“He will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is kept on You because he trusts in You.” Isaiah 26:3

It only works if you trust Him.

A Guide to Reconstructing Christian Faith Part 6–The Cross

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Ground zero for the event which has changed the world forever–The powerlessness of the powerful, the defeat of the enemy, the restoration of the broken, the climax of the Biblical story, the hinge point of history, the humiliation of humanity, the enthronement of the Son, the payment of unfathomable debt, the breaking of the power of Darkness, the “foolishness” of God which outsmarted every diabolically inspired wise one, the end of a reign of tyranny, the beginning of an age of freedom, the gospel boiled down to an event, an image, a moment in history. The end of the past age of hopelessness.The most profound and powerful miracle dressed in the most ugly and unthinkably torturous happening which all the senses could bear. Bar none the most important thing that has happened since the fall of man (except the resurrection, which is actually the second half of this event. More on this later.)

If you are interested in what Christianity is all about: look intently at the multifaceted diamond of the cross. I have listed only some of the facets above, and there are more which I have only glimpsed without peering into it to the center. If you want to reexamine what your own Christian faith is all about, the center of it needs to be reserved for Christ Crucified. (1 Corinthians 2:2) It is the irreducible reality of what it means to be a Christian. I’m not trying to give you all the answers to how, but this being a guide will at least get you started in the right direction. Let me give you four which I will unpack briefly.

  1. The Cross makes payment for every wrong thing done by us and to us.
  2. The Cross breaks all brokenness and makes it new
  3. The Cross disarms the evil one and all his servants of their power, position, victory, and authority.
  4. The Cross gives us the means for resurrection of ourselves and everything in our lives.
  1. The Cross makes payment for every wrong thing done by us and to us. Every evil deed must be paid for by death. (Romans 6:23) Christ Jesus offered representation for any and all humanity who would seek for the death payment for their sins to be made. In the same way Adam’s sin doomed all humanity, Jesus’ death provided an escape for all who would be a part of the new humanity. No reservations, no stickynotes on our record– all has been utterly wiped out nailed to the cross and put to death in his body. What a miraculous, wondrous gift that God has offered us in His Son’s death on the cross.
  2. The Cross breaks all brokenness and makes it new. It is the nuclear eradication of every evil work of man. Because there is no outstanding payment for sin, it also allows the sin’s effects to be reversed and repurposed into something that glorifies God in the end. No one has suffered so greatly that Christ would sheepishly be at a loss on how to comfort it. No horrific abuse of man can remain so ugly that it cannot, by the Cross’s ugliness, be recast in the beautiful light of God’s love and power. God can restore it now, he can restore it later and simply repurpose it now, or God can show His glory through the brokenness in a way that brings no glory to the inflicter, and all glory to the one who works good out of seemingly irredeemable brokenness–like the precious nail prints in Jesus’ hands and feet.
  3. The Cross disarms the evil one and all his servants of their power, position, victory, and authority. The Evil One and Death lost big that day. They gambled all their might on one bold move to destroy the heir to life. They got what they wanted, and they lost everything. Now the Devil only holds whatever Christ’s representatives on earth do not enforce: like lions in a cultivated city, like squatters in locked rooms of homes with new ownership, like a petty faux-king ruling whatever he can where the King’s reign is not enforced or like a tradesman who by his trade enslaves his clients, but his license to trade has been revoked. The Cross stands as the most important reality which has put an end to the Evil One’s rule. Wherever there is unforgiveness, the Cross is being passed over, and the Evil one still has his way. Wherever there is fear, the Cross is being treated as insignificant, and the Evil One still has his way. However, since the Cross has paid for all sin, unforgiveness is a baseless trap. And since the Cross redeems all brokenness, there is nothing to fear. Death was the supreme power over Adam’s race, but by the Cross, Death like a dragon swallowing up the Savior, now has a gaping hole in its belly where Christ has blown through death to the other side of eternal life!
  4. The Cross gives us the means for resurrection of ourselves and everything in our lives. This means that since Christ has made a way through death to the other side, now all who would seek to enter into life must walk the same path he walked. This starts simple: surrendering one’s ability to save themselves and nailing it to the cross, whereby one’s autonomy is put to death, and freedom is gained in dependence on God. It leads to the surrender of everything in one’s life to the death of the cross, so that only that which is of God can remain in our life on the other side of the cross. For example: anything and everything quickly becomes an idol in the heart of man. If a man idolizes coffee, he must put coffee to death in him, through denying himself what he depends on or desires, to embrace the reality of Jesus’ death on the cross as the only thing one needs for salvation in every sense of the word (sustenance, rescue from frightening circumstances, joy etc.), and then being filled with the Holy Spirit so that as Jesus had all his needs met in the Father by the Spirit, so we too can be set free from our dependence on things to serve the Living God. The end of this jourmey often looks like, the enjoyment of all things in their rightful place with God as the source, and good things like coffee as opportunities for praise and thanksgiving to God. This journey further leads to suffering for others the way Christ did and persecution on behalf of Christ. If this is where you have found yourself, blessed are you, because your reward is great in the Kingdom of Heaven which shall never end.

I hope this brief explanation of the centrality of the Cross is enough to give you some things to think about as you seek to know and be known by this Person, who by His Spirit makes us alive, and by His Spirit brings to life all which passes the test of humility and obedience to the point of death, even death on a cross.

He who has ears to hear, let him hear!

A Guide to Reconstructing Christian Faith Part 5–The Body

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Faith may be immaterial, but it is bounded up with the material. Not only did Jesus sum up all things within himself by taking on a human body, but his doing so codified the very essence of faith itself: it is the meeting place of Heaven (the immaterial) and Earth (the material). The Story of God did not happen merely in people’s imaginations, but rather in recorded eye-witnessed history. The Holy Spirit does not merely repair immaterial wounds, but by His life animates the solid and tangible to life in a mystery still being unravelled by the ever-out-stretching rubber band of science. And the direction of the Christian’s life is not merely a gnostic prizing of the immaterial over the material, but the bringing of the material to its end, and making something new and alive in a material sense by the imperishable immortal power of His Life. The Christian faith is not a disembodied faith, but rather it is embodied.

In one sense, it is practical: “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.” (James 2:26) One might say not only that the body is meeting place of Heaven and earth, like a temple, but it is the very home in which the glory of the invisible is made visible. The body is where the image of God is stamped just as much as the immaterial parts of us. Therefore, it is in our physical presence, our physical touch, our physical actions that the glory of God impacts the tangible world around us. This gives us the borrowed power to bodily impact the world for His glory that His life and goodness can flourish.

In another sense, it is archetypal. The body is not only a mystery in itself in how God in His Heavenly power makes the material come to life and grow and by its departure brings about death, but also a revelation of His intention for all reality. He intends that the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord. This is seen in a group of people functioning so in sync with one another that the best metaphor to describe them is a body. Is it just a metaphor?

Faith without a body is an idea, but with a body, it is a power to effect real change in the world. The presence of God in us gives life to our mortal bodies on the other side of death, and a repurposing of every broken thing in our bodies on this side of death. And the body of this death, though sin has reigned and wreaked all sorts of havoc, has been transformed into something new: a temple of the Holy Ghost. See 1 Corinthians 6.

Let our bodies be the instruments of righteousness to God that they were created to be, (Romans 6:13) and so demonstrate how Heaven and earth are indeed going to be one again, beginning with the Holy Sprit’s abiding presence in us.

He who has ears let him hear.

A Guide to Reconstructing Christian Faith Part 4–God’s Breath

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If you’re still listening and looking for more, yes, there is more to being a Christian than the three previous posts. Some Christians will get a little bit nervous here. After all, You’ve got the Person of Jesus Christ, you’ve got the Word of God, the Scriptures, and you’ve got the Spirit. What more could you ask for?

In a word: direction. What do you do with all of this? Are you just . . . in? Are you a Christian and that’s all there is to being a Christian? Is it all just meeting a Person, knowing a Story, and receiving a Spirit?

No. These are just the beginning, and the root system of a tree that has only begun to grow. Tree’s don’t do Heaven all that much good, but it is through growing toward heaven that they become trees that bless more area of the earth. The Tree of Christianity begins with growing Heavenward. In other words, once you become a Christian, you need an orientation to your new life.

I have met Christians who say, “You’re saved so now, all you got to do is pray, read your Bible, and tell other people about Jesus.” This to me is unattractive, over-simplistic and non-compelling. This illustrates a life that if I have met Jesus for real, have been swept up into His story, and filled with a death-conquering Spirit, honestly feels quite anti-climactic and purposeless. What is a Christian saved for? Just to tell other people so we can all be good little “Christians” who are good and know our Bible by heart and are nice to people?

No. The Christians journey to full growth is patterned after Jesus’ journey. And look where his journey led him: to a cross. Didn’t Jesus Himself say, “If anyone would follow me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me”? The life of a Christian in name only does not care to carry a cross anywhere. They’re out for their own salvation. This is no evidence of Jesus’ Spirit living in them.

I have not met many Christians who put it this way, “You’re saved, so now get training on how to carrying your cross, because one day you’ll need it.” And yet, a Christian should expect not only tribulation but persecution. Not only persecution, but opportunities to suffer along with Christ, and be obedient in the way Jesus Christ was– to death, even death on a cross.

Prayer, Bible study, and evangelism are all part of the training process of carrying your cross, but some key elements should be included as well. These I will mention for now.

  1. Being led by the Holy Spirit,
  2. Fasting
  3. Casting down anything in life to which your heart is devoted more than to God.

All that is in our lives that keeps our old-pre-Christian life alive will motivate us to get peel us off the cross the moment we get near it. The Christian-ese term for this is often called “Putting to death the old man.” But it often takes the form of sputtering attempts at being more holy, but ends up making a believer more discouraged or ashamed or entrapped in other sins.

So, we have all we need for the journey: Jesus Himself, His Story, and His Spirit and the expected destination for this journey is a nebulous word called “the cross.” I truly haven’t summed it up yet, but I’ve hinted at it. Rather than immediately answer the question “Why does death on a cross, literal or figurative, equal obedience to God?” I want to give you some time to figure that one out. Instead, I’ll review that the putting to death of the old man, in the form of fasting, being led by the Spirit and casting down all other heart devotedness. Now let me answer the question: how does one do that?

A tad-pole breathes water only until it comes up on land, then it uses its lungs as its primary source of oxygen. A Christian is like a frog. He can go back into the water, just like the frog, and live in it, but he needs to learn to use these lungs. That means instead of relying on earthly sources of life, lean on heavenly sources of life. Instead of being led by your own desires, be led by the Holy Spirit’s promptings. Instead of feasting on earthly food, drink, and pleasure, feast on God’s Word, God’s presence, and the pleasure of His presence. You’ll find alot more oxygen in God’s presence than any pleasant place in the world. Instead of letting your heart get energized in pursuit of anything in this world you love, let the heart melt for God above all, and let your affections be stirred by the Highest and greatest object of your heart’s desire. A Christian needs to learn how to do this, so that always everywhere, he will be empowered to walk in the same world, but being empowered by the Breath of God.

One more thing: remember how this is not all hokey impersonal spirit stuff? We were designed for relationship with God. Our primary, our most essential, our most important relationship is with the Lord. This is the essence of what it is to be a Christian: to live in communion with God in Jesus Christ. He who saves you, draws you to know Him more, and this relationship with Him is eternal life.

He who has ears to hear, let him hear!

A Guide to Reconstructing Christian Faith Part 3– The Spirit

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Talking about this part of the process is kinda like describing sky to someone underground. If someone has never seen the sky, You might depict to them, “It’s like instead of having earth over you, it’s empty. . . no that’s not right. . . . It’s like being in an open cavern where its so dark you can’t see the rock face. Except the rock is lit up, and has a bright glowing light in the middle.” But does that really do it justice? I don’t think so. Ponder the sky (not too long, as that would be unwise) and see how you could describe it to a creature having only lived underground. It’s like that to talk about the Holy Spirit.

To begin, the Spirit is not an “it.” He is a person, just like Jesus is a person. In fact, the Holy Spirit, is the Spirit of Jesus Christ. This same spirit which raised Jesus from the dead also changes a person who is a Christian from a thoroughly corrupt human, bent on self and gives him the ability to live for Someone more worthy and more lovely than any other. He specializes in making Jesus more evident in the world. He makes the Scriptures come to life as much as Jesus’s crucified body He brought back to life, and this is the slightly weird part: he makes Jesus come alive in Christians.

A Christian is not one who just believes the Bible and tries to obey Jesus. The Bible clearly says, “If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ he does not belong to him.” (Romans 8:9) The Holy Spirit needs to live inside that person.

This sounds hokey though doesn’t it? Again with the describing the sky to one underground. No offense, it’s just that hard! Let me try again.

Right now, you are breathing in a certain type of air. Maybe it’s stuffy, or fresh. How does it smell? How cold is it? Underground people know air that is mostly cold and stuffy. The air above ground, at least out in the open, is sweet and free. In the same way, a human being naturally breathes in a cold, stuffy type of air that barely keeps him going: its a close mixture of his self-emissions which are toxic, and the collective toxicity of all other people doing the same thing. This is the “spirit” of the age, which arrests and putrefies the breath in our lungs, and causes us to scratch and claw for freedom wherever we can find it. This spirit is slavery. This spirit is living death. This spirit is against Jesus.

I have met so called Christians who are so stifling and stodgy, haven’t you? Even if it’s from breathing bad vapors, or by refusing to take a deep breath of fresh air, “Christian” air in churches often feels dead. These are not walking the paths of life.

The paths of life are like breathing in fresh air. The Holy Spirit is like this too. With him, there is no ceiling looming over your head, but rather a perpetual light glowing in your mind and heart, radiant with joy and . . . forever. The world changes in your eyes because you are given eyes to see and a new heart to appreciate it. The Holy Spirit inspired the prophets to write a living book. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of that very living Person whom you have encountered. And this spiritually being real allows for some very awe-inspiring things to become real for you as a Christian. Jesus and you are together always: which means if He is in Heaven seated at God’s right hand, guess where you are too? And Jesus is still on the earth showing His love, His truth, and His power through his representatives: Christians.

Dare I pose the question: How does one get the Holy Spirit?

I hope this is enough of an answer to get you started: Can I take the analogy far enough to say, “Follow the surface dwellers to the surface.”? Come out of your burial in the death of the natural life, and come up to the surface, and walk in the sunlight of God’s love.

Do I need to remind you that you are broken irreparably, dead, breathing poison in and out? After saturating in the Story, have you seen just how messed up you are, and how messed up Humanity is? This is also the Spirit’s doing, because he paints the whole world in light of Jesus Christ. If you cannot see your sin, chances are you’re still breathing the wrong stuff.

He who has ears let him hear!

A Guide to Reconstructing Christian Faith Part 2– The Story

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And for those still listening, where to after “Listen to Jesus”?

How to make sense of all the lies, the doubts, the ruined way of things? How to sort through the ruins of religious beliefs that were once glorious temples to the familiar and the sacred?

Well, the for starters, the building materials were probably not all bad. It was just put together in a certain way that eventually left the Holy Spirit out. T. Austin-Sparks talks about how once Christianity becoming crystalized: turned into an institution that fits the times and pleasures of the people who founded it. In my words, it is like taking a living tree and making it into a dresser drawer. To put it cleverly: to “crystalize” Christianity is to un-Christ-alize it.

Christianity can become like every other religion of the world, if it crystalizes, even if it crystalizes around a person. To guard against this, the story of the person, like a crown situating a diamond, situates the truth of Jesus, but it must never situate it so rigidly that the many facets of the diamond cannot shine His variegated light. The story gives plenty of room for the whole Gospel to swallow a person up the way the ocean swallows up a diver.

Christianity is not a set of rules that helps a person become better if he follows them, otherwise it would be like any other religion. It is situated in a real-life story interpreted in the framework of relationship between God and Humans. It’s a story that invites us to interpret our lives by it, and invites us to become a part of it. For the Christian, Israel’s history, interpreted by the prophets is our history.

What gave a prophet the right to interpret Scripture? How can I trust these so-called prophets to tell me the story in a way that won’t mess me up? Who is to say that as soon as Prophets wrote the Scriptures down, it was just “crystalizing” it again?

That’s a great question. From my own personal experience with the Bible, the more I’ve read it and learned the layers of meaning accessible at any level to which a seeker may dig, the more I see a living intelligence behind the intelligence of the authors. There is plenty of fascinating connection between the whole Library of the Bible which tells an intricate and thoroughly rounded out story, which leaves room for its readers to take part. The treasures of these layers are suited to the hearts that seek them, as if the Scriptures itself could talk directly to each person who is honest and listening.

If a person is going to reconstruct their faith, one has to start with and never leave the person, and the second place to start building is the Book. The Book has guidelines for how it must be read–culturally aware, on its own terms, multiple times, with a group of people. All of these ensure a more rich and correct way of reading it. And not just reading it, but hearing it read to you, and not just listening to it, but chewing on it. The Bible is thoroughly interesting, with many different flavors: emotional, matter of fact, narrative, art, poetry, song, numbers, records, visions, history and more.

In short, “Chew Bible-Gum!” You’re going to get that bad post-flavor taste in your mouth chewing Hallmark movies, news stories, pop-novels, blog posts, and even classic literature runs out of flavor eventually. You will experience only ever increasing flavors, and the flavors will also . . . how do I put this delicately . . . reveal what you’ve got in your insides. It will paint pictures of the most glorious and disgusting parts of you. It takes courage to give the Bible the authority to examine you.

Start in the Gospels, reading about Jesus, then go into the Old Testament and see Jesus’s rich cultural heritage in which it is not too hard to find each of us, nor to find One very persistent Hero who will fight the hardest battles to win back the heart of His beloved.

And not to make this too self-focused, but His beloved means you.

He who has ears to hear let him hear!

A Guide to Reconstructing Christian Faith Part 1: The Person

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A volcano–pagan-rooted name for a mountain of fire–the ultimate natural agent for reconstruction at least at the outset.

All of earth is not solid, but sustains life floating above a sea of fire, which regularly resurfaces this terrestrial home.

Is the truth really that different?

Historical, evident, specific, general, absolute, situational–you may smash a rock to atoms, but the Truth? Can you build it on a shifting foundation of fire?

No. The Truth may have been viscous and immaterial at first, but it has become material. It upholds all things by its existence. Things that really exist, are because the Truth is. But Truth is become material, and when it did, it did not become a rock, or a planet, or any element. It became Human. Jesus Christ revealed that deeper than objective reality there is a personal reality.

Now this has led many to question the solidity of truth. Perhaps it is merely whatever melts the heart into whatever shape I would take according to myself. But no. There may be a strain of the pattern of true humanity recognizable in us, but equally recognizable is that our humanity is so thoroughly misshapen. It takes fire to melt, but it takes a mold to be recast. And the fire of the Word of God became real in a person: Jesus Christ.

This is the basis of so called “Christianity”: not objective truths which philosophy arranges per cultural speculation, but a Person living today in relationship with others. The bedrock of our faith is a real person.

Could it be that many who are, as some put it, “deconstructing their faith” do so because they are missing the Person? Or that Christianity has been an egg shell with no living creature inside it? Having been taught Truth as if it were an impersonal thing, for fear that the personal would cause a person to drift away from what is not in keeping with their own caprice, have we merely traded an “all consuming fire” for a ideological idol of invisible stone? What is the alternative?

The beginning point of reconstruction is Jesus, anointed by God. “Listen to Him!” Not in the sense of hear what he has to say, but chew on it, do it, and become it. You’ll have a house built on the rock. He is the foundation. See 1 Corinthians 3.

We seek so many proofs before we trust, but really it is faith which is the decision to obey before all the proofs are given. This is the real terror that drives many deconstructionists away from the faith. They would rather be their own master, lost in a room with only the voices to which they would rather listen to, than the One who is proven to be the supreme Person by his rising from the dead. Do not seek to dodge His call. He is the “Truth.” He Himself calls himself that. Get to know him and see that he calls you to walk a narrow path.

Many on the “Christian” road today are lost. There is a broad path and a narrow path of what is culturally called “Christianity.” I say truly, there is a broad path of by-name Christianity that still leads to destruction. The difference between a Christian on the narrow road that leads to life and one on the broad path that leads to destruction is this: one is out to gain life for himself. The other is out to . . . oh why is it so hard to even articulate this? It’s like the twisted weakness of sin in me refuses to let it out. Lord grant me the grace to even say it. The second has already lost his life and seeks now only to live for the One who is truly worthy of all blessing, honor, glory, and power. Can I say it more clearly? The narrow path of Christianity is the path walked by the Prophets leading to Christ, and the Apostles leading from Christ. The narrow path of Christianity is the way of the Cross, which Jesus called people to carry, not around their necks, but upon their backs. The narrow path of Christianity expends the self for Jesus with joy. The broad path seeks to expend Jesus for self with pride and avarice.

Reconstruction is not chaos. It is willingness to be lost, so that you can be found, or as Paul put it in 1 Corinthians 3– “to become a fool that one may become wise.” But if one in search of wisdom references all according to his own heart, he is just as much a fool as he was at first. After all “He who trusts in his own heart is a fool” (Prov 28:26) even if the divine fire warms his chest.

So then how does one go about it? This is the starting point of how to find the truth about what real Christianity is: “Meet Jesus.” Talk with Jesus like He is there, and you’ll discover that He is, or you are not oriented toward Him. In encountering Jesus, you will find the answer to that which your faith questions.

Where does one meet Jesus? With someone who has been changed by Jesus. Next time you meet someone who calls themselves a Christian, ask them, “Would you say you’ve been changed by Jesus, and if so, how?”

He who has ears to hear let him hear!

What Do the Eyes of Faith See? (C&R)

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These are perspectives found in Hebrews 11 that strengthen God’s people to suffer and overcome resulting in the obedience of faith to the glory of God in Jesus Christ.

The Eyes of Faith see these things:

  1. Vs. 3–“The word of the unseen God is what orders the world that is seen around us.”
  2. Vs. 6–“God exists, and He rewards those who diligently seek Him.”
  3. Vs. 10–“We seek to live in a city that has an actual foundation designed and built by God.”
  4. Vs. 11–“Our God who promised is trustworthy.”
  5. Vs. 13–“While we wait for God’s distant promises, we are now strangers and exiles in the earth.”
  6. Vs. 14-16–“We do not seek our own country, but a Heavenly one.”
  7. Vs. 19–“God is able to raise the dead so as to keep His promises.”
  8. Vs. 24-25–“I’d rather be God’s people and suffer than be royal and enjoy sin’s fleeting pleasure.”
  9. Vs. 26–“The reproach of God’s anointed one is worth more than any treasure of the world, because of its reward.
  10. vs. 27–“Because I see what is unseen, I endure not fearing the wrath of the king others see.”

A way to use this tool: each of these calls and responses can be done with the family gathered at the table after dinner, read from a list posted nearby, and discussed at length. Each is a deep well of what faith is about. They are meant to generate questions, and discussion, and to give words to confess together with believers in Jesus Christ what we believe about the gospel. Chiastically they unfold by theme: the Unseen-ness of faith, the Reward of of faith, the Citizenship of faith, the Promises of faith, and the Eternal Hope of faith.

May God strengthen your faith in He who is unseen, that through Christ you may enter into greater reward, as Spirit in-dwelt citizens of an unshakeable kingdom, trusting in God’s promises both now and forever. Amen.

“Disciple-shelf” Part 2: The Books and Why

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These collections will have comments on either where I came across the book, or what it meant to me, and where it can be found today. The Rating scale is from 0-4, which indicates difficulty or level of interest.

One more word before I begin: The Bible is of course the most important book in discipleship, and the ultimate rule in faith and practice. Until you learn the original languages, and can make a decision how to handle the English translations stick with the bible through which you have seen Jesus Christ most clearly.

Collection 1: Deep Personal Intimacy with God

3-4 Refiner’s Fire Vols. 1 and 2 by David Wilkerson

  • This was on My Dad’s list: a collection sermons which reveal Jesus in a heart-fiery way. Worth reading three or four times just to get all that is there. This was on my Dad’s list. Available on rarechristianbooks.com.

2 Power through Prayer by E.M. Bounds

  • A Classic: the best book on prayer I know of. Available on Amazon.

3 Reese Howells: Intercessor by Norman Grubb

  • My Dad gave me this book when I was ready for it. It’s the story of a person who grew to know the Lord and the Lord led him through various trainings so that he could accomplish the supernaturally impossible. Amazon.

2 The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

  • This is a no non-sense call to radical following Christ. No bookshelf on Discipleship is complete without it. Amazon.

1 Knowing God by J. I. Packer

  • A heart-felt and moving classic detailing some intimately relational ways of God. It’s like Existence and Attributes of God Lite. Amazon.

2 Surprised by the Voice of God by Jack Deere

  • A book which really helps navigate the controversy surrounding hearing the voice of God today still. It is very helpful for how to handle it when God does speak with you. Christianbooks.com

2 The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment by Jeremiah Burroughs

  • Another Puritan classic about the place of Contentment in the Christian Life. This was also on my Dad’s list. Amazon.

0 Tyranny of the Urgent by Charles Hummel

  • Pastor John Outlaw gave me this pamphlet as a good indicator of if a person will be faithful enough to be discipled. If they brought it back and had some thoughts he would agree to disciple them. Amazon.

4 Existence and Attributes of God by Stephen Charnock

  • This two volume book of treatises is simultaneously the most intellectually dense book to read and the most devotional. It combines heart and mind, truth and love in a very respectful and inspiring exercise of the soul beholding God, and the human condition. No matter how smart or emotional you are, you will be stretched beyond yourself and called to try to embrace the immensity of the infinite ocean of God’s goodness. This was on my Dad’s list. Christianbooks.com

1 Revival God’s Way or Revival Praying by Leonard Ravenhill

  • An impassioned appeal for the Revival of God’s people in Prayer according to God’s purpose. Amazon.

2 The Training of the Twelve by A. B. Bruce

  • How would you like to be trained right alongside the twelve disciples. This book simulates this very thing. This was also on my dad’s list. Amazon.

Collection 2: Biblical Theology Worldview

1 Prodigal God by Tim Keller

  • The best explanation of the Prodigal Son which has something for everyone. It gets to the bottom of the gospel for people who have grown up in the church, and who have grown up outside of it. Amazon.

2 Orthodoxy by G. K Chesterton

  • This book is an offered cure to people who are stuck in a black and white world of rationality. This is an appeal to the fantastical and the colorful as an important part of knowing the truth and beauty of God. Amazon.

3 From Eden to New Jerusalem by T. Desmond Alexander

  • A Biblical Theology of the progression of the themes of God’s work in and through the Old and New Testament. This is one of many and this one is an easy one to digest and introduce Biblical Theology. Amazon.

3 In the Beginning: The Opening Chapters of Genesis by Henri Blocher

  • A book that has given me helpful ways to examine the first few chapters of the Book of Genesis. It is very helpful to humbly examine the different theories for how long the world took to be created according to Genesis. Amazon.

3 The Unseen Realm by Michael Heiser

  • This book opened my eyes to things which English translations and church history had obscured from the author’s thoughts in the Bible about the Supernatural world. Very fascinating to at least be aware of this perspective and see if it is convincing to you. Amazon.

2 On being a Theologian of the Cross by Gerhard O Forte

  • There are few tenets of the Christian faith more central than Christ’s work on the Cross. This principle is at the heart of the Gospel, and must be applied throughout the Gospel and the Christian life. Amazon.

2 Prophetic Ministry by T. Austin Sparks

  • The best work on the whole work of prophecy from internal relationship with God, outward proclamation, and the heart of all prophecy that I have ever read! rarechristianbooks.com.

1 Wild at Heart by John Elderedge

  • A book about recovering and embracing Biblical Masculinity. The companion book for women is Captivating, which is also very good. Amazon.

1 Pilgrims Progress by John Bunyan

  • Arguably one of the most important books in the Christian faith, as it demonstrates in a storied form how a Christian can interact in all phases of his life. I recommend unabridged. Amazon.

Collection 3: Outworking of Faith

1 Pushing yourself to Power by John Peterson

  • A great book on Physically strengthening with functional strength, so that the man of God may be exercised for godliness. Amazon.

1 Spiritual Disciplines Handbook by Adele Ahlberg Calhoun

  • There are so many disciplines which each of us have not heard of, but this book provides chances to grow in ways you didn’t even know you could. Amazon.

1 Discover your God-given Gifts by Don and Katie Forture

  • Useful for discovering how you are built to function in the body of Christ based on personality. It’s based on Romans 12:3-7, and theorizes that the whole body is to be broken up into these various body parts and functions. Great for figuring out how the church as a whole should work. Amazon.

2 Spiritual Warfare by Dr Karl L Payne

  • A very accessible, and all bases covered explanation for how to deal with demonic influences appropriated with the arenas world, and the flesh. Amazon.

4 The Christian in Complete Armor by William Gurnall

  • A three-volume, Puritan, thorough, and devotional Classic about how to apply the Armor of God and the strength of God in Spiritual Warfare in the Christian life. This was on the original list my Dad referred to. Amazon.

1 Out of the Saltshaker and into the World by Rebecca Pippert

  • A great accessible work on the dynamic of Evangelism. Amazon.

2 Introduction to Biblical Preaching by Donald Sunukjian

  • A good start to preaching Biblically and well. Amazon.

2 7 Lessons for New Pastors by Matthew Kim

  • A good beginning book for Pastors. Amazon.

2 When Helping Hurts by Stephen Corbett & Brian Fikkert

  • No one should attempt foreign missions or ministry to the poor without reading this book. Amazon.

2 Culture Making by Andy Crouch

  • A great way to consider different approaches to culture as a Christian and strengths and weaknesses of both. Amazon.

2 Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

  • A good treatise on how fellowship works in the body of Christ. Amazon.

Collection 4: The Church’s Journey

1 Tortured for Christ by Richard Wurmbrand

  • A picture of the reality of recent persecution. This is the story of the founder of The Voice of the Martyrs. Amazon.

2 Theology in Context of World Christianity by Timothy Tennent

  • All over the world different cultures are experiencing Christianity differently. Amazon.

1 Church History in Plain Language by Bruce L Shelley

  • A great story of how the church has grown through the past 2000 years, very digestible and easy to appreciate. Amazon.

2 Handbook of Denominations by Mead, Hill, and Atwood

  • A good resource for getting a feel for what different Christians believe and their history. Amazon.

3 The Lost History of Christianity by Philip Jenkins

  • I bet you didn’t know that Christianity has splintered into East and South. A Fascinating picture of the global church outside of Western Christianity. Amazon.

3 Foxe’s Book of Martyrs by John Foxe

  • The stories of people who carried their testimony even unto death through Church History. Amazon.

Collection 5: Bible Translation in Original Languages

1 Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (BHS) (The Hebrew Old Testament) by Bible Society, Kelley, and Scott

  • This is the Old Testament in Hebrew with Masoretic punctuation, Vowel pointing, and Textual Criticism. Amazon.

2 Basics of Biblical Hebrew 2nd Ed. by Pratico and Van Pelt

  • The Book to teach you the basics of Ancient Hebrew. Amazon.

3 Basics of Biblical Hebrew Workbook 2nd Ed by Pratico and Van Pelt

  • The Workbook that teaches you the basics of Hebrew. It is futile to try to learn Hebrew without it. Amazon.

2 Pocket Dictionary of the Study of Biblical Hebrew by Murphy

  • There are a lot of words that you’ll run across in your study of Biblical Hebrew. This is a dictionary to help you out of the confusion hole. Amazon.

3 Brown Driver Briggs Hebrew to English Lexicon by Brown, Driver, and Briggs

  • The most thorough Hebrew Lexicon I know of. Amazon.

2 Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament by William Holladay

  • Not as thorough as BDB, but sufficient for general dives into the text to discover the meaning of Hebrew words. Amazon.

1 Nestle-Aland Novum Testamentum Graece 28th Ed. by Institute for NT Textual Research

  • The New Testament in Koine’ Greek with Textual Apparatus. Amazon.

2 Basics of Biblical Greek 3rd Ed. by William D. Mounce

  • The Book to teach you the basics of Koine Greek in the New Testament. Amazon.

3 Basics of Biblical Greek Workbook 3rd Ed. by William D Mounce

  • The Workbook that teaches you the basics of Greek. This is a must-have companion with the Book. Amazon.

4 Greek Grammar: Beyond the Basics by Daniel Wallace

  • This will spell out just about every nuance in the New Testament in detail. If you find something and it’s not in here, it probably isn’t real. Amazon.

3 Syntax of New Testament Greek by Brooks & Winberg

  • This will help you pick up on the significance of nuances in the language. Amazon.

3 BDAG Greek-English Lexicon by Bauer, Danker, Ardt and Gingrich

  • This is the Lexicon for the New Testament. This is where you will learn what the Greek text words mean. Amazon.

Collection 6: Sound Biblical Interpretation

2 Introduction to Biblical Interpretation by Klein, Blomberg, and Hubbard

  • Great introduction to Hermeneutics. Amazon.

2 New Testament Exegesis by Gordon Fee

  • The Process of New Testament exegesis from Beginning to End. Amazon.

2 Biblical Words and their Meanings by Moise’s Silva

  • Key to a formative understanding of how Word’s meaning are shaped by context. Amazon.

3 On the Reliability of the Old Testament by K.A. Kitchen

  • The most fun any academic has had proving that the Old Testament is reliable. Amazon.

I say again. The most important book in your library is always your copy of God’s Word. Be ready to change Bibles and how you read the Bible as you grow as a Christian.

And I close with the reminder: Christianity can be aided and supplemented by books but ultimately it is exercised internally and externally and eternally. May these books bear you to a clearer manifestation of Christ in you, the hope of Glory.

Your servant,

Aner327

A Pathfinder out of Self-exaltation

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In the half-a-year since my last post, I have continued to walk with Him, and have been spared much self-exaltation by the input of people in my life who keep me grounded in Gospel reality. Getting Covid, being in a time of some “transition” in my life, and also experiencing relational abundance that I have long desired has recently brought me to an all-too-familiar temptation of self-aggrandizement and self-righteousness. I am sure others struggle with this too, but for me it looks like having pretend conversations with people that make me feel good about myself. This bad habit has led me into temptations of more practical natures such as indulging in lusts of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life that leads to treating others carelessly and unlovingly. This most recent time, I recognized I was turning inwards on myself, trying to assuage feelings of sadness and by journaling, I marked the pathway out.

I believe God has given us tools to manage and combat the sin in our internal world that arises from within all us. If you would like to follow me, I will show you the path from self-pleasing thoughts, to God-pleasing thoughts. The person who spends his time pouring over his own private treasures of achievements and accolades, and bases his view of himself upon them is a very poor man who has little experience of the Love of God in his life. And it is the Love of God that our hearts are truly seeking.

Here is the way back to God if you have fallen or some later day fall into this trap.

  1. Repent, looking to the Lord. The most terrible thing about pride is it gets our eyes off of God and places them onto ourselves or that thing in which we take pride. The first step to any right orientation of the heart is the re-placing of the sight upon the face of Jesus in the Scripture. Seeking His face, His grace, His love, His truth. Without this, one is trying to find his way out of a room blind.
  2. Confess the fantasies and my pride in them. Let’s say I had a fantasy of someone who I thought didn’t like me very much. This person in the fantasy is in danger, and I save their life. If I was to rehearse this fantasy often so that my heart got used to a feeling of superiority over their appreciation, when I engage with that person in real life, it has happened that I find myself dissatisfied with the reality of the exchange at the heart level. It is a fantasy that my heart has wanted to believe to be true, because my heart wants to accumulate more worth to itself. It becomes a lie when I choose to desire that reality over the reality God has given me to live in the Gospel. In other words, when I indulge my heart in good feelings over a fantasy of people’s praise, I base my heart on my own imagination and I become puffed up and I “lose connection with the head.” (Colossians 2:19) This sets me up for the same failure of any member of the body that is powerlessly disconnected from the brain. I say all of this because it may not be immediately obvious what is wrong with fantisy. To imagine it is not necessarily wrong if it’s not in violation of God’s moral will, but the way the heart takes the fantasy and uses it to ascribe worth to itself: this is the wrong. The only true standard of worth that the heart should take pleasure and delight in, is conformity to the image of Christ Jesus. And so, I lay out the fantasy before God, and acknowledge my pride in that self-created smokescreen. This is because “In all your ways acknowledge God, He’ll make your path straight.” (Proverbs 3:6) God can only straighten us out, if we are willing to be straight with Him.
  3. Take each fantasy and feeling and self-thought captive to the obedience of Christ. This is where we can use our imagination against our pride. Jesus said, “Take up your cross daily, and follow me.” So, ever Christian has a tool to put to death their old life, and to remind them of their present life, and the promise of their future life. The Cross is this very tool. It is that which a Christian carries with them, until the time God has appointed them to set it up and give their life as a representation of Christ. It is the very thing that separates Christians from non-Christians, and it is a stage of Christian development that not every Christian attains, but this is how the Cross can be the answer to any sin struggle. In this case, what I like to do is use my imagination to picture my Cross. It’s usually laying down on the rocks in a dark-cloudy place. I see my fantasy stretched out on the cross, and take a hammer in my hand and nail the fantasy to the cross for it to die. I usually incorporate a tangible bodily action like swinging my hand with a make believe hammer in it, because fantasy touches reality through our emotion’s impact on our bodies. The reverse is also true. Reality touches fantasy through our bodily actions impact on our emotions. And so, when I take a fantasy, let’s say pictured as my idea about the way a person should feel appreciative toward me, and I nail it, it’s not like I am wishing evil upon that person. It is my acknowledging that this thought of them is unworthy of them, and must be dealt with. Not only this, but it is unworthy of Christ. And the Cross is the Gate by which anything inside us or outside of us can be given to God as a sacrifice. If God wishes our heart, or our imagination about something to be spared, then He can resurrect it for His glory by the leading of the Holy Spirit. Once this step is taken, I find that there is an emotional response like loss or a sadness over the fantasy given up, but this is where the heart must take the next step.
  4. Thank God for the good things that remain. Whenever I have done this, I have found that God gives me great clarity about the things that are of Him vs the things that are of me. The things that remain still alive after all is nailed to the Cross are things are of God, and therefore worthy of giving Him thanks. The things that are of me are temporary, but the things that are of God are eternal. And when I thank God, I anchor my heart’s sight upon the Lord, by recognizing God’s goodness in the things that are from Him, through Him, and to Him. (Romans 11:36). To Him be the glory forever.
  5. Worship, delight, and rejoice in Him. O the joy of leaving behind the worthless and vain things of our own heart-idolatry! Our hearts grow so unhappy simply because we are so determined to want anything and everything short of God Himself. But when our eyes are on God, we feel based on His truth, His gospel, His love, then we have an overflowing cup of eternal joy that will spread to every area of our life. This eternality of Joy is the secret on the other side of the Cross a Christian carries. The source of every dissatisfaction in a believer’s life, is anything un-crucified, or un-surrendered to his or her new Master. But in obedience and submission to Him, a human being finds his purpose fulfilled, and all his life is as it should be until he hear those precious words, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” (Matthew 25:23)

May you and I find our deepest delight in the One whom our hearts were designed to worship.