Thursday, May 17, 2018

Three Kinds of Faith--Growing through suffering



Life Without Lack: Living in the Fullness of Psalm 23 by [Willard, Dallas]I've been devouring Dallas Willard's newest book, Life without Lack.  It was compiled after his death from a Bible study he held with a small group from his church.  Dallas is DEEP--he was a philosophy and theology professor at Berkley--but this book is so down to earth it's worth the dive. 

One of the many gems he brings out is that there are three types of faith:  faith of propriety, faith of desperation, and faith of sufficiency.  Dallas uses the story of Job to show us how God pulls us through each of these in order to grow us into full relationship with Him. 

Propriety means what is right and proper.  The Faith of Propriety means trusting God through doing what He wants.  Dallas says, "Job trusted God to be good to him if he lived a proper and upright life."  This is a great place to start and shows a trust in the character of God to be good and fair to us and God recognizes Job's faith and praises him to the accuser. 

Even though this type of faith is genuine, Dallas points out that it is superstitious and religion based.  It's like a codependent agreement with God:  "I'll do what You want me to do so that You will be good to me."  It's a faith mixed with the fear because it trusts in our ability to please God--and we are not always able.  It also tends to want everyone in society to get it right with God so that all of life in that society will be blessed, which can get bossy.  As you might guess, this faith is tested severely tested when trouble comes.

The Faith of Desperation is a bit harder. Job's friends tried to get him to admit that he had messed up and all his losses were a result of his own failure, but Job knew better.  He had remained blameless and God was still good even in suffering.  Job chose to trust God:  "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him." (Job 13:15).  Not everyone makes the transition to this kind of faith right away--or even at all.  They pout and fume at God for the perceived injustice of their cause.  Job challenges God about his pain but trusts that God will rightly judge on his behalf. Dallas points out that, "The faith of desperation--trusting faith--digs in, holds on, clings tight, and says, 'I don't care what's going to happen, I am holding on to God!'"  In their moment of need, they continue to trust God, regardless of the circumstance. Job asked really hard questions of God, but he didn't run away. 


Image result for faith in suffering
https://quotefancy.com/quote/1541769/Mark-Driscoll-Faith-only-grows-through-suffering
And God will answer--always, but not always quickly.  God's answers to Job were not the most comforting or empathetic.  They weren't really answers at all.  God's presence led Job to an understanding of his real worth and significance, which wasn't much!  With all the focus on "self-esteem" in our culture, you might think that God's response wasn't very helpful but that couldn't be farther from the truth.  Job was more than satisfied with God's answer because he had a better perspective and could grow into a deeper trust.  Job recognized that God didn't have to answer to him, but He had and Job was humbled and in awe at the answer. 

This is the Faith of Sufficiency.  God is more than sufficient and can be trusted because He is God and I am not.  Job stopped trying to get God to make everything right and let go of his desperation. 

faithhopeandheartwarming.com
Dallas also points out: "Keep in mind that God did not say that Job was wrong in what he said, but that he did not understand what he was saying...Teachers know what it's like to have have a student who has the right answer, but does not have the foggiest idea what he is saying."  Job recognizes that he doesn't get to say what is good or bad.  It's above his pay-grade.  Part of the faith of sufficiency is an understanding of our scope--we are not God.  It's ok to ask for understanding--knowing that it may not be possible for us to understand and we may need to be ok with that.

Dallas also points out that when we look at what Christ did for us on the cross, there are are few things that matter in comparison.  God--the God of the Universe (!!!)--chose to suffer on our behalf.  What is our suffering in comparison?  When we behold the greatness of God, the scope of His sacrifice for us, and the depth of His forgiveness, everything we face seems petty and insignificant.  That doesn't mean we stop hurting, but when we see Him as God and sufficient for all things, it provides a much needed perspective.  "We cannot truly see ourselves until we see God, but as long as our eyes are fixed on ourselves, we cannot see God...Faith requires vision, and a fuller faith requires a fuller vision."

So what about you?  When life is good, a faith of propriety might work and might even please God.  When life is hard, a faith of desperation moves God to show Himself and act.  Are you desperate yet?  Have you moved beyond desperation to a full trust in God's sufficiency?  Have you seen Him as enough yet?  Where can you push your own faith to the next level?


Friday, April 6, 2018

God is...Eternal!

Rev. 22:13  "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End."

Tonight I feel very finite, but it is an illusion.  My grin is large and my heart is full but my body is very tired and a little sore.  My energy, my days, my body-life may have limits, but my God doesn't.  He has been from before time and will continue to be throughout time.  He created time and isn't bound by it.  He created sequence, and remains outside of it.  He starts things and brings them to a conclusion but is, Himself, without beginning or end. 

I quoted my life verse last night: 

"He has set eternity in the hearts of men, but they cannot fathom the scope of it from beginning to end."  Ecc. 3:11 (my paraphrase)

Like God, we are also eternal, or at least semi-eternal.  We have a beginning but our end is in Him and therefore has no end.  Billy Graham said of his own death, "Some day you will read or hear that Billy Graham is dead. Don't you believe a word of it. I shall be more alive than I am now."  Still, death remains a valid shock.  Every person you have ever met, prince or pauper, will outlast the stars themselves.  C.S. Lewis said:

"There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations - these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit - immortal horrors or everlasting splendors."

This is where the danger lies.  Despite our semi-eternal nature, we treat our own existence as a frantic rush from here to somewhere out there.  We forget the part that we play in building up or tearing down the rest of our immortal race.  Lewis goes on to say: 

"The load, or weight, or burden of my neighbor’s glory should be laid daily on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken.  It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare.  All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations."  

That thought is rightfully intimidating, but take heart!  God takes our life formation as seriously as it demands even when we forget.  We may rush about, but He never does.  We forget the context of eternity but He never will.  The character we build into our heart's will is what we take with us into forever and it is too precious to be treated lightly.  You can curse and moan about the trouble you face, but it is that very trouble He is using to craft you into your eternal shape.  Paul tells us, "And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns." (Phil 1:6) 

How have you honored your neighbor's glory today?  Did you push them toward Christ, imprinting His image on them or did you drive them away?  What can you do tomorrow?

Thank You Father for the way You so carefully tend our eternal hearts.  We have no idea how precious You have made us to be.  We trust You to make us like You and to use us to build others up too.  


Wednesday, April 4, 2018

God is...Absolute


Ps. 147:5 "How great is our Lord! His power is absolute!
    His understanding is beyond comprehension!"

This month, the scripture writing exercises all look at the Attributes of God.  Every day, my bullet journal has a different Bible Verse for me to write that highlights one of God's attributes.  Today, the word was (theoretically) "Infinite" and in several versions, this verse focuses on that word.  

But today I need a God who is Absolute! 

I love that His zero is truly zero.  His One means one, single, alone, solitary.  I love that He encompasses all the numbers through to infinity and beyond.  I love that He has my past through to negative infinity.  His white is white and includes all the colors of the spectrum.  His black is black and includes none of them.

He Is.  

Because He Is, He has made me to be.  Because He is, all the laws of the universe function as He set them out and do not stray.  Gravity works--I don't have to go chasing my drink around the room in tiny balls, but I am also aware I can't just jump off a balcony.  I feel comfortable flying in a plane because gravity and air-flow and a hundred different laws of the universe are consistent and repeatable. 

Right is right and wrong is wrong and how I feel about it makes no difference whatsoever--wow is that a relief!!  I'd make a terrible god.  Even more amazing, He notices how I feel about what goes on in my life and stoops to comfort me, correct me, and restore me.  

For brief moments, people may want to discard the absolutes of the universe created by God because they disagree with them, yet without Him, there is ultimately no purpose to existence.  There is no good to be honored for and no evil to be reviled if there is no one that has the authority to say what is good or evil.  All pass from existence as a vapor with even less impact.  

God has "placed eternity in the hearts of men, yet they cannot fathom the scope of it from beginning to end." (Ecc 3:11)  We instinctively know this is not all there is.  We catch glimpses of a world that is far more real than the one we tangibly experience and are left speechless in awe.  We recognize the darkness where His presence is thin, just as a fish recognizes when it is out of the water--and gasp for his goodness in the face of that darkness.

Thank You, Father.  You anchor us in reality and show us Yourself beyond it.  I am amazed.