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How Knowing God Can Make You Ecstatically Grateful

Plunge yourself in the Godhead’s deepest sea; be lost in His immensity; and you shall come forth as from a couch of rest, refreshed and invigorated. I know nothing which can so comfort the soul, so calm the swelling billows f sorrow and grief; so speak peace to the winds of trial, as a devout musing upon the subject of the Godhead.  – Charles H. Spurgeon

Sing praises to the LORD, O you his saints, and give thanks to his holy name.

(Psalm 30:4)

            King David was a man who had a heart for God. He composed Psalm 30 in response to the great kindness God poured out upon him when he saved David from death.

God has many names. Each name describes who he is and what he does. In this song David sings that God is the Lord and is holy. Singing about God as Lord is acknowledging his absolute authority, control, and power.

Singing about God’s holiness means recognizing that the Lord is set far above everyone and everything. This is because he is Creator, the supreme Lord of the universe who is distinct from his creation and his creatures. This is also because God is morally pure and awesomely perfect. Along with all creation, the Bible points out that this true and living One has no equal.

However, while our Lord is totally The Other, he is not what Deists claim – a God who created the world and left it to run on its own without engagement. David knew God as the only transcendent, powerful, and perfect God of the universe. Yet, he also knew God as one intimately present with him. Through amazing love and awesome kindness, this holy Lord used his power to raise David up from the clutches of impending death. God was not an abstract concept but a personal being that was there for him.

When David began to sink into death’s dark bog he cried out to his Helper for mercy. God expressed his gracious favor with a force that lifted the king out the grave’s threatening clutches and into a full restoration.

How does David respond? Through music. His ecstatic heart proclaims what God did for him. He praises the Lord for his incredible kindness and then dances a jubilant jig. No sports fan wildly cheering his team’s victory could be more excited!

God’s merciful intervention was so profound that David could not restrain his joy. The man went from near death to life, from weeping to joy, from abandonment to loving embrace, and from deep sorrow to dancing. With profound gratitude, this king vows to give thanks to the Lord forever.

Then, he urges those who have a special relationship with the Supreme Savior to join him in a celebration of praise and thanks. David’s bond with the Lord became an overflow of perpetual appreciation.

The point of this song is that you too can express a deep and even ecstatic appreciation for who God is and what he does. This exuberant gratitude is something you can have.  It is for those who have a soul-deep trust in God who rescues. You and I can experientially know God through his son Jesus Christ. Jesus came down from heaven to save us from the ugly grip of death (spiritual death caused by sin and guilt as well as physical death) and restore us to real life. For this, we can be very grateful.

Like King David, when you recognize your plight, cry out to God for rescue, experience the supreme and holy Lord’s personal intervention in your life, then you too can possess a profound joy-filled thanks. Along with David, you too can develop a life of continual thanks.

Dear Lord, teach me to know you so well that every day

I would be grateful for who you are and what you do.

Some things to strengthen your gratitude:

  • Take five minutes of focused attention on how wonderfully profound God’s unique character is. He is the holy Lord of the universe who shows you mercy, grace, and love.
  • Think about how God has come to your rescue, shown you grace, or has been very kind to you.  Then, tell the Lord how grateful you are of who he is and what he does in your life.
  • With pen in hand, write in a journal how contemplating who this holy and supreme God is and what he does, moves you.

__________________

This post is also found at www.donowsley.com.  It is an excerpt from the devotional guide, book two of my upcoming series, ThanksLiving (How to Gain Perspective to Enrich Your Life).  The how-to guide and devotional series is intended to help you develop a mindset of gratefulness by increasing your gratitude quotient.

How Knowing God Can Make You Ecstatically Grateful2023-06-27T11:47:54-06:00

Beyond Information to Encounter

Never has there been a time in history when so much Bible knowledge was available at our fingertips. The YouVersion app recently hit the 1,000 mark in terms of number of Bible translations, with over 700 languages available. Additionally, there are more commentaries accessible to the general population than ever before. If you want to understand something and are resourceful, you can find a way to learn it. As someone who has a hunger for knowledge, I’m grateful to live in the iPhone age. However, I think there are a number of dangers for us to be aware of as we navigate the every-expanding sea of information.

For those who follow the way of Jesus, one of the greatest threats that imposes itself against us is the temptation to substitute knowing about Jesus for actually knowing Jesus. We all know there is a difference between knowing someone and knowing about someone. In a day and age where we’re bombarded with information, we must be diligent about pursuing relationship and transformation rather than settling for information. Jesus addressed this same temptation in his interaction with the Pharisees. In John 5:39-40 he stated, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.” The Scriptures have never been an end in and of themselves, they’ve always been an invitation to know Jesus intimately and to receive life from him in abundance.

How do we know Jesus intimately? There are three ways that as followers of Jesus that we can pursue relationship rather than settling for mere information.

  • Embrace obedience fully! It is impossible to know Jesus intimately without being obedient to his commands. Jesus made this point clear in John 14 when he said, “[21] Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” [22] Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” [23] Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. [24] Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.”There are a number of things to note in this passage. First, Jesus promised to ‘manifest himself’ to those who are obedient to his commandments. The word manifest carries with it the idea of making oneself known. Jesus claims that if we are obedient, he will make himself known to us. The implications of lack of obedience are evident as well. If we are unwilling to follow Jesus, we shouldn’t expect to know or see him.

    The second thing to note from the above passage is the fact that Jesus claims, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” There is a three-fold promise given. As we obey, we know the love of God, he comes to us, and he abides in us. These are all very intimate ways of knowing the Messiah and they all flow directly from being obedient.

  • Abide with Jesus intentionally. In John 15:4, Jesus commands his followers of abide in him. The word abide could easily be translated, “make your home in.” This is something that does not happen by accident. It happens as we cultivate a life that is constantly aware of the presence of God and in dialogue with him continually.Much of our ability to abide in Jesus has to do with our intentions. It has to do with our outlook on life. It has to do with the practices we embrace as part of our pursuit of Jesus. The Puritans used to talk about the things that ‘stirred their affections for Jesus.’  They wanted to pay attention what helped them remember the presence of God and what helped them fall more in love with their savior. They wanted become students of their own heart.For some people abiding means engaging the Daily Office and taking multiple times each day to read the scriptures and pray. For others it means going on a walk with the awareness that Jesus is present. For some, your affections for Jesus are stirred when you gather with good friends around a good meal. For others, you need daily time in silence and solitude. What helps you abide? Have you ever thought about that before? Maybe today you spend some time asking the question, “What helps me fall more in love with Jesus?” Then, make a plan to do it.
  • Encounter the Spirit personally. The Scriptures are clear, the Spirit of God dwells in you. Paul made this point in 1 Corinthaisn6:19 Paul wrote, “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own…” What a truth; the creator God who spoke everything into existence lives in YOU.If we are going to encounter God personally, we must be aware that he dwells by His Spirit inside of us. We must also become more aware of what he promises to do within us. This week, read through John 16 and make a note of the things Jesus promises Holy Spirit will do. Jesus claimed that it was better for him to go away so that Holy Spirit would come (John 16:3)! That’s pretty high praise from Jesus, do you know why Jesus felt this way? John 16 will help you see the reason for Jesus’ reasoning.

In the end, the difference between pursing information and encounter comes down to an approach. Certainly, these two approaches are not mutually exclusive, nor are they entirely separable. However, only one of them will be our driving motivation. Paul’s motivation was, ‘knowing Jesus!’ Let’s make it ours as well.

 

Beyond Information to Encounter2016-11-06T00:00:00-06:00

Don’t Grumble | Philippians 2:14-15

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we shine as lights in a wicked world … by not grumbling

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Do all things without grumbling or questions, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world. 

 

Jesus tells his followers to shine brightly like a light on a hill and a lamp on a stand so others can see the light of our good works and end up glorifying God (Matthew 5:14-16). Peter describes our new identity in Jesus as called us out of darkness and put into God’s marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9-10). In Philippians, Paul tells us we shine as lights in a wicked world, and one of the ways he urges us to do that is by not grumbling or questioning.

Oh dear. Does this mean we all fail?  After all, who doesn’t grumble or question once in a while? Does this mean those who are in Christ may never grumble? And what about Moses who often complained to God, or Psalmists or prophets who wrote detailed laments? Weren’t they grumbling or questioning? It sure seems that way but as with any passage we need to read it in context.

Paul’s language reflects the Old Testament. Like Israel, the Philippians were taken out of the old world and placed into the new. Like Israel, they were called to live in righteousness as lights to the world in order to display the radiant beauty of the one true God. However, there were times when Israel was reprimanded for having a rebellious heart. These were times Israel did not fear and tremble before God. Instead, they grumbled and questioned him. Unlike the complaints to the Lord from Moses, David, the prophets, and others, the rebels in Israel grumbled in defiance and questioned what God was doing (Ex. 15:24, 16:7-9; 1 Cor. 10:10). Their words and actions were of rebellion, not one of crying out to the Lord for help or wondering what he was doing. Their questioning was essentially a demand for God to do things their way.

Take a few moments today to reflect on your heart. When you grumble and ask God questions, do you end in a prayer of trust or do you end with clenched fists asking God to do things your way? Talk to God about why you answered the way you did.[/vc_column_text][us_separator height=”25px” size=”custom”][vc_column_text]

By Don Owsley

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Don’t Grumble | Philippians 2:14-152016-10-18T00:00:00-06:00

New Song: Abide With Me (Matt Redman, Matt Maher)

This song is not completely new at this point but I still wanted to write a bit about it. It has been a joy singing this as a church. It’s one of those songs that capitalize on the fact that South Fellowship Church is a singing church. I love that about our church!

Whenever we add a song to our repertoire I ask myself what truths the song presses upon us. That is, after all, what music does, it presses upon us ideas and emotions. I long to sing a body of songs that press a diverse range of gospel truths upon us. In the ups and downs of life, we ought to have songs that linger on the surface of our souls that bubble up and help us to think and feel correctly. So the question is the same for this song. What truths and emotions does this song offer us?

One theological truth that sets Christianity apart is the incarnation. Simply put, God became a man. We have a God who understands the human condition, understands the temptation, and understands pain. It’s on that foundation that God’s love is poured out for us. This song emphasizes this truth with lines like: “You walked it first, You know our pain” and “You met us in our suffering and bore our shame.” These ideas help us remember that we don’t have a distant God. We have a God who “met us in our suffering.”

We sing another song at South called Abide With Me. It is one of my favorite songs but I’ve had one issue with it. Why ask God to abide with me if he is omnipresent and he has given us his spirit to dwell with us? I think we still benefit from making such requests because the requests are honest. Knowing a theological truth doesn’t automatically mean it’s easy to feel the implications of that truth. The Psalms are filled with prayers that are probably not theologically or morally informed but are emotionally honest. For example, there are many times in the Psalms when the psalmist asks God to commit violent acts against his enemies. Praying for the destruction people does not reflect the heart of God who died for his enemies. Is it wrong to pray? I don’t think so but that is another blog. There is a great video that addresses this if you want more answers about that. The point is, that we are free to pray honest prayers to God. When we ask God to “abide with me” the answer is a resounding “yes.” It’s almost an unnecessary prayer if we think God wasn’t going to abide. It’s only necessary because WE need to say it to remind us of God’s consistent answer.

One of the reasons I love the Chorus of this song is that it extends a reminder of God’s posture towards a prayer like this. The lyrics say, “Ever close, God abide with me.” When I ask God to abide, I must remember that he is, “ever close.” God’s posture towards us is not distant. It is not God who is distant from us, it is our own awareness and openness that makes us removed from him. This chorus reminds us that he is near and waiting to engage us with his, never letting go, love. It’s as if he is chomping at the bit for us to wake up and say we want his presence. As soon as we do, he is immediately available to declare his love.

Lyrics

I have a home, eternal home
But for now I walk this broken world
You walked it first, You know our pain
But You show hope can rise again up from the grave

Abide with me, abide with me
Don’t let me fall, and don’t let go
Walk with me and never leave
Ever close, God abide with me

There in the night, Gethsemane
Before the cross, before the nails
Overwhelmed, alone You prayed
You met us in our suffering and bore our shameAbide with me, abide with me
Don’t let me fall, and don’t let go
Walk with me and never leave
Ever close, God abide with me

Oh love that will not ever let me go
Love that will not ever let me go
You never let me go
Love that will not ever let me go
Oh You never let us go

And up ahead, eternity
We’ll weep no more, we’ll sing for joy, abide with me

New Song: Abide With Me (Matt Redman, Matt Maher)2023-06-27T11:48:09-06:00

Joy is Happiness

sf-happy-final-instaYesterday I started a new teaching series on the book of Philippians. We are calling the series Happy: Embracing the Unshakable Joy of the Kingdom. I knew that I was going to see a few eyebrows raised when I told people the name of the series was Happy ­– and people didn’t disappoint! I grew up in the same Christian sub-culture that made the statement, “God doesn’t want you to be happy, he wants you to be holy.” That never seemed quite right to me. It seemed to be an unnecessary distinction. Why can’t we be both happy and holy… and shouldn’t getting closer to God (who is the happiest being in the universe) also make us happy? It didn’t seem like the heart of our Father to create us with such an innate desire that he didn’t intend to satisfy. Much of the rhetoric I heard suggested that we were supposed to ignore one of the main controlling desires of our life; the pursuit of happiness.

I know, I know… there’s a difference between joy and happiness. That’s another thing I was told and something I believed for a long time. The reasoning went something like this: God wants us to have joy, and he doesn’t care if we are happy. Joy is a conviction we can choose to have in the midst of any circumstance. Happiness, however, is a trite feeling that is completely dependent on your circumstances – it’s cheap. In essence, happiness is something we can feel that we aren’t supposed to want (even though we know we want it), and joy is something we’re supposed to have, but something we can’t feel and that may or may not actually impact our daily life.

There are two huge problems with that line of reasoning. First, if we claim that God doesn’t care if we are happy because happiness is dependent on our circumstances, we are essentially saying that salvation isn’t a circumstance. (Hint, here in lies one of the huge problems!) What lies subtly beneath the surface is the reality that we don’t believe the work of Jesus actually changes our lives. If we believed the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus actually did what the Scriptures say it does, we would view that as a circumstance! The reality that we have been born again, moved from death to life, transferred from the Kingdom of Darkness and placed into the Kingdom of Jesus IS A CIRCUMSTANCE! The Bible never suggests that it’s anything other than that. When we say, “Well, happiness is dependent on our circumstances, but joy is transcendent of our circumstances and God only wants us to have joy,” we are relaying our belief that we don’t really trust what the Scriptures say about our salvation.

The second issue is equally as troubling. The Scriptures never make the distinction between happiness and joy. It’s easiest to look at this in the New Testament. In the English Standard Version (ESV) of the Bible (which is a good word-for-word translation), the word joy is used 61 times. Most of the time it is a translation of the Greek word χαρᾶ (chara). In contrast, the ESV uses the word ‘happy’ or ‘happiness’ 0 times.

That’s right ZERO times.

We are left with two options. First, the New Testament never talks about happiness. If that’s the case, we would have to draw the conclusion that Jesus and his followers were either unhappy or unconcerned with happiness. I take issue with both. I’d argue that Jesus was the happiest person to ever walk the face of the earth. I would also assert that God is the happiest being in the universe. That being the case, it seems unlikely that happiness wouldn’t have been mentioned. The second option is that the Scriptures don’t see a difference between joy and happiness. Based on the evidence, I think this is far more likely!

The distinction between joy and happiness is actually fairly new. It’s an invention of the 20th Century and would have been foreign to followers of Jesus before the early 1900’s. Here’s the good news, GOD WANTS YOU TO BE HAPPY IN HIM! He designed you with the longing for happiness, every person who walks the face of the planet wants it, and he has made every provision for our happiness through the redemption and life that he offers!

That’s great news… you might even call it gospel!

An excellent resource on this topic is the book Happiness by Randy Alcorn.

 

 

Joy is Happiness2016-09-13T00:00:00-06:00

Will I Be Changed? My Voice In the Silence Day 28

I’ve been writing over the past few weeks about the lessons God is teaching me as I am silent (I have more to write in this area). The big question is, will these lessons stick? Will I be transformed when I can speak again? The answer is probably, no. Why do I feel that way? The answer to that and a proposition about what might change me is what I intend to ponder here.

Habits, Mind And Body

One thought comes back to me over and over again these three weeks. We are intensely physical creatures. Yes, we are more than that, but most of what makes or brakes us is that part of us that is inextricably physical. One of the signs of maturity is when a person learns this lesson and tends to their bodies with wisdom. Admittedly, this is NOT something I am good at. God has blessed me with a healthy body. As a result, I tend to neglect it and forget the significance it plays in my spiritual journey. Even as I write, I am emotionally saddened that this is the case. How much farther could I have advanced in my love of God if I had not neglected my body as a part of my journey?

Does this sound strange to you, this talk of the bodies role in the spiritual life? It would have sounded strange to me only a few years ago, and it would have seemed less crucial even four weeks ago. I’ve long known that the body played a part in my relationship with God from texts like 1 Corinthians 6:19. It says, “or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?” I’ve read passages like that and thought, don’t do drugs kids. I joke, but that is about how lightly I took the passage. The context of that passage is talking about sexual sin, so I guess I included that as a bad thing for the body too. Now I believe that how we train our bodies can be incredibly transformative, and I’ll explain why later but first I need to lay a stronger foundation.

My First Attempt

It may help, in a blog about transformation, for me to tell you my story of seeking transformation. I’ve gone through several stages with varying success. When I first started to try to grow as a Christian, I thought the way one did that was to be a good boy. Maybe I just hadn’t tried hard enough to stop sinning, and if I did, I would grow. I tried that theory for several years, but it only drove me to despair. It almost turned me away from God. I found myself over and over again at the side of my bed confessing my many sins, weeping over my weakness, and begging God for another chance. I made bold statements to God like, “I’ll never do that again.” Usually, I found myself praying that same prayer the next day.

The trouble with an effort to eliminate sin is that you tend to find more crimes than you know you were committing before you started trying. The pattern of commitment, failure, confession, and recommitment almost broke my spirit towards Christianity forever. If you have a picture of God getting disappointed in your performance as you struggle with sin, eventually you will begin to hide from him. That is what Adam and Eve did when they sinned in the garden, and that is what you will ultimately do if you choose this method of transformation. My consistent failure made it harder and harder to go to God and confess. I just knew he had to be getting disappointed in my weakness. I would even try to do a few good things before returning to prayer hoping that my good deeds would make it a bit easier for God to stomach the confession I had to make. If this is your view of God and the Christian life, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE know that you have missed the message of Jesus as I had. Even though I felt like this season almost broke me I now believe that the struggle was part of God’s gentle leading. The lyrics to one of my favorite songs tell this story beautifully.

I asked the Lord that I might grow
In faith, and love, and every grace;
Might more of His salvation know,
And seek, more earnestly, His face.

’Twas He who taught me thus to pray,
And He, I trust, has answered prayer!
But it has been in such a way,
As almost drove me to despair.

I hoped that in some favored hour,
At once He’d answer my request;
And by His love’s constraining pow’r,
Subdue my sins, and give me rest.

Instead of this, He made me feel
The hidden evils of my heart;
And let the angry pow’rs of hell
Assault my soul in every part.

Yea more, with His own hand He seemed
Intent to aggravate my woe;
Crossed all the fair designs I schemed,
Blasted my gourds, and laid me low.

Lord, why is this, I trembling cried,
Wilt thou pursue thy worm to death?
“’Tis in this way, the Lord replied,
I answer prayer for grace and faith.

These inward trials I employ,
From self, and pride, to set thee free;
And break thy schemes of earthly joy,
That thou may’st find thy all in Me.”

– John Newten

I remember a moment when my, “self and pride” was broken. I lay in my bed as a high school senior broken. I resolved that I would stop trying to fight for personal holiness. I remember the moment vividly. I told God, “I am not going to start trying to sin but I can’t do this fight anymore. I guess I’ll just be a failure, and you will have to deal with it.” I didn’t know it at the time, but I think that is what God wanted to hear from me. I now believe God’s response to me would have been something like, “finally! I’ve been trying to get you to understand that you can’t do this without me. I love you NOT because of how good you are; I love you because you are my son.”

My Second Attempt

(I didn’t intend this to become a testimony blog, but it all relates)

My first effort for transformation and subsequent failure was a crucial step in making the next step possible. Not long after that sense of giving up, I went to Bible College. Even after my sense of failure and my giving up I wanted to serve God. I had started to lead worship in my youth group a year before and found out I was pretty good at it. I was going to bible college so that I could check the, “I know my Bible” box off and become a worship leader/pastor. When I arrived at Bible college, I promptly forgot how to play guitar and how to sing. I am not joking. I can’t explain it to this day but all of the sudden it was as if I had lost any ability to play and sing. This left me with a new existential crisis. What would I do with my life? If I wasn’t going to be a worship leader, what would I do? I decided I would continue my studies as I figured it out.

One day I was studying the subject of grace for an assignment. I read a little note about grace that changed my life. I learned that the word grace meant favor. I then read in the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia this section in its entry on Grace: “But God’s favor differs from man’s in that it cannot be conceived of as inactive. A favorable “thought” of God’s about a man involves of necessity the reception of some blessing by that man, and “to look with favor” is one of the commonest Biblical paraphrases for “bestow a blessing.”

It may take a moment to consume that fully but take that moment. Grace is God’s favor but God’s favor demands that he act favorably towards those he has grace for. As I continued to study, I learned that grace was the power of God and the source of strength that God gives to his children to be transformed. Given my last attempt at transformation and the collapse of that attempt, I decided I needed this “grace” stuff. I then began to research how a person could get grace. That search led me to several texts, but I’ll highlight two. First was, “But he gives more grace. Therefore, it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble (James 4:6).” I quickly decided I couldn’t fabricate humility, so I kept searching. I then found Ephesians 2:8 which says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith.” This meant that grace came somehow through faith. Charles Spurgeon helped me greatly in his book All Of Grace. He says about the Ephesians passage that, “Grace is the powerful engine, and faith is the chain by which the carriage of the soul is attached to the great motive power.”

So now I knew that faith gave me access to this powerful grace that I so needed. The next question was how do I grow in faith so that I can get more grace? As a side note, I strongly recommend asking these kinds of questions and fighting for answers from God. I then started hunting for how I might find more faith. I was growing frustration that grace needed humility, humility needed faith, faith would need something else and the circle would go on forever. I then stumbled upon a text that is still exceedingly dear to me. Romans 5:1-2 says this, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”

I remember to this day the feeling that swelled over me when I realized I was standing in grace. This powerful, most desirable substance of grace that I so longed for was something I was standing in all this time. Even as I write I am moved to tears of joy and gratitude. I can remember where I was sitting when this realization came over me. I pictured a little boy (me) standing in an ocean of grace looking to heaven asking God how I might get some grace. This realization was probably the most significant and “transformative” events of my life. I now realized that I had access to God’s grace at any given time NOT because of what I had or had not done but because I had been justified but Jesus. I don’t think this is when I was saved but it is when I learned that transformation was by grace through faith as well as salvation.

My Third Attempt

After that story, you may be wondering why I even have a 3rd attempt. The answer to that is I didn’t. After discovering grace, every other leap forward in transformation has been only a deeper plunge into that ocean of grace that I had found. I’ll shorten this section simply because I don’t have time to tell this entire story.

It was several (maybe 4) years later that I had another surprising discovery of about grace. I was then at Moody Bible Institute studying to become a preacher (remember I had given up on being a worship leader during my previous experience). I was serving at the Great Lakes Nave Base on the weekends with Campus Crusade Military Ministry (now CRU). The leader of the Bible study I was serving in there was named Nick. As I served alongside him spoke of the “gospel” regularly. The thing that made his voice significant to me was the way he lived. I had never seen someone (similar in age to me) live such God-glorifying life. He and his family were exemplary to me and as a result, I listened. What I couldn’t understand was why he spoke so much of the “gospel” and didn’t mention “grace” nearly as often. Over the course of 3 years in that ministry, he began to explain how grace was only one facet of the full good news (gospel) if Jesus. His pastor, Mike Bullmore described it well when he said the word “gospel” was like juice concentrate. Inside the word gospel was a thesaurus of other biblical ideas that included; grace, faith, adoption, sonship, justification, and on.

What I had discovered was that grace was just one of the terms that the Bible used to describe/articulate the gospel. The gospel is the life and work of Jesus Christ. Everything that Jesus taught lived, and accomplished for us = the gospel.

This truth opened the scriptures wider to me because I was then discovering my precious grace in more terms than just “grace.” This was also transformative. As a side note, the last section combined with this section of this post are why we believe in GOSPEL TRANSFORMATION at South Fellowship Church. 2 Corinthians 3:18 says it so well, “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” In Ryan Paulson’s words, “as we see Jesus we are changed.”

My Fourth Attempt (why I won’t be changed)

(I’ll stop here)

Again, is there any reason to go beyond grace, the gospel, and Jesus in a conversation about transformation? The short answer is, no there isn’t. All other discussions about christian formation and growth must terminate with Jesus if they are valuable at all. With that said, Scripture is intensely practical when it comes to spiritual growth and transformation. If we are free from the burdens of Attempt 1 we are then also free to leverage more practical tools to grow in grace and therefore be changed. Up to this point, much of what I’ve talked about is very mental. I have spoken about several stages of my understanding of God, grace, faith, and the gospel. When will the beginning of this post come to play? I opened this blog with the statement, “we are intensely physical creatures.”

The fact of the matter is, I had strongly underestimated the role of the body in my spiritual journey. In God’s providence, I’ve found myself reading a series of books that have served as kindling for God to teach me more. God was giving me puzzle pieces as I read. He began to assemble the pieces during my silence. First let me just list some of the books that I am drawing thought from: Soul Keeping (John Ortberg), Change your Brain Change your life (Daniel G. Amen), Renovation Of The Heart and Spirit of the Disciplines (Dallas Willard), Eat This Book (Eugene Peterson)The Power of Habit (Charles Duhigg)Blink and Tipping Point (Malcolm Gladwell).

I was reading a book about spiritual formation and a book that addressed brain science right next to each other. It was unbelievable how well they lined up. Recollection of these books served me so well as I have processed my vocal situation. First of all, one notices the significance of the body more pointedly when their body gives out in one way or another. The body is a very significant part of who we are, and we must not neglect that knowledge. Dallas Willard describes the body as your power pack. “Imagine for a moment you had a will and a mind but no body (Dallas Willard in Soul keeping).” Your body is the means by which you enact our will. When one part of my body was limited, I felt limited.

Many of the lessons I am learning are about my misuse of my tongue. Many of my sins manifest themselves through my words. As I opened the blog I asked the question, “Will I be transformed when I can speak again?” I then said no. Why did I say that? I have been changed some but not as much as you might think. The fact is, many of the sins I commit with my words are habits of mind and body. As I’ve spoken a few words over the past few days, I’ve already caught myself saying things that were not helpful and sometimes even hurtful.

I broke my complete silence the day after the three-week mark. That first set of words I spoke were like a gateway drug for me. As soon as I spoke a little, I wanted to talk more. By the second day, I was speaking way too much without an official clear from the doctor. It was an old habit that I slid comfortably back in to. I also wanted to defend myself, make myself look good, seek praise, offer my opinion, and all the other things I’ve written about already. Those are habits of mind and body as much as they are reflections of my real heart. I have learned to associate the feeling of speech with a feeling of power and control. It is like a reflex now.

So is it hopeless? No, not at all. In fact, I think this season has given me tools to fight my sins of speech. You see, silence can be a spiritual discipline. Three weeks of intense silence, is far from a transformed life, but it can be a stepping stone. I intend to practice periods of silence again. Sometimes actual silence and other times the discipline of not defending myself for a day. Sometimes I may practice other creative methods to remind both my thinking and my body that I won’t explode if I don’t speak. You see, bringing the body into submission to the reality of grace and the gospel is the name of the game here. New patterns of life don’t come from a short burst of energy; they originate from a Long Obedience In the Same Direction (another great book by Eugene Peterson).

First, I learned that I didn’t need to work to earn favor from God. Now I free to work or train myself with no burdens of guilt. Again a Dallas Willard quote is fitting, “grace is not opposed to effort, it is opposed to earning.” Spiritual formation involves intentional training of the body to respond not from the will but habits of righteousness. A great book to flesh this out is Soul Keeping by John Ortberg. I wish I had time to keep writing, but this has gotten way to long.

Conclusion

Will this change me? I hope it already has to some degree, but if I am not intentional about retraining my body and mind to set aside sins of the lounge, I will not be changed much at all. Just like an athlete disciplines their body, so Christians are called to discipline their bodies. This is not at all a foreign concept to scripture. In fact, if you look closely, scripture is far more concrete than we often think it is.

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. (Romans 6:12-14)

This kind of language is all over the bible. Paul often speaks of deep gospel truths but then anchors the implications of those facts right down to our physical world.

This is my attempt four at the spiritual transformation. I want to learn how to train my body to respond in obedience more naturally than it does today. Seriously, you must read up on this idea! I can’t do it justice here. With that, I’ll force myself to stop.

Will I Be Changed? My Voice In the Silence Day 282016-06-01T00:00:00-06:00

Just To Be Known

This is an original song that one of our very own members wrote. Rob Colwill, in addition to being a business leader, is a strong voice for the arts. One of his passions is leveraging creativity to express. One of the way’s he does that is by writing songs. He also is an encourager of artists. He challenges all the musicians he knows to keep creating and South Fellowship is better because of his leadership.

This song was birthed out of his own life of worship. The song worked so well with our current All I Am series, that we asked him to play it a few times during the series. He is praying about a few different creative projects in the near future and may be starting a Go Fund Me page to get them off the ground. We will keep you posted when you can help him.

Lyrics

VERSE 1
G
You’ve Been
C D
Ever before me
C Em
Through every storm and sea
D C
You have been
G
You light
C D
Every dark place
C Em
Every broken space
D C
You are right there

PRE CHORUS
Am Em C G
When nights last longer than hope
C G D
You’re in this dark, your in my soul
Am Em C G
When pain is brighter than lights
C G D
You are my song, You are mine

CHORUS
C G D
We hold tight before your throne
Em C
Just to be known
G D
Just to be known
C G D
Send your angels to this place
Em C
And give us new names
COLUMN_BREAK
INSTRUMENTAL

VERSE 2
G
You’ve been
C D
Ever before me
C Em
A pillar of fire
D C
Burning through fear
G
You’ve been
C D
Ever before me
C Em
The light shining over seas
D C
Winds safe to sail

CHORUS X2

VERSE 1

Just To Be Known2023-06-27T12:25:54-06:00

My Voice In The Silence Day 18: Vocal Invasion

Is Speech All Bad?

As I look back on my other posts, I notice that I have focused heavily on the danger of speech. More specifically, I have concentrated on the many sins that manifest themselves through speech. As I’ve pondered more recently, I think I need to reflect on the flip side to that coin. Speech is not innately evil. You might get that impression from reading my blogs, but it isn’t true. Dr. Luke says in the 6th chapter that of his gospel, “out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks (Luke 6:45b).” That means speech isn’t the repository of sin, the heart is. In fact, if you read the rest of that text you see that clarification plainly.

The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. (Luke 6:45)

Point: The reality is, speech can be one of the most beautiful and powerful mediums for love, leadership, worship, comfort, and blessing. Scripture doesn’t simply warn us about the dangers of speech it exhorts us to leverage it to advance the good reign of God in this world.

The mouth of the righteous utters wisdom,
and his tongue speaks justice. (Psalm 37:30)

The tongue of the righteous is choice silver;
the heart of the wicked is of little worth. (Proverbs 10:20)

Being forced to take a season of complete silence is frustrating in good ways and bad ways. What do I mean? I mean, it is frustrating that I can’t talk up my strengths and minimize my weaknesses (bad, and I’ve already written about these). Also, it is frustrating not being able to read to my girls at night, sing them songs before bed, give tender encouragement when they are hurting, lead worship, offer words of compassion to the hurting, and more. I recommend silence as a meaningful and transformative spiritual discipline. I think the intentional use of silence can help a person uproot sins of the tongue. With that said, make plans to care for your loved ones before practicing some disciplines like silence. Your voice has become a part of other peoples world and removing it for a season puts pressure on them. That reality, in itself, demonstrates the redeemable elements of speech. As a side note, the only time I have been moved to tears during this past few weeks was when my little Piper (4 years old) begged me to read her a book before bed, and I had to use my phone’s mechanical, unloving voice to tell her, no. She didn’t fully understand, and it broke my heart!

Vocal Invasion

Above I wrote a bit of a thesis statement: Scripture doesn’t simply warn us about the dangers of speech it exhorts us to leverage it to advance the good reign of God in this world. Let me unpack what I mean by that.

Speech is an extension of one’s kingdom. Speech is either an invasion of another kingdom or a welcome ally in foreign lands. I confess much of my writing will quote Dallas Willard because I’ve been reading several of his works lately. Willard defines the kingdom of God as, “the range of God’s effective will.” Like God’s kingdom, we also have a kingdom (country/culture) and our bodies are the primary sphere of that kingdom. Your kingdom is the space where your will is effective. The voice plays a huge role in expanding your territory and interacting with other kingdoms. The entire body is, but the voice is the most common tool that we use to inflect our kingdom into another person’s kingdom. You take that voice away, and your country feels like it is shrinking around you.

When I raise my voice, I am trying to puff up my kingdom into where I think it should be. Let that idea sink in for a while. Every time you speak the sound waves enter into another person’s domain. Those sound waves can be efforts to collaborate, weapons meant to destroy, or supplies of relief to a kingdom in turmoil.

The primary message that Jesus preached was the kingdom of heaven or kingdom of God. As Christians, we are within the range of God’s effective will. We are in fact, called to advance the range of that effective will. Our voices are meant for that!

So here is the beauty of speech; when it is used the way it was intended, it can expand the range of God’s goodness, grace, love, mercy, peace, justice, and life into other peoples lives. THAT IS AMAZING! The only way that works is when we relinquish the effort to advance our kingdom and instead take up the flag of the kingdom of God and promote it. Oh, how I wish that I would do this more often. If I am secure in Christ, and I trust HIS ability to advocate for me, I am free to use all the elements of my kingdom to advance God’s. And let’s be honest, God’s kingdom is way better than mine anyway.

So yes, the voice can be a beautiful thing, and I hope to use it more and more for the glory of God and less and less for the glory of me.

P.S.

Our kingdoms are far smaller then we think they are, and efforts to expand them are more damaging to other kingdoms then we like to admit. What is the range of your effective will? In what areas of the world does your will have complete effect? Before you answer, let me ask; when was the last time you did something against your better judgment? When was the last time your will said, “don’t eat that extra helping” and your bodies longing said, “you must have it.” So there you go, the range of your effective will doesn’t even include much of your body. That is the dilemma that Paul frustratedly speaks of in Romans 7:21 and following. When we chose to advance God’s kingdom, we find ourselves in a better country than ours could ever offer.

My Voice In The Silence Day 18: Vocal Invasion2016-05-24T00:00:00-06:00

My Voice in the Silence Day 12-14

When the doctor told me I needed to take vocal rest for a few weeks, I decided that I would take a silent retreat. I am on that retreat now. As I wrote in my first post, I feel like this retreat is one positive outcome of my vocal condition. You see, I’ve meant to take a silent retreat for a long time, and now I have a more forced reason to do it.

When I started this quiet little getaway, I thought my mind would flood with things to record. I thought I would have mental space to learn more from my season of silence. In reality, that has not been the case. I sat down tonight to contemplate what lessons I wanted to ponder and therefore blog about (yes, I blog to help me think more clearly). As I pondered what to write, I realized I had very little on my mind related to my silence. I’ve been thinking about a load of other things the last two days, but my silence has not been one of them. It was strange because before I started the retreat I had so many ideas.

So, my lack of ideas has now become the subject of this blog. Why is it that I suddenly stopped thinking about my vocal condition? The answer is found in the nature of speech combined with where I am at the moment. Speech is a social tool. I am currently away from my social world (on retreat), and therefore, I don’t notice my inability to speak. When one has no need of speech one doesn’t miss it. The deeper, more revealing, question is why did I feel such a need to speak when I was in my “social world?” I know I felt that need because when I am around others, whether at work or home, I am deeply frustrated by my inability to speak.

Praise & Understanding

There seems to be a common trend in the lessons I am learning, they all relate to my pride. But there is a second, often less noticeable sin at work in me. It is a lack of trust in God’s advocacy on my behalf. I want people to appreciate my strengths (pride) and I want them to understand my failings (lack of trust in God’s support).

“Eberhard Arnold observes: ‘People who love one another can be silent together.’ But when we’re with those we feel less than secure with, we use words to ‘adjust’ our appearance and elicit their approval. Otherwise, we fear our virtues might not receive adequate appreciation, and our shortcomings might not be properly ‘understood.’” (The Spirit of the Disciplines, Dallas Willard, Page 165)

That quote hits the nail on the head for me. That is exactly what I tend to use my voice for. I seek praise or understanding. Willard goes on to ask why we should worry what others opinions of us are when God is for us and when Jesus Christ is pleading our interests (Rom. 8:31-34). I have no need to defend myself when Jesus is doing that for me with a far better reputation than mine.

Idolatry

I want to add one thought to the quote above. I’ve noticed that I spend more effort adjusting my appearance around certain people. I value some people’s opinions of me more than others. My wife receives the brunt of this; I tend to defend myself most to her, and I try to ensure she sees all my successes. She sees it the most because, out of anyone in the world, I want her to love me. There are other relationships that I now see are marked by a pursuit of praise. So if you catch me trying to elevate your view of me, chances are I value your opinion.

That may not sound like a terrible thing at first glance but let me make it seem worse for you. There is a profound reason I’ve subconsciously place people in a hierarchy of importance. The reason is Idolatry. You see we worship (value, make much of) only things that we think will bring us joy. If you somehow think being a Christian is not self-serving then you probably don’t understand the gospel (good news). Christianity is not a religion of self-denial it is ultimately a religion of ultimate fulfillment and joy in Christ. That is why we worship Jesus; he is meant to be our greatest value. So when I value one person’s opinion of me to the point where it causes me to commit the sins of boasting, I am demonstrating my worship of that person.

Is it, therefore, wrong to cherish a person’s praise or understanding? Is it wrong, for example, for me to value my wife’s opinion of me? Would not that value be an ultimate form of love? The thing about idols is, they need to be able to hold the weight of your soul. We value them because we hope they can fill us with everything we need, “hold the weight of our souls.” If I expect someone to hold the weight of my soul, I am not only committing idolatry; I am crushing them with the burden of making my world okay. I can’t seem to learn this lesson.

The only being in all the universe that is capable of holding the weight of souls is God. If the weight of my soul is firmly fixed in christ and my identity and value is secure there, then and only then can I cherish a person’s praise in a healthy way. I can cherish it because of my love for them without needing it or getting puffed up by it. If I am recognized for a virtue and I am able to recall that all true virtues out of Christ in me and I can be glad that I was a part of bringing a person I love joy.

Have you ever noticed there are three types of responses people have to a compliment? The first is the compliment shot blocker. These people, when complimented, have a way of reminding you that all good things are from God. Generally, we leave those people somehow feeling guilty for even offering them a compliment instead of simply praising God directly. The second type of person is the praise junky. These people seem to be puffed up by the compliment. They receive the words as obvious or an understatement of their actions. Often we feel obliged to compliment these people. Finally, there are a rare few who manage to receive a compliment as a blessing from your soul to theirs without being prideful about it. These people manage to deflect praise to God while at the same time delighting in being a part.

Again, I feel tremendous urges to speak when I want one of my idols to look down upon me and bless me. I hope to learn to let Christ be my advocate. I hope to learn to trust his approval rather than hunt for it among people I love. I only hurt them and myself when I get that mixed up.

What’s coming next

Up to this point, I’ve spent a huge amount of my time pondering all the negative parts of speech. In my next post, I want to explore a more positive twist. I hope that will come soon.

 

Day 1 Blog, Day 4 Blog, Day 6 Blog

My Voice in the Silence Day 12-142016-05-21T00:00:00-06:00

My Voice in the Silence Day 6

The Fool Speaks

“A fool’s mouth lashes out with pride, but the lips of the wise protect them.” (Prov. 14:3) Having no voice; It’s like rubbing the dusty windows of my soul to look in at the pride the lurks inside. In my first blog about silence, I asked what words were worth speaking if you could only speak six sentences an hour. I explained my theory on what words were worthy, but now I’m seeing what words lurk inside me. My strongest urges to speak are a commentary on my inner world.

I do feel the urge to speak uplifting words to others, but some of my strongest urges are to conjure perceptions into the world. You see, voices are a means of making inner desires a reality. Just as God’s breath spoke everything into being, so our words shape the world around us. We have the ability to craft ideas in the minds of others. We can build people up or tear them down with words. We can persuade others to make decisions. Words are not to be trifled with. The book of James tries to wake us up to the potency of words:

If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well. Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things.

How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. (James 3:3-6)

Even though I’ve always believed this passage, I’ve never felt the significance of it until I couldn’t speak. The only trouble with speech is that it is so commonplace. We forget the potency of words. We meander around with hot sparks flying from our lips among the dry grasses of other people’s lives. My daily experience is more like a ship without a rudder or a horse without a bit these days. I’m not saying the world around me needs my guidance; I’m saying the world around me doesn’t fit my fancy as often when I can’t speak. That is frustrating because I like to get my way. I’m so used to being able to exert my ideas upon the world. Without speech, I have less influence upon everything. Guess what; the world hasn’t fallen apart without my words yet. Can you believe it?

I’ve been using an app on my phone to speak. The app allows me to type in my thoughts and then click a button that speaks the phrase through the voice of Siri. For the first few days of my silence, I found that the pace of the conversations around me was too fast to use the app effectively. By the time I typed in my contribution to the conversation the subject changed or the context of the conversation had shifted so far that my phrase was irrelevant. I found myself typing ferociously only to delete what I was going to say because it would no longer make sense. What I’ve noticed is that I always have something to say. I don’t care if you are talking about asparagus, I would have a perspective, a joke, or an idea about the subject that I think the rest of the world should know. I’ve stopped trying to interject my thoughts into everything. I’ve found that conversations seem to survive without my vast wisdom,

So why do I always have something to say? Much of my speaking is designed to shape people’s perceptions of me. As a highly verbal person, much of the time I speak is intended to manage people’s reactions to me. I want people to think of me as funny, wise, humble, the expert, or just down right likable. That is where I see my pride most clearly. I speak to be noticed.

There is this insightful passage in Luke that clarifies what is going on here. It says, “The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks (Luke 6:45).” Many times the overflow of my heart is pride. I think that I need to be heard to be valuable. I’ll let you know when I stop thinking that because it’s a hard lesson to learn.

Let me propose a better way of using words. This proposal is as much to me as it is to anyone else. What if I were to spend more of my words out of a motive to deflect rather than absorb attention? Oh, how beautiful that would be. How much more glory could I reflect to God if I wasn’t trying to sneak a little glory for myself every time I speak? Home much more loving I could be if I weren’t always trying to manipulate a person into thinking I am amazing and instead listen to them or encourage them? How much more could I accomplish as a leader if my goal was to advance the vision rather then steal the stage?

My Voice in the Silence Day 62016-05-14T00:00:00-06:00
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