Healing

Last week we studied healing of wounds in the life of men. Ultimately, we seek healing in our relationship with God to remove those wounds that prevent maturity in our Christian walk. God is at work in your heart to accomplish this healing. The fundamental impediment to our healing is sin. Sin causes us to cling to wounds and hurts. For example, unforgiveness and bitterness can fester in our heart. Rather than embrace forgiveness through the power of the Holy Spirit we can feed the root of bitterness.

In seeking healing remember the following:

1. You must know the Word and how it speaks into your life. If God says to have compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience while putting up with each other and forgiving each other (Colossians 3:12&13) then I need to know that scripture and seek God about how it impacts me and corrects me and tells me how I should behave.

1. If I never reflect on my life then how will God get my attention? If I don’t have a quiet time will I force God to find another way to get through my thick skull? If we are God’s children then He will speak into our lives and correct us. Ignoring my Dad and running from him were both really bad ideas when I was a child. God is patient but He is at work in the lives of His children to accomplish His purposes. Do the smart thing and cooperate with Him.
   

1. You need to call sin in your life sin. Don’t make excuses for your sin like Adam or Saul. Conviction from God (not condemation from the enemy of your soul) is a precious gift and you need to respond like David did. When God convicts your heart then realize that your sin is against a holy and just God and repent (turn away from your sin and turn to God).
   

1. Confess your sins and God will heal you. He is faithful to cleanse you and He is also just. He didn’t wink at your sin and decide to ignore it. He is a Holy God. Jesus paid the price in full. The just punishment for your sins has been paid. If your sins have impacted others then God may lead you to ask for their forgiveness too. I pray that your love will grow more and more with knowledge and discernment so you can approve excellent things and be pure and blameless before Christ to the glory and praise of God (Philippians 1:9-11)

Thanks to Dr. Mark Dever (Senior Pastor of Capital Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., and executive director of 9Marks Ministries) whose article titled, Relying on Christ in the September 2005 issue of “Table Talk” helped point out these principles.

The Call Part 4

We need to remember to keep our jobs and day to day activities in the right relationship to our Call in God. Our work is not our primary call. God wants to be present in our day to day work to emphasize and develop our primary call. He will then work in our hearts as we pursue Him and work unto Him in our secondary call. President Coolidge said, “The man who builds a factory builds a temple. The man who works there worships there.” Well that may be true for good or bad. If you built a factory for a collection of dedicated Christians, and they were working as unto God, then maybe, in a sense, President Coolidge was right. But the president could be right in a wrong way. We can allow work to take God’s place in our life and worship work as work. We can take a good thing and make it a burden that distracts and prevents our following God’s call on our life. We need lives in balance to keep work a blessing in our lives.

As Os Guinness says, “We are not primarily called to do something or go somewhere; we are called to Someone” and points out “God normally calls us along the line of our giftedness, but the purpose of giftedness is stewardship and service, not selfishness.”

In following God’s call on our lives we need to recognize:

1. Our individual calling will be integrated with those around us. We can’t be selfish at this point and will need flexibility.


2. Our later specific callings to service must not erase our original calling by God to follow Him. I’ve seen pastors lose their ministries over this while God cleaned their hearts and put Himself back on the throne of their life.


3. God will use many things that are peripheral to your primary call to mold you and grow you. Don’t try to box God in what He will use in your secular job or even in service opportunities at church.


4. There is a certain mystery in our calling that remains. God gives you a lamp for your feet so you can see where your feet are and where to place the next step. Then he gives you a light to indicate the overall path. All that “between stuff” is the mystery of walking and living our lives “coram Deo”, before the face of God.

We have an opportunity to live in this world in a way that will stand out. We can live as if ideas mean something and have consequence in a world sold on relativism. We can live our lives without masks and be real in a world that poses and treats actors as idols.

WAH - More on Chapter 6

Last week we watched a portion of an old Northern Exposure episode. One of the characters (Holling) was dealing with the death of a grizzly that had nearly killed him. It was a defining moment in his life and he had tracked the bear for years. The bear died of old age and Holling’s world was shaken when this icon of his life was removed. He went into the wilderness and found that the bear was not the only challenge to be found. He summarizes by saying that all you need to do is “gird up you loins” and go after the challenge. Eldredge, the author of Wild at Heart, does a great job of identifying this characteristic love of (and even a need for) adventure and challenge in the life of men. It isn't there by accident.

God wants to sanctify and use our love of adventure. The adventures God leads us into become like constellations in our life. That is why Holling said as he buried the bear, “You were a big bear”. This is a reference to the Big Bear constellation. The creators of the episode use the song by Enya, “Paint the Sky with Stars” to reinforce that concept. The Big Bear constellation or “Big Dipper” is what we use to find the North Star. The Star we love for navigation because it doesn’t move. The adventures God brings into our life, when they rightly become a part of our lives, point to our God who doesn’t move. We look to our immutable God as we navigate in our lives.

In the Southern Hemisphere they don’t have a North Star. I’ve been fortunate enough to cross the equator a few times. The first time I crossed I remember thinking that I wasn't going to be comfortable with the stars in the sky changed. I was walking on the beach at night and there was no North Star. There was no Polaris. Nothing really looked very familiar. I was with some folks who had been there before and they said, “Look there is the Southern Cross.” There is a Cross that doesn’t stand still in the sky like Polaris but always points south. The Cross in our life has a unique role in guiding our life. Jesus said that we are to take up our cross and follow Him (Mat 10:38; Luke 14:27).

In one case, God gives us a guidance that doesn’t move or change in the heavens. In the other case, God gives us a cross that points the way to follow. When Holling said, “gird up your loins” he was using a biblical reference. I’ve selected two scriptures that use the phrase “gird up your loins” in the King James Version (KJV). The phrase means to get ready to move by belting up your robe. The following scriptures are in the English Standard Version (ESV) and I’ve bolded the portions of scripture that the KJV translates as “gird up your loins.”

Here is Jesus’ command to you as a disciple:

“Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning, and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks.
The Holy Bible : English standard version. 2001 (Lk 12:35-36).

Here we are told to gird up the loins of our minds:

Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.
The Holy Bible : English standard version. 2001 (1 Pe 1:13-19).

WAH - Chapter 7

In this chapter of "Wild at Heart" the subject of religious experiences comes up. Religious experiences or “mountain top experiences” are great but I haven’t seen many people find short cuts to sanctification. Our sanctification is a struggle. Our author states that “the power is in us.” The power is in us but not of us. God our Father is working within us to accomplish His purposes.

Please meditate on the following scripture from the Apostle Paul. More notes are available from the "comments" link below.

1 Corinthians 4:6-18

For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.

We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you.

Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, “I believed, and so I spoke,” we also believe, and so we also speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

WAH - Chapter 6

I was reading Philippians chapter 1 and I pray the following for you guys:

“it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.”

We need to love with knowledge and discernment so we can be pure and blameless. To minister we need the fruit of righteousness that we produce as we abide in the vine that is Christ. The glory and praise goes to God for His Grace that is showered in our lives. As we pursue God for the work of sanctification in our lives we need His strength to live as the men God calls us to be.

Thank you Stewart

This is pastor appreciation month. Stewart has surely been a blessing in our lives. Continue to pray that God will protect and bless him. Here he is visiting our class last Sunday. He wanted to make sure we had the opportunity to see the pictures of his new grandchild (who is by the way a distant cousin of mine and a beautiful baby). For those who are wondering, yes that is Ernie Mitchell back in class!

WAH - Chapter 5

It is a critical part of living our lives before God that we seek Him first and that our validation come from Him. The Shema Prayer (Deut 6:4) that Stewart mentioned last Sunday is a key part of morning and evening prayers for a Jew. This scripture emphatically places Gods validation and instruction at such a high point in our lives that all other opinions pale in comparison.

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
(English standard version. 2001. Deuteronomy 6:4-9)

God knows the constant attention that is required to keep us from seeking validation as men from things other than Him. Ask God to keep this principle in the forefront of your mind as you relate to others and live your life before His face.

WAH - Chapter 4

I really appreciate interacting with you guys in class and thanks for the privilege of teaching.

We discussed original sin briefly this morning but it does come up again in Chapter 4 of Wild at Heart.  Original sin is much more complex than what Eldredge describes as “every man comes into the world set up for a loss of heart.”  Even Bob Dylan got it right when he wrote a song called “Saved” and said “I was blinded by the devil; Born already ruined; Stone-cold dead; As I stepped out of the womb; By His grace I have been touched; By His word I have been healed; By His hand I have been delivered; By His spirit I Have been sealed.”  We were born sinners and spiritually dead.  We bless God that He touches us, heals us, delivers us, and seals us as His.

I’m going to try to find some time to read and meditate on the relationship of Jonathan and David (1 Samuel 13 to 2 Samuel 1).  Eldredge correctly points out that men rarely offer direct complements or praise each other directly.  I struck me that Jonathan and David didn’t seem to suffer from that “affliction”.  What do you think God would say about that characteristic in us?

I think the relationship of Jonathan and David may set a Godly example for us.

Lake Jocasee

I spent Saturday with Dave T. on Lake Jocasee in South Carolina touring waterfalls. Tomorrow we should be looking at Chapters 3 and 4 of Wild at Heart.

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. (Psalm 1:1-3 ESV)