Monthly Archives: September 2019

Why do they refer to one who sits for a long time in a doctor’s waiting room as a patient? What if said person has had enough and makes a scene about three others being called to the back, each of whom had arrived after the said person? Is he still a patient?

Walking this morning, I listened to the entire Book of Galatians – five times.  Saturday, in listening to Barclay’s commentary on Roman, which I had undertaken to study, Barclay pointed out that one potential reasons that Paul wrote Romans was to clarify some things he had written in Galatians, his first letter chronically.

Barclay asserts that Paul may have thought that he had placed too much emphasis on faith in the process of salvation and not enough on the work of the Holy Spirit. He wanted to make it clear that a person is saved by the Holy Spirit as an act of God’s grace and not merely by such person’s faith, or as the Reformers would say, “sola fide.”

Vividly, I remember the words of Galatians 5:19-26 wherein the Apostle contrasts the works of human nature – Paul uses “works of the flesh” – with the gift of the spirit. Additionally, note the contrast in the number of the nouns “works” (plural) with “gift” (singular.) The dual contrasts imply that one may manifest one or more of the “works of human nature,” hurtful, shameful, selfish traits such as “ sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.”(NIV.) See vv. 19-21.

In contrast, when the Holy Spirit gifts a person, He gives the gift of Himself together (or “bundled, as the internet providers offer) with love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control . . . vv. 22. (NIV.)

Returning to the house, I was wondering as to what God would have me pray today, but, as I have come to expect, God had “a better idea.” When I came in the get water, I discovered that there was a frustrating problem with an app on Susan’s phone. Usually, I can get upset with electronics that don’t work, but this time, rather than getting upset, patience kicked in. I remained patient through multiple attempts to make the app work and multiple attempts to try to talk with a human being at “customer service.” Even their “hold” music was annoying. Nevertheless, patience persevered.

As I thought about the episode on the way to get a breakfast sandwich, I realized that I was “joyful.” Not happy that the app was annoying, but joyful that patience had kicked in. I’m sure the other manifestations of the gift of the Spirit were hiding playfully there somewhere as well.

The point? Here was a perfect example of a highly cataphatic prayer, that is, a prayer that involves the intellect forming words and pictures. God pictured for me – in me – the gift of the Spirit. That, in and of itself, is a prayer, a prayer initiated by God who doesn’t have to sit by the phone waiting for me to call.

So let it be written, so let it be done.

Please see Parts 1 and 2 in which I have suggested that all people are issued three successive calls by God, the latter two being contingent upon successive acceptance of the previous call. These calls are respectively

• The call to Salvation,
• The call to Service, and
• The call to Sanctification.

In Parts 1 and 2, I have set forth my position on the first two calls. This entry completes the “hat trick.”

May I submit that Christians are sanctified by the Holy Spirit through the mechanism of their service? Please read the words carefully. The sanctification is solely a work of divine grace, not unlike salvation in that it is “. . . through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.” Ephesians 2:8b,9. (NIV.)

Having made that clear, I can assuredly state that no one ever grew his or her likeness of Christ by doing nothing. In Part 1, I said of sanctification, “’Sanctification’ is a theologian’s ‘fifty-cent’ word for ‘keeping on growing in Christ-likeness.” We “keep on growing in Christ-likeness” obviously by doing “Christ-like” things.

That sentence must come with a caveat. Christ is God and everything Christ does is “God-like.” Contra-wise, I submit that it is not in our nature to do anything that is even remotely “God-like; Only God can do “God-like” things. Paul writes in an extended explanation (imagine that,)

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. . . For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do…Romans 7:15,18-19. (NIV.)

It sounds as though Paul has himself in a quandary, yet, there is an answer found in John 5:19 (NIV,) “Jesus gave them this answer: ‘Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.’

Ray Steadman observes of this passage that Jesus,

. . . is looking at God the Father with an inner vision, and, seeing what the heart of the Father wants to do in a situation, he immediately obeys that.

I do not know quite how to describe this inner vision. Within his Spirit, somehow, an impulse arose which Jesus knew was of the Father, because it was in line with the character of the Father as he has revealed himself in his Word. Ray Steadman, “The Secret of Jesus.”

There are at least two ways to “see” what the Father (God) is doing. The first is to look with one’s physical eyes, process the information, and come to a logical conclusion that God is doing or has done something. Another way is to repeat the same process except through the “eyes” of one’s “Spirit-man,” the “Godness” or Holy Spirit Who lives inside true believers.

Having so seen, one, like Jesus, emulates what one has “seen” the Father do. When one does this, one is working with Christ, the “[F]riend who sticks closer than a brother.” Proverbs 24:18b. (NIV.)

Like I have previously done, I will resort to the military metaphor. The soldier who is a slacker and does not do his duty well is not promoted in rank. One could liken sanctification to the military promotion in rank. By doing one’s duty well, one is spiritually “promoted,” except that “spiritual promotion” is not a “reward,” rather it is the natural result.

To “close the loop” with the extension of the military metaphor, my wife, Susan’s, First-Cousin-in-Law (if there is such a thing) served our country valiantly as a soldier in Viet Nam. He lost the sight in one eye there, but he gained something arguably more valuable. He gained friends – buddies. Every year for the past decades, the remaining buddies have met to reunite – to be together again.  Some of them he liked more than others, but one thing is sure, they would all have given their lives for their buddies – many in fact, did.

I have heard it said many times that soldiers may tell you that they are fighting for their country; their family; their way of life; “truth, justice, and the American way,” or any one or more of dozens of very good reasons. The truth, though, it is said, is that when it comes down to it, they are fighting for their buddies. Though the battle-hardened soldier would be hard-pressed to verbalize it, they love their buddies in the purest of all ways, the way of sacrifice.

Meaning no disrespect, familiarity, or sacrilege here, but merely metaphorically speaking, I offer that so it is with sanctification. When one chooses a life of seeing what the Father is doing and working alongside Him, one becomes “buddies” with Christ in the way that soldiers become such buddies. They love each other in a self-sacrificial way such that they would give their life for each other – Jesus did, actually. That is how one becomes “sanctified.”

So let it be written, so let it be done.

This follows on yesterday’s post about the three calls that God issues to all people. Perhaps, we should drop back a bit and discuss what we mean by a “call.” This discussion includes the degree to which God’s call is “Irresistible,” as the Reformers would put it. As with many theological questions, Christian scholars disagree on this subject.

My Reformed friends would argue that to a greater or lesser degree, God’s Divine Will cannot be circumvented. Psalm 33:11, quoting Isaiah 14:27, states, “But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations.”(NIV.) This thought is echoed in Proverbs 19:21. “Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails.” (NIV.)

In Steven Lawson’s book, The Gospel Focus of Charles Spurgeon, the writer defines the term, “irresistible” in a quote from the great English preacher, Charles Haddon Spurgeon.

This irresistible call is distinct from the general call of the gospel. The former is extended only to the elect and cannot be resisted. The latter is extended to all who hear the gospel and is resisted apart from the Spirit’s effectual call. Spurgeon explained [as follows.]

The general call of the gospel is like the common ‘cluck’ of the hen which she is always giving when her chickens are around her. But if there is any danger impending, then she gives a very peculiar call, quite different from the ordinary one, and the little chicks come running as fast as they can, and hide for safety under her wings. That is the call we want, God’s peculiar and effectual call to his own.

This effectual call always secures its desired effect

One can certainly cite specific instances wherein God apparently directly intervened in the life of a specific person to do His Will. Numerous times in Exodus, God is seen as “hardening Pharaoh’s heart. See Exodus 7,8 9,10, and 14. Likewise, in 2 Chronicles 36:22, Cyrus II, King of Persia was “moved” to bring about God’s Will.

In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah, the Lord moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and also to put it in writing. (NIV.)

That Will manifested God’s purpose that the people of Judah should be allowed to return home. Of this event, Isaiah 45:13 elucidated. The prophet states:

I will raise up Cyrus in my righteousness:

I will make all his ways straight.

He will rebuild my city

and set my exiles free,

but not for a price or reward,

says the Lord Almighty.” (NIV.)

Some translations even refer to Cyrus as God’s “Messiah.” This is not to be confused with Jesus’ title of Messiah, however. Here, it merely means “one who is anointed” or “chosen.”

I realize here that I am entering into the discussion a topic that has raged since the time of John Calvin (1509-1564.) Further, I realize that I may be in violation of the line, “For fools rush in where angels fear to tread,” first uttered by Alexander Pope in his 1711 poem An Essay on Criticism, and sung by Frank Sinatra in the 1940 Tommy Dorsey song of the same name. Or, perhaps, “the Devil made me do it!” Flip Wilson as his character Geraldine.

I affirm that I am neither angel, devil, nor fool, merely an amateur writer submitting some thoughts for your consideration. The argument usually turns on the definition of “choice,” thus posing the question, “Does a person really have ‘free will?” Not choosing to open that “can of Worms,” I take the discussion in a different direction – a tangent – if you will. Remember that the title of this work is “The Call.”

The word for “called” in the Greek is kletos which generally means “invited” or “summoned.” (Strong’s no. G 6822.)

I would distinguish “invited” or even “summoned” from “commanded” or “impelled.” The former implies the ability on the part of the “invitee” or “summoned” to run away, either as a mere “no-show” or feverishly as one running down the street with his hair on fire. The latter implies compulsion as in a Legion of Imperial Storm Troopers delivered the message with orders to bring the “summoned” in.

The Apostle Paul, whom I will cite “early and often,” and who is frequently cited as the progenitor of the doctrine of election, himself states that God “calls” all to salvation. See 1 Timothy 2:4-6 (NIV.)

[God]… wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus who gave himself as a ransom for all people.

In this passage, Paul uses the Greek word “panta,” which Strong’s indicates means “every manner of, all.” See Strong’s no. G 3956. In other words, Strong’s defines “all” as “all” in the normal course of English usage. Assuming, arguendo, that you will agree with my logic, I will proceed with the balance of the argument.

May I suggest that the order of these three “calls” is of utmost importance? If one does not affirmatively answer the Call to Salvation, there is nothing that follows for that person except death. To refuse to answer the call to Salvation is to choose a life apart from God. Paul says in Romans 3:23, “for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life.” N.T. Wright suggests many times in his writings and videos that this “death” about which the Apostle speaks is the choice to “no longer be human” for eternity. May I further suggest that the fate to which Wright refers is worse than any Dantean or Botticellian picture of hell.

Be that as it may, when one does accept the Call to Salvation, the next call follows, the Call to Service. Accepting the call to service is not unlike joining the Army. The Apostle Paul was fond of using military metaphors. To extend Paul’s metaphor, in the army, that there are two kinds of officers. There are “line” or field officers and there are “staff” officers. Field officers obviously, serve in the field. Staff officers support the field officers. No group is more important than the other group, despite the prevalent feeling of superiority by some field officers that I have known.

Abraham was called to service by God. In Genesis 12:1, “The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.” (NIV.)

Exodus 3:7,10 is perhaps the most direct Call to Service under the Old Covenant. In the “burning bush” episode, God said to Moses

. . . I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out . . . [a]nd now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now, [you, Moses] go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt. (NIV.)

Isaiah 6:8 recounts Isaiah’s dramatic Call to Service.

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”

And I said, “Here am I. Send me!” (NIV.)

In the Gospels, Jesus called his Disciples to a life of service. See, for example, Matthew 9:9. “As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.” (NIV.)

Finally, Paul received the Call to Service years after his “Damascus Road” experience to which I referred yesterday, “While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Acts 13:2. (NIV.)

In Christian service, there are those called to serve in the field such as pastors and missionaries whether professional or volunteer. These field officers perform all sorts of labor for the Lord.

But just like the Army, there are staff Christians. These are the Christians who serve behind the scenes. Perhaps, they do not go out into the neighborhood to evangelize or stand in the foodservice line to give out food and water to the homeless. Nevertheless, their service is to provide prayer and logistical support to the field officers. As one progresses in life, in the Christian service as in the military, one typically migrates from field service to staff service, though this is not always the case. In Jesus’ eyes, service is Service as long as it is the service to which He has called.

May I submit that in each of the examples from the Bible and from real-life cited, supra, the person called could decline the call. He or she could say, “No, I’m not going to do that.” Have you ever declined a call to service that you knew was from God? I have. How did it feel? Not good in my case.

To the contrary argument that God had willed that each one of these people would do what they did because God had Willed it, I would suggest a re-reading of the story of the “Rich Young Ruler“ recorded in all three synoptic Gospels See Matthew 19:16–30, Mark 10:17–31, and Luke 18:18–30.   Mark’s account is particularly telling as Mark homes in on the point in vv. 21,22.

Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.

In the literal, untranslated Greek, Jesus is said to ἠγάπησεν the man, the aorist intransitive form of the verb transliterated as agapeo. Strong’s defines agapeo as “to love, to be full of good-will and exhibit the same. . . to have a preference for, wish well to, regard the welfare of. . . the benevolence which God bestows . . .”

Clearly, Jesus would rather that the Rich Young Ruler had chosen to sell all and follow. However, Jesus makes a teaching point of the man’s refusal. Who knows, maybe this man was being offered the life that the Apostle Paul assumed?

But alas, he would not. The young man’s will was contrary to the Will of God, and “he went away sad.”

Thus, I offer for your consideration that God issues to all 3 calls: The Call to Salvation, The Call to Service, and the Call to Sanctification. Tomorrow, should the Lord allow, we’ll close the loop with the Cal to Sanctification.

Everybody receives calls regularly. Obviously, some calls are more important than others. None, however, is more important than the one each of us receives from God – that’s what I said, all of us. In listening to Romans 1:1-7 this morning, and in contemplation on thereon, I am reminded that people are all “called” by God. Paul writes in verse 1, “Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God . . .” Notice the word, “called.”

Jesus told us in what is probably the most well-known passage of the New Testament, John 3:16-19.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only [or only begotten] Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.

Actually, I would argue that all people are issued three successive calls by God, the latter two being contingent upon successive acceptance of the previous call.

• The call to Salvation,
• The call to Service, and
• The call to sanctification.

The life of the Apostle Paul serves as a singular illustration of the point. Acts 9:1-8 documents Paul’s first call – the Call to Salvation.

Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest 2 and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. 3 As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”

“Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.

“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”

True believers in Christ have responded favorably to such a call – each of us has. Some calls to Salvation have been fairly dramatic, others more of a long progression. In my own life, as a seven-year-old boy, I was called during a church service. God started speaking to me during the sermon telling me that He wanted me. His call didn’t go into much detail – I was seven, remember. The call though was intense. I began, in my spirit, to argue with God, trying to put Him off. However, He was having none of that. He did not relent in His call. I began to bargain. I made Him an offer. I said, “OK if you will send someone else down the aisle at the altar call, I will follow.” I felt safe in this offer as this was a small church in a small town. Few people made “decisions.”

“But God . . .” But God called my hand. I had scarcely gotten the thought out of my mind when a young red-haired girl fairly ran up the aisle towards the pastor. By then, I was in too deep to swim back to shore. I summoned courage from somewhere and took a step into the aisle. After that first step, I felt as though I were floating down the aisle. It was as though my feet didn’t touch the floor. I was riding a cushion of Spirit. Thus, I said, “Yes,” to the Call to Salvation as did the Apostle Paul. My experience was not as dramatic as His, but I was just as received by God that day as was Paul.

In Romans 1:5, Christ issued to Paul the call to service and gave Paul the specific mission to serve as the apostle to the Gentiles, the non-Jews. “Through him we [I, Paul] received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for his [Jesus’] name’s sake.”

Answering that second Call to Service, Paul began, as Barclay calls it, “a long road to martyrdom,” as from the outset, Paul was destined for a violent death, the fact of which he was keenly aware and in fact welcomed. Paul states in Galatians 2:20, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless, I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

Unlike Paul, most of us – me included – seek a long life rather than what Pastor Rick calls a “Purpose-Driven life.” Perhaps, when Pastor Rick penned that best-selling book, he was thinking of the Apostle Paul who said of his own life in Philippians 3:7-11

But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.

Let us not forget now the third call, the Call to Sanctification. “Sanctification” is a theologian’s “fifty-cent” word for “keeping on growing in Christ-likeness.” The word comes from the Latin word, sanctus, which itself is based on the Greek word, ágios, or transliterated, hagios. The concept of ágios is of more ancient origin. It relates back the Hebrew concept of being “set apart” or in the Hebrew, “kodesh.” In the ancient Hebrew worship, the utensils used in the daily sacrifices were used solely and only for purposes of worship. They could not be used for any other purpose regardless of the circumstance.

The word, “sanctified” is used at least nine times in the New Testament. Paul gives a clear command regarding our sanctification in 1 Thessalonians 4:3, “It is God’s will that you should be sanctified . . .”

That is the essence of God’s third call to those who have responded to the first two calls. We are called to live a life that is moving in the direction of being “set apart” for our usefulness to Christ. Whether one ever achieves a state of perfect sanctification in this life is the subject of theological differences among Christian denominations. Scholars and theologians smarter than I have struggled with that question giving me pause in rendering my amateurish opinion.

One might ask at this point, “How does one achieve or progress toward sanctification?”  The answer to me is surprisingly simple. In John 14:15, the “Beloved Disciple records Jesus as saying, “If you love me, keep my commands.” And what are His “commands?” Again, the answer is simple. One of the other Gospel writers, Matthew, records an event in Jesus’ life in Matthew 22:34-40.

Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Surprisingly easy – to say, but exquisitely difficult to actually do – especially without God’s help. But then again, He is most anxious to “lend a hand.” Romans 8:26 reassures us, “In the same way, the [God’s Holy] Spirit helps us in our weakness. . .”

I submit that we progress to answer the third call by faithfully answering the second call. In other words, we show our degree of sanctification by our response to God’s Call to Service. James 1:22 urges us, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.”

Before we get “high and mighty” or “holier than thou” or pick your aphorism, we must remember one critical fact. While God calls us to salvation, service, and sanctification, the “doing” of these is God’s alone. Yet, through Him, we are empowered to do them. Philippians 4:13 blesses us by reminding that “I [we] can do all this through him [Christ] who gives me [us] strength.”

So let it be written, so let it be done.

At Chapel, last night, Brother Ben McDavid, the Chaplain, in his homily made the statement that we should forgive ourselves of our previous sins. He said that we should forget them as God has forgotten them. That comment resonated with me, as I am frequently unable to forget previous sins.

I once told Pastor Alan Cross that I had a sin that I could not forgive myself for. He asked me a series of questions. He asked whether I had acknowledged the sin before God. I stated that I had. He asked whether I had asked God to forgive the sin. I again replied affirmatively.

He then asked whether I believed that God could forgive sin. I began to equivocate. Erroneously, but Honestly, sometimes I have thought that my sins were too great even for God to forgive. (Before you condemn me for my lack of faith, think about your own sins. Think about that particular one – yes, that one, the one that YOU are not sure even God can forgive.)

He asked if I believed that God had answered my prayer in forgiving my sin. Again, I equivocated. He told me firmly but gently, that the previous sin had been forgiven and was remembered no more by God.

But now . . . But now I was committing the continuing sin of refusing to accept God’s forgiveness. Alan advised me that I should repent of that new and ongoing sin. Good pastoral counsel – memorable.

Meanwhile, at that same Chapel service, a friend sitting next to me commented upon my singing the hymns with great gusto, as I am wont to do sometimes. She commented that I should be in the choir. I took that as a great compliment.

Later last night, as I lay sleeping, I had a dream. In my dream, I was sitting just off stage at an orchestral performance. Standing right next to me on stage was a lovely young lady playing the tuba. She was holding it in a funny position, though, having it sit on the floor rather than hold it. As she was playing on, her fingers rapidly moving the valves, I, knowing the song from my trumpet playing days, was fingering air valves along with her. I was very conscious yet proud of myself for remembering the song. (This is a dream, remember. In my dreams, I can play the trumpet like a combination of Al Hirt, Myles Davis, and Doc Severinsen.)

During the young lady’s performance, she received a cell phone call apparently through an earpiece. I could hear a male voice on the other end of the call saying to her that she was holding the tuba wrong. He stated that if she were playing a baritone horn, she could play it with her clothes off. She then finished the song and put down her tuba. As she walked off the stage, she took off her clothes. I take it that she wanted people to see her just as she was. I’m not that free of self-consciousness.

Fast forward to this morning. I was walking and praying rather than listening to music. I believe God just wanted to have a conversation about my self-consciousness, and so we did.

During the walk, God pointed out someone else working in his or her yard. I don’t remember if this was male or female, and it doesn’t matter. God asked me what I thought about this person. My first thought about the person was to criticize something about the way he looked.

God inquired as to why I felt the need to criticize this person. God asked me whether I could accept this person as he was without judgment. I was not sure. Then God asked me whether the reason I could not accept other people just as she was had to do with the fact that I cannot accept myself just as I am. “Perhaps,” He suggested, “I could not even accept Him as He is for the same reason.

Harkening back to the homily at Chapel, I was being reminded of the hymn, “Just As I Am Without One Plea.” The hymn points out that God accepts us just as we are. I’m afraid that I have indulged the fiction that God accepted me the way I wanted him to see me, not the way I am.

I suspect that I am not alone in this fictional indulgence. If I am to be able to truly accept other people as they are and to truly accept God the way He is, I must first accept myself just as I am.

That is a big struggle for me. I do not want people, or God for that matter, to know the real me because I think that if they do know the real me, they will not be able to accept the real me. The fallacy with that thinking is that it sells short both the other person who thinks about me if in fact he or she does even think about me and more importantly, it sells God short. It denies His omniscience, more importantly, it denies His great love.

In Luke 12:7, Jesus said that God knows so much about us that He even numbers the hairs on our head. In other words, he knows everything about us on the sub-atomic level. And yet, knowing that much about us – about me – He made the Supreme sacrifice of giving up His deity so that I might enter into relationship with Him.

Such a love as that will surely overshadow my fear of being “found out” and will allow me to accept myself as I am. Yes, that is the key. I cannot be self-conscious as long as I am “God-conscious.”

The Apostle Paul writes in Philippians 2:5-8:

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!

Now that love so overwhelms my need to be accepted or liked, or to be impressive (in my own eyes,) as to cause it to disappear. When I can accept myself as I am, I can accept God for who he is. And, if I can accept God for who He is. I can accept people for who they are without any judgment. (Besides, being everybody’s judge is exhausting.)

Charlotte Elliott wrote the beautiful hymn, “Just as I Am” in 1835. Writing about the composition, the 19^th-Century writer John Brownlee noted Charlotte’s utter sense of despair at being viewed by her peers as “useless.” I have taken the liberty of quoting Brownlee’s description in its entirety.

The night before the bazaar she was kept wakeful by distressing thoughts of her apparent uselessness; and these thoughts passed by a transition easy to imagine into a spiritual conflict, till she questioned the reality of her whole spiritual life, and wondered whether it were anything better after all than an illusion of the emotions, an illusion ready to be sorrowfully dispelled.

The next day, the busy day of the bazaar, she lay upon her sofa . . . set apart for her in Westfield Lodge, ever a dear resort to her friends. The troubles of the night came back upon her with such force that she felt they must be met and conquered in the grace of God.

She gathered up in her soul the great certainties, not of her emotions, but of her salvation: her Lord, His power, His promise. And taking pen and paper from the table she deliberately set down in writing, for her own comfort, “the formulae of her faith.” Hers was a heart which always tended to express its depths in verse. So, in verse she restated to herself the Gospel of pardon, peace, and heaven.

Probably without difficulty or long pause, she wrote the hymn, getting comfort by thus definitely “recollecting” the eternity of the Rock beneath her feet. There, then, always, not only for some past moment, but “even now” she was accepted in the Beloved “Just as I am.”

So let it be written, so let it be done.

Walking today, I listened to the first few chapters of Genesis. This reminded me that I’ve been concerned at my lack of knowledge about the United Methodist position on the subject of Hell. Since I am now, along with my wife, members in good standing of that august body, I ought to know what they purport to believe about Biblical truths.

Perhaps, the Lord wants me to post on the subject of death and the afterlife. At any rate, that’s what I’m going to start doing. I’ll keep it up until He stops me. I plan to write it in several installments. I’ll look at the history of beliefs on death and the afterlife with an emphasis on the development of the orthodox Christian belief based in the Bible.

I begin with statements about the final place of the righteous dead or those whom evangelicals would deem to be “saved.”

Referring to the immediately dead, the official online presence of the United Methodist Church writes as follows.

Do they go directly to heaven or hell or do they go to a holding place until Christ returns to earth for the final judgment?

Throughout history, people have wondered what happens immediately after death. While we may want a clear-cut answer, United Methodists do not provide one in our doctrinal standards. This is because the scriptures themselves offer no one clear teaching on what happens to the dead between their death and the resurrection and judgment at the Last Day.

Instead, we are called simply to trust God that we are in Christ’s care and keeping.  It is that faith that calls us to trust that God holds answers that humanity cannot yet understand. We find in Hebrews 11:1: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” While the Protestant tradition teaches us certain aspects of the afterlife, there is still much that remains held in the mystery of God that requires simple faith.

Many Christians through the centuries have believed that when persons die, they remain dead (asleep) until the final judgment, at which time they are resurrected to life or punishment at Christ’s final judgment.

UM [United Methodist] Reporter interviewed Thomas G. Long, professor at Candler School of Theology, about his new book on funerals. To the question of how we should think about what’s happened to the dead, he said:

There are two images in the New Testament about what happens. First, the Resurrection Day, when the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised up incorruptible. If you only had that image, what we would imagine is that when people die, they lie in some intermediate state awaiting the great Resurrection Day.

The other image, however, is that death contains no victory over us at all. As soon as we die, we are with God. We get this in the Book of Revelation where John looks up and already the saints who have died are praising God around the throne. In terms of linear time, we can’t work this out. We’ve got these two competing images: You either wait until the general resurrection or you go immediately to be with God.

But the imposition of linear time on what is an eternal idea is what creates the contradiction. I don’t try to make a theologian out of Einstein, but he did show us that events that happen in sequence can also be events that happen simultaneously. If Einstein can imagine that in terms of physics, theologians can imagine it also in terms of the intrusion of eternity into linear time—that we are both immediately raised and raised together.

John Wesley believed in an intermediate state between death and the final judgment. So, as United Methodist theologian and historian Ted Campbell notes, “we reject the idea of purgatory but beyond that maintain silence on what lies between death and the last judgment.” (Methodist Doctrine: The Essentials, by Ted A. Campbell.)

I was thinking of Jesus’ statement from the cross to the penitent thief generally translated as, “Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.” (NIV) The ASV translates quite similarly. “And He said to him, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.” Note that both translations place a comma, not found in Greek manuscripts, after, “you,” making the word, “today” adverbially modify the verb, “be.” This renders, in paraphrase, “you will be with Me in Paradise today.”

Thomas Aquinas, quoting Luke 23:43, states:

The words of The Lord (This day … in paradise) must, therefore, be understood not of an earthly or corporeal paradise, but of that spiritual paradise in which all may be, said to be, who are in the enjoyment of the divine glory. Hence to place, the thief went up with Christ to heaven, that he might be with Christ, as it was said to him: “Thou shalt be with Me in Paradise”; but as to reward, he was in Paradise, for he there tasted and enjoyed the divinity of Christ, together with the other saints.

Prior to reading the grammatical point of this statement, I would have held that the statement clearly stated that the penitent thief would go immediately on the same day with Jesus to “Paradise.” Note that He uses “Paradise” and not “Heaven.” However, upon breathing their last, Jesus and the penitent thief, and the other thief for that matter, leave the space-time continuum and enter timeless eternity, the realm of God. Thus, “today” may or may not apply to a 24-hour time period as we know it.

In 2 Corinthians 5:1-8, the Apostle Paul utters a passage that is traditionally to be summarized as, “To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.” The text states:

For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile, we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.

Therefore, we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. For we live by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

Based, I believe, upon firm Biblical grounds, I can state confidently that the faithful dead are “immediately” and “bodily” in the presence of the Lord, whether this is in some temporary body in an intermediate state, as proposed by N.T. Wright in the “Intermediate State,” from “Rethinking the Tradition,” or in a place known as “Paradise” or perhaps, “Heaven” (but clearly not the “New Heaven” as that comes after the judgment.)

This statement does not rule out the concept of so-called “soul-sleep,” which might be otherwise thought of as stating that the time between their death and the final Resurrection is a spiritual irrelevancy, or as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:52, “in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.”

So let it be written, so let it be done.

I’d appreciate hearing any comments.

This continues on a thought that was begun yesterday concerning humility. As always, Pastor Lucas taught the class. The subject is the Letter from James, the brother of Jesus and early church leader.

Pastor Lucas pointed out how much the author, James, draws from “The Sermon on the Mount” found in Matthew 5 through 7. Jesus spoke to the multitude traditionally from a site on the Sea of Galilee known as the Horns of Hattin.” The text is also found in Luke where it is commonly known as” The Sermon on the Plain.” Likewise, the teaching is divided up into the various sayings in the Book of Mark.

As I walked today, I was impressed with the word hypocrite as I listened over and over again to” The Sermon on the Mount” concerning hypocrites. Jesus said the following on vv. 5-8.

And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

The Lord brought to my mind two specific instances in my life concerning hypocrisy and prayer. These were instances wherein I gave “eloquent” yet completely hypocritical performances in prayer in the public setting.

In one such occasion at a former church, I was asked to deliver the offertory prayer. Perhaps, I had forgotten what an honor it is to be asked to deliver this public prayer. Thinking it to be about me and not about God, I took it upon myself to prepare by writing down what I would say.

That, in and of itself, is not a bad thing – in moderation. I wrote entirely too much, about 4x too long. As I was finished my preparation, I was aware that it was entirely too long. At that point, I should have significantly edited the prayer down. However, I did not.

The next Sunday I stood in the Pulpit at the time of prayer and read a 17-minute prayer. I know that it was 17 minutes long because a friend of mine time, knowing my “propensity for verbosity,” timed it and kidded me about the length.

Since that time, I, myself have joked about it; It is not a joking matter. That was a sacred time, and I had been given a sacred responsibility to lead the congregation before the Lord. Rather, I chose to give a performance “arrayed” in all my self assumed eloquence and pomposity.

In Jesus’ teaching about hypocritical prayer, he says that when we make ourselves hypocrites and seek the praise of men, and we have our reward. In my case, the reward was not the praise of men but, likely, it was the ridicule of men. No one other than the friend, mentioned supra, said anything to me about it, but surely others must bemusedly have thought ill of it. And they should have.

A second time I remember is not really one specific time but the many times that I have been engaged in small group prayer. I have made it a practice to lead the group back into praise and recognition of the greatness of God disdaining their immediate attention to the needs that they felt at in their hearts such as illnesses.

While beginning prayer time with a recognition of Who God is and, therefore, who we are, is a very good thing, perhaps the best thing, the motive must be pure. In that “Sermon on the Mount,” Jesus, in his model prayer, begins by saying, “Our Father Who Art in Heaven.” In that phrase, He recognizes who God is, our Heavenly Father. His recognition of God as Father was fresh and surely heretical for some of His original hearers. For us it is standard operating procedure.

My error there was not in beginning my prayer by praising God, but by disdaining, even if only in my own head, the prayer of other people who began their prayer with their recitation of their needs.

When I think this way, and act this way, I become a hypocrite and I think myself better than others. This is sin. When I play the hypocrite, I disobey God, in this case to His very Face. In Philippians 2:3,the Apostle Paul says, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves…”

Likewise, I dishonor God, dishonor our fellow man, and ultimately dishonor myself. The “reward” that I received for this sinful act may not even rise to the level of “the praise of men.” Likely, in the case of my hypocrisy, the “reward” was the silent, unspoken, ridicule of men.

O God, forgive me for my hypocrisy and alert me to the times that I would again practice hypocrisy, dishonoring You, my fellow men, and myself, and as James would say, “bridle my tongue.” (paraphrased.)

So let it be written oh, so let it be done.

Today, I begin as a student in a Bible study class on the Letter from James. I was intending to be all “read-up” on James and on the commentary, mostly Barclay so that I could show how smart I was to the class and to the teacher.

However, yesterday I was privileged to have a private tutorial with the teacher on the introduction to the Letter since I missed class last week. God has given me today what I am to learn from that session and the upcoming one.

Today I will meet the full class. My prayer is that the Lord will allow me to be a learner and not attempt to usurp the role of God’s appointed teacher. This is especially so that I don’t attempt to teach that which I do not know or to pretend to teach that which I have just read from somebody else. These would be sinful acts.

The Genesis of this sin, pride is my need to be liked and respected. Pride is a sin that we can commit on our own with no one else’s help. Humility, however, is a gift from God. That prideful need of mine must be sublimated to God’s gift of humility.

“God grant me the gift of humility.” I recognize that in so praying, I might encounter “divers trials,” in James’ KJV words, which will cause me to be humbled the hard way. Perhaps, it could be by saying something that reveals my basic ignorance and/or arrogance, or by my saying something amiss that is uncultured, disrespectful, or just plain dumb.

The plain, hard truth is that I do have a lot to learn, not just about the Letter from James, but about my fellow students, my teacher, and most importantly, about God.

I remember something else that God said to me today. He told me that I was but “special” and beloved in His sight but only because He made me. All his children are special, and he loves them all, I included.

He reminded me that James talks about the use of the tongue. I have always wondered why James took off on the use of the tongue. Perhaps, God wants to tell me personally, that I need to be careful and judicious about my use of the tongue.

I can use my tongue to build people up or to tear them down. It is not only when I say unkind or threatening things that I can hurt people. When I use my tongue to display pseudo-wisdom, I may inadvertently humiliate someone else. I use the term, “pseudo – wisdom” because one who possesses true wisdom would not use his tongue to humiliate others even inadvertently. When I do that, I demonstrate to God and to the world that I have completely missed the point of this lesson.

The Great Law of Jesus is Love. Love yourself and your fellows by not attempting to step on his or her shoulders to raise myself up. Rather, let God raise me up in his own way and in His own time.

“In so doing,” God said, “You will receive the humility that you have prayed for without the humiliation that you do not desire or deserve.” Dear God, save me from my own venial nature.

So let it be written, so let it be done.

As I was walking today, I was unfocused, distracted, and concerned with the affairs of the day. I asked God to come to me and to reveal himself to me. Now, I recognized that I must ask such a thing in humility and not expect God to be at my beck and call. To think such is the first and greatest sin – pride. However, God has said in many passages that if we will seek Him, He will be found. (See Proverbs 8:17.) John Piper elaborates,

Seeking the Lord means seeking his presence. “Presence” is a common translation of the Hebrew word “face.” Literally, we are to seek his “face.” But this is the Hebraic way of having access to God. To be before his face is to be in his presence. 

Piper continues,

The great promise to those who seek the Lord is that he will be found. “If you seek him, he will be found by you” (1 Chronicles 28:9). And when he is found, there is great reward. “Whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him” (Hebrews 11:6).

When I called out this morning to God, He came back to me in a mathematical equation that is set out hereinbelow. This is highly unusual because math is not my best subject. Yet, the equation sets out a great truth.

[(If you will believe x{times} X) + (that I AM³)] + [that I AM³ (more powerful than youⁿ)] + [that I AM³ holds (you x 4) (secure x Y) in the palm of MY hand];

 Then you will [know ME as (I AM³⁾] + [(worship x Z) ME as (I AM³)] + [do what (I AM³) commands.] 

In that equation exists the Alpha and Omega; Darkness v. Light, life v. death, Heaven v. Hell, existence v. annihilation, longing v. fulfillment, and joy and sorrow, ⁿ.

To explain for those as mathematically challenged as I, God gave to me in triplets an if/then equation with each side expressed in three clauses. The first clause says that I must believe that God exists. On the “if” side, if I would believe that He, the triune God, is or exists, (see Hebrews 11:6) where “believe” is subject to being multiplied by the first variable “X” representing the set all words signifying “believe” and its synonyms; plus

The second clause tells me that I must believe that He, the triune God, is more powerful than I to the “nth” power representing infinity; (See,  inter alia,  Psalm 8:3-4 and 147:5; Job 26:14; Isaiah 40:28 and 55:8-9; and Luke 12:7  plus

The third clause that commands me to believe that the Triune God holds me in the palm of His hand. The multiplier of four indicates that He holds my past, present, future, and afterlife. The second variable, “Y” indicates the set of all words signifying “secure” and its synonyms. See Deuteronomy 32:11; Psalm 91:11 -12; and Isaiah 1:31, 40:11, 41:13, 46:4, and 63:9.)

The “then” side of the equations states that If I will perform the “if” side, then God will bring about the following. First, I will know the triune God as He as He is. (See Philippians 3:10.)

Secondly, I will worship him. The third variable, “Z” stands for the set of all words signifying “worship” and its synonyms.

Lastly, I will do what the Triune God commands. (See John 14:15.)

God gave me an assignment, homework if you will. He said that I was to research and “flesh” this out cognitively, to believe the truth of it spiritually, and to act accordingly physically. (Note the three parts of each of us, soul, spirit, and body.)

The first two commands, I can accomplish in one post in one day’s entry to accomplish intellectually. The last, however, will acquire the rest of my life to accomplish physically.

So let it be written, so let it be done.