Monday, February 29, 2016

There are two kinds of spiritual disciplines.

The first kind of spiritual disciplines are the ones we choose. We understand these disciplines. The reason why we choose spiritual disciplines, often during the Lenten Season, is because we have a heavenly Father who sees us, who longs to draw us close and who wants to bless us with his presence, his compassion and he wants to grant us the grace to grow in our personal relationship with him.

It is not easy to set aside more time, energy and money for prayer, worship, meditation and sacrificial outreach to those in need.
But we agree that these disciplines we choose are never as hard as the spiritual disciplines we do not choose.

Jesus teaches about spiritual disciplines we do not choose for ourselves in Matthew 5.  In Matthew 5:11 he says, "God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things against you because you are my followers."  We never choose these disciplines for our spiritual growth - yet our Lord allows these episodes and events into our lives. Why would he allow trials of many kinds in our lives?

First of all, the spiritual disciplines you don't choose are described by James in James 1: 2 – 9 as trials of many kinds. They come in very personal shapes and sizes. But they have this in common: they test our faith. We are asking questions like, "What possible value could this situation have for me?  " And our faith is tested!

Now, how do we deal with tests we did not choose in order to grow into the spiritual maturity God desires in our lives?  There are at least three ways we can respond.  

Sometimes we rebel!  The first way we could respond to trials and tribulations is to fight against it, to get angry with people, with the world – with anything and anybody who had something to do with this.  Yet, there is no comfort, joy or growth on this path.

Or we can respond by resigning.  You start to believe that you are powerless in this trial and simply surrender to its painful reality. And this leads to a sense of subjection without hope that brings despair.

Or you can rejoice, as Jesus suggests in Mt 5: 11 and James in James 1:2.
Jesus says, God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things against you. Here is how he says you deal with that:  "Rejoice and be glad."  I want you to face that trial by a power of remaining glad - the power of rejoicing!
James says in James 1:2, "Whenever you face trials of many kinds, the testing of your faith, this is what you do: "Consider it pure joy."
It is a hard journey, but not impossible! And it takes you to a place of "choosing what you did not choose."

It is painful, it hurts and it remains hard.
But you say nonetheless "I choose to accept this situation as a situation in which God can work, in which I believe God's love cannot be stopped and he can work through this for my good and for his glory.

James teaches that because we choose to grow spiritually during this time of trial and tribulation and testing of our faith, it will bring us to a place of maturing spiritually and we will receive the gift of perseverance as a result of this choice.

And suddenly you notice an insightful difference on how you look at what happens to you! Instead of merely enduring it, you receive the freedom to grow as a disciple of Christ and to become stronger through God’s gift of perseverance.

Instead of something being taken from you, by choosing to grow within a situation you did not choose as a discipline, you see that because you have to mature through it, it is becomes a gift – a gift that makes you glad and rejoicing!

What was a dark prison without a door becomes your paradise in the presence of the Lord who sustains you, matures you - and most of all, loves you till the journey’s end!


Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Go to dark Gethsemane

Go to dark Gethsemane,
ye that feel the temp’ters power;
your Redeemer’s conflict see,
watch with Him one bitter hour;
turn not from His griefs away,
learn of Jesus Christ to pray.

Follow to the judgement hall;
view the Lord of life arraigned;
O the bitter cup, the gall!
O the pangs His soul sustained!
Shun not suff’ring, shame, or loss;
learn of Christ to bear a cross.

Calvary’s mournful mountain climb;
there, adoring at his feet,
mark the miracle of time,
God’s own sacrifice complete;
it is finished, hear Him cry;

learn of Jesus Christ to die.

Thursday, February 11, 2016

Why observe Lent?

The Season of Lent leads us into a deeper spiritual relationship with Christ. Remembering all that Jesus did for us, it should lead us from knowing about Jesus, to loving and following him wholeheartedly.

It is a dark journey in which we confront the strongholds of evil in our lives, deeply ashamed of what we became as a result of the lack of godly discipline that should be an integral part of being followers of Christ.

It is also a journey that leads to the light of God’s presence when the cross, the blood, the suffering, death and the grave of Jesus grant us hope, forgiveness and a deep sense of joy about the love, grace and the mercy of God.

Lent is also a Season for paying attention to our own lives. We remind ourselves that we are bound for death — and that we are bound to the death of Jesus Christ. Lent provides a time to focus our attention on the mystery at the heart of the Christian life: that through death, the death of Jesus Christ, we have entered new life.

As Paul says to the Corinthians, “We are treated as impostors and yet are true, as unknown and yet are well known, as dying, and see — we are alive.”
This is the paradox of Christian life. We have been joined to Christ’s death once when we were redeemed, but we spend the rest of our lives growing to live into that union.

We have already died once, with Christ.
Yet the light of the resurrection waits for us at the end of the journey.

Lent invites us to turn again, take up our cross, and move ahead on the way to meet the one who shapes us, marks us and claims us as his own. Because after dying in Christ comes the miracle to be resurrected in Christ.


May a meaningful journey into the life that Jesus Christ gives, be granted to all God’s people during this Season.