5/15/12- Step by Step Sanctification

¹² Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, ¹³ for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. (Philippians 2:12,13)


Q. 35. What is sanctification?
A. Sanctification is God’s work of free grace by which our whole person is made new in the
image of God, and we are made more and more able to become dead to sin and alive to
righteousness.

(Monk walking up steps from Danheller.com)


Thoughts: One step at a time, one moment at a time, one bit at a time-- that is sanctification.  It contrasts with conversion/justification/adoption which happen once for all time- and happen at once.  Sanctification is the Pilgrim's Progress- going through the valleys, over the mountaintop, around the pittfalls of life.  It is a journey toward a destination.  Often legalists over-emphasize sanctification.  I have heard some fundamentalists talk about different stages of the Christian life- squeezing people into a "pipeline" of believer- disciple- disciplemaker- apostle.  On the other hand I have heard liberals speak of progressing as if they used to be fundamentalists and then they broadened their viewpoints and were enlightened (almost Buddha-like) into an ever-broadening way of thinking and inclusiveness so that they are able to leave their narrow-mindedness behind them.  Scripture is a check on such legalistic views.  They push beyond scripture- and downplay that God works with different people in different ways.  For the fundamentalist, they add more requirements than scripture makes.  For the liberal, the requirements go beyond scripture so that the liberal seems wiser than scripture itself- developing/relying on their own experts and gurus. In either case, human pride enters in.  The process of becoming dead to sin is a mystery relying on what God does in each human heart.  Part of being dead to sin is to have ears that listen more than a mouth that talks.  The listening is not to the latest theory or fad or expert, but to the time-honored and true Word found in scripture.  There are Spiritual Directors who claim to have the ability to steer people through their spriitual   journey and sanctification.  Perhaps this is scriptural (Paul did help Timothy who was told to teach others who would teach others also  2 Tim. 2:2). God puts people, teachers, preachers in our path to help us on our way.  We can learn from anyone.  But we also need to know that we need to work out our own sanctification with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in us.  Each person suffers different- but suffering is surely part of the sanctification process.  Each person grows differently, but surely growth encompasses some of the proven means of grace (like scripture, prayer, communion, service, etc.).  Teresa of Avila has a wonderful book called "Interior Castle" that speaks of growing in faith as if going through different rooms of a castle.  Robert Munger, PCUSA writer, wrote, "My Heart Christ's Home" about giving God the different areas of your life as a part of our spiritual growth or sanctification.  Ignatius wrote "Spiritual Exercises" about things we can do to enhance our sanctification. Richard Foster's "Celebration of Discipline" is also a helpful tool. There are many other classic and common books today.  But while they may be helpful, none is exhaustive.  The scriptures, I believe, are enough- sufficient- to aid us in our walk with God.   If we were on a deserted island and we could have only one book- I pray it not be a dictionary or encyclopedia (sorry wiki), but the Holy Bible.   Other works seem shallow pale and thin besides the proven depth and helpfulness of the Bible.  Why?  Not because the Bible is so clear- or so poetic- or so amazing in and of itself.  Rather the Spirit promises to speak through scripture as in no other book.  That in itself is a mystery- almost like communion.  There is no 1-2-3-4 step plan in the Bible.  But the steps to our sanctification are found there.  


Prayer: Help me to walk day by day with you, O Lord.  Give me grace to walk each step, each moment with you- working out my salvation by your Spirit. 

5/14/12- Sanctification

²³ May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Thessalonians 5:23) 

¹³ But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters loved by the Lord, because God chose you as firstfruits to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth. (2 Thessalonians 2:13)

Q. 35. What is sanctification?
A. Sanctification is a free gift of God by which our whole person is made new in the
image of God, and we are made more and more able to become dead to sin and alive to
righteousness.

Thoughts: "Sanctus" means "holy" in Latin.  Sanctification is focused on how we are made holy in this life.  It is the progression of holiness in our lives.  Justification and adoption are the beginning of the Christian life here, and sanctification is the growth in the Christian life.  The catechism reminds us that sanctification is not something we do apart from God.  Rather- growth in the Christian life is a gift from God.  We do not deserve to grow, growth is the gift of God.  Sanctification is a gradual thing.  Just as we cannot fully control our own physical growth- and it often happens when we sleep, so we cannot fully manipulate our spiritual growth.  The Sanctus Spiritus (Holy Spirit) is the One who sanctifies us- leading us, convicting us, inspiring us, encouraging us.  Since sanctification is gradual, it is not a one time act.  There is always room to grow, room to improve.  We never fully get to where we ought to be, but we can make progress.

Prayer: Help me Lord in my Christian life.  Keep me in your care, and help me to grow ever closer to you and your will for me.

5/13/12- The Importance of Mothers

⁸ Her children arise and call her blessed;
    her husband also, and he praises her:
²⁹ “Many women do noble things,
    but you surpass them all.”
³⁰ Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting;
    but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.
³¹ Give her the reward she has earned,
    and let her works bring her praise at the city gate. (from Proverbs 31)

In Sichuan China on May 12, 2008 there was an earthquake.  After a few days rescue workers found a mother shielding a young baby.  The mother was dead, the four-month-old baby alive.  The mother apparently typed on her cell phone the words "always remember, I love you."  Such is the love of a mother for her child.  Mothers are gifts from God.

Prayer: Help me, Lord to be more grateful toward those who love me this day, and those who loved me in the past.

5/12/12- Mother's Day Eve

¹⁸ A certain ruler asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

¹⁹ “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. ²⁰ You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.’”

²¹ “All these I have kept since I was a boy,” he said. (Luke 18:18-20)

¹⁶ “Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live long and that it may go well with you in the land the Lord your God is giving you.

¹⁷ “You shall not murder.

¹⁸ “You shall not commit adultery.

¹⁹ “You shall not steal.

²⁰ “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.

 (Deuteronomy 5:16-20)

(Charleton Heston as Moses in Ten Commandments)

Thoughts:The heart, the middle, the meat of the Ten Commandments carry the three commands- to honor parents, not murder, and not commit adultery.  These three commands carried with them originally a punishment of death (as opposed to the commands of stealing or lying).  These three were seen as blasphemy against God as well as offenses against human beings.  When the rich young ruler asked Jesus about inheriting eternal life, the answer of the heart of the law was given. 

On this Mother's Day Eve, let us not forget that honoring our parents and their memory is a part of honoring God. Respecting motherhood and marriage by respecting marriage is a twin of honoring father and mother.  When a non-husband sees mothers in a lustful way, it degrades the unspoken covenant of a mother with her children, of a wife with her husband, of a covenant with God.  On Mother's Day Eve many are thinking of what gift to get their mother.  It is a great mother's day present for a father to love the mother.  It is a great mother's day present for a son or daughter who are married to love their spouse.  Traditionally, one of the most common ways to celebrate Mother's Day (according to wikipedia) is to go to church.  Giving thanks for our mothers (or their memory) to God- is a giving thanks to God for life itself.  

Prayer: Thank you God for the gift of families and your order to it.  Help me to live in a way today that would honor my mother and you.  

5/11/12- The Preserver of Marriage

Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral. (Hebrews 13:4)

Thoughts: Luther once said, “There is no more lovely, friendly, and charming relationship, communion, or company than a good marriage.”  God gave us marriage by creating us male and female.  Jesus blessed marriage when he turned the water into wine as his first miracle at a marriage.  The Holy Spirit is the one who brings people together in God's providence, sustains them- giving them grace to forgive one another.  


Our passage says that the ideal of God is that marriage be held in respect.  That is that people and society respect the boundaries of a husband marrying a wife- and that there is no openness in marriage. Marriage means forsaking all others- but it also entails that all others respect the marriage commitment and covenant, or face God's punishment for being destructive of something holy.  So also, we dishonor marriage when we do not respect the borders not only of faithfulness, but of the design of God that one participant be male and the other female.  Marriage involves two people- not just one and not more than two.  it is a committed relationship that has large potential and intentions to last all lifetime long.  

The marriage bed is to be kept pure.  The sexual aspect of marriage is referred to here.  Paul indicates (1 Cor. 7) that the husband and wife should not abstain from sexual relations without mutual consent.  But on the other hand, the marriage bed becomes impure when we use the gift of sexuality that God has given us in ungodly ways.  God protects marriage and society from physical, moral, and spiritual disease by limiting marriage to only two and that these two should be of opposite sex.  The marriage bed becomes impure when we allow what God has forbidden- namely incest, adultery, fornication (sex before marriage),, bestiality,  polygamy or polyamory, and homosexual acts.  Marriage is a holy act, and sexuality in marriage is also a holy gift.  


In the end the state nor the church is the judge of the sexually immoral.  God is not just the judge tho performs the spiritual marriage- the knitting of hearts and lives- He is also the judge preserving marriage.  God preserves marriage by his commands, but also by His own self. While both church and state should do all they can to protect marriage, many can find a way to hide the breaking of marriage and immorality.  But God sees all.  In the end, we must answer to God and Him only.  Any efforts to fence or guard marriage will fall short.  That does not mean that human efforts are useless- they are important, but they are not final.  The adulterer may be able to hide from the faithful spouse, or the minister, or the neighborhood gossip.  But the adulterer cannot hide from God who sees all including the heart.  Letting our lust control us instead of being controlled by the Spirit of God turns sexuality into just biological satisfaction.  But when God is involved, lust is replaced with a deep love that fosters a committed relationship. When holy marriage is honored love is honored.  Counterfeit marriage that breaks the law of God will never be holy  and will never foster the kind of love for which God designed us.  


Prayer: In a world that does not honor marriage and does not honor your words, help me to honor you. 

5/10/12- When the New Normal Isn't Normal- Homosexual Marriage

Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of God for images...Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.  They exchanged the truth about God for a lie...because of this God gave them over to shameful lusts.  Even their women exchanged natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another.  Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.  (Romans 1:22-27)

In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion.  They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.  (Jude 7)

(Hitler and Cardinal Innitzer)

President Barak Obama says he is in favor of gay marriage as are some other political leaders of our land.  Some polls indicate a huge shift in public opinion away from common mores informed by scripture. Civil Unions had been a way to recognize homosexual partnerships without involving the church.  But it is clear that just a recognition of partnership by the state is not enough for many- God's blessing and approval is demanded.  Even some church leaders are joining in, noting that God loves all people (as if God by this, tacitly approves all we do).
    If the whole world says that marriage is "between two people" instead of "between a man and a woman" that would not make holy marriage that way.  Only God- not the state- not society- and not the church can define (or redefine) what is holy in the sight of God.  Marriage actually pre-dates the recognition by church and state in that God made us male and female.  The biology designed by God are designed to go together, to attract the opposite sex, and to produce the next generation to continue the species.
    If the whole world became a Sodom and Gomorrah- promoting homosexual and heterosexual immorality, would God then not approve?  Of course not!  If everyone of God's creatures does wrong, God does not then change His mind.  The redefinition of marriage is an attempt by humans (who want to disobey the commands of God) to get God to approve of their actions.  There are many examples of whole societies making evil and bad choices- the Romans with their gladiator blood-lust and emperor worship; the Nazis with their killing of homosexuals, the disabled, and the Jews; the southern American attitude toward slavery of the African (and their refusal to marry many); Most of these cultures wanted religious rationale to justify their behavior.  In each case some religious leaders were willing to justify things that clearly violated God's law. But despite the excuses, it did not change the eternal law of God any more than someone jumping and saying they defied the law of gravity.  The purpose and design of God are firm.  The eternity and sufficiency of the Bible as God's Word is also firm and clear on this subject.
    The state does have a stake in marriage (thus giving out marriage licenses).  Marriage supposedly promotes stability, protects children, and decreases crime.  Maggie Gallaher (National Review 071403) states that "There is scarcely a dollar that state and federal government spends on social programs that is not driven in large part by family fragmentation: crime, poverty, drug abuse, teen pregnancy, school failure, mental and physical health problems."  When marriages are going well, society is going well with healthier people, a more productive and less absent workforce, and children who are more likely to finish school and stay away from crime and unwanted pregnancies.
    But the state should not tell the church where its marriage borders should lie.  Hitler tried to control the church in the 1930s, but that too was problematic for the church.  Many, including Barth and Bonhoeffer formed the Confessing Church saying that Hitler had no right to tell the church what to do.  The Covenanters of Scotland would remind us that English monarchs have tried to control the church.  China, Cuba, and Vietnam (among others) today try to control the church.  Those who seek to disobey the scriptures should not force the church of the scriptures to marry people whom the church does not consider to meet the basic requirements of marriage.  (requirements such as: not already married, not a close family member, male and female).  Make no mistake if the state approves homosexual marriage the control of the church on this issue is not far behind (perhaps by threatening to revoke tax exempt status). Already threats of federal aid have been withdrawn from the Salvation Army and the honor of the Boy Scouts has been impugned for taking a scriptural stand on homosexuality.  The church, through marriage and hiring are just next on the list.
     To open the door to homosexual marriage exceeds even opening the doors of polygamy or polyamory ("open marriage") for homosexual activity is expressly forbidden by God in both Old and New Testaments (Gen 19; Lev. 18:22; 20:13; Deut 23:17-18; Mark 7:20-23; Rom. 1:18-32; 1 Cor. 6:9-11; 1 Tim 1:8-11; 2 Pt 2:6-10; Jude 7; Rev. 21:8; 22:15).  In the Old Testament homosexual acts are called an "anathema" or "detestable to God" (Lev. 18:22), and in the New Testament it is seen as a sign of God's wrath and displeasure (Rom. 1; Rev. 21,22).   For the state to say the Church should take something that is an anathema to God and bless it is asking the church to bless what it does not have the power to bless.  Scripture tells us what God blesses and what God does not bless.  We may ignore it, but we cannot change what scripture says even by fiat and redefinition.
     If the state tells us that greed is normal and the church should look the other way- the church should stand up and say "greed is not the norm for life."  If the state tells us that adultery is normal and that the church should look the other way- the church should stand up and say that adultery is harmful to the soul and to children and those involved.  If the state tells us that normal marriage is really not restricted to one man and one woman then the church should stand up and say that holy marriage is different from unholy marriage.  If all the world becomes a Sodom or Gomorrah, it does not change the holiness or laws of God one jot or tittle. Jude tells us that what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah was a terrible warning to all those who would follow their example as societies.

Prayer: In a world that pressures us to be faithless, help me, O God to be faithful to you and your Word.

5/9/12- Why Scripture is Worth Hearing

You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me. (John 5:39)


Do we believe God speaks through the scriptures or not? If God even speaks sacramentally and regularly through scripture (as even Marcus Borg suggests), then the scriptures are to be heard, and heard as the Word of God.  Billions of Christians would testify that God has spoken to their need, to their heart, to their deep desire, to their purpose through scripture.  In other words, God speaks, and is not silent.  For those who do not believe that scripture alone is our ultimate authority, the question then is does God speak in other places, and with the same power and authority?  Even scripture says that the heavens are telling the glory of God.  Romans 1:20 speaks of God revealing even His character in creation.  But while God's voice in creation is useful, it is nebulous.  There are the cute little bunnies but also the nasty buzzards.  Whenever there is truth- theologians say, it is God's truth.  But truth in science is also nebulous and cloudy.  One minute progress tells us of nuclear energy and the next of nuclear bombs.  One day the smallest particle is an atom, the next we know of many smaller particles (such as mesons).  Science not only grows in knowledge, but it changes its mind.
If God speaks, we need to listen.  There used to be a commercial in the 1980s that said, "When E.f. Hutton [the stockbroker] speaks, people listen." If God is known to speak through scripture and even tells us that He does so, we should be all ears.  The scriptures, through whom He has been found to speak, tell us that God has commands for us that help us to live the way we are designed to live.  To break these commands because we have a feeling or "knowledge" brought on by nebulous nature, nebulous science, or an untrustworthy human authority, would be to not listen to our own peril. Scripture has stood the test of time.  It has been disobeyed by many, and disbelieved by many who want to go their own way.  If we don't believe scripture whenever it comes into conflict with another authority- some expert in religion or science- then we are choosing to believe that expert's authority over the expertise of scripture that has proven itself time and again.  

John Calvin: "In short, the sense is, that we do not esteem the law as it deserves, if we do not prefer it to all the riches of the world. If we are once brought thus highly to prize the law, it will serve effectually to deliver our hearts from an immoderate desire of gold and silver. To this esteem of the law there must be added love to it, and delight in it, so that it may not only subdue us to obedience by constraint, but also allure us by its sweetness; a thing which is impossible, unless, at the same time, we have mortified in us the love of carnal pleasures, with which it is not
wonderful to see us enticed and ensnared, so long as we reject, through a vitiated taste, the righteousness of God. From this we may again deduce another evidence, that David’s discourse is not to be understood simply of the commandments, and of the dead letter, but that he comprehends, at the same time, the promises by which the grace of God is offered to us. If the law did nothing else but command us, how could it be loved, since in commanding it terrifies us, because we all fail in keeping it? fa426 Certainly, if we separate the law from the hope of pardon, and from the Spirit of Christ, so far from tasting it to be sweet as honey, we will rather find in it a bitterness which kills our wretched souls." (Commentary on Psalm 19:10)

Prayer: Give me grace, Lord to listen to you more than want my own way.  Give me grace to walk on the same narrow path that has been trod before me.