From the Inside Out

“My God, I feel it is heaven to please thee, and to be what thou wouldst have me to be.”  (“Consecration and Worship” p. 232 from Valley of Vision.)  I yearn to have this kind of holy desire flowing more powerfully in my heart.  Love for Christ, heartfelt devotion to God is the proper and effective motivation for right living.   When I get so focused on pleasing the divine Audience of One that I lose sight of all other desires and all other audiences, I am on the right track.  But only the Almighty can make this happen!

“…it is heaven to please thee, and to be what thou wouldst have me to be.”   Being what our Lord would have us to be involves much more than occupation or even the ministry we do for Him.  It is primarily a matter of the heart.  First of all it is allowing the living Word and Spirit to shape us on the inside.  

“Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”  Psalm 37:4, ESV.  Does this mean, “If I get happy in God He will give me everything I want?”  Sort of, but please pay close attention – if we really get so focused on God that He is the number one joy in our lives, He is going to be transforming us so deeply that our desires will change!  Think about it, when young people fall deeply in love with a person what is their number one desire?  To be with that person and to make that person happy.  If we delight ourselves in the Lord, more than anything we will crave His presence and burn with desire to please Him.  “And he will give you the desires of your heart”!  

The more we see God changing us on the inside the more that will overflow to the outside!  Let Him shape your thoughts, affections, desires and your choices and actions will flow out of that.  

The Book of Common Prayer offers this prayer (“collect”) for the Fifth Sunday after Easter, “O LORD, from whom all good things come: Grant to us thy humble servants, that by thy holy inspiration we may think those things that be good, and by thy merciful guiding may perform the same through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.”  The author of this prayer recognized right living starts on the inside!  Right thinking comes before right living.  The Collect for the Sunday before this includes this phrase, “Grant unto thy people, that they may love the thing which thou commandest, and desire that which thou dost promise”.  “Change me from the inside out” needs to be our earnest prayer.  

Right being precedes right doing.  Right being only comes from profound transformation at the hand of the Master Potter.  The greatest contentment in life is to be the person God intends for us to be.

Are You Ready for Radical Grace?

"Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."  (Romans 5:1, NIV 1984)  

     Recently it seems God has surrounded me with messages on His astounding, inconceivable grace; books, blogs, quotes on Facebook.  Tullian Tchividjian (Billy Graham's grandson, and successor to D. James Kennedy at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church) wrote a powerful, short blog titled, "Are You Afraid of Radical Grace?”  I fear the answer to his question for many of us is "You better bet I am!!" Pastors and deacons and Sunday School teachers often teach salvation by grace through faith and sanctification by sweat, blood and tears.  We burden people with man-made lists of rules and do's and don'ts.  Why?  We believe it is the only way to "keep them in line".  Read Romans 7:7-12 to get a Scriptural perspective on that!  It is a crazy maker and just messes people up!  (It helps keep me and other counselors in business!)

     But how do we keep our people from sinning?  We don't.  What makes us think it is OUR job to keep them from sinning?  Tullian Tchividjian says this, and I agree, "The irony of gospel-based sanctification is that those who end up obeying more are those who increasingly realize that their standing with God is not based on their obedience, but Christ’s. The people who actually end up performing better are those who understand that their relationship with God doesn’t depend on their performance for Jesus, but Jesus’ performance for us." 

     The power to live pleasing to God comes from relying on what Jesus did in His life, death and resurrection, the power of the Cross.  Human effort on its own can produce proud, self righteous Pharisees.  It does not produce disciples of Jesus Christ. 

     Jesus reveals the motivation for obedience in John 14:23, 24. “Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. ²⁴ Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father's who sent me.”  Do you want to help people live pleasing to God?  Hold forth Jesus in a way that the Holy Spirit draws them to love Jesus!  Love for Jesus, not guilt, is the motivating force.  Guilt manipulated by humans is a crazy maker!  Love generated by the Holy Spirit is a healing force!

     Be Gospel centered and Grace centered in all your preaching and teaching.  And the Holy Spirit will convict of sin - that is His job, not yours or mine! 

 

      Leaders, stay focused on preaching Christ, Grace, and the Cross.  Christians, let your witnessing be focused on the Cross of Christ and the Grace of God. Then you will be part of the solution rather than part of the problem.  (And you won't be causing people to need Christian counseling!)