The Heart Of The Matter

There and Back Again: A Pastor's Tale, Part Two

First, I felt that my presence in the community in some ways inhibited the development of other leaders for all kinds of reasons. For the community to mature in critical ways, I found that I needed to be intentionally absent or the institutional, relational, and emotional habits would either default back to me on the one hand or be seized by me, again for any number of good and bad reasons, on the other. And let me be really honest here - the feeling of being needed, even indispensable, is a currency that nearly all leaders like to regularly experience. Weaning oneself off this means of finding significance is not an easy thing to do. Second, over time fewer and fewer of my apostolic/entrepreneurial and academic/creative gifts and inclinations were engaged while the managerial and pastoral requirements of a growing church consistently demanded more and more of my attention. In the short-term, I was usually happy to give it, too. But that meant that the activities that gave energy to me were slowly marginalized by those that took energy from me. The third and final struggle was that the relational, emotional, and physical wear and tear of 12 years of church leadership, through multiple stages of community growth, slowly took their toll on my heart, mind, and body. I was thoroughly and deeply tired.

Leviticus 4:1-35 - If You Sin Unintentionally

Leviticus 4:1-35 (New International Version, ©2010)

 ¹ The LORD said to Moses, ² “Say to the Israelites: ‘When anyone sins unintentionally and does what is forbidden in any of the LORD’s commands—  ³ “‘If the anointed priest sins, bringing guilt on the people, he must bring to the LORD a young bull without defect as a sin offering^[a] for the sin he has committed. ⁴ He is to present the bull at the entrance to the tent of meeting before the LORD. He is to lay his hand on its head and slaughter it there before the LORD. ⁵ Then the anointed priest shall take some of the bull’s blood and carry it into the tent of meeting. ⁶ He is to dip his finger into the blood and sprinkle some of it seven times before the LORD, in front of the curtain of the sanctuary. ⁷ The priest shall then put some of the blood on the horns of the altar of fragrant incense that is before the LORD in the tent of meeting. The rest of the bull’s blood he shall pour out at the base of the altar of burnt offering at the entrance to the tent of meeting. ⁸ He shall remove all the fat from the bull of the sin offering—all the fat that is connected to the internal organs, ⁹ both kidneys with the fat on them near the loins, and the long lobe of the liver, which he will remove with the kidneys— ¹⁰ just as the fat is removed from the ox^[b] sacrificed as a fellowship offering. Then the priest shall burn them on the altar of burnt offering. ¹¹ But the hide of the bull and all its flesh, as well as the head and legs, the internal organs and the intestines— ¹² that is, all the rest of the bull—he must take outside the camp to a place ceremonially clean, where the ashes are thrown, and burn it there in a wood fire on the ash heap.
 ¹³ “‘If the whole Israelite community sins unintentionally and does what is forbidden in any of the LORD’s commands, even though the community is unaware of the matter, when they realize their guilt ¹⁴ and the sin they committed becomes known, the assembly must bring a young bull as a sin offering and present it before the tent of meeting. ¹⁵ The elders of the community are to lay their hands on the bull’s head before the LORD, and the bull shall be slaughtered before the LORD. ¹⁶ Then the anointed priest is to take some of the bull’s blood into the tent of meeting. ¹⁷ He shall dip his finger into the blood and sprinkle it before the LORD seven times in front of the curtain. ¹⁸ He is to put some of the blood on the horns of the altar that is before the LORD in the tent of meeting. The rest of the blood he shall pour out at the base of the altar of burnt offering at the entrance to the tent of meeting. ¹⁹ He shall remove all the fat from it and burn it on the altar, ²⁰ and do with this bull just as he did with the bull for the sin offering. In this way the priest will make atonement for the community, and they will be forgiven. ²¹ Then he shall take the bull outside the camp and burn it as he burned the first bull. This is the sin offering for the community.
 ²² “‘When a leader sins unintentionally and does what is forbidden in any of the commands of the LORD his God, when he realizes his guilt ²³ and the sin he has committed becomes known, he must bring as his offering a male goat without defect. ²⁴ He is to lay his hand on the goat’s head and slaughter it at the place where the burnt offering is slaughtered before the LORD. It is a sin offering. ²⁵ Then the priest shall take some of the blood of the sin offering with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering and pour out the rest of the blood at the base of the altar. ²⁶ He shall burn all the fat on the altar as he burned the fat of the fellowship offering. In this way the priest will make atonement for the leader’s sin, and he will be forgiven.
 ²⁷ “‘If any member of the community sins unintentionally and does what is forbidden in any of the LORD’s commands, when they realize their guilt ²⁸ and the sin they have committed becomes known, they must bring as their offering for the sin they committed a female goat without defect. ²⁹ They are to lay their hand on the head of the sin offering and slaughter it at the place of the burnt offering. ³⁰ Then the priest is to take some of the blood with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering and pour out the rest of the blood at the base of the altar. ³¹ They shall remove all the fat, just as the fat is removed from the fellowship offering, and the priest shall burn it on the altar as an aroma pleasing to the LORD. In this way the priest will make atonement for them, and they will be forgiven.
 ³² “‘If someone brings a lamb as their sin offering, they are to bring a female without defect. ³³ They are to lay their hand on its head and slaughter it for a sin offering at the place where the burnt offering is slaughtered. ³⁴ Then the priest shall take some of the blood of the sin offering with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering and pour out the rest of the blood at the base of the altar. ³⁵ They shall remove all the fat, just as the fat is removed from the lamb of the fellowship offering, and the priest shall burn it on the altar on top of the food offerings presented to the LORD. In this way the priest will make atonement for them for the sin they have committed, and they will be forgiven.

Footnotes:

1. Leviticus 4:3 Or purification offering; here and throughout this chapter
2. Leviticus 4:10 The Hebrew word can refer to either male or female.

New International Version, ©2010 (NIV) Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2010 by Biblica

The Antichrists

ANTICHRISTS

DEFINITION:  Antichristos(greek) can mean "against Christ" or "instead of Christ"

by Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible

2 Peter 3:14 CEV

While you are waiting, you should make certain
that the Lord finds you pure, spotless, and living at
peace.

Misconception #3 -

“Trying real hard will produce spiritual transformation."

Now at first glance this seems like a good idea. Trying is essential to success in any venture in life. So, it is a positive first step. But, trying alone won’t lead us into spiritual transformation any more than trying to bench press three-hundred pounds will lead to a transformed, chiseled physique. Often it leads to just the opposite. Failure, defeat, frustration, and exhaustion...not to mention a hernia. Why? Because we can move mountains on will-power alone. The will alone was never meant to transform the self. Trying alone was never intended as God's means of crafting a new you. Transformation is not primarily about "trying harder" It's about training smarter. Spiritual training is the key.


In fact the Bible speaks about training as a normal part of the Christian life. Paul compares the Christian life to a race and says, “Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training” (I Corinthians. 9:25). He later urges Timothy, “Train yourself in godliness” (I Timothy 4:7). Jesus says that “every disciple when fully trained will become like his master” (Luke 6:40). Most of us have been taught to try real hard in the Christian life. But have we been taught to train stategically?

Let’s answer two basic questions surrounding this idea of training. First, why is training so valuable to maturing as a Christian? And second, what does training look like in everyday circumstances?

Training is important to success in every area of life. In my neck of the woods, Hayward, Wisconsin, we host the American Birkebeiner North America's largest cross-country ski race. It boasts 51 grueling kilometers of challenging ski trails. I've done it a handful of times and assure you that it's no walk in the park. Think about it, how many people would be able to ski the Birkie on race day simply on will power alone? Perhaps a few could. However, for the vast majority of people (even athletic ones!) will power alone won’t cut it. You'd poop out half way or injure a body part along the way . . .or if you're not from northen Wisconsin, you'd just freeze your spandex off. In order to cross the infamous Lake Hayward and join a cheering crowd of witnesses urging you on as you ski up Main St. towards the finish, training would be essential. The reason? Because training allows us to become what we cannot become by will-power alone.

The same is true in the Christian experience. Without training our hearts, minds and bodies to routinely orient themselves towards the ways of Jesus we’re sure to fail. We see this so clearly at Gethsemane. It’s Jesus’ final hour. If ever he needed prayer partners it was now. His three closest amigos Peter, James and John are with him to support him, keep watch and pray for him. Here this trio find themselves in the middle of another essential garden where God in Jesus is groaning in agony and mustering the strength to bear the cross for all humanity. An in this epic, climatic point in human history . . .and what are Jesus' disciples doing? Sleeping! James is drooling. John is snooring. Peter dreaming...probably about fish. Jesus approaches them in their groggy state and whispers, “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak”. Now I’m sure these three disciples were trying to stay awake. Their spirits were willing; however they obviously had not trained their flesh in such a way as to experience victory. Will-power alone could not make these three do what they wanted to do. They had not trained for this.

How many areas of our lives that are marked by habitual sins, bad habits or immoral choices of which we internally scream, “the spirit is willing, but my flesh is so weak!” We all want to experience victory and reach maturity in all areas of our life. However, many never reach maturity in the Christian life. And often it is not because of lack of trying. It is the absense of training. Jesus, the apostles, and the early church fathers embraced the importance of training in the Christian life. It’s not until recent times that we’ve fallen captive to the notion that quick-fixes combined with a dash of will-power can replace adequate soul training. But quick-fixes and spurts of effort cannot rebuild our lives. Our problems go too deep for that. We need something more comprehensive. Something that encompasses the depth of our brokenness and offers a way to be healed. Or, maybe better than something.... a someone. And, I'd argue that that someone is Jesus Christ. He came not only to suffer death on our behalf, but also to model life. He lived his life fully oriented, fully abandoned to the Father. And, in his life, we see that he too implemented training regimens. Like a good trainer, he modeled for us the things we should do, and the spirit by which we should do them. Our training is essentially about following our trainer. We are transformed by practicing what Jesus practiced in the manner he practiced it.

Those things Jesus practiced in his own life historically have been called spiritual disciplines. I like to call them spiritual practices. Whatever word you use, these practices basically are things that we do (in conjunction with God's Spirit) to help orient our hearts, minds and bodies towards the love of Jesus and the goodness of God.

The specific training regimen is based on our personal needs and struggles. Spiritual practices are diverse and flexible and diverse, but always intentional. It might look like prayer for integrity on the way to work . . . or, cracking open the book of Philippians to learn how to embrace joy during times of trial . . .it might consist of withdrawing from others and our "need" to be known and praised by others and taking an hour or two of solitude with God so that we are sourcing our strength and energy from Him, not people. . . Training might look like fasting from something that I normally indulge myself in for a season...could be food, sex, drink, shopping, facebook, or TV, to teach me that I don't feed off of this pleasure/experience alone, but on God. Another way of training might be serving a neighbor in need when I’d rather serve myself . . .

All of these practices (and there are 1000's of expressions of training) become ways of training my self to posture my life towards Jesus. Like physical exercise, no one spiritual exercise does the same thing. In the same way, each spiritual practice helps develop a different parts of the self in different sort of way. But all are bent on accomplishing in us the same goal. Ultimately, it about the transformation of our entire selves into a Jesus kind of person.

The good athlete trains in light of the contest that he will be facing. He recognizes that there will be a test ahead and much training will be necessary in order to experience victory. Trying really hard on game day alone will not suffice. Our lives are quite similar. There are tests ahead that will challenge our honesty, integrity, courage, self-control, patience, fidelity and faith. In life we can assume that these challenges lie before us. The question is how we are preparing for the day when we are tested. As a teacher of mine used to say, “Failing to prepare, is preparing to fail”. There’s much truth here. May our lives be characterized by preparation for the tests through a consistent process of training.

_________________________________________________
 
A Christian Classic on this topic is "No Cross No Crown"  by William Penn.

Misconception #2 -

 “Positive, ‘feel good’ experiences will transform my life and make me more like Christ."

Oh how I wish! A large American church recently did a poll that contained the following question. “Think about an era in your life when you felt like you were growing most spiritually. What factor most contributed to that growth?” In this simple survey the number one answer was overwhelmingly, “Pain!”

While we all enjoy “feel good” moments in life, the hardships and difficulties we experience are often the highest contributors to our transformation. Thus, the old adage “No pain, no gain” really is true. Because of the influence of our culture, many have bought into the fallacy that God’s primary function in this world is to produce as little discomfort in our life as possible. God is our God as long as things are going swell, yet when we hit some painful bumps along the journey we wonder why God has abandoned us. This type of thinking is simply not Biblical. The Bible teaches that while God is not the author of pain, He does allow us to experience pain. And, he uses the difficulties in life to help to chisel us into the kind of person that He desires us to become.

So, what is it specifically about the nature of pain that helps us to grow spiritually? Pain helps us to grow because it reminds us of two very important things in becoming like Christ. First, pain reminds us that we are vulnerable. Pain has a way of exposing the feeble, frail and finite side of life. Where there is little or no discomfort in life we can subtly begin thinking that we are invulnerable and in complete control in this world. I remember when my son Caleb was one and a half and learning to climb stairs. I still remember the little guy with pacifier in hand smiling and swaggering from the top step as if the forces of gravity had no control over him. Because he had no prior context of pain associated with falling, he actually thought he was invincible near the edge of those steps. The reality was that he was flirting with disaster. So, despite our constant warnings, our little blond-haired, blue-eyed Humpty Dumpty had his great fall. Fortunately for him, it was only from the third step, not the thirteenth! Of course, this painful incident reminded him that he’s only human after all. The painful bruises and bumps of life remind us that we are not ultimately in control. The pain that we experience in life helps us to grow in ways we never would without it. C.S. Lewis once penned that “God whispers in our pleasure and screams in our pain.”

Second, pain reminds us that we need outside assistance in order to become whole again. From the irritating toothache, to the crumbling marriage, painful experiences create within us a desire to seek outside help like nothing else. We've all heard the phrase, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Well, that proverb is has overly simplistic view of life. The reality is that much of life is broken, but we choose to live in denial of this reality. However, pain is like a slap in the face that wakes us up to the fact that all is not well. Pain is a reminder that we are broken and need of divine intervention to be made whole again.

As I write I think of my good friend Tim Young who suffers from chronic back problems that include constant surges of shooting pain that explode through his lower back down into his legs resulting in agonizing days and restless nights. The doctors prognosis is that little can be done to alleviate his discomfort. He recently shared with me that it is precisely his pain that has taught him to seek harder after God and to be sustained by Him on a moment by moment basis. Tim’s pain and discomfort in his life force Him to rely on God in ways he never would have dreamed before his accident. Tim reminds me of another man who was very familiar with pain: the apostle Paul. Paul talks openly about a “thorn in his flesh” that he struggled with in life (II Corinthians 12). In II Corinthians 12:10 Paul comes to the conclusion that “when I am weak, then I am strong”. In other words, through the weakness of our painful predicament we are reminded that we have the outside assistance of a God that’s promised to grant us what we need in our time of trouble and the grace to weather whatever difficulty life may throw at us.

Like it or not, pain has a big part to play in our spiritual transformation. St. Peter concurs. “Friends, when life gets really difficult, don’t jump to the conclusion that God is not on the job. Instead, be glad that you are in the very thick of what Christ experienced. This is a spiritual refining process, with glory just around the corner” (I Peter 4:12-13 The Message). The pain you are experiencing today could very well be God's loving wake-up call for you to rouse you from your independence and wake you from your spiritual slumber, and ultimately to refine you into the person He has intended you to be.

Misconception #1 -

“The right knowledge and information will transform my life and make me more like Christ”.

-

While Bible knowledge is pertinent to us actually knowing who God is and understanding who we are, knowledge alone cannot transform. We have often confused knowing more about Jesus with becoming like Jesus. When I was working with college students, each year we’d tackle a ropes course. Now, before beginning the course each student would receive adequate knowledge about how to traverse the course and assured that course was safe and equipped with certified technicians and working equipment to ensure safety and success. Despite all of this solid information from experienced and trustworthy guides, and despite having being dunned in all the right climbing equipment. . . all this assuring information flew out the window as the students, paralyzed in fear, left the safety of hugging a tree on a sturdy platform and took that first step onto a two inch wire tight-rope swaying 50 feet in the air. You see, the knowledge and information informed their heads, could not transform their terrified hearts. The cerebral part of the self was whispering “this is safe, you'll be fine”, while the terrified heart screamed “Get me off of this thing! This is insane!”


Information has the power to inform, but is powerless to transform. The only way to achieve success on a ropes course is through the experience of actually traversing the course. In many ways experience itself is the primary teacher. You'll not learn a think about a ropes course unless you take that first step.

In the same way, there’s always an experiential element to God’s shaping us into His image. He calls us not only to know, but to trust, to risk, to routinely act upon that which we know in our heads to be true. One area that we are continually building into our lives here at Hayward Wesleyan is the experiential element. As teachers we’re no longer only asking, “what do I want people to know”? But also, we’re asking “how can we provide experiences that help people apply what they have just learned to everyday life experiences? How can we encourage people to take that risky first step?" Rick Warren probably summed it up most vividly. He says, “Information without application is abortion.”

As the life-giving seeds of God's Word is sown into our hearts and minds, we are responsibilt to God to cultivate these seeds of knowledge by putting them into practice in our everyday life. Failure to do so results in an aborted mission. Of course, life-change in Christ sounds real good as we "theorize" about it on Sunday mornings. But, when Monday arrives and we're back dangling 40 feet over our heads in fear and anxiety, it's a different story. The powerful words of Jesus that we gave mental assent to yesterday, seem far more dangerous and risky to listen to when we are being asked to step out in faith and apply them today.

Perhaps it's at these junctures in life where Jesus lovingly smiles and whispers "O ye of little faith." You see, if we do believe in Christ and we intend to become like Him, we must go where he bids us to go. And, like being on the starting platform of an insanely scary ropes course, there are really only two directions to head in. We either back down and retreat to where we once were (and most of us know that there's no future in that), or we step out in our knowledge of Him and take that first step He's calling us to take today.

Instead of making a life out of hovering on platforms and hugging trees for one another day, week, month, year or decade. . .may we remind ourselves that the only knowledge leads to transformation is knowledge that is applied in real-time and real-life. So, just do it. Quit thinking it's going to get easier or less fearful to take that first step. It never will. We must embrace the elements of fear and risk as part of the Jesus journey.

May we each, in some quiet unexpected moment, step into fear and out in faith and take that first step. And, at that moment, may we discover the joy of being one step closer to becoming our truest selves. . . .one step closer to becoming what God has intended us to become.