Knowing Christ Today by Dallas Willard

Since the days of Jesus, Christians have wrestled with the problem of how to answer questions of faith on the basis on knowledge. Many Christians over the past two millennia have been content to think in two distinct hemispheres: faith and knowledge. With passive resignation believers have left matters of faith to faith and matters of knowledge to science, as though they are completely incompatible and unrelated.

Dallas Willard has written to challenge that assumption.

Right from the start let me confess that Willard is my favorite author. A professor at the University of Southern California’s School of Philosophy, Willard has written powerfully on the subjects of Spiritual Disciplines and the Kingdom of God. My well worn copy of The Divine Conspiracy is my all time favorite, being one of the very few books that I’ve read more than once.

Willard is concerned that people of faith become people of knowledge, and has written Knowing Christ Today: Why We Can Trust Spiritual Knowledge to help believers understand how faith and knowledge relate in a compatible way. The book is not written for those who are looking for quick reads. It’s written with the stated purpose of challenging the Christian reader to become a thinking reader…to use the mind to bolster faith. His premise is that faith is derived from knowledge and in the pages of the book he explains how the two are intertwined. In the introduction, for example, he writes, “Belief cannot reliably govern life and action except in its proper connection with knowledge and with the truth and evidence knowledge involves.” So, instead of reckoning faith and knowledge as opposing forces, Willard demonstrates that knowledge and faith are friends, and that “knowledge is essential to faith and our relationship with God in the spiritual life.”

I think this is possibly the most important book written in the 21st century. Rather than argue that point, let me simply encourage you to read it. Twice.

Proverbs: Wisdom for Life

One of the most practical books in the Bible is the Book of Proverbs. Compiled by King Solomon, Proverbs is a collection of sayings that help the reader apply the truth of God to everyday situations.

For years I’ve read one chapter of Proverbs each day. During my devotional time I read the chapter that corresponds with the day’s date. For example, on February 1, I read Proverbs chapter one. On February 2, I read Proverbs chapter two, and so forth. While I’ve always benefited from my frequent reading of Proverbs, it’s been a difficult book to study. One of the reasons for that is the way the book is structured. In any given chapter of Proverbs the reader will discover several independent truths on a wide variety of themes.

Our Saturday night congregation will do a small group study this spring that I have designed to study the Book of Proverbs thematically. I’ve selected nine reoccurring themes from the book and written a small group curriculum study guide. During the nine sessions we'll discuss topics such as Wisdom, Speech, Anger, Stress, Money, Marriage and Parenting. I’m very excited about the finished product and pray that God will use it to connect us with Him and with one another.

Living with Resolve: The Promises of God (part 3)

The third obstacle that Abram had to overcome was his lack of patience. God gave the promise of a land and a people to Abram when he was 75. God delivered on the promise (Genesis 21:1-5) when Abram was 100. Do the math.

It’s daunting for us to think about Abram waiting 25 years for God to fulfill his promise when we can’t stand in line 10 minutes for a double cheeseburger. God is never early. We must recognize that when God fulfills his promise he always delivers in accordance to his timetable. He’s never late. He’s always on time.

The final obstacle that Abram had to overcome was an incorrect perspective. It’s easy for us to sit back some 6,000 years later and pick Abram’s life to pieces. He did mess some stuff up, for sure. But for all that Abram got wrong, he got this one right. In Genesis 22:1-2, God spoke to Abram and asked him to give the promise back. In reading the story, I’m amazed that Abram responded so readily and willingly.

As I think about Abram’s offering of Issac on the altar atop Mt. Moriah, I am reminded that the promises of God are not given for the gratification of our flesh. This is where I take issue with the health, wealth, and prosperity movement in the western hemisphere. Those purveyor’s of riches boldly announce that God has promises for us that will make us richer, prettier, more successful, happier, thinner, and healthier. They are about the gratification of the flesh. But as I read the Bible I simply don’t see it. The promises of God are about the eternal purposes of God that he wants to accomplish in the world. The promise giver is always greater than the promise itself. In the words of Rick Warren, “it’s not about you.” Somehow, Abram had grown in his relationship with God to the extent that he was able to trust him with the promise itself.

I believe that God still makes promises to his people today. That’s the subject of this weekend’s message. But for now let me say that those promises involve our participation in the accomplishment of God’s eternal purposes in the world. God is about God’s work. We’re invited to join him.

The Vision of His Glory

Tonight my wife Lisa and I will begin team-teaching the Anne Graham Lotz study The Vision of His Glory. This 14 week series focuses on the Book of Revelation.

One of the reasons I'm excited about this video series is the Bible Study method that Graham-Lotz shares with her students. Here's the five steps of Bible study that she teaches in the study guide (pp. 9-11):

Step One: Look into God's Word

Simply read the designated passage of Scripture.

Step Two: What does the passage say?

When you have finished reading the passage, make a verse-by-verse list of the outstanding facts. Don't get caught up in the details, just pinpoint the most obvious facts. Ask yourself, "Who is speaking? What is the subject? Where is it taking place? When did it happen?" As you make your list, do not paraphrase, but use actual words from the passage itself.

Step Three: What does the passage mean?

After reading the passage and listing the facts, look for a lesson to learn from each fact. Ask yourself, "What are the people doing that I should be doing? Is there a command I should obey? Is there a warning to heed? Is there a promise to claim? An example I should follow?" Focus on spiritual lessons.

Step Four: What does the passage mean to me?

The most meaningful step is step 4, but you can't do step 4 until you complete the first three steps. Take the lessons you identified in step 3 and put them in the form of a question you could ask yourself, your spouse, your child, your friend, your neighbor, or your coworker. As you write your questions, listen for God to communicate to you personally through his word.

Step Five: Live in Response.

Pinpoint what God is saying to you from this passage. How will you respond? Write what you will do now about what God has said to you. You might like to date it as a means not only of keeping a spiritual journal, but also of holding yourself accountable to following through in obedience.

This is an excellent strategy. I hope that you can find it useful to you in your daily Bible study.

Book Review: The Missional Renaissance

For some time I’ve appreciated the work of author and speaker Reggie McNeal. He offers clean perspectives on some of the more important themes of congregational health in America. For some time, McNeal has worked for Leadership Network as a consultant. Lead Net has developed a reliable brand, and so its no surprise that I was pleased with McNeal’s book Missional Renaissance: Changing the Scorecard for the Church.

It appears that the church growth movement has now given way to the Missional Church. Ever since Darrell Guder’s seminal work, Missional Church: A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America, hit the shelves in 1998, the Missional Church movement has taken the lion’s share of pastor’s attention. McNeal goes so far to call the Missional Church movement the most significant transition in the history of the church since the Reformation.

McNeal’s book does not spend much time defining or explaining the Missional Church. The value of this book is that it answers a very important question. If Missional Church is about the transition of attractional models (i.e. “come to my church,”) to sending models (i.e., "you have been sent out of the church"), what metrics are available to help the church know if it is being faithful? Attractional models have utilized some basic measurements to quantify and verify success. These measurements include membership, average attendance, budgets, and square footage/acreage of the ministry campus. Missional church, though, is wired to send its people into the community. It’s not wired to gather people from the community. How do you keep score on that?!

I found McNeal’s approach toward measuring success refreshing albeit not without some threats to my comfort zone. Part of his challenge is to abandon the former metrics, partly because the former metrics do nothing more than foster the attractional model. McNeal caused me to wonder what would happen if we no longer took attendance. I thought along with him as I read about what it would mean to allocate a minimum of 51% of our weekly receipts to needs that are off property. What if we had to do everything without maintaining a facility? He even dared to suggest that future models of vocational ministry would become “bi-vocational!”

McNeal’s book is important, if for no other reason, because he takes the time to depart from the theory and philosophy about what could be and focuses the reader’s attention on what must be if the church is going to truly be missional. I think there are a lot of people, perhaps myself included, who are interested in the Missional Church but haven’t really put down on paper what that kind of ministry would look like or be. There are radical shifts in ministry style that going Missional will call upon the Church to make. And until we’re willing to make some key departures, we’ll be doing nothing more than putting new labels on the same old stuff. And the Missional Church movement will become nothing more than another fad that will fade into the past.

If you haven’t read it, read it! McNeal does what others haven’t. He rearranges the price tags on the church’s value system.

Living with Resolve: The Promises of God (part 2)

God’s promise to Abram was that He would give him a land and then a people. Abram embraced the promise quickly, but standing on that promise would not come without challenges. He would have to utilize a deep faith in God to overcome several obstacles. Today I’ll post two of them and tomorrow catch the following two.

The first obstacle Abram had to overcome was his personal limitations. One of the first things we learn about Abram and his wife Sarai was that she was “barren” and unable to conceive children (Genesis 11:30). God’s promise to provide Abram more descendents than could be counted was located at the very epicenter of Abram’s impossibility. God’s promises do not come to us at our point of strength. God’s promises come to us at our point of weakness, vulnerability and impossibility.

Why?

So there would be no explanation for his life apart from the intervention of God. When people look at your life what do they see? Do they see your skills? Your knowledge? Your talent? Your sophistication? Your charisma? Or do they see a life that is unexplainable? God’s promises are God-sized. When He intervenes in the lives of his children he leaves clear fingerprints.

The second obstacle Abram had to overcome was his private resources and resourcefulness. As we continue to survey the life of Abram, we read that 10 years pass following the promise. As time passes, Abram begins to grow impatient and devises a plan that would allow him to do God’s will his way and in accordance to his own timetable. In Genesis 15:1-3, Abram suggests to God that he could adopt his slave, Elieazar, and allow him to be the heir of promise. God said “no,” and restated his promise to Abram again. In Genesis 16:1-5, Abram and Sarai concoct another plan. This time Abram would use Hagar to become the surrogate mother of an heir to fulfill the promise. Even though Abram slept with Hagar and conceived Ishmael, God again rejected this substitution, and again reaffirmed his promise.

Sometimes we can grow impatient with God and in our impatience begin looking for substitutes. Every time we do, we settle for something less than God’s best.

My favorite C.S. Lewis quote reminds me that “our problem is not that we are too weak…our problem is that we are too strong.”

What is your weakness? That’s where God is most likely to begin his greatest work. What substitutes for God’s best are you offering to Him?

The promises of God will create a crisis of belief that will have to be overcome by faith. That’s true of Abram. That’s true of you, too.

Living with Resolve: The Promises of God

Have you ever had a person break a promise? Hurts, doesn’t it? I think the thing that hurts the most is the disappointment that comes…not because an obligation went unfulfilled…but because of the violation of trust. When promises are broken, relationships change.

A promise, after all, is only as good as the one who makes it. We trust others to keep their promises. When promises are kept, trust gradually increases. But when promises are broken, trust plummets!

The good news is that God is not fickle. He’s not on and off. He’s always true to complete whatever he begins. He always keeps his promises. He never denies his word. His character and actions are always consistent. He can be completely trusted. Even when his promises run contrary to our experience and understanding.

In Genesis 13:14-18, God gave Abram a promise.

After Lot had gone, the Lord said to Abram, “Look as far as you can see in every direction—north and south, east and west. I am giving all this land, as far as you can see, to you and your descendants as a permanent possession. And I will give you so many descendants that, like the dust of the earth, they cannot be counted! Go and walk through the land in every direction, for I am giving it to you.” So Abram moved his camp to Hebron and settled near the oak grove belonging to Mamre. There he built another altar to the Lord. (Genesis 13:14-18, NLT)

In those verses God promised Abram that he was going to give him a land and then a people. When God makes a promise to his children, like Abram we find that our faith is immediately challenged. In tomorrow’s post I’ll share four obstacles that Abram had to overcome as we continue to look over his shoulder into his life.