Randy's comment
I wanted to get this on the front page. I love my little brother.
Hey guys,
I'm intruding on your blog. It's a slow day here at the clinic, so I thought I'd add my little piece to the discussion.
I was at a men's retreat at my church this weekend. A guy named Randy Boyd reminded us that we have been promised the blessings of Abraham. We have inherited the new covenant, so we get to go beyond what Abraham was promised right into the throne romm of the Almighty, Loving, Perfect, Holy God of the universe.
Abraham, in just 4 generations went from being one man- the son of an idol worshipper- to being a clan. Not just a clan, but his great-grandson Joseph was the most powerful man in the world. Why? Because he was good? No. Because he was born into it? No. He was chosen by God. There is no other explanation for it. Read Romans if you doubt it. Esau was stronger and more loved than Jacob, but Isaac gave Jacob the blessing because God had chosen Jacob.
So, here's the point (for Joey and anyone else who's reading). You were chosen by God to be blessed. He made you His child. He doesn't choose most people, but He chose you. Dwell on that for a long, long time. Then believe God. He is Good. He loves you. And He owns the whole universe.
I often find myself slipping into the "just enough" mentality. I think God has just enough to meet my needs for today. That's not the truth! The Canaanite woman had it right when she told Jesus that the crumbs from His table were enough to satisfy her. He owns everything. He wants to give us all we can hold. He is not stingy. He is not holding back on us. As Psalm 81 says, "Open wide your mouth and I will fill it."
Instead of bucking it up for another day and striving to please Him by our own will power, let's just look to Him, marvel at His grace, and open our hands wide to receive His blessing. He will rain down His abundance on us in immeasurable ways.
I realized even as I was hearing this message that it is a dangerous one. Immediately I begin to envision televangelists with fancy cars and Rolex watches. John Piper said on his radio broadcast yesterday that every teaching in the Bible is dangerous. It is the most dangerous book in the world. There are precarious cliffs all around, and if we stray in any direction we will likely fall into heresy. So even if a teaching is dangerous, we cannot reject God's truth. God clearly promises abundant, bountiful, overflowing blessings to those who follow Him. Mark 10 says that there will be blessings in this life, and in the age to come.
Therefore, I don't have to be afraid of God's abundance. I long for it. I ask for it. I wait expectantly for it.
I am deeply afraid of my own sinful greedy heart. So I keep my hands open. When I sense my fingers beginning to curl up into a fist around one of God's blessings He leads me, like Abraham, to the altar of sacrifice where I give it away. Sometimes, like Isaac, God tells me to keep the gift. Other times He takes if from me, but always, always, always He replaces it with something more precious and joy-producing than what I gave to Him. It is definitely true that the most joy-producing blessings He gives in this life are in relationships- to Him and to others. In my life I have found that material blessings bring me a measure of joy, but it's like when I got free tickets to a Dallas Cowboys game. I enjoyed the game, but I will never go back because I had to fight the devil throughout the game to keep my eyes on the field or on my wife beside me and not on the cheerleaders. (That really happened.) The material things God gives are not bad or inherently evil (like the football game wasn't evil). It's just that I find myself having to fight harder to manage them.
You will probably be thankful to know that I have a patient ready now, so I'll stop here.
God is good. God loves His children. God loves to bless His kids with all that He can bless them with. So let's keep our hands open, and our minds thinking correctly about the joyful, generous God that we serve.
Maybe someday I'll blog about why all that makes me want to sell everything I have and give it to the poor.
In the joy and peace of Jesus,
Randy Brown
posted by Tod Brown at 8:17 AM
6 Comments:
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April 7, 2005 at 11:45 AM
Thanks, Randy. Dare I think that I was chosen?
I would love to hear your thoughts on giving to the poor.
April 7, 2005 at 11:45 AM
Joey,
I thought about writing more about the poor, but I want to comment on your concern about being chosen before I do. If that issue is not settled, then helping the poor is miserable.
I have much to say in regards to the fear of considering ourselves chosen. First, I fear everything else but being chosen. I fear coming to God with anything of myself, because I know He would find me blasphemous. So my only offering to God is His own grace. I stand before Him a new creation saying simply, “I am here because of what you have done in me. I don’t know why you picked me. I don’t deserve your grace. But I am here, as Your spotless, clean, pure, glorious, grace-filled son to take my place among Your people.”
Any other offering seems offensive. He doesn’t want to hear me say, “Lord I’m worthless. You tried to fix me but my heart was stubborn. I’m no better off than when You started.” That would be blasphemy. He did do something in me. I am His workmanship.
I’m afraid to deny what He has done in my life. I’m afraid of not believing His promises. So, by His grace, I choose to believe. Grace is a dangerous doctrine. It has been smashed, crushed, polluted, deformed, mutilated and profaned in so many ways that it is barely recognizable in its simple, biblical state. It’s offensive. It’s scary. It’s humbling. This is my summary of grace: God in His great love chose to include me in His kingdom. He owned me. I disowned Him. He bought me back, made me right with Him, and filled me with His glory, by His Spirit. I am now a priest, a slave, a son, a servant, but I am not a debtor. He bought me by His blood and the debt has been paid. He stands, lovingly with me and pours out His grace on me constantly, through the blood of Jesus. To consider myself a debtor is as presumptuous as my daughter, upon turning 21 years old, deciding that she must repay me all the money, time and energy that I spent to raise her. That would not please me. It would deeply offend me. Grace is free. Grace is Free. Grace is absolutely free. He bought all men with His blood, and He has a right to give His gift freely.
So what then is the motivation for obedience? Is it not a response of gratitude for this gift of grace? Wouldn’t I be honored if my daughter spent her entire life trying to thank me for what I had done? No, I wouldn’t. Picture me sitting at home on a Friday night and my daughter drives in the driveway from college. She says, Dad, I had a big trip planned with my friends this weekend that I wanted to go on, but I came home this weekend to be with you. I ask, “Why did you do that?” If she says, “Because you raised me I came home to express my gratitude for all you did,” my first response will be, “Go be with your friends. I don’t need your pity.” How much more would God say, “If you’re doing this for My benefit you can keep it. I don’t need ANYTHING from you!!!”
But if my daughter says, “Dad, I miss you. I wanted to be with you more than I wanted to be with my friends,” then my response is a joyful, “I’m glad your home.”
God is the infinitely good giver. I obey because I want what He has promised to give me when I obey. His promises are incredibly great in this regard: joy, peace, intimate relationship with Him, freedom from fear or want or worry, and thousands of other promises as well. We cannot give to God without receiving more than we give. He’s rigged the world to make that impossible. He is so infinitely good that He cannot be blessed without blessing us back 100 times over. It would steal His glory for Him to be our beneficiary.
At this point you probably need to get back to whatever you were doing before you started reading this blog. I will, however attach a few verses that give me hope. They come from a New Testament word search I did on the words, “but now” and “new.” I hold onto these promises like I hold onto life itself. Many of these verses demonstrate the reality that God has done something in us and made us new, but we still have a struggle to overcome the old life. The truth is that God has already made us new. That is a work that was completely finished on the cross. Our battle is to believe the truth about who we are. I think you’ll see what I mean:
Eph 5:8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light
Col 1:21-22 Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation-
Col 3:9-10 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.
Rom 7:6 But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.
1 Cor 5:7 Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast-as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.
2 Cor 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
Heb 9:15 For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance-now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.
Heb 10:19-24 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.
Heb 12:18-24 You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm; to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them, because they could not bear what was commanded: "If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned." The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, "I am trembling with fear."
But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. (AMEN!!!!!!!!!!!!)
1 Peter 1:3-5 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade-kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.
To God be the glory, great things he hath done!
So loved he the world that he gave us his Son,
who yielded his life an atonement for sin,
and opened the lifegate that all may go in.
I would love to hear your thoughts on all of this.
In the joy and peace of Jesus,
Randy
April 8, 2005 at 10:46 AM
Randy,
Must have been another slow day at the clinic :o)
I love your heart. Your words are uplifting. But, even more encouraging than your words, is knowing that this “stuff” actually matters to you and that you actually spend time - a lot of time - thinking about these things. If I’m a weirdo to do the same, at least I’m in good company.
As to my statements of wanting God to save me from me and my question of daring to think I am chosen, they were mostly expressions of frustration. Intellectually, I acknowledge and agree with everything you’ve said. But what I see in my life is that the only things that seem to distinguish me from the unchurched around me is that I agonize over my sin (that I continue to do) and that I am obsessed about hope. I know what the scriptures say (new creature, etc), but I don’t see that fully realized in my life – at least not in the ways I think it should look. Furthermore, I identify with the one who would say, “Lord, I’m worthless. You tried to fix me…” I know the kingdom is here, but I don’t experience it as being completely here. In my mind, if I’m a new creature, and if “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me,” and surely Christ wants me to stop sinning, then I should be able to stop sinning. But I don’t stop sinning. In fact, dog-gone-it, sometimes, I want to sin….no, no… that’s not strong enough……EXPLETIVE! I WANT TO SIN! And I hate that I want to sin, because, then, if I am going to be saved, then He is going to have to do it even while I’m shaking my fist in His face (and worse). Some of us need approval. Some need that approval to be earned, not comprehending unearned approval. Some of us (to borrow from McGuiggan) “…are heartsick at our paltry lives, so full of crabbiness, smugness, trivia, and self-service. And some of us wonder if He won’t wash His hands of us, wash His hands of this whole sorry mess of a world. For we have no understanding of a love like this, and we haven’t a cat-haired notion why He would bother with the best of us.” I identify with this completely.
.
Again, intellectually, I know what the scriptures say, and believe them. But understanding them - really understanding – for me, is another matter.
Actually, I just ran across something I wrote just three months ago. I’ll include it below. Maybe I should read what I write.
Thursday, January 20, 2005
I hate my sins.
I love my sins.
When I sin, and know that I have, I ache all over. I feel shame and can't stand to be with myself. I want to go off in a corner or crawl under a rock.
But...I love my sins. I embrace, protect, treasure, and justify them. In them, I lie down and cover myself from head to toe, just like a pig in mud.
There are times when I actually try to not sin. There have been many occasions when I've asked God to help me to not sin. And perhaps there has been a small degree of success, but it seems more-so that I simply trade one sin for another. And I keep on sinning. So I rephrase my requests: "God please let me stop sinning," or, "God, please make me stop sinning." But - I - keep - on - sinning. At times, it is suffocating. More and more, I am faced with the awful conclusion that there will never be a time when I do not sin (this side of Heaven).
Then I read Jeremiah 23:5-6, which says: Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: 'The Lord is our righteousness.'
Maybe my desire to not sin is incorrectly motivated. Maybe it's not supposed to be about what I can do. Maybe God wants it to be about what He does, and wants me to recognize this. Maybe He wants it this way no matter what my motivations are. He still wants it to be about what He does and has done. He gives us His righteousness. Something within me, that I can't quite articulate or explain, tells me that that's really the way I want it. He gives me HIS righteousness. There is beauty in that.
Randy, when I think back to where I was spiritually when I first met you in SA, man I didn't have a clue. I can only imagine what you must have thought. Of course, I still don't have a clue, but that's beside the point.
Joey
April 8, 2005 at 10:35 PM
Joey,
I think that you need to think long and hard about the role of the Holy Spirit in your life. He is the solution to your problem. I don't know your current theological stance on His role in the world today, but I can tell you that I didn't get free of my miserable condemned way of thinking until God blew the lid off my doctrine of His Spirit. He does more than regenerate us. He is our life and breath and wisdom and strength.
A short illustration. This comes from the book The Revolution Within. I haven't read it, but based on the quotes Anda has read to me and her personal recommendation I strongly recommend that you get it and read it. The illustration goes along with the theme of the book.
If you could choose to have Jesus come back in the flesh to walk beside you the rest of your life or to have Him place His Spirit in you for life, which would you choose? Thankfully, God already made the choice for us. So why did He give us His Spirit inside instead of just walking with us?
It's like Michael Jordan. If I could spend the rest of my life with Michael Jordan-- every second of every day-- he still couldn't make me into the kind of basketball player that he is. I would get better, but I'd never be able to slam dunk like him, or handle the ball the way he does. But if Michael could put me on like skin, with his essence in my body, then it would be him playing through my body. I would be, in essence, Michael Jordan who looked like me.
That's how it works. When we come to Jesus as a learner we learn some. But we have to have Holy Spirit in us if we're ever going to succeed in this new life. It's awkward, scary, and experimental, but it's also the only way to live the new life.
Another example is that of a dog. A dog can look up into his masters eyes and act almost human sometimes. But a dog will never be human. He will never understand mortgages, or art, or computer networks. He won't ever even learn to speak English. He's a dog. At best he will learn to sit, come, and roll over.
That's the old life. That's what everyone around us is doing. They're trying to obey God but they don't have a Spirit organ. They have eyes, and ears, and mouths, but they are missing the most vital organ-- the one that communicates spirit to Spirit with God. In our heritage, we have treated that organ like an appendix and tried to take it out, or at least ignore it. It is the only way we have of living the new life. The entire life of a believer is lived "by the Spirit." That's why Nicodemus had to start over. He had the law down, he just couldn't live it. He needed to be born again.
Adam and Eve had this organ in them. They walked with God. But that part of them died when they sinned, and now the only ones who have it are those who have been born again. It sometimes seems easier to just try harder in our own strenth than to step out in faith and start using our spirit organs. It's like when you have had a stroke and you have to learn to walk again. It would be easier to stay in the wheelchair, but you'll never walk that way. At first there are lots of falls and frustration, but eventually it comes naturally, and we can get rid of the wheelchair.
This may not be connecting with where you are right now, but if it does, then this is good news. There may be an entirely different realm of living available to fight this battle with. I certainly haven't figured it out yet. I'm right there with you as a sinful worm. But I feel so happy. God's grace and affection are not just theology to me anymore, they are my personal daily experience.
Bless you my friend.
In the joy and peace of Jesus,
Randy
April 9, 2005 at 7:31 PM
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February 13, 2010 at 9:26 AM
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