TEMPTATION TO LOVE

                               TEMPTATION TO LOVE

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A friend on Facebook posted this scripture without comment.  It describes an issue the psalmist dealt with two thousand eight hundred years ago, which affects each of us in the 21^st century.

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29 Remove the false way from me, and graciously grant me Your   law.
30 I have chosen the faithful way; I have placed Your ordinances before me.
31 I cling to Your testimonies; O Yahweh, do not put me to shame!
32 I shall run the way of Your commandments, for You will enlarge my heart.
Psalm 119:29-32

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Nearly forty-five years ago, as a new believer, I was seeing a young woman with whom inordinate physical intimacy was inevitable.  She was beautiful and willing, and I craved conjugal gratification.  I knew my desire opposed God’s ordinances, so I went to Him with my dilemma.  “God, I want this.”   

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It made no difference; at that point, that yielding meant long-term sorrow.  Knowing Jesus said, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching” was not enough to dilute my passion.  I remember, as if it were yesterday, telling God, “I’m sorry, but I don’t love You or me enough to keep from doing this.”  Instantly I sensed another Spirit reasoning with me, “I know you don’t love Me or yourself enough, but I know you can love her enough.”  Somehow, that word, enlarged my heart, and I was able to love her enough.  However, keeping that relationship pure not God’s ultimate objective.  God’s endgame is more than merely our righteousness.

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The 119th Psalm is the prayer of someone, personally acquainted with God.  He like all of us who are familiar with the Lord, love Him.  Why is that so?  It is because He is love.  When we recognize who He is, we see who we really are, and we know we are not Love.  Even though, the dissimilarities between God and us are vast, we long to know Him and His love more intimately.    

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Part of the gap stems from our inordinate passions.  He opposes much of what attracts me.  Obvious a more intimate relationship with God demanded a heart expansion.  However, just like the psalmist, I imagine setting some noble goals was the way to reach that intimacy. 

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The psalmist, likely King David, selected three goals he planned to take to achieve his heart increase.  He even had a couple of suggested he thought God should take.  Finally, in frustration, he whimpered, “O Yahweh, do not put me to shame!”  Only God’s Sovran power can affect the needed change.  David conceded that human determination was insufficient to “run the way of Your commandments.”  Knowing a heart expansion was God’s will, David relented saying, “You will enlarge my heart.”

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I ran the first twenty years of my Christian life as if my goals were a compact between God and me.  Frankly, I ran my Christian race, pretty well that way, for two decades.  Then disastrous financial and professional setbacks knocked me off stride.  Casting lust aside was no longer easily choice.  No matter how hard I tried, I was repeatedly ashamed of my performance.

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I lacked the strength to make the classic leap, between Romans 7 and 8.  The good I wanted to do, was not always what I actually did.  I too, finally realized choosing proper goals failed to get the job done.  I needed God to, “enlarge my heart.” 

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The “false way” is not something externally imposed on us.  It is rather, internally self-generated.  Removing the “false way from me” is and was humanly impossible.  It is our way…it is who we are.  That is why those four verses are not the shout of a victorious gold medal winner, but a plea from a runner, losing the race.  

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So, how does God enlarge our heart?  Well, He will do it only at our request.  The key to enlarging the heart has both a cerebral and a willingness component, neither of which we can do, on our own.  I will explain that element later.  For now, I need to point out that enlargement starts with us asking, not for victory over sin, but asking for awareness of Him in us, within a believing and willing heart.  There are two reasons recognition is essential.  1) He already gained victory over sin, on the cross, and 2) that victorious One is in our heart, by His indwelling Spirit.  As important as those intellectual aspects are, our “will” add two other essentials.  He will not override our will, so 3) we must be willing to acknowledge Him when we recognize Him.  Finally, we must also 4) be willing to yield to his will, preferring His will instead of our own.  This final consideration becomes easier knowing God, Who loves you, is not just standing with you, but is standing-up, in you. 

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  “O Lord, enlarge the chambers of my heart that I may find room for Thy love.  Sustain me by Thy power, lest the fire of Thy love consume me.”

Prayer from the 16^th century French dishwasher, Brother Lawrence The Practice of the Presence of God

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Now, what do we perceive when see Him within?  Remember, our spirit is the one that desires that which is inordinate.  It is His Spirit that desiring the good.  Psalm 119 is coming from the heart of a man, but what is voiced is, not solely, his desire, but the desire of God.  The desire for something godly, is never purely ours alone.  It is a desire influenced and shaped by God’s Spirit.  For that reason, when a Christian experience an unusually selfless giving type of love moving within, which is compatible with the Biblical record of Christ Jesus, he can rest assured he is witnessing God’s Spirit within his heart.  The believer’s spirit, at that moment, is looking at God.

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1 John 4:2 “By this you will know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God.”  Galatians 5:22 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness.”  1 John 3:23+24 “And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.  The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them.  And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.”

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At that moment of recognition, you have a choice.  You can acknowledge His presence or you can tell yourself that, despite the general fallen nature of humanity, you are by nature an unusually godly person.  That is like pretending you are one giant step above the Apostle Paul, who knew God was in him but was unable to yield to God’s ordinances, admitting, “For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature.  For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.”  If you can bring yourselves to confess that your mortal human nature is selfish, then you will recognize the immortal origin of those godly tendencies and their extra-mortal source.  When you do, as Paul did, you will likely, “want to know Christ--yes, to know the power of his resurrection.”  There is a conscious that God is in you, which allows you to quietly yield to God’s ordinances contentedly.  God’s Spirit and our spirit inhabiting a single expanded heart in peace. 

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Therefore, running the way of God’s commandments is not us actually defeating sin, but our escape from sin.  His way is our turning to Him at the first sign of temptation (called repentance), and asking Him to allow us to discern Him within us.  Do not fight the evil desire, yield to God’s desire instead.  Sadly, if you are strong enough to fight sin and win, you not only miss the opportunity to know God within more intimately, but pride in your victory is a heart condition God hates. 

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Incidentally, temptation, in-and-of itself, is not evil.  Our selfish desires are.  Temptations remind us that our consciousness of our indwelling God has slipped, and needs renewing.  There is pleasure in finding Him alive in our expanded heart.  A joy we miss when we float along temptation free.  The Lord’s Prayer distinguishes between temptation and evil saying, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil.”  The prayer is more a reminder, than a request.  “God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone.”  That is why the prayer designates temptation and evil separately.  We need no one to lead is into temptation, as mentioned earlier, they have no problem finding us, on their own.  However notice, God is the One who delivers us from evil (not from temptation).  Evil reaches all of us, and usually accompany our yielding to inordinate desires.  

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It may surprise you that over these last twenty years, I have grown to cherish each invitation to sin (temptation) knowing they automatically causes me to turn to God within.  Acknowledging His presents here, in my heart, is a deeply pleasure-full experience.  In my life, experiencing temptation rescues me from spiritual complacency.  Unfortunately, Christians, who appropriate hate sin, usually confused sin and temptation, as the same things.

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Fixated on stamping out the sources of temptation has led us to amplify, rather than reduce the allure of a number of human urges.  Instead, we should focus on the individuals harmed by yielding to their inordinate desires.  Their constricted hearts are defenseless against self-destructive desires.  Our determination to arrest temptations seems to overshadow God, as the Way.  “God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” 

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Understood for what it is, temptation is not a disorder.  For those who know the indwelling God, it is a drastic, yet beneficial, reminder of God’s abiding love and presence.   

Therefore, let us say with the psalmist of old, “I shall run the way of Your commandments, for You will enlarge my heart.”

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THE ILLUSION

THE ILLUSION

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Look closely.  The hag is looking at you.

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We see deposits of ocean spray glisten on the rocks, and think we know the sea…leaves teased in the wind, and think we know the forest…birth and death and think we know life.  We think we know sustainable governance in our nation, because we have only seen the rise and fall of other nations.  Seeing the visible image, we think we know the invisible Truth.  We may even have God’s light to see the invisible Truth, but pride in what we think we know, casts a shadow over the reality of invisible Truth, and instead we see the visible illusion.    

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Colossians 1:15a, New Living Translation
Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.

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John 14:6a, New International Version
Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life.”

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2 Corinthians 4:6, New International Version
For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God's glory displayed in the face of Christ.

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2 Thessalonians 2:9-12, New International Version

The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works.  He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders (decrees and legislation) that serve the lie, and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing.  They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.  For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.

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Half-Truth 

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The very existence of today’s politicians depends in part on half-truths. The poet W. H. Auden, speaking a generation ago of the Devil, unknowingly described the craft of the self-interested politicians of our generation.
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"As such, he does not tell lies,
But half-truths we can synthesis
So, hidden in his hocus pocus,
There lies the gift of double focus."

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Tempted by the half-truth, the public must at least believe they are possibly truth. However, the poet exposes the folly of such misplaced trust. 
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"The truth is one and incapable of self-contradiction;
All knowledge that conflicts with itself is Poetic Fiction."

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John 3:21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.
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James 1:16 + 17 Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, with whom there is no change or shifting shadow.

THE CHURCH GREW POLITICAL

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THE CHURCH GREW POLITICAL

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Church Growth pastors and consultants, like myself, played a role in uniting America's Christian Right behind the Trump Presidency.  In our effort to facilitate the growth of churches, we inadvertently prepared “the body of Christ” to believe the church’s goals were compatible with those of government.  

We evaluated the churches’ growth potential, recommended, and implemented proven strategies that stimulated and maintained increased attendance.  Our growth tactics included replacing any programs, personnel, physical facilities, or promotional activities that resisted growth, with more expansionary alternatives. 

"Church Growth", at the time was a popular nation wide phenomenon.
Our directives were so precise that resultant growth rates followed in direct proportion to the church's ability to adopt our recommendations.  Those who implemented the proposals won significantly more parishioners and the financial rewards that accompany numerical growth.  Those that didn’t, stayed the same or declined.  The principles were all scripturally justifiable, though spiritually neutral, and purely practical.  With only slight modifications, the same tactics  would have work for a shoe-store,  a gas station, or almost any other business endeavor. 

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Therefore, when candidate Trump made similar claims of growth and prosperity the American Evangelical Church failed to see any moral or ethical red flags.  They believed the Trump view of "Make America Great Again" lined up perfectly with their own goal, "Make Your Church Great Again."  The absence of moral or spiritual value held only two exceptions...abortion and homosexuality.

At that time, there had been a statically verifiable shift away from these two moral issues in our country, which admittedly had not reach fulfillment.  But before those or any moral issue can be successfully legislated, they must first achieve dominant national approval.  That requires a cultural heart transformation.  Such a moral shift is the purview of Christians operating in the love and grace of God, not in the power and force of government.

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 Involuntary criminalization always produces revolt and incompliance among those whose hearts and minds are not sensitizes to the “rightness” of a law.  Just and fair laws reflect the values of the governed.  Unjust and unfair laws dictate the values to the government.  

Considering criminalization overlooks the spiritual work that must precede any such legal action.  God tasked the church with that unique redemptive role…a role government cannot fill.  No matter how hard government may try, its role is not redemptive.  The innocent blood of millions of children, lies at the feet of our churches, who insist that church and government combining their separate roles, into one, weakens them both.

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Convinced my vision of the American Church growing numerically was God's will, I rejoiced in my success.  Regrettably, my success blinded me to the fact that the church was becoming more pleased with itself, less empathetic toward the needy outsiders, less dependent of the power of God on our society, and more dependent of political power.  As it lost its love for “the lost,” the church also lost its redemptive role in society, and worst still relinquished its moral authority, to politicians.

So with its social role and moral authority depleted, the church strove to use its numerical advantage to regain social influence through political alliances.  In so doing, it no long balanced the penalizing role of government with its own redemption role, resulting in a cruel and impersonal politically aligned governmental structure. Subsequently, the nation finds itself on the verge of justice without mercy. 

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However, I believe we can look ahead for a future of ecclesiastical miracle, when we realize what we have done.  The church of Christ Jesus rising from the dead.  The American Church kneeling in humiliation, turning in tearful repentance, will once again shoulder her ordained place under God’s redemptive yoke.  God will have nothing to do with our attempts to make people good by political alliances or our church growth programs.  Returning to God and allowing Him to rule each of us personally, the church will awaken anew to her social role and regain her spiritual authority.

Amen