Insights from Thomas a Kempis

Do you ever find yourself pursuing the things of God with little or no effort or enthusiasm? We read stories of people in the Bible who seemed to have no end to their excitement in following Christ. Stephen willfully died at the hands of Jews while he was preaching Christ to them. Paul suffered countless trials preaching the Gospel to the Gentiles. Yet, I can't seem to follow Christ with joy or excitement even in the little every day things.

In the third book of Thomas a Kempis' Imitation of Christ, he creates a dialogue between Jesus and a disciple (any follower of Jesus, not one of the twelve). In one of these conversations Jesus speaks to the disciple about how he is following Christ.

But for the good that never changes, for the prize beyond all prizes, for highest honor and the glory that never ends, men, alas, are too lazy to put forth the slightest effort. you should be ashamed, lazy and evergrumbling servant, when you see other men more eager to lose their souls than you are to gain life! They find greater joy in chasing after empty dreams than you have in pursuing the truth.
The desires of these men often end in disappointment but My promises never decieve anyone. The man who trusts in Me I never send away empty. When I make a promise I keep it, and I fulfill whatever I have pledged -- if only you remain faithful to My love unto the end. I reward all good men and I heartily acclaim all who are devout.

How can it be that we so quickly follow things that will never pay up? Deep down I think we do realize that our treasures on earth will not satisfy for eternity, but we still wholeheartedly follow after them. I think the problem is actually a problem of perspective. We have to see Christ in the right light, from the right angle. Many of us saw Christ as the one who could fix this problem I had with sin and guilt. As true and important as that may be, Christ wants us to see much more than that. We are to see Christ as our treasure -- infinitely valuable. Until we see Christ in that light, we will always more eagerly chase after the things of lesser value, simply because our perspective is wrong.

Insights from John Owen

John Owen was an English Puritan who lived in the 17th century. He has written some of the best theological works ever composed. Lately, I've been reading On the Mortification of Sin, which deals with how believers can battle sin in their lives. Read some of these excerpts...

Men are galled with the guilt of a sin that hath prevailed over them; they instantly promise to themselves and God that they will do so no more; they watch over themselves, and pray for a season, until this heat waxes cold, and the sense of sin is worn off: and so mortification goes also, and sin returns to its former dominion...

That none of these ways are sufficient is evident from the nature of the work itself that is to be done; it is a work that requires so many concurrent actings in it as no self-endeavor can reach unto, and is of that kind that an almighty energy is necessary for its accomplishment...

It is, then, the work of the Spirit. For, He is promised of God to be given unto us to do this work...

So many works written on our battle with sin make the battle nearly totally ours, or so nearly ours that God has little or nothing to do with it. How contrary to the Scripture is this idea? Reading in Galatians alone makes it quite clear the battling the flesh is something done only through the working of the Spirit. The only way to gain any ground in our fight against sin is to focus our lives on obedience to the Spirit. No duty, no program, no earthly thing is capable of wining this battle. Victory belongs to Christ alone, who overcame death and sin, which no longer has its sting. Live in and by the Spirit, and you will find quite a bit more strength to fight your battle against sin.

Peeperz Vs. Bryan

I thought you might have a laugh at this one...

Uncertainty and Doctrine

There are certainly some theological beliefs that are at best uncertain from the standpoint of Scripture. However, many people teach and act as if most of the doctrines we talk about in church are really not clearly taught in Scripture. Many would quote Romans 11:33, "Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!" (NASB), and conclude that when it comes down to it, we can't really be sure about anything in the Bible.

Martin Luther does an excellent job countering this idea in His book, Bondage of the Will. He is in debate with Erasmus over the issue of free-will. One of Erasmus' arguments is that the Bible is beyond us, many times too difficult for us to understand. Read Luther's counter:

All the things, therefore, contained in the Scriptures, are made manifest, although some places, from the words not being understood, are yet obscure. But to know that all things in the Scriptures are set in the clearest light, and then, because a few words are obscure, to report that the things are obscure, is absurd and impious. And, if the words are obscure in one place, yet they are clear in another. But, however, the same thing, which has been most openly declared to the whole world, is both spoken of in the Scriptures in plain words, and also still lies hidden in obscure words. Now, therefore, it matters not if the thing be in the light, whether any certain representations of it be in obscurity or not, if, in the mean while, many other representations of the same thing be in the light. For who would say that the public fountain is not in the light, because those who are in some dark narrow lane do not see it, when all those who are in the open market place can see it plainly?... With the same rashness any one may cover his own eyes, or go from the light into the dark and hide himself, and then blame the day and the sun for being obscure.

Did you follow his argument? His point was that if something is clear in one place it Scripture, that is enough. If it is unclear in another place in scripture, it was still clear in the first place. The unclear passage doesn't nullify the clear passage. All this to say, most doctrines are clear somewhere in the Bible. When people seem to have the idea that we, as humans, are too stupid to understand anything about God I have to wonder what Bible they are reading.

If God was too far beyond us for us to know Him, why would have given us a book that teaches us truths about Him. God is not unknowable. Surely there are things we may never understand, but God has given us a book that clearly teaches us truths about Himself. We can be confident that the things we believe about God are correct, so long as we find them in the Word of God.

Do not shy away from the deeper issues of the faith. Nearly all of them do have answers.