I think this is the toughest blogpost I have ever read! There are times I wish I didn’t check certain websites. Men like Alan Knox and Dave Black, women who blog about doing it makes me question am I doing enough! I know, I know, the Gospel is about believing a bunch of abstract facts that really have no real bearing on our lives, other than accumulating good Podcasts, reading great books. Living the Gospel is an oxymoron right? Well tell Dave Black that who writes this wonderful post:
How Are Your Verbs?
My sabbatical officially ends today. On Monday I’ll resume my teaching duties at the seminary with my J-term Greek class.
I can honestly say that 2008 was a tremendous year in every way. I have learned more about language than ever before – the language of love in particular. I have seen how the intellect is so easily enslaved by bizarre abstractions. Education has become a Utopia for Americans, and becoming a “Christian intellectual” a god.
What is the use? Knowledge is an impotent end incapable of creating the means. Why, then, do we so easily “Christianize” it? I refuse to believe in the power of education. For truth we need a source outside ourselves – a far greater Light than our puny human candles can provide. I want to proclaim only the Word of God this year – not by words alone but by sharing in Jesus’ sufferings. I no longer want to camouflage my bondage by calling it “scholarship.” Jesus alone is Truth. He Himself says so. It is Him I want to know. No more disguises! No more pedantic, puerile obfuscations! What good is life without Truth?
In Ethiopia I taught the book of Acts for a week. Here’s my rendering of a key verse (2:42): “They spent their time learning from the apostles, taking part in the fellowship, eating meals together, and praying for each other.” Note the second element if you will: “taking part in the fellowship.” That’s how the early believers spent a good deal of their time, says Luke. They emphasized Body Life and genuine relationships. Each one of them had a gift, a talent to share with others. The same is true today. Each one of us has a contribution to make to the health of the Body. Why is that so hard to see? It is a false humility that says, “I have nothing to contribute.” Your ability may be small or large, but your gifts are vitally important to the fellowship. No talent or ability is of our own making. Peter puts it like this: “As each of us has received a gift, we are to use it for the good of one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace” (1 Pet. 4:10). The Bible says plainly that I have a gift, and I am being just plain lazy if I do not exercise it!
The essence of stewardship is responsibility. I have a divinely-ordained responsibility to live a life of blessing to others. How, then, can I be so responsible with my finances but not with my gifts and talents? No gift is small in the eyes of God. Every gift is a token of His grace in our lives. And the early Christians realized this. They did not shake off or shirk their responsibility to serve others. They did not reason, “I have nothing to give.” They did not bury their talents in the ground. They did not write books about the New Testament but not practice its simple teachings.
This is the question I am asking myself this year: Am I giving to the Lord what is His? Is He first in the stewardship of my time, my friendships, my possessions, my resources, my strength, my abilities? I often think, How much more I could do for my Lord is I wasn’t so lazy and self-centered! It’s as if Jesus is telling me, “Don’t neglect the gift you have!” (1 Tim. 4:14). I returned from Ethiopia with a new realization that God will reward me in heaven according to my stewardship, not my knowledge. I must seek to be a wise and trustworthy steward of all He has given me. Only by a diligent application of the truth can I prove that I am a trainee of Jesus. My faith must be proved by my actions. Otherwise I will be like that student who once told me, “My Greek is excellent, except for the verbs.” My profession to be a Jesus-follower is worthless unless it has verbs to back it up!
I can say this: I am ready this year to lay down my life for Jesus if necessary. But even more, I am ready to forfeit things so that others might find the Way of Jesus more easily. I will not evade the burden. I will not say but not do. I will not pray for prisoners – I will visit them. I will not debate the morality of capitalism – I will feed the poor. I will not discuss the Gospel – I will share it with one and all. I am done with debates about this or that. How dare I claim to know truth and display the approachability of a porcupine!
So back to school I go – after a glorious rest and a wonderful romp in Africa. On Monday I will teach my students something about the Greek language. But I don’t want to stop there. I also want to teach them, by actions and not merely by words, that nothing remains more important yet more demanding than that we reflect in our lives the unfailing, scandalous love of Jesus.
Good article, We are so caught up in telling others how much we know, instead of putting love into action on a continual, again notice that I said we. Sometimes being a prisoner of the saying instead of the displaying will get us all in trouble.
It’s tiring to see only certain folks in the local assembly that are willing only to tell you what to do, but are only so ready to escape your presence, the minute that the benediction is said.
And this is where I get hurt.
Because I’m ever so willing to give a helping hand to all that I deem to be in need of help, if it’s not happening in the sanctuary, guess what? it probably doesn’t carry over outside of it!
I saved this article because of the importance, I’m really doing some soul searching to better apply the word. Do to the convictions that I under.
James said to be doers of the word and not just hearers, my prayer is that we as a body, not to be so caught up in sensuality/selfishness because it is so taxing, especially when our cause isn’t common. God knows my exasperation in this (the knowledge and debating thing). And with the help of The Lord, we can all overcome this and be the doers that God has called us to be.
wow.. i really enjoyed this….
tho for me..because of where the LORD has us.. my fear is that I will get so caught up in the doing that I miss the face of JESUS..this is one of the reasons that I wanted to us to do such ministry and was thrilled when my hubbie accepted the calling .. I really wanted to see the FACE of GOD….
my prayer is by GOD’s grace that my theology would always remain practical
and just to encourage you..this blog has been such a blessing to me and others as well…God is using you definitely
thanks again for those encouraging words over on my blog
Grace to you and your fam
Dave Black said:
“How dare I claim to know truth and display the approachability of a porcupine!”
Wowsers!!!! I have been guilty of that a time or two..or three or four (:)) in my life, and I instantly realized some of those moments when I read Dave’s words. This entire article was SO on time for me. My 2009 focus will be fleshing out James 1:22, “Do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves. DO WHAT IT SAYS.”
Thanks Dave and Lionel!
This is a great post, I was just talking with my family last night about glorifying God with our best. I’m going to share some of these things with them.
I particularly loved these statements:
“The essence of stewardship is responsibility. I have a divinely-ordained responsibility to live a life of blessing to others.”
“This is the question I am asking myself this year: Am I giving to the Lord what is His? Is He first in the stewardship of my time, my friendships, my possessions, my resources, my strength, my abilities? I often think, How much more I could do for my Lord is I wasn’t so lazy and self-centered!”
“Only by a diligent application of the truth can I prove that I am a trainee of Jesus.”
“How dare I claim to know truth and display the approachability of a porcupine!” (without love, it is all nothing)
So, I would echo the desire of this post. But, I would say pastorally, that we can only live this out by God’s grace…in an utter dependence upon Him. (I’m sure that’s implied in the post). These kinds of noble and godly resolves are short lived in and of ourselves; consider these truths…
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in Him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:5
“But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.” 1 Corinthians 15:10
May we walk in the grace God gives and live out the grace He has shown.
Thanks for posting this.
Lionel
Faith and works go hand in hand,as the book of James eloquently confirms.
The real need of today is find the right balance between the 2 of them.You certainly don’t have to be Christian to feed ad house the poor for example.The difference is that the Christian’s works flow from his faith in God.
May God give us the grace to bear fruits of righteousness.
Q
I agree entirely with your position.You will recall the agony of Paul in Romans.Those things he determined not to do,were the things he did.Things he wanted to do,he found himself unable to execute in his own power.
At quite another level,the annual and ongoing ritual of new year resolutions,denies a role for God in conforming us to his image,and is quite man-centered,and thus futile.
We are dependent on the Spirit.We are what we are by the grace of God.
Brother Lionel
Thought that I might highlight the words in Romans I referred to earlier Romans 6:14-25.
14 We know hat the law is spiritual but I am unspiritual,sold as a slave to sin.15 I do not understand what I do.For what I want to do I do not do,but what I hate I do.16 And if I do what I do not want to do,I agree that the law is good.17 As it is,it is no longer I myself who do it,but it is sin living in me.18 I know that nothing good lives in me,that is,in my sinful nature.For I have the desire to do what is good,but I cannot carry it out.19 For what I do is not the good I want to do;no,the evil do not want to do-this I keep on doing.20 Now if I do what I do not want to do,it is no longer I who do it,but it is sin living in me that does it.21 So I find this law at work:When I want to do good evil is right there with me.22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law;23 but I see another law at work in the members of my body,waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.24 What a wretched man I am!Who will rescue me from the body of death?25 Thanks be to God -through Jesus Christ our Lord!So then,I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law,but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.