More Than Rice Chex

Some things in life are immune to personal preference. You may opt for oatmeal over Rice Chex, prefer blueberries to apples, or select rhubarb pie instead of mincemeat, and no one, including you will suffer for your choices. Other matters matter a great deal more. You really don't have a say in whether or not your heart pumps blood on autopilot throughout your limbs, or if touching a hot stove top will burn and blister your skin. Local ordinance demands that there be negative consequences for ignoring a burn ban and setting fire to the expanding mountain of brush behind my house. I might prefer to speak on my cell phone in a school zone, but that was never a good idea and no longer an option in this country. 

The same is true with both the horizontal and vertical aspects of discipleship. Grace is never neutral. Nothing needs to change to experience God's grace, but once we do everything must radically change, more out of divine necessity than individual choice. Grace doesn't demand that we clean up our act, it mandates a funeral pyre--death to self and all that accompanies our egocentric lifestyle. Surrender isn't surrender if I ferret away something in reserve. “When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die. It may be a death like that of the first disciples who had to leave home and work to follow Him, or it may be a death like Luther’s, who had to leave the monastery and go out into the world. But it is the same death every time—death in Jesus Christ, the death of the old man at his call" (Bonhoeffer, "The Cost of Discipleship").

"Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies." (1 Corinthians 6:19-20, NIV)

Spiritual Obesity

A great chasm yawns between disciplined believers and spiritual couch potatoes. Grace was never intended to produce sluggish, flabby Christians.  Although we rightfully gorge ourselves on an all-you-can-eat smorgasbord of mercy, Scripture expects the opposite of spiritual obesity, out-of-shape believers lumbering lethargically through their spiritual journey. Grace results in heightened passion to pursue God, or we misunderstand its divine intent; grace and hunger are not only compatible, they are conjoined at the heart. The Bible unapologetically urges those who are being saved to strive, and those who have been found by grace to stay after the search for greater intimacy with the Grace-giver. Perhaps the best known story of pursuit in all of American literature is Herman Melville's 1851 epic tale Captain Ahab and the white sperm whale. Ishmael narrates the voyage of the whaleship Pequod and its captain's crazed pursuit of the whale Moby Dick, which on a previous voyage destroyed Ahab's ship and severed his leg below the knee. Unlike Ahab in his maniacal pursuit for revenge in the shadow of enormous loss, each of us is to be engaged in an all-consuming high and noble quest in light of inexplicable gain.

In what should be required reading for every believer, Tozer writes: “The yearning to know what cannot be known, to comprehend the incomprehensible, to touch and taste the unapproachable, arises from the image of God in the nature of man. Deep calleth unto deep, and though polluted and landlocked by the mighty disaster theologians call the Fall, the soul senses its origin and longs to return to its source" (A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God). This insatiable appetite for personal intimacy with Almighty God is the antidote for what Bonhoeffer terms "cheap grace." “Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession...Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate" (Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship). Grace pardons completely, and authentic discipleship accepts with it greater opportunity and responsibility, rather than entitlement.

“O God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. I am painfully conscious of my need for further grace. I am ashamed of my lack of desire. O God, the Triune God, I want to want Thee; I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still. Show me Thy glory, I pray Thee, so that I may know Thee indeed. Begin in mercy a new work of love within me. Say to my soul, ‘Rise up my love, my fair one, and come away.’ Then give me grace to rise and follow Thee up from this misty lowland where I have wandered so long.” 

― A.W. Tozer

Disciples's DNA

During the years I taught undergraduate ministry students, I encountered what I consider to be a common misunderstanding of an essential component of discipleship. Nothing is more basic to following Christ than obeying his demand for self-denial and cross carrying.  But What exactly did Jesus mean when he instructed his followers to deny themselves? What, in truth, did Jesus have in mind when he established this seemingly counter-intuitve prerequisite for discpleship? Perhaps by default, the frequent interpretation communicated to church-goers is that self-denial equates to self-rejection.  We think in terms of what G. K. Chesterton wrote: "There is only one thing which is generally safe from plagiarism -- self-denial" (G.K. Chesterton, The Collected Works of G.K. Chesterton Volume 29: The Illustrated London News, 1911-1913). Somehow we confuse denying self with ignoring or at least avoiding self-understanding.  The difference is colossal, since knowing one's self is paramount to obeying Christ's command in Mark 8:34.  Daily denying of self invokes an ongoing process of self-discovery, for only when I embrace the way God has fashioned me am I ready to relinquish all that I am to Christ.  How can I offer to Christ what I'm unaware is mine to give? Such a scenario would be more akin to hypnosis than surrender. In other words, 'DNA' does not stand for "Do not ask." The more I acknowledge my God-granted uniqueness, the better able am I to use that uniqueness in serving him.

"And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." (Mark 8:34 KJV)

Muscle Memory

Is there anything to be said in favor of going through the motions? A response in the affirmative may be stated in two words -- muscle memory. When you need it, the tedious repetition kicks in and gets you through the rough spot. Athletes know that well executed repetition is their greatest ally when the stress level is high and victory on the line. They trust their muscles to flex and respond on demand without conscious effort. Discipleship, too, requires a great deal of 'muscle memory,' holy rehearsal that results in pushing through the monotonous and mundane that constitutes much of what we call spirituality. Habits formed by praying when we don't feel like it, reading Scripture when we're bored with it, and living by faith when all evidence screams and pulls to the contrary, steel us for whatever lies ahead. Sanctification should never be measured by emotion at any given moment, but by the residual effect of spiritual muscle memory.

Discipleship

During the years I taught undergraduate ministry students, I encountered what I consider to be a common misunderstanding of an essential component of imitating Christ. Nothing is more basic to following Jesus Christ than obeying his demand for self-denial and cross carrying.  But What exactly did Jesus mean when he instructed his disciples to deny themselves? What, in truth, did Jesus have in mind when he established this seemingly counter-intuitve prerequisite for discpleship? Perhaps by default, the frequent interpretation communicated to young people in our churches is that self-denial equates to self-rejection. Somehow we confuse denying self with ignoring or at least avoiding self-understanding.  The difference is colossal, since knowing one's self is paramount to obeying Christ's command in Mark 8:34.  Daily denying of self invokes an ongoing process of self-discovery, for only by embracing the way God has fashioned me am I then ready to relinquish all that I am to Christ.  To pose this as a question, how can I offer to Christ what I'm unaware is mine to give? Such a scenario would be more akin to hypnosis rather than surrender. In other words, 'DNA' does not stand for "Do not ask." The more that I acknowledge my God-granted uniqueness, the better able I am to parlay that uniqueness into Christ-honoring service.

What Does It Mean To Deny Yourself?

During the years I taught undergraduate ministry students, I encountered what I consider to be a common misunderstanding of an essential component of discipleship.  Nothing is more basic to following Christ than obeying his demand for self-denial and cross carrying.  But What exactly did Jesus mean when he instructed his followers to deny themselves? What, in truth, did Jesus have in mind when he established this seemingly counter-intuitve prerequisite for discpleship? Perhaps by default, the frequent interpretation communicated to young people in our churches is that self-denial equates to self-rejection.  Somehow we confuse denying self with ignoring or at least avoiding self-understanding.  The difference is colossal, as knowing one's self is paramount to obeying Christ's command in Mark 8:34.  Daily denying of self invokes an ongoing process of self-discovery, for only when I embrace the way God has fashioned me am I ready to relinquish all that I am to Christ.  How can I offer to Christ what I'm unaware is mine to give? Such a scenario would be more akin to hypnosis than surrender. In other words, 'DNA' does not stand for "Do not ask." The more I acknowledge my God-granted uniqueness, the better able am I to use that uniqueness in serving him.