I am studying for Feb. 13th sermon on the text from Paul's letter to the church in Corinth: 1 Cor. 3:1-9. Paul indicates his great frustration at the fact that he still has to nurse these believers like little babies. There comes a time for us to wean out children, a time to comfort them by removing them from our breast. This is always a time of anxiety and includes some painful withdrawal symptoms, but it is necessary for growth. Ps. 131:2 puts it like this, "I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me." The psalmist has in mind that there is a comfort after the pain. Eugene Peterson puts it this way, "The transition from a sucking infant to a weaned child, from squalling baby to quiet son or daughter, is not smooth. It is stormy and noisy. It is a pitched battle. But, to the weaned child his mother is his comfort though she has denied him comfort. It is a blessed mark of growth out of spiritual infancy."1
How hard was it for you to grow up beyond your parents support? How hard is it for you with children who are older, to let go of them and allow them to grow up? I am writing this mostly to me as I am wrestling with this having 26, 21 and 20 year old children of my own. I ask for your prayers as I try to work this out. I pray for the church as we work this out with God. There is a time to grow up, and it is NOW! Let's move beyond our jealousy's and our division making. We may not be able to change others, but we are responsible for ourselves! Let's start there!
Dr. Fitz
1. Eugene H. Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction: Discipleship in an Instant Society (Downers Grove: IVP Books, 2000), pp. 155-156.
Monday, February 7, 2011
Friday, February 4, 2011
Losing your mind?
Philippians 2:5 records, "Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus," and then goes on to describe that state of emptying self and taking the form of a slave, or servant for God. God does the exalting when we are willing to empty ourselves into Christ. Martin Luther put it this way, "God made the world out of nothing, and it is only when we become nothing that God can make anything out of us." When Peter declared Jesus to be the Messiah, the Son of the living God, Jesus told him that flesh and blood did not reveal this, but my Father in heaven (Matt. 16:16-17). Paul puts it this way in 1 Cor. 2:16, ""For who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?" But we have the mind of Christ."
Do we? Surely if we have the mind of Christ we are not living according to the cultural ways of self-preservation, or self-glorification. Yet that still seems to be the way that many in the church live! Why? Surely if we have the mind of Christ, according to the way Jesus lived and is described in Philipp. 2:5-11, then what are we doing acting with such arrogance and using manipulation as means to "our" ends?
During prayer in the spring of 1997, I sat alone in my den with the windows open going into a time of Scripture reading, meditation and deep prayer. I could hear the spring birds singing, feel a warm gentle breeze blowing into the room, smell the fresh azaleas and dogwoods, and it was in an instant that I was taken out of my mind. I literally left all my own conscious thoughts and soared out of the house and into the sky. I have subsequently come to fully believe that our minds and our own thoughts are prisons. To take the mind of Christ is to enter a different culture, a different world. I need to move beyond my own limited finite world and agenda. The wonderful experience that morning is not significant in and of itself, but the outcome is what matters. Due tot he peace and presence of God that I experienced then, and subsequent to that time, I have been given a deeper and more lasting peace. This stayed with me throughout that day, and can continue. Only then can I be truly available to serve God and neighbor without trying to use them for my own needs and agenda. I can more fully listen (which has always been a challenge to one who likes to talk so much).
The world of Christ is not one that we can create or recreate. It is one that we are invited to participate in, if we will become nothing, if we will relax and rest in the power, presence and love of God in Jesus Christ. There is no alternative that the world has to offer that compares to this experience. This is what God calls all of us to embrace: sincere worship and obedient service -- as Christ did and does! Through humility, grace and love!
Amen
Do we? Surely if we have the mind of Christ we are not living according to the cultural ways of self-preservation, or self-glorification. Yet that still seems to be the way that many in the church live! Why? Surely if we have the mind of Christ, according to the way Jesus lived and is described in Philipp. 2:5-11, then what are we doing acting with such arrogance and using manipulation as means to "our" ends?
During prayer in the spring of 1997, I sat alone in my den with the windows open going into a time of Scripture reading, meditation and deep prayer. I could hear the spring birds singing, feel a warm gentle breeze blowing into the room, smell the fresh azaleas and dogwoods, and it was in an instant that I was taken out of my mind. I literally left all my own conscious thoughts and soared out of the house and into the sky. I have subsequently come to fully believe that our minds and our own thoughts are prisons. To take the mind of Christ is to enter a different culture, a different world. I need to move beyond my own limited finite world and agenda. The wonderful experience that morning is not significant in and of itself, but the outcome is what matters. Due tot he peace and presence of God that I experienced then, and subsequent to that time, I have been given a deeper and more lasting peace. This stayed with me throughout that day, and can continue. Only then can I be truly available to serve God and neighbor without trying to use them for my own needs and agenda. I can more fully listen (which has always been a challenge to one who likes to talk so much).
The world of Christ is not one that we can create or recreate. It is one that we are invited to participate in, if we will become nothing, if we will relax and rest in the power, presence and love of God in Jesus Christ. There is no alternative that the world has to offer that compares to this experience. This is what God calls all of us to embrace: sincere worship and obedient service -- as Christ did and does! Through humility, grace and love!
Amen
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