True Religion (Part I) :: Throwback Thursday

  • January 21, 2016
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  • Park Forum

By John Wesley

“They are all zealous for the law.” — Acts 21.20

Consider the nature of true religion, referred to by our Lord as, “the kingdom of God.” “The kingdom of God,” or true religion, “is not meat and drink.” (Rom 14.17) True religion does not consist in any ritual observances nor in any outward thing whatever.

The religion of Christ rises infinitely higher, and lies immensely deeper, than any outward thing—such as forms or ceremonies, even of the most excellent kind. These are good in their place; just so far as they are in fact subservient to true religion. Let no man dream that they have any intrinsic worth; or that religion cannot subsist without them. This were to make them an abomination to the Lord.

It is true, a man cannot have any religion who is guilty of vicious, immoral actions; or who does to others what he would not they should do to him. Yet may a man both abstain from outward evil, and do good, and still have no religion. Two persons may do the same outward work; suppose, feeding the hungry, or clothing the naked; and, in the meantime, one of these may be truly religious, and the other have no religion at all: For the one may act from the love of God, and the other from the love of praise.

Suppose perfect obedience could atone for the sins that are past, this would not profit uru one bit—for you art not able to perform it. You cannot. How will you change your life from evil to good? Indeed, it is impossible—unless your heart is changed first. So long as the tree remains evil, it cannot bring forth good fruit.

The substance of the gospel is this; “Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners;” or, “God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, to the end we might not perish, but have everlasting life;” or, “He was bruised for our transgressions, he was wounded for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.”

Believe this, and the kingdom of God is yours. By faith you attain the promise. “He pardoneth and absolveth all that truly repent, and unfeignedly believe his holy gospel.” As soon as ever God has spoken to your heart, “Be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee,” his kingdom comes: You have “righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.”

*Abridged and language updated from John Wesley’s 1872 sermon, The Way To The Kingdom.

Today’s Reading
Nehemiah 11 (Listen – 5:05)
Acts 21 (Listen – 5:55)

C.S. Lewis on Miracles

  • January 19, 2016
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  • Park Forum
Even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched Paul’s skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them. — Acts 19.12
“The central miracle asserted by Christians is the Incarnation. They say that God became Man,” writes C.S. Lewis in his book, simply entitled, Miracles. Lewis argues that it is essential Christians believe in the miracles in Scripture because, when looking at the Incarnation of Christ, “every other miracle prepares the way for this, or results from this.”

Inside the book Lewis defines a miracle as “an interference with nature by supernatural power.” He explains:
I contend that in all these miracles alike the incarnate God does suddenly and locally something that God has done or will do in general. Each miracle writes for us in small letters something that God has already written, or will write, in letters almost too large to be noticed, across the whole canvas of Nature. They focus at a particular point either God’s actual, or His future, operations on the universe.
Lewis does not leave much room for the argument that if miracles were to happen more frequently today many more would believe.
In all my life I have met only one person who claims to have seen a ghost. And the interesting thing about the story is that she disbelieved in the immortal soul before she saw the ghost and still disbelieves after seeing it… Seeing is not believing.

For this reason, the question whether miracles occur can never be answered simply by experience. Every event which might claim to be a miracle is, in the last resort, something presented to our senses… and our senses are not infallible.
The occurrence of miracles in Scripture, according to Lewis, is part of God’s larger purpose of redeeming a broken world and proclaiming his love for those in it.
God does not shake miracles into Nature at random as if from a pepper-caster. They come on great occasions: they are found at the great ganglions of history—not political or social history, but of that spiritual history which cannot be fully known by men.

How likely is it that you or I will be present when a peace-treaty is signed, when a great scientific discovery is made? That we should see a miracle is even less likely. Nor, if we understand, shall we be anxious to do so. ‘Nothing almost sees miracles but misery’. Miracles and martyrdoms tend to bunch about the same areas of history.

Today’s Reading
Nehemiah 9 (Listen – 7:46)
Acts 19 (Listen – 5:47)

Faith’s Focus

  • January 18, 2016
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  • Park Forum
When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with the word, testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus. — Acts 18.5
It’s no secret that focus is one of the primary skills of successful people. Ralph Waldo Emerson writes, ”Concentration is the secret of strengths in politics, in war, in trade, in short in all management of human affairs.”

Sometimes focus creates an almost contradictory narrative, like in the case of Donald Knuth—the legendary computer scientist who doesn’t use email. Dr. Knuth is known as the “father of the analysis of algorithms” and his work helped create the foundation for computers and smartphones.
Email is a wonderful thing for people whose role is to be on top of things. But not for me. My role is to be on the bottom of things. What I do takes long hours of studying and uninterruptible concentration. — Donald Knuth
The Apostle Paul’s life is strikingly similar. Paul was wildly accomplished in his own field—his knowledge of the scriptures was astonishing and his exposure to the gospel came first-hand from the resurrected Christ. Yet in Acts the author notes that “Paul was occupied with the word.”

Paul could have had his attention focused on the formation of the first churches, the selection of leaders, how to best interact with the Roman government, or any number of other pressing issues. Instead his mind was dominated with the word of God.

Though Paul set his mind on things above, the apostle was not preoccupied by his personal spiritual experience. To be preoccupied is to be dominated or engrossed—to the exclusion of other things. Paul was profoundly God-centered and radically others-focused.

All that Paul accomplished—traveling over 8,000 miles to 48 different places without modern transportation to form the foundation of the Christian Church—happened because he was occupied with the word. It was Scripture that turned him toward the world’s greatest need and the Spirit’s guidance that magnified the effects of his gifts.

It is occupation with the word that allows us to focus on vocation and family as an extension of faith. In Dr. Knuth’s case, the scientist reported a turning point in his career happened when he took an algorithmic approach to scripture—his work and faith integrated. “I no longer lived Sunday mornings in a different world from the world that I occupied during the rest of the week.”

Through focus on the word our lives, vocations, and families are enriched in ways that transcend our individual abilities. As Jesus said, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

Today’s Reading
Nehemiah 8 (Listen – 4:07)
Acts 18 (Listen – 4:06)

Restorative Silence :: The Weekend Reading List

  • January 15, 2016
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  • Park Forum
“Our language has wisely sensed these two sides of man’s being alone,” observes Paul Tillich. “It has created the word ‘loneliness’ to express the pain of being alone. And it has created the word ‘solitude’ to express the glory of being alone.”

Once a spiritual discipline, silence is now more likely to be viewed as the uncomfortable penalty for those who do not have enough to do. It is rare to enter a coffee shop or store that doesn’t have music playing. Our phones provide an endless torrent of notifications. Vocation and family call for our attention. And, on top of everything, we feel the pangs of a disquieted soul searching for fulfillment in anything that captures our heart’s imagination.

Michael Fishbane explores the ancient discipline of silence in his book on Jewish theology, Sacred Attunement. Fishbane clarifies the difference between a simple lack of noise and the kind of silence where the soul finds renewal:
There are two kinds of silence. One of these is natural silence, and is characterized by the absence of noise. It is a modulation, a diminishment, a negative valence. The other kind of silence is spiritual, and is characterized by potentiality and anticipation. We sense this every time we watch a conductor or an ensemble gesture slightly just prior to the production of a sound; and we also sense it during moments of self-collection and focus, before something of significance is said to another person.
How can we hear the whispers of the Spirit without the cloister of silence? It is through the process of quieting our souls that we discover the true longings, idols, joys, and pains of our hearts. As we try to quiet our minds we observe where they drift—family issues, stress from our workplace, the desire for a new purchase—each mental journey offers an opportunity to pray.

As we offer up our stresses, celebrate our joys, and cultivate trust in our pain we find restorative silence. For the Christian the goal is emptying for the sake of being filled. “Silence frees us from the need to control others,” says Richard Foster, in Freedom of Simplicity. The same could be said for our need to control our own lives. Foster continues:
One reason we can hardly bear to remain silent is that it makes us feel so helpless. We are accustomed to relying upon words to manage and control others. A frantic stream of words flows from us in an attempt to straighten others out. We want so desperately for them to agree with us, to see things our way. We evaluate people, judge people, condemn people. We devour people with our words. Silence is one of the deepest Disciplines of the Spirit simply because it puts the stopper on that.
More than just how we interact with others, silence changes the posture of our own soul. “Indeed, solitude and silence are powerful means to grace,” observes Dallas Willard, in Spiritual Disciplines, Spiritual Formation and the Restoration of the Soul. “But we must choose these disciplines. God will, generally speaking, not compete for our attention.” Willard explains the benefits of cultivating restorative silence:
If we will not withdraw from the things that obsess and exhaust us into solitude and silence, he will usually leave us to our own devices. He calls us to ‘be still and know.’ To the soul disciplined to wait quietly before him, to lavish time upon this practice, he will make himself known in ways that will redirect our every thought, feeling and choice. The body itself will enter a different world of rest and strength. And the effects of solitude and silence will reverberate through the social settings where one finds oneself.
In this way the fulfillment, joy, and meaning we long for are not found in adding more noise, but in resting from the things outside of God that clamor for our attention. Silence is a habit of rest—drawing us back to the practice of the Sabbath day.

“Sabbath is a declaration of freedom,” Timothy Keller asserts in his article, Wisdom and Sabbath Rest. “Sabbath is about more than external rest of the body; it is about inner rest of the soul. We need rest from the anxiety and strain of our overwork, which is really an attempt to justify ourselves—to gain the money or the status or the reputation we think we have to have.”

The “glory of being alone,” to use Tillich’s words, isn’t found in ourselves, but in uniting ourselves with the peace of Christ. There we find what the noise of the world is insufficient to provide. There the faithful are renewed, according to Isaiah’s prophecy, “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength.”

Today’s Reading
Nehemiah 5 (Listen – 3:29)
Acts 15 (Listen – 5:43)

This Weekend’s Readings
Nehemiah 6 (Listen – 3:19)  Acts 16 (Listen – 5:53)
Nehemiah 7 (Listen – 6:37)  Acts 17 (Listen – 5:28)

The Weekend Reading List

Bold Prayer :: Throwback Thursday

  • January 14, 2016
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  • Park Forum
By Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892)
And we prayed to our God and set a guard as a protection against them day and night.  — Nehemiah 4.9
I would hold this prayer up as a pattern for our prayers in a like condition. It was a prayer that meant business. Sometimes, when we pray, I am afraid that we are not transacting business at the throne of grace; but Nehemiah was as practical in his prayer as he was in the setting of the watch.

Some brethren get up in our prayer-meetings, and say some very good things; but what they really ask for, I am sure I do not know. Oh, for more definiteness in prayer! I am afraid our prayers are often clouds, and we get mists for answers. Nehemiah’s prayers meant business. I wish we could always pray in this way.

Notice, next, that it was a prayer that came before anything else. It does not say that Nehemiah set a watch, and then prayed; but “nevertheless we made our prayer unto our God, and set a watch.” Prayer must always be the fore-horse of the team.

Do whatever else is wise, but not till you have prayed. Send for the physician if you are sick; but first pray. Take the medicine; but first pray. Go and talk with the man who has slandered you, if you think you ought to do so; but first pray. Do not begin it until you have prayed. Begin, continue, and end everything with prayer; but especially begin with prayer.

I gather from the words before me that it was a prayer saturated with faith. “We made our prayer unto—God”? No, “unto our God.” They had taken Jehovah to be their God, and they prayed to him as their God.

They had a full assurance that, though he was the God of the whole earth, yet he was specially their God; and so they made their prayer unto the God who had given himself to them, and to whom they belonged by covenant relationship.

The door of prayer seems to turn on those two golden hinges—“our God.” If you and I are to be delivered from the evil that is in the world, if we are to be kept building the church of God, we must have for our first guard, mighty, believing prayer, such as Nehemiah and his friends presented unto the Lord.

*Abridged and language updated from Charles Haddon Spurgeon’s sermon, The Two Guards, Praying And Watching, delivered July 24th, 1890.

Today’s Reading
Nehemiah 4 (Listen – 3:38)
Acts 14 (Listen – 3:54)