St. John Studies

All teachers have their tricks; I had a few. We usually “borrow” them from other teachers. One of the “tricks” I used every semester went like this. I would stop class and ask my students to mimic what I was about to do. With great seriousness, I would have them hold their right hands out in front of them and ask them to make a circle with their thumb and forefinger. Then I asked them to look through the circle. After that, I would ask them to pull the circle up above their heads. Then in a firm voice, I said “put that circle on your chin.” At that time [with all their eyes trained on me] I put my circle on my right cheek.

What happened?

Very few students put their circle on their chin. Most put their circle on their cheek, following my action. It was funny to watch a few who actually heard my words; they would move their circles from their chin to cheek and back again. They did not know what to do. But most did not hear my words; they just watched my behavior.

This little illustration was used to make this point: actions speak louder than words.

As Pastor John Bevere begins to close Chapter 9 in his book Good or God?, he tries to be clear about the idea of holiness. He says holiness before God is a two-fold concept.
First of all, we have a position in Christ. What this means is explained in Ephesians 1:4: “Even before He made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in His eyes.” This is a gift from God. We can never say we earned this position by our behavior.

The second aspect of holiness is the behavior that results from holding this position. Here is where actions do matter. When we say we have dedicated our lives to Christ, we should act like we have dedicated our lives to Christ. We have all heard the cliché “You have to walk the walk, not just talk the talk.”

In First Peter 1, the Bible says “The heavenly Father to whom you pray has no favorites. He will judge or reward you according to what you do. So you must live in reverent fear of Him during your time…” The Christian who proclaims a love for Christ and then lives in willful disobedience should be very concerned. Bevere writes “If we are truly His, we should passionately want to not hurt His heart by living in sin” [Bevere, 133].

Now before going further, let’s stop and admit that living a holy life is hard. Because of how we are made and the influences we have from those in our lives, it is easy to get “off track” and have moments of weakness. Because of our natural tendency to sin, it is hard to fight off temptation. We are not automatons; we react to life around us and some of our behavioral choices are not appropriate.

What must we do to live a life that is holy? We have to rely on the gift of our new nature.

If we truly accept Jesus Christ in our lives, there is a Helper that can lead, guide and direct us away from temptation. That Helper is the Holy Spirit.

For so many years I have struggled with a particular weakness that has been so frustrating. I did things that I knew I should not do. I would then pray prayers of repentance and hope that God would forgive me. Eventually I would have a few days of being able to handle my weakness and then out of left field, I would sin again. This hurt my relationship with God so much as I felt distant from Him due to my disobedience. Why would He not stop me from being tempted? Why did He not take away my weakness?

Maybe it was because He wanted me to do my part in the process of growing as a Christian. Maybe He wanted me to listen to my Holy Spirit, do what the Spirit said and then thank Him for the guidance.

Now that I think back on this, maybe I was being lazy. I thought God should have done all the “clean-up” work. I wanted to be the asker and the receiver. Maybe God wanted me to “act” better for my sake and the sake of those around me. I had declared that I had a relationship with Christ but in times of frustration, I knew that I had heaviness in my heart due to my disobedience. Pastor Bevere knows when he writes about purity, sinless behavior, holiness and upright living that many of his readers will get irritated and say, it is impossible. They realize they don’t have what it takes to change.

It is possible to make progress toward a holier life and Bevere will be discussing that in Chapter 10. How do we make sure our actions are in line with our words?

Lean on the Helper; our Holy Spirit will lead guide and direct.

God wants us to do that; He knows we are weak.

We will always struggle to get our actions to line up with our words…

Without His “Help”…

Sometimes we have those days when nothing seems right.  You may have done something that bothers you and it eats at you.  It is a sin but now it is over.  You can’t undo it and you have asked His forgiveness but it just sets there bugging you, keeping you from enjoying your day, keeping you from effective prayer, giving you the feeling that you are lost.   For me this situation often manifests itself as a yearning to do something but I can’t get started, I can’t get focused.  I am dwelling on the past, a past that I cannot change and I can’t see that the past has probably taken me to where I am now.  And now, I can’t see the new things that God has presented me with today.

Blinded by the past…

And then I read my devotion for the day and it references Isaiah 43:18-19.  The Words of this Scripture are “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.  See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”  

What has happened?  

Has God manifest Himself in my life, my everyday, humdrum life?

Maybe.

John Bevere writes about how God manifests Himself in the lives of His followers.  Manifest means “to make clear to the eye or the understanding; show plainly.”   Jesus says that He will make himself known to those who follow Him.

But there is a catch.  I know; you are thinking “there is always a catch!”

Here it is.  You can hear it in the words of Paul from 2 Corinthians 7:1, “…Let us cleanse ourselves from everything that can defile our body or spirit.  And let us work toward complete holiness because we fear God.”

You can know Jesus’ full intention by reading John 14, 19, 21:  “A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me.  Because I live, you will live also.  He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me.   And he who loves me…I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”   Bevere says manifest in this context means the Christian has a chance to gain intimate understanding, knowledge and insight about God…”to bring from the unseen into the seen realm, from the unheard into the heard, and from the unknown into the known” [Bevere, Good or God?, 125].  His manifest presence is accessible to every child of God, but only those who obey His words experience this privilege.

I believe I have experienced His presence in church services, in prayer, while reading His word or just going about an ordinary day.  You may have too.

And yes, I certainly have experienced His presence in the midst of the trials of my life, when I was suffering, when I was overwrought with anxiety and fear, when I was confused and wandering without direction.

At those times, God does not give up on me and he does not give up on you.  He extends His hand to us in grace and mercy.  Because of His Son Jesus, He understands the problems we all face and He desires for us to continue to pursue Him.

This past Sunday, I had another opportunity to teach an adult Sunday school class.   I love my class.  Sometimes we get off track but I work hard to bring them back and Sunday’s lesson was what I call a squirming message.   The topic was “What Keeps You from Reading God’s Word?”  You see, I know that on most Sundays I face some mighty fine Christians who have not had much relationship with The Bible and that is ok.   It is a choice they have made.   They may know that they should read it but things get in the way.   At the beginning of class, I told them all that I wanted the message to be uplifting but at the same time honest.  I asked them this question:  “What gets in the way of reading the Bible?”  They responded to the question and soon the board was full of reasons for not opening the Bible.

Then a man confronted me with this statement.  “David are you saying I am not much of a Christian because I don’t read the Bible?  I think I am a good Christian.”

My reply:  “I know you are a good Christian; you have come a long way but do you want more?”  Like all of us, he has his struggles and at times  [like me], he feels defeated by some aspects of his life that are holding him back.   I felt a strong sense that he [like me] needed to let go of his past.

You see, the past is not our focus.   We truly cannot undo the things we have done, but we can find a way forward if we trust our Lord to guide us.  The dark clouds of the past can be blown away by our simple trust and  our pursuit of God and His ways.  We don’t have to fall into the habits that hold us back…we can see the newness that God will present to us.

Maybe part of that newness may just be the manifestation of God.

“Those who are not holy will not see the Lord” [Hebrews 12:14].

Pastor Bevere begins Chapter 9 in Good or God? with this quote. Then he titles his chapter the “Avoided Truth.”

Why?

Maybe I can explain by constructing a scenario. Let’s say you have a good friend who knows quite a few Christians that you don’t know and he wants to introduce you to his friends. After you meet his friends you naturally have questions; you want to know more about these unfamiliar people. He gives a little thumbnail sketch of each person and for one person [we will call him William], he has these words. Your friend says “William is holy; he is pursuing God.”

Stop for a minute and honestly think how you would respond to someone who is pursuing holiness.

Bevere is honest. He says even mention the word and watch people “recoil” and quickly change the subject. It is not “cool” to be holy; it can really take the fun out of life. Some Christians don’t appreciate someone trying to pursue holiness; it smacks of legalism. To be holy, it must mean that one has to follow a strict set of rules. They may say something like “I’m free and living in God’s grace. Don’t attempt to bring me under the law” [Bevere, 122].

All this just highlights the confusion many of us have about New Testament Christianity.
Bevere is simply trying to clear up the confusion. In short, he says all Christians should be pursuing holiness. We should not recoil and change the subject when the topic of holiness comes up. We should not jump to the conclusion that holiness equals legalism.
All Christians should desire the strongest relationship they can have with the Lord and pursing holiness is part of that. When Jesus was at the Last Supper he said “In a little while the world will no longer see me because I am alive and you’re about to come alive” [John 14:19]. In 2nd Corinthians 3:18 Paul states “All of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord.”

Why would a Christian not want to see God? Why would a Christian not want to experience God’s presence?

Bevere feels that Christians can see God in a way that others in the world cannot. Through prayer, listening to our Holy Spirit, Scripture study and responding to God’s “still small voice,” we can discern that God has a plan for each of us. He wants us to be a part of His Kingdom and even though we may not “see” the Lord, we can know Him personally as we ask His direction for our everyday lives.

It is important to know Him because “knowing Him” allows us to be changed. Change or transformation is what a life in Christ is all about. When we dedicate our lives to Jesus, the process is just beginning. Paul says those who see the Lord “are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” [2nd Corinthians 3:18].

A sad fact of many who profess to know Christ is that they say they are Christian but they live a life as if they have never met Him. They have never really committed themselves to learning about Jesus; “they love themselves and their money, disobey their parents, communicate in a crude manner, refuse to forgive, seek fame and reputation, betray their friends, love pleasure more than they love God—the list goes on and on” [Bevere, 123].

Paul says “They will hold to the outward form of our religion, but reject its real power” [2 Timothy 3:5]. The power that they reject is the power of transformation.

This is serious stuff because many think they are living righteous lives when in reality they are not. One can attend church, conferences, prayer meetings, Bible schools and small study groups and still not experience God, if character and behavior do not change.
What can we do about this?

Here is a simple answer. Welcome transformation with open arms. Acknowledge that the way you are is not the way you want to be. You want something better. Make learning about God a part of your life and make responding to God’s urgings a daily habit.

If you ever encounter someone who is described as “holy,” I don’t think recoiling is the correct response. Maybe the best response would be to say “cool” or “awesome.” [Of course, we all know that those words are trite and far from adequate]. Bevere has these words from C. S. Lewis at the beginning of Chapter 9 and they may say it best “How little people know who think holiness is dull. When one meets the real thing…it is irresistible.”

Taking responsibility is hard to do. Shifting blame is so much easier.

To be honest, some have turned shifting blame into an art form.

When a divorce occurs, it is the other person’s horribly irritating faults that have caused the problems. When a person strays away into an affair, it was caused by the other person’s neglect or the other person’s boring behavior. Naturally when an attentive, exciting person comes along, the new chance at a better relationship makes sense. When someone turns to alcohol, maybe someone has been so cruel to them that drinking is the only way to cope. The bottle is the crutch that is needed to help one get through the day. The list can go on and on. Everyone is blamed except the person who really deserves the blame…the person who committed the act.

To this end, Pastor Bevere concludes Chapter 8 with a Biblical contrast illustrating the power of taking responsibility: David vs. Saul.

I have seen a man cry as he confessed his sin. When a man takes total responsibility for a mistake, it can be tough to watch. David knew he had sinned and he cried out in his pain. In my experience, it is so uncomfortable to watch someone do this that the natural response is to try to get the repentant person to admit that it was not totally their fault. I think the goal of that is to get them to calm down. I know the “natural response” is something we may feel compelled to do but on the other hand, there is something extremely admirable about a person who has taken responsibility. Tears are probably symbols of honest contrition. They help relieve the sinner of their grief. They humble the sinner and set them up to actually get past the sin and experience some degree of reconciliation with God.

Read the words of King David in the book of Psalms as he cries out in his grief. He has hurt his relationship with God and he knows it. He has committed adultery and murder. “Against You and You alone, have I sinned; I have done what is evil in Your sight” [Psalm 51:4]. David is expressing truth and it is hard to read.

A contrast to David is King Saul. Saul had a need to be powerful in the world. He had a lavish lifestyle and a terrific sense of pride. When God gave Saul specific instructions, he decided to do what he wanted. God asked him to exterminate the Amalekites. The instructions were explicit: don’t just kill the men, but the women and children also, and even the cattle – spare nothing and no one. Saul, in his pride, kept some of the booty from his military exploits. He disobeyed God.

Saul knew he had displeased God but he does not seem as repentant as David. Some people handle their sinning like Saul. They are less concerned about the sin and more concerned that they have been caught sinning. They are embarrassed by the public exposure. Of course, if they had not been caught, everything would be ok. Sin unexposed is not sin.

What is the message of this contrast? Maybe it can best be summed up in the Scripture from 2 Corinthians 7:10: “For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin.”

God knew Saul’s sorrow was not going to do that and God removed him from his kingship. David’s sorrow was genuine and heartfelt and he was restored.

Since Pastor Bevere is writing about our tendency to fall in love with worldly things, what is the point that he is trying to make about responsibility? As Christians, we need to own up to our failings in this regard. To use a trite expression, “we can’t have our cake and eat it too.”

Simply put, he says “friendship with the world affects our experiential relationship with God…substituting good for God has cost us greatly, both on the personal and the corporate church level.”

Shifting blame is not the way to handle sin. Taking responsibility is hard to do but it is best. Expressing truth is so hard to do sometimes but restoration is what we want…not removal.

Sometimes a pastor just hits too close to home: as John Bevere concludes Chapter 8 in his book Good or God?, that is exactly what happens.

He reveals that he has had love affairs other than his love affair with God and his wife…
I have had one too and before you jump to a conclusion, it was with a sport, an all-consuming sport—golf. When Bevere speaks of his loving devotion to golf, it was as if he was writing my thoughts. I was right there with him in his struggle.

For me, it began with my Dad. Dad really liked the game and slowly he introduced me to it by hitting golf balls around our yard. We lived in the country, so sometimes he took out his driver and hit balls into the front field and I would go out in the field and try to retrieve them. Sometimes I would go out in the field and watch the drives go out from his club and it was fascinating and powerful watching the ball arc high up in the air.

In the early 1960’s, Dad was instrumental in constructing a local country club, volunteering his farming machinery and valuable time to clear the land and prepare the fairways. He was truly involved. He became a charter member of the club.

With his involvement, I had a place to try out my golf game and I began to do just that. I had a friend or two who played and I began to try to play. It was fun but I was not very good. I played until I left for college in 1970 but college was so time consuming that I put golf aside for many years.

Eventually, I got a job as a college teacher and I discovered some golfing buddies at work who were interested in the game far beyond what I used to be. Their love of the game slowly began to infect me as I found myself playing more and getting better at the sport. I used to go play nine holes and lose about six golf balls. To explain my improvement, I was now playing eighteen holes, my score was going lower and I played a complete round with the same ball. To be honest, I was far from the golfers you see on television but I was competitive with my buddies and that is all that mattered.

I sought opportunities to play more, watched hours of golf on television and developed an interest in spending more money on equipment. As I played more, I hit some shots and had some rounds that I began to be proud of and then it happened.

I began to spend a lot of time day-dreaming about golf. I would recall with vivid visions, the shots I hit, you know the one hundred eighty yard three wood that nestled right up next to the cup, the twenty-five foot putt that rolled into the hole, the approach shot with the pitching wedge that sent my ball up for a birdie [oh oh, I am lapsing into golf-speak].

While all this was happening, I can tell you what I was not doing. I was not worried about my family and since I was day-dreaming about golf a lot, guess what I was doing in church [when I occasionally went]? I was not listening to the pastor all the time; I was seeing golf shots in my mind.

By now, you have figured out where I am going with this. Golf became number one in my life and God knew it and my wife knew it.

Until I hit the hardest brick wall I have ever hit in my life happened and it all stopped.

In the process of dealing with this trauma, I began to see how misplaced my heart and affections were. I began to see that a game where you hit a little white ball with sticks is just a game. It was taking too much of my time and money and drawing me away from what is truly very important. I went through a period of guilt that I was so distracted by the sport. I did not give up the game but I began to see the error of my ways. About this time, I began to commit my life to Christ and along with that I began to assume a much better, a much more healthy commitment to my family. I began replacing my golfing buddies with a wife and child [the way it always should have been].

Recently I have had another hiccup of life. I fell from a ten foot ladder and broke my pelvis. Needless to say, my surgeon ruled out golf for several months and as I continue to recover, I have been preoccupied with much simpler things like regaining my ability to walk, mow my yard, drive a car etc.

The summer is almost over and the weather is beginning to cool. No golf at all in 2017. Here is my question: will I be able to play golf? Another question is, will I enjoy it? Will it be what it should have been all along: a source of recreation and enjoyment? Can I feel refreshed out on the golf course as I enjoy fellowship with others?

This is the week I will see.

Or will I be like so many people who are obsessed with the sport? Will I fall into a trap and give it my heart and affection?

You know this post is about much more than one person’s struggle with obsession. It is about leading a balanced life, a reasonable life, a life with a good sense of priorities—with God first, followed by family.

Play a game, enjoy a game but when the game is over, move on to much more important aspects of life that truly deserve serious attention.

Don’t fall in love with the world and neglect God; that love affair is not worth the cost.

I had an opportunity to go on a trip with two friends. One was a teacher like me but he taught in a different discipline [he was a scientist]. The other friend was a pastor. We arrived at our destination which was a golf resort and we settled in. We played eighteen holes of golf after we arrived and that, with the travel of the day, made us pretty tired. Instead of going out, we decided to stay in the condo for the night and we broke out the Uno cards. My pastor friend and I started shuffling and we called to our third friend, let’s play Uno! He said “I don’t play cards; they are of the devil.”

That stopped us in our tracks.

What was going on; why was Uno of the devil? In my previous post, I commented on John Bevere’s concern that “the world” would seduce us into sinning. The whole post was dedicated to trying to explain that life has many temptations that can draw us away from a strong relationship with God. A little lowered standard here and another lowered standard there and before too long, you may find yourself doing something in your heart you know is wrong, dead wrong.

Maybe playing Uno…

But seriously folks, let’s not judge my scientist friend. He felt that card playing could hurt his relationship with God but some of you may think that Uno is not that bad. Maybe that standard is a bit too high.

All of this leads into a discussion of legalism. Legalism is a word that is tossed around in Christian circles so much but what does it mean? A dictionary definition means a “strict adherence to law or prescription, especially to the letter rather than to the spirit of the law.” An added explanation is “judging of conduct in terms of adherence to precise laws.”

People who practice legalism have long lists of “don’ts.” Some examples are don’t dance, don’t watch movies, don’t read certain books, don’t wear jewelry, have stylish hair, or wear makeup. Women are not supposed to wear pants. Piercings and tattoos are strictly prohibited.

Let’s be honest, if a person is totally convinced that any of these “don’ts” get in the way of their relationship with God, they should not do them. It is a personal choice and no one can declare them wrong.

Here is the problem. Often people who practice legalism have problems with the outward appearances of others. They are very harsh in their judgement. Because they are strict in their adherence, they can fall into the practice of spiritual superiority. Many times legalists are so focused on the outward signs of “good” behavior that they don’t really enjoy life. They are also often under constant pressure to serve God through church administration, volunteering, or giving resources to the poor. There is a definite effort to earn the favor of God.

Now I know that this may sound confusing but legalists can be rooted “in the world” as much as a worldly sinner is because they don’t want to be dependent on God for their salvation. They have taken that firmly in their own hands.
Legalists, according to Bevere, “don’t possess true joy. They live in a very small world because those who don’t think like they do are filtered out.” They don’t understand Paul’s thoughts in Colossians 2: “Why do you keep on following the rules of the world such as ‘Don’t handle! Don’t taste, Don’t touch?’ Such rules are mere human teachings about things that deteriorate as we use them…they provide no help in conquering a person’s evil desires.”

What is the answer to all of this?

The focus should not be on outward manifestations of spirituality, the effort of the devout Christian should be on the treasure of his or her heart. Bevere says “this is the battlefield; this is where the web is spun. This is where friendship or adultery with the world begins and is eventually consummated. And it can happen as easily with a person who rarely attends church as with one who never misses a service and is heavily involved in ministry” [101].

Yes, you can live a life with strict adherence to rules but don’t be confused: God is the one who determines what is good or bad, not man. Maybe playing Uno is a horrible sin but maybe not. Not playing Uno does not help clean up a person’s heart and the heart is the target of “the world.”

It would be best to focus less on man’s rules and more on God’s and “guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life” [Proverbs 4:24].