St. John Studies

“Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.” 1 Peter 3:15

Paul Little cites the scripture above as the main reason we must have reasons for our faith.

He goes further “If we are unable to give reasons for our faith, and if we allow the same questions to defeat us in conversation time after time, we are being disobedient. By our own ignorance, we are confirming unbelievers in their unbelief.”

This is the “elephant in the room.”

When I have been “caught off guard” and have been asked a tough question by an unbeliever or a doubter and I don’t have an answer, I have this lingering sense of dread about what has just happened.

My sense of dread has been articulated above by Paul Little.

I am not one who has a “quick trigger” on my brain. I have found myself at times in situations when I have missed my opportunity.  Minutes or hours later, the proper response comes to me and I wonder why it has taken so long.  By the time it comes to me, the opportunity is long gone.

Many of those situations are not that serious; a time to say something funny, a chance to be witty or just a time for me to open my vast storehouse of information and share with those less informed.

But what if the opportunity is to share our faith?

When you lack the words to articulate your faith, it hurts.

I am reminded of Moses in his conversations with God. “Oh Lord I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant.  I am slow of speech and tongue” [Exodus 4: 10].

Let me remind you of God’s response: [Exodus 4: 11-12] “The LORD said to him, ‘Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes him mute or deaf, or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the LORD?’ Now then go, and I, even I, will be with your mouth, and teach you what you are to say.”

I guess pleading lack of eloquence is not good enough.

It goes further than that.

Moses is being disobedient.

He would rather plead lack of skill than develop skill. Did he have the skills to lead the Israelites?  Of course he did.  He had the skill to represent God before the Pharaoh.  He had the skill to lead his people out of Egypt.  He had the skill to establish boundaries for the livelihood of his people.

He had the goods and God knew it all along.

Did he think he had the ability? He did not.  Therein is the problem that most of us Christians have.  We could do better in advancing our knowledge of our faith but no one has presented the facts of our faith to us.   We don’t know where to turn to find out the basics of our religion.  The Bible is the Book that sits on the shelf gathering dust because it is so complex, the words are so hard and some of those passages are so boring.  Those people existed so long ago and that part of the world is mysterious [it still is to us today].

So what do we do?

We do like Moses and say “I am slow of speech.”   I lack the skills and the knowledge.   We fake our lack of information, hoping we never encounter a situation when our lack of intelligence is revealed.  Sometimes we use stock phrases spoken with a degree of bluster and we hope that people buy into how our information is spoken.  [We know if they look behind the bluster there is not much content to back it up].

What we are really doing is living with that sense of dread that I wrote about earlier. We know one day we may have a chance to articulate our faith and we won’t be able to do it and we dread that day.   We don’t want to fail when that time comes but we know we will.

There is only one way to try to avoid this dread.

Admit that we have it.

Begin to work hard to avoid it.

I know this is going to sound very judgmental but if you really want to “work hard to avoid it” ask yourself what you are putting number one in your life. I think if we took away thirty minutes from our television time per day and spent it on reading information about God, eventually the dread would go away.

The dread would go away because we are learning.

The confidence would come because we are learning.

The opportunity to help another person will not pass by because we are prepared.

You get a phone call from a friend. You like this person, in fact they are one of your “best” friends.   Over the years you have shared a lot of times with them.  You have a lot in common.  They want to take you out to lunch.  That’s sound ok so you wind up going.  Later at the lunch table, your friend reveals that they are going through a tough time in their life and even though you felt you knew them well and have talked about spiritual matters with them, they now reveal to you that they have no faith in God.  God would not allow them to go through the hardships they are currently experiencing.  God does not exist for them anymore.

And then comes your tough question…

“Why do you believe in God?”

Can you come up with an excellent answer?

You realize that this is your time to help your friend. You can turn them back to God as a Savior.   In your panic, you recall your pastor citing Matthew 28:19, you know, that verse about going and making disciples or something like that and you know that this is your chance to return a sheep to the fold or something like that.

Can you do this?

Sadly, most Christian believers feel they can’t.

Words of doubt pop into your head. “I’m not a pastor or an expert on theology.”  “I don’t have the plan of salvation memorized, much less any other key verses from God’s word.”

Worse than that…

Believers have to admit…

“I don’t know why I believe in God.”

In conversations I have had with fellow Christians over the years, I have heard the following reasons given about why people believe in God.

1. “I believe in God because I was told by my parents that I should believe in God.” That’s wonderful that your parents told you that but is this kind of logic going to help your friend? I don’t think so.
2. “I believe in God because I have gone to church all my life.” Going to church your whole life is wonderful but can you articulate what you have learned in church to your friend? Just telling your friend that you believe in God because you have gone to church is not going to provide any proof that will help your friend unless you share what you have learned about God.
3. “I believe in God because it feels good to believe.” Feeling good is a great thing but what is your source of feeling good? Why do you have these feelings? Do you feel good all the time?  Are solid believers exempt from “down times?”  You can see where this is going.  Having feelings is great.  I like the feelings I have.  I would not want to live a life without them but I often do not make key decisions in my life based on my feelings.  I like to employ my brains from time to time.

Certainly your friend needs you to make some sense to them about your belief in God.

Paul Little begins his book in chapter one with the Sunday School teacher who asks a little boy “What is faith?” The little boy says “Believing something you know isn’t true.”

Well, that is shocking enough in itself.

The next statements are even more shocking. “That many non-Christians define faith this way is not surprising. That many believers overtly or secretly hold this view is tragic.”

Little spent his life trying to express his Christian faith in a reasonable manner. He [to use his expression] refused to kiss his brains good bye when he became a Christian.  If he found himself at lunch with a good friend and he had the question “Why do you believe in God” he would have an answer.  He refused to adopt the attitude that many of us have that just because you believe, doesn’t make your faith true.  That is equivalent to the times when I questioned the reasoning my father had in his instructions to me [instructions that I did not want].  I would say to Dad “Why?” and Dad would say “Because I said so”.  I was not a very satisfied child with that explanation.

Your friend needs an answer. They are in a period in their life when your friendship can mean the most.  They are in a period in their life when your faith in God can mean the most to them.

They need an answer because they have become a doubter.

You need an answer because you want your faith to be real.

As we begin our new book, you might have a question like the title of this post.

Why does Paul Little have to write a book about our belief?

Aren’t we all on the same page?

Don’t we all know what we believe and why we believe it?

Aren’t all our questions resolved already?

Sadly, no…

I wish there was no need, but there is.

You may wonder why.

1. In this day when more and more people are saying they are spiritual but they are leaving the Christian church, we have to wonder why. The questions they have are going unanswered is the short answer. Not enough people are standing up for Christianity as a faith that makes sense.   Not enough people are talking about the Bible as the real word of God. What about the evil we see in the world today? Is the evil controlled by God? These hard questions are on the minds of people and not enough churches are coming up with effective answers. This leads people to go other places for their answers.
2. The skeptic is cool. To be a believer is to act on faith. To be a believer is to think that Hebrews 11:1 is ok: “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” But is that enough for the skeptic? When Jesus says in Mark 10:31 “But many who are first will be last, and the last, first” in the context of the lesson about the rich man, the camel and the eye of the needle, he is speaking about an idea that is hard to understand, an idea that impacts personal economics. Do you mean I have to sell everything? Is being wealthy a bad thing? What about this first will be last stuff you are talking about? Those are questions that a skeptical person is going to have. We as Christians have to have solid answers for this inquiry.
3. The Christian can be lazy. There I have said it. Sorry if you are offended. When Jesus said in Matthew 22:37 ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” He was careful to include mind in his statement.   Robert Wuthnow says that Christianity has “pandered so much to American culture, tried so hard to be popular, and perpetuated such a do-it-yourself, feel-good faith that it has lost not only its mind but its soul as well.” That is a stinging indictment folks. But I have to admit that I see a dumbing down of a lot of our “required” theology in the materials we read.   Popular Christian authors fill their books with anecdotes designed to catch attention and keep the readers reading. Illustrations are so basic that they seem to be written on the middle school level. Ideas are so simple that an intelligent person may even be offended because they are so basic.

Why is this happening? Can’t we challenge ourselves to do more?  Can we get our followers to do anything?  Oh, I am beginning to sound “self-righteous.”  That is a turn-off.  I don’t want to be that way.

Paul Little writes his book in the face of a lot of obstacles. He wants us to have the solid foundation that we all need.  He wants us to have the beliefs in place that characterize us as being “Christian.”  He wants to try to tackle the hard questions that skeptics have, these people who might find value in joining a church if they were convinced that there was something of value within those four walls.

Paul Little did not set out to be a Christian apologist, a person who makes a defense of Christianity in a speech or writing. He planned to be an accountant, graduating with an accounting degree from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.  But he spent 25 years of his life arguing for Christianity with people who had left the church, skeptics and yes, even Christians who never thought about the basic questions about their faith, people who have gaping holes in their knowledge.

Why Have a Book Like Know Why You Believe?

We need it…

Are you willing to bet your life that the real world is not real? The visible, physical world is not the world that really counts.

As we get to the last post on Hearing God, these big thoughts are the ones that really count for all of us.

The biggest barrier to hearing God in our lives is the fact that many in our world just like the physical world more than the spiritual world. We want to be able to explain life totally.   We don’t want to leave things to God.

In fact, the forces against spirituality are even greater than this. It is not stylish to be spiritual.  Spiritual people are seen as stupid.  Skeptical people are the smart ones.  To have doubts, to poke holes in another’s faith, to come up with alternate explanations…that’s the cool thing to do.

This is a dilemma: God is not visible.  My Holy Spirit is not visible.  Jesus said “no one has seen the Father” and yet we are to believe.

This whole book has been about us patiently waiting for a message from God and yet many in our culture feel like the physical world is the dominant world.

And yes, many in church today feel the same way.

Why would God want to speak to us if we don’t place a value on our spiritual life?

He wouldn’t.

If you read the Bible, study the Bible, it is evident throughout that God wants to be present with us but do we want to have a spiritual life so we can be with Him?

What is required?

A rock solid belief in the power of regular personal prayer.

A rock solid commitment to the study of God’s word.

A rock solid commitment to seek out the fellowship of other believers.

A rock solid desire to be of service to the people of this world in order to bring glory to the Lord [not yourself].

A rock solid goal of working to be as Christ-like as you can be.

Oh, don’t get me wrong. Don’t get Dr. Willard wrong.  He is calling on Christians to be “individualists”, maybe even “social rebels.”

If you truly want to hear from God on a regular basis and truly want Him to direct your life, you will have to be different. You will have to take stands that are unpopular.  You will have to act in situations where many others are going in the opposite direction.

At times you will be lonely.

As I write my last post on Hearing God I am awed that Dr. Willard closes his book on a reference to the two men walking to Emmaus after the death of Jesus.  These two students of Jesus tell a man who appears about the horrible death of Jesus of Nazareth, not knowing that they were telling their story to Jesus.

Then their eyes were opened and they realized the man who was with them was Jesus.

My walk with God began 19 years ago when I found Jesus on the Emmaus Walk, a four day spiritual journey I took at a key time in my life. I found a new hope in my life, a new force that was there to guide, a Savior who loved me, forgave me and sent me down the road to a better way of life.

I saw that the physical, visible world was not the way to explain all of life.   I saw God at work in my life and in the lives of others.

I left my Emmaus Walk with a burning heart. The two students asked each other after Jesus left them:  “Were not our hearts burning within us while He was talking on the road, while He was opening the Scriptures to us?” [Luke 24:32].

Dr. Willard states “Today, as God’s trusting apprentices in the kingdom of the heavens, we live on the Emmaus road, so to speak, with an intermittently burning heart. His word pours into our hearts, energizing and directing our lives in a way that cannot be accounted for in natural terms.  The presence of the physical world is, then, if I will have it so, no longer a barrier between me and God.  My visible surroundings become, instead, God’s gift to me, where I am privileged to see the rule of heaven realized through my friendship with Jesus.”

Let’s admit that the forces of the “real world” are powerful. Practical folk want to explain everything that happens in this world.  It is not very popular to believe in a God that is not visible, rely on a Holy Spirit that you cannot prove really exists and follow a Messiah who has been gone from this earth for a long time, yet He still lives.

But that’s what spiritual people do.

You know, those people who hear from God.

“They draw their life from a conversational relationship with God. They do not live their lives merely in terms of the human order in the visible world; they have a life ‘beyond’” [Willard, 222]

Amen.

I don’t often do this but I am going to do it today.

I am going to write a personal essay to admit that I have really enjoyed writing about Hearing God.

Maybe a few of you faithful readers could guess that already.

Dr. Dallas Willard is an author that I have heard about for many years and I have had three of his books on my bookshelf for a long time [Spirit of the Disciplines, The Divine Conspiracy, and Hearing God ].

Like other books, I thought I would get around to reading Dr. Willard one day but the day never came until I picked Hearing God for St. John Studies.

Last year was a wonderful learning year for me and in some respects I don’t want to let 2015 go…but I must. It is over.

A major highlight of the year was blogging [on average] six times per week on Hearing God.

I don’t want to let Hearing God go but I must.

When I began the book, I thought I would do a chapter a week but after plowing into it on August 24^th, I soon saw that my one chapter a week plan was going to go out the window.

The subject matter was too rich.

The author’s thoughts were too profound.

I had to work and work to understand what Dr. Willard was saying and I knew I had to go through the book at a pace that was respectful of its content.

Some chapters took two weeks.

Some chapters took four weeks.

Some of you probably got lost about where I was in the book but as I went from page to page, Dr. Willard kept making the hairs stand up on the back of my neck with his thoughts.

He pinpointed so many problems I had with my relationship with God and maybe he unearthed some of your problems too. He discussed the competing voices we all have in this world, the voices that take us away from God.  He challenged me to find God in the Bible and revealed that many of us Christians do everything except read God’s word.  We know God is there.  Why don’t we study God more?

I took his words to heart…

And now I have to let the book go.

Have you ever felt a little depressed that a book is over? Have you felt a bit down as you read the final pages?   You know you will miss the company of a special author.

That’s how I will feel as I leave Dr. Willard.

I am sure our next book, Paul Little’s Know Why You Believe, will be a good book.  It will be stimulating too.

There are twelve chapters. I hope it won’t take 6 months to finish the book.  I doubt it; the chapters are short.

As I get ready to wrap up Hearing God, I will comment on the book’s epilogue.

That will be tomorrow’s post. The epilogue is only six pages.  I hope to get it done in one day.

It is entitled “The Way of the Burning Heart”

I have to admit that Dr. Willard has changed me. People don’t realize it but when you learn, change occurs.  People don’t realize it but when you teach, you learn.  But I doubt that Dr. Willard would be pleased that I wrote that he changed me.  After reading him and getting to know him, he would rather me say that God used his words to change me.  That’s what he would want and that is correct.

You see, Dr. Willard knew why he was on earth. He existed to do what he could do to further God’s Kingdom and whatever he accomplished in his life, it was for God’s glory.

He died on May 8, 2013, but his thoughts live on and he continues to show us “The Way of the Burning Heart.”

Ok, God has spoken to me…what do I do?

Ok, God has not spoken to me…what do I do?

These are important questions that must be answered and Dr. Willard deals with them on the last pages of his last chapter. There is an Epilogue to this book and I may comment on that but let’s spend today discussing his advice on these two important questions.

First of all, listen to God carefully and “deliberately.” If we don’t pay attention, we will miss His words to us.  If we do hear His words, give thanks to God for the messages.

Dr. Willard is not averse to giving us practical advice. He says we need to write down God’s messages to us, especially if we are not used to hearing from God.

Meditate on the message from the Lord. That basically means that we need to think about the message.  Don’t rush off “half-cocked” and do something quickly but also don’t wait forever to take action on what God has told you to do.

Carry out the action in a suitable manner. I would imagine that means that God is not going to ask you to do something that would be too disrespectful of those around you; however God may ask you to defy convention.  Use common sense.

When God does not speak to you, think about what you are doing “in the inner forum of your mind” to block His word to you. Dr. Willard surprises me when he says that when you need an answer, don’t wait more than three days in anxiety waiting for the message.  Have faith that you will get the message in that time span.  He quotes Abraham Lincoln’s words on this subject “I am satisfied that, when the Almighty wants me to do, or not to do a particular thing, He finds a way of letting me know it.”  Lincoln had faith.

Meet with at least two people who are not your best friends to get counsel concerning God’s word to you. Of course, this needs to be private.

If you can figure out why God is not speaking to you, fix it. Dr. Willard says “Correct it. Mercilessly.  Whatever it is.  Just do it.”

If you still cannot get a word from God, you may have to act. You need to pick the best alternative.  Just remember that whatever you pick, pray that the Lord goes with you in your decision.

The fact is, He will.

I am going to share a prayer that I pray every time I get on my bicycle. It might apply.  I began to ride in the early spring of 2015 and every day I rode, I prayed for safety.  Of course, I did not want to wreck so I asked God for a safe ride.  Then it began to occur to me that a safe ride may not be God’s will for me.  I may wreck any day and that may be His plan.  I changed my prayer.  I began to not only pray for safety but I began to pray for God’s presence on the whole bike ride where ever I ended up [upright or in the ditch].  I just asked for Him to be with me.

We all make mistakes and if we don’t get a reassuring word we still have to act. God will be there no matter what action we take.

Lamentations 3:22-23 says “His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.” These words were written by the prophet Jeremiah when God was absent from Israel; in fact, God was punishing His people.

They still had faith that He was present.

In this way, Dr. Willard says he has given us advice about what to do when God speaks and what to do when God does not speak.

The thing to remember is that God wants us to mature as Christian brothers and sisters. He wants us to grow, whether He speaks to us or not.  He wants us to be better members of His Kingdom even without His guiding hand.

He is our Father.

He is always there for us.

Now that I have the foundation laid, what do I do to hear from God?

Dr. Willard begins the next step with Psalms 1: 1-3 and this Scripture is so seminal that I will copy it here. What makes it seminal?  It illustrates a principle in our Bible that we need to live by.  Throughout his book, Hearing God,  Dr Willard has said over and over that what we do must align with God’s principles:

“Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked,

or take the path that sinners tread, or sit in the seat of the scoffers;

but their delight is in the law of the Lord, and on the law they meditate day and night.

They are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season,

and their leaves do not wither.

In all they do, they prosper.”

The Bible can be so intimidating but take a moment and study the words from Psalm 1. The words that speak the most to me are “happy,” “delight in the law,” “on his law they meditate”.  And then we see the similes: true believers are like trees planted by steams of water. Trees that are close to a water source yield fruit and they do not wither—they prosper.

Believers prosper.

We need to meditate on verses like these constantly as we take God’s principles deep into our lives.

Next, we need to be alert to what is happening in our lives. Today that is hard to do because it seems we are busier than ever and the more we have to do, the harder it is to pay attention to our lives.  Too often today, we say things and then we think about what we have said.  That is so wrong.  The thinking needs to come before the speaking.  I love the way Dr. Willard points to what God said to Adam after Adam had sinned.  God did not say to Adam, “where is God”; He said to Adam “where are you.”  If we don’t pay attention to ourselves, then we are lost.  God moves within our souls and we need to attend to our souls.

Praying and speaking to God constantly is the next requirement.  Would you speak to someone who just spoke to you when they needed something?  I hear this all the time from other Christians.  Should I bother God with things that are not very important?  The simple answer is yes.  God is in it all and by “it”, I mean your life. He wants to be in your whole life. When things go right, even little things, sing His praises.  When things get lost, ask Him to show you where they are.  When things go wrong, tell Him you love Him nevertheless and you accept His will.

“Nothing is too insignificant or too hopeless to bring before God. Share all things with God by lifting them to Him in prayer, and ask for His guidance even—or perhaps especially—in those things you already understand” [Willard, 214].

What is the point of attending to principles all the time, paying attention to what is going on in our lives and praying and speaking to God constantly?

Here it is.

It is called relationship.

Relationship is defined as how two people are connected. The more time you spend with another, the stronger the relationship is.  The more you express to another, the more they know who you are and the more you know who they are.

To hear from God, we need to have a strong relationship.

People who hear from God relate to God and guess what…

God relates to them.

As we wind down 2015 and look forward to 2016, we look forward to God’s blessings in the new year.  I hope you like the new look of the blog and today I am announcing the new book that we will be studying…

$8.67 on Amazon, $3.99 on Kindle or $8.49 at Christian Book Distributors…the Amazon or CBD book prices exclude shipping [of course no shipping on a Kindle book]

A Formula for Hearing God’s Voice

What can I do to hear God’s voice on a regular basis? Is there something that I need to do, some “formula” that I need to have in order to access the voice of God?

Well, this final question has been discussed a lot in Dr. Willard’s book and the short answer is no, there is no formula that a person needs in order to access God’s voice.

Yet, Dr. Willard does have a section at the end of Chapter 9 entitled “A Formula for Living with God’s Voice.”

Did you notice the title of his section? It was not a formula for hearing God’s voice, it is a formula for living with God’s voice.

Therein, lies the difference.

He states that hearing from God is not some gimmick, some obsession or some “formula”; it is a lifestyle that includes contact with God.

First comes the lifestyle change.

It is almost a test we have to pass. If we can show God we are serious enough to live a life devoted to Him, He will give us His words.  “Hearing His word in a life surrendered and brought to maturity by Him” is a prerequisite [Willard, 213].

Nevertheless, Dr. Willard consents to giving us steps to hear from God and the first two are what he calls “foundational.”

Entering into an additional life by an additional birth is step one to the foundation.   To do this, we take steps to do what is morally right and what is commanded by God.  To do this we have to sharpen our intention about our lives.   We have to take steps to do what we need to do in order to grow in our knowledge about God.  The key word here is intention.  I have read other work by Dr. Willard and he uses the word intention a lot.  It means aim or purpose.  It means setting a goal for our life.

To be perfectly blunt, if you are a squishy Christian who does not commit to church, Bible reading, study and learning about God, you are likely to not hear from God. If you don’t know what you believe or you don’t know what is expected of you in this world you are likely to not hear from God.  If you don’t realize that you are set aside in the Kingdom of God to further His presence on earth, you are likely not to hear from God.

Step two of the foundation is seeking the fullness of the new life in Christ. Whatever you can do in this life pales in comparison with what you can do with God.  Our natural powers combined with God’s “upholding power” can make us more than we ever imagined we could be.  Life is a process of moving us from glory to glory as we find God more and more faithful.  We can experience more and more of what life has to offer if we believe in God and we back up that belief with action.   Our ability to act in God’s behalf can be surprising.

Dr. Willard cites Romans 1:17: “For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed–a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: ‘The righteous will live by faith.’”

A person who is trying to grow is surprised by the continual growth of the Christian life. Just when you think you have enough, God shows you more.   Just when you think you are doing your best work, God shows you how to perform better.  Just when you love Him as much as you think you can, He shows you a deeper love, a more dedicated love that connects you to Him even more.

God has a plan for you and me, a plan that is based on a new life, a plan that asks for change. As part of that plan, He asks us to be committed to growing and committed to learning.  God has a plan for you and me based on us trying to do better in our lives.  He wants us to join Him in His work.  He wants us to connect with Him so we can be better believers, better doers and better proclaimers of His Gospel.

Like a good house, it is based on its foundation. Similarly , a good Christian life is based on its foundation, a foundation of commitment to growth and a foundation of acting on behalf of God.

“I hear that you preach to a great number of people every night and every morning. Pray what would you do to them?  Whither would you lead them?  What religion do you preach?  What is it good for? “

What is unique about these questions?

1.They are tough for a preacher to answer.

2.They are written with unusual words; in today’s vernacular we hardly ever begin a sentence with “pray” or use the word “whither”.

I don’t know how many of you have bought the book Hearing God, but if you have, you will know that these words are from a questioner living in the 18^th century and the questions are addressed to John Wesley, the “founder” of the United Methodist Church.

Why start the blog today with these?

Well, the questions are about the topic of the day, the fact that they are addressed to John Wesley is unique and asking the questions gives me a chance to write about Wesley’s superb answers.

Dr. Willard writes about the underlying themes of his book and the fact that none of his ideas will make sense unless you understand the context of the Christian life.

Just getting words from God is a less meaningless activity if the words are just for our use. We all have problems and if God is used as a way to solve our problems and that is all, the words of God are really not worth that much.

God intends his believers to live a life that exemplifies His existence.   Dr. Willard says “We exist to stand up with God and count for something in His world.”

We don’t just live; we exist in God’s kingdom.

Colossians 3:17

“ And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”

We must know our place in this world.

John 15:5

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in Me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing.”

It is up to us to know our role in this life. Our sustenance comes from God, not ourselves, and certainly not from some other source.   The fruit we bear is for the glory of the Lord.

How does God’s speaking to us fit in? How does that relate to our context, our role in the Kingdom of God?   God’s speaking will always be a part of this, “to the extent and manner God deems suitable” [Willard, 211].

God’s words “will come without threat, to the full participation of the redeemed self, as a unique individual, in the work of God.” My life is mine but it also belongs to God.  If I do good, it is not I that instigate that good; it is God.

This is the context of the Christian life. It is what Willard calls a “life beyond” and yet “inclusive of” His guiding word.

At this point, I want to quote John Wesley’s answers to the questions posed above. I know Wesley was a brilliant man and I can see him coming back with solid answers to the questions.

“I do preach to as many as desire to hear, every night and every morning. You ask, what I would do with them: I would make them virtuous and happy, easy in themselves and useful to others.  Whither would I lead them?  To heaven, to God the Judge, the lover of all, and to Jesus the mediator of the New Covenant.   What religion do I preach?  The religion of love; the law of kindness brought to light by the gospel.  What is this good for?  To make all who receive it enjoy God and themselves: to make them all like God; lovers of all; contented in their lives; and crying out at their death, in calm assurance, ‘O Grace, where is thy victory! Thanks be unto God, who giveth me the victory through my Lord Jesus Christ.’”

All I can write is wow, what answers!

Dr. Willard faces the same questions as a believer, as we all do. Why follow the Lord?  Why turn to Jesus as our guide?  Why give our lives over to this power?

Because it is the best way to live a life here on earth.

James 10: 10

I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

God’s “supremacy lies in the greatness of the life He gives to us” [Willard, 212].

This is our place in the world, our context. This is our gift from God.  His words along the road of life are so helpful from time to time but the overall picture is so much more than words.

A life with Christ is a life well-lived…