Daily Beggar

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

A new perspective on "our daily bread."

God has brought me several reminders this week not to forget that “daily beggar” attitude. This morning, I received another: a great devotional from the folks at Preserving Bible Times. Here it is, in part:

In the arid setting [that the Israelites wandered through for forty years], there are no safety nets for food, no alternative sources of supply. Without God’s daily provision of manna, this people group would have quickly perished from the face of the earth. That is the corporate historical context that Jesus intends us to evoke in our hearts and minds when we ask for our daily bread.

In this Wilderness of Zin setting, daily manna symbolizes a conscious, continual posture of always acknowledging being totally dependent on the Lord for everything. In giving us that daily bread remez, it’s as if Jesus intends us to be praying,

“Lord, please provide our community of faith with the necessities we require this day, and may we live today acknowledging our need to be totally sustained by You because we are indeed truly dependent upon You for everything.”

Importance of Bread In our twenty-first-century Western culture, we have lost the first-century significance of bread. In Bible times, bread was absolutely essential for every Middle Eastern meal. People did not have forks and spoons to eat with when they reclined to eat. Rather people used a piece of bread torn from a loaf for dipping into the various common food bowls…. Bread was the vehicle that brought food from the table to your mouth to sustain your life. 

Insignificance of Bread Today In Western culture today, bread has become insignificant. …When we stop for fast food, our mind and our stomach is usually much more focused on what’s between the two pieces of bun than on the bun itself. When we only have a salad for lunch as part of being weight and health conscious, often times we intentionally avoid bread. How does all this affect our understanding of what it means to ask our Father for our daily bread?

Some Implications to Consider:

• This “Lord’s Prayer”—better called the “Disciples’ Prayer”—is a prayer that the community prays for the community. In the Middle East, the community is always more important than the individual. Consequently, a person would always sacrifice personal rights for the benefit of the community. Not so in the West! Here the individual always considers himself or herself to be more important than the rest of the community. …This begs the question: What kind of lenses, filters and presuppositions are we implicitly bringing to the praying of this Disciples’ Prayer?

• The request to give us this day our daily bread is the only part of The Disciple’s Prayer that deals with material things. ... Thus when it comes to material things, Jesus is encouraging His disciples to pray for today’s community necessities, not today’s niceties or creature comforts. When you reflect on your last 100 prayers for material things, how many of them were only for daily necessities? How many were for what the community of faith needs, not what your particular individual needs are?

• Maybe we are not even praying for our daily bread any more. Could it be that we collectively feel that we are quite able to furnish our own bread? Thus, it may not even be in our consciousness that God is somehow still needed to provide us with our daily bread. 

The nature of our prayers always reveal something about our (often flawed) view of God. If that is true, what might our “we-don’t-need-to-be-asking-for-daily-bread” prayers say about our understanding of the scope of God’s Providence? What might our prayers (or the lack thereof) also be revealing about us?

• There is great wisdom as well as practical guidance to be found in God’s Word in the sequence of the words and thoughts that unfold in a passage.  This petition to give us this day our daily bread is not the first sentence of the Disciples’ Prayer.  Note the immediate thought development context that precedes this request as recorded in Luke 11:2-4:

- First, Jesus has us start by collectively coming to our Father. That usage – a form of “Daddy” – conveys an approachable, personal Father in an intimate family setting. 
- Next, we immediately acknowledge hallowed be Your name, a phrase that reminds us of God’s holy nature as well as our calling to revere and defend His Name.
- Then Jesus has us acknowledge Your Kingdom come. This reminds us that as His disciples, it is all about His Kingdom, not our kingdoms (organizations, businesses, churches, etc.). It’s all about doing “the Lord’s work the Lord’s way” – not doing our work our way. 

Only with those attitudinal postures in place, and with our souls continually affirming these three spiritual realities are we then in the right posture to now corporately ask for our daily bread.

Thank You, Lord, that you do provide my daily bread, even when I forget to ask and, worse yet, forget to appreciate it.

Monday, January 01, 2007

Good stuff I gotta pass along!

Just wanted to introduce you to a great blog that all moms can appreciate: girltalk. As the name implies, it’s mostly aimed at the female gender. Though there’s great stuff there that guys would appreciate, too, were they willing to dig, and tolerate the pinkness! Here’s a sampling of some good stuff I’ve found there; all (with the possible exception of the first item, which would only be pertinent to dads of older daughters) have guy-appeal, too:

Words of wisdom for brides, bridesmaids—and, I might add, graduates and prom-goers.

A great quote from martyred missionary Jim Elliot: “Wherever you are, be all there. Live to the hilt every situation you believe to be the will of God.”

“Whenever I am tempted to wallow in regret over a mistake, an unwise decision, a sinful comment, I have often found encouragement in these thoughts...”

Another great quote, this time (I think) from the blogger’s dad, pastor/author C.J. Mahaney: “Only God gets His to-do list done every day.” (I love that!)

FUNNY!! - It’s a video, so you’ll need a fast connection, and a wait for the download - but worth the wait!

Have a great year, full of blessings and grace!

Saturday, December 23, 2006

The Snyders' Christmas letter, 2006

If you know us, the Snyder family, welcome to our Christmas letter of sorts, and a catching-up on our lives in 2006. (If you don’t know us, you’ll be sorely bored and might as well come back another day when I’m posting comments of more general interest!)

Actually, since I’m beyond (or below?) sporadic in sending out Christmas greetings, many of you are due an update beyond one year, but I’ll try to be brief....

The proud parent bit:
Ian is now in his sophomore year in the pre-IB (International Baccalaureate) program at East High. On the side, he plays guitar in the youth worship team at church, and occasionally writes music (last year he recorded a self-produced CD), but his big passion the last year or so has been learning to create computer animation. He’s written a number of video games, prompting mom and dad to frequently say, “Get off the computer and do something productive!” But we were forced to eat some crow a couple weeks ago when, after entering one of his games in a British game-writers’ contest, he won third place—and 500 British Pounds!*

Annica is currently in eighth grade and her last semester at Central Christian Academy. She’s been there since preschool, so next year will bring some very big changes, no matter where she goes to high school! She’s considering IB, too, as well as a couple other schools. She continues to be an avid artist and cook—and good at both! She’s also a natural-born spelling champ: last year she placed third in the ACSI district bee and went to regionals; this year she was first in district and will return to regionals in February. (For those of you who’ve seen Spellbound, rest assured: she gets no pressure on this from us! It’s just her thing.)

Work notes:
I continue to be self-employed as a designer, but over the past few years have added web development* to my print work. I do the design (and research and planning, where necessary), but Eric does the code. That’s his evening job: he continues as director of R & D at Sharpline. He’s been there 23 years plus: almost as long as we’ve been married!

Our folks:
Eric’s mom is “foster mom” to dogs from the “PALS” animal-rescue organization. In addition to three of her own, she usually has one or two foster dogs underfoot. She continues to be very active and always on the go: taking yoga, doing the “red hat thing,” and taking part in Bible studies and other activities at her church.

My folks are still living on Mission: my dad is in pretty good health overall, and gets out to the farm whenever he can. My mom is in fairly good physical health, but her memory is not so good, and seems to have deteriorated more quickly this year.

Gratitude:
We continue to be amazed by God’s grace toward us, giving us blessings abundant and undeserved. Most of all among our earthly blessings we count you, our family and friends. Thanks for your patience with this unpredictable correspondent; we love hearing from you!

(Well, so much for brevity!)

Blessings to you and yours!

Jana, Eric, Ian and Annica

*Find us on the web:
You can see and play Ian’s winning game here.
You can sample some of his music and his other video games at his site.
If you or someone you know needs a website, you can check out my work here.

Thursday, November 30, 2006

New bookstore

Amazon Associates has a new thing where you can create your own little bookstore website. Pretty easy to do, and if someone buys something via your site, you get a little commission. Check out mine here. I’ve recommended some of my favorite books and music. Let me know what you think!

Monday, November 06, 2006

Live. Today.

I hope you’ll bear with me today. I’m in a fairly somber mood. But thankful.

Saturday—day before yesterday—we got a call that our next-door neighbor had died that day.

Our sixteen year old neighbor.

He wasn’t some thug out driving drunk or getting high. He was a quiet kid, a smart kid, who played sax and bass guitar, got along with his sisters, went to church, liked to play chess. Last summer we carpooled to drivers’ ed, his family and ours. When I was driving Ian and him home, I’d ask Cole questions, and he would have an actual conversation with me. Which is a rarity in sixteen year olds, but I appreciated it even more, given how quiet Cole was.

Two weeks ago, Cole was running in a track meet. A week ago, he thought he had stomach flu; everyone else in his family had had it recently. Thursday or Friday it became clear that he was very sick. Tests were run. Lymphoma, they said. More tests were scheduled.

Saturday, while in the recovery room, he died.

I feel guilty saying I’m thankful. Thankful that my kids are still here today, yes. But also thankful for the reminder to not take today for granted.

Surfing the web this evening, I “happened” across the following. It’s taken from a commencement speech that Steve Jobs gave somewhere, about a year ago, I think. It crystilizes the state of mind we’ve been in since Saturday.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything—all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure—these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.

...No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent.

From there he goes on to say that the most important thing is to follow your heart and intuition. Which sounds nice, but—sorry, Steve—it’s way off.

The most important thing is to love. Love the people that God has put here with you, and do it now. Hug the teen that doesn’t want to be hugged. Call the friend you haven’t seen in forever. Tell your spouse or your parents or whoever needs to hear it what you appreciate and admire about them.

And just spend time with them. Because this may be that day.

Live like it.

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Stories about God

I just happened across a cool little site: Stories About God. Pretty self explanatory. Check it out—but only if/when you have time to surf. One I especially like: A Chance to Apologize. Cuz, man, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to do something like that!  :( Or times I should’ve, but didn’t.  :(

The author says that after apologizing, he “felt a lot more like Jesus.” That prompted me to brainstorm… when are we most like Jesus?
- When we forgive people who are beating us up.
- When we try to avoid the limelight.
- When we serve out of love, not out of hoping for something in return—even a “Thanks.”
- When we speak the truth boldly—at the right time, for the right reasons.
- When, after speaking the truth boldly, we’re considered crazy!
- When we’re okay with people thinking and saying untrue things about us, because we know where we stand with the Father.
- When we’re giving.

That’s certainly not all, but being a nice holy number (and having nothing to do with my brain running out of steam!), I’ll call that good.

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

The Designer's Psalm

A few days ago, I was feeling a little overwhelmed by all the work on my to-do list. That morning, I was reading in 2 Samuel 22 a song that David wrote, praising God for helping him in battle. He said:

You are my lamp, O LORD; the Lord turns my darkness into light.
With Your help I can advance against a troop; with my God I can scale a wall…
It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect.
He makes my feet like the feet of a deer. He enables me to stand on the heights.
He trains my hands for battle…
You give me a sheild of victory; You stoop down to make me great.

When I’ve read this in the past in the book of Psalms (where it is recorded as Ps. 18), I had “spiritualized” the content; thinking of these words as metaphorical. But seeing this in the context of the narrative of David’s life, it dawned on me that in this song, David was talking about actual, physical battle—which was a big part of his job and his life’s work.
So I decided to paraphrase these verses to apply to my work. Granted, I’m not the leader of God’s chosen people as David was, but I still need equipping from God to do my job. So here is…

The Designer’s Psalm:
You are my inspiration source, O LORD. You give me ideas when I have none.
With your help, I can make headway on my workload; I can put checkmarks all over that to-do list!
It’s You who gives me ability to do my job. [Why should I fear my own inability?]
You train my mind, my eyes and my hands for creativity and excellence.
You gift me with a little bit of You, The Creator; the lowest, smallest bit of Your creativity is above and beyond all of mine.

David adds,
“The LORD lives. Praise be to my Rock! Exalted be God, the Rock, my Savior!”
To which I can only say, “Amen!”

Monday, October 02, 2006

Some perspective on the back door.

Some encouraging words (I hope) for all those who are concerned about their church’s “back door”:

I carry a fair amount of guilt about our back door. I think to myself, If I were a better pastor, they would still be here; or, If I had done a better job of discipling them, they would not have fallen away; or, If I hadn’t preached on that controversial issue, they would not have left angry. Each one who departs leaves me with a distinct sense of failure.

This is an issue Jesus wrestled with. In John 6:66 we read, “From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.” ...You will never completely close the back door of your church. When people leave, it hurts. Learn all you can from those who leave. Listen to hear if there is something important God would say to you through them.

Reach out to them, apologizing when needed, offering clarification and love when this is what’s called for. But remember that when Jesus, God’s Word made flesh, preached the gospel on this earth, most of his hearers did not accept his message.

Jesus knew that God’s kingdom would not expand by “pleasing all of the people all of the time.” Instead, the Kingdom expands as the relative minority of people who hear the gospel, live it and in turn, give it away. Our task is to keep scattering the seed.

Excerpted from an article by Adam Hamilton, senior minister of Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas. (They have a pretty nice website, too.) Read the full story on christianitytoday.com.

Monday, September 11, 2006

Square one: God's love for you.

Our home church is doing a study on “community.” The main point in today’s reading was that in order to live out God’s commandment to love one another, we’ve got to start with His love for us.

I don’t know about you, but I often need to be reminded how much God loves me (and others), so I looked up some verses to help myself focus on that. Then I thought others might benefit from them too, so I’m sharing them here…

Isaiah 54:10
Though the mountains be shaken
and the hills be removed,
yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken
nor my covenant of peace be removed,”
says the LORD, who has compassion on you.

Zeph. 3:17
The LORD your God is with you,
he is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
he will quiet you with his love,
he will rejoice over you with singing.

Romans 5:6-8
You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man… But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

1 John 3:1
How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!...

1 John 4:10
This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Ps. 103:8-14
8 The LORD is compassionate and gracious,
slow to anger, abounding in love.

9 He will not always accuse,
nor will he harbor his anger forever;

10 he does not treat us as our sins deserve
or repay us according to our iniquities.

11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him;

12 as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

13 As a father has compassion on his children,
so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him;

14 for he knows how we are formed,
he remembers that we are dust.

Thursday, August 24, 2006

Andrew Peterson in Augusta. (Kansas, that is.)

If you’ve been around since my SquareSpace blog, or been around me when the subject of music comes up, you’ve probably heard me rave about Andrew Peterson. He’s one of our family’s favorite musical artists—Christian or otherwise. His lyrics range from the wry (e.g., songs about nacho cheese and his brother’s bad luck) to the profound. Here’s a sample that manages to be both; it’s an “Easter egg” on “Clear to Venus” (I think), called “The Land of the Free.” (a.k.a. Heaven.) The words are addressed to a poor child in South America:

well I’m weary of the spoils of my ambition
and I’m shackled by the comfort of my couch.
well I wish I had the courage to deny these of myself
and start to store my treasure in the clouds.
cause this is not my home; I do not belong
where the antelope and the buffalo roam.

and I’m just a little jealous
of the nothing that you have.
you’re unfettered by the wealth of
of a world that we pretend is gonna last.
they say God blessed us with plenty;
I say you’re blessed with poverty -
cause you never stop to wonder
whether earth is just a little better than
the land of the free.

You can see more of his music and listen to some of it here. Check out his journal, too.

Anyway, he’s headed back for these parts next month—September 7 to be exact, at the First Baptist Church of Augusta. For tickets or more info, you can call them at 775-5466. Don’t miss it; we’ll see you there!

P.S. The photo of the cool door you see on the homepage of Daily Beggar is one I originally spied on AP’s online journal; it’s a door in the church C.S. Lewis attended. I emailed Andrew and asked where he got it, and if I could use it. Right away, he answered that he’d shot the photo, and sent me two copies. So he’s a nice guy, too!

Saturday, August 19, 2006

The Holy Spirit

Inspired by the musings and questions in the August 7 posting over at The Todd Blog, I’m going to share a little of what I’ve learned about the Holy Spirit.

The best explanation/clarification I’ve ever heard of the Spirit’s role in the trinity is this: One of His primary jobs is to reveal Jesus, and to help us understand, remember and live out His word. It’s also important to note that the Spirit is not about calling attention to Himself. The Holy Spirit is like a spotlight trained on Jesus. If you’re sitting in an auditorium, your attention is focused on the performers on the stage—not the spotlights that illuminate it. Likewise, the HS just wants to shine light on Jesus. Therefore, any ministry that focuses most of its attention on the Spirit is not authentic. (I first learned this ananlogy in BSF, and have also seen it in What Every Christian Ought to Know, by Adrian Rogers. [a book I would only recommend w/ caveats.])

Although I can’t remember or track down the source now, I also remember hearing that where the Spirit is call “the Comforter,” a more accurate translation might be “the Strengthener.” This is certainly borne out in Scripture.

Speaking of Scripture… rather than take my thoughts or any author’s thoughts, why not study for yourself? Though this is by no means a comprehensive list, I did a keyword search on Bible Gateway in the NT for “Spirit,” and came up w/ several pertinent passages. Go to it!

John 7:38 & 39.
John 14:16-18
John 15:26
Acts 1:8
Acts 15:28
(Really, the whole book of Acts. Someone has suggested that rather than “The Acts of the Apostles” a more accurate title might be “The Acts of the Holy Spirit.")
Romans 8:9-16
1 Corinth. 2:9-16
1 Corinth. 12:4-13
Galatians 5:16-26
1 John 4:1

By the way, since part of the Spirit’s job is to illuminate the Word—ask Him for help.

Happy learning!

P.S. Bible Gateway is a great Bible study resource. Give it a try!

Monday, July 17, 2006

Going where the people are.

An interesting, thorough article about what’s being described as a “new American church trend”: multi-site churches.

A few excerpts (the emphasis is mine):

Going beyond additional service times and larger buildings, churches are expanding into multiple venues and locations—and as a result are reaching people they’d never meet otherwise, including diverse ethnicities and age groups. According to Dallas-based Leadership Network’s research, at least 1,000 churches across North America could currently be described as multi-site—churches (one vision, one staff, one board, one budget) that extend themselves to more than one location....

When North Coast Church launched in 1998, it was “out of space, out of good time slots, out of energy and out of options,” Senior Pastor Larry Osborne says....

In addition to space, lack of human resources is also fueling the trend. [For] growing churches that must add services… weekends start to spell burnout for pastors, worship teams, children’s ministry volunteers, tech crews, etc. Launching simultaneous services… at other sites can give overloaded staff and volunteers a much-needed break through new talent that emerges.

Still, the multi-site revolution continues to be motivated by an increasing number of churches desiring to reach the unchurched around them.... In Lynden, Wash., Grace Baptist Fellowship first launched its video venue to reach a younger age group—a segment of the population other area churches weren’t reaching, says Dave Duncan, pastor of ministry development.... “People who have never visited the main service are coming to the Upper Room, and they’re meeting Christ there” he says. “We see new, young faces each week.”

More detail in the full article.

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

To rebuke, or not rebuke, that is the question.

In response to something our small group is studying this week, I’m going to share my research on what scripture says about rebuking Satan and other demons.

First off, let me say that this is an “in-house debate.” This is something which, in the end, we can agree to disagree about, and still be brothers and sisters in Christ. And I do not doubt the good intentions and honest motives of most who subscribe to this approach. I recognize and respect their sincere desire to follow God and please Him.

Secondly (though not second in importance), I’d like to establish that the final authority on this matter is the word of God. No personal experience or opinion, no teacher or author can trump the truth of God’s written word.

Brief summary (for those who don’t want to read the long version):
- Scripture makes clear that we are in a spiritual battle. (Eph. 6:12)
- There are some good things to be learned from the contemporary spiritual warfare model.
- The word “rebuke” is simply a verb meaning to reprimand.
- Nowhere in scripture is there an example or command for all believers to rebuke Satan or his spirits. There are a few cautions against it. (Jude 1:9 is one.)
- Our battle is not just against Satan; our battle is often against our own sinful desires. (1 Peter 2:11)
- Likewise, not every trial or trouble is from Satan; some comes from our own doing, or from the Lord for our ultimate good. (James 1:13 & 14; James 1:2 & 3; Heb. 12:5 & 6)
- An over-emphasis on Satan as the author of every trouble can become an excuse to not do the things we need to do. (Though usually we don’t realize this is what’s happening.)
- The example found in scripture regarding how to respond to trouble: pray to God. (2 Cor. 12:7-9)
- The way scripture prescribes that we resist the enemy: walk in obedience to God. (James 4:7-10)
——————————————-

For those who want more detail, here’s the long version.

What is true about spiritual warfare.
- Jesus rebuked demons. Mark 9:25; Luke 4:41, 9:42 & 18:39.
- Satan is real, and he is our active enemy. There are plenty of scripture references, but Matthew 4:1-11 alone makes it pretty clear. 1 Peter 5:8, too.
- We (believers) are in a spiritual battle. Eph. 6:12 says it outright.
- We are told to resist the devil. James 4:7; 1 Peter 5:9.

Some positive lessons from the “school of rebuke:”
- Knowing and using God’s word for prayer and for focusing your thoughts on His truth. I heartily recommend this!
- The recognition that Satan is real, but that God is greater than him and we don’t need to fear the dirty dog.
- Some type of proclamation or ceremony can be helpful for us to make a mental and/or emotional break with the past or with a sinful habit.

My point of disagreement, however, is with the recommendation by some Christian authors and speakers that we should talk back to Satan, or that the correct spiritual response to our troubles is to rebuke any evil spirit that might be associated with it.

About the word “rebuke.”
Before I go into scripture, let me just comment on the word “rebuke.” It’s a verb that means 1. To criticize or reprove sharply; reprimand. Synonym - admonish. 2. To check or repress. It isn’t a magical word meant to be used as an incantation to summon certain powers. If I say, “I slap you,” but I haven’t touched you, then I haven’t really slapped you, have I? Likewise, you don’t rebuke someone by saying “I rebuke you;” you rebuke them by saying something like, “Go to your room!” or “Don’t eat that cake!”

Scripture does not prescribe the rebuking of spirits as a common practice.
Nowhere in scripture do I ever find an example or command to rebuke spirits of any kind, much less Satan himself. In fact, Jude 1:9 warns against it, saying that even the archangel Michael would not presume to rebuke Satan, but said, “The Lord rebuke you.” (I therefore don’t have a problem with your asking God to rebuke Satan, if you need to.) Another passage that should give one pause about taking on demons is Acts 19:13-16.

Did Jesus rebuke demons? Absolutely! But He is God, and we are not. You might ask, “Didn’t He give us authority to cast out demons?” Let’s examine that.

In Matthew 10:1, Mark 3:15 & 6:7 and Luke 9:1, He gives the twelve the authority to drive out demons. In Luke 10, He appoints 72 followers to go out to heal the sick and proclaim that the kingdom of God is near. When they return, rejoicing and saying “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name,” He replies, “I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

It’s important to note that in God’s order, authority to do something is always handed down by a higher authority. No one can confer authority on himself. I have not found any instance where scripture says that all believers are given authority to drive out demons. If you look carefully through the book of Acts, you will find only four mentions of demons being driven out:

1. Acts 5:16 — People who were tormented by evil spirits were healed. From the passage it’s unclear whether this is the work of all the apostles, or just Peter, but it’s clear that it was one or the other, not someone else.

2. Acts 8:6 & 7 — Evil spirits came out of people when Philip (one of the original twelve) preached.

3. Acts 16:18 — Paul commands a spirit to come out of a slave girl.

4. Acts 19:11 & 12 — “God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them.”

So, in Jesus time, he did give this authority to the twelve and to another 60 or 72 (depending on whether the twelve were included in that number), but to the latter he gave some cautions about getting too focused on having power over demons. And the only mentions we see of demon eviction after Jesus’ ascension were by some of the original twelve apostles, and Paul — who was, in a sense, also an apostle, since Jesus called him out with a supernatural event and a specific assignment. (He called Paul “my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel.” Acts 9:15.)

Which leads me to the questions we’re still left with, “Okay, so how are we supposed to win this spiritual battle? How are we supposed to resist the devil?”

About the battle: Satan is not our only enemy.
I think it’s important to note that our battle is not only against demons. We also battle against our own wrong desires (James 4:1 and 2 Peter 2:11); the “law of sin” within us (Rom. 7:23); as well as arguments, pretensions and thoughts that are contrary to God (2 Cor. 10:5). One of the things that concerns me about the demon-rebuking approach is that it tends to downplay personal responsibility. This school of thought encourages you to think that every time you come against a little trouble, Satan is behind it, and it will go away if he goes away. Sometimes, our own selfishness, laziness or pride is behind it, without any help whatsoever from Satan or his crew! (James 1:13 & 14) And sometimes, it’s straight from the hand of God, sent to discipline us (Heb. 12:5-7) or to train us to persevere (James 1:2 & 3). In the cases of Job and Peter, the trial was Satan’s idea, but God allowed it and worked good out of it.

About resisting Satan, Part I: respond to trials with prayer to God.
We know from 2 Cor. 12 exactly how Paul handled his personal showdown with Satan: “…there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’” (v. 7-9) Throughout Acts and the epistles, again and again, you will see the apostles responding to persecution and trouble with prayer to the Lord; not once do they address Satan, or blame their trials on a “spirit of strife” or some such thing.

So if you feel that you must do something about the devil pestering you (or his underlings; remember, he’s not everywhere), ask God to deal with it. I like Elizabeth Elliott’s approach. She said, “If I feel like Satan’s bothering me, I just say to God, ‘Did you see what he did?’”

About resisting Satan, Part II: resist him by obeying God.
If you look closely at the sections of scripture that talk about our faith in warfare terms, you will not find any suggestions to rebuke demons or address them in any way. The oft-quoted passage in 2 Cor. 10:1-8 (a favorite of mine) that talks of demolishing strongholds never mentions demon activity; the subject of the paragraph is the Corinthians’ obedience — or lack of it. It defines strongholds as “arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God,” and thoughts that are not obedient to Christ.

What you will find in scripture regarding the spiritual battle is much exhortation to live in obedience to the Lord. When Paul tells us in Eph. 6 to “put on the full armor of God,” he isn’t talking about some metaphysical or mental exercise where you speak and/or imagine yourself putting on armor; he’s using a word picture to describe actions of obedience: “know the truth; walk in righteousness, have faith in God’s promises when Satan sends you ‘arrows’ of doubt, use God’s word to protect and defend yourself; and keep on praying!” The injunction in James 4 to “resist the devil” is preceded and followed by commands to humble yourself before God and give up sinful ways. (How interesting… I just noticed that the passage in 1 Peter 5 that speaks of resisting the devil also follows the words, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble,” — both James and Peter are quoting this from Prov. 3:34.)

So I think that scripture’s prescription for resisting the devil is not to speak to him, but to — 1. pray to the Lord, asking Him to remove the trial or give us grace to meet it, and 2. resist the temptation to do things the devil’s way. We don’t resist Satan by saying, “I resist you.” We resist the him by choosing forgiveness over bitterness, generosity over greediness, humility over pride. And we must get the strength and grace to do that from God Himself.

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Grace and effort, together again.

The subject of discipleship has been burning in my mind and heart, lately. The fire was lit first by learning just what a small percentage of regular church attenders actually “plug in,” then fueled by reading George Barna’s book Growing True Disciples.

Then I ran across an article by Brian McLaren in LeadershipJournal.net, about the difference between “teaching about the Christian life [and] teaching people to live it, enjoy it, practice it.” This is good stuff…

“Many of us were initially hesitant to explore ‘spiritual transformation’ because it required us to learn and teach historic spiritual disciplines. Our resistance, I think, was less a matter of laziness than of doctrine: we worried that spiritual practices… were about earning salvation or achieving God’s approval in a legalistic sense.

“Eventually though, confident that we are saved by grace through faith plus nothing, confident that the gospel means Jesus Christ plus nothing for God’s approval, we have begun to explore Christian practices for the sake of transformation. As Dallas Willard says, we’ve realized that the gospel is opposed to earning but not to effort.” [Emphasis mine. -js.]

In his aforementioned book, Barna contrasts an “eye on the prize” mentality with a “path of least resistance” approach. I hope that in our zeal to make sure seekers understand that it’s only by grace that we’re saved, and that grace covers every sin — both blessedly true, thank God! — we don’t leave the impression that God really doesn’t mind if we make no serious attempts to live a self-disciplined life. On the contrary, for the believer, grace is given to empower us toward Christlikeness, not excuse us from it.

I’m wondering if, looking back over the whole of church history, we might not see a pendulum of popular thought among God’s people swinging back and forth between living in an excess of grace (can there be such a thing?) and an overweening obsession with personal effort. When will we learn that grace and effort can co-exist? I have to confess I see this pattern in my own life, and I see keeping the two in balance as one of my greatest spiritual challenges.

Thursday, March 09, 2006

Fun with evolution!

My son recently showed me an online capture of a presentation about Spore, an “evolution game” in the works by the creator of the Sims. (SimAnt, SimCity, etc.) You start out with a little plankton-like creature, and with each successive generation, you can tinker with the genetics and create whole new species, eventually working up to civilations that build homes, wage war, and so forth. (If you have Flash and a broadband connection, check out this fun animation on the Spore website. Although the style bears no resemblance to the actual game.)

What occurred to me later is this irony: this game, which is supposed to be about evolution, provides an even better example of intelligent design. The creatures cannot change/evolve unless the programmers program them to, or the players reach into the eggs and reconfigure their bones and their brains. I understand and certainly believe in micro-evolution. But to believe that spontaneous change toward greater complexity happens independent of a designer seems to me to require quite a bit of blind faith.

It reminds me of an old cartoon. Two mathematicians are standing in front of a formula-filled chalkboard; in the midst of the scribbled numbers and symbols, are the words “And then, a miracle occurs.” The one fellow says to the other, “I think you need more detail here in Step Four.”

Exactly!

Whether you agree or disagree with me, have fun with the animation, anyway!

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“We are all, equally, privileged but unentitled beggars at the door of God's mercy.”

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The Ragamuffin Gospel

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