“If you asked twenty good men today what they thought the highest of the virtues, nineteen of them would reply, Unselfishness. But if you had asked almost any of the great Christians of old, he would have replied, Love. You see what has happened? A negative term has been substituted for a positive, and this is of more than philological importance. The negative idea of Unselfishness carries with it the suggestion not primarily of securing good things for others, but of going without them ourselves, as if our abstinence and not their happiness was the important point. I do not think this is the Christian virtue of Love. The New Testament has lots to say about self-denial, but not about self-denial as an end in itself. We are told to deny ourselves and to take up our crosses in order that we may follow Christ; and nearly every description of what we shall ultimately find if we do so contains an appeal to desire. If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”
— C.S. Lewis, Weight of Glory (p. 25-26)
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
"CHEAP GRACE..."
"…is the enemy of the church. It means forgiveness of sins proclaimed as a general truth… an intellectual assent to that idea is held to be itself sufficient to secure remission of sins. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance… grace without discipleship, grace without a cross… Costly grace is the gospel [of the church]… It is costly because it costs a man his life, and grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his son… it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God… When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die. That is why the rich young man was so loath to follow Jesus, for the cost of his following was the death of his will. In fact, every command of Jesus is a call to die, with all our affections and lusts." (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)
Historical context (summarized from CCM): Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a young minister of the German church, was persecuted, arrested, and executed by the Nazis for speaking out against Hitler’s evil and preaching the gospel. Quote above was taken from “The Cost of Discipleship” (1937), written by Bonhoeffer for his ‘underground seminary’ students who were training ministers refusing to take oaths of allegiance to Hitler and support his racial beliefs. Bonhoeffer was writing about how the Biblical gospel had become twisted into what he called 'cheap grace'…
Thoughts by City Campus… “Cheap grace, the idea that we are saved by grace, not works, had led to the widespread inference that costly obedience was only optional. The reasoning went like this: 'We are saved by grace, not by our obedience… We don’t have to [give, be involved, or witness] to be saved. We just have to believe and ask for forgiveness.' The German church had been founded by Martin Luther himself. But over the years the concept of salvation by grace had degenerated into this ‘religion of cheap grace’ that had created a deep spiritual coldness and malaise in the German church. People believed they were Christians because they were born and raised in the church and they simply embraced the concept of salvation-by-grace. They gave lip-service to the idea of free justification/salvation but it was not changing their lives…
“What is the solution? Notice that Bonhoeffer does not say: ‘Stop thinking God accepts you freely by grace! He only accepts those who are completely committed and obedient!' The antidote for cheap grace–costly grace–is still grace. His argument is simple… He argues that those who have had their hearts gripped by how much our salvation cost God will be willing to do God’s will even if it means the loss of life. He denies that saving faith is merely “intellectual assent” to the idea of free forgiveness. Rather, saving faith (the faith that truly saves you) is joyful repentance for our self-centered lives in the light of the costly salvation of the cross. All who truly see that Christ gave up his life for them will be willing to give up their wills for him. It is a natural response.
“So how do we explain the people who say, ‘Oh, I believe in the gospel that we are saved by grace and not works,' and who then lead unchanged lives, refusing the joyful, costly obedience of discipleship? Bonhoeffer’s theory is that they look only at the free-ness of grace to us, not at the costliness of grace to God. If you don’t truly understand the first principle (the free-ness) you fall into Phariseeism and legalism. But if you don’t truly understand the second principle (the costliness) you fall into apathy, joylessness, and your life does not change.”
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Reading this excerpt from City Campus gave me chills all down my back… It’s that feeling of being completely homeless for however long of a time, and someone comes and drops a million bucks on your lap. Like as if I was hungry and all I would’ve been satisfied with is a bowl of cereal, and someone comes and treats me to a gourmet meal. For so long, I’ve been desperately wanting to know why I do fall into a cycle of apathy, joylessness, and an unchanged life, and it’s been right there, at the cross, all along… I said this in the last post but I’ll say it again: What grace, so undeserved, at such a price.
Historical context (summarized from CCM): Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a young minister of the German church, was persecuted, arrested, and executed by the Nazis for speaking out against Hitler’s evil and preaching the gospel. Quote above was taken from “The Cost of Discipleship” (1937), written by Bonhoeffer for his ‘underground seminary’ students who were training ministers refusing to take oaths of allegiance to Hitler and support his racial beliefs. Bonhoeffer was writing about how the Biblical gospel had become twisted into what he called 'cheap grace'…
Thoughts by City Campus… “Cheap grace, the idea that we are saved by grace, not works, had led to the widespread inference that costly obedience was only optional. The reasoning went like this: 'We are saved by grace, not by our obedience… We don’t have to [give, be involved, or witness] to be saved. We just have to believe and ask for forgiveness.' The German church had been founded by Martin Luther himself. But over the years the concept of salvation by grace had degenerated into this ‘religion of cheap grace’ that had created a deep spiritual coldness and malaise in the German church. People believed they were Christians because they were born and raised in the church and they simply embraced the concept of salvation-by-grace. They gave lip-service to the idea of free justification/salvation but it was not changing their lives…
“What is the solution? Notice that Bonhoeffer does not say: ‘Stop thinking God accepts you freely by grace! He only accepts those who are completely committed and obedient!' The antidote for cheap grace–costly grace–is still grace. His argument is simple… He argues that those who have had their hearts gripped by how much our salvation cost God will be willing to do God’s will even if it means the loss of life. He denies that saving faith is merely “intellectual assent” to the idea of free forgiveness. Rather, saving faith (the faith that truly saves you) is joyful repentance for our self-centered lives in the light of the costly salvation of the cross. All who truly see that Christ gave up his life for them will be willing to give up their wills for him. It is a natural response.
“So how do we explain the people who say, ‘Oh, I believe in the gospel that we are saved by grace and not works,' and who then lead unchanged lives, refusing the joyful, costly obedience of discipleship? Bonhoeffer’s theory is that they look only at the free-ness of grace to us, not at the costliness of grace to God. If you don’t truly understand the first principle (the free-ness) you fall into Phariseeism and legalism. But if you don’t truly understand the second principle (the costliness) you fall into apathy, joylessness, and your life does not change.”
- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – -
Reading this excerpt from City Campus gave me chills all down my back… It’s that feeling of being completely homeless for however long of a time, and someone comes and drops a million bucks on your lap. Like as if I was hungry and all I would’ve been satisfied with is a bowl of cereal, and someone comes and treats me to a gourmet meal. For so long, I’ve been desperately wanting to know why I do fall into a cycle of apathy, joylessness, and an unchanged life, and it’s been right there, at the cross, all along… I said this in the last post but I’ll say it again: What grace, so undeserved, at such a price.
Monday, September 7, 2009
BETTER THAN LIFE
O God, you are my God,
earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you,
my body longs for you,
in a dry and weary land
where there is no water.
I have seen you in the sanctuary
and beheld your power and your glory.
Because your love is better than life,
my lips will glorify you.
I will praise you as long as I live,
and in your name I will lift up my hands.
My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods;
with singing lips my mouth will praise you.
On my bed I remember you;
I think of you through the watches of the night.
Because you are my help,
I sing in the shadow of your wings.
My soul clings to you;
your right hand upholds me.
They who seek my life will be destroyed;
they will go down to the depths of the earth.
They will be given over to the sword
and become food for jackals.
But the king will rejoice in God;
all who swear by God’s name will praise him,
while the mouths of liars will be silenced.
Psalm 63
Only one week into school and I can already feel myself running dry, thirsting for SOMETHING MORE. After an entire year of trying to satisfy myself with the things I thought could fill me up once again, I felt God calling me this past summer to deal with my sins and, as one of my unnie’s would put it, “put some things of my old self to death for good.” And it was there I realized how sinful and weak I truly am. How easily distracted I am, so easily led astray by the things I think I want or think I need…
I don’t think I ever heard God’s voice so clearly in a room full of people ’til this past service. Abe Cho was speaking about the Life of King David, and my heart started racing with anxiety. He was talking about David’s search for God, his satisfying vision of God, and the solution amidst suffering… He was talking about this insatiable longing called ‘thirst’ that would have the whole man succumb to its power. The same thirst that was driving David his entire life as a kid, as a king, as an adulterer, and as one finally seeking after God’s own heart in that cave as he was hiding from his son Absalom who wanted to kill him… The source of all the undercurrent desires of our hearts as our ultimate search for God. He talked about how David as a king had it all, and it was then that he was most dissatisfied. And now having lost everything, he found himself most satisfied, ‘as with the richest of foods’. David endured because he could see God’s glory and beauty. And the power of beauty is that it exists not just to adorn life, but to continue through it. David could taste this beauty so well that he, in the midst of battle, could say, “Your love is better than life.“ Most people will search all their lives for the kind of love that will make their lives better, more satisfying… David found a love that was better than life itself. And through this realization, his life was changed. His life changed not despite his suffering, but because of it.
In the end, David mourned ’cause God promised to bring justice and destroy his enemies, his wrongdoer, which was his own son Absalom. Abe was explaining that as a people all complicit in humanity’s sin, in order for God to destroy our enemies, he’d have to destroy a part of ourselves. But by grace, and grace alone, God brings his own son Jesus Christ to reveal the fullness of his power at the cross, whispering to me in that service that THIS LOVE was better than HIS OWN LIFE… and by believing in that truth, my soul would be quenched, and so deeply satisfied, that even after having lost everything, or even the smallest part of me, or even after realizing how broken and sinful I really am, and even when at this moment the end of the road seems so unclear to me still, I can s i n g . . .
“He who has a why to live can endure any how.”
Sunday, August 30, 2009
HER PRAYER
I was looking through my past journals and a note fell out onto my lap. She’s someone really close to me back at home in philly, someone who’s seen me through a lot of my immature spiritual battles growing up throughout middle school, high school, and college still. It’s dated May 28, 2008 and it’s in the form of a prayer:
It made me realize how blessed I am to have people in my life praying for me. There’s people living in this world who’s never been covered by someone else’s prayer, let alone experience the power of prayer personally in their lives. I encourage you to just take a minute out of your busy, busy day and pray for your loved ones, your parents, people you see everyday… shoot, pray for people you hate. That you’ll change to love/forgive them as you’ve been forgiven ten folds over. Because no matter how long (or immediate) it takes, one day I'll look back on her prayer and know that God Answers.
Dear Lord,
I pray for my sister Christina. Lord, I praise and thank you for bringing her [here] and for blessing my life with her presence. I pray that as she is in a transition period, and as she often feels that she is in a transition period, that you would be her stable foundation and Rock. The one thing that always stays the same. I pray that you will be her satisfaction and that you would sustain her. I pray that she will grow in knowledge and relationship with you and your Son and that she will in turn grow as the woman you made her to be. May she find herself, her identity, worth, her all in You. Provide her with a community of believers and a Church where she can be used by you and also be edified and sanctified. Reveal your love to her and heal her from her past. We praise you for your faithfulness.
In Your Son’s name, Amen.
It made me realize how blessed I am to have people in my life praying for me. There’s people living in this world who’s never been covered by someone else’s prayer, let alone experience the power of prayer personally in their lives. I encourage you to just take a minute out of your busy, busy day and pray for your loved ones, your parents, people you see everyday… shoot, pray for people you hate. That you’ll change to love/forgive them as you’ve been forgiven ten folds over. Because no matter how long (or immediate) it takes, one day I'll look back on her prayer and know that God Answers.
“Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus."
— 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
Saturday, August 22, 2009
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