“We’ve got a great work to do!” See there you were thinking some project that needs a committee and a chair.

I need your input. Hold To Truth is looking for good input on the work with respect to the kingdom we’re now citizens in. It were are citizens in Christ’s kingdom what is that labor? What does it look like? I think my general presupposition is if this kingdom is our real citizenship then this is your life, not merely something you tag on to your life. Clearly then there are some Gospel implications in that labor also.

Submit your input or book suggestions or depth of thought on anything that would be helpful about doing the work and hold to truth will give a $25 gift card to Lifeway or Amazon to the selected winner. Submit your comment and email contact below.

10 years under out feet and many letters later here come another one your way. I thought that pledging my love before the thousands (14) of followers and millions (average 10) readers on the website would be emphatic. At the very least you can reread it as much as you want provided you have a good internet connection and google or Microsoft do not get rid of the internet.

It would be nice to say things have been perfect or a breeze or every morning has been a drop of golden sunshine in our smiles each morning but this is not TV. And we have a boxer and pug….we’ve walked into a few surprises that sour a few mornings alone. What has been imperfect has been so for one reason. I’d like to believe that we are both getting the point: two people becoming one means change is going to happen.

With that at ten I say thank you:

Thank you for allowing me the privilege of being your husband and learning how to love you. And also for giving the benefit of the doubt to allow me time to learn to know you in order to know how to love you.

Thank you for affirming me beyond my frailties; letting me know my life has value in your life.

Thank you for your patience, your quiet demeanor, and random ridiculous statements followed by more quiet demeanor.

I pray the next set of ten unfolds….well I just really expect to see us together on a different level…and less dog surprises.

See you soon.

“Having Jesus come into your heart, in that sense, would mean that He fuses Himself into the deepest part of who you are- that you rest your hopes upon His righteousness, lean on Him for strength, and submit to His Lordship at your core.”

I find it difficult to believe that if someone believes this to be true on some level could simultaneous believe that you could save yourself. Do you know where your inner core is to save? And I’m not talking about some Insanity workout core. Are you able to sit part of you in a seat and some other part of you somewhere else? I think Graeer has made a significant acknowledgement about conversion in the quote above and what he says following (see here for part one) the quote. Semantics are not necessarily convictions. And you cannot separate yourself.

I think he has some reservations about the “deepest of who you are” concept of union with Christ because of the need for repentance. But I think that it is this approach that gets us closer to real repentance. If I have a language problem (which I had) or a idol issue (apparently for ipad is my latest issue) I may be inclined to turn from that when Jesus approaches that empty well. But I won’t get to the “He told me everything I had ever done” unless He is everywhere in everything about me. Unless He infused into the very fabric of all my nonsense. Unless He is in the sin production factory and not just taking the corner boys running my daily sin corner. I run the danger of making Him Lord over (fill in the blank.) When He infiltrates the very essence of who you are you find that ‘repentance’ is not just “i’m sorry for that and I’m sorry for this.” But more so I am sorry for who I am. I am wrong, not just my attitude or my mouth.

If God were limited then it would be necessary for him to save or deliver us from each individual presumptuous sin, illicit thought, selfish idea, and arrogant behavior…over and over again. But if the one fix is sufficient for all of that. Well now that means we have got something. But it must mean that the fix went deeper than the stuff you notice. And that means the repentance must be deeper too. In my infancy stages I found myself turning from things I saw about myself I did not like. Then I wished that I could turn from stuff that seems to keep running around to face me. Now I find myself not just turning from the stuff, but more than anything turning from me altogether. There is no part of me that Jesus did not have to save. And the One fix is the one Gospel…no addendum’s, additions, or footnotes.

Game Over

Certainty

The first is really the secondary issue although in our postmodern era (thanks Malcolm Muggeridge Christ and the Media) we have developed into some form of a life imitating art. The second is the greater issue problem (sin?). A rushing ocean of the will attempting to be sovereign while masquerading as a sea of tranquility. There is nothing close to tranquility when we are trying to be in control. We like certainty because it removes any notion of the reality of a fallen world around us, in us, through us, because of us…

JD Greear’s Stop Asking Jesus Into Your Heart discusses this issue of assurance in chapter 2. His book is the thrust of this series on Hold To Truth entitled The One Fix (see part 1 here.) Experience will lead you in circles to draw the same conclusion Solomon came to: reverence of God. [I can feel Dr. Stalworth working on his existential response.]

Greear states “you’ll never give up your life in radical obedience until you are radically assured of His of His radical commitment to you.” He was a bit radical in his use of the word but essentially he’s on to something. We like assurance and encouragement but until we are most satisfied with the One who formed us it will be difficult. From every sense of what scripture tells us and from the implications of the scriptures it appears to be clear that God wants us to be assured that He cares about us. Otherwise He could have created us, let us fall, redeemed us and not told us that any of it had already happened. The struggle we have is the terms and means by which He explains it. God will assure us, encourage us, and stretch us as He chooses. I think it is because we might worship the means of assurance and not the One providing it. Or miss the Presence because we like the presents too much.

There is one fix for having certainty and it is our Father. And Our Father provides assurance on His terms. This is where we find our difficulty because it messes with our frail sovereignty… we want to snap our fingers and say “certainty!” and a band rolls in with a parade of encouragement, love, gifts, a new car, job, or cans of spam. But God is wise right? He does just enough to keep things in the right perspective. To much certainty in anything is running into the danger of being worshipped.

It would be difficult to be assured of a God you have not seen if He had not walked Adam and Eve out of the garden (and her name is still ‘the mother of all living.’) It would be difficult to be assured of the long haul if it were not for the Israelites who never lost there name in all their disobedience and wandering. It would be difficult to have assurance to wait after praying if God hadn’t shown Daniel that the message was on the way. It would be difficult to have assurance in God’s silence but after about 300 years He shows up in the flesh. We would be less assured of His love if Jesus had not stopped along the way to teach, break bread, heal, have a few conversations…on the way to a cross to die. And more recently God sends little notes of assurances through others at just the right time. A text message out of the blue. A card that has been in possession for a day or so but opened at just the right time to remind you that ‘Gratitude’ is the motivation for what you are doing [thank God for the cheerleaders in life.] He sends the right things at the right time to point you back to Him that He is The One Fix. All the subtle reminders are brief but they are shouting to us exactly what is necessary: God really does love us.

I admit that seeing the rest of the chaos of life for what it really is can be cumbersome. This is my struggle. You want to be useful to God and a blessing to others especially those you know and it seems like you are not. I find great difficulty in this. But there is an answer I believe.

To Be Continued…

1. We will think somehow we can get it right.
2. We will admit that we cannot get it right, yet simultaneously have a problem when others around us cannot get it right.
3. We will atone and make others atone…to us.
4. All of this we will forget later unless we’re thinking about the Gospel.
5. We don’t go back to number one.

I think I am at a place now where I am painfully aware that there are no exact words sufficient or adequate enough to please a magnificent God who is perfect. I am reminded daily that I am not sufficient enough to put the right words together any better than I am putting the right heart together (or mind for that matter.)

One thing the world will do especially after conversion or as you are following Jesus is remind you how much presently you do not do or cannot do properly. Perhaps a bit of our hypocrisy would be rectified if we could learn about insuffienciency a la Colossians and Corinthians that we are inadequate people who are now qualified and adequate by One who is good enough.

I am past asking for reentry into my heart (and 2 denominational baptisms later); I think I have reconciled there is only One who is sufficient. The dilemma now is to try to be useful to Him and to others when you know that you are inadequate. Being what He said you are. Waiting when it seems like you are not beneficial. Living out the ‘all things work for the good’ and the ‘created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand.’ Maintaining when the world (people) would attempt to make you re-atone.

I’ll be interested to see where Greear takes us but in anticipation I will offer a few thoughts from my own DJ Shef list of when you are assured of salvation my list would be this:

• When you become enthralled with the reason, motivations and results of Christs death than your own death you might be on the right path.
• When His reputation starts to mess up your life plans and what you enjoy forever.
• When gratitude is the essential response…(even when you are mad or having a bad day
• When you forgive because you know you’ve been forgiven.
• When you are concerned how your sin thinking (and then also your actions) affects God’s plan AND those around you who you know (and don’t know.)
• When you go back to the top of list again.

I think there are perhaps a few scriptures to back those up. My own struggle is accepting that in some people’s lives, it will be difficult to be a blessing while others it will seem as though God will permit me to be a servant. You will do your best to be faithful and it will seem as the only effect you have is from the residue of your dying identity. We learn to accept that in the lives of those you feel inadequate is really an area where you have to trust the Gospel in every way. I find myself detesting myself more daily, not re-asking for Jesus into my heart. But rather asking similar to Ephesians 3 that God will be settled in my heart so I can see just how much He loves us. Sin has done its perfect work bu its work is only temporary. Jesus however is the one fix at our conversion and for all time.

To be continued…

What do you do when you care and know there are things that must be done but the ‘how’ attempts to create complications?

I suppose there some benefit in recognizing the blessing that a converted life cares about others as much as ones own’s circumstances. An old prof used to say “do the hard work” and I see his point in that standing on what you believe is is not necessarily a smooth ride. The hard work usually revamps life plans. But the good thing is the hard work usually blesses generations and not just individuals.

I think since the first close friend lost 20 years ago has given me a strange sense of attention (awareness, focus) on the fact that time is moving swiftly. What the implications of it are I’m still filtering through those.

…like I said. I’m searching for some words.

First and foremost I think the day of the church announcement was especially emotional for my family because this has been a Corporate Sheffield prayer for about 10 years. That God would send me somewhere to be a support. I carry the same gene of looking 15-20 years younger than I am as my parents. As they are pushing 80 I was starting to get worried that they would not be able to see the day. When they did, and to be so healthy to enjoy it made it all the more special. I’ve been driven to every job that I have on the first day by my parents. This one was ceremonially the first one where they didn’t. We like setting stones of remembrance.

Secondly. There are worldviews that are altered, paradigms that are shifted with this transition. There is one philosophy that hasn’t recognized why extra dedicated staff in God’s kingdom work is beneficial to everyone. Then there is a misunderstanding about the nature of the work. I get some “so how do you balance both jobs?” With my response “no. This is my job. My profession is my vocation.” That one usually leads to further questions. And then when you explain “I’m the pastor of Discipleship” the response is usually “Children?”

“No Discipleship”

“You’re doing visitation?”

“Certainly. But I am the Pastor of Discipleship.”

“Oh! Evangelism!”

…  ” “

Job security is a good thing. It is kind of interesting that ‘Disciple’ is probably one of the major terms used to define those who belong to Christ in scripture. It seems like we’re coming up short on defining what a disciple is much less what it looks like. I think there is something to be said when an inner city church has a Pastor whose vision is to formulate multiple streams of spiritual formation in the lives of the people who are members… as a priority. Sounds like Gospel-centered ministry. We tend to scrutinize the complex verses in scripture and gloss over the simple directives like “make disciples by means of going, baptizing, and teaching’ or ‘they will know that you are kingdom minded, children of God, Gospel focused disciples by the way you love people who don’t look like you.’

Lastly people ask ‘are you excited’ or ‘is it everything you expected?’ And I know what they are getting at but I’m wired differently. One is because emotional excitement began to transition in 2001 when I got confirmation from God before I knew where it would happen. It transitioned to perseverance when God kept His promise inspite of how horrible I have been waiting. Expectations changed somewhere between Tomlinsons advanced Greek II course and my second biological child. Then I went to Haiti and Haiti put to reality my belief that ‘God does not need me to do anything.’

Its a reserved excitement. A provisional excited if you will. Most people who know me know I’m looking for the day I get out of here. Seen enough and know me well enough to be settled with the fact that this place is not it. Especially the stuff I like about here, I think that motivates me more than anything. The transition is all part of the process. I go to work with a better gratitude but Butler was much needed for me to get to this point.  Trying to keep the marathon pace can be difficult. I try to keep in mind my little piece is just a smudge in the grand mural God is painting as we head on into eternity. I’m excited….extremely excited. Humbled every day and the tears keep coming. But I’m more curious about what all this will mean when the trumpet shall sound and the dead in Christ shall rise first….

to be continued.

There is something to naming the things that matter to you. I have two children (four really if you count the other two who have found their way into my heart. They were actually my first favorites. I digress…) and I don’t recall a time when they did not have name. Matter of fact I had their names year before they were born (and the name of next boy for that matter if we end up adopting.) My point is you name and define the things that matter. It would seem odd at best to us if we knew someone who had a child and had no name for him or her. Why is that?

In the same manner there is something to be said about defining that name. Unpacking its meaning. Devoting time to its value, its meaning, its implications. DeLano II (he’s a second not a Jr.) at a month meant ‘he’s a boy who looks like me but i don’t think I ever had a diaper that looked like that.’ At 6 months DeLano II meant ‘he’s a joker.’ I yell “get a job!” and he laughs like a grown man. At 3 years it was different. At 6 i see why DeLano II is similar. I find we’re having grown man conversations in a similar fashion of ones I recall with my father and mother at his age. It would be ok to simply say the definition of DeLano II is ‘the son of DeLano I’ but that would be missing a lot of value. T, Domi, DeLano II, and TES II are words with meaning. Life changing words with lasting impressions on my life.

With all their value their impressions are not nearly as life changing as the Gospel. If words like IRS, Tax Season, Pay Day, and Benefits Package get our attention at least a few times a year because their definitions have means and their value has implications, can we not see the value in reflecting on the Gospel also?

The gospel is worthy of reflection. Its the only pond where the water is holds changes you just by gazing into it.

That’s the plan for tonight. But if that doesn’t work I’m sure we’ll all look at the menu a few times for value. Like the Denny’s Menu has changed…. [do they serve spam?]

And to avoid our overly postmodern (felt need, what I feel)-prone philosophy of life: Is there a biblical explanation of one (corporately) being engaged vs. appearing to be active? Your responses are appreciated. Hopefully you are not “neither hot nor cold….