I'm sorry I'm in your way

We have just reached the halfway point in Ephesians. The first three chapters are primarily about what's true ("indicative"), and the last three chapters are more about what to do ("imperative"). We are presently right between the two halves, holding in our back pocket what we have learned about God's work while reaching forward to how those truths should find be expressed in how we walk day after day.

One thing that is abundantly clear from those first three chapters is that the real power that changes our lives is not our lone effort, but the very hand of God. He called us and provided salvation for us (chapter 1), He made us alive and brought us near (chapter 2), and He displays His manifold wisdom and can fill us beyond our own ability to imagine (chapter 3). The hand that truly changes lives is not mere flesh.

Therefore, the ideal in ministry is to cultivate God's work in the lives of people. Not to do the work, not to be the hero, not to implement the jazziest program, and not to have all the answers. Rather, the best we can do in ministry is provide the ripest environment for someone to receive the only real work that changes us in eternal ways. A farmer doesn't make plants grow - but he works hard to create the richest environment for that growth to occur.

However, sometimes in our efforts, we get in the way. More to the point, sometimes I get in the way. Just recently, as I was mowing the lawn (so, you know it wasn't all that recent), I was tumbling through my head several ways that I have gotten in the way. In just about every area of responsibility, I can name ways that I have occasionally gotten in the way instead of making the way straight. Teaching, administrating, communicating, preaching, praying, counseling, coaching - you name an area, I can point to ways that I get between God's power and the people I'm supposed to be assisting.

For that, I apologize. And I admit that I have not yet figured out how to keep out of the way, so I will get in the way again. But I'm interested in far more than issuing an apology for past and future shortcomings. My main purpose here is to encourage all of us, including me, to be ongoing students of what it really means that only God's power transforms.

Whether we are teaching or sharing our faith or being involved in ministry activities, how can we get out of the way? How are we tempted to get in the way, and then how can we step aside? How can we prepare the soil for God's power to be most effective in others (and in ourselves)? For example, do I teach in a way that adds the burden of lone human effort, or do I connect people with God's potent eagerness to be at work in us?

I'm prompted to write not because of some particular incident, and I'm not beating myself up. But I did have one of those too-infrequent moments of clarity in seeing some specific ways where my efforts occlude rather than reveal. I suspect that I'm not alone in this. With our continued partnership, we have everything we need in order to have a greater impact by learning better how to just get out of the way.

Of course, that only makes sense if God's power is in fact reliable. It comes down to whether or not we really believe this to be true.

Rom 8.12-17

Psg: Rom 8.12-17 (http://biblia.com/bible/leb/Ro8.12-17)
Date: 7/10/12

Read

12 So then, brothers, we are obligated not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13 For if you live according to the flesh, you are going to die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For all those who are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. 15 For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, “Abba!cFather!” 16 The Spirit himself confirms to our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, also heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer together with him so that we may also be glorified together with him.

Record

For if you live according to … the Spirit / if indeed we suffer together with him...

Reflect

• Walking by the Spirit in this world will lead to suffering, because we will be walking at odds with this world.
• Of course, living according to the flesh leads to death. It will be slavery and then a death that are not at odds with this world, as if that were some consolation.
• The direction that the Spirit will lead us will necessarily be at odds with this world. They are two forces of momentum going in different directions.
• Otherwise, we wouldn’t need the leading of the Spirit.
• Therefore, there will be clashes, collisions, forces being applied in the same place at the same time, but not in the same direction.
• And therefore there will be suffering with Christ.
• We should not be surprised or discouraged at the suffering, the collisions, the feelings of going against the grain, or the bumps and bruises it causes.
• This is part of what it means to be sons/children of God.
• It’s not just being in the group, but it’s being in the stream that moves contrary to flow of this world and the suffering that comes with that.
• Being children of God also means being heirs (17) and therefore sharing in his glory (17).

Respond

• Forgive me, Father, for my desire to avoid the necessary suffering that comes with walking by the Spirit in a world that walks by the flesh. Correct me for the ways that I turn to walk by the flesh rather than take the bruises of walking against the grain, against the flow of the dead. Living up to the name of an heir and sharing in Christ’s glory is far superior to the discomfort of sharing in Christ’s suffering.
• CR: When facing the temptation to follow the bruiseless flow, picture being in a crowded area with two flows of people - the larger flow walking toward death and the smaller flow walking toward life. Be willing to take the knocks of the living.

Ps 103.8-18

Psg: Psa 103.8-18 (http://biblia.com/bible/leb/Ps103.8-18)
Date: 7/9/12

Read

8 Yahweh is compassionate and gracious,

⌊slow to anger⌋c and abundant in loyal love.

9 He does not dispute continually,

nor keep his anger forever.

10 He has not dealt with us according to our sins,

nor repaid us according to our iniquities.

11 For as the heavens are high above the earth,

so his loyal love prevails over those who fear him.

12 As far as east is from west,

so he has removed far from us the guilt of our transgressions.

13 As a father pitiesd his children,

so Yahweh pitiese those who fear him.

14 For he knows our frame.f

He remembers that we are dust.

15 As for man, his days are like the grass.

As the flower of the field, so he blossoms.

16 When the wind passes over it, it is no more,

and its place knows it no longer.

17 But the loyal love of Yahweh

is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him,

and his righteousness to their children’s children,

18 to those who keep his covenant

and remember to do his precepts.

Record

(14) For he knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust.

Reflect

• As we consider our guilt, our sin, our responsibilities before God, his justice, his wrath, his hesed, we should also remember this statement. He knows what we’re made of. He knows our incapacities. He knows our parts that just don’t work.
• This does not mean that we are excused.
• This is more than God looking down and saying, “At least you tried hard.”
• This is a reality that God is fully aware of: he demands perfection, we are structurally and systemically incapable of it, and he is fully aware of that.
• This is why Jesus is necessary, and God knows it (of course). Jesus is God’s only avenue because of what he knows to be true about our capacity.
• This informs everything he instructs us to do, everything he expects from us, everything he equips us for, and everything that he expects the Holy Spirit to empower.
• Our sins do not surprise him or shock him. He knows what we’re made of.
• cf. Jn 2:24 But Jesus himself did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people,i 25 and because he did not⌊need⌋j anyone ⌊to testify⌋k about man, for he himself knew what was in man.*
• His love for us is all the more amazing.

Respond

• Thank you for your “despite all that” love.
• Teach me to see myself as you see me, and then to rely on the Holy Spirit even more.