I think a good case could be made that much of the
success of the American Republic from the founding years to the present is the
result of Evangelical piety. Take a natural landscape of enormous bounty and
infuse it with hard working Protestant Christians, many Puritan, Methodist,
Baptist, Episcopal and even a few frozen chosen Lutherans and you have a
prescription for material prosperity and abundance. But really from the
perspective of common grace attributes, it should be a no-brainer that this
would occur. But from that point of view, of what merit is the specific
revelation of the cross of Christ?
If I am a good, hard working, moral person, of what need
do I have for the Jesus of the Bible? Perhaps I should develop a systematic
theology that materially blesses me on the account of the wonder of my far
ranging piety. Jesus saves sinners, the drunks, the prostitutes, and I pray for
my neighbors wild kids, but as for me, the blessings of the Old Testament covenant
flow into my barns, so much so, that I soon will build new ones.
We were discussing in our missions group last week, with
missionaries from France, why France was such a difficult place to evangelize.
My comment was something to the effect, in order to be saved from your sins,
you must first be a sinner. If I am complete and self sufficient intellectually
and physically, I can create my own piety and through it, I justify myself.
Looking back you can see the tight bonds, of the French and the American
revolutions. The French first took the exaltation of self to a high level, but
we Americans, through guts, hard work, perseverance, and other God given
attributes, have elevated self esteem into a new religious paradigm.
I used to discuss with an Pentecostal minister, that I
was trained, indoctrinated, and encouraged in every opportunity to succeed, and
I was pretty good at it. I was Junior class president in high school and got
the citizenship award when I graduated. I was leader of my youth group at
church, in the Army, had the highest level Top Secret security clearance, and
did this and a whole lot more with a remarkable level of humility. I went on to
propose that all this came about because of a Presbyterian Vacation Bible
School and being catechized by a young highly gifted Lutheran pastor. Of what
value would it be to I ask Jesus to be my personal Savior, for as far as I can
recall, I have never known any other way. My religious problems have never been
with the nature of Jesus Christ and His work, my problems have been with the
religious piety of those in the church. Of course on rare occasions I do have a
insignificant problem in understating my minor imperfections.
So what does my remarkable life point out? That the
saving grace found in Jesus Christ alone is not a common grace occurrence, or
the result of any type of piety at all, it is received as a free gift from God
through faith. And through that faith alone I am freed from the bondage of sin
and death, and even religious piety. It points to the fact that faith in Jesus
Christ was secured by GodŐs children by election before time began and comes by
no merit within me. The revelation of sin, is the first step in that gift of
GodŐs saving faith and is followed by a specific revelation of
ChristŐs work and sovereignly brought about by GodŐs
grace alone. I did not at any time make a conscious decision to follow Jesus
and make him my personal Savior, because I was never in any of those years
manipulated or coerced into an altar call experience.
I know at least one of you was before you met Jesus, a
drunk lying in a gutter, and another was hauled into a Pentecostal church and
pushed down to that altar rail by your father as he prayed, ŇLord, you have to
save him, because I have done all I can do for him, Michael is now in your
hands.Ó I also know of another instance, when someone was contemplating
suicide, and a group of us from the church just showed up, and I was able to
discuss some of the similarities of the shortcomings in our Lutheran upbringing,
and how the fruit of that conversation saved a life. But since I found out about the details,
that meeting has many times convicted me of the serious nature of GodŐs saving
work and His use of human instruments to accomplish His glory.
Through all of this we see that God is the operative
party in all this work and He uses all these diverse circumstances to carry out
His plan of redemption of His people. We must really marvel at the incredible
complexity and wisdom in all the circumstances. But we all have a part to play
in this work, at times it was focused upon our self destruction, sometimes it
was toward the betterment of ourselves and the larger community, but no matter
what the time and the circumstances, we are actively engaged and passionately
committed to the endeavor of our lives.
Proverbs 16:9 states: A man's heart plans his way, But
the Lord directs his steps. As we look at all the circumstances of our lives,
as we grow in grace and the knowledge of our life in Christ, we should be able to
see this action take place more and more. Now if I am as cool as I pointed out
above, I should be pretty good at taking care of what I set out to do. Last
week I said: ŇShould it all work out, I plan, as the Lord wills to go over
Wednesday, to offer on the property and try to find a location for the tower.Ó Just between you and
me, I went back and added Ňas the Lord willsÓ in the final editing, so letŐs
just keep this fact between friends.
Well, I didnŐt go over to Eastern Washington last week,
for its seems my added ŇLordŐs willÓ statement took precedence over my plans.
In fact, I can not recall a time in which I was so occupied with things that
were in no way part of my plans for the week. This thought is what this weekŐs
message is trying to convey. If you succeed in carrying out the plans you make,
then you must assume from scripture, that this is the LordŐs plan for you in
these circumstances. Again, if thinks donŐt work out as you planned, which I
personally find as almost a given, then what happens is again the LordŐs will
for you during this period. Beating up on yourself, your friends and family, or
the devil, may make you feel better, even elated, but stating that you have the
victory, does not give you the victory. God gives you the victory, and until
His timing is there, your words and thoughts can be considered prayer ( a good
thing), or delusion (a bad thing). In the truly important things of your life
you are too emotionally involved in the outcome to have a true Godly
perspective.
The nature of piety is that we can know the will of God
by some sort of work, exercise, or pious act, but then, they by their very
nature, become the end of the story. But as we focus upon the Bible as the only
true word of God and on Jesus Christ as the head of the church and our life,
the love of God, that so many fake, flows freely into our life and into the
lives of others. You and yours are transformed, renewed, and restored, to the
limits of your ability to comprehend and beyond. This gift moves us beyond mere
piety into a world order in which ChristŐs resurrection is the promise for our
lives. In that respect, in this message I have tried to convey that deeper
mystery, but contrary to my earlier statements of accomplishment, I know that
this is much more profound than any of my given attributes.
So, as of now I do not know when I will go over to make
an offer on the property. A low power FM station is now out of the question
until the next filing period, which really makes much more sense. The money I
was planning on using to go over with, which I was expecting on Tuesday, I did
not receive until Sunday. I have committed it to pay bills that now need
attention. So I suppose in my faulty logic, if I donŐt plan on going over until
I definitely see the path open, then perhaps I shall judge the path more
clearly.
As far as the finances, I have a way to borrow the money
including the working capital, but my credit rating is such that I can not do
it with that power, but I truly believe that there are economic enterprise
opportunities available to make not only the payments, but to quickly eliminate
the debt. entirely. That of course does not mean that this is the way God wants
to proceed, so please intercede so that our prayers will bring about my
understanding of GodŐs timing and direction in this.
Things (stuff), continue to just break, at what seems to
be an incredible pace. Last week was the tape player that I use to listen to
the Bible tapes. The part should be in by the end of the month. Today it is the
dishwasher, which I rarely use, but others in the household use consistently.
So we continue to work through these annoyances, that take time and resources
to fix, but compared to the richness of the gift of GodŐs grace in Jesus Christ
are but minor vexations. How easy it is for our piety to loose our eternal
focus.