The Greatest of All of God’s Works

CONSIDERING ALL THE WORKS of God, all the creative works, all the states of creative work through the known universe over the vast millennia of history, what is the greatest single work of the Lord?

I think it is this:

“Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day.”

— 2 Corinthians 4:16 (NRSV)

For God to open up from within us that line of holy inquiry, where the Spirit of God not only penetrates, but he makes his way into us, renewing our inner natures every day, sanctifying us more and more to potentially new inroads, is nothing short of the most breathtaking of all God’s works.

God changes life; he changes us as we allow. And who is the benefactor?

What We Stand to Gain

As if it were the most important of all imperatives, we stand to gain in very many personal ways. (And our gain isn’t the most important of imperatives; God’s glory has that glorious distinction.)

When we build on the foundation of truth, as God rightly dwells in and is Sovereign within us – the truth that has been born or reborn in us – that truth has traction day by day by the matters of real, God-enabled mercy.

MERCY

Yes, mercy has to be God’s greatest accomplishment in us; that we would be able to see as God sees, full of grace, understanding, and depth of insight.

When mercy has full empowerment and it has full sponsorship of flight, we, wicked, broken and inept human beings as we are, can become truly everything God originally designed us to be. It can occur one moment at a time.

What God Stands to Gain

The most important of all imperatives is finally in sight – and this is our true magnum opus. When God is glorified in and through us, by our renewals of mercy day by day, it is God’s crowning glory in a worldly moment – heaven has truly reached down to earth: “On earth as it is in heaven.”

Life is all about God in case we haven’t already noticed. We have no rights being here, being alive, existing, if we there is no God. If it weren’t for the Son’s obedience and the Father’s most magnanimous gift of sacrifice the human race would be dead a long time back!

That we can be enlivened to the majesties of mercy is an ongoing miracle to the glory of God.

***

The greatest work of God – transcending the works of creation unto the entire universe – is the transformation and renewal of one broken soul. Sanctified and made new, day by day, to the glorious reality of God’s transforming character, mercy comes alive in such a crass specimen as us. Thanks be to the Father for his glorious gift of salvation.

© 2013 S. J. Wickham.

In Faith – This Suffering Won’t Be Wasted

“The only way out of the labyrinth of suffering is to forgive.”

— JOHN GREEN

Yep, we all suffer – existentially. What that means is, by being human, we have been cast into a life that – because of its inherent brokenness – is far from perfect. Whether it’s aches and pains, an onerous workload, or the prevalence of frustration (etc, etc) we are plagued by inner complaint. Such is life, we might say.

But there is a way of coping with life that is superior to all other means – and it is to really get, and go for, God. That is to understand and adopt the gospel imperative – forgive!

Forgiveness makes all things new, but we can only have the grace to forgive – to truly let go – when we have thrown up every resistance within us into the ceiling fan of conflict, to be chopped up and obliterated. Once and for all.

Why of Forgiveness – Reframing the Obvious

What is altogether obvious is also something that needs to be lived and relived, again and again. If we can retrieve some joy, some sense for hope, some semblance of meaning in our suffering, it’s through confronting that which ails us.

We find the route through our suffering via forgiveness.

Forgiveness reconciles us to a grander, purer form of integrity with ourselves and our God.

As we reframe the obvious – forgiveness as a way of coming back to God, through the Lordship of the Holy Spirit in our lives – we bring it sharply into view. We have faith that God will convince us of not only the value of forgiveness, but its inherent appropriateness – it is for justice and righteousness we do it: for God.

How of Forgiveness – In Faith We Do This Thing!

There is no simple and easy way of faith other than just doing it. We can do it. We can step each step, by God’s wisdom – in becoming aware and resolving to do it by the strength of the Spirit.

Knowing that forgiveness is the way to better life outcomes – for us; for everyone connected to us – we have every impetus to do it.

We keep it simple; we keep it plain. Nothing ought to dilute our focus.

***

Nothing helps us in our suffering more than to forgive – to accept our situations as they are, whether it’s hurt, pain, or loss. Sometimes we need to forgive ourselves; sometimes it’s others; at other times it’s God. We must simply do it. By forgiveness, in faith, our suffering is made meaningful.

© 2013 S. J. Wickham.

Overcoming the 7 Shadow Missions

IF WE ACCEPT we have a mission – a God-purposed and God-defined mission – and most of us struggle to delineate a single mission – we most definitely have, also, what John Ortberg calls a shadow mission. If it’s possible to have more than one mission, and it is, it’s also possible to have more than one shadow mission. Somewhat just off centre of the true mission, a shadow mission is the centralising of part of our lives on what is unworthy, selfish or dark.

This article is my attempt to differentiate seven possible shadow missions by utilising the deadly sins – which I think are the roots of our inner evil.

Shadow Mission #1 – Pride

All of us have a weakness in the area of pride, but I wonder if those who are especially humble by characterisation (like, they are normally very humble) are especially vulnerable to a shadow mission based out of pride.

Shadow Mission #2 – Anger

As we may all be susceptible to pride, for all of us there are things that make us angry, though not all anger is sinful. I wonder if those who are especially patient by characterisation (like, they are normally very patient) are especially vulnerable to a shadow mission based out of anger. They may not need to work very hard at being patient, as it’s a part of their giftedness, but anger may lurk. Something that is akin to patience is grace. Forgiving people may have a weakness for anger.

Shadow Mission #3 – Greed

Those who are generous may not have much of a clue regarding greed, but every one of us is prone to a degree of covetousness. Those who are especially giving may find it distasteful in the extreme that they are not given back to – and resentments may form. This is possibly a shadow mission of greed speaking, for giving is its own blessing.

Shadow Mission #4 – Envy

Kindness is a trait especially rich in some people – they see with eyes of kindness. Yet, there is the threat of envy in all of us. Could it be that those who are kind may also see, in some situations, with eyes of envy – and not out of greed? Their envy may be borne on the wings of the fact that unkind people seem to get away with their lack of kindness.

Shadow Mission #5 – Lust

Chaste people, who seem to be especially innocent, demure and pure by nature, may be prone to a sliver of excess toward the secret passions of lust. This shadow mission – to be afflicted by lust – is especially shaming for obvious reasons. But we could focus on the enormous benefit it is to be considered a clean thinker.

Shadow Mission #6 – Sloth

The diligent can be especially lazy, especially if it’s a fear of failure that drives them, and that sense of ‘failure around the corner’ threatens no longer. The diligent are vulnerable to resentment when they are pushed too far or if they are not appreciated for the volume and quality of their work. They might secretly prefer whole days off to do nothing.

Shadow Mission #7 – Gluttony

The self-c0ntrolled person, by characterisation, perhaps has a weakness for gluttony. Again, it may be a feature of someone resenting their gift, though it’s too easy to generalise.

Not all people gifted with particular virtues have shadow missions regarding the corresponding deadly sins, but it’s worthy of noting if there is a link or not.

***

All of the shadow missions seem shameful and they are hidden from sight. They can be seen as God’s reminder that we need to stay on task, and focus on leaning on the Holy Spirit, so our real missions would get the traction God deserves out of them.

What is bad – the shadow mission – God can convert to good, through our open recognition and awareness of it. Nothing may be more threatening or humbling – to stare our shameful shadow in its face and accept it is there. But surely we are liberated to be aware and to ensure we constantly surrender it to God.

© 2013 S. J. Wickham.

The Blessing of a Cross Embraced

We need to embrace our suffering. We need to embrace that which breaks us. We need to embrace our cross. We need to carry our cross. We need to love our cross just as Jesus did. And by embracing our cross we take on the identity of that cross, and where our identity has been smashed in the past, by this loss, by this grating sense of suffering that we cannot get away from – by embracing it – that which breaks us becomes us, and out of it comes a sense of victory, by the fact that if this can’t break us, nothing can. And it is with that certainty that we are given this gospel; that is the gospel!

In many senses in the First Century church there is the situation where there was so much suffering, so much poverty, and so much marginalisation, whether you were Jew or a Gentile, under Roman law, to consider that suffering was the way that many people came to faith, and by bearing our crosses – those crosses that God has allowed and enabled us to carry – those crosses that God didn’t design but has equipped us to carry – these are the very making of us. Without our crosses borne we cannot be Christian. Without our crosses we make the gospel a fabrication much other religion may be.

Our crosses are the basis of the formation of a new identity that means we can grapple with our reality; we can deal with it, one day at a time, with victory, by God’s provision of power that the world can’t possibly understand. People won’t understand why we are bearing our cross so stoically – but we must do it as Jesus did, for our own wise benefit.

It is with this sense of God being with us, of God making us capable, that we can carry our cross; we can get through and amazingly, in years to come, we will come to be defined by those very decisions we have made in the now – those wise decisions to carry our crosses; to bear them.

We will become shaped by the thing that has occurred to us; this suffering. This worst thing that could have happened comes out to be the best thing, because of what God makes of it, eventually. As we embrace our cross, as we embrace our grief, because, really, there is no other sane choice, when we take a distant view of our situation, as if we were looking from far away, gazing into our situations, we wouldn’t advise ourselves to do anything other than just simply to embrace the suffering and pain, in faith, that God will see us through, for he will if we don’t give up and he will do something with it; not one iota of pain will have gone to waste.

We know there are so many times when we feel God won’t do anything, and there are so many of those times, when we fail, when our faith fails us. But remaining in the game is about not giving up ultimately, though we may give up for an hour or so or a day or longer.

So it is up to us. This is our opportunity. When we have been dealt a crippling blow, we take God at his word, that he will restore us, because he does. But the key to it all is we must embrace our suffering as we picture Jesus clinging to his cross, kissing it even, as we do likewise.

Not only would Jesus not give up, but he would be thankful, because he was going to the Father. He was most certainly going to the Father. And that time was very, very close. And for us, as we approach our suffering the same way, we imagine what it will be like to be with the Father, we know that embracing our suffering brings us closer to the Father in the very act, embracing our cross; the crosses we bear.

© 2013 S. J. Wickham.

The Biblical Importance of One-Anothering

“God has so ordained things that we grow in the Spirit only through the frail instrumentality of one another.”

― ALAN JONES

THEY SAY, ‘A friend in need is a friend indeed,’ and I think that captures the essence of real friendship – that ability to consider someone with a need more a friend than someone who’s ‘fine’ by themselves. After all, from the healthiest viewpoint, we all like to be needed; it’s healthy so long as there is a high degree of reciprocation. It’s no good us being too needy or not being needy enough. Most of friendship, however, is not about neediness at all.

But we do need each other much more than we often realise.

In fact, we know how much we need love when there is the void of it; when those we may spend the majority of our time with have little to offer, or they offer only intermittently.

A good friend is a sounding board and they are a sanctuary where we can feel safe. They lighten our burdens, even if only for a short time. They can help us reframe our thoughts and gently recorrect us.

When Friend is Counsellor or Counsellor is Friend

The best counsellors are safe enough within themselves to offer their full selves to their clients. For the counselling relationship they are a friend walking beside them.  It wouldn’t be appropriate to carry the friendship on beyond the counselling room, but whilst they meet for their 50-60 minutes, there should be warmth, empathy and genuineness – Carl Rogers called it unconditional positive regard.

But a friend can offer more, though they cannot be a fully functional counsellor in the strictest vein.

In the biblical sense, we know we are supposed to hold the one-another realm as almost equal to our relationship with God so far as its importance and relevance to our spiritual health. Indeed, God mediates between friends!

We are to honour one another (Romans 12:10), confess our sins to one another (James 5:16), bear one another’s burdens (Galatians 6:2), build one another up (1 Thessalonians 5:11) and even bear with one another (Ephesians 4:2). This list goes on.

***

A particularly rough patch in life is helped never more than by spending time with someone who’ll simply listen, be there, no judge, and not advise – unless we have invited it.

Real friends are real and allow us to be real. They are God’s healing touch when we let them in. Likewise, we are privileged when God uses us to help them.

© 2013 S. J. Wickham.

God’s Therapy of Worship In Our Grief

“I worship despite the pain and I worship no matter what to get through the pain because I know He has the victory over my hurts, habits and hang ups!”

— PENNY STREET

When we worship Jesus despite the pain,

He helps us know our pain’s not in vain,

Because of the joy we hold to be true,

Worship is space for Jesus to make things new!

Surrendering our pain in our bellows of praise, in spite of what we’re feeling, but not ignoring what we are feeling, is holding reality in the palm of our hands. And this reality is not one to destroy us. God contains us in it.

Insisting on trusting ourselves to Jesus – that’s the practice of worship out of a chaotic numbness of vanquished self. We insist on worshipping, not because we want to praise God, but because we want to stay connected with reality. We want to make our lives tolerable, even though some of our emotions tell us that worship – to praise – is inappropriate.

Worship is never more appropriate than when we are downcast and unable to make sense of what God is doing or what life is about in this grief.

The Victory We Claim in Jesus’ Name!

We may know the theory real well – that Jesus won the battle over Satan two millennia ago. It’s not just a theory, though we struggle to live it – to show we truly believe it.

Worship is the vehicle, and by worship I mean any activity that takes our minds elsewhere from our worldly concerns and into the heart of God. Common expressions of worship are connected to singing, music, dance and art. God works practically through our worship – much like via our prayer – by helping us refocus on that which is both positive and true.

This is the truth we apply by our worship: as we worship in our truth – claiming God’s Presence with us, even in the midst of our pain – we trust God, by going to the healthiest source for healing. God’s therapy works in that moment, whether by the Presence of God in our intense sadness, or by the rest of a temporary peace, or by some other method of healthy distraction that includes the experience of joy or peace that transcends our reality.

***

The healthiest and wisest therapy in the midst of acute grief is practicing the Presence of God through worship. This is complemented by spending time with people of compassion who just listen. If we don’t know how to worship, we seek people out to teach us, but people who understand and encourage the uniqueness of an individual’s expression in worship.

© 2013 S. J. Wickham.

Practicing the Privilege of Soul Care

“In recent years the church has been tragically marginalized as a provider of soul care. If the church is to be restored to its rightful place of relevance to and preeminence in supporting the care and cure of souls, we must equip and encourage people to offer themselves to others in relationships of soul friendship and soul companionship.”

― DAVID BENNER

Soul friendship. Soul companionship.

Think of these concepts. What do they mean?

They are inherently other-focused. They are intrinsically about things that we so struggle with. They are fundamentally a sacrifice of our own needs for the needs of another. That is an easy thing to do, but only when we see others as souls worthy of living for.

To be a soul friend or a soul companion – and, though they sound the same, they are different things – we must see the soul of the one we are with.

Seeing the soul of the one we are with is only possible if we ignore the record of our needs. This is where an easy thing gets difficult. We prioritise our needs and we get to rely on them being met. We get to hate it when they aren’t met. But we will survive – and not only survive, but thrive – when we sacrifice our needs for the betterment of another. Imagine the blessing it is to receive such care!

***

The church has a role to equip and empower people to care for souls; yet, it doesn’t do that job at all well. Pastors and church leaders need to be the ones who will mentor individuals of their flocks to be intentional soul carers, but so much time is spent doing ‘Kingdom tasks’, not being with people who need them. Programs may change lives, but relationships more so.

The church doesn’t have that many pastorally-hearted pastors in this day where the focus is so much on Leadership, Worship, and Evangelism. It is no good getting people into the Kingdom if we can’t turn them toward healing. We need to be the gospel to people, and not simply leave it to God’s Word.

Pastors need to be equippers and encouragers of soul carers; they need to be enlisting every one of their flock to this sort of holy service in loving others as much as their own selves. This is how we love God best.

***

Soul friendship: any person we encounter we can offer soul friendship to. We may only see them for a second or two, so we make being with them the highest priority.

Soul companionship: a good example is our spouse or anyone we have an indefinite or infinite commitment to. We can be soul companions with those we even work with.

***

Practicing the privilege of soul care is loving (choosing to love by choosing to see) other people as uniquely loved in God’s esteem. When we see another soul as God sees them, compassion fills our hearts for them. Then loving them is easy. Jesus Christ hung on the cross for every person we’ll ever see or know.

© 2013 S. J. Wickham.

Taking Every Thought Captive to the Glory of God

“We destroy arguments and every proud obstacle raised up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to obey Christ.”

― 2 CORINTHIANS 10:5 (NRSV)

Our thinking is both a well-deserved friend and to be a revered foe. By thought we can go into the vast expanses of wisdom – dredging out the rich ore by discernment – or we can make fools of ourselves.

When the ideas in our minds reach full maturation we stand before a voluminous chasm: where will these ideas take us? Will they be used for the glory of God in the revelation of truth, or will they do the devil’s bidding? And, due free will, God gives us utter control over everything we say. God loves us this much: he trusts us with the words of our mouths, when we could do such damage to his purposes.

Of course, God knows who is in control. Those who run for his purposes are used for his purposes; those who run against his purposes are, also, used for his purposes. But only one (the former) will be blessed.

Let us make no mistake: we do God’s bidding in fear and trembling, or we do the devil’s bidding, nonchalantly and in great folly. What we do and what we say have eternal consequences, even as they commence by the despatching of those words from our mouths.

Remembering That God Gives Us Control

We can never say, in truth, that we don’t control what we say. We do. Our command (or lack thereof) of virtue is our guide.

Our only defence in the glorifying of our Lord in our bodies is the defence of truth, applied graciously, such that we may be known as truth tellers, full of the Spirit, and full of integrity.

When we have no need to defend ourselves, and equally there is no need to attack others, then we may know what it is to take every thought captive and make it obey Christ.

We will fail, of course. We will put our feet in our mouths. We will find reasons to promote lies by our speech. We are human and we are broken, sinners by definition. We take that thought captive and make it obey Christ as well. We will hence not be made a scapegoat by the enemy of souls. It is good to accept our limits.

***

One crucial way we obey Christ is by taking every thought captive and conforming our thoughts to the truth. There is great power in our words. Good words are a blessing, whereas bad words wreak havoc. Our words glorify the Lord when we have, beforehand, taken every thought captive.

© 2013 S. J. Wickham.

Obedience, Faith, Baptism In the Spirit

DECEMBER 18, 2003, was a special day. Late morning I strolled to a nearby park and began running laps. It was a hot day, but I cannot recall feeling hot. At one point, as I was praying, I was brought to a standstill and then I was dropped to my knees; tears of replete joy streaming down my face, a giant goose bump consumed my entire being. The experience lasted a minute or two with full intensity, but the rest of my day, and indeed the weeks ahead, were characterised by this abiding sense of God’s power, joy and peace – the Holy Spirit’s encouragement. Importantly, four days beforehand I had confessed a lifetime of sins – five hours it took before a trusted mentor, as part of a 12-Step program to speak about nearly twenty years of sin as an adult, before both him and God.

It is no coincidence, in my mind, that my obedience – to confess my sin and need for forgiveness – on December 14 was the precursor to God’s blessing of an experience of baptism in the Holy Spirit four days hence.

My Experience of Baptism in the Holy Spirit

I would like to capture the experience in words:

In the obedience of confession,

We may transcend our cataclysm,

Because of faith’s session,

We may receive the Spirit’s baptism.

By the obedience of confessing our sin we gain the sense of God’s peace and Presence so we are released from the spiritual burden of our calamity, though it doesn’t change the consequences. Perhaps the ultimate of experiences, for obedience, is the Spirit’s baptism – immersed in a torrent of holy joy all over us.

***

Obedience connects to blessing,

Where faith gains traction by hope,

Such is a blessing when we are confessing,

Our sins in ways where God helps us cope.

The above poem is explained:

1.       Obedience is reason God blesses us, not that by obeying we can command God’s blessing. It doesn’t work that way. But God rewards obedience, ultimately.

2.      Obedience is the product of faith, and we would have no faith unless we had hope – even though true hope is invisible and intangible.

3.      The confession of our sins is the only way God can help us cope by drawing us into his Presence. Such confession of vital truths will set us free. Nothing else will; not blaming others or being hurt or disappointed.

***

The value in obedience is underscored by our enjoyment of closeness with God. And there is no better experience of such closeness than baptism in the Holy Spirit. Obedience by faith is the way to intimacy with God; the experience of his Presence closely with us.

© 2013 S. J. Wickham.

Using Time To The Glory of God

“Actions that lead to overwork, exhaustion, and burnout can’t praise and glory God. What God calls us to do we can do and do well.”

— HENRI NOUWEN (1932–1996)

WELL MAY we say, we do not have enough time – and I frequently think it. But the truth of the matter is we have ample time – to do all we need to do.

We always find time to do the things that are important to us, but we need to ensure that there aren’t that many things that are important to us that we will feel overwhelmed in the process of simply living. Sure, some people are called to lives of burden, as most of us have seasons of burden where we are tested regarding the limits placed on our time.

But we need to remember, especially in this age of busyness, God has ordained enough moments, enough minutes, and enough milieus to make a full life – not full of burden, but full of purpose, hope, and sufficiency through grace to achieve his will.

God gifts us with such things as these, when we use our time wisely:

“God’s gift is enjoyment in your life, fulfillment in your work, contentment in your heart.”

— CHUCK SWINDOLL

When we determine that enjoyment in life, fulfilment in our work, and contentment in our hearts is possible then we are able to connect with it the fact that we have enough time.

Reconfiguring Our Perspective To Truth

When we consider the possibilities – that we do have enough time to do the things we need to – and that there is the potential for enjoyment, fulfilment, and contentment – we soon learn that seeing truthfully is about maintaining healthy perspective.

An unhealthy perspective with regard to time and satisfaction in life makes life a misery – so we might ask, why go there?

There is no gain to us or to anyone else in an unhealthy perspective, but there is plenty of gain for us and everyone we care about when we acknowledge, within healthy limitations, we have enough time and opportunity to do everything that God asks us to do.

Having ventured forth in life long enough to have experienced some of the blessings of God because we have accepted these realities, we have enough knowledge to continue stepping forth on the road of faith – a road that never ultimately disappoints.

Add to ‘Truth-of-Time’, Diligence

Diligence is a masterstroke of wisdom that we add to the concept that is the truth-of-time. The truth-of-time-and-diligence combo works – by our processes of faith – for the simple reason that we whinge and complain no more about those burdens bearing down on us. We simply, by diligence, put our head down and apply our minds to the work ahead of us. All our hearts go into the work, and God, by his Spirit, anoints us by his Presence, as we enjoy his blessing: the matters of plain and unquestioned achievement.

***

Time might appear the conqueror, but, when we accept we have enough time to do God’s will, we are the conquerors. All we need is to invest in diligence and God converts that type of obedience into eventual blessing.

© 2013 S. J. Wickham.