Augustine of Hippo, Confessions, and Satisfaction of Soul

“… now that my groaning is witness to the fact that I am dissatisfied with myself, you shine forth and satisfy.”

— Augustine of Hippo (354 – 430)

There’s a pattern to our confession, as a soul’s release from bondage is procured.

It’s the pattern for the Christian life and far too few of us, much too little of the time, actually practice this ancient response to the Holy Spirit’s convicting goad.  And I shrink when I read those words back; no criticism of you, more criticism of me!  But that’s humanity’s lot.

Confession is a necessary process for transformation, yet we’ll have no need of it if we aren’t vulnerable enough to allow the Spirit to search us; to find within ourselves those buried sources of iniquity.

Confession and repentance are why the Christian life is harder than a worldly life — harder yet better.  The Christian life is devoted to the truth, to the fact of wrongfulness in the sins we commit, and to repentance.  It’s hard to own up to the things we should’ve done better; to the things we shouldn’t have done at all.  It’s humiliating… for a moment.

But confession is a clean pain involving primary emotions.  If we don’t confess what we’ve done wrong, anger may prevail; a secondary emotion that sees sin spill over the edges, burning others with the caustic nature of the untamed tongue.  But that clean, primary emotion pain is a healing variety of pain.  It’s good for us.  It tends us toward growth.

As I confess my sin before my Lord, in safety, where there’s no condemnation, He blesses me in my owning of my truth — His truth for me to own up to.

Our groaning is a sign of our dissatisfaction, not with other things, but with ourselves.  It’s the sign of sin.  And yet it’s so normal to our human condition to complain.  When we see our dissatisfaction is represented in moaning, we can acknowledge God, and then He shines forth to satisfy.

Confession is the key to a soul’s release; God’s gift of peace.

Augustine is possibly the Church’s finest exponent of humble contemplation to the ends of confession and repentance.

© 2016 Steve Wickham.

4 Reasons Your Life Is Okay No Matter How Bad Things Are

Present problems provide a perception that lacks perspective.

As I browsed photos I’d posted on social media over the past two years I noticed something.  Not only was life no longer plagued by the problems of then, now I have new problems to deal with.  Even though I could track some problems of past, including the fatal diagnosis and imminent stillbirth of our son, Nathanael, today’s problems outweighed everything of past, because, and this is the important point, I have God’s faithfulness to reflect on for those experiences of past where He upheld me in those difficulties.

Life is okay no matter how bad things are, presently, for these four reasons:

1.     God was faithful in the past, so He can be trusted to be faithful in the future.  (The only caveat on this is God’s faithfulness requires our trusting obedience, yet even when we fall short, God is able to show Himself faithful.)

2.     The present is soon the past.  It can no longer cause us the immediacy of pain (though pain may still be memorialised — for which therapy and healing are designed).

3.     We have what it takes to choose to be happy and content, no matter the circumstances that swarm about us.

4.     Our suffering is still limited to our context; we’re not required to suffer any more than we are presently, which we, by God’s grace, have the capacity to endure.

***

No matter how bad things are, everything will be okay, because, God is faithful, the present will soon be past, we can choose to be content, and our suffering has limits that we’re able to endure.

Present problems present the prospect to conform unhealthy perceptions to a healthier perspective.

© 2016 Steve Wickham.

Take Those Thoughts, Make Them Captive to Christ

The moment I think,

Dark thoughts, in a blink,

Can they begin to take root.

Take them captive in Christ,

It’s the Spirit’s holy heist,

Then I may bear fruit.

The biblical way of saying this, in part:

“We demolish arguments and every high-minded thing that is raised up against the knowledge of God, taking every thought captive to obey Christ.”

— 2 Corinthians 10:4b-5 (HCSB)

At the end of the day, we cannot afford to be troubled or distracted by what we think people might think about us.  We must stay in what we know.  We cannot stay in a felt state of being rejected or abandoned or of being found wanting.  We must stay in the world of logic and what can be known, for what is unknown is incredibly likely to be a fiction.

Keeping guard over our heart is about keeping close check on our mind.

There may be little wrong with ruminating about possibilities, but such thinking tends dangerously as soon as we begin to believe in what cannot ever be confirmed.

We take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ, which is to conform the information to truth, and let all else fade away.

When we discipline ourselves to the common practice of taking every thought captive, we’re blessed with mind control, and nobody on earth, and no spiritual nemesis, can defeat us.

Our thoughts either empower us upon the wings of hope, or they see us plummeting to earth in despair.

Our thoughts alone bequeath to us the destiny of our day.

Our thoughts have power.  Choosing to take responsibility for our thoughts will always bring us to a better head space.

© 2016 Steve Wickham.

Loving, Listening, Learning, To Understand As the Learned

I’ve been tinkering with a definition of humility, and wonder if it’s the willingness and ability to patiently endure humiliation in the hope of a good outcome eventually.

The person embarking on humility is certainly a lover, a listener, and a learner — and their reward is to become one of the company of the learned.  The learned understand:

“It is quite clear that between love and understanding there is a very close link.  He who loves understands and he who understands loves.  One who feels understood feels loved and one who loves feels sure of being understood.”

— Paul Tournier (1898 – 1986)

Understanding is conducive to love.  If we understand someone, we can love them.  If they feel understood, they can love us.  Yet if we choose to love, understanding is sure more often than not to follow.  And would it matter if it didn’t follow, if we were committed to love?  Such a love finds its greatest contentment simply in pleasing God.

To please God is to live as the obedient — as best we can hope for, within our brokenness.  The Lord requires no perfection from us, except for the perfect diligence of considered preparation.

“The Lord God has given Me
the tongue of those who are instructed
to know how to sustain the weary with a word.
He awakens Me each morning;
He awakens My ear to listen like those being instructed.”

— Isaiah 50:4 (HCSB)

What better understanding is there than the one who understands the Lord, and His Words?  Such a person waits on God in the awakened seconds of serenity that light up the morning.  (And if that’s not an accurate depiction of morning, set it as a goal to attain, because otherwise you’re missing out.  Praise God you’re alive.)  As we wait, we’re given the Words, and those Words are a salve for the weary.  But we must wait and then listen as those who are instructed.  Humility of surrender must come first.

Those who wait learn to listen.  Those who listen learn to understand.  Those who love humility learn to love.

***

The learned person is one who sets their aim on learning; as a person cannot fail in being instructed when we hold fast to instruction.  It’s the noblest aim of the person who seeks first to understand rather than first seek to be understood.

Loving, listening, and learning: the life and hope of joy regale in these!

© 2016 Steve Wickham.

Welcome to Christianity

MANY people who respond to winsome messages to commit to Christ do so with certain expectations in tow, and some evangelists won’t do a thing to unhitch those false hopes.

Those hopes almost certainly, inevitably, shove us over the cusp into an abyss, eventually.  The lies need to be corrected, right-sized to life’s reality.  As much as possible.  Of course, no matter how much telling many will believe vainly in naivety.  And sometimes people who are converted are more than well aware of the nature of life.

So this is the fact: without earning the new believer’s trust, to help them enter into a journey of discipleship about what life and faith and Christianity is really about, the seed of the Spirit can take no root.

The following is the type of letter all new converts to Christian faith should be handed.  Because I’m sure to miss some things in this letter, please, I’d be grateful, if you could add your own in the comments area.

***

Dear New Believer in the Lord Jesus Christ,

You know now that you’re a sinner, saved by grace alone, by your faith alone.  Hold onto that truth and pray God anchors it deep into your heart.  Your faith will set you apart as a true believer, and please know that you can only please God by your faith.

Life is unfair.  Just because you’re a Christian now doesn’t change that fact.  Life is unjust.  Being Christian won’t help you understand or accept that any better than before.  Life is flat out full of suffering.  Welcome to Christianity; a club about reality.  You will be hurt and betrayed.  And don’t be shocked with this: your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ will hurt you worse than anyone else.  It’ll seem that way.  But, of course, that won’t be the truth.  It’s a deception.  Now you know Christ, you’re Satan’s target.  You’ve entered active spiritual warfare.  Be on your guard.  Surround yourself with those who love God.  Learn to love Christ, and how to draw near, and you’ll find He will draw near to you.  Keep a watch over your thoughts and make them captive to Christ.

Always remember, if you weren’t a sinner the hurts of life wouldn’t hurt so much — they wouldn’t hurt at all.  If they weren’t sinners, they wouldn’t hurt you in the first place.  But get this: you being a sinner means you’ll hurt people.  Yes, you will.  Don’t think you’re better than that now.  Being a Christian now won’t change you that much in love, sorry to say.  It’s Satan who wants you to believe you’re above sin now.

Which brings us to another important matter… you won’t ever be perfect.  Remember that Jesus was perfect in your place so you’d have no need of legalistic perfection.  Be gentle with yourself; do not be your harshest judge, now you’re a Christian.  Be yourself, and don’t hide those parts of you that you think others — especially other Christians — might reject about you.  You won’t be perfect until you reach glory.  Isn’t it good that, because of Jesus, you don’t need to be perfect to be loved by God?  That’s the good news!

Now, about suffering.  It’s likely you have much more suffering ahead of you; times when you’ll seriously consider the value of your Christian faith.  Don’t give it up when the going gets tough, because it’s the only thing that will get you through and to viable hope.  Don’t bargain with life saying “God’s got my back now.”  Of course, God’s been with you eternally and would never depart from you, but God won’t be bargained with.  Don’t say, “God, if I do this, you do that.”  God does not work that way.  We’re all in the lap of life, and until our lives end we’ll be at the mercy of the elements of this world, and that’s no mercy at all.  But God has got your back from an eternal perspective, and these eighty years or so you have here aren’t even a blip on God’s radar.  Learn to suffer well.  But you’ll only have the opportunity to learn that lesson when that lesson comes.  Bear life well.

Time is something to get your head around.  It has its limits but you need to make the most of it.  Christianity is about finding the balance between being and doing.  If you really ‘get’ God you’ll want to serve your heart out.  You’ll possibly get burned out before you learn a valuable lesson.  God doesn’t need you, but working in His Kingdom is your privilege and responsibility.  Don’t do your service for any other acclaim than His, and wait for that acclaim to be a crown in heaven.  It’s your responsibility to rest.  Nobody else can pace your time other than you.  And try not to be impatient, with either the moments as you manage them or with your progress in the faith and in life.  Manage your anger, seek God in your frustration, learn submission, and plumb the depths of humility.

***

Life does not get perfect the moment we become Christian, nor do we become perfect.

Life is full of winter seasons, amongst times of autumn, flourishing summers, and promising springs.  Everything possible in life is possible.

When new believers receive Christ into their hearts via the Holy Spirit, it’s incumbent on those leading the way to lead well.  That involves being honest about faith in the midst of life.

Evangelism is not a license to hoodwink people into the Kingdom.  Life will not all-of-a-sudden get sustainably better.  It does for a while.  But ultimately, the tests of life, sponsored by God, come our way, for our growth and sanctification, because God loves us.

© 2016 Steve Wickham.

Spirit, Come With Fire, Breathe, Empower, Give Life

FROM the day the Holy Spirit came, breathing the wind of life with fire into the disciples, God was reminding humanity that He, the provider God, is a giving God.

Christians are quick to own Pentecost, but the Jews had been celebrating Shavuot through the Feast of Weeks for over a thousand years when the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost ten days after Jesus’ ascension.

The coming of the Spirit was a sequel of an earlier redemptive act of God.

The Law and the Spirit

God gave Moses the Law on Sinai on the fiftieth day after Passover and the Exodus — a full seven weeks after — just as God gave the Spirit on the fiftieth day after Easter.  (Remember the significance in the number seven?  It’s the number of completion.)  On the first hand, He gave the Law, complete, and on the second, He gave the Spirit, complete.  In the giving of the Law, Moses had a formula with which to lead the people of God.  In the giving of the Spirit, the Church, and each regenerated person, has the Person of Jesus as a personal anointing.  Neither the Law nor the Spirit is incomplete in its purpose.

The giving of the Law was no less significant than was the giving of the Spirit.  Both came from God Himself, and both were/are, therefore, perfect.

In many ways, the coming of Jesus showed the Church the importance of the Law.  The Sermon on the Mount deals with such important issues which are central to Jesus’ teaching.  But without the coming of the Spirit, the Law was always not enough — the Law always held us at arm’s length from our Creator.

The Spirit In Actualising Redemptive Intimacy

The Old Testament shows us how veritable the New Testament is.

In Jeremiah 31:31-34, the prophet proclaims the Day of the New Covenant; a spiritual covenant of intimacy between God and His people.  In Ezekiel 36:27, God makes the connection between having the Spirit, which moves a believer to follow His decrees and keep His laws, and the Law.  And yet, if we’re led by the Spirit we don’t have to keep the Law (Galatians 5:18) — because the Spirit empowers love through grace that will superintend the law.  Still, the Spirit doesn’t replace the Law; it builds upon, and consecrates, the Law — it upholds and meets the Law’s intent.

If not for the Law, the Spirit has no foundation, yet if not for the Spirit, the Law has no veracity for personal transformation.

When the Holy Spirit blew in and through the disciples in that house that Pentecost day — which may have been the ‘house’ of the Temple court where 120 people witnessed it — there was a gift given.  It was a gift not unlike the Law, which gave the Israelites vital information on how to please God and live as God’s covenant people.  But the coming of the Spirit added something vital — it gave each disciple, and every assenting believer, the capacity to want to please God and to want to live as God’s covenant people, now under grace, through quickening obedience.

***

In the coming of the Holy Spirit, in wind and fire, God breathes in and through us to the extension of our empowerment, for others, for the Kingdom.  And this, because He has put His law into our hearts.  No longer do we just know about God.  With the Holy Spirit we know God.

The coming of the Spirit is about redemptive intimacy.  In the Spirit we have the capacity for fire, to breathe changemaking possibility into life, to receive His life so as to give life.  Hope has become our vision.  And hope makes us have faith for victory even in situations of seeming defeat.  Only the Holy Spirit could do that.

Our prayer ought to be: Spirit, come with fire, breathe, empower, give life.  And the operative Spirit can do no other thing.

© 2016 Steve Wickham.

Test post for upcoming Godspace blog.

Have I God’s Call On My Life?

CALLED.  It’s what Christians call it when their life changes from dark to day — when God switches the light of purpose on in their heart — to serve Him and Him alone.  ‘Called’ is what happens when God makes that impression on a Christian’s heart.  When this happens, and only person by person can each know, God cannot be refused!

It is the greatest day when this occurs; when God makes something plain upon our consciousness.  Somehow nothing’s ever been plainer.  We know our purpose.  Life is no longer about our own life, and it is fully about Him and making Him known.

We’re called when we come to be known in how we’re known in Him.  To be called is to be known.  And when we’re known in Him, we’re no longer unknown to ourselves.

The day of calling is a day when friends and kin may initially disagree, yet answering the call of God never happens without the firm encouragement of wise advisors in the faith.

***

You are ready to reveal God to others when you have relinquished the ‘right’ of self-rule from within.

And that’s a tricky task.  Never have we done that with perfect effect.  We cannot.  But God can remove from us that rebelliousness of heart, and the sign that’s occurred is the fruit of His Spirit in our lives.  Only God can do it.  And He can only do it when we’ve given up all designs of self-rule — when we look honestly at our idolatry, daily, and give it away each day, afresh.  Then, we know we’re called. 

Everyone who is called is chosen, and everyone chosen knows that all they may now do is serve the Lord.

What a great day it is when we make upon ourselves such a momentous discovery.

A Christian’s life is not an avoidant sell out for heaven one day, but a quest of advocacy sowing into God’s heaven here on earth today.

© 2016 Steve Wickham.

Ascending to a God Glorifying Ministry Motive

MUCH of what I write comes as a result of ideas that I believe the Holy Spirit gives me.  Oftentimes God convicts with the word, “that” i.e. write on that.

This is a that…

Something that must irk God about Christians that write and preach and communicate (especially on social media) — and I include myself in this — is at times the motive for communicating, and the words written and said, does little to actually bring glory to Him.  It might sound good, but the motive, one’s heart, can be a degree or two off.  Too often we fall into the sin of wanting to be seen as inspiring, intellectual, knowledgeable, wise, just, godly, humble, compassionate, or inspired.  We are men and women after all — sinners, prone to sinning — and we, as Christian leaders and leaders in His church, are no exception.  It’s not our church; it’s His.

Having contemplated this passage, I want to suggest the following commentarial paraphrase of Matthew 6:1-8…

Be wise to the sneaky temptations home to your sinful nature when God blesses you with opportunities to give to the needy, or serve the vulnerable.  Be really honest!  You are no better than the needy person, nor are you stronger than someone who’s vulnerable.  Remember, life can deal you a raw hand at any time.  Instead, do whatever God blesses you to do, simply, without performing for an audience, and without feeling ‘good’ about what you’ve done.  Simply thank God you had the opportunity to begin with.  And thank God you withstood the temptation to sin; that you endured the test.  You pass the test when you do your giving and serving with cryptic intent.  If nobody ever finds out about the good deed you did, all the better.  Then your Father in heaven is glorified, because, in the process, people are drawn to faith in Christ.

Likewise, with prayer, avoid saying you’ll pray and then fail to intercede in the way you should, having committed verbally.  It’s better to pray and keep it between you and God.  Keep your prayer life as private as possible, but do genuinely encourage people when God speaks to you about people who are a blessing.  God’s not impressed when you corrupt the holy practice of prayer by adding vocabulary to your Christianese and giving publicity to your prayer closet.  He made you and He knows what you need.  Don’t use your faith in Christ to create political influence, even if it’s with your friends; everyone should know that’s a common way of falling short.  That’s not the right motive to build His Kingdom or give Him glory.  And it’ll get you to a worse place than nowhere.  Instead, simply pray, and better, without putting it on, but full of heart and thought that honours God.

As I’ve said above, I hear God speaking these words to me; to make ministry and prayer about Him and others, and not about myself.  I hope you can find this of personal benefit, too.

© 2016 Steve Wickham.

Saint John of the Cross and the Union of Glory

“Now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.”

— 1 Corinthians 13:12b (KJV)

[In heaven] “I shall then love God even as I am loved by Him.”

— Saint John of the Cross (1542 – 1591)

RECONCILIATION makes its final play in the perpetual transformation to perfection that fuses itself to our soul instantly when we meet God in glory.  That ‘day’ is cosmically incomprehensible.

But that mystery is not what this article is about.  What this is about is something central to what we cannot experience here, and what we can only imagine in our mind’s eye.

Saint John of the Cross writes about our “union of the will” — our love for God, here — in contrast to our possession, to come, in the “union of glory” — over life’s horizon, beyond reach just now.  That union with God in glory will bring to us an awareness of His love for us, which will transform our own love for Him, which will be perfected with light speed immediacy.

We cannot quite know how God loves us.  We cannot quite touch it.  We can think we know, but we truly have no idea how much, and to what extent is His love for us, person for person; how intimately He knows us, and how much more He loves us than we can even love ourselves.  Just the same we cannot love God the way we probably should, because of the fact we have just considered.  But, of course, God knows.  He oversees the Program of Life.  He is patently aware that we will know in the end.

If we truly knew how much God loves us we would love Him back with such a deserving love.  But in this life we cannot.

***

One day, God will say to us, “I see that you see what I see.  You see what I have seen all your life, your life which I created.  You see the love I have for every person, to every corner of my creation.  And now I see what I knew I would see; you can love me now the same as I have always loved you.”

God loves us much more than we can ever love ourselves or love Him, and when we do finally understand that mystery, we will love Him with the perfect love we ourselves deserve, in Christ, which is the same love with which He has loved us.

© 2016 Steve Wickham.

John Knox and Our Sole Reliance On the Spirit’s Help

“… by nature we are so dead, blind, and perverse that neither can we feel when we are pricked, see the light when it shines, nor assent to the will of God when it is revealed, unless the Spirit of the Lord Jesus quickens that which is dead, removes the darkness from our minds, and bows our stubborn hearts to the obedience of His blessed will.”

— John Knox (1510 – 1572)

DARK and sinister is the material of the unregenerate soul, but the regenerate soul awakens still minutes before dawn without the Holy Spirit’s constant revelation of truth.

We don’t see truth without the Holy Spirit’s help.  We don’t perceive well.  And we cannot do the will of God without surrendering what we would otherwise want — something that must be done by intention.

In other words, Christian or not, we are damned to behave as sinners behave.  The only thing that separates the saved from the unsaved is the grace of God that has been accepted as won or rejected as lost.  Our regeneration tendered to us the gifts of the Spirit, and some sure signs of our salvation, but regeneration depends for the long haul upon reliance.  And that is faith — to surrender our strength for His strength.  Without reliance on the Holy Spirit we, the regenerate, will behave as unregenerate.

Indeed, regeneration must teach us the principal task of giving up on a daily, moment by moment, basis.  Not of giving up on life, but of giving up our will to power.

As we give up our sight for His, as we step by His light preferring not to run in our own darkness, and as we hope where there seems no hope, His Spirit lights our path.  We have to choose what only God can provide.

We owe everything we have, all we are, and everything we can be, to the Lord, who sought us from birth, who bought us by His Son, and who now seeks that we are wrought for His purposes.

When the Spirit awakens us to our darkness, God enlightens us to live by truth, which is life by faith alone.  This is the only ‘enlightenment’ with which we have access.

God’s alive in the redeemed through the redeemed person’s reliance on His Spirit.

Humility is the key to the Christian, for without humility there is no surrender, and where there is no surrender there remains only sin.

A Christian can only succeed when they rely solely on the Holy Spirit.  Indeed, this is what salvation is designed to teach us.

© 2016 Steve Wickham.

A Prayer for Bereaved Mother’s Day – May 1

God of creation and procreation,

Glory is due Your name for the blessings of children in our time.  We confess we have not always appreciated Your gift.  And we confess we have not always acknowledged those who have not received Your gift and those who have lost Your gift.

We thank You that there is now a place in our calendar that acknowledges women who have suffered loss through infertility, miscarriage, stillbirth, infant death, or the loss of a child of any age.

Especially for mothers who have not been blessed with a child, at this time at least, Father, we ask that Your peace, hope and comfort would be richly felt by them in a real way for their healing and wholeness.

For mothers who have been graced with a child subsequent to loss, we praise You, our Father, for Your provision in their lives, whilst acknowledging the losses they have suffered are not diminished in any way.  We thank You that every loss is equally significant to You, as is every life, and for a loss to be grieved is for a loss to be honoured in Your sight.

For mothers without a living child, we ask, our Father, that You make for them a place of honour for what they have suffered.  We ask, where possible, Father, to compensate them somehow by Your compassion that they could experience Your compassion such that they could give Your compassion to others, when and as they feel strong enough.  Make them esteemed ministers of compassion if that is their wish.

Finally, Father, we ask that You would help us all accept the mysteries of life that seem so cruel.  Help us to know that You feel ever more distraught than we could ever feel because of our losses.  Help us to trust You.

***

Many women cannot identify with those who dearly enjoy Mother’s Day.  Their own losses, inability to conceive, and fractured relationships with their own mothers or children are but a few reasons.

It is okay if you don’t enjoy Mother’s Day.

© 2016 Steve Wickham.

So, Brokenness Has Changed and Transformed You

EASILY wrought to tears for the affect life has had on your life, you’re easily and fondly reflective regarding what God has done in you, within hellishness itself.

Through pain you’ve come through it all.

Through vagrant hope a more viable and sustainable hope was found as you endured.

Through venturing blindly by faith, obediently meek, you’ve stood the test well.

Brokenness has changed and transformed you.  Brokenness was a necessary input to wholeness.

You cry some curiously bizarre ethereal tears these days; not tears of sorrow without meaning, but of meaning eclipsing the destructiveness of the sorrow, and of meaning that has made peace with that very sorrow that once broke you.

Yes, you’ve been touched by the Saviour Himself, and His Spirit has rested indelibly in you.  You’ve been changed and transformed and you could not go back to that old life — praise God!

Yes, you’ve been broken.  And how is it that God can draw from brokenness, transformation?  Oh, God is good, alright!  So, so good.

From brokenness the very seed of transformation germinated.  Through brokenness your new life rose up and flowered.

Hell has no power over the person who permits life break them in order that heaven would restore.

Heaven stooped down and scooped you up in your brokenness.  Heaven believed in you, and by your faith you believed in heaven.  And God with His angels brought you to a place where only through your brokenness could you be truly saved.

Oh brokenness, so beautiful,

A transformation to behold,

For the miracle of being raised in glory,

Brokenness is gold!

Broken by life,

Surrendered is the soul,

The end’s not in the strife,

As God makes the broken whole!

© 2016 Steve Wickham.

Bonhoeffer, and the Blessed of the Beatitudes

The Cost of Discipleship is Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s seminal work par excellence.  In this perennial work Bonhoeffer teases out the Nachfolge — German for bearing one’s cross as Christ did; an imitation of Christ, a.k.a. being a disciple.

Seemingly without peer, Bonhoeffer draws out the intensity of what being a disciple means.  There is nothing optional about it.  First of all, it’s not about how we “behave if [we] follow Jesus, but… the renunciation of self-determination and of one’s own reasoning.”

For Bonhoeffer, discipleship begins with the renunciation of cheap grace; that, we can only adhere to the tenets of costly grace — that our salvation cost our Saviour His life! — once we determine renunciation necessary.

According to John H. Yoder, here are three necessary renunciations for every Christ-disciple, according to Bonhoeffer’s discipleship ethic.  Christians are blessed in the renunciation:

1.      Of honour: Christians are to give up all craving of status and entitlement, (though the Father knows our need of recognition and acceptance and will provide).

2.      Of power: Given that some Christians are given power by virtue of their positions, they show their allegiance to Christ through their refusal to misuse that power.

3.      Of violence: Christians are to be true pacifists, which is the nonviolent activism of the brand of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi (though non-Christian).  (Power and violence are forces that are often coupled together.)

***

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945) might be heard to say:

Blessed are all disciples, because they cheerfully bear the burden of others.  They don’t crave honour nor misuse power nor enter into violence.  For these who are blessed, the coming of the Kingdom is good news, not simply for how they behave, but for who they already are.

Disciples are so set apart from the world that they reveal another world to the world.

© 2016 Steve Wickham.

Acknowledgement: Gregor, B., & Zimmermann, J. Being Human, Becoming Human: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Social Thought [e-book].  Cambridge: James Clarke & Co, 2012.  Quote taken from page 137.

When ‘Forgiveness’ Cries Out To Be Heard

CONFLICTS arrayed in the flurry of life: that is often our context.  Not that any one side or other is any righter than the other.  Conflict, by definition, decrees no sanctity on rightness or wrongness.

Conflict is simply difference.  But it’s also insidious and carcinogenic.  It leads to terminal bitterness and resentment if it’s left untreated.

In conflict ‘Forgiveness’, if we could just personify this sacred quality, cries out to be heard.  One forgives another, and links are created in a chain of compassion.  One is self-effacing enough to lean toward the other, and it almost always requites a response.

Forgiveness has to start from one side.  One side needs to take up the cudgels of antimony and indifference and make a way for hope to intercede.

One side needs to hear the voice of Forgiveness, enter into its frame, and drive within its scaffold, to begin the process.

Hearing Forgiveness, and listening to what it says, requires humility, but just as much it requires faith, which is courage — to let go of what is held in order to embrace something transcendently better.

When Forgiveness is heard, a heart is softened, and just such a softening makes for a softening in others’ hearts.  The softness of grace is the heartbeat of Forgiveness — she is the image of the Lord’s servant (see Isaiah 42).

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Forgiveness cries out in a silent voice, but when we hear, her words are compelling.

As the Lord is heard in the silence, so too is Forgiveness.  When we finally do hear the silent cry of Forgiveness, she will convict us to reflect and compel us to act.

Forgiveness works by faith on a mirage of hope to proffer forth reconciliation.

The heart of God’s gospel is reconciliation.

All healing is in the heart of Forgiveness.  Hearts are healed when Forgiveness has its way.

© 2016 Steve Wickham.