Wednesday, August 03, 2005
The Survivability of Faith
Desert Pastor aka Chris Monroe blogged about the Survivability of Faith on his site. These few paragraphs caught my eye:
"Have you ever grieved over friends, who had pledged their lives to Christ and appeared to have been living for him, but who then gave it all up? Have you ever been dumbfounded over faith that was a mile wide but only an inch deep? Have you ever wondered why a person's faith in Christ was not able to withstand a crushing adversity or crisis they had encountered?
For as long as I've tried to follow Jesus, I've been taken back by the numbers of friends and acquaintences whose faith has been shipwrecked. I suppose the causes are many, but it all leaves me haunted by the words of Jesus:
And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?
(Luke 18:8, NRS)
As a student of John Wesley, I can't help but think that holiness may well be the key. Without holiness, Wesley believed we end up with something less than true Christianity. Wesley considered repentance "the porch of religion," faith "the door," and holiness "religion itself" (The Works of John Wesley, Jackson edition, Vol. 8, pp. 472f). Holiness is meant to characterize our Christian faith. Yet many of us are the product of an age where the evangelical Church emphasized decision over discipleship. "Fire insurance" was more important than the fire-which-purifies. Becoming a Christian was more of an "event" than a life-long commitment and journey. Perhaps the reason why many people's faith is a mile wide but only an inch deep is because that is exactly what we've passed on to them, even if unknowingly.
So what's your take on all this? Why does people's faith often seem so fragile, and why is it so easily shipwrecked? And what should we do in response?"
HERE is my response. People get pushed to the brink. To the place where in reality they have to admit they cannot do it. They cannot live the Christian life. They cannot any longer pretend that they can. But what has happened in North America in the 20th & 21st Century, IMHO is that when those of us who are honest show up at the altar of the IC we are told we arn't trying hard enough we must:
Pray harder
Try harder
Join an accountability group
Change churches
Read more of the Bible
Read more of the Church Fathers
Go to confession, etc.
But what doesn't happen, is that when you are ready to throw in the towel, no one knows how to help you.
We need to recognize that this action, this confession (mea culpa) is the start of the Sacrament. Michael Frost & Alan Hirsh refer to it as the need to see "Sacrament as Action".
Clear as mud? Maybe this quote from C.S. Lewis will help. It's in chapter 8 of their book "The Shaping of Things to Come".
"Christians have often disputed as to what leads the Christian home is good actions or Faith in Christ...It does seem to me like asking which blade in a pair of sissors is most necessary. A serous moral effort is the only thing that will bring you to the point where you throw in the towel.
Faith in Christ is the only thing to save you from dispair at that point: and out of the Faith in Him good actions must inevitably come"
This was like lightening in my veins when I read this. This in a concise manner explains what I've tried to explain.
The law was (and is) a school master to lead us to Christ. To get us to the point where we recognize we cannot do it on our own. To bring us to the place of surrender where we throw in the Towel.
and then we are in that Surrender to day by day lean on Jesus. Follow Him. Rely on him to re-write the very warp and woof of our Souls. This is the Gospel of Grace. It's not some religious recipe to get my act together. It is allowing God, Father Son and Holy Ghost, to dwell in our Spirit and re-write our very character, Resurrect us from the Dead, from the inside out.
"Have you ever grieved over friends, who had pledged their lives to Christ and appeared to have been living for him, but who then gave it all up? Have you ever been dumbfounded over faith that was a mile wide but only an inch deep? Have you ever wondered why a person's faith in Christ was not able to withstand a crushing adversity or crisis they had encountered?
For as long as I've tried to follow Jesus, I've been taken back by the numbers of friends and acquaintences whose faith has been shipwrecked. I suppose the causes are many, but it all leaves me haunted by the words of Jesus:
(Luke 18:8, NRS)
As a student of John Wesley, I can't help but think that holiness may well be the key. Without holiness, Wesley believed we end up with something less than true Christianity. Wesley considered repentance "the porch of religion," faith "the door," and holiness "religion itself" (The Works of John Wesley, Jackson edition, Vol. 8, pp. 472f). Holiness is meant to characterize our Christian faith. Yet many of us are the product of an age where the evangelical Church emphasized decision over discipleship. "Fire insurance" was more important than the fire-which-purifies. Becoming a Christian was more of an "event" than a life-long commitment and journey. Perhaps the reason why many people's faith is a mile wide but only an inch deep is because that is exactly what we've passed on to them, even if unknowingly.
So what's your take on all this? Why does people's faith often seem so fragile, and why is it so easily shipwrecked? And what should we do in response?"
HERE is my response. People get pushed to the brink. To the place where in reality they have to admit they cannot do it. They cannot live the Christian life. They cannot any longer pretend that they can. But what has happened in North America in the 20th & 21st Century, IMHO is that when those of us who are honest show up at the altar of the IC we are told we arn't trying hard enough we must:
Pray harder
Try harder
Join an accountability group
Change churches
Read more of the Bible
Read more of the Church Fathers
Go to confession, etc.
But what doesn't happen, is that when you are ready to throw in the towel, no one knows how to help you.
We need to recognize that this action, this confession (mea culpa) is the start of the Sacrament. Michael Frost & Alan Hirsh refer to it as the need to see "Sacrament as Action".
Clear as mud? Maybe this quote from C.S. Lewis will help. It's in chapter 8 of their book "The Shaping of Things to Come".
"Christians have often disputed as to what leads the Christian home is good actions or Faith in Christ...It does seem to me like asking which blade in a pair of sissors is most necessary. A serous moral effort is the only thing that will bring you to the point where you throw in the towel.
Faith in Christ is the only thing to save you from dispair at that point: and out of the Faith in Him good actions must inevitably come"
This was like lightening in my veins when I read this. This in a concise manner explains what I've tried to explain.
The law was (and is) a school master to lead us to Christ. To get us to the point where we recognize we cannot do it on our own. To bring us to the place of surrender where we throw in the Towel.
and then we are in that Surrender to day by day lean on Jesus. Follow Him. Rely on him to re-write the very warp and woof of our Souls. This is the Gospel of Grace. It's not some religious recipe to get my act together. It is allowing God, Father Son and Holy Ghost, to dwell in our Spirit and re-write our very character, Resurrect us from the Dead, from the inside out.
