Higher Obedience

I know that most of you, readers of my blog, don’t actually get to see me often or haven’t seen me a year or even more, so it doesn’t really matter to you whether I am based in Montréal or Sherbrooke, since we won’t see each other more or less because of my location, but I wanted to let you know that I’m not longer in Montréal. I am spending my summer in Sherbrooke where, obviously is my summer job. If you need my contact info, please drop me an email. I am quite excited about being in a different place where it feels more like a breathing city and not a cosmopolitan, ciment-filled, busy city. Don’t take me wrong, I do enjoy Montréal and wish they’d have metros in Sherbrooke. One thing I’m not looking forward to is finding a route to jog on. Jus walking around here is a sport with all these hills. The only place I’ve found to be flat for at least 25 minutes of jogging, if I make circles, is the shopping center parking lot. I know you wanted to know that eh.

I read a passage in the Psalms. Psalm 30:11-12, “You have turned my mourning into dancing; you have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness, that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent.” I found verse 12 quite interesting. It’s rare that one’s glory sings about someone else’s praise, that one’s fame speak of someone else’s glory. Normally (well, it seems to me), that when glory is ascribed to person A, it is ascribed because of person A’s abilities, person A’s accomplishments, person A’s great deeds, thus person A’s glory speaks of its own fame, it sings its own praises. But David says that God blessed him in so many ways, so much that he has glory as the verse says. But the glory David has does not sing of David’s accomplishments and fame, it sings of the God of David, the One who blesses him.

Now I wonder about my own “glory”. I’m not sure what it is, but at times people praise me for some good things I’ve done or abilities I have. I wonder if my so-called “glory” sings back God’s praises or its own fame. Do I boast in myself or is it obvious that all the good in me is a gift from God?

Je vous inviterais à vous lever pour chanter le numéro…

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is foolishness to us because it proclaims God’s extravagant generosity to repentant wretches who wished Him dead and dishonored Him to the highest point. And those wretches are all of us, there is no exception. We should stop thinking only in terms of big and small, many or few sins one has made. Some hide behind the idea that they claim they have never done anything very bad, but only the normal sins such as lying and disobeying parents. The source of the problem is not that we practice evil things (no matter their quantity and quality), but it is that we are in rebellion against God. No matter if it is open rebellion or hidden in our hearts, no matter if we sin on the rooftops or try to look nice yet sin in our minds, it makes no difference, we are all rebels. The rebels are not only those who consciously go against God, but those who simply have no thought for God and do not acknowledge Him as Creator and His Son Jesus as Master and Redeemer.

No matter what kind of rebels we are, we have all rejected God and wished He were not. Our attitudes make this plain since we live our lives as if He were not. We choose what we do with our lives, our resources, our spare time, our bodies without trying to know what our Creator wants for us. We put Him aside, even doubting of His very existence or proclaiming He is not. We live in such a way that claims God has no power over us and has no importance. We do not care. All that God has freely given us, namely our breath, health, resources, money, abilities, we use them for our own benefit and glory, not acknowledging Him in any of our ways, or thanking Him, or seeking to use those gifts according to His own purpose. We want to make a name for ourselves, we want to live as it pleases us and we use what God has given us for ourselves. We proclaim with our lives that we refuse to be under the lordship of our Creator, that we are ungrateful and do not need Him. How are we to suppose that we will escape the judgment of God?

It would be very right and just that our Creator throws us all into a place where He is not, a place of torment and indescribable pain. After all, we reject Him on the earth, why would we embrace Him in heaven? And God shall judge all wretched rebels and shall get rid of them in hell, where they will be without Him and will suffer for their rebellion and that is right. This makes good sense, we reap what we sow, even though the consequence of our rebellion goes against our will, we must admit that we are playing a game according to its Creator’s rules, not our own.

But here is what may sound foolishness to many: God decided that He would send Himself, His Son and become one of us, die to pay the price of our condemnation and rise from the dead as a proof of God’s acceptance of his Son’s sacrifice for our rebellion. This is the Good News, that whoever acknowledge his rebellion, repents from it and embrace Jesus Christ as his sole righteousness before God, by faith, this rebel is made right with God. God will not accept any good dead made by anyone in payment for one’s sins, only true repentance and faith in Jesus, putting Him as Lord over our lives makes us right with God. And God does not only grant repentant rebels to be clean and not go to hell, but God makes them into His own sons and daughters, heirs of eternal life and all He has, He throws parties and rejoices over their change of heart, He is in a continual relationship with them in which He guides and sustains them. God does not say this earthly life will be easy and comfortable, but He promises the everlasting joy of heaven in His presence for all eternity, getting to know Him, the everlasting, praising His extravagant love for us, wretched rebels.

Ezekiel 16 is said to be an allegory of Jerusalem’s unfaithfulness to God. Jerusalem turned away from her husband (God) to run after her lovers (idols, other nations). When God looks at how she behaves He declares “How weak-willed you are… !”. I may be wrong, but that’s probably not what most people would say of someone who acts like Jerusalem nowadays. For instance, a woman who leaves her husband to run after success, career, lovers, so-called happiness; this woman wouldn’t be said to be “weak-willed” (and the same goes for a man). Men and women are usually almost praised for getting out relationships in order to achieve or find their own happiness. And this applies for anything else, you don’t need to break a relationship necessarily, you can simply spend less time and energy with a friend, your kids, etc. because your heart is after something else that does not include these people. People truly believe that what is most important is personal happiness, no matter if it hurts people around or not (although there are some boundaries when it comes to physically hurting people). Society says that seeking personal happiness is not being weak-willed, it’s actually the opposite.

What remains is that God calls unfaithfulness to Him to be weak. Unfaithfulness is the work of weak-willed people, because they are not willing to put aside their own view of what happiness should be, and follow God’s view of happiness. We are weak-willed not necessarily for looking for happiness, but for not believing that God knows what we need and refuse to simply trust and accept God’s will for us. Sometimes it seems that God’s will for His children is quite boring and rather hard. It doesn’t please our sinful nature. Well, we need to persevere, knowing that “We live by faith, not by sight”. (II Corinthians 5:7)

Hey look, I’ve got a twin brother!

I went to prayer meeting tonight. I guess I thought it was at 7:30 (like any good church you know…) but I when I sat down I thought I was mistaken because the pastor was giving a class on how to do evangelism with a special set of cards with drawings on them. I was almost going to ask if it was the prayer meeting but I realized that you don’t just pray at prayer meetings.

Some thoughts I had during the meeting:

1. Man, it feels as if we’re in the business of winning souls to Christ. All these tricks and… but I wonder why. Why do these people want to talk about Jesus to people?

2. Is it me or some people don’t really understand what the Gospel is all about? What does “Believing in Jesus” actually mean to you?

I am someone who really cares about motivation. I shouldn’t worry about other people’s motivation, that’s not of my business and what’s my motivation for caring so much about people’s motivation anyways? Oh well, what I mean to say is that I feel as if a lot of people want to see more and more people coming to Christ for reasons that do not necessarily glorify God or put Him first.

More people at church! They will finally have peace in their lives! She won’t go to Hell! He won’t have to struggle with that problem anymore!

To be sure these things are good and most are true, but I wonder if people are “getting saved” for the right reasons. It seems that we offer salvation because Jesus heals, feeds and mends the broken heart. People then receive salvation because they want to be healed, they want Jesus for His gifts. I don’t know, but for me, I want to see people coming to Christ so that more people can love and treasure and glorify God, not because they want to have a good, pleasant life or to have a bigger church or even, I don’t primarily care about people not going to Hell. I care about Christ being loved and magnified by sincere hearts.

People need to hear the Gospel – even the Christians. People need to be instructed in the Word. People need to read the Word. People need to know the truth and be rooted in it.

It’s now been four weeks that I’ve been in my internship and there is still two weeks to go (hey and I’m going to BC in a little more than two weeks too!) and the best word to describe my time is “stretching”.

In the 211 (bus) this morning I was listening to Timothy Keller on my ipod (thanks to my family for this wonderful birthday present!) and he was speaking on how to change. At one point he talked about the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23) and how sometimes, it is easy for people to think they’re growing and becoming more like Jesus because they do so much in the church. For some people who are stronger in the faith, to help and teach the weaker ones, makes them feel as if they themselves are fine and growing because the weaker ones are transformed by the stronger ones’ input in their lives: the weaker ones are becoming more loving, more patient, etc. through the stronger ones’ ministry.

Keller continues by saying that when people grow through your ministry, it does not necessarily mean that you are growing yourself. The fact that people become more like Jesus through your input is not one of the fruit of the Spirit.

Here end Keller’s thoughts, those are mine:

I think it’s very good that people can help weaker ones to grow and become more like Jesus. But let’s not confuse service and growth. Growth can and should be accomplish through service, but sometimes it does not work that way, depending on our heart’s conditions.

I have found myself going through tough times -not spiritually, but academically. I feel like I have the best cooperating teacher in my internship, but she has very high standards, so high that I wouldn’t be surprised that she would fail me. I don’t worry, that’s for sure. It is interesting how I’ve been feeling in spite of the stretch, frustration and concerns I’ve had about my planning for this internship. I often feel inadequate and I am everyday humbled by my cooperating teacher. She stretches and humbles me so much. Yes it is tough to go through this internship and I never feel like talking about my planning to my CT because I know that again my pride will be crushed and I’ll be reminded I can’t do anything that doesn’t need my CT’s input and changes. But, even though it is tough, I find myself rejoicing and embracing this time in my life. No, I don’t like it. But man, I’m learning! It’s like purposely holding a rose tight in my hand, feeling the thorns getting into my skin. But I still hold on to it.

All of this just to write a long post. No. Listening to Keller this morning helped me realize how important it is to have people who will stretch us spiritually. I’m stretched academically right now and I see how valuable it is. Being stretched spiritually, that is what will help us truly grow and become true disciples of Jesus Christ. It is not enough to think that because we’re serving and people are growing through us, we’re doing good. We need mentors and people that will stretch us. I would like to rejoice in spiritual stretching just as much as academic stretching.

Pray for me.

“Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain.

Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain.

In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat

for He grants sleep to those He loves.”

So it is right to labor and stand guard, to rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat – when the Lord is building and working for us. It is also right to rest because the Lord grants sleep to those He loves – He takes care of those He loves while they sleep, they need not to worry about toiling for their food. Sounds a lot like the sabbath to me. I believe it is important to sit back every once in a while and reflect on this verse and our lives: Is God building the house or am I toiling with my own efforts without Him?

It seems that there is always something that calls me back to praying for a certain teacher. You remember that I often wrote about a university teacher last year and how the teacher seemed to use a lot of Christian words and expressions but the teacher’s way of speaking about God-believers always frustrated me? (PS: it is hard to make up sentences without using he or she).

Well I was looking through a book the teacher wrote and gave us as something we had to read during this semester. Each chapter had a small quote by its title and the last chapter’s quote got my attention.

“Seeing many thing, but thou observest not.” Isaiah 40:20

The verse went quite well with the title of the chapter. I had a hard time actually believing that I was reading a Bible verse there, so I looked it up in my Bible, only to find out that Isaiah 40:20 was:

“A man too poor to present such an offering selects wood that will not rot. He looks for a skilled craftsman to set up an idol that will not topple.”

Finally I realized that my teacher’s quote was from Isaiah 42:20. I felt like I should let the teacher know about it, even though the vast majority of people probably hadn’t noticed a thing. So I sent the teacher an email. I pray that this will open up in a conversation about the Bible, who knows.

Yes, again there is something that keeps me praying about this teacher. Oh and by the way, I should be in a school somewhere, but I still have no news from the internship man and I can’t get a hold of him. I don’t worry, this is frustrating that’s all.

“By faith people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land … By faith the walls of Jericho fell … By faith the prostitute Rahab was no killed … And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. Women received back their dead, raised to life again.

Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.“

-Hebrews 11:29-38

Isn’t it interesting how faith leads to blessing and/or suffering.

A week ago or so I listened to John Piper’s sermon entitled, “The sale of Joseph and the Son of God”, VERY GOOD (thank you Jason). Piper described how Joseph kept getting the wrong stuff for the good he had done. He was faithful and righteous in everything, even though he couldn’t understand why he was going through such an odd and tough time in life. Things didn’t get better because Joseph was righteous. It took a long, long while, people’s sins and forgetfulness to finally bring Joseph to a blessed time in his life.

I wonder. Should we be looking for blessings in this life? Should I live in a way that will bring happiness and joy and comfort to me? Should I change my life or prayers if I don’t seem to be blessed in spite of my obedience and faithfulness o God?

The passage in Hebrew says that those who suffered did not get (on earth) what they were promised to receive. Conclusion: I should not think God is against me because my life is… du caca. Instead, I should simply keep going and persevere, doing what is right in the eyes of God and be sensitive to His Word. There is more to this passage and etc. but you might not want to fall asleep right now.