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Text: 2 Peter 1:3-4 ● I would love for all of us to finally become convinced
that the potential for the life that I desire already resides in me through
the Holy Spirit, so that I will no longer feel pressure to change who I am
in order to secure the love my heart longs for. That we can pursue
transformation simply as a response to love. ● Every human creature has an innate yearning for the
fullest experience of God, ourselves and others in a way that is in keeping
with Creative-design--- a way that makes us feel most alive.
This yearning, this hunger, this desire--- however you choose to
describe it, can easily be neglected or ignored, but it never leaves us.
Most often,
because the desire is so strong and our failure to satisfy it so obvious, we
choose more attainable ambitions--- collect ‘spiritual souvenirs’ (like the
grapes the spies brought back, after performing their ‘feasibility study’),
getting by, making it, surviving, etc. ● Jesus would never let anyone get by with a ‘superficial’
approach to life or God. He brought a message that undeniably connected with
people at a deeper level; a message that seemed to address the deepest
longings of their hearts--- a message of loving-exposure. Whether it was a woman with a long history of failed
marriages, the stealthy tax-collector in the tree or the religious leader
setting up a clandestine rendezvous with Jesus, they were all confronted
with the deep ache in their hearts and the many methods they utilized in
order to numb the pain or ignore the tension.
[relationships---success---religious systems] ● I have identified (4) concepts that our theology rarely
allows room for: [evidenced in modern teaching, song, literature] 1. Deficiency: our own apart from God and an unwillingness
to accept ‘partial fulfillment’.
2.
Perseverance as an indispensable component of our faith [because endurance
presupposes adversity and fatigue].
Your life does
not need to be free of pain and unexplainable crisis in order to ‘validate’
your faith.
3. Grace as
the ‘unaided’ movement of God toward us.
Grace ceases
to be grace if it is offered as a ‘gratuity’ for our compliance; and, grace
ceases to be grace if it can be withdrawn due to our inconsistency.
4.
Transformation as the indescribable power of God to radically alter the
nature of the human person. ● You can tell when the pleasures you are pursuing are not
‘filling the hollow space’ when the enjoyment doesn’t reach all the way to
your soul. Those experiences have proven somewhat superficial, but they feel
satisfying when your participating in them [sex, eating, receiving the
award, exercising, etc.] If your experience has been like mine, here’s what the
cycle usually looks like: dissatisfaction (usually manifests itself as
‘boredom’)--- momentary pleasure--- deep sensations of emptiness--- regret
and intense self-loathing--- gravelling (where we come to God and offer him
the list of all the reasons that he shouldn’t love us!)--- relief. Maybe part of the process is getting past ‘temporary
relief’ to ‘restoration’. ● Have you ever noticed that sometimes you fall right into
the evil that you never planned to do? That sin was the result of your
‘really good intentions’? [i.e. like the ‘incident/accident free’ counter
posted at Safeway] ►We are not looking to change into something else, but be
transformed into who we really are. Soren Kierkegard’s prayer:
“And now Lord, with your help, I
shall become myself”. ● At birth, a baby is fully human, but not fully
developed; at new birth, you are already fully a child, fully
loved by the Father, a welcomed member of God’s family, but your life will
be spent growing into who you already are. ►At issue is our need to be human; the solution is not to
become something ‘other than’ human--- anything other is ‘inhumane’
(distortion of who we are as image-bearing creation). ● From what I have discovered in the story, to be human is
to have…
…significance
through a vital union with God and healthy life-giving relationships with
others. It is to be ‘centered in’ and ‘centered by’ God. At issue was that ‘our eyes were opened’ (Gen.3:7); our
self-consciousness replaced God-consciousness. As a result, we became
‘disoriented’ and ‘disconnected’… no longer centered in God.
…a place to
belong… security. Being centered in God meant that you were loved simply
because you were the ‘handiwork’ of a loving, Creator-God. In that type of
environment, you can live without fear of being rejected or losing your
place. ● Frankly, we all long to belong and that need is so
strong that we will actually pursue ‘unhealthy community’ over isolation. We
will find a place to belong even if that place is self-destructive. ● At issue is that now instead of being more aware of and
celebrating others as fellow ‘image-bearers’, sin caused us to become more
of each other’s brokenness. So we ‘perform’ and we ‘avoid risks’ for fear of
failure. When we experience the inevitable failure, we either take it out on
others through blame or ourselves through guilt/shame.
… a sense of
inherent value/worth. At issue is ‘shame’--- the feelings of worthlessness we
feel as a result of having failed. It forces us “into the bushes”, so to
speak; to conceal who we really are. We isolate ourselves and involve
ourselves in all sorts of self-destructive behaviors because we have
convinced ourselves that ‘it’s just who we are’.
It’s mistaking the feelings of ‘disconnectedness’ for ‘abandonment’. It’s
why God so quickly pursues those who have failed (e.g. Peter, Adam and Eve). ● It’s the feelings produced in a generation of children
who have been abandoned by the people who should have been there creating an
atmosphere of loving-acceptance, of inherent worth and significance. It’s
the feeling that God can’t love them because not even my mother could. Isaiah 49:15
“Can a mother forget
(ignore; neglect; cease to care for) her nursing child? Can she feel no love
for the child she has borne? But even if that were possible, I would not
forget (neglect; ignore; stop caring for) you!” ►To say that God loves you despite your brokenness is only
part of the story. I am coming to recognize more and more that this longing I
feel in my heart, to really live, to really love, to be from of judgment
(myself and others), to refuse to keep track of all the wrongs done to me,
to prevent me from using words that ‘tear down’ others so that I might feel
good about myself… it’s all about the Spirit of God groaning within me at
the point of my brokenness and the longing he has for me to be whole (Romans
8). God will not be satisfied until you are whole! Staying with us through the process of transformation
proves the limitless nature of love [how many stories have you heard of
brokenness and desperation and heard them say,
‘Everyone else was gone except...
They really loved me’ ]. ● God desires to bring this incredible transformation in
your life so that his glory can be on display [Ephesians 1:12, 14;
Colossians 1:27]. But, most often, the process of transformation centers on
human progress rather than the glory of God. There is no better way to develop any
relationship than to give yourself to
discovering the ‘glory’ of another. ►Love, Paul
says, leaves me no choice.
Paul says that
“love constrains him” (2
Cor.5:14) Love actually ‘narrows’ life and ‘compresses’ it (lit.) ● You’ll never have to use ‘guilt’ or ‘obligation’ as a
means of motivating people who have come to understand and have experienced
this kind of love; they have no choice! You won’t ever have to run through the laundry-list of
‘perks’ for pursuing God; simply help convince them that they are loved. ►We
seem to have exchanged the wonder of being loved for a more “sophisticated”
approach to God (one more “methodical” and “systematic”… one that, quite
frankly, has sucked the life out of our relationship and left us less than
appealing to a world that’s trying to figure Him out). So, maybe it’s not that we overestimate
evil/brokenness, it’s that we
underestimate the power of love. ● I think our pursuit of transformation will be greatly
affected by how we answer and respond to these questions: Which is more formidable: light or darkness?
Which do you feel is more powerful: human depravity or the
transforming power of God? Which is more powerful:
death or resurrection? John 1 “… the light
shines in the darkness and the darkness can never extinguish it”. Light
always wins! Ephesians 2:1-4 [read from the Message] Galatians 2:20-21a
“My old self has been crucified with Christ. It’s no longer I who live, but
Christ who lives in me. So, I live in this earthly body by trusting in the
Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” ►Maybe there’s another motivation for our pursuit of life
and godliness?! What type
of life do you think you might live if, in fact, your pursuits were guided
by the knowledge that you are already “in Christ”? That you are already
loved beyond imagination? That you need not perform to get his attention?
That you are already ‘holy’, so just ‘be holy’?
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