Obedience, trembling and embracing

Posted on September 12, 2016 Written by Mark McIntyre Leave a Comment

This morning I was reading through the Sermon on the Mount and a phrase from the Westminster Confession of Faith (WCF) came to mind. In response to Scripture, the WCF speaks of

“. . . yielding obedience to the commands, trembling at the threatenings, and embracing the promises of God for this life, and that which is to come.”

The reason this phrase came to mind is that I was struck by how poorly I put into practice what Jesus commands in his sermon. I’m not very good at turning the other cheek. I balk at going the second mile. I grumble about, rather than pray for, my enemies. These are just a few of the ways I fall short of living out the commands of Scripture.

The bad news is that I will never be able to live out the commands of the Sermon on the Mount. This would be overwhelming if it wasn’t for the good news.

The good news (the literal meaning of the word “gospel”) is that God has made a provision for me to get past my inability.

In Christ I am forgiven. In Christ I am not condemned. My inability to live the Christian life has been taking into account and a fix has been implemented.

In Christ, I have the opportunity to obey the commands, tremble at the threatenings and embrace the promises. I can do so, not with the intention of earning merit with God. Rather, I can do so like a child seeking to emulate a loving father. Love is a much better motivation.

The irony of this is that by giving up the desire to put myself in a better standing with God, I then actually am in a better standing. I move from acting from duty or self-interest to acting from love. While God does not love me any more or any less as a result of my behavior, obedience, trembling and embracing align my thinking and behavior with God’s desire.

I find that increased obedience brings increased peace to my soul.

A lesson learned from a genealogy

Posted on October 5, 2012 Written by Mark McIntyre 2 Comments

In reading through the names in the genealogy in Matthew 1, it is tempting to skip through to verse 18 where the text gets more interesting. “Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of . . . .” is not riveting reading. It is like walking through a graveyard. There are a bunch of names of dead people who seemingly have very little impact on how I get through my day.

Some of the names are important people in Israel’s history. Of others we know nothing more than their name and where they fit in the genealogy. Some were obedient to God and were praised; some were disobedient and went on to ignominy.

This is exactly the choice that all men (and women) have to make. We choose to be obedient or disobedient; we must make this choice every moment of every day. Like those men in the genealogy, our lives will be defined by the sum of our choices. We cannot work our way into Heaven (Ephesians 2:8-9), but Jesus does give indication that there will be rewards and a hierarchy in eternity. It is through obedience and service that the rewards are accumulated.

Rich or poor, influential or insignificant, popular or unknown, talented or untalented, we all are called to follow God in obedience. In that sense we are all the same. We cannot use the excuse that our choices do not matter, because all of Scripture teaches us that they do. Specifically, the words of Jesus in Luke 16:10-13 come to mind:

“He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much. Therefore if you have not been faithful in the use of unrighteous wealth, who will entrust the true riches to you? And if you have not been faithful in the use of that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” (NASB)

Someone told me “mind your pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves.” In the same way, if we choose faithfulness in the little things, the foundation will be laid for faithfulness in the big things.

Let us choose to be obedient in the small things.

Numbering our days: a reflection on Psalm 90

Posted on July 14, 2012 Written by Mark McIntyre 1 Comment

Beyond a temporal understanding

I have been reading through the Psalms. Recently I came to Psalm 90 where it says, “So teach us to number our days, that we may present to you a heart of wisdom.” (Psalm 90:12) This is a verse that has often been quoted, usually in the sense of expressing urgency to get busy in doing work for the Kingdom of God. In this understanding, the emphasis is on the fleeting nature of time and how we have, on average, some 70 years to accomplish things for God before life comes to an end.

If this is the correct understanding of this verse, wisdom would dictate that we discover our calling and work hard at accomplishing the most in the time we have allotted. Ephesians 5:15-16 would seem to support this understanding when Paul writes:

Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil.

I have even heard it said that we should keep a running countdown of the days until our 70^th birthday so that we can be aware of how much time we have left to work for the Kingdom. While the countdown is not a bad idea, I think that it does not capture the whole point of the prayer in the context of the Psalm. Awareness of the brevity of our days has benefit, but the focus should not be on what we plan on accomplishing but upon what God wants to accomplish through us.

Obedience is the key

Moving a few verses back in the Psalm, it can be seen that the context of the prayer is God’s judgment against Israel for their rebellion. In verse 8 it says, “You have placed our iniquities before You, our secret sins in the light of Your presence.” In other words we are to live with the understanding that we are under the scrutiny of God and as a result, we must have an understanding of our finite nature and respond to God properly. It is not our temporal awareness that is in question, but our ability to obey.

In reading the rest of the Psalm I have a sense that some of the anger at the nation of Israel was due to presumption on their part. They presumed upon God’s tolerance and as a result they reaped God’s anger. Can we not do the same? We can be busy doing all sorts of things and convince ourselves that we are doing it for God. Jesus often rebuked the Pharisees for this type of hypocrisy. The question is not whether we are busy, the question is are we being responsive to God?

On the basis of this, I see Psalm 90:12 as a request to help us understand our finiteness rather than an encouragement to pack in as much in our 70 years as possible. The lesson we learn from Matthew 7:21-23 is that activity is not the cause for reward, relationship with Jesus Christ is. This prayer is not a call to busyness or activity, it is a call to submission to God.

It is God’s plan

I do not for a minute buy into the argument that there is something that God needs me to do and I am the only one to do it. Yes, God allows me to participate in the accomplishment of his will but my rebellion or incompetence cannot derail his plan. I do not have to race the clock to get something accomplished for God. This is freeing if I allow it to be.

What I do need to do is bring my finite understanding to God and seek him for what I should be about today. Do we really believe Jesus when he said take not thought for tomorrow? I don’t need to plan out what I need to accomplish for God, I need to do what he has asked me to do today. God will take care of the years moving forward if I simply submit each day to him.

Growth in trees or believers

Posted on May 18, 2011 Written by Mark McIntyre 1 Comment

The Observation

I walked through our yard yesterday to check out the 25 Colorado Blue Spruce trees I planted a few weeks ago. They were bare root seedlings similar to what is shown in the picture to the left. I was looking at the trees to see if I could observe any growth.

Bare root trees come with no dirt around the roots and therefore, the root system endures a set back as they are shipped and then planted. The trees must expend a lot of energy into producing a healthy root system after being planted. In the first year or so, most of the growth will be below ground and not visible.

When we look at the Church, we have people in all stages of spiritual growth. Like the trees, it is sometimes difficult to assess how much growth is really taking place because we cannot see below the surface.

The Danger

In both trees and people there is danger in assessing the growth by what can be seen on the surface. Just because none can be seen does not mean that growth is not taking place.

In fact, it is the growth below the surface that is the more important. In trees, a strong, developed root system is necessary to sustain the growth above the surface. The developed root system can allow the tree to survive periods of drought, endure high winds and provide the nutrition that the tree requires.

Similarly, the spiritual development in the believer is crucial as a foundation for living the Christian life. Without this spiritual development, the believer will struggle to withstand periods of doubt and trial and will be acting out of superficial conformity rather than conviction.

True change in a person must happen from the inside out. External motivations tend to produce temporary results. The change brought about by external motivation only continues until a stronger motivation replaces it. Whereas internal conviction can withstand the pressures from the outside.

Understand that while we would like to be able to observe and measure the growth in both Christians and trees, without the invisible, subsurface , foundational growth, the external growth cannot be supported.

The Solution

As I see it the solution is quite simple. The solution is to understand that spiritual growth is all about relationship. It cannot be assessed by do’s and don’ts. It cannot be assessed by lists of “spiritual” disciplines. Spiritual growth can only be assessed by a deepening of the relationship with God.

In John 14:15, Jesus tells us that love for him will result in obedience to his commands. To be in obedience, one has to acknowledge that obedience is the proper response and then work toward understanding the desires of the master to whom obedience is due.

In Romans 15:14-17, Paul talks about the role of preaching / teaching in bringing about faith. So perhaps a good test of spiritual growth is the willingness to hear and interact with Scripture.

The Conclusion

The discipleship process has to be focused on deepening the relationship with God. Any process or program that does not have this focus will engender a false sense of maturity or worse yet, spiritual pride.

In focusing on the relationship with God and not on externals, the mentor must not rely too heavily on apparent external change. The external change will eventually show if there is growth, but there may be some lag. Don’t panic and don’t loose sight of the foundation.

If we keep the focus on Jesus Christ and Scripture, growth will come. Isaiah 55:11 says:

so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.