Who can tell me what this represents?

Get the answer, just around the corner...

Down to Business (pt.2)

It was a Sunday evening in the FTTA, and I was sifting through a stack of periodicals at Barnes & Noble. One article in the Harvard Business Review (HBR) caught my eye. Each year a panel selects the top articles from HBR and these become the Annual McKinsey Award Winners. So I was curious which article the McKinsey & Company panel had selected. Turns out the top article for 2010 is "How Will You Measure Your Life" by Clayton M. Christensen; it came from a speech given by Christensen to the 2010 graduating class at Harvard Business School. I want to highlight and apply a couple of excerpts, but you can view the full article here. 

Clayton M. Christensen is a distinguished professor at Harvard Business School, and if you read the above links you may appreciate this article more. But what really impressed me was the testimony of his experience as a student:

For me, having a clear purpose in my life has been essential. But it was something I had to think long and hard about before I understood it. When I was a Rhodes scholar, I was in a very demanding academic program, trying to cram an extra yearʼs worth of work into my time at Oxford. I decided to spend an hour every night reading, thinking, and praying about why God put me on this earth. That was a very challenging commitment to keep, because every hour I spent doing that, I wasnʼt studying applied econometrics. I was conflicted about whether I could really afford to take that time away from my studies, but I stuck with it—and ultimately figured out the purpose of my life.

Because I was raised in a Christian home and in college became very active student with the Christian Students club at UGA, this story touched me very much. How many college students spend an hour each day to muse upon the Word and consider the meaning of our human life? Do you allocate an hour each day to such a cause? Are you a Rhodes scholar at Oxford? That's probably more difficult than my upcoming semester in graduate school. Yet Christensen was able to allocate an hour each day to something he believed in. Later in the article there is a subheading that says "Choose the right yardstick." Here he expounds:

This past year I was diagnosed with cancer and faced the possibility that my life would end sooner than Iʼd planned. Thankfully, it now looks as if Iʼll be spared. But the experience has given me important insight into my life. 

I have a pretty clear idea of how my ideas have generated enormous revenue for companies that have used my research; I know Iʼve had a substantial impact. But as Iʼve confronted this disease, itʼs been interesting to see how unimportant that impact is to me now. Iʼve concluded that the metric by which God will assess my life isnʼt dollars but the individual people whose lives Iʼve touched.

I think thatʼs the way it will work for us all. Donʼt worry about the level of individual prominence you have achieved; worry about the individuals you have helped become better people. This is my final recommendation: Think about the metric by which your life will be judged, and make a resolution to live every day so that in the end, your life will be judged a success

If we consider today what yardstick we want to be measured by, we may determine that what really matters is not how people judge us, but how much of what we do has eternal value in God's eyes (take a look at 1 Corinthians 4:1-5). This really touches me, and as I head back to school want my time be allocated according to the highest meaning in the universe. I hope many of us would take this pattern and dedicate some time, even an hour each day, to dive into the Bible and get with other Christian students to explore the meaning of our human existence. 

And to me this is what ties these two excerpts together. If we are faithful to know God and through the Bible come to know the purpose of our life, automatically the lives of people around us will be changed. So tonight I want to challenge you with the same question: How will you measure your life? 

Reflections on the Full Ministry of Christ (pt.1)

Many believers have a historical Christ and a future Jesus. But what is Christ doing today? In a series of posts over the coming months I want to examine this topic and consider its proper, practical application to our Christian living. Contrary to popular belief, Jesus is not a carpenter hammering away to prepare physical mansions for us in heaven. If you've read the gospels you would agree that this notion is a silly non sequitur. We want the revelation that comes from the Word of God, not myths that come from wild imaginations. 

I intend to progressively investigate this topic in three sections:  incarnation, inclusion, and intensification.  With this focus I believe we will gain a panoramic view of Christ’s full ministry. 

Two principles can guide us as we explore this subject. The first is that we desire to "know Christ” (Phil. 3:10). We want a “knowing” of Christ that is neither common nor general, but specific and particular.

And I will give them a heart to know me, that I am Jehovah; and they will be My people, and I will be their God; for they will return to Me with their whole heart. (Jeremiah 24:7)

The second principle is that as we see and know Christ we want also to "gain Christ” (Phil. 3:8). This means that we experience and enjoy Christ in each stage of his ministry. We are here to “learn Christ”  in a way that will revolutionize our Christian life!

From the outset, we have to acknowledge that all Scripture is God-breathed 
(2 Tim 3:16). Accordingly, we would never assume that God’s speaking in the New Testament is limited only to “red letters.” Rather, we want to examine the entire speaking of God.

The facts are that God is not silent, has never been silent. It is the nature of God to speak. The second Person of the Holy Trinity is called the Word.The Bible is the  inevitable outcome of God’s continuous speech. (A.W. TOZER, The Pursuit of God)

Dabbling into Dickens

Everyone knows the heart-gripping, painful conclusion of Tale of Two Cities. And everyone, of course, knows this is one of my favorite and most revered chapters in the narrow sphere of secular literature that I can ever recall reading. Here's a snippet:

I see that I hold a sanctuary in their hearts, and in the hearts of their descendants, generations hence. I see her, an old woman, weeping for me on the anniversary of this day. I see her and her husband, their course done, lying side by side in their last earthly bed, and I know that each was not more honoured and held sacred in the other's soul, than I was in the souls of both...It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.

These to me are perhaps the most powerful lyrics of the entire piece. Yet they pale, fade, wither, etc. when compared to a single phrase uttered by Jesus on the cross, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is interpreted, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" Here is the ultimate sacrifice, the ultimate price, for behind it we find the most meaningful purpose of all creation. Perhaps this is where Dicken's novel is so touching; here, where it climaxes with asymptotic approach the ultimate sacrifice ever known to mankind.

And then we have the classic, epic, (and potentially hackneyed) opening stanza to this book, in which Dickens poetically recounts in the most superfluous fashion:

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way -- in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

Here it seems as if Dickens was gathering some inspiration from Paul's testimony in 2 Corinthians 6:9-11, where the apostle describes a life of ministry as one who is being poured out on behalf of the souls of those for whom he labored. Where in other places the apostle describes the new covenant ministry (4:1, etc), here he portrays the living of the new covenant ministers:

As unknown and yet well known; as dying and yet behold we live; as being disciplined and yet not being put to death; As made sorrowful yet always rejoicing; as poor yet enriching many; as having nothing and yet possessing all things. Our mouth is opened to you, Corinthians; our heart is enlarged. 

For all the verbosity that is Charles Dickens, what I most appreciate about this chapter is his narrative personification (de rigueur?) of Fate and Death, the Woodman and the Farmer. The harbingers of revolution are bustling about, but they work unceasingly; they work silently. And it is this tantalizing art that makes A Tale of Two Cities into such a classic. So we end here tonight, with an excerpt from what now happens to be my favorite chapter in English literature:

It is likely enough that, rooted in the woods of France and Norway, there were growing trees, when that sufferer was put to death, already marked by the Woodman, Fate, to come down and be sawn into boards, to make a certain movable framework with a sack and a knife in it, terrible in history. It is likely enough that in the rough outhouses of some tillers of the heavy lands adjacent to Paris, there were sheltered from the weather that very day, rude carts, bespattered with rustic mire, snuffed about by pigs, and roosted in by poultry, which the Farmer, Death, had already set apart to be his tumbrels of the Revolution. But that Woodman and that Farmer, though they work unceasingly, work silently, and no one heard them as they went about with muffled tread: the rather, forasmuch as to entertain any suspicion that they were awake, was to be atheistical and traitorous. 

Verse of the Week

Here is a verse I've enjoyed this week and finally was able to locate today:

"Now give me wisdom and knowledge, that I may go out and come in before this people; for who can judge this great people of Yours?"

- 2 Chronicles 1:10

This was Solomon's prayer - that he would be proper before the people of God. As we "go out and come in" before God's people, we need to have such a heart. The next verse is encouraging to me (v.11):

"Then God said to Solomon, Because this is on your heart and you have not asked for riches, wealth, or honor, nor for the life of those who hate you, nor have you even asked for long life, but have asked for wisdom and knowledge for yourself so that you may judge My people over whom I have made you king;"

The more we know God, the more we will know what is on His heart. Then, rather than asking for material blessing or outward consolation, our heart would be turned to care for the people of God. Eventually, like the sons of Korah in Psalm 84 we could proclaim, "Blessed is the man whose strength is in You; In whose heart are the highways to Zion." 

Exploring the Triune God

“For many today the Trinity lacks the vibrancy with which it once charged the early church and has become an arcane fundamental arousing little appreciation or even interest.”

(Kerry S. Robichaux, “Axioms of the Trinity,” Affirmation and Critique. 1996)

For proper study of the significance of Christ’s incarnation, I hope firstly that our view and attitude regarding the Trinity would be proper. Though this subject has driven theological debate from the early church to present, we cannot afford to dismiss this as a topic reserved for only for theologians. Any endeavor toward a pellucid understanding of Christ’s incarnation requires a proper view regarding what the Trinity is, and equally important, what it is not. That being said, the scope of this blog does not allow for exhaustive exploration of the Trinity. However, related to our study of the Trinity I would make the following points:  

• Avoid “spiritual myopia” that may develop if you try to understand the Trinity apart from a desire to know God and the purpose of God.  Our God in His very being is Triune; eternally three yet one. With Genesis 1:26, for example, we open a window into the purpose of God that is intimately related to triune nature of God: “And God said, Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.” This establishes an important principle. So approach any study of the Trinity with a view to see: 
• How is the triune nature of God related to the purpose of God.
• What are the implications of a Triune God in the economy of God’s salvation? Related to this was found the following article from Affirmation and Critique (quoted below) tremendously helpful, and would wholeheartedly commend it to you.

• Beware of “Trinity diagrams” that claim to graphically illustrate the Trinity. We are not obligated to construct tidy diagrams attempting to systematize the Trinity or reconcile the triune nature of God. These endeavors jeopardize the truth and one point the truth. Remember, you are not studying the Krebs’s cycle or some other natural phenomenon that can easily be reduced to a chart or graph. This is the nature of God.

John Calvin’s utterance rings appropriate here: “Finitum non capax infinitum.” It means literally “the finite cannot grasp the infinite.” Pertaining to God’s incomprehensibility this implies that human beings bound by space and time will never have a comprehensive knowledge of God. Yet this surely does not suggest that God is fundamentally unknowable or unintelligible. Surely, we should not shy away from a rich and full realization of the truth regarding the Triune God.

Closing Thoughts:

We need to embrace the entire revelation of the Holy Scriptures. If our attitude regarding the Triune God is shallow and cloudy, our understanding of Christ’s incarnation will consequently be superficial and limited. 

What is the church?

In the past all the churches tried to invite gifted co-workers to work, preach the gospel, and edify their saints. But I would ask a question: What is the church? The church is where everyone rises up to serve. The church is not just a few people like Witness Lee, Watchman Nee, and Peace Wang. Only when the entire Body rises up is there the church. The church is the Body of Christ, and everyone is useful. We should never think that we have the church as long as we have a wooden table to conduct the Lord's table or that we have the church as long as we have a few strong members. The church involves all the material, that is, all the one-talented ones coming together to serve. Not everyone has to be like Brother Lee before he can be a piece of material. The church is not a conglomeration of five-talented ones; it is not a corporation of two-talented ones. It is a Body composed mainly of one-talented ones. When men like you and I come together to serve, we have the church. When all the one-talented ones are coordinated together, that will be a potent force. Only by serving this way will we have a strong church.

You should not put your hope on better and stronger ones coming to join you. You can gospelize the place where you are with the number you have now. In a strong church a great evangelist would be treated just like one of the brothers. Suppose there is a church with two or three hundred people. There may not be any five-talented and two-talented ones. Perhaps all the saints are one-talented ones. You may think that something is lacking, but if all these so-called "untalented" ones would coordinate together, God would have a way to go on. Never think that you are too short. A person like yourself is more than qualified. I believe that the age of giants is over in the church life. Perhaps in the next generation, the so-called "giants" that we have now will disappear altogether. Today is the end time forgiants. What God wants today is the service of the whole Body. Today God forbids any member from becoming too strong. What He wants is a strong church.

(Collected Works of Watchman Nee, The (Set 3) Vol. 62: Matured Leadings in the Lord's Recovery (2), Chapter 2, Section 4)

Life-study of Hebrews (45)

Have you ever been asked whether your salvation is eternally secure? Today some are theologians are peddling this teaching of an "elevator salvation" which blatantly undermines the pure revelation of the Scripture. Imagine that you could wake up one morning as a called, redeemed, and regenerated person but then loose your salvation by the end of the day? Such an erroneous concept actually exposes a huge cavity of misunderstanding in today's theological circles regarding regeneration (more on this later). Anyway, in this chapter Witness Lee addresses this pernicious teaching and unpacks a few verses (e.g. Eph. 1:5, John 6:39, 1 John 4:10, Rom. 8:38-39, Rom. 1:16-17, Heb. 8:8-13, John 10:28-29, James 1:17, Rom.  8:34) to draw a clear line between dispensational punishment and eternal perdition. I'm not going to be able to summarize the main points, but here are two enjoyable quotes:

Both God's selection and calling, being initiated by Him, not by us, are the security of our salvation.

 Our works may often fail, but God's grace never fails. our salvation is secured not by our works but by God's prevailing grace which comes out of His unchanging love.

(Lee, Witness. Life-study of Hebrews, p.501) 

Bible & Ministry Reading Project

It is likely that this plan is overly-ambitious, but I'm going to attempt a creative Bible & ministry reading schedule. The idea is that each day you read 1 chapter of the Bible, 1 Life-study message, and 1 chapter in a ministry book. So here goes...

I'm currently reading 1 John w/ footnotes; with the help of the Read His Word website. This aspect of the schedule is simple. It involves reading just the verses in the morning, and coming back to read the footnotes later in the day. Whether we do a whole chapter a day or less is insignificant. My main priority is that each morning begin with a nourishing time in the Word. And ReadHisWord.com is helpful because I want to set deadlines and (attempt to) keep them.

For a few months I've been reading through the Life-study of Hebrews, by Witness Lee. Today I'm slated to read message forty-four (that's 44) regarding our coming forward to the Holy of Holies rather than shrinking back to Judaism - which actually is surprisingly relevant to our Christian living today. Anyway, the idea with the Life-study reading is nothing too fancy, just read, highlight, underline, enjoy, etc. The days of outlining Life-study messages (often on a Monday) are now just a treasured memory.

The real highlight of this schedule is the daily ministry reading rotation. This may turn out to be overwhelming, but I consider it nothing more than a solution to a daunting, even life-threatening issue (i.e., which ministry books to read and where to begin). So each day (Monday - *Friday) receives a ministry book assignment based on five, okay, maybe six categories:

1. High Peak books

2. Witness Lee classics

2. God-ordained Way messages

3. Watchman Nee classics

4. Ministry of the Word Magazine

5. Secular reading (give me a break)

6. *Whatever I want to read

Okay sure, there could obviously be overlap between these categories. Strictly speaking they are not mutually exclusive; a book I consider as a "Witness Lee classic" could possibly be a high peak book or a GOW book, but I'm making the rules, not you. 

So each of these categories will correspond to a day of the week. There could possibly be significance to the matching of day and category (like a delicate wine and cheese pairing, if you will). For example, if you select the Ministry Magazine that matches your HWMR it may fit well on Saturday as you begin to compose your prophesy. A GOW book might be fun to read on Friday. You could read it before your home meeting to figure out what to do, or after the home meeting to figure out what you did wrong. Of if you're slick you might just start your week in the GOW.

Obviously these pairings need more consideration and thorough prayer. Each day this week (starting tonight) I'll have a post to introduce the "book of the day" and explain why it was selected. If you are lucky there may even be a frameable (spelling?) quote or tasty excerpt. Stay tuned...


*Saturday is still under consideration,

Exploring Luther's Theology

Luther's famous words: "In ipsa fide Christus adest." Literally, "the faith itself Christ is present". The faith not only has Christ's work as its object, but in the faith Christ is present. Christ is not only "outside" of us, but comes "in" us. Through faith, Christ lives in the human being. From Interview with the theologian Eero Huovinen, Lutheran Bishop of Helsinki by Niels Christian Hvidt and Gianni Valente.)

Amen!

Psalm 84:5

Blessed is the man whose strength is in You, / In whose heart are the highways to Zion.

Darby Quote

"Oh, the joy of having nothing and being nothing, seeing nothing but a Living Christ in glory, and being careful for nothing but His interests down here." - J.N.D.

my spirit

2 Cor. 2:13
I had no rest in my spirit, for I did not find Titus my brother; but taking leave of them, I went forth into Macedonia.

2 Cor. 7:13
Because of this we have been comforted. And in addition to our comfort, we rejoice more abundantly over the joy of Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed by all of you.

An Excerpt

According to [Acts] 4:33, great grace was upon all the believers. The law makes demands upon man according to what God is, but grace supplies man with what God is to meet what God demands. Actually, grace is God Himself enjoyed by man. Grace is the resurrected Christ becoming the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45) to bring the processed God in resurrection into us to be our life and life supply so that we may live in resurrection. Therefore, grace is the Triune God becoming life and everything to us.

Witness Lee, Life-Study of Acts: Message Seventeen.