Monthly Archives: January 2015

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:3

If we had only the first Beatitude I believe we could construct the entirety of the Christian faith. I’ll give it a try.

First, we find that God wants to bless us. This Greek word, and its Hebrew parallel, mean something akin to happiness, but much more. God is not interested in cursing or smiting us, but blessing us. He longs to do that. At the very least that means that He is positively predisposed to us. He doesn’t look at us in disgust, but with a deep and loving desire to bless us.

I said blessedness is much more than surface-level happiness. Here’s what I mean. I can live without happiness, but not without blessedness. The plain fact of life is that difficulties are certain but they are not my undoing. Instead, they are a means of growth. Trials strengthen. I arrive at the other end of a dark valley with an abiding sense that I was never alone. That is joy, which is far better and more eternal than happiness.

So we can see initially that we have a God who longs to bless us, and that the challenges of life do not obstruct His goal but actually enhance it.

Second, this foundational Beatitude tells us that receiving this blessedness is a matter of being poor in spirit. That doesn’t sound very attractive. To get any position in life, we try to present the very best face possible. But here we apparently show up before God with warts and all. The paradox deepens. Being powerless before God does not mean our humiliation, but rather our exaltation. At our weakest God reveals His power.

Ironically, but very predictably, we resist doing what will heal us. We trust in our ego, and will do almost anything to defend ourselves from the truth of our incapacity because we fear it will be painful. We almost inevitably cling to what must be removed or changed. This common denial enslaves us all.

The alternative is to be poor in spirit, and thus cast ourselves completely into God’s hands. Instead of finding condemnation and rejection, we find forgiveness and grace. The smiling God of blessing reveals Himself as a tender Father who accepts us in our weakness and begins to exalt us.

Finally, through this process we find that we have gained the kingdom of heaven. It is “ours.” I believe Jesus meant that heaven is the home we have always sought. We hear the vaguest echoes of it in various pleasures and pursuits but make the mistake of scrambling after more pleasures and pursuits. If we simply surrender and turn to God, then we find the object of our longing. We are home.

The core of Christianity involves a fundamental surrender and paradox. We give up and gain. We die and live. The German mystic Meister Eckhart said the spiritual life has much more to do with subtraction than addition. The first Beatitude takes us to the very heart of Christ, to whom we surrender all and receive everything.

Grace,

Dr. Terry Ellis

January 24, 2015

“I press on to make it my own…straining forward to what lies ahead.” Philippians 3:12-13

Last week I noted the most important truth that enables us to press forward in life is the certain knowledge that God is on our side. We are not left to our own devices. We begin with God and His power in our lives. Abandoning ourselves to Him opens up the possibility of eternal consistency in a fluctuating life.

But the other side of the coin is just as important. We must respond to God’s grace. We must ask, seek, and knock. James wrote, “faith without works is dead.” So the second part of pressing ahead focuses on our effort.

We simply must have a constancy of effort to live well. Paul, the great proponent of grace, understood the important balance of God’s offer and our response. “I am straining forward” depicts a man who simply refuses to let life get him down. Think of it. Perhaps the greatest Christian who ever lived, near the end of his life, still yearning for spiritual horizons he had only glimpsed. With all of his accomplishments, he still wanted to press ahead.

Winston Churchill took leadership of England during one of the darkest periods in its existence. Defeat at the hands of the Nazis seemed imminent, but slowly the tide began to turn and Great Britain achieved a few modest victories. They had reached an intersection. It was at this time, however, that Churchill warned against the tendency to feel an exaggerated sense of accomplishment. On Nov. 2, 1942 he made this famous statement, “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”

Do not feel that you have arrived. Make the commitment to keeping a constant effort of prayer, reading scripture and devotional literature, worshiping, etc. Keep believing! I know it’s hard sometimes. It was hard for Paul in that prison, but determination is a powerful asset.

Constancy of effort is mandatory. Sitting around waiting for God to make you happy is fruitless. Straining forward and pressing on enables you to see the blessings that God has for you.

One of the great passions in my theology is the deep belief that God wants us to be joyful. The challenge is divorcing joy from circumstances. I can’t demand or try to orchestrate pleasant circumstances as a prerequisite for my joy. We may well find ourselves in miserable situations, but that does not preclude joy. Paul was in a miserable situation when he wrote his most joyous letter. But even in prison he was alert to God’s grace and saw it everywhere.

A friend of mine prayed one time, “Lord, we thank you for every evidence of Your love in our lives.” I like the phrasing of that prayer, “every evidence of your love,” because it is a reminder that God’s love is constant. And if we develop a sensitivity to His love then we see it constantly even in the most unlikely circumstances. Life at its best is not something we find at the end of the struggle, but something we find as we struggle. It’s found in pressing ahead, no matter what. In the day to day working out of your faith, God provides reminders of His love and presence to sustain you.

The Christian life is the most exciting way to live! God meets us daily, indwells us, awakens us to eternity in the present moment. We simply have to keep striving. A survey of people over ninety asked this question, “what would you do differently if you had to live your life over again.” One of the most frequent responses was, “I would risk more.” Take the risk of claiming every day for God.

William James, the great philosopher said, “If you have an emotion do something; if you don’t you won’t have it any more.” Give expression to your highest ideals. Live out your faith more fully. Take the challenge from God and respond to it. Do not wait. Ideals, noble impulses are like muscles, if you don’t use them they atrophy.

Press on in 2015. Begin by pressing on today.

Grace,

Dr. Terry Ellis

January 19, 2015

“Because Jesus Christ has made me His own.” Philippians 3:12

Letting go and pressing ahead is our theme for the start of this new year, and the last two weeks of GraceWaves have focused on letting go. Now let’s turn our attention to the equally important skill of pressing ahead.

2015 will be like every other year you have lived, 365 days of mostly good days and a few really bad ones. I’d be willing to wager that the vast majority of us will have 360 fair to good days and only 5 bad days. Really. I mean five days when we hear about the death of a loved one, or get a bad diagnosis, etc. We tend to magnify the bad and focus on it. Suffice it to say we will have a mixture of good and bad.

How will we make it? How will we press on?

I am reminded of one of my favorite stories told by Walter Shurden. He tells of the time he was a student in seminary and Carlyle Marney came to speak in chapel. Marney was a famous Baptist theologian, well-educated and well spoken. Shurden wrote that Marney’s sermon was well above the heads of most of the faculty and all of the students in attendance that day. Marney was certainly a deep thinker and not necessarily given to speaking simply especially to a group that was academically oriented. Shurden wrote that in keeping with an age old tradition at seminary everyone left the chapel acting like they knew exactly what Marney was talking about.

Marney was also scheduled to address the class Shurden attended right after the chapel hour. He came to answer any questions the students might have had about the topic. Shurden said that an first year student who didn’t know enough to act like he knew everything stood up and said, “Dr. Marney, I didn’t understand a thing you were talking about in chapel a little while ago. Can you please tell me in simple English, just what is the gospel of Jesus Christ?”

Marney eyed the young man in a rather intimidating fashion. He then turned to the board picked up a piece of chalk and wrote, God Is For You, and he underlined For. “That,” Marney said, “is the simple gospel of Jesus Christ.” He could have underlined you as well.

The mindset for moving forward must be established on a firm and unchanging truth, and the most basic of these is the unwavering love of God for each one of us. “God loves you” is neither trite nor simplistic. It is the most profound truth in your life. It is the good news. He has made you, and has made you His own. Whatever happens this year, good or bad, nothing changes that immutable fact of your existence. The most important truths are the simplest, and this one is simple.

My struggle is that I often give more power to my problems than to the providence of God. If He loves, if He is on my side then what can possibly destroy my peace other than what I allow to?

If you share my struggle, let’s affirm and cling to a simple truth: God Is For You. Now press ahead.

Grace,

Dr. Terry Ellis

January 11, 2015

“But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast saying, ‘God be merciful to me a sinner.’” Luke 18:13

Last week I began writing about the fine art of letting go, and I want to delve into this important topic more deeply again this week. The parable of the two men who went to the temple to pray casts light on the most necessary but neglected part of letting go. Namely, we ignore the fact that nearly all of our problems are spiritual in nature, and we must rely on God for help.

The Pharisee in the parable typifies us in many respects. He was a religious man, knew the right answers, and assumed he was making all A’s in the tests of life. Unfortunately, his religious knowledge and convictions were at once his greatest strength and most dangerous blind spot. He knew a great deal about God, but did not know himself and really did not know God.

By contrast, the tax collector had come to a simple conclusion about his own life: he was spiritually bankrupt. He did not have the strength or insight to work his way back to God. At that moment of stunning self-appraisal he simply surrendered to God. And he found grace.

The desire for mercy implies a spiritual problem called sin. No one likes to talk about sin, but it is the greatest problem we face. Not ISIS, Ebola, racism, global warming, etc. In fact, I could argue that each one of the problems I have just named are rooted in the human capacity to make a mess of things through self-will that is as old as the original sin itself. All the fractured-ness of our lives is simply a radiating consequence of The Breaking. Adam and Eve broke their lives and the world, and we continue to both feel and multiply its effects.

Sin is unpleasant, very uncomfortable, and, many of us think, a bit obsolete. However, if we use the parable as our guide then we must accept that confession of sin leads not to guilt and shame, but to grace and forgiveness. The tax collector realized the nature of his problem, brought it to God, and walked away lightly. The Pharisee continued to carry the burden of his own self-sufficiency, and didn’t even realize the devastating effects of that delusion. If we are going to move forward in life then we must be honest about the fundamental problem that holds us back. Pogo had it right. “We have met the enemy and he is us.” We have a spiritual problem called sin.

This simple acceptance of a fundamentally spiritual problem must lead immediately to the acknowledgement that we are incapable of solving the problem. The Pharisee was sure his expertise gained favor with God. One of the challenges of the parable is that the Pharisee is so outrageously proud that we have trouble relating to him. We all think we’re doing better than him because, well, we’re not Pharisees.

We fail to recognize how deeply enslaved to pride we are. Think about it. When we face a problem we usually tend to become “practical.” Say you have had a hard time with another person that has left you bitter. Your response may include something very positive like attempting to reconcile. More likely it will include telling other people how you have been wronged. All efforts, good and bad, result in nothing. The bitterness remains and likely simmers.

This “practical” approach ignores the fact of the fundamental spiritual problem. Without realizing, our efforts to solve the problem put us in the same camp as the Pharisee. We’re trying to work our way back to wholeness, trying to arrange life to suit us on our terms, and in our way. We fail. Now what? C. S. Lewis wrote, “All this trying leads up to the vital moment at which you say “You must do this. I can’t.” That’s where the sinner was. It’s where we must be.

If the problems we face are fundamentally spiritual in nature, then we must seek a spiritual solution. We must say “You must do this. I can’t.” We need the grace that only God can give. However, it’s hard to receive grace when, at some level, you’re trying to convince God you don’t need it. “I can handle this” holds you back. “Only You can handle this” sets you free.

God gives us daily what we need to handle our problems. As long as we hold on to the notion that a particular problem is outside of God’s purview then we eliminate God from our lives. He will not remove what we refuse to let go of. Confession, surrender, powerlessness are not comfortable terms but they are the gateway to letting go of the main problem that holds us back.

The sinner came to the end of himself and found God waiting with a soul-full of grace. So can you. Let go of self-sufficiency. Honestly abandon yourself to God. And 2015 will be so much lighter.

Grace,

Dr. Terry Ellis

January 4, 2015