Good and also becoming good

How can Christians be both already good, and becoming good?  Here are two verses that lay this out for us:

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Cor. 5:17)   (Here, there’s a sense of finality. Our goodness is a settled fact.)

But Scripture also show us the ever-increasing process of becoming good …

“ For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge...and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 1: 4-8)

(In this verse, we have a sense of Christ’s character developing in us with growing measure, over time.)

As I learn to live from my new and supernaturally-good heart, I mature in the goodness that God has already given me. That goodness may be as yet not expressed, but nevertheless still present in me. Discipleship is the process by which I enjoy and continue to express an already-present holiness and wholeness within me.

"Something more glorious"

 “For God is not merely mending, not simply restoring a status quo.  Redeemed humanity is to be something more glorious than unfallen humanity.” – C.S. Lewis

Here's the key part of that quote:  "something more glorious than unfallen humanity."  At what point in history did we have unfallen, untarnished humanity?  Of course we have to go way back to Adam and Eve.  Is it possible that we today, as restored by Jesus work, have a capacity that Adam and Eve did not -- even in their unblemished and shame-less state, prior to their Fall?

So how can you have people that are better than Adam and Eve began as?  Well, we can't say that these "more glorious" ones Lewis is talking about would never sin like Adam and Eve; because even in our redeemed state as Christ-followers, we may still sin.

We also can't say that we now have God at our side to help us, for they enjoyed the tangible presence of God as well.

So what's our advantage over our unfallen Parents? 

Alongside vs. Inside:  While God may have walked alongside Adam and Eve in the Garden, he now moves inside us  - on a permanent basis; inextricably bound to our bodies, hearts, minds and souls.  He has enmeshed and entangled himself in us, through the restoring work of Jesus for us. We are now flesh of his flesh and he flesh of our flesh, spirit of our spirit, mind of our mind.

"Christ in you, the hope of glory" is not a description of the future alone:  it is who you are right now.

What is better about this inside-you, God-bound-to-you, gift we were given?

1. Because Jesus cannot die, you cannot die.
2. What Jesus knows about living well, you can know as well.
3. Jesus' capacity for living well is yours now.

Do you see any other ways in which we in Christ are "more glorious" than unfallen Adam and Eve?  (Leave your comments.)

Jim is interviewed on "The Renegade Christian Entrepreneurs" podcast

Topic:  "Striving vs. Action."  When things aren't moving fast enough for us, how do we relate to God when we're feeling the pressure to make things happen?  This was a fun interview.   Thanks to Matthew Gillogly and Bob Regnerus, hosts of the Renegade Christian Entrepreneurs podcast for having me as their guest today.

VideoBlog - STRIVING vs. ACTION

How much do you know about grace? ... Take the quiz.

I've put together a quick quiz to find out what people know (or what they are convinced they know about 'grace.')  I've  used SurveyMonkey.com to create this short quiz. 

The answers to the quiz may be quite surprising to some - even for those who have been walking in grace for years.

The quiz is short - only seven true/false questions.

I'll be revealing the answers this weekend here on the blog.

Click here to take quiz.

LISTEN NOW: 'The Naked Gospel' interview with Andrew Farley

Andrew and I talked about his fantastic new book, The Naked Gospel - the truth you may never hear in church.  Find out what Andrew says about our new identity and freedom.  It really is a lot better than we've been told.

• Should Christians really obey the moral law in the Ten Commandments?
• Do we really have pure and good hearts - the very same that Jesus had?
• Can Christians trust their hearts?

The answers may surprise you!

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Click player below to listen.

As always, feel free to leave your comments below!

PODCAST - QUIZ - Recover Your Good Heart

Quiz - Recover Your Good Heart -- Take the quiz with Jim as he exposes the tragic assumptions we've made about our hearts as Christians.  You may be surprised at the answers.

You can also get Jim's free e-book, The Gospel of the Heart - exposing the false gospel that manages externals and sabotages the heart.

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As always, feel free to leave your comments below!

"Give us this day our 401K"

My family and I are learning a hard lesson.  We've moved 1,000 miles to a new town, with no job.  It's the way God asked us to do it.  But we still have money flowing out, a shrinking savings, and no sustainable income.  The pressure to give into discouragement and fear is mounting. 

Here's the lesson:  "Give us this day our daily bread."  The manna in the wilderness was for that day. 

Our culture has programmed us into thinking predominantly long-term:  make sure your insurance policies will cover your needs 40 years from now.  Get that extra coverage on the new washer and dryer, just in case.  Make sure you have a job, any job, because that's the only way that God can provide for you.  (Oops, did I just say that?)  Forget the desires of your heart, your calling, because we're in a tough economy right now and you need to think more pragmatically.

Now, it is critical that we first ask God if he wants us to live without any of the "securities" I just mentioned.  Seek his counsel first.  But you get the point:  we have not been programmed to think of the daily-ness of God's provision. 

"Give us this day our daily sustenance."

So my wife and I keep asking, "Are we alright today?"  ...and the answer is, 'yes.'  Today, we have what we need. 

Podcast - "Meaningful aliveness"

Jim's newest podcast. "Just take the rough edges off, God.  Make things run smoothly."  Join Jim as he shares how his search for comfort became a substitute for meaningful aliveness.

Click here to listen.

Changing our nature...what has already occurred within

Why does God insist on making us loveable, lovely, whole?  For certainly he has always loved us, even when we were unlovable; yet this wasn't enough for him, says C.S. Lewis:

"...it is natural for us to wish that God had designed for us a less glorious and less arduous destiny; but then we are wishing not for more love but for less."  - C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain

"We may wish, indeed, that we were of so little account to God that He left us alone to follow our natural impulses - that he would give over trying to train us into something so unlike our natural selves:  but once again, we are asking not for more Love, but for less."  -- C.S.  Lewis, The Problem of Pain

I want to answer Lewis here (not knowing how he might respond)...   In order to fashion us into the supernaturally glorious creatures he desires and loves into wholeness, God indeed did change our natural selves, our natural impulses -- from unlovely to noble and good.  This he did at the level of the heart. 

We need not wait for heaven for this.  It has already happened.  It is the promise of Ezekiel 36:26 fulfilled (and in other places throughout Scripture).  We now grow out of that new and noble nature with its noble impulses.  We practice our new nature.  Discipleship is learning how to live from that good heart.

New podcast -- "Let us take the adventure"

Let us take the adventure - Join Jim as he talks about the adventure he and his family have been on for the last five years; the pain of unfulfilled longing, and the journey it has taken them on as they arrive at the place of their dreams (with no job, no friends, and the great unknown).  (9/10/09)

THE GOOD & NOBLE HEART community

For those who may not know, I set up an online community based around the message of the Christian's good and noble heart.  Folks are finding meaningful connections there and talking about the things of the heart (the center of the person, in Scripture). 

Joining is free.  Set up your own page, blog, discussion topics.  Click here for more.

The full interview - Steve Brown interviews Jim about his book, Recover Your Good Heart

Full interview - Steve Brown interviews Jim about Recover Your Good Heart.

Lessons the Church can learn from Delta Force

What can the Church learn from a former Delta Force commander who has served behind enemy lines in Bosnia and Afganistan in a variety of special op's situations? A guy who knows how to operate at the cusp of life and death?

Delta Force is arguable the most elite counter-terrorism force in the world.  I read Pete Blaber's book, The Mission, The Men, and Me for the fun of it, and the vicarious partication in his full-throtled adventures; but discovered something about why the Church gets broken and fails to function as an organic, highly effective organism.

One of Blabers central tenets in the book is, "organize for the mission."  Rather than applying a rigid, predetermined hierarchy over the top of all our activity, it's far better to let the mission inform our organizing and the way we gather.  As a tangential principle, Blaber also suggests that those in leadership "listen to the guy on the ground" because that guy has context-- firsthand, tacit knowledge of what's going on.  So why not ask him or her, "What's your recommendation?" suggests the Delta Force commander ...and take that recommendation seriously.

When your fellowship or team asks, "How are we going to do this?  How are we going to accomplish the mission of Jesus?" don't get lulled into the familiar modes of rigid and inflexible organizing.  Allow the mission of Jesus to determine the "how."  Will the way you go about it allow you to be light and mobile, adaptable and flexible?  Or will it force shackle you into institutional and time-honored structures that serve no one but those at the top? 

More specifically, when launching into a specific mission, the one Jesus has asked you to follow him into, ask, "How does the nature of this specific mission direct how we organize, gather, and function together?  How will we relate to each other because of this particular mission?  How will decisions be made and leadership lived out? 

What do you think are some clues from Jesus' own sense of mission, and how he "organized" his band of disciples?  How is this different than most organizational approaches, most ideas about Church?

The surprising advantage of setbacks.

I've had several very snarky conversations with God lately.  I really don't like him much right now.  As Mother Teresa said, "God would have more friends if he treated the ones he as better."

Why?  In one week, my family and I are making an 800-mile move to the town of our dreams.  God has endorsed it and confirmed it.  But, he's asked us to go without a job in place.  Heck, we don't even know where we'll be living, yet.  During the last year of trying to sell our house, we've faced setback after setback:  the first contract fell through.   Then, we found out that the house we were hoping to rent in the new town was being managed by a guy with a shoddy reputation, and there weren't any other rental listings.  Then a great house came open, I flew 800 miles to see the house and sign a lease with a new realtor.  I got back home waiting for the lease to to be completed so I could sign-off, and got a call from my realtor that the owner sold the house out from under us.  The owner was secretly entertaining a buyer while saying he would rent to us.

Now, the only house available has a hole in the porch wall, concrete debris piled up in the yard, has a nasty hole in the siding, and is swallowed by overgrown hedges so that you can't even see the house from the street.  Ah, the joy of renting.

As Philip Yancey wrote, "God would rather we wrestle with him than ignore him."  So, as I ranted and raged against God (believe me, it wasn't pretty), the thought occured to me:  Perhaps God is allowing the setbacks and disappointments because he wants me to have the experience of being rescued.  Without the setbacks, there's no opportunity for rescue.  Rescue requires uncertainty, helplessness and hardship:  "Jim, I want you to know that I can come through for you.  The setbacks create the opportunity to experience that."

Heart ...and mind.

C.S. Lewis said:

"God is no fonder of intellectual slackers than of any other slackers. If you are thinking of becoming a Christian, I warn you you are embarking on something which is going to take the whole of you, brains and all ..."

Christianity is clearly about the heart -- the deepest you, the spirit, the command center of human personality. Contemporary Christianity has badly missed this. However, I've seen a disturbing trend. Those of us who talk about the heart can neglect the place of the mind in apprenticeship to Jesus -- or even forget that, "You can been given the mind of Christ."

Heart and mind work together.  Both come under the transforming renewal of Christ's work for us.

We must not vilify the Christian mind, particularly because it, too, has come under the restoring work of Christ.

 Have you noticed this as well?  Do you agree?

River rescue - how I almost drowned and what it taught me

Three years ago, I almost drowned.  I was rafting on a Class Five river when our raft hit a boulder and we were hurled out.  Our brief Rafting 101 talk we received back at base camp did nothing to prepare me for the shock of icy water, the panic of drowning, or the continuing slap of brown river water I was choking on. 

I tried to estimate whether I could swim laterally against the current to either bank.  Not a chance.  It was too far.   My guide and raft were too far up river to pull me out, the current having carried me too quickly away from our raft.  My only hope was another guide's raft about 50 yards ahead.  Would he see me?  I had no strength or ability to contribute to my hope of rescue.  The water was strong and fast.  I was powerless and in danger of drowning.   And as they say, the orange life jacket just makes it easier to find your dead body. 

Thankfully, the other boat saw me.  I don't know how the guy pulled my soaking, 6 feet- 2 inch, dead- weight body out of the water, but he did.

Later, while sorting through everything that happened God said, "Jim -- this wasn't about your failure to handle the situation.  It wasn't about your capacity at all.  It was about my ability to rescue you." 

This is the Gospel.  This is the ongoing nature of the Christian life -- Jesus' ability to 'save' us didn't simply cease after we said 'yes' to his offer to "save us from our sins."

We need the experience, not simply the idea or hope of being rescued.  Through these experiences of rescue, we gain a perspective that is more real and confident than the one we had on paper.  We can only gain that experience by taking the risks God is asking us to -- by placing ourselves in situations (again, when God counsels us to take the risk) where unless he rescues us, we're toast. 

Is there anything he's asking you to risk, so that you can experience more life?

"The Year of Living Biblically" - part II

After a long delay (Sorry, I got distracted), we're moving on to months 4-6 in A.J. Jacob's "year of living biblically:"

The author decides to take the command "Let your garments always be white" (Eccl. 9:8) to heart, wearing, "white pants, white T-shirts, a white sweater, and a white zip-up jacket from the Gap..." like an Hasidic John Travolta.

Though looking a bit like a nomadic pastry chef in his whites, wandering around New York City, Jacobs indicates,

"...the thing is, I'm enjoying it.  My white wardrobe makes me feel lighter, more spiritual.  Happier.  It's further proof of a major theme of this year:  The outer affects the inner.  Behavior shapes your psyche as much as the other way around.  Clothes make the man." 

What do you think?  Is the Christian journey an inside-out life, or an outside-in one?   Is there any truth to Jacob's position on this?  Which one is the New Covenant (new way) Jesus invites us into?

The erosion of confidence

"You'll never find the life you're looking for."

...But the sabotage begins with the painful accumulation of thoughts like these:

•  "I didn't think it would turn out like this."
•  "I'm tired of getting hurt.  Maybe it's not worth it."
•  "I know you want this for me, God; but how long, Lord.  How long must it take?!"

It is hard, and it does hurt.  A person can get to the point where the only apparent conclusion is: "I'll never find what I'm looking for-- Why do others find the life they want, but I can't? Did I blow it somewhere? Is God angry?  Am I not hearing him?" And once the lies begin to calcify, some part of our heart begins to shut down. Faith, hope, and love drain out of the cheerless and weary heart.

But it feels so true. Our experience of pain can erode our confidence and hope in a way that only our experience of the moment feels true to us -- All other interpretations of reality get blotted out.  Only the subjective is allowed to be true, and any Perspective that stands outside of us is forgotten.  Faith, hope and love give way to tunnel vision... and something in us dies.

"The tragedy of life is what dies inside a man while he lives"  - Albert Schweitzer

Jesus, what do you know about our Father's heart here that I need to know?  Where does your confidence come from?

How spiritual transformation happens

What are the mechanics behind how we change; particularly how the new heart within us is strengthened, nourished and released?  How do we end up doing the things our restored hearts really want to do, while not yielding to false substitutes?

Invitation to the Jesus Life - Experiments in Christ-likeness, by Jan Johnson, is refreshing, gracious and full of well-textured thinking on the spiritual life.  The author suggests that God "loves [us] into goodness, drawing [us] with irresistable grace."   Loves us into goodness.

Isn't it true that when we feel most loved, pursued or valued, we are least likely to fall for lesser things?  So how do we access this loving-into-goodness life?

The means is through new habits of the heart, mind and body (spiritual disciplines), but the goal is not to become better Christians, the author surprisingly points out.  The goal is connecting with God.  When we connect, we receive love, and the Spirit does the transforming.  We, as Dallas Willard suggests, are then becoming the kinds of persons who naturally do and say the things Jesus did and said.  It is an outflow of experiencing love, not conjuring up good religious behavior.

Though the author of Invitation to the Jesus Life doesn't necessarily frame the process in the following way, I would suggest that as we connect with God (through redemptive habits) we experience his affection, and the Spirit nourishes and releases the goodness he seeded within our new hearts at conversion.  The point is connecting with God, not trying to become a better Christian.