I had the lovely privilege of taking a long walk with a beautiful young woman yesterday. For clarity’s sake, let’s call her Meghan Walker. She says she looks up to me, and I am always shaken and convicted by it, for It is I who look up to her. Why on earth would she look up to me? It is not I who has a faith that prays for and sees lives transformed in Jesus’s name. 

During our walk yesterday, she mentioned how she admires my wisdom. I looked at her and was amazed. Wisdom. Lets call it what it is: knowledge. Wisdom is knowledge lived out. Wisdom comes when we take our knowledge and let it transform us to our very core and shape how we live, act, speak, and breathe. Sure, I may have a little wisdom, but most of it is pure knowledge. I don’t let it shape who I am becoming, I simply throw little tidbits out during bible study or conversations to impress people, to make them think I am holier than I really am. Throughout the rest of our conversation, all I could think about was how far I have fallen from the truth. 

When did I become more impressed with knowledge than faith? I speak a little, tiny bit greek words, and have read C.S. Lewis, and people value that. And yet, Meghan Walker prays with faith and sees her prayers answered mightily. Why do I not value that as highly? Nay, more highly? When did Faith become a lesser gift than Knowledge? 

1 Corinthians 13: 8,13: “where there is knowledge, it will pass away…And these three will remain: Faith, Hope, and Love…”

2 Peter 1: 5-8: 

“For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness,  and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Faith in Christ is our foundation. It is only when we have a foundation of faith, that knowledge is of any value. When hard times come, it is our faith that we hold onto, not our knowledge.

When my Father called yesterday afternoon,I was only able to pick up the phone and say, “hello dad” for the first time in a year because of my faith in the Lord and his promises to me. It was because I believed and trusted him that it was time. And even though I was scared out of my mind, I trusted him that He knew what was best. I did not pick up that phone because I can tell you what John Piper says about missions and predestination. 

So, while I am at the Ferg telling someone about John Piper’s book on how missions and predestination correlate, Meghan Walker is furthering the kingdom through her faith and her prayers. That is what God honors. God honors acts of faith and obedience, not Knowledge. 

My Salvation and Sanctification is not based in knowledge, but in my Faith in Jesus Christ. Knowledge (and Wisdom) was meant only to make my faith stronger, not to replace it, not to supplicate a lack of faith. May I have the child-like Faith of Meghan Walker, who prays for crazy, impossible things and expects her loving Father God to answer him. Blessings to that Girl. 

sidenote: quote of the day from Meghan walker: “Faith is not a feeling, it’s walking in obedience.” (She’s ten times smarter than she thinks she is) You grow in Faith, by acting in Faith, by stepping out in Faith and letting God show you He is faithful. Thats why I answered that phone call yesterday. Even though I was scared out of my mind, Faith is not a feeling, it’s walking- or answering a phone call- in obedience. 

Disclaimer: My thoughts might be jumbled, so bear with me. There is just too many things I am trying to say. 

I’m reading through the Bible Chronologically with my local Church. We’ve been in Genesis for most of the month of January, just now moving into Exodus. One of the themes the has been impressed upon me is that

God doesn’t choose whom we would choose.

Take for instance Joseph, great guy. Coat of Many Colors. Interprets Dreams. Saves the World from famine. Forgives everyone. Great Guy. Surely he’s the chosen one of Jacob’s sons. Surely he’s the one that will carry on Jacob’s line to the Coming Christ, the Redeemer of Israel. Nope, he’s not. Judah is. Who’s Judah? Oh, he’s the guy kind of thrown in the middle of Joseph’s story.Besides being one of the jealous brothers who sold his own kin into slavery without a forethought, He broke the traditions of sacred law, and slept with a prostitute who turned out to be his daughter-in-law. Yep, He’s the one who gets be apart of the lineage of Christ.

430 years later, Exodus begins. And there is this amazing Leader, Moses. God uses him to rescue the Israelite people out of slavery. He takes on the greatest empire in the world at that time, and wins. Moses: who saw God and lived! Moses: whom God audibly spoke to. Perfect Ancestor for Christ, right? 2 Rescuers of Israel, one from physical slavery, one from spiritual slavery. Nevertheless, Moses is not in the lineage of Christ. Go look it up, Matthew 1. He’s not there. But guess who shows up a few generations later? Rahab, a women who is not even an Israelite! She’s a prostitute of Jericho who aided 2 Israelite spies in their time of need. Sure, she had a small part in the victories of Israel, but not anything compared to the part Moses played. Yet, God chose Rahab. 

God chose Judah, not Joseph. He chose Rahab, not Moses. and Many Generations later, once Christ had finally come, He chose Fishermen, not Pharisees. 

God doesn’t choose whom he would choose. 

What does this mean to me? How does this knowledge affect my life? It humbles me and then it astounds me. You see, I’m closer to a Pharisee than I am to a Fishermen. I’m closer to Moses than I am to Rahab. I grew up in a Christian home, went to a Christian School. I know what the Bible says. I know the Lord. I’m a natural Leader. I’m Prideful. I am stubborn. And a lot of times, I think I know better than God does. I look at People like Rahab and the disciples and I see malleable clay. People who were open and obedient to the call of God on their lives. Of course God used them. And then I see Moses and Nicodemus: Good upbringing, yet Stubborn and Proud. Moses challenged God every step of the way. Why God didn’t strike him down by the burning bush and pick a more obedient fellow astounds me. How God could use someone like them, like me, is miraculous. 

So, if Godn’t doesn’t choose whom we would choose, whom does he chose? He chooses the malleable. He chooses the humble and the obedient- those who will surrender themselves to his call.  That is his only condition. Come and Surrender all to him. May we be less proud and stubborn, and more obedient and willing. 

photobelle:

you think you know what’s best for you, then God’s something better comes around and you’re like…

Oh.

This is an excerpt from “The Cost of Discipleship” by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. 

CHEAP GRACE is the deadly enemy of our Church. We are fighting to-day for costly grace. 

Cheap grace means grace sold on the market like cheapjacks’ wares. The sacraments, the forgiveness of sin, and the consolations of religion are thrown away at cut prices. Grace is represented as the Church’s inexhaustible treasury, from which she showers blessings with generous hands, without asking questions or fixing limits. Grace without price; grace without cost! The essence of grace, we suppose, is that the account has been paid in advance; and, because it has been paid, everything can be had for nothing. Since the cost was infinite, the possibilities of using and spending it are infinite. What would grace be if it were not cheap? 

Cheap grace means grace as a doctrine, a principle, a system. It means forgiveness of sins proclaimed as a general truth, the love of God taught as the Christian “conception” of God. An intellectual assent to that idea is held to be of itself sufficient to secure remission of sins. The Church which holds the correct doc trine of grace has, it is supposed, ipso facto a part in that grace. In such a Church the world finds a cheap covering for its sins; no contrition is required, still less any real desire to be delivered from sin. Cheap grace therefore amounts to a denial of the living Word of God, in fact, a denial of the Incarnation of the Word of God. 

Cheap grace means the justification of sin without the justification of the sinner. Grace alone does everything, they say, and so everything can remain as it was before. “All for sin could not atone.” The world goes on in the same old way, and we are still sinners “even in the best life” as Luther said. Well, then, let the Christian live like the rest of the world, let him model himself on the world’s standards in every sphere of life, and not presumptuously aspire to live a different life under grace from his old life under sin. That was the heresy of the enthusiasts, the Anabaptists and their kind. Let the Christian beware of rebelling against the free and boundless grace of God and desecrating it. Let him not attempt to erect a new religion of the letter by endeavoring to live a life of obedience to the commandments of Jesus Christ! The world has been justified by grace. The Christian knows that, and takes it seriously. He knows he must not strive against this indispensable grace. Therefore—let him live like the rest of the world! Of course he would like to go and do something extraordinary, and it does demand a good deal of self-restraint to refrain from the attempt and content himself with living as the world lives. Yet it is imperative for the Christian to achieve renunciation, to practice self-effacement, to distinguish his life from the life of the world. He must let grace be grace indeed, otherwise he will destroy the world’s faith in the free gift of grace. 

Let the Christian rest content in his worldliness and with this renunciation of any higher standard than the world. He is doing it for the sake of the world rather than for the sake of grace. Let him be comforted and rest assured in his possession of this grace—for grace alone does everything. Instead of following Christ, let the Christian enjoy the consolations of his grace! That is what we mean by cheap grace, the grace which amounts to the justification of sin without the justification of the repentant sinner who departs from sin and from whom sin departs. Cheap grace is not the kind of forgiveness of sin which frees us from the toils of sin. Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. 

Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate. 

Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will gladly go and sell all that he has. It is the pearl of great price to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods. It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble, it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him. 

Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock. 

Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: “ye were bought at a price,” and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God. 

Costly grace is the sanctuary of God; it has to be protected from the world, and not thrown to the dogs. It is therefore the living word, the Word of God, which he speaks as it pleases him. Costly grace confronts us as a gracious call to follow Jesus, it comes as a world of forgiveness to the broken spirit and the contrite heart. Grace is costly because it compels a man to submit to the yoke of Christ and follow him; it is grace because Jesus says: “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.” 

We live in such a way that no one will stumble because of us, and so that our ministry will not be found blemished.  But in everything we do, we unite ourselves as servants of God, patiently enduring troubles and hardships and calamities of every kind. We have been beaten, been put in prison, faced angry mobs, worked to exhaustion, endured sleepless nights, and gone without food. We present ourselves in purity(uprightness of life), in understanding, in patience, and in kindness, by the Holy Spirit within us, and by our unfeigned love(agape not phileo), by speaking words of truth, by God’s power working in us, by using the weapons of righteousness in the right hand for attack and the left hand for defense, by serving God whether people honor us or despise us, whether they slander us or praise us. We are regarded as deceivers, and yet are true; as unknown yet well-known, as dying yet behold, we live; as punished yet not put to death; as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, having nothing and yet possessing everything. 

photobelle: