T. David Beck: The Simple Way of Jesus

I have had scant energy or time lately to post to the blog. Other assignments have exhausted my expressive energy. One assignment into which I have poured a lot of energy is a prayer guide King's Harbor Church is using to lead people into prayer for our culture. Since the church is focusing on "cultural transformation," we have called it a Cultural Transformation Prayer Guide. It's a clever title, I know. :-) The Prayer Guide brings up an interesting question. To what extent can we expect God to transform our culture? Doesn't the New Testament teach that cultures are beyond hope? I specify the NT, because the OT carries with it the clear hope that Israel will be the one human culture that displays the character of God. But what about the NT? Let me throw out one side of the story -- a fairly pessimistic outlook that has been shared by many conservative Christians in America over the last 150 years or so. Jesus makes no attempt to change Jewish culture, let alone...

In the Great Commission, Jesus commands his disciples to "make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded" (Mt 28:16). Included in the "everything" must be the Great Commission itself. However, I wonder how well our churches do at fulfilling the whole Great Commission. Many churches find themselves being good at one part or another of the Great Commission. They become specialists at evangelism ("make disciples") but cannot grow people deep in the faith. Or they become sacramental ("baptizing them") but not so good at bringing in new disciples. Or they specialize in equipping or discipling people ("teach them to obey"), but they drop the sacraments or have a hard time focusing on non-Christians. How difficult is it to obey the whole Great Commission? If you ask Dallas Willard, it must be mighty difficult. In 1988 he lamented that ...

I just returned from spending a couple of days with relatives as we mourned the passing of my aunt. It occurred to me while I was there that I had not gone there just to mourn. I had also gone there to be with my relatives who were mourning. Those closest to my aunt were grieving in a much deeper way than I was. Although I grieved, I was reminded that one of the reasons I was there was not for my own grieving but so that I could be there beside others. Grief is a communal affair. Or at least it should be. We lend strength to each other. We also jointly participate in the proper honoring of a loved one. And we share in one another's healing. There is a certain beauty to grief when it is done communally and with mutual support. When personal loss is felt most acutely, personal care stands out the brightest.

Humility is at the heart of our missional connection with people in our culture. If there is one thing the world wants to see, it is Christians being humble. We are supposed to be humble, but instead we have a reputation for being arrogant and condescending. Therefore, people are impressed when they interact with a Christian who is humble. And remember we are defining humility in terms of truth and receptivity. That is, a humble Christian doesn't think too highly of himself/herself, and he/she is open to God's influence and activity. If the world is hungry for humility, and if humility is fairly rare, then genuine humility can be like a magnet drawing non-Christians into the faith. Humility can become mission.

In addition to being truth -- that is, an honest assessment of who we are -- humility is openness and receptivity to God. Casey helped me to see this. Openness/receptivity is an important aspect to humility, because it is relational. To be honest about who we are, especially who we are in relation to God, is good and right. However, one can realize one's own weakness and shortcomings, and still remain closed off to God and others. Biblical humility is self-awareness of sin and need, turned toward God. Luke relates Jesus' parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector (Lk 18). The tax collector cries, "Have mercy on me, a sinner." It is important to see that the tax collector was in the temple and not standing outside the door. If he realized his own sinfulness and need but did not open himself to God, then he would have gone home rather than staying in the temple. And he would not have gone home justified. Ideally our openness and receptivity to God should permeate eve...

"Pride is more than hauteur ; it is radical falsehood." -- Michael Casey

I have long thought of humility as truth in this way. Humility is an honest assessment of who we are. On one hand, this means acknowledging that we are not God -- a realization that does not come as easily as it might seem. It also means acknowledging that although we are prized creatures of God, we have fallen into sin and are not worthy of his favor. In these ways, the humble stance is on one's knees before God. On the other hand, humility is not making less of ourselves than we ought. By grace and the power of the Holy Spirit, we are partakers of God's very nature and co-laborers with him. This is heady stuff! But because our exalted status only comes by first abasing ourselves before God, we cannot become arrogant that he wishes to exalt us. "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." For help with humility, we can look at Jesus. On one hand, he only did what he saw the Father doing. On the other hand, he did not reject Thomas' worship or Peter'...