Casual Chistianity

Casual Christianity is what I see ‘round about me and more importantly, all throughout me. As I read over the churches in Revelation 2 & 3 I saw how even the dearest churches still failed in some parts. As I look at my own life I wonder as the apostles did, “Who then can be saved?”, and more particularly, “How then can I be counted among those who are saved?”.

Even to the lukewarm church of Laodicea He gives a way out; “… therefore be zealous and repent.” But similarly to the church at Laodicea, Casual Christians should be spat out of the mouth of God. I still feel like … no, I still know I am holding back my full heart from God and holding on to my comforts ... which are really not comforts but hindrances and ‘the sin which so easily entangles’ me. My spirit desires to be zealous and holy in ever increasing measure but my flesh is strong. It is like when a young boy wrestles with his father; my flesh overpowers me. I doubt not the strength of God to hold me fast in His gift of salvation, but I see daily my frailties and my inability to stand strong against my darling lusts. I trust fully in His power to save, but I also trust fully I have not put both hands to the plow of sanctification; nor plowed over the fallow ground of my will. It seems too often to be hard clay. A farmer plows to churn and stir up the soil; to make it tender and receptive; to get it ready for new birth leading to vital growth and the bearing of much fruit. If I replace the word soil with heart, it works well.

I could go on (and I will, Deo Valente!), but I end this by saying I need much prayer and to pray much. I need to be zealous and repent. I need to put both hands to the plow of my sanctification and look not away from my darling sins and thus be lured in, but fix my eyes on the Author and Perfecter of my faith. Although I see Casual Christianity ‘round about me, I MUST be humble and look inward first. My analogy of the flight attendant’s instructions fits here. Her instruction on what to do if the plane should lose cabin pressure and the oxygen masks drop down … “Put your own mask on first, then you will be able to assist those who need help.” It isn’t that I need to become perfect before I can help others; it is that I need to be fully engaged with the depth of my own depravity before I can be of any good assistance.

Slave or Disqualified?

Last Friday Bear and I were discussing several Bible verses when 1 Corinthians 9:27 was referenced. Paul stated, “… but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.”

A few of our thoughts emerged, such as

1. Whenever we fast or pray on our knees instead of in a comfortable chair, or wake at dawn to pray instead of during a first cup of coffee, or give up certain foods for season, or even refrain from physical intimacy from our spouse for a short time, at least three things will happen. You will glorify God, you will train your body to respond to your will, and you will sin. Sin? I realize this is a bitter pill to swallow, but if the great theologians of past and present are correct, and if decades of life experience in my own self can be trusted, I will sin. I will sin by making my discipline the end, not God. I will sin by telling others of my successes. I will sin by being proud of my accomplishments. Even if I don’t dwell on these things; even if I repeatedly return thanks and glory to God, I will wrestle with these and other manifestation of my sinful flesh even as I conduct godly disciplines in an effort to grow in maturity.
2. It was interesting to note Paul’s hierarchy of our experience. By coupling this verse with other verses we found a progression.
1. At a base level Paul disciplines his body; his fleshly lusts and ‘darling sins’ (1 Cor 9:27). The word ‘discipline’ in the Greek means to beat black and blue; and this for the sole purpose of learning strength, patience, endurance over his physical being. Daniel did much the same thing when he resolved not to eat the ‘king’s choice food or wine’ (Dan 1:8).
2. The next level was Paul’s discipling of his mind. He took ‘every thought captive to the obedience of Christ’ (2 Cor 10:5). I believe the best definition of ‘being a disciple’ is not in a listing godly disciplines but rather in the daily, moment by moment practice of ‘taking every thought captive and making it obedient to Christ’. Further, he strove to be ‘transformed by the renewing of his mind’ (Rom 12:2). An on-going renewing by the washing of the word over every impulse, thought, and desire.
3. This striving in the outer and inner man led to the culmination of Paul’s life goal; to be Christ’s slave (Rom 1:1)
4. So the progression is this; the outer man is a slave to the inner man and the whole man is a slave to Christ.

The secular world looks through the window of Christian churches and sneers, “They’re a bunch of hypocrites”; using this as a reason to reject what we believe instead of what we’ve become. But a hypocrite is far more polite than what Paul warns for himself. To not be disciplined in body and mind does not leave him a mere hypocrite but ‘disqualified’. The words and contexts used in the New Testament for this Greek word ‘adokimos’ are; depraved, unapproved, rejected, worthless, and to ‘fail the test’.

God has granted me a life to sanctify.

The deeper I study, the more I learn and experience, the more I must fear God, reject my daily personal sin and take every thought captive so I will not be disqualified.