I have been fortunate to have had some Christian co-workers early in my career. I could talk theology at length with some of them in the office, and nobody else would seem to care as long as we got our work done. Later, I worked in a place where nearly all of the conversation that was not work-related was about either computer games or drinking. As far as I know, there were probably no other Christians at this company. I liked that job for the challenges that it gave me. The work was the hardest work I'd ever done, and I sought hard to do it "as to the Lord". I was nearly always exhausted at the end of the day; and without the encouragement of Christian brothers, every week felt like a climb of Everest without an oxygen tank.
In it, the Lord taught me something about the great value of reflecting on Him alongside others who know Him as we each seek to make His name great throughout each passing week. Just as spiritual things are not merely to be left in church, godly fellowship is not meant to be confined to church services or church functions. Don't invite God to your small group and then kick Him out as soon as you say Amen in the closing prayer.
There is a sense in which the things of God can be the only worthwhile topic of conversation. Our lives are but a breath. We can speak only finitely many words during a day, even when we consider our myriad ways to communicate with the technology of today. And most of the things we talk about do not even matter beyond today, let alone beyond this life. What movies did you make a big deal of, ten years ago? Does anyone talk about them today? Do people still speak with the same enthusiasm about Star Wars Episode I or The Sixth Sense today as they do about Harry Potter and Twilight? Maybe a few do, if they worked on those aforementioned films and/or want to relive their glory days. But most do not.
Do you memorize movie quotes or Scripture? Do you spit back song lyrics from the radio or the truth of Christ? Do you ramble on about baseball or football statistics that will be a footnote in athletic history as soon as next season, or do you encourage your friends to live their lives for the Lord of glory? If you say you love God, how many of your words make much of Him?
"But I do that in small group!"
Yes, but we often tend to divide our schedules into time slots saying, "I will learn about Christ for this hour", or "I will listen to what my brothers have to say for two hours on a Thursday." It is true that we must be disciplined in remaining in His presence through prayer, meditation, sacred reading, and all the others. But if we truly live for Christ, he is not an item on our schedule that we check off and then go do all the other things that we find more important than Him or that we would rather be doing.
"If any occupation or association is found to hinder our communion with God or our enjoyment of spiritual things, then it must be abandoned. Anything in my habits or ways which mars happy fellowship with the brethren or robs me of power in service, is to be unsparingly judged and made an end of-- 'burned.' Whatever I cannot do for God's glory must be avoided."
- A.W. Pink.
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"The church must be marked by a different language than the world exhibits, a peculiar speech. We must choose to speak redemptively."
- Tullian Tchividjian, Unfashionable.
As I continue to walk with Christ, I realize the futility of my efforts to be “relevant” to my culture – both the American culture where I grew up and the Filipino culture that I have more or less adopted – because relevance becomes an idol. When I look at men in the Bible, particularly in the Old Testament, that God used to do great things for Him or just to love Him deeply, I sense that some of these men were set apart from their culture, even from other people of God – taking Nazirite vows, having only a couple of friends, and so on. Daniel and his three friends were noticed because they were set apart as holy. The prophets in general were men that did not “engage the culture” and seek to be as much like it as possible in order to present God’s message, but men who knew their Lord and could say with confidence, “This is what the Sovereign Lord says”. If we used the energy that we expend on learning how to be like the world and become “relevant” to them to learn the things of God instead, then I think the people of American Christendom would feel far less empty.
Pastor Matt Chandler signs his letters not with “Love” or “Sincerely” or “Your Friend”, but with “Christ Is All”. And a song we sing at my church, by Tim Hughes, says, “God in my living / There in my breathing / God in my waking / God in my sleeping / God in my resting / There in my working / God in my thinking / God in my speaking: // Be my everything.” To the Christian, Christ is more necessary than food, than water, than air, than life. Therefore, the divide between sacred and secular should not exist; such a divide, at times, gives the "secular" a more important place than the sacred. All things are made by Christ and for Christ (Romans 11:36). Any time that we live, work, or speak as though Christ were not All is wasted time.
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Leslie Ludy writes in When God Writes Your Life Story,
"Most of us are all too familiar with real-life mode versus Christ mode. For some of us, the switch is less obvious. ... But still, it is all too easy to split our lives into spiritual and non-spiritual categories. During our daily life, as we interact with friends and watch movies and pursue our dreams, we rarely pause to listen to the soft inner voice of God's Spirit. ...
"To really abide in Christ, we must determine that every day, every hour, every minute will revolve around Him, not us. We must become like eager servants, standing by the chair of our Master, awaiting His next request, willing to do whatever it takes to please Him."
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"When I ain't know who I was, every day I wasted life.
Pagan days of people pleasing 'cause I wasn't chasing Christ.
Worried about the he say, she say - I'd repeat it like a replay.
I was chasing their approval like a runner in a relay.
I was believing that if I got it, no doubt it'd be all good.
But even if I got it, somehow it would fall through.
I tried to keep standing, living by a weak standard,
Believing even Jesus received me based on my weak merits.
Lies from the pit, lies I won't forget;
Lies that ruin lives and keep you blind to who you is:
[a] Sinner saved by grace, through faith for Jesus' sake.
So what you have, count as loss as we press to see His face. ....
"Every Christian's on the track, but are we focused like a scope?
Or are we racing, never pacing? Are we running to the goal?
Upward calling, full in knowledge?
Nothing hollow like the lotto; true rewards from God the Father?
Well we should be, no matter what they say, or even throw at us.
Keep rolling up, and pressing in; and showing folks you rest in Him.
See, when it's all said and done, I wanna be true to Christ.
I wanna see fruit that's proof to know it's true to life.
So look to Him; give up everything you have to make it to Him.
To know Him fully, becoming holy as you pursue Him.
To all my saints, who know they're saved
But know there's more to gain:
Keep pressing till the end, when we will see Him face to face!"
- Tedashii, "Work"
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"Why don't we have relationships that are like camaraderie in a cause? The answer: no cause! You don't make deep relationships watching television with anybody; believe me. You don't make deep relationships watching movies. You don't make deep relationships sitting arm-by-arm working joysticks. You don't make relationships that way.
"Relationships are made when you link arms in a cause worthy of a human soul, and you risk something, and you take a chance, and you suffer together, and you meet each other in the hospital or somewhere - and you say, 'We made it!', or 'We didn't make it, and I'll see you in heaven.' There is something that happens in relationships when you are devoted to a cause worthy of your life."
- John Piper, "Be Strong and Fervent in Spirit in the Cause of Truth and Life".
Good questions and very good quotes.
ReplyDeleteBrad