More Grace - remembering Charles Colson

The name reminds me of a chance "meeting" with "Chuck" Colson, many years ago.  I was in Northern California to attend a weekend conference for executives on the subject of "Better Communications" and I had arrived on the afternoon, prior to an opening session on Friday evening. I decided to take a nap as I was among the first to arrive and was sound asleep when the phone rang in the room I would be sharing with another man.  I answered it and the voice thought I was "Bob" - the other fellow.  "Bob, this is Chuck, we need you in Washington early Monday morning."  "Excuse me, sir, Bob must be my roommate for the weekend.  He has not arrived, yet."  "Well, have him call me at the "quiet" number.  He will know what I mean", he said and hung up.  Bob did not arrive until halfway through the evening session.

At a break, I met Bob and told him of the message.  He immediately responded with "Thank you, I am Bob Halderman.  Good to meet you."  We exchanged greetings and went back to the session.

Little did I realize at he time, but I had just met, two of the major characters in what was to be known as the "Watergate affair " that gripped and held the attention of Washington, DC, for many years.

As a result, I played closer attention to the activities of the two and was amazed, as the roommate I came to know as a good friend, had been deeply involved.  Years later, we had a chance meeting on a airplane returning to Los Angeles and we had a pleasant conversation as if nothing had ever happened to him.  I did not ask about his friend, "Chuck" as I already knew more than I cared to know.

It seemed as though we were both struggling with our religious beliefs and after he had become successful with his prison ministry, I started visiting prisons with another organization.  Our beliefs differed as I had met a friend who had killed another good friend - after we were all had met on board a troopship in route to Japan.  By chance, some would say, my prisoner friend had become a Christian and years later we worked together to obtain his release from prison.  He attributed our "chance" meeting to God's grace at work in our lives, long before I came to understand the idea of Grace.  And it was his belief that eventually led me to the same belief.  "For by Grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God."  (Ephesians 2:8) 

An so we come to Colson's book, A Dangerous Grace, daily readings, which he co-authored with an associate, Nancy R.  Pearcey.  I searched in vain for Colson's interpretation of Grace and found the word only merely mentioned three times in the 332 pages of his exhortations to "be good/do good" and never did he seem to understand the role of God's Grace in the lives of those he considered to be - converted.  I never thought that I would comment of his teachings as my experiences with prisoners, heart-to-heart talks rather than the recitation of a few Bible verses, was that unless they came to an authentic relationship with God - through His gifts, they merely continued in the ways that had led them to prison and tried to convince others that were, Christian - a game that I became good at playing for nearly forty-five years.

So, I turned recently to Nancy Pearcey's thoughts about this "dangerous" Grace being promoted in the book and much of Colson's teachings through various of his organizations and other books.  She says, "I pray that this book will convey a sense of of God's unsettling but exhilarating power to make us in both heart and mind."  Earlier she had stated, "God is determined to make us the best we can be, and He will never let us rest comfortably in our weaknesses and works ceaselessly to remake us us into His image and the character of Christ.

A strange interpretation of the established scripture that states emphatically that "...because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me (the Apostle Paul) from exalting myself, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me - to keep me from exalting myself.  Concerning this, I entreated the Lord three times  that it might depart from me. And He has said to me, My Grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.  Most gladly therefore I will rather boast in my weakness that the power of Christ may dwell in me."  II Corinthians 12:7-9)

A Dangerous Grace?  I don't think so, especially in His book!

More Grace - counsel from old friend, J. I. Packer

We have never met, probably never will, but reading his books, articles and hearing others talk about J. I. Packer has been a source of great comfort to me.  And as I started to review it for this blog, I saw the publication date on his Knowing God, book, 1973.

I was as far from the kingdom of God as any person could be, that year.  It wasn't until May 13, 1975 that I came to "know" God and to discover the miracles of His grace that have followed me for almost forty years, as of today.  When I came across this particular quote, I smiled, ..."despite the facts, there do not seem to be many in our churches who actually believe in Grace."  It was true then and it seems to me, here in the year 2015, it is even more true today.

Oh I know, we pay lip service to it, but in the streets where Jesus walked in His life, the ones He would be walking in today, and others, Grace is virtually unknown.  Otherwise, we would certainly not be involved in the headlines we read whenever the Church attempts to express their thoughts.

Packer provides a sample of his thoughts then, that I have to believe would be even more applicable today, when he writes, "What is it that hinders so many who profess to believe in Grace from really doing so?  Why does the theme mean so little even to some who talk about it a great deal?  The root of the trouble seems to be misbelief about the basic relationship between a person and God - misbelief not just in the mind but in the heart at the deepest level of things that we never question because we always seem to take them for granted."

He offers this explanation:  "There are four critical truths in this realm in which the doctrine of Grace presupposes and if they are not acknowledged and felt in one's heart, clear faith in God's Grace becomes impossible.  Unhappily the spirit of our age (in 1973, and continues into the next century - SM)) is as directly opposed to them as well could be.  It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that faith in Grace is a rarity today,  The four truths are:

(I will be condensing his thoughts - so I that don't lose my readers, but if you want to examine them as they were written - in 1973, they will be found on pages 129-132 of Knowing God)

The moral ill-desert of man.   Because of the nature of these times, we seem to have fallen into the trap that denies that we are "creatures, fallen from God's image, rebels against God's rule, guilty and unclean in God's sight, fit only for God's condemnation."

The retributive justice of God.   The way of modern men and women is to turn a blind eye to all of the wrongdoing as long as they safely can.... in our pagan way, we take it for granted that God feels the same way as we do.  God is the judge of this world, and He will do right, vindicating the innocent, if such there will be, but punishing in the Bible phrase (visiting their sins upon) lawbreakers - see Genesis 18:25)

The spiritual impotence of man.   Namely, the belief that we can repair our own relationship with God by putting God in a position where He can say No! - anymore.

The sovereign freedom of God.   He is not obliged to pity and pardon, if He does so it is an act done, as we say, "..of His own free will" and nobody forces His hand.  "It does not depend on man's will or effort, but on God's mercy."  (Romans 9:16)

I will be thrilled if somehow, these words, these thoughts, challenge those who read this page.  I could write for hours on the more to be found on the pages of Packer's books or the thoughts he has expressed in many of his other articles.

Are you up to the challenge?   Respond and we can continue it as long as I have the time allotted to me by His Grace.  

More Grace - introducing Kristin Hahn

I was surprised as I took Kristin's book down off of my book shelf to discover her book, In Search of Grace, was more about her journey throughout the nation, meeting with and getting to know various religious groups across our continent  But then I cannot imagine any serious religious gathering that does not invoke God's Grace in their teachings.  As a matter of fact the first I ever heard the word Grace mentioned in a spiritual sense was when my Japanese friend. Hireo, encouraged me to join him as he would be discussing his future as a Samurai warrior with one of the higher ranking Lords.  He was rather fascinated to see a USAF uniform in a Temple that was designed to deny admittance to any person other that a credentialed Samurai warrior.  However, as it turned out, Hireo had his ranking bestowed upon him by one of the most highly regarded of the Samurai war lords.

I was soon being questioned about my knowledge of our Bible and I was ashamed to admit that about the only verse I knew was John 3:16 and I had just heard of the in a recent sermon in our base chapel.

"Aha, you would not make a good warrior in our nation,"  Observing his highly painted face that appeared to be in a permanent scowl, I almost said, "Sir, you are right about that."  He chuckled at the difficulty I was experiencing trying to be friendly and certainly not to embarrass my friend.

"Go home," he chuckled, "you will be saved by God's grace." 

With that, he summoned two of his female entourage and advised me, "They will teach you more about our faith and serve, excellent tea and cookies."  I could not see into their faces as they bore more paint it seemed than their leader.  Being inside that temple was probably the most fascinating experience in my lifetime.  Finally, one of the women spoke, "Oh, too bad, you do not know Grace."

Hireo would later explain that my visit had made the older man's day.  Come to find out, he was a graduate of a famous law school in our country and was - in fact, baptized in an Episcopal church in the late 20's.  And Hireo wanted to know more about this Grace as I had never mentioned it when we had attempted to have conversations about religion. 

And so I asked our Chaplain and he let me know, he believed we are "saved" by our good works.

I don't know where Kristin learned about Grace or what it should have meant to her,  In her epilogue she explains, "...Religion is something that "binds".  I had for some time assumed that if something were profound - something divine, or of God, was meant to be the central part of my life, it would find its way and bind itself to me.  Now, I understand that Grace does not necessarily come to those who wait; the binding must be proactive.  One cannot just exercise faith in pronounced moments of fear, anxiety, depression or despair, its very meaning compels us to to make it a part of our everyday life, an ongoing process of choosing what goes on inside of us.  To have faith outside of routine physical expression, discipline and sacrifice - whether in the form of prayer, meditation, work, worship, charity, song, fast or food - is like taking pictures without film in your camera, there is no tangible or enduring reflection of what we fleetingly observe."

Whew!  Upon reading these words, I immediately prayed for her, for her salvation and the gift of Grace that most of us cannot really explain.  That is why I am reviewing the many authors I have as friends on my book shelves.  I know what I know.  I have to ask, do you, when it comes to Grace?

More Grace - introducing Jerry Bridges

I met Jerry Bridges through his books when I joined the IVP book club quite awhile ago and have always been impressed with his skills as a Biblical scholar.  Let me warn you, however, he will challenge you if you care to read any of his most authoritative efforts.  For example - from his book, The Discipline of Grace. which I quote as follows:

"Grace seems to mean freedom from any rules, spontaneous ad unstructured living, and most of all, a God who loves us unconditionally, regardless of our sinful behavior.

Such thinking reflects a misunderstanding of both Grace and discipline.  In fact, if we can see from the epigraph of this chapter.... 'For the Grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, it teaches us to say, 'No' to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age.'  (Titus 2:11-12)... the same Grace that brings salvation to us also disciplines us as believers.  The verse actually reads...'the Grace of God... teaches us'.  The word translated as 'teach', however, means much more than the usual idea we assign to it as imparting knowledge.  Originally, it was used as a term for raising children and included not only instruction, but also admonition, reproof, and punishment, all administered in love and for the benefit of the child.  The Apostle Paul used the same word in Ephesians 6:4 when he charged fathers in the training (that is, the discipline) and instruction of the Lord.

Used as a spiritual sense, discipline includes all instruction, all reproof and correction, and all providentially directed hardships in our lives that are aimed at cultivating spiritual growth ad godly character.  And though in the physical realm, children eventually reach adulthood and are no longer in the discipline of their parents, in the spiritual realm we all remain under God's parental discipline as long as we live.

So we see that the very same Grace that brings salvation also trains us to to live lives that are pleasing to God.  All of God's disciplinary processes are grounded in His Grace - His unmerited and unconditional favor toward us.  We tend to equate discipline with rules and performance standards; God equates it with firm but loving care for our souls."

When I was first beginning to learn about Grace, I was really confused by many of the claims made by those who were in a position to train us.  I knew that I knew that I had been "crucified with Christ and it is no longer I that live..." but I had questions about that life I was about to walk out, daily.  It was then that I came to a verse in Hebrews that would become my guide.  "Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord.  See to it that no one comes short of the Grace of God, that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble and by it many are defiled."  (Hebrew 12:14-15)

To me, we live in a strange age.  For all of the 85+ years of the life I have been privileged to live, I have watched as our own nation, at one time, littered by the steeple of churches that taught "God is love" and our guide to eternal life, that is, life beyond the grave, and now it is not the heathens who are at the source of our myriad of problems.  It is being prompted by the self-styled righteous ones who seem to reject the Biblical admonition I have just quoted - ..",,,pursue peace with all men".

Is it not time for all of us to open the scriptures to the verse that changed my life, forever: Matthew 4:17, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."

More Grace - introducing Steve McVey

I have never met Steve McVey, but there he was, sitting on my bookshelves, eagerly waiting, I have to believe, for me to pick up his book, Grace Walks, and read what he had to say.  I have reason to believe I have ignored him for years, as I have either known personally many of the other authors or, have respected their views on Grace as I have been blessed by their thoughts on other subjects.  So, I opened his book and started reading.  Good material!  Especially, the sub-title, "What you have always wanted in the Christian life."  That was easy to understand.  Perhaps, that is why I bought the book in the first place.  It took me almost forty-five years to discover what I had been searching for, His acceptance and a assurance of His love.

So now, hear what Steve has to say that grabbed my attention.

"A person who focuses on keeping rules will experience constant frustration.  The purpose of the Law is to show a right relationship to God is not the result of conforming to external regulations.  Now we live by this new law, which is not based on external demands, but rather on internal desires.  When we understand that Christ is our life, we are motivated by His desires within us..  We want to do the things that glorify God.  The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus motivates us and empowers us to live a Godly lifestyle.  We no longer focus on rules, but on our relationship to Him.  "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made us free from the law of sin and death."  (Romans 6:2) Legalism activates the "law of sin ad death" because the law arouses the desire to sin.  (Romans 5:23) So a person who takes a legalistic approach to the Christian life can never find victory by trying to keep the Law.  The certainty of defeat increases in direct proportion to our effort to live the Christian life by focusing on rules.  The law can tell us what we ought to do, but it cannot give us the ability to fulfill its demands.  The only thing the Law can give us is a sense of condemnation over our failure. Second Corinthians calls the law "the ministry of death" and verse 9 calls it the "ministry of condemnation". We have died to a system of rules and have been born again into a spiritual relationship of Grace."

McVey pauses here to have his readers consider the wisdom of another old friend, Watchman Nee, who if you have not heard of him. I would suggest you explore many of his interpretations of the life to be lived - as Christian, as a follower of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

Watchman Nee: "Grace means that God does something for me; law means I do something for God.  God has certain holy and righteous demands which He places upon me; that is law.  Now if law meas that God requires something of me for their fulfillment; then deliverance from the law means He no longer requires that of me; but Himself provides it.  Law implies that God requires me to do something for Him;  Deliverance from the law implies that He exempts me from doing it, and that is Grace.  He does it Himself.  \I need do nothing for God;that is deliverance from the law."

McVey continues...."The truth slams hard against the perspective of the legalist.  I spent may years of my Christian life trying to do something for God.  What a relief it was to discover that God is not' interested in what we can do for Him.  He can do anything that He needs done.  He does't want what we can do - He just wants us!'

My first encounter with God - that I can recall, came as a whisper in my ear as I was atop a troop ship headed for the Far East.  I was scared.  17 years old and headed for a nation that for the past few years, had provided us with news reels depicting the cruelty of their soldiers.  But my attention was diverted to the view of the skies.  It was in the dark of night and from the East to the West, the North to the South, the expanse reminded me of diamonds arrayed on a black velvet display cloth.  Millions of stars, planets, comets, shooting stars, and others, dancing before my eyes.  And then, there was a whisper, "I have created all of this and heavens far beyond all you can see."  Oh my, it was more than I could possibly comprehend.  It still boggles my mind.  It had to be God.  Who else?  And now I know without a doubt, He loves me - and you!  And all He asks of us is to follow in the footsteps of His beloved Son.

More Grace - introducing Philip Yancey

I first met Philip Yancey in a Leper colony in Louisiana.  No, I wasn't there, but he had been there with a doctor friend and the story that came out of his experiences brought me to my senses as a Christian.  It was then, I stopped "playing" church as I began to finally contemplate my role in this greatest of all adventures in life.  It was time to stop reading about Jesus and stop studying about Him through the wisdom displayed in the countless numbers of books, explaining theology. I remembered that old phase from a Commercial class in high school, "Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country."  I had done that.  I was there, involved in the Korean War as a teenager.  It was a great place to lay aside childish notions and become the man God had in mind when He blessed the womb of my Mother.  Now, it was time to act as a man.  That story will enfold as we move along, but now I want you to attend a play through the words of our host, Philip Yancey as expressed in one of his many books; this one, "What's So Amazing about Grace?"

"I had attended Amadeus (Latin for 'beloved of God') a play that shows a composer in the seventeenth century seeking to understand the mind of God.  The devout Amadeus Salieri had an earnest desire, but not the aptitude to create immoral music of praise.  It infuriates him that God has instead lavished the greatest gift of musical genius ever known on an impish preadolescent named Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

While watching the performance, I realized I was seeing the flip side of a problem that had long troubled me  The play was posing the same question as the book of Job, only inverted.  The author of Job ponders why God would punish the most righteous man on the face of the earth; the author of Amadeus ponders why God would "reward" an undeserving brat. The problem of pain meets its match in the scandal of Grace.  A line from the play expresses the scandal, "What use, after all, is man if does not to teach God His lessons?" 

Why would God choose Jacob the deceiver over dutiful Esau?  Why confer supernatural powers of strength on a Mozartian delinquent named Sampson?  Why groom a runty shepherd boy, David, to be Israel's king?  And why bestow a sublime gift of wisdom on Soloman, the fruit of that king's adulterous liaison?  Indeed, in each of these Old Testament stories the scandal of Grace rumbles under the surface until finally, in Jesus parables, it burst forth in a dramatic upheaval to reshape the moral landscape.

Jesus parable of the workers and their greedy unfair paychecks confronts the scandal head-on.  In a contemporary Jewish version of the story, the workers hired late in the afternoon work so hard that the employer impressed, decides to award them a full day's wages.  Not so, in Jesus' version, which notes that the last crop of workers had been idly standing around in the marketplace, something only

lazy shiftless workers would do in harvest season.  Moreover, those laggards do nothing to distinguish themselves, and the other workers are shocked by the pay they receive.  What employer in his right mind would pay the same amount for one hour's work as for the twelve? 

Jesus' story makes no economic sense, and that was His intent.  He was giving a parable about Gracc, which cannot be calculated like a day's wages.  Grace is not about finishing first or last, it is about counting.  We receive Grace as a gift from God, not as something we toil to earn, a point that Jesus made clearly through the employer's response:  "Friend, I am not being unfair to you.  Didn't you agree to work for a denarius?  Take your pay and go.  I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you.  Don't I have the right to do as I want with my own money?  Or are you envious because I am generous?"

Are you, Salieri, envious because I am so generous to Mozart?  Are you, Saul, envious because I am so generous to David?  Are you Pharisees envious because I open the gate to the Gentiles so late in the game?  That I honor the prayer of the tax collector above a Pharisee's, that I accept a thief's last-minute confession ad welcome him to Paradise?....

Yancey concludes this portion of his thoughts on Grace, by quoting Frederick Buechner:  "People are prepared for everything except for the fact that beyond the darkness of their blindness there is a great light. They are prepared to go on breaking their backs plowing the same old field until the cows come home without seeing, until they stub their toes on it, that there is a treasure buried in the field that is more than enough to purchase the State of Texass.  They are prepared for a God who makes hard bargains, but not for a God that gives as much as an hour's work as for a day's.  They are prepared for a mustard-seed kingdom of God no bigger tha the eye of a newt, but not for the great bayan tree it becomes with birds in its branches singing Mozart.  They are prepared for a potluck dinner at First Presbyterian, but not for the supper of the Lamb."

That is like telling a it is.  I have attended so many church services that I long ago stopped counting as I have more often been blessed by what I have saeen and heard, more often than not.  I love it when we gather together so that we might realize that we are not alone.  But the greatest gift of all is to see the love that is being shared with the greatest as well as the least among us, no one counting and surely there is no one assessing the value of the others.  It is then I get a glimpse of what the heavens will appear to be i the future than lies just beyond the setting of that last sunset

More Grace - introducing MIchael Scott Horton

I really had never heard of Michael Scott Horton until I was breezing around a book store one day and came upon his book, "Putting Amazing Back into Grace."  I read the forward by an old friend, Dr. J. I Packer and that was enough for me.  When I got home I looked more closely at the cover and saw the sub-title that read - An Introduction to Reformed Theology and having read a lot of R. C. Sprouls on Reformed Theology, I laid this book on my shelve and never looked at again until I started to prepare for my blogs on the subject of Grace.  He makes good sense in his opening remarks on Grace.

"Medieval believers were constantly reminded of how much their relationship with God depended on them.  The  'super' saints realized it was impossible to live without sin in their lives, so they joined the monasteries.  Luther was one such monk, but he soon understood the point that Christ made to the Pharisees about sin as being inherent to each one of us as fallen sinners.  Jesus told them, paraphrased, "It is not what goes into a man that makes him unclean, but what is already in there." Sin is not out there, in the world, but in here, in me.  It corrupts me regardless of my surroundings. Luther reasoned from the scriptures that God was no softy.  His is just and holy, incapable of overlooking our sins..  So the German monk spent hours in confession, hoping that God would notice him for his many tears.  His fear was, of course, that if he failed to confess, or failed to remember in order to confess, one single sin, that would be enough to condemn him.

Luther Knew his will was in bondage to sin, so how could he ever break the cycle of fear and be free?

Inspirational sermons aimed at motivating hearers to simply use the free will God that gave them, fell short of comforting them.  Luther knew there had to be either another answer, or no answer.

While he was teaching the Psalms, Galatians  and Romans, the gospel began to leap off the pages. As he was reading about God's righteousness, Luther was struck by what felt like a bolt of lightning. All of his life he had hated the righteousness of God, though he appeared outwardly pious.  It was that righteousness, after all, which hung above him like a sword of Damocles ad reminded him day after day that he was a sinner and must be judged.  Now he understood for the first time the righteousness which not only God is, but gives.  "For in the gospel", wrote St. Paul, "a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just a it was written, "The righteous shall live by faith."  (Romans 1:17)   God not only judges us by His righteousness, but with His righteousness imputed to our account.  The doctrine of justification  by Grace alone through faith was recovered and published in its New Testament brilliance.

I have added that as a reminder that those of us who have lived out our lives in the pews and not in the hallowed halls of theological magnificence are often mislead by the sanctimonious appeals that we are to do this and do that without ever questioning the words that appear before us as facts.  Early in my life as I became infatuated with the church as the answer to the pleadings of my heart to first go this way and then that way, merely to ease the pain that had existed from my earliest childhood.  My Father was dead, my Mother was struggling to make her way through the days and years of the Great Depression and I wound in a safe haven, my grandparents home who were faithful in their attendance at church.  But even after they had convinced us that "Jesus loves me" I still hurt.  Somehow, however, I was enabled to live with that pain until the glorious day when I learned that even though I was a accomplished sinner, all that was required was for me to repent and start walking as I had been created to walk, righteously - as a gift from my heavenly Father and experience the joy of living real life as a son, grace fully, and not as that pathetic rebel whose motivation had become the driving force in my life.