Monday, February 02, 2009
Fighting In Surrender
Milt Stanley links to a hideously titled blog post, with a winning pullquote:
I am currently rereading a bunch of C.S. Lewis with an eye towards Christian political activism. (That's a story for another time.) In particular I am comparing that with a bunch of stuff coming out of today's Evangelicalism - you know, worldview stuff. The difference is striking. When Lewis talks about behavior, political or otherwise, he just figures out what is the best way to go. The stuff that comes out today seems to be all tied up with forming a "worldview" - that is to say thinking about something matters more than actually doing it.
Let me ask you this - do you know how the phone works, I mean really know? I don't, and I know more about technology than most people. But it is useful, and we all use it all the time.
I think it is like that when it comes to Christian behavior and learning to be holy. We'll never figure it all out. In fact, being a creature, not Creator, I am not at all sure we are capable of figuring it all out. Sometimes we just need to do it.
Which leads me to the title of this post. We fight to be holy simply by doing, we surrender by admitting our inability to understand. Eventually our will, understanding and action will align.
Technorati Tags:transformation, will, thought, understanding
Generated By Technorati Tag Generator
God's call is to holiness. Absolute holiness in all that I say or do (1 Peter 1:15-16). God's call is not for me to become a disciple of Jesus only at my baptism and then to lay down my arms but God's call is for me to fight. He wants me to make war against my flesh and against this world. This is not the time to raise the white flag of surrender but it is a time to hate my flesh and to long for God to be glorified in me. God did not give me the gift of the Holy Spirit so that I can merely have some inward witness that I am a child of the King (Romans 8:16-17) but God gave me His Spirit to empower me to holiness (Acts 1:8; 15:9-11; Romans 8:9-11).The blog linked is called "Arminian Today" and being Calvinist, I had to think about this a bit, but the difference between us is in the how's not the what's. God calls us to transformation, not merely salvation.
I am currently rereading a bunch of C.S. Lewis with an eye towards Christian political activism. (That's a story for another time.) In particular I am comparing that with a bunch of stuff coming out of today's Evangelicalism - you know, worldview stuff. The difference is striking. When Lewis talks about behavior, political or otherwise, he just figures out what is the best way to go. The stuff that comes out today seems to be all tied up with forming a "worldview" - that is to say thinking about something matters more than actually doing it.
Let me ask you this - do you know how the phone works, I mean really know? I don't, and I know more about technology than most people. But it is useful, and we all use it all the time.
I think it is like that when it comes to Christian behavior and learning to be holy. We'll never figure it all out. In fact, being a creature, not Creator, I am not at all sure we are capable of figuring it all out. Sometimes we just need to do it.
Which leads me to the title of this post. We fight to be holy simply by doing, we surrender by admitting our inability to understand. Eventually our will, understanding and action will align.
Technorati Tags:transformation, will, thought, understanding
Generated By Technorati Tag Generator
