The Power of "No-ability"

 

(Sunset on a Lake Michigan beach)

The making of a man is making your body

do what it doesn't want to do.

Robert Bly

I don't say yes to every opportunity. I want my yes to mean yes. This is about discernment, about what God wants me to do.

The mature person flourishes in life as they are able to wield the powerful word "No." The Jesus-idea is that, as we connect to him as a branch connects to a vine, we bear "fruit," part of which is awe-inspiring "self control." (Galatians 5:23) People drop their jaws and stare in wonder as people say "No" to mere self-gratification.

A Spirit-led, self controlled person is a free person. They have grown in their humanity and are empowered to say "No" to eating the wrong things, to spending money they don't have to buy things they don't need, to entering every open door, to affirming every idea, and to engaging in sexual behavior as the objectification of other persons.

"No" is the ultimate boundary word. The ability to wield this word will not come from hearing will-power slogans like "Just say 'No'." Authentic, boundary-setting 'No-ability" must become one's heart, one's inner being. This happens as Christ is formed in us.

Think of Jesus after he fed the 5,000. The people rushed after him to make him an earthly king. Jesus exercised self control and refused. His 'No' was not only for him, but for the sake of others; indeed, for the sake of the whole world.

This is a narrow road, said Jesus, and few take it. But it is the road to freedom. M. Scott Peck described The Road Less Traveled as "gratification delay." "No" is, perhaps, the ultimate other-centered word.

Pray for the "No" of Christ be formed in you, and go free.

How to Pray Unceasingly

(While sitting on our back deck a deer paid me a visit.)

Pray continually.

1 Thessalonians 5:17

More and more, I find myself praying thoughout the day. When I wake in the morning I find myself, reflexively, automatically, thanking God. Often, I say it softly, "Thank you, Lord." I find myself lifting up prayers for others, for my family, for my own self. These just come to my mind, and I pray them. I am thinking, this is the kind of thing the apostle Paul was writing about in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 - pray continually. 

The secret to "praying continually" is connectedness with Jesus. Out of the soil of intimate relationship "praying without ceasing" grows.

When you are with a person a lot, you think about them a lot. This applies to being with Jesus, as well as being with others.

Intimate connection is the key to ongoingness. The unceasing, continual praying Paul experienced was not some arduous, task-oriented duty. Unceasing praying does not come by trying harder. It flows out of connectedness. The more there is intimate abiding in Christ, the more one's praying becomes unceasing.

Frank Laubach put it this way.

“The task to which You have called me is as hard to accomplish as scaling Mount Everest, but You can accomplish it if I can keep my will attuned to Your will…. That is my task, to hold my will to the current of power, and let You sweep through endlessly.” (Quoted in Richard Foster, Prayer - 10th Anniversary Edition: Finding the Heart's True Home, pp. 125-126)

Connect often to Jesus. Ongoing conversation with God will follow.

Unceasing praying is the fruit of intimate relationship. As relationship deepens, conversation deepens. Richard Foster describes this as a growth process. (See Foster, Prayer, pp. 125-126.)  

To begin, I choose to connect with Christ, in the act of praying.

For me this happened in 1977. I made a choice to pray a half hour a day. I did not do this to earn God's love. I chose this because of God's love for me. 

1. Those who love God, talk with God.

2. I love God.

3. Therefore, I talk with God.

Foster writes: "This is how we gain proficiency at anything. The accomplished pianist, who today spryly runs her hands up and down the keyboard, once had to agonize over the simplest scales. The same is true for us." Foster, Prayer, p. 126. See also Dallas Willard's beautiful The Spirit of the Disciplines.)

Choose this day whom you will talk with. As for me and my house, we will talk with God.

Then, the activity and content of the mind descends into the heart.

I woke this morning with a song in my heart. These words are looping in my soul: When we arrive on eternity's shore, and death is just a memory and tears are no more... This song now flows like an unceasing river through my soul, over and over and over.

Foster says prayer becomes "like a tune that we suddenly realize we have been humming all day long. Inward prayer bubbles forth at the oddest moments: in the midst of traffic, in the shower, in a crowded shopping mall. We begin to dream our prayer." (Ib.) 

We begin to think our prayers, in our hearts. "Our decisions become increasingly bathed in a loving rationality." This is hard to describe. It comes only to pray-ers. Foster writes:

"I do not quite have the words to explain it to you. We become, for example, more sensitive to the hurts and sufferings of others. We walk into a room and quickly know who is sad or lonely or dealing with a deep, inexpressible sorrow. In such a case we are able to slip over beside them and sit in silence, bringing comfort and understanding and healing, knowing that “deep calls to deep” (Ps. 42:7)." (Ib., 127)

For me, this comes as I practice praying. 

Finally, prayer permeates the whole personality. Foster writes: "It becomes like our breath or our blood, which moves throughout the entire body. Prayer develops a deep rhythm inside us." (Ib., 127)

This is intimacy with Jesus, ongoingly. This is love, experientially. Praying-as-relationship becomes the air I breathe.

This is John 14-15-16 stuff, realized. The Father makes his home in us. We are one with God, unitively. (This is a relational union, not a metaphysical union of being.)

Praying becomes a life of cultivated closeness. Unceasingly.


***
My two books are:

Leading the Presence-Driven Church

Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God

I am currently writing...

Deconstructing Progressive Christianity, and

How God Changes the Human Heart.

Then, Linda and I will co-write our book on Relationships.

Repeat After Me: "The Lord Is My Shepherd, I Shall Not Want"

Me, at Green Lake Conference Center, Wisconsin

When I teach people to pray, and in my spiritual formation classes, I use Psalm 23 as the meditative focus (for the past 30+ years!). So I was pleased to read this from Henri Nouwen's A Spirituality of Living. He writes:

"Oh, if we could sit for just one half hour a day doing nothing except taking a simple word or phrase from the Bible and holding it in our heart and mind. “The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want” (Ps. 23:1, NRSV). Say it three times. We know it’s not true, because we want many things. That is exactly why we’re so nervous. But if we keep saying the truth, the real truth—“The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want”—and let that truth descend from our minds into our hearts, gradually those words will be written on the walls of our inner holy place. That becomes the space in which we can receive our colleagues and our work, our family and our friends, and the people we will meet during the day." (Pp. 16-17)

Wisdom Is the Foundation of a Godly Life

                                                                

                                                                 (Redeemer sanctuary)

 7 AM.

I finished the book of Proverbs - again.

I'm ready to re-read, and re-meditate on Proverbs, beginning in chapter one.

Proverbs has become part of the rock that keeps the ship of my soul anchored.

The main concepts in Proverbs are:

• Proverbs are general statements that affirm godly values and virtues. 

• There are two ways, and the way of wisdom is to be chosen over the path to destruction. 

• Wisdom is the foundation of a godly life. 

• We show wisdom in the way we speak and the way we interact with others. 

(From Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, Kindle Locations 137220-137223)

From Proverbs 1:1-7, Passion translation.

1 Here are kingdom revelations, words to live by,

and words of wisdom given to empower you to reign in life,
written as proverbs by Israel’s King Solomon, David’s son.
2 Within these sayings will be found the revelation of wisdom
and the impartation of spiritual understanding.
Use them as keys to unlock the treasures of true knowledge.
3 Those who cling to these words will receive discipline
to demonstrate wisdom in every relationship
and to choose what is right and just and fair.
4 These proverbs will give you great skill
to teach the immature and make them wise,
to give youth the understanding of their design and destiny.
5 For the wise, these proverbs will make you even wiser,
and for those with discernment,
you will be able to acquire brilliant strategies for leadership.
6 These kingdom revelations will break open your understanding
to unveil the deeper meaning of parables,
poetic riddles, and epigrams,
and to unravel the words and enigmas of the wise.
7 How then does a man gain the essence of wisdom?
We cross the threshold of true knowledge
when we live in obedient devotion to God.
Stubborn know-it-alls will never stop to do this,
for they scorn true wisdom and knowledge.

The Myth of Progressivism

 

                                            (Lake Erie, Sterling State Park, Monroe, MI)

The term 'progressive' is popular. So, not wanting to appear unpopular, some Christians have adopted the term and attached it to modify 'Christianity'. Hence, 'progressive Christian'.

I could never refer to myself this way. Because, as I have said in previous posts:

1) 'Progressive' has no place in a Christian eschatology.

2) 'Progress' is a myth.

The self-identified 'progressive Christian' has adopted a mythical position. To explain, consider this quote from philosopher John Gray's Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Human and Other Animals.

ON BELIEF IN PROGRESS: "In science, the growth of knowledge is cumulative. But human life as a whole is not a cumulative activity; what is gained in one generation may be lost in the next. In science, knowledge is an unmixed good; in ethics and politics it is bad as well as good. science increases human power - and magnifies the flaws in human nature. It enables us to live longer and have higher living standards than in the past. At the same time it allows us to wreak destruction - on each other and the Earth - on a larger scale than ever before."

Exactly.

Technological progress? Yes. 

Moral progress? No, the belief in moral progress is a utopian myth. (Hegelian; Marxist)

Green Lake Conference Afterglow!

 

How to Discern What God Wants You to Do

 (Out for coffee in Monroe, at Agua Dulce.)

What does God want you to do? Henri Nouwen writes: 

"God has a very special role for you to fulfill. God wants you to stay close to his heart and let him guide you. You will know what you are called to do when you have to know it." (Nouwen, Discernment: Reading the Signs of Daily Life, p. 97)

Discernment is a function of closeness, of intimacy, of familiarity. Discernment increases where there is enduring connection. 

"Staying close to God's heart" includes presenting our selves as living sacrifices to Him. Then, we are told, we will be able to test (discern) the good and perfect will of God. (Romans 12:1-2)

I know this from experience. Yet, it is radical in church life, since many focus on figuring out what to do without emphasizing, in the first place, staying close to God's heart.

1. Stay close to God. (Abide in Christ.)
2. Listen and discern.
3. Follow.

All this is "the Lord is my shepherd" stuff. God desires to guide you in this life and will guide you as you stay close to his heart.

***
You can read about discerning the voice of God in my book Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God.

Deconstructing Progressive Christianity: Point #4

 

ABOUT ME

I am a husband (to Linda, since 1973). A father. A father-in-law. A grandfather! A pastor (since 1970). A professor (taught at several seminaries around the world; taught philosophy at Monroe County Community College for 18 years). A philosopher, and a theologian. (PhD, Northwestern University, in Philosophical Theology, 1986).

I have studied people, and biblical and theological issues, and culture, for over fifty years. I am a constant reader and observer. 

I present to you a series of posts I am calling "Deconstructing 'Progressive Christianity.'" Here are reasons why I could not be a "progressive Christian." The first two posts are especially about this, using semantics and some deconstruction thrown in. (See here.) Post #1 was: "'Progressive' is not a word that fits into a Christian eschatological worldview." Post #2 was "The term "progressive Christianity" is too vague to be useful." Post #3 was  - "Progressive Christianity Wrongly Diminishes Confidence in the Bible." Post #4 is: "Progressive  Christians wrongly downplay the importance of beliefs."

A final note before I begin this fourth post. I have read, as a theologian myself, several of the theologians who are usually associated with progressive Christianity. (Postmodernism, deconstruction, critical theory, linguistic semantics and philosophy of language (my dissertation was in this area), and, yes, political progressivism.) Some of them have written books and articles that I have benefitted from. But then, along the way, some of them turned away from some core beliefs that I see as important to our faith. Some of them were "deconverted" from evangelical Christianity. That has saddened me. 

I want you to know that there are many theologians and biblical scholars, such as myself, who have not departed from what we see as essential. This is not out of ignorance. We are quite familiar with, and have wrestled with, all the questions progressivists raise. And wow! We see things differently. Which means: we disagree with each other. Which means: we think each other is wrong about some things. (For example, see Brian McLaren's vicious disagreement with The Nashville Statement, where he even brings in the KKK, implicating the 24,000+ theologians and biblical scholars, and even Francis Chan, J. I. Packer, and people like me, who agree with the Statement.)

I hope you gain from these posts. I will do my best to revolve around one main point per post. I'll do my best to make it accessible. 

Blessings!

John Piippo

Redeemer Fellowship Church, Monroe, MI

johnpiippo@msn.com

Today someone sent me this quote. The author of the quote is a spiritual director named Roger Wolsey.

Note the widely shared belief, adhered to by progressive Christians, in this statement: Progressive Christianity focuses more upon orthopraxy (right behavior, actions, and relationship) and less upon orthodoxy (right doctrines and beliefs). This is one of progressive Christianity's beliefs; viz., that we should focus less on beliefs and more on right behaviors and actions.

I agree that right behaviors and actions are important. Faith without actions is dead. But there are countless examples of the power of beliefs to effect actions. In numerous cases, a belief rightly ought to precede any action. And, the religion "of" Jesus is heavily, I'd say massively, invested in Jesus's  identity. It is crucial to identify just who is ding on that cross.

Beliefs cause behaviors. Consider the belief Racism is wrong. Someone who believes this statement is true will have moral grounds to act upon it. 

Consider the belief If I get the coronavirus vaccine, I will be more protected from coronavirus. Someone who believed that statement to be true would, presumably, act so as to get the vaccine.

A million examples could be given. Here are a few more that, if believed to be true, will likely lead to actions and behaviors.

Smoking cigarettes causes lung cancer.

The steel beams in this building have been structurally compromised.

It's raining outside.

If I fail this exam, then I will not graduate.

A sure path to wealth is to get a degree in philosophy.

The world is going to end one hour after I finish reading this sentence.

Often, we act without reasoning. Daniel Kahneman has called this "fast thinking." This is not always good. But sometimes, before we act, we engage in "slow thinking." We reason. We formulate and evaluate. Whenever we do this, we are dealing with beliefs. (See Kahneman, Thinking Fast and Slow)

I think what Wolsey said about Emphasize actions more than beliefs is wrong-headed. That belief is right out of postmodernism, which claims we cannot know beliefs (objective truths and falsehoods). This is so core to progressive Christianity that my refusal to believe it entails a rejection of progressive Christianity itself.

I agree that how a person acts in relation to a belief can be an indicator of whether or not the person really believes. But this does not mean that a person just acts, devoid of any belief that is good or true. We don't launch the manned spacecraft without months of checking hundreds of belief-boxes.

One progressive Christian example of the belief that Actions are to be emphasized more than beliefs is Colby Martin's interpretation of Jesus's questeion to Peter, "Who do you say that I am?" (In Martin, The Shift: Surviving and Thriving after Moving from Conservative to Progressive Christianity.) Here's the text. Brace yourself. Martin is going to take his postmodern metanarrative and force it onto the text.

13 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”

14 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

15 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”

16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

17 Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you that you are Peter,[b] and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades[c] will not overcome it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be[d] bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be[e] loosed in heaven.” 20 Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.

Here is Martin's unbelievable explanation of what he thinks is really going on here (note: he has the answer, which is a progressivist no-no).

"Notice that Jesus didn’t exactly affirm that Peter got the answer right. That wasn’t the point. What Jesus did do, though, should slash most church’s evangelism budgets in half." (I'm calling our church's financial team right now!) 

Upon hearing Peter’s belief that Jesus was the Christ, Jesus said, “Happy are you . . . because no human has shown this to you.” For Jesus, the best part of Peter’s response had little to do with accuracy and everything to do with the fact that he arrived at his conclusion on his own."  Martin, Colby. The Shift (pp. 66-67). Fortress Press. Kindle Edition. 

No human has shown this to Peter. Correct.

 Peter said, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God?" But, according to Martin, that's not the point. Jesus doesn't care if Peter is correct or not.

All that Jesus cares about is this: "Peter! You arrived at this conclusion on your own! The conviction in your heart - that came from inside you! Yay! You be you!"

But what about the line in the text that says "my Father in heaven" has revealed this to Peter? Martin writes:

"When Jesus says, “my Father who is in heaven has shown you,” he’s naming that the conviction in Peter’s heart and mind—that Jesus was the Christ—came from within him.""

Martin is saying that this conviction of Peter's...  didn't really come from the Father, who is in heaven? Wow. Now I am thinking of New Age theologies. Jesus becomes an ever-evolving Rohrshach test. One wonders if even God got it right at Jesus's baptism.

Martin concludes his chapter on "Who Is Jesus?" with this.

"In seeing the full humanity in Jesus, we wake up to the full humanity in us. Fully loved by God, just like Jesus. 

“Who do you say that I am?” Jesus asks. 

We reply, “You are the human one, the loved child of God.” 

Jesus smiles and says, “And so are you. How great is that?”

There are so many Christological things going on here that are questionable that I don't know where to begin. But I do know I could never identify with progressive Christianity if Martin is representative of it. And, I cannot help thinking of a dialogue that goes like this.

"Who do you say that I am? Remember, you don't have to get this right. All that counts is that it comes from you," says Jesus.

I reply, "You are a waffle chicken sandwich."

Jesus smiles and says, "And so are you. How great is that?"

***

I am now writing my book on deconstructing progressive Christianity.

The Root Cause of Division in America (sermon - 7/4/21)

Jesus' "As Usual" Prayer Life (Prayer Summer)

                                      (Green Lake Christian Conference Center, Wisconsin)


My hope is that praying, for you, will become an "as usual" thing, a "customary" thing. Like it was for Jesus. 

Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, 

and his disciples followed him. 

On reaching the place, he said to them, 

“Pray that you will not fall into temptation.” 

He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, 

knelt down and prayed...

Luke 22:39-41

"As usual" means "habitual." Often. A lot. 

Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.

Luke 15:16

Jesus was a habitual pray-er.

1. Jesus found apart-places where he engaged in solitary praying.
2. Jesus prayed to find out what the Father wanted him to do.

Jesus was a habitual pray-er.

Jesus went to lonely places, places of least distraction, to pray.

His followers will do the same.

***

My understand of a praying life can be found in my book Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God.