Читать книгу The Grace-Filled Life - Maxie Dunnam - Страница 11

GENESIS 22:9-19; MATTHEW 16:24-28; ROMANS 12:1-8

In the second act of the play Gideon, by Paddy Chayefsky, an angel of the Lord recognizes that Gideon has rejected him. Gideon vacillates between love and disenchantment, between a desire to serve and a longing to be served. Finally, he turns away from the Lord's representative, and the angel speaking for the Lord says, "I meant for you to love me, but you were only curious."

FROM THE TOP OF YOUR HEAD TO THE BOTTOM OF YOUR HEART

Could that be a personal indictment against us? We have been curious but hardly consecrated. We have been flabby in our commitment. The Christian faith and way has been a matter that caught us at the top of our heads but not at the bottom of our hearts. We have time for everything for which those who are not dedicated to the cause of Jesus have time. We surround ourselves with the same luxuries with which those who make no Christian claims surround themselves. What can be said of our Christian faith and commitment when we seek to serve the Kingdom of God with spare money in spare time?

Paul presents a tough challenge. In the first eleven chapters of his Epistle to the Romans he spells out in a clear and convincing way his understanding of the heart of the Christian faith, justification by grace through faith. Now, as he begins the twelfth chapter, he begins to offer practical instruction for how we are to live the new life we have been given by Christ.

I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Rom. 12:1-2)

One wonders if Paul is remembering the most vivid demonstration of faithfulness and trust in God we have in all history: the story of Abraham's sacri-fice of his son Isaac. It is one of the most powerful, profound, and disturbing stories in the Bible, and in all of literature for that matter. The story of Abraham is the story of a promise. God promises Abraham and Sarah that they would have a child and that their descendants from this child would be as numerous as the stars. Isaac is the promised child.

The story is filled with drama. Abraham is seventy-five years old and Sarah is sixty-five years old when the angel first visits them and tells them they are going to have a baby (Gen. 12:4-8). They trust and follow God's lead, though it is twenty-five years later when the angel returns to tell them, "Get ready; the baby is coming." Abraham is now almost one hundred years old. Sarah is ninety. Abraham and Sarah could not possibly, through biological processes, produce this child.

It would be wonderful, as stories go, for the story to end there—an old couple having a baby! The promise is fulfilled. But it doesn't end there. Now God's word is not a promise but a command that must have taken Abraham's breath away: "Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you" (22:2).

Perhaps more surprising than that horrific command is Abraham's response. He does what the Lord tells him to do. In an almost matter-of-fact way, Abraham follows through to the point of being poised with the knife over the altar where he has bound his child of promise, ready to take the life of his beloved son, his only son. But the Lord intervenes. Abraham has proven his faith and trust, and God provides a substitute offering.

That's our ultimate test. Are we able to let go of everything in the trust that the Lord will deliver on his promise? Do we trust God, who gives the gift in the first place? Was Paul thinking of this when he appealed to the Romans "by the mercies of God" that Christians present themselves as living sacrifices? The image is prominent in the biblical message because it leads us to the Cross, the heart of God's redemptive plan. God provides a substitute for Isaac, but there is no substitute for God's Isaac, his "only begotten Son," Jesus. Jesus knows the Cross is inevitable, and he describes the meaning of discipleship by reference to the cross. "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me" (Matt. 16:24).

With these reflections, the words of the playwright probe to the depth of our being: "I meant for you to love me, but you were only curious."

YOUR SECURITY SYSTEM REVEALED

Some areas of telling concern will not let us escape honest examination. Begin at a very simple level—the daily routine interests of our lives. The things in which persons are daily interested tell the story of their commitment.

The daily routine interests of our life are pretty revealing about our Christian faith and commitment. The priority of those interests is revealed in the way we spend our money. What are the first checks we write each month? Jesus said, "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" (Luke 12:34). Think about this: each year we Americans spend $7 billion on tobacco, $9 billion on alcoholic drinks, and $11 billion on vacations, while we spend only $4.5 billion on religion and welfare combined. In a recent year in the United States, we spent $55 million on migrant birds, while we spent $40 million on ministry to migrant farmers. We spent $3 billion on house plants during a year when we spent only $1.7 billion on poverty issues. It's a revealing exercise—just to look at the checks we write.

NOT MY WILL, BUT YOURS, LORD

Probe a bit deeper now. What of our efforts at spiritual maturity? Paul talked about this in different ways. "Present your bodies as a living sacrifice. . . . Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds." That was his word to the Romans (12:1-2). He urged the Galatians to "grow up in Christ." It was the same longing that he had for the Christians in Ephesus—that they arrive at real "maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ" (4:13). Is that a conscious part of our life, a deep desire and a commensurate, deliberate discipline to become a whole person spiritually?

Do you know the story of Frank Laubach? He was known as the apostle to the illiterates and was responsible, through his "each one, teach one" program, for the literacy of millions of people. Developing the inner resources of his life, connected with his burning concern to minister to the world's disinherited, made him sensitive to his needs for an intimate relationship with God. Here is a letter that he wrote very early in his quest for wholeness:

I climbed Signal Hill today in back of my house—talking and listening to God— all the way up, all the way back, all the lovely half hour spent on the top. A few months ago I was trying to write a chapter on the discovering of God. Now that I have discovered him, I find that it is a continuous discovery, and every day is rich with new aspects of him and his working. If I throw these mind-windows apart and say, God, what shall we think of now? He always answered in a beautiful tender way, and I know that God is love hungry because he is constantly pointing me to some dull dead soul which he has never reached, and wistfully urges me to help him reach that stolid, tight shut mind. (Letters by a Modern Mystic [Westwood, N.J.: Fleming H. Revell, 1958], pp. 27-28)

Wholeness comes only through an intentional, intimate, ongoing communion with the living Christ. The one thing that can save us from insignifi-cance is giving ourselves to a cause that is greater than ourselves. Did you ever ask yourself the question, "What does this world, what does the Lord, want of me?" Have you any good reason for going on breathing the air of this world and eating its food and taking up its space?

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION

What area of your life might suggest that your Christian faith and commitment is more curiosity than consecration? What changes are you willing to make? In what areas of your daily life do you need to trust God more?