Faith is a mysterious concept. On one end some would say that the miraculous is all up to God; our part is to receive it with grace. One the other end, others would say that miraculous works do not occur in our life because we do not have enough faith.
In the gospel account, Mark creates an interesting picture of how faith works. First, in chapter 4, Mark establishes the context of Jesus’ teaching: the Kingdom of God. The simplicity (of a deep theological topic) is that Christ is clearly being established as the Lord of lords – the sovereign ruler of God’s Kingdom. The Kingdom is about His rule, where everything, including us, is subjugated to Him.
With that as the backdrop, Mark explains several stories of faith and subsequent miraculous works: Jesus calming the storm (Lord of creation), Jesus casting out demons (Lord over spirits), Jesus healing a woman (Lord over physical health), and Jesus raising the dead (Lord over death). In each of these examples, it would be a mistake to make the miraculous simply about the people affected. The miracles are about Jesus establishing his Lordship. In each of the accounts, it is clear that the recipients directly acknowledge Jesus’ unique Lordship – they exhibit a belief that Jesus is One greater than this world.
The interesting part comes when Jesus returns to Nazareth, his hometown. He is known there, not as someone unique, but rather as a carpenter. Mark comments that the people cannot see beyond this fact. Mark actually describes the situation where people take offense at Jesus claiming to be something special (Mk 6:3). They did not see Jesus as a Lord over a Kingdom, and in this context, we see the description, “And He could do no mighty work there… and He marveled because of their unbelief.”
So, regarding faith, a couple things are important to note. First, miraculous works display that Jesus is Lord of the Kingdom. They are about confirming Jesus as Lord, not solely about making our unique situation better. Second, miraculous works are directly connected to the recipient’s belief that Jesus is Lord or testifying to that fact. And finally, miraculous works have a correlation to what we think about Jesus – our faith in Him as Lord. This is not a measure of having enough faith, but rather it is a matter of acknowledging and believing in Jesus, as the Sovereign Lord.
Grace enters into whether faith, even as small as a mustard seed, produces mighty works. Our part is to believe regardless of how impossible it seems or how small we might believe. Jesus’ part is to see the bigger picture of eternity and to act according to a perfect nature of goodness. In the context of Christ, as the Sovereign Ruler of the Kingdom, He acts unbounded by any limits of physical or spiritual properties – the miraculous.
What are you believing as you pray and expect God to work? Is it solely about you? The Kingdom of God is about Jesus being glorified as the Sovereign. It is about Jesus’ will being done in our life. The miraculous establishes this in one regard or another, never wasted, always building Christ as Lord. In that light, faith is unlimited and the miraculous can and will occur.
There was a little old man that worked in the Lost-and-Found room at my elementary school. This was not his full-time job, of course. But there was an amazing delight that radiated across his face when he opened the door to the storage closet that housed all the treasures that were once lost and are now being sought. This seemed to be the highlight of this man’s existence and brought a delight to him that I did not understand at the time. I can still see the smile and the beaming eyes, the reflection of joy that existed, each time I glimpsed into the tiny room with the odd, but happy, little man.
Being a bit older these days, I hope I know more than I did in elementary school (some might doubt this ;-). One aspect of life I have experienced is the joy that comes from finding something that was once lost. Can you related to searching over and over for an item, and then days later it shows up, and the sudden delight? I think this too is also part of the very character of God. He is a God of the Lost-and-Found.
The gospel writer, Luke, captures this well in Luke 15. With each story of something lost and then found, there is a celebration. Note it was not just a ‘that is good’; it was a ‘call your friends together’ celebration. We often think of God in this light related solely to salvation. Yet, I think the same attribute of God is at work in more than just those times. Those that have walked with God many years, if honest with yourself, see signs of how your joyful amazement in the things of the Lord has the potential to fade. The trust and anticipation of tomorrow might have tarnished a bit with the hardships or realities of life. Naivety was not so bad, was it?
Yet, like the little man at my school, God delights to be the instrument of things lost being found. These are moments of great happiness for Him and a cause of celebration. He is a God of the Lost-and-Found. I hope, as you reflect on this, it creates an anticipation of coming to God anew with the hope of finding what might once have been lost – the hope of a lost dream; the amazement of a new discovery about God; the expectation of things of great faith. God is one that delights in helping you find lost things.
My journey into the new year began with a reflection of looking at myself. I am reading David Benner’s book, The Gift of Being Yourself, and this morning he posed some comments that headed me down this path.
Benner writes, “Genuine self-knowledge begins by looking at God and knowing how God is looking at us. Grounding our knowing of our self in God’s knowing of us anchors us in reality. It also anchors us in God. … The question is how does God feel about you? What is God’s knowing of you?”
The profoundness of asking yourself, ‘What does God feel about me?” is quite a challenge to your honesty with yourself. My own immediate response is to answer the question with what ‘the correct theological answer’ should be or to say what someone else might answer on my behalf. But to be disclosing to my own true feelings is the only way to be true to yourself.
As I thought about this, the profound reality of how I view myself took hold. In sounds simple, but these things of the heart are much more complex. What I discovered is that I cannot love myself any more than what I understand/know how God loves me. I can fake the response, for instance, answering the question with my head, but that then shows me that I love myself the same way – with a love contrived in my head, with knowledge rather than heart-felt emotion.
Answering the question, “How does God feel about me?” is, in many ways, the same question as, “How do I feel about myself?” And the profoundness is that I simply cannot love myself any more than I think or feel how God loves me. These two things are directly linked in how God created us.
Do you dare to ask yourself the same question, “How does God feel about me?” As you let that sink in, you might find, like I did, some direct correlation with how you feel about yourself. Of course, the good news is that God wants to reveal the true depth of His love for you and His understanding of you. And that takes us towards a deeper understanding of His grace. Amazing grace.
In my journey toward gaining more understanding of grace, I often read authors who express the need “to become” rather than “to do”. Dan Allender has become a close literary friend to me over the years as I have sought to understand what has happened to me in this life and what I have become as a result. I have come to believe that God’s grace is somehow substantive and we are encouraged to seek it. Much like seeking a treasure. The following is an entry from my journal while reading one of Allender’s books…
The adventure of seeking
On Seeking:
In his book, To Be Told, I loved the following statement:
“Seeking is wandering with a mission without knowing where the path will lead.” p83
I believe we have a been on a path that has allowed us to “wander” for some time now. Along the way, we have found much treasure lying here and there. It is much like when I was a child and wondered the hills and creeks of my native Northwestern Illinois. Fossils, arrowheads, and all sorts of things to fascinate the mind of a young boy lay daily before me. But there was no clear path. Most treasure was only available by my wandering. No schedule to find them and sometimes hours, days, weeks and even years between significant finds. But there were treasures sufficient to keep the desire to “wander” high and times of wandering a thing to look forward to after chores, school and other scheduled events were taken care of.
I have a new meaning to “prone to wander” that is different from the old Gospel song of straying from the path. It seems more clearly to me that the true path of the Christian life is truly a wandering. I cannot say what the next day will bring and I have no ultimate ability to plan a path. And so… I wander… observing, noticing, collecting, and always searching for that next bit of “treasure” that lay before me. The process is the reward. Often no treasure, but seldom is there disappointment. It seems the greatest treasure is gained in the wandering itself. The treasures are just so that I remember the true value of wandering.
And so… considering seeking… I am determined to keep my prone to wander heart filled with purpose-filled wandering. I can now say with some authority… seeking is wandering with a mission!
It would be hard to imagine how the twentieth century would be different without God’s influence through C.S. Lewis. This Oxford professor uniquely reflected insights about the depth of God’s grace and along the way helped millions come to Christ. His words are common to most: Mere Christianity, The Screwtape Letters, Chronicles of Narnia, … just to name a few.
I recently read an account of C.S. Lewis discovering Christ during his adult years. The man who pressed Lewis towards Christ was T.D. Weldon, who himself was an intellectual, cynical unbeliever. Weldon, like Lewis, was agnostic. Yet Weldon made a comment one day that would redirect Lewis’ life. As Weldon was studying a theologian’s defense of the gospel, he commented, “Rum thing, that stuff of… the Dying God. It almost looks as if it really happened.” Lewis could hardly believe what he was hearing from Weldon, yet the nagging doubt launch Lewis on a journey to consider for himself whether what Jesus claimed was true. And we all greatly benefited from this journey.
God is amazing – using any means to reveal himself in such a creative, unending, unimaginable fashion. He continues to do this with us who believe, as well. Day by day, he shows himself. Are you watching? Are you looking for signs of his grace toward you? It’s there, you know. And like C.S. Lewis, he longs to draw you more deeply into the full knowledge of Himself. Amazing. Amazing grace!
I find myself reflecting more on the deity of Christ than on His perfect humanity. Have you ever worshiped His humanity?
I would be here
I was walking home this week in the cold and rain-slush. Head down, feeling miserable, I wondered if Jesus ever encountered the physical aches that come from bad weather. Sure he did! And it cut through him, like it did me. But in the blink of his eyes, he could have cut it back a notch, nothing notable, just enough to make it bearable.
Later in the week I was watching a movie set in the Caribbean. The blue-green water, white beaches, clear brilliant blue skies – breathtakingly beautiful. I lusted to be there, lying on the beach, refreshment in hand. My desire to enjoy nature is founded in my humanity – the same complete and total humanity that Jesus had. But in a snap of his fingers, Jesus could have taken his disciples away for a ministry retreat in the Caribbean. I think I would have, just a weekend mind you. Change of setting, a teaching moment, some personal time before he left them alone.
I followed this thought through the last days of Jesus’ suffering. With a movement of his finger, the thorny crown would be too dry to craft. A purse of his lips confuses the hall monitors of holiness from calling him evil. The movement of his foot softens the blows of the lashing. The suffering leading to the cross all softened – unnoticed to all of us. But, no, he endured all the suffering to the point of death. Being fully human, he experienced every pain, emotion, and still curtained the urge for retribution.
All for me. All for you. All for your unbelieving neighbor. For all of us! The grace of God displayed in the human aspect of God. In a moment I felt awe and worship for the 100% human aspect of Christ. In sight of the bigger prize – the redemption of you and me – Jesus disciplined his actions, all for the sake of grace to us. Amazing grace!
Earlier today I found myself washed over with emotional struggles. The world around me turned into a very evil place, full of temptation at every corner, and the dark places in my mind moved into the forefront of my thoughts. Oh, how I really dislike being in this place. The painful part was that this was the result of my own disobedience. The specifics are not important, yet the reminder of God’s grace was highly significant. Let me take you to the pages of my journal in the hope it will remind you too of God’s unlimited grace:
Coming again to Christ to ask for forgiveness
My head is in the gutter today…
Struggles in the hidden recesses of my mind are haunting and difficult to deal with. Today I can clearly feel the need for the Lord to pull me out of the quagmire of the pit. A helpless feeling… something that I cannot do within myself. I completely hate this feeling; hate sin; hate the perverted world in which I live. All this a result of lowering my guard and giving into temptation. My free will to fall; my free will to destroy myself; my free will to fasten chains around me that I cannot break free of. Definitely a helpless feeling. Is there grace even in my own failures?
All this takes me to the foot of the Cross. I wonder whether I really understand all that happened on that day long ago. God becoming man for the sake of love and for the reconciliation of God to man. A gift that was freely given, never earned, and completely undeserving. I know that the context for this was all of mankind, but the reality was for me – one person, sitting alone this morning, and calling again for the power of this act to save me from my struggles. The words ‘Amazing Grace’ do not even come close to what happen for me on that dark, foreboding day, long ago.
Lord, I humbly ask again for you to forgive me. Your one act – once for all – was given to me. Yet I stumble, forget and fail, so again I need your help, your forgiveness, your act of love given that day on Calvary. Lord, please forgive me and help be to walk fully upright in repentance. By the name and blood of Jesus Christ, I stand – yes, amazing grace!
Love the theme of this. I really relate to the Beast whose “self-hatred and loathing becomes the norm of life.” I am continuing to apply my heart to understanding who it is that I am in Christ. I am inspired recently by a book by David Brenner: The Gift of Being Yourself.
A recent journal entry: I find that his words sing the desires of my heart. I am seeing that there is a way to know deeper the things of myself along the way of getting to know Him. Benner says that there is no other way of getting to know God, and I am considering such.
• “Tragically we easily settle for pretense, and a truly authentic self seems illusory. … Our true self-in-Christ is the only self that will support authenticity. It and it alone provides an identity that is eternal.” 15
• “While some Christian visions of the spiritual life imply that as we become more like Christ we look more and more like each other, such cultic expectation of loss of individuality has nothing in common with genuine Christian spirituality. Paradoxically, as we become more and more like Christ we become more uniquely our own true self.” 16
• “Being most deeply your unique self is something that God desires, because your true self is grounded in Christ.” 16
From the opening of John Calvin’s The Institutes of the Christian Religion comes a statement that Benner says is echoed across a vast number of theologians who are widely respected today: “There is no deep knowing of God without a deep knowing of self and no deep knowing of self without a deep knowing of God.” 20
• “…it has been largely ignored by the contemporary church. We have focused on knowing God and tended to ignore knowing ourselves. The consequences have often been grievous…” 20
I have spent a significant amount of time on the following statements:
• Genuine self-knowledge begins by looking at God and noticing how God is looking at us. Grounding our knowing of our self in God’s knowing of us anchors us in reality. It also anchors us in God.” P48
I am committed to knowing myself as God knows me…and then knowing him more through seeing his heart toward me.
Psa 139:6
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is high; I cannot attain it.
I invite you to join my personal quest for a deeper understanding of the full measure of grace we have in Jesus Christ. This site is the personal blog of Mike Edwards - sometimes serious and sometimes fun. We are all on a journey. Far better to go it together than alone.
