A Humble Guy Shines for Christ

“Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the most of the opportunity.”  Ephesians 5:15-16

Ruth Bell Graham, in her book “Legacy of a Pack Rat,” tells a story about a professor and a man who shined his boots: 

    Alexander Grigolia had immigrated to America from Soviet Georgia, learned English, earned three doctoral degrees, and became a successful professor at the University of Pennsylvania. But despite his freedom and achievements, he had a misery in his heart that he couldn’t dislodge.

    One day while getting a shoeshine he noticed that the bootblack went about his work with a sense of joy, scrubbing and buffing and smiling and talking. Finally Dr. Grigolia could stand it no longer. He said in his funny-sounding accent, “What always you so happy?” 

    Looking up, the bootblack paused and replied, “Jesus. He loves me. He died so God could forgive my badness. He makes me happy.” 

    The professor snapped his newspaper back in front of his face, and the bootblack went back to work.

    But Dr. Grigolia never escaped those words, and they brought him eventually to the Savior. He later became a professor of anthropology at Wheaton College, and taught, among others, a young student named Billy Graham.

On Humility--Jonathan Edwards

"Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you."  I Peter 5:6

Below is Jonathan Edwards' (1703-1758) description of a humble person. Between this and yesterday's post, I have given you the very best I've found on this subject.

A brief word: The Puritans want their readers to engage in serious meditation. That explains why most of us find the Puritans a hard slog. Meditation on truth is difficult work! Also, we may struggle with a style of writing that seems strange and antiquated, and because some of their words meant different things 300 years ago, or have gone entirely out of use. But here I believe is the main problem: We just don't think in the elevated ways the Puritans did about God and holy things. They make sounds outside our normal range and we must strain ourselves to hear them. "It is not the bee's touching of the flower that gathers honey, but her abiding for a time upon the flower that draws out the sweet" (T. Brooks).

"Humility may be defined to be a habit of mind and heart corresponding to our comparative unworthiness and vileness before God, or a sense of our own comparative meanness in His sight, with the disposition to a behavior answerable thereto.

And a truly humble man is sensible of the small extent of his own knowledge, and the great extent of his ignorance, and of the small extent of his understanding as compared with the understanding of God. He is sensible of his weakness, how little his strength is, and how little he is able to do. He is sensible of his natural distance from God, of his dependence on Him, of the insufficiency of his own power and wisdom to lead and guide him, and his might to enable him to do what he ought to do for Him.

Humility tends to prevent an aspiring and ambitious behavior amongst men. The man that is under the influence of an humble spirit is content with such a situation amongst men as God is pleased to allot to him, and is not greedy of honor, and does not affect to appear uppermost and exalted above his neighbors. Humility tends also to prevent an arrogant and assuming behavior. On the contrary, humility disposes a person to a condescending behavior to the meekest and lowest and to treat inferiors with courtesy and affability, as being sensible of his own weakness and despicableness before God.

If we then consider ourselves as the followers of the meek and lowly and crucified Jesus, we shall walk humbly before God and man all the days of our life on earth.

Let us all be exhorted earnestly to seek much of an humble spirit, and to endeavor to be humble in all their behavior toward God and men. Seek for a deep and abiding sense of your comparative meanness before God and man. Know God. Confess your nothingness and ill-desert before Him. Distrust yourself. Rely only on God. Renounce all glory except from Him. Yield yourself heartily to His will and service. Avoid an aspiring, ambitious, ostentatious, assuming, arrogant, scornful, stubborn, willful leveling, self-justifying behavior; and strive for more and more of the humble spirit that Christ manifested while He was on earth.

Humility is a most essential and distinguishing trait in all true piety. Earnestly seek, then, and diligently and prayerfully cherish an humble spirit, and God shall walk with you here below; and when a few more days shall have passed, He will receive you to the honors bestowed on His people at Christ’s right hand."

On Humility--Thomas Brooks

"Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another for 'God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble'" (I Peter 5:5).

When we are prideful, the "accuser of the brethren" is able to sow discord and create division with ease. Why should he bother himself with devouring the saints (I Pet 5:8), when we will do that work for him? "But if you bite and devour one another take heed that you are not consumed by one another" (Gal 5:15).

The Puritan Thomas Brooks gives 12 remedies for resisting the enemy's strategy for dividing Christians in his classic work, "Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices" (published 1652). The last remedy is "Above all, labor to be clothed with humility."

Brooks remarks on humility cut to the heart; I encourage you to read them to your family members:

“Humility makes a man peaceable among brethren, fruitful in well-doing, cheerful in suffering, and constant in holy walking. Humility fits for the highest services we owe to Christ, and yet will not neglect the lowest service to the meanest saint (John 13:5).  Humility can feed upon the meanest dish, and yet it is maintained by the choicest delicates, as God, Christ, and glory.

Humility will make a man bless him that curses him, and pray for those that persecute him. A humble heart is a habitation for God, a scholar for Christ, a companion of angels, a preserver of grace, and a fitter for glory. Humility is the nurse of our graces, the preserver of our mercies, and the great promoter of holy duties. 

Humility cannot find three things on this side of heaven: it cannot find fullness in the creature, nor sweetness in sin, nor life in an ordinance without Christ. A humble soul always finds three things on this side of heaven: the soul to be empty, Christ to be full, and every mercy and duty to be sweet wherein God is enjoyed. 

Grace Inexhaustible and Undeterred

It is good to sorrow over sin, and in our day when we are preoccupied with things of the world and find so little leisure for reflection, true sorrowing is perhaps rare. But we must also guard against the opposite danger and not allow the enormity of our sin to so overwhelm us that the small flame of our passion for God is quenched. In those cases, it is good to think of Jesus praying from the cross for those who proved faithless and abused him and stubbornly refused his love: “Father, forgive them.” 

 

“Men may flee from the sunlight to dark and musty caves of the earth, but they cannot put out the sun. So men may…despise the grace of God, but they cannot extinguish it.”  A.W. Tozer

“God never gave a believer a new heart that it should always lie a-bleeding, and that it should always be rent and torn in pieces with discouragements.” Thomas Brooks (1608-1680)

The "One"

I Can Only Imagine...

We're coming on the 3rd anniversary of November 29, 2008, the day my son Christopher "shuffled off this mortal coil" and put on immortality.

I miss him the most this time of year. But, honestly, it is not Chris as he was I miss so much, but rather the "glorified" person I dreamed he would be one day in heaven...and I still wait and I still long very much to see him.

We played "I Can Only Imagine" at Chris' service. I think, except for maybe "A Mighty Fortress," no song has ever moved my faith-strings as much as this. The song's link is here: "I Can Only Imagine." 

May it touch your heart as it has mine.

UPDATE: Early in December I started a second blog called "Life With Christopher" to talk and share about disability, parenting, and spirituality. You can find it at dennyhoytlifewithchristopher.blogspot.com

The Church: Hospital or Armed Camp?

Neil Anderson in Victory Over the Darkness notes how Christians often view the church as a hospital.

"Sadly, one of the common pictures of the Church today is of a group of people with an assumed faith but little action. We’re thankful that our sins are forgiven and that Jesus is preparing a place in heaven for us, but we’re basically cowering in fear and defeat in the world….We treat the Church as if it’s a hospital. We get together to compare wounds and hold each other’s hands, yearning for Jesus to come take us away.
 
But is that the picture of the church in the New Testament? No way. The church is not a hospital; it’s a military outpost under orders to storm the gates of hell. Every believer is on active duty, called to take part in fulfilling the Great Commission. Thankfully the church has an infirmary where we can minister to the weak and wounded, and that ministry is necessary. But we don’t exist for that. Our real purpose is to be change agents in the world, taking a stand, living by faith and accomplishing something for God."

The life of discipleship is hard and service to Christ requires a soldier's mindset. 

“Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus” (2 Tim 2:3)

“Wage the good warfare” (I Tim 1:18)

“Put on the whole armor of God” (Eph 6:11)

"Fight the good fight of the faith" (I Tim 6:12)

Scriptures for Meditating on Christ's Victory

When we are weary and discouraged and the battle looks grim--maybe we are thinking about our sin problems, or problems in the church, or the unresponsiveness of loved ones--it is good to focus and revive our faith by meditating on those scriptures which proclaim the truth of Christ's conquest.

Colossians 2:15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to shame, by triumphing over them in him [i.e., the cross].

Hebrews 2:14-15 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage.

Colossians 1:13-14 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

I John 3:8 The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.

I John 5:18 We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him.


Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
James 4:7 Submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

I John 4:4 He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

I John 2:14 I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.

Romans 16:20 The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.

Revelation 12:11 And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.

Christ the Victor

The Lord Jesus is pictured in Scripture as a Mighty Warrior leading the armies of heaven to put a final end to evil: "Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war" (see Revelation 19:11-16).

But the victory is not primarily, or even first of all, a future event. Christ in his first coming was the Divine Warrior who conquered sin and the dark powers of evil by his perfect life and redeeming death and resurrecton. "He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him" (Colossians 2:15).

To stand firm as soldiers of Christ, we must concentrate all our thought on the Captain of our salvation, leaning on him and not relying on ourselves. Christ is  in our midst, "a warrior who gives victory" (Zephaniah 3:17), and that is what we must set before our minds. Christ Jesus has won the war, won the decisive victory over the world, the flesh, the devil, and death itself. And now he is pressing the victory against the dark powers.

This is the real picture of spiritual warfare. This is the reality we must insist on when the father of lies calls us "losers" and "failures" and brags that he has the upper hand.

Christ has already conquered and now he sits enthroned at the Father's right hand, far above every rule and authority--far above Satan and all his foul spirits. And this is also is the truth about the followers of Christ: 

• Our sin and guilt are forgiven and taken away by his blood shed on the cross. 
• We are new people in Christ, children of God, saints (holy ones) of God.
• We are seated with Christ in the heavenly places (Ephesians 1:20-22; 2:6). 

This is our identity. This is our position. This is our authority in Christ. We must insist on these truths--say them aloud even--as we watch and pray daily against sin, temptation, and the devil.

The Battle for the Mind

The strongholds Paul has in view in 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 are false ideas, Satan's deceptions, and the warfare is fundamentally a battle for the minds of God's people.

"For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every though captive to obey Christ."

In context, the deception involved erroneous ways of thinking about Paul's gospel ministry. Paul was a true servant of Christ, he spoke and wrote under divine influence, but in Corinth as elsewhere he was opposed by other so-called ministers of Christ who considered themselves superior to Paul and sought to discredit Paul by elevating their own "credentials" and making Paul appear weak and ineffectual.

The real battle was not with these men, not with flesh and blood, but with the deceptive schemes of Satan working through human means. And so in 2 Corinthians 10-13 Paul wages war with weapons of divine power. One after another, he calls out the false arguments and self-important opinions and demolishes them with words of truth. He does this, not to secure for himself a better following, but to secure the minds of God's people under the Lordship of Jesus Christ (10:5).

Dr. Ed Murphy helpfully observes that, while the attack on Paul's apostolic legitimacy is specifically in view here, strongholds include "any form of reasoning, any attitude, and any way of thinking that 'exalts itself against the knowledge of God', or 'misbeliefs.'" Misbeliefs, writes Murphy, are "beliefs that are untrue about oneself, others, or circumstances. They can become demonic strongholds against one's life, family, church, etc. It is important to note that these ways of thinking can become strongholds within a church through carnal leadership (whether clergy or laity); but of course, the ultimate source of all such deceptions is Satan" (11:14-15). (The Handbook of Spiritual Warfare)

Those who are not yet Christians but sense the Spirit of God drawing them to himself may be held back by misbeliefs such as "God cannot love me. I am too sinful to be saved. I need to improve myself before I can become a Christian." All totally false! A Christian may be robbed of joy and peace by misbeliefs such as "I am worthless. I'm a terrible person. I will never change."

The deceiver loves especially to work the saved and unsaved to accept false ideas about the Heavenly Father's character, motives and attitudes.

The Lie: The Heavenly Father is cold, distant, passive, uncaring, too busy, impatient, rejecting, mean, cruel, manipulative, ticked off, and unforgiving.

The Truth: The Heavenly Father is warm, intimate, kind, compassionate, accepting, forgiving, filled with joy and love, always near, patient, slow to anger, gentle, protective, full of grace and mercy, and committed to my growth as His beloved child in Christ (N. Anderson). "The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness" (Exodus 34:6-7).

False ideas of God and ourselves, mortared together and stacked high, can become strongholds which only supernatural weapons will destroy. These are principally the Spirit Himself and the Word of God. "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord" (Zechariah 4:6). "And take the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God" (Ephesians 6:17).