Archive for the 'Spiritual' Category

Thoughts on Lessons of St. Francis: Service

April 27, 2009

There’s always so much more we could do for others. The eleventh chapter of The Lessons of St. Francis reaffirm the truth that if we want the world to change, we need to begin that change. The author summarizes our roles on Earth thusly: “We are God’s hands.” We all love to complain about the world and its evils while we treat its problems as though they’re outside our jurisdiction. Yet it’s even more true today than it was in Francis’ that we are responsible for the woes of the world. We all have the power, freedom, and resources to make a difference. All most of us need is the heart to use such blessings to bless others.

Francis said something that is widely known about evangelism: “Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words.” Such was not an excuse to be silent about the Gospel but to emphasize that words without action are dead. Everybody knows of Christians who can preach up a storm but few know of ones in their own lives who would not only die for them, but also live for them. It’s sad because I’m positive that if people had such sincere and selfless Christians in their lives, all these stereotypes that Christians suffer would cease.

Real servitude is hard. Physically and spiritually, it is exhausting. It also makes us appear weak, insignificant, and unattractive in a world that adores the aggressors. To discard our own pride –the ingredient that will spoil all our Christ-like efforts– exposes us to exploitation, insult, and false accusations. To place others above ourselves would deny us the joys of life with which we are reluctant to part. Such is why servitude is often performed rarely and usually only in contained environments (such as churches) where our own comfortable lives will be impacted minutely. Yet we must be willing to sacrifice much more of ourselves if we truly want others to see God work through us. After all, many who are lost will never step foot inside a church until we give them a reason to consider it.

We all know what Jesus would do. We try to be kind and to live without sin, but Jesus was more than kind and sinless; he was also willing to inconvenience himself for the sake of others, even willing to wash the feet of those fathoms beneath Him in status and glory.

Posted in Devotions | Leave a Comment »
Tags: , ,

Thoughts on Lessons of St. Francis: Fellowship of the Kingdom

March 30, 2009

Community is the focus of the eighth chapter of The Lessons of St. Francis. It’s probably the hardest one for me to digest. I already want to be humble, I already know how beneficial solitude is, I already know how powerful chastity is. However, I’m not a fan of community. I’m always the alien in whatever group I join. Why would I want to sacrifice my sovereignty for one? It’s not as though I’m reclusive. I participate quite often at church. However, I rarely have meaningful fellowship with my spiritual brethren outside the walls of First Baptist. I make excuses. Jesus understands me so much more and causes me none of the problems that society does, so why would I sacrifice intimate time with him to spend it among imperfect people I’m afraid to trust? The truth is that I’m simply selfish and unwilling to relinquish control of my own life. That is the crux of my reluctance.

I’m not alone. So many walk away from church because they don’t like what the pastor says or because of the hypocrites they encounter there. They deceive themselves with the lie that they can experience greater spirituality on their own. Their faith shrivels with impotency. They rot into complacency. They forget who Christ really is. Others might not abandon church completely; they’ll simply abandon the one that slighted them and shop for a “holier” church: one that’ll serve their desires. Such fickle faith and denial that problems exist everywhere pave a smooth road to apostasy. Church leaders are just as awful. They splinter the church into tinier shards when conflicts arise because they refuse to compromise. They demand that the church be conducted according to their whims. They amputate the body and accuse other limbs of being cancerous.

I have many problems with my friends and my family, but nobody would suggest that I divorce them all and make room for perfect people. Who would that benefit? I would not be able to help them and I would not grow as I conceal my candle in the closet. Why do we do it to our spiritual families then?

I’m far from reclusive. I crave genuine fellowship. This does not include gossip with friends even if they happen to claim Christianity. Genuine fellowship is about accountability, charity, compassion, growth. I know I cannot mature to my full potential unless I indulge in such fellowship. It’s as necessary to my growth as solitude. I grew not a single inch all those years I spent in isolation. It took an entire church to change me. You have to sacrifice your individuality along with the rest of your childhood security blankets. Your have to learn to sacrifice, to surrender, to love others more than yourself. This cannot be learned at home.

Francis balanced his need for solitude with his need for fellowship. He spent several weeks alone renewing his spirit and followed with several weeks building the kingdom of God with others. I believe God has already preprogrammed me with such seasons. Rather than resist, I should sow during my solitude with God and reap when I fellowship with others.

Someday, I’ll definitely visit a monastery and taste the joy and community that I can find there.

Posted in Devotions | Leave a Comment »
Tags: , , ,

Thoughts on Lessons of St. Francis: Liberated Through Chastity

March 29, 2009

“Fire can warm a home or burn it to the ground.” –John Michael Talbot, author of The Lessons of St. Francis

–

The seventh chapter of The Lessons of St. Francis focused on chastity. As a celibate monk, Francis treated chastity with the utmost gravity. He avoided any whisper of temptation. He never met with women alone and when he did converse with them, he would always avert his eyes away from them. He even restricted the time with his close friend, St. Clare of Assisi, to a few visits during his entire lifetime lest he develop a greater love for her than for God. He was extremely ascetic, yet it demonstrated how adamantly he avoided temptation.

Even if he was overzealous in his crusade against his lust, he sensibly acknowledged how powerful and dangerous lust could be. It’s often treated too lightly even though it has the power to destroy marriages and friendships. It has the power to addict and the power to corrupt. People lose jobs because of it. People even kill sometimes. It penetrates every inch of the world. Too many Christians who praise the name of Jesus in public only to sneak home, close the blinds, and pleasure themselves to raunchy portrayals of sex. I have witnessed firsthand how untempered lust destroys relationships, corrupts good Christian character, and damages people. In light of all the risks it threatens, can anybody fault Francis for his discipline? Despite what the world insists, sex is not to be treated lightly.

I obviously won’t adopt all of Francis’ practices, but I agree that an untamed sexuality is a dangerous force. It’s why I will wait until marriage for sex, it’s one of the many reasons I’ve weaned myself off pornography, it’s why I won’t even indulge in sexual fantasies of the mind. Despite such vows, I’m hardly sexually repressed. I’m reclaiming dominion over my own body and mind. If you want sexual repression, then witness me during those years when my lust dominated me with its tyrannical grasp. It directed all my ambitions, perverted all my thoughts, tarnished all my relationships. Every woman I knew was a prisoner of the private harem I built inside my mind and every man was a rival to my conquests. I was a friend to nobody but my own loins. Thankfully, Christ revealed to me the lies of the sexually liberated paradigm, the truth about pornography, and the power of chastity. No longer do I see prostitutes and poachers in my friends but brothers and sisters. No longer is my greatest fear dying a virgin, but rather it is living a selfish and unproductive life. My virginity is now irrelevant. I think about other things now. Better things. Does that really make me sexually repressed?

I’m not afraid of sex anymore than I’m afraid of driving. I simply believe both should be done responsibly and on the proper roads. Sex is like fire. Neither is evil, but both have the power to destroy lives if handled recklessly and given dominion.

It’s still a struggle and I don’t help myself by tempting myself with the media I digest, but it no longer dominates me. Love does.

Posted in Devotions | Leave a Comment »
Tags: , , ,

Thoughts on Lessons of St. Francis: Christianity and Creativity Coexist

March 28, 2009

“Do not wonder that I am so religious. An artist who is not could not have produced anything like this. Have we not examples enough in Beethoven, Bach, Raphael and many others?” –Antonin Dvorak

–

The sixth chapter of The Lessons of St. Francis was on creativity. The writer illustrated the love affair Francis had with beauty. Though he was an ascetic monk who lived without possession save for the habit he wore, he was also a connoisseur of creativity. He wrote poetry, he sang, he sculpted, he painted. In fact, he was the first to create a nativity scene! Clearly his vow of celibacy did not leave him impotent artistically!

Too many people consider the Christian life, especially the religious Christian life, to be bland. How ignorant are they! Sure, there’s bland Christian music and terrible Christian films, but is that not also true of the secular media? Listen to a radio station long enough and you will notice that all the songs sound the same. The melodies differ subtly and the lyrics differ even lesser. Worst of all, though it’s still pretty, it’s still shallow. The same is true of any medium. Whether secular or Christian, most music, most books, most movies are derivative. Most art is shallow because the muse that inspires it is shallow. If you listened to Christian music without any preconceptions, you would see that it’s as good as its secular counterpart. There’s more out there than K-LOVE. My personal favorite is delta-s.

Christianity is far from bland. The evidence is the Bible itself: Psalms, Proverbs, Song of Songs, Job. Even the prophecies portray emotions and beauty that Marilyn Manson and Flo Rida will never surpass despite having all the king’s soldiers and all the king’s men at their dispense.

The only want of the art by Francis and other artists is an indulgence in carnality. You won’t find songs that glorify raunchy sex or strippers, drugs or violence. Does that make it bland? Is The Hills Have Eyes a superior movie to Amazing Grace? It has much more sex and violence, but I don’t think anybody except the most hardened atheist would believe that the more wholesome movie is the worser one. Maybe I could’ve chosen a better example than The Hills Have Eyes, but point is that gratuitous vulgarity is overrated and does not make art better despite what the liberals may think.

Christianity and art are not mutually exclusive but symbiotic. The greatest artists, whether Christian or not, have sought to honor the beauty of God and His creation much more than they sought to gratify their own loins. Even artists who prefer to satisfy the latter are decent, but it’s the former that will be remembered. The rest will be forgotten along with the rest of the advertisements.

Posted in Devotions | Leave a Comment »
Tags: , , ,

Thoughts on Lessons of St. Francis: Humility’s Strength

March 27, 2009

“If you should ask me what are the ways of God, I would tell you that the first is humility, the second is humility, and the third is still humility.” –St. Augustine

–

[I'm reading a lovely book, The Lessons of St. Francis by John Michael Talbot, and want to share the joy I receive from it with everybody, so I'll share this here as well.]

Certain blessings should be shared with the entire world and this book that has graced my eyes is such. I finished the fifth chapter, which was on humility, and am compelled to share my delight with you.

St. Francis, despite being adored and even called a “second Christ,” was a very humble man. Never did he exalt himself above others. He relentlessly pursued the lower direction in all his endeavors. When he established his monastic order, he immediately resigned from its leadership and bestowed it upon mere children of the faith: “Among the other things the kindness of God has generously granted me, it has granted me this grace that I would obey a novice of one hour, if he were given me as my guardian, as carefully as I would obey the oldest and most discreet person.” He was never a bishop or church leader of any kind. Though he was a vocal critic of the corruption inside the church, he never abandoned it to form his own denomination -”The perfect one!” as so many reformers must’ve thought- but rather worked to repair it from the inside.

As I read of Francis’ life, it reminded me of how proud some church leaders can be. They want things done their own way and would NEVER submit their sovereignty to a higher human leadership. When problems arise in their church, they abandon it like a teenage boy who discovered his girlfriend missed her period. Such pride has splintered the church throughout the millennia and such pride continues to in the upcoming millennium. Thousands of different denominations. Thousands of different churches. Yes, the Catholics exaggerate the chaos among the many different denominations but the Protestants exaggerate the unity. Though we claim to be one body of Christ, when we’re away from the political arena, we treat the other limbs as alien. My evidence? I’ve attended a few churches that do not recognize the baptisms of other churches. I don’t see humility in such divisiveness, but only pride as men fight for their right to independence and autonomy over the unity and welfare of the entire body.

On a more personal level, I am reminded of the depths of my own pride. Pride is sneaky, but it is everywhere and it is disgusting. It hungers for glory and worship. It ruins all that is beautiful. I saw the repugnant nature of pride in a creative writing poetry course a few years ago. There was a very lovely poet there, more lovely than I. Though all her poetry concerned itself with cowboys and sex, she had much talent. She was also arrogant though. She handled criticism poorly and exploited every opportunity to flaunt her talent with her audience. She quickly revealed that we were not her peers but merely ears to swallow the torrent of her glory. Nobody left that class with affection toward her or her poetry. Contrariwise, I, of lesser talent, had much more respect and praise.

Yet I am honestly no better. I demand attention and glory as much as she did. I demand the spotlight and only willingly rescind it when such self-sacrifice will reap more glory. I’m simply more subtle. I’m excessive in my pride. “I’m a good friend,” I say. “I listen. I help whenever I can.” But I am selfish in my charity. I help others to reap rewards and praise. I’m not a good friend. If I was, I would celebrate the success of my loved ones without resentment, but the truth is that whenever my friends succeed, I always interrogate God about my own lack of success. I argue that I deserve it as much as they do. Actually, I insist that I deserve it more than they do because I still foolishly believe I’m better than they are sometimes. Such arrogance is hardly friendly and certainly not loving. I’m much more humble now, but I still suffer major bouts of pride. The evidence is in the frustration and anger I hold against others because of their slights and offenses against me. Only in more lucid moments do I confess that I have committed the same insults against them. I’m not great. I’m far from a good friend. I’m just proud. It’s disgusting.

Humility looks like weakness through the worldly paradigm that insists that the victors are assertive and forceful, but considering how peaceful and joyful St. Francis was, considering the longevity of his lasting legacy in comparison to the forgotten anonymous faces of those who jeered him, considering Christ’s own submission, it’s undeniable that humility is far more powerful, effective, and victorious than pride.

Posted in Devotions | Leave a Comment »
Tags: , , ,

Turn Away from the Past

March 2, 2009

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.”
Isaiah 43:18

At work one day, I dropped a box of knickknacks. It had already been a rough day, so my first response was to fume at the mouth. Nevertheless, I took a breath and told myself, “Pick up the mess and count the minutes it takes.” I did. It took one minute to clean up. If I had allowed my frustration to blossom into anger, that anger could have poisoned the entire day. Anger born from a slip that took less than a minute to rectify.

Why does that which can no longer harm us continue to overpower us? All the burdens we carry form the past are simply deadweight that hinder our present walk. What do we earn by dragging them with us? Aches and sores. What would we gain if we tossed them behind us? Freedom. Peace. Happiness. We can’t find happiness by living in the wilderness we were stranded in before. We’ll only rediscover snares and thorns and pain that we’ll never be able to destroy. No matter how much we dwell on something that happened long ago, we cannot change the past. Our thoughts are not time machines no matter how much we wish they were.

Obviously the prudent act would be to cast away the past and the pain. Unfortunately, it isn’t always that easy. We justify the scars. If somebody hurt us, we reason, “I can’t let them hurt me again!” You are allowing them to hurt you again when you let them ruin your mind with painful thoughts! You can protect yourself from them without sacrificing your mind and your mood to them. What if it’s something we did? Something that we can never forgive ourselves for? Though we will still suffer the consequences, we need not hold onto the guilt and the shame of the sins we committed long ago. As Paul wrote to the Colossians, God “forgave us all our sins.” If God, who is perfect, is willing to forgive our sins though they be more of an offense to Him than to anybody else, then surely God wants us to forgive ourselves as well. He doesn’t want sin to control us when He has plans to work wonders through us. If somebody tells you otherwise, if somebody continually harasses you with your past, know that they are hardening their hearts and closing their ears to what Jesus told His disciples: “Forgive, and you will be forgiven.”

The past isn’t always easy to overcome. In some tragic case, it will take years of prayer and counseling to recover. Nevertheless, remember the past for what it is. Though we suffered many scars in the past, it is now as distant as a dream. When you wake from a terrible nightmare, you do not fall back asleep to resume that nightmare, right? Of course not. In the same, we should not fall asleep from today to relive pains of the past.

Lord, whenever I lose myself in the past, pull me back into the present and remind me that living occurs today, not yesterday. Heal the wounds I still suffer and smooth the scars that have hardened my heart. Free me from these burdens that I need not carry and replace them with Your yoke, for it is easy and Your burden is light. Turn me around. Allow me to live the day not with my sight behind me but with my eyes forward in anticipation of the blessings You have in store for me today. It’s in Your name, Jesus Christ, that I pray. Amen.

Posted in Devotions | Leave a Comment »
Tags: ,

Forgive and Be Free

February 23, 2009

“I tell you, [forgive your brother] not seven times, but seventy-seven times.”
Matthew 18:22

People have hurt you in life. Badly. Some of them haven’t sought your forgiveness. Some of them are still proud of the pain they caused you. No matter how you thrash around, you’ll never receive the respect you deserve. How does God want you to respond?

With forgiveness. When Peter asked Jesus how many times he must forgive somebody who has sinned against him, Jesus responded, “seventy-seven times.” In other words, never deprive them of your forgiveness! He followed Peter’s question with a parable of a man who, after receiving forgiveness on his outstanding debt to the king, would not offer the same mercy to his fellowman. In response, the king “turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.” Clearly God treats unforgiveness harshly. Why shouldn’t He? We have committed sins against Him that are far greater than any sin anybody has or can commit against us, yet He forgives us even though He knows very well that we will continue to sin against Him our entire lives. If God, who is holy and perfect, can forgive us sinners so very far beneath Him, then there is no reason we, as sinful as we are, can’t forgive our peers. It would be hypocritical to expect forgiveness from God and others when we are unwilling to extend it to others.

Forgiveness is not only a command, but a blessing to those who practice it. Not only does God offer mercy to those who are merciful, but those who forgive are not bound by the past in vain attempts to repair wounded pride, to repay slights they suffered, to recover what they think they lost. They have their sights forward as those driven by pride make vain attempts to change the past. If the servant in Jesus’ parable forgave the man who couldn’t repay him, what would he have lost. Nothing he hadn’t already lost. He would still have had his freedom and his life. He might have even recovered the debt eventually. Instead, he indulged in his vindictiveness and lost those as well. Either way, he never got back what little the other servant owed him. Even if the sins others have committed against you are greater, it still holds true: when you forgive them and move on with your life, you are blessed. If you pursue grudges and revenge, you will not recover what was stolen from you. You’ll only waste time and show God that you are unwilling to forgive others as He has forgiven you even though their debt to you is much smaller.

Forgive and free yourself from the past!

Lord Jesus, thank you for the mercy you show us fallen undeserving children of Eve. Bless us with the same merciful spirit so that we may grant others the same grace. Let us not walk in the ways of Lamech, who murdered a man for wounding him, but rather mold us into Your image, You who forgave the very people who crucified You. Let us not be fooled into the deception that we must repay every slight and fight for our honor. Help us to remember that such vengeance and hostility will benefit nobody and will certainly not help us. Instead, build us up to be full of mercy, so that we will be shown mercy and that we will be free to live the lives you blessed us with unhindered by the past. It is in your name, Jesus Christ, that I pray. Amen.

Posted in Devotions | Leave a Comment »
Tags: ,

Speak Honestly

February 19, 2009

Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you.
Genesis 12:13

When Abraham travelled to Egypt, he had Sarah lie to the Pharaoh and say that she was only his sister. Pharaoh, unaware that she was married, took her to be his wife and gave abundant gifts to Abraham. It wasn’t until God inflicted disease upon Pharaoh and his household that Abraham’s lie unraveled and he was sent out of Egypt. Though Abraham was a righteous man, he failed to trust God to protect him in the foreign land.Oftentimes, we lie to avoid fearful situations and gain favor with others. Some of us lie so often that we forgot how to be honest! Dishonesty, though often easier, creates more trouble than the truth itself would. Lies depend on more lies to conceal the fabrication and when the truth is inevitably discovered, the victim our lies is hurt by our insincerity and loses faith in our word. How much easier would it be just to be honest? The truth is not always pleasant and it might even cause discomfort, but it’s better to speak truthfully and retain your respect and integrity than to deceive others and leave them feeling lowly and manipulated.

“But I don’t want to hurt their feelings!” Let’s be honest: the feelings of others are the last worry on our minds when we lie. Our real fear is that we will be inconvenienced by their reaction. We don’t want to deal with other people’s disappointment, sadness, and anger, so we lie to them and hope that if they ever discover the truth, it will be when we aren’t around. That’s hardly caring. We can and should be truthful with tact. Ask anybody what they want: honesty or lies. Ask yourself the same question. Chances are that you don’t want to place your trust in somebody known for deceit. Neither does anybody else! Therefore, do unto others as you want done unto yourself. Nobody trusts a liar.

Posted in Devotions | Leave a Comment »
Tags: ,

Keep Good Company

February 18, 2009

“Bad company corrupts good character.”
1 Corinthians 15:33

Friends are good. They are blessings from God that nurture our walk with Christ, inspire us to abandon the world and embrace His calling, encourage us when we choke amidst the thorns of life, and comfort us when we are wounded. “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.” God uses our healthy and loving relationships with other believers to mold us into the image of Jesus. Your fellowship also has the power to lead others to Christ! As Jesus told His disciples, “all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” It is why God stresses the importance of remaining connected in the body of Christ. It not only benefits you, but it saves others!

However, not all friendships are healthy. Even friendships with other Christians can be harmful. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “‘Bad company corrupts good character.’ Come back to your senses … and stop sinning; for there are some who are ignorant of God—I say this to your shame.” Just because somebody calls himself a Christian does not mean he is a follower of Christ and just because a group of Christians spend time together does not mean they possess the fellowship that God intended. Discern them by their fruit. Do they speak encouraging and loving words or are their mouths full of gossip and malicious words? Can others see the love of Christ in their words or actions or do they only see a group of delinquents? Would their behavior be more appropriate in a church or in a bar? “Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.” If your social circle bares more resemblance to a group of drunks, perhaps it is time to find new friends. Sin is contagious and easily spreads among people. It has the power to ruin good Christians and tarnish the image of Christ among those in desperate need of Him. Even churches and Bible studies are not immune to destructive powers of sin. Therefore, be careful when you choose your friends. As Solomon wrote: “A righteous man is cautious in friendship, but the way of the wicked leads them astray.”

Posted in Devotions | Leave a Comment »
Tags: , ,