Joel/Romans 3+4
If we don’t
live by faith the locust come in and munch all the things we've built. If we
don’t live by faith in God but only faith in our own bootstraps then all of
this will crumble.
Yes, faith
is action. On top of that it must be incessant prayer and Bible reading so that
when our actions turn from faith to self we don’t head that direction very
long.
For me I
wonder if the punk thing is an action of faith or an action of self. Like most
things I do, the motivation flip-flops. Sometimes it is totally an action of
self. Anything we use to define ourselves, other than Christ, is an action of
self. The question really is, can what we used as an action of self get
redeemed to be an action of faith in Christ?
Sometimes
it starts in faith and moves to self (i.e. helping people, ministry, parenting,
marriage,), while other times it starts in self and gets redeemed by faith
(i.e. your job, your marriage, desires, hobbies, etc). I truly want to glorify
God and watch people come to faith in Christ. I also want to stay punk. The
question is, if God told me to toss all the punk stuff and become “cute” would
I?
I don’t
know. I want to say I would, but why lie in my journal?
This is a good, inner struggle to be having; not just from the punk standpoint, but from a gospel standpoint. Like you said, "live by faith" is the only way. But "live by faith" can become an act of the flesh too: how easily we can turn faith in Christ into "faith in me having faith in Christ." Or faith in my incessant prayer and Bible reading (as good as those things are). Subtle line, you know? You already know that Christ accomplished all that is required ("It is finished"). Maybe the target is more about letting that fill all the corners of our life; i.e., more faith in what Christ did for me than in what I do for Christ, punk or not. Peace, brother. -Chris
ReplyDeleteChris, I'm totally down with what you're saying. I'll admit my wording was a bit off. You're right. Christ did enough and it's insulting to think that we can achieve Salvation by all the awesome stuff we do. It is a very subtle line: Christ brings life change not life change brings Christ.
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading!
-Dan
Yeah kids. The flesh is always showing up. I used to think (or was led to believe) that I could grow in faith to where it was all Holy Spirit and no flesh? Trouble is I live in flesh, as we all do. So, what to do? I feel the answer lies in growing in grace. I started in grace, and it is grace that keeps me returning to the feet of Jesus. The longer I live, the more I grow in this need. Another thing I got upside-down early on, that I would grow to not need God or His Spirit as much as I matured? HAHAHAHAHA thats a bunch of BUNK!
ReplyDeleteYour Brother in the Journey,
Kevin