Semper Gumby

Flexibility on our short-term missions trips is increasingly required as we travel and serve.  I am in the middle of a trip to New Dehli and Dehradun, India and Kathmandu, Nepal from October 31 to November 13.

We are seeking to provide evangelism services in various prisons and to present conferences on building up prison ministries among nationals. I am appreciating every member of our team and our PFC hosting missionaries and pastors.

Our PFC team is Greg and Rhonda Von Tobel, Jamie Neault, Steve Lamken, and me. 

                         Always flexible
We are adopting a Marine Corps slogan, "Semper Gumby," which means always flexible. While guests in another culture, we must genuinely honor and respect their ways.  The first thing we deal with is how nationals deal with time commitments.  We try to be on-time.  Other cultures not so much.  There were numerous flex challenges.

We faced restrictions entering prisons to provide worship services. 

In Dehradun, our team met with the superintendent in his office.  From the outset, he multi-tasked on steroids and deflected our requests to enter inside the facility--we were not getting inside.  Eventually, he allowed a shortened service for 30 inmates and staff.

On Monday, our area representative even arranged to have a select group of politicians and respected officials participate with us attempting to persuade the superintendent. When we arrived, the officer informed us he had orders to not allow us even past the gate. When the officials arrived, they were ushered in an met for close to an hour with the superintendent. They tried but the result was the same.  The American foreigner missionaries did not go in.

In both occasions, our nationals were allowed in and presented services for 225 inmates and staff with positive results. 
                    
                           Massive population

You should see the wall-to-wall people in India, approximately 1.24 billion.  China has 1.43 billion... New Dehli has 18 million, 9 million id abject poverty...Dehradun (pronounced "doon") has 10 million, doubled in 10 years. 

In contrast.... 

Metro Seattle is 616 thousand

Everett-Olympia I-5 corridor is 3.5 million
New York is 8.24 million
Los Angeles is 3.8 million

US is 313 million

The people walk, mostly ride on motorcycles, honk, take bigger taxis, honk to tell you where they are and what they are doing, and forever cutting in front of one another. There are cars for some.  Did I mention they honk more? They drive on the left, all this in warp speed everywhere.  The roads are good but woefully inadequate for the still-growing population.

The physical atmosphere is smokey because they burn trash or let it sit in piles along the road. We witnessed some trash pick-up service. The god-like cows and roaming dogs eat the trash.  In the cities, the dogs do not appear dangerous but are not taken care of.  There are a few pet dogs and fewer cats. Occasionally, we saw monkeys and pigs roaming.

                            Stages of closed

India appears to be developing into a closed and intolerant atmosphere even in policies and laws toward Christian missions.  There are consistent stories of physical persecution during open air preaching. The religious culture is at least 80% Hindu, then Buddhist, and Muslim. Nationals report the Christian presence is greater than the 3% documented but is in pockets with huge areas unreached. 

The culture is polar rich and in staggering poverty. 

Field exaggerations

In one week, I am headed for India and Nepal with four others as part of Prisoners for Christ on a two-week missions trip.  

We've had several team meetings, rereading the orientation manual, and recalling my last trip to Rwanda and Burundi.

Now, it's "go-time."

We leave on October 31 and return on November 13 with ten days of active ministry on the ground.  


 Our theme theme is "The great light shines in deep darkness," from Isaiah 9:2.

The actual locations for this trip are New Dehli and Dehra Dun, northern India and Kathmandu, Nepal.  From those headquarters, we will be traveling daily to various prisons and conference settings. 
 
I remain amazed at God's just incredible favor as my support finances for this short-term missions trip are fully in. Everybody will laugh as one of the rules is bald guys like me wear baseball hats.  Since that's my normal way, I just make a pick from my collection.


                   Everything is exaggerated on the field 
The one lesson the Lord continues to remind me of from my past trip is dying to myself around selfishness and unmet expectations.  Well, I had that under control, I thought.  I am mature, I told myself.

I didn't have my unmet expectations under control.  

Emotions, fears, stresses, and multiple other anxieties came right to the surface on my last trip.  It was a big struggle as I got tired and started talking.  A couple of times, it got really uncomfortable.  I complained openly about conditions, the roads, and the food when I got tired.  

I was entrenched, during those unguarded and raw moments, in a sense of entitlement within our team.  Things were not going like we had outlined.  Others heard very clearly my gossip and complaints about the group leader through paper-thin walls.  

                                          Five "TIBET" purposes 

Train and equip the national saints who are currently involved doing prison prison ministry.

Introduce the PFC umbrella and possibly raise up a PFC missionary partner.

Bless the national saints with encouragement and resources, and provide aid and assistance to the prisons.

Evangelize by conducting evangelistic church services inside the national prisons.

Teach the church how to recruit additional volunteers and to assist them in presenting the concept to other churches.

                                   Conference instruction topics

In conference settings, I am scheduled to present sessions on working with the staff at the institution, the PFC code of conduct, and working with local churches to recruit volunteers.

In working with the staff at the institutions, I will focus on the key to the longevity of the ministry, each staff member is our mission field, the staff are keepers of the front door, and bad attitudes toward staff is a poor witness and lead to damaging problems.

The PFC code of conduct establishes excellent reputations.  We need to be aware if we don't respect the institutional rules, we will be kicked out  and no one will hear the gospel.  We maintain genuine integrity and respect the designated rules.  

No contraband items are to be given or taken from inmates unless approved by the hosting chaplain prior to admittance.  Violation of contraband policy is punishable by fine and imprisonment.  

Our clearly defined mission must remain to share Jesus Christ so we guard against inmates playing on our sympathy to manipulate and control.  We guard against  inquiries about reasons for the inmate's incarceration.  We keep our word and know the limits of our ministry so we do not promise what we are unable to follow through on.

In working with local churches to recruit volunteers, I focus on our service as non-denominational so we work with Protestant churches.  Growing the ministry involves inviting others.  Multiple church participation outgrows any one church and encourages others to join in.

Illusions of control

Controlling people are often being controlled by others.  Then, they control other people more.  They all become entangled in victim lifestyle.  Chronic victims do not choose to take steps toward healing.

Control and being controlled is not about others. You and I are in some ways controlled and controlling others.  It may not be dysfunctional, however.

We could be in dangerous places in relationships that matter a great deal to others and us.


 Do I find myself controlling my need to feel hurt with draining behaviors and emotions? Victims relish disorder and discomfort so they never believe they are safe.  

Let me get more personal, here.  Do you and I somehow get energy from our illusion of control?

               Unmanageable places in my experience

The first foundational block in 12-step recovery program journeys toward healing is recognizing details of unmanageable cycles that are entirely too big for me to fix. 

I can't make whatever "this" unmanageable and overwhelming mountain go away. I can't control this.

Addicted people play manipulation games with those close to them in tangled webs of selfishness. It's a twisted and warped reality. In this game world, personal responsibility is virtually lost.  The victim does not choose to free themselves from these games that don't care for the welfare of others.  Everything is about them and their need to be in control.

One way prideful and controlling behaviors surface is in conversations in my own experience.  That is, for myself. Recently in a conversation with several others in a long trip, I was very uncomfortable what I saw the others doing.  I was wiggling in my seat.  Wow, they are bad.

                              My need to be in control
Then, with both barrels, I recognized I am every bit and more of a controlling person.  I was still wiggling but it was about me. I clearly realized these habitual behaviors:

First, I need to have the last word.

Second, I need to be right.

Third, I need to win the argument.

Fourth, I am not a caring listener.

Fifth, I am not respecting the other person's ideas and feelings.

                           Breaking through illusions 
Because I must apparently feel superior to others, I work at gaining an illusion of control.  This is a very real need to feel respected for my knowledge.

"I am experienced," I say.  "I know about this.  I read books and went to great classes, lots of them." 

Paul wrote: "Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear." ~Ephesians 4:29

Paul again, "...And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness..." ~2 Timothy 2:23-25 

 Jesus stated, “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye."  ~Matthew 7:1-5  

I am a very empathetic listener.  I know that.  It is real.  There are times when my guard is down and I am simply not listening. It just might not be in my head, at all.  When I am in this "need to be right" mentality, I am interrupting.  I am rude.

I know these "need to be right" experiences are more than I am remembering.

The controlling person that needs the most transforming is me.  That is the Lord's chosen business for me.  I need to take care of my own business, here.  

 How about you?

Killing sin in God's love

                               
"Sin will not only be striving, acting, rebelling, troubling, disquieting, but if let along" Puritan John Owen wrote, "if not continually mortified, it will bring forth great, cursed, scandalous, soul-destroying sins...It is our duty to be “perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (2 Cor. 7:1); to be “growing in grace” every day (1 Peter 2:2, 2 Peter 3:18); to be “renewing out inward man day by day” (2 Cor. 4:16).

John Owen

"Let not that man think he makes any progress in holiness." Owen said, "who does not walk over the bellies of his lusts. He who does not kill sin in this way takes no steps towards his journey’s end.

"He who finds no opposition from it, and who does not set himself in every particular to its mortification is at peace with and is not dying to it.  Be killing sin or it will be killing you," Owen concluded.


                         

                   God's love in forgiveness
In every step our striving, God loves us through and through.  He stands with us and empowers us to kill sin. Larry actively battles consequences of a complex web of sins as an inmate at the Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent.  We meet twice a week, usually Monday and Friday. Occasionally, he is cast down in depression.  Thankfully, he doesn't stay there.  We looked at Psalm 130.

Psalm 130 

3 If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?

4 But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared.

7 O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love,

and with him is plentiful redemption.

8 And he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.

Larry and I meditated together on God's faithful forgiving love.  This song of ascents affirms if the LORD charges us with our rebellious iniquities against him, none could stand before Him.  He is forgiving.  As a result, we bow down in awed worship, in reverence because of His astounding covenant mercy.

God's character is marked by steadfast love and plentiful, or abundant forgiveness.  In the original Hebrew, this hesed is steadfast love combining His forever faithful grace, mercy, kindness, and forgiveness.

                          Twisted accusations
Larry's thoughts play like an active DVD as he sits in his cell and lives day-to-day in his unit since December of 2011. With his legal process in motion, he held his hand six inches from his face, sharing a sense of an accusing lion staring "in his face."

Together, we called out the lion. What are you hearing?  See those accusations for what they are. They are accusations based on what he doesn't know and driven by fear. Separate fact from deceiving accusatory attacks at your very soul.  Who is leveling these attacks?  What is the Lord saying?  Consider the source of what is being said very carefully, with godly discernment.

Here are the accusations: 

"First, my life will never be the same.  I lost my church ministries, friends, and jobs I loved so much.  I was serving in awesome places I loved.  All that is gone.  

Second, my friends deserted me.  We spent time together.  It was so good.  Since I entered jail, the church pastoral staff never even contacted me.  There have been no visits from them.  To them, it is like I don't exist.

Third, my path is really hard.  When I am released, I will go to work, attend required meetings, and go back home.  That is it.  I have my family and that is wonderful.  For the next five years, I am locked into this life. 

Fourth, my guilt is overwhelming. I feel great remorse and guilt for what I did.  I know God has forgiven me.  I repented.  I dug a deep hole.  I feel like I am in a dark place I will never get out of.  I feel dirty.  I know I am clean in Jesus and that he forgives me."

He won't go back to the places and other circumstances where he engaged in very destructive things while, yes, he was serving in places he really enjoyed.  Critical parts of his life were a disheveled mess.  He can choose to not go back there. He trusts his lawyer.  He trusts God, prays, and reads and studies the Scriptures.  His different life will be a good thing.

A few people outside his family visited him, two he did not expect who were tremendous encouragements.  A few from the church he attended write letters but clearly are guarded, at least for now. Pastoral staff have not contacted him.

There are two very strong mentors he calls regularly and who are standing with him through the entire ordeal.  His family visits him weekly and he calls them.  Many inmates get no visits while they are incarcerated. 

His journey will be restricted.  Many fail in the way assigned to him.  Until he is engaged in the new path, he doesn't know what the "hard path" looks like.  It will be hard.  God is providing a very strong support system.  Some things will be harder than he knows, now.

The consequences of a litany of charges are real.  Jail is real.  In context, now, God's love and forgiveness shines brightly. He requires solid counseling and support around whatever the next phase of his life is.  We looked at several critical passages--Zechariah 3:1-9 and Revelation 12:9-14


                        Brands plucked from the fire

Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. 

And the LORD said to Satan, “The LORD rebuke you, O Satan! The LORD who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?” 

Now Joshua was standing before the angel, clothed with filthy garments. 

And the angel said to those who were standing before him, “Remove the filthy garments from him.” 

And to him he said, “Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments.” 

And I said, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.” 

So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the LORD was standing by.             ~Zechariah 3:1-5 

Larry's lion accuser is Satan, here.  Joshua the high priest here represents you and me who are in Christ Jesus standing before this angel. This taking off very real sin and putting on new vestments and even a turban on our heads is the work of God for every believer.  

Joshua was clothed with filthy garments.  Sin isn't make believe. Joshua, Larry, you and me are filthy dirty before God.  The removal of these garments represent the taking away of iniquities.  Joshua didn't put on these clean garments.  Those standing before the angel, presumably other angels, put them on him. This is Larry, for sure.  Believers are "brands plucked from the fire."  Glory to God.  Larry, you and me, are "plucked from the fire" of destruction and the eternal wages of sin which is separation from God. 

brands in fire

Joshua was also given a clean turban representing renewed and transformed thinking.  Our very thinking is changed through the working of God.  Why do we have new garments and a clean turban?  Because the Lord Jesus ordered it for us.  Our sins are forever removed and we are changed by the authority of Jesus Christ.

And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. 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. Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!”  ~Revelation 12:10-12 

                               Miraculous great exchange

Larry's accuser is again our arch-enemy, Satan.  So, we are battling sometimes waves of daily sin and the evil attacks and accusations of the devil.  We conquer by the blood of the Lamb, the once for all, finished work of Christ--died, buried, risen, and ascended, and now seated at the right hand of God. 

This is referred to as "the great exchange."  Christ died and took our sins upon Himself on the cross.  All our sins, forever, past, present, and future are placed on Jesus on the cross.  In return, He covered and clothed us with His righteousness. When the Father looks at us, now, He doesn't see our guilt and filthy garments but miraculously He dwells on the righteousness of Jesus.

We also conquer by the word of our testimony, the Good News Gospel of salvation.  Satan exercises great wrath against all these things because, we are told, he knows his time is short. 

 

Dangers in "let go and let God"

What is “let-go-and-let-God” theology? It’s called Keswick theology, and it’s one of the most significant strands of second-blessing theology. It assumes that Christians experience two “blessings.”

 The first, noted Dr. Andrew Naselli, is getting “saved,” and the second is "getting serious."  He is research manager for D.A. Carson, administrator of Themelios, and an adjunct faculty member at several schools. He is author of Let Go and Let God? A Survey and Analysis of Keswick Theology.   Naselli notes the change taught by "let go and let God" is dramatic:

• from a defeated to a victorious
• from a lower to a higher
• from a shallow to a deeper
• from a fruitless to a more abundant
• from being “carnal” to being “spiritual”
• from merely having Jesus as your Savior to making Jesus your Master

Sounds really useful, doesn't it?  This line of theology emphasizes people experience this second blessing through surrender and faith, so, “Let go and let God, very appealing because Christians struggle with sin and want to be victorious in that struggle now.

                          Historical perspective
Keswick theology offers a quick fix, and its shortcut to instant victory appeals to genuine longings for holiness. Keswick (pronounced KE H-zick) is a small town in the scenic Lake District of northwest England. Since 1875, it has hosted a week-long meeting in July for the Keswick Convention. The movement’s first generation (about 1875– 1920) epitomized what we still call “Keswick theology” today.

People who influenced Keswick theology include John Wesley, Charles Finney, and Hannah Whitall Smith. Significant proponents of Keswick theology include Evan H. Hopkins (Keswick’s formative theologian), H. Moule (Keswick’s scholar and best theologian), F. B. Meyer (Keswick’s international ambassador), Andrew Murray (Keswick’s foremost devotional author), J. Hudson Taylor and Amy Carmichael (Keswick’s foremost missionaries), Frances Havergal (Keswick’s hymnist), and W. H. Griffith Thomas, and Robert C. McQuilkin (leaders of the victorious life movement).

People who were influenced by Keswick theology include leaders of the Christian and Missionary Alliance (A. B. Simpson), Moody Bible Institute (D. L. Moody and R. A. Torrey), and Dallas Seminary (Lewis Chafer and Charles Ryrie).

Beginning in the 1920s, the Keswick Convention’s view of sanctification began to shift from the view promoted by the leaders of the early convention. William Scroggie (1877– 1958) led that transformation to a view of sanctification closer to the Reformed view. The official Keswick Convention that now hosts the annual Keswick conferences holds a Reformed view of sanctification and invites speakers who are confessionally reformed.

Perhaps, its most famous proponent of "let go and let God" is Oswald Chambers. In "My utmost for His highest," a devotional I have greatly enjoyed over the years, wrote:

Oswald Chambers

"God does not give us overcoming life: He gives us life as we overcome. The strain is the strength. If there is no strain, there is no strength. Are you asking God to give you life and liberty and joy? 

"God never gives strength for tomorrow, or for the next hour, but only for the strain of the minute The temptation is to face difficulties from a common-sense standpoint. The saint is hilarious when he is crushed with difficulties because the thing is so ludicrously impossible to anyone but God."  

"'I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.'" ~John 16:33

So, what is the big problem?    How should we respond?

                       Not biblically sound
"Let go and let God" Keswick theology, however, is not biblically sound. If that is so, then there are big problems worth considering carefully.  Here are tendencies:

1. Creates two categories of Christians--fundamental, linchpin issue.
2. Portrays a shallow and incomplete view of sin in the Christian life.
3. Promotes passivity, not activity.
4. Views the Christian’s free will as autonomously starting and stopping sanctification.
5. Establishes superficial formulas for instantaneous sanctification.
6. Develops disillusionment and frustration for the “have-nots.”
7. Misinterprets personal experiences.

You can tell that Keswick theology has influenced people when you hear a Christian “testimony” like this: “I was saved when I was eight years old, and I surrendered to Christ when I was seventeen.” 

They infer, "I was saved...and now, really saved and surrendered. I've really got it, now."

There are two tiers or levels of genuine Christianity, according to "let go and let God."

levels of Christians

First tier 
“Saved,”so Jesus became their Savior and they became a Christian. 

Second tier 
By “surrendered,” so they gave full control of their lives to Jesus as their Master, yielded to do whatever He wanted them to do, and “dedicated” themselves through surrender and faith. 

"We shouldn’t determine our view of sanctification by counting up who we perceive to be the most holy Christians and seeing which view has the most. Scripture, and Scripture alone, must determine our view of sanctification," Naselli reminds us.

---

J.I. Packer recounts his walk into "let go and let God"

"I was converted – that is, I came to the Lord Jesus Christ in a decisive commitment, needing and seeking God’s pardon and acceptance, conscious of Christ’s redeeming love for me and his personal call to me – in my first university term, a little more than half a century ago. 

The group nurturing me was heavily pietistic in style, and left me in no doubt that the most important thing for me as a Christian was the quality of my walk with God: in which, of course, they were entirely right. 

                     Elitist spirituality

J.I. Packer

They were also, however, somewhat elitist in spirit, holding that only Bible-believing evangelicals could say anything worth hearing about the Christian life, and the leaders encouraged the rest of us to assume that anyone thought sound enough to address the group on this theme was sure to be good. 

I listened with great expectation and excitement to the preachers and teachers whom the group brought in week by week, not doubting that they were the top devotional instructors in Britain, perhaps in the world. 

And I came a "cropper."  (a person who cultivates or harvests)

Whether what I thought I heard was what was really being said may be left an open question, but it seemed to me that what I was being told was this: 

There are two sorts of Christians, first-class and second-class, ‘spiritual’ and ‘carnal’ (a distinction drawn from the King James rendering of 1 Cor. 3:1-3). 

The former know sustained peace and joy, constant inner confidence, and regular victory over temptation and sin, in a way that the latter do not. Those who hope to be of use to God must become ‘spiritual’ in the stated sense. 

As a lonely, nervy, adolescent introvert whose new-found assurance had not changed his temperament overnight, I had to conclude that I was not ‘spiritual’ yet. But I wanted to be useful to God. 

             Supposed deeper spirituality

So what was I to do?  ‘Let go, and let God’  There is a secret, I was told, of rising from carnality to spirituality, a secret mirrored in the maxim: Let go, and let God. 

I vividly recall a radiant clergyman in an Oxford pulpit enforcing this. The secret had to do with being Spirit-filled. The Spirit-filled person, it was said, is taken out of the second half of Romans 7, understood (misunderstood, I would now maintain) as an analysis of constant moral defeat through self-reliance, into Romans 8, where he walks confidently in the Spirit and is not so defeated. 

The way to be Spirit-filled, so I gathered, was as follows:

First, one must deny self. 

Did not Jesus require self-denial from his disciples as in Luke 9:23?

Yes, but clearly what he meant was the negating of carnal self — that is to say self-will, self-assertion, self-centeredness and self-worship, the Adamic syndrome in human nature, the egocentric behavior pattern, rooted in anti-God aspirations and attitudes, for which the common name is original sin. 

What I seemed to be hearing, however, was a call to deny personal self, so that I could be taken over by Jesus Christ in such a way that my present experience of thinking and willing would become something different, an experience of Christ himself living in me, animating me, and doing the thinking and willing for me. 

Put like that, it sounds more like the formula of demon-possession than the ministry of the indwelling Christ according to the New Testament. But in those days I knew nothing about demon-possession,and what I have just put into words seemed to be the plain meaning of ‘I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me’ from Galatians 2:20 as expounded by the approved speakers. 

We used to sing this chorus:

O to be saved from myself, dear Lord,
O to be lost in Thee;
O that it may be no more I
But Christ who lives in me!

Whatever its author may have meant, I sang it wholeheartedly in the sense spelled out above.

The rest of the secret was bound up in the double-barreled phrase "consecration and faith." 

Consecration meant total self-surrender, laying one’s all on the altar, handing over every part of one’s life to the lordship of Jesus. Through consecration one would be emptied of self, and the empty vessel would then automatically be filled with the Spirit so that Christ’s power within one would be ready for use. 

With consecration was to go faith, which was explained as looking to the indwelling Christ moment by moment, not only to do one’s thinking and choosing in and for one, but also to do one’s fighting and resisting of temptation. 

Rather then meet temptation directly (which would be fighting in one’s own strength), one should hand it over to Christ to deal with, and look to him to banish it. Such was the consecration-and-faith technique as I understood it – heap powerful magic, as I took it to be, the precious secret of what was called victorious living.

                  Scraped for complete consecration

 I scraped my inside, figuratively speaking, to ensure that my consecration was complete, and labored to ‘let go and let God’ when temptation made its presence felt. 

Henry Ironside

At that time I did not know that Harry Ironside, sometime pastor of Moody Memorial Church, Chicago, once drove himself into a full-scale mental breakdown through trying to get into the higher life as I was trying to get into it; and I would not have dared to conclude, as I have concluded since, that this higher life as described is a will-o’-the-wisp, an unreality that no one has ever laid hold of at all, and that those who testify to their experience in these terms really, if unwittingly, distort what has happened to them. 


                      
                          
                           Technique was not working

All I knew was that the expected experience was not coming. 

The technique was not working. 

Why not? Well, since the teaching declared that everything depends on consecration being total, the fault had to lie in me. So I must scrape my inside again to find whatever maggots of unconsecrated self-hood still lurked there. I became fairly frantic.

And then (thank God) the group was given an old clergyman’s library, and in it was an uncut set of Owen, and I cut the pages of volume VI more or less at random, and read Owen on mortification – and God used what the old Puritan had written three centuries before to sort me out."
~J. I. Packer, in his introduction to John Owen’s The Mortification of Sin

So, what do we do with all this?  
How to I respond to my real sin?

Be killing sin...or sin will be killing you!


So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.  ~Romans 8:12-17 ESV)

Dane Ortlund

"I am a sinner. I sin," Dane Ortlund said. "Not just in the past but in the present. But in Christ I’m not a sinner but cleansed, whole. And as I step out into my day in soul-calm because of that free gift of cleansing, I find that actually, strangely, startlingly—I begin to live out practically what I already am positionally.

"I delight to love others. It takes effort and requires the sobering of suffering. But love cannot help but be kindled by gospel rest.

How can you possibly stiff-arm this? Repent of your small thoughts of God’s love, your resistance to swallowing Christ’s atoning work whole. Repent and let Him love you."
 

Detaching with love

"Get me that other Bible.  Bring it to us," Jon demanded, "Jason told us to get as many Bible versions as we can." Jon is an inmate at a unit table at the Maleng Regional Justice Center detention facility in Kent.   

He was in full speed ahead, high gear, manipulation and control mode to get me to jump at his demands.  I was feeling his pressure and getting pulled in.   Others in the unit surrounding our interchange were listening and watching closely.

                      Manipulation and control strategies

Addiction-based behaviors actively manipulate and control others around them.  Addictive behaviors abuse both the user and people closest to them.  Manipulation and control are ingredients of the addiction recipe-- insidious sins that suck others into diseased sin.  

Defined, insidious plans to intentionally entrap or beguile.  It proceeds in an inconspicuous or seemingly harmless way but actually intends grave effects.

Jon didn't stop, even with that.  I had already provided a beautiful Nelson New King James Study Bible, the very Bible I use myself while serving as a PFC chaplain--a really quality Bible. I exhorted those with Jon to dig into the resource they already have freely available to them. 

As I  stepped away from Jon's table,  he demanded, nearly yelling, I get people in his church to visit him--one more shot. I am aware his community group and church leaders know exactly where Jon is. 

Jon was not about digging into another Study Bible.  He made it out that it was completely on me to give him what he wanted...and right now.  I was to feel compelled to jump so he could show others he is in control. 

I was getting taken in by his strategy.  He was getting very briefly what he wanted to gain control over me. Inmates know they have no power in jail so they do many things as a strategy to control people around them.

As soon as I became aware, I chose to take care of myself by detaching from this craziness. I needed to apply biblical truth from the tremendous input I am receiving around Celebrate Recovery on Thursday nights at Kent Covenant Church.

                         Detaching with love

I am exploring detaching with love around addictive inmates and others I am sharing with.  We stay healthy by choosing to stay away from the craziness that can escalate to insanity.

I am applying Scripture on detachment with love using an Al-anon text called, "Hope for today," one of many resources providing thoughtful meditations for family members and friends coping with addiction and abuse all around us.

As we work through detaching, an intense awareness builds up around an awkward upswing of anxiety. The increased stress is structured around idols--people and things which we allow ourselves, now not just other addicted ones, to reign over and control us.

I make choices allowing these things to cause me pain, so I have to make a decision to consider the source and actively let these things go with the power of the Holy Spirit.  I need to be very much aware where and who this pain is coming from.

Living in God's love is required to exercise detachment.  It is in the very character of godly Christ-likeness. Detaching with love, then, requires actively engaging in God's definition of love--

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.  

~1 Corinthians 13:4-8  

                        Choosing boundaries

A useful word picture for letting go or putting off the craziness away from us is establishing and maintaining our boundaries. I live inside my hula hoop by minding my own business and taking care of myself.

I learned to mentally construct a safe picket fence or rock wall.  We can see and hear each other but we stay right where we are.  Staying inside my hula hoop personal space, I may excuse myself from the crazy-making coming in many forms from addictive personalities.  Setting safe boundaries is both loving and caring.

At the MRJC unit, I needed to leave the table and maybe not with complete calm to regain my right, godly purposes.  This is not selfish but shows more love and care although they didn't see it that way.

                   Separate from crazy-making

Here, I stay inside my hula hoop or on my side of the fence.  I am minding my own business and taking care of myself.  I need to leave the world alone especially if they are not asking for my help.  Those tangled in addiction are most often not asking for help.  They want to make us crazy with them so we are diseased, too.

I have learned to not give answers to questions others are not asking.

Things to detach from, or let go, in love:

• disappointment
• hurt
• accusations
• sadness
• taking offense
• fear
• judging others
• bitterness
• resentment
• anger
• stress

The Bible speaks directly about anxiety or, old-fashioned worry--things causing you and me to get swallowed up by manipulation and control.  Make no mistake--those who are engaged in addiction and abuse are active and again, insidious, manipulators and controllers.

David said--

Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him, and he will act.  ~Psalm 37:4-5

Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.  ~Psalm 55:22

Jesus said--

Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?  ~Matthew 6:25 

Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.   ~John 14:1

Paul said--

do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.  ~Philippians 4:6 

Peter said--

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. ~1 Peter 5:6-8 

As I am listening to others trying to suck me into their habits of addictions and abuse, then, in detaching with love, I choose again to not be the teacher, their guru, or answer guy.  David, Jesus, Paul, and Peter even command us to roll our anxieties over to the Lord and "let it go" in Christ-like love.

We may say...
"I hear what you are saying.  I'm sure you will find a creative solution.  I will listen."

"What choices are available?" 

"How are you going to move ahead?"

create a peaceful place

Their answers come from them.  In setting solid boundaries, I regain my godly purpose to love them still more by not giving into them with supposed answers they probably won't take on anyway because it is our solutions, not their own. They have no stake in the answer if it is not their own. Continuing to listen is an option but you and I may need to create a peaceful place or...

leave the room, 

        take a walk, 

              hit some golf balls, 

                     watch children play at a nearby park, 

                              go away to get a cup of coffee...

Pray. Regain your balance.  Take a deep breath.  Pray.

                                         
When we detach in love, God's people are messengers of His hope and recovery as we point them directly to Jesus  We provide genuine love and forgiveness that Jesus offers.  We are not the answer.  That is not for us to give.  He will set them, and us, free. 

Jesus saves the filthiest addict

"I am not religious," Kevin started right out, "but I've seen seven of my friends die because of drugs, like me. I'm afraid I might die.  I have a pocket New Testament but I need a Bible.  I am addicted to heroine... I am afraid.  I could have died. Can you help me?"

Kevin is 31 and is an inmate at the Regional justice Center in Kent. Starting with marijuana around 15, he progressed to painkillers, oxycontin, and heroine. Oxycontin and heroine kept getting mentioned as he unfolded an ongoing 16 year trail of addiction and substance abuse.  

He admitted he was tired and his eyes kept rolling back through most of our time together. How much he was able to pay attention?  I thought I was losing him several times but, no, he was intent on hearing from Jesus and the message of eternal life.

                   God loves and wants to save addicted sinners

I had about 40 minutes for this first session right at the end of the day before dinner for the men. I am sobered by this kind of meeting because I may not get a second hearing.  From the unit bookshelf, I located a Gideon New King James Bible.  Holding the Bible, I emphasized it is merely another book if I don't recognize it is God's incredible message to us about His love and His way to deliver us from the messes we find ourselves in, even heroine addictions like his.  

 

Kevin may have attended church some as an early teen but there is no lasting understanding. He has not been around a church nor read a Bible for a long time.  This man needed to hear God loves and wants to save addicted sinners like him.  

God wants to save this heroine addict.  He can live... and doesn't have to die without Jesus.  Neither he nor I are guaranteed to make it out of the room we were sitting in. That isn't to traumatize him but God may bring death at any time.  Kevin is not a healthy man.  As a actively prayed silently and with Kevin to begin with, I led him to Jesus and Nicodemus.  

                            Go right to Jesus
I wanted him to hear Jesus.

Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.  ~John 3:1-8

So, what are these statements about being born again?  The Lord Jesus is very direct. He said, "You must be born again."  How do we understand, "unless one is born of the water and the Spirit, he cannot see nor enter the Kingdom of God"?  Being born again means we are saved and enter the Kingdom of God through the supernatural work of God.  

Being saved is wholly, completely, thoroughly the work of God.  The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.  Here, Jesus focuses on the work of the Holy Spirit.

                       Water and the Spirit 

Jesus asserts Nicodemus should know what he meant when he referenced, "...born of the water and the Spirit..."  In verse 1, John introduces Jesus as a Pharisee.  Jesus knew he was a "teacher of Israel," in verse 10.  D.A. Carson notes "teachers of Israel" would have memorized the Old Testament so he should have known what being born of water and Spirit means.  

Jesus referred to Ezekiel 36.  Here it is--

I will sprinkle you clean...

 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.  ~Ezekiel 36:25-27

Nicodemus should have known about the cleansing water and the Father's work to "put My Holy Spirit within you."  Nicodemus didn't argue with Jesus; he remembered.  Kevin brought out the clear reference to the forgiveness of sin. 

Substance abuse and every other sin--gossip, overeating, etc.--leaves the addicted filthy before God.

Jesus is talking about a physical birth in the flesh and a second spiritual birth, wholly the work of God.  Lost sinners don't make themselves born again.  

                                      Born again

Again, Jesus teaches being born again is the work of the Holy Spirit.  The wind blows and we hear it.  The Holy Spirit works and we are forever, miraculously, supernaturally saved.  We see things change.  We don't know where it comes from.  The saving work of God makes changes in our lives on an ongoing basis for the rest of our lives. 

The lost sinner is forever changed.  I shared with Kevin this isn't primarily emotional, although emotions are engaged.  God forever and really changes us.  We sense a change.  Multiple men may experience it differently but each one recognizes radical change over time.  For some, it is very dramatic and for others it may be more quiet. We moved on to the next sections of John 3--

 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”  ~John 3:16-21

I asked if we could get real personal.  This wasn't "play time," at all.  Kevin's eyes still rolled back and he regained focus...Did he want soft and sweet or clear and straight?  He chose clear and straight. 

The Father loved Kevin, Kevin so much He sent God the Son, Jesus, to die so Kevin might not spend eternity separated from the love of God but Kevin might possess eternal life from God.  

The person without Christ is condemned, right now.  They are the living dead and face an eternity sentenced to remain under the wrath of God.  Jesus says this is hell, Kevin understood, and is a place of destruction where people are weeping and gnashing their teeth.  They are aware this hell is a very bad, horrible beyond description, place. 

Eternity rests on every person's believing response to the name of the only Son of God.  It is about leaning everything we are forever, our eternal destiny, on who Jesus is and what He has and continues to do to save us for all eternity.  

Kevin could do that, right now.  He could have eternal life in Jesus Christ.  He said that was what he wanted.  

In the text, "does what is true" and "his works"  contains the greatest news anyone could ever hear.  These are references to believing, the one who "comes to the light," this one leans everything they are on the once-for-all, finished work of Jesus Christ.  This one is saved by God, the act of believing is "clearly seen...clearly seen...as being carried out in God."

I assured Kevin he could have all these things related to eternal life and believing.  He wanted to pray.  I asked him to pray whatever was on his heart.  God hears and knows.  If God saves, how we pray isn't important.  It is not about the sinner's prayer to bring salvation.

We have heard the joyful sound: Jesus saves! Jesus saves!
Spread the tidings all around: Jesus saves! Jesus saves!
Bear the news to every land, climb the mountains, cross the waves;
Onward! ’tis our Lord’s command; Jesus saves! Jesus saves!

Glory to God, Kevin prayed.  I left him with a worksheet from Romans and verses about the assurance of salvation to be found in Jesus.  We could talk Monday.