The Courage Of Conviction

One of the things that struck me about the life of William Wilberforce, the man who led the abolition of slave-trading in England during the 18th century, was the need for others to bolster him to live out with courage the call of his convictions.  

Young Wilberforce met with Benjamin Franklin - a lone voice at the time in the United States for the abolition of slavery.  He met with King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette to see how those who indulged in power lived.  But one of the most important voices in the life of William Wilberforce was John Newton, a former slave-trader, turned follower of Jesus, who was something of a father-figure to Wilberforce.  He was the man who urged him to stay in the political arena and live out his convictions.  You may also recall that Newton penned the most famous hymn in Christendom: “Amazing Grace”.  

Indeed, it is the encouraging, strengthening, conviction-led community of believers that serve as an act of God’s grace to live by biblical convictions.

Christian Heroism

Aristotle once wrote: 

“Courage…brings pain, and is justly praised; for it is harder to endure what is painful than to abstain from what is pleasant.”  

Sometimes, we prove our courage not so much in the things that we engage in, but also the things in which we endure.  

In that vein, Jackie Robinson is a picture of courage and heroism.  The Hall-of-Famer who broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball was a lifelong victim of racism.  He struggled with anger over the many injustices he faced, but his Christian faith led him to draw from those life lessons in order to change the game of baseball and the lives of black Americans forever.  A Methodist preacher named Karl Downs taught Robinson as a young man that a life truly dedicated to Christ was not being submissive when enduring hardships, but it was truly heroic.  

And what a model Robinson gave us…not simply for persevering courage, but Christian heroism!

Cheap Grace

It was Dietrich Bonhoeffer who coined the phrase, “cheap grace” and by it he meant a grace that was taken for granted by its recipients.  Of course, the word “grace” means “unmerited favor”, something you get whether you deserve it or not.  Bonhoeffer was, of course, concerned that people viewed grace as an excuse to sin.  Free things are often not as valued and too many have cheapened God’s grace at the cross by not living as a disciple of Jesus; they’ll have Him as their Savior, yet not as their Lord.  

I would add one thing to that - it is also cheapened when we do not extend this grace to others; when we hoard God’s grace to ourselves, and fail to offer it as a gift to someone who makes things tough for us.  Giving grace to the easy-people only is hardly grace.  

Grace—free, no-strings-attached, favor to those who make things difficult—is not cheap at all!  And it is precious in God’s sight.

Love...the very flame of YHWH Himself

It is important once again to remember the omnipresence of God, that is, that God is not simply everywhere, but is “close to everything, next to everyone”, as A.W. Tozer writes.  

The Bible speaks constantly of God’s presence, both in the garden of Eden and then in visits to Abraham, Isaac, Hagar, Jacob and Joseph.  He was present in the burning bush when He first appeared to Moses and then in a cloud that took residence in a Tent.  He moved from a tent to a temple.  He appeared in human form through Jesus Christ and then returned to be present in the actual body of followers of Jesus through the Spirit...and that presence will culminate in His final return.  But, we also see His presence in the Song of Songs when we are told that love is a blazing fire, the very flame of YHWH Himself (8:6)!  

Sometimes we compartmentalize life and miss out on the presence of God: intimacy is one of those compartments, but not according to Scripture.  Let us be reminded of His presence in all things through these words by Hildebert of Lavardin: 

“God is over all things, under all things; outside all…wholly above, presiding; wholly beneath, sustaining; wholly within, filling.”

Worship As A Full-Bodied Allegiance

In one of the groups I lead, we were talking about worship as a full-bodied allegiance to God and what that meant.  We went through Romans 12:1-2 as it exhorts us to worship God by giving our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.  We touched on the old Anglican wedding vows, where we vow to our spouse, “With my body, I thee worship”.  We went through some of the laws in the Old Testament and noted how they not only touch on every area of life, but how the entire law codes were always sandwiched between laws of worship (see Exodus 20:22-26 and 23:14-19 as well as Deuteronomy chapters 12 and 26), especially what we do with our bodies.  

For some strange reason, we tend to see ourselves as somehow detached from our bodies, as though the real “me” is not somehow enmeshed with my physical being.  That is how we justify all kinds of things done in the body, while we think our soul is untouched by sin.  

Given our focus on the Song of Songs these past four weeks and the issue of bodily sexual intimacy in line with God’s will and design, I suggest that we re-consider what it means to worship God with our very bodies—what the act of a physical touch can mean (whether sexual or platonic) and what the significance of Jesus being God in bodily form among humanity means to our obedience to God.  

My reminder to us all is that worship is everything we do with these bodies God has crafted and given to us.

The Story of God

What do the Song of Songs and the movie “Man of Steel” have in common?  

On the surface, not much.  The Song of Songs is a love poem and “Man of Steel” is a movie about Superman (which my son Josiah and I went to go see last Friday).  It was good one-on-one time for Josiah and me, but as I always tell him, all great hero stories tell the story of Jesus (I won’t ruin the movie for you, but my theory was right again).  

But, the truth be told, all of our stories fit into the greater story of God.  The Song of Songs is part of the story of redemption - the redemption of intimacy within the future coming of God’s kingdom.  And in a little scene that has caught some attention, “Man of Steel” pictures how the larger redemption was bought for us - Superman is told by his Kryptonian father (his “heavenly” father) that he can save all humanity.  At that point, Superman floats out into the sky, his arms extended in the shape of a cross before he flies back to earth to save humans.  The story of God is written in all corners of life.  The questions for us are - Are we reading it?  Are we living it?

Be Considerate

C.J. Mahaney, a pastor and teacher, wrote a wonderful thought about intimacy in his little book, Sex, Romance and the Glory of God.  His line was simply this: 

“Before you touch her body, touch her heart and mind.”  

As we continue in this series on the Song of Songs, what a great sentiment about our marriages—we should care about others, not use them.  We should place others first, not second to ourselves.  So whether it is your spouse, a friend, a relative, another member of the Body of Christ, or an acquaintance, the principle is the same: to be Christ-like is to be considerate.  

Or as Paul puts it, “in humility, value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests, but each of you to the interests of the others” (Philippians 2:3-4).