Monday Discussion
If Jesus is my Lord, than I am his servant, better, I am his slave. My will must be to do his will. My time is his. My stuff is his. My dreams and aspirations are his. I have been bought with a price. A ransom was paid. I belong to another. The most loving and benevolent King of the universe has declared me forgiven of all my rebellion against his righteous rule.
But Christians in America seem more interested in Jesus “fixing them” or “making their life work” than they are in doing his bidding. We want to add him to our lives rather than let him transform our lives. That’s my struggle. I want God to make me and my life better. What I struggle with is living out the day to day reality that I am a bond-servant to the King. I am much more comfortable living under the illusion (delusion?) that the pronoun “my” attached to stuff, and people, and goals somehow means I can do whatever I want.
Question: When does God get what is his in your life? (I’m asking myself too.) When Does God get to have pervasive influence on every aspect of our lives?
ChosenRebel's Blog 
The following conversation started offline over at Facebook. Kevin Tupper is a former member of the previous church I planted in Bolingbrook, IL, now worshiping with a missional community in Virginia.
12 hours ago Kevin Tupper
Marty:
I was about to respond to your blog post, “When Does God Get What is His in Your Life?” After thinking of how to word my response, I felt it was better to send it privately.
Please know that my response and questions are not antagonistic or meant to change your view on things. I ask more to enter a dialog, to better understand your thoughts, to know God more fully, and to become more like him. So with that said…
“But Christians in America seem more interested in Jesus “fixing them” or “making their life work” than they are in doing his bidding.”
I have mixed thoughts about this statement on two levels. This is complex (at least for me) and difficult to express so please forgive me if this comes across in a confusing manner.
When I think of the Joel Osteen variety of Christianity and its many variations, I agree. This brand of Christianity (if one would call it that) gives the sense that Jesus is the ticket to the American dream of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” If I add enough Jesus, my marriage will be good, my teens won’t rebel, I’ll be fulfilled at work, I’ll have a good job with enough income to enjoy life. I’ll have a great upper-middle class secure, comfortable life.
Sticking on the same level though, I have to ask, is “fixing me” or “making my life work”, opposed to me “doing his bidding”? I don’t think they are. I don’t see how I could do his bidding as an ambassador without being fixed or having a working life. I suppose the issue with the first group is what they believe needs fixing and what isn’t working. Our problem isn’t that we don’t have enough money, it’s that we haven’t learned to be content or to work. Our problem isn’t that our marriage is unfulfilling, its that our eyes wander and desire what God hasn’t given. Our problem isn’t the interpersonal conflicts we have from differing opinions and viewpoints, it’s our attitude stinks when we don’t get our way.
If “fixing me” and “making my life work” means that who I am (mind, heart, character) is transformed so that my view of reality is accurate (as Jesus’ is) and I am able to live in the context I’ve been placed the same way Jesus would have lived if he were in my context, then I am all for it. When I think of the Sermon on the Mount I think doing his bidding involves more than just our actions, it includes our attitude, thoughts, heart, etc. Was Jonah doing God’s bidding when he went to the Ninevites? In one sense, yes. Was Jonah’s heart aligned with God’s in the matter? Absolutely not. If doing his bidding is the objective then I don’t see how that can be done without fixing us.
Here is the other level I am wrestling with. There was a time where I would totally resonate with your post. But now I find myself asking, what does “doing his bidding” mean? Do I understand it the same way you do? Is that the objective? Is that what we were made for?
I think of angels as beings God created to do his bidding. God communicates with them in some fashion to tell them what to do and they do it. As far as I know, they don’t create, they don’t take initiative, they don’t imagine, etc. Our nature (as I understand it) is of a different kind. When God created man, with the ability to think and reason and choose was it solely to have another type of angel in the physical world? Or did he create a being very much like himself (without his incommunicable attributes) to live in communion and union with?
I believe it’s the latter. And if that is the case, then doing his bidding would mean being the type of creature he created me to be. If that’s ever going to happen, then I need to be “fixed” so to speak. I need to be transformed so that I might become a partaker of the divine nature.
I guess we could be talking about semantics here. But it gets kind of fuzzy and way over my head and pay grade. God has created a creature that can independently reason and think, but all its power to do so comes from God himself and if God withdrew it, the independence would cease to exist. Yet in this creature’s independence it was God’s intention that the creature would recognize and see fit that all its life comes from God and that its best and highest good and joy would come from willingly choosing to receive and make choices from a state of dependence. So yes, I have imagination and creative initiative, but even that comes from God so it is not mine, but its “mine” now. And I’m responsible for how it’s used.
And now I find myself in a circle, wanting to do God’s bidding.
I think the bottom line of it for me is this. I don’t want God to instruct me what to do and I just do it, because I don’t think that is what God wants. I think God wants to fix me (transform my character) so that I become the kind of person whose nature is derived from his and that my choices, actions, and attitudes reflect his being on the earth. He uses the stuff of this world and his spirit working with me in it to bring that transformation in my character. My choice is to desire and willingly cooperate with that process.
If you are willing and have the time, I’d like to hear your thoughts and converse some about this. In writing or a phone call if that is preferred.
Blessings,
Kevin
8 hours ago Marty Schoenleber Jr
Would love to talk by phone but this week is not a good one. Completely full. Given that constraint … I agree with about 98% of what you have said here. What I was addressing in the post was more the attitude of
“I’ll have ten cents worth of God, please.
I want enough to get a taste, to actually have Him, but not so much that it costs me much.
I don’t want to get distracted from the things that I really want.
I don’t want to be consumed by a huge dose of God.
I want enough to feel pretty good about myself, enough to make my life respectable and manageable–enough to get me through the pearly gates.
I’ll have ten cents worth of God, please….” (anonymous)
This is not the gospel-centered life. Jesus wants to have a pervasive influence on the whole of my life, not just the portions that I am comfortable with him tinkering with a little. Does that help to clarify my thinking?
8 hours agoKevin Tupper
Yes, it definitely helps clarify your thinking.
On the evangelical side, (Dallas) Willard calls them Vampire Christians. I would like just enough blood to get into heaven when I die, but nothing that would reorient anything in my life here, thank you, very much.
Discipleship is so rarely talked about. Unfortunately, many years ago it seems that evangelicals separated conversion and discipleship. That idea seems foreign to the Scriptures.
I appreciate your posts. They make me think.
– Kevin
7 hours ago Marty Schoenleber Jr
I just twittered a link on the unitary nature of discipleship today. When we divide “making disciples” into evangelism and discipleship, we do damage to both.
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