Pastor Curry's Blog

Conversion is the topic of supreme interest for E. Stanley Jones.  Someone once commented that whatever he preached the issue of conversion would always come up.  It was at the heart of his ministry and writing.

We have lost the excitement about conversion.  This week’s lesson may give us a clue as to why.  Somehow, when I think of conversion I have been trained to think of a long, slow, continual process.  E. Stanley Jones knew there was process to spiritual growth, but he was absolutely convinced that conversion could occur in an instant!  I love his quote of Browning: “The soul may in one grand moment leap sheer out of any depth of shame and subtle bondage, and leap to the breast of God.”  In one grand moment!

Week six of How to Be a Transformed Person is full of stories of people who were converted in a moment.  Brother Lawrence, so well known for teaching us to practice the presence of God, was converted by the sight of a dry, leafless tree.  A young agnostic was simply overwhelmed by a sense of sin at the bus stop and was converted.  Savanarola, the dominican friar who was best known for his book burnings, was converted by a single word. 

If conversion has to be “attained” the hope of an immediate conversion is impossible. But, if it is “obtained,” it is immediately available.  Conversion is a gift from God, generously provided by His sacrifice on the cross.  And it is possibile this very moment.  This very moment for me, for you and for those that we love most dearly.  No wonder, Dr. Jones preached with excitement about conversion.  Today can be the day!

How would you define your journey toward transformation in Christlikeness:

___ The quest is long and often unproductive.

___ Progress is slow and laborious.

___ Every step forward requires following a certain method.

___ I am being transformed from glory to glory.

The difference in perspective can be cleared up quickly by a distinction pointed out by E. Stanley Jones.  He reminds us that transformation is “obtained” not “attained.”  To attain a goal is the result of tremendous personal struggle and energy.  A diploma from the university is attained.   But, I obtained my first winter coat at the gracious expense of my mom and dad.  “To obtain” is to receive from the hands of someone else.  There is a tremendous difference between the two perspectives on spiritual transformation.  Think about the differences.

Attaining requires a tremendous amount of “work”, obtaining depends on “grace”. One focuses on me, the other focuses on God. One produces an overwhelming sense of gratitude, the other an inordinant sense of pride.  The results produced in the spirit of man are as “different as daylight and dark”.

I have spent most of my life as an attainer.  But, God is teaching me to “receive” His gifts and respond.  As I compared the two one further truth nearly overwhelms me.  Each option has a perspective related to time.  Attaining may take a month, a year or a lifetime.  But, obtaining could happen today!

The chorus of the 1980′s comes to mind: I just feel like something good is about to happen.  I just feel like something good is on its way.  God has promised that He’d open all of heaven.  And brother this could be the very day.

Do not fail to obtain the grace of God!  This could be the very day of transformation!

Transformation.  How in the world do we get there?  Is it our work or is it God’s work?  Can we expect transformation in a moment or does it take a lifetime of consistent effort?  Most of us can readily identify at least one area in our life in which we would like to see a “complete change in character.”  That is the Oxford Dictionary’s definition of “transformation.” 

Dr. E. Stanley Jones identifies three steps to tranformation. Each step is unique and vital to the process.  The first step is to move in a “New Direction.”  He calls this step – conversion.  “Conversion” comes from a Latin root which literally means “to turn with.”  So often we view the changes we need to make as ‘changes we need to make.’  So we attempt to turn around.  But, the challenge of conversion is to turn with Jesus.  Listening and obedience are both required.  Any other effort is a self help project and will only be resourced by our limited energies.

The second step is to receive a “New Spirit” and become like little children.  Jesus reminds us that we must become like little children to enter the Kingdom of God.  Children are totally trusting and don’t carry the baggage of yesterday that limits tomorrow.  When our lives are transformed many of life’s issues become really quite simple.  Evil is complex.  Goodness is simple enough for even a child to understand.

The final step in the process is “A New Sphere of Living.”  We begin to actually live according to the plans and purposes of God. These can be seen most clearly in the Sermon on the Mount. The rule of God actually becomes real in our lives.

It is at this point that Dr. Jones’ insight is amazing.  He recognizes that conversion is totally up to us – only we can turn to God.  A new spirit is totally up to God – only He can give you His Spirit.  But, living in a new sphere is a joint effort.  We offer ourselves willingly to God and He offers His presence and power for living.  So, we walk with Him in this new place and He walks with us.  We truly learn to work out this salvation with fear and trembling. 

I seem to live somewhere between the first and second stages.  I either determine it is either totally up to me or I become far too passive and and assume it is totally up to God.  There are certainly times in our lives when both of those are true.  But, for the day to day walking it is just that, walking day to day with Jesus!  Once that happens we can begin to see, understand and live very differently.

E. Stanley Jones tells the story about an epitaph that read, “Born a man, died a grocer.”  That can sound far too familiar.  Many of us feel as if we never really reach our potential.  We sense a certain restlessness or frustration about our lives and begin to look in every direction imaginable for a solution.  Most of the time we look in the wrong direction.

The answer is not “within” us.  Self-help and self-realization both promise more than we can deliver.  The result is that we end up living “stunted lives.”  Fear, resentment, guilt, inferiority, and self-preoccupation seem to take over.  Surely, my life was supposed to amount to more than this!

So, what is the answer?  The answer is conversion, new birth, a new creation, living life alive to God.  The New Testament teaches that the answer is living in the Kingdom.  So, how do we get into the Kingdom? Only one way.  Jesus opens the door through His cross and invites us into the Kingdom.  The invitation is standing.

First John says we are born of water and spirit.  This double emphasis indicates we are born both into the fellowship of a new community and into a vital spiritual relationship with God.  Dr. Jones comments that too often we settle for the fellowship and never really walk in relationship with Jesus.  It is this birth into the Kingdom that leads us into life as God meant for it to be.

We literally become a “new creation.”  Old things are passed away, and yet they become new.  Self, sex, and other relationships are not destroyed but cleansed, redirected and now under the leadership of the Holy Spirit.  What a life!

Jesus said, “I have come that you might have life and have it abundantly.”  That is life as it was meant to be.

The masterful work of E. Stanley Jones is worth our careful attention again this week.  He is truly guiding us toward transformation.  Each week continues to demonstate his clear emphasis is on the word “how.”  This week’s lesson is critical to that process.  The argument moves as follows.

First, he begins by encouraging us all.  “Struggling” is a key indicator that the battle is not over.  We have not conceded the process if we are struggling.  Have you considered today just how wonderful it is that you are still struggling with certain things.  God is indeed at work!

The rest of his teaching for the week lays out the heart of the Gospel.   He asks and answers a very vital question:  can we really be different?  Is there a divine response to our desire to be transformed?  His response is tremendously encouraging…..

Our transformation rests in the very character of God. He experienced transformation in taking on human flesh and becoming like one of us.  Our process of transformation is grounded in His own.  God descended and became one of us.   We don’t have to climb up to where He is. We don’t have to find God.  All we really have to do is allow Him to find us. That is the Gospel.  Religion is man’s search for God, but the Gospel is God’s search for man.

So, our challenge is to accept the breath-taking reality of transformation.  It is far too easy to get wrapped up in self-realization and fail to just say a “life-yes” to God.  We have to constantly be careful of reaching out that we don’t reach too far.  His Road runs to us regardless of how low that might happen to be. 

The summarizing illustration for me was the question of how to get to your neighbor’s house.  You can either go all the way around the world or simply walk across the street. 

Transformation is closer than we ever dreamed possible!

E. Stanley Jones says everything begins with taking personal responsibility for our lives.  Most of us can point out some things in our lives that really need to change.  We may, in fact, even know the changes that need to be made.  But, making them can be a very difficult assignment.  One of the reasons it is difficult is because we often make excuses.  Here are a couple mentioned in his book:

1. Look for a scapegoat.  Find someone we can blame for our sins.  It is the oldest trick in the book – Adam blamed Eve.

2. Blame it on God.  Land somewhere between predestination and what God could have done.  And just blame Him.  Yet, God has limited Himself and allowed us freedom.  He has stepped back and let us have our way.

3. Move the issue from now to then.  Blame it on something that happened in the past.  The things outside of our control are determining our actions. (I am afraid this may be my personal favorite.)

4. Make everything the result of some stimuli.  “If she hadn’t said that then I wouldn’t have….”  As if we had no soul with which to defy all of these things.  We can always decide whether to respond or not.

5. The final option seems too juvenile to mention, but it has grown up with us.  It is easy to say, “I am only doing what everyone else is doing.” 

Dr. Jones says, “Evading doesn’t evade, excuses don’t excuse, and dodging doesn’t dodge.”  The only real solution is an honest assessment that says “I am responsible for the kind of person I am.”  That is a real confession that begins the process of radical transformation. 

Who is to blame for what’s going on in your life today?

I love the writing of E. Stanley Jones.  The little devotional How to Be a Transformed Person is absolutely sensational.  The lesson for this week was especially challenging.  Here are a couple of highlights:

1. “The warmed heart” and “the world parish” go together.  We need both experience and expression.  When one gets low so does the other.

2. “That which is not expressed dies.” 

3. If our first instinct is to shut others out, the second is to share our inner lives.  We all have a strong urge to tell someone what is troubling us.

4. We can only keep our faith in people as we keep our faith in God.

5. You cannot build spirituality on immorality.

6. Don’t get stumped at every little barrier.  “Raise the higher issue.”  For Jones that means don’t squabble over the little stuff.  He says, “The end of our dealing with people is not to win an argument, but to get people to see Jesus.”  Quit arguing and raise the higher issue.

7. It is possible to be very religious and very rotten.

I came away from his work this morning knowing that what I wanted to see in the lives of others had to first happen in mine.  If I want others to know Jesus, I must first commit to knowing Him.  I must ”raise the higher issue” in my own life.  Then and only then will I be prepared to share His love with others.

Recently I have begun to make a remarkable discovery.  It is difficult to listen.  Really listen.  My wife, Anita, and I have been married for 31 years.  And, we are learning in these days just how easy it is to fail to hear what the other one is saying.  In fact, we most often hear what we have on our mind.  She says, “I don’t care where we go eat.”  I think she has preferences.  So, I project my opinion into her conversation.  The end result is that I hear what I am thinking rather than what she is saying.  That can be treacherous!

Recently, I was on vacation and Anita asked me if I was going to be home on Sunday or out of town.  Simple question.  Not what I heard.  What I heard was, “You really should be here on Sunday.”  I was offended, frustrated, and insulted that she would say such a thing to me.  Which, by the way, she didn’t say.  (Are you confused yet?)

In the middle of trying to understand this whole issue the Lord brought together two separate concepts that I began to ponder.  First, the daily discipline of every Old Testament Jew was to remember the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4-5).  He repeated it often every day.  The call of the Shema is to hear and obey the voice of the Lord.  Hearing is vitally important.  Second, Dr. Dennis Kinlaw reminded me that we are called to live outside of ourselves, to live beyond our own abilities and under the authority of another.  As those ideas began to be thrown together (sumballousa) I began to understand.

I am often so busy running my own life that I can’t hear.  I wrestle and wrangle with so many attempts at making the end come out right that I do not live daily under the authority of Another that I deeply trust. Inner noise makes hearing nearly impossible.  No wonder I can’t hear what you are saying.

Today I am trusting Him. The inside is quiet!  The ends are in His hands.  And I have made it a personal goal to listen.  Loving and trusting Him has made loving and listening to others a real possibility.

Did you hear that?

Nathan, our youngest son, just began a 30 day challenge on facebook. His challenge was to choose his favorite song of all time on the first day, his second favorite on the second day, etc.  His choices were both amazing and amusing.  His favorite song of all time is No More Night, by David Phelps.  Second came Learn to Croon, by the legendary crooner himself, Bing Crosby.  The third was a tune by Hall and Oates called You Make My Dreams Come True.  He is a man with wonderfully ecclectic tastes. 

During the challenge he posed a rather philosophical question while he was home for a weekend visit.  His question was quite simple.  Is a song a song without words, or is it only music?  Someone retorted that is was like the “tree falling in the forest” riddle.  As song is a song is a song regardless of words.  But, the only real musician in the crowd responded differently.  Cathy said that without words a song is only music.  Beautiful perhaps, but only music.

Many of us, as Christians, are musicians but not singers.  John wrote in his first epistle “declaring” the good news of Jesus is essential to fellowship and joy.  He made a distinction between “witness” and “declaring.”  Many Christians I know have really given their lives to Jesus, but they are not declaring it very often.  They are musicians, but  not singers.

The psalmist said, “Sing a new song unto the Lord!”  During this Holy Week don’t let your witness be music. Sing a new song!  Share the good news!  Speak about the resurrection of Jesus and the hope it brings.  Announce His real presence with us with words that are unmistakable.

One day this week I went to see Wanda.  She is in the intensive care unit in a local hospital. She had been praying that someone would come in and get her a blanket, she was cold.  As I announced my arrival she began to declare.  “The Lord has answered by prayer.  He is my Lord and Savior.  He who stilled the waters and calmed the stormy seas is holding my hand.”  Her declaration was strong and clear. As I left the room her testimony wasn’t an unknown tune.  She had been singing a love song.  I felt privileged to have listened to the words.  Those that hear you singing will feel the privilege as well.

Sing unto the Lord a new song!

Thomas Merton, the famous trappist monk, encountered God’s love for others on a street corner in Louisville.  His words capture what it means to live in love:

In Louisville, on the corner of Fourth and Walnut in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all of these people, that they were mine and I was theirs, that we could not be alien to one another, even though we were total strangers.  I have the immense joy of being human, a member of the race in which God Himself became incarnate.  As if the sorrow and stupidities of the human condition could overwhelm, now that I realize who we really are.  If only everybody could understand this!  But it cannot be explained.  There is no way of convincing people that they are walking around shining like the sun.        (from Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, p. 156-157.

YOU are walking around shining like the sun.