Pastor Curry's Blog

This is the most unlikely place
for anything to ever take place.
Nothing could happen here.
It’s far too small to matter at all
There’s no more room for more.
So hear me now, if you can hear at all
It will never happen here.

With him in charge
it will never be large
The ‘us’ gets in the way of ‘me’
It’s really quite clear, surely you hear
it’s just never going to be
So hear me now, if you can hear at all
It will never happen here.

Don’t be fools
We don’t have the tools
And don’t go losing your head
Our dreams are swallowed (so we think)
The sea has taken our long last drink
So hear me now, if you can hear at all
It will never happen here.

It must be an ambush,
this terrible place
The future’s already been told
It’s time to shout, there’s just no way out
So give up your dreams and grow old
So hear me now, if you can hear at all
It will never happen here.

What shall we do?

Please open our eyes
so we can see
There’s more in this place than you and me
This is Bethel, the House of God
The gateway to Heaven, this very sod
So hear me now, if you can hear at all
It can only happen here!

Something is happening in my preaching!  I am not sure how to characterize it, but I would love hear your response.  The whole experience seems to be clarifying.

It reminds me of a college preaching class. We used Lloyd Perry’s book entitled “Biblical Preaching for Today’s World.”  Dr. Perry encouraged me as a young preacher to write a transitional sentence that made me state clearly what I was going to say.  It has been a great tool through the years.  But, what I am currently experiencing surpasses that practice.

The Lord has led me to write out a prayer in response to my study before I write the sermon.  The whole experience has been hugely impacting.   I find myself wrestling with what to say in prayer which clarifies what I will say in the sermon. And, amazingly, I am as excited about praying the written prayer with the congregation as I am about preaching the sermon.  This has led me to a professional conclusion:  If you can’t pray it – you can’t preach it.

O Lord, fill my heart with joy!

Get me beyond myself!

Help me to believe that Jesus is the Lord of heaven and earth and to experience the glorious by-product…..joy!

Bring me full circle:  Hover o’er me Holy spirit, bathe my trembling heart and brow. Fill me with Thy hallowed presence. Come, O come, and fill me now.

In all honesty, Jesus, my joy can be zapped so quickly by people and circumstances.  They seem to ‘take over’ my life.  And I don’t want that to happen.  My desire is that we could all live in joy.  Probably, especially, me.

Forgive me, Lord.

Lord, you know my style.  When I struggle I respond by being quiet.  I move away. Far away.  I have learned to manage my behavior so I don’t look bad.  But, I am often frustrated, my spirit is shattered, and I am very angry. I end up with a life dominated by fear and with “a disordered love for myself.”  (Pope John Paul). I walk around without joy.

Forgive me, Jesus.  Don’t let the guilt of those moments cripple me.

Lord, I believe you have led me into my own wilderness to lift me up. (Dr. Stephen Manley) I believe your designs are to “bear” me to the place you want me to be.  So please help me to stop guilting and trust, stop looking backward and look upward, to stop being afraid and walk in “ascension joy.”

I love you, Jesus.  You are the Source of every joy in my life.

You have taught me that I am rarely “sour”,  but I am often “somber.” Raise the corners of my heart and let my mouth follow suit. (smile)   Fill my life with joy!

I know that happiness happens, but joy comes to stay.  O, Jesus, move into my heart with joy.  Move in to never move out again.

Today, O Lord, I sign a life long lease for joy, “ascension joy.”  Jesus is Lord!

Amen.

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.