Habits. We all have them. Good and bad. Many of the bad habits we work hard to break, or at least reduce their influence in our lives. And we often set goals to build better habits into our lives in place of them. They are a key part of our lives, either way. And one of the most foundational spiritual habits that we can develop is hanging out with God.
Do you have what many people call a “quiet time” with God? I have never really liked that term. I always seem to associate “quiet time” with my mom wanting me to calm down so she could have some quiet. So she would send me off to be quiet for a while with a book or something.
Later, as I grew in my faith, I kept hearing people talk about “quiet times.” Frankly, that never appealed to me because of that association I had in my mind. When I later learned to call it something else, a whole new aspect of my relationship with God was opened up to me. I started to call it, “hanging out with God.”
After all, that’s what I do with my friends. That’s what I do with people from our church. That’s a big part of my life, really. I hang out with others. And because of that, those relationships are deepened and richer as a result. So why wouldn’t that work in my relationship with God?
It does.
For the past few months, spiritual disciplines have been heavy in my thoughts. There are several reasons for this, I think, and examining this has led me to make some stronger choices in this area of my life.
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused me to pause and think. After all, I have had a little more time since so much of our culture has shut down or been restricted in some way because of this virus.
On top of that, I have been preaching a sermon series for the last several weeks called Spiritual Makeover: Becoming Who God Created You To Be. In this series, I have been looking at several disciplines and characteristics that God wants to develop in our lives to more fully become who he has designed us to be. The characteristics are quality he instill in us, but the disciplines are more of the part we play in the process.
And when you add to this equation the time I spent in Colorado last month with several other ministers, digging into this very idea, and these very disciplines, you can begin to see why this has been dominating my thoughts so much.
And because it has been so much on my mind, there have been some changes in the way I approach many of these areas. I have improved myself in many ways, and have seen some significant growth in some areas. Other areas are already stronger, and these have received more of an encouragement booster in my life to continue on as I am. Either way, I have been seeing some encouraging growth in my life for several weeks now, and I hope that it is evident to those who are watching.
The Benedict Option by Rod Dreher (New York: Sentinel , 2017)
I think most people would agree that our culture has gone crazy. So many things have happened in the past few months that are hard to get our minds around. It is tough to comprehend just where we are headed.
As crazy as it seems though, it’s not unexpected to those who have been paying attention to the trends our culture has been picking up over the past few years, and even for recent decades. Western culture seems to have been in a steady decline for a while, and recent events have shown that the pace is picking up.
That sounds a warning bell for western Christianity. And the warning comes in the form of a recent book by Rod Dreher, The Benedict Option. This was released in 2017, before all of the most recent craziness hit our world. But in the midst of bakers being sued for refusing to make cakes, and florists being vilified for not providing services to certain elements of society, Dreher opens our eyes to a world that is increasingly antagonistic to Christianity. So much so that it may be too late to change the direction we’re headed.
Is there a solution? Dreher thinks so. And he finds it in the most unlikely of places: the Benedictine solution from centuries ago. St. Benedict of Nursia was a sixth-century monk who, fearful of the direction his culture was headed, set about to do something about it. He created a community that was able to hold on to their faith in a word that was crumbling around them, and to do so with a longevity that still impacts our world today.
Today, we may need to do something very similar. Dreher is not calling us to escapism, leaving the world behind; because to do so would be to forsake the Great Commission. What he does urge is for the church to stop placing our hope in political leaders and the temporary reprieve that they may bring, and place our hope in something greater. He calls the church to focus on strengthening the local church body, to create new avenues of education, to develop disciplines that will carry us through crisis after crisis in this world, with our hope centered firmly on Jesus.
After all, he’s the only thing that will provide what the church needs to survive until he returns to claim his bride. Until then, we must continue to be ready.
I highly recommend you read The Benedict Option. You can purchase it on Amazon.
The remainder of Matthew 5 is an exposition on various portions of the Old Testament Law. Each segment contains immense amounts of information that one could dig out through diligent study. Over the next few posts, I hope to bring an overview of the entire passage, stretching from verse 17 through verse 48.
Matthew follows up his discussion of salt and light with a look at the Law. He begins this section by explaining the purpose of Jesus — why he came — in light of the Law. In Matthew 5:17, Jesus states this purpose quite clearly: “I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.”
To abolish or destroy means to break something completely. To the first century mind, this conveyed images of trampling something underfoot. By contrast, to fulfill the Law is to maintain a total sinless obedience to it. Jesus did this, making him the perfect sacrifice of atonement on our behalf. But we often get caught up in our tendency towards legalism. It bears repeating: Jesus did come to perpetuate the Law. He came to complete it, to fulfill it. He was the end of the Law.
This is the whole point behind Paul’s discussion of the Law in Galatians 3. The Law was a “schoolmaster,” and its primary purpose was to illuminate Christ. But not that faith has come, we no longer need the schoolmaster. In Galatians 3:24, Paul states, “Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith.”
What keeps most of us from God is not the sin we know we have, but the righteousness we think we have.
Matthew 5 began with the Beatitudes. It carries on next with the Similitudes. These are a couple of brief comparisons found in verses 13-16.
According to the dictionary, a similitude is a “likening or comparison in the form of a simile, parable, or allegory.” This is the next literary device that Jesus employs after giving the Beatitudes. These two comparisons are probably some of the most recognized passages in Scripture.
First of all, Jesus compares his followers and disciples to the salt of the earth, in Matthew 5:13. Salt is a substance that helps to prevent decay. Pure salt does not lose its savor. It helps to preserve. However, salt that has been diluted with other elements, or has been in contact with the ground, loses its ability to preserve.
This is likely what Jesus had in mind when he gave this statement. As believers, if we become so diluted by the world, we no longer have the ability to make a positive contribution. To lose our “saltiness” is to lose our opportunities to be used by God as agents of renewal and restoration.
Once salt has lost its particular qualities that allow it to be used as a flavoring agent and as a preserving agent, it is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and discarded. So too with believers. A believer who isn’t “salty” doesn’t fulfill the purposes designed and assigned by God.
We must show sympathy with sinners, but not with their sins.
