Holiness and Sanctification part 2

photo - Eric Wing

One term that holds as much tension as any other when we speak of holiness and sanctification is the term Wesley used, Christian perfection. Just the word perfection can cause reactionary definitions to flow freely. Wesley describes Christian Perfection this way, “The loving God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. This implies, that no wrong temper, none contrary to love, remains in the soul; and that all the thoughts, words and actions, are governed by pure love.”. Christian perfection is a descriptor of the possibility that our intention to love God and others could be made perfect by God's grace. Christian perfection is about our intent to love, it is not at all about being a superior Christian, or in claiming spiritual infallibility. “Christian perfection is not immunity from life's problems. . . Christian perfection is not a vaccination against reality.” (Dr. Steve Harper). Christian perfection speaks of a persons single intention and purpose in life being, to love God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength and to love their neighbor as themselves. (Matthew 22).

How we come to define sin, purity, and every other term attached to holiness will be directly impacted with how we come to define the term Christian perfection. We need to teach and preach in this tension between the words that describe holiness so that others may know the fullness of a holy life beyond the cultural definition of a few words. This hard work in redefining our thoughts and expectations of what a holy life could and should be on both a personal and a corporate level are not only worth the effort and struggle, they are indeed the goal of God for all of His children. After the topic of salvation few others hold as much possibility for life altering transformation than the topic and teaching of holiness and sanctification. I used to think holiness was an unpopular subject due to the tension and conflict of the terminology, but as God has been growing me, I now believe it to be an unpopular subject because many do not know the astounding blessings that are made available in all of our lives if we would partner with the amazing work of God's grace in our personal sanctification.

Personal Holiness and Sanctification part 1

Holiness and sanctification, strong and pure, enter the confines of our three pound thoughts and quickly bump into our misconceived presuppositions about God and about ourselves. At first, sanctification appears to stand out as a freak alien visitor when contrasted against our view of sin and God and life. But as we look at what has been set apart for God's purpose we, by God's grace, begin to experience an answer to a prayer that was prayed centuries ago, “. . . that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people,” (Ephesians 1:18 NIV). The hope to which God has called us is a life that is not only redeemed, but a life that is cleansed and empowered to love God and others more and more. The riches of His glorious inheritance include God's sanctification of us that we may become His holy people. This new life, this holy sanctified life, as alien and unnatural as it may first appear, is not only possible, it is the life God had in mind for all of us even before the beginning.

There are, however, some significant issues related to our concept of, and participation, in the work of sanctification. One of the most problematic issues with our concept of holiness comes from our presuppositions and culturally filtered definitions of holiness terms. At times our preconceptions of these terms may even cause us to bristle at the very suggestion of applying them to ourselves. For example, on first encounter, the word perfection is draped in anything but humility. It is not a term that we find even remotely useful, for instance, on our resume. Perfection is not a term peppering the conversation of a first date, as we try to accurately describe ourselves. Yet perfection, in sanctification terms, is a useful and accurate descriptor of what God's grace is working toward in our lives.

This tension in definitions births opinions that, over time, become beloved filters that we sift our worldview through. The terms sin, perfection, love, truth, pride, humility, purity, and even holiness, among others, have all fallen into this tension of definitions and assumptions. We become quickly distracted by a cultural, man made, even doctrinal definition often causing us to miss the transformation that God longs to accomplish by His grace in our lives toward holiness. When we filter terms this way we risk diminishing the power of the cross of Christ and the power and purity of God in accomplishing a cleansing, healing work in us toward holiness.

art by Luis Toro

All In

Consider the little word “in”. Beyond the many descriptive names we have for God or the words we use to somehow try and describe His mighty saving works, the little word “in” may be one of the most powerful that we read in scripture. Think about how this little word powerfully changes us. For example there is a great difference in thinking about music and thinking in music – one is a musician and one is not. Likewise, knowing about the Bible does not mean I will think biblically in the Bible, in fact knowing about Jesus does not guarantee I am in Jesus.

This is much more than prepositional word play, even memorizing the Word, without our being in the Word does not make me a worshiper, just as memorizing a recipe does not make me a Cook. We need “in”, we don't need more knowledge “about” we need more “in”. When Jesus spoke to the women at the well about worship He did not say that worship is about spirit and about truth – Jesus said “Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” (John 4)

Read John 15 this week and consider the little word “in” prayerfully consider this word and how it describes you and Christ. Are you in Him and He in You? Let's be all in as we follow Christ Jesus.

In Christ

Pastor Eric

(art by Chris Orr) 

Art In Worship Part Two

mixed media image by Rose Beckman

Ask God this month to show you how to better engage with art, with creativity. At times our confining attitudes toward artistic expression in worship have also had an impact on our sacred spaces and on the focal points of our worship gatherings. For example, to make sure people did not confuse a sculpture for something to be worshiped, instead of its intended purpose as something to aid in our remembering the God we worship, the sculptures have been removed. The intent of the Reformers to refocus our worship on access to the Word for every worshiper was a needed and critical step forward in expanding the Kingdom, but the extreme shift threw sacred art out with the dirtied bathwater of idolatry. “The Bible and the pulpit were placed front and center in the church's life. The recovery of scripture was essential, to be sure, but the loss of art and the artist in worship was tragic.” - Throop

Our congregation is growing in its use and expectation of artistic expression. I am thankful for the openness to art in our church community I and look forward to seeing it grow. Though much has been lost in sacred artistic expression over time, I am thankful that much is being regained. I am encouraged, for example, by the rate at which Christian films have been improving in artistic quality, and in the continued improvement in the musicianship of Christian music. I believe God desires all that we are in our offerings of art in worship, and that He will accept the best of our heart when given to honor and glorify Him. Art that is honest about the struggles, trials and temptations we bear and about the freedom, peace and joy that God offers in Christ Jesus is art that our God deserves.

Our Great God deserves great art.

Change & Obedience

Friday Thoughts: Ordination

Friday Thoughts: Ordination: "Tonight Pastor Eric will receive ordination as an Elder in the Free Methodist Church. He will become Reverend Eric Wing. The halo is ge..."

Art In Worship - Part One

Art In Worship – Part One

This is part one of a series of articles about the powerful subject of Art, and specifically, Art in worship. This oil painting is by Lori Macmath and is available at http://www.creationswap.com.   

When we gather for worship, when we engage with the Word of God, with the person and presence of God we soon run out of ways to describe his complete holiness, power, love, wrath, comfort – only a few words, that like all the others, never attain their goal of describing a complete and fully accurate picture of the God we seek to worship. If we begin to think that we the created can ever fully describe our Creator then we need to wrestle with issues of pride before we address issues of art.

Art and artistic expression, the fluid and ambiguous descriptors of the stories, objects, images and sounds that we create. Though we are made in the likeness of The Creator God, we do not create Ex nihilo but rather we create out of our response to our life with and without God. This freedom to create is a depth of boundless opportunity to honor God or to honor ourselves. In this freedom to create art, we travel in areas that at first may seem to be filled with great risk and fear, but as we investigate deeper we find that art can contain and convey both intellect and emotion in powerful and transforming ways. However, with this great freedom, as in many areas of freedom and human will, artistic expression has been lowered to levels of idolatry, kidnapped and abused, often taking what was meant for beauty and purity and fully distorting it into expressions that are offensive and vulgar. We must regain artistic expression in worship to help us describe and adore things of God that are beyond the range of our language and intellect alone. How can the words and language that we create every fully describe the One who created us? There is much that we can know about God and much more that we can only describe with metaphor and artistic expression. We need art to do this.

Friday Thoughts: This morning I thought about God

 This is the weekly blog from our senior pastor Dave Kessler called Friday Thoughts - check it out.

Friday Thoughts: This morning I thought about God: "I thought this morning about God. That isn't a strange thing and most would expect that a pastor does that all the time. But, this mo..."

Our Responsibility In Worship

I am reading the book "Exploring The Worship Spectrum" as part of a Wesley Seminary course on worship. This is only the second week of the course and I still have much to read but I couldn't wait to start sharing these ideas.

It is indeed a great blessing to freely gather together and worship God. To fully receive this blessing we must consider our own responsibility in the assembly of God's church. In the book of Malachi, the final book of the Old testament, we are reminded of the fact that throughout time God has never given less than His best for His children. From creation itself, all the way through time, to this next Sunday when His church gathers to worship, God has poured His best out upon the children He loves.

Malachi, the prophet, wrote that people had figured it cost them far less to put a lame lamb upon the altar rather than to offer the best of the flock. After everything that God has done, this was the best that people could bring, the sick and lame from among their flocks? Listen to God's heart break as He proclaims through the prophet: "Oh that there were one among you who would shut the gates, that you might not uselessly kindle fire on My altar! - Malachi 1:10 - take some time and read for yourself this powerful account in Malachi 1. As we gather to worship God our responsibility is to kindle a useful fire on the altar of worship by bringing God our best - our heart, mind, soul and strength - all our best to kindle a useful flame of worship. This not a performance issue, this is an issue of motives.

After God spoke through the prophet Malachi He was silent for hundreds of years. No prophets proclaiming the Word, no signs or wonders, no manna from heaven, no water from rocks, God was silent. The people God loved had chosen to keep the best for themselves and to bring God the weakest and cheapest lambs they could - and then they waited for God's response - but God was silent - for hundreds of years they waited and God remained silent. Keep that in mind as you read the next thing they heard God proclaim to all people;

"In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which shall be for all people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord" Luke 2:8-10

God brought His best lamb. May we do the same, may we give Him our best praise. May we bring all of out heart, soul, mind and strength to the altar of God. I can't wait to gather with the church next week and give God our best praise. May God be glorified in it.

40 Things Jesus Said - A 40 day devotional to Easter

Day 40 - 40 Things Jesus Said from Eric Wing on Vimeo.

God is not fair, God is generous

I had the privilege of speaking in our series "A Big Step Of Growth" on Generosity.

"Generosity is releasing control of what I think I own" - Pastor Dave Kessler