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The other day while listening to my son practice the piano I heard him playing through the old Scottish ballad Scarborough Fair. Maybe some of you recognize this song which was made famous by Simon & Garfunkel. As my son played along, I noticed something just didn’t sound right but he insisted that everything was fine. Finally, after hearing the song through several times, I decided to check. I wasn’t too terribly surprised to find him playing with no music in front of him so I asked him to get the music out. His response was “but Dad, I’ve already learned to play it from memory.” As we sat there and carefully played through each individual note as it was written we made an important discovery… for nearly every G note that was to be played in the right hand, he was playing an E. With E being just two steps down on the keyboard from G you wouldn’t think this would make a big difference to the whole song – after all, there are many other notes in this song that he was playing correctly. But substituting this one note did indeed change the sound of the entire piece.

The real difficulty came next when I asked him to play the song as it was written. Easier said than done. Not only did he have to now carefully play the music much more slowly but he had to re-train his ear to hear the notes differently. He commented how the correct notes didn’t sound right and in a flash I realized what had happened – in learning to play the wrong notes for so many times, the wrong way eventually sounded right to him. In fact, the wrong way sounded so right that when the correct notes were eventually played they sounded wrong.

I’ll never forget several years ago when teaching a group of people on the believer’s victory in Christ, I presented the truth that Christ has completely forgiven us as beleivers. He has forgiven us of all of our sins… past, present and future (Ephesians.1:7;Colossians 1:14; Acts 10:43). In fact His forgiveness is so complete that we never have to ask for forgiveness again… ever, even when we do occasionally sin. We just simply thank Him for having already forgiven us, agree with Him that our sinful actions are not what He desires for us and respond to His direction for our lives. I no sooner finished presenting this truth when several in the audience loudly protested. After hearing them through, I was not too terribly surprised to find they did not have their Bibles opened to the passages we were discussing. As we sat there and carefully read through each individual verse, we discovered that they had substituted what they incorrectly learned in the place of the correct Biblical Truth. Having learned to embrace an incorrect understanding of forgiveness for so long, they discovered that the correct Biblical Truth sounded all wrong.

In this walk of faith amidst a world that has so terribly complicated Christianity… now is a wonderful time to once again put God’s Truth in plain view. Take your time to carefully consider all that Christ has promised to us who have received His free gift of Life that is abundantly rich. As you read and meditate on His Truth, prepare yourself for the Accuser who attempt to convince you that the abundant Life in Christ is all wrong. Trust God in spite of how you feel and He will set you free.

In early spring of 2009 I was teaching a lesson from 1 Corinthians to an adult Sunday School class when God began to work on me as to why I only teach these truths to adults. A very short but revealing inner conversation between Him and me right in the middle of my lesson went something like this.

God: “Cory, what about the children?”
Cory: “Well Lord, I trust that the children are being taught in their Sunday School classes what they need in order to understand the Bible.”
God: “But what about me? What about Grace the person? What about I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me? Start with your own children, Cory. Talk to them and find out.”

In the days to follow I began asking my 7 and 10 year old children what they learn in Sunday School. Now this was not the first time I had asked them this type of question but this was the first time I asked them to see how much Biblical truth they actually understood. As I listened to their answers my heart grew heavy as God was beginning to reveal that they actually knew very little about the One who lives in them. Sure they knew the story of Noah and Moses and David. They knew the Christmas story, the feeding of the 5,000 and the resurrection of Jesus. But what about Noah’s faith in God for the 100 years it took him to build that ark with no encouragement from anyone except his own family? What about Moses’ veil that he continued to wear after God’s glory faded from him or how the crossing of the Red Sea represents salvation? What about David’s prayer after sinning “Do not cast me away from Your presence and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me” and how he did not have the indwelling Spirit as Christians today do? What about what Jesus came to do and finished at the cross and is now doing in and through us as Christians?

As I asked my children these questions there was a saddening silence that seemed to reach out and grab me by the throat. Was I, their earthly father who taught in Sunday School, assuming my responsibility to teach and train them in new covenant truths or was I delegating that out to others to whom the responsibility never belonged? The problem was with me. With passages like Prov.22:6; 1 Tim.3:4,12; Eph.6:4; 2 Tim.3:14-17, I could no longer overlook such a responsibility. My wife and I began looking for a new way of training our children not in minimalistic terms or by having them watch more Bible story DVDs but through real-life Biblical examples of what we and other adults experience as Christians in this world.

In recent weeks with a major shift in how we as a family gather as part of the The Church with other believers, I have been carefully watching my kids become more involved in adult discussions during and after our meetings not out of duty but because of an inner desire to participate. At one point my son even said “Dad, I feel like the adults actually wanted to listen to me when I talked.” Imagine that – adults listening to what God does in and through a child. What a breakthrough in understanding how awesome Grace the person really is if we will release the reigns of control. In fact, it make perfect sense according 1 Cor.14. The conversations with my children have begun to multiply and now I am seeing a small but growing willingness in them to trust God at His word. The Holy Spirit is not miniature in the Christian child and if allowed can teach some wonderfully simple truths to adults through the child. Hebrews 13:7 says “Remember your leaders who have spoken God’s word to you. As you carefully observe the outcome of their lives, imitate their faith.” What outcome do children see in their Christian parents? Is it one of faith and trust in the one true Teacher? What an amazing responsibility parents have to teach and train their children victorious living in Christ but to also be taught by the Holy Spirit through these little ones.

As a kid I heard the story of Hudson Taylor – the famed missionary to China who played a key role in the establishment of the China Inland Mission. For years his efforts and strivings for the Lord were enormous and had a profound effect on Chinese people with many coming to know the Lord. For me, I always knew this story to be an example of what all Christians should aspire to do. After all, look at what his efforts produced. But the most important part of Hudson Taylor’s story was curiously missing  from the early versions I was taught. It wasn’t until many years later long into my adult years that I learned something about Taylor that dramatically changed my understanding of his story and subsequently began changing me.

Taylor, whose life impacted so many also left the man tired and eventually broken under the load of endless service for Christ. He desired so greatly to be an imitator of Christ and did all that he could to achieve that goal. Praying, fasting, preaching, serving… doing all that he could to please God and find favor with Him instead of knowing Him.

But in a moment of utter helplessness, Taylor saw something like never before. Something so simple, so radical that he was left a changed man forever… thus causing him to pen the following:

I strove for faith, but it would not come; I tried to exercise it, but in vain. Seeing more and more the wondrous supply of grace laid up in Jesus, the fullness of our precious Savior, my guilt and helplessness seemed to increase. Sins committed appeared but as trifles compared with the sin of unbelief which was their cause, which could not or would not take God at His word… I prayed for faith, but it came not. What was I to do?
When my agony of soul was at its height, a sentence in a letter from dear McCarthy was used to remove the scales from my eyes, and the Spirit of God revealed to me the truth of ouroneness with Jesus as I had never known it before.
“But how to get faith strengthened? Not by striving after faith, but by resting on the Faithful One.”
As I read, I saw it all! “If we believe not, he abideth faithful.” I looked to Jesus and saw (and when I saw, oh, how joy flowed)! That He had said, “I will never leave thee.”
“Ah, there is rest!” I thought. “I have striven in vain to rest in Him. I’ll strive no more. For has not He promised to abide with me — never to leave me, never to fail me?” And… He never will.

Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret

With us having been given wonderful minds and bodies, we have the power to do things in this earthly life our way or look to God for all of the direction. Sure we could likely produce a lot of good looking achievements and accomplishments but when setting our minds upon Him then all of what we do simply becomes an afterthought (Gal.2:20). The process of breaking down our control is God’s wonderful way of giving us an opportunity step out from the endless routine and experience His life in us. The life He intends for us will never be passive because we were “created for good works” (Eph.2:10). But those truly righteous works will only come about in us if we surrender our control as a living sacrifices and rest in Christ’s finished work (Rom.12:1,2).

Throughout the last 2 weeks I have had many conversations regarding today’s traditional institutionalized church, what an institution is and what the church is supposed to look like. From these conversations I have grown to better appreciate the multitude of perspectives that people have about church. My decision to step out of the Christian routine and re-evaluate church as I have always known it to be is proving to be quite the tumultuous adventure. I find it interesting how many assumptions have been made about me regarding this decision. The rumor mill seems to be working overtime these days but in spite of people’s wrong assumptions there are many blessings coming out of all of this. I am thoroughly thankful for the many conversations I have been afforded that I would have otherwise not had. People are thinking, considering and even questioning what I believe and possibly what they believe. That is always a good thing whether there is agreement or not. Through this God is allowing me to see into a small part of how Christian’s think and the many pitfalls that can seep into the Christian mindset. In addition to my continued study into what God’s Word says, I have found myself reading the following three book simultaneousness. BTW, I do not recommend reading three books at one time – I have nearly pulled a brain muscle doing so.

The first book which I have read before is by Bob Smith. No longer in print, it is a wonderful resource if you can find a copy somewhere. Bob significantly helped pave the way for a revolution in the Peninsula Bible Church where Ray Stedman once served. That body of believers was anything but routine by unashamedly exploring the depths of eldership and authority that God has given to The Church. The second book, Simply Church, is a new purchase which explains God’s design for The Church and shift happening among many Christians to participate in God’s design. The third book, Why We Love The Church, is a recent gift to me and is indeed an interesting perspective on why Christians should embrace the institutional system of doing church in spite of its many flaws. As I read these books simultaneously, I have discovered the first and second book spend nearly all of the readers time evaluating what God’s Living Word says about The Church: His people, His bride. The third book spends chapter upon chapter criticizing and discrediting those who step outside of the institutional system of religion. With careful use of Scripture this book is a compelling argument in scholarly support of the Christian religion with its routines, programs and traditions. I do, however, appreciate the author’s disclaimer near the end of the book that God can and does work through many non-traditional gatherings of Christians such house churches. His cautions are valid that such gatherings can fall into disorganized therapy sessions teaching all sorts of faulty doctrines. It certainly would not take long to spot such fleshliness in a small venue unlike the large institutions where such teachings and behaviors can be hidden for centuries.

It is my hope that more Christians will take a hard look at what they DO for Jesus week after week despite the fact that He never created us to do anything for Him. May we be willing to ask ourselves “who does God say I am regardless of what people may say?” Jesus promises an abundant life to all of His children… not just when we get to Heaven but right now on this earth. Are you experiencing the abundant life or is your Christian walk complicated and difficult to understand? Do you know your place in The Body and how to participate? The answers are far more simple and attainable than we may realize.