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OPENING PRAYER
May Your presence purify my heart
As my spirit bows to all You are.
Plant Your holy love in every part.
May Your presence purify my heart.
*Words by Ken Bible, Music by Steven V. Taylor
© 1993 by Pilot Point Music. Stanza 1 "May Your Presence Purify My Heart"
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Just as Martin Luther emphasized massively the believer's new standing with God, so John Wesley emphasized massively the believer's new nature from God. In fact, said Wesley, it was for the sake of restoring sanctification or holiness to the church catholic that God had raised up Methodism.
Wesley's conviction that the deeper layers of our heart-condition must be dealt with as we are made aware of them; his familiarity with the scorching fire of God's love that sears and saves in the same instant; his self-forgetful immersion in the miseries of others as he brought them a joy they were going to find nowhere else: it's all gathered up in his oft-repeated expression, "holiness of heart and life."
*The Reverend Dr. Victor Shepherd
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Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I am full of joy over you; but I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil.
*Romans 16.19 (NIV)
9 For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true.
10 Carefully determine what pleases the Lord. 11 Take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness; instead, expose them. 12 It is shameful even to talk about the things that ungodly people do in secret.
*Ephesians 5.9-12 (NLT)
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Larry is a colorful sinner (sex, drugs) who [says he] accepted Jesus when he heard "Just As I Am" and "Amazing Grace." However, he still has problems with food, sex and cigarettes. He stated his dilemma this way: "I'm stuck somewhere between 'Just as I am' and 'Just as God wants me to be.'"
*Philip Yancy. In "Christianity Today."
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James addressed the inner warfare going on within the bodies of his readers, a struggle that manifested in outer conflict with other persons.
1 Do you know where your fights and arguments come from? They come from the selfish desires that war within you. 2 You want things, but you do not have them. So you are ready to kill and are jealous of other people, but you still cannot get what you want. So you argue and fight. You do not get what you want, because you do not ask God. 3 Or when you ask, you do not receive because the reason you ask is wrong. You want things so you can use them for your own pleasures.
*James 1.1-3 (NCV)
The selfish desires are lusts. These are strong appetites within us. Guigo I (c. 1083-1136), a Carthusian monk who corresponded with Bernard of Clairvaux, in Meditations, speaks of how easily we opt to remain entrapped in these ruling desires: "We labor, struggle, and even kill for things that do not last. We do this because these things are familiar." How odd to repeat a pattern of inordinate desire by opting for the familiar, simply because the familiar is familiar. Another oft used word for this is "habit."
Again, Guigo I is to the point, regarding what we can do about the lusty habits: "You have a choice. You can free yourself of passionate appetites, or you can get ready to be upset." Why?
We want to do the best we can for ourselves. We seek pleasure and avoid pain. But often we attempt to do this in ways that not only fail to achieve what we desire, but also make our goal more difficult to attain. We chase after happiness and find only misery.
An intent of spiritual disciplines is to bring us to our senses, to the senselessness of following appetites that lead to well-intentioned solutions that are not solutions, after all. This cycle of deathly pursuit is called by Buddhists samsara: the cycle of suffering, based on chasing our inordinate desires.
Yes, in Grace we accept Christ as our Way. This same principle of Grace continues to fulfill the potential of our growth into the likeness of Christ:
23I pray that God, who gives peace, will make you completely holy. And may your spirit, soul, and body be kept healthy and faultless until our Lord Jesus Christ returns. 24The one who chose you can be trusted, and he will do this.
*I Thessalonians 5.23-24 (CEV)
That "he will do this" means Grace operates to make us complete in freedom from all appetites contrary to the likeness of Jesus. Grace operates in this process of making holy to the extent of our surrender in agreement to be made holy. We are freed from the tyranny of errant and hurtful desires to the degree we are changed into the image of the Word, Who is Love.
Sanctification, a being made sacred, is a process. This process moves us from "Just As I Am" toward "Just As God Wants Me To Be," even from "Just As I AM" toward "Just As Christ Is." That is the longing of any person consciously abiding in Christ.
A spiritual Christian ardently loves Christ, unashamedly longs to please Christ, and joyfully aspires to be more like Christ - this means going beyond standing in Grace to be being transformed into the nature of Grace. Virtue, then, is not an end in itself - as though obeying merely an objective standard - rather, all morality is the fruition of a higher goal of being changed into the likeness of the Word of God.
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*The quote Just as Martin Luther...: www.victorshepher.on.ca. Holiness of Heart and Mind. "What Did John Wesley Mean by 'Holiness of Heart and Life?'. A Sermon Preached at the Annual Service Honouring Hay Bay Church, The Cradle of Methodism in Upper Canada. 24 Aug 2003.
*The Philip Yancey story was found at www.holwick.com .
*Charitable contributions would be appreciated to assist Brian in continuing his ministry. For contributions, contact Brian at barukhattah@embarqmail.com . Brian is in need of more funding to purchase a desk-top computer.
*Brian's book of spiritual love poetry, An Ache for Union: Oneness with God through Love, can be ordered through major booksellers or the Cokesbury on-line store, cokesbury.com .
*Brian K. Wilcox, a United Methodist Pastor, lives in Southwest Florida. He is a vowed member of Greenbough House of Prayer, a contemplative Christian community in South Georgia. He lives a contemplative life and seeks to inspire others to enjoy a more intimate relationship with Christ. Brian advocates for a spiritually-focused, experiential Christianity and renewal of the Church through addressing the deeper spiritual needs and longings of persons.
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