Friday, April 22, 2005
Fight for Joy
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Melissa and I attended a day that the Texas Above Rubies retreat last weekend and greatly enjoyed it. I am not sure where to begin in describing all that we expierienced and learned. And we did expierience as much as we directly learned! It has been a while since I have encountered such free, fresh and living faith. Nancy Campbell and her daughters are quite a kick, as well as very inspiring and challenging. I will be thinking and praying through all that I encountered for quite a while. If any of you reading are able, I strongly recommend checking out the Above Rubies site to see if you could attend a conference or at least sign up for the magazine. Even if you don't agree with every thing they speak about, it will bless you. We all need to be around those who are different than us and the American church desperately needs a few emergency shots of the faith these women have, myself included!
For today, I wanted to reflect on the striking similarity I observed between Nancy Campbell (Above Rubies) and John Piper. (If you are not familiar with John Piper, he is in my mind and experience the most annointed teacher in America today and you MUST seek out his books and sermons and soak yourself in them!) Our home group is going through a video series by John Piper called "The Blazing Center" (available at the John Piper link above). It is an amazing series. In the video last night he spoke on the following verse:
For today, I wanted to reflect on the striking similarity I observed between Nancy Campbell (Above Rubies) and John Piper. (If you are not familiar with John Piper, he is in my mind and experience the most annointed teacher in America today and you MUST seek out his books and sermons and soak yourself in them!) Our home group is going through a video series by John Piper called "The Blazing Center" (available at the John Piper link above). It is an amazing series. In the video last night he spoke on the following verse:
1 Peter 5:1 Therefore, I exhort the elders among you, as your fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ, and a partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed, 2 shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight not under compulsion, but voluntarily, according to the will of God; and not for sordid gain, but with eagerness; 3 nor yet as lording it over those allotted to your charge, but proving to be examples to the flock. 4 And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.
Piper focused on the words "compulsion" and "eagerness". He stated that if a pastor fulfills his job out of duty because that is the right thing to do and so I am just going to sheer willpower do it, then it is of NO benefit to his people. Now, on one hand, as a parent, even if I parent out of duty, without joy, doing my daily tasks because I need to, with a tired look on my face and many a short answer, there is still some benefit to my child. She is fed, has a place to sleep. Maybe she learned something practical. There is a physical benefit to duty driven parenting. Yet we are also the spiritual shepherds of our children. So as much as I parent out of joyless duty, I am of NO benefit to my child! What a sobering thought! That is how there are so many religion-soured children out there who want little to do with the God of their parents because all they saw was duty duty duty and man cannot live on bread alone! The human heart and soul was made to crave so much more than compulsory duty, than slavery to law! It was for freedom that Christ set us free and that reality should fill our hearts with joy. If it is by faith indeed a reality to us.
Piper made a comment that clarified the battle ground for me. As we face our day, our moment, our task, the battle is not with action or duty or behavior. The battle is with what makes my heart glad? Do I delight in the Lord and in His word? Does it give a song to my heart and a smile to my face? If I don't, I must fight for that delight. I must fight for joy. Praise God, His Truth and His Son is the only source of lasting joy, so it is a battle that can be certainly won, but we are usually taking battle swings at the cement wall of dutiful behavior. It isn't a fight that can be won.
So, what makes your heart glad? Truly, deeply, purely, guilt-free glad?
How does this relate to Nancy Campbell of Above Rubies? At the conference she talked of the annointing of the Spirit that we mothers desperately need and without which we cannot effectively mother our children. She said that the main characteristics of the spirit annointing are sweetness and power. Sweetness! The presence of the spirit is sweet to our souls and gives joy to our hearts. Without that sweetness, we are of no benefit to our children. The reformed and the charasmatic make the same point. Wonderful!
This has been extremely helpful and convicting to my personally. I tend to be very duty driven and I have seen the effects on my children. Honestly, all my 3 year olds bad behavior comes from me. I can pin point almost every problem she has to my own behavior. It is because I have counted action to be more important than sweetness and joy. Praise the grace of God that he gave me the gift of song, because it has brought perhaps the only daily alotment of pure delight we have in our home. We are all at our best when we are singing. So I am going to start with the grace God has given and pray to expand it throughout my day in creative ways. I want so desperately for my children to truly delight in the Lord and find His joy to be their strength.
Piper made a comment that clarified the battle ground for me. As we face our day, our moment, our task, the battle is not with action or duty or behavior. The battle is with what makes my heart glad? Do I delight in the Lord and in His word? Does it give a song to my heart and a smile to my face? If I don't, I must fight for that delight. I must fight for joy. Praise God, His Truth and His Son is the only source of lasting joy, so it is a battle that can be certainly won, but we are usually taking battle swings at the cement wall of dutiful behavior. It isn't a fight that can be won.
So, what makes your heart glad? Truly, deeply, purely, guilt-free glad?
How does this relate to Nancy Campbell of Above Rubies? At the conference she talked of the annointing of the Spirit that we mothers desperately need and without which we cannot effectively mother our children. She said that the main characteristics of the spirit annointing are sweetness and power. Sweetness! The presence of the spirit is sweet to our souls and gives joy to our hearts. Without that sweetness, we are of no benefit to our children. The reformed and the charasmatic make the same point. Wonderful!
This has been extremely helpful and convicting to my personally. I tend to be very duty driven and I have seen the effects on my children. Honestly, all my 3 year olds bad behavior comes from me. I can pin point almost every problem she has to my own behavior. It is because I have counted action to be more important than sweetness and joy. Praise the grace of God that he gave me the gift of song, because it has brought perhaps the only daily alotment of pure delight we have in our home. We are all at our best when we are singing. So I am going to start with the grace God has given and pray to expand it throughout my day in creative ways. I want so desperately for my children to truly delight in the Lord and find His joy to be their strength.
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