Thoughts and Encouragements for Wounded Helpers Joined to a Healing God

(

Nederlandse versie)

Life Renewal – by a renewal of our mind, or...?

André H. Roosma

2015-02-21

An earlier Dutch version of this article has also appeared in:
Promise, Vol.24, nr.1, Jan.2008, pp.12-19.

When negative experiences have left their traces our life, or when we see how much better God has designed life to be, we can feel an intense longing for renewal in our life. I also think of how we can wrestle with specific sins, bad habits or addictions. Often I heard people sigh: “I whish I did that!” or: “I whish that I didn’t do this anymore!” Maybe you recognize some of this.

Then, the important question must be asked: How does change in our life come about in such a case – or in any case when we want to follow Christ and become more like Him?

Change by a renewal of the mind?

There are several approaches that say: “To change your behavior, you must learn to think differently first.¹ The underlying assumption is that your thinking determines your behaviour and your emotions. So, when you change your thinking, then you also change your life – all of your actions and behaviour!” And some Christians add: “You have to adapt your thinking to God’s will, to what you read in the Bible!” Romans 12 verse 2a is often dragged in for ‘Biblical support’:

“... be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind...”

The point in pastoral care then would be to educate people about what the Bible says, such that they incorporate that into their thinking and thus start to live by it. That all sounds nice and ‘Christian’, and certainly our thinking will have some influence on our behavior. It is good to not live from whimsy emotions but be able to think soberly about what to do, and involve the Bible in that. The questions are: Is a somewhat different way of thinking really the answer? Will it change our life? Has everything been said by quoting Romans 12:2?

When we investigate the origins of this emphasis on the mind, we encounter the Greeks around the beginning of our era or a few hundred years before that. The Greeks considered -briefly said- the thinking mind elevated/superior, and the body profane. One might say: they uplifted the human mind as something ‘higher’, at the cost of the body, emotions, et cetera.
This has put an enormous mark on western society. When knowing God and wonder and societal life decreased during the period that was called the ‘enlightenment’ (though that was not what it was in all aspects, to my view), the idolization of the human mind was what remained. The independent man who had separated himself from God, had difficulty distinguishing himself from the animals. The distinction was sought after in the mind. Compare the statement by Descartes: “cogito ergo sum” – “I think, so I am.” Think also of evolutionist biology and anthropology, that view the present man (in contrast to his far ancestors) as ‘homo sapiens’ – thinking man.
The independent man, who can thoughtfully investigate anything, is in fact the basic theme of humanistic modernism and reductionism, that had such an enormous influence on our culture in the past two hundred years. Man wants to determine his future by himself and not acknowledge God, leave no room for a Creator Who has created him and Who exercises authority over him.

As Christians we do well not to associate ourselves with this view, as I will illustrate below. Oh certainly, this approach seems appealing and attractive. It seems attractive to be able to determine your own future, without any need to comply under a God Who may have different opinions about certain things. It seems attractive to have it all clearly in your mind, and in your life everything in your own hand. But it is a lie. We have virtually nothing in our own hand. Compared to God we know virtually nothing. As humans we are not able to think ourselves or our behaviors healthy. Not even with the Bible in hand.
Over two hundred years of modernism has not improved the life climate on this earth. On the contrary, I would say. Look at all the misery that parades daily before us in TV and radio news and newspapers. And then I do not only refer to wars but certainly also to the corruption closer to home – in our own neighborhoods and families. In that regard post-modernism is right: modernism has failed to deliver on its very high ideals.² Man is not able to renew himself – not even by thinking better.

How will we find real change and renewal?

Above I briefly cited a few words from Romans 12. The writer of that letter, the apostle Paul of Tarsus, has been described as being a great thinker. Yet he had some thoughts – inspired by the Spirit of God – that must have been shocking for the Greek Romans of his day. Let us therefore have a look at that whole portion of his letter to the Romans, and read it in its context. I start in Chapter 11, at verse 33 (boldface added).

"33 O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out! 34 "For who hath known the mind of the Lord? Or who hath been His counselor?" 35 Or, "who hath first given to Him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?" 36 For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things, to whom be glory for ever. Amen."

Here I read the account of a religious teacher who – to use modern language – went out of his head, when taking a small break after eleven chapters in a long letter before continuing with more practical advices. What is it that brings him to such ecstasy? It is that he pauses at Who God is in His wisdom and grandeur and grace – both in His way with the people of Israel and with the Christians that did not descent from an Israeli family line. Compared to God man is only very small. All the knowledge and wisdom comes from God. Pausing at Who God is brings Paul to worship: "Him be the glory in all eternity!" (verse 36).

And in fact, in verse 36 he also gives the reply to our question: how our lives can be changed: only by God.
An important distinction with the ‘change yourself by thinking differently’-philosophy is that here God Himself is put at the center, and not man. As a heading for this article, I could also have put: ‘About the smallness of man and the greatness of God’.

Let us continue to read from this perspective in that letter to the Romans:

"12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service."

So, this is the part of which I said: for the Greek thinking people of his time this will have been shocking. Paul summarizes here the previous eleven chapters by saying: if you now see how merciful, how forgiving and compassionate God is... He focuses the eyes of his readers on the merciful nature of God. That is where it starts: that we can see Whom and how God is. That we become deeply impressed.
The next step, says Paul here, is that we surrender our body fully to Him. He uses the metaphor of a sacrificial animal that was given entirely to a god – literally ‘sacrificed’. So, for our situation, that speaks also of a sacrifice – in the sense of something that you give up, that you fully surrender. You give up your own (seeming) securities, your right to determine your own future, and to do what you want and to go with your body as and where you please.
An interesting point is that Paul is talking explicitly about our bodies here. Why does Paul in fact ravish the Greeks here, who considered the body as unspiritual and inferior, by putting it so central? That cannot be anything other than a conscious act of Paul. I think that this has to do with the fact that Paul knew from his own experience (see Romans 7) that the sin and the negative patterns often ‘enter’ through our bodies: for example our eyes see something attractive.³ But it also demonstrates that God does consider our bodies important. That is also clear from the addition of: "living, holy and pleasing to God".
The body includes everything that we think (aware and unaware) and feel and choose and do. Our thinking and feeling and choosing and doing are all ‘contaminated’ by sin – that urge that can be traced back to the original sin (Genesis 3) of wanting the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, of determining one’s own choices independently from God. Only by giving ourselves – our bodies – consciously to God, we can become free of this ‘contamination’.⁴ In that physical surrender, we may become ecstatic about who God is, and, just like Paul, worship Him.
Yes, worship God – that we have largely forgotten as well. In Paul’s time they still knew something of what worship entails: that you can use your body entirely in it. Communications-scientists say that we communicate much more non-verbally, through our ‘body-language’, than by our words. So, we may re-discover how we can worship God with our bodies and give Him the honour to which He is entitled.
Almost specially for the Greeks Paul still adds that this surrender with your whole body is not more than ‘reasonable’; indeed it is, even when we consider it rationally, the most logical and appropriate thing to do.

After this verse the question might be asked: how do I know what way to give my body to God, will be agreeable to God? And that is what is the subject of the following verse:

"12:2 And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove [others translate ‘recognize’] what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. 3 For I say to every man that is among you, through the grace given unto me, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith."

Key in verse 2 for me is the prove or rather recognize. In the heart of the matter it isn’t so much about a changed thinking; it’s about a change in the attitude of my heart. This is evidenced by verse 3: are we prepared to acknowledge that we are incapable and unknowing by ourselves, and that God knows everything better? Are we prepared to submit to Him? That implies, says Paul literally (with regard to the specific Greek words he uses), a metamorphosis, a huge transformation, a total revolution in our thinking, which will not leave our lives unchanged.

This is about giving up our desire for independent self-determination, and see that we belong to God.
A fish that belongs in the sea, can only florish and thrive when he remains in the sea. Likewise we can only florish and thrive in close connection to God. He was the One Who gave us our breath to live. He was the One Who send His Son to restore the broken link with Him.

This reminds me of what Paul writes in Galatians 2 verse 20:

"I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me."

Here too, Paul links his total surrender to God to what Jesus did for us: He has given Himself totally in his immense love for us. So that we would be restored to that unity to Him where we belong.

Real and radical change in our lives comes when we surrender ourselves daily, with all what we are, willing to God, and do not think we ‘know’ some things beter than He does. Then we will eagerly let ourselves be filled by His spirit daily (cf. Ephesians 5: 18, Romans 14: 17) and our lives will be changed by Him from the inside out. We will get such characteristics, as concisely summarized in Galatians 5 verse 22 and 23a:

"... the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance..."

By the surrender to God, by remembering to Whom we belong, we reach the situation Paul so often describes as ‘in Christ’. In Christ our life is hidden and protected (Colossians 3). Our lives become rooted in Him and He lives in and through us. So in our lives we will increasingly grow in our likeness to Him.

2008-03-20

Recently I read in Leviticus 6 and 7 about the sacrifices that Israel had to bring. What struck me, was that a sacrificial animal and all that remained of it at any time, was ‘holy’. It was in no way to come into contact with ‘unclean’ things, ‘unclean’ animals, etcetera. That ‘holy’ meant that it had been set apart (separate) for God. Each priest who ate from it (sacrificial meat could be eaten – at least for some sacrifices) had to be ‘clean’ and ‘holy’; that is to say: he himself also had to be set apart for God, and he was not to touch anything unclean.
This denotes that the animal that was to be sacrificed to God, was really set apart for God, really to be His. This also had substantial practical consequences, that had to be observed carefully.
Romans 12 verse 1 has major implications for what follows from verse 2 onward, that is: for our lives.

What makes the big difference

Romans 12 verse 1 and 2 shows in fact a strong anti-parallel with some verses from chapter 1 of the same letter. There, Paul describes some unacceptable situations in this world. And he presents the cause (note the added emphasis):

"18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of men, who by their wickedness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 Ever since the creation of the world His invisible nature, namely, His eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse; 21 for although they knew God they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking and their senseless minds were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man or birds or animals or reptiles. 24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, Who is blessed for ever! Amen. 26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. Their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural, 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in their own persons the due penalty for their error. 28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a base mind and to improper conduct..."

The wordplay in verse 28 is remarkable: by our thinking mind we are able to review things and thereby accept or reject them. Man could see, says all of this quote, God’s greatness from God’s creation. To see that, should bring us to our knees in humble worship and thanks towards God as Creator of everything. However, we considered this objectionable, is what these verses say. In this, we abused our mind, our thinking faculties, to go against God. Therefore, God permitted that we got lost in that objectionable independent thinking ourselves.
Striking is also that in the first place sins are mentioned here in which our bodies are intensively involved.

The way back out of this misery, is what Paul in fact says in both parts of his letter, is that we soften our hearts, that we become conscious of our smallness and acknowledge God for Who He is as graceful and exalted Creator. That we acknowledge that we belong to Him. From the worship and openness for God that grows then, He can renew our heart from the inside out – which will impact our lives, of course. The big change – the metamorphosis in our thinking – is whether we want to bow down for God and look at Him and belong to Him. Therefore Paul writes in verse 3 of the 12th chapter that we have to fit our thinking to our faith.

Wisdom of God or wisdom of man

In his first letter to the Christians in Corinth Paul is very clear about what we observed above, where he contrasts the human mind and human wisdom with God’s wisdom and mercy:

"1: 17 For Christ ... send me ... to preach the gospel, and not with eloquent wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. 18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the cleverness of the clever I will thwart." 20 Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, [we preach] Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. 26 For consider your call, brethren; not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth; 27 but God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong, 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. 30 But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who of God is made to us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption; 31 therefore, as it is written, "Let him who boasts, boast of the Lord." 2:1 When I came to you, brethren, I did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God in lofty words or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. 3 And I was with you in weakness and in much fear and trembling; 4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. 6 Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. 7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, which God has hidden, predetermining it before the world for our glory; 8 None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 But, as it is written, "What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him," 10 God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. 11 For what person knows a man’s thoughts except the spirit of the man which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we might understand the gifts bestowed on us by God. 13 And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual things with spiritual [words]. 14 The unspiritual man does not receive the gifts of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 15 The spiritual man judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. 16 "For who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct Him?" But we have the mind of Christ."

So God is at the center. He is the Source of wisdom and a sound mind. Our human mind overlooks a lot and often doesn’t see clearly.
One of the verses that drew my special attention in this quote, is verse 12 of chapter 2: the most important we have to know is, according to God, what He has given us out of His grace. With that, we are completely back to what I said, discussing Romans 11:33 – 12:1. Being moved by God’s greatness and mercy is what motivates us to yield the control over our lives to Him. To see and acknowledge where we belong. And that means a complete revolution in our thinking (see also verse 2), from a frenetic: ‘I know’ to a humble and enthusiastic: ‘God knows!’ – full of joyful surrender.

“The heart has reasons that reason cannot know.”
Blaise Pascal,
in: Thoughts (Pensées).

We do not owe it to our superior thinking mind that we are saved or that we change, says verse 30 of chapter 1 (notice the words ‘redemption’ and ‘sanctification’), but it is of/from Christ! He deserves all of our hope and honour!

It’s where our heart belongs that matters

The poet of Proverbs says it clearly:

"Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life."

Proverbs 4: 23 (NLT⁵)

In his letter to the church in Ephesus Paul is very clear as well, regarding what the changed thinking is all about:

"4:17 Now this I affirm and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds; 18 they are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart; 19 they have become callous and have given themselves up to licentiousness, greedy to practice every kind of uncleanness. 20 You did not so learn Christ!"

Knowing Christ Jesus personally, living familiarly with Him, living from belonging to Him, is diametrically opposed to hardening your heart.

Psalm 119 speaks about the goodness of God’s Torah – His teachings to His people, to their benefit. De Psalmist says in verse 10 and 11 (cf. also the verses 32, 36, 80, 112 and 161):

"With my whole heart I seek Thee; let me not wander from Thy commandments!
I have laid up Thy Word in my heart, that I might not sin against Thee."

He sought to be with God, with all of his heart, and then he could store God’s Word in his heart – that had become open towards God.
We belong to God. Making your heart receptive for Who God is and for what He has to say to us in Christ, involves not only our mind, but also our feelings and our intuition, as David already knew as well:

"One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, (i) to behold the beauty of the LORD, and (ii) to inquire in his temple."

Psalm 27: 4 (small numbers added)

Here, David sees two important dimensions in its dealings with God; that of: (i) his emotions and (ii) his mind, and in that order. With the first: "to behold the beauty of the LORD" we are completely back at Romans 11:33-36 and what I said about it. Our emotions, our wonder at Who God is in His unfathomable love, help us to see where we belong. There it begins, then the "to inquire in his Temple" – so: our mind – is added to deepen our worship and surrender even further.

2008-03-04

Life renewal and the fight against sin

“In fact every help-intervention that does not start from a changed heart, is symptom fighting.”

Bart Broekman
in: ‘Angst (2), part 3: De liefde drijft de vrees uit’, Tijdschrift voor Theologie en Pastorale Counseling, Vol.8, Q2 1996, nr.30, p.57-60.

Many people I talk to in pastoral care, struggle with one or other sin or bad habit. With regard to this, I also noticed, that the described enthusiasm for Who God is and for what He means to us is an important key to victory. Victory over sin is there, where we joyfully realize and remember where we belong. Without that enthusiasm, we easily slide into a kind of indifference that makes sin attractive to us. When I am enthusiastic about Who God is for me and what He has done for me, and about my belonging to Him, I find the same sin suddenly much less attractive. I am reminded of what Jesus said, that to whom a lot has been forgiven, shows a lot of love (and vice versa; see Lucas 7:47), and what He wrote to the Church of Ephesus: that they were no longer enthusiastic about His first Love for them, and therefore no longer acted as when they still experienced that first Love (Revelations 2:4-5 ⁶).

In his second letter (2 Peter 1) the apostle Peter talks about that we "... become partakers of the divine nature" and that we "may escape from the corruption". He than lists a long list of virtues, that build on each other: faith, virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection, and love for all. He then makes than the remarkable statement: "For whoever lacks these things is blind and shortsighted and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins." (2 Peter 1:9) If we do not forget but remember from which sins Christ has cleansed us, and remain excited about that, then that leaves us not without fruit. We then remember with joy to Whom we belong and then these virtues will more and more be seen in our lives. That way we will never fall, Peter adds (verse 10).

Two roads

So there are two roads. The first is: (1) Look upon ourselves, think that we can ‘make it’ and ‘save’ ourselves by doing our best even better, think or choose more ‘Biblical’ or ‘better’ in any way, etc. This is the ‘do it yourself’ road of humanist modernism, of man-isolated-from-God, who believes to reach a better way of living on his own, by means of his superior mind. Perhaps this path looks very religious and wrapped in just the right terminologies: ‘conversion; make good, Biblical decisions’, or: ‘renewal by a renewed thinking’. In the heart of the matter it remains the path that satan suggested in Genesis 3: have the knowledge and insight in your own hands, and expect good of that. We all know that it does not work – have a look in the families, in the newspaper or at the TV news.
One aspect of this path in practice is that in this effort we easily split up: on the one hand we have high ideals, but on the other in practice we unnoticedly slip into living from our own spiritual, relational and emotional poverty; from our deficits, etc. To hide our increasingly darkening heart, we polish our outside – pretending to be better than we really are. Quickly we proceed to abuse our bodies and/or those of others to get our ‘rewards’, or as a way of dealing with difficult emotions. This road ends in darkness, as Romans 1 clearly demonstrates.

There is also that other road: (2) Look upon God, His wisdom, His wealth, His greatness and mercy, His undeserved joy with us (see also the articles on the Aaronic Blessing, Abundance of Life and Joy and Our ultimate life goal). We will acknowledge, thank and worship Him because He alone is God. We will rejoice greatly in our belonging to Him. We will give ourselves – spirit, soul and yes, especially also: body; that is with all what we think, feel and do – in surrender to Him. We are no longer focused on what we do ourselves, how well we do, or anything like that. We become satisfied in God – lyrical about Who and how He is. That is not thinking a little differently, some other ideas or opinions here and there. That is a complete metamorphosis in us, yes, including in our thinking. Then we really start to Live from the wealth and mercy He gives. Then we will enjoy Who God is and enjoy His love and mercy. That is a life in subjection to God; in belonging to Him. As a result, we reach our proper place, just as we were intended to be – in beneficial and loving and joyful community with Him and others.
This road is impossible to man, but possible to God. We profess Jesus not only for eternal salvation, we acknowledge that we also need Him terribly in everyday life. After all, He can change our lives to good and make possible what is impossible for us! This road ends in the light with Him.

Focusing our eyes on Jesus

If we direct our eyes and look up to Jesus, we can avoid also that we get too tired in our human strength, so that we are not so easily undermined, as Hebrews 12:2-3 indicates (emphasis added):

"looking to Jesus the Pioneer and Perfecter of our faith, Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider Him Who endured from sinners such hostility against Himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted."

2009-12-15

To the Christians in Corinth Paul mentions that with the Jews there was a kind of veil over the real and true meaning of the Old Testament, like Moses had to cover his face as he came from the presence of God to the people, because they could not bear how intense his face was shining then. Paul then continues:

"And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit."

2 Corintiërs 3:18

In other words, we are changed by our direct interaction with God, just like Moses himself had; by looking upon Him in His glory and by learning to know Him as ‘from face to face’. Transformation ‘from the inside out’ occurs by engaging with God.

And Peter indicates in the first chapter of his second letter that we, precisely because we know Jesus Christ and are joined to Him, possess huge life-changing resources. He then says, in verse 9, that if this change is not visible in anyone, that is due to that person being shortsighted – not good at looking further away – and that he or she has forgotten how he or she is cleansed of previous sins. In other words, if we remember well how we are cleansed by God’s mercy from our past sins, this helps to look at the long-term consequences of our actions, just as it did Jesus (see the text from Hebrews above) and then that helps us in the process of transformation (see also Hebrews 9:14, 2 Peter 3:18 and Psalm 62).

It’s wonderful what Paul says about himself:

"And to keep me from being too elated by the abundance of revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of satan, to harass me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I besought the Lord about this, that it should leave me; but He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness." I will all the more gladly boast of my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities; for when I am weak, then I am strong."

2 Corinthians 12:7-10

That is why he previously could write frankly to this church:

"When I came to you, brethren, I did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God in lofty words or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in much fear and trembling; and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, which God has hidden, predetermining it before the world for our glorification;"

1 Corinthians 2:1-7

And:

"For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For it is the God Who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," Who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us."

2 Corinthians 4:5-7

King Hezekiah as an example

In 2 Chronicles 29 to 32 there is a wonderful example of the above. We sometimes say that the First or Old Testament is a kind of ‘pictures book’ to the New. Well, then this is certainly one of those fine illustrative ‘pictures’. It is about King Hezekiah, the son of a godless King (Ahaz) and a God fearing mother: Abia, the daughter of the priest Zachariah. Probably it also was his mother who had given him his name – Hezekiah (Hezek-Yahu) means: JaHUaH is (my) strength. And that strength (and courage) of God he badly deeded indeed!

When Hezekiah became king, the land of Israel was in considerable decline – spiritually, morally, etc. Enemies threatened to trample it under their feet. Hezekiah then recognizes the mercy of God, and turns himself around. From day one he is aimed at restoring the relationship with God and seeks his joy in God (see 29:4,5). He cares that the Temple, which was closed under the regime of his godless father, is reopened again, and that there is given heed to what God says. He cares that the priests and Levites purify themselves, and then all of the people (29:24), followed by reconciliation and obedience (30:14). He also cares that the worship to God is restored again (29:25-28,31; 30:21-22). As a result there is great joy!
The result: God restores the country and blesses them very generously (31:10). Continuously we see that reciprocal response between God and man. Unanimity among each other grows also (30:4) and people take up their spiritual tasks again (30:25-27).

Responsibility

We can ask ourselves the question: what is our responsibility in respect to renewal in our lives?

An answer to that question is: fighting hard against the sin, or do our utmost best to live holy, or: very industriously try to think or choose differently.
Suppose this might succeed, then who gets the honor?

The alternative answer that I have suggested is that it is, first and foremost, our responsibility to let God really be God in all His glory and wisdom! To seek our bond with Him and live from that belonging. That will cause a revolution in our thinking and have a huge impact on all of our lives. Then we will, aware of our own smallness and propensity to sin, give Him all the honour, and search in Him and His mercy our joy, and live from that. Then God will also receive the honor to which He is entitled!

Do I here advocate to call for less mindful engagement in our lives? Or to drift about at our emotions? No way!! However, the thinking mind is not what is paramount. The main thing is that we give God the place to which He is entitled in His enormous greatness and love! That we acknowledge that there is life only in Him, not outside of Him. And that will mean a metamorphosis, a total revolution – not only in our thinking, but in our entire lives, to devote ourselves in everything to the God Who is worth more than our joyful dedication.⁷

2007-12-24

Confirmation from the neurology / brain physiology

I consider it remarkable that recent studies in the field of brain physiology and neurology confirm the above. The majority of the nerve fibres in our brains are formed by ‘copying’; by synchronizing ourselves as a child visually to our parents and other adults we copy, as it were, the structures in their brains to ours.
In intense experiences – both negative (traumatic) and positive (e.g. being ‘in love’, worship in complete surrender) – these structures in our brains become a little more ‘plastic’ as it were, as clay which becomes more easy to handle with a little water. The hormone cortisol plays a role in this. Existing nerve lanes become more easily replaced by new ones. In negative experiences this helps to forget them, to be able to continue living. In case of positive experiences, such as being in love intensely, it helps to grow together and improves coordination between each other. It is precisely this intense emotional synchronization that stimulates the formation of new nerves, to the pattern of the person to whom we are synchronized. This is also the reason that someone (in his or her brain!) can increase his or her musical talent by synchronizing with joy to someone who is musically more talented, as for example, happens to a singer or musician who are continuously and repeatedly synchronizing to the conductor. In dance and ballet you see the same. Looking at the eyes of the person with experience, helps in the growth of the skills, because the synchronized look results in a change in the brain, and even more so as the emotional involvement is greater (mutually).

In true worship we are attuned to Who God is with all our hearts and body. According the above surrender-full worship makes our brains receptive to be changed to God’s pattern of thinking. Thus, intense worship in itself will already induce a positive change in our (conscious and unconscious) mind, along a neurological and brain physiological pathway.
Here we see how we as humans are made for the relationship with God, and only in that intense relationship we will be fully able to reach our goal.

The role and function of pastoral care, preaching and community

At the beginning, I said that there are people who state – within the framework of modernism – that pastoral care and preaching help by transferring good thinking (education helps). In fact I have put that in a different perspective. But if this is not the most important task of pastoral care and preaching, what is? I see as one of the main tasks of pastoral care and preaching, and in fact of any contact between Christians: to encourage each other to look up to God, to enjoy His loving presence, to honor Him for Who He is, to surrender to Him and to draw together from the wells of His joy and wisdom.⁸
I am also reminded of what Paul writes in his letter to the Colossians (3:16-17):

"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teach and admonish one another in all wisdom, and sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him."

What is at the core here and what determines our life is that our hearts are full of God and of what He tells us in Christ and by His Word.

In 2 Corinthians 1:23 – 2:3, Paul talks about joy. He sees himself as co-worker to the delight of the church members in Corinth. A joy, which, as he hopes, also finds its basis in Christ and in the community with Him and with each other. Church history clearly demonstrates that our own thinking adds but very little – if any – to that... But what we did we expect, when we look at the huge ocean of God’s thoughts, His wisdom and His love? That ocean surely does not fit in our little self-containing bucket...
That ocean is to surrender ourselves to, and to bathe and delight in...

Acknowledgment

Two people I want to thank wholeheartedly: my friend and linguistic Werner Horlings for his input on a number of terms in the Greek text of the letter to the Romans, and my friend and Bible-teacher Hans Dercksen for his constructive review of this article.

Footnotes:

A.o. one of the most practiced mainstream psychotherapies, known as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, is largely based on this assumption. Various Christian approaches are also based on it, see the literature at the very end of this article.

See also the article: Het modernisme en de vrienden van Job (Modernism and the friends of Job; in Dutch).

2009-04-27

Most remarkable I considered in this context the following citation by - note - the humanist philosopher Prof Dr Henk Manschot: "I was shocked by the statement of Foucault that the Enlightenment project of free and equal citizens could only succeed through the systematic removal from sight of the sick, ‘the mad’, the elderly and people with disabilities who did not satisfy the autonomy-ideal;..." (source: Aart Deddens & Jan Hoogland, ‘Kritisch humanisme - Humanist prof dr Henk Manschot houdt autonomie-ideaal onder schot’ (Critical humanism - Humanist prof dr Henk Manschot keeps the autonomy-ideal at gunpoint), Beweging, Jrg.67, nr.3, najaar 2003, p.11; the reference to Foucault is based on his History of the madness).

I am reminded here of what happened in Genesis 3: the tree from which man knew that it was not good to eat looked desirable...

⁴

I find it striking, that neuroscientists and others have been discovering in the last 10 years, how all kinds of experiences are stored in our bodies and greatly affect our lives through emotions and through our unconscious. Only a very small part of our actions appears to be guided by conscious choices of our thinking mind... I agree with Paul: "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!"...

2009-07-31

With what I write in these paragraphs of the article write, I also reflect on what Dallas Willard writes in his article ‘The Human Body and Spiritual Growth’ (from: James Wilhoit (Ed.), Christian Educator’s Handbook on Spiritual Formation):
"... Jesus Himself is the primary witness to the unity of flesh and spirit before God. Long before His entry into history, however, the Psalmist spoke of his body or flesh longing for God (63:1), of his "heart and flesh crying out for the living God" (84:2), and calls upon all flesh is to "praise his holy name for ever and ever." (145:21) ...
Through the power of God which raised Christ from the dead, Paul tells us, "our bodies are members of Christ himself." Our body does not even belong to us, but has been bought by Christ, who gives it a life ‘from above’ and opens the way for us "to honor God with our body." (I Cor. 6:13-20) Thus we can "offer our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God," this being "our spiritual act of worship." (Romans 12:1) ...
Of course one cannot overcome the hardened patterns of desires by force of will alone. Rather, it is as we by faith place our bodily being in subordination to Christ that we experience a new presence in our members, moving them toward the good things of God and allowing the old bodily forces to recede into the background of life where they belong. Thus it truly is "by the spirit" that we "put to death the misdeeds of the body." The natural desires, and my body itself, remain with me, of course, but now as servants of God and of my will to serve Him, not as my masters."

En in ‘Conversation with Dallas Willard About Renovation of the Heart’ (an interview by Lyle SmithGraybeal for Perspectives, a publication of Renovaré, October 2002):
"... the heart of the matter is ... we can’t be spiritually transformed by just focusing on the will."

⁵

I find this NLT translation actually closest to the Hebrew original:
מִכָּל־מִשְׁמָר נְצֹר לִבֶּ כִּי־מִמֶּנּוּ תּוֹצְאוֹת חַיִּים

⁶

For a good discussion of what is meant here by ‘first love’, I refer to the book Whose love is it anyway? by Judson Cornwall & Michael S.B. Reid.

⁷

2011-10-01, after reading a great Hebrew Word Study by Skip Moen.

Remarkable is what the writer of Proverbs says about it:

“How blessed is the man who fears always, but he who hardens his heart will fall into calamity.”

Proverbs 28:14

The root of the Hebrew for ‘fears’ here is the verb pachad: to fear. And this pachad reminds me of wachad, the original basis of ’Echad, that great Characteristic of Unity and Trustworthyness of the Eternal – blessed be His lovely Name. The explanation of wachad – literally from the original pictographs – is: the linking pin (w) between the wall (ch) and the door (d); i.e. that keeps it all stable and together.
Closely tied to it is the story in Exodus 21:5-6 (pp Deut.15:17) – the servant who wants to commit himself to his master’s house/family forever, because he likes it there. He is set against the doorpost (ch-d) and is fixed to it (for a little while) by his ear with a pin.
I could imagine pachad being the opening (peh) in his ear(lobe?), remaining from that ‘operation’ at the doorpost... Wouldn’t that fit very well here... being always reminded of our gladly/freely accepted servanthood and belonging in the house of our great and loving Master...?

⁸

See also the references to the work and ideas of John Piper, below. His exposition of Psalm 43: I Will Go to God My Exceeding Joy is a very clear example indeed!

Literature

Coming under the impression of God’s greatness and mercy, and therefore surrendering ourselves to Him, by which our life and thinking also changes, I came across amongst others – and very clearly – in the books and preaching of John Piper:

John Piper, Seeing and Savouring Jesus Christ, Crossway / Good News Publ., Wheaton, 2001.

John Piper, When I Don’t Desire God, Crossway Books, Wheaton Ill, 2004; ISBN 1-58134-652-2.

John Piper, Desiring God, Multnomah, 2003, ISBN: 1590521196.

Most applicable I consider the sermon by John Piper on Psalm 43: I Will Go to God My Exceeding Joy (or listen to the .mp3 version of it or watch the .mov version).
Piper – at that moment recovering from cancer – illustrates in this sermon clearly how the Psalmist, too, wrestles with his own lack of power and with what is impossible, humanly speaking. And how he therefore starts praying for God’s light, God’s truth and to be at God’s altar – the place of reconciliation with God out of mercy. Very nicely it appears what God’s ultimate goal for our life is and which steps we can take in that direction.
See also the website of John Piper: ‘Desiring God’, on which a.o. these sermons: Worship – The Feast of Christian Hedonism (after Psalm 63:5-6), The Happiness of God – Foundation for Christian Hedonism (after Jer.32:36-41).

More information or suggestions

For more information, or your reaction on the above, you can contact me via e-mail: andre.roosma@12accede.nl.

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