Godliness

I forgot my little digital recorder and cannot upload last Sunday's sermon. We're continuing the series of sermons based on the virtues commended in 2 Peter 1:5ff. as leading to productive and effective lives. Last Sunday the theme was godliness. Literally translated "good worship", it indicates (ala Elwell, EDT) "reverence for God and a life of holiness in the world."

The only worship that matters is the kind that produces a life that in growing measure reflects the character of God.

Patience

Our series from 2 Peter continued on May 13 with a study on patience. You can listen to these sermons if you like by scrolling down to the sermon player on the left side of this page.

I was reminded that the Christian virtue of patience implies suffering and is more than a stoical acceptance of some painful reality. It is a kind of suffering in hope, i.e., while trusting in God and relying on His promise to be with us and to bring us to a desired end.

The following poem by Martha Snell Nicholson (read by Elizabeth Eliot as a part of her address at the funeral of Missionary Veronica Bowers and her infant son Cory, mistakenly killed by the Peruvian Military in 2001) captures this idea:

I stood a mendicant of God before His royal throne

And begged him for one priceless gift, which I could call my own.

I took the gift from out His hand, but as I would depart

I cried, "But Lord this is a thorn and it has pierced my heart.

This is a strange, a hurtful gift, which Thou hast given me."

He said, "My child, I give good gifts and gave My best to thee."

I took it home and though at first the cruel thorn hurt sore,

As long years passed I learned at last to love it more and more.

I learned He never gives a thorn without this added grace,

He takes the thorn to pin aside the veil which hides His face.

Self Control

I've been preaching on the character qualities we are admonished to cultivate in 2 Peter 1:5ff. One of them is self control. This is a phrase that brings me back to my childhood school days. Remember the dreaded Parent/Teacher Conference nights? "Your son has a great deal of potential as a student. He only lacks self control." I'm afraid the battle still rages on.

I have learned a few things. That there are no magic formulas. No quick solutions. No mere adjustments in terminology, no repetition of affirmations describing the self from God's point of view. No once and forever consecration or eradication of the "old man". Peter's admonition to control the self refutes perfectionism. If the self were perfected it wouldn't need to be controlled.

The very idea of self control assumes that the self is divided, complicated. It continues to present us with a serious challenge by producing tendencies to do wrong. The challenge is to "deny ourselves" and "take up our cross daily," as Jesus says, and follow him (Luke 9:23).