Give Me Your Hand

Wow! Almost three weeks since my last post. Time flies when you're...busy with holidays! :)

Peace. Do we have to agree to worship together? Well, on some central points, I believe that we do. Let's be honest, we must worship the same God, base our salvation upon the same Savior, see our redemption as by God's grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone. But why is it so hard to disagree AND love each other on other issues?

We've had some people leave the church recently, wrestling with my view of what the Bible teaches on the doctrine of election. Of course, the first response of my heart was to revel in how "right" that I was and that these brothers and sisters just didn't get it. You know, I thought that I was becoming less arrogant, but the Holy Spirit has a unique way of revealing to me again how desperately presumptuous that I still am. Jesus asked me again, "Why did I have to die for you, Richard? Are you so right that I died unnecessarily? Is it your righteousness in the doctrine of election that saves you?" Well, what could I answer to that?! Humbled again.

I am so prone to stand at a distance with those whom I disagree with. My propensity is to write them off and let God wrestle with them...without me. I still have a lot to learn about humility and love. I still long to wrestle messily in humility and truth-seeking, and I need you to help me do so.

I guess that's what bothers me most about a break in fellowship over differing opinions. Not that we disagree, but that we don't wrestle together, stretching our doctrines out over the Word of God together IN LOVE. Wesley puts it well, speaking on Christian love when we penned,

"Is your heart right with God? If it is, give me your hand. I do not mean, 'Be of my opinion;' you need not. Neither do I mean, 'I will be of your opinion;' I cannot. Let all opinions alone; only give me your hand."

Why can't we disagree together, wrestle to understand God's Word in truth together as we seek the Lord, and do it in love. Humbly realizing that we are only OK with God at all because of Jesus Christ, not because of our wisdom or righteousness or "having it all together doctrinally." I am not trying to minimize the importance of doctrine, it is eternally significant, but cannot we wrestle to love each other within our struggle. That seems to be the import of Christ's instruction and the work of His Spirit within us. It seems to me that Christ is more interested in HOW we wrestle together than necessarily over what we wrestle with. Octavius Winslow wrote such:

"Oh! It is a tragic thing to stand aloof from a holy man of God because he is not in all things of our own opinion! Such a violation of the first law of Christianity does despite to the Spirit of grace, the Spirit of love, the Spirit of God, and either proves our own utter destitution of the Spirit, or must result in the withdrawal of His sensible presence, and a consequent spiritual leanness, darkness, and desertion of the soul."

And oh how right he is! For when I hold aloof from my brothers and sisters who differ from me, it is I who suffers the dry destituion of the soul wandering from Christ! And an unwillingness to wrestle together means that we are trusting our own righteousness that has made us right with God, not the righteousness of Christ! We have forgotten the gospel once again and are living like we don't functionally and presently need Jesus! Damn this sin within me, and it has been damned. Thanks be to God who gives us the victory in Jesus Christ our Lord!

Let's wrestle together over truth, God's Word. Let's tussle with what the Word of God actually teaches. And let us do it with love for each other and the humble truth of the gospel that we are all in desperate need of Jesus today, to heal our broken minds and bring us home...together.

I want to invite all of you who know me, please don't fear that I will throw you out if you disagree with me. Please do not fear that I will try to throw you down or belittle you when we see things differently. Now, I do believe what I preach, and any preacher is a fool, a hypocrite, and a people-pleaser who does not (and I fear God, not man), so please don't expect me to just agree with you because you see something one way either. Expect to wrestle together, to struggle to see the Truth of God's Word together, but we can do it hand in hand, each seeking to benefit each other in love. Please, if you're tempted like me to run from a wrestling match, think of the call of Christ to love one another and to speak truth to one another. Let's wrestle together, like Jacob. We may come away with some bruises and limp, but we will have seen God together and the gain of this kind of growth greatly outweighs the pain of letting the ego go.

And above all, pray for me, that I would know Jesus more day by day and by seeing Him I would see less of myself and live for His glory. Because when it comes down to it, none of us changes by sheer force of the will or the power of the intellect. We change by the power of the Holy Spirit who works all things according to the counsel of His will.