9.4.2011 PROFESSOR OR POSSESSOR?

in the last few years the above question has slowly taken shape in my mind regarding myself and others. am i (is he) merely a professor, it may be, of either being a christian or of having the more correct form of christianity (ie. knowing THE correct doctrine in areas where many others who would call themselves christians are doctrinally incorrect), or a possessor of the lived out Life of Jesus Christ.

george macdonald, a scottish writer was surrounded by people of the former type (in this case calvinists), people who saw themselves as very doctrinally correct and yet near totally lacked the aroma of Christ in their lived out lives, were not at all focused on obedience but only on correctness of doctrine mentally assented to. i, for one, have been there and done that for most of my life and still probably do it on an unconscious level to a far greater degree than what i am aware of. i jotted out some snippets from a biography on macdonald that have something to do with this. they appear below..

the author summarized macdonald's thot:
1. man's business is to do the will of God
2. God takes upon Himself the care of man
3. therefore man must never be afraid of anything, and so
4. he is left free to love God with all his heart and his neighbor as himself.

life with God is to be LIVED in relationship to Him and to one's fellow man and not to be DOCTRINALIZED..the God of mac's pen was infinitely more personal and demanding than any vague liberal deity, more human and warm and tolerant than calvin's harsh heavenly taskmaster. mac was not interested in doctrinal disagreements but unity...had friends all along the spectrum of doctrine.

God is easy to please and hard to satisfy..

the calvinism he rejected paralleled classic OT legalism, a system based on works in which the least doctrinal incongruity was noted and swiftly dealt with and in which the faithful had to be constantly on guard for heretics poisoning the flock.

mac's God was a father of infinite love, not displeased with man's very move but delighted with man's feeblest attempt to respond to Him.

mac was called a heretic but what heretic was so insistent upon the very premises of orthodoxy which calvin stressed - repentance from sin, salvation, death of the old man and obedience to the Spirit of Christ.?

mac wanted to revive personal religion not attack the church..he was at war upon the faithlessness of the officially faithful. ..'i doubt if wickedness does one half as much harm as sectarianism. (on which see lloyd-jones 'the puritans')

meet doubt with action

'doctrine' in the bible means teaching of DUTY not theory..

..'we are far too anxious to be definite and to have well polished, sharp edged systems forgetting that the more perfect a theory about the infinite, the surer it is to be wrong and more impossible to be right. (ie. isaiah 55.8-9) i am neither arminian nor calvinist. to no system would i subscribe..theology is not my origin but God, nor do i acknowledge any theology but what Christ taught and has to teach me..

..'never say "i have faith", always say, "i need more faith:..the open hearted and open minded quest always for more truth, more wisdom, more understanding, more humility, more brokenness, more love, more knowledge, more compassion...humble, open growth whcih is rooted in CARRYING OUT God's word'

learning more of the truth and obeying God so as to know Him better is the great delight of life. ..'there is in the man who does the truth the radiance of life essential'..

mac shrank from debate, always afraid that the justifying of one's opinions in argument might out run the desire to find the truth at the bottom of whatever question was under consideration.

openness indicates humility, a willingness to admit oneself ignorant..it has a lack of airs, an absence of defenses.

God has not yet cleansed and humbled me completely away from the pride of debate, but He seems to be putting within me a growing concern, even fear, concerning my lack of actual obedience to His written will. one of a myriad of examples would be luke 17.3 which says, 'if your brother sins rebuke him'. i see and hear other professing christians sinning quite often but rare has been the time i have responded by telling them of their sin and exhorting them not to do it! will Jesus answer me in the judgment when i say 'Lord, Lord' by saying 'not everyone who says to Me Lord Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven..depart from Me you wicked into the lake of fire prepared for the devil and his angels'...and that is only one command. may God have mercy on me and change me from a professor to a possessor, from one who intellectually knows correct doctrine to one who obeys what He is telling me!