WEEK ONE: life after Mark West 2017
"Therefore, there is now no
condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who
gives life has set you free from
the law of sin and death." (Rom 8:1-2)
You’ve
just come home from Mark West…all the amazing lessons you learned are greeted
with the normalcy of waking up in your own bed and having to survive on your
own food (ohhh, where is Ayako when you need her!!!)
All
the new amazing ideas about your life from meeting with Jesus are met with, as
Romans 8:1-2 calls it, the “law of sin and death”. On Friday night’s Gala, we
heard many friends share from the bottom of their hearts about the struggles of
life and their struggle to cling on to Christ for a new life.
During
your own private times at camp you may have reflected on the many challenges of
your life :
Family challenges: unmet needs, unloving parents or siblings, past
hurt, absence of family, abuse by family
Personal challenges: Questions of identity, questions of
attraction and sexuality, internal struggles with Mental illness
Just like we experienced at camp, and at the Gala in particular, its good and
healthy to share our burdens vulnerably within the safety of God’s loving
community. However, in our humanness, we can easily become the people who
identify as the ones who struggle with….( fill-in-the blank). The gloomy
clouds of emotions and wounds become the content of most of our conversations.
These begin to dominate our mental and spiritual world, they become the lenses
through which we see life.
So,
if we can’t change the past, and we feel stuck in the muddy waters of present
pain, how can we find the new kind of freedom in Christ that scripture repeatedly
describes?
Romans
8 describes this seemingly ambiguous concept of “…the law of the Spirit who
gives life…”
- In
a recent sermon (listen here), my pastor Andy Perrett at Granville Chapel compared this stuckness of our
lives to a massive jumbo jet sitting on the ground.
When seen in one way, there’s no way this
beast should fly. Its made of tons of steel and wires, then loaded with tones
of people and cargo. While on the ground the plane is actually a very useless
and cumbersome machine, which can only inhabit the protected grounds of an
airport.
However…when
seen through the eyes of the engineers who designed it, the special shape of
the wings and body, along with the powerful jet engines, are perfectly matched
to give the massive jet a purpose far beyond the confines of its useless role
in the airport. Once loaded, the skilled pilots light the engines and throttle
forward. The speed of this specially shaped craft meets the rushing wind and it
takes to the skies bound for any destination around the globe desired by the
pilot. Flight is what the craft is designed for, and the thrust of the jet
engines is the key to its flight.
This analogy fits nicely Paul’s image in
Romans 8 of being stuck in sin and death, but then being lifted by the energy
of God’s Spirit at work in us.
In
the decades after Jesus’ resurrection, the early church writers of the Bible
were struggling to put into words to their experience of God’s Holy Spirit
working among them. What they describe as “the power of the Spirit to give us
life” can be compared to the thrust provided to lift a big jet.
As I
mentioned at the beginning, the challenges of our life can leave us stuck and
longing for a lift. My encouragement to you is that real change comes when we
allow the Spirit to work in us with power. Ok, so we want this life of the Holy Spirit, but how do we
access it? Especially if we’ve walked with Jesus for a long time, we’ve likely
tried in many ways to overcome our struggles and walk in new ways. We’ve tried
to apply the Bible teachings to live in God’s ways.
Here are three suggestions as I think of
Mark’s gospel and my experiences of putting this into practice.
1. REPENT
Mark’s gospel invites us to REPENT. In Mark
1 we discovered that repent means to :
change our mind + change our life
The
more we yield our mind and our life to Jesus, the more lift becomes available as
his Spirit finds a home within us and begins redirecting our lives. I’m
repeatedly amazed that when I quiet myself and am honest, Jesus though the
Spirit is more than willing to nudge me towards repentance in very applicable
ways. He prompts me to give up past anger, to say sorry to people I’ve hurt or
who have hurt me, or to pick up a positive habit that I know is needed but I’ve
been lazy to invest in. Just this Monday I responded to the Spirit’s nudge to
engage in prayer and fasting for the day (a past practice that I had abandoned).
When practiced, repentance becomes a refreshing daily pattern where new ways
and fresh ideas flood our minds and lead to the life we’ve been chasing after.
2. Change your MIND
Romans 1:5 is a helpful addition to this
puzzle (The whole of Romans chapter 8 is worth your time to read)
“Those who live according to
the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who
live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit
desires.”
The
emphasis here is on setting our minds in a new direction, specifically “on what
the Spirit desires”. Just like learning any new thing, we need to fill our
minds with new ideas and determine to let them change our old ideas. In my
experience, this change of mind comes through the mysterious combination of my
efforts and the Spirit’s filling. As I say YES and NO to various thoughts in my
mind according to God’s word and the Spirit’s nudging, God’s new ideas take
root in my mind and I feel changed. New joys and new desires grow like healthy
plants bearing fruit in places where there was only weeds and hard soil.
3. Community
In Mark we see a community of people
struggling after following Jesus. Our struggle gets seasoned with joy and hope
as we walk in the Spirit with a community of others doing the same. Scripture never teaches about individuals
becoming spiritual super stars. That’s a modern, western pre-occupation that we
may need to repent of (see step 1).
In
this life we are a journey through a land stuck between darkness and light. We
walk with joy towards a known destination and the presence of God's Spirit is a
seal of guarantee that we are on God's right path.
We
do this by setting our minds on spirits ways (our effort saying yes allows
God's power to work). Joy and peace enter us.
So Friends…
Are you ready to
“make straight paths” for God in your life, as John the Baptist preached?
Are you ready to
“repent and believe in the gospel” as Jesus preached?
Buckle
up for take off and let God's Spirit begin lifting you off the runway and into the air
to travel with him to new places of his life and wholeness
