Shaping life and faith.

An aspect of forming my identity in Christ is to understand what I believe and filter through my world view into how I  should act or express myself in any given situation, or hold as values to work towards on a daily basis. 

Does that mean I am perfect and get this right each time? Obviously not, but if I have values that I can strive to achieve, they form in a sence the banks of a river (boundaries) that bring me closer to the image of Jesus Christ and the works, and hope he has called me to.  

These values help keep me on track and become part of who I desire to be, reflecting the image of God back to myself and God my Father.

I share these in the hope that others may find them useful as I have and do. It is good to remind oneself of what God has revealed to us, it helps us recall who and what we are when the mist of doubts or trouble, which each of us will experience. I try and do a reminder of what I have recorded by reading my journals, and blogs on a regular basis. This is to strengthen our faith and build strong foundations to live a life of obiedence and love, to direct our actions and thoughts in times when required. 

The word of God.

I hold to the view that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are in fact the inspired Word of God, the final authority of doctrine, reproof, correction and instruction in right living. We should not have any other measure, but apply this as God has revealed to me personally, and convicted me, this may look different for others in their understanding, I have to recognize that. 

On this point I find myself at pains to recall that the word remains the only definitive truth, NOT my experiences in life, I can't allow the experiences to determine my theology and doctrine, if I do so I will quickly find myself in error. 

Jesus.

I am fully convinced that Jesus is all he says he is. Fully man and fully God, the exact representation and image of God. He is the only way and truth and only in and through him can we come to God. He is the author and finisher of my faith, and he works with in me to to will and do his plans and will for my life. I believe as a historical fact in his life, death and resurrection.

Salvation 

I believe that salvation is only found in Jesus and is a work of grace and mercy of God, and I am unable to boast or add to this work. It's a work of faith in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. He is way, the truth and the life.  It's NOT religion but an intimate, personal relationship with God, to be born again of the Spirit, a new creation. The act of repentance is required, but it's not just about walking from sin, but towards Jesus and his plan and purposes for your life

Redemption and Justification 

My understanding of justification is based on a friend of mines definition "just as if I hadn't sinned". In other words God treats me like I was guiltless because Jesus paid the price, and that is what redemption is all about.  Not only that but God is able to redeem all that is broken in me and make it new by HIS Grace and Mercy (Mercy = not getting what I deserve; Grace = getting what I don't deserve). As to election and predestination I find myself in a kind of middle ground, I believe that God has to do a work in you to draw you to him, and to enable you to receive him and his word.  AW Tozer refers to as "Prevenient Grace" and was held by others in times past. I don't reject the Calvinists points, but I struggle on some of the points. However I am open to God to challenge my theology and doctrine on this and other issues.

Sanctification 

This for me is the process of transformation into the image of Jesus.  It's where I lay down my own will and agenda, and allow the cross to do it's deadly work. It is the surrender of myself and allowing Jesus in grow in me and I  diminish. It's brutally painful, and calls for me to rip off the mask, to be known, first to God, myself and others. It is definitely not a once off event, but a journey and can only effectively be done in community.  The crucial element is of discipleship and accountability to God, ourselves and others. To enable us to live whole, healthy lives in relation to others, our sexuality and life as God intended. For this very reason I am careful to join myself to a discipleship programs, via Church and like Journey South Africa and in a relational group of men that meet every week, and allows us to speak what's going on in our lives, thought lives, spiritually, relationships, finances and other issues men struggle with. We obviously get to speak into the lives of each other, as we genuinely seek to allow God to transform each other, hold each other accountable to stay on the narrow path into the rewards of the Kingdom of God.

The sanctity of Marriage. 

Marriage is a sacred covenant instituted by God, between one man and one woman, characterized by complementarity, mutual service and self-sacrifice. I futher believe that God designed the gift of sexuality to be stricty expressed within the form of the life-long covenant of marriage. Therefore any sexual act outside the heterosexual expression of marriage breaks the boundaries God has set for sexual expression. 

This includes and not limited to adultery, pornography, homosexuality  and masturbation.

The Church

There are many metaphors used to describe the body of Christ; the bride, army, the family of God, a holy temple. These can all be applied in various context but the word tells me that it's through the church that the manifest wisdom of God is displayed. I form part of this body to play my role within according to the calling, gifts and purposes of God. 

Discipleship 

In my view the concept of discipleship has been replaced with making followers (of man or programs) or converts and has little to do with making diciples.  The biblical definition I see is of teaching via living in close companionship as examples and holding ourselves and others to help and assist living a life that finds Gods plans and purposes for each other and brings honour to God, his word and ways.  This is both practical and spiritually in bonds of love as brothers and sisters, we are called to be our brother's keeper in community. 

Identity 

Identity is received NOT achieved.  We are all to prone in this world to believe that our achievements in terms of how we have performed defines our identity, but  Jesus was affirmed by the Father as His Son in whom I am well pleased (loved and accepted) before he did any work of ministry.  

Sin and Temptation 

This is common to all men (of both sexes) and we have not shed blood to avoiding its practice in our lives.  It's a choice we have to make and are responsible and accountable for before God and man.  He has made away for us, and we either fall for the weakness of our flesh and carnal minds, or live in the truth of Christ in us, the hope of Glory.  We are new creations and must decide to either surrender to God or our own desires which entice us and lead us astray.  This in my understanding is working out your salvation with fear and trembling. 

Personal Values and Spiritually diciplines. 

As some of you may know I have been involved with The Character Company (varying degrees of intensity) for a few years.  They are a Long Term mentorship program for boys with absent fathers. They have five core values that the consistently try to instill into the boys to teach them to be good or better men. The mentors and those involved try to live these in our personal lives, so that they become part of who we are and behave.  To the degree we strive to own these values the better we reflect something the image of what it means to be a real masculine role model. I will use the definitions that The Character Company uses, they are simple and practical. 

Courage = to face your fears and conquer them.  This facet of our character is crucial, God clearly told Joshua to be "strong and courageous" numerous times before entering the promised land. It's no different with us. This took me into a very real fear of confronting and admitting my brokenness regarding addiction to porn. I had to face my fear head on and bring it into the light in confession before God and man at the cross. My fear was that I would be rejected and castaside. I feared the worst and believed that I was the only person to struggle with this issue (an utter lie from the pit of hell) It took courage to face the consequences of my actions. Not everything works out they way you hope, in my case it cost me a marriage of nearly 28 years, but I have accepted the fact with the help and grace of God, close friends etc, least of all Alison my ex wife (we are still very good friends)

Honesty = to tell the truth even if it hurts.  Again I can relate to this, choosing to come clean after many years of putting on masks so that I can be  known, warts and all. Confession is scary, it involves pain to make yourself known but the joy and peace found in repentance brings absolute freedom, and stepping into the light where the enemy can't use the darkness to keep you in bondage of the secret any more.

Self dicipline or Integrity = to do the right thing even if nobody tells you.  Alterternatively to behave consistently even if nobody is watching, choosing to live in integrity in line with God word builds your character.  It's living for the audience of ONE.  The same at home and in public, that your life, words and deeds are congruent. 

Respect = to treat someone and there processions in the same way you would like to be treated. 

Kindness = to have and show you have a good heart.

Apart from the values, practicing spiritual diciplines helps us build solid foundations and keeps us grounded in humility and faith. 

Abiding in the word, all scripture is God breathed and useful for instruction as I stated above. If you want to know God and Jesus the primary way is to spend time in the word.  Jesus is the living word made flesh, and by him and for him all things were made. He as the word of God is the living bread that feeds and sustains us (everything in fact, is held together by him) He has the word's of life, where else would we go?

Prayer, is not a shopping or complaints list, rather a time of relational intimacy with God the Father.  It's a two way communication and the focus is on aligning our posture before God, his Kingdom, will, ways and purposes. Make it deep, personal and effective. 

Solitude and reflection, be still and know I am God. Too often we are so busy making our petitions known to God, and don't stop and reflect deeply on what he has told or revealed to us. Or we rush on in the excitement of the revelation and may end up running ahead of God and his timing.  It's really useful to practice this dicipline, away from the distractions and even people that may unintentionally shift our focus on what God is saying to me.

Fasting, it's not if, but when as per scripture, often, with purpose. I find it more helpful to set aside a day when I am not working etc, to help me stay focused on the purpose, and spend time in prayer and meditation, listening to the word. Works well together with Solitude and reflection in my case.

Journeling, I only discovered this dicipline in the last few years, or rather I was not inclined to it , but the benifits of recording what God has taken you through and able to recall the stories etc are helpful beyond description. 

Exercise, this is not a dicipline that I find easy, but when I do practice it, the sense of accomplishment and overall well-being is critical to having a diciplines whole person. If you can practice the dicipline in body it really does help you with spiritual diciplines. 

Confession, to God for the forgiveness of sin and to man for  healing. This is refining the posture of receiving from God, making your sins, struggles, victories and joy before your Father and being known and vulnerable. To recall the important things that God shows you, to move forward in relationship in order to make an impact in either your life or in the lives of others. 

Acts of Service, for others and the Kingdom. We are called to serve, Jesus is our example, he came to serve mankind Not as ruler but as a humble, gentle, compassionate saviour. 

Stewardship, everything we have in fact comes from the goodness of God. Everything belongs to him, and in his grace and mercy he allows me to steward on his behalf. This includes my time, gifting, finances as an example.  God will ask us to account for what he gave us. Rick Warren says that God will ask us two questions. 1) What did you do with my Son? 2) What did you do with that that I entrusted to you? He also says that life is a test, that determines what will will be entrusted with on the other side of eternity. 

Frugality, a word not used often today, is the practice of possessing nothing, freedom of materialistic lives, not wealth concisious. Living within your means and needs. Not driven by wants.