The Way of Blessing
Henri Nouwen noted, “The blessed cannot help but bless others.” He continued, “It is remarkable how easy it is to bless others when you are in touch with your own blessedness.” God offers a supernatural blessing to and through those who bless others. We do not do this on our own or out of our goodness. We are blessed. And if we have received the blessing, it changes us. And it changes others through us.
Christianity: a new way of life: the way of blessing
We are being called into a new way of life – it is the way of blessing. This is not the life lived by the average American Christian. Living the way of blessing demands a new rhythm of life that makes space for God and sacred time with Him – a Sabbath. We need to live in the peace of God, in the rest of God, and from that peace, we work as peacemakers. We can’t work in a frenzied state as the world works, but in measured way that creates space for God in the daily grind of life. Did you ever notice, Jesus never seemed to be in a hurry.
IDEA ONE: Christianity is a completely different way to live. We do not merely clean up our lives morally change our language and few bad habits, but still continue to live essentially the same as the unredeemed around us. Christianity is transformational. We become new creatures, distinctly different than the world, living lives of inner peace, measured and disciplined lives in a new rhythm that makes space for God.
We are not only to live in the rest and peace of God, but also in the love of God. It is in knowing, with certainty, that God loves us, that peace and rest are enabled in our lives. Being nurtured by God’s love and His compassion for us, we nurture others.
It is the only way – we need divine love, given and received to pass along to others. Hearing the word of God, and knowing God as the Word, His word burns in our heart. As we receive God’s word, we cannot help but share the good news. If we don’t share, we haven’t heard. As we speak God’s word, it changes both us and others. Psalm 107:20 declares, “He [God] sent out his word and healed them, snatching them from the door of death.” This is the power of God’s speech, echoed by us.
IDEA TWO: Christianity experiences and expresses God’s love for others, hearing, knowing and speaking God’s healing, lifegiving Word. Silence is not acceptable.
The word made flesh
Let’s take a moment and consider the Word that became flesh. Here is the divine Word made audible and visible. It is the divine Word clearly seen by the actions and attitudes, the disposition of Jesus toward others. That same Word is to be alive in us and in the words that we speak, the behaviors we manifest. It’s shocking-God, the Word, became flesh. God, in Christ, was among us- living, eating, breathing, speaking, laughing. We must pray that again, that God’s word will be among men, revealed in us and through us. God was manifest in human flesh, and that is a model for us, “Christ, in us, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27). God was not silent in Christ; how can we be silent? He revealed the Father with both his life and his lips.
IDEA THREE: Christianity is divinity pressed into human flesh. It is God manifest through the man Jesus – and through us. We are the second, and lesser, incarnation, by the indwelling Holy Spirit.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… Through Him all things were made, and without Him nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:1-5).
What a passage. The Word was life and light – and it overcomes the darkness. John was a witness to Christ, as we are to be. John 1:7, declared, “He [John] came as a witness to testify about the Light, so that through him everyone might believe.” John declared that Jesus, the Christ, was “the true Light… who gives light to everyone” (John 1:9).
IDEA FOUR: We too are witnesses for Christ, bearers of the light in which there is life, offering a testimony that men might believe.
“He was in the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God— children born not of blood, nor of the desire or will of man, but born of God” (John 1:10-13).
Receiving the word
There is one key word worth considering before we move on – the term ‘receive.’ The light shone in the darkness, but some did not receive it. Jesus came to His own, but they did not receive him. “[A]s many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name” (John 1:12). We must not only believe but also receive. And here is the problem, “The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor. 2:14).
IDEA FIVE: Those to whom we witness must not only hear the words of the gospel, they must also receive them, deeply grasping them. That is true faith, true belief. It is a work of the Holy Spirit.
Let’s pause for a moment. The language of Paul is clear, “the natural man,” because of his nature, is prevented from receiving the things of God. He cannot grasp them. The parable of Jesus is helpful here. He suggests four difficulties in receiving the gospel seed. There is the heart that is hard and stony. Another with inner weeds that are too thick and thorny to allow the gospel seed to survive. We also find birds, the demonic powers that surveil the unredeemed, that prevent the seed from even reaching the heart. Finally, there is condition of the inner ground of the heart that is good and ready to receive the seed of the gospel, bringing forth a hundred-fold, some sixty-fold and other ground, thirty-fold. Is the soil of your heart good, yielding rich returns? Or poor and not ready to receive the seed or replicate it? (Mt. 13:1-23) Only the Holy Spirit illuminating the ‘word’ of God can soften a hard heart and free a cluttered mind for the gospel.
IDEA SIX: It is the state of the resistant heart that prevents true salvation. The unbeliever can’t receive the seed of the word because of the condition in which he lives – the birds (demonic influence and surveillance), a hard heart, a weedy and thorny heart, or poor soil. A supernatural work is necessary in his heart.
One can give mental assent without receiving unto salvation, unto transformation – the word of God. The Greek word for receive is dechomai. It means, not only to receive, but to welcome, and to fully accept. It is the idea of embracing the word, the gospel, and by extension, Christ himself. It is a verb, an action word. It means to take something, exclaiming, “It’s mine!” The truth has been owned; it has been received in a welcoming (receptive) way. One of the primary New Testament uses of this term receive, (dechomai) is people welcoming God into their lives resulting in their salvation (1 Thess. 2:13). Their mind is renewed and their life is transformed (Rom. 12:2). They adopt God’s way of thinking and seeing the world (Eph 6:17). This is not a cool and guarded reception of the gospel and Christ, but a ‘warm welcome, a ready reception.
IDEA SEVEN: The reception of the seed of the gospel is not passive. It must be received, accepted, owned. God must be welcomed for a life to be transformed. Cool, get-out-of-trouble salvations are far too self-interested to last. Hot, Christ-focused salvations, get us out of trouble, and launch a life-time journey of gratitude to God, driven by grace, decorated with the reality of knowing God and being profoundly changed.
Receiving in order to know
A worldly and fleshly orientation sees Biblical ideas as foolishness, as irrational, as silly if not stupid. You may meet this viewpoint in friends and acquaintances as you engage them in a good news encounter. Don’t be offended. Such people cannot believe, because they won’t receive. Bluntly, here is the inverse, they don’t receive because they don’t want to believe (1 Cor. 2:14). They may understand the gospel rationally, propositionally, but to believe that the gospel is true would be to concede that it had a claim on one’s life. To receive Christ, one must adopt, by grace, the ways of Christ. Not accepting that truth, they cannot know Christ – He is truth. He is more than intellectual truth – he is truth that trues, that changes, that straightens. Therefore, they cannot know the salvation offered. To receive Christ would abruptly change the course of their life, and to believe it would end self-indulgence. Believe, receive and know – note the order. Biblical principles or ideas are foreign to those the Bible calls fools (It is better that you and I do not use that term!). Such people think they can reverse the process – they want to know, before they believe and receive. They doubt the intrinsic value of the Christian life. They see it as inferior to a self-directed, world-aware, sensate life. It is too narrow and restrictive. Their approach is purely left-brained and analytical. The deeper things of God are not understood by mental acuity, they are ‘spiritually discerned.’ The worldly Christian, so-called, wants to weigh their options. They are not focused on Christ and the cross, but purely on the benefits of being a Christian. They want self to live and not die. Only the Holy Spirit can open such a heart. Pray and give them time. Keep the bridge of love in place. Respect them but graciously challenge their views.
IDEA EIGHT: The person gripped by the world and under the control of the flesh wants to stay in charge. They want to know how a change of course would benefit them. The desire for control is a pride issue. The unwillingness to surrender is an issue of trust. They resist faith and depend on their own logic and analysis. They are attempt to believe with their head, not their heart.
The word know in 1 Corinthians 2:14 is ginóskó. The verb carries the meaning (Strongs) of giving permission to an idea or entertaining a notion. In knowing, the will surrenders. It bends to understand and believe. It then recognizes truth. It perceives, creating an ‘aha’ moment. Discernment and insight follow. The natural man cannot allow the gospel to be true – it would be too disruptive, too disordering of his preferred lifestyle. Paul, writing to the Romans argued, “[W]hat may be known about God is plain… God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world, God’s invisible qualities, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood from His workmanship, so that men are without excuse.”
IDEA NINE: The flesh-dominated individual does not want to know. If Jesus were God, the Messiah, and the Bible true, his preferred self-indulgent lifestyle would be finished. Though God’s existence is obvious, this person chooses spiritual blindness. Evangelizing him is a work only the Holy Spirit can do with a great deal of patience from us.