Growing up Catholic, I’m familiar with the mindset that believes Christians can and do ‘fall out of grace’, so to speak. That if we’ve done something bad enough, we’re in danger of Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf being ineffective. And so there is a need to do some spiritual patch work and yet again seek God’s forgiveness through Christ.

Even in parts of the protestant church where that’s really not the teaching, the mindset still definitely exists (at least on some subtle level).

After all, teaching on post-conversion repentance isn’t really on the top of most church’s list—although teaching vaguely about ‘repentance’ is. So it would seem to me that what we end up with is a whole slew of Christians under the impression that if they’ve screwed up hard enough they’re on the outs. That is until they make things right with some magic prayer of repentance. Although no one can be quite sure what that is so everyone just wings it and hopes they’re getting it right.

Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating the issue a bit. But for the sake of a point, it’s alright I suppose.

Hebrews 10:11-14 sets things straight:

“every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.”

Christians need to understand that the regeneration, justification, and propitiation brought about by Christ’s death on the cross and delivered through the conduit of our faith, are irrevocable.

Notice the change of tenses in verse 14. Yes, Christians are being sanctified, but we’ve already been perfected (in a way).

Following Jesus’ death, resurrection and ascension, he didn’t go to some library style grace-renewal booth to divvy out renewals to the grace on sinner’s lives. He sat down at the right hand of God because what he’s done is done.

Continual repentance is crucial in a Christians life. But not because if he doesn’t do it, he’s losing his salvation, but because if repentance never comes, he probably never had salvation to begin with. It’s simply something Christians do. It’s who we are. We love God and when it comes to us that we have wronged and offended him, repentance just happens. Like juice coming from an orange when it’s squeezed—If no juice comes out, it’s probably not an orange.

So keep on repenting? Yeah, of course. We just need to do it remembering that Jesus’ work is done and the Father isn’t angry anymore.

In the book of Isaiah, God tells king Hezekiah to put his house in order because he’s going to die. Hezekiah is heart broken and prays that God would change his mind. God hears Hezekiah’s prayer and gives him another 15 years.

I absolutely love Hezekiah’s response when he heard that God had given him more life. I know it’s an extended portion of scripture, but read it and remember that in your position as a Christian, these words are practically your own.

A writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, after he had been sick and had recovered from his sickness:
I said, In the middle of my days
   I must depart;
I am consigned to the gates of Sheol
   for the rest of my years.
I said, I shall not see the LORD,
   the LORD in the land of the living;
I shall look on man no more
   among the inhabitants of the world.
My dwelling is plucked up and removed from me
    like a shepherd’s tent;
like a weaver I have rolled up my life;
    he cuts me off from the loom;
from day to night you bring me to an end;
I calmed myself until morning;
like a lion he breaks all my bones;
   from day to night you bring me to an end.

Like a swallow or a crane I chirp;
    I moan like a dove.
My eyes are weary with looking upward.
   O Lord, I am oppressed; be my pledge of safety!
What shall I say? For he has spoken to me,
   and he himself has done it.
I walk slowly all my years
   because of the bitterness of my soul.

O Lord, by these things men live,
   and in all these is the life of my spirit.
   Oh restore me to health and make me live!
Behold, it was for my welfare
   that I had great bitterness;
but in love you have delivered my life
   from the pit of destruction,
for you have cast all my sins
   behind your back.
For Sheol does not thank you;
   death does not praise you;
those who go down to the pit do not hope
   for your faithfulness.
The living, the living, he thanks you,
   as I do this day;
the father makes known to the children
   your faithfulness.

The LORD will save me,
   and we will play my music on stringed instruments
all the days of our lives,
    at the house of the LORD.

A little later in 2 Chronicles chapter 16, we learn of Asa, king of Judah. He decides to mount a military offensive against the king of Israel. To do so, he enlists the help of the foreign nation Aram. He is successful in his endeavor.

Shortly after however, Hanani, the seer, comes to him with a prophetic word. He says:

Because you relied on the king of Aram and not on the LORD your God, the army of the king of Aram has escaped from your hand. Were not the Cushites and Libyans a mighty army with great numbers of chariots and horsemen? Yet when you relied on the LORD, he delivered them into your hand. For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. You have done a foolish thing, and from now on you will be at war."

God has faced Asa with his sin and explains in detail the folly of it. Asa had first hand experience that if he would only lean on the Lord, he would be provided for. And although his military offensive was successful, Asa (and the nation of Judah) would be punished for his sin.

Asa is angry with the seer and his words. He even puts him in prison. His pride welled up and he revolted against God—at least for all intents and purposes.

In time, Asa continued to refuse to repent and lean on the Lord:

In the thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa was afflicted with a disease in his feet. Though his disease was severe, even in his illness he did not seek help from the LORD, but only from the physicians.

I read this tonight and found that this is still common. In Asa’s case, he is unhappy with God’s discipline. I’m sure it is this way sometimes, but more often I think people are unhappy with God’s choices in dealing with them or their loved ones. Perhaps we’ve lost our comfort, security, finances, family or friends. It is common for people to respond to this in pride and refuse to follow the Lord because of this, much like Asa did.

And, for some even with repeated opportunities to repent, solace is sought from the World, rather from God who gives freely.

Let’s hope and pray none of us fall to that brand of sin.

Solomon says:

"I am dark, but lovely." (Song of Solomon 1:5)

I say:

"I am filthy, but somehow loved."

Seems that me and Solomon share an important sentiment. This is not a matter of reason, but of reality–which might be the hardest part.

Romans 15:1-2 says:

"We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up."

This is an interesting perspective on grace shared between believers. Unfortunately it’s not regarded very often.

The context of this verse, if you go back into chapter 14, Paul starts out exhorting them not to quarrel over opinions with those of weaker faith. He uses a standard example of Jewish dietary laws. He explains that the weaker in faith is still constrained under these laws, but for the sake of defending their faith, the stronger in faith ought to bear with them.

Later he goes as far as to say that we ought to constrain ourselves under their weakness for their sake (v.14:15).

Dietary laws might be the epitome of what some consider fringe issues. In a community of Christians, this is probably something akin to proper baptism procedures, or tithing issues.

But realistically, this should probably be applied to any non-salvation issue. Because people are not saved by good doctrine. They’re saved by grace, through faith in the work of Jesus Christ on their behalf. Therefore, there is only a minimal amount of doctrine actually necessary for faith.

Unfortunately, we’re not going to agree on who in the church would qualify as the "weaker" in faith. But we don’t necessarily need to. Because underneath what Paul is saying is that grace between us is really what’s important:

"For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord." (v.14:8)

Now, this doesn’t exclude discussing biblical truths, in some contexts even debating, for the sake of coming to deeper understandings of what we believe and why. But it does mean that we must do it with grace and love for one another and remember that good doctrine is not what makes us brothers and sisters, it’s faith in the one Lord, Jesus Christ.

Consistency in reading the Word has almost never been a struggle for me in my walk. I don’t mean that as a boast. Consistency in other parts of my life has never been my strong suit. I owe my consistency in the word to God’s refining grace. Through good times and through bad, the Lord has helped me to stay faithfully in the Word every day. That is a huge blessing.

Now, after about 5 years of daily scripture reading, I’m starting to learn some similar things about prayer.

For the past 8-ish weeks I have enjoyed the same God-given consistency in my prayer life that I have had in my time in the Word. This is an absolutely new development for me. Never have I had the ability to stay in prayer day in and day out, so this is something that I’m learning for the first time. And again, I cannot take credit for it, my life does not testify to that sort of behavior.

In this process, I’ve been seeing the contrasting forms of interaction with God and the different ways they have been affecting my life. Of course, these are not expressly biblical concepts and so aren’t set in any kind of stone.

It seems to me that reading the Word is passive, while prayer is aggressive. What I mean by that is reading the Word does not necessarily require any kind of emotional investment, while prayer requires some kind of investment. Even if it seems somewhat superficial, every word we speak is rooted somewhere in our subconscious and in some way is the content of our hearts (Matthew 15:18). Our prayers are no different.

In reading scripture, we sit passively and listen. But, when we pray, speak actively and the contents of our hearts–in some way–are called to the surface.

Now, I’m still working out just what this means, but I believe there is a beautiful design in this dichotomy. It’s for this reason, that I think part of the key to a more consistent walk with Jesus is in the dual disciplines of reading the Word daily and praying daily. While reading, God’s word can fall on me. And, in prayer I come to my surface and am able to retrieve those words and internalize them. Thus allowing them to shape my heart, my behavior and my life.

I know, this is a pretty rough sketch.

I think that many of the brothers and sisters in my generation struggle deeply to remain consistent in their walk with the Lord. I’ve met many of them and I myself at times am one of them. Now I think that I have found, as so many of the saints before me, the grace God offers us in seeking these dual disciplines.

If you are one who has struggled and gone up and down in your faith dramatically, I strongly suggest you look hard at these disciplines and see if the Lord won’t be gracious to you in your faithful pursuit of them.

Note: If you’re interested in the methods that I have used, I’ve written about them in the past, here and here. You’re welcome to try them, but you’ll have to decide what method is really best for you. I don’t claim any magic method, this is just what has been beneficial for me.

A Faith Worth Sharing is a book worth reading. Although, it was far from the best (as literature goes), I can confidently say that it is among the most genuinely encouraging books that I have ever read. Not because it said a bunch of stuff I wanted to hear either. It didn’t.

A Faith Worth Sharing by John C. Miller is, as the subtitle suggests, a book chronicling one man’s experiences sharing Jesus with an array of different people in many situations. But it’s much more than that. It’s also Miller’s confession of his own sin and God’s gracious working through his desire to see Christ’s kingdom spread to sanctify him as well.

A major theme throughout the book had to do with the contrast of a Christian’s own spiritual health versus his effectiveness in evangelism. Miller continually returns to the idea that a person must be truly humble in spirit to share the Gospel with another person. He says in quoting D. T. Niles, “Evangelism is on beggar telling another beggar where to find food”, then he adds to this sentiment, “…then eating it with them.”

It’s clear that at the core of Miller’s understanding of evangelism is a heart of humility that personally understands his beggar-dom. In the overflow of joy that has come from grace received, he wants to implore that others would go and receive that grace as well. For Miller, evangelism means laying yourself bare as a sinner before sinners and confessing what the Lord has done. I can’t disagree with him.

Unfortunately for all of us, Miller died just before finishing this book. The first nine chapters were written on his death bed and the final chapter was added by his wife. After spending nine chapters getting to know John, the final chapter from his wife proves particularly powerful.

After finishing A Faith Worth Sharing, I’ve found myself more aware of my neighbor’s need for the Lord’s grace. More aware of my own need to pray for them and to speak to them concerning the grace that I’ve received and that I hope they will also receive. And, perhaps most importantly, I am more aware of my need to continually apply the medicine of the Gospel of Jesus to my own life.

I have found a great deal of encouragement in believing that when I can’t see God working, he is still working. A Faith Worth Sharing is an extremely easy read. I highly recommend it to just about any Christian I encounter. You won’t be disappointed.