Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Blagging it.....

I've been thinking it’s so easy to "blag it" as a Christian, to look good on the outside but be crumbling within because we put confidence in the ourselves.

I have over twenty years of bible knowledge, have been going to meetings for years, I know what we should do and say but in many ways I can be hollow.

God has been challenging me again about blagging it.

Blagging it, I mean just getting by, living on yesterdays stuff, living out of past things and not present.
I know what I should do but I am not doing it.

I just can’t afford to blag it any more. Darkness is getting darker.

I think that God is moving me into a season of discipline. By discipline I don’t mean God is punishing me, but God is moving me towards a more disciplined lifestyle.

I have had a season of Grace and now God wants me to learn that lesson and balance it out with discipline.

John 1: 14 says:
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.


I want to grow in and be full of not just Grace, but Truth.

I want to be full of Grace and truth

Grace
You don’t need to pray, God loves you, anyway he can read your thoughts!
Truth
1 Thessalonians 5: 17 “ Pray without ceasing”

Grace
You don’t need to read your bible God loves you, what you hear on Sunday is enough.
Truth
Psalm 1 Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers.But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.

Grace
It’s okay not to be part of a community, God loves me if I just sat in my bedroom for the rest of my life.
Truth
Hebrews 10: 25 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

I hope you get what I mean.

Could grace keep us from growing up as Christians?

I know it shouldn't but I think it could..

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, "Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross"

I feel called to the cross and the narrow road

Mark 8: 34
“If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?

In the new living translation it says shoulder his cross.

It’s grace that sustains me as I shoulder the cross, but I must be willing to shoulder it.

Am I carrying my cross am I walking on a narrow road?

Matthew 7 13 -14
“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

Grace has given me permission to walk on a wide road when it should have given me strength to walk on a narrow road.

I was called to carry a cross and walk on narrow roads, I wasn’t called to put crosses on others and make them walk on narrow roads, I am called to extend grace.

Balance

So how do I stop blagging it?

Well, I find balance.

I have been called to a full enjoyable abundant life.

I will still enjoy a bottle of wine, a few pints of Guinness or the occasional cigar. But I will find balance.

I have to find the place where I understand Grace but live disciplined.

I'm getting there.....

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Brian

I totally get what you are saying about Grace v Truth. I have been a bit of a "Blagger" over the years in various areas of my life. I do somethimes worry that my faith suffers at the hands of "cheap grace" and need to move on into a more disciplined lifestyle in my walk with God.

There are times when I am rock solid in my faith and other times that it feels like I am saying and doing things because I know it is the right thing to be doing. At times like these I question myself as to whether my faith is real or not. That is a dangerous place to be. I do know though that despite my erratic bible reading, my occasionally sketchy prayer life and my continued enjoyment of the odd beer/glass of wine, that as long as I come back to God's word he will continue to work in my life.

Growing up as a Christians is hard. I grew up in a non-Christian family and have no point of reference for a lot of my life as an adult Christian (especially parenthood) - feels very much like I am learning on the hoof. It's been 10 years now though. Maybe I am entering spirutal puberty!

Your blog continues to inspire me and I value your honesty and open-ness.

The road may feel wide where you are standing but is getting narrower the longer it goes on. Head for the horizon and seek the gate!

Tim said...

i find it more useful to think of truth and grace in tension rather than balence.
to me balence means that each side should be equal all the time, when actually i need more grace at times or more dicipline.

Part of the reason i've blaged it in the past is because of what people would think of me if i show my crumbling, not very good weakness. Part of not blagging it is about realizing you're not all that and it's ok to be a bit crap.
The love, acceptance and grace shown when i was with you was amazing when was open and honest and my crumbliest! but also the truth and discipline was nesscessary to understand that love.

Anonymous said...

Aghhh. I totally recognise that. I know when I am living in cheap grace as well, because it doesn't satisfy. I feel spiritually icky in my skin. I feel the call to find Jesus in the ways you mentioned. When there are no words on my lips to boast of him...