Honesty Toward God

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

The word(s) "honest/y" appears in my favorite translation of the Bible far fewer times than I would have expected. The sole New Testament use was in the parable of the sower, when Jesus characterizes the "good soil" as those who hear the word in an “honest and good heart,” hold it fast, and bear fruit “with perseverance” (Luke 8:15).

But it’s probably not scripture-twisting to think of honesty as part of…or even roughly equivalent to…”integrity.”   "Honest" may even be the general attitude and practice that scripture means by “righteousness.”

I have to think too of “honesty” as a response to Truth; which makes it specifically an orientation toward Christ. That “lies” are the contrary spirit and the contrary response seems to bear that out.
In Jesus’ parable, an “honest and good heart” is the only soil in which God’s word takes root and grows. I understand our interpretations of what God “speaks”…Truth/Jesus, scripture, reality…to be some of the “fruits” that grow from our heart-orientation: and honest and good interpretations only  from an “honest and good heart.”

Certainly LACK of honesty seems the common characteristic of those who “cherry-pick” facts, or try to live in an echo-chamber of their own making, or block dissenting comments from their blogs. In all those instances, the individual's purpose is clearly to “validate” his own alternative "reality" against the reality God perfectly (in Hebrew, "completely") speaks.

I have to think those who choose to interpret the facts of reality dishonestly ultimately seek to deny God’s sovereignty: and in dishonest hubris, substitute their own.

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

God's Word Without Glasses

I was thankful God directed me to the teachers He did, local and national, when I was a new Christian.  Bob Mumford and Derek Prince were the two main Charismatic leaders whose teaching I followed.  They, with Don Basham, Ern Baxter, and Charles Simpson joined together in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in the early '70s to hear and spread God's word for that time.

I always admired that these men, each having his own successful individual ministry, willingly entered into covenant with each other.  To teach and live the Kingdom of God, they submitted their ministries, their teachings, and their personal walks to each other.

I admired their integrity.  After Derek Prince was widowed, he met a woman he was convinced God told him would be his wife.  But Prince submitted his re-marriage to the others.  When the other men counseled against the marriage, he parted from his fiancee.  It was only after the other men became convinced God approved the re-marriage, and gave their approval, that Prince and his second wife were wed.

More importantly, these leaders showed public integrity.  When they perceived that the "Shepherding" movement that grew from their collaboration had gone beyond scripture's teaching, Prince, Mumford and Simpson distanced themselves from that movement and publicly repented their involvement in it.  (Basham and Baxter had passed away in the meantime.)

They were very different men. I consider Prince my mentor in the faith.  I was baptized in the Spirit after one of his teaching-meetings, and thank God for his teachings then, and in all my Christian walk since.  Prince was born in India in a British military family, and had been a fellow in Philosophy at Cambridge University before he became a Christian.  His scriptural teaching was as thorough, logical, and penetrating as his academic training, and always powerfully spoke God's word to my heart.

Bob Mumford had been a knock-about American kid, with divorced parents and a 9th-grade education.  His teaching style was as folksy and humorous as Derek Prince' was intellectual and disciplined.  Bob used to say that when people were laughing, he could hit them in the teeth with the gospel, and never even split their lip.  I loved the teaching of both men, and loved the contrasting ways God made His word memorable !

One teaching of Bob's I especially remember was about wearing "glasses" when we read scripture.  As he put it, "If you're wearing your Baptist glasses, you can find water baptism in the Song of Solomon."

We all know what he means.  People can always "find" what they want to find in the Bible.  The problem is that's only their prelude for reading out of the Bible what they wanted to find.  We wear our "glasses" because we think they'll help us "read" the Bible better.  They actually make us blind to the Truth: which the Bible is.

We've all heard hundreds of these "the Bible says/teaches..." deceptions.  Christian clowns or white supremacy, prosperity gospel, abortion "rights," gun "rights," unitarianism, "Christian socialism" and "Christian conservatism," bus-ministry, capitalism, monarchy and democracy, cremation, angel-worship, slavery...  Whatever glasses you choose to wear, you can "find" it in the Bible.

(If you can't "find" it, you can always put it in the Bible by way of false "translation"...like the Jehovah's Witnesses' New World version of scripture.  Or invent a "Bible" of your own, like the Book of Mormon.  For those who want to hear something other than the truth of the Bible, the ways of lying, and the lies, are infinite.)

Truth is One, Jesus.  My experience in life fully convinces me that all Truth is in the Bible.  The way to get to more of Him is to go further into what the Bible says.  Jesus is also the One Way.  When we take our pet theories and doctrines out of scripture context, we move away from Jesus, and take scripture the wrong way.  Taken out the unity Truth IS, our "proof-text" scriptures become not-quite-truth.  Even in the natural, we don't consider a bit of Frank's body, removed from Frank's body, is still somehow "Frank."
 
There's no secret to reading scripture truthfully.  Come to scripture with an honest heart: read scripture without your glasses.  Ask the Spirit to "lead you into all truth," as Jesus promised He would.

Everybody knows this.  The amazing thing in these dark times...when our One Hope of Life is The Way we follow The Truth...is that so very, very, few do this.

Repentance

In the first gospel, it was the first word Jesus spoke as He began His public ministry: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 4:17). It's the very first step by which the unrighteous and unholy (ourselves) must approach Him Who IS Righteousness and Holiness: and a continual requirement of a continuing relationship with Him. But how do we get there ?

Meditating on that question, there seem two requirements. I'm not sure of their order, or ranking: or if they should be ordered or ranked. Indeed, the two work so closely together I'm not sure they're separate things at all, except for convenience in talking about them. In themselves, they seem more like intertwined aspects of one reality.

Honesty with ourself, about our self, seems crucial: how else can we unrighteous and unholy ever perceive, much less admit, that's what we are ? But, apart from Sovereign grace, how can malefactors such as we are even conceive a measure perfect enough to gauge our own depravity ?

Yet we do. C. S. Lewis points out in opening Mere Christianity that we all behave as if we believe there's a universally-recognized moral standard: we appeal to it, as if certain everyone knows the rules, when we are wronged by someone flouting it. And more to the point, we go to elaborate lengths to justify our own shabby behavior in terms of that standard: arguing that we did not really transgress its rules because (insert excuse here).

Unrighteous and unholy as we are, we yet seem to believe there is a "right" and "wrong," which others (at least in their dealings with us) should adhere to. Our choice for honesty comes in how we personally relate to that moral standard we believe incumbent on all...do we believe it incumbent on ourself ? If we except our self from its authority, we lie to ourselves that we acknowledge its absolute force. Honesty with ourselves begins in acknowledging that we are limited beings: and limited first as subject to a standard of righteousness independent of our own desires and purposes.

If we are not thus honest with ourself about our self, how honest can we be with God ? The only possible honesty to God is acknowledging we are NOT God. If we hold ourselves only to a standard whose highest "good" is our self, how truly do we acknowledge One more righteous and holy than ourself: or how honestly desire His forgiveness, if we're satisfied with our own ? The dishonest heart's repentance and forgiveness are hollow; a lie; self-deceiving religious form; hypocrisy. Only fierce honesty can repent as God requires, in spirit and in truth.

Repentance also requires (in the wonderful title of Derek Prince' seminal teaching) agreeing with God. First, that HE IS GOD: that His rule and His law (present in attenuated form in Lewis' "universally-recognized moral code") are infinitely more righteous than our own. In the same honesty, our heart must agree with God's that we have transgressed against His righteousness, rule and law: no excuses. Repentance.

If we agree with God that He IS The King and The Authority, honesty must acknowledge Him as the One against Whom we transgress. If we agree, as He says, that He is the Judge, honesty must recognize His right to condemn and His power to punish. Unless we agree honestly with God that "I AM" is Sovereign- and True-Alone GOD as He says, our repentance is empty: and worse than empty, it is the stench of fleshly self in His nostrils.

With any honest heart which agrees in Him, God is pleased: His pleasure, the highest honor granted by The King. And to any who thus pleases Him, He is pleased to give more of HIMSELF: His mercy-to-forgive, His Fatherly care...even adoption as His sons. To honest hearts, He grants the greatest desire to which man can aspire: God's Own PRESENCE, now and forever.

All praise to HIM Who IS all in all. Amen.