Posted on by Abe Austin

Ascend, Decline, or Plateau- True Redemptive Experience

Stagnant and Moving Upward)

For much of my life I was a Christian whose faith to any outside observer would have appeared to have plateaued. I came to church each Sunday, fulfilled all of my basic duties, testified of the importance of Christ, occasionally looked for ways to be helpful, and generally treated everyone with politeness and respect.

I was a good citizen, but I never felt particularly good. I felt stung by Jesus’s words when he declared, “And if ye do good to them which do good to you, what thank have ye? for sinners also do even the same.” (Luke 6:33).

There is a fundamental idea here that basic decent behavior is, well, basic. The path of the true Christian must transcend that into the truly extraordinary. The path of the true Christian requires denying the natural self and demands real sacrifice.

In the years since, I have had moments where I did make some more significant sacrifices, times where I stopped living on the basically good plateau and ascended to a higher form of living.

What Makes the Difference)

So, what was it that took me from resting on the plateau to climbing the mountain? As I look at my story the answer is crystal clear. It was passing through a truly redemptive experience. What immediately preceded my initial changes was that I gained a true conviction of my sin, felt the reality of hell before me, and then felt the reality of being saved. When those things became real, not just theoretical, I didn’t have to have anyone telling me to start living differently. Making changes was simply the most natural thing for me to do.

People that are living on the plateau have to constantly be coaxed or manipulated into works of self-betterment. External motivation might get them to move a little up the mountain, but it isn’t natural, and once the motivation disappears, they’ll most likely slide back to their comfort zone. To such a person, the idea of eternal self-improvement is a terrible burden of perfectionism.

When one has had a truly redemptive experience, though, that same idea of eternal self-improvement now feels like a privilege and an opportunity. It is only a burden if you are already at your paradise. It is an opportunity if you want to go to God’s.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Ascend, Decline, or Plateau- Different Ways of Being

Ways of Being)

In my experience, we tend to be in one of three states in our moral development. The first is ascending, which means that we are progressively becoming better and better people. We are overcoming our bad habits, extending roots of determination and commitment, and moving forward to the sort of man or woman that we want to be.

The second is to be descending, where our bad habits are becoming more pronounced, and new ones are starting. We are willing to go to greater and greater lengths of immorality in pursuit of self-satisfaction. We either have no intention to improve or are declining in spite of our wishes to be better.

The third is to be on a plateau, where we are maintaining a certain level of morality. We may have some virtues, but we are not increasing in them. We may have some vices, but we are not increasing in those either. Perhaps we want to be better but aren’t able to make the change, or perhaps we’re just fine with where we’re at.

Of course, just because a person is in one of these modes of being on a particular day does not mean that they will always be so. There are many who have sought moral improvement, made some changes, then stagnated, then reverted back to previous failures. There are many who have started out a sinner, then paused when the toll on their soul became too much, then committed to a life of improvement. Thus, we can move up and down through these phases, and many of us do so many times throughout our lives.

How to Be)

With this study I want to consider how we find ourselves in each of these phases, why we move from one to the next, why we fail to improve when we really want to, and why we find success when we aren’t even looking for it.

These are no small questions. Psychologists have long noted the great divide between how people mean to be, and how they actually are, which is a very conflicting puzzle. Hopefully this study will be able to shed some light on the matter.

Posted on by Abe Austin

From Failure to Faith

Those that say they will not follow God’s commandments until they are convinced that He is real overlook the fact that even the truly faithful regularly struggle to keep His commandments also. Even a strong belief in God’s reality does not suddenly cause us to swallow our appetites and live as perfect saints.

Indeed, it is our struggle with our moral behavior that leads so many of us to believe in God in the first place. Our belief in Him begins as we let go of our misplaced belief in ourselves. We try to change our hearts on our own, we consistently fail, we lose all trust in our own power, throw our last hope on a God that we are not sure of, and then experience a miracle as He changes what we never could.

Thus, the cynic’s disbelief of the Almighty and dismissal of the commandments is not due to having not explored God enough, but due to having not explored his own heart enough.

Posted on by Abe Austin

A Foundation Built on God- Ritual and Novelty

Daily Ritual)

With my previous post I acknowledged the reality that many of us live, where we must establish the foundation of our lives in God with only a small portion of our time. We can do this by dedicating one-seventh of our days to God when we observe His Sabbath Day. We can also do this on a daily basis, dedicating some of each waking period to our Maker.

Traditionally, this has been done with morning and evening prayers. Morning, meaning that it is the first thing each day, the foundation of our lives that we’ve been talking about. Evening, meaning that it would finish off each day, a golden cap on the top of the structure.

The repeated pattern of these prayers makes them a ritual. Ritual has both an advantage and a disadvantage in its repetitions. The advantage is that our minds are naturally designed to function from triggers and routine. The ritual can thus become the trigger that tells our minds to go into the sober, focused routine. The disadvantage is that repetition can become boring, causing us to become distracted and gain nothing from the experience. I know that that has certainly been my challenge with daily devotional.

Occasional Novelty)

I believe the greatest value in ritual daily devotional would be using it to reach that place of solemnity where we can then engage in sincere, specific-to-the-day communication. Or, even if we don’t have much to communicate on that particular day, to just allow us to feel our way back into alignment with God’s will, relaxing our grip on personal plans and ambitions, becoming open to things according to His will.

There might not be a meaningful epiphany or transformation every single time we have this daily devotional, but the hope would be that we are open to those moments when they do come because our ritual has brought us to a place of readiness every day.

Personal Goal)

Speaking for myself, this sort of approach is different from how I have tried daily prayer in the past. Previously I have tried too hard to make something meaningful happen every single time. I felt like each experience had to be notable and unique. I felt like I had to repeat rituals over and over until something broke through the monotony.

I want to try this simpler method where things can come as they are. I want to have a simple ritual, maybe reciting a few favorite scriptures or the Lord’s prayer, just to bring me to a place of openness, and then just express whatever there is to be expressed, surrender whatever there is to be surrendered, explore whatever there is to be explored, or be silent when it is right to be silent.

If the whole experience lasts only a few minutes, I won’t be concerned about that. My hope is that that would still be enough to have set my foundation on God, and that the rest of my day may look like one that has put Him first. I guess I’ll just have to try it and see how it goes.

Posted on by Abe Austin

A Foundation Built on God- A Little Leaven

Time Equals Love)

As I have considered ways to make my life built more on the foundation of the Almighty, the simplest solution seems to simply be spending most of my waking time in direct communion with God. If I slept for 8 hours, strove with God for 9 hours, and took care of my personal affairs for 7 hours, who could argue that God wasn’t the most significant thing in my life?

As a general rule, we tend to give greatest value to the things we spend the most time with. Even if it’s not something we particularly enjoy, we still give it weight and meaning because we gave it so much of ourselves. Ask any man who worked a career he didn’t like for forty years to provide for his family whether there is substance and significance to the labor he did, and of course he’s going to say “yes.”

So, should we all become spiritual hermits or join the priesthood? Well, the body of Christ we are told is made of many different parts. We can’t all be hands, or all be feet, or all be eyes, or all be mouths. Some must work to build society, which typically consumes at least half of the waking day. Add in the time for family and personal affairs, and the window for exclusive focus on God becomes a small minority of the day.

A Small Foundation)

But maybe a minority of time can still have a majority of impact. As Paul taught, “A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump” (Galatians 5:9). Consider also the example of the foundation of a building. Typically, that part of the structure is only a small percentage of the building’s total height, yet it supports the entire thing. The Burj Khalifa for example 2,7117 feet tall, with a foundation of only 164 feet, about 6% of the entire structure.

The question then, is whether that relatively small amount of time with God is being laid at the foundation, or lost in the middle of everything else? Is it being allowed to spread its leaven through the whole, or is it isolated where it cannot activate any of the rest? I think it is possible to establish a life founded on God, even with a minority of time dedicated directly to Him, but the dedication of time must be of the right quality.

With this idea in mind, I will try to identify a way to achieve the right quality of time dedicated to God with tomorrow’s study.

Posted on by Abe Austin

A Foundation Built on God- Life Defined by Faith

Jesus foretold that, “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity,” (Matthew 7:23). This is a sobering warning to Christians everywhere that many who think they are in alignment with the Lord are actually offensive to Him.

There are multiple conceivable ways that Christians would find themselves on the left hand of the Lord. Perhaps they are hypocrites, professing Christ’s name but still harboring secret sin. Perhaps they treat Christianity as a political cudgel, using it to condemn those that they have no right to. Perhaps they are social Christians only, going to church and saying prayers, but more dedicated to the false churches of social trends.

I believe there are many in that last category. People that treat Christianity as a garnishment to the rest of their life, not the foundation and basis of the entire thing. It is, frankly, a way of being that I continually struggle with also. Most especially I lapse in my prayers because I am just too preoccupied with the distractions of the world, too concerned what I might miss out on if I make time “just” for connecting to God.

Obviously, I do perform a scriptural/spiritual study each weekday, and I do believe that that has helped a good deal in keeping God elevated in my mind, but I do crave more. With this short study I am going to try and identify for myself how I might do better in this aspect of daily prayer.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Perverted Frames of Mind

Any act of evil can be justified given a particular frame of mind.

Thus, the greatest safeguard is not against evil itself, but against the perverted frame of mind that would allow it.