The Spirit Controlled Temperament

Tim LaHaye is probably most well known for his "end times" fictional books in the "Left Behind" series.  But, if I can be given a minute to describe one of his earlier books that have really benefited me, that book is "The Spirit Controlled Temperament."  

LaHaye first describes the four basic personality patterns or temperaments.  He also explains how there are primary and secondary traits we all have.  These are broken down into Extrovert types being in the Sanguine and Choleric, and the Introvert types being described as Melancholy and Phlegmatic.  Each of us has a primary trait and then at least one other secondary trait that describes our personalities.  And each of the temperaments are all good, none is better than another and they should all be seen to have creative and positive aspects.  But, because we live in a broken world and we are sinful in and of ourselves, each of us can fall into a "selfishness" that is sinful and sometimes destructive.

Identifying the primary sin we all suffer from to one degree or another as "selfishness" is very helpful.  In my first reading of the book approximately fifteen years ago I was blessed to understand that to some degree my own selfishness was the cause of my sin.  The real insight came however in understanding that this selfishness usually results in either being led by "fear" or "anger" as the primary cause.  I could see this in my life after I thought it through.  It can be very subtle however as fear and anger are usually masked by some other positive explanation, as we want to explain or excuse ourselves.  But against God's righteous character, we can see that we are seeking our own sinful desires all too often.  There are times of course when fear can be caused by something that is actually very bad, like the fear of cancer or of crimes committed against us.  And anger can be triggered by righteous indignation against injustice from exploitation or oppression, etc.  But primarily, fear and anger arise from our own selfishness.  And this is the essence of the sinful nature.

LaHaye makes the all-important transition from identifying the problem to moving toward a Biblical solution in becoming controlled by the Holy Spirit.  Just as each temperament can fall into a selfishness that is destructive, so each one can be yielded to the Holy Spirit to become fruitful in the gifts of the Spirit.  In several sections of Scripture LaHaye points out that God wants us to be Spirit-filled, and this causes a change in our disposition and outlook.  Even more, this changes our behavior and lifestyle.  In Galatians 5:16-26 we see an example of how the Spirit can work.

"But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control; against such things, there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.  If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another."

I believe this is the life-changing transformation that is called sanctification and I believe it is the most overlooked doctrine in the contemporary church.  So often we hear about the justification by faith alone that marked the Protestant Reformation, which is from the grace of Christ, and it is central to our salvation.  But, there is the inseparable doctrine of sanctification that is also needed for Christians to understand how to live in the Holy Spirit.  And, it brings so many blessings in life to actually be changed, to be freed up from our sin and selfishness, and to walk in the newness of life in the Spirit.

There are not enough words to describe how needy I am for the Holy Spirit to transform me day by day.  Yet, "The Spirit Controlled Temperament", by Tim LaHaye does a great job to start us on the path of being led by and living in the power and presence of the Holy Spirit.  Thanks be to God!

FAITH TODAY:  Romans 8:5-8, "For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God."

The Power of Prayers

In the book of Ephesians Paul has two remarkable prayers.  He is demonstrating his need for the power of the Holy Spirit in both of these prayers as he writes his letter not only to the church in Ephesus but to us in our day.  This book is considered a "circular letter" that was to be passed on to the other churches near Ephesus.  The Holy Spirit has shared it with every generation since then as well.

In chapter one Paul prays for the faith of the Ephesians.  In v.15-23, he describes many areas in which we can grow in Spiritual strength.  In v.17 we read, "that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him."  This is profound because Paul is praying for something very practical and valuable from something that is often abstract.  He prays for the wisdom of God from the knowledge of God, which is sometimes considered very intangible.  Yet he connects the two by showing we need to have "the eyes of your hearts enlightened."  Paul is praying that God would open their minds to the knowledge of God by opening the "eyes of their hearts" first.

The benefits of this wisdom are that it helps us know, 1) the hope to which He calls us, 2) the riches of his glorious inheritance, and 3) the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe.  This is all according to the working of "his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places."  The power of the Holy Spirit is not only able to raise us to eternal life when we die, but He is also able to give us wisdom in this life to know the hope, the inheritance, and the power of God in the here and now.  This is totally awesome to put it in contemporary jargon.

Also in chapter three Paul prays a very similar prayer for Spiritual strengthening.  Beginning in v.14 he bows before the Father and prays that "according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being."  This is also amazing because Paul acknowledges "the riches of glory" in Christ.  God is overwhelmingly rich in his glory, and according to God's glory, Paul prays that we may be strengthened in our inner being.  It's from God's glory that he prays and it is to God's glory he prays for us that we may be strengthened for we cannot do anything on our own.  Also, Paul prays that God would grant it to happen.  Only God can strengthen us Spiritually and it's not a given, we must pray for it.  It must be granted by God's decree.

Paul continues to ask God in v.18 that we would have the strength to comprehend "the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge."  This is big, it is past our natural abilities to know.  We can only comprehend the magnitude of who God is and what he has done through the revelation of the Holy Spirit in Scripture.  And, this in turn will yield a great result, for Paul describes, "that you may be filled with the fullness of God."  What could be better than to have the strength of the Holy Spirit and then to be filled with the "fullness of God."  When we are filled with the Holy Spirit we are filled with God.  And this happens through being filled with the Word of God.  And, blessedly, we then cannot be filled with ourselves.

The strength of God comes through the Spirit of God and from the Word of God and prayer.  These are two remarkable prayers that have empowered the saints to understand the love of Christ, which we know as the gospel.  Such Christians have supernatural power and they care not for themselves directly but for the glory of the God who has redeemed them.  They are filled with the Spirit of Christ as they encounter the love of God "that surpasses knowledge."  This is another awesome prayer, and I have only encountered this type of Spiritual fulfillment on a few occasions in my life.  Yet this is what I seek to live in faith every day.  My faith is empowered by the Holy Spirit and the Word of God.

FAITH TODAY: Ephesians 3:16-17, "That according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith."

The Faith of the Resurrection

As we celebrate Easter this year I am excited again to remember the centrality of the resurrection of Jesus from the grave.  Many have said that the resurrection is the central doctrine of the Christian faith, and I would agree.  For without the resurrection of Jesus, he would not be the Christ.  His whole life and ministry would have been a fraud, a scam, and a big hoax.  But if Jesus was who he claimed to be and he did rise from being dead for three days then he is the Christ, and Christianity is the only true faith in the world.

But even more, the resurrection of Jesus from the grave can give us new "life" each day of our lives.  We can live in resurrection life in the here and now.  This is what I long for.  The Spiritual life I experienced when I was born again has made all the difference in my big-picture perspective of what life is all about.  And it gives me inspiration on a daily basis.  The Holy Spirit can not only regenerate my soul for salvation, but He can also inspire me for Christian living.

Faith is an interesting thing though.  At first, it is the gift of salvation that we must receive to become a Christian.  And secondarily it is like the "air" we breathe in our daily life as Christians.  Much like when a new born baby takes his first breath when he is born, so the first breath of salvation brings us to life.  But then the new child must keep on breathing, inhaling, and exhaling, the breath of life.  And as Christians, we must keep breathing the faith of the resurrection to live the Spiritual life.

Each Christian needs the resurrection of their Spiritually dead soul to become a Christian.  And then living in faith is like breathing in the air of the new life.  We need a believing faith just as a new child needs breathing air.  Often we need to rest and catch our breath from a busy time.  But we need to keep breathing in the fresh air of God's Word to fill our bodies and soul with God's grace and faith.  The resurrection life gives us Spiritual life for living every day.  Let's keep breathing in the faith of the resurrection.

FAITH TODAY: Ezekiel 37:10, "So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army."

The Object of The Faith

If we look at Revelation 7:9-12 we see an awesome description of the Lord in heaven.

After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” All the angels stood around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures, and fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying: “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom, Thanksgiving and honor and power and might, Be to our God forever and ever. Amen.”

The saints are crying out in a loud voice praising God saying, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!"  Here we see the end game of all of human history.  All the saints from all over the world throughout all time are praising God for their salvation.  It is so glorious of Jesus that even the angels, the elders, and the four living creatures all fell on their faces and worshiped God.  Jesus is the object of the Christian faith for he is the one who has made it happen, and it is unto his glory that the human race is giving praise.

We who are given such wonderful grace are the subjects that are glorifying Christ the object of our faith.  We see clearly in the text that the center of attention is the object being worshiped.  He is worthy of our praise.  And our calling is to be Christ-centered, to be lifted up from our brokenness, and to focus our lives upon him.  Therefore we must not be subjective in our orientation to the people of the world but be objective in our faith focusing on Christ and his kingdom.  This is the paradigm in heaven and God's will for us here on earth.

Our call in ministry is to help people see this vision of Christ lifted up and glorified.  This vision is meant for us here and now, that's why it was given to us in Scripture.  And, this vision is what will lift up our faith out of the brokenness of the here and now so that we are not bogged down with despair.  We need a healthy dose on a daily basis of the reality of heaven and the glory of Christ.  He is worth living for so that all of our lives would be conformed to him.  He alone can change us to become diligent disciples today through the inspiration of his glory.

FAITH TODAY:  Rev. 1:8, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,” says the Lord, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

A Heart For Theology

R.C. Sproul has said regarding the study of theology, 'It's not theology that we really want but the God of the theology we study that we want.'  And this is exactly correct in that we want to know who God is so that we can be in communion and relationship with him.  Even more, we were created by God and for God, and as Augustine described in his Confessions, "You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in Thee."  I can so relate to these truths as I long to know God so that I can also know who I am and what the meaning and purpose of life are all about.

Often times in our broken world teachers and preachers will acknowledge our longing to know our purpose in life but will direct that longing toward the things of this world.  Even as we are created for God we are also created to be in relationship with other people, but our primary purpose is in knowing and living for the God of creation.  This may sound cold or even academic, but upon further review, we can see that it actually yields far greater blessings for ourselves, and for all our relationships.  Without truly knowing the source of Life we cannot understand the purpose of our lives.

When Jesus was being questioned by the religious leaders of his day about his teachings he recited the Shema prayer from Deuteronomy 6.  In Mark 12:30, Jesus declares, "And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength."  Even though the Pharisees were seeking some reason to discredit and even condemn Jesus, they discovered that he indeed affirmed the greatest commandment to love God with all our being.  And why?  Because it is God who has created us for this very purpose and God alone is the only one who can give us our true identity and understanding of life.  Even more, God is glorified when his creation sings its praises to him as our God in all our hearts and minds.

But it is easy to let the study of theology be an end in itself as the religious leaders of Jesus' day had done.  Just as we can go off course toward loving the things of this world too much, so we can also love the learning and the knowledge of God without really having a love for God to begin with.  To prevent either problem we need to ensure that both the head and the heart are always tied together.  We need to have a heart for God himself so that we will have a passion to know him.  But with this genuine love, we must always be re-minded that we are to "love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength."  We need to always have our heads ruling our hearts because we are so easily distracted.  Our minds must always have the priority and give direction to our hearts, so as to stay committed to the calling of loving God with all our beings.

The Word of God is where we learn that we are to love God with all our souls, and so we must always have our minds engaged to have our hearts aflame.  And in regard to loving people, Jesus added another commandment, "The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.”  When we have a heart for the God of our theology we discover with our minds that it is indeed God who we want and who we need above all things.  And in return, we will have our hearts filled with his grace and we will be able to love our neighbors even as ourselves.  This is good theology, to love God and to truly know God, and then to love our neighbors out of the overflow of our hearts.

FAITH TODAY:  Matthew 22:37, "And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind."

Happy New Career

It is customary to wish people "Happy New Year" on the first day of January every year.  It's a new beginning on the calendar, it's now 2018 instead of 2017, and we can use this opportunity to take on a new and fresh outlook on life.  It can also be a new chapter in our lives as we begin something new in our work or school.  Today it is a new chapter in my life, I begin a new 'career' so to speak, as I've retired from flying and now I can pursue other areas of interest.

Since about 1978 I've been interested in Christian Education as I've found that the Bible and Christianity answer all the big questions of life.  I'm also interested in teaching these truths to other people and especially my own family.  I changed colleges that year to a Christian college and changed my major from Biology to 'Bible' as I believed God was calling me into the ministry.  Due to many extenuating circumstances, I was not able to attend seminary at that time, and in 1982 I entered the Navy to become a pilot.  After several years in the Navy, I tried to go to seminary again, but due to other extenuating circumstances, I wasn't able to pull it off.  So I then pursued a flying career with a major airline and have worked there for the last twenty-seven-plus years.  Wow, it's been a journey, and yesterday was my last day with that company.

Today then is the beginning of the rest of my life!  Ha, but true all the same.  And I'm still interested in Christian Education not only to teach the answers to the big questions of life but to also teach the Bible for all of life.  There's no question that the world is broken and it is a terrible place to live in at times.  And there should be no question that this brokenness provides us with ample evidence that we need God for all aspects of our life.  I need God in every aspect of my life.  The Bible teaches us that we need to know God and that we should live for God in all aspects of our lives.  This doctrine of knowing God is the essence of Christian Education.  We need to know God for our salvation and Spiritual growth.  And, he has created us for this very purpose, it is his delight that we come to him to love him and live for him.

Toward this goal, I've enrolled in RTS Global to begin an M.A. degree in Theological Studies to develop my skills and knowledge to teach.  Christian Education is the catalyst to know and love the God who has created us, which is a ministry we desperately need in our postmodern world.  This is my 'new career' that I've been excited about for several decades.  I'm very grateful to have a chance to begin this new work.  The truth of Scripture brings new "light and life" which is Spiritual life indeed.

FAITH TODAY:  John 1:3-5, "All things were made through him (Christ), and without him was not anything made that was made.  In him was life, and the life was the light of men.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it."