Renouncing Nothings

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people,  training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age … – Titus 2:11-12

What really matters?  Is it my job?  Sometimes I live like it is, but in two years or five years or, at most, seven years, if I live that long, I will retire.  Maybe it’s my investments which are supposed to help sustain me after I retire and, perhaps, even leave a bit of a legacy for the grandchildren.  I would like to do that, but there may come a time when the markets all crash and fiat currency loses its value.  The Bible reminds us that even gold and silver may become worthless when there is nothing available to be bought. 

Some people seem to live on the level where satisfying physical urges and seeking physical pleasures are their only concerns.  Some live on a slightly higher plane where they seek mental gratifications and have what Watchman Nee would call “soulish” fulfillment.  They revel in their superiority of learning, taste, and experience.  Apart from God, a person may convince himself that the visible and temporal is all that there is and make a determination to get all of it he can. 

God’s grace offers salvation for all, falling like rain over all the earth yet not all receive.  Lives that are too full of self and self-satisfaction have no room for grace.  Jesus said, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  Not the poor but the poor in spirit are blessed.  They make room for grace in the clay cup of their existence by pouring out some of their ambitions, passions, and desires that they might be filled instead with love, peace and joy.

Christians in an un-Christian world, someone, probably Lewis, used the image of agents behind enemy lines.  We are not, however, covert spies.  We are in uniform, and we are going to draw fire.  Our battle is not with the ungodly and the deceived but for them.  We were once all held captive.  Christ has set us all free, though some do not know it.  Those who do ought to fight the deception to enlighten those still in darkness.   We can’t fight a deception we embrace, or one that we envy and exalt.  We must reject the delusions, renew our minds and live for the truth.

All Yours

 Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. -- Matthew 5:3

A.W. Tozer talks about possessing nothing, from Chapter 2 of The Pursuit of God:

Before the Lord God made man upon the earth He first prepared for him by creating a world of useful and pleasant things for his sustenance and delight. In the Genesis account of the creation these are called simply "things." They were made for man's uses, but they were meant always to be external to the man and subservient to him. ...

The way to deeper knowledge of God is through the lonely valleys of soul poverty and abnegation of all things. The blessed ones who possess the Kingdom are they who have repudiated every external thing and have rooted from their hearts all sense of possessing. These are the "poor in spirit." They have reached an inward state paralleling the outward circumstances of the common beggar in the streets of Jerusalem; that is what the word "poor" as Christ used it actually means. These blessed poor are no longer slaves to the tyranny of things. They have broken the yoke of the oppressor; and this they have done not by fighting but by surrendering. Though free from all sense of possessing, they yet possess all things. "Theirs is the kingdom of heaven. ...

There can be no doubt that this possessive clinging to things is one of the most harmful habits in the life. Because it is so natural it is rarely recognized for the evil that it is; but its outworkings are tragic.

We are often hindered from giving up our treasures to the Lord out of fear for their safety; this is especially true when those treasures are loved relatives and friends. But we need have no such fears. Our Lord came not to destroy but to save. Everything is safe which we commit to Him, and nothing is really safe which is not so committed. ...

Tozer agrees with MOTT, it's all about the three vows of obedience, chastity and poverty. 

So those who were sent went away and found it just as he had told them.  And as they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, “Why are you untying the colt?”  And they said, “The Lord has need of it. "  (Luke 19:32-34)

I always think about the person who owned the donkey.  Only God knows who it was, knows the name, but He knew that if He asked, they would turn over a valuable possession, apparently without hesitation beyond the disciples' answer.  I wonder what happened afterward.  We can be sure that those who willing offered what they had for the Master's use were blessed.  No need to fret.

For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness,” and again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.”  So let no one boast in men. For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's.  (1 Corinthians 3:19-23, emphasis added)

Nothing to Lose

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. – Matthew 5:3

Things.  Thinkin’ ‘bout things.  If we are not careful, our lives will begin to revolve around things.  God gives us things both to bless us and to test us.  I like my things, but they have always been a challenge for me.  I always tried to take good care of anything I had, even when I was a little kid with my toys and books.  I always sought to keep everything in good shape.  Today I get upset when equipment gets torn up or something breaks.  I hate to see things destroyed or broken.  I don’t like dings or scratches on my vehicles.  I don’t like to hear funny noises.  I don’t like computer crashes or stuff like the wifi on my wife’s laptop ceasing to work for no good reason. 

For people like me, it is easy to get entrapped and enslaved by acquisition and maintenance, to become the host for a host of mechanical parasites.  But a spirit of poverty allows us to have, use, enjoy, and benefit from things without possessing or being possessed by them.  Things, from machines to money, exist to serve us.  They are not who we are, and we do not derive our worth from them.  A dead battery or a broken belt or even a ruptured bank account may result in anything from a minor annoyance to a radical lifestyle change.  Maybe, though, our lifestyle needs to change. 

If I am living in such a way that a thing or things can effectively destroy me or render me helpless and hopeless, I need to switch my focus from the temporal world of things to the eternal realm of the Spirit, to remember that this trek through time and matter is only a place where I learn to look to and love the Lord. 

I can be a good steward and manage well that which God gives me to oversee, but if I ain’t got nothin’, I ain’t got nothin’ to lose.