Every Good Endeavor (book review)

I am amazed how God constantly shows me the theme of freedom in Christ. The point of Every Good Endeavor, by Tim Keller is that the gospel of Jesus Christ sets the believer free finding identity in career or work. The freedom declared in Galatians 1:1 is applicable to the bondage of self-condemnation and false identity: “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”
There is a temptation in any job to fall towards pride or shame. Many experience shame from their past which has prohibited opportunities for a particular career. In the words of pastor and counselor Jack Miller as quoted by Keller, “Cheer up: You’re a worse sinner than you ever dared imagine, and you're more loved than you ever dared hope” (p. xix).
Finding identity work is also a deception as true identity is found in the fact that all humans are created in the Imago Dei - in the image of God regardless of what they do for a living. Keller says, “all human work is not merely a job” but a calling by and to God (p. 2). His book reiterates that since all are made in the image of God (Gen 1:26-28) and all gifts/talents are given by God (1 Cor 7:17), christians should not make distinctions between “christian work” and secular work (p. 187); All work is God’s work.
This book is valuable for a myriad of young professional blue and white collar: Janitors, MDs, PAs, RNs, JDs, assistants, CPAs, entrepreneurs, academics, students, fast food workers and stay at home moms/dads (aka. Domestic engineers) just to name a few. People can easily fall into the pride/shame spectrum and put their identity in work. The enemy is relentless in this regard.
Keller points out that a doctor or pastor may be prone to feeling prideful or morally superior whereas someone who does menial work may feel inferior and shameful. Both are wrong because all work is God’s work and it is deception for Christians to believe they are superior because of who they are or because (and I think this is true of most denominal churches in America) that we are doctrinally superior. We must accept this liberating truth: “our work” is not about us; it’s about how God is using our work to restore what was broken in the fall; shalom.
I am in full agreement with Keller; we cannot emphasize the message enough that true identity is in Christ. What we do for a living is NOT our identity. And those with “intellectual” or “important” jobs by worldly standards should not get preferential treatment (see James 2:3). These books influence how I introduce myself: “My name is Ryan. I work at Starbucks versus, “I am a Barista.” Making coffee may be what I do [for work], but it will never be who I am. I am who I am base on my birth not by how I make money.
Lastly, Every Good Endeavor is another book that confirms my calling in life; namely, that I am to be an ambassador for the abundant life of freedom in Christ. A life of freedom from what others think about me; freedom from what I think about me; freedom from what others think of my job; freedom from what I think of my job. I am completely free from me because I am completely free from people. I need nothing from others, but opportunities to love and and serve others. I only care about what Christ thinks about me. Now I am ready to serve wholeheartedly expecting nothing in return. And that my friends is true freedom.

Spiritual Formation Retreat (Day 3)

It’s day three and I have no idea what day it is!  This day has been a tremendous reminder of just how much I am in desperate need of the community.  There is no freedom apart from the community (i.e. the body of believers, which fosters confession and communal putting to death of the flesh).  My wife and I are all caught up on sleep deprivation.  It is really hard for me to think of catching up on sleep as obedience to God.  But it is!  If I am called to be ready for whatever God has for me for the day (and it probably has something to do with being an attentive and present listener to another person), then I must be operating at optimal health.  I must eat, exercise, rest, and repeat so that I am at optimal health.  And that is what we did this morning.  We caught up on sleep.

It wasn’t too long into the day before I felt my flesh start to kick.  That silly old enemy told me to become angry, but I preached the gospel to myself and renounced that old idol of control and conform.  This half ounce of anger in my heart was a distraction in the morning worship.  I dozed off for a second during the reflective music portion.  By the time we transitioned to the male/female breakout prayer session I felt that my attention was back in tune with the Spirit.  I was focused.  I said to myself, “I’m back.  Here we go, thank you, Lord, for your forgiveness.  Let’s do this!”  We were guided to form a circle and silent pray for the brother on the right.  No words were spoken, just prayer to the living God for 1-2 min and then to move to the next person until all the men were covered.  The words came to me for each brother.  The Spirit was at work in my soul and giving me exactly how to pray.  

This morning session enabled me to experience the “Kairotic time,” which was explained to us as a mix of kairos (appointed time/season) with chronological (sequential time).  A kairotic time is a time where heaven and earth intersect.  Hence, a time “here on earth as it is in heaven!”  I love this idea because it is a reminder of what the Gospel is; namely, experiencing the freedom that we can look forward to in heaven, but here on earth. Where in the world did we get the idea that I have to die in order to experience freedom?  Does not the gospel mean that I can experience heaven here on earth?  I think so.  I think the gospel is that “good.”  We don’t have to wait.

There was a portion of one of the sessions where we covered many Bible passages and even broke them down exegetical/hermeneutical style.  I have to admit, I get excited when we tap into disciplines with which I am familiar.  I’m a bible study junkie and trained in systematic theology.  But the phrase that knocked me upside the head was, “It’s not whether or not you know these things, it's whether or not you are living them out.”  Wow!  How easy has it been for me my whole life to be comfortable in knowing versus living/application?  

Throughout the discussion on getting to root causes and breaking down common lies that the enemy feeds us all: The fear of exposure, the fear of failure, the fear of rejection, the fear of condemnation, and the fear that nobody understands are all mitigated with truth.  The exercise included taking a sticker dot and placing it on ourselves for every lie that we have believed.  For every lie mentioned in the lecture, we were to put a sticker on ourselves if we had ever believed it.  I was covered in stickers!  Then we listened to a reading of Max Lucado’s “You Are Special.”

After the exercise, we broke into two groups - men and women.  As the contemplative music played in the background we began to pray for each other and, as priests, took off each other’s dots.  As I took dots off my brothers I declared truth!  “you are holy…you are clean…you are healed…you are a child of God…you are perfect.”  As the men finished up I looked over to the women and rejoiced at the sight of women surrounding my wife and with tears in all of their eyes, embrace each other celebrating and rejoicing in the truth that there are no more dots!

This is what community should look like.  Kinda like the Wesleyan group method of gathering and simply discussing the condition of the soul.  How are you doing? is a very powerful question in a roundtable of believers who are not afraid to be broken with others.  And Spiritual Direction is embedded in the true community.  Unfortunately, post reformation, the reality of spiritual direction began to dwindle.  Not to mention the fact that the advent of the printing press/Gutenberg press privatized Christianity.  Pre-Gutenberg, communities had to gather to collect and hear stories of how the Lord was working in and through each other.  I can imagine the revelation that came as a result of the printing press (yes! Now I can have my private devotional time anytime I want!  This is great!).  Little did the Church know what impact the convenience of a printed book would have on the “gathering” of the saints.  But God can redeem and revive community for today. Amen!

The day concluded with the “Family Sculpture” exercise.  Several of us formed a live sculpture of our family background.  I had several people play a scene that is taking place in my family right now.  There were three family members on their knees facing the cross with arms around each other.  There was one family member about to join the group before the cross and there were others in the background.  It was a picture of imminent revival that is coming to my family.  It is a picture that briefly mentions brokenness, but quickly highlights divine redemption and restoration that takes place when people are obedient and postured to allow God to have his way.

This is always explained better over a cup of coffee :)

The Dark Night of the Soul

Around 1999-2000 I heard about the “Dark Night of the Soul.”  Nearly two decades later it finally makes sense to me.  I experienced the dark night of the soul in 2014 on a night when all of my secrets came out in the open.  My soul was set free and I am no longer a slave to fear.  If the dark night of the soul is the night when the enemy (i.e. the flesh, the devil/demons, and the world) is silenced, I most certainly experienced this night as I knelt before my wife and became fully known to her.

When the soul enters into the dark night, all these things are put under control.  The flesh will be quieted, the devil will be silent, and the fear will subside, all because of the fact that God takes away all of the sensory pleasure, and the soul is purified in the absence of it (Devotional Classics, p. 35).

Prior to this dark night of the soul was the darkest period of my life.  I was seven years into marriage and just under a decade of ministry experience.  In hindsight, I see how my soul slowly became calloused and where root sins of deception and idolatry manifested into anger, rage, malice, pride, lust, and unfaithfulness, just to name a few.  One of the most shameful events in my life was when I fostered an inappropriate relationship with a friend of our family.  God had placed a man in my life named “Plumber Dan” who gave me wise and direct counsel to avoid this woman at all costs just short of sin.  I did not heed this counsel.

The enemy had been working overtime on my wife and I because perhaps because we were gaining momentum in our “Freedom Workshop” ministry - a deliverance ministry based on Neil T. Anderson’s Freedom in Christ ministries.  I knew I had to confess and make sense of the awkwardness that became apparent, but I chose to withhold details in order to “protect” my wife’s emotions.  I had come to that conclusion on my own and not through godly counsel from within the body of Christ.  I most certainly did not ask Dan or any other of the men in my life.  

It was the Holy Spirit that convicted me that enough was enough.  I got on the phone with Dan who prayed with me and ended with, “The enemy has nothing on you brother.  You go be free.  You are a Child of God and the victory is His” (paraphrase mine).  

About midnight, I told my wife that I needed to walk the dogs.  She was a bit confused, but acquiesced.  As I walked, I looked up toward heaven and told God, “Lord, give me everything I need to confess.  I only want to cry once and be done with this!”  Immediately the Lord brings two details about the unfaithfulness to my mind.  Then he brought two “random” facts from my past.  One when I was in middle school and one from a month ago.  I was angry with God.  I looked up and said, “No!  I wasn’t referring to those facts.  I only wanted to confess details about the incident this month!”  God would not play this game with me.  I believe he granted me the faith that would enable me to trust him and be fully known to my wife.  

After I made my confessions, my wife was silent.  Taken aback, she thanked me for choosing freedom.  And then she proceeded to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit and chose to become fully known as well.  That night, we experienced the mingling of souls like never before.  Seven years into marriage and we were fully known and fully loved by each other for the very first time.  Our souls had experienced a mingling that deepened our relationship - everything became color.  Couples flocked to us for fellowship and to share their life with us.  Domestic violence issues, infidelity, deception, etc.  Couples young and old started coming around and God was able to use our stories of brokeness to give hope to others.  

Today, we share our story - all of it.  We rejoice in the truth that the cross of Christ absorbed all of the shame and guilt that comes with choosing sin over God.  The Lord has turned our ashes into beauty and he has turned our shame into his Glory.  We have continued our ministry of confession, repentance, and doing life with others.  

Why would we dare choose to share ALL of us?  Because it is for freedom that Christ has set us free!  We are no longer slaves to fear and there is no room in our lives for the spirit of fear, self-condemnation, guilt, shame, or any other yolk of slavery for that matter.  The opinions of man pale in comparison to the words of our Father in heaven.  I will always clarify with others that I am constantly preaching the gospel to myself because I need to hear it over and over: “Lord, I feel embarrassed to share.  But you have set me free and have taken all my shame and guilt away on the cross.  You have not given me a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind!  I choose to allow you to share my story as I submit my mind and mouth to you.  Say what you want to say Lord and I’ll follow.”After the dark night of the soul I never heard a worship song the same; I never saw people the same; I never worshipped the same; I didn’t parent the same;  my whole life was changed.  It was as if God reached in and replaced my heart.  He had changed my spiritual DNA and I felt re-wired for a life of pleasing the Father and helping set the captives free.  

Through the dark night, my capital sins were placed on the cross; my pride in Bible knowledge was converted to feeding Jesus’ sheep.  My spiritual gluttony turned to exercising the knowledge I acquired to serve others and become a gospel listener for others.  In my marriage, I was set free from believing that I “needed” anything from my wife.  In fact, I made a list entitled, “What my wife owes me,” which was a blank piece of paper!  I no longer criticized others for being “immature” or felt as if I was superior to them.  I allowed myself to listen to female speakers!  Amazing teachers who have taught me and have deepened my faith - Women such as Beth Moore and Priscilla Shrier.  God stripped me of my sexist spirit in the dark night.  

God loved me too much to leave me where I was in my faith.  He wanted me to grow deeper in my faith so he took me through the dark night to purge me of all the pride that had taken root on my misapplication of Bible knowledge. 

I am forever grateful for that dark night of the soul and I pray that God, in His grace allows you to experience this dark night for your joy and his glory.

Renovation of Christian Hosoi's heart: #HISstory

My nephews are getting my son amped on skateboarding.  Why not stoke this fire with one of my childhood heroes - Christsian Hosoi!  I love this story of the Fall, Redemption, and Restoration of a living legend.