But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud… having a form of godliness but denying its power. 2 Timothy 3:1-4

I recently came across an interesting quote by Oswald Chambers, the author of the Christian classic My Utmost for His Highest. He writes: “Self-realisation is anti-Christian. All this is vigorous paganism, it is not Christianity. Jesus Christ’s attitude is always that of anti-self-realisation. His purpose is not the development of man at all; His purpose is to make man exactly like Himself, and the characteristic of the Son of God is not self-realisation but self-expenditure.”

Chambers, who passed away in 1917, never lived to see the prophetic significance of his words. He never lived to see a day when Christian bookshops would be stocked with books telling Christians how to maximize their potential, how to make God’s dream for them come true, how to claim their miracles, how to prosper financially, and so on.

It seems that a large segment of the church has succumbed to the philosophy of the motivational revolution, and, in the process, to the spirit of the age. The motivational paradigm has changed the way we think about ourselves, our work and our destiny. To quote Paul Vitz, who have written extensively on what he calls The Cult of Self-Worship: “All the major theories of motivation and personality assume that reward for the self is the only functional ethical principle.” Certain Christians appear to have embraced this way of thinking, and in the process have become devoted to what Vitz calls “selfism”.

Perhaps it is time to heed Chambers’ prophetic wisdom and reassess much of what we have been teaching lately in the name of Christ.

Christopher Hitchens is facing death. The famous atheist recently lost his voice in his battle with esophageal cancer, and it appears that he will not be with us for much longer. Yet he remains steadfast in his atheistic convictions. He recently wrote to some of his fellow atheists: “Our weapons are the ironic mind against the literal; the open mind against the credulous; the courageous pursuit of truth against the fearful and abject forces who would set limits to investigation (and who stupidly claim that we already have all the truth we need).” The letter was also posted on The Richard Dawkins Foundation website.

Reading the above, I could not help but be reminded of an insight that came to me some months ago, inspired by the much publicised rescue of the trapped Chilean miners at the time. I wrote a newspaper column about it, which I gladly post:

The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world… He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. John 1:9-11

The rescue effort of the trapped Chile miners glued the world to their television screens this week. One could almost hear a global sigh of relief with each spectacled miner emerging from underground.

As I watched the footage in the comfort of a living room filled with natural light and lots of oxygen, and with a view of a garden and blue sky outside, my mind drifted. There was a world of difference between my environment and the one these men had been confined in. Yet, after only 69 days, they had adapted themselves to their strange surroundings in a remarkable way. Their eyes had become accustomed to the absence of light, hence the sunglasses. They had settled in an odd routine with a variety of diversions to keep them busy and sane, and so they were scheduled for therapy to ensure a safe reunion with people who knew nothing about living in darkness.

And then I wondered: What if their wives were with them and children were born and raised down there? And what if those children eventually had children? How long would it take for any memory of blue skies and green forests to vanish completely, and for such references to be dismissed as “pie in the sky”? (You can’t prove it, so it cannot exist!).

And what would they do to a stranger who claimed to have been sent from above to save them out of the darkness, especially if he instructed them to leave their old lives and everything associated with it behind as the way of escape was extremely narrow?

They would label him insane. And so they did.

I always enjoy ‘light-bulb’ jokes and usually make an effort to remember them. My favourite ones have to do with church people:

How many Reformed Christians does it take to change a light-bulb?
As many as is needed to write a treatise on the theology of changing light-bulbs.

How many Charismatics does it take to change a light-bulb?
Seven. One to change the bulb and six to share the experience.

How many Fundamentalists does it take to change a light-bulb?
Change? Are you out of your mind?

You may smile, but these jokes convey an important truth. Different religious movements are usually known by the particular truths they tend to emphasise.

Throughout the ages certain denominations have excelled in the study of the Scriptures as well as in expository preaching and teaching, and they have been used of God to supply the church with mind-boggling volumes of rock solid theology. Others have emphasised a vibrant and personal relationship with God, and they have been used of God to fire up the hearts of God’s people. Still others have emphasised the fact that Christians are called to be holy and separate, and they have been used of God to resist the spirit of the age as it constantly seeks to infiltrate the church.

Who is right? Clearly they all are. We need the one as much as we need the other. We need the head, the heart and the hand. We need the thinkers, the feelers and the doers. Or, as Jesus instructed us, we need to love God with all our mind, all our heart and all our strength.

The challenge for Christians is to integrate all three these dimensions of our faith. Choose one at the expense of the others and you run the risk of ending up with intellectualism, fanaticism or pharisaism.

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son… He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature. Hebrews 1:1 -3

The hearing of voices from the other side has become a major industry in our day and age. Celebrity psychic mediums like John Edward pocket millions as a result of their alleged ability to communicate with the dead, whilst books documenting conversations with God, trips to heaven and meetings with angels constantly top the bestseller charts.

We all want to hear what God has to say, and the reason is obvious: God has created in us an insatiable appetite to commune with him. Our thirst for supernatural revelation is as strong as our survival instinct, for it paves the way to survival beyond the grave.

Where can a person find the voice of God? According to the Old Testament Scriptures, God spoke to his people in three primary ways: Through the prophets, the law and the angels. According to the opening statement of the letter to the Hebrews he now speaks through the Son, and so the first few chapters of this remarkable book conclude, quite logically, that the Son is superior to the prophets, the angels and Moses.

As “the exact imprint of his nature” the Son is a clearer disclosure from God than any revelation from the other side, no matter how fantastic or sensational. It as though God is saying “never before have I been represented so perfectly.”

Do you want God to speak to you? Forget about psychic mediums, angels, visions and traveling prophets. Focus on the Son. He is the eternal Word of God in the flesh.

(Bloemnews 22 February 2008)

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice…. Hebrews 5:12 – 14

In a recent media article Doug Scott, the famous British mountaineer, criticized “a new breed of climber who wants pleasant rock”. “Pleasant rock” refers to a rock that has bolts all over it in order to make the climb safe and easy. Battery-driven drills are used to set the bolts all over crags, and so the need for real skill and experience is removed. The problem, according to Scott, is that it ruins the rock for anybody wishing to climb it traditionally.

Do I detect a parable for the church in Scott’s disapproval of this new trend? Mountains have always been a striking metaphor to symbolize the pursuit of spiritual enlightenment, and so it is not difficult to see the analogy: “Pleasant rock” is like easy Christianity, designed for the lazy pilgrim who wants to get to the top, but with the aid of easy steps worked out and passed down by someone else.

This lethargic dependency on a formulaic Christianity is reminiscent of the Biblical symbol of milk: The nutrient of the immature. Milk is predigested food, ideal for those who cannot do their own digestion. Meat, on the other hand, is for those “who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice.”

Forget about easy steps and how-to’s. Maps for the narrow road do not exist. Spiritual discernment is not handed down, but comes through practice.

(Bloemnews 26 10 07)