SEED

We are in the season of Lent, a season that is for the Christian a time of contemplation on Christ’s death and resurrection.  As we draw closer to Black Friday, it is apt that we should give away a copy of John Stott’s classic, The Cross of Christ.  The book is neatly divided into four major sections:

1. Approaching the Cross
2. The Heart of the Cross
3. The Achievement of the Cross
4. Living Under the Cross

The Cross of Christ gives us a breathtaking view of the horror of crucifixion and the glory of the Lamb slain.  As I have been reading it this past week, I have been floored by the goodness of God toward sinners and the magnitude of Christ’s agony on the cross.  I encourage everyone to read this book.  One of my favorite sections is Section IV, “Living Under the Cross.”  Here Stott addresses at length the outflowing of Christ’s work for the church and how his death and resurrection allow His people to live out the gospel.

In an interview with Dr. Art Lindsley,* John Stott was asked questions about the church and the books that had most influenced him.  But when Dr. Lindsley asked Stott what he believed to be the most important book he has ever written, Stott answers:

I think the answer must be The Cross of Christ. The first reason is that the cross lies at the center of both the Christian faith and the Christian life. If pressed about my favorite verse in Scripture, I would have to say Galatians 6:14: ‘God forbid that I should boast in anything except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified unto me, and I have been crucified unto the world.’ The reason why the cross was central to the mind of Paul is that it was central to the mind of Christ before him.

Secondly, I have been concerned to write a book which is not just about the Atonement but about all aspects of the death of Christ as unfolded in the New Testament. For instance, Christ calls us to take up our cross and follow him. ‘When Christ calls a man,’ wrote Dietrich Bonhoeffer, ‘he bids him come and die.’ We are always in danger of trivializing the meaning of conversion as if it involved only the adoption of a veneer of piety in an otherwise secular life. Then scratch the surface and there is the same old pagan underneath. But no, conversion is much more radical than this. No imagery can do it justice but death and resurrection—death to the old life of self-centeredness and sin, and resurrection to a new life of self-sacrifice and love.

Thirdly, more of my heart and mind went into the writing of The Cross of Christ than into any other book. It is my ‘apology,’ my personal statement of faith.

This week you can win a copy of The Cross of Christ simply by entering your name and email address below.  You will be able to enter the drawing pool from now until Saturday, March 13, at noon.  We will randomly select a winner and notify that winner by email.

*If you click on the link to find the interview with John Stott, it can be found under Summer 2001 at the bottom of the page the link takes you to.

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This week Bonhoeffer moves from the Christian life in community to the Christian’s individual walk.  He hones in on the fact that “the Christian community is not a spiritual sanatorium.”  In other words, the Christian community is not where a Christian goes to fix the soul and then move on.  Bonhoeffer has a double warning for both those who would tend toward solitude and those who tend toward community: “Let him who cannot be alone beware of community.  Let him who is not in community beware of being alone.”

After this warning, Bonhoeffer goes on to argue that “the day together will be unfruitful without the day alone, both for the fellowship and for the individual.”  The mark of true solitude is silence, and “silence is the simple stillness of the individual under the word of God.”  Bonhoeffer argues convincingly that without this solitude–not a solitude that cuts us off from men altogether, but a solitude that happens in our daily Christian lives as we go to work, school, etc. and are parted from the community of believers–the Christian’s spiritual life will be stunted.  But when we truly stand before God throughout the day, allowing his word to soak in, “we meet others in a different and fresh way” and the community of believers will thrive.

Bonhoeffer argues that the Christian needs to have at least some time throughout the day in which he can be alone for three purposes:

1. Scripture Meditation–The Christian takes a short passage of Scripture and is “alone with the Word,” perhaps taking a single passage and “sitting” with that passage for upward of a week.  Whereas in group study you cover the breadth of Scripture, here you dwell in the depths of the Word and ask God how it applies to you personally.
2. Prayer–Reading the Scripture necessarily leads us to prayer.  We take things to God in personal prayer that we may not offer up in the fellowship.  This time of prayer is personal and deep.
3. Intercession–We are to take our brothers and sisters before God in intercession.  ”I can no longer condemn or hate a brother for whom I pray, no matter how much trouble he causes me.”

For Bonhoeffer, the test of meditation (and prayer and intercession) is the way one conducts himself in the “real world,” in everyday life.  Does he leave the fellowship and feel lost in the world?  Then something is amiss.  Does he leave his time of meditation and fall into despair when he meets a trial?  The Word is not dwelling deeply enough.  How we live throughout the day tells us whether our fellowship and our individual time before God is strengthening us or making us dependent.

So how is your meditation time?  Do you have a method of meditating on the Word that has been particularly helpful for you?  How does your reaction to others in the secular world reflect your time in the Word?

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