Raising the Dead in Me

I'm reading through Charles Spurgeon's GREAT devotional, Morning and Evening with a group of men in the church. On April 28 we are reminded of the need to be men of promise...but NOT necessarily in the popular idea floating around out there.

Truth be told, I had some issues with the Promise Keepers movement when it got popular...it sounded a lot like sola bootstrapsa to my mind (not to say that God didn't use it in men's lives); the focus to me seemed it could go very wrong, very quickly.

The real issue is not that WE are Promise Keepers but that we hope in the TRUE Promise Keeper, who is God! True Spirituality takes off like a rocket when we begin to see our Father as THE Promise Keeper. This is another reason we need to waltz our way to consistency in our devotional lives. One of the elements of a devotional life is mining the word for God's Promises...Promises to us in our temptation, promises to us in our ministry/call/vocation; promises to us about our marriage, our parenting, etc. And one of the greatest promises of all is that God promises to raise us from the dead...not just at the end of history, but on a daily basis!

Another thing we are doing in this men's group is studying Francis Schaeffer's True Spirituality...one of my top 5 books I've ever read as a believer.

Schaeffer calls us to keep the focus on our union with Christ in His resurrection...we know that His resurrection occurred in time and space and WE who hope in Christ have experienced a TRUE resurrection in time and space as well. Through the mysterious work of the Holy Spirit, He supernaturally baptized us into the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Christ at our conversion. This is mind-blowing mystery, but we are to believe the truth of it.

We are NOT the same people we were when we were born physically. We truly have become NEW creations! We have new hearts, new abilities, new loves...AND we have the Holy Spirit!! We died to the rule and reign of sin and now we are alive to a NEW Master...whether we are in touch with it or not, and the very core of our being we are now lovers of Christ. Sometimes we can squelch it, but it IS INDEED there.

What we must remember, however, is that our experience of the supernatural, resurrection life occurs in the mundane of daily activities. God raises us from the dead in the normalcy of everyday life.

If you like rock music, an incredible band that is a cross-over (played just as much, if not more on secular stations than Christian radio) is a group called Switchfoot. Outside of U2 and Coldplay, probably one of my most favorite groups. On one of their albums they have a song called Twenty-Four...take some time to read the lyrics...it fits with this chapter in True Spirituality on resurrection.

here's the song...incredible gospel-driven, grace-centered lyrics...DEATH...THEN resurrection!! If we're unwilling to admit our need for death, we'll never experience resurrection on a daily basis.

Twenty-four oceans
Twenty-four skies
Twenty-four failures
And twenty-four tries
Twenty-four finds me
In twenty-fourth place
With twenty-four drop outs
At the end of the day

Life is not what I thought it was
Twenty-four hours ago
Still I'm singing 'Spirit,
take me up in arms with You'
And I'm not who I thought I was
Twenty-four hours ago
Still I'm singing 'Spirit,
take me up in arms with You'

There's twenty-four reasons
To admit that I'm wrong
With all my excuses
Still twenty-four strong

See, I'm not copping out
Not copping out
Not copping out
When you're raising the dead in me

Oh, oh
I am the second man
Oh, oh
I am the second man now
Oh, I am the second man now
And you're raising these...

Twenty-four voices
With twenty-four hearts
All of my symphonies
In twenty-four parts
But I want to be one today
Centered and true
I'm singing 'Spirit take me up in arms with You'
You're raising the dead in me

Oh, oh
I am the second man
Oh, oh
I am the second man now
Oh
I am the second man now
And you're raising the dead in me
Yeah

I wanna see miracles
To see the world change
Wrestled the angel for more than a name
For more than a feeling
For more than a cause
I'm singing 'Spirit, take me up in arms with You'
And you're raising the dead in me

Twenty-four oceans
With twenty-four hearts
All of my symphonies
With twenty-four parts
Life is not what I thought it was
Twenty-four hours ago
Still I'm singing 'Spirit,
take me up in arms with You'
I'm not copping out
Not copping out