From Trent Ling:

This ministry offers Christ to all, although it does not conform Christ to anyone’s liking.  The typical problem we face ministering in and out of this ministry centers around people’s insistence on being fake, hidden, timid, and unknown.  In the ensuing spiritual fracases, we see heat, sparks, hurts, and a multitude of battle wounds.  In all of this, we as a ministry and as ministers, can easily lose sight of the ball.  But, make no mistake, God has made us completely approachable.  Whatever problem ails you, it has already been seen, known, and endured by the disciples here.  And, for those speaking straightforwardly and earnestly, you will find us, above all things, approachable.  Perhaps the following sampling will trend us all in a renewed direction toward approaching each other easily, even as we are called to approach the much higher and mightier throne of God’s grace with confidence (Hebrews 4:16).

Weakness:

I recall times in my life as a disciple being under a self-imposed “house arrest.”  Inflamed with lust and desperately trying to string together just one righteous day, I thought it best to avoid the populace outside my doors to avoid temptation and an almost certain spiritual crumbling.  Clearly, Scripturally, I was under the no-nonsense double-team of God’s opposition of me and Satan’s attack on me. No doubt, those were dreadful days (Deuteronomy 28:66).  I wanted out of weakness.  Ignorant of the truth, I did not realize that my great debilitating weaknesses would ultimately deliver my life in every way in Christ.  So, if someone was honest enough to confess “weakness,” I could certainly relate wholeheartedly and I could help them get to the deliverance of the Scriptures.

The bible serves up numerous deliverances in weakness in 2 Corinthians 12:1-10 alone.  For example:

a).   Jesus’ “power is made perfect in weakness.”

b).  “I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses.”

c).  “I delight in weaknesses.”

Certainly these rich and penetrating truths, understood and lived, do straighten and yield spiritual health and prosperity.  These truths turn what used to serve only as a cesspool of dread into freedom and delight.  They inject God’s favor and truth, and in concert with the rest of the bible, will turn defeat to victory–the par outcome in Christ.

Fear:

I vividly know fear as a disciple.  My fear resembled a recurrent nightmare.  Psalm 73:21-22 summed up my excessively wobbly life in Christ:  “When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered, I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before you.”  For years in Christ, I was gripped and choked by my fear of sliding down the slippery slope of unrighteousness.  I was so ill-trained in Christ, that the slightest grieving of my heart (for example, a minor ingratitude on my wife’s part) would almost immediately embitter my spirit, rob me of my senses, render me ignorant, and deliver my heart and mind into that of my natural gutter-vampire and brute-beast-loving self.  For years and years, I walked on eggshells often fearful of slipping and immediately sliding down the horrendous slope of unrighteousness where, again, God and Satan would tag-team my spiritual life nearly to extinction.  In all of this, sadly I often thought that it would have been better never to have known the truth.

My life in Christ ebbed and deflated during these days due to my giving way to fear and trying to tread gingerly (as if that is what Jesus did?).  God certainly did not honor my playing it safe; it is true that if you try to save it you will lose it.  Even the women and the wives (made as weaker partners by God) are called uncompromisingly not to give way to fear (1 Peter 3:6-7).  How much more was I under that charge?  You also cannot escape God’s righteous wrath in surrendering to fear.  The bible will deliver you from this stronghold and we are approachable and painfully versed on the subject to help you.

Doubt:

The barrage of troubles that constitutes doubt has spiritually crushed me at times in Christ.  Beneath the surface, the cocktail of lust, anger, jealousy, regret, and hatred fed a vibrant river of doubt in my life in Christ.  I was disillusioned, wiped out, and hopeless at times, not seeing any lasting or meaningful benefit to perseverance.  I was just stuck with little to no chance of being spiritually rescued, it seemed to me.

However, the bible says what it says and fails to apologize for it.  I was in sin and unrighteousness and God faithfully let me know it.  The bible not seeming to work for me let me know that there was something wrong with my living of it.  Likewise for you, if the bible doesn’t seem to be working, something is wrong with your living of it.  The question is, “what’s wrong?”  Let the bible answer the question or sadly be sentenced to endless and pointless wandering doubts the rest of your days.  Approach the bible and get answers.  Approach disciples who know doubt and get answers and understanding.

The bible is hard-line against those who accommodate and accept doubt while shopping and settling for Kingdom trinkets (friends, fun, guilt-ridden service) anyway.  For those seeking wisdom, God warns that such an asker “… must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.”  James 1:6.  God neither prospers nor feeds persons who relegate themselves to being “waves of the sea.”  God requires that you stick it out, get answers, grow in the wisdom you sought out, and know that you already tried all of the alternative “answers” prior to seeking God’s ear.  Doubt is only resoundingly conquered at God’s appropriate and merciful insistence.  Thanks be to God for rooting doubt out!

Anxiety:

I have been incredibly anxious in Christ, as if outright weakness, fear, and doubt were not enough.  Uncertain and completely lacking confidence while in Christ, I have been unable to be the same from one moment to the next, let alone be like Jesus in being “the same yesterday, today, and forever.”  Hebrews 13:8.  I was completely subject to the whims and workings of others, and to the randomness of Satan’s assaults.  Additionally, I had the most difficult time figuring out when and why God would lay his heavy hand upon me and pummel me seemingly into the magma!  Anytime things looked better, it was unknown to me if I’d wake up the next day still riding a favorable spiritual wave or be dropped into the throes of my seemingly ultimate and inevitable demise.  It was like dying without the relative joy of being dead already.

“The man of integrity walks securely.”  Proverbs 10:9.  As usual, the bible delivered a knockout blow to my anxiety by revealing that the problem was a lack of integrity on my part and not  any matter of independent “anxiety.”  This awakening opened a treasure trove revelation of my personal disintegration (the opposite of integrity) even as a regular person.  Much more so I was horrifically revealed to lack integrity measured against the biblical standards for disciples of Jesus.  The work ahead was endless, but spiritually rewarding.  Let God rebuild you correctly to have integrity and you’ll walk securely as your anxieties skedaddle.

Beyond that, speaking of Jesus, you are called to “cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”  1 Peter 5:7.  Most will say, “I tried that already.”  But, the call is to get real and approach God, Jesus, the bible, and disciples, laying out your anxieties on Christ.  The Scriptures will then pinpoint what is wrong and will also avail the solution, which will put the matter back on your plate to see if you were serious about it or whether you were just looking for a cheap spiritual handout.  Regardless, this is an approachable place and an eventual home for the anxious who are also proven to be earnest and honest.

Pride:

In Christ, I have found myself embarrassed, ashamed, defensive, and completely in the dark!  These are some of the more notable subsidiaries of Pride, Inc.  It is a miserable business, indeed.  I have fancied myself “somebody” in Christ, and God has seen to it to have me be led by relative spiritual know-nothings!  I seethed in it as Judas must have seethed in the presence of a babbling, but pure-hearted, Peter in John 13.  Pride may mark the worst of all locations in the entire Kingdom mapping.

The admonitions against pride are so popularly known that they are ironically easily ignored.  “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble,” (1 Peter 5:5) reads almost invisibly.  Even disciples impale their spiritual lives on the anvil of pride and do not know it.  Humility stands as the pride antidote, and we must seek it (Zephaniah 2:3).  God will never yield the narrow road to the prideful.  It must go or you will go with it.  Here it can be readily confessed.  We have expert refugees from the pride wars.  They are approachable and ready to offer new safe haven freedom to you as well.

Conclusion:

“If you hold to my teachings, you are really my disciples.  Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:31-32.  These over-used and under-lived words ring hollow in most ears.  However, they summarize this entire letter.  All problems ultimately resolve within these two verses.

This letter, noticeably incomplete and imperfect, serves only as a conversation starter.  As ambassadors of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20), we are to remain approachable and known to those who would earnestly and eagerly give the Bible a whirl.  Approachable and known we are.

It’s your ball.

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