Irresistible Invitation 40 Day Reading Book: Responding to the Extravagant Heart of God

RESPONDING TO THE

EXTRAVAGANT HEART OF GOD

RESPONDING TO THE

EXTRAVAGANT HEART OF GOD

MAXIE D. DUNNAM

Abingdon Press

Nashville

IRRESISTIBLE INVITATION

RESPONDING TO THE EXTRAVAGANT HEART OF GOD

Copyright 2008 by Abingdon Press

All rights reserved.

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Original art, cover, and page designs by joey McNair.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publicalion Data

Dunnam, Maxie D.

Irresistible invitation : responding to the extravagant heart of God / by Maxie Dunnam.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-0-687-64879-5 (binding: adhesive, perfect: alk. paper)

1. Christian life. 2. Spirituality. I. Title.

BV4501.3.D855 2008

248.4'876-dc22

2008003863

ISBN: 978-0-68764-879-5

Excerpt from 'The Dry Salvages" in FOUR QUARTETS, copyright 1941 by T. S. Eliot and renewed 1969 by Esme Valerie Eliot, reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONA!. VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. All rights reserved throughout the world. Used by permission of International Bible Society.

Scripture verses marked NRSV are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture verses marked TNIV are taken from the Holy Bible, TODAYS NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 2001, 2005 International Bible Society. All rights reserved throughout the world. Used by permission of (he International Bible Society.

Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture verses marked NEB are from The New English Bible, © The Delegates of the Oxford University Press and The Syndics of the Cambridge University Press 1961, 1970. Reprinted by permission.

Scripture quotations from The Message Copyright © by Eugene H. Peterson 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

The New Testament in Modern English, rev. ed., trans. J. B. Phillips. Copyright © J. B. Phillips, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1972. The Macmillan Company.

The Bible: James Moffatl Translation, copyright © 1922, 1924, 1925, 1926, 1935, HarperCollins San Francisco, copyright © 1950, 1952, 1953, 1954 James A. R. Moffatt.

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MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

INTRODUCTION

WEEK ONE: COMING HOME TO GOD

Day 1: Incandescent Amazement

Day 2: God's Creation Is Good

Day 3: A Gracious God

Day 4: The Picture of God

Day 5: Coming Home

Day 6: A Roadmap for the Journey

Day 7: Taking It All In

WEEK TWO: A LOVE LIKE NO OTHER

Day 8: The Hint Half Guessed

Day 9: Why We Still Preach the Cross

Day 10: He Comes as He Came

Day 11: A Love Like No Other

Day 12: The Stone Was Rolled Away

Day 13: The Gospel by Which We Are Saved

Day 14: To Live in Joy

WEEK THREE: ALIVE IN CHRIST

Day 15: The Essence of the Gospel

Day 16: Alive in Christ

Day 17: Constantly Abiding

Day 18: Humble and Available

Day 19: The Shaping Power of the Indwelling Christ

Day 20: What Christ Has Been and Done for Us

Day 21: Dying and Rising with Christ

WEEK FOUR: FIT FOR KINGDOM LIVING

Day 22: Christ Frees Us and Fits Us

Day 23: Claiming the Promise

Day 24: The Surest Path of All

Day 25: The Hands and Feet of Jesus

Day 26: Communion Through Conversation

Day 27: Planted by the Water

Day 28: Choosing to Be Whole

WEEK FIVE: THE HOME OF GRACE

Day 29: The Dwelling Place of Wonder

Day 30: The Body of Christ

Day 31: What Defines Christian Community?

Day 32: The People of God

Day 33: Essential Characteristics

Day 34: The Priesthood of All Believers

Day 35: A Church Shaped by the Great Commission

WEEK SIX: PARTNERS IN THE GOSPEL

Day 36: Privileged Partakers in the Promise

Day 37: Prayers

Day 38: Presence

Day 39: Gifts

Day 40: Service

Day 41: Epilogue

ACCEPTING JESUS

OTHER WORKS BY MAXIE DUNNAM

SOURCES

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

No book is a private enterprise. More often than not, a number of people have made very important contributions to the process. Since this book reflects a gleaning of much of my writing and preaching, I am indebted to countless people who have contributed to my life and ministry through the years. I am who I am because of the people who have loved me, believed in me, and who have been mentors even unawares. I thank you.

More specifically, this book is the product of the thinking and praying of a number of people. I am especially indebted to an editorial team that conceived the project: Fiona Soltes, Andrew B. Miller, Mark Jacobs, Nancy Wise, and the leadership at the United Methodist Publishing House. This book is the outcome of our conferencing and praying.

Fiona Soltes, a talented writer with a special anointing from God, has helped bring this project to fruition, along with the help and guidance of Andrew B. Miller and his staff at Providence House Publishers: Kelly Bainbridge, Darlene Chaney, Holly Jones, Melissa Istre, LeAnna Massingille, Joey McNair, Maren Minton, Lane Rosencrans, and Nancy Wise. Their writing, editing, advising, guiding, and questioning were indispensable. In fact, without their work, this book would not be. My deepest gratitude to them.

My daughter, Kim Reisman, challenged me and kept me centered. Thanks!

As with everything I have done, my wife, Jerry, has been my chief encourager. She knows I am cutting back when I work fifty rather than sixty hours a week. To have that kind of understanding gives me the freedom I need to be creative and productive. If I knew a better word, I would use it; I don't. So, Jerry . . . thanks.

INTRODUCTION

It is with great boldness that I have written this book. The title is as bold as it gets—Irresistible Invitation. Your immediate thought might be, How can an invitation be irresistible"? I am free to respond however I choose to any invitation that I receive. I wrestled with the same feelings as our team of editors pondered the possibility of this title. Then I went to the dictionary and found this definition: Irresistible: impossible to successfully resist. That definition erased all my reservations. Of course we are free; we can resist. But we can't successfully resist God's incredible grace.

It is mind-boggling, really . . . that God would desire a loving relationship with me. As staggering as the thought is, as unbelievable as it appears on the surface, this is the very heart of the gospel: I am loved by God. There is a place in God's heart that only I can fill. Denying this truth is a great sin of disbelief. The Bible, when we read it extensively, makes it unmistakably clear. God loves each one of us as though we are the only person in the world to love. It's in the book!

Don't you remember? Jesus said that not even a sparrow falls to the ground without the Father taking note of him. And you, he said, are of more value than a sparrow. Jesus went even further than that; he said the very hairs on our heads are numbered. Each of us is a unique, unrepeatable miracle of God. So, we are not just saved from our sins but to a personal, intimate relationship with God.

This book is about God's irresistible invitation to enter into relationship with him. It is about grace—God acting in our lives to accomplish, with our willing response and participation, what we cannot accomplish on our own.

In writing this book, I have gone back through what I have preached and written during my many years of ministry and have provided the information and guidance you need for the journey. There is a sense in which this is the best I have offered, and the very best I can offer today.

After each day's reading, you will have the opportunity for reflection, guided by questions that get to the heart of the matter. Please spend prayerful time responding to those questions.

Community, where conversation and communion take place, is essential for Christian living. My hope is that you will share with others on this journey and meet weekly to encourage and challenge each other as one heart sets another heart on fire.

I remember the words from Walker Percy's novel, The Second Coming. If the good news is true, why is no one pleased to hear it? I believe the good news is true, and I believe people are pleased to hear it when it is proclaimed in its radical essence: the incredible possibility of living a life in Christ, shaped by his indwelling Spirit and expressive of his presence in the world. So I invite you on a forty-day journey of considering the irresistible invitation and responding to the extravagant heart of God.

DAY 1: INCANDESCENT AMAZEMENT

DAY 2: GOD'S CREATION Is GOOD

DAY 3: A GRACIOUS GOD

DAY 4: THE PICTURE OF GOD

DAY 5: COMING HOME

DAY 6: A ROADMAP FOR THE JOURNEY

DAY 7: TAKING IT ALL IN

In the beginning

God created the heavens and the earth.

Gen. 1:1

The singer Mary Martin used to say that her grandmother, who lived to be ninety-nine years old, spent her life in a state of incandescent amazement.Isn't that a marvelous term? It's what I feel when I ponder God's eternal nature, and when I read that first line of the Bible: In the beginning God . . .

Few phrases have stimulated the mind and imagination as much as this opening verse. Numerous poets have tried to find words for the day that Shelley describes as when God first dawned on chaos. Philosophers have written volumes reflecting on its wisdom. Scientists continue to debate aspects of its truth. And theologians—that's us, when we think and talk about God—find in these words both the beginning of God's story and our own story. We begin here as we explore our relationship to God, what the Christian faith is all about, and how we live out that faith day in and day out.

When asked in 1989 what book most influenced her during the past year, author Madeleine L'Engle responded:

There is no question that the book that has been most influential for me this past year is the Bible's first one: Genesis. . . . The marvelous story of the creation is for me filled with incredible joy . . . the words shouting all things into being in a great cry of joy. Genesis is also filled with marvelous people—flawed and human—and underlines for me that God does not choose qualified people to do the work of love. . . . Genesis has everything—all the human vices and glories, love and hate, murder, sacrifice, and a great story. There is no end to plumbing its depths.

She's right. There is no end to plumbing its depths. In the first eleven chapters of Genesis, you have God's version of the human story and also our version of God's story.

You may wonder why I refer to only the first eleven chapters. As you read the book of Genesis, you will find there is a distinct, though unannounced, change of tone that begins at Chapter 11. It is there that the story of Abraham and his descendants begins. William M. Logan reminds us:

From that point on, the record has a more concrete sound. It moves more slowly and gives more details. It does not cover a thousand years in a single breath. It slows down to a pace with which we can keep up as it traces the life story of men and a nation. In contrast, the first eleven chapters of Genesis are epic in their scope. Their sweep is tremendous. Incomprehensible periods of time are covered in a few words. Stupendous events are described with brevity and matter of factness of a child's fairy story.

This is history, not in the sense of the chronological recording of people and events, but rather the nature of humanity and our spiritual journey. These chapters explain history not in terms of what, when, and how things happened, but why. Here's more from William Logan:

The stories are told in such manner that when I read them, I realize that I'm not reading an account of history; I'm looking in a mirror! This is not Adam I'm reading about; this is myself. This is not a tower built long ago in a faraway country: this is my own society in action, and I am part and parcel of that society.

GOD IS ETERNAL

Perhaps you've heard a child ask—because just about every child asks at some time or another—Who made God? The answer is, No one. God has always been, God is and will always be. God existed before the world and before human history, and God will exist after the world and human history are dissolved.

Someone once asked Martin Luther what God was doing before the world was made. The old reformer replied, Cutting switches with which to flog those who ask foolish questions! Foolish or not, this question certainly makes us think. God is eternal, and when we begin to understand that, our relationship to God comes into clearer view.

There is something more we need to rest on: in the beginning, God created. Listen to the second verse: Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters (Gen. 1:2).

It's interesting to note that the Hebrew word used here for created is one that is used only in reference to God in the Bible. The truth is, the word implies work that is utterly beyond human imitation or comprehension. The world in all its complexity did not come into existence by chance; the odds are too great for that.

Someone has said that if you put ten pennies minted in consecutive years into your pocket, the odds of taking them out in order are one in ten billion. Can you imagine—those being the odds—that this universe, of which we are a part, could have just happened by chance?

William Herbert Carruth describes his sense of incandescent amazement at God's creation in his poem Each in His Own Tongue:

A fire-mist and a planet,

A crystal and a cell,

A jelly-fish and a saurian,

And caves where cave-men dwell;

Then a sense of law and beauty

And a face turned from the clod—

Some call it Evolution,

And others call it God.

As we begin our forty-day journey together, I invite you to ponder these foundational concepts that speak to the heart of our Christian faith: in the beginning, God created everything that exists. God is bigger than any concept we can hold in our minds, yet God in his infinite love desires a personal relationship with us. The chaos that we sometimes feel overwhelmed by is actually an illusion; God's reality is law, beauty, and order breathed into creation in divine wisdom.

As we go about the details of living our lives, it's easy for us to lose sight of the big picture. When we're running through our days on autopilot, we can miss those moments of incandescent amazement when God reveals something beautiful to us. But if we are willing to listen, we soon realize that God is calling us to slow down and pay attention to these moments of wonder.

We might hear truth in a song lyric, glimpse the divine in a flowing stream, or see the face of God in the eyes of a child. If we tune in to God and open ourselves to seeing the creation with fresh eyes, we'll begin to experience more and more moments of incandescent amazement.

At this point, you might have more questions about God than you have answers. You may even doubt God's great compassion, or God's willingness to be intricately involved in your life. That's okay; you're far from the first person to feel this way. But if you'll agree with me right now that God could literally change your life through this study—that you'll allow God to teach you new things and reveal himself in new ways—there's no telling what could happen next.

THE HEART OF THE MATTER

What do you feel when you reflect on the first few lines of Genesis? How does this feeling color your perception of God?

How could a deeper understanding of the creation story affect your relationship with God? Does this story challenge any of your previous assumptions?

Have you experienced moments of incandescent amazement? If so, how have those experiences informed your understanding of God?

God saw all that he had made,

and it was very good.

Gen. 1:31

Yesterday, we centered our thinking on incandescent amazement. God calls creation out of chaos—and rejoices. Now let's take it a step further.And God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness (Gen. 1:3).

The writer of these first chapters of Genesis doesn't describe a God who looks down on creation as an engineer, scientist, or technician who has created a model that is flowing off some production line. No, the God of creation is an artist, painter, and sculptor—and the creation is his masterpiece.

Note that after each dimension of the creation, there is the phrase, And it was good. We need to hang on to that phrase, because our temptation is to see the world and all that is in it as evil. When the darkness of our circumstances makes life seem dark, we grow frightened and sometimes faithless. We find it difficult to believe that God is near, and fear that God has forgotten us. We long for the light in the midst of our darkness.

Have you ever read John Keats' poem, Ode to a Nightingale? In the poem, Keats expresses a longing to escape from his pain-filled life and join the pleasant-sounding nightingale, which lives apart from the trials of human beings. He asks for a cup of poison to drink, and says:

That I might drink, and leave the world unseen,

And with thee fade away into the forest dim:

Fade far away, dissolve, and quite forget

What thou among the leaves hast never known,

The weariness, the fever, and the fret

Here, where men sit and hear each other groan;

Where palsy shakes a few, sad, last grey hairs,

Where youth grows pale, and spectre-thin, and dies;

Where but to think is to be full of sorrow

And leaden-eyed despairs;

Where beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes,

Or new Love pine at them beyond to-morrow.

Keats had felt the emptiness, darkness, and hopelessness of life. We all feel this way from time to time: the darkness of our particular circumstances makes us believe that all of life is dark, and so we become frightened and faithless.

What we need to know, however, is that God owns the darkness as well as the light, and that God is present in the night as well as in the day. There's a marvelous verse in the book of Isaiah which says, I am the LORD, and there is no other. I form the light and create darkness (Isa. 45:6-7). Isaiah knew—because he believed the creation story—that the entire universe belonged to God. No aspect of human experience is without God's presence. The psalmist knew it too, so he could sing:

If I go up to the heavens, you are there;

if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. . . .

If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me

and the light become night around me,"

even the darkness will not be dark to you;

the night will shine like the day,

for darkness is as light to you. (Ps. 139:8, 11-12)

Not only does God bring deliverance from darkness; sometimes God reveals himself most vividly in the darkness. We may not understand it or be able to explain it, but we can know full well that God is in the midst of everything.

Of course, the providential care of God does not protect us from the bumps and bruises of life, nor from the struggle—and sometimes tragedy—of living. Brothers betray brothers. Husbands desert wives. Good people lose their jobs. Teenage girls get pregnant. Teenage boys use drugs. The young die too early. The old live against their will through feeding tubes and breathing machines. Hurricanes devastate cities. Tornadoes destroy trailer parks and rivers flood towns. An earthquake in the middle of the ocean causes a tsunami a thousand miles away.

As such, it may not always seem apparent that every part of God's creation is good. But we can be confident that God is always working out his magnificent plan of redemption.

We have to be honest here and say that sometimes people— the height of God's creation—don't act according to the image in which they were created. But what a wonderful surprise when they do. We finish today's study with a beautiful example of God's creation reflecting his glory—and his great compassion.

Some time ago, the Associated Press carried the story of Manuel Garcia. Garcia was a poor man who suffered from cancer, and he needed to be treated with chemotherapy. He had always been proud of his full head of hair, but now he had to surrender to its loss.

When the time came for Garcia to leave the hospital and return home, he felt embarrassed by his baldness. As he entered his house, his five-year-old son came running to him. The little boy threw his arms around his father and shouted, Daddy, I love you! Garcia was surprised when he realized that his son was completely bald; he had shaved off his hair so he could look like his father.

Then, in a few minutes, the doorbell rang. Garcia opened the door to find some fifty neighbors and friends standing on his front lawn. They had all shaved their heads in a sign of solidarity and support. What a picture of God! God may not save us from our troubles, but he will save us in them. God's creation may sometimes seem dark and evil, but in the full picture, the long view, it will prove to be good.

THE HEART