“How do I know that I’m getting better?”

Steve Brown:
“How do I know that I’m getting better?” The answer to that and other questions, on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
Key Life exists to communicate that the deepest message of Jesus in the Bible is the radical grace of God to sinners and sufferers. Life’s hard for everyone, so grace is for all of us. But there is a lot of confusion about how grace applies to real life. So, here’s seminary professor and author Steve Brown and Pete Alwinson to answer your questions.

Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. Hi Pete.

Pete Alwinson:
How you doing man?

Steve Brown:
I’m doing really good. I think we have to be honest. You know, we were answering a question, last week and we didn’t get it all answered and there was something else we wanted to say. So, we just made up a question, so we could do that. So, when I bring up the question, I can’t say it was an e-mail or a phone call. I’ve got to say we made it up, but it’s a legitimate question.

Pete Alwinson:
It is. And confession is good for the soul.

Steve Brown:
I know. I feel better already.

Pete Alwinson:
Exactly.

Steve Brown:
That’s Pete Alwinson, if you haven’t read his book Like Father Like Son you ought to get it. It’ll change your life. And it’s an audio version too. And if you’ll check with Amazon or with Keylife.org you can find out how to get it and you’ll rise up and call me blessed because I told you about it. Pete, as you know, comes in each Friday and we answer questions and we love you and your questions. You can dial 1-800-KEY-LIFE, 24 7, ask your question and we record it and then sometimes put it on the air. Or you can send your question to

Key Life Network
P.O. Box 5000
Maitland, Florida 32794

in Canada, it’s

Key Life Canada
P.O. Box 28060
Waterloo, Ontario N2L 6J8

Or you can send your question to [email protected]. And if you can help us financially, please do. Most are not able to, so we use your gift to help those who can’t. So, that makes you a champion. So, if you can help us financially, be as generous as you can, if you can’t, we understand that too. So, be sure and pray for the ministry. You can charge it on your MasterCard or include it in your envelope. And we’ll be so glad, but we’ll be glad for you, even if you don’t. So Pete, why don’t you lead us in prayer and we’ll turn to some of these questions.

Pete Alwinson:
All right, Father, we come to you on this Friday. What a joy it is to just remember that we belong to you, that you are high and holy and lifted up. And yet, you are right near us. You are imminent and transcendent at the same time, close by. And yet the ruler of the universe. And so, we give you praise. Lord, we don’t understand all that has happened to us. And all that is taking place in our life right now. But we know that you are our Savior and Redeemer and that you are the one that has the power to transform the difficulties of our situation into glorious change in our life and bring glory to yourself. So, we thank you for all that you are doing. Help us to have eyes to see and ears to hear what you’re doing in our lives. Thank you for Key Life. And, Lord God, we thank you for all of those who are our pastors and priests and teachers and leaders, and how they’re going to stand before us and give us the fruit of their study this week. And we pray that you would use them in a powerful way. Holy Spirit, use them, build them, and draw us into your presence and your grace. And now, we commit this time of Q&A to you, as we pray these things in Jesus’ strong name. Amen.

Steve Brown:
Amen. Pete, this first question is one I made up. You know, actually the last broadcast, when we were sitting in the studio, we were talking about sanctification and things having to do with sanctification, which are very important. And what we said was true, but as soon as we finished the broadcast, both of us had this, you know, we should have said. And so I said, look, I’ll make up a question and we’ll be able to add to it.

Pete Alwinson:
There you go.

Steve Brown:
So, the question is this, how do I know if I’m getting better?

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah. What, how do you answer it?

Steve Brown:
No, you don’t. Well, you do some, but you had explained that when we were talking about it.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah. You know, my opinion is that sometimes you don’t know, you don’t really see the character changes, the growth in humility. I mean, if I knew I was getting more humble and I say it,

Steve Brown:
Then you lost you lost it.

Pete Alwinson:
Then I lost it, but I think it’s true that there are, you know, like a really strong willed man, for instance, who is actually now starting to listen to his wife more, or a strong-willed woman who is saying, well, honey, what do you think? What do you want? You know, and, and, and she may not even recognize that it’s happening.

Steve Brown:
Yeah, that’s true.

Pete Alwinson:
And I think that’s the way the Spirit of God works sometimes.

Steve Brown:
And that’s a good thing.

Pete Alwinson:
It’s great thing.

Steve Brown:
You know, cause God knows that if he gives us an inch, we’ll take a mile. You know what my prayer is and it’s regularly this prayer. I pray Lord, I know you’re not going to show me stuff you’re doing in my life cause you know I’ll misuse it, but could you show me enough, so I know you’re working and he does.

Pete Alwinson:
Right. Yeah. And I think that’s a really good prayer. In all honesty, Steve, aren’t there some areas that you could say, you know, I am very different today than I used to be.

Steve Brown:
Yeah, over a long period,

Pete Alwinson:
Over a long period of time.

Steve Brown:
I can see that.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah and ultimately you say, well, he gets the glory cuz he started the process.

Steve Brown:
And I didn’t even know about it. So, you know, that meant, that’s even an extra thing that you add to it. That’s good, I feel better about answering the question now. Don’t you?

Pete Alwinson:
I do. I do.

Steve Brown:
I’m not going to make up anymore, but I just wanted to do that one, so you could do that.

Pete Alwinson:
It’s your, it’s your program. You have the prerogative.

Steve Brown:
What is appropriate for church worship?

Pete Alwinson:
Oh man, big question.

Steve Brown:
It really is. It’s a lot bigger than I thought it was.

Pete Alwinson:
It is. And it’s a lot bigger than most people think it is. Most Christians have their preferences and I suspect that’s important for us to bring out, is that our preferences at the outset of talking about this, our preferences are not necessarily what ought to take place in worship.

Steve Brown:
So true.

Pete Alwinson:
And so, we need to go to the Bible and use the Bible as a baseline, for what ought to take place in worship.

Steve Brown:
That’s true. There’s some people who believe if it’s not specific in the Bible, you can’t use it in worship.

Pete Alwinson:
Right.

Steve Brown:
And so, they use no instruments, they only use the Psalms as a part of what they’ve seen. You agree with that?

Pete Alwinson:
That view has always, you know, shocked me because instruments are, were used in the Psalms.

Steve Brown:
I know.

Pete Alwinson:
And it’s mentioned, but they do have that view, you’re right.

Steve Brown:
Yeah. And they will fight you on it if you don’t do that. The point is that worship does what?

Pete Alwinson:
It brings us into the presence of God and helps us see who he is and give him praise and honor, and worship, glory.

Steve Brown:
You know, Reggie Kidd who’s both of our friend, a New Testament scholar and the Dean at the Cathedral here.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right.

Steve Brown:
He wrote a book on worship.

Pete Alwinson:
Good book.

Steve Brown:
Oh, great book, With One Voice. And he said that he used a kind of a template for different kinds of worship. One was Bubba, one was Blues Brothers, and the other was Bach. And he said that God can be worshipped through all three of those.

Pete Alwinson:
I agree. I agree.

Steve Brown:
There’s something to that.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah. That helped me understand that the principles of worship need to be sustainable through all history, cultures, and time until Jesus comes back. And so, the big aspects of worship, prayer, singing,

Steve Brown:
preaching

Pete Alwinson:
preaching, and even fellowship to some extent.

Steve Brown:
confession

Pete Alwinson:
confession

Steve Brown:
Those things are important.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right.

Steve Brown:
But they’re done in a lot of different fashions.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right. Benediction

Steve Brown:
and Benediction.

Pete Alwinson:
That’s right.

Steve Brown:
Mainly Benediction. We just had an off the air conversation about Benedictions. This is an e-mail. I had a painful childhood. I don’t feel that God was there for me then. And now, as an adult, I have a hard time letting God in. Why does God allow us, especially children to suffer? They’re too young to lean on God as an adult can.

Pete Alwinson:
Yeah, I really appreciate how this question was put. And it’s sensitive. And I, first of all, you are not alone. If you had a painful childhood and have difficulty with God, probably you had a difficult, difficulty with your father, cause we transfer all that over to God.

Steve Brown:
Oh, we do.

Pete Alwinson:
And so, good for you that you recognize that. And I think this, I think the big question that you’re asking is, why does God allow children to suffer?

Steve Brown:
And anybody that answers that with a glib tongue, I hope they get the hives cause we don’t have nice cut dried answers to all of that. There’s a, in fact, I just recently quoted it, there’s a rabbi’s prayer that says.

Thou art great and we are small. Thou art everything and we’re nothing. Thou art eternal. and we tarry, but just a little while. But with all of thy greatness and power, thou dost bend down low and listen to the sound of our tears as they strike the ground.

And that’s the God,

Pete Alwinson:
I love that.

Steve Brown:
and the incarnation says a lot of things to us, God in Christ, but one thing important that it says is I identify and I not only listen to the sound of your tears strike the ground, I experience those tears. And I weep with you. And I, you know, there aren’t any good answers. I, you know, you and I have both done piles of funerals for children. And I just hated those. I mean, you didn’t know what to say. You knew it was broken, so maybe you just wept with your people, and you recognize this is something we don’t understand. But someday we will, because God is good. And even this is a part of his goodness.

Pete Alwinson:
Yes. Oh, that’s so, so good for addressing that question and then to say, you know, if that’s your experience, you know, God is so good, seek to enter into his great love and the gospel and soak yourself in that for a while because what he really does want to do is to help you see that he’s the perfect Father and the perfect parent. And that’s what begins to cut loose our ties to the past. That was perhaps one of the biggest things for me, I realized that I had to own however I was relating from what happened to me as a kid. And that it never helped to blame God. And that God wanted to undo all that.

Steve Brown:
And did.

Pete Alwinson:
And did, and does. He is the perfect parent, the perfect Father. And, I think it’s, we’re all affected by sin. And so, this is a part of your story that he wants to redeem. And can bring you close to him and then use you in other people’s lives in a powerful way, if you’ll let Him.

Steve Brown:
Yeah. So, we don’t have any great, easy answers to the question, but what we said is God’s heart and that’ll get you through, that’s enough to get you through until you get home. Hey guys, we’re out of here. But first, Key Life is a listener supported production of Key Life Network.