Saturday, July 30, 2011

Scars

Thursday I got a phone call from one of the ladies at church. She was asking me about a situation that someone had been talking to her about. She had been asked why we remember the past events of our life even after we've prayed to God about them.

This has been something I've been working through recently. As humans we haven't been gifted with the ability to erase our memories of past failures and hurts. God can, and does, Hebrews 8.12, "For I will be merciful to their iniquities,and I will remember their sins no more.", and Hebrews 10.17, "And their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” God forgets our sins when He forgives us. He doesn't remember them and never holds them against us. If we have confessed to Him we need to accept His forgiveness, and we need to in turn forgive ourselves.

But why can't we forget? I don't think we should. If we forget the things of the past, how do we keep from doing them again? The issue isn't in the forgetting, but in the failure to receive forgiveness, in the failure to realize that God has forgiven us.

Think of it as a wound. Every time we sin it's as if we get a cut. We can try to cover it with a band aid as we try to just pretend it's not there, but it isn't until we go to God for some stitches that the wound is really to the point where it can heal.

I need to say this to avoid confusion and heresy, the moment we ask for forgiveness, God instantaneously gives it, in His mind it is taken care of and dealt with, He forgets about it. A doctor stitches up a wound and then moves on to the next patient. The issue comes when we keep staring at the stitches, we keep playing with them and the wound never heals, it never becomes a scar.

When a wound heals it leaves a scar, and we carry the scars for the rest of our lives. Some people think they are ugly, but honestly, scars are an incredibly beautiful thing. Scars are a sign of healing. It shows where a wound was, it's a reminder of that wound, but it is a wound no more. The wound used to hurt, but a scar doesn't. It serves as a reminder of pain, but the pain is gone.

The scar means the wound is healed, it means the pain is gone, but the scar is still there. Here's the point, scars come with a story. Find any seven year old boy and look at his arms and legs, I guarantee there are some scars. I can almost promise, that if you point to one and say, "How'd you get that?" you'll hear the story. Sometimes you don't even have to ask, you'll just get it. My eight year old cousin loves to tell me about his bike accidents. Scars have a story.

We remember the wound and the pain, that should make us wiser so we don't do that thing again, or we learn how to do it properly. This is why we don't forget for our benefit. But again, scars come with a story, and the story is what God uses to help others.

In church we're working through the Gospel of John, I've been reading about John the Baptist and am hoping to do some in depth study this week. But I said last week how God has a job for each of us, and that our lives are preparation for that job. There are no wasted experiences in life. Some of them are horrible, and God doesn't desire some of them to happen, but because we live in a fallen world they do. But none of them are wasted if God has stitched up the wound. Once it scars there is a story, we call it a testimony, and a testimony needs to be shared.

This is a side note, I think we put too much emphasis on the guy who God saved from drugs. It seems we all want that testimony. We all seem to wish we had been crack addicts who God rescued from that destructive lifestyle. God is incredible and He saves them all the time. Their stories tell of how great the grace and mercy of God are, but what about the person who never went through that? What about the person who gave their life to Jesus as a five year old, and faithfully served Him for seventy years? Why don't we say, "I wish that was my testimony!" That's the testimony God wants for all of us. He doesn't love you less if you were the crack addict, and His grace yearns to be given to you, God loves you.

Scars remind us of the wound, but they are a sign that it has been healed. Scars remind us of the pain, but they don't hurt anymore. Scars have a story, tell it. Don't be ashamed, and don't be afraid to show off your beautiful scars. The healing has occurred. Glorify God who brought the healing, and tell others that healing is possible. God will stitch it up and leave you the reminder. Don't forget, and don't hide it. Show it off, they are beautiful.

Peace be with you.

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Church

I heard a quote from Francis Chan a while ago where he said, "As I studied the Scriptures I realized that God doesn't want me to do this by myself, that's why He created church, the Church." Yesterday I met with my mentor for breakfast and as we talked I told him about how I was feeling alone.

He challenged me to get out of the office and out into the community. This has been something that I've been planning to do, I just haven't yet, not sure why. But he reminded me, "You can't save people you don't know. Matthew 9, 'Jesus was going through all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.' He went where the people where." You know when a mentor is good because he can correct you without making you feel like you've failed.

Then we began to talk about prayer. He said that probably every believer prays individually, but the big thing missing is corporate prayer. He told me the different things he's been doing to make sure he's doing this.

We weren't created to do this alone. In the very beginning, when the world was perfect, God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him." Back before the fall it was not good for us to exist in isolation, how much more crucial is it now for us to have community?

We must pray in community. My mentor said "Prayer most of the time isn't us impressing upon God, that is part of it, but a lot of it needs to be God impressing upon us. It needs to be us asking God to open our eyes to what He is already doing." When we as a church can ask God to show us what He is already doing, to open our eyes to how He is already working, then we can get on board with it. It might start with an individual. As the leader of a church, it must start with me, I have to be inviting God to work in me, to open my eyes to what He is doing before I can lead the people in that.

The people of the church must gather to pray. The early church believed that in prayer we had to be an army that would pray to God. Will we be that army? One man can do something, a group of men can do something more, a church can do more still, The Church could do something incredible. We simply need to ask God to open our eyes to what He is already doing, and then we need to get on board with Him.

Peace be with you

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Prayer

For a few weeks now I've been thinking about something I realized during a conversation with God. Sunday I shared that prayer is the most important part of our relationship with God. Prayer is how we communicate with God. Above everything else, Satan wants to keep us from prayer. I blogged a few weeks ago, Satan will fill your prayer time with Bible reading if that is what he has to do to keep you from praying, because it doesn't matter that we know a lot about God through reading His word. What matters is that we know God through conversing with Him.

I know prayer is crucial, and I know Satan will do whatever he can to keep me from prayer. And I know it is my job to pray. Acts 6.4, "But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word." See the order, prayer is first, they will devote themselves to prayer before they focus on the Bible. I must be the same way.

I've been thinking about this so much since Sunday, and I know that I need to spend more time in prayer. I need to fight for that time. I remember back in college, when life was simple, how easy it was to pray. We would meet every Sunday night as a group. We had a prayer room set up on campus and we did sessions of 24 hour prayer. There was the Chapel on campus, an absolutely beautiful room where I could escape and be alone before God. It was so easy then.

For almost two years now I've been involved in professional ministry. And for those two years I've spent a lot of time on my own. In Michigan I spent a majority of time by myself. There weren't many people I felt safe enough around to share my heart with. Those I did know I could trust were involved in their own ministries and we had little time to pray together. Now, once again I'm alone a lot. I'm at the church by myself and then I go home to an empty house. It sounds like the perfect situation for someone longing for more prayer, but honestly I find it harder than ever, and now I need prayer more than ever.

I find the need to fill the silence more and more. It never used to be like that. I never needed noise in the background, I loved and longed for the silence. But I think having so much time alone leaves you needing to hear something besides your own voice and your thoughts. I've been longing for the prayer life I had back in college for over a year now, and I haven't been able to get it back.

I really had no idea that this post would go in this direction, I was simply planning on sharing the verse from Acts to help us all be aware that we must fight for our prayer time, and that we must not replace the best option with a good option. I am in no way saying to stop reading the Bible, it tells us about God and through studying it we learn about His heart and are able to pray better. What I am saying is that we must guard our communication with God as we would guard our communication with a spouse.

That was my intention, but instead I've shared part of my heart.

Peace be with you

Monday, July 25, 2011

Do we want it?

"A Christian society is not going to arrive until most of us really want it: and we are not going to want it until we become fully Christian. I may repeat 'Do as you would be done by' til I am black in the face, but I cannot really carry it out til I love my neighbour as myself: and I cannot learn to love my neighbor as myself til I learn to love God: and I cannot learn to love God except by learning to obey Him."
-C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, Book three Christian Behaviour, Chapter 3 Social Morality

I'm reading this book with one of my brothers, and I've been thinking about this chapter, particularly this quote, a lot since last week. He sent me a text message yesterday saying how awesome the chapter was. I actually ended up using the chapter, and again mainly this quote, for discussion last night at church. The chapter on Social Morality is absolutely incredible, and Lewis ends the chapter with this quote.

Until most of us want a Christian society is won't come. But we can't want it until we understand it. Lewis talks about how we all want bits of it, we're attracted to bits of it. The parts that are easy, that make us feel good, that don't require much, those are the parts we like.

"Most of us are not really approaching the subject in order to find out what Christianity says: we are approaching it in the hope of finding support from Christianity for the views of our own party. We are looking for an ally where we are offered either a Master or -a Judge."

Christianity is not my idea of how I relate to God, it is the relationship God offers with Him to me. It is on God's terms not on mine. In order to have a Christian society we, as a group of people, must understand what Christianity says. Once we know what it says we can learn to obey the one who offers us the relationship. As Lewis says once I learn to obey Him I can begin to love Him. Once I learn to love Him, and I can take the love I have for Him and from Him, and give that same love to others. Once I love others I will do to them as I would have them do to me.

Jesus said, "YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22.37b-40)

That's really what it's all about. In a Christian society there would be no need for laws, because love would guide us. That is how God created it to be. The question is, do we want it? Are we willing to sacrifice and accept God's terms? Are we willing to find out what Christianity really says, and are we willing to follow it? Until we are, a Christian society will remain a dream.

Peace be with you

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

A Root of All Evil

Yesterday was day 51 in my 1 Timothy study. Due to how busy life has been my study has been limited to the days I'm in the office, so it's taking a little longer than I had initially thought. But yesterday the section was 1 Timothy 6.3-10. While I was reading William Hendriksen's thoughts I noticed something for the first time.

I've heard a quote many times, I've said it several times, and yesterday I found out that I've heard and said the wrong thing. The quote is actually a misquotation of 1 Timothy 6.10. "The love of money is the root of all evil." If you're using the King James Bible or the New Living Translation, that would be the correct quotation. But if we look at the New American Standard Bible, the New International Version, the English Standard Version, several other translations, and most importantly, the original text we see the correct translation, "For a root of all evils is the love of money" (directly from the Greek text). "For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil," (NASB).

I have been wanting to blog about this verse for a while now, but every time God wouldn't give me peace about it, so I held off. I now see why, I hadn't noticed "a root" in the text. Honestly, I think it's because I was so used to hearing "the root" that my mind put a "the" in there instead of the "a". I don't know how many times I have read this passage, but I never caught it until I went to the commentary.

So what do we do with this? We now see that loving money is not the only source of evil, but simply one of them. However it is crucial to note that money in itself is not evil, the love of money is. C.S. Lewis talks about this in Mere Christianity.

"But in real life people are cruel for one of two reasons - either because they are sadists, that is because they have a sexual perversion which makes cruelty a cause of sensual pleasure to them, or else for the sake of something they are going to get out of it - money, or power, or safety. But pleasure, money, power, and safety are all, as far as they go, good things. The badness consists in pursuing them by the wrong method, or in the wrong way, or too much... I do mean that wickedness, when you examine it, turns out to be the pursuit of some good in the wrong way." (Book Two, What Christians Believe; Chapter 2, The Invasion

Money in itself is not evil, it is the love of money, the drive to have more, the yearning that is never satisfied, which is evil. We must learn to be content in what God has given us. We must learn generosity with what we have been given. By serving we stay humble, by giving we stay generous. Generosity will keep us from the love of money, which will keep us, in that aspect, away from evil.

In the words of John Wesley, "Make all you can, save all you can, give all you can."

Peace be with you

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Don't Debate, Discuss

In his book, Mere Christianity, author C.S. Lewis says, "If you are a Christian you do not have to believe that all the other religions are simply wrong all through... If you are a Christian, you are free to think that all those religions, even the queerest ones, contain at least some hint of the truth... when I became a Christian I was able to take a more liberal view. But, of course, being a Christian does mean thinking that where Christianity differs from other religions, Christianity is right and they are wrong."

Liberal here does not have anything to do with a political stand point, but simply means being open minded. Christianity frees us to be open minded. One of my professors said once, "If you are firm in your faith, don't be afraid to read the Book of Mormon, don't be afraid to read the Koran." He's right. I know the truth, I am rooted in the truth that I have found in Christianity. Because of this, that which is not truth will not shake me.

I am able to take a more open minded view, not looking for how the differences in belief between Christianity and Islam, or Buddhism, or Hinduism are ok and all have the same end result, but I can look at each religion and see the elements of truth in each one. I have not yet read the Koran, and I have been meaning to begin my study of the religions of the world. All of it is academic. I am not searching for proof that my belief is correct, I am not exploring to see if these other religions are the Truth, but I am searching for the elements of truth, showing that really everything comes back to Jehovah. All truth is God's truth, and so any truth anywhere points back to God.

1 Timothy 1.5, "But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith."

As a Christ follower, my motivation is love, 1 Corinthians 16.14, "Let all that you do be done in love." The goal is love. Jesus said, “Love God, love your neighbor.” The whole purpose of Christianity is to produce love. Love will always save us. It saves us from destructive thinking and speaking. It saves us from arrogant and condescending thoughts. It saves us from condemning things we don’t agree with or understand. It saves us from expressing our views in a way that hurts others. We are motivated by love, not legalism.

1 Peter 3.15, "but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence;" I must know what I believe and why I believe it. When I am asked, I must be ready to share it. But I am to do it with gentleness and reverence. I am to give my reasons for my faith in love.

The goal is a pure heart. The word pure means without any contaminating impurity. My motives are pure and unmixed. There is no need to prove myself; the only desire is to lead others nearer to God by sharing the truth in love. This is why I hate debating; this is why I refuse to debate. In a debate it’s two people trying to prove their intelligence to win an argument. I won’t do that. I’ll discuss a topic with people, discussion is a good thing, debating isn’t. Through calm rational discussion we can show the truth of God.

A good conscience comes from living a life without shame. It gives us the right to say what we say, because it is backed up by a life that lives out what its saying.

Sincere faith is faith with no hypocrisy. We simply desire to know truth and to share it. This is the simple life that Christ has freed us to have. It isn’t a life worried about keeping the rules, because it isn’t under the law. It’s freed from the law; it’s freed from worry and anxiety, and is able to focus fully on living for God.

Debating does nothing, it accomplishes nothing, and therefore it is a dangerous tool. In a debate people are close minded, they have fixed themselves to a belief, and they refuse to even listen to anything contrary, except to be able to refute it with an argument supporting their thought process. Nothing is accomplished through this type of stubbornness except building walls and creating chasms. Instead of debating, let's discuss.

As Christians let us know what we believe, let us know why, let us make our faith our own. Let's be motivated by love. May our hearts be pure and our motives unmixed. May our lives be lived above reproach, may we show what true Christians are, and may we not be the group that Gandhi mentions in his quote, "I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. They are so unlike your Christ." Let us have a sincere faith that simply desires truth. A faith that seeks the goal of Christlikenss in our own lives and strives to fulfill the purpose of helping others become Christlike.

Let's be willing to discuss, to listen. We cannot and will not compromise on our beliefs, but that doesn't mean we cannot talk with people whose beliefs are different. We must earn the right to talk, we must earn the right to share. Look again at the verse from 1 Peter, "but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence;" When we are asked, earn the right to talk. We must live lives of love and when people ask, "Where does this come from? Why are you different?" we have done what Jesus has told us to do. We have earned the right to talk by living like Christ.

When the time comes to share, don't do it in a way that says you're right and everyone else is wrong, that completely goes against and destroys everything you've built up to this point. Share the truth in love, do it with gentleness, meeting them where they are, that's how Lewis wrote Mere Christianity. Do it with respect.

My mentor has told me countless times, "No one ever become a follower of Christ because they lost an argument. People become followers of Christ because they are shown love." That is the goal of our instruction, love.

Peace be with you

Monday, July 18, 2011

Freedom in Christ

Yesterday we finished up an eleven week series on the Fruit of the Spirit. I recapped that this is fruit, it takes time for it to grow and mature in our lives. It takes time and effort. This fruit is of the Spirit, so God is the one who produces it. These are dependant upon God. And finally, the text says "fruit is" not "fruits are" so this is an indivisible list, not a pick and choose.

These all build on each other like the floors of a house. You can't have the higher ones without the lower ones. You need the foundation of God before you can even begin construction. The Fruit of the Spirit is for believers, it's for those who have died to sin and self. Fruit can only grow in ground that has been cleared and plowed. For this fruit to be produced we can't have the weeds of sin in the garden of our hearts.

Once we remove sin there is a void that must be filled, because Jesus said, "“When the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and not finding any, it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when it comes, it finds it swept and put in order. Then it goes and takes along seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they go in and live there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first.” (Luke 11.24-26).

We fill that space with Christ, and then this fruit is produced. This fruit brings freedom. Galatians 5.1, "It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery." Christ has set us free to for freedom, and that is why Paul ends verse 23 with, "against such things there is no law."

The law is not the point. For the Jews it was, but for Christians it isn't. The law gives no freedom, the law rules our lives. The religious leaders of the Bible were so legalistic that in order to protect the people from breaking the law they made over 300 additional rules so that if was practically impossible to touch any of the Ten Commandments. But there is no life in legalism. Christ didn't die so that we could follow the rules, He died so that we could live with Love.

Love frees us. And in love we are able to have true live and true freedom. Jesus said to love God and love others, and on these two hangs every other law. It's true. If I love God I won't take His name in vane, I won't worship an idol, I will place nothing above Him, and I will keep His day holy. If I love people I won't steal, murder, lie, covet, violate a marriage, and I will honor my parents. Love is what we live by, not the law. And that is freedom in Christ.

The law is good, because the law is from God. We need the law. Paul says in Romans 7 that if we didn't have the law we wouldn't know what sin is. If we didn't have the law we wouldn't know that certain things were wrong. But the law cannot save us, all it can do is condemn. It simply shows us how sinful we are, it shows us how far we fall short. The law, the Ten Commandments are not the goal we strive for, they are the foundation we begin with.

"Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." Philippians 3.12-14, he isn't striving to keep the rules, but for Christlikness. That is the goal, to become like Christ. Our purpose is to help others become like Christ. The Fruit of the Spirit frees us and empowers us to strive for that.

Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, Self-Control, these nine characteristics are to mark the life of the Christ follower. These nine gifts come from God, and these nine attributes help us to become like Christ.

Peace be with you

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Real Needs

Janette and I were at a movie with some friends Friday and before the previews started there was an add from Sprint. They have a new program set up where you can text to a certain number to lower the cost of movie tickets.

Now I agree, the cost of a movie today is ridiculous. Normally Janette and I go to the first showing so it's only $5, or we'll wait and go to the dollar theater. Lower movie ticket prices should happen, but honestly do we need a texting program set up to make it happen? This shows yet again how our society is dependant upon entertainment.

Instead of sending a text to lower the price of movie tickets, why doesn't someone set up a texting program to help end world hunger? Why doesn't someone set up a texting program to end poverty? I heard a statistic a few years ago that said if every person who professes to be a Christian would tithe ten percent, we could end poverty.

America, we need to get our priorities in order. Church, we need to get our priorities in order. Why will we repeatedly spend $10 or more, now that there are 3D showings that cost way too much, to see a movie, but we won't give a dollar to help out the various charitable promotions stores do and ask you to support when you check out?

Church, why won't we give God the small amount that He asks for? It's all His and He could demand it all, but He says "All I want is 10%, you can use the rest." Do we simply not trust Him enough to handle our finances? This is God who parted the Red Sea, who saved people from the Lions den and the fiery furnace, the God who raised the dead, the God who spoke everything into existence. Why don't we trust Him with our finances?

There are real needs in the world, needs much greater than a cheaper movie ticket. When are we going to focus on the real needs and start meeting them?

Peace be with you

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Created to be Creative

Today I feel like talking about the Universe, it is something that constantly fascinates me. I have a very limited understanding of it. Basically I know it's really big, so big in fact, that we don't even know how big. Scientists believe there are hundreds of billions of galaxies out there. Our own galaxy, the Milky Way has an estimated 100 billion to 400 billion stars, depending on your source. And God spoke it all into existence.

There are so many wonders out there that we haven't even discovered yet. There are some we may never see. But God made them all. Part of me wonders if the reason we still find new things is because God is still creating new things. God is a creative God. Look at the stuff we have right here on Earth. Then look up.

The unique thing about Earth is that we are in the perfect position in our Galaxy to observe everything else. The Milky Way is a spiral galaxy, and our solar system is located near the edge of one of the spiral arms and above the equatorial plane of the galaxy. The one planet we know of that contains intelligent life is ideally placed to view the rest of the galaxy, what are the chances that this happened randomly?

The God who made all of this made us in His image. He is creative, and He made us to be creative. He created us with the ability to create telescopes to observe the universe from our unique position in the galaxy. He made us with the ability to create satellites and space ships to to venture into the final frontier and discover the vastness of space.

If Heaven has free time and we are allowed and enabled to do whatever we want I would opt to travel across the universe and see the wonders that are out there. To see everything that my Creator has created. My second choice we be to travel through time. I'd see the world before the fall of man, see it in it's infant perfection. I'd go to each civilization during the peak of their cultures. See ancient Egypt in it's prime. Spend time in ancient Greece when it was all new. Explore Israel throughout the Bible times. Visit the Roman Empire. I'd want to see all of it.

I'm drawn to that because I'm drawn to the creativity of the image of God. I've shared this before, "The glory of God is man fully alive." When are we more alive then when we are creating something? God made us to be creative. Let's never stop.

Peace be with you

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

The Enemy

Last night I was finishing Return of the Jedi. Normally I'll put in a movie, and finish it three or four days later because I end up falling asleep. So last night I was watching the final battle between Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader.

Luke defeats his enemy after their second fierce battle. After being attacked by the Emperor and then saved by Vader, who is Luke's father, Vader is mortally wounded. They are on a large space station that is about to be destroyed and so Luke now grabs his dying father and drags him to a space ship to get them off of the station.

As they prepare to board the ship Vader asks Luke to remove his mask. When the intimidating face of Darth Vader is removed we see a very pale, bald man, with scars on his head. There is nothing intimidating about him at all.

We have a real enemy, just like Darth Vader. The devil is real. The Bible says in 1 Peter 5.8, "Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour." He prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. He is real, and he is dangerous. C.S. Lewis said, "The mistake Christan's make in talking about Satan are that we either joke about him or we ignore him." We can't afford to do that. Luke couldn't ignore Darth Vader or joke about him not taking him seriously, if he had, he would have been killed. The same is true of us.

We have a real enemy who would like nothing more than to devour us because we are servants of his number one enemy, God. We cannot ignore him and pretend he doesn't exist, if we drop our guard even for a moment, we will be taken out. We are told to be alert, to be ready for battle. If we stand firm in battle, we will be victorious.

Twice the Bible tells us to resist Satan. Here in 1 Peter is says to resist him and that, "After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you." (1 Peter 5.10) In James 4.7 it says, "Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you."

It is not our resistance that makes us victorious, but our submission to the power of God. 1 Peter 5.6-7 says, "Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you." It is not us or our abilities that Satan fears, but God's. God has already defeated Satan.

Because of the cross of the Savior and the empty tomb of the risen Lord, the mask of Darth Vader has been removed from Satan to revel a pale old man. Jesus has won the battle; Jesus has defeated Satan. When we submit to His power and stand firm in His victory, Satan must flee from us, because Satan cannot stand before the power of Christ.

Be on the alert, stand ready for battle, we do this by submitting to God and surrendering to His victorious power. Satan cannot stand before the warrior of God and must flee. Be that warrior.

Peace be with you

Monday, July 11, 2011

Spirit-Control

Yesterday I preached sermon 10 of 11 in our Fruit of the Spirit series. We talked about Self-Control. As I've preached these messages I've begun the sermon writing process with the blogs I wrote last year, and the notes I have from the teen lessons from last spring/summer, and my original notes from a year and a half ago.

As I've been doing this series I came to a deeper understanding about the Fruit of the Spirit, but my thinking wasn't really that radically transformed until this past week. I started on self-control thinking I knew what it was about, then God showed up.

I said in the sermon,"This seems to be the one people struggle with the most. This seems to be the one that people have the most trouble with." When I first studied this topic with a group, the adults of the church wanted to know about self-control. From my initial study I found the word, egkrateia, to be simple and straightforward. But then I read something that I had read before, it just hadn't started to sink in yet.

"the various powers bestowed by God upon man are capable of abuse; the right use demands the controlling power of the Spirit of God;"

Galatians 5.22-23, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law."

I think the reason people struggle with this one so much is because we put too much emphasis on the "Self" listed here, and not enough on the "of the Spirit" at the beginning. This is the Fruit of the Spirit. It's fruit so it takes time to grow, but the Spirit is the one producing it. These nine characteristics are all Fruit of the Spirit, so we can substitute any one of them for the word fruit at the beginning. It would be, "Love of the Spirit" "Joy of the Spirit" so therefore it would be "Self-Control of the Spirit".

These characteristics are dependant upon God. So really, it isn't self-control, but Spirit control of the self. The Spirit empowers us to be self-controlled, and to use the gifts God has given us properly, it is dependant upon Him. Spirit-Control.

Peace be with you

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Brokenness

Over the last few months I've been more exposed to the brokenness of this world more then ever, and there is still so much of it I haven't seen. People share stories about their pasts, and it's incredible to see where God has delivered them from, but the part that is the worst, is that God had to deliver them.

How did this happen? "In the beginning God created the heaven's and the earth." Genesis 1.1. "God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good." Genesis 1.31. God, who is morally excellent and perfect, makes a world that is also morally excellent and perfect. From someone Good, comes something Good.

Genesis 3, we have the fall of man. Eve is deceived, Adam fails to protect her, and the world is cursed. Sin enters due to pride, and do to a failure to live out our God given roles.

Genesis 6-10, we have the flood and the descendants of Noah. Every wicked person is destroyed, and we are left with Noah, a man who is righteous, and his sons. From them come all the people of the world. Noah followed God, Noah would have passed God on to his sons. Who rejected Him? When? Why?

And now it's 2011, and the world is full of brokenness. In it we see how ugly sin is. Look at what it has done. Sin takes something so good, something made by God and given to us by God, and perverts it. Look at sex. God gave this incredible gift to husbands and wives. It is a seal of the covenant of marriage, it is that one thing that they share in their relationship. It gives enjoyment and life. Yet look at what it has become.

Women are told that unless they look and act a certain way they are not desirable. Women are used for the pleasure of a man who has no concern for the consequences she might face because of his selfishness.

Men are sucked into pornography. Sin has taken something as beautiful as a woman and made her an object of lust. Men get sucked into it because it's "safe". There is no fear of rejection with porn. It will never tell you "no". It will never say "stop". It will never tell you to slow down. There is no risk with it as there is in a relationship. Porn is easy, as is all sin, and that's why men get pulled into it.

Look at any sin, and we see how it has taken something God made good, pure, and beautiful and twisted it. Marriage, we have single moms all around the world. This is why women don't feel beautiful, they don't grow up with a dad telling them that society is full of lies. They don't grow up with a dad showing them that they are worth fighting for and that the deserve to be treated like the princess they are. This is why boys get sucked into porn and never grow into men. There isn't a dad around to show them what a man is. There isn't a dad to show them that men live with integrity, that men take the risk of rejection, that men fight the battles for the heart of the princess.

Life, God has given this incredible gift. Life is an amazing thing, we have the opportunity to experience the beauty of creation. The sights, the smells, the tastes, and the sounds. Yet we waste it. We indulge in meaningless, unsatisfying pleasures that leave us empty. We squander time on pointless activities instead of investing it in relationships. We have idolized success at the expense of life, our own and those of friends and family. "The glory of God is man fully alive." How many of us can honestly say we are fully alive?

Why do we choose to live in a way that doesn't satisfy and that causes pain and more brokenness? Why have we let sin reign in the world? As I said, it's easy. It is always easier to sin than to do what is right. It's easier to go through the motions than to live fully alive. But honestly, a life that is fully alive is well worth the price that has to be paid. A life that is fully alive is never broken. There is pain, there are struggles, but there is God. There is His peace, and His life.

John 10.10, "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly." The thief, Satan, came to steal what God has given. He came to kill and to destroy the perfection that God created. Jesus came to stop Him, to give life, and life abundantly. Satan came to bring brokenness, Jesus came to put the pieces back together, to weld them and make them stronger. When are we going to let Him?

Let us be the change that we want to see. Let us be the hands of Jesus that bring healing and restoration. Let us say that enough is enough. Let us boldly stand in the shadow of the cross, in the light of the empty tomb, surrounded by the blood of Christ, dressed in the armour of God, together as the Body of Christ, and let us take back from Satan what has been given to us by God.

Let us live life fully alive to the glory of God.

Peace be with you

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Denominations

One of my Proverbs 18.24 brothers and I were talking this weekend. He's been serving at a church but recently God has really started to lead him in another direction. He called me to talk about something for my upcoming wedding, but then the conversation shifted to his future.

He asked me a very big question, denomination or non-denominational. In the year 2011, non-denominational has become a denomination, but the idea is an independent church not affiliated with an over arching church governmental system. He's trying to figure out which way to go.

This is a question that I wrestled with during college. I served in a church for a year and half early in my collegiate career, and I saw a lot of things I really hated, and had no desire to be associated with if the denomination put up with pastors like that. I talked with a few professors about the idea of going to a different denomination or possibly even going non-denominational. Some of my peers had similar concerns, and their response was, "We'll just leave and form our own denomination." Those comments made me realize that you don't fix something by leaving and starting something new, you stick with it and re-focus it on the Biblical foundation it started with.

The last thing we need is another denomination. The church doesn't need any more division. Jesus said, "Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste; and a house divided against itself falls." (Luke 11.17b) The church is no exception to this. The Kingdom of God cannot fall. It is God's Kingdom, and so it will endure, it will be victorious, and it will be established for all eternity because it is of God. But if the church refuses to unify and rally behind the Kingdom, then God will advance His Kingdom some other way.

Denominations are going to exist for the rest of time. There is no way around them. As long as you have people, there will be different thoughts about the interpretation of scripture, different styles of church service, different emphasis put on life. The key though is not to focus on the things that make us different, rather on the central thing that unifies us, Christ.

Who cares if you believe in once saved always saved and I believe that you can reject your salvation. Does that really matter? Who cares if the Catholic church does infant baptism and others believe it should be adult baptism by choice. Is it really a big issue. These things in the light of eternity don't matter, they are only an issue now because of people's traditions and preferences.

Honestly people, let's set ourselves aside and unite behind the purpose of advancing the Kingdom. Let's set aside our pride so that we can be able to say, "Do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and that only through His blood can a person get to Heaven? Awesome, let's work together to build the Kingdom." Lets set aside our differences, because they don't matter, and let's unify around Christ, for the Glory of God.

Peace be with you