A thorn in the flesh

Yesterday I was reading the passage on Paul's thorn in the flesh.  Here's what Paul wrote:

2 Corinthians 12:7 Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me—to keep me from exalting myself! 8 Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. 9 And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. 10 Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.

God took this passage and spoke to my heart in a very clear and challenging way.  Let me share with you three observations I made.

Whatever Paul's "thorn" was, he didn't want it and asked numerous times for God to remove it.  Paul calls it a messenger from Satan to torment him so this thorn must not have been an easy thing to deal with.  He described it as torment.  My first observation was that this was no little thing to Paul, he hated it and wanted it to change.

But God tells him definitively that He is not going to remove it.  Some how, in some way, God's glory was made more evident in Paul's life through Paul's weakness.  My guess is that when people saw Paul's weakness, his thorn, and they saw his devotion and love for Jesus, they would know that what made him like he was was the power of God at work in his life.  But what was clear was that no matter how much Paul wanted that thorn gone, no matter how much he asked, God wasn't going to remove it.  That was my second observation.

My third observation, something I think I'd glossed over and missed in the past, was Paul had accepted that answer and was content to live with his less that ideal situation if at the end of the day God would be more greatly exalted.  I imagine that he still would very much like to have had that "thorn" removed.  It was undoubtedly an irritant since most thorns are; it clearly hurt him.  But Paul had quit fighting against it and had accepted the answer of God and now was choosing to live in contentment and allow God to shine through that weakness.

Here's where it gets personal.  I've had a thorn in my flesh too and I've asked God repeatedly to remove it, to change it, but he has always said no.  But what was clear to me yesterday was, that unlike Paul, I've never accepted that.  I still fight against it on the inside.  I chaff at it and it often consumes my thinking.  I have been unwilling to accept what Jesus has been saying to me for years-- "Jimmy, I'm not changing it for in this weakness my grace is made perfect in you.  Jimmy, you shine brighter for me in this weakness than you would if I removed it.  I'm not going to take away your thorn."   I've refused to accept that, though almost three decades have gone by. 

But yesterday God tenderly helped me see Paul's contentment and his willingness to embrace the thorn and stop fighting against it.  Today I'm asking God to do that in me.  I can't say that accepting this thorn is going to be easy, or a quick turn around, but I sense God's work in me to that end.

It's easy to rationalize

A few Sundays ago I said something that I believe is worth repeating here in this blog.  We’ve been studying Abraham in the book of Genesis and one thing I’m pretty convinced of is that when he took Hagar as his second wife, he knew that was not what God intended for the fulfillment of his promise to Abraham that he would have a son.  I continue to believe that Abraham knew in his heart all along that God intended to give Sarah a child.  So why did he do it?  Maybe he wanted to support Sarah in her plan—to give her some relief in how she was feeling as a woman who had not been able to give him a son.  Maybe the prospect of having another wife was enticing to Abraham’s lust.  Maybe at the end of the day, he convinced himself this might work but whatever his ultimate motivation, I believe he knew this was not what God wanted him to do.

            But thirteen years go by and he has a son.  His wives have learned to live with the situation so things seem a bit better at home but during this time something happens to Abraham.  He begins to believe that he must have been right in his decision to take Hagar as his wife.  So much so that after thirteen years he doesn’t even think about Sarah having a son anymore.  God had promised him a son and by his own ingenuity he had brought it about—through Hagar.  So when God shows up in person to talk with Abraham and tells him that Sarah’s going to have a son next year, his immediate response is to laugh to himself at the impossibility of such a thing.  Yet God is patient and his rebuke is gentle.  God will bless Ishmael but the promise God made long ago would be fulfilled in Sarah’s son, a boy to be named Isaac.

            When I read that and saw what happened to Abraham, I immediately saw a corollary between what happened to him and what happens to us.   We often do things that in our hearts we know are wrong.  We know God doesn’t approve but we convince ourselves it’s ok.  And as time goes on, and nothing really bad seems to happen, we convince ourselves that not only is it not wrong, it’s what God wanted us to do.  I think we’re particularly susceptible to this in relationships with others but really it can happen in almost any area of life. 

Here’s a couple of “for instances” that I see often.  Walking with God demands a daily personal time of prayer and fellowship in God’s Word but because we know we can talk to God always and everywhere, and because we’ve read the Bible before, we rationalize that walking with God doesn’t need that daily, focused time of meeting with Him.  In fact, we convince ourselves that God would rather have the “on the go prayers” than the disciplined time with Him. 

Commitment to your church family is a command from God but people rationalize that they can worship anywhere.  Before long we have forsaken the church gathered for worship for fishing on the river.  We convince ourselves this is the will of God because God is everywhere in nature and we pray before we launch.  And besides, we’re spending time with our children. 

I could go on but my point is simply this; let’s stop rationalizing our disobedience and submit our selves to God.  For some of you, you’ve been so long ignoring the prompting of the Holy Spirit, it may be hard for you to even hear His voice still.  I’m praying for revival because in revival we all hear Him clearly once more. 

But let this be my challenge to us in the days ahead.  Heed his voice.  Listen to His Spirit.  When you know something is wrong in your heart, when you have that check in your spirit, obey God.  Stop doing what you are doing.  Start doing what you need to be doing.  The old song says, “Trust and obey for there is no other way…”  Trust the Lord Jesus will see you through.  He will help you.  And obey those promptings, obey His voice.  There is no other way for us to walk before him blamelessly than to trust in Jesus and obey His will.

One final word, walking in obedience is not easy.  It often hurts.  It often cost you.  There can be a huge sacrifice in not living for your self.  The world says, “You fool!  This is all there is—why are you wasting your life?”  But we know better.  This is not all there is.  Jim Elliot once said, “He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he can not lose.”  Christ died for our obedience—now by His grace let’s live in it.

            

Buck the shift!

I recently attended a daylong seminar where Andy Stanley was one of the speakers. One of the things that he said was that there has been a shift in church as it relates to one’s participation in worship. Indeed things are always shifting, in culture and in the church. Some shifts are good. Our country has shifted from viewing people of color as chattel to viewing all men as created equal regardless of their race. That has been a good shift. Our country has also shifted from believing in certain moral absolutes to seeing all morality as neutral or relative. That is not a good shift.

The church also experiences shifts. In the last couple of decades the church has shifted in its missiology. In years gone by missionaries would often taken their American culture and impose that on believers instead of working through that cultures’ constructs. Today missionaries are committed to imparting the gospel and separating it from our culture’s distinctives. That is a good shift.

Another shift in the church has been the move away from participating in the central worship service. According to Stanley, today believers are not even particularly committed to a single church family and are even less committed to being a regular participant on a weekly basis. As a response to this, North Point Community Church, where Stanley serves as the lead pastor, closes down the last Sunday of the year and doesn’t meet.

Now it may be obvious from the direction of these thoughts, but I don’t think this is a good shift. In fact, it seems to me that the lack of commitment to a local church family and the Sunday morning gathering is a shift that reflects a general lack of commitment and individualism that we see our culture. Not all individualism is bad but one of the things that should be so true of us as believers is that we are a body, a family, and together we are so much more than we can be on our own. In fact, God calls us to that unity.

In the book of Hebrews chapter ten God tells us that in light of Jesus’ great sacrifice we should approach God’s throne with confidence and we should draw near to God with confidence. But he also says, in light of Jesus sacrifice, don’t forsake gathering together, as some are doing, but make it a time to encourage one another to love and to do good deeds. I guess one response could be to give into the shift, stop resisting and just take the last Sunday of the year off since many people aren’t going to come anyway. But something in me says we should defy this shift and encourage just the opposite; commitment and faithfulness to be here every Sunday whether we feel like it or not and be here regardless of what the rest of the world is doing. After all, it is Jesus’ sacrifice that God says provides the motivation to come and encourage one another.

Less you think this doesn’t affect us at BCBC, did you know that our attendance can fluctuate as much as fifty people from Sunday to Sunday? I believe quite often folks are deliberating on Saturday night or even getting up on Sunday and deciding then whether they will be a part of the Sunday gathering. I realize there will always be major things that cause us not to be here—sickness, vacation, work or travel but if I could, I want to challenge us to make being here not optional. Why not decide, even as you read this, that from this point on being a part of your church family gathering on Sunday morning will not be up for debate or discussion? Why not choose to be here if at all possible and you make it a priority?

When I was a new Christian at Ferrum College, Jeff Denlinger was encouraging me in my new commitment. I was supposed to meet him at the cafeteria and we were going to church that Sunday morning. Well when the alarm went off, I was tired and decided I wouldn’t go so I rolled over and went back to sleep. In what seems like just minutes later there was a knock on my door and there stood Jeff. “Aren’t you coming with me to church” he asked? I gave him some sheepish reply about being too tired and so he left. I got back in bed, wide-awake now, laying there thinking about what I had just done. Jesus died for me, rose again, and I was too tired to be a part of his family? Alan, my brother was my roommate, and he too was wide-awake. “You want to go,” I asked? “Absolutely” he said, and we were up and moving fast. That Sunday morning I made a commitment in my heart I would be at worship with God’s people on Sundays and by the grace of God that has been my heart. And I wasn’t a pastor then-- I was a college student!

Let me ask you to make the same commitment today. Won’t you decide even as you read this that being a part of your church family on Sunday will not be optional? Won’t you make a commitment that unless it is something that can’t wait, you will make God’s people your priority on Sundays? I love you and I hope that you will resist this church shift and you will be one of the family who others can count on to be here and be an encouragement to those around you!

Obamacare

This week I heard of some Christians sitting around bashing our President. As you may know recently he had to have some stitches from an accident and they were so very glad it happened to him. The friend who actually heard these folks was telling me that he thought they would genuinely rejoice if President Obama was assassinated. And these were followers of Christ meeting in a Sunday school class setting.

Why do so many professing Christians seem to "hate" our president? I mean I realize that many of his policies may be detrimental to our nation over time, maybe even now, but is a spirit of hatred and animosity what God calls us to as believers? I don't think so. If anything I think it's just the opposite. Let me tell you how we ought to respond to our president.

First, we should genuinely care for him. No matter how you feel about his policies he is a man that Jesus died for and God loves. Furthermore, the Bible is pretty clear that we are to love our enemies. I personally don't consider him my enemy but for those of you who do, remember the call of God on your life is to love your enemies, care for those who despitefully use you. Obama care is what God calls you to.

Secondly, we are called to respect our president. In the book of Romans in our NT it tells us to submit to those in authority because they are there by God's will. He either set them up purposefully or He has allowed them to rise to power. We are to show honor to whom honor is due and I believe as our elected leader he is due honor. This means we should refrain from name calling and pejorative speech about President Obama.

Thirdly, we should pray for our president. The Scriptures call us to pray for our leaders first of all. We owe it to President Obama to pray for him wisdom and discernment as he leads us. We should pray that God will be at work in his life and that he might truly experience and live out the saving grace of God in his life.

Now I feel the need to say that none of this precludes our seeking to elect another man to the presidency of our nation if we believe President Obama is not the right guy for the job. It is one of the wonders of our government that we the people can elect our leaders. But even as you may long for a different leader, for the time being I challenge you to Obama-care; to care for our President as God would have us. Let us not walk in the flesh but in the Spirit.

Without faith...

Yesterday I had a conversation with a friend who was really struggling with his failures. No matter how hard he tried, he felt like his life didn't measure up to those around him. They were more successful, they had steady employment, they maybe had families and he was struggling with his lack of those things. Consequently he was having a hard time believing that God loved Him or God wanted to be in His life. Truly I could relate to what he was saying. Sometimes when I try really hard at something and it never seems to work for me I feel like I am no good, a failure. Actually it gets worse. I feel like God doesn't care or God doesn't love me. Why is it not working for me but it is for everyone else? Well the truth is most everyone else is probably struggling too but that doesn't take away my pain. It didn't take away my friend's pain to know that others were not as successful as he saw them.

Well I felt like the Lord gave me a word for him. In the Bible it says that without faith it's impossible to please God. What that means is that no matter how hard we try to please God by our actions, and those things are important and often do please God, we will not please Him unless we believe Him. You see, you can be a success from the world's perspective and a failure from God's but the other can also be true. You can fail at many things in the world but still be pleasing to God because you have faith. As I thought about that I wondered what it is that God wants me to believe in order to please Him? Obviously we must believe that we need Him, our sin separates us from Him and that Christ as God came to forgive us and save us. But immediately there were some other things that were pressed on my heart.

When we are in the midst of failure in our lives, or even in a storm or difficult time in our lives, it pleases God when we take Him at His Word and believe that He knows our frailties, our flaws and our failures and yet He cares for us and He will never leave us. It pleases Him when we believe Him that our worth is not found in how successful we are in the eyes of others, but rather our worth is found in how much God treasures us in spite of our failures! It pleases Him to know we believe Him and trust Him that all things are under His control. I told my friend, it pleases God to know that you love Him and trust Him even when He has given you a harder life that many and maybe you have more setbacks than most. My friend struggles with some disabilities that have adversely affected his life.

So this morning I don't want you to be overwhelmed by the pain of failure. I want you instead, by faith, to believe in the goodness of God! Believe Him that He knows your pain and hurt and He cares. And go one step further and trust Him that He is at work in your life for His glory and your ultimate good. Pick yourself up and press on. If you failed in something you were trying to do, then consider that God's leading in another direction. If you failed the Lord in some area of obedience, repent, confess your sin and then get back to following the Lord. Remember, without faith it is impossible to please God. Our failures do not diminish His love for us.

The Surrendered Life

I think as long as I can remember I grew up singing the song "I surrender all." In case you don't remember it the words are easily sung; "I surrender all to Jesus, all to Him I freely give. I will ever love and trust Him in His presence daily live. I surrender all! I surrender all! All to Jesus I surrender, I surrender all!" I can't remember when I quit singing it but somewhere along the line I recognized that I could not sing that in good faith. It's so easy to say or sing, "I surrender all" but actually surrendering the things we care about the most is very, very hard. When I do sing the song today I change the words to "Help me surrender all..." You can imagine that changing the word "I" for "Help me" is a mouth full and doesn't sing very well but at least I am being honest.

I'm not sure what we think of when we think of surrender to the Lord. Truthfully I guess most of the time we are not putting anything specific in our minds represented by the word "all." Some of the easier surrenders are money. Most unbelievers think that all the church wants, and maybe by extension, all God wants is their money. But it is not really your money that is hard to surrender. Maybe a bit harder is the thought of surrendering our time. For many of us our time is more valuable than our money. We treasure it more. But truthfully I think the hardest thing to surrender to God are our dreams. What do you dream of in this life? What would you like to see happen with your life? For some of us it's the American dream-- a life of financial ease and all the pleasures that will bring. For others it might be the freedom to do what I want and go where I will. For still others of us its a relationship that we dream of. When we start thinking about surrender as the surrender of our dreams to God surrender takes on a whole new dimension.

But the truth is the Christian life is about surrendering all of who I am to all of who God is and that means bringing my dreams under subjection to His will, His desires for my life. But oh how hard it is! I think of Jesus struggling over this very issue in the garden of Gethsemane the night he is to be arrested and then die on a cross. So agonizing was His emotional pain than the Bible says the capillaries in his skin burst and He was sweating drops of blood. We must never think that surrender is easy or something to be taken lightly. Surrender is painful even when we muster enough faith to trust God and take Him at His Word that His Will will in the end be the best.

For a long time I have known that God is asking me to surrender a dream to Him. Actually it's not just a dream but it is my only dream. I guess since I was a very young man I have only had one real dream and God is asking me for it. He's been asking me for some time, maybe all my life, do you love me more than your dream? One thing about God is he really doesn't like any competition. He expects to be number one but if I'm honest he has a right to that spot. He's my creator and He's a creator who loves me and actually cares for me greatly. So much so that he lowered Himself to be my Savior. He suffered greatly that I might know His love for me and now invites me to be a part of His family-- to be in relationship with Him that will be eternal and beyond anything I imagine. He has a right to first place in my heart though I struggle with giving it to Him.

What really makes it hard is that I see Him give my dream to others! Why can they have it and not me? I guess that is a question I will have to ask Him at a later date-- for now it's "Do you love me more than your dream? Can you surrender to Me?"

So Lord Jesus, I say as I have for a long time now, "Help me surrender all. Help me ever love and trust you and in your presence daily live."

Sacrifice begins small

I've been thinking a lot about living a life of sacrifice and I'd like to encourage us to do so one small sacrifice at a time. So often we focus on the ultimate call of God to lay down our very all but that can be so overwhelming. But God doesn't often ask for the ultimate in our following Him. Instead he ask for little things like getting up early to have our quiet times or to meet with some friends to pray. Or he asks us to send some money to Haiti to help with the relief effort. Or maybe he wants us to forgo eating after dinner that we might lose some weight. Or visiting my neighbor and praying for them or spending time with a new Christian helping them grow in their spiritual life. I'm not saying these sacrifices are easy, they wouldn't be sacrifices if they were, but they are a far cry from asking us to die.

So let me encourage you to make the small, everyday sacrifices that Jesus asks and to do so with joy and eagerness. It is how we offer our lives as a living sacrifice.

One more note, sometimes God does ask for the big sacrifice; the laying down of your life, or maybe harder yet, the laying down of something you love more than your life. When that day comes, the grace of God will help us be a disciple who can deny himself and follow Christ. So for now, build your spiritual life by the little sacrifices He calls for daily.

The Cost of Discipleship

So often we struggle over the relationship between salvation by grace through faith and the high demands of discipleship. After all when Paul was asked what must I do to be saved by the Philippian jailer he simply responded, "Believe on the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, you and your whole family." And yet Jesus said no man can be my disciple unless deny himself, take up his cross and follow him. He said no man can be his disciple unless he give up all his possessions.

How do we harmonize these statements that seem to be in opposition to each other? I'll be the first to admit that I struggle here because Jesus statements are so absolute in nature. But I suggest that what Jesus is doing is using hyperbole to make his point. He did this a lot. For instance he tells us that we must hate our loved ones if we are going to be his disciples but we all know that he literally didn't mean for us to "hate them." Instead he was using hyperbole to say that our love for Him most so dwarf our love for others that those relationships seem like hate. He told us to give up all our possessions but again we know that it's not the disposal of our things he desires but rather the surrender of those things to His will.

I say all that to qualify Jesus' statements that we can not be his disciples unless we have obtained absolute perfection in our surrender. Jesus knows, and we all know, that this side of death we will never be there. We will never love him as perfectly as his persona deserves, we will never surrender the things of this world as completely as his nature demands and we will never follow as perfectly as his grace merits. Jesus is setting before us the seriousness of His Lordship. Being a disciple is not meant to be taken lightly. Count the cost. Though it is true we will fall short, but by his grace we will continue to grow in our surrender. And I might add that even in our surrender, we often take two steps forward only to fall back a step or two from time to time.

But one thing we must make clear. Jesus the Savior is also Jesus the Lord. He is Lord whether we acknowledge that or not (Acts 2:36; Philippians 2:11). He is the Lord of every true believer whether or not we grasp this fully or obey him fully. When a person receives God's free gift of eternal life they must understand that God Himself has come, Jesus the Lord, and He has borne our sins on the cross and paid the debt in full. We might not understand all that means, or feel the import of it, but salvation comes when we confess with our mouths Jesus as Lord and believe in our hearts that God raised him from the dead.

The book of James makes it clear that if we say we have faith but reject God's position as Lord in our lives that there is something wrong with that faith. Saving faith leads us in growing surrender and our faith grows as we surrender.

Here's where the parable of the soils can help us. Many people say they trust Christ and even say, yes I believe on the Lord Jesus. They seem outwardly to be real and genuine Christians but then the Lordship of Jesus takes them to a hard place where they don't want to go. The rocky, shallow soil illustrates a reexamination of the Lordship of Jesus and many people turn away from Him and won't follow anymore because the demand is too great. Or in their faith they realize that must surrender something that is precious to them or something they really enjoy and the thorny soil illustrates another reexamination of the Lordship of Jesus and many others turn away from Him and won't follow anymore because the demand is too great.

In Luke 14 and other places in the Bible Jesus gives us the ultimate demands of His Lordship. They are things like the surrender of your most important relationships, the surrender of your possessions or even the surrender of your very life. Jesus knows that we all fall woefully short of such an absolute submission to His will but none the less this is the supreme call of salvation-- that in the grace given to us by Him, we might surrender our all to Him.

All along our Christian life God is going to be asking for our surrender. He's going to ask us to bow the knee to the Lordship of Jesus. At times we will, at times we won't but eventually will, but this is the call of sanctification. As a believer we will make progress.

I end with this promise and this hope. "For whom God foreknew He predestined us to be conformed to the image of His Son, Jesus our Christ!" It's going to happen. As a Christian, a follower of Jesus, he promises by His grace I will one day be just like Jesus. I will one day be completely and perfectly surrendered to the Lordship of Christ! I look forward to that day. In the mean time, I'm pressing on.

Living sacrificially means loving God most

I've come to realize that idolatry is not just disobeying God, it is setting my whole heart on something beside God. It is making good things, ultimate things. I won't be able to change that by merely repenting or using my will to live differently. It is imperative that I not only uproot that which has taken God's place but I must plant the love of God back in my heart. I must set my heart on things above where Christ is and Tim Keller says that means, "appreciation, rejoicing, and resting in what Jesus has done for you. It entails joyful worship, a sense of God's reality in prayer. Jesus must become more beautiful to your imagination, more attractive to your heart, than your idol." If we sacrificially surrender the thing we love most to God, but don't replace it with the love of Christ, that which we surrender today will never stay surrendered.

Lord Jesus, I ask you to help me love you most. Help me remember your love and to keep my affections set on you.

Answering the call is voluntary and is made to Jesus Himself

It's Voluntary

The fact that Paul calls us to be a "living sacrifice" also implies a choice we must make. YOU and I must make it. You must choose to surrender, to give your life.

Dead sacrifices are killed by another and placed on the altar. You are a living sacrifice. You choose.

I really believe this is what God wants. He wants YOU, out of love for Him, motivated by his love for you, to choose to lay down your life for Him even as he laid down his life for you.

Isn’t that what we all want in love? We want to know that someone out there loves us enough to give of themselves for us?

God gave himself for us—and is still giving to us promising that a life lived in his love will begin in glory—and now he longs for us to respond to His love with the same kind of sacrifice. He began it. He started. He went first. Now he urges us out of love to respond in kind.

But here’s the deal—he’s not going to make you. Loving God is a choice that comes from your heart. God works there but you must respond. This call to give your life in sacrifice to Him is a voluntary call.

It's to the person of Jesus, not a cause.

Paul urges us to present ourselves as a holy sacrifice. The word holy means set apart but we are not sacrificing our lives for a cause but rather for a person. We are called to give our lives, to set apart our lives, as a sacrifice to Jesus, to God.

When we sacrifice, give our lives, we are doing so to Jesus in response to His giving of HIMSELF to us.

You might think this is just semantics, a play on words, but it’s not. This isn’t a worldview to which to give ourselves, a code of ethic, an altruistic goal—though Jesus gave us all of those. We are giving ourselves to Him as a person. He’s for real. He’s alive. We lay our lives down for Him- it’s a sacrifice acceptable to God.

This is personal—this is relationship. The Muslims give themselves to this idea of God—not to a person who loves them and first gave his life for them.

Answering the call is important and it will cost you

It is Important

Paul says to us, "I urge you..." The word translated "urge" in our English Bibles is not a command but neither is it just a mere 'take-it-or-leave it' request. It is a passionate appeal. Paul is serious-- this is important. 'I want you to seriously consider this and do this' is the essence of his appeal.

Jesus himself challenged us with the importance of this call. He told His disciples in Matthew 16:24-26, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. 25"For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. 26"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?

Salvation is free but Jesus repeatedly spoke of the sacrifice that would be needed to follow him.

I believe Paul urged his readers to answer the call because it is important that we remember that sacrifice is expected in true love.

It is costly

Paul urges us to give our life to Jesus as living sacrifice. The living part implies cost, even pain. Dead things don’t feel sacrifice but living things surely do.

When Paul calls you to give your life as a living sacrifice he’s letting you know that doing so will be costly. Jesus himself said we would have sorrow and tribulation in following him.

In spite of what the prosperity preachers tell you on TV, God never promised you that following him would result in a life of happiness. Happiness is an emotional state. He did promise you JOY, which is a spiritual state. In stead he often said that you would have to give up the things that you want the most. He said it would cost you, that people would persecute you and kill you and many would be tortured.

I don't believe that we need to view life bleakly, or be afraid, but we do need to understand that following Jesus often is accompanied by a great cost and when we lay down our lives in a living sacrifice we will most likely feel the pain.

So laying down your life as a living sacrifice is very important and most likely will be accompanied by some cost, even pain, but I promise you that in the end it will be worth it. In the end we will see why and how God's will for us is perfect and good. We have not seen or understood all that God has prepared for those who love Him, so us responding to His love with sacrifice of our own will surely seem insignificant in the day we see Him face to face!

Answering the Call!

2010 is upon us and we have set a challenge before us as a church. That challenge is to "Answer the Call!" Ok, but what's the call? We are taking the call from Romans 12.1-2-- it is a call to live a life of sacrifice. Our theme for the new year is Answering the Call: Living a Life of Sacrifice.

Romans 12:1-2 says, Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. 2And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

In our American culture of ease, the thought of sacrifice seems almost foreign. After all, if Christ has become our sacrifice, and the grace of God brought salvation to us freely, why should we be expected to sacrifice anything for him? After all, so much of the preaching today says that God wants us to have the very best of everything.

The truth is that this call to sacrifice is a call to respond to the grace of God and not an expectation to earn the favor of God.

Let me show you some things about this call to live a life of sacrifice.

It's Mercy Driven!

In the Romans 12 text the writer urges us to be a living sacrifice because of the mercies of God. This Greek word is different than your every day word for mercy—it meant great mercy! The great mercy of God demands the we present our lives to him as a sacrifice.

The song “When I survey the Wondrous Cross” has this as it’s last verse,
Were the whole realm of nature mine, That were a present far too small; Love so amazing, so divine, Demands my soul, my life, my all.

The mercy of God, the grace of God, the love of God demands that I live my life for Him and that will require that I live sacrificially.

There is such confusion at this point. Tim Keller in his book, Counterfeit Gods argues at length, “The default mode of the human heart is to seek to control God and others through our moral performance. Because we have lived virtuous lives we feel that God and the people we meet owe us respect and support. Though we may give lip service to Jesus as our example and inspiration, we are still looking to ourselves and our own moral striving for salvation.”

The default mode of the human heart is to try and earn our way with God—we commend ourselves to God by our moral rectitude. Or in our particular discussion-- by sacrifice. But the author is not calling us to sacrifice to gain the grace of God or His acceptance but rather because we love him we ought to be willing to lay down our lives.

Let me ask you, "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?” You don’t know? What came first, “grace or works?” The default mode of the heart says, "Works come first and grace follows. Do well and God’s acceptance will follow." Paul in his writings to the church at Ephesus makes it clear, grace came first, apart from our works, and such love demands that will give our lives in sacrifice. (By the way, the chicken came first! Just look in the creation story in Genesis 1-2)

It's Mercy Empowered!

But the phrase 'by the mercies of God' implies something else as well. It implies that living my life as a sacrifice can't even be done except by the mercies of God! Not only does God's mercy and love motivate us and call us to love Him back sacrificially, what little we can offer back to God will be empowered by his love and mercy! We can offer to God the sacrifice of our lives because He will enable that by his mercy.

Let's answer the call because of His mercy!

The Pain of Obedience

     As I was driving in to work this morning I was thinking about the statements Jesus made that he would never leave us or forsake us and his claim in John 10 that we are his sheep and no one can pluck us out of his hand.   I was meditating on his love for us and, as my mind often does, it began to wonder down  a different road of thought.  “Does God really love me if I continue to sin?”  “What if I am unwilling or unable to overcome this or that sin in my life—am I still saved?”  “Or have I been plucked out of his hand?”  “Or maybe I wasn’t ever in his hand to start?”  I’ll be honest, and maybe it’s just that I am a wimp, but those questions are too big for me.  I know that faith in the Lord Jesus saves us and I know that the power of the Holy Spirit transforms us.  I know that his love for us motivates us to love him in obedience and there are so many verses in the Bible that equate our love with our obedience.  You just can’t get away from it.  If you say you love God but there are major flaws and holes in your obedience, something is wrong. 

     As I continued to allow my mind to chase the thoughts that were coming to me, I asked myself, “Why do so many believers have such a hard time obeying?”  The answer flooded my mind like a tsunami.  It’s because obedience hurts.  It’s often very painful to obey the Lord.  We have to relinquish our goals and aspirations.  Sometimes we use sinful things to medicate our pain and to give up the sin means allowing the pain to come back.  So many folks addicted to alcohol, drugs, porn or food are doing so because it helps alleviate their hurts.

    Immediately on the heels of that conclusion, God seemed to bring to mind a verse from Philippians.  In chapter three, verse ten Paul says that his greatest desire is to know Jesus and the power of his resurrection and the “fellowship of his sufferings.”  So often we want the power of Jesus’ resurrection in our lives but we don’t want to know any of the suffering that comes by our obedience.  Jesus suffered because of his obedience.  He suffered emotionally.  He suffered physically.  I think he may have suffered spiritually as His Father turned his back on him while he paid for our sin.

     I wonder this morning, how much am I willing to suffer to be found obedient to God?  How much are you willing to suffer?    Do you think I might be right?  Could it be we have such a hard time obeying because we are so unwilling to suffer for God?  Yet the Bible says that Jesus suffered greatly for us--- shouldn’t our love motivate us to suffer the pain of obedience?

    I hesitate to share this story since I no longer live in it’s reality but I want to.  Years ago I had an experience with the Lord where he confronted me with my sin of gluttony.  He asked me if I loved him more than food and I knew I did.  I remember him so clearly asking me, “Then are you willing to be hungry for my sake?”  At that moment, at that time, I knew that I was and for the next three years I ate so as to honor him even though I often felt the discomfort of wanting to eat but not doing it.

    Beloved, obedience isn’t an option for us, but with it often comes suffering and pain.  My hope and prayer is that God might stir us up and we might say with Paul, “I want to know the fellowship of his sufferings!”  Are you willing to obey even if you must suffer?  Are you willing to love Jesus even though loving Him may be painful to do so?  

    Why not take a minute to recognize the pain that is involved in surrendering yourself to obey the Lord.   What is God calling you to do that if you obey you will hurt?  What sin is their in your life that if you stop doing it, the result will be pain?  Then answer the question, do you love Jesus enough to go through the suffering?  He loved you enough.

Thoughts from the March of Life 2009

    We haven’t been home long from the March for Life but I wanted to write my thoughts down while they were fresh on my heart.  For over fifteen years myself and others have made the yearly trip to Washington to observe the remembrance of the Supreme Court decision making abortion the law of the land.  Since that time it is estimated that thirty-eight million, five hundred thousand children growing in their mother’s wombs have been killed and aborted.

      There are always banners and homemade signs that range in size, color and content.  But the one that always arrests my attention  quotes the start of the Declaration of Independence.  “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”  All men have been given by God the right to life!  That is what it says.  It’s funny but the same supreme court that ruled that children in the womb don’t have an inalienable  right to live also ruled that black people also did not have rights to life and liberty.  We all agree today that they got it wrong back then and I tell you they have it wrong today!  God has given children, even while in their mother’s womb, the right to life and liberty and pursuit of happiness.

    Psalm 139:13-16 says, “Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out; you formed me in my mother's womb.  I thank you, High God—you're breathtaking!  Body and soul, I am marvelously made!  I worship in adoration—what a creation!  You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body; You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something.  Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth; all the stages of my life were spread out before you, The days of my life all prepared before I'd even lived one day."

    The Bible is clear that children in the womb are God’s creation and have a right to live.  They are important to him and they should matter to us.  Proverbs 24:11-12 commands us, “Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter.  If you say, "But we knew nothing about this, does not he who weighs the heart perceive it?  Does not he who guards your life know it?  Will he not repay each person according to what he has done?”   We know it beloved!  We can not stand by and do nothing. 

    What can we do to light our world and shine for life in ‘09?   First and most certainly foremost, we should pray.  Pray for the hearts of Americans to change.  Today there are very, very few that believe people of color should not have the same rights as white people.  Pray that God would help Americans see that unborn children have the right to live.  Pray for our president.  President Obama is the most pro-abortion president we’ve had in years.  He believes that children who are born alive should not be given medical help but left to die unless their parents desire it.  He affirms partial birth abortion as a viable method of abortion.  This very afternoon he said we will no longer torture our enemies– a move I very much agree with– because we will fight the war on terror but do so holding to our core values.  Pray that he might see that life, the life of America’s unborn, should be a core value.  Pray!

    Speak up for the truth of Life.  Don’t be ashamed to challenge your friends and coworkers with the horrific truth of abortion.  Don’t be argumentative or condescending but be firm and specific.  Use the many tools available to you from videos to pamphlets.  We must speak up.

    Write letters to your congressmen.  It is projected that this year congress will vote on the Freedom of Choice Act.  It will codify Roe v. Wade and truly make it the law of the land.  States rights to regulate abortion in anyway will be done away with.  State laws requiring even such basic things as parental notification will be overturned.  President Obama has promised to sign it if it comes across his desk.  Write Senators Webb and Warner, Congressmen Forbes and Scott,  and ask them to please vote against it.  The worst thing we can do, is do nothing.

    Join us next January on the March for Life.  This year the crowd seemed smaller than in past years.  I know everyone is tired, and I don’t know that we accomplish very much if anything, but we must speak up.

    “God, thank you for giving us life.  Help us to be defenders of this very precious gift.  Use us to stand for righteousness.  In Jesus name we ask, amen”

We have to forget the fortress mentality!

The text for today was the last part of chapter of five of Luke. God really showed me something I needed to see.

In my observations I saw that Jesus did things different then the religious folks of his day. They avoided sinners-- he went to eat with them. Others were fasting as a group-- his disciples weren't. I also noticed that Jesus really had a clear purpose and objective. When they challenged him on why he was eating with sinners, the answer was right there-- this is my purpose.

The interpretation to this passage is really challenging. Jesus was telling us that he was going to do it different then everyone else. His goal was to get out where the people were that needed him, not fortress himself away from them. No wonder they often felt loved by him! He even tells a parable where he says new things require new boxes or new paradigms. I'm going to do it different. Sinners need me so I'm going to them. One final word in the parable-- people when they have the old wine, don't like the new. What he's saying there is that change is difficult. We are happy with the status quo but we must embrace change.

In the application part I was convicted. This is my prayer. "Father, I'm too into the fortress mentality once again-- I need to get back out there where the people who most need you are. Help me to make friends and be salt and light where I'm needed most." My application is that I want to reach out and make some friends who don't know Jesus that maybe by God's grace I might help them know him.

Make your applications a prayer

Several of you have mentioned that you are reading what I am writing so I will continue to do this through the week. Melissa commented that she found the observations and interpretations sort of morphed into one thing. I can relate. Even the handout I gave you was a bit muddied so let me see if I can simplify this. Let your observations be things that you notice or stand out and questions you have. Then let the interpretation section be a rewriting of the passage in your own words. To do that, you might have to try and answer some of the questions raised in your observations. Here's where Bible study can get more involved if you have the time and the curiosity. If you have a question that you don't understand, you might want to read some extra sources on the passage. John McArthur writes great commentaries that are thorough and easy to understand. You might want to look at other parallel passage in the Bible that talk about the same subject. The final section, would be the application. What specifically does God want me to apply to my life, from the text? As I said on Sunday, there may be many things you think of but hone in on one of them and make it an item of meditation and prayer throughout the day. In fact, why not practice writing out your application in the form of a prayer to God? I think that will help you be specific.

Here's what I wrote down from the text today. (Luke 5:12-26)

Observations:

• I noticed that the man focused, not on Jesus' ability but his willingness. "If you are willing..." Jesus also does the same, "I am willing..."
• Again, there was the don't tell anyone command but to no avail, the crowds just kept getting bigger.
• Jesus always felt the need to slip away and pray-- alone.
• It seems there is a point begin made in verse 17 that on this day there was power for Jesus to heal; does that mean that at some times there was not? Could Jesus heal whenever he wanted to or were there limitations on his abilities?
• (vs. 20) It seems that Jesus made his statement about the man's sins because he wanted to make a point.
• (vs.22) Jesus could read their hearts!
• (vs.23) They were both equally easy to say-- Jesus meant which is easier to say and it be proven true?
• Jesus reasons, "Because I have authority to heal instantly that which men do not, I tell you have authority to forgive your sins too."
• The response to the healing was that men glorified God-- that is they 'made God big!' Both the guy healed and the people who saw it happen. They were filled with fear. I think whenever people see God actually move in power, the response is fear. Why? There is a God and they must answer to him.

Interpretation:

There are two stories in this text. In the first Jesus heals a man who covered with leprosy. He had no hope. He was an outcast. He had faith that God could heal him but he wasn't convinced that Jesus would be willing to. Maybe he had heard of Jesus healing other lepers but just didn't think he'd care to intervene in his life. Yet Jesus was willing. The result was as it had been time and time before. The news of his power spread and more and more people came to him to be healed. But in the middle of all that, Jesus continually saw the need to get alone with God and pray.

In the second story some men take a paralyzed friend to see Jesus. They have to cut a hole in the roof to get him in before Jesus because the crowd is so big. Jesus recognized the faith of the men and says that because of their faith, the man's sins are forgiven. The religious people think that is terrible because only God can forgive sins. To this Jesus responds, knowing their hearts, "Which is easier to say, 'Your sins are forgiven or you are healed, get up and walk?' " I've always loved that question! Both are easy to say but only one is easy to say and have the proof follow. If I say your sins are forgiven, how can you prove it? But if I say, 'You are healed' you either are or you are not. Prove it! So Jesus says, so that you will know that I can forgive sins I say to this man WALK! And he does. I love that. The people are amazed, astonished and afraid. I think knowing you are int he presence of God is scary. Peter was afraid on his boat-- they are afraid in the house.

Application:

Lord, I think you want me know that Jesus is God. The whole point of this second episode seems that you wanted to make the point, "Jesus can forgive sins because he IS God. The religious people had it right, "Only God can forgive sins!"

Also, in the first part I find myself being so much like the leper, "I know you can but I'm not really quite convinced you are willing." I pray all the time for things, like what Anne's going through, but I'm not really sure you're willing. Yet in the text you stress, "I am willing." Help me pray with more heart faith that you are willing. Increase my faith in the willing part.

Those were my thoughts and applications? What were yours? Are you writing them down? Remember, one important part of this Bible study exercise is to journal, to write your thoughts down. It will help you focus and be more pointed in your applications. Besides, it will help you remember and we all know I need help in that area!

Leaving it all behind

Today's inductive Bible study was on Luke 5:1-11. Did you read the text? My kids said it was easier today. Even Joy, who had a real hard time the first day, is beginning to get a handle on inductive Bible Study.

Some of the things I observed were that Jesus interrupted their work. They were almost finished; they were cleaning their nets. Peter didn't want to do it but he did it anyway. I noticed that they caught so many fish they needed help to bring them in and that Peter's response to this was worship. I also see that Peter must have showed fear because Jesus says, "Don't be afraid." The story ends with Jesus challenging them to change the focus of their lives.

Interpretation is us putting the text in our own words so that we understand it. Here's what I wrote. Jesus is teaching along the sea of Galilee and he notices some boats on the shore. He decides it would be good to teach from the boat. Maybe it would help people see him or maybe it would enable more people to hear. He asks Peter if he can use his boat and obviously Peter lets the Rabi. We don't know if Peter knew Jesus at this point but I believe it's safe to assume he knew he was a rabi and probably had heard about him and his miracles. After Jesus teaches, maybe hours, and Peter listening, Jesus asks him to get in the boat and put out to deep water and go fishing. Peter doesn't want to do it! He's been fishing all night. Tired. Just finished cleaning his nets, which he'd have to do after this failed attempt. It's the wrong time to fish-- they had fished all night. That is the right time. But he says, I believe hoping Jesus would say never mind but he doesn't, ok, because you ask me, I'll do it. The rest is history. The catch is so big Peter has to call for help from his buddies. At this point Peter is overwhelmed with the sense that God is present. He worships Jesus. Obviously he's a bit afraid. Jesus tells him it's ok and that at this point Jesus will make him a fisher of men-- not a fisher of fish. They leave everything.

The application part of inductive Bible study is the most personal. What is God saying to me? For me I felt the Lord tell me I need to be like Peter-- obedient even when I don't want to be. There are things that God asks me to do because I love him and trust him that I don't want to do. This morning I asked him to help me obey, like Peter, when I think I know best. I asked him to help me trust him. The second thing I took away from the text was that God wanted me to devote myself to fishing for men. Fishing for fish, whatever my livelihood, is a good thing but being a fisher of men is what God wants for me. I asked him to help me today fish for men.

How about you? What did God say to you? In our family devotions Katie shared that she notice that Peter had the biggest catch he'd ever had but the story says he left that behind and began to follow Jesus. She prayed that God might help her put a much greater value on following Him than she does on her earthly possessions.

Inductive Bible study is a great place to start as we begin to understand and apply the Bible. How about sharing your application? If you have a moment, why not share your application in the comments.

Remember Mr. Ortberg's definition of training: "It is arranging my life around those activities that will enable me to do what I can't now do by direct effort." Arranging your life around the activity of Bible study will enable you to know God's Word in a way you can never know by simply wishing it were so. I hope you will keep this practice up.

Learning to do inductive Bible Study

Well, I hope you've come to read here because you are checking out the Bible Study for today. All week I'm going to record my thoughts here so you can get an idea of how to do an inductive study.

Our text for today was Luke 4:31-44. First I'm going to simply record my observations.

Observations:

• They were amazed because his teaching was different– he taught with an authority they were not used to.
• The demon said “us” but the text refers to him in the singular. There must have been more than one of them.
• The demon went to synagogue!
• The demon screamed out as loud as he could? Why?
• News spread of him all around.
• Not out of place to ask Jesus to heal Simon’ mom.
• Simon Peter was married.
• Healed, she began to serve.
• He constantly told the demons to be quiet because they knew who he was. Why?
• Early in the morning, Jesus got a lone. Why?
• Jesus wouldn’t plant himself in one spot– He was sent to all the people.

Interpretation:

• Why did Jesus tell the demon to shut up? I guess we’ll never know for sure but it seems he either didn’t want a frenzy or he wanted folks to come to that conclusion on their own. Whenever the Messiah thing bubbled to the top, he was often mobbed with people.
• Why would the demon scream so loud? Exactly the opposite reason. He obviously wouldn’t want Jesus to succeed so why announce the great truth? Because a frenzy would rob Jesus of an opportunity to present truth in a way that people would understand and get it.
• Conclusion: It was so important to Jesus to communicate truth is such a way that people could get it. Without huge distractions.
• Why did Jesus go out early? No distractions. Could be alone, away from the demands of people. We all need time alone to replenish and restore. Time with God. Time alone.

Application:

• Jesus spoke and taught with authority. God, help me to walk in Your authority. Not with pride or boastfulness but with assurance. I want to be convinced and convincing. And help me to communicate clearly today as I have opportunity. Help me make that a priority.
• The importance of a daily time alone with God can’t be minimized. Jesus felt it necessary– I must make it necessary. Lord, I’ve not been as faithful as I need to be to get alone with you. Help me to make that an indispensable priority in my life.

Those are my writings from the day. Throughout today, I've tried to think about how I can make myself clear in my presentations and how I can make my time alone with God a priority. I've tried praying about these off and on.

Several of you are doing the exercise this week and I'm so glad. It would be neat if a number of us come out of this series with a commitment to train spiritually on a daily basis.