A mentoring project

I was talking with my cousin tonight.  He is working on his dissertation in New Testament Studies.  I am proud of him.  He is one of those guys I know I can tell anything to and he will give me his unabashed honest opinion.  In our conversation I was complaining about one of those things that I believe every Christian is called to do, but I think is so rarely seen in our churches.  As we were talking I thought and said to him, you know what I think I should write a book on mentoring.  I believe that every believer is called to share what they know with those less mature in the faith as them.  I think to often we get into this mentality thinking "I should only be concerned with my own walk with God."  Yet through out the whole of scripture we see cases of individuals pouring themselves into those around them.  I am thinking I will take a look at the relationships of people like Paul and Timothy, Moses and Joshua, Jesus and the three.  Look at how they did it, and ways we can apply that to our own lives so that we may become someone's Paul, or Moses.  We are all called to walk together. 

I just thought I would put this out there, letting everyone know what I am thinking.  I will be posting exerts from my work up here periodically so keep an eye out.

The cost of discipleship

When we talk about salvation I think Christians in our modern era do a disservice to people by not telling them the whole of what it is to be a Christian.  Often times we will talk to them about their need for Christ as a savior.  They will talk about how through His death burial and ressurection He saved them from an eternity in the lake of fire.  We are quick to tell people Romans 10:9 "that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved."  We also like to tell people about Romans 6:23 "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is everlasting life."  we may even throw in there an Ephesians 2:8 For by grace you have been saved,  through faith and that not of youselves it is the gift of God."  Some people will even throw in there the free gift of God, but we so often fail to talk about the cost associated with accepting Christ as our Lord and Savior.  Some scholars even argue that you do not need to accept Him as your Lord, just your savior.  Christ however was adamant that people should count the cost of following Him, and then make a decision if they believed or not.

Luke 14:28-33 "For which of you intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it.  Lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, 'this man began to build and was not able to finish?' or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? Or else while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks condition of peace.  So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciples."  Christ clearly lays out a cost to following Him, and that is to be willing to forsake all he has.  When coming to Christ we are asked to count the cost and decide if it is worth it.  This is not the only instance where Christ makes a comment about being willing to give everything up for Him either.  When the rich young ruler comes to Christ asking what he must do to inherit eternal life, Christ responds first by telling him to keep the commandments.  The ruler claims to do so.  So Jesus says "One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow me."

The cost of following Christ is to have a willingness to give everything up for him.  I think this is most poignantly seen in Luke 14:25-27 and Matthew 10:34-39 "Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth.  I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.  For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law'; and a man's enemies will be those of his own household.'  He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of Me.  And he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of Me.  And he who does not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me.  He who finds his life will loose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it."  We are to be willing to give everything up for Him, not just our material goods but our families even our own lives.  That's hard,  to be willing to walk away from everything you know and understand and are comfortable with.  In my life my family is my support.  I do not know how I would get by without them.  Yet Christ says if you want to be mine, you will be willing to give that all up.  Not only does He say you must be willing to give up your family, but you must be willing to give up your life in the most excruciating manner History has ever known by taking up your Cross and following Him.

I do not know about you, but I have counted the cost in my life.  I know He is worth it.  Following Him may mean a willingess to give it all up, but compared to Him nothing is worth it.  I would rather loose it all, than to not have Him.

The salt of the earth.

Matthew 5:13 You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt loses its flavor how shall it be seasoned. It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.

As we approach this text we need to keep in mind that Jesus has just finished describing the characteristics of a believer in the beatitudes. Christ is sitting talking very specifically to the 12 disciples during this sermon on the mount, though there is a whole crowd surrounding them. As Christ says these words they are to be applied to all believers. 

You are the salt of the earth. The Greek implies you and you alone are the salt of the earth. There is no other salt for the earth, but the followers of Christ. Many preachers and commentators note that this section of scripture shows a move from the characteristics of a believer to the function of the believer. We are to function as salt.

What do we know about salt? Salt in this time period was very valuable. The Roman soldier was paid his daily wages in Salt, hence the expression “worth you salt.” Salt is used as a flavor enhancer. Salt is necessary for the body to function properly. Salt was used to clean out wounds, and Salt was used to preserve foods by slowing their decay process. I find it interesting that salt preserves food and enhances the flavor much in the same way, it draws out the moisture from the food. It leaves the food with a purer taste. I remember the first time I prepared eggplant for myself. When you prepare eggplant you generally slice it, salt it, and allow it to sit and drain for a while having done nothing more than slicing and draining it. Well I am a curious person so I sliced it, salted most of it and tried a piece of unsalted eggplant. It is so bitter I had to spit it out. After allowing the rest of the eggplant to sit having been salted you could see all the bitterness and moisture that was drawn out of the eggplant. It is in this way we are the salt of the earth. We are to draw out the bitterness of the world, to hold back its decay.

How do we do that, by living the beatitudes, by being filled with the spirit, by being salty. Salt is inherently different from the things it is applied to, meat, vegetables, you name it the salt is different, and we should be different from the world. There is an implication in being called the only salt of the earth, and that is the earth is devoid of flavor, and decaying. We are to be different. When we converse with people, our conversation should be different from the worlds. When we joke with people our jokes should be different. Our thoughts should be different. Our desires should be different. The difference in us should cause the world around us to be different. It was said of Jonathan Edwards that all he had to do was walk into a room and people would come under the conviction of the Holy Spirit. When you enter a room does people’s language get cleaner. A friend of mine was known for having a “sailors” mouth, but whenever he was around Sara or I his language all of a sudden became a whole lot cleaner, not because we ever said anything to him, but because he knew there was something different about us and that his speech was not acceptable. You alone are the salt of the earth.

Christ does not linger too long on the function of being the salt of the earth though. He concentrates in this section a bit more on warning us not to lose our flavor. But if the salt loses its flavor how shall it be seasoned? The implication is that it cannot be seasoned. I must point out that the salt does not cease to be salt. Christ is not talking about losing your salvation, but He is talking about losing your flavor or your characteristics, that effectiveness to preform your function.

I think we should quickly look back at the beatitudes so we can see what the flavor of salt is. Blessed are the poor in Spirit, that quality that says I am completely dependent upon the grace of God and lean fully upon His Spirit. Blessed are those who mourn, this is to say those who are grieved by sin both their own and that of the world. Blessed are the meek, this is the individual who takes no thought of themselves but focuses on the things Kingdom of God. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for Righteousness. Blessed are the merciful. Blessed are the pure in heart. Blessed are the peacemakers. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness. This is what it is to be salty, to live the beatitudes. Paul describes these characteristics slightly differently in Galatians 5:22 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. . .” And Christ warns us not to lose our flavor?

So how do we lose it? We lose it when we allow our relationship with God to slip. We cannot live the beatitudes or the fruit of the Spirit without Him. When we neglect our relationship with Him we are less salty. It is sad to see so many Christians when they first get saved are on fire for God. As they “grow” in their relationship that raging fire seems to fade to a small simmer. We can keep that fire burning bright. We don’t have to lose our flavor. One of the things Sara and I were tasked to do in our premarital sessions was to find a new way every day to say I love you, we did that for almost a year. Now that we are married it seems more important to find different ways of telling Sara I love her. Our relationship with God is not that much different. If we will let Him he is constantly telling us that He loves us, and how much He loves us. We can do the same for Him.

But if the salt should lose its flavor how then shall it be seasoned. It is then good for nothing but to be trampled underfoot. When we lose our saltiness we become ineffectual witnesses. We no longer affect the world. We no longer flavor it. We no longer hold back its decay. No we are thrown on to the grown. You know what happens when you salt the earth? It becomes barren, nothing can grow there anymore. When we lose our flavor, we can become spiritually dangerous to those around us. I do not know how many times I have heard things like “I have no problem with Jesus, it’s the people that follow Him I can’t stand.” “I would probably believe in Christ, if it weren’t for the Christians.” When we lose our flavor we are not only ineffective, but we become a stumbling block, and create a barren land.

You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt loses its flavor how shall it be seasoned. It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.  So don't lose your flavor.

Be loud, be proud, be heard.

The Summer is over, and what a summer it was.  I had the chance to read several books, thanks to my network of people who own books I never read.  Sara and I had the chance to spend some time at camp.  We spent sometime with family.  My parents took us to the Corning museum of glass, and the Strong's museum of play.  It really was a good summer, though we are still searching for where God would have us.  Now things are getting back to normal I should be blogging a bit more frequently.
     While off doing summer things I watched a few movies as well.  One of the movies I watched was one of those made for TV teen high school movies.  The main premise of the movie was that we need to be heard.  We live in a day and age where everyone wants to be heard.  We have so many different ways for people to speak up and try to be heard.  You can tweet, Facebook, Instant Message, Txt, e-mail, snail mail, call, youtube, or blog whatever you want to say.  So many words are being used, yet so little is really being said.  What is the point in being heard if you aren't really saying anything at all?
     When growing up my oldest brother had a few favorite proverbs he liked sharing with me his youngest brother.  "Even a fool when he keeps silent is considered wise.  When he closes his lips he is considered prudent." [Proverbs 17:28] He also like to say "where words are plenty a fool is sure to be."  I think that was my brothers take on Ecclesiastes 5:3 and 10:14. So I have purposed in my heart that if I want people to hear what I am saying I am going to say something worth being heard.  I think the greatest compliment I ever received as a preacher was from a retired minister.  He said to me he liked hearing me preach because I always had something to say.  I noted to him that I never really had anything to say and my only pray as I prepared to preach was that God's word would be spoken today.  You see He has something worth saying.  I could preach the Bible forever because God's word is worth hearing.
     With so many people trying so desperately to be heard, they are saying so much and yet nothing really at all.  As you rise up and try to be heard ask yourself, is what you are about to say really worth saying.  Does it need to be heard?  As a Christian we are called to herald the good news of God.  In such a noisy world we need to rise up, and make His message heard.  

Hopeless?

     A while ago I had sent my resume off to a church that Sara and I both thought would be perfect.  The church is about 20 minutes from Sara's parents and 50 minutes from mine, so not too far from family.  The area is familiar as Sara grew up in that area.  We have had interactions with this church before and knew that theologically we are on the same page.  Sara is related to a good portion of the members of the church.  The position was not quite the one I desired, but all of my experience at camp would have made me perfect for the role.  We even know the pastor of the church; he and I attended the same seminary just at different times.  I am telling you this seemed like the perfect fit for us.  So we were so enthusiastic as I sent in my application.  I think I even said something to the effect of "If I can't get this position, I won't get any."  

     About a week after we sent my info, I received a letter from the church.  I was so excited, the wait was going to finally be over, God was sending me in and I was ready.  As I read the letter my head fell.   I even think tears came to my eyes.  It was one of the nicest rejection letters I ever received.  The church had already filled the position before my resume had gotten to them.  When I concluded reading the letter I slumped down, threw my head back, and said to myself I had no more hope.  

     I do not know how much time had past, as I sat there feeling so hopeless, I asked God "what do I do now?"  In my prayer God reminded me that I was not hopeless.  I had forgotten for a minute, my hope is not serving God at a church, don't get me wrong, this a noble thing to do and I desire very much to find a church to serve at.  My hope however was not that, my hope is Jesus Christ.  Paul writes in his letter to Timothy "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God our savior, and the Lord Jesus Christ, our hope." 

     How often do we as believers forget what our true hope is.  We get caught up so often in the little things, that we forget our hope is in the Lord.  Our hope is the Lord.  If we have forgotten what our hope is, how do we ever intend to always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks us for a reason of the hope that is in us?  Truth is we can't give an answer for the reason if we don't remember what that hope is in the first place.

     When I accepted Christ as my savior and Lord, He became my hope.  Ever since I realized that I was a sinner, and needed the sacrifice that Jesus offered of Himself upon the cross, and that no other sacrifice could save me from my sins, I have been learning to trust Him for everything.  He has promised to meet all my needs. With His own life He has paid the down payment on those promises, and with His resurrection I know that He can and will fulfill those promises.  Through it all He has become not only the one I have placed my hopes in but also He has become the very thing I hope for.  I may desire a church to serve Him at right now, but ultimately I only wish to stand in His presence, and know Him. 

     It was a valuable lesson for me to realize that I was loosing focus.  When I realized how silly I was, I smiled.  God is my hope, and He will never leave me or forsake me.  I can never loose my hope, for God is eternal.  So I have to ask, what are you hoping in?

Waiting

     Sometimes the hardest thing to do in life, is nothing.  Think about it how often do you find yourself content doing nothing.  We always see more work that needs to be done.  We can always do this or that better.  How often are you content just waiting for things?  We generally look for something to do to fill the time.  Nothing just isn't what we do.

     For me doing nothing but waiting is quite painful.  Growing up this was my father's greatest form of discipline.  Whenever I did something wrong my father would send me to my room to sit there, do nothing, and think about whatever it was I did  wrong.  I would have done any strenuous physical labor rather than do nothing.  I much preferred the spankings my mother gave me to doing nothing, waiting, and thinking about my situation.  Nothing just is.

     So what happens when God asks us to stop everything and do nothing and just wait?  This concept goes beyond the idea of the Sabbath where we are asked to do no work, because then we are asked to rest.  Rest and relaxation is something we can do.  I am talking about when God asks you to just wait and watch until He is ready for you?  I think all too often when we are asked to do nothing and wait, we find things on our own to do.  I find that in these moments of waiting faith is put to the test much more than when we are given a task to do.  When we have something to do we are almost forced to look to God for help, but in waiting that pressure is not there.  

      Being asked to do nothing but wait can be a form of punishment like it was in my household, but sometimes we are asked to do so for other reasons.  He told the disciples to wait until they received power on High before they were to go out.  He told the people of Israel to wait and watch for His coming.  In Gethsemane Jesus asked the disciples to wait and pray with Him.  Sometimes the Spirit just has us waiting.  We don't always know why He asks us to wait.  The question is what do you do until He has something else for you to do?

     When we look in the scriptures at those who waited for the Lord, they talk of learning, and praying, and being strengthened by the Lord.  Often we find it difficult not to act,  we want to take what we have and go go go.  Yet if we wait upon the Lord, wait until He tells us to go, we will go with so much more than should we do so on our own.  

     I know this blog only scratches the surface, but I want us all to think about what the Lord is asking us to do.  If we will listen the Spirit will tell us when we are to act, and when we are to wait.  What is He having you do?

Train them to walk not just talk.

    Over the past few days I have been thinking about the text in Proverbs 22:6  "Train up your child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it."  With this proverb in mind I had to ask myself the question why is it that 80% of youth who grow up in the church cease to continue going to church when they become adults.  The only answer I can come up with is that we are failing to train them. 

    It is easy to blame the parents of the children.  Ultimately the responsibility for training a child falls to the parents and more specifically the father.  Parenting is a great  topic that I would love to discuss some other time but that is not the topic I want us to focus on right now.  Right now I want to focus on the churches role to train in general. 

    Why is it that it seems only 10 percent of the people in our churches are active in the ministries of the church?  Why is it that only a handful of people seem willing to share their faith with others?  Our churches are filled with a bunch of talkers, but not a lot of walkers.  I believe that is because we have failed at training people to do.

    How do most churches go about training their people?  Well a major form of training comes in the Sunday morning sermon.  If your preacher is good he will unfold what God's word has to say, point to our need to do what God's word has to say, and he will even tell you some ways in which one might do what God's word has to say, but it stops there.  You may be asking what more do you want, and we get into that.  How else do churches train their people?  The next form of training is almost always Sunday School, or a Small Group.  Many of which are poor reflections of a Bible Study, that ask how do you feel about this text, or what do you think the text is saying.  If you have a good group you may get into a good discussion that real gets at what God is saying not just at your feelings, or even what you think it means.  This too however stops with talking.  If your church is good it has possibly set up a discipleship program, most of those programs I have seen take individuals through a workbook or something covering the basic tenets of Christianity.  Most of these discipleship programs again stop at talking about the Faith.  Should we wonder why we have churches filled with talkers, and not a lot of walkers.

    David Maryn Llyod-Jones notes in his Studies in the Sermon on the Mount "I can never forget, in this connection, a man who whenever I met him, always impressed upon me the fact that he was a great Bible student.  I suppose in one sense he was, but his life was unfortunately very far removed from that which one finds described in the pages of the New Testament."  You see studying the Bible is not enough.  Talking about means nothing when that does not translate into actions.  What good is it to have the cure for the worlds greatest problems if we never apply it.  Faith with out deeds is dead.  Yet too many churches seem to feel they are doing a good job by filling people with knowledge but never really training them in how to use that knowledge.  

    Training people takes more than talking.  Most people need to see what is being talked about played out.  They need someone to come by and show them how to do it.  Not only that but they need someone to help them through putting their faith in action. 

    Let's use evangelism as an example.  We tell people that God calls them to do it.  We show them the need to do it.  We may even give them some scripts and techniques for evangelism, that tend to never go as planned in reality.  Then we tell them to go and do it.  After that they go away saying I want to tell people the good news, I need to do it, but when it comes time to do it most never feel like they are ready or know how.  Yet I almost guarantee you if we would take the time to go out with them, or bring them along with us as we do it and show them they will be more likely to do it.  After showing theme a few times, you have them try.  You know what will happen before long they will be doing it on their own with out you.  Then you need to impress on them the need to train people just as you trained them.

    In many of Paul's Epistle he makes a plea that the Churches should remember how he acted when he was with them.  They should be like he is.  In his letter to Titus Paul tells Titus to have the older woman teach the younger, and he expresses to Titus to be an example.  Titus was not not just suppose to talk about it, but show the people visibly as an example so they had something tangible to help theme understand how to live out the Doctrines he taught.

    Christ for three years led the disciples and ministered in their presence.  He took them along so they could see how he did things.  Then he sent them out two by two to do it.  Afterwards he called them back and debriefed them on what they did.  He took time to walk along side them.  In the book of John he notes to them that he has set the example for what they were to do.  He not only talked about how to do the things they were to do but he made sure they experienced it.

    Our churches need to find a way of training their people.  Helping them to experience, and visibly see how all the talk plays out in their daily walk.  Imagine what the church could do if it was filled with walkers, and not just talkers. 

        

The rocks cry out.

    Sorry that I have not posted in a little over a week.  My wife and I have been giving a lot of thought to starting to host a yearly Seder meal to celebrate Easter.  We have found that much of Christiandom has forgotten its Jewish roots.  So as we read through the New Testament a lot of the little things are lost.  We found by experiencing the culture we understand it more and pick up on more of the little things.  We kind of decided to start this a bit last minute so much of my time was spent trying to put all of this together.

Apologies aside let's get on with our thought for today.  In the book of Luke the 19th chapter as Christ is riding into the city of Jerusalem on a donkey the Bible tells us that "the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen; Saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest. And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples. And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out."[Luke 19:37-40]  This passage has always stuck with me, showing the importance of singing the praise of God if the disciples had kept quiet the rocks themselves would have cried out.  Yet how often do we keep silent in our world today.  Where is the voice of the true disciples of the Lord?  We hear time and time again from the crazies out there who preach hatred against everything.  We hear from the loons that teach acceptance of every sin, but where are the true disciples of God declaring with a loud voice "Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest?"

    We seem to be hidden in our own little pocket of the world.  We find ourselves watching our Christian movies, listening to our Christian music, and talking with our Christian friends.  It seems as so many are trying to hide themselves from the world.  Jesus said in Matthew that we "are the light of the world.  A city that is on a hill cannot be hid.  Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it gives light unto all that are in the house.  Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your father which is in heaven."[Matthew 5:14-16]  We should not be hiding from the world.  When we do, how do we expect them to see the light that we are to shine?

    We need to find more ways to get ourselves in the world, but not be of the world.  We are called to be ambassadors.  We can not herald the news that God has given us to proclaim to the world if we never leave our churches.  If we never go out into this world, if we never proclaim the news, how are the lost of the world to come to Christ?  "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.  How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? and how shall they preach except they be sent?" [Romans 10:13-15]  As believers we were sent to do exactly that.  Christ said "go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." [Mark 16:15]  We are called to be ambassadors.  How are we to remain silent?  Jeremiah tried to "Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name.  But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay." [Jeremiah 20:9]  

    I do not know about you, but as for me, I feel the same as Jeremiah: I can not stay.  I can not remain quiet.  The true believers can not remain quiet or we shall see the very rocks cry out.

Faith part 2

    In our last blog we noted that faith was the tangibles of hope.  We also mentioned a few sayings that we associate with faith such as "taking a leap of faith," and "Going by blind faith."  I want to point out in this blog how both of these sayings do not really fit with the Christian's faith.  

    First look at the idea of blind faith.  The term most often refers to accepting something with no evidence to support it.  Many people claim that for a Christian to believe there is a God they must do so on blind faith. God's Word tells us in Romans 1:19-20 "because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them.  For since creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead."  In Psalms 19:1 "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork."  Christians do not believe there is a God based on blind faith, but they understand the evidence left in creation to point to a creator.  Lee Strobel put out a book, you can also watch a DVD version of the book, called The Case for a Creator.  In this book he goes through and gives the evidence found in nature pointing to the existence of God.  Ben Stein also put out a documentary called "expelled" that does much the same thing.  If you saw a computer in the middle of the woods, would you assume this computer was naturally occurring there, as in the parts randomly fell together to make this complex machine?  No, you would assume someone left it there, and if you are a nerd you are probably asking who made it, Dell, Gateway, or Alienware.  We assume the computer had a designer because of the complexity of the parts that make it up, there is no way it could have accidentally just grown there.  How much more complex are we, yet we are told that to believe we have a creator must be taken on blind faith.  We believe in God not because of blind faith, but because the evidence points to His existence.

    "Well" the skeptic may say "we can agree you could follow the evidence to a creator, but it is a leap to go from an impersonal creator to a personal God."  Albert Einstein, who believed in an impersonal creator, said "We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many languages. The child knows someone must have written those books. It does not know how.  It does not understand the languages in which they are written.  The child dimly suspects a mysterious order in the arrangements of the books, but doesn't know what it is."1  If God were to write all these books it seems He would not have left them there for us to find unless He wanted us to get to know Him.  The agnostic would be right in saying that there is no way to know God, except that He reveals Himself to us.  Why would an impersonal god place all these signs in creation that point to him?  Why would he place in the hearts of men a desire to know who he is?  Our ability to ask and reason through these questions point to a creator who wants us to know Him.  As John 6:44 says "no one comes to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him."  

     Even the things a Christian does are not done out of blind faith.  Sometimes God may ask us to do things that we do not understand, and may by all human reasoning seem stupid and unwise, yet through faith we follow Him.  My wife and I left the church we were at in December, because we believe God called us out of there.  We do not have another church lined up as of yet.  Most of the books you read suggest a pastor should not leave until he has a new church.  Most people thought I should have another job before leaving the church I was at.  God on the other hand told us to go.  To an outsider this may be madness and you may consider it blind faith.  I may be stepping into the unknown, but it is in no way blind.  I do so out of my intimate knowledge of the One who has called me out.  My faith is based upon the understanding of who my God is, and the knowledge that if He has called me out He has a plan.  Until God reveals the next step in His plan to my wife and I, we are getting involved in a local Bible-believing, Bible-teaching church, doing what we can to grow closer to Him, and to help others do so as well.  We trust He will send us to the perfect place He has for us, because we know Him and follow where ever He leads.  A Christian's faith is never really blind.  It is a trust that comes through a relationship with God himself.  If your best friend asked you to do something that you would not normally do and asked you to do so based on your relationship with him, wouldn't you give him your faith and step out and do what he is asking?  That is exactly how a Christian operates by faith.  Our best friend Christ, the Creator of the universe, directs us and we follow.

    You see there is no leaping, nor is our faith blind.  We follow the evidence step by step.  We walk by faith.  We live by faith.  Each step towards the unknown past where we can see is taken in a faith grounded in our relationship with a faithful God who cares very much for us individually.  God directs our path and shines a light upon the way for us.

    Where is your faith today?  Are you walking by the light of God's Word?  Are you letting God direct your path, or are you insisting to do it on your own?

   

¹ G. S. Viereck, Glimpses of the Great (Macauley, New York, 1930), quoted by D. Brian,  Einstein: A Life , p. 186.

 

Faith part 1 . . .

   What is faith?  We hear the word often in our world today.  "Take a leap of faith." "Take it on blind faith." "I will do it in good faith."  "Have a little faith." Though we toss the word around it seems so many people have a poor understanding of what faith really is.  Saddest of all, many people in our churches barely understand what faith is all about, and we are suppose to be a people of faith.

   Often times when you talk to people in the church about faith it is as though faith is an action they did in the past, or a possession they currently have.  When asking about faith you will hear a response such as "I placed my faith in Jesus," or "I have faith in God."  If you were to press them on that, I am not sure how many would really be able to explain what it is to have faith in God, or to have placed their faith in Jesus.  They might equate faith with trust or believing, but there is more to faith than that.

   The Bible defines faith in Hebrews 11:1 as "the substance of things hoped for. the evidence of things not seen."  Faith is trusting to the point of knowing that the promises are a done deal and living upon that understanding.  It is the substance, the Greek word here is hupostasis which was a scientific term used for the physical substances that would be found in liquids, like curds in milk, or sand settling in water.  The idea is that this is the tangibles.  Faith is the tangible part of hope, the evident part of a belief.

   Faith is not just a thing of the past, or possession to be held, but the very way you live your life.  James says in James 2:20 "faith without works is dead."  Faith that does not produce one to action, is not any kind of faith at all.  We do what we believe.  Everything we do is done out of faith in one regards or another.  If you were told that you were about to be punched you would move or do something hoping to not get hit.  Your action is the substance of your hoped for outcome, the evidence of what you believed to be true.

    For the Christian we hope for the Salvation God has promised.  We hope to stand before the God of heaven and earth and hear Him say "well done my good and faithful servant."  If our hope is truly in that, our faith should permeate our lives in every action we do.  Everything we do should be for the glory of God.  Paul writes this in 1 Corinthians 10:31 "whether therefore you eat or drink, or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God."

    What are you hoping in today?  What do your actions show you to believe?  Where is your faith?

Cleaning House

     Sorry that I have not posted this past week.  My wife and I have been busy preparing our house for company.  My cousin who use to live above us when we were in Tennessee was able to come by for a few days.  As we were diligently cleaning the house, making sure there was no clutter, dust, or dirt to be seen, I started thinking about another visitor, and had to question if I am putting this much effort into preparing for Him.  The Bible is very clear that Jesus is coming again.  Are you preparing for His return?  When He comes, what will the state of your spiritual house be? 

   There was a lot around the house that needed to be done.  One of the first things we did was outside.  For quite a while we have been saying that we needed to redo the flower beds in our front yard.  They were overrun with weeds and some flowers that made it look more like a jungle than a yard.  So we went out and dug up most of what was there.  Once we were done with the garden the outside of the house looked okay.  People driving by could say "that looks like a nice house."  However inside still needed quite a bit of work, perhaps more important work than the garden.   How often do we find ourselves dealing with the superficial sins that everyone can see, while neglecting some of the more meaningful sins in our lives that remain hidden.  Jesus says in Matthew 23:27 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness."  They took care of the things that made them look good on the outside.  Their actions appeared righteous, but their hearts were filled with immorality. 

    We may say the right things, do the right things, and hang out with the right crowd, but what does your inner-life look like.  Though the outside of our home looked nice, the inside still needed to be cleaned.  The serious work of preparing the house was inside.  The same is true spiritually.  Christ says in Mark 7:20-23 "What comes out of a man, that defiles a man.  For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness.  All these evil things come from within and defiles a man."  When working at cleaning our spiritual house we need to look inward to our hearts.

    As a typical man, when it came down to cleaning the inside of the house, my thoughts were simply let's pick up the clutter. However my wife felt differently. The floors needed to be vacuumed. Stuff needed dusting. Linens needed washing. Bathrooms needed scrubbing. Things needed to be cleaned even if they didn't at first glance appear dirty. 1 Samuel 16:7 reads "but the LORD said to Samuel, 'Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the LORD does not see as a man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.'"  Our lives should not just appear clean, because God sees the truth.  We should strive to truly be clean inside and out.

    You may be saying by now "Okay we got that we need to clean the house inside and out, but how do I clean my spiritual house?"  People try so many different things to clean their spiritual houses.  Many of these attempts are superficial.  We try simply stopping the actions and thoughts that we know to be sin.  This however is like pulling up the weeds in our garden. If we didn't make sure we got out the roots the plants would just come back and often times worse than before.  The same is true with sin in our lives if we do not deal with the root of it, then we can expect the sin to soon come back.  People also try to clean their spiritual house by doing good things to counteract the sin.  However our good deeds are like filthy rags to God.  No good deed will ever wash out sin.  It would be like trying to clean the mirror in the bathroom with the same cloth I used to wash up with after the gardening.  All that would be accomplished would be the spreading of mud.  So how do we clean this spiritual house?

    The only way to get clean is to turn to Christ.  He is the only one capable of cleaning our house.  However we have to allow Him to work in our lives.  He does this through the interactive working of His Holy Spirit and His Word.  Ephesians 5:25-27 "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the Word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and with out blemish."  As you study His Word, and you allow Him to convict you of sin and alter the way you perceive the world, conforming your views to that which He has laid out for you in His Word, then you will find your heart and mind truly being cleansed.  This is a process.  Paul puts it this way in Romans 12:1-2 "I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.  And be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God."  Allow God's Word to transform your mind so that you will feel and think as He does.

    Christ is coming back.  I don't want to be embarrassed because I neglected to clean my spiritual house.  I want Him to come and see His face shining in the faucets and off the hard wood floors of my heart.  How clean is your house?

The Theology of a Children's Song.

    So I was driving home from my parents today a little past my son's bed time.  He woke up when we were leaving their house and started screaming.  He is only eight months old so I can excuse this behavior.  My heart broke for being the good father, or the guilty dad who kept him up late, decided I would sing his favorite song to him, Jesus Loves Me.  As it is a 30 minute car ride you can imagine with me only knowing 5 verses that I had to repeat them quite often.  However towards the end I found he only wanted to hear one verse, and that is the one we all know and love.  

        Jesus loves me this I know, For the Bible tells me so.  

        Little ones to him belong, They are weak but He is strong. 

        Yes Jesus loves me, Yes Jesus loves me.

        Yes Jesus loves me, The Bible tells me so.

    The words repeated over and over again.  It hit me that it really is this simple.  Jesus loves me.  You know something, He loves you too.  The Bible tells us in fact that God loves the whole world so much so that He sent His only begotten son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.  Jesus said "greater love has no man than this that he lay down his life for a friend."  Yet Paul tells us in Romans 5:8-10 that Christ died for us while we were yet enemies with God.  His love is so great that we can't even fathom its depths.  He loves us, it is that simple.

    How do we know He loves us?  The Bible tells us so, that is what the song says.  I find it sad that so many people can sing this song and then turn around and start denying the authority of the word of God.  This song indicates that the Bible is a trustworthy source.  You can rely on what the Bible has to tell you.  Paul says to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:16 that the Bible is the inspired word of God.  He uses a Greek word that is a compound word Theopneumas the two parts being Theos meaning God and Pneuma meaning to breath.  So literally translated that reads "all scripture is breathed out by God."  Jesus noted the importance of the very parts of the letters in scripture when He said in Matthew 5:18 "for assuredly I say to you till the heavens and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled."  The "jot" and "tittle" are parts of the Hebrew letters.  We can trust the Bible to be true, after all God breathed it, and He assures us it will stand the test of time.  We know He loves us because the Bible tells us so.

    So who belongs to God?  Little ones do.  Often times we think of that as a reference to children but what if we broadened our understanding of who or what a little one is.  Matthew 18 tells us of an account where the disciples were having an argument over who would be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.  Jesus responds to this dispute by calling a "little child" to Him.  Often we see on the flannel-graphs and the children's material the picture of maybe a five year old, but the idea behind the Greek is more a helpless baby.  Jesus then proceeds to tell the disciples that they need to humble themselves as this helpless baby to enter the kingdom of heaven.  When you have come to the place in your life where you realize that you stand helpless before the throne of God a guilty sinner and can do nothing yourself, and are ready to place your life completely in the hands of Jesus, you become a "little one."  To me I think it is hard sometimes to be that humble.  We want to do things on our own, and be a big kid, or even an adult, but God asks us to fully rely on Him and to allow Him to have control.  Little ones to Him belong.

    We are weak, but He is strong.  When we realize that we stand before God guilty, we realize that we have no strength of our own to remove this sin debt we have acquired.  Hebrews 10:1 tells us that the Law could in never make us perfect.  In other words the works you and I do can never truly fill the holes sin leaves in our lives.  We do not have the strength.  Ephesian tells us that we are spiritually dead and must rely completely on Christ to quicken us to newness of life.  We are unable to pay that debt, but He is more than able.  Christ died on the cross offering His own life as a sacrifice to pay a debt you and I could not.  We are weak, but He is strong. 

    Such a simple song we teach our children.  Jesus loves us.  The Bible is true.  We need to humble ourselves before Him.  We can not earn our own salvation, but He offers it to us as a free gift.  Next time you start singing with the children, take a moment, think about what the words mean, and perhaps you will find God speaking to you.

"Start Working"

    Today a friend of mine called me up and Said "we need to start working."  After a slew of jokes I had with him about how I was working, just not getting paid, I gave in to the fact that he was referring to exercise.  I have been saying this very thing to myself lately, but have not taken the initiative to really "start working."  I really needed to though, as an overweight middle-aged man with a family history of heart problems I know the importance of exercise all too well, but so often times I just don't want to do it.  After we finished working out today I reflected upon what we just did.  During that reflection it came to me that many people do the same thing in their spiritual lives. 

    People are prone to sin, you could say it is a spiritual condition that exists in our family history.  We also have this knack for having a lack of faith.  Christ often calls the disciples "ye of little faith."  We do not differ too much from them in that regard.  If we were to look at the spiritual health of many of the people in our churches I would bet that we would find people as unhealthy spiritually as I am physically.  It is time to "start working."

    So we ask ourselves this question why is it that many people who call themselves Christians don't exercise their spiritual faith as often as they should?  I think part of the problem is that people think that they are exercising enough.  My wife, bless her soul, has been trying to get me to go for a short walk with her for weeks now seeing that the weather is so beautiful here.  A walk may be better than what I was doing, sitting at a computer writing sermons, working on this blog, and witnessing to people via the internet, but a short walk just would not be enough exercise for me.  Many people feel simply showing up in church on Sunday morning is enough spiritual exercise for them, but it is just a short walk.  People need more than just a short walk.  We need to get our spiritual blood flowing.  Other people read from a daily devotional filled with fluff and feel they are really exercising hardcore. Yet this is like watching an 80's exercise video and doing only the parts that are easy and skipping most of the video.  Sure they are getting a little bit out of it, but is that enough? 

    We need to think of our spiritual health and really work those faith muscles.  We need to find ourselves working through the hard parts, digging in to the Scriptures on more than just Sunday morning.  It is hard to do that though.  We may feel that we don't have the time.  If it is important to you, and your spiritual health should be important to you, we should make time.  Time to pray and study God's word, not just a fluffy devotional.  We may feel that it is too hard and we can't really get anything out of a personal study.  Currently I am doing the p90x program for my physical training.  I can not do it all yet, but I try to do everything and I get help on the things that I cannot do on my own yet, mostly the pull-ups and chin-ups.  As we do our personal study when we come across things that we cannot figure out on our we can get help.  There are many great study Bibles out there.  You can also get assistance by writing down the questions that come up and asking someone who is spiritual more mature than you are, like a pastor or an elder, if they can help you with the question.

    Spiritual health is not something that just happens.  It takes work just like your physical health does.  The process can be painful.  The process can seem inconvenient.  The process can seem trivial and not worth your time.  However like your physical health, it is better to take care of your health while you are healthy to prevent disease and illness.  It is easier to already be spiritually strong, having a strong faith, when times get rough, than to try to find your faith in times of trouble.  It is easier to stay in shape, than to try to get back into shape after letting yourself go.  So it is time to spiritually "start working!"

   

What does it mean to be a Christian

"And the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch" [Acts 11:26b]

    What does it mean to be a Christian?  Some believe they are Christians because they know they are not Jewish, or Islamic, so they must be Christians, right?  I have heard it said that America is a Christian nation, and I am an American so I must be a Christian.  Many people believe they are Christians because they go to church. Others feel that to be a Christian is to be a moral person.  Have you ever heard someone talking about their atheist friend say something like "He's more of a Christian than most people I know at church?"    So many people have no idea what it is to be a Christian.  Even people, supposedly Christian people, who have grown up reading their Bibles and attending Church whenever the doors are open, are in the dark about what it means to be a Christian. 

    The Scripture seems to be pretty clear about what a Christian is.  Why is there so much confusion over what it is to be a Christian?  Here in our verse Christians was a name that people gave to the Disciples.  One of the problems today is that many people call themselves Christians, but are by no means disciples of Christ.  Perhaps there is confusion over what it is to be a disciple.  

    We must remember that there were more than twelve disciples of Christ. The disciples that are being called Christians at Antioch in our verse are not the twelve that most people associate with the word "disciples" but are the people being taught by Paul and Barnabas.  You and I are presented with the opportunity to be disciples of Christ if we should accept and respond to His teachings that are found in the Scriptures.  A disciple by definition is one who accepts and assists in spreading the doctrines of another.  So a disciple of Christ is one who accepts His teachings and shares them with others.  I want to point out there is a difference in one who accepts the teachings and one who studies the teachings.  Many people study the Bible, they read it and out right deny it, or try to twist its meaning to be something it's not.  A disciple however will study it and accept what it says, they may question what it means, but ultimately will accept its teaching instead of trying to force their views upon it.  

    Christ had this to say about being one of His disciples "'If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple'"[Luke 14:26-27] In other words to be His disciple we must make Him the greatest affection in our lives.  We must be willing to give up everything to follow Him.  Matthew puts it this way"Then Jesus said to His disciples, 'If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.'"[Matthew 16:24-25]  So often we fall short in that willingness to lose our own lives, or our own ideals, our own sense of what is good and just.  We are unwilling to let that go and accept His teachings.  However He requires exactly that.

    So if being a Christian is to be His disciple, and to be His disciple is to follow Him, what is it to follow Him?  Jesus tells the fishermen Simon and Andrew that if they should follow Him, He would make them fishers of men[Mark 1:17]. When we follow Jesus we allow Him to make us into what He desires us to be.  We allow Him to form us as the potter forms the clay.  Not only do we allow Him to mold us, but He unites us to Himself.  "Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, 'I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.'"[John 8:12]  Christ's promise here is that if we follow Him we will have the light of life, which is how John describes Christ in the first chapter of his account of the gospel.  As we follow Christ we allow Him to mold us, shape us, and conform us, to be united with Him. Paul writes it this way "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.  For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.  Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these he also glorified."[Romans 8:28-30]  In other words Paul is saying that a Christian is one whom God is conforming to His image, whom he is justifying, so that he maybe glorified with Christ.  

    Christians are not just people who go to church, but they are people who long to know Christ better and strive to be like Him.  Christians are not just moral people, but a people who have been rejuvenated by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, who die to self and live for Christ.  Christians are not just born into the faith like a nationality, but have made a personal decision to humble themselves and accept that they can do nothing of themselves to save themselves and so they submit themselves to the Lordship of Jesus Christ as their savior.  Can you be called a Christian according to this, or is it just something you call yourself?