I've been studying the book of Isaiah in-depth since October. In this Old Testament book, the awesome prophet Isaiah communicates many words of comfort and hope to the people of Israel. And, since Christ has died and made a way for we "Gentiles" to also be among God's chosen people, we can now all claim the promises that God made to Israel. We all, figuratively, are "Israel," and the wonderful promises given to Israel in the book of Isaiah are therefore ours to stand on! Promises like:
"The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces" Isaiah 25:8a
"I have chosen you and have not rejected you. So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."
Isaiah 41:9b-10
"Even to your old age and gray hairs I am He, I am He who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you." Isaiah 46:4
"I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands..." Isaiah 49:15b-16a
However.......here's where I have a conflict.....
The bible study guide I've been using each day has posed this concept several times: All will one day face the Messiah, either bowing to Him as Savior or bowing to Him as Judge. Is Jesus your Savior or will He be your Judge. If He is your Savior, your eternity is secure and you have much to look forward to. If He is your Judge, however, you will be condemned to a torturous, Christ-less eternity.
I am bothered by this implication because of how it presents a Savior vs. Judge concept rather than a more accurate Savior AND Judge concept. Scripture is clear that we will all stand before Jesus to give an account for the way we lived; that we will all stand before Jesus to be judged. Yes, those of us who have trusted in Christ as Savior will be permitted into an eternity in heaven with Jesus, but not before we are judged for the content of our lives on Earth.
Shame on us when we cling-to and focus on the ooey-gooey, warm-fuzzy parts of scripture and ignore the hard, not-so-fun-to-think-about parts of scripture.
In closing, consider the following scriptures that indicate every Christian's appointment to one day stand before the Lord and receive just, eternal consequence for the ways that we spent our lives. If you'll pause to consider how you spend your time, your energy, and your money, the thought of such an appointment with our Savior and Judge may not be entirely comforting:
"For we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ, that each on may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad." 2 Corinthians 5:10
"For the Son of Man is going to come in His Father's glory with His angels, and then He will reward each person according to what He has done." Matthew 16:27
"All the churches will know that I am He who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds." Revelation 2:23
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Will We Be: A Self-Sufficient Church or A Desperate-For-God Church?
Lately I've been thinking and writing on materialism in the church and among Christians today. Materialism, as we have seen, pulls the full allegiance of our heart away from the Lord and attaches it instead to the temporary things of this world. Thus, we become self-centered, self-focused, self-fulfilled rather than centered on God, focused on God, and fulfilled in God. Such a centeredness on self, as I have experienced, reduces or eliminates our feeling hunger for God. We are self-sufficient and we tragically underestimate our desperate need for Him. We get busy - He gets left out. This ailment then translates into our churches. The church is darkly effected when its people are not desperate for the help, the guidance, the power, and the Word of God. We will cling to man-made ideals and man-made strategies rather than discovering the power and purpose that only God can deliver.
I'd like to share one more quote from the book I've mentioned lately - Radical - that touches on this concept:
"We Christians.....have convinced ourselves that if we can just position our resources and organize our strategies....we can accomplish anything we set our minds to. But what is strangely lacking in the picture of performances, personalities, programs, and professionals is desperation for the power of God. God's power is at best an add-on to our strategies and good deeds. I am frightened by the reality that the church I lead can carry on most of our activities smoothly, efficiently, even successfully - never realizing that the Holy Spirit of God is virtually absent from the picture. We can so easily deceive ourselves, mistaking the presence of physical bodies in a crowd for the existence of spiritual life in a community.... I long to be part of a scene where we refuse to operate in a mind-set dominated by an American dream that depends on what we can achieve with our own abilities. A scene where we no longer settle for what we can do in our own power. A scene where the church radically trusts in God's great power to provide unlikely people with unlimited, unforeseen, uninhibited resources to make his name known as great. I want to be part of that dream!.... It doesn't matter how many resources the church has. The church I lead could have all the man-made resources that one could imagine, but apart from the power of the Holy Spirit, such a church will do nothing of significance for the glory of God....His power is so superior to ours. Why do we not desperately seek it?"
I'd like to share one more quote from the book I've mentioned lately - Radical - that touches on this concept:
"We Christians.....have convinced ourselves that if we can just position our resources and organize our strategies....we can accomplish anything we set our minds to. But what is strangely lacking in the picture of performances, personalities, programs, and professionals is desperation for the power of God. God's power is at best an add-on to our strategies and good deeds. I am frightened by the reality that the church I lead can carry on most of our activities smoothly, efficiently, even successfully - never realizing that the Holy Spirit of God is virtually absent from the picture. We can so easily deceive ourselves, mistaking the presence of physical bodies in a crowd for the existence of spiritual life in a community.... I long to be part of a scene where we refuse to operate in a mind-set dominated by an American dream that depends on what we can achieve with our own abilities. A scene where we no longer settle for what we can do in our own power. A scene where the church radically trusts in God's great power to provide unlikely people with unlimited, unforeseen, uninhibited resources to make his name known as great. I want to be part of that dream!.... It doesn't matter how many resources the church has. The church I lead could have all the man-made resources that one could imagine, but apart from the power of the Holy Spirit, such a church will do nothing of significance for the glory of God....His power is so superior to ours. Why do we not desperately seek it?"
Friday, March 4, 2011
Radical
Please consider these words from Radical, by David Platt:
A relationship with Jesus requires total, superior, and exclusive devotion. If you follow him, you abandon everything - your needs, yours desires, even your family. Biblical obedience (rather than the church-going, rules-keeping that we like to call "obedience") will require that we abandon all that would hinder. "Give up everything you have, carry your cross (an instrument of torture), and hate your family." This sounds a lot different than "Admit, believe, confess, and pray a prayer after me." Jesus called his disciples to abandon their careers. They were reorienting their entire life's work around discipleship to Jesus. Their plans were being swallowed up in his plans. Ultimately, Jesus was calling them to abandon themselves. They were leaving certainty for uncertainty, safety for danger, self-preservation for self-denunciation. Lets put ourselves in the shoes of these eager followers of Jesus. What if I were the potential disciple being told to drop my nets and abandon my career? What if I were the disciple being told to embrace torture and suffering? What if you were the man whom Jesus told to not even say good-beye to his family? What if I were the disciple being told to hate my family and give up everything I had in order to follow Jesus? This is where we come face to face with a dangerous reality. We do have to give up everything we have to follow Jesus. We do have to love him in a way that makes our closest relationships look like hate. And it is entirely possible that He will tell us to sell everything we have and give it to the poor. But we don't want to believe it. We are afraid of what it might mean for our lives. So we rationalize these passages away. "Jesus wouldn't really tell us not to bury our father or say good-bye to our family. Jesus didn't literally mean to sell all we have and give it to the poor. What Jesus really meant was..." And this is where we need to pause. Because we are starting to redefine Christianity. We are giving in to the dangerous temptation to take the Jesus of the Bile and twist him into a version of Jesus we are more comfortable with. A nice, middle-class, American Jesus. A Jesus who doesn't mind materialism and who would never call us to give away everything we have. A Jesus who is content with us gathering in our churches and spending thousands of dollars on nice buildings to drive up to, cushioned chairs to sit in, and endless programs to enjoy for ourselves. A Jesus who would never call us to give away everything we have. A Jesus who would not expect us to forsake our closest relationships so that he receives all our affection. A Jesus who is fine with nominal devotion that does not infringe on our comforts, because, after all, he loves us just the way we are. A Jesus who wants us to be balanced, who wants us to avoid dangerous extremes, and who, for that matter, wants us to avoid danger all together. A Jesus who brings us comfort and prosperity as we live out our Christian spin on the American dream. But do you and I realize what we are doing at this point? We are molding Jesus into our image. He is beginning to look a lot like us because, after all, that is whom we are most comfortable with. And the danger now is that when we gather in our church buildings to sing and lift up our hands in worship, we may not actually be worshiping the Jesus of the Bible. Instead, we may be worshiping ourselves. While Christians choose to spend their lives fulfilling the American dream instead of giving their lives to proclaiming the gospel, literally billions in need of the gospel remain in the dark. We desperately need to revisit the words of Jesus in scripture, listen to them, believe them, and obey them. We need to return with urgency to a biblical gospel, because the cost of not doing so is great for our lives, our families, our churches, and the world around us."
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Jim Elliot and David Platt... On Materialism
In my last entry, I weighed the issue of enjoying one's possessions and finances as a blessing from the Lord vs. sacrificially giving one's possessions and finances to the work of the Lord. I'd like to explore that topic a bit more thoroughly...
Jim Elliot (1927-56) was a man who understood his God-given responsibility to use his life and resources for the work of the Lord: sharing Jesus with others. Elliot was convinced that God was leading him to an exotic indian tribe known for killing any outsider who tried to approach them. These Indians, the Huaorani, had never heard the gospel. Elliot and a few other men believed it was their responsibility to take the gospel to the Huaorani people. Elliot and his friends were speared-through and killed by the Huaorani before they ever had a chance to tell them of the love of Jesus. In the days following the deaths, however, Elliot's wife would be a part of leading to Christ the very men who speared her husband. Since that day till now, the peace of Christ has come to reign in the Huaorani tribe. Jim Elliot's ultimate sacrifice made possible the salvation of natives who may have otherwise never heard the name of Jesus.
Many criticized Elliot's decision to travel to the Huaorani people because of their violent reputation. They encouraged him to just stay in America and minister there. Before embarking on his missionary journey, Elliot wrote in his journal:
"Surely those who know the great passionate heart of Jehovah must deny their own loves to share in the expression of His....So what if the well-fed church in the homeland needs stirring? They have the Scriptures, Moses, and the Prophets, and a whole lot more. Their condemnation is written on their bank books and in the dust on their Bible covers. American believers have sold their lives to the service of Mammom (materialism), and God has His rightful way of dealing with those who succumb to the spirit of Laodecia."
The spirit of Laodecia that Elliot spoke of comes from Revelation 3:16-17. In this passage, God is disgusted with the church because they are lukewarm in their faith. They are lukewarm partly because their trust and hope is fixed in their riches and their possessions. As a result they do not experience a burning hunger and need for the Lord. They are wealthy and materialistic. Their materialism separated them from the Lord and the work that He had for them to do.
Is your materialism separating you from the Lord? This is a question that I am asking myself very much lately.
Radical, by David Platt, is a book that God is absolutely using to pierce me to the core right now. Platt says, "The war against materialism in our hearts is exactly that: a war. It is a constant battle to resist the temptation to have more luxuries, to acquire more stuff, and to live more comfortably. It requires strong and steady resolve to live out the gospel in the middle of an American dream that identifies success as moving up the ladder, getting the bigger house, purchasing the nicer car, buying the better clothes, eating the finer food, and acquiring more things."
Yes, in the middle of immoral and materialistic America, you and I must choose to live out the gospel. That involves a forsaking of ourselves, our comfort, our possessions, and our finances in order to make disciples of Jesus Christ in all the world. That was Jesus' assignment to us. Many professing Christians will choose not to do this because of an attachment to their own comfort and luxury. And, as Elliot stated, "Their condemnation is written on their bank books."
In closing, consider the following from Radical:
Jim Elliot (1927-56) was a man who understood his God-given responsibility to use his life and resources for the work of the Lord: sharing Jesus with others. Elliot was convinced that God was leading him to an exotic indian tribe known for killing any outsider who tried to approach them. These Indians, the Huaorani, had never heard the gospel. Elliot and a few other men believed it was their responsibility to take the gospel to the Huaorani people. Elliot and his friends were speared-through and killed by the Huaorani before they ever had a chance to tell them of the love of Jesus. In the days following the deaths, however, Elliot's wife would be a part of leading to Christ the very men who speared her husband. Since that day till now, the peace of Christ has come to reign in the Huaorani tribe. Jim Elliot's ultimate sacrifice made possible the salvation of natives who may have otherwise never heard the name of Jesus.
Many criticized Elliot's decision to travel to the Huaorani people because of their violent reputation. They encouraged him to just stay in America and minister there. Before embarking on his missionary journey, Elliot wrote in his journal:
"Surely those who know the great passionate heart of Jehovah must deny their own loves to share in the expression of His....So what if the well-fed church in the homeland needs stirring? They have the Scriptures, Moses, and the Prophets, and a whole lot more. Their condemnation is written on their bank books and in the dust on their Bible covers. American believers have sold their lives to the service of Mammom (materialism), and God has His rightful way of dealing with those who succumb to the spirit of Laodecia."
The spirit of Laodecia that Elliot spoke of comes from Revelation 3:16-17. In this passage, God is disgusted with the church because they are lukewarm in their faith. They are lukewarm partly because their trust and hope is fixed in their riches and their possessions. As a result they do not experience a burning hunger and need for the Lord. They are wealthy and materialistic. Their materialism separated them from the Lord and the work that He had for them to do.
Is your materialism separating you from the Lord? This is a question that I am asking myself very much lately.
Radical, by David Platt, is a book that God is absolutely using to pierce me to the core right now. Platt says, "The war against materialism in our hearts is exactly that: a war. It is a constant battle to resist the temptation to have more luxuries, to acquire more stuff, and to live more comfortably. It requires strong and steady resolve to live out the gospel in the middle of an American dream that identifies success as moving up the ladder, getting the bigger house, purchasing the nicer car, buying the better clothes, eating the finer food, and acquiring more things."
Yes, in the middle of immoral and materialistic America, you and I must choose to live out the gospel. That involves a forsaking of ourselves, our comfort, our possessions, and our finances in order to make disciples of Jesus Christ in all the world. That was Jesus' assignment to us. Many professing Christians will choose not to do this because of an attachment to their own comfort and luxury. And, as Elliot stated, "Their condemnation is written on their bank books."
In closing, consider the following from Radical:
"The mark of Christ followers is that their hearts are in heaven and their treasures are spent there... We can switch the channels on our mega-TVs and continue our comfortable, untroubled, ordinary, church-going lives as if the global poor don't exist...Or we can open our eyes and our lives to the realities that surround us... Why not begin selling and giving away luxuries for the sake of the poor outside our gates? Why not begin operating under the idea that God has given us excess, not so we could have more, but so we could give more?"
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Enjoying Money and Possessions vs. Sacrificing Money and Possessions
God owns everything - our lives, our time, and our money...
"The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it...." Psalm 24:1
"'The silver is mine and the gold is mine,' declares the Lord Almighty." Haggai 2:8
God therefore commands us to be responsible stewards of all He's given us...
"It is required of a steward that one be found trustworthy." 1 Corinthians 4:2b
A responsible steward will have a detailed plan for their finances - their giving, saving, investing, debt repayment, lifestyle, etc. They will exercise self control over their finances rather than their finances controlling them...
"Good planning and hard work lead to prosperity." Proverbs 21:5
God desires for us to enjoy what He's given us...
put your "hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment." 1 Timothy 6:17
Yet God also calls us to a radical sacrifice of our lives and our money for the purposes of following Jesus and spreading the gospel...
"Sell your posessions and give to the poor." Luke 12:33
"Any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple." Luke 14:33
"No one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to recived a hundred times as much in the present age...and in the age to come, eternal life." Mark 10:29-30
Lately, I feel so torn. God's Word must be the ultimate authority for my life, yet I see troubling truths in it. While there are passages that clearly talk about our enjoyment of God's material blessings in our lives, there are far more passages that command the abandonment, sacrifice, and giving away of earthly wealth and possessions so that Jesus' love may be extended to the lost and needy around us. Oh how I desire the wisdom and discernment to understand God's Word in this matter. Oh how I long to be obedient. I don't want to pursue stuff and in the process miss Christ and the unmatched pleasures that He gives to a life free from bondage to the possessions of this world. I don't want to miss eternal treasure because I settle for earthly trinkets!
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Confidence in Uncertainty
I am feeling confident lately.
Not because any circumstances have changed, not because I can see how everything is going to work out, and not because I am convinced that bad or hard circumstances will stay far away. No, I have confidence and peace because of who my God is. Specifically, because He is good.
God's goodness is part of His character. He has always been good. He will always be good. He cannot not be good because it is who He is. And, who He is will never change.
His goodness gives me a peaceful confidence that no matter what my circumstances look like, no matter what I may be feeling, and no matter what uncertainties may lie in the future, my life is safely in His hands. Nothing will come to my doorstep without having first passed-through the permission of His goodness.
God's Word assures us that His goodness will provide what He knows is best for our lives.
Look at the following verses:
"Since He did not spare even His own Son but gave Him up for us all, won't He also give us everything else?" Romans 8:32 (NLT)
"If you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask Him!" Matthew 7:11 (NLT)
"The Lord will withhold no good thing from those who do what is right." Psalm 84:11 (NLT)
A summary of these three verses would be:
Since God was willing to give us the most costly of all gifts - His Son - shouldn't we therefore trust that He will not withhold any other good thing from our lives? And, since we as sinful and imperfect people know how to give good gifts to one another, isn't it logical that our perfect and holy Father will be far more able to give us good gifts?!?! Live your life unto Jesus - as rightly, as innocently, and as purely as you know how - and He will withhold no good thing from you!
Because He is good, we can have confidence - even in the midst of uncertainty.
Not because any circumstances have changed, not because I can see how everything is going to work out, and not because I am convinced that bad or hard circumstances will stay far away. No, I have confidence and peace because of who my God is. Specifically, because He is good.
God's goodness is part of His character. He has always been good. He will always be good. He cannot not be good because it is who He is. And, who He is will never change.
His goodness gives me a peaceful confidence that no matter what my circumstances look like, no matter what I may be feeling, and no matter what uncertainties may lie in the future, my life is safely in His hands. Nothing will come to my doorstep without having first passed-through the permission of His goodness.
God's Word assures us that His goodness will provide what He knows is best for our lives.
Look at the following verses:
"Since He did not spare even His own Son but gave Him up for us all, won't He also give us everything else?" Romans 8:32 (NLT)
"If you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask Him!" Matthew 7:11 (NLT)
"The Lord will withhold no good thing from those who do what is right." Psalm 84:11 (NLT)
A summary of these three verses would be:
Since God was willing to give us the most costly of all gifts - His Son - shouldn't we therefore trust that He will not withhold any other good thing from our lives? And, since we as sinful and imperfect people know how to give good gifts to one another, isn't it logical that our perfect and holy Father will be far more able to give us good gifts?!?! Live your life unto Jesus - as rightly, as innocently, and as purely as you know how - and He will withhold no good thing from you!
Because He is good, we can have confidence - even in the midst of uncertainty.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
When Your Soul Is Downcast...
I have been discouraged lately. I told God this morning that I really needed to hear from Him today.
He was faithful to answer from His Word! I shudder to think how many times I've cried out for help or needed to hear from God, yet never received what I needed simply because I never opened my bible.
God's encouragement for me today:
My modern-day translation:
Your Lord is filled with love and compassion for you at the start of each new day. Because of that (and regardless of what you may be feeling or experiencing) you have every reason to have hope!!! Because of His great faithfulness, you have nothing to fear, dread, or be discouraged by. He is all that you need - more than you need! Since He is, just wait for Him. He will come through. If you hope in Him and seek Him, you will experience His goodness. Wait for Him - He will not disappoint!
He was faithful to answer from His Word! I shudder to think how many times I've cried out for help or needed to hear from God, yet never received what I needed simply because I never opened my bible.
God's encouragement for me today:
My soul is downcast within me.
Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope:
Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
I say to myself, "The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for Him."
The Lord is good to those whose hope is in Him, to the one who seeks Him.
It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.
Lamentations 3:20b-26
My modern-day translation:
Your Lord is filled with love and compassion for you at the start of each new day. Because of that (and regardless of what you may be feeling or experiencing) you have every reason to have hope!!! Because of His great faithfulness, you have nothing to fear, dread, or be discouraged by. He is all that you need - more than you need! Since He is, just wait for Him. He will come through. If you hope in Him and seek Him, you will experience His goodness. Wait for Him - He will not disappoint!
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