DownshoreDrift

Stop Trying to Get Your Life Back to 'Normal'

Last night in our Wednesday Night Bible Study, we were talking about patience and were working through Mark 5 and the story of Jairus' daughter. We are using Tim Keller's King's Cross as a guide for our study. Toward the end, I started talking about reasons why we go to God and cry out to Him in prayer. Most of these reasons are usually related to some problem. Here is the scenario:

You are having a pretty good day. You have prayed, read Scripture, spent time with God, and are at peace with the world. You have plans for the day and you begin to carry out those plans. You rest when you want, do what you have planned, accomplish your goals one by one. Your kids cooperate, your marriage is good, you feel good about yourself, everyone around you is healthy and taken care of, and there is money in the bank. Work goes well. School goes well. Your other activities go well. You end the day relaxing with your family, then with a movie or book, and you thank God for a good day and lay your head down to rest. Shalom. I am not saying that this is your idea of a great day, but it is as "normal" as I can think of and it is the kind of day that does not really raise any major alarms for most. Things go according to plan and, perhaps, this is what we consider the "base line" for expectations.

Another day does not go well. Perhaps you are running late. You have a big project due. The kids are not cooperating. Someone is coming down hard on you at work. You get a flat tire. You are out of sorts with your spouse. You have a broken relationship with a friend. Traffic is terrible. You get an unexpected bill in the mail or the air condition breaks down. Or, perhaps things are even worse. You have a doctor's appointment and the doctor says they've found something. They think its cancer. You get sick. Or, your job goes away and you have to find work. Or, there is a death in the family or a divorce.  All of these things are the things we want to get away from. So, our normal Bible study/prayer time doesn't cut it. We cry out to God and ask Him for help. You want the pain to go away. You want Him to heal you. Our expectations far exceed our reality and the distance in between is the amount of frustration that we are experiencing. You want to get back to 'normal.'

But, what are you really asking for?  You want the traffic to move. You don't want to be late. You want the kids to cooperate. You want your spouse to love you. So, you ask God to help you and get things to work out for you. You pray more intensely. You want life to get back to your base line so that you can be at peace. But, you are saying that "peace" is found when things work the way you want them to. You think life is going well when it is going the way that you think it should go. This means that you are in charge and your relationship with God involves getting Him to help you because you know you can't manage your life all by yourself. But, the Bible says that "peace" is found in God alone. When God doesn't show up and help you in the relationship or on the job or with your finances or your health the way you want, you wonder what has happened? Why is God so far away from you?

The truth is, you don't want God the way you should. You want things to work out. You want God so He can bring things back to equilibrium with whatever you have decided the "good life" is. Maybe your "good life" is successful ministry or adventure or living dangerously. It could be anything. But, if we are only really crying out to God when we think we have problems - and if our prayers involve trying to get things back to 'normal' so we can be at peace, we are actually using God as a means to some other end and that is idolatry.

It is good to pray for healing and for relationships and finances and your kids and for the traffic to move. PLEASE pray for those things! But, in praying for them, seek first God's Kingdom - His will and reign and rule (Matt. 6:33).  Seek to be reconciled to God. Seek after Him.  Repent from trying to get your own way. Maybe the delay or the sickness or the difficult relationship is exactly the place that you meet with God. Maybe it isn't about you at all but it is about someone else. Maybe this is just the world we live in. Still, God is found when we trust in Him and not when we just want to use Him to fix our circumstance. There is a lot of superficial superstition masquerading as Christianity these days. True Christianity is about Jesus and us being reconciled to Him and Him being before all things and in whom all things hold together (Col. 1:17).  Religion is ultimately about us and how we get right or get what we want from God so that we can have the life we've always wanted. It is prosperity gospel, even if the goals are good. 

We don't need 'normal.' We need Jesus. And, he has a tendency to upset our understanding of 'normal' so we can meet with Him.  Patience is not something that we cultivate. It is the fruit of the Spirit - it comes from God alone and we only meet with God when we look to Him in faith. That means that we shouldn't be looking everywhere else to get the life we want. Jesus has the life we need.

*For more on this, read James 4:1-10. All that I am saying here can be found in that passage, at least in part.  

The Argument From Desire (Matt Jordan)

On Wednesday at Gateway, Dr. Matt Jordan, philosophy professor at Auburn University - Montgomery and part of the fellowship at Gateway Baptist, will be teaching on a concept popularized by C.S. Lewis called The Argument from Desire. He sent me his notes today and I wanted to reproduce them here. I think that the intuitive argument for God and us being made for God here is very convincing, at least for me.

_____________________________

God and Desire (Matt Jordan)

1. Desiring the right things

People sometimes think that Christian faith is inherently opposed to desire. After all, Christians are called to be temperate and self-controlled, to restrain their appetites, to resist temptation, and so on. Indeed, James tells us that “each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death” (1:14-15). But it’s a mistake to think that desire itself is the problem here. The Christian view has always been that desire is evil only when it is aimed at the wrong things, or at the right things in the wrong ways. Consider this excerpt from James 4:

What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions…
“God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

More simply, there’s Psalm 37:4: “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”

There is nothing inherently wrong with desire. What we need to learn is to desire the right things in the right ways; to desire God above all else, and to receive his gifts as he would have us receive them. To be conformed to the image of Christ is, in large measure, to love the things that God loves. This is a big part of living in God’s “upside-down kingdom.” Compare the words of Jesus in Matthew 13:44-45 and Paul’s statements in Philippians 3:8-21 with the passage below from C. S. Lewis’s “The Weight of Glory”:

if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at sea. We are far too easily pleased.

2. Desire as evidence for God

In the spirit of 1 Peter 3:15, we should note that some of our desires—deep-seated longings for meaning, goodness, and “something more”—are evidence for the existence of God. Philosophers sometimes call this the argument from desire. Peter Kreeft of Boston College is one of its best-known proponents; here is how he explains the argument:[1]

 Claim #1: Every natural desire within us corresponds to some real object that can satisfy the desire.

• It’s important to notice the difference between natural desires (e.g., the desire for food or sex) and artificial desires (e.g., the desire for Cleveland to win a championship or to serve as captain of the starship Enterprise).
• Claim #1 does not say that every natural desire will be satisfied, but that natural desires demonstrate the existence of something that could satisfy them.
• Kreeft argues that Claim #1 is something we can know through pure reason (i.e., just through thinking about it) and through experience; for every uncontroversially natural desire, there is, in fact, something in reality which can satisfy it. 

Claim #2: There is a natural desire within human beings that cannot be satisfied by any finite thing.

• C. S. Lewis used the German word ‘sensucht’ to describe this feeling; there’s no good English equivalent. It’s a longing for goodness and beauty… A kind of ache which is itself better than most of the pleasures we can experience. The idea runs throughout Lewis’s writings; some of the imagery in the Narnia books seems intended to evoke this sense in the reader. Lewis himself defined sensucht this way: “That unnameable something, desire for which pierces us like a rapier at the smell of bonfire, the sound of wild ducks flying overhead, the title of The Well at the World's End, the opening lines of ‘Kubla Khan’, the morning cobwebs in late summer, or the noise of falling waves.”[2]
• Kreeft seems pretty confident that every human being has this experience; I think it’s worth noting that the argument still works even if only some people have a natural experience of sensucht.
• Evidence of such a desire can be found throughout the ages:

÷  Solomon (Israel, 10^th century BC): “God has set eternity in our hearts.”

÷  Augustine of Hippo (Algeria, 4^th century AD): “Thou hast made us for Thyself, O God, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in Thee.”

÷  Pascal (France, 17^th century AD): “There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator, made known through Jesus.”

÷  Aldous Huxley (England, 20^th century AD): “There comes a time when one asks even of Shakespeare, even of Beethoven, is this all?”

÷  Tom Brady (U.S.A., 21^st century AD):  “Why do I have three Superbowl rings, and still think there’s something greater out there for me?  I mean, maybe a lot of people would say, ‘Hey man, this is what it is.  I’ve reached my goal, my dream…  My life is…’  Me, I think, ‘God…  There’s got to be more than this.  I mean, this isn’t, this can’t be what it’s all cracked up to be.”

Claim #3: Therefore, there is some real object that can satisfy these deepest longings.

• This is the only completely uncontroversial part of the argument; it’s just a logical inference from Claim #1 and Claim #2. If the first two claims are true, then Claim #3 must be true as well.

Claim #4: That object is what we call “God” and “life with God forever.”

• Someone seeking to criticize this argument should point out that Claim #4 does not logically follow from the first three claims. This is true, but it should be of small comfort to the committed atheist. If we accept Claim #3, then we need to think seriously about what the “real object” to which it refers might be. It’s difficult to think of any plausible candidates other than God. 

3. Questions for discussion

• What are some examples (from your own life, in our culture, or elsewhere) of desiring “the right things in the wrong ways”?
• Jesus talks about the Kingdom of God as a pearl of great price. What kinds of things might we need to “sell” in order to acquire it? Do you find it difficult to trust Jesus that this would be a wise investment? Why or why not?
• What might it look like to actually apply Paul’s words in Philippians 3 (or, for that matter, Lewis’s words in “The Weight of Glory”) to real life in Montgomery, Alabama, in 2011?
• Does the “argument from desire” seem like the kind of thing Peter had in mind when he told us to be prepared to give a reason for the hope that is within us? Are there other kinds of considerations you might point to if a skeptic asked?
• Does Lewis’s idea of “sensucht” resonate with you? What kinds of things have caused you to experience sensucht?
• What keeps us from longing for God? What can do to cultivate this desire?

---

[1] Paraphrased from <http://www.peterkreeft.com/topics/desire.htm>.

[2] This is from the afterword to the third edition of The Pilgrim’s Regress, but I poached it from <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sehnsucht>. In case you’re wondering, “Kubla Khan” is a 1797 poem by Samuel Coleridge. Its opening lines are “In Xanadu did Kubla Khan/A stately pleasure-dome decree:/Where Alph, the sacred river, ran/Through caverns measureless to man/Down to a sunless sea.” I got that from Wikipedia too.

Keller and Luther on the Gospel

We have begun studying Tim Keller's Gospel in Life: Grace Changes Everything on Wednesday nights at Gateway in our Spiritual Formation gathering. The premise of this study is that the gospel affects all of life and that our union with God in Christ radically changes every aspect of life. We will be exploring this concept in depth September 17-19 at the Redeem Conference with a couple of other churches.

I want to take a look at Keller's perspective on the gospel through the lense of Martin Luther, John Calvin, and Jonathan Edwards. First, Keller says this about religion, irreligion, and the gospel:  "The gospel is neither religion nor irreligion - it is something else altogether. Religion makes law and moral obedience a means of salvation, while irreligion makes the individual a law to himself - or herself. The gospel, however, is that Jesus takes the law of God so seriously that he paid the penalty of disobedience, so we can be saved by sheer grace."

We often attempt to follow Jesus as a means to some other end. We think that by following Christ, we can make a deal with God to get what we want out of life. When we don't get what we want, we tend to get frustrated and look for other methods. Or, we throw in the towel and go our own way. At the end of the day, our focus is on ourselves, our desires, and our perceived needs. Our faith is in Christ only for what He can do for us. This is the heart of the prosperity gospel and its roots run through all forms of religion. In reality, God is the end not the means and we are to seek Him for who He is alone.

Thoughts on the In-Breaking Kingdom of God

“The central theme in the ministry and teaching of Jesus is the kingdom of God, or as Matthew calls it, the kingdom of Heaven. This key idea ties his entire message together. The “kingdom of God” permeates Jesus’ ministry, giving it coherence and clarity. It is the undisputed core, the very essence, of his life and teaching.” ~ Donald Kraybill, The Upside Down Kingdom, p. 16.

“In broad strokes, most biblical scholars agree that the “kingdom of God” means the dynamic rule or reign of God. The reign involves God’s intentions, authority, and ruling power. It doesn’t refer to a territory or a particular place. Nor is it static. It’s dynamic – always becoming, spreading, and growing. The kingdom points us not to the place of God but to God’s ruling activities. It is not a kingdom in heaven, but from heaven – one that thrives here and now. The kingdom appears whenever women and men submit their lives to God’s will. ~ Kraybill, p. 18.

Jerry Bridges and Bob Bevington talk about the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ in their book, The Great Exchange. To introduce this study, they talked about the different facets of the gospel and they declared that the whole gospel must be preached and believed for us to really know God.  One of the facets of the gospel is the Gospel of the Kingdom:

                                  

“In the gospel, our worldview is radically changed. We refer to this facet [of the gospel] as the gospel of the kingdom. It means that our definitions of health, wealth, security, comfort, and prosperity are turned upside down compared to the world’s view. It means we embrace the paradoxes of Christ’s teaching – to live is to die, to be great is to be a servant of all, and to be rich is to give sacrificially. All our values change, as do our views on community, poverty, gender, racism, orphans and widows, and the sick and the weak. But none of this can happen authentically apart from the cross, where our sin was exchanged for his righteousness.”

~ Bridges and Bevington, The Great Exchange, p. 16.

The Gospel of the Kingdom for Everyone

Darrow Miller, Bob Moffitt, and Scott Allen have put together a series of Bible studies on the Kingdom of God. They are primarily for small groups, but I am perusing them as a reference for my study on Wednesday nights this summer. Here is a passage from their study, God's Unshakable Kingdom:

In the second century a devastating smallpox epidemic swept through the Roman Empire. The epidemic was so severe that over the next fifteen years a quarter to a third of the Empire's population died from smallpox, including the famous Roman emperor, Marcus Aurelius.

According to Dionysius, Bishop of Alexandria, the typical Roman response to the illness was to flee from it. "At the first onset of the disease, [the non-believing Romans] pushed the sufferers away and fled from their dearest, throwing them into the roads before they were dead. [They] treated unburied corpses as dirt." Even Galen, the famous physician, left Rome quickly once the epidemic began, departing fo rhis country estate in Asia Minor until the danger receded.

In contrast, wrote Dionysius, "Most of our Christian brothers showed unbounded love and loyalty, never sparing themselves and thinking only of one another. Heedless of danger, they took charge of the sick, attending to their every need and ministering to them in Christ . . . drawing on themselves the sickness of their neighbors and cheerfully accepting their pains. Many, in nursing and caring for others, transferred their death to themselves and died in their stead.

This perspective is amazing to me and explains why the early church exploded in growth and turned the Roman world upside down.  Where did the early believers derive this type of love and self sacrifice? Many Christians today live this way, although it is not exactly something that has become a part of our normal discipleship in American Christianity.  But, I'll save that for another day.

Here's a thought: Colossians 1:19-20 says, "For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross."  These verses are not teaching that everyone and everything will be saved. There are lots of passages that speak against that idea. Rather, this passage is saying that Jesus has made it possible for all things to be reconciled to Himself. Eventually, everyone will bow the knee to Jesus. Eventually, all of creation will be redeemed. But for now, we know that there is no sin too large, no family too estranged, no community too divided, and no nation too evil that Jesus cannot bring back to Himself. The Cross is sufficient to bring all men back to Him. It is also sufficient to restore the entire created order.  Somehow, I think that the early church understood this. When they laid their lives down to bring the love of Christ to the sick and the dying, they were just doing the work of the gospel by reconciling the world back to God through the sacrificial love displayed through the Cross.

So, when I see evil, sickness, death, and despair around me, I should not run away in fear.  When I see people enslaved to sin and living in wickedness, I should not pull back and condemn them. Instead, I should go into those situations in the confidence that Jesus has already won the victory and everyone and everything can bow before Jesus because of what He has done on the Cross and through the Resurrection.  Jesus is our hope. Somehow, I think that the early church understood this. That is why they were able to lay their lives down and care for the sick, even at great danger to themselves. They were compelled by love. They did not look at people from a worldly point of view. They knew that they were given the message of reconciliation because God was reconciling the world to Himself through Jesus.  How could they do any different as His ambassadors?  (2 Corinthians 5:14-21). 

How could we?

The Gospel of the Kingdom - Shalom

Last night, I continued on with our study on Jesus and the In-Breaking Kingdom of God. I was really excited to talk about the concept of Shalom, or peace, as it is related to the reign and rule of God in Christ. Many of us think of peace as a pleasant emotion or a state of stress free living. We think of peace in an individualistic or internal sense.  Or, we think of it as the absence of conflict. But, the Biblical idea of Shalom is much more holistic than that. The New Bible Dictionary says,

Basically, the Old Testament word for peace, shalom, means ‘completeness’, ‘soundness’, ‘well-being’. It is used when one asks of or prays for the welfare of another, when one is in harmony or concord with another, when one seeks the good of a city or country.  It may mean material prosperity or physical safety. But also it may mean spiritual well-being. Such peace is the associate of righteousness and truth, but not of wickedness.                                          

                                                                        

Because of the world’s chaos through man’s sin, and because peace comes only as God’s gift, the messianic hope was an age of peace (Isaiah 2:2-4; 9:1-7), or of the advent of the Prince of Peace.  The New Testament shows the fulfillment of this hope. In Christ peace has come (Luke 2:14, 29-32). By Him it is bestowed (Mark 5:30-34; John 20:19-22; 26), and His disciples are its messengers (Luke 10:5-12; Acts 10:36).

                                                         

In classical Greek eirene had a primarily negative force; but by way of the LXX (Septuagint), the word in the New Testament has the full content of the Old Testament Shalom, and nearly always carries a spiritual connotation. The breadth of its meaning is especially apparent from its linking with such key words as grace, life, righteousness, and from its use in benedictions such as 1 Thess. 5:23 and Hebrews 13:20-21.

                                                                     

For sinful man there must first be peace with God, the removal of sin’s enmity through the sacrifice of Christ (Romans 5:1; Colossians 1:20). Then inward peace can follow (Phil. 4:7), unhindered by the world’s strife (John 14:27; 16:33). Peace between man and man is part of the purpose for which Christ died (Eph. 2:11-18) and of the Spirit’s work (Gal. 5:22); but man must also be active to promote it (Eph. 4:3; Hebrews 12:14), not merely as the elimination of discord, but as the harmony and true functioning of the Body of Christ (Romans 14:19; 1 Cor. 14:33).

                                                                                        

If this definition is true, then we have a shortsighted view of what “peace” means. Like so many other things in the spiritual life, we have personalized it and made it all about us. It has become all about our current state of mind. But, the Biblical idea of peace, or shalom, is consistent with the idea of the establishment of the reign and rule of God through the coming of the Kingdom. We are to come under God’s authority where He brings peace with God, peace in our lives and families, and peace between one another.

                                                                                                                                             

The Hebrew people understood that when Jesus said that the Kingdom of God is at hand, that it meant that the messianic reign had come. This was the time where God would set right all that had gone wrong. When Jesus said that He gave us peace, it meant that He gave us soundness, completeness, wholeness. All of this was to be found in Him. Peace, or shalom, is to come upon our homes. It is to come upon our churches and our communities. It is to transform our nation. We are to live complete, sound, and whole. It can all be found in Christ. Jesus Himself is our peace. He tears down the dividing walls between warring factions and groups that are at enmity. He brings them into prosperous, healthy, and mutually beneficial relationships. Not only do we gain peace with God, but we also gain peace within ourselves and between one another. The gospel is the gospel of peace. We are messengers of peace and we are to be peacemakers in the lives of others. The peace that we experience and share is not just a nice feeling or a lack of conflict, but it is all that derives from our union with God as He gives us healthy relationships with our families and through community with one another.

To each of you today, I say, Shalom. Peace be with you.

When we stop reducing the wonders of the gospel to a private devotion life with Jesus, we begin to understand what He really has in store for us. Jesus puts His life in us and that life transforms the world. He gives us peace that is different from what the world gives. It lasts, spreads, and transforms.

The Gospel of the Kingdom

I am starting a 7 week Summer Bible Study on Wednesday nights called, Jesus and the In-Breaking Kingdom of God.  I have come to believe that the gospel that we have been preaching in much of the Western Church is too small. Many people believe that the gospel is just the good news of the forgiveness of sins. They are to turn from their sins, ask for forgiveness, and believe that their sins are forgiven. Then, they are to stop sinning, or at least try real hard. But, that is a gospel that is all about sin. Sure, sin is what keeps us from God and solving our sin problem is essential to having a relationship with God and to having eternal life. But, somehow I don't think that Jesus saved us just so we could continue a life long focus on sin. Jesus saved us so that we would be a people unto Himself. He saved us so that we could participate in His Kingdom. The gospel of the Kingdom is much bigger than just having our sins forgiven. Through the gospel of the Kingdom, we participate in the reign and rule of God. We live our lives for Him. We love others sacrificially. We put the needs of others above our own. We humble ourselves. We give up all to pursue the Kingdom of God. It has direct results on how we live our lives now. The Gospel of the Kingdom is more than just forgiveness of sins, although that message is central. It affects our whole life and the lives of others, both near and far.

I am beginning to believe that the some of the weaknesses in our churches may stem from a lack of preaching and living out the Gospel of the Kingdom. Instead, we are often preaching and living an individualistic substitute that makes the work of God in space-time all about us, when in reality, it is all about Him and His glory. God wants to catch us up in what He is doing because He loves us and He wants us to co-labor with Him.

Any thoughts on what the Kingdom of God is and how it might make a difference that we believe the full-orbed Gospel of the Kingdom instead of just the message of forgiveness?

Micah Mandate: Doing Justice, Loving Mercy, Walking Humbly With God

Since last August, we have been going through a spiritual formation study on Wednesday nights at our church. We spent several months talking about loving God. Then, we explored what it meant to love people. Now, we are talking about how we do that "to the ends of the earth." We have taken a pretty different approach on each area and I have really grown through it. One of the books that we are using for this last movement is The Micah Mandate: Balancing the Christian Life by George Grant.  He deals with Micah 6:8, which says: "But he has showed you, O Man, what is good and what the Lord requires of you: To do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God."  His premise is that if we do those three things, then our lives will be in balance and we will be salt and light to the world. Jesus appealed to Micah's mandate in Matthew 23:23 when he said to the Pharisees, "But you have neglected the more important matters of the law - justice, mercy, and faithfulness." 

Thom Wolf says that when interacting with the larger culture, we start with justice issues, we the show mercy to people that we connect with, and then we share our faith with them. He calls it "Weeds, Deeds, and Seeds."  When we live in a culture that is ignorant or hostile to the gospel, we should seek to come alongside them and set right what has gone wrong by bringing the Kingdom of God. We should pull the weeds that have grown up around them (Justice).  Then, we should do good deeds (Matt. 5:16) among them (Mercy).  Finally, after their hearts have been made receptive, we should plant the seeds of faith through the gospel (Walking humbly with God).  Of course, it does not have to necessarily go in this order, but caring about justice issues and doing good amongst unbelievers surely does open their hearts to ask, "Why are you doing this?" I experienced that directly as we went down to help right after Katrina.  Dr. Wolf goes on to say that the Micah/Jesus Mandate is the same as what Paul is saying when he calls us to "faith, love, and hope." It's just that amongst believers, Paul starts with the heart and our relationship with God and works his way out to our effect on the world.

FAITH = Walking Humbly with God = Planting Seeds (faith comes from hearing the gospel)

LOVE = Mercy = Good Deeds (sacrificially laying our lives down for others)

HOPE = Justice = Pulling Weeds (our hope in in the salvation that is to be granted to us fully one day)

So, basically, the Christian life is a balance of all three of these components as they continue to mix and work in our lives.  Unfortunately, we often get out of balance and focus more heavily on one area over the other.  Throughout my life, I have seen this imbalance in Christians who were totally focused on trying to change America through politics and social action. I have always felt that wrong. On the other hand, I have met Christians who only wanted to pray and try and do 2 Chronicles 7:14 as though it was some magic formula to restore us to the 1950's. Also, wrong. George Grant says,

Why We Argue, Fuss, and Fight

We've been going through T.W. Hunt's study, The Mind of Christ on Wednesday nights and it has been incredible. It is a very clear study on how to put on the Mind of Christ, take thoughts captive, and reflect the character of Christ in all that we think, say, and do. Many are being confronted with wrong motives, struggling relationships, and bubbling pride. Often, it is hard to see the root causes of many of our problems, and it is easier to gloss over them through rationalizations and excuses. We don't think that our pain or struggles really has anything to do with US, and self righteousness can easily replace Christ's righteousness and dependence upon Him as our life.

A couple of weeks ago, as part of our study, we ran across this gem of a passage in James 4:1-3:

What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from the desires that battle within you? You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

That passage hit me like a ton of bricks. When I fight and quarrel with others, it has nothing to do with them, but it has everything to do with me. You can disagree with people and strive for justice in unjust situations. That is Godly. But, much of the strife in our lives has to do with us wanting to get our own way or to get something out of someone that is better left alone. It is motivated by our own desires. We want respect from others, so any slight is a provocation to battle and hard feelings. We want to get our way, so anytime someone supersedes us, we lash out. Our whole culture is built upon pride and arrogance, and those same attitudes often characterize our churches and denominations. But, it takes two to fight. Jesus did not succumb to this sin, because the world had no hold on Him. He strictly looked to the Father for His identity and sufficiency. He did not look to man for anything, so He had no reason to fight for respect, position, or to get His way. He entrusted Himself to God.

How many times have you been hurt by someone and then lashed out? What were you fighting for? Love? Respect? Position? To protect yourself? If we would take those desires to God instead of letting them battle within us, how much more peace would we have? What do we gain from fighting for victory over others? Does it make our relationships better? Our marriages? Our churches and families? What if we gave those situations to God and looked to Him and asked Him to meet our needs? What if when we were hurt or overlooked we brought our pain and rejection to God who bore it upon the Cross? We would be healed and filled with peace and power enough to bless those who curse us! We might actually begin to live out the Sermon on the Mount.

I know that I have written a lot about SBC issues the past week or so. But, the core of the problems that I have been talking about is relational. If we really knew each other, we could trust one another, even with some differences. If it were possible to sit down and talk to one another without trying to get our way, we might be able to hear from the Lord on issues. But, we all want our way. We grasp power and use it as we see fit. The Word of God no longer speaks authoritatively because we rationalize our actions and declare that we are in the right. At the end of the day, it is our selfishness that guides us, rather than genuine care for others or fidelity to Scripture and the Holy Spirit. The same problems pervade our churches, homes, and communities.

Why do we argue, fuss, and fight? Because of the desires that rage with each of US! My desires. Your desires. We must submit these to the Lord and allow Him to be preeminent. We must surrender to Him and ask Him to move and work as He sees fit. This doesn't mean that we should not stand up for what is right, whether that be personally or communally, but it does mean that we should always submit our desires to the Lord in every situation. Not our will, but His will be done. If He is truly sufficient in our lives, then why are we always looking to other people or things to meet our needs?

Singing in a Bar and Other Christmas Musings

Well, Christmas is almost here. This will be my last post until after Christmas. I've got family coming in tomorrow and LOTS needs to be done to get ready and to finish up all of our Christmas preparations. My wife would not be happy to see me sitting on the computer while she does everything, so, this is it until next week. I'm also looking forward to our service on Sunday and our Christmas Eve Candlelight Communion Service (I love that!).  SOOO,  MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! 

We've been trying to make Christmas more spiritual and missional this year. Instead of just focusing on ourselves and receiving, we have tried to find ways to connect with neighbors and friends and serve them. Later this evening, my family and I are going into our neighborhood to deliver little goody packages with a scripture verse on them to all of our neighbors. We don't know the vast majority of them because everyone is so private. We thought this would be a great way to get to know them, pass on a blessing, and start to build some relationships. My wife and children spent the whole afternoon yesterday baking all types of cookies, brownies, fudge, etc., and they had a blast. Please pray for us as we do this. I am trying to teach my kids that Christmas is a great time to reach out to others and bless them, even if you don't know them. They're pretty excited about it.

Along those lines, a group from our church went Christmas Caroling on Wednesday night (see image on left - that was us! Yeah right!). This was the last event in our Time to Serve. We did not have our normal service, so around 40 of us went to the apartment complexes near our church and sang a few songs. Some folks came out to listen, but even though many people were home, people tended to not be very responsive, except for a few (including a Muslim family). I was kind of surprised. How often do you have Christmas Carolers show up near your house? I guess not often enough. We were walking back toward the church, and I was a little disappointed, honestly.

But, then I had a thought. We were walking on the street back toward the church and passed a restaurant/martini bar named Dabbo's. It occurred to me that they might let us come in and sing Christmas carols to their patrons (I'm thinking of an Irish Pub type of thing). I told the group to wait and I went and asked if they would have us. They said "sure!" and told us to come in. There was no one in the restaurant, but there were about 10 people in the bar area. It was a pretty nice place filled with an older crowd that was dressed nicely. We all crowded in (kids and all) and sang our Christmas carols and told them Merry Christmas. Many of the patrons sang along with us. We then gave out little flyers that had some of our church information on it with candy canes attached. In return, they gave us money! I rushed up and kept telling them "NO! Keep your money! We didn't come here for money! We're trying to bless you!" They insisted. They were so happy that we came in, they took up a collection for us and told us to use it for a good cause! It was spare cash they had in their pockets, but it ended up being $30! I went back to the church and assigned it to our benevolence fund. We regularly have people coming to the church and asking for food or gas, so those folks in the bar will help feed some folks in the coming weeks.

So, I thought that was pretty cool. It just shows me that God always has surprises for us when we step out in faith and incarnate the gospel. The Incarnation of Christ into a lost and hurting world has been my running theme this Christmas and I am so excited about what God has taught me. Our God is a missional God and He sent His Son cross culturally to our planet to bring us the Kingdom of God. We have so much to rejoice over and so much to tell people about.

Again, please pray for my family and I as we try and build relationships with our neighbors tonight. We're going to around 25 houses and are praying for friendships to develop with people that we only see in passing. We hope to follow this up with neighborhood get togethers as the year goes on, but everyone is so isolated and private, we thought Christmas would be a great time to break the ice.

I wish each of you a merry Christmas. So does my wife Erika, and my 4 children. Merry Christmas!!!

Building Upon the Rock by Knowing the God of All Comfort in the Midst of Suffering

Over the past couple of months, I have been thinking a great deal about trusting God in the midst of suffering.  I have felt compelled to preach and teach on trusting the Lord even when things begin to fall apart.  I have taught through the letter to the 2 Corinthians in my Sunday School class and have mentioned this many times on both Wednesday night and Sunday morning.  I have noticed in my own life how at the first sign of trouble, my heart often fails and I start to fall to pieces.  "Where is the Lord?" I ask.  Somehow, I think that I deserve special treatment and my life should be good at all times.  But, God has been challenging me with the question: Will I trust Him when suffering comes?  Is my life built upon the rock or upon sand? What am I really putting my hope in? 

Jesus said in Matthew 7:24-27,

                                                                                                                                                                                  ^{(Tooth of Time, New Mexico)}

²⁴"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. ²⁵The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. ²⁶But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. ²⁷The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash."

When the storms of life come, we find out if we have put our faith in the Lord, who is the Rock, or if our faith is in what we can control and acquire for ourselves - sand.

Rest for the Weary - Wednesday Night, 2.1.06

Last night, we talked about what it means to rest in the Lord - to find our life in Him, and not in our performance.   The Bible is full of injunctions to rest in God, but how often do we fill our lives with activity, just to be doing something? How often do we chase after our own desires and live for temporal pleasures or to please others, while all the time, God has a life of balance, meaning, and rhythm available to us if we would just ask and look to Him.  Basically, if we are lead by the Spirit, He will lead us where He wants us to go, and even if we die, we will find our lives "hidden with Christ in God" (Colossians 3:3).

Our main text last night was Psalm 23.  In this Psalm, we looked at God's provision of care for us.  He MAKES us LIE DOWN in green pastures.  He leads us beside still waters.  He RESTORES our SOUL.  What a beautiful picture of God's restorative work in our lives. While we are running here and there trying to get things done, God wants us to rely upon Him.  Another beautiful passage is Isaiah 40:25-31.  Here we see that God sees our lives and He knows our ways.  He gives rest to the weary and we can go to Him to exchange our weakness for His strength.  Here is this passage:

Isa 40:25-31

25 "To whom will you compare me?Or who is my equal?" says the Holy One. 26 Lift your eyes and look to the heavens:Who created all these?He who brings out the starry host one by one,and calls them each by name.Because of his great power and mighty strength,not one of them is missing.
27 Why do you say, O Jacob,and complain, O Israel,"My way is hidden from the LORD;my cause is disregarded by my God"? 28 Do you not know?Have you not heard?The LORD is the everlasting God,the Creator of the ends of the earth.He will not grow tired or weary,and his understanding no one can fathom. 29 He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. 30 Even youths grow tired and weary,and young men stumble and fall; 31 but those who hope in the LORDwill renew their strength.They will soar on wings like eagles;they will run and not grow weary,they will walk and not be faint.
NIV

You might be wondering, with this topic, why the pictures up top?  They came from a recent transmission from the Hubble space telescope and it looks like a giant eye.  On another blog by a campus minister from Pennsylvania named Kiki Cherry, I was challenged to think of this as the eye of God.  Not that this constellation of stars is really God's eye, but it just gives a picture of the immensity of the universe. Yet, God sees my little life and endeavors to give me strength.  How can I not be thankful? How can I not receive from Him all He has for me? How can I not take Him up on the gracious offer to walk in His Spirit, go where He goes, and allow Him to lead my life? The God who created the heavens and the earth holds my life in His hands.  Why should I grow weary and lose heart?  My life is not dependent on me - it is dependent on the Lord God Almighty.

Faith in a God Who Still Does Miracles - Wednesday Night 1.18.06

Last night we did something different in our Wednesday night Bible Study.  I divided everyone into groups and assigned scripture passages to each group to read over, discuss, and share with the larger group their observations.  I used the same passages as I used with my LIFE Group on Monday night because God has been speaking to me about having faith in Him that goes beyond what I am capable of doing myself.  You know, we often encounter situations that are beyond our ability to control or handle on our own.  In those moments (and really, everyday), we have an opportunity to believe God and trust Him, or to either go it on our own and just muddle through the best way we know how.

Well, the passages were mostly out of Matthew, but I thought I would list them for you for your own study:  Matthew 9:18-26; 9:27-34; 9:35-38; 10:1-10; 11:3-6; 11:28-30; 12:15-21; 12:22-29; and 2 Corinthians 12:9-10.  Click on the scripture passage to read it.

As we read and discussed these passages, the themes of God's power and our faith being expressed through prayer emerged.  A danger in our lives is that we become discouraged in prayer because we see prayers not being answered. It is easy to become fatalistic and say, "Well, God is going to do what He is going to do, so what's the use?" When, in reality, God wants us to always keep praying, even if the answer is "No". God does do miracles each and every day.  He does act on our behalf and He is involved in our lives.  It is us who do not believe, or we are so filled with the flesh that we cannot see with spiritual eyes His work and blessings all around us.  This is why we daily need to be renewed in our minds by God's Word, so we can see Him more clearly.  If we are praying in faith, then when the answer is "No", just like Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10, we can know and receive God's grace and know that it is sufficient for us.  If we just accept the situation without believing God, then we are pretty much on our own, living from our own understanding and resources.  It is a pretty simple concept and when God says for us to "pray without ceasing" (1 Thess. 5:17), maybe He knows what He is talking about!

We are going to have a time of prayer in our church on Sunday night, January 22 from 6- 7:30.  I want to encourage each of you to come and really believe God to do great things through our body this year - things that we could never do on our own or with our own resourses.  He really wants us to believe in Him and ask Him to perform His work through us according to His will.  Will you join us? We have lots of ministry plans for 2006, but without seeking God's guidance and power first, it is just a bunch of stuff. Let's come together and seek the Lord and ask Him to empower our lives, our families, and our ministry as a church so that what we do, we in God's power, for it is "'Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,' says the Lord Almighty" (Zechariah 4:6).