People can speak and write (as I often do) on issues concerning life. But often times, it's the personal experiences that impact us the most. As many of you know, Dan Stephens broke his neck on Good Friday and his wife, Ashley, has recorded the thoughts, emotions, reactions, fears, etc., that they experienced during those first forty-eight hours. I hope you can see that even in the midst of so much uncertainty and fear that God is still good. He is still faithful. He is still sovereign…
48 HOURS
by Ashley Peterson
We feel so loved to have so many people care and ask about Dan and his accident. We could feel your prayers. Below is the story. Let it be a testament to the protection and mercy with which God has blessed us. He is so, so good.
"Let's move the TV armoire downstairs."
Dan is on the bottom. I hear a crash. The TV stand slips out of his hands.
It smashes him into the wall. He somehow gets out.
Panic. Fear. His ear is bleeding. His neck hurts. We drive to the clinic thirty miles away.
"You should never have moved with a neck injury."
Neck brace. Ambulance. Glens Falls Hospital.
Laying in the ER for two hours. CT scan taken. Waiting.
"Dan, hold my hand while I tell you this news. Your neck is broken in 3 places. It is highly unstable."
I fall to the ground. I keep squeezing Dan's hand. He keeps wiggling his toes.
One hour later, the special ambulance team arrives. They study the CT scan to prepare to move Dan.
Dan is strapped in. Everyone is scared.
No one can believe Dan rode thirty miles in a car without protection.
They must not have known he was held by the Protector.
Dad prays over Dan.
One hour ambulance ride. I follow with mom and dad in the car. Praying. We walk in the ER.
Fifty people are around Dan. We aren't allowed in.
"Can he move his fingers and toes?" I am crying. "We can't tell you anything for fifteen to twenty minutes."
Waiting. Praying. Shaking. We finally see him.
"Dan is fortunate- one move and he could have been paralyzed.
People try to move their necks and fall to the ground."
ER. Talk of emergency surgery or a halo. The guy next to Dan is having a heart attack.
We see the three large cracks on Dan's vertebra on the computer. Scared.
Moved to the spine ward. It's a waiting game.
MRI. The nurse sits down with me alone and goes through all the options.
Surgery- potential of paralysis from the jaw down. Halo. Months of recovery.
I am shaking. God allows that moment to be when my best friend arrives. She sits with me.
We talk about different scenarios. What would happen. What we would do.
Pray. Pray. Pray. MRI is finished. We wait. We pray.
Doctor tells us he feels there will be no surgery. No halo. How can this be? We are happy but a little in disbelief. We are nervous. We have to wait for the head surgeon to hear the final word.
Nightime. Dan can't sleep. Neither can I. He starts shaking uncontrollably.
Nurse takes forever to give him something. Praying the shaking doesn't hurt him.
The Glens Falls nurse told us any movement could damage him.
The Lord protects him.
Waiting. Friends. Family. We feel the love. We feel all the prayers.
Doctor concurs with the night doctor.
Says "You will not go paralyzed. Just don't get into a car accident or something".
We have long drives ahead. I'm scared. My faith holds me.
Scans. Scopes. X-rays. Tubes. So many questions. Waiting for answers.
We keep hearing how lucky Dan is. Lucky? No, God protected him.
Some scary moments.
Moving Dan so many times. Trying on new braces. Figuring out medicines with Dan's allergy to morphine.
God protects Dan.
We hear more and more. "He's going to be okay. Just be careful as he heals."
I think, "We were careful when we were moving furniture." Clearly, "Just be careful..." scares me.
We survive on faith alone.
"Dan's doing better than we could have hoped. He's so lucky." Luck had nothing to do with it.
We travel home. "God protect us." God does. We thank Him.
He is so gracious to us. I keep holding Dan's hand. He says he feels like God gave him a second chance at life.
I feel the same way. God doesn't owe us anything. Everything is a gift.
We have a long road ahead. We are scared. Cautious. Nervous.
God will protect Dan's neck. God will fill us with peace. He is doing it right now.
What would we do without our faith in Jesus Christ? If John 3:16 wasn't true?
If we didn't have the resurrection to celebrate today?
I couldn't have made it through this weekend without my faith. without all the prayers. Dan feels the same way.
So that is the story. In a nutshell.
The weekend felt like a whole year long, yet it went by like a whirlwind.
The next six months will feel so long. But in the end, Dan will be like new. There should be no mobility loss.
I don't know how to end this note except to say thank you for your prayers. Thank you for caring.
Thank you for your words of encouragement. We are forever thankful for our family in Christ.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
I Must Confess
Over the last couple years, I have wrestled with my understanding of confession. Growing up, and into college/seminary, I often heard of how important it is to confess my sins to the Lord, even after my conversion, in my relationship with Him. I've also heard many people say, in relation to communion, that there should be no known, unconfessed sin in one's life – which would make them unworthy to partake in communion. Many people see confession as the time one takes to present their acts of disobedience to the Lord. And I have to be honest that these ideas about confession sit in my heart like sour milk would sit in my gut on a sunny, ninety-degree day – sick!
I am troubled by this understanding of confession for many reasons – and I while I believe each reason has sufficient Biblical reasoning in themselves, I would much rather you take them all as a whole.
1. It brings our Heavenly Father down to the level of an earthly father. It's comparing, not contrasting, His love and forgiveness to the love and forgiveness of an earthly father. THERE IS NO COMPARISON. While earthly fathers are to reflect the love, grace, mercy, forgiveness, etc. of God the Father, in all our striving we don't even come close. I am a poor dim reflection – just ask my kids. While, at times, Scripture does use, and thus makes it appropriate to use, the illustration of an earthly father to draw out, or teach, an element of our Heavenly Father – it never, ever, ever is appropriate to bring our Heavenly Father down to the level of an earthly father. This just devalues the love, grace, mercy, and forgiveness God pours into our lives through His Son, Jesus Christ.
2. Behind the guise of humility and obedience, it emphasizes a heart's attitude that makes confession an act of righteousness that can improve my standing before God. It's a "spiritual" rock, other than Christ, on which I can stand. Whenever you assign the power to justify, or sanctify, to a person, or an act, you are stealing a power, and a role, that belongs only to God – and that's idolatry (Romans 10.3-4).
3. It makes one's relationship with God dependent, not totally on Christ - but also on my confession. That's not freedom – it's condemnation (Romans 8.1).
4. I am so utterly depraved, my sin is so abounding, that I cannot possibly bring a list of any accuracy to God.
5. Related to the previous point, yet distinct from it – everything I do, every act of "righteousness," is tainted with my sinfulness. Therefore, I cannot possibly present a list of any worth to God.
6. This mindset and heart's attitude does not accurately reflect God's desire and aim in our confession before Him.
Now, after all that, let me say that I do believe spending time in confession with the Lord is imperative and an act of obedience. And while it is, at times, very appropriate to confess specific sins, such as habitual ones that seem to have constant victory over you, that is not God's overall aim in requiring confession from us. God's end is that Jesus would be exalted – and that He would be glorified. So, as we confess, we are to focus more on the rebellion of our hearts (pride, self-centeredness, anger, bitterness, deceit, jealousy, idolatry, indiscipline, weakness, inconsistency, discontent, etc.). Our sinful actions flow from our rebellious hearts. Searching our hearts, not our actions, will bring transformation (Proverbs 4.23). And in confessing the rebellion and depravity of our hearts, we must do so in light of the greatness of God. We need to confess to God who we know Him to be (praise) and confess what we know He's done for us in Christ (thanksgiving). This should be a regular time in which we spend with Him.
I want to close with this quote from Scotty Smith – “When I confess my sins, I’m never informing God of something he doesn’t already know. I’m only echoing the call to greater freedom whose origin is in the concert hall of the gospel. When I express a need, the repository of heaven has preceded my cry, readying sufficient grace and supplies beyond my imagination.”
Wow! Praise God from whom all blessings flow!
I am troubled by this understanding of confession for many reasons – and I while I believe each reason has sufficient Biblical reasoning in themselves, I would much rather you take them all as a whole.
1. It brings our Heavenly Father down to the level of an earthly father. It's comparing, not contrasting, His love and forgiveness to the love and forgiveness of an earthly father. THERE IS NO COMPARISON. While earthly fathers are to reflect the love, grace, mercy, forgiveness, etc. of God the Father, in all our striving we don't even come close. I am a poor dim reflection – just ask my kids. While, at times, Scripture does use, and thus makes it appropriate to use, the illustration of an earthly father to draw out, or teach, an element of our Heavenly Father – it never, ever, ever is appropriate to bring our Heavenly Father down to the level of an earthly father. This just devalues the love, grace, mercy, and forgiveness God pours into our lives through His Son, Jesus Christ.
2. Behind the guise of humility and obedience, it emphasizes a heart's attitude that makes confession an act of righteousness that can improve my standing before God. It's a "spiritual" rock, other than Christ, on which I can stand. Whenever you assign the power to justify, or sanctify, to a person, or an act, you are stealing a power, and a role, that belongs only to God – and that's idolatry (Romans 10.3-4).
3. It makes one's relationship with God dependent, not totally on Christ - but also on my confession. That's not freedom – it's condemnation (Romans 8.1).
4. I am so utterly depraved, my sin is so abounding, that I cannot possibly bring a list of any accuracy to God.
5. Related to the previous point, yet distinct from it – everything I do, every act of "righteousness," is tainted with my sinfulness. Therefore, I cannot possibly present a list of any worth to God.
6. This mindset and heart's attitude does not accurately reflect God's desire and aim in our confession before Him.
Now, after all that, let me say that I do believe spending time in confession with the Lord is imperative and an act of obedience. And while it is, at times, very appropriate to confess specific sins, such as habitual ones that seem to have constant victory over you, that is not God's overall aim in requiring confession from us. God's end is that Jesus would be exalted – and that He would be glorified. So, as we confess, we are to focus more on the rebellion of our hearts (pride, self-centeredness, anger, bitterness, deceit, jealousy, idolatry, indiscipline, weakness, inconsistency, discontent, etc.). Our sinful actions flow from our rebellious hearts. Searching our hearts, not our actions, will bring transformation (Proverbs 4.23). And in confessing the rebellion and depravity of our hearts, we must do so in light of the greatness of God. We need to confess to God who we know Him to be (praise) and confess what we know He's done for us in Christ (thanksgiving). This should be a regular time in which we spend with Him.
I want to close with this quote from Scotty Smith – “When I confess my sins, I’m never informing God of something he doesn’t already know. I’m only echoing the call to greater freedom whose origin is in the concert hall of the gospel. When I express a need, the repository of heaven has preceded my cry, readying sufficient grace and supplies beyond my imagination.”
Wow! Praise God from whom all blessings flow!
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
The Centrality of the Resurrection
This past week I woke up in the middle of the night a few times, not immediately able to fall back to sleep. So, as I lay there staring into the darkness of my bedroom, I found myself thinking about, of all things, Jesus' resurrection. For Christians, Easter is our day. It's the day the work of our Savior was validated by His Heavenly Father and, therefore, our faith has now gained an object. We don’t have to have a general, flimsy faith that sometimes works and other times fails us because it's generated from within our own selves. No, our faith has meat. Now, it has muscle because our faith is given to us by the one who did the work - Jesus Christ conquered sin and death in His perfect, righteous life which was given up - and RAISED UP.
The resurrection of Jesus is where the victory was declared. If there is no resurrection, there is no Savior and no redemption. If there is no resurrection, Christianity is just like every other religion in this world – a bunch of people worshipping a dead idol. Even Paul acknowledges this - And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. (1 Corinthians 15.14-15) In other words – if there is no resurrection, we are frauds.
The great puritan theologian, John Owen, said this about the centrality of the resurrection: “This truth is so important that nothing in religion can exist without it. The apostles diligently confirmed it in the first churches; and for the same reason it was attacked by Satan and denied and opposed by many. This was done in two ways: first by an open denial of any such thing – “how can some of you say that there is no resurrection from the dead?” (1 Cor. 15:12); and second, those who did not dare to attack it directly expounded it in an allegorical way, saying that “the resurrection has already taken place” (2 Tim. 2:18). Observe that our apostle in both cases does not only condemn these errors as false but declares positively that their admission overthrows the faith and makes the preaching of the Gospel vain and useless.” Note well – denying the resurrection, or allegorizing it away, invalidates everything else in Christianity.
When it comes to Jesus, people deny everything under the sun – from His deity, to the things He said, to the things He did. You don't have to look long or hard to find someone who has a problem with Jesus in some way. And yet, many of those people will even categorize themselves as a Christian. There are even countless numbers of people who don't take God seriously (I am referring to those who have an awareness of God but live as though they are their own god) and still call themselves Christians. But please understand, this is the reality – a denial, in any way, related to Jesus' deity, teachings, and/or works, or anything less than a surrendered heart and passionate pursuit of God, is ultimately a denial of Jesus' resurrection. The sovereignty and power a resurrection demands cannot expect anything less.
Take the time to just think about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So many words/thoughts will flood your mind/heart – power…strength…completion…finality…approval…victory…commitment…. Note that last word because if Jesus is the reality of your life (the one through whom you see everything else) and His resurrection is the power of your life (Philippians 3.10) there will be no half-hearted pursuit of God. You will strain to live in reckless abandon to Him.
The resurrection of Jesus is where the victory was declared. If there is no resurrection, there is no Savior and no redemption. If there is no resurrection, Christianity is just like every other religion in this world – a bunch of people worshipping a dead idol. Even Paul acknowledges this - And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. (1 Corinthians 15.14-15) In other words – if there is no resurrection, we are frauds.
The great puritan theologian, John Owen, said this about the centrality of the resurrection: “This truth is so important that nothing in religion can exist without it. The apostles diligently confirmed it in the first churches; and for the same reason it was attacked by Satan and denied and opposed by many. This was done in two ways: first by an open denial of any such thing – “how can some of you say that there is no resurrection from the dead?” (1 Cor. 15:12); and second, those who did not dare to attack it directly expounded it in an allegorical way, saying that “the resurrection has already taken place” (2 Tim. 2:18). Observe that our apostle in both cases does not only condemn these errors as false but declares positively that their admission overthrows the faith and makes the preaching of the Gospel vain and useless.” Note well – denying the resurrection, or allegorizing it away, invalidates everything else in Christianity.
When it comes to Jesus, people deny everything under the sun – from His deity, to the things He said, to the things He did. You don't have to look long or hard to find someone who has a problem with Jesus in some way. And yet, many of those people will even categorize themselves as a Christian. There are even countless numbers of people who don't take God seriously (I am referring to those who have an awareness of God but live as though they are their own god) and still call themselves Christians. But please understand, this is the reality – a denial, in any way, related to Jesus' deity, teachings, and/or works, or anything less than a surrendered heart and passionate pursuit of God, is ultimately a denial of Jesus' resurrection. The sovereignty and power a resurrection demands cannot expect anything less.
Take the time to just think about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So many words/thoughts will flood your mind/heart – power…strength…completion…finality…approval…victory…commitment…. Note that last word because if Jesus is the reality of your life (the one through whom you see everything else) and His resurrection is the power of your life (Philippians 3.10) there will be no half-hearted pursuit of God. You will strain to live in reckless abandon to Him.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
An Alternative Society
“Let me write the songs of a nation; I don’t care who writes its laws.”
–Andrew Fletcher, Scottish politician
The debate continues. I really thought after the vote to reform healthcare by our government officials this past week, some of the healthy debate, nasty banter, and all around discussion would subside – at least a little bit. Man, was I wrong (and I hate it when I'm wrong). In fact, it seems as though all the emotions, attacks, and defenses have intensified. I tried, believe me I tried, all week to write without bringing attention to the events of this past week – but the Lord just wouldn’t allow it. I sat down on three different days to write this jot, but it was a subject the Lord continued to surface in my mind. So, given the recent uproar in Washington, I thought it might be helpful to jot this week, not about healthcare reform, but about our role and responsibility as Christians, the church, in responding to politics and spurring cultural change.
I've said this before - Christ did not die on the cross so you would be either a Republican or a Democrat. It just doesn’t matter to Him. Wherever you might land politically, it’s helpful for all Christians to remember that the Kingdom of God is not flying in on Air Force One. Unfortunately, when it comes to engaging culture, many Christians think exclusively of political activism. I fully agree that Christians need to be involved in the political process – but our priority, as Christians, is to bring the standards of God’s Word to bear on every dimension of our culture.
That said, politics are not the only thing (and definitely not the main thing) God had in mind when He commanded cultural transformation (Matthew 28.19-20). A temporary victory in the voting booth does not reverse a downward moral trend driven by cultural gatekeepers in news media, entertainment, art, and education. Politics is not a cure-all. In fact, with every passing day, I grow more convinced that what happens in New York (finance), Hollywood (entertainment), Silicon Valley (technology), and Miami (fashion) has a far greater impact on how our culture thinks about reality than what happens in Washington, DC (politics).
Yet, we seem to get more upset about things said and decisions being made in Washington than we do in the aforementioned cultural pillars of our society. Why? Is it because we care more about how our personal lives are affected than we do our culture? Let me say this – God has established His church as an alternative society, not to compete with or copy this world, but to offer a refreshing alternative to it. These are our moments to shine. These are the times the Lord has given us, in the dead of night, in the middle of a Katrina, to shine as lighthouses for His glorious redemption and hope to fall on our culture, therefore:
• We are to have joy while others wallow in their negativity
• We are to act out in kindness when others lash out in anger
• We are to have self-control when people are harsh and nasty
• We can comfort because we are at peace when people are overcome with worry and fear
• We need to exhibit patience when so many people are running and jumping around like "chickens with their heads cut off"
• We are to be confident (in Christ) when others are beside themselves
• We should be servants when everyone else is demanding service
• We have to show love in the midst of a culture that reserves love
We should get on our knees, raise our hands to the sky, and thank God for these opportunities to proclaim His majestic Name and live out His glorious truths. Yet, so many times we react to crisis, injustice, evil, etc., no differently than anyone else and instead of offering an alternative society, we inadvertently communicate to our culture that we have nothing unique to offer – nothing deeply spiritual or profoundly transforming.
Our story (of God's redemption) is the only one that brings meaning, purpose, and hope from above – something completely alternative to our world. Let's accept what the Lord ordains for our lives and make His Kingdom our priority.
–Andrew Fletcher, Scottish politician
The debate continues. I really thought after the vote to reform healthcare by our government officials this past week, some of the healthy debate, nasty banter, and all around discussion would subside – at least a little bit. Man, was I wrong (and I hate it when I'm wrong). In fact, it seems as though all the emotions, attacks, and defenses have intensified. I tried, believe me I tried, all week to write without bringing attention to the events of this past week – but the Lord just wouldn’t allow it. I sat down on three different days to write this jot, but it was a subject the Lord continued to surface in my mind. So, given the recent uproar in Washington, I thought it might be helpful to jot this week, not about healthcare reform, but about our role and responsibility as Christians, the church, in responding to politics and spurring cultural change.
I've said this before - Christ did not die on the cross so you would be either a Republican or a Democrat. It just doesn’t matter to Him. Wherever you might land politically, it’s helpful for all Christians to remember that the Kingdom of God is not flying in on Air Force One. Unfortunately, when it comes to engaging culture, many Christians think exclusively of political activism. I fully agree that Christians need to be involved in the political process – but our priority, as Christians, is to bring the standards of God’s Word to bear on every dimension of our culture.
That said, politics are not the only thing (and definitely not the main thing) God had in mind when He commanded cultural transformation (Matthew 28.19-20). A temporary victory in the voting booth does not reverse a downward moral trend driven by cultural gatekeepers in news media, entertainment, art, and education. Politics is not a cure-all. In fact, with every passing day, I grow more convinced that what happens in New York (finance), Hollywood (entertainment), Silicon Valley (technology), and Miami (fashion) has a far greater impact on how our culture thinks about reality than what happens in Washington, DC (politics).
Yet, we seem to get more upset about things said and decisions being made in Washington than we do in the aforementioned cultural pillars of our society. Why? Is it because we care more about how our personal lives are affected than we do our culture? Let me say this – God has established His church as an alternative society, not to compete with or copy this world, but to offer a refreshing alternative to it. These are our moments to shine. These are the times the Lord has given us, in the dead of night, in the middle of a Katrina, to shine as lighthouses for His glorious redemption and hope to fall on our culture, therefore:
• We are to have joy while others wallow in their negativity
• We are to act out in kindness when others lash out in anger
• We are to have self-control when people are harsh and nasty
• We can comfort because we are at peace when people are overcome with worry and fear
• We need to exhibit patience when so many people are running and jumping around like "chickens with their heads cut off"
• We are to be confident (in Christ) when others are beside themselves
• We should be servants when everyone else is demanding service
• We have to show love in the midst of a culture that reserves love
We should get on our knees, raise our hands to the sky, and thank God for these opportunities to proclaim His majestic Name and live out His glorious truths. Yet, so many times we react to crisis, injustice, evil, etc., no differently than anyone else and instead of offering an alternative society, we inadvertently communicate to our culture that we have nothing unique to offer – nothing deeply spiritual or profoundly transforming.
Our story (of God's redemption) is the only one that brings meaning, purpose, and hope from above – something completely alternative to our world. Let's accept what the Lord ordains for our lives and make His Kingdom our priority.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
It Wasn't The Luck of The Irish
I am a servant of Christ to a foreign nation for the unspeakable glory of life everlasting,
which is in Jesus Christ our Lord
– Patrick
Whether you are Irish, Roman Catholic, both, or neither it's hard to escape the week without recognizing Saint Patrick's Day. I am only part Irish, and not at all Roman Catholic, so I know virtually nothing about Saint Patrick other than the green beer, parades, shamrocks, leprechauns, and drunken Red Sox fans that celebrate in his honor every March 17th. Technically, Saint Patrick was not even a saint, as he was never canonized by the Roman Catholic Church. Additionally, Patrick was not even Irish. Rather, he was a Roman-Britain who spoke Latin and a bit of Welsh.
Patrick was born around 390 A.D. He was a rebellious non-Christian teenager who had come from a Christian family – his grandfather was a pastor and His dad was a deacon. When he was roughly 16 years of age he was captured by pirates and taken to Ireland on a ship where he was sold into slavery. He spent the next six years alone in the wilderness as a shepherd for his masters’ cattle and sheep. However, during his extended periods of isolation without any human contact, Patrick began praying and was eventually born again into a vibrant relationship with Jesus Christ.
In his early twenties God spoke to Patrick in a dream, telling him to flee from his master for a ship that was waiting for him. Amazingly, Patrick made the 200-mile journey on foot without being caught or harmed to find a ship setting sail for his home, just as God had promised. Upon returning home, Patrick enrolled in seminary and was eventually commissioned as a pastor. Some years later God spoke to Patrick in a dream, commanding him to return to Ireland to preach the gospel and plant churches for the pagans who lived there.
The Roman Catholic Church had given up on converting such “barbarians” deemed beyond hope. The Celtic peoples, of which the Irish were a part, were an illiterate bunch of drunken, fighting, perverted pagans who basically worshiped anything. They were a violent and lawless people, numbering anywhere from 200,000 to 500,000. They had no city centers or national government and were spread out among some 150 warring clans. Their enemies were terrified of them because they were known to show up for battles and partake in wild orgies (as well as other extreme levels of debasement) before running into battle naked and drunk while screaming as if they were demon-possessed.
In faith, the forty-something year-old Patrick sold all of his possessions, including the land he had inherited from his father, to fund his missionary journey to Ireland. He worked as an itinerant preacher and paid large sums of money to various tribal chiefs to ensure he could travel safely through their lands and preach the gospel. His strategy was completely unique, and he functioned like a missionary trying to relate to the Irish people and communicate the gospel in their culture by using such things as three-leaf clovers to explain the gospel. Upon entering a pagan clan, Patrick would seek to first convert the tribal leaders and other people of influence. He would then pray for the sick, cast demons out of the possessed, preach the Bible, and use both musical and visual arts to compel people to put their faith in Jesus. If enough converts were present he would build a simple church building that did not resemble ornate Roman architecture, baptize the converts, and hand over the church to a convert he had trained to be the pastor so that he could move on to repeat the process with another clan.
Patrick gave his life, until he died at the age of 77, to the people who had enslaved him. He had seen untold thousands of people convert as between 30-40 of the 150 tribes had become substantially Christian. He had trained 1000 pastors, planted 700 churches, and was the first noted person in history to take a strong public stand against slavery.
Curiously, Patrick’s unorthodox ministry methods, which had brought so much fruit among the Irish, also brought much opposition from the Roman Catholic Church. Because Patrick was so far removed from Roman civilization and church polity, he was seen by some as an instigator of unwelcome changes. This led to great conflicts between the Roman and Celtic Christians. The Celtic Christians had their own calendar and celebrated Easter a week earlier than their Roman counterparts. Additionally, the Roman monks shaved only the hair on the top of their head, whereas the Celtic monks shaved all of their hair except their long locks which began around the bottom of their head as a funky monk mullet. The Romans considered these and other variations by the Celtic Christian leaders to be acts of insubordination.
In the end, the Roman Church should have learned from Patrick, who is one of the greatest missionaries who has ever lived. Though Patrick’s pastors and churches looked different in method, they were very orthodox in their theology and radically committed to such things as Scripture and the Trinity. Additionally, they were some of the most gifted Christian artists the world has ever known, and their prayers and songs endure to this day around the world, including the Celtic hymn "Be Thou My Vision."
which is in Jesus Christ our Lord
– Patrick
Whether you are Irish, Roman Catholic, both, or neither it's hard to escape the week without recognizing Saint Patrick's Day. I am only part Irish, and not at all Roman Catholic, so I know virtually nothing about Saint Patrick other than the green beer, parades, shamrocks, leprechauns, and drunken Red Sox fans that celebrate in his honor every March 17th. Technically, Saint Patrick was not even a saint, as he was never canonized by the Roman Catholic Church. Additionally, Patrick was not even Irish. Rather, he was a Roman-Britain who spoke Latin and a bit of Welsh.
Patrick was born around 390 A.D. He was a rebellious non-Christian teenager who had come from a Christian family – his grandfather was a pastor and His dad was a deacon. When he was roughly 16 years of age he was captured by pirates and taken to Ireland on a ship where he was sold into slavery. He spent the next six years alone in the wilderness as a shepherd for his masters’ cattle and sheep. However, during his extended periods of isolation without any human contact, Patrick began praying and was eventually born again into a vibrant relationship with Jesus Christ.
In his early twenties God spoke to Patrick in a dream, telling him to flee from his master for a ship that was waiting for him. Amazingly, Patrick made the 200-mile journey on foot without being caught or harmed to find a ship setting sail for his home, just as God had promised. Upon returning home, Patrick enrolled in seminary and was eventually commissioned as a pastor. Some years later God spoke to Patrick in a dream, commanding him to return to Ireland to preach the gospel and plant churches for the pagans who lived there.
The Roman Catholic Church had given up on converting such “barbarians” deemed beyond hope. The Celtic peoples, of which the Irish were a part, were an illiterate bunch of drunken, fighting, perverted pagans who basically worshiped anything. They were a violent and lawless people, numbering anywhere from 200,000 to 500,000. They had no city centers or national government and were spread out among some 150 warring clans. Their enemies were terrified of them because they were known to show up for battles and partake in wild orgies (as well as other extreme levels of debasement) before running into battle naked and drunk while screaming as if they were demon-possessed.
In faith, the forty-something year-old Patrick sold all of his possessions, including the land he had inherited from his father, to fund his missionary journey to Ireland. He worked as an itinerant preacher and paid large sums of money to various tribal chiefs to ensure he could travel safely through their lands and preach the gospel. His strategy was completely unique, and he functioned like a missionary trying to relate to the Irish people and communicate the gospel in their culture by using such things as three-leaf clovers to explain the gospel. Upon entering a pagan clan, Patrick would seek to first convert the tribal leaders and other people of influence. He would then pray for the sick, cast demons out of the possessed, preach the Bible, and use both musical and visual arts to compel people to put their faith in Jesus. If enough converts were present he would build a simple church building that did not resemble ornate Roman architecture, baptize the converts, and hand over the church to a convert he had trained to be the pastor so that he could move on to repeat the process with another clan.
Patrick gave his life, until he died at the age of 77, to the people who had enslaved him. He had seen untold thousands of people convert as between 30-40 of the 150 tribes had become substantially Christian. He had trained 1000 pastors, planted 700 churches, and was the first noted person in history to take a strong public stand against slavery.
Curiously, Patrick’s unorthodox ministry methods, which had brought so much fruit among the Irish, also brought much opposition from the Roman Catholic Church. Because Patrick was so far removed from Roman civilization and church polity, he was seen by some as an instigator of unwelcome changes. This led to great conflicts between the Roman and Celtic Christians. The Celtic Christians had their own calendar and celebrated Easter a week earlier than their Roman counterparts. Additionally, the Roman monks shaved only the hair on the top of their head, whereas the Celtic monks shaved all of their hair except their long locks which began around the bottom of their head as a funky monk mullet. The Romans considered these and other variations by the Celtic Christian leaders to be acts of insubordination.
In the end, the Roman Church should have learned from Patrick, who is one of the greatest missionaries who has ever lived. Though Patrick’s pastors and churches looked different in method, they were very orthodox in their theology and radically committed to such things as Scripture and the Trinity. Additionally, they were some of the most gifted Christian artists the world has ever known, and their prayers and songs endure to this day around the world, including the Celtic hymn "Be Thou My Vision."
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Can You Hear Me Now?
As your Teaching Pastor, one of the great desires of my heart and goals of my ministry is to expose you to many different men and women who effectively communicate the truths of God that need to touch our hearts and be embraced at the heart-level. One such man is Tullian Tchividjian (cha-vih-jin). Tullian is the Senior Pastor at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. The article below is taken from chapter eight of his book, Unfashionable. Below, Tullian communicates the meaning, purpose, and importance of communicating the gospel to our world in ways people can understand, without compromising the message of the gospel. I found this article to be very well written and especially interesting in light of our recent study of 1 Corinthians 14. It is right in line with Paul's constant (and consistent) challenge to Be Clear. Enjoy, be enlightened, and be challenged…
“The principle behind Paul’s exhortation in 1 Corinthians 9:22 to “become all things to all men” is what Christian thinkers call “contextualization.” Contextualization is the idea that we need to be translating gospel truth into language understood by our culture. Cross-cultural missionaries and Bible translators have been doing this for centuries. They take the unchanging truth of the Gospel and put it into language that fits the context they are trying to reach. Contextualization simply means translating the Gospel—in both word and deed—into understandable terms appropriate to the audience. It’s Gospel translation that is context sensitive.
Genna, my eight-year-old daughter, loves going to her Sunday school class for various reasons. She loves seeing her friends and singing her favorite songs. But she also loves to learn from her capable and creative teacher. He works hard to use language, concepts, and illustrations that she and the other children in the class will understand as he faithfully teaches them the Bible. And as a result, Genna gets it. She walks away Sunday after Sunday excited about what she’s learned. This thrills Kim and me. We’re both grateful that her teacher understands the need to contextualize.
Similarly, every English Bible translation is an effort to contextualize the Scriptures (originally written in Hebrew and Greek for ancient peoples) for an English-speaking audience of today.
Contextualization also involves building relationships with people who don’t believe. We don’t expect them to come to us; we go to them. We meet them where they are. We enter into their world by seeking to identify with their struggles, their likes, their dislikes, their ideas. Chuck Colson speaks of it as entering into people’s “stories”:
We must enter into the stories of the surrounding culture, which takes real listening. We connect with the literature, music, theater, arts, and issues that express the existing culture’s hopes, dreams, and fears. This builds a bridge by which we can show how the Gospel can enter and transform those stories.
Edith Schaeffer, wife of the late Francis Schaeffer, wrote about a visit the two of them made to San Francisco in 1968. One night they went to Fillmore West to hang out with the druggies and hippies and take in a light show. She records how heartbroken they were as they witnessed on that night “the lostness of humanity in search of peace where there is no peace.” She concluded, “A time of listening is needed—listening to what the next generation is saying, listening to the words of the music they are listening to, listening to the meaning behind the words. If true communication is to continue, there is a language to be learned.”
Contextualization begins with a broken heart for the lost and a driving desire to help them understand God’s liberating truth. Only by real listening and learning can we hope to persuasively communicate God’s unchanging Word to our constantly changing world.
Sadly, some well-meaning Christians conclude otherwise. For these Christians, contextualization means the same thing as compromise. They believe it means giving people what they want and telling people what they want to hear. What they misunderstand, however, is that contextualization means giving people God’s answers (which they may not want) to the questions they’re really asking and in ways they can understand.
This misunderstanding of contextualization has led these people to argue that cultural reflection and contextualization are at best distractions, at worst sinful. They admonish us to abandon these things and focus simply on the Bible. While this sounds virtuous, it ends up being foolish for two reasons. First, as we’ve already seen, the Bible itself exhorts us to understand our times so that we can reach our changing world with God’s eternal truth. To not contextualize, therefore, is a sin. And second, we all live inescapably within a particular cultural framework that shapes the way we think about everything. So if we don’t work hard to understand our context, we’ll not only fail in our task to effectively communicate the gospel but we’ll also find it impossible to avoid being negatively shaped by a world we don’t understand.
In a recent interview, pastor Tim Keller put it this way: “to over-contextualize to a new generation means you can make an idol out of their culture, but to under-contextualize to a new generation means you can make an idol out of the culture you come from. So there’s no avoiding it.”
Whether translating the Bible or developing relationships with non-Christians, we’re to be missionary minded in everything we do. That takes work—the hard effort of maintaining the big picture and communicating comprehensibly and compellingly to those who don’t share our convictions and worldview. Therefore, every day and in every circumstance, we need to be consciously and rigorously translating our faith into the language of the culture we’re trying to reach.
This is the challenge: If you don’t contextualize enough, no one’s life will be transformed because they won’t understand you. But if you contextualize too much, no one’s life will be transformed because you won’t be challenging their deepest assumptions and calling them to change.
Becoming “all things to all people”, therefore, does not mean fitting in with the fallen patterns of this world so that there is no distinguishable difference between Christians and non-Christians. While rightly living “in the world,” we must avoid the extreme of accommodation—being “of the world.” It happens when Christians, in their attempt to make proper contact with the world, go out of their way to adopt worldly styles, standards, and strategies.
When Christians try to eliminate the counter-cultural, unfashionable features of the biblical message because those features are unpopular in the wider culture—for example, when we reduce sin to a lack of self-esteem, deny the exclusivity of Christ, or downplay the reality of knowable absolute truth—we’ve moved from contextualization to compromise. When we accommodate our culture by jettisoning key themes of the gospel, such as suffering, humility, persecution, service, and self-sacrifice, we actually do our world more harm than good. For love’s sake, compromise is to be avoided at all costs.
As the Bible teaches, the Lordship of Christ has a sense of totality: Christ’s truth covers everything, not just “spiritual” or “religious” things. But it also has a sense of tension. As Lord, Jesus not only calls us to himself, he also calls us to break with everything which conflicts with his Lordship.
Contextualization without compromise is the goal!”*
*This article was posted on Tullian Tchividjian’s blog, which can be found at www.crpc.org/blog.
“The principle behind Paul’s exhortation in 1 Corinthians 9:22 to “become all things to all men” is what Christian thinkers call “contextualization.” Contextualization is the idea that we need to be translating gospel truth into language understood by our culture. Cross-cultural missionaries and Bible translators have been doing this for centuries. They take the unchanging truth of the Gospel and put it into language that fits the context they are trying to reach. Contextualization simply means translating the Gospel—in both word and deed—into understandable terms appropriate to the audience. It’s Gospel translation that is context sensitive.
Genna, my eight-year-old daughter, loves going to her Sunday school class for various reasons. She loves seeing her friends and singing her favorite songs. But she also loves to learn from her capable and creative teacher. He works hard to use language, concepts, and illustrations that she and the other children in the class will understand as he faithfully teaches them the Bible. And as a result, Genna gets it. She walks away Sunday after Sunday excited about what she’s learned. This thrills Kim and me. We’re both grateful that her teacher understands the need to contextualize.
Similarly, every English Bible translation is an effort to contextualize the Scriptures (originally written in Hebrew and Greek for ancient peoples) for an English-speaking audience of today.
Contextualization also involves building relationships with people who don’t believe. We don’t expect them to come to us; we go to them. We meet them where they are. We enter into their world by seeking to identify with their struggles, their likes, their dislikes, their ideas. Chuck Colson speaks of it as entering into people’s “stories”:
We must enter into the stories of the surrounding culture, which takes real listening. We connect with the literature, music, theater, arts, and issues that express the existing culture’s hopes, dreams, and fears. This builds a bridge by which we can show how the Gospel can enter and transform those stories.
Edith Schaeffer, wife of the late Francis Schaeffer, wrote about a visit the two of them made to San Francisco in 1968. One night they went to Fillmore West to hang out with the druggies and hippies and take in a light show. She records how heartbroken they were as they witnessed on that night “the lostness of humanity in search of peace where there is no peace.” She concluded, “A time of listening is needed—listening to what the next generation is saying, listening to the words of the music they are listening to, listening to the meaning behind the words. If true communication is to continue, there is a language to be learned.”
Contextualization begins with a broken heart for the lost and a driving desire to help them understand God’s liberating truth. Only by real listening and learning can we hope to persuasively communicate God’s unchanging Word to our constantly changing world.
Sadly, some well-meaning Christians conclude otherwise. For these Christians, contextualization means the same thing as compromise. They believe it means giving people what they want and telling people what they want to hear. What they misunderstand, however, is that contextualization means giving people God’s answers (which they may not want) to the questions they’re really asking and in ways they can understand.
This misunderstanding of contextualization has led these people to argue that cultural reflection and contextualization are at best distractions, at worst sinful. They admonish us to abandon these things and focus simply on the Bible. While this sounds virtuous, it ends up being foolish for two reasons. First, as we’ve already seen, the Bible itself exhorts us to understand our times so that we can reach our changing world with God’s eternal truth. To not contextualize, therefore, is a sin. And second, we all live inescapably within a particular cultural framework that shapes the way we think about everything. So if we don’t work hard to understand our context, we’ll not only fail in our task to effectively communicate the gospel but we’ll also find it impossible to avoid being negatively shaped by a world we don’t understand.
In a recent interview, pastor Tim Keller put it this way: “to over-contextualize to a new generation means you can make an idol out of their culture, but to under-contextualize to a new generation means you can make an idol out of the culture you come from. So there’s no avoiding it.”
Whether translating the Bible or developing relationships with non-Christians, we’re to be missionary minded in everything we do. That takes work—the hard effort of maintaining the big picture and communicating comprehensibly and compellingly to those who don’t share our convictions and worldview. Therefore, every day and in every circumstance, we need to be consciously and rigorously translating our faith into the language of the culture we’re trying to reach.
This is the challenge: If you don’t contextualize enough, no one’s life will be transformed because they won’t understand you. But if you contextualize too much, no one’s life will be transformed because you won’t be challenging their deepest assumptions and calling them to change.
Becoming “all things to all people”, therefore, does not mean fitting in with the fallen patterns of this world so that there is no distinguishable difference between Christians and non-Christians. While rightly living “in the world,” we must avoid the extreme of accommodation—being “of the world.” It happens when Christians, in their attempt to make proper contact with the world, go out of their way to adopt worldly styles, standards, and strategies.
When Christians try to eliminate the counter-cultural, unfashionable features of the biblical message because those features are unpopular in the wider culture—for example, when we reduce sin to a lack of self-esteem, deny the exclusivity of Christ, or downplay the reality of knowable absolute truth—we’ve moved from contextualization to compromise. When we accommodate our culture by jettisoning key themes of the gospel, such as suffering, humility, persecution, service, and self-sacrifice, we actually do our world more harm than good. For love’s sake, compromise is to be avoided at all costs.
As the Bible teaches, the Lordship of Christ has a sense of totality: Christ’s truth covers everything, not just “spiritual” or “religious” things. But it also has a sense of tension. As Lord, Jesus not only calls us to himself, he also calls us to break with everything which conflicts with his Lordship.
Contextualization without compromise is the goal!”*
*This article was posted on Tullian Tchividjian’s blog, which can be found at www.crpc.org/blog.
Monday, March 8, 2010
The "M" Word
One of the things I love most in life is watching my kids grow, learn, and develop. With each passing day it seems I learn more about them (as well as from them), have more fun with them, and relate better to them. One of the things that's so interesting to me is how much they like doing things for Mommy and Daddy. What an example it is to me because, too often, I don’t like doing things for anyone but myself. But my kids will do whatever we ask them. Cooper, can you go get Daddy's phone? Isabella, can you sit with Ruby? Brynn, can you get a couple of diapers? And without hesitation, they're off running to accomplish the task at hand. They've even fought and screamed at each other over who gets to help Mommy and Daddy. Now, please don't think me naïve. I know this isn't going to last but it's remarkable to me nonetheless, not that they do, but that they love to do. They get excited and do things for us with so much energy.
Recently at a pastors’ conference, John Piper shared a type of biographical sketch and spoke on the life of C.S. Lewis, and the impact Lewis has had on his life. He quoted C.S. Lewis throughout his message but one particular quote caught my attention in light of what the Lord has been showing me through my children. Lewis, in talking about the Puritans, and William Tyndale in particular, had this to say about works in light of the gospel: "In reality Tyndale is trying to express an obstinate fact which meets us long before we venture into the realm of theology; the fact that morality or duty (what he calls ‘the Law’) never yet made a man happy in himself or dear to others. It is shocking, but it is undeniable. We do not wish either to be, or to live among, people who are clean or honest or kind as a matter of duty: we want to be, and associate with, people who like being clean and honest and kind. The mere suspicion that what seemed an act of spontaneous friendliness or generosity was really done as a duty subtly poisons it. In philosophical language, the ethical category is self-destructive; morality is healthy only when it is trying to abolish itself. In theological language, no man can be saved by works. The whole purpose of the “Gospel,” for Tyndale, is to deliver us from morality. Thus, paradoxically, the “Puritan” of modern imagination—the cold, gloomy heart, doing as duty what happier and richer souls do without thinking of it—is precisely the enemy which historical Protestantism arose and smote."
Those are serious, and very appropriate, words for us. Moralism thinks in terms of doing external duties. It oppresses a person with pressures from the outside. It takes one's heart, and for that matter, Christ, completely out of any equation. Moralism is me-centered. Moralism believes God’s love for me rises and falls based on how obedient I am. And I'm afraid something happens to us when, after we cry out to Jesus as Savior and Lord, we steadily decline into a "works"-centered, a "me"-centered, religion. Sure, it starts with the gospel, we are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, but we talk and act as if we are sustained by the antithesis of the gospel – namely, our morals.
Paul writes – (Galatians 1.6-7) I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. The Galatians were struggling with loyalty and observance to the law over and above their love and devotion to Christ. They were still living in the leg irons of duty instead of in the freedom of God's grace, provided through Jesus Christ. They were trying to change their external actions without concerning their heart with Jesus Christ and living their lives compelled by the love, grace, and person of God. This leads Paul to say, in effect, just a few verses (v.10) later – Am I living for other people or am living for God – because it can't be both. That's what resting on your morals, instead of in the arms of Jesus Christ, does to you – it clouds your view of Christ with the muck of doing out of duty for others to see.
It has to be one or the other – moralism vs. Jesus Christ. You cannot claim both and it cannot be both, because Christianity is never, ever, ever about moralism.
So, I ask you – On whom, or what, are you depending for God's love?
*Quote from C.S. Lewis, English Literature in the Sixteenth Century, p.187
Recently at a pastors’ conference, John Piper shared a type of biographical sketch and spoke on the life of C.S. Lewis, and the impact Lewis has had on his life. He quoted C.S. Lewis throughout his message but one particular quote caught my attention in light of what the Lord has been showing me through my children. Lewis, in talking about the Puritans, and William Tyndale in particular, had this to say about works in light of the gospel: "In reality Tyndale is trying to express an obstinate fact which meets us long before we venture into the realm of theology; the fact that morality or duty (what he calls ‘the Law’) never yet made a man happy in himself or dear to others. It is shocking, but it is undeniable. We do not wish either to be, or to live among, people who are clean or honest or kind as a matter of duty: we want to be, and associate with, people who like being clean and honest and kind. The mere suspicion that what seemed an act of spontaneous friendliness or generosity was really done as a duty subtly poisons it. In philosophical language, the ethical category is self-destructive; morality is healthy only when it is trying to abolish itself. In theological language, no man can be saved by works. The whole purpose of the “Gospel,” for Tyndale, is to deliver us from morality. Thus, paradoxically, the “Puritan” of modern imagination—the cold, gloomy heart, doing as duty what happier and richer souls do without thinking of it—is precisely the enemy which historical Protestantism arose and smote."
Those are serious, and very appropriate, words for us. Moralism thinks in terms of doing external duties. It oppresses a person with pressures from the outside. It takes one's heart, and for that matter, Christ, completely out of any equation. Moralism is me-centered. Moralism believes God’s love for me rises and falls based on how obedient I am. And I'm afraid something happens to us when, after we cry out to Jesus as Savior and Lord, we steadily decline into a "works"-centered, a "me"-centered, religion. Sure, it starts with the gospel, we are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, but we talk and act as if we are sustained by the antithesis of the gospel – namely, our morals.
Paul writes – (Galatians 1.6-7) I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. The Galatians were struggling with loyalty and observance to the law over and above their love and devotion to Christ. They were still living in the leg irons of duty instead of in the freedom of God's grace, provided through Jesus Christ. They were trying to change their external actions without concerning their heart with Jesus Christ and living their lives compelled by the love, grace, and person of God. This leads Paul to say, in effect, just a few verses (v.10) later – Am I living for other people or am living for God – because it can't be both. That's what resting on your morals, instead of in the arms of Jesus Christ, does to you – it clouds your view of Christ with the muck of doing out of duty for others to see.
It has to be one or the other – moralism vs. Jesus Christ. You cannot claim both and it cannot be both, because Christianity is never, ever, ever about moralism.
So, I ask you – On whom, or what, are you depending for God's love?
*Quote from C.S. Lewis, English Literature in the Sixteenth Century, p.187
Thursday, February 25, 2010
A Godly Possibility
Do you ever get on your own nerves? Really – do you get tired of struggling through the same battles and wondering if you'll ever get right the things in your life that have been wrong. I drive myself crazy a lot because I go through a period where I'm learning a lot, I'm surrendering my heart and sensing a real closeness with the Lord and then – BAM! – I start to fall in one area after another – selfishness, impatience, anger, lack of discipline and organization. I'm one messed dude. (I'm sure that’s something everyone wants to hear from their pastor!)
Christianity means change is possible - deep, fundamental change. It is possible -
• to be disciplined when you, at one time, weren’t
• to become tenderhearted when you were once hard and insensitive
• to stop being dominated by bitterness and anger
• to become a loving person no matter what your background has been
The Bible assumes God is the decisive factor in making us what we should be. With spectacular bluntness the Bible says to put away malice and be tender-hearted. It does not say –
• If you can…
• If your parents were tender-hearted to you…
• If you weren’t terribly wronged…
It says - be tender-hearted.
This is incredibly freeing - it frees us from the terrible fatalism that says, “Change is impossible for me”. It frees me from enslaving views that make my background my destiny. If I was in prison and Jesus walked into my cell and said, “Leave this place tonight,” I might be stunned, but if I trusted His goodness and power, I would feel a rush of hope that freedom is possible.
If it is night and the storm is raging and the waves are breaking high over the pier, and the Lord comes to me and says, “Set sail tomorrow morning,” there is a burst of hope in the dark. He is God. He knows what He is doing. His commands are not throw-away words – they always come with freeing, life-changing truth to believe.
For example – “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. 1Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. 2And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” (Ephesians 4.32-5.2)
1. God adopted us as his children - We have a new Father and a new family. This breaks the fatalistic forces of our “family-of-origin.” Matthew 23.9, “And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven.”
2. God loves us as his children - We are loved children. The command to imitate the love of God does not hang in the air, it comes with power: be imitators of God as loved children. Love is the command and being loved is the power.
3. God has forgiven us in Christ - Be tender-hearted and forgiving just as God in Christ forgave you. What God did gives us power to change. The command to be tender-hearted has more to do with what God did for you than what your mother did to you. This kind of command means you can change.
4. Christ loved you and gave himself up for you - Walk in love just as Christ loved you. The command comes with life-changing truth - Christ loved you. At the moment when there is a chance to love and some voice says, “You are not a loving person,” you can say, “Christ’s love for me makes me a new kind of person. His command to love is just as surely possible for me as his promise of love is true for me”.
Let's pray together, for our lives and our church, as St. Augustine did, “Lord command what you will and grant what you command”!
Christianity means change is possible - deep, fundamental change. It is possible -
• to be disciplined when you, at one time, weren’t
• to become tenderhearted when you were once hard and insensitive
• to stop being dominated by bitterness and anger
• to become a loving person no matter what your background has been
The Bible assumes God is the decisive factor in making us what we should be. With spectacular bluntness the Bible says to put away malice and be tender-hearted. It does not say –
• If you can…
• If your parents were tender-hearted to you…
• If you weren’t terribly wronged…
It says - be tender-hearted.
This is incredibly freeing - it frees us from the terrible fatalism that says, “Change is impossible for me”. It frees me from enslaving views that make my background my destiny. If I was in prison and Jesus walked into my cell and said, “Leave this place tonight,” I might be stunned, but if I trusted His goodness and power, I would feel a rush of hope that freedom is possible.
If it is night and the storm is raging and the waves are breaking high over the pier, and the Lord comes to me and says, “Set sail tomorrow morning,” there is a burst of hope in the dark. He is God. He knows what He is doing. His commands are not throw-away words – they always come with freeing, life-changing truth to believe.
For example – “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. 1Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. 2And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” (Ephesians 4.32-5.2)
1. God adopted us as his children - We have a new Father and a new family. This breaks the fatalistic forces of our “family-of-origin.” Matthew 23.9, “And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven.”
2. God loves us as his children - We are loved children. The command to imitate the love of God does not hang in the air, it comes with power: be imitators of God as loved children. Love is the command and being loved is the power.
3. God has forgiven us in Christ - Be tender-hearted and forgiving just as God in Christ forgave you. What God did gives us power to change. The command to be tender-hearted has more to do with what God did for you than what your mother did to you. This kind of command means you can change.
4. Christ loved you and gave himself up for you - Walk in love just as Christ loved you. The command comes with life-changing truth - Christ loved you. At the moment when there is a chance to love and some voice says, “You are not a loving person,” you can say, “Christ’s love for me makes me a new kind of person. His command to love is just as surely possible for me as his promise of love is true for me”.
Let's pray together, for our lives and our church, as St. Augustine did, “Lord command what you will and grant what you command”!
Welcome To The Main Event
“The victory may have been theirs, but it is not for the victory alone that they are honored. Rather, it is for the quality of their effort and the manner of their striving.”
The quote above is one from Sports Illustrated – and I have it hanging on my office door because, while Sports Illustrated intended for it to refer to athletes, it makes me think so much about life. It reminds me, and challenges me, too, that I can glory in the Lord and enjoy the blessings He brings because He strengthens me to fight through the struggle He also brings.
It's interesting that when the Bible speaks of life, it often does so in terms of competition – fight, run, race, finished, endurance. These are some of the words you would find, referring to how to live this life, reading through the New Testament. Hebrews 12.1 says, "…let us run with endurance the race that is set before us." The biblical word endurance (or perseverance) is the ability to keep on doing the things you have been called to do (and have committed yourself to doing) when you are on top of the world and when the world is on top of you. Nothing is more essential to success than endurance. Faith is the gunshot that starts the race – endurance is what keeps you going.
Other than Christ, there might not be any greater example of one who strove more than the Apostle Paul. We're talking about a guy who was shipwrecked, thrown in prison, stoned and dragged out of a city to be left for dead - only to get up and walk back into that same city. Some would call that dumb – I call it tough as nails. But in writing to his young protégé, Timothy, Pauls says – “Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses” (1 Timothy 6.12). Then in the next letter he writes, just before he's about to die, he tells Timothy – “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing” (2 Timothy 4.7-8). In other words – Hey Timothy, remember when I told you to fight? Well I did – I fought, and finished, and won. And now the Lord is going to reward me for fighting the fight He gave me the strength and power to fight. Talk about sovereignty. Talk about grace and faithfulness. Talk about redemption when before Christ I couldn’t even fight - I couldn’t even put on the gloves or the shoes.
This matter of striving is so critical to the Christian life that James 1 tells us that above all other human traits, this is the one God wants built into our lives. Why? Because if we will strive and endure then God can do anything in our lives and through our lives – “And let steadfastness (endurance) have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (James 1.4).
So what do you do when the pressure is on? All kinds of people get up in the morning, put on their running clothes, and start the race. But the test comes when the miles click past and the muscles start to fatigue. What do they do then? It’s easy to put on a white dress, rent a tuxedo, and get to the front of the church to say, "I do." But to have a happening marriage - not for five years, but for life - that takes striving and enduring. It’s one thing to have a kid(s), but to keep on training that kid(s) day in and day out, following through on what you have said and taught - that takes commitment!
Let me say in addition to that - it's easy to pray a prayer, it’s easy to confess (with words) faith in Christ - but to keep following Him when the pressure is on takes striving, staying power.
As you look ahead, there's no way for you to know what's ahead in 2010 but you can be sure that God’s mercies will be new every morning. Start each day asking Him for the strength to strive and endure so you can fight the good fight of faith – AND WIN!
The quote above is one from Sports Illustrated – and I have it hanging on my office door because, while Sports Illustrated intended for it to refer to athletes, it makes me think so much about life. It reminds me, and challenges me, too, that I can glory in the Lord and enjoy the blessings He brings because He strengthens me to fight through the struggle He also brings.
It's interesting that when the Bible speaks of life, it often does so in terms of competition – fight, run, race, finished, endurance. These are some of the words you would find, referring to how to live this life, reading through the New Testament. Hebrews 12.1 says, "…let us run with endurance the race that is set before us." The biblical word endurance (or perseverance) is the ability to keep on doing the things you have been called to do (and have committed yourself to doing) when you are on top of the world and when the world is on top of you. Nothing is more essential to success than endurance. Faith is the gunshot that starts the race – endurance is what keeps you going.
Other than Christ, there might not be any greater example of one who strove more than the Apostle Paul. We're talking about a guy who was shipwrecked, thrown in prison, stoned and dragged out of a city to be left for dead - only to get up and walk back into that same city. Some would call that dumb – I call it tough as nails. But in writing to his young protégé, Timothy, Pauls says – “Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses” (1 Timothy 6.12). Then in the next letter he writes, just before he's about to die, he tells Timothy – “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing” (2 Timothy 4.7-8). In other words – Hey Timothy, remember when I told you to fight? Well I did – I fought, and finished, and won. And now the Lord is going to reward me for fighting the fight He gave me the strength and power to fight. Talk about sovereignty. Talk about grace and faithfulness. Talk about redemption when before Christ I couldn’t even fight - I couldn’t even put on the gloves or the shoes.
This matter of striving is so critical to the Christian life that James 1 tells us that above all other human traits, this is the one God wants built into our lives. Why? Because if we will strive and endure then God can do anything in our lives and through our lives – “And let steadfastness (endurance) have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (James 1.4).
So what do you do when the pressure is on? All kinds of people get up in the morning, put on their running clothes, and start the race. But the test comes when the miles click past and the muscles start to fatigue. What do they do then? It’s easy to put on a white dress, rent a tuxedo, and get to the front of the church to say, "I do." But to have a happening marriage - not for five years, but for life - that takes striving and enduring. It’s one thing to have a kid(s), but to keep on training that kid(s) day in and day out, following through on what you have said and taught - that takes commitment!
Let me say in addition to that - it's easy to pray a prayer, it’s easy to confess (with words) faith in Christ - but to keep following Him when the pressure is on takes striving, staying power.
As you look ahead, there's no way for you to know what's ahead in 2010 but you can be sure that God’s mercies will be new every morning. Start each day asking Him for the strength to strive and endure so you can fight the good fight of faith – AND WIN!
In A Time of Crisis
Two weeks ago, an earthquake made its presence felt as buildings fell, thousands died, and countless were left homeless in the country of Haiti. I didn't feel it in New Jersey at first - but after a while I began to feel the reverberations in the news reports. The more I heard and saw, the more I was left shaken. As Mark Driscoll put it - I'm haunted by Haiti. In addition to Haiti, tragedy strikes every day. Think about it. Right now, as you read this –
• people are dying from sickness
• there is abuse, murder, rape, and kidnapping
• many are without homes
• terrorists are plotting their next attack
The list could go on and on.
Whether or not we are experiencing tragedy at a particular moment – the aftershocks are going on in our lives through the questions that are asked. Tragedy causes people to search and we need to be prepared to give them direction. Here are a couple of the more popular questions that are asked by a world looking for answers –
What good could possibly come from this tragedy? You say that God loves us. You say He has a purpose and that good will come of this. Like what? First, God's sovereign goodness is seen throughout Scripture. The classic New Testament passage is Romans 8:28 – “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” God causes all things – the all things is the hard part because that is made up of what we call the good thing and bad things. There is really no denying the good that comes out of tragedy when people respond – 9/11, the tsunami, Haiti, etc., all clearly display God's glory, through His working, for those who are open to seeing it.
Another question that is asked is - How should this event change me? That is an excellent question to ask God in prayer. However, I don’t think it's one we often ask because we're afraid of what God might do in us or what God might ask us to do. But we need to put ourselves aside and ask God to change us – to work in us so He can work through us.
Change demands action. So what steps of obedience can we take to show our world Christ today?
1. We need to pray (Eph. 6.18). That might sound cliché but the truth is we can do nothing in our own strength – we must ask the Lord for His strength. We also need to pray for those who are suffering – that God would show them His purposes, love, grace, mercy, and glory.
2. This is the day to be a bold witness for Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 5.10). People are looking for answers. This is a time to speak up for Jesus. Open our mouths, Lord, and fill them with the good news you've provided.
3. We can respond to God's call to help in tangible ways. The Chinese word for crisis is made up of two symbols – each with their own meaning. The first symbol means danger. The second symbol means opportunity. So many of you gave generously from your hearts to our church family's efforts to support aid/relief to Haiti. Thank you for your kindness, I am so proud of our church. But continue to be on the alert for opportunities, now in Haiti, but also elsewhere, and then act on the need. Ask God for a willing heart and the rest of you will follow.
• people are dying from sickness
• there is abuse, murder, rape, and kidnapping
• many are without homes
• terrorists are plotting their next attack
The list could go on and on.
Whether or not we are experiencing tragedy at a particular moment – the aftershocks are going on in our lives through the questions that are asked. Tragedy causes people to search and we need to be prepared to give them direction. Here are a couple of the more popular questions that are asked by a world looking for answers –
What good could possibly come from this tragedy? You say that God loves us. You say He has a purpose and that good will come of this. Like what? First, God's sovereign goodness is seen throughout Scripture. The classic New Testament passage is Romans 8:28 – “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” God causes all things – the all things is the hard part because that is made up of what we call the good thing and bad things. There is really no denying the good that comes out of tragedy when people respond – 9/11, the tsunami, Haiti, etc., all clearly display God's glory, through His working, for those who are open to seeing it.
Another question that is asked is - How should this event change me? That is an excellent question to ask God in prayer. However, I don’t think it's one we often ask because we're afraid of what God might do in us or what God might ask us to do. But we need to put ourselves aside and ask God to change us – to work in us so He can work through us.
Change demands action. So what steps of obedience can we take to show our world Christ today?
1. We need to pray (Eph. 6.18). That might sound cliché but the truth is we can do nothing in our own strength – we must ask the Lord for His strength. We also need to pray for those who are suffering – that God would show them His purposes, love, grace, mercy, and glory.
2. This is the day to be a bold witness for Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 5.10). People are looking for answers. This is a time to speak up for Jesus. Open our mouths, Lord, and fill them with the good news you've provided.
3. We can respond to God's call to help in tangible ways. The Chinese word for crisis is made up of two symbols – each with their own meaning. The first symbol means danger. The second symbol means opportunity. So many of you gave generously from your hearts to our church family's efforts to support aid/relief to Haiti. Thank you for your kindness, I am so proud of our church. But continue to be on the alert for opportunities, now in Haiti, but also elsewhere, and then act on the need. Ask God for a willing heart and the rest of you will follow.
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