Newsletter

Finding your Heart’s Home

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My heart is wandering in lonely exile earnestly searching for a way home. We all hunger for quiet rest in this “waste howling wilderness.” After we were kicked out of the Garden of Eden, we were refugees, aimlessly searching for a place of peace – aching for shalom. We read in Deuteronomy 32:9-10 “For the Lord’s portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye.” The Lord who searches for us is the rest of his people, the home of the heart, and the sanctuary for the refugee. God finding his people is the end of the exile of our hearts. He welcomes us home beside the green pastures and the quiet waters.

Happiness, or heart satisfaction, is like a wet bar of soap. The tighter you squeeze the soap the more it slips through your fingers. Rest of heart and true joy are not found by searching for them directly nor by making them your solitary focus. They are by-products of finding something, actually someone, else. More accurately, that Someone finding you!

We, of all God’s creatures, were made in the image and likeness of God. God is our natural environment – our home – the place where we thrive and find rest! Communion with God is our shalom. We were created to know and love God; to enjoy his presence, wisdom, blessing, and favor. Our hearts belong to him by virtue of creation. But our hearts will not find their rest in him except by virtue of redemption. Paul speaking in Athens said, “they (all mankind) should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for “‘In him we live and move and have our being’” (Acts 17:27-28). We were made to know God and dwell with him. He is our home, our peace, and our rest.

In our search for heart rest and soul satisfaction, many aim horizontally and ask created things to bring them contentment. ‘My spouse will make me happy.’  ‘My kids will fulfill my dreams.’  ‘Success will give my heart rest.’ We expect earthly things to do what only God can do; namely, to give true satisfaction of heart. Relationships, good times, fame, riches, even family, and personal accomplishments can only give a temporary sense of peace. These blessings are only a few of the pleasures God gives. True rest is found not in the gifts alone, but in the giver.

Yet, all of creation’s good gifts point to the giver as the true source of rest and peace. “God is the peace that you are looking for…  If you seek God, rest in his presence and grace, and put your heart in his most capable hands, he will satisfy your heart as nothing else can” (Paul David Tripp). 

In every dessert line blessed with Scotch-a-Roos, my personal favorite, I am sorely tempted to take the whole plate instead of grabbing only one treat!  In our search for soul satisfaction and peace of heart we are not to be content merely with the gifts that God can give and to seek our shalom among earthly things, we are to take the whole plate! We are to aim for God and have all these other things thrown in.  Isn’t that what Jesus told us? “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33)  ‘There is a place of quiet rest near to the heart of God.’ Won’t you join him there? Won’t you enter into that rest?

Following the Call of God

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When the King speaks, when He commands, His people obey. Or, do they? When God called me into the ministry I immediately answered, “Here I am, send somebody else!”  Instead of following God’s call and trusting his grace I revisited the empty excuses of Moses. “I am nobody, I can’t do this. I am not eloquent, please send someone else; perhaps my brother, Aaron.”  Neither I nor Moses really heard God say, “I will be with you,” and “Who made the mouth?”  Moses and I were looking inward, at our lack of gifts, wisdom, experience, etc.  We were not looking to God, nor trusting his call, his provision, his ability.  God will not issue an order and then promptly turn his back on his obedient people.  With the command God gives the power, ability, and assistance to complete the task.

I am not alone, I think, in questioning God’s call to service.  Jonah ran in the opposite direction, Peter denied that he even knew the Lord Jesus, Gideon and Joshua needed assurance before they followed the voice of God.  Why do we hesitate to follow the wisdom of the almighty all wise God?  Often, we look to the current supplies on our shelves and calculate the impossibility of the task.  Said in another way, we fail to believe in the wisdom and might of the God who calls us. We look to our present ability instead of depending on God’s promised provision. We act as if it all depended on us and drive ourselves to despair. We think that we are ill equipped and feel very alone.  Cast your eyes on the full shelves of the King of the Universe! “What he says is always best and what he requires is always good.” Paul Tripp

We need to fix our minds on the One who has called us to serve.  He is almighty. He has a plan and a purpose that cannot fail.  He is doing something amazing and no one and no thing can hinder his masterpiece.  When he calls us to any type of service, he is inviting us to his victory parade.  He is giving us meaning, purpose, and even guaranteeing success (when viewed from His perspective).  It is most dangerous to rely on our own wisdom, and most safe to rely on His.  God calls us in order to mature us into childlike faith. Learn to walk in simple confidence in God.  We don’t need to know the whole story to write the first line. When you hear the call of God, take that first step of joyful faith.  

When God calls to serve, just do it. Don’t hesitate, don’t question, don’t begin to marshal seemingly legitimate excuses.  God knows all things, and in His wisdom He has called you! Now, this call of God can be something very simple – say a prayer for a friend, call to encourage a sister in Christ, give to a family in need, teach a class, or join a small group.  It is not the size of the calling that trips us up.  As a rule, those who obey in smaller things are given larger tasks. The key to joyful rest and submission is child-like faith. Just do it. Have the confidence that you and God can do anything. Labor in the assurance that you are not alone. Obey with evident joy because the Master has called your name and delights in your service.

Hospitality: The Duty and Delight of the People of God

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What is Hospitality? Noah Webster calls it, “The act or practice of receiving and entertaining strangers or guests without reward, or with kind and generous liberality.”  Hospitality could be described as opening your hearts and home to strangers and making them friends. It is planning to have our lives overlap. It is an intentional investment in friendship.

God requires elders to be hospitable and encourages all the people of God to open their hearts and homes to others. We read in Titus 1:7 “For an overseer, as God’s steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined.” All Christians are exhorted to show hospitality.  “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares” (Hebrews 13:2), and “Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace” (1 Peter 4:9-10).

Opening your heart and home to others and sharing your time with them is a duty but also a delight. When you aim to bless others you often receive a blessing in return. Generosity produces friendship. “One gives freely, yet grows all the richer; another withholds what he should give, and only suffers want. Whoever brings blessing will be enriched, and one who waters will himself be watered” (Proverbs 11:24-25). Serving others with generosity can deepen friendships. “A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” (Proverbs 18:24). “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity (Proverbs 17:17). The main thing that stifles a growing friendship is space and time. Hospitality is intentionally being in the same place at the same time. This is the soil that grows deep friendships and multiplies Christian companions.

Hospitality strengthens the bonds within the church fellowship. Making and deepening Christian friendship is a vital necessity in the congregation. Some leave the church because they have no friends. Within the body, the same source of life and strength must flow to all the members of the body. All our members should be “in circulation.” One long harsh winter in Michigan my father was snow-blowing his driveway.  It was thick, heavy snow and the snowblower blades would often stop spinning.  My dad reached in and freed the blades. And the blades freed my father of the tips of three fingers. Off to the hospital, my dad said, “Quickly get the fingers.”  They were still in the snow gloves. Sadly, The doctors could not reattach the tips of the fingers. My question is, what happened to those tips of three fingers when they were detached from the body? Well, they grew a whole new body! Or perhaps they thrived in their new environment because they had so much freedom. Nope. They died. When you separate yourself from the life of the body of Christ, you die. When parts of the body are cut off from circulation, they die. Hospitality keeps the sun shining and the snow away so that you do not need to reach into the snowblower and lose your fingers.

The Bible assumes that the people of God will often be together. “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near” (Hebrews 10:24-25). What are some practical suggestions for showing hospitality? Invite others over for games or to watch a movie. Meet someone for lunch and talk. Send flowers or a card to one who is ill. Visit the widows and the sick. Invite another family to the park for a picnic with all the kids. Welcome someone over for a meal after church. As our lives overlap we are bound together with the cords of love. Therefore, let us “show hospitality to one another without grumbling.” 

Entering into Rest: Preparing for the Blessing of Worship 

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You always prepare for the biggest, most important events in your life. Remember your first date? You gave it focused time and attention, didn’t you?  Or that job interview, or that difficult conversation with your boss, your in-laws, or your spouse – you mull it over first and clear time to arrange your words ahead of time. Worshipping God is the greatest, most spectacular event in your life. Listen to how worship is described in Hebrews 12:22-24, 

“But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.” 

We gather in God’s house with a distant view of, but also a present participation in, heavenly worship; we gather with angels as they worship with us (Deuteronomy 33:2; Psalm 68:17; 1 Corinthians 11:10; see also, Revelation 4:8; 5:8-14). We gather with the saints, the firstborn, the chosen, the elect; those who are singing next to us, and also with the perfected believers who worship in heaven. Earthly and heavenly worship are mysteriously united. In worship, we are in the presence of the holy, omnipotent, creator God.  We see and hear Jesus in worship. His blood speaks to us. He is the only mediator between God and man. Paul Engle describes it this way, “There is more happening in the worship service than meets the eye. Worship is a supernatural event. As you assemble to lift up praise to God, you are joined by the invisible angelic hosts. Worship is a truly supernatural event. It is a heavenly event” (Discovering the Fullness of Worship, p. 57).

I am seeking to elevate your estimation of Worship so that you will more diligently prepare for it and eagerly participate in it. In worship, heaven and earth are united. In it the breath of heaven and the wisdom of God can lift and heal your heart and mind. 

So, how can we better prepare for the monumental experience of worship? Let me give some very practical suggestions:

  1. Be there. “Ninety percent of life is just showing up,” -Woody Allen. Life is a tug of war for our time, and it pulls us in many, and necessary directions – but none is more important than worship. To know and enjoy God is our created purpose. If we miss or forsake it, we deprive ourselves of the heart of life and the very reason for our existence. So, make worship a priority; your first priority.
  2. Get some sleep. Droopy eyes make for lazy worship. If you burn the midnight oil on Saturday night you cripple yourself for Lord’s Day blessing.
  3. Clear the day. Yes, I mean the whole day. A friend once told me, “I work hard Monday through Friday, Saturday I run errands, but Sunday is my day.” On my calendar, it is the Lord’s Day – the whole day! It belongs to the Lord, and He has made it good for us. The Sabbath was made for man, for his benefit and blessing. Do not allow the rest of the week and all your other necessary duties to leak into the Lord’s Day and rob you of its full blessing. Worship, fellowship with God and His people, study the Word of God, read soul-inspiring books, visit the sick and the elderly, pray with a friend. God gives us each 7 days a week and He only asks for, or should I say commands, one in return.  Give it to Him; all of it.
  4. Prepare to Worship. If you walk with God during the week you can run into His arms on the Lord’s Day. The heart of worship is worship from the heart. Fix your eyes upon Jesus – His life, His death, His wisdom, His love, His presence. Read the bulletin ahead of time. Sing the worship hymns in family worship during the week. Listen to a sermon on the text that the pastor is preaching. Read a commentary. But above all, pray. The Old Covenant people of God used to sing Psalms as they approached Jerusalem for the great worship feasts. We can do the same.
  5. Listen to what God is saying to you in worship. Worship is a dialogue between God and His people. The elements of worship are not optional, haphazard, or unnecessary. They are God speaking and listening to His people. Enter into each element of worship with open ears and a hungry heart and God Himself will feed you. He speaks peace, grace, and blessing to His people throughout worship. Hear Him!
  6. Listen to the sermon as if God were speaking because He is. Romans 10:14 states, “How then are they to call on Him in whom they have not believed? How are they to believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how are they to hear without a preacher?” Jesus speaks when His Word is faithfully proclaimed. Be engaged, take notes, give heed. God is speaking to His people in a powerful, life-transforming word.
  7. Sing the hymns.  Listen to the words. Feel the passion and power of the truth that they convey. I sometimes listen in stunned and grateful silence as the truth sung penetrates my soul. God, His love and grace, forgiveness, acceptance, and promises for the future are overwhelming.  Hear the message of the hymns, make them your own. Sing from the bottom of your toes the truth of God. When we worship, we play to an audience of one. Show God your grateful heart.
  8. Pray with the prayers. Listen intently and make the offered prayers your own. Be able and willing to give a hearty Amen! (which means: so be it, I agree) at the end of each prayer.
  9. Receive the Benediction.  In the early church, the apostles or elders would lay their hands on the head of each Christian to communicate a parting blessing. Today, the benediction is given with arms raised and it is to be received by the whole congregation. Some, appropriately, receive it with open arms. Also, the benediction is a pronouncement, a donation, of blessing. It is not wishful thinking, nor is it merely a kind request of God – it is God giving His grace and peace to His children.
  10. Be changed. Exodus 34:29, “When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand as he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God.” If you spend time with God, you will shine like His son. The target for our sanctification in this life is to be like Jesus. Worship transforms us into the image of God. Let it. Cooperate with it. We should be different, better, for having been in the presence of God.

So, squeeze all the life that you can out of worship.  Prepare for it, be fully engaged with it, and profit from it.  Worship is entering into rest. God is fitting and equipping you for the heavenly life. And it will be glorious. 

Making Sense of Our Lives in this World

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Can you imagine teaching your 5-year-old child to swim by tossing him, alone and afraid, into the deep end of the pool?  That is cruel and abusive.  Instead, we should get in the pool with them, teach them slowly and surely how to swim.  Watch their fears wane and their confidence increase.  Then we can throw them into the deep end with assurance.

We are all trying to make sense of our lives and the world that we live in.  Why are we here? What is wrong with this world? What should I be doing here? Where can I find meaning and purpose in this crazy world?  For many, it seems that God has thrown us into the deep end of the pool unassisted.

We struggle to come up with an interpretive grid to understand ourselves, and the fallen world that we live in.  We are playing the game but we do not know the rules.  We struggle to make sense of life, our desires, and dreams, our struggles and failures.  We want to be better than most and have a little fun as we walk through life.  We are like that 5 year old in the deep end of the pool; fighting to make our way to the edge of the pool.

Has God thrown us into the deep end?  No, he has taught us to swim first.  God has given us the true interpretative grid to understand ourselves and the world we live in. We were created in his likeness to image him to the world around us.  We were fashioned to be God’s friend and his representative in this world.  The world was created good.  

But sin, rebellion, pride has entered our hearts and polluted the world around us.  We live as confused rebels in a broken world.  Nothing seems to make sense. Life is now lived without the true interpretative grid so we make it up as we go along and struggle at the deep end of the pool.  Man attempts to forge his own meaning, from his own perception of himself and the world.  In pride, rebellion, and confusion, he fashions his own filter of meaning and purpose.  But he does so with a fallen mind and a selfish heart.  We witness the damage of an independent man and his rebellious mind all around us. The man at his best is a confused, selfish mess. And the society that grows up around sinful men is marred and ugly.  We are all flailing for our lives in the deep end of the pool and we don’t know how to swim.

God’s Word has been compared to glasses. Through these corrective lenses, we can see ourselves and the world clearly. We are fallen and the world is broken.  But God has sent his Son to forgive our sin, heal the scars and return us to a home better than Eden.  God has taught us to swim.  We have the interpretive grid that fits with life as it really is. 

We need to wear the glasses to benefit from this corrected vision. We are rebels, redeemed by the grace of God.  The wisdom of fallen man is foolishness to God.  Independent man has rejected God’s glasses and therefore flails about in the deep end of the pool.

Do not fear the wisdom of the wise. “For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” 1 Corinthians 1:25  “See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.” Colossians 2:8.  The wisdom of God pours forth from His Word as you read it and hear it taught and preached. Follow the wisdom of God and you will know how to swim. You will have the interpretive grid for life and know true meaning and purpose.

Profiting from God’s Word Every Day of the Year

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I have tomato seeds in my garage that never grow.  They lie stagnant, dormant, just above my rarely opened toolboxes.  Why don’t they grow? They are not planted in nutrient-rich soil and they receive no water.

Christians, given the seed of regeneration, are to grow deeply into the Grace of God and the knowledge of God. “…grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.”  Those who are declared to be the children of God through faith in Jesus Christ (John 1:12) are to live for the glory of God from now on into eternity.  Christians are not to lie dormant on the shelf in the garage.  They need to be dive deeply into the soil of the Word of God and be watered by the Spirit of God – they need to grow!

How do we do that? The Scriptures boldly and clearly give the answer. “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). The Word of God is the richest possible soil for the Christian seed to grow.  In fact, the Word was given for that very purpose.  The Bible is unique (it comes from God), the Bible is powerful (it is the Word/power of God), and the Bible is life-transforming.  We cannot come into contact with the dynamic Word from God, it having been watered by the Spirit, without being transformed by the encounter.

Scripture is breathed out by God. The same Word that was spoken and the universe came into existence, the same Word that became flesh and dwelt among us for our salvation, is the same Word that we read, preach, and mix with faith. It is the Word, blessed by the Spirit that engenders growth.

The Bible is profitable for teaching.  God’s fingerprints are on the whole of His creation but we can read His signature, and see his portrait, in the Scriptures. If you want to know God and grow in your knowledge of God, listen to Him speak in His Word.  It is his authorized autobiography! Men derive their patchwork guesses about God from many other sources, experience, other religions, what my grandma told me, what Hollywood portrays; but the only true, pure, accurate knowledge of God comes from His own revelation. For a Christian to grow one must study the Word from God.

The Bible is profitable for reproof. When you see God clearly, in all His holiness, glory, purity, and power, you also begin to see yourself accurately.  And the picture isn’t pretty.  In the light of His glory our sin, selfishness, and rebellion cannot be denied. Our self-constructed glory appears as rebellion in His holy presence.  This is where many stop reading and studying the Word of God.  It is uncomfortable to be humbled by the truth.  We tend to prefer to live in a comfortable lie than to submit to the rigors of the truth about ourselves.  Personal change requires prior knowledge that something is wrong with us.  The Bible correctly diagnoses our foundational sin; pride-driven rebellion against the only God.

This brings us to correction.  The Bible not only points out the problem, sin, it also drives us to the solution.  His Word is beneficial for correction. The Bible provides answers to the human dilemma; the law of God. Our sinful rebellion is forgiven and washed in the blood of Christ, and not we live in gospel gratitude to God by submitting to his will.  “If you love me you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15).  The Bible at once points out the wrong path that we are on and points out the proper path we should be traversing.  The Bible cuts a path back to the highway of holiness.

Training in righteousness is the mission of the Word of God. Once back on the path, we improve the road.  We serve the highway on which our brothers and sisters are traveling.  We are equipped to do every good work. Loving, willing, self-sacrifice service is the norm among mature, growing, path-walking Christians. If a Christian is not walking in humble and joyful service to our Lord and King Jesus then the steps must be re-traced.  Does he need to be trained? Or, one step farther back, does he need to be corrected? Or is the stumbling block reproof? Does sin have a crippling stranglehold on the believer in some area of his life? Or finally, is the root of the problem teaching? He doesn’t understand God, the gospel, the law, the way, the truth, or the life?

Yet, wherever the wrench in the works is found, the solution is always the same – heavy doses of the pure, undiluted Word of God, blessed by the Spirit.

All this is simply to ask, how are your daily devotions going? Are you planted in the life-transforming soil of God’s Word? Does the Word instruct you? Expose you? Refocus you? Train you in humble service? Or are you on the self in the garage waiting for the soil and the water to come to you?

The water. I have only hinted at the water so far.  The Word of God must be blessed by the Spirit of God for it to work its wonders! So, how do we know that the Spirit is present and active in our devotions? We ask God to send him. “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:13).

Spend time with God listening to his Word and asking for his blessing. That one-two punch will get you off the shelf and into the God-glorifying life that you were reborn to live.

How We Display the Grace of God (Using our Spiritual Gifts)

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How We Display the Grace of God

1 Peter 4:10

1 Peter 4:10, “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace:”

Every Christian has been gifted by God. This is spectacular news! We received spiritual gifts from God through the Spirit. We are redeemed from sin and renewed in the image of God in true knowledge, righteousness, and holiness. We are saved to serve. We are equipped by God to serve one another in love.

When we receive the Spirit, we receive gifts. Our gifts are not an attachment to us; they are us. We are our gifts. Our gift is us. Or, better, the Spirit in us; united to us. When we exercise our spiritual gifts we are being ourselves for the glory of God.

We, through the exercise of our spiritual gifts, are the conduit through which the Spirit of God is redeeming and sanctifying the world. Together we are stewards of the grace of God.

But our gifts are received not merited. They are donated to us by God. You do not campaign for certain gifts or talents. They are given. They are part of how you are uniquely made in the image of God. Your gift is your divine fingerprint. You should not weep because you don’t have a different gift. Rather, you should rejoice in the gift that you have been given – recognize and develop your gift.

If you have the Spirit, you have a gift or a talent.  “As each has received a gift…” (1 Peter 4:10). “Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us…” (Romans 12:6). We are our gift!

As you walk in the Spirit, your gifts will become evident and you will increase your capacity to use them. Growing in grace, is in some sense, growing in usefulness. You are uniquely gifted by God, and you have a unique service to fulfill for his glory.

That is good news! We can respond to the grace of God, we can make a return to Him in loving others with our spiritual gifts. We are like a water balloon. We receive the boundless grace of God and we become bloated, burgeoning with blessing. Using our spiritual gifts is like throwing a tightly stretched water balloon at your brothers and sisters in Christ.  We shower them with the blessings we have received! The blessing that comes to us through Spiritual gifts is passed on to others by our exercising those gifts.

Our gifts must be known and then joyfully employed. “As each has received a gift, use it…” (1 Peter 4:10). To know ourselves is to know our gifts. How do I discern my spiritual gift? Here are four methods to find your spiritual gift.

    1. Self-assessment –What am I like?  What do I like? 
    2. Past Experience – What ministries have you done well?
    3. The counsel of others – What do others see in you?  How are they encouraging you to serve?
    4. Try something – You really do not know until you try.

Our gifts are given so that we can serve others.  (“use it to serve one another,” 1 Peter 4:10). Your gift comes from God and belongs to others in the body of Christ. They need you to exercise your gift. The health of the church requires that you exercise your gifts.“To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good” (1 Cor. 12:7).

Our gifts, faithfully used, display the Grace of God. It is in the exercise of these gifts that we see Christ in others. We can see the hands of Christ working. We can serve as channels of God’s grace to others. The New English Translation says this, “Like good stewards dispensing the grace of God in its varied forms.” In a healthy, growing, serving the church, the members are healthy, and growing, and serving; they are using their gifts in service to others. You should be feeding on and fulfilling some ministry in the church. You should be blessed by the gifts of others, and you should be a blessing to others in the church.

What are some reasons that we do not exercise our gifts in the church?

1) I don’t know what they are. (Well, find out!).

2) I don’t have time. (Or, I don’t take the time).

3) I don’t want to fail. (You are failing now if your gifts lie dormant).

4) I don’t want to. (Well then, you are selfish and a poor steward who refuses to distribute his master’s wealth).

5) I don’t know what I could do. No one has asked me to do anything. (Well, I am asking today).

6) I am young, I don’t have to serve in the church, do I?  (Yes you do).

So, Rejoice that you have received the Spirit of God. Rejoice that you are gifted for service in the kingdom of God. Rejoice that you can serve God and your brothers and sisters in Christ.

Killing Sin

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When God’s Spirit gives us his presence and his salvation he also calls us to war.  War with sin. War with our sinful nature. War with our flesh. War with ourselves. To grow is grace is, in part, to kill the flesh – the vestiges of our old nature. We are either feeding the flesh and starving the Spirit, or feeding the Spirit and starving the flesh.  

The Puritans called this mortifying the flesh. “Do you mortify; do you make it your daily work; be always at it while you live; cease not a day from this work; be killing sin or it will be killing you” (John Owen, Overcoming Sin and Temptation). Most Christians acknowledge this warfare as necessary and we give passing attention to it, but ….  That but is the problem.  We fight our sin like we fight our favorite unhealthy food; occasionally, half-heartedly, and with a secret plan to taste it again.

But this duel to the death with sin in not merely an old Puritan obsession, it is a Biblical command. “For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live” (Romans 8:13). “For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do” (Galatians 5:17).  We have been set free from the guilt and shame of sin, and we are being delivered from the power and presence of sin. “If you by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body…” Romans 13.  It is “by the Spirit” that we kill sin.  We are not left to our own resources, we have the full armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-20), but we must put the armor on and enter the lists. We are passionately active in this duel with our sin. God works in us and with us, but in sanctification, He will not work without us.

The Hebrew Christians had suffered greatly for their commitment to Jesus as their Messiah.  They “endured a hard struggle” “being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction.” They had “compassion on those in prison” and they “joyfully accepted the plundering of (their) property” Hebrews 10:32-34.  They were in the trenches, standing with Christ and supporting his people.  But they were wavering, and uncertain because following Christ was increasingly difficult.  Yet, even in their sincere difficulty, they are exhorted to fight sin. “In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood” (Hebrews 12:4).

It is football season and you can always tell who is winning by glancing at the scoreboard.  So, how are you doing in your battle with sin? Are you on the gridiron with your pads, your fresh bruises, and your blood, sweat, and tears? Or are you in the stands, with a greasy burger and a cold beer watching your team lose? What is the score? Brothers and sisters, to arms! The war is won, but our battle remains. Kill sin, or it will kill you.

An Encouragement for Disciples to Study

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An encouragement for disciples to study? That title is redundant. A ‘mathetes’, the Greek word for a disciple, is a learner. A disciple of Jesus Christ is committed to following him and his teaching. As Christians, we submit to Jesus and the Word that proclaims him. To be a disciple, a ‘mathetes’ is to study, to learn. Jesus in Matthew 11:29 commands us to “take my yoke upon you, and learn from me.” John 6:45 tells, “It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me.” To be a disciple is to be a learner, to be a student.

The truth as it is in Jesus has never been more accessible to the church and perhaps never more neglected by the church. Neil Postman writes about the “Low Information – Action Ratio,” or LIAR for short. We are bombarded by so much trivial information that we cannot act on any of it. We are progressively trained not to act on what little we learn.  We can drink from the firehose of knowledge and get very wet but stay very thirsty. The information is out there and the truth of Jesus is available.  But our problem, I think, is the opposite. We are not drinking from a firehose, although it is accessible, we are merely dipping our little toe into the ocean of knowledge.

Do you, as a student, a disciple, have a plan or a purpose in your study of God, his Son, and his Word?  Much of our learning program as Christians, if we have one at all, is rather spontaneous, haphazard, and random. We listen to our pastor once a week, and Christian radio during the week; that is nourishment enough, we think. What is your plan to grow as a disciple, a learner of Jesus?

In seminary, pastors were encouraged to study God’s Word in a devotional manner.  We must feed our own souls first before we could prepare a meal for others.  One student read through bible commentaries for his devotions.  Another pursued Systematic Theologies for fun.  Others devoured technical treatises for their growth in grace.  Now, we are not all pastors or teachers, and I am not encouraging my brothers and sisters to study in that manner.  But there are hundreds of good, godly, and edifying Christian books designed to assist you as a disciple of Christ. Do you read them? any of them? Are you consistently and fruitfully studying the Word of God? Not merely reading it, but studying it, and growing the fruit of the Spirit because of it?

As a young Christian when I read the Bible or other Christian books I would circle the words and concepts that I did not understand.  And then, I would study until I figured it out.  So my encouragement to you, as a fellow disciple of Jesus Christ, is simply this – study to know God better. Find the time. Have a plan. Read the Bible. Begin to chase down the knowledge of God. For some, “have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus (Ephesians 4:19-21).

Don’t know where to begin to be a disciple? Pray. Read the Bible. Start with the Gospel of John.  Need more? Ask your pastor for a book. It will make his day!

Knowing God Encourages Better Friendships

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If God can make friends of us, we can make friends of anyone! We are better friends and we seek deeper friendships because we have a friendship with God. Exodus 33:11, “Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.” 2 Chronicles 20:7, “Did you not, our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel, and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham your friend?” The Covenant of Grace has been called the Covenant of Friendship by some.  God, through the Gospel, has made us his friends.

God has also made us friendly. He has given us the tools to make friends with anyone – even the worst.  Jesus has even lead by example by befriending us. God has befriended us in this fallen world and has called us to make friends with others.

How does the gospel of grace make us better friends?

We know ourselves. We freely acknowledge our weaknesses and needs. We are finally honest with ourselves. The problem isn’t out there somewhere, but in here somewhere. And the gospel solves the problem. Through God’s grace, we begin accurately to understand our broken nature. We don’t hide the truth about ourselves from ourselves or others anymore. Knowing truth allows us to be honest, to be correctable, to drop our selfish emotional walls and phony self-protection. We can be open and brutally forthright about who we really are because we are forgiven and accepted in Christ – and he knew the worst about us. That honest self-scrutiny helps us to form better friendships in a fallen world.

We know the truth of the human condition. Fallen human nature does not surprise us because we acknowledge our own fallenness and sin.  We know that everyone struggles to live uprightly, to do the right thing, and to fight against temptation. Children of Adam know God but they selfishly suppress that knowledge and then live in fear that their sins will find them out. Their conscience speaks, somewhat accurately, and they can’t live up to its dictates let alone fulfill the law of God. Therefore, as redeemed sinners ourselves, we expect to find dirt, struggle, pain, and remorse in everyone that we meet. We can meet friends in their brokenness and need and “paraclete” them. (Paraclete is a Greek word that means to be called alongside to help, as the Holy Spirit has done for us).

We know where the medicine is found.  We are very much like hungry beggars showing other hungry beggars where to find bread.  We don’t have it all together either but we know where help resides. We are starting to heal from our brokenness and sin and we can lead others to the hospital of grace.

We don’t need a friend, so we can be a friend. Because we have found a perfect friend in Jesus, we don’t ‘need’ or crave another one.  We can be friends with anyone but we don’t need to be friends with anyone else. We don’t require co-dependents because we depend on Christ, and he is enough. To be a friend means to give yourself away in self-sacrificing love. And Christians have experienced that love in Christ and have an ever-increasing capacity to show that love to others.  We are no longer needy, so we can meet the needs of others around us.

When two growing, maturing Christians begin a friendship they can go really deep.  Mutual, self-giving love is the best soil to grow a deep and satisfying friendship.  “Iron sharpens iron.” “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.” “…There is a friend who sticks closer than a brother” (Proverbs 27:17; 17:17; 18:24).

So, dear Christian friend, you have experienced a perfect friendship, and you have the tools to form deep, abiding, eternal friendships, and, because your needs are all met in Christ, you can make friends of the friendless and needy. Through the Covenant of Friendship, we can make friends.