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Do not suppose that abuses are eliminated by destroying the object which is abused. Men can go wrong with wine and women. Shall we prohibit and abolish women? The sun, moon, and stars have been worshipped. Shall we pluck them out of the sky?
-Martin Luther
I grew up in a church where you learned very quickly not say the wrong thing—or look, act, or think any other way than you were told. Looking back now, it was rather cultish. Boys had their own section of the beach, the church bus, and the hallway for that matter. Blue jeans were frowned upon and any music that had a beat reminiscent of rock music was of the devil. Movies that didn’t feature Jesus sporting some goofy blue gown and sash were discouraged. Red lip-stick was banned and colorful skirts above the ankles were devices of Satan. Basically, anything that might be fun was frowned upon. I can’t say I looked forward much to hanging out with such a sour group of sanctified saints. Even hanging out was evil—if I remember right.
My upbringing served me well in fostering a healthy skeptism and a grave mis-trust for religion—when I finally did bump into Jesus it was refreshing to say the least.
Because we are aware that freedom can be abused and maybe have seen it firsthand (or in my case—been there, done that) we’d rather err on the side of thinking—Freedom might just not be the best thing, there has to be some restraints to keep this ‘freedom thing’ in check. And then after a few of our own failings, we conclude—I think I’ll write some guidelines for myself. In turn,we put together some guidelines for our weaker-younger brothers making anything that might be an occasion for abuse off-limits and before you know it, we have a whole manual something along the lines of How to be a good-little Christian. It’s no wonder freedom never gets a snowballs chance to even make it’s debut.
It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don’t use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that’s how freedom grows. For everything we know about God’s Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That’s an act of true freedom. If you bite and ravage each other, watch out—in no time at all you will be annihilating each other, and where will your precious freedom be then? (Galatians 5:13-15, The Message Bible)
A major difference between legalism and freedom is that one can be legislated and the other cannot.
Do you know why most Christians don’t get any better or why you don’t get any better? It’s because you’re doing it wrong, dummy! You are obsessed with sin and your faith has become another ‘system of laws’ whereby you feel guilty and try and try and try to do better. It doesn’t work, never has worked, and never will work…
-Steve Brown
If I had this freedom thing down pat I wouldn’t bother writing about it. But I want to breath it with every gasp of air I have left before they box me up and stick me in some stuffy cemetery.
A few days ago I returned from a weekend away to see my oldest daughter graduate from high school. It was exhilarating and frightening all in the same swoop. Maybe you can relate to my feelings—she’s my first-born and makes me one proud dad. Anyways, I woke up the other morning and headed into the bathroom after putting my morning coffee on just to be greeted by a big red spot on the tip of the end of my nose (and for those who haven’t seen me—I don’t have the smallest beak in the world). The thing was irritating and it hurt too. Figures Id’ get one—my dad gets the pesky buggers every once in a while and I make fun of him. I thought by the time you were so close to forty these little ego deflaters would be history for good—let alone a man in his mid-sixties. I suppose I have something to look forward to besides streets of gold.
Nobody likes zits, or least no one has told me any different. Zits are like sin if you ask me—although those of you lucky enough to never get a zit can’t say you never get a sin. Sadly, some times it seems like I hate zits more than I hate sin. I also got to thinking about the fact that I didn’t touch my big zit—not once, and it disappeared within a day (to my satisfaction). Sin is like that I have found, and although my sin nature hasn’t taken any extended vacations lately to my dissatisfaction—my sins do seem to have a way of being less of an issue when I don’t obsess about them but rather trust that God meant it when he said he forgives every last one of them.
13 Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires. (Romans 13:13-14, ESV)
I think the idea here is to starve the flesh—my sin nature has trouble surviving let alone prospering when I don’t feed it. Like my big zit, I have this thing for obsessing about things that are better left alone and I am slowly but surely learning that it helps to stop thinking about my sin and start focusing on the one who has delivered me from it’s penalty.
Temptation has a way dissipating when it isn’t messed around with.
free·dom: 1: the quality or state of being free: as a: the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action b: liberation from slavery or restraint or from the power of another
-Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
Alright—we’ve been on this topic of freedom for a few days now and there must be a couple of dissenters wondering when I am going to hurry up and get back to the truth. Well, I hate to disappoint anyone, but the message of freedom is the simple truth of God’s Word and any counter-message is a lie.
How often we compromise our freedom and settle for some cheap imitation—we were not meant to live like some torpid chicken on a fast-track to slaughter, beak and feet removed, wings clipped off, steroid injected, anti-biotic ridden, disease infested—and force fed through a hose. That’s a picture of what religion can do to us when we get caught up in it’s web. It chokes everything that has the potential to be alive right out of us.
My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by God’s Spirit. Then you won’t feed the compulsions of selfishness. For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us that is at odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible with selfishness. These two ways of life are antithetical, so that you cannot live at times one way and at times another way according to how you feel on any given day. Why don’t you choose to be led by the Spirit and so escape the erratic compulsions of a law-dominated existence? (Galatians 5:16-18, The Message Bible)
God’s design is that we are to be able to move and roam about, sort of like free-range chickens are apt to do. Healthy-active-organic chickens cost a bit more down at the corner market and taste far better on the barbecue for a reason—they are raised the way chickens were meant to be raised.
Being caged up by religion isn’t the life for you and me.
And we can’t very well follow Jesus if we are all couped up by religion like frustrated mass-production chickens.
If you but love God you may do as you incline.
-Augustine
I’ve stumbled across a story from the life of President Abraham Lincoln a time or two now about an appointee within the president’s cabinet that would try to challenge and stimy the president every chance he got. A friend of honest Abe’s finally came to him and asked why he didn’t have the pesky man replaced. Lincoln, in turn—told his well-meaning friend a story about walking down a country road one day and coming upon a farmer who was busy plowing his field with a horse-drawn plough. As Lincoln approached the farmer he noticed a jumbo sized horsefly on the back-side of the working horse and figured it couldn’t be helping the poor horse concentrate on the task at hand. Lincoln—in an attempt to help the farmer out, went to simply brush off the little pest. As Lincoln raised his hand to take a swat, the farmer protested—Don’t do that, friend. That horsefly is the only thing keeping this old horse moving.
The moral of the story for today’s lesson is simple: Religion is nothing more than a jumbo horsefly and there are those within certain circles of the church who’d like you to do anything—and I stress anything—other than contribute to freeing people from living under the irritating and deadly oppression that religion represents. Those caught up in the facade of religion do not like any one who messes with their religion and they are not afraid to tell you so—to mess with religion is to mess with God. Many church leaders feel the need to use religion to do the same exact thing the farmer was doing with the horsefly—use religion and the endless rules that accompany it as a means of motivating others to live the Christian life.
These preachers of bondage wouldn’t know freedom if it hit them upside the head. In his letter to the Galatian believers—Paul had something entirely different to say than what the peddlers of religion in his day were preaching.
What actually took place is this: I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn’t work. So I quit being a ‘law man’ so that I could be God’s man. Christ’s life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not ‘mine,’ but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going to go back on that. (Galatians 2:19-20, The Message Bible)
There is a better way.
It’s called freedom—and it can be a rare commodity in some circles.
There is one case of death-bed repentance recorded, that of the penitent thief, that none should despair; and only one, that none should presume.
-Augustine
Presuming we can deal with Jesus some other day is something that we do. Admit it or not—we have done it.
And we still presume that Jesus can wait.
Jesus comes and presents us with himself—plain and simple—in his majesty and splendor. He can be dramatic, but more often than not he’s almost subtle about it. Unlike us, he’s not pushy or overbearing. While we can be sure he is strong—he is gentle in his approach. And he doesn’t make us come—although, he does have his ways to help make us willing. It’s a rather stark contrast between Jesus and our other choices you know. I will confess that I deal with this daily—so if you were looking for company—you have it. If you were looking for good company—don’t push it.
You see, Jesus always calls us to follow him today rather than putting him off until a rainy day. I think we presume that following Jesus means joining the local convent or taking an oath of celibacy—and I suppose it could. But I think often times we make following Jesus—not easier—but much more complicated than it actually is.
Buechner writes in Beyond Words,
For the best to happen, the worst must stop happening—the worst we are, the worst we do. But maybe it isn’t as difficult as it sounds. It was a hardened criminal within minutes of death, after all, who said only, ‘Jesus, remember me,’ and that turned out to be enough. ‘This day you will be with me in paradise’ was the answer he just managed to hear.
The unrepentant thief missed Jesus entirely while the believing one realized the urgency in today—he knew he couldn’t presume he had tomorrow.
4 Show me, O LORD, my life’s end
and the number of my days;
let me know how fleeting is my life. (Psalm 39:4, ESV)
Teach us Lord—to presume not that our days are not somehow numbered.
‘This is the day which the Lord has made,’ says Psalm 118. ‘Let us rejoice and be glad in it’ (v. 24). Or weep and be sad in it for that matter. The point is to see it for what it is, because it will be gone before you know it. If you waste it, it is your life you are wasting. If you look the other way, it may be the moment you’ve been waiting for always that your missing.
All other days have either disappeared into darkness and oblivion or not emerged from it. Today is the only day there is.
-Frederick Buechner (Beyond Words)
Betting that tomorrow will come is not a safe bet. It’s not like you are betting $5 and if you lose—Oh Well, I will win the next one. Assuming that we will have tomorrow to solely trust Jesus for salvation—or with our future and concerns—can turn out to be like betting your life and losing. The issue is never Will God be merciful or will God still love me tomorrow? The question in front of us is: Do we have tomorrow? And we can’t answer that with a definite Yes! Will we be able to make that call to an estranged wife or a wayward child tomorrow? Will we have another chance to talk to our son about the unfathomable love of Jesus or will we have another moment to hug our mom? Will we have another opportunity to reach out to our hurting neighbor who just lost his wife to cancer?
Jesus is the Savior for today.
4 So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way. 5 And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, ‘Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.’ 6 So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. 7 And when they saw it, they all grumbled, ‘He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.’ 8 And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, ‘Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.’ 9 And Jesus said to him, ‘Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. (Luke 19:4-9, ESV—italics mine)
The little man Zacchaeus came down out of that tree and had Jesus over for a fish-fry that day—he didn’t wait another day to act in response to Jesus’ request. And on that day—God had his way with the shady tax man and he made him a saint. The stakes are too high to bank on tomorrow, because if we don’t have tomorrow and we don’t do what we can do today—we’ll never get to do those things at all.
God’s going to be merciful tomorrow, he’s going to be loving forever—but what will you have missed out on by not trusting in his mercy and his loving-kindness today?
Life I’d say.
Whatever your heart clings to and confides in, that is really your God.
-Martin Luther
I pledge allegiance to Jesus Christ.
It’s always bothered me to pledge allegiance to a country that can neither save my soul or secure my future. While I’m an American, in no way do I consider God and country in the same ball park. Hey, I’m all for baseball, hot dogs, and apple pie—although I do prefer a nice import to a Chevrolet (go figure—I was born and raised in the Motor City).
America is the land of the free but she didn’t die an innocent death at the hands of sinners on my behalf so that I could be forgiven an ocean liner full of sins. I could be living in a poorer than poor remote third world country and Jesus would still be the Savior of mankind—America or no America.
25 Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, 26 ‘If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple…’ (Luke 14:25-27, ESV)
Wow. Pretty tough talk there. Jesus wasn’t fooling around and after considering the rest of what he taught—you might get the idea he is delusional without a further look into what he was really saying here. What Jesus isn’t advocating or sanctioning is—hate for ones’ family (let alone anyone else). We know that by the whole of what he teaches elsewhere. Bear in mind, this is the same Jesus who taught his followers to not only love their neighbors but to love their enemies—to not only turn the other cheek but to offer your abuser the shirt off your back. He wouldn’t possibly then turn around and shoot out the other side of his mouth Oh, and while your at it—hate your families.
No—Jesus is saying nothing of the sort. What Jesus is saying is this: Nothing and no one should compete for our allegiance to him—not our jobs—not our money—not our pleasures—not our passions (such as writing or our yoga class)—not our country—not even our families.
In comparison to him—we should hate all others.
I am to cling to Christ alone; he has taught neither too much nor too little. He has taught me to know God the Father, has revealed himself to me, and has also acquainted me with the Holy Spirit. He has also taught me how to live and how to die and has told me what to hope for. What more do I want?
-Martin Luther
What else is there? Who else is there? If you have lived one day as a Jesus-follower and spent a thousand without him you know what Luther is getting at. I have enjoyed many of the niceties this world can offer and yet—Jesus is in a class of his own. Even my own children—as much as I dig them—are no match for Jesus.
I adore Jesus—I am learning to appreciate others. But no one else deserves my worship. How often I pay homage to that which competes with Jesus for my affection and it never suffices.
No one else can satisfy my deepest longings.
Third Day sings:
I’ve heard all the stories
I’ve seen all the signs
Witnessed all the glory. Yeah
Tasted all that’s fine
Nothing compares
to the greatness of knowing You, Lord…
I see all the people
Wasting all their time
Building up their riches
For a life that’s fine
What will it finally take for us to learn that any life we seek outside of Christ is sure to leave us hungry, empty, disillusioned, and wore-out? If we’d only seek him before and above all else how full and overflowing our lives and our hearts would be!
Peter, the rough-edged servant of Jesus, knew full well.
67 So Jesus said to the Twelve, ‘Do you want to go away as well?’ 68 Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, 69 and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” (John 6:67-69, ESV)
Teach us to cling to you alone Lord Jesus.
This one gospel, this message of news that was simultaneously threatening and promising, concerned the coming of Jesus the Messiah, the long-awaited King, and included something about his origins, the ministry of his forerunner, his brief ministry of teaching and miraculous transformation, climaxing in his death and resurrection. These elements are not independent pearls on a string that constitutes the life and times of Jesus the Messiah. Rather, they are elements tightly tied together. Accounts of Jesus’ teaching cannot be rightly understood unless we discern how they flow toward and point toward Jesus’ death and resurrection. All of this together is the one gospel of Jesus Christ, to which the canonical Gospels bear witness. To study the teaching of Jesus without simultaneously reflecting on his passion and resurrection is far worse than assessing the life and times of George Washington without reflecting on the American Revolution, or than evaluating Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf’ without thinking about what he did and how he died. Second, we shall soon see that to focus on Jesus’ teaching while making the cross peripheral reduces the glorious good news to mere religion, the joy of forgiveness to mere ethical conformity, the highest motives for obedience to mere duty. The price is catastrophic.
-D.A. Carson
Some years ago now I was out playing golf (as I am fond of doing) and after finishing my round I noticed something drastic was missing. I couldn’t put my finger on it immediately, but as I drove home I slowly but surely began to see just what it was that had went wrong—I hadn’t enjoyed my round of golf one bit and I had missed all of the beauty there was for the taking over the course of my four hour excursion. What I had just paid a pretty penny to savor—I had let slip through the palms of my hands.
So it is with a flippant and unintentional handling of the truth of Jesus Christ.
We can miss Jesus even going to Mass or worship service every day of the week, and dare I say—even memorizing our Bibles upside down and inside out. To somehow proceed in the Christian life without a revelation of some sort of idea about just how far-reaching and pertinent the effects of the cross of Christ are indeed—like my afternoon at the golf course in which I missed the whole reason I go to play in the first place—to somehow view Jesus without seeing his crowning event and subsequent glorification is to miss Jesus entirely. Jesus wasn’t merely a piece of history—all of history rests on the revelation of just Who it is that he is and what it was that he accomplished here after leaving all of the riches of heaven and visiting this poverty stricken earth.
We must never forget that the Cross has implications in regards to the movies we see, the relationships we cherish, the thoughts we share (and the ones we hide)—and even the food we eat.
The Cross leaves no stones unturned.
52 The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?’ 53 So Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.’ (John 6:52-54, ESV)
Anyone who wants to snack on Jesus doesn’t have life.
When Jesus invites us to eat he invites us to a meal.
I ask you neither for health nor for sickness, for life nor for death; but that you may dispose of my health and my sickness, my life and my death, for your glory… You alone know what is expedient for me; you are the sovereign master, do with me according to your will. Give to me, or take away from me, only conform my will to yours. I know but one thing, Lord, that it is good to follow you, and bad to offend you. Apart from that, I know not what is good or bad in anything. I know not which is most profitable to me, health or sickness, wealth or poverty, nor anything else in the world. That discernment is beyond the power of men or angels, and is hidden among the secrets of your providence, which I adore, but do not seek to fathom.
-A prayer from Blaise Pascal
We are the do-it-ourselfers. We get much too much caught up in attempting to fix ourselves—Thanks God for the offer, but we’ll take it from here. If anything, when it comes to our growth in grace—our efforts to better ourselves are off the charts (as if it were possible for a terminally ill man to provide his own cure). Like any project gone bad—we only make our condition worse than it originally was at the onset when we take matters of our sanctification into our own hands.
A good friend of mine who leads a Christian men’s recovery movement is fond of putting it this way—We aren’t bad people trying to get good, we are sick people getting well. I would confer as I think the gospel message proclaims exactly the same. And while I would agree that the human body has a remarkable capacity to heal itself, I would only add that it is God who created that same human body and that he is the one behind it’s being able to recover health and wholeness in the first place. In other words—we can’t heal ourselves alone. Worse than ending in mere frustration, any attempts to do so will ultimately end in failure.
If you have ever seen a face-lift gone bad, you might understand what I am getting at.
Our self-improvement projects are doomed from the onset and only serve our own peril, mind you—how many of them are for the wrong reasons? Our personal holiness and righteousness initiatives are nothing more than religious ego trips—efforts to make others think of us as spiritual—more Christlike than we actually are. Shouldn’t we want to live lives that glorify God out of love for God rather than for the love of applause? Our insecurities and our hunger for approval and acceptance run deeper than we readily admit. We have to ask ourselves what our motive is when we become either obsessive or compulsive about our own growth in grace—and a good indicator we are out of bounds is when we find ourselves beating up others about their own lack in such matters.
Solomon wrote:
13 Consider the work of God: who can make straight what he has made crooked? 14 In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that man may not find out anything that will be after him. 15 In my vain life I have seen everything. There is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in his evildoing. (Ecclesiastes 7:13-15, ESV)
God is making those of us who were nothing but crooked—straight. We haven’t arrived yet—we are still being changed and we still have a ways to go. We can be sort of like kids who ask on the way to the family vacation destination—Are we almost there?
Not yet—but we’ll get there soon enough.
We have God’s word on it.
In the meantime–let’s trust him to drive while we attempt to relax a little and enjoy the ride—he does know where he is taking us after all.
In moving on to another topic in our next blog I will summarize with this: Life for the Jesus-follower should be lived in the light of just what it is Jesus did on the Cross. We ought to focus less on our piddly efforts and more on the suffering of Christ Jesus—including the priceless fruits and glorious benefits afforded to us by his doing so—today and in eternity future.
God’s not giving us a face-lift—no, it’s much more than that—he is renovating our hearts, and as any skilled surgeon would have it, he’s doing the surgery.
God’s goal is not to make sure you’re happy. Life is not about your being comfortable, happy, successful and pain free. It is about becoming the man God has called you to be. Life is not about you. It’s about God. He doesn’t exist to make us happy. We exist to bring Him glory.
-Chuck Swindoll
I have never served in the U.S. Armed Forces but I am informed enough to know there is a certain code of honor to be followed when you join up. First of all you are no longer your own—you are now the property (if you will) of whatever branch you have selected, or has selected you (in the case of a draft). And secondly, there is a certain set of principles and an order of living that you are now expected to adhere to.
Despite much of today’s popular teaching and current line of thinking—the same type of thing that goes for tatooed Jarheads with a propensity to cuss a fair amount goes for those of us who would identify ourselves as the followers of Jesus. We are no longer our own and we are now called to a different way of living than the life we once lived. You could say we are no longer civilians—we now have become soldiers.
Our place in the family of God couldn’t be more secure. That’s never the issue. There’s not one single act or a series of a million deeds we could do to secure our place in the family of God. Jesus has completed that mission. However, what is always an issue is whether we are living a life of ease, selfishness, and conformity to the world—or, are we living in such a way that the pulse of our lives is to glorify God? I’m guessing, and I am going out on a limb—that we could all use some improvement. I’ll speak for myself in confessing that I am not only challenged by Swindoll’s short but stinging commentary—but his words are an occasion for me to pause for contemplation and a healthy kind of introspection.
Paul had this to say himself:
1 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. (Ephesians 4:1-3, ESV)
Only you can really answer Paul’s question for yourself, I can’t, your husband can’t, your boss can’t—not even your pastor can.
Are you walking in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called?
Philip Malancthon once said to his friend Martin Luther, ‘Today, Martin, you and I will discuss God’s governance of the universe,’ to which Luther replied, ‘No, Philip. Today you and I are going fishing, and we’ll leave the governance of the universe to God.’
-Mark Buchanan—The Rest of God (p. 220)
I’ve never gotten along real well with the hot-shot who seems to know exactly what the poor sap trying to beat Tiger Woods ought to do. This is typically the same guy who won’t play the terrorizing game of golf since it means getting off his rear. Maybe our would-be Tiger-killer would have an altogether different attitude if he were to go out and try and qualify for a PGA Tour Event himself. Tougher to do than to talk about.
Beating Tiger Woods on a regular basis doesn’t happen. The whole field has one goal in mind… although he was beat last weekend at the annual Master’s Tournament, and in case you missed it, he took second—even with a bum knee he had surgery on hours after the event had concluded. Big talking never does amount to much and Tiger Woods never has been much of a talker come to think of it—he lets his clubs do the talking whether he places first or second.
It’s pretenders and critics that are busy talking a good game while the Jesus-followers are quietly walking with God.
6 ‘With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? 7 Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?’ 8 He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6:6-8, ESV)
There are more armchair quarterbacks than real ones. It’s easier to beat Tiger Woods in theory than on the course, although I’m not so sure even beating Tiger in theory can be done. When it comes to reality—fat chance. My point is this: Try being like Jesus yourself before you pass judgment on someone else who has decided to take up the occupation. Jesus was no slouch and being like Jesus isn’t the same as being like your favorite uncle. It’s easy to compare ourselves to a guy like John Daly lets say—and it may be why he’s just so popular. But Jesus—good luck. It’s impossible in your own strength to follow Jesus, and unless you’ve done it, you might want to consider reserving your criticisms until you have. It’s always the non-practicing Christian (oxymoron I realize) who has all the answers. I’m not denying that there are phonies—that’s the case with everything. And I’m not talking about the bogus television preachers in this blog. I have met a police officer or two who do not represent the majority.
I still haven’t met an armchair quarterback I like.
But it’s sure hard not to like Tiger Woods.
I more fear what is within me than what comes from without.
-Martin Luther
It’s not always surprising to me when I hear all-out-hard-core sinners bemoaning those Christians. There is no doubt we could do a better job representing Jesus—I have no beef with the argument so much. If you happen to be one of those elite Christians who thinks otherwise, let me know—I’ll pray for you. The line of reasoning that followers of Jesus are supposed to be perfect is ludicrous if you ask me—when I read my copy of the New Testament I don’t read anything that gives me the impression the early church was either.
What is clear is that Jesus was perfect.
Recently, a favorite preacher of mine made mention of a T-shirt among his varied collection that reads Jesus, save me from your followers. We have all felt that way—most of us anyways—and for good reason I’m sure. But the T-shirt would really better read Jesus, save me from myself. As unloving as we can be—there still isn’t a more loving family than the Body of Christ. And even though we aren’t perfect yet—we will be. I may feel like I need saving from the followers of Jesus—but I am just as big a part of the problem as anyone else.
One of the great writers of the early 20th century, G.K. Chesterton (widely known as the prince of paradox)—was once solicited by a well-known newspaper as they had invited several prominent authors to write essays on the theme: What’s Wrong with the World?—Chesterton’s contribution took the form of a letter:
Dear Sirs,
I am.
Sincerely yours,
G.K. Chesterton
And I am too.
12 But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. 14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. (Hebrews 10:12-14, ESV)
It sure seems to me that Jesus is our perfection.
Maybe we should worry less about being perfect and more about worshiping our perfector.
Give me chastity and continence, but not quite yet. ~Augustine
You could say something supernatural happens the moment we place our trust in the finished work of Jesus on his cross of shame and suffering as evidenced by our confessing we are a sinner and by our denouncing all other allegiances. And although often times it may not look like we are changing all that much to those who are much too busy inspecting our fruit (while their own spoiled bananas are rotten and rancid)—we can be sure God’s own will be a changed people. Faith without works will always be dead. Satan himself believes in Jesus and it makes him no follower.
The reality is that as Christians we do change. But the change is many times not the way we might guess or assume—it sure takes longer than we’d like—and worse yet the biggest obstacle to our changing is the person we see in the mirror every morning when we brush our teeth. I am in no way suggesting that we stay the same—because we do not—but the point I am making is an important one. If we are honest, we have to confess that we still dabble with sin—we nibble and even splurge. No matter—sin is always over-indulging. If we are really honest, we’d be willing to admit that we wallow around in it at times and privately wonder how as a Jesus-follower we could do such a thing. You can’t deal with what you don’t acknowledge. Sin hasn’t packed up his bags and left us quite yet—we may have thought he left for good when we shooed him out the door last, but he’s been merely hiding around the corner patiently waiting for a more opportune time to clear his throat and whisper sweet nothings in our ear. To believe otherwise is only to deceive ourselves and worse yet—to mislead our younger brothers and sisters in Christ.
We just get in the way sometimes. The not-so-natural but inevitable progression when we become Jesus-followers is that we begin to do away with our old ways of living and thinking. It’s not that we must be someone we are not—no—we have been given a brand new permanent identity. Challenging to say the least—and just like old habits—our old identity doesn’t die so quickly. It is the miracle after all that transpires at the very instant of our conversion which makes the absolute difference and it is this: God comes to dwell within us via the Holy Spirit who is the Third Person in the Trinity (for those who may be new to this whole idea). God himself living within us. I didn’t say we become God. Big difference.
The mark of a true follower of Jesus isn’t an unchanged heart but a changed one—and a changed heart is only seen through a changed life. I started this short blog thread titled In Process based on the premise that following Jesus is just that—a process—which according to Merriam-Webster is A natural phenomenon marked by gradual changes that lead toward a particular result.
3 His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, 4 by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. 5 For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. 8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 1:3-8, ESV)
Notice Peter—the very man who denied even knowing Jesus on the eve of his betrayal—writes if these qualities are yours and are increasing… Peter’s growth in grace didn’t end just because he stumbled again—he went on to be changed over and over again. It can seem as though it is two steps forward and one step backwards at times—if anyone knew a thing or two about gradual change, it was Peter himself. I’ve never liked the old saying Christians aren’t perfect just forgiven because it falls so grossly short in painting a picture of just who us Christians are. Cheesy little maxims never do summarize what God has really said—they might sell some bumper stickers, but that’s about it.
Christians are surely forgiven—but that’s not all they are if they are true-blue followers of the Son of God—they are changed in the process.
People do not drift toward holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord. We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated.
-D.A. Carson
Talk to a skilled sailor and they will tell you that you can’t get to a desired location by simply drifting. You need a few things in order to sail. I mean what good are sails if you don’t set them?
I have been at this occupation of following Jesus for over half my life now and if I have learned anything it is this—I am prone to wander as are my brothers and sisters in Christ. It is nothing for me to coast—settle—and even flee. God knows it. So what good does it do me to hide it or deny it? What I need to acknowledge is my need for God’s grace if I am going to get anywhere in becoming more like Jesus. Without his grace I simply drift directionless. Simply put—God’s grace is the wind that powers my sails. I don’t need to make more efforts—that has gotten me no where. What I need is God’s grace.
1 Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. 2For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, 3 how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, 4 while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will. (Hebrews 2:1-4, ESV)
For as long as I can remember I have struggled with the question—How does God’s grace and my efforts to grow in Christlikeness co-exist? And what I have learned is quite simple: My findings undeniably tell me that my efforts have to be grace-driven (as Carson eludes to in the quote above).
My prayer becomes not Help me try more God—but Please give me more grace so that I can grow in Your grace.
Drifting becomes much more difficult when that happens.
…The law is divine and holy. Let the law have his glory, but yet no law, be it never so divine and holy, ought to teach me that I am justified, and shall live through it. I grant it may teach me that I ought to love God and my neighbor; also to live in chastity, soberness, patience, etc., but it ought not to show me, how I should be delivered from sin, the devil, death, and hell.
Here I must take counsel of the gospel. I must hearken to the gospel, which teacheth me, not what I ought to do, (for that is the proper office of the law,) but what Jesus Christ the Son of God hath done for me : to wit, that He suffered and died to deliver me from sin and death. The gospel willeth me to receive this, and to believe it. And this is the truth of the gospel. It is also the principal article of all Christian doctrine, wherein the knowledge of all godliness consisteth.
Most necessary it is, therefore, that we should know this article well, teach it unto others, and beat it into their heads continually. ~Martin Luther
Some time ago now, my pastor was sharing on the wondrous Book of Romans over the course of a couple year span and still didn’t manage to exhaust all the gems of truth throughout Paul’s ground-breaking letter. On this particular Sunday my pastor was explaining in detail the nature of our bondage to sin while at the same time making a case for the freedom from that same power of sin that faith in Jesus affords each of us the very split-second we come to a place of conversion. As he began to speak and walk around the lectern it became obvious to all of us in attendance that our pastor was sporting more than his usual striped conservative tie and white shirt under-neath his black robe he’d wear during the colder winter months. He was being followed by a rusted iron sort of thick link chain that had been attached to his ankle—as it also had been affixed to a post of some sort in the middle of the stage area. Every time he would get so far as he meandered about, he would be forced to stop. The chain—symbolically sin—was holding him back or captive and it was doing a good job in limiting him as to how far he could go.
The point became crystal clear that sin ruled and he had no freedom to go beyond it’s death hold on him.
21 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:21-23, ESV)
The following week Dr. Alberta had the same chain with him. However, there was one exception—it wasn’t attached to him any longer. The chain was laying there cut off and all by it’s lonesome. He had been set free and was free to go wherever he wanted—but there was a problem. A big problem. Whenever he would get to the area where the chain had previously restricted him the week before—he’d all-of-a-sudden get caught up and find it difficult to go any further than he’d gone before he was set free—just as if the chain were still attached to his ankle. It was almost as if he had been conditioned to believe that he could only go so far. Sound familiar? It does to me. It explains a struggle I have found myself tangled up in on more occasions than I could count on of all our fingers combined.
Have you been set free from the bondage of sin?
Are you living like you remember—or are you living like you have forgotten?
Lord Jesus, you are my righteousness, I am your sin. You have taken upon yourself what is mine and given me what is yours. You have become what you were not so that I might become what I was not. ~Martin Luther
WBIR out of Knoxville, Tennessee, reported the following in June of ’07: For almost six weeks, a Murfreesboro man forgot that he had entered the Tennessee Million Dollar Madness lottery. Rick Checchin was reminded of his tickets by his co-workers Thursday morning, checked them–and discovered he had won $1 million. The drawing was May 14th–and he said today he just went about living his life and forgot about the two tickets he had purchased in March. Checchin said that with a wife and two children, he’d have no trouble spending the money. He works for the Standard Candy Company. After taxes were deducted, he pocketed $750,000. Three other winners in the big jackpot claimed their prizes shortly after the drawing.
The guy was a lottery winner and he was unaware until someone reminded him about just who it was that he had become. How often do we do the same?
16 From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. (2 Corinthians 5:16-17, ESV)
Have you forgotten just who it is you belong to? Are you a follower of Jesus? Do you need to be reminded that if you are in Christ you too are a new creation never to be the same and no longer bound to the law of sin and death?
Can you remember the last time you stood in front of the mirror and instead of looking at the latest age spot on your temple or the more defined wrinkles adorning your face—you looked yourself square in the eye and reminded yourself that you are a new creation?
When God takes someone and makes a new creation out of them he doesn’t do half the job.
Sin cannot tear you away from him [Christ], even though you commit adultery a hundred times a day and commit as many murders. ~Martin Luther
A good buddy of mine told a story years ago about spanking his oldest son and in doing so he explained to his son that it wasn’t something he wanted to do as much as it was something he needed to do because he loved his son. His son responded I love you too daddy, can I spank you?
None of us were fond of going to our bedroom and writing until our fingers fell off, I won’t rip the hair out of my sisters Barbie Doll during this lifetime ever again. It never did help anyways. The only way to punish me was to take away my baseball privelages.
Many of us got the wrong idea at an impressionable age that because our mom or dad didn’t just let us get away with murder that somehow they didn’t care about us. Remember feeling that way? I do.
Well, they did care.
8 If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. 11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. (Hebrews 12:8-11, ESV)
Maybe it’s because we have somehow gotten the impression that God is fond of kicking bad kids out of his family that we get uncomfortable over topics such as discipline? If so, I hope you would read the scriptures to dispel your fears. God doesn’t expel his children from his family to be sure. He never has and he’s not about to start now. But, just because God’s loving enough to not kick us out of the family doesn’t mean he’s not loving enough to see to it that when we need a good lick or two—he won’t stop at sending us to the detention center for a brief stay or the wood-shed for a re-introduction with the family paddle to get our attention.
We have to trust that when it comes to discipline or any other family matter—as the old dinosaur of a television program most of us are too young to remember went—Father knows best. Aren’t you glad he’s the one deciding how and when we get a spanking—I know I sure am—if not, I’d have been hung a thousand and one times by now.
When you sense you might be in for some punishment of your own, remember, nothing in this world can separate us from his love—even his rebuke is out of love.
Ye contracted with Christ, I hope, when first ye began to follow Him, that ye would bear His cross. Fulfill your part of the contract with patience, and break not to Jesus Christ. Be honest, brother, in your bargaining with Him; for who knoweth better how to bring up children than our God? For (to lay aside His knowledge, of the which there is no finding out) He has been practiced in bringing up His heirs these five thousand years; and His bairns (children) are all well brought up, and many of them are honest men now at home, up in their own house in heaven, and are entered heirs to their Father’s inheritance. Now, the form of His bringing up was by chastisements, scourging, correcting, nurturing; and see if He maketh exception of any of His bairns (children); no, His eldest Son and His Heir, Jesus, is not excepted (Rev. 3.19; Heb. 12.7-8; 2.10). Suffer we must; ere we were born God decreed it, and it is easier to complain of His decree than to change it. Forward then, dear brother, and lose not your grips. ~Samuel Rutherford (Scottish Presbyterian theologian and author), Letters, VIII. To John Kennedy on his deliverance from shipwreck ANWOTH, Feb. 2, 1632 (taken from an expert).
I’m quite sure I am not the only kid who was reminded about his or her last name while growing up from time to time. Shoot—kids with parents that make Al Capone look like a choir boy still get the treatment—Johnny, why can’t you just be a good gangster like all the other little boys? I may not have heard the exact words, but I can still hear them anyways—Kenny, you are a Stoll—now act like it—can’t you see that you are disgracing the family name.
If you were from the typical family with average parents you probably never had your parents lash out and tell you that you’d be kicked out of the family for your bad behavior—and neither did I. No, that wasn’t gonna happen. But I was scolded mind you–and for good reason when I think about it. My sister and I (our brother was not around yet) were even told on occasion when we got really out of line that we were gonna be dropped off at the Indian Reservation—whatever that meant and wherever that was—I still don’t know? Being that we are part Cherokee Indian it sure seemed like a valid threat though. So, rather than pack up the bags under our beds and take a trip in the wood-paneled family station wagon—we’d straighten up for a couple hours and get along. Of course, if it were something my dad used all the time we’d have laughed at him—but it wasn’t—my dad seemed to know just the right time to use just the right trick.
God doesn’t play any tricks with us on the other hand—family business isn’t monkey business with him. He never fails to prescribe just the right medicine for what ails us. Our tendency is to either see God as a big soft teddy bear or a cosmic impersonal hall-monitor just waiting to whack us when we get out of line—when he is neither.
He is a loving Father and that makes us his loved children before anything else.
And like any loving father he deals with us in ways we don’t prefer from time to time.
5 And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? ‘My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. 6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.’ 7 It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? (Hebrews 12:5-7, ESV)
If he’s disciplined you it may just serve as a good reminder that he loves you.
The thing we need concern oursleves with is this—are we honoring the family name?
In Romans 7, Paul says ‘The law is spiritual.’ What does that mean? If the law were physical, then it could be satisfied by works, but since it is spiritual, no one can satisfy it unless everything he does springs from the depths of his heart. But no one can give such a heart except the Spirit of God, who makes the person be like the law, so that he actually conceives a heartfelt longing for the law and henceforward does everything, not through fear or coercion, but from a free heart. ~Martin Luther
I got online some time ago to read my free copy of the Detroit News as I do most mornings while sipping on my cup of Dunkin’ Donuts coffee. First it’s sports and then I’ll check out the front page. The growing story of importance here in town besides the slumping economy and ballooning unemployment rate is our beloved Detroit Tigers baseball team. They are off to a surprisingly dismal start after winter acquisitions equaling the signing Goliath and a few of his buddies. Expectations have been rising all off-season, so to begin the season 0-7 wasn’t the start many of us fans anticipated. The paper had one of those cybersurveys to chime in on today. So I did. I answered with the 27.75% who said “A little. There are some bad signs“, in response to the question: “How concerned are you about the Tigers’ inauspicious start to the 2008 season?”
Some times we feel that way is regards to our journey of faith, our disconnect with sin can seem a million miles away. Our rally-cry to beat sin sort of like Mike Tyson used to pummel his victims in the boxing ring can quickly become a whimper—the guy who was gonna whip sin into shape can suddenly find himself the whipping boy. For many us, our anti-sin-crusade came to a halt much earlier than we had announced to the world. And then we did it, we gave in to some old familiar vice.
15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. ~Romans 7:15-20, ESV
Losing seven games straight is no occasion to throw in the towel on the season. Like any MLB baseball team worth the dirt on the bottom of their spikes, we can’t give up on our entire season after a 0-7 start when we have a 162 game schedule in front of us.
Oh, the Tigers won game 8 in Boston last night—154 more to go.
Nullus Extra Cruem 
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