Pick Up the Sword

The large majority of Americans are incredibly spoiled. This shows in every aspect of our existence, and especially in our faith.

The simple truth is that many believers just take their faith for granted. What we believe, why we believe, and what we ultimately must do about it seems to get lost somewhere--buried by the blistering pace of a life lived for self.

This is often taken so far that we all-together ignore some of the most basic tenets of Christian discipline. One of these that is so often neglected is the reading of the Bible.

Every year my pastor initiates what he calls Bible Sunday, if memory serves me correctly it should be just around the corner. This Sunday morning service is a public challenge to our entire congregation to read the entire Bible in a year. For the last several years I've accepted this challenge, and completed it.

I've been reading the Bible for most of my life. I started reading it regularly around the age of twelve. I started studying it as well in my teens. But for these last few years, challenging myself to read and study it with such an enthusiastic goal in mind has propelled my faith into brand new territory.

My passion for the Word is higher than ever. My devotion to sharing the eternal truths contained within is stronger than ever. My hunger for understanding is more heart-felt than ever. My capacity for Christian love and the fruits of the Spirit is more authentic than ever. My faith is better than ever.

So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. - Romans 10:17

To be the kind of creature God created us to be; we must pick up our Sword. We must learn it. We must love it. We must live it.

H is for Heaven

The final piece of the plan of salvation, one that all Christians will one day experience, is eternal life.  Jesus spoke often of it during His public ministry.  One of my favorite passages is Christ’s verbal exchange with the woman at the well in John chapter four, but here are a couple more of His shorter words concerning heaven.

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. – John 10:10

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. – John 14:3

Do we understand everything about heaven?  Of course not.  Nevertheless, the Bible declares to us the reality of this eternal place.  I’m so glad to know that we have an eternal home.

T is for Turn

Being reconciled to God along His plan of salvation means that at some point one must make a change.  In other words, you must eventually turn away from the habitual failures of the past to embrace a forgiving future life endowed by the Father.  Unless this turning to God takes place, there is no salvation.  A commonly used word for this act of turning to God is “repent”.

I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish – Luke 13:3

To turn to God is to embrace the realization that you need His forgiveness, you recognize it is available; you know it is impossible apart from Him, and you are desiring a new life.  I find it incredibly humbling that something with such far reaching affects can be accomplished with such ease.  One need only do as described in Romans 10:9 to find salvation.

If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. – Romans 10:9

Turning means to walk away from sin, and selfishness, to embrace Christ alone.

I is for Impossible

Sin separates man from God.  You need only to go back and read the third chapter of Genesis for the sad account of Adam and Eve and their failures in the Garden.  As a result of their actions God forever removes them from his presence.  A condition we all face prior to salvation is our eternal separation from God.

As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one” – Romans 3:10

It is impossible for God to allow sin into heaven.  God is loving and just, his judgment is against sin, and we are all sinners.  How then can a sinful person enter heaven, when God allows no sin?

Mercy triumphs over judgment. – James 2:13

Just as we are inclined to communicate the necessity of forgiveness and it’s availability; it is also of upmost importance that we realize access to God is impossible apart from God’s own means.

A is for Available

Just as the first talking point in the “plan of salvation” is forgiveness, or helping someone to realize their need for it, the second is the availability of forgiveness to any who come to God seeking it.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. – John 3:16

Most of us are incredibly familiar with this oft-quoted passage, but a key component of salvation that often goes overlooked is that it does require something on our part.

Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. – Matthew 7:21

Forgiveness is available for all, but it is not automatic.  It requires acknowledging our need for God, accepting the forgiveness that is available, and submitting to God’s will for our lives.

F is for FORGIVENESS

So often Christians desire to share their faith with people, but aren’t really sure what to say.  Sometimes an authentic God-centered lifestyle really is enough to spark conversation about faith, and sometimes it takes words, but at some point it will always lead to discussing what is commonly referred to as the “plan of salvation.”

I’m going to spend the next few posts looking at an acronym for faith I came across while studying several years ago.  Yes, it is cheesy, as all good acronyms typically are, but its principles are superb.  It is essentially your primary talking points when discussing salvation with someone unfamiliar to this concept.

F is for FORGIVENESS.

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace. – Ephesians 1:7

Each of us needs forgiveness in our lives.  Your failures and moral misgivings are your own.  No one else can vouch for them, well no one amongst your normal social circles.  The fact of the matter is that we are, all of us, in desperate need of reconnection with the Father.  This is only achieved through forgiveness, which in turn only comes through Christ.

The first point of communication then is in helping someone understand their need for God.  Until they realize this, there is no moving forward.

Some Presidential Thoughts

The following is a list of quotes about the bible from American presidents, courtesy of The American Patriot's Bible.

It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible. - George Washington, 1st President

The first and almost the only book deserving of universal attention is the Bible. I speak as a man of the world...and I say to you, "Search the Scriptures." - John Quincy Adams, 6th President

That book, sir, is the rock on which our republic rests. - Andrew Jackson, 7th President

In regard for this Great Book, I have this to say, it is the best gift God has given to man. All the Good Savior gave to the world was communicated through this book. - Abraham Lincoln, 16th President

Hold fast to the Bible as the sheet anchor of your liberties. Write its precepts in your hearts, and practice them in your lives. To the influence of this book are we indebted for all the progress made in true civilization, and to this we must look as our guide in the future. Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people. - Ulysses S. Grant, 18th President

If you take out of your statutes, your constitution, your family life all that is taken from the Sacred Book, what would there be left to bind society together? - Benjamin Harrison, 23rd President

The Bible is the one supreme source of revelation of the meaning of life, the nature of God, and spiritual nature and needs of men. It is the only guide of life which really leads the spirit in the way of peace and salvation. America was born a Christian nation. America was born to exemplify that devotion to the elements of righteousness which are derived from the revelations of Holy Scripture. - Woodrow Wilson, 28th President

The strength of our country is the strength of its religious convictions. The foundations of our society and our government rest so much on the teachings of the Bible that it would be difficult to support them if faith in these teachings would cease to be practically universal in our country. - Calvin Coolidge, 30th President

We cannot read the history of our rise and development as a nation without reckoning with the place the Bible has occupied in shaping the advances of the Republic. Where we have been the truest and most consistent in obeying its precepts, we have attained the greatest measure of contentment and prosperity. - Franklin Roosevelt, 32nd President

The fundamental basis of this nation's laws was given to Moses on the Mount. The fundamental basis of our Bill of Rights comes from the teachings we get from Exodus and Saint Matthew, from Isaiah and Saint Paul . . . If we don't have a proper fundamental moral background, we will finally end up with a totalitarian government which does not believe in rights for anybody except the State! - Harry Truman, 33rd President

Inside the Bible's pages lie all the answers to all of the problems man has ever known . . . It is my firm belief that the enduring values presented in its pages have a great meaning for each of us and for our nation. The Bible can touch our hearts, order our minds, and refresh our souls. - Ronald Reagan, 40th President

Share Your Faith: Connect Socially

Sharing your faith is one of the most basic principles of Christianity, yet it is largely ignored in terms of serious teaching or discipline.  I'm not suggesting the following is anything overtly intellectual or deep; but it is serious, and for those wishing to share their faith, it is practical.

One of the greatest stories in all of the gospels is recorded in John 4:1-26. This wonderful account details Christ's interaction with a Samaritan woman at a well. I believe that anything we do as Christians can be patterned after the way Christ did things.  There are some great truths we can take away from Christ's interaction with the woman that will help us in communicating the Gospel.

1) Connect Socially

In the Church-world we're getting really good at separating ourselves from the rest of the world; but separation doesn't mean isolation.  We live where we live, around whom we live around.  We work where we work, with whom we work.  I'm not sure why we feel like that simply because we're believers  that we are supposed to suddenly cease all connection with anyone that is not a believer.  It's like the only place that we feel comfortable interacting with non-believers is within the apparent safety of our churches.

When people aren't coming to Christ, it's usually because the Church is not taking Christ to the people who need Him most.  We really have to get rid of this naivety we have about thinking people will just show up and make life-changing decisions simply because we have a Christmas program, potluck, or Super-Bowl Party.  These are all great events, for building relationships, but if you're not actively trying to get non-believers there stop thinking they'll show up on their own.

Finally, withdrawing ourselves from those who have not heard or obeyed the gospel is completely, and entirely, contrary to the will of God.  Stop hiding behind the walls of this weird little Christian sub-culture we've whipped up in the last fifty years.  Get out there, connect with unbelievers, and build actual relationships with them that show Christ's love.

2) Common Interest
3) Spiritual Interest  

Dirt

I like caves.  I enjoy exploring them.  I enjoy the climbing that accompanies going into one.  There is a kind of awesome simplicity about standing in the utter darkness of a cave and hearing the chirping swoop of a nearby bat.  There is something uniquely self-reflective in coming to terms with the oppressive weight of the solid bedrock walls around you.  There is also another side to going into these caves that I so often frequent.  Something not at all pleasant or pure and, in fact, by its very nature is actually quite pungent.  Guano.  Bat feces mixes with the sandy dirt, dusty residue, and inherent moisture frequent to an Arkansas labyrinth and the result is a grimy film of squishable distaste.  Every time I exit one of these crevices I’m covered in it.  There really is just no escaping it.  And my darling wife will all-too-quickly tell you that it is a nuisance come laundry time.

I like caves.

My mother must have felt no different about dirt and grime being the sole female in a house of men for the better part of twenty-five years.  Summer laundry days were plagued by the kind of dry dusty dirt which found its way into every fold during long hours spent in the heat of the day tending crops.  The springs were accompanied by the darker, richer, texture of dirt cleaning to boots and britches after a long day preparing a field.  Winters were an amalgamation of mud and clay as cold rains or other winter precipitation left the farm a messy environment in which to tend the herd.

For as long as I dare to try and remember dirt has always been a part of my life.  Whether the residue of a spelunking adventure or evidence of a lengthy day at toil I have always been comfortable getting dirty.  It has always just seemed natural.

In spite of my comfort in the muck and mire that so often accompanied the various facets of farm life and the inevitable adventures of a man at play, there were always those moments in which encountering dirt simply was not acceptable.  As a young boy these moments were often heralded by a stern warning from my endearing mother not to get my pants dirty before church.  As a grown boy these moments are often illuminated by an enduring wife petitioning me not to wear my suit jacket as we eat or something of a similar nature.

There has always been a clearly identifiable separation between an acceptable and unacceptable time to be dirty.  Mom, and my wife after her, routinely reminded me of the difference of these times, and as a man I do indeed need reminding, with what could only be described as a set of guidelines for staying clean at the proper time.  Mom’s were easy to remember if not always quotable simply because they were accompanied by a look, a gently-tweaked tone of voice, or noticeably audible command to cease and desist whatever tomfoolery was about to carry me over the boundary of cleanliness into the realm of dirty.

I can tell you that as a young boy it was not always easy to obey that clear command to stay clean.  With age though came understanding, and eventually the desire for cleanliness became my own.  I was a little less hesitant to rush into a situation which would land me in the muck.

If you were to open your bible, thumb over to the book of Leviticus and begin to read it.   You would be reading God’s guidelines to the young nation of Israel on how that they could stay clean while being surrounded by dirt.  Specifically, in Leviticus 11:44, 11:45, 19:2, and 20:7; you would read a repeated phrase, “be holy because I am holy.”  Essentially, God, in these words is telling His people to be clean.  In fact, the Hebrew words for clean and unclean became the normal language when talking about violation of God’s law as the rest of Leviticus details.

In the 45th chapter of the written account of the prophet Isaiah the prophet uses the phrase unclean again in combination with the idea that to truly follow in God’s steps you need to live a life of holiness.  The apostle, disciple, and early church father Peter reiterates this same idea in the first chapter of his first epistle.

What is it about the necessity for cleanness that warrants such repetition?

Well, just like a small boy growing up on a dusty farm in rural Arkansas, the Jews were constantly surrounded by dirt.  God was communicating to Israel in the Old Testament, the young Christian community in the New Testament, and to you and I through all of it; His blatant desire for us to remain untouched, unsoiled, and unblemished by the world around us.  Just as my mother knew that eventually my clothes would need a good washing He also knew that the rules meticulously laid down for His people in Leviticus wouldn’t be enough.  So He sent Jesus.  As the Christ, He lived out a blameless existence, surrounded by the corruption and dirt of the world.

What really gives power to the words written by Peter in his letter is the simple fact that even though he walked hand-in-hand with Jesus for three years, even though he had operated in the supernatural, and on top of the fact that Christ had taught and trained him on the matters of holiness—Peter didn’t really get it.  He was constantly messing up.  During the final months of Christ’s ministry Peter got in a series of silly religious squabbles with the other disciples.  When the mob arrested Jesus in the garden Peter drew his sword, ready to battle, and chopped off a man’s ear.  During the mock trial Peter stands by and denies Christ in a selfish bout of self preservation.

Finally, in the wake of Christ’s ascension and the remarkable upper room experience on the Day of Pentecost something changed in Peter.  He went from being the loud brawling braggart to being a mature leader of believers.  So in his letter when he penned the words “Be holy because I am holy.”  It was not without an understanding of what it is like to battle that natural inclination for dirt.  He wasn’t suggesting that the reader should pursue holiness because Simon Peter was inclined to holiness.  Peter was communicating what God is still trying to tell us every day. . .

You don’t have to live life in the dirt.

Not only will He clean you up, but He will help you mature into the kind of person whose desire for spiritual cleanliness matches His own.

Brotherly Love

The most obvious face of love in our day and age is brotherly love, which I would define as the affectionate concern for the well-being of others.  Simply put, caring about other people is a vital characteristic for anyone who wishes to follow the heart of God.  Don’t just take my word for it.  There are several passages in scripture that lay it out there, plain and simple.

Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality. – Romans 12:9-13

Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble. – 1 John 2:9,10

We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him. – 1 John 3:14,15

Does your life exhibit brotherly love?  It’s not always the easy thing to do, especially in a society that conditions us towards selfishness.

Stuff Love (Empty Love)

One of the most immediately recognizable things about our society is our love for stuff.  We have stores where you can buy stuff; TV shows for selling, making, and reviewing stuff; an entire transportation industry revolving around moving stuff.  We build houses with attics, basements, and massive garages and fill them with stuff, so we have to rent storage space for even more stuff.  We depend on the assistance of regularly scheduled crews of men to remove our wasted stuff and have yard/garage sales to profit from our unwanted stuff.  We love our stuff.

Stuff is most easily identifiable as acquired physical possessions; but really it goes beyond even that.  Stuff is generally what we are interacting with to fill our schedules.  It could be physical possessions like a nice house, sweet vehicle, or highly valued thingamajig; but it may very well be something not quite so tangible like a relational attachment, job, or hobby.

Is all stuff bad?  No.  Is all stuff good?  No.  How do I know the difference?  It all boils down to priorities.

Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever. – 1 John 2:15-17

If you are too busy salivating over your new shiny toy, making sure your kitchen counter tops glow from Pinesol overload, or lost in the thralls of sports-delirium to recognize, and engage, in the meaningful things of life … then you have a stuff problem.

Love is a _____.

Love, such a short little word—but let’s face it, we have such a tremendously difficult time understanding it.  Doing some studying recently I went to the dictionary, as I am often prone to do, and discovered that my dictionary of choice had twenty-eight different definitions for love.  I found all of them to be sorely inadequate.  I want to spend the next few days looking at this wonderful little word.

Rather than just diving straight off into the grandiose theological implications inferred by the word love, let’s just think about a few examples of what our society considers love.  We have holidays based on loving things, relationships, family members, and hobbies.  There are huge corporations designed around the promise of connecting people to love.  In America we tailor our lifestyle, including routines, possessions, wardrobe, religion, and friends to the thing(s) we love.

Waylon Jennings summed it up pretty good, “I’ve been looking for love in all the wrong places.”

Heavens and Earth

Previously I highlighted my beliefs concerning, both the eternal nature of God, and the literal demonstration of His expression as The Sole Creator. In this post I want to examine His first act of creation recorded in Genesis 1:1.

The scripture plainly states that the first act of creation was the making of the heavens and the earth. I have heard or read numerous debates regarding the details of that initial act and the possibility of preceding creative works. It is not my intention to expound on all of that here, but I will say that scripture lends itself to the idea that some aspects of existence predate what we know Heaven and Earth to be.

God existed before the beginning. That has already been discussed. In John 4:24 we read the curious words of Christ, "God is spirit, and they that worship Him, worship in spirit and truth." There can be no higher authority on the nature of God than Himself, and no greater communicator of His essence than Himself made flesh, Christ.

Considering creation, that illuminates for us the very real principle that Spirit came before the beginning. In fact, it means that everything we understand about creation is seen or understood through the physical. It is then no small wonder that the Bible tells us to "walk by faith and not by sight. (2 Corinthians 5:7)." The implications being that the spiritual is in fact far more real than the physical.

So what does it mean in Genesis 1:1 that God created the heavens and the earth? It means He created physical existence, as some would refer to it, He crafted physical space itself. It's no great leap when grasping that idea, to begin to understand the awe-inspiring-unequivocal-reverence that the prophets of old showed to The Creator.

What an unimaginable and incredibly powerful God we serve.

God Created

My previous entry discussed the nature of God's beginning-less-ness. In continuing with my reflection on Genesis 1:1 let me look at the concept of creating.

I love to draw. I have all of my life. Some of my earliest memories are moments with pencil, pen, or crayon in hand rendering some childlike fantasy upon paper. I remember once in school being declared "most creative" in my class. Many years have gone by and my desire to create has never faltered nor diminished. In fact, I would say that more and more with each passing season some new creative endeavor begins to take shape within my soul.

Illustration, song, poem, essay, blog, t-shirt, sermon, video, web site, or story; all my efforts to create are the sum total of things that already are. At their root, they are not really creation at all, they are expression. They are expressions of who I am, the things that intrigue me, and the things I love. They are not new.

"God created," is the one and only time those words can be used in a very literal context. His creation was both expression, (The heavens are telling of the glory of God...) and demonstration (... and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. -Psalm 19:1 NASB).

The next time you see a beautiful vista, hear a song bird, or find yourself standing at the mirror, take a good look, you're witnessing the expression and demonstration of The Creator.

In the Beginning

I’m going to spend the next couple of days looking at thevery first verse in the Old Testament.

In the beginning Godcreated the heavens and the earth. - Genesis 1:1

The first four words speak volumes. God was there at that point our feeble finiteminds would call “the beginning”. However, God is beginning-less.

Have you ever tried to wrap your mind around eternity? C.S. Lewis described it in Mere Christianity using a brilliantanalogy dealing with ink on paper. Mortal life is the ink; time is the paper; and God is the one holdingthe pen and paper. Eternity is a weightythought that when contemplated heavily can actually lead to doubt in somemeasure because we really cannot fully grasp it. It is so beyond our capacity to understand.

I once asked a room full of people to define eternity for m eand started getting words like; forever, never ending, and endless, but eternity is more than time, and God is eternal.

That all sounds great in my head or as I read and reread it back to myself, but what kind of implication does it have for me today? If God must come before the “beginning”, He will most certainly endure beyond the “end”. I find great comfort in the notion that in spite of all my failed attempts to comprehend—He still is.

In essence, we can’t really grasp Him with our minds, luckily we can seek Him with our hearts. Knowing that God was before beginning gives me a steadfast faith in His unyielding sovereignty and that can only be a good thing.

If I were to write my own story, it wouldn’t start with “in the beginning Nathan,” that would be preposterously presumptuous; but God did because He was, is, and will be. “In the beginning God” might be some of the most comforting words we could ever hear.

Too Much To Lose

A couple of years ago I had the pleasure of attending a lecture on Christian leadership given by one of my heroes. The schedule had intentionally called for a long session to allow for question and answer feedback and I was attentively listening, absorbing, and writing throughout.  Then somewhere near the end something happened.

Someone in the crowd asked something akin to, “How do you handle a situation that might place you alone with a woman who is not your wife?”  I was pretty certain how the speaker would respond.  It is common practice among ministers not to be alone with another woman, but then the lecturer elaborated on a personal story.

One cold day he was driving in the rain and came across a woman walking in the downpour without an umbrella.  Immediately his heart was provoked into offering this sodden pedestrian a place in his warm, dry vehicle; but he did not.  The reasoning he gave I still remember word for word, “I could not afford to put myself in that situation.”  While I am an avid practitioner of not allowing myself to be compromised through unnecessary situations, this was something altogether different. 

What I see in this scenario is a conflict of differing natures: not the rain versus the driver or the woman.  I’m talking about the desire of the driver to assist the pedestrian as prompted by God versus his hesitance as a result of what someone might think about him by having a strange woman in his car.

It boils down to this.  He would not pick her up because he had too much to lose.  Job, reputation, whatever you want to call it… the potential opinions of men trumped his willingness to do the right thing.

James wrote that when we know the right thing to do and we don’t do it we have sinned.  (James 4:17) Protecting the opinions of men will never be the right thing to do when compared to showing the love of God.

Even when doing the right thing means that you must lose everything you have, be it relationships, reputation, or riches, it is what we are called to do.  We won’t always succeed, but we must always try.

For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. Matthew 16:25

Anchor of Hope

I had a few minutes between meetings, errands, and more meetings this afternoon and decided to play some guitar.  I started singing some of my original tunes and felt compelled to share the lyrics of one of my favorites here on the blog.

The words are derived from several passages of scripture and hinge on Psalm 139 and the thought that no matter what we are going through, or what season of life we find ourselves in God is with us, and that’s all the anchor our lives really need.

Anchor of Hope

Down in the valley, You hear my cry

When I’m on the mountain, You pass me by

If I lose my way, You are there to find

In my darkness, the Lighthouse shines

When I am far from the shore and the waves crash against me

When I run from your plans and your love overtakes me

Like an anchor of hope You hold me close

And Your love will shine on through my storms

Like an anchor of hope You hold me close

And Your love will shine on through my storms

When I close my eyes, You hear my prayer

When my heart soars high, You are there

Every time I need Your hand, Your mercy is mine

When I call out Your name, the Lighthouse shines

Oh anchor me, though the seas may roll and winds may blow

You anchor me, though life may seem a torrent sea

You anchor me

You anchor me

You anchor me

Burden to Perform

We live in a performance driven society.  How well can you _______?  How much can you _______?  We determine the worth of people based on a misconstrued sense of value, which is itself measured by the result of a given action versus our expectations.

This weighs heavy on us.  All of us.  We live in the land of the free and the home of the brave, and I’m so incredibly grateful for that; but we also live in the land of the me and the home of the busy.  The resulting pressure is more than we were ever meant to bear.

Tonight, while praying with a student, I was reminded that we don’t have to carry this burden.  We don’t have to, nor should we, live for the pleasurable desire of a performance well received by our peers.  Life like that is stifling.  I’m so happy Jesus spoke the words recorded in Matthew Chapter 11.

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

Matthew 11:28-30

And the Apostle Paul penned these words in his letter to the Roman Church.

The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.

Romans 8:16

We’re His kids.  We belong to God.  We take our identity from who He is, what He has done, what He is doing, and what He has yet to do.  Don’t let the pressure to please and perform weigh you down anymore.

Go

Smokey is a timid terrified little thing.  I’ve never seen a feline better personify the old idiom “scaredy-cat”.  She likes to hide under the dining room table and pretty much only comes out to eat or visit the litter box.  On the rarest of occasions she will leave her little hiding spot to seek attention from Jamie or myself.  

Last night after arriving home from doing some teaching on Christian leadership I was heating some leftovers in the microwave.  Smokey started to meow.  Instead of pulling out a kitchen chair and picking her up, for the first time in the two years we’ve had her, I pulled out a chair and crawled under the table to give her attention.  She loved it.  I went where she felt safe and met one of her primary feline needs, attention.  For the next several minutes she was a happy little purr machine.

Most of my experience with non-Christians over the years has shown me that they are much the same. On the rarest of occasions they will seek out our worship centers, but mostly what goes on within the walls of our meeting places remains a source of intimidation, confusion, or ridiculousness to the non-believer.  I have spent a lot of time during my career studying various aspects of “church growth” principles and things of that nature; but the more I read, lecture, and learn the greater I understand that we are missing the point on a grand scale.

As believers we’ve grown incredibly comfortable within the walls of our meeting places (too comfortable I’d say) and we want desperately to draw the lost into those same meeting places so that they might find the same kind of spiritual comfort that we have come to enjoy.  This is completely backwards.

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Matthew 28: 18-20

He said GO, and go we must if we are to ever reach out to the hurting and lost souls He loves so much.  We must be willing to leave behind the way we’ve always done it and look for new ways to connect with the disconnected.  Let’s go.

Westboro "church?"

During a late night (early morning) bout with insomnia I stumbled across a good friend’s facebook post concerning the “Westboro Church's” plans to stage a protest at the upcoming funeral services of several soldiers.  As can be imagined (and for good reason) there was an outcry of rage and insult perforating the sub-post commentary.  My initial reactions are a mixed bag of horror, outrage, disgust, and sadness.

On one hand the constitution that has made our country so incredible protects these people’s right to hold such a protest.  On the other hand, I find it deeply troubling that anyone would ever even remotely desire to do such a thing.  And then, there is the third reaction that arrives from the notion that these people are somehow supposed to be a “Church”.

The last time I checked the one true Church was comprised of what Paul referred to as the Body of Christ.  In essence, the Church itself is a collection of people aspiring to the basic tenets of the Christian faith.  To belong to the Church is to belong to Christ, who himself gave His life willingly for mankind so many years ago.

John 15:13 records these words during one of Christ’s sermons, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”  Being the Church means being Christ-like, literally the name Christian means “little Christ.”

It seems to me that if someone or some group aspires to celebrate the deaths of people who sacrificed their lives for others; they are living quite contrary to the very words of the savior they claim to espouse.  My generation has a word for people like that, but the term hypocrite works much the same.


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Neighbor =/ Me

"Love your neighbor as yourself."  Mark 12:31 is not a suggestion.  It is a command straight from the King of Kings.  In fact this premise is so important when asked what the greatest commandment is; Jesus replied with the previously discussed command and added this one as the second.

We live in a society of self-worship.  A huge portion of what we do in our day-to-day lives revolves around being, making, looking, feeling, or knowing better.  There’s not really anything wrong with those things when kept in check, but many make an idol of themselves by taking one or more too far.

What if we who proclaim to carry the name Christian upon our lives were to actually love people as we love ourselves?  Jesus spoke numerous tidbits along these lines, but it all boils down to the practice of placing others first.  Let’s be honest, living selflessly is not at the top of anyone’s to-do list these days.  Shouldn’t it be?

Strength

The final piece of the greatest commandment as passed down from Christ to His listeners in Mark 12:30 was to love God “with all your strength.”

In this era strength is a word full of vibrate meaning and weighty connotations.  Chiefly when we think of strength we more often than not begin to think of a type of physical prowess or the ability to perform some feat of significance.  This is not an incorrect idea of strength, although I do believe it to be an incomplete one.

Loving God with all of your strength means to sacrifice your every effort to Him.  It means to perform to the best of your ability in all areas, not because your relationship with Him hinders on your performance; but rather, because your love for Him compels you to honor Him throughout your every waking moment.

The measure of our strength in light of His is pitifully meager and almost unworthy of even mentioning and yet still the God of all creation yearns for it.  Not because He in any way or capacity needs our meager offering to fulfill His sovereign purposes.  He sees the effort we spend as a collective act of willful adoration.

God wants the sum total of our parts to align in a fervent love for Him alone; heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Mind

Loving God “with all your mind,” is not nearly as hard a concept to grasp as the previous two sections from Mark 12:30 I have discussed.  Of course, as is so often the case in life, it is perhaps easier said than done.  It is my belief that this kind of mental devotion to God can be boiled down to three basic areas; thought-life, attitude, and intellect.

As fallen beings our thoughts often betray us.  Paul wrote that he had to consciously make his every thought captive to Christ.  He also wrote that he had to renew his mind daily.  In this sense loving God with your entire mind would mean that you seek purity in your thoughts.  With obedience we can control the things we allow our minds to dwell on, however it takes a measure of steadfastness, devotion, and discipline.

Our attitudes are another area where we all-too-often fail to love God with our whole mind.  This point was made so very real to me during my trip to Ecuador this past summer.  In a part of the country that was extremely poor and by all our culture’s indicators should have been depressing and destitute, I met some of the most jovial and upbeat personalities I’ve ever crossed paths with.  Why?  Because their attitudes are rooted in a righteous perspective of who God is, what He has done for them, and a healthy faith in His power and willingness to be sovereign in their day-to-day lives.  In stark contrast I’ve known many people within our borders who would claim Christian status and yet do not at all display the upbeat contentment that I found among my Ecuadorian brethren.

Intellect is the last part of our mind that I believe we should turn over fully to the King.  To be blunt, many Christians are dumb.  There are probably numerous reasons for this but the most glaring reasons I have encountered for this are laziness and apathy.  Many believers today have an extremely poor knowledge of the basic principles of their faith and many more are just too apathetic to think that they should honor God by furthering their intellect.

In loving God with our entire mind I believe that we will develop a better sense of how to serve Him through a healthy thought-life, a contagious attitude, and a robust intellect.  This is perhaps one of the most neglected aspects of the Christian faith.

Soul

“With all your soul,” could probably be one of the most confusing phrases ever spoken and if not for the great wealth of insight Scripture gives us concerning the personhood of Christ it would be hard to grasp the nature of what He meant.

We can look to John 4:24 for further illumination on this phrase as during his discourse with the woman at the well Jesus uses another phrase, “worship in spirit and in truth.”  You’ll need to (and should) visit that passage for the full context of what is being discussed there.  Essentially Jesus is speaking to the theological principal that your inner self is the true self.  If you could peal back the physiological composition that contrives your physical essence and see the soul inside, you would be able to look on the real you.

Loving God “with all your soul” means that you love Him with a deep authenticity that is rooted in the very nature of who/what you are as His created being.  Authentic-soul-level-love surpasses the wishy-washy nature of a cultural religious phenomenon or ritual and surpasses even a lifestyle to alter the fabric of one’s very identity itself.

Heart

“With all your heart,” those words carry a great depth of meaning, but as concerns the passage from Mark 12:30 it is easy enough to grasp the nature of what Jesus was speaking of—even if the actual living it out part is not so easy.  It is my belief that when Jesus told his listeners to love God with all their heart he was essentially speaking of their desires, desires for God and Godliness.

He was instructing them that to truly love God with every aspect of their heart it must come from a place of willingness.  And from the willingness and desire for God they would see a resulting change in character and compassion, passions and discipline.

I heard it said once that salvation was the process of changing our “want to”.  It seems to me that loving God with all your heart has to come from that place inside us all.  It is neither something that will happen by accident, nor can it be forced upon us.  Rather it is the willing act of changing our desires.

Basically Jesus was saying, “want God.”

Most Important

One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”

“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” - Mark 12:28-31

This is an awesome excerpt from the Gospel of Mark.  After all the intellectual and theological poking and prodding from the religious leaders of his day Jesus set the record straight (true to character) with such a profoundly poignant answer that they are basically left speechless.  Tune in over the next few days as I discuss this great portion of scripture in a little more detail.