9 Basic Reasons to Study Church History

For many, just the word “history” brings up bad memories from high school.  When I hear the word “history,” I think of random things such as Charlemagne, carpet-baggers, Huguenots, dates, times, presidents, and a bunch of things I forgot until we studied WWII (which was actually interesting). For most Christians, church history is the same way. We don’t really know much about it. We know a little about the Apostles in the book of Acts, then there is a bunch of stuff we think is weird and too “Catholic,” and then there is the Reformation, and here we are today with prosperity preachers and Joel Osteen.

So is church history important? Is it useful for discipleship? How much should we study it? My hope is to briefly sketch why I think church history is important for evangelicals today and is actually a gift from God to help us understand how to apply his Word. Why study church history?

1. Church history reminds us that we are part of a larger family of faith.

We have a tendency to think the church really began in our lifetime with cool pastors, conferences, and podcasts. Or, we have a tendency to think the church really began at the Reformation. We forget that there has always been a remnant. There has always been a true church. Jesus promised that the gates of Hades would not prevail against his church and the gates of Hades never have. People loved Jesus in the early church (Irenaeus, Athanasius, Augustine, et. al.), in the middle ages (Thomas Aquinas, Anselm, et. al.), in the Reformation (Luther, Calvin, et. al.), in the early modern era (Edwards, Whitfield, Wesley, et. al.), and in the modern era (Machen, Henry, Barth, et. al.). On the one hand, church history protects us from thinking our denomination is right and everyone else is wrong (most of our denominations are less than 400 years old), and, on the other hand, it reminds us that we are part of a larger family of faith dating back more than 2,000 years.

2. Church history helps us rightly interpret the Bible.

God’s Word is meant to be interpreted within the community of faith. When an individual just runs away from the church and doesn’t listen to instruction from others, he usually starts a cult. We must interpret the Bible as we bounce ideas and interpretations off one another. And we don’t just bounce ideas off of those around us. We use the larger community of faith including the writings of Christian brothers and sisters who have passed away.

3. Church history helps us hold to correct doctrine.

Though God’s people may err in certain doctrinal matters, certain teachings like the Trinity, the deity of Christ, the resurrection, and the second coming are always held as truth by all true Christians. Church history helps us see what God’s people have always believed and what doctrines the majority of Christians have seen as essential. It helps us continue to pass on the “once-for-all-delivered-to-the-saints” gospel (Jude 1:3). There is a saying that, “new kinds of ‘christians’ are really just old kinds of heretics.” Knowing correct doctrine helps us guard against false teachers and religious sects today.

4. Church history helps us guard against reading our culture onto the biblical text.

Church history helps us see how other cultures have interpreted the Bible and see where some of our biases and prejudices pop up. For example, the topics of homosexuality and gender roles are rather controversial subjects today but almost completely agreed upon throughout most of church history. If we are teaching about these subjects in new ways, this should cause us to ask if we are reading our culture onto the Bible and making it say what we think is important today instead of what it actually says. Another example is that in America many Evangelicals think drinking alcohol is sinful. Seeing that this is a unique idea in post-prohibition America (and is not thought to be sinful in almost all other times and countries in church history) helps us put this issue in perspective.

5. Church history helps us see where we might be defending our traditions instead of the teachings of Scripture.

It is vitally important to know what the church has believed at each point in our history and why. That keeps us from “drinking the Kool-aid” and just doing what our denomination says. It is important for a Lutheran to know what Luther thought. It is important for a Presbyterian to know what Calvin thought. It is important for a Baptist to know about the radical reformation and English separatism. It is important for a Pentecostal to know about the Wesleyan holiness movement. It is important for an Episcopalian to know about the Anglican Church, the Reformation, and Thomas Cranmer. The list could go on and on. Knowing which historical actions caused certain beliefs is essential for challenging our views according to the Bible.

6. Church history helps us know how to address situations today.

I can’t think of any issues today that the church has not already dealt with in its past whether that be grace, politics, denominations, ethics, pastoral ministry, etc. The old adage, “Those who fail to study history are doomed to repeat it” is true of church history as well. By studying church history we can avoid stepping on landmines by seeing who has stepped on them before. We can copy what the past has done well and avoid some of the mistakes they made.

7. Church history brings humility.

If you hold a theological view or an interpretation of Scripture that almost nobody has ever held then you can know that 99% of the time you will almost certainly be wrong. The burden of proof is on the person who is holding a “new” view. This should humble us and keep us from thinking that everyone else was just too silly to see things like we see them today.

8. Church history helps us minister to others.

If I know the history of someone else’s ideas, denomination, or theology, it allows me to know how best to minister to them. It lets me know where they might be off and what issues they may misunderstand.

9. Church history is a reminder of God’s grace

Instead of looking like a bride we as God’s people have a history of looking more like a harlot. What is interesting to me is just how un-Christian so much of church history is. We have a history of shooting ourselves in the foot. However, just like Israel in the Old Testament, God loves his beautiful, messy, disobedient, lovely bride . . . the church. It is a reminder of how kind God has been to keep his promises despite our failures to be faithful to him. It is true that “if we are faithless he remains faithful for he cannot deny himself” (2 Tim 2:13).

In all this we know that only God’s Word is perfect and history is our imperfect attempt to play that out. However, church history is a helpful guide and companion on our journey in the Christian life and it is God’s gift to help us be faithful.

Resources:

• Church History in Plain Language by Bruce Shelley
• The Story of Christianity, Vol. 1 by Justo Gonzalez
• The Story of Christianity, Vol. 2 by Justo Gonzalez
• Historical Theology by Alister McGrath

—

Zach Lee is Associate Home Groups Minister at The Village Church and is married to Katy.  Follow him on Twitter: @zacharytlee.

Loving and Seeking Justice for the Unborn

In our media-saturated culture, it’s unlikely you haven’t heard about the undercover Planned Parenthood videos released over the last several weeks. The Center for Medical Progress has released four videos and counting of Planned Parenthood executives discussing and admitting to trafficking body parts of aborted preborn children. In the middle of our society’s culture war over elective abortion and the surrounding industry, these types of exposé videos are common place. However, these video are unique because they’ve gone viral. As of today there were over 2.7 million views on the original video that included highlights of the Planned Parenthood leader casually discussing selling and marketing livers, lungs, and other body parts that she personally removed from preborn children during elective abortions. While the topic was trending on social media, like many other headlines of horrific acts of violence, our culture and even some Christians were uncertain how to react. Even though self-identifying Pro-Choice activists who generally support Planned Parenthood were displaying moral disgust, many Christians were still unable to biblically respond to the phenomenal atrocities exposed. Now many Christians (along with our Pro-Choice neighbors) had a “gut reaction” to such an ugly story, but ultimately many were still not sure how to respond or even what to think about this injustice and repulsive practice. This discomfort disabled Christians from even trying discuss the topic with their neighbors, which always proves to be more difficult than sharing an article or video on social media.

Personally, I was surprised to see Pro-Choicers who support legalized elective abortion and Planned Parenthood, disapprove of this secretive business of trafficking the body parts of aborted children. As a Christian and someone who is deeply committed to restoring justice for our preborn neighbors, my first reaction was to balk and point at the hypocrisy of others. I was looking down on these Pro-Choice advocates who for some reason see something wrong with THIS atrocity, but not the legalized, intentional taking of an innocent preborn human’s life. This immediate urge to condemn others is not just foolish because of Christ’s teaching on judging others (Matt. 7:1-5), but because I’m condemning those individuals for responding the way God designed them to. The unavoidable “gut reaction” that we have to such unjust practices and humans rights abuses reveals our humanity—created in the image of God. We are designed to be moral agents with an active conscience. This moral capacity to weigh and approve or disapprove of what happens in the world is a common grace give to us by our Creator.

These types of abuses and injustice abound in our world because of the Fall. However, the Fall has not just corrupted nature but humans as well. This means that humans now willingly practice injustice like elective abortions and human tissue trafficking, but also, the Fall has marred our consciences. The compass that distinguishes between right and wrong is distorted although never destroyed. The hypocrisy I want to accuse those who support elective abortion of, is actually proof that we are moral beings practicing although imperfectly an important task that resembles our Creator.

Paul explains in Romans 2:14-16 that even unbelievers have “the works of the law written on their hearts” and “their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them.” However, Paul also makes clear that the human conscience is not incorruptible. Earlier in Romans 1:28 Paul explains that because of rebellion against the truth God gives unbelievers “up to a debased mind.” In short, yes our consciences can be misinformed or misdirected, but all humans have a basic yearning for justice in this unjust world. Believers and unbelievers alike are acutely aware that, at the very least, things are not as they should be and have an undeniable built-in moral yearning.

A Thirst for Justice in a Moral Desert

This thirst for justice in the moral dessert of a Post-Genesis 3 world is not a new human phenomenon. We see David himself was in the same position. In Psalm 10, David cries out to the Lord because he witnessed appalling human rights abuse, unethical practices, and the failed judicial systems of his country.

In Psalm 10:2, David describes how he saw the wicked hotly pursue the poor, trying to catch the helpless in wickedly devised schemes. David describes how the wicked sit in ambush in the villages and in hiding places they murder the innocent (v. 8). He mourns that in his land the wicked look for ways to take advantage of the poor.  Some of these injustices we’re most sensitive to and broken over today are not just random crimes or accidents, but they have become systems that target certain demographics.

David then writes that the wicked “[lurk] like a lion so that he may seize the poor” (v. 9). Planned Parenthood and the entire abortion industry demonstrate this predatory mindset. These are business models built around selling a service that is deadly to the preborn and harmful to women. These newly released videos show Planned Parenthood acting like predators. Again, the image of verse 10 is appropriate when David writes, “The helpless are crushed, sink down, and fall by his might.” The Psalmist is watching the wicked not only scheme and draw the helpless in his net, but violence always accompanies his schemes. Once the helpless are in his net, the wicked crushes them and they perish.

He sits in ambush in the villages; in hiding places he murders the innocent. His eyes stealthily watch for the helpless; he lurks in ambush like a lion in his thicket; he lurks that he may seize the poor; he seizes the poor when he draws him into his net. 10 The helpless are crushed, sink down, and fall by his might.

While there is room for Christians to discuss and work in other areas like environmental justice, the highest ethical concern in Scripture are attacks on the marginalized who are made in God’s image.

These attacks are wrong and unjust. Injustice didn't sit well with David and it shouldn’t sit well with us. The reason these systematic wrongdoings disturbed David so deeply and should affect us today is not just because God had commanded his people to do justice, but because our drive for justice comes from the very character of God whose image we are created in.

Justice as Central in Redemptive History

In Psalm 10:12-18 David reaffirms that justice is a central attribute of God. Also at crucial junctures in redemptive history, the Lord over and over again reveals himself as the God who executes justice. For instance, Moses delivers the Law from God to the people of Israel and says,

For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe. He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing.

In another Psalm, David simply proclaims: “The Lord loves justice” (Ps. 37:28).  This simple premise is cosmically consequential since it is the very fuel of the gospel. The narrative of Scripture is driven by the fundamental premise that the Lord, the creator and redeemer, is a just God.

Accordingly, throughout the narrative of Scripture we see the Lord intervene in human history to restore social justice—in the Exodus when the Hebrews became a socially disenfranchised class in Egypt and in Judges the Lord reminds Israel, “I led you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of slavery. And I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out before you and gave you their land” (Jgs. 6:8-9).

The ultimate expression of God’s just character is in the person and work of Jesus Christ.Christ is the fulfillment of God’s Justice. When Isaiah was telling of the Messiah, he prophesizes that Christ “will bring justice to the nations” (Is. 42:1-4; Matt 12:18). At the heart of the gospel, Christ voluntarily receives injustice in order to fulfill God’s just verdict as Philip explains in Acts 8:32:

Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter and like a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he opens not his mouth. In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth.

Because of our sin is against a holy and just God, we have earned eternal punishment. But God, being rich in mercy as well as justice, devised a plan before we even existed, not to set aside his justice but to fulfill it by practicing his mercy. So in place of sinners, Jesus Christ became human to receive the wrath of God on the cross that we deserved as rebels. However, Christ rose again, conquered death, ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father so that now through the Holy Spirit those who have faith in Christ’s victorious work and repent do not receive eternal punishment for their transgressions against a just God.

God has done something epic about injustice. He absorbed the injustice of sin and evil at the cross. All history is shaped around this narrative because God loves justice.

Loving and Seeking Justice in Light of the Gospel

In order to love and seek justice in light of the gospel, the people of God need to mature in several areas.First, we must not think about those we disagree with as our political adversaries but recognize them as God’s image bearers who although misinformed can act on their sense of right and wrong. Also, we must think the way David did and have the moral certitude he did about social injustice. Public figures and blogs shouldn’t be our first stop to inform our consciences on social injustice. We must weigh everything with revealed truth and our moral consciences. Our response to wickedness should signal that our God is the source of justice. We need to hold our informed convictions boldly. For instance, intentionally causing an innocent human’s death is a moral wrong—no matter who does it or whether our government has sanctioned it. We should seek to understand the ethics of God revealed in Scripture to inform how we interpret our post-Fall world.

Second, like David we should look at injustice instead of averting our eyes from the ugly stories, the heartbroken victims, and the helpless. In order to do justice, we must be willing to endure the moral discomfort of looking into the brokenness.

Third, we need to fervently and genuinely pray for the injustice in our land to end. Psalm 10 is not just a song; it was a moment in which David was crying out to the Lord and pleading for God to protect the innocent and helpless in his land. Last, as we draw near to God, we must walk towards the victims. This walking must include a spatial nearness and also a prioritizing socially and politically. We should pray and work to end these atrocities and seek to restore justice in our land through the power of Jesus Christ our Righteousness (1 Cor. 1:30).

—

John Seago (@JohnSeago) serves as the Legislative Director for Texas Right to Life. He leads the research, writing, and lobbying for state legislation on bioethical issues like abortion, euthanasia, stem cell research, and patients rights. John graduated with a double major in History of Ideas and Biblical Studies from Southeastern College in Wake Forest, North Carolina. He studied Philosophy at University of Dallas for several years and is now earning his Master’s in Bioethics from Trinity International University. John lives in Austin, Texas with his wife Brandy and two children Nahum (5) and Sophia (3).

Simple Ways to Teach Your Kids to Follow Jesus

One of the questions we get many times at the GCM Collective is, “What about kids? How do you have time to disciple your children during all this mission stuff, and what does it look like?” I have three kids, a 10 year old, a 7 year old, and an 16 month old. I own a business, am an elder in a church, preach, and participate as an executive team member of the GCM Collective. Not to mention I coach leaders around the world and travel for speaking and training events. How do I have time? I learned early on, from my brothers at Soma Communities, that I only have one life, and mission has to be part of my everyday life, not some other life that I need to live. I don’t have time to get into all of that teaching, but it transformed how I see mission and discipleship. (To see an illustration of this look here: We Have Been Given One Life). Needless to say, I’ve decided to serve and leverage my life as much as I can. I’m busy and you are probably busy, too. How can we disciple kids in the midst of such hectic community and mission filled lives?

Holistic Discipleship

What is the goal of children’s discipleship? Are we just trying to teach them stuff? See, the goal is not that our children will merely know the right answers on their Bible College theological entry exam, also known as Sunday School. We certainly want them to know God and understand the gospel in their minds. But, discipleship cannot stop at intellectual assent of biblical truths in their heads alone. It must penetrate their hearts. In the same way, the goal is not for children discipleship to stop at their hearts, but must work out in their lives. Certainly our children’s discipleship is not only about getting them to behave and use proper manners. The Bible speaks to parenting and disciple making more holistically than this:

You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. – Deuteronomy 11:18-20

This passage tells us two fundamental principles in parenting. One, discipleship is for the head, heart, and hand. We are to teach our children to know the gospel, believe the gospel, and obey the gospel. Two, the discipleship process is happening all the time, in everyday life. Every moment of the day is a chance to speak, teach, and demonstrate the gospel. My aim with this article is to offer some easy handles and ideas for parents to obediently live Deuteronomy 11 with their kids.

Head

We want our kids to know theology.  We want them to know who God is, what God has done, and who we are and how we should live. The issue is our kids get bored with the many ways we have tried to do teach this in the past. Memorize this verse, sit here for Sunday school, or listen to mommy and daddy read from the Bible. None of those things are bad, but what if we could do all those things in ways that they’d actually love and look forward to and ask to do?

• What TV show does your kid love to watch? Watch it with them and tell them that at the end we are going to discuss questions in which we see ways the characters are living out their identity, how are their lives looking like Jesus, how are their lives showing who/what they are trusting, etc. For my kids, it’s Phineas and Ferb. We sit down and watch it, then discuss. The night before I wrote this article, we spoke about servanthood, identity, idols, fears, anxiety, the Imago Dei, etc. After we discussed, we prayed as a family for very specific things that we discussed. Guess what the kids are always asking to do? “Daddy, can we do Phineas and Ferb and theology?” They desire to learn because it is something they enjoy.
• Teach them from material they will enjoy and let them teach and dialogue through it. I personally use two resources: The Jesus Story Book Bible and Story of God for Kids. When we go through these resources, I am always asking questions to get their insight. These resources are great because there are pictures and questions and really gets the kids involved, instead of just sitting there and listening. I also allow my 10 year old to lead through this so he can learn what it looks like to lead and create discussion. In this I am able to disciple him in what it looks like to lead by allowing him to do it himself.

Heart

Not only do we want our children to learn theology and mission through teaching, but we want them to believe it and know it in their hearts. We want it to go from information to transformation. Know this: you have to be faithful in this and there will be many times we try this with our kids and it will sail over their head. We will articulate the gospel in eloquent ways and they will have no reaction. We have to be faithful. Find out how to affect their heart by seeking the Spirit and continue to do it, even if you don’t get the reaction you were hoping for.

• Discipline like you believe the gospel. I learned this from John Piper some years ago. He simply asked, “Does your discipline mirror grace and the gospel or legalism?” My kids never know when they are going to be punished for a sin. I try to sit them down after they have sinned and walk through grace and mercy and the effects of sin. We get to the heart of the issue of their sin, instead of saying, “stop it!” There are times when they are not punished for their sin, and we speak a lot about grace. There are also times when their sin causes natural consequences. For example, they might leave a favorite toy outside when they were supposed to bring it inside and it gets ruined. When this happens, we merely point out the consequence and pray together for forgiveness and reconciliation. When you spend time demonstrating in discipline what grace, the gospel and reconciliation looks like, it hits the heart.
• Demonstrate. I got this idea from my buddy Caesar. One of the discipleship issues we had with our older child had to do with his behavior while he was playing outside. We decided that if he was having issues playing outside, he would have to come inside or face punishment. The punishment was to sit on the wall for 20 minutes. Lots of fun. Instead, when the time came for him to receive his punishment, I told him I’d take it for him. We talked about Jesus and the good news and how he has done this for us. This sounded great, but he listened, and then ran back outside like nothing happened. I still do this, because I think at some point, it will sink in. But you have to know: they are kids and they won’t always react in the ways you were hoping.
• When you see your child do something that reminds you of Jesus, tell them and praise them for it. Not to the point where they get all the credit, but as a pointer. When they see how their actions depict God’s character, it really freaks them out. My 7 year old last night asked, “God works through me to show who he is?” It really hit him. Our kids need to hear about God, not only when they are doing things that are disappointing, but also when they are showing the fruit of the Spirit. Recently, my 10 year old came up and told me that his little brother made him lunch for school. He was stoked! I told him, “Caleb, where do you think he learned that?” He replied, “God?” I said, “He learned it from you as you have been serving him. And you learned it from God as Jesus served and serves you. You have been showing your brother Jesus. Isn’t it amazing that he does those things he sees in you as you show him Jesus?”
• Continue to remind them they are loved by God and you, no matter what. We do this in both their sin and their praise. We want them to continually know that God loves regardless of their actions. Their identity and acceptance is not wrapped up in what they do but in who God is and what he does. I do this when they do something that requires discipline and I do this when they show off who God is.

Hands

Not only do our kids need to know about God in their head, and know what he’s done in their heart, but they also need to work this out as disciples and missionaries. We have to know that our children are not missionaries only when they get older. They are missionaries now.

• Involve your kids in the mission. Rarely do we do things that don’t involve our kids. When we do events, most of the time it is with families. The reason is I want my kids to see that it is totally normal to be around those that don’t believe like us and what it looks like to hang out with them. I don’t want them to ever think that our job is to do things so we’ll get something in return. We merely show others what God is like, we plant, we water, but God causes the growth. The best way to do this is to model it for them in life on life.  So, at neighborhood BBQs or neighborhood breakfasts, they have jobs before and after. We talk about why we are doing these, what their thoughts are, and their struggles with it. They get to walk this out and deal with the consequences of following Jesus: when their toys get broken, when they have to clean up after others, etc.  When all this happens, we get to talk about what it means to serve and show off Jesus without expecting anything in return.
• Make your house the “hang-out-house.” Our kids know that they can always have friends over and invite them in for dinner, etc. Because of this, they are actively sharing their lives with those around us. They see what it means to have an open home, to be hospitable, to believe that our possessions are God’s and not ours. They also know that to open our home means there will sometimes be kids they don’t want to play with, but we open our home anyway. We love our enemies, we don’t hate them or shun them. The more you allow your kids to have people over and just hang out and play, the more they will be able to understand mission in the everyday.
• Invite their friends and parents out to your activities. Recently, I took my boys to a movie and dinner, so I asked them who they wanted to bring. I then invited their friends and their family to go out with us.  Again, this is simple. Their friends and families came and hung out. We were already going to do it, why not do it with others? This doesn’t mean we eat dinner and ask the other Dad, “You see the bread on your kid’s plate? That reminds of when Jesus said he was the bread of life.” Be a good human and hang out with others, be friends, show your kids what it looks like to be hospitable in all areas of life.
• Ask your children what charity they’d like to help on their birthday. We have done this with both our older kids. We tell them, “Mom and Dad will buy you a gift, and so will your grandparents, but what if we had your friends bring something for a charity?” We have had food drives, blanket drives, and more for one of our missional communities that helps the homeless in our town. Our kids actually love doing this! They get to help others and participate in serving.

Normal Life with Intentionality

I know these things aren’t earth shattering ideas. They are simple everyday life type of activities. Just think if your parents taught you about God while watching cartoons? Pretty cool parents, pretty fun way to learn theology. That’s the point. We don’t need some program to raise our children for us; we can do this in normal, everyday life. That way our kids will understand what following Jesus looks like and will desire to do it, too. Some days are better than others, some things work better than others. You know your family. A simple way to start is just to look at your schedule with your family and start asking, “How can we be more intentional with these things we are already doing so our children can better understand who God is, what he has done, and who he has made us to be?” And “What can we do to holistically disciple our children—head, heart, and hands?” Again, think about simple everyday life type of activities.

—

Seth McBee is the adopted son of God, husband of one wife, and father of three. He’s a graduate of Seattle Pacific University with a finance degree. By trade. Seth is an investment portfolio manager, serving as President of McBee Advisors, Inc. He is also a MC leader/trainer/coach and executive team member of the GCM Collective. Seth currently lives in Phoenix, AZ with his wife Stacy and their three children: Caleb, Coleman, and Madelynn. He is also the artist and co-author of the wildly popular (and free!) eBook, Be The Church: Discipleship & Mission Made Simple. Twitter: @sdmcbee.

The Gospel Isn’t a Cul-de-Sac

The cul-de-sac was a phenomenal invention for the suburbs. It created a safe and peaceful place for families to raise children. No one passed through. In fact, the only time strangers can appear is after a wrong turn and they find themselves at the dead end. The design made it simple for those who don’t belong to quickly turn around.

It also kept everyone who belonged there in one place. Once you came in, you didn’t have to leave. You could remain the rest of your days with likeminded folks, playing games in your asphalt sanctuary.

The cul-de-sac is the epitome of the suburban life and values. However, the gospel is not a cul-de-sac. It isn’t a safe sanctuary that separates you from the dangers of the world—it throws you into the world. It isn’t your private enclave to secure your values and doctrines. It ushers you into a hospitality for the other—the not like you.  The gospel is doctrinal, changing what we believe. It also is personal, changing who we are. But it is more than that.

The gospel is missional: it changes where & how we live.^[1]

If we just focus on the doctrinal and personal aspect of the gospel, we will neglect its missional aspect. If the doctrinal gospel changes what we believe, and the personal gospel changes who we are, then the missional gospel changes where we live and what we say. It is the hopeful announcement that God is making all things new in Christ Jesus! The gospel ushers us into a new kingdom and new world. We no longer live in a world dominated by death and deconstruction but one of life and re-creation!

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” —Luke 4:18-19, Isaiah 61

The Gospel Changes Everything

The gospel changes everything. It is not only good news for us, but also for our neighbors, the poor, our city, and the world. It affects the social, cultural, and physical fabric of the universe. In Luke 4, Jesus preached the gospel to the poor, marginalized, and oppressed. It is good news for them because through his death and resurrection he has defeated sin, death, and evil (1 Jn. 2:13; 3:8). The gospel announces the in-breaking reign of Jesus, which is in the process of reversing the order of things. The poor become rich, the captives are freed, and the old become new.

The Gospel Sends Us On Mission

Those who follow Jesus join his mission by making disciples of all ethnic groups by going, teaching, and baptizing (Matt. 28:18-20). We are sent to teach, speak, counsel, discuss, and proclaim the gospel to others so that they might be baptized into God’s new creation and join his mission of making all things new. We are called “ambassadors of reconciliation” and given the privilege of sharing in Jesus’ ministry of reconciling the world to himself (2 Cor. 5:17-20). Those who have been changed by the gospel share its life-changing power with others. We should announce and embody the good news by caring for the poor and rebuilding cities (Is. 61:4). In fact, the future for the people of God is an entirely new city in a new creation (Rev. 21). The church should be a movie trailer of this grand, coming attraction, when all things will be made new!

Remember, This is Who You Are

The result of the church—you, us—being sent is that we live as a community of disciples—not only devoted to Jesus and to one another—but devoted to our neighbors and our city, too. When we come to Christ, we are all sent on his mission.

We are new and have a new purpose. Christ reconciled us to himself and we are a new creation. Our old way of finding identity and our broken ways of finding meaning are over. We are reconciled and ushered into a vibrant and living relationship with God. This is the gospel, that Christ has reconciled us to God through his death and resurrection and is making all things new—even us. We are recipients of the gospel, messengers of the gospel, servants of the gospel, and are representatives of the gospel’s work. See, you cannot separate our identity in Christ from our purpose in Christ. That identity and purpose requires some sort of expression of gospel focused community on mission:

• We live on mission because we have received the gospel.
• We live on mission because we are messengers of the gospel. He is making his appeal to the world through us.
• We live on mission because we are ministers of reconciliation—servants of the gospel.
• We live on mission because we are ambassadors—representatives of the gospel.

We Participate in God’s Mission by Making Disciples

In Matthew 28:18-20, we get to overhear Jesus’ parting words to his disciples, who were the beginning of the first missional community:

“And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’’’ —Matthew 28:18-20

Jesus gives his disciples the life-long purpose of making disciples of Jesus. It isn’t a side job or a hobby, but an all encompassing orientation for life. As a disciple, you are called to make disciples of Jesus. The key here, is “as a disciple of Jesus”. Meaning, you are daily answering Jesus’ call to repentance and faith in Mark 1:15:

“Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

As a disciple you repent and believe. You trust Jesus’ incarnation, his kingdom, his purposes. As a disciple, you exchange your agenda for his. You let go of your imaginary kingdom for his tangible reign. NT Wright describes repentance this way in, The Challenge of Jesus, “[Jesus] was telling his hearers to give up their agendas and to trust him for his way of being Israel, his way of bringing the kingdom, his kingdom-agenda.”

You not only welcome Jesus’ presence, but cling to this promise: desperate for his ways, not yours. This is the transformative journey of the gospel. This is also the way toward mission.Meaning, as you learn to follow Jesus, you invite others to join you by making the gospel clear and tangible. As God transforms you in and through the power of the Spirit, you humbly, but clearly challenge others to repent and believe. You are, as Eugene Peterson writes, “God’s billboard.”

We Participate in God’s Mission by Loving the Poor

God’s mission is also to the oppressed, captive, orphan, and neglected. From the onset of God’s mission through his people beginning with Abraham and moving through Moses, David, and the prophets of the Old Testament, God called them to care for those tossed aside. They were to care for the orphan and the oppressed, the sojourner and the alien traveling through their lands. It was not simply traditional middle eastern hospitality. It was a command of God for his people to care for those in need: to usher into our broken earth, the grace and love that inhabits heaven.

This clearly, doesn’t stop with Jesus. Jesus forgave sins and healed sickness. He welcomed those sent to the margins of society to eat with him. He cared for those burdened, ignored, and abused. Jesus proclaimed the gospel and the kingdom of God coming to us.  Jesus came for the poor and powerless—the oppressed.

Therefore, Jesus’ church is sent on the mission of declaring the gospel and demonstrating the gospel. In other words, as the church spreads and grows by making disciples, it also cares for the poor. A clear mark of a church as early as Pentecost, has been meeting the needs of the marginalized. From the Old Testament through the early Church, God has sent his people on the mission of doing justice and inviting the world to experience the God of grace and mercy.

^[1] Language and concepts can be found in the book I co-authored with Jonathan Dodson, Called Together: A Guide to Forming Missional Communities

—

Brad Watson (@bradawatson) serves as a pastor of Bread&Wine Communities where he develops and teaches leaders how to form communities that love God and serve the city. Brad is the author of Raised? and Called Together: A Guide to Forming Missional Communities. He lives in southeast Portland with his wife and their two daughters. You can read more from Brad at www.bradawatson.com

7 Ridiculously Simple Ways To Make Time for Beauty

Life spiraled increasingly into chaos the moment I set out to write this article. I helped with unplanned classes, struggled with migraines, sifted through significant opportunities for my husband, woke up to a neighbor’s house fire, witnessed the loss of life, caught a case of the flu, and went on a family trip. Needless to say, enjoying God’s beauty wasn’t on the top of my “to-do” list. I found myself thinking, “Who could justify devoting time to beauty when things are this chaotic?” Through the chaos I’ve discovered that Christians of all people can (and must!) devote time to beauty because our God is a beautiful God. We have been claimed by the loveliest Being ever to exist. Nothing in heaven or on earth or beneath the earth compares with the beauty of our God. Thus, it’s our delightful duty to regularly raise our vision above the chaos of this world to behold the beauty of our Lord.

Viewing Christ’s Beauty in the Midst of the Chaos

Here’s the bottom line—there’s never going to be a convenient time for beauty. If you wait for the ever-elusive “perfect moment” to meditate on Christ’s beauty it will never happen. The truth is that you will behold the beauty of Christ when, and only when, you believe it matters enough to do so.

Scripture reveals that those who take time to behold Christ’s beauty do so, not because their schedules allow for it, but because there’s a gnawing sense within them that it matters. They encounter chaos in a fallen world and inherently know it isn’t the way it’s supposed to be. This tension creates a longing to be in the presence of God, viewing his beauty, that they might experience relief from life’s pressures. As they bask in the beauty of the resplendent One, they are re-fueled for life and re-invigorated for mission

Consider David in Psalm 27. The specific evil that occasioned this psalm is up for debate, but it’s universally accepted that King David is in a tumultuous situation. He speaks of evildoers assailing him (27:2), an army encamping against him (27:3), war rising up (27:3), multitudes of enemies surrounding him (27:6), his own parents forsaking him (27:10), and false testimony being brought against him (27:12). David is experiencing intense pressure from every side.

What does a man in the throes of chaos do? He does the one thing he believes matters most to the well being of his soul—he cries out for a fresh vision of God’s beauty. His words in Psalm 27:4 (emphasis added) pierce my cluttered soul,

One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple.

From the overflow of his God-entranced worldview David directs his focus towards beauty. He asks to gaze upon Yahweh’s beauty, knowing that in Yahweh’s glorious presence he would find something greater than the greatness of his circumstances. Out of everything Israel’s mighty king could do to procure peace for his soul, he sought out that which he believe would best refuel him for what lied ahead—gazing upon God’s beauty.

Shouldn’t Christ’s beauty matter more to me than this?

Chaos has an interesting way of exposing our truest beliefs. We may say we value something in life but when pressed hard enough we give ourselves to those things that we most value; those things we believe give us the greatest payoff. Even at our busiest, we manage to find (or make) time for what needs to be done on our “to do” lists: We grocery shop, feed the kids, do the laundry, go on dates, write sermons, meet deadlines at work, update twitter accounts, grab coffee with a congregation member, or fix up the house.

As a matter of fact, even during my recent chaotic season (when I allowed beauty to slip) I somehow “found the time” to finish out the season of a TV show I had been watching. I made time for it because I sought the relief it offered me in the midst of a busy stretch. Unfortunately, it exposed a distorted belief system. I believed thirty mind-numbing minutes of television could give me greater rest and refreshment than time in God’s beautiful presence.

It follows then that our commitment to God’s beauty is not primarily an issue of time; it’s an issue of belief and affection. You and I abandon devotion to God’s beauty because deep down we don’t believe it matters as much as everything else. Something inside of us believes unloading the dishwasher before the kids wake up or replying to emails before bedtime has a greater payoff than taking ten minutes to behold Christ.

What we don’t realize is that taking time to bask in God’s beauty will actually empower us to re-enter the chaos and approach these tasks with fresh vigor. A few moments gazing upon the LORD’s beauty will energize our affections for him and others, thus helping us better love and serve those God has entrusted to our care. It has a circular nature to it. The chaos drives us into the presence of God to rest in his beauty which in turn re-fuels us to enter back into the chaos and live missionally.

Considering the vital role God’s beauty plays in all of life and mission, many of you may be wondering why you don’t value beholding Christ’s beauty more greatly. It’s a legitimate question I’ve wrestled with during this season. Could it be that our affections follow our practices? If we never spend time gazing upon the beauty of God, we will never develop a taste for his beauty.

Many of our lifestyles (running chaotically from task to task) have stifled any appetite for beauty. We need to jumpstart these affections by choosing to practice godly habits that put us in a posture to savor Christ’s beauty. The good news is that affections are like a muscle; they grow and develop as we exercise them. Start regularly practicing small ways to behold Christ’s beauty and you will grow to crave a glorious vision of him more often.

7 Ridiculously Simple Ways to Incorporate Beauty Into Your Daily Routine:

1. Wake up earlier to read and meditate on God’s Word (Ps. 19:7-10) – Enjoy God’s beauty in his Word before the chaos begins. Directing your heart towards Jesus first thing in the morning enables you to control the chaos instead of the chaos controlling you.
2. Rehearse the gospel to yourself throughout the day (Eph. 2:1-10) – Periodically stop and reflect upon the gospel. Allow its beauty to put the smaller matters of life into perspective.
3. Go for a walk and admire God’s handiwork (Ps. 19:1-6) – Set aside fifteen minutes (alone or with your children) to take in the beauty of God’s world.
4. Discuss God’s beauty over a meal (Deut. 6:6-7) – Make it a point to talk to those around you about God. Ask them what they find most lovely about him.
5. Worship through song with your children (Col. 3:16) – Few things are quite as delightful as watching children sing about Jesus. Doing informal worship is an easy but rewarding way to incorporate beauty into the mundane.
6. Switch out one segment of “screen time” for gazing upon God’s beauty (Ps. 27:4) – Make a habit of enjoying God’s beauty before you check your email, twitter, pinterest, facebook, etc. Or, push back your nightly “unwinding” TV time until you’ve savored Christ’s beauty for a few moments.
7. Meditate upon the wonders of Christ as you go to sleep (Ps. 63:5-6) – Take time at night to think about Jesus. Meditate on his perfections, his character, and his redemptive work. Allow Christ to be the last thing on your mind at the end of the day.

This week consider incorporating one of the above suggestions into your daily routine. Don’t wait for the “perfect time” to pursue beauty—it doesn’t exist! Instead, create little pockets of calm in the midst of the chaos by lifting your vision above all the distractions and beholding the beauty of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. As you do you will experience a fresh sense of purpose for tasks and energy for mission that all the finished to-do lists in the world can’t offer you.

—

Whitney Woollard has served in ministry alongside her husband Neal for over six years. She holds an undergraduate degree in Biblical Studies from Moody Bible Institute and just finished her Master of Arts in Biblical and Theological Studies from Western Seminary. She is passionate about equipping disciples to read and study God’s Word well resulting in maturing affections for Jesus and his gospel message. Neal and Whitney currently live in Portland, OR where they love serving the local church. Follow her on Twitter @whitneywoollard.

Catechizing Our Children in Wonder

Success by Religious Conformity

It was one of those moments when I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. So I opted to just shrink lower into our second-row pew, stifle my giggles, and thank God for my seven-year-old son and all his glorious honesty.

My husband pastors a rural church in SW Virginia; and while we do our best to keep our kids out of the fishbowl, we do expect them to participate in the full-scope of congregational life. This includes our mid-week Bible study. This isn’t usually a problem, but like all of us, there are days when our children would rather stay home. Sometimes they’re tired, busy doing other things, or in the case of my seven-year-old son, simply finds his Legos more interesting than sitting still for an hour.

On this particular Wednesday night, my husband and I had dealt with the standard objections over dinner, and by 7:05, everyone was safely ensconced in our pew with our heads bowed. The head deacon was opening the service with prayer as only a head deacon from a rural Baptist church can when about half way through, he asked God to touch the hearts of “those who could have come tonight, but chose not to.” Not missing a beat, my son piped up, “Well, I didn’t want to come, but I HAD to.”

My son’s resistance to church is not the only discipleship hurdle we face as parents. It is easily matched by his older sister’s recent acknowledgment that she finds God’s eternality “weird” and by the fact that their five-year-old brother regularly asks to pray at meal time for the sole purpose of controlling the length of the prayer. (“Dear-God-Thank-you-for-this-food-help-us-to love-each-other-Amen.”) If parenting success is measured by religious conformity, we’re batting 0 for 3 here.

Discipleship Through Fear

These kinds of situations have the potential to worry Christian parents who desire to pass their faith on to their children. With reports of widespread Millennial angst and stories of apologists’ daughters rejecting Christianity, it easy to fear our children will not come to a personal relationship with Christ. It’s even easier to respond out of that fear by simply doubling our efforts to force faith into them through more catechism, more Bible memory, more “church.”

Part of the reason we do this is because we tend to believe discipleship happens through the accumulation of religious knowledge. A quick Google search for “children’s discipleship” brings back resource after resource—everything from catechisms to Bible memory systems to pint-sized devotional books–all promising to produce faith in the next generation of believers. What I rarely hear discussed is the necessity of discipling our children through “natural revelation.” When theologians use the term “natural revelation,” they are referring to what God has revealed about himself through the world around us. “Specific revelation,” on the other hand, is what God has revealed about himself through the Scripture.

And while I believe Scripture is essential to the process of belief, Scripture was never intended to be engaged in a vacuum. Instead, faith happens as the Holy Spirit impresses the truth of God’s Word (specific revelation) onto a heart that has been primed to accept it by experiencing the truth of God in the world around it (natural revelation). Like a pair of chopsticks, the two must work together.

The Apostle Paul understood this and it’s precisely why in Acts 17—that famous Mars Hill sermon—he begins by appealing to what the Athenians already knew through their experience of the world. They already believed in some “unknown God” because they could see his works both in them and around them. Most of us understand the importance of this approach in adult evangelism; we craft winsome arguments and appeal to the nature of the cosmos and the intrinsic code of right and wrong that seems to be written on every human heart. What fewer of us recognize is that we must evangelize and disciple our children in this exact same way. We must evangelize and disciple our children through wonder as much as through catechism.

Wonder as Much as Catechisms

In Orthodoxy, G. K. Chesterton, that great British philosopher of the last century, writes that he gained his understanding of the world as a child:

“My first and last philosophy, that which I believe in with unbroken certainty, I learnt in the nursery . . . a certain way of looking at life, which was created in me by the fairy tales, but has since been meekly ratified by mere facts.”

It is this “certain way of looking at life” that many Christian parents neglect—or perhaps have never even acquired for themselves. We are not merely stuffing our children’s heads with facts; we are shaping hearts to believe that certain realities are true so that when they do finally encounter the facts essential to faith, they will already have hearts that can recognize them. When they finally memorize “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth,” it will find lodging because they have already gazed up into this same heaven and marveled at its brilliant stars; and they have already let the sand from this same earth slip through their chubby fingers.

So that in the end, they don’t believe there is a Creator simply because Genesis 1 tells them so; they believe there is a Creator because they have seen his Creation. 


As you go about discipling your children, as you teach them their Bible verses and correct them when they disobey, do not neglect the sacred discipline of awe. Take them to the mountains to walk forest trails in search of the millipedes and butterflies that are the works of his hands. Take them to the seashore to be knocked over by the power of a wave so that one day they’ll know how to be knocked over by power of God. Take them to the art museum to thrill at colors and shapes and textures whose beauty can only be explained by the One who is Beauty himself. Take them to the cities to crane their necks to the see the tops of sky scrapers and shiver at God’s miracle of physics that keeps them from tumbling down.

And then take them to church.

Take them to church to bow their heads and receive the Word that gives them the ability to know the God behind all these wonders in a personal way. Take them to church to let the joy of their little hearts overflow in worship of the One through whom all these things consist. And take them to church, so that in the midst of other worshipers, in the midst of other image bearers, they too will be able to find their place in the great, wide world he has made.

—

Hannah Anderson lives in the hauntingly beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. She spends her days working beside her husband in rural ministry, caring for their three young children, and scratching out odd moments to write. In those in-between moments, she contributes to a variety of Christian publications and is the author of Made for More: An Invitation to Live in God’s Image (Moody, 2014). You can connect with her at her blog Sometimes a Light and on Twitter @sometimesalight.

Take Up and Read Beautiful Words

The longest Psalm in the Bible is a literary masterpiece. Covering one hundred and seventy-six verses the song is an impressive feat of creativity and command of language. In sets of eight lines each, the writer of the Psalm uses each letter of the alphabet to commend and speak of the power of the Word of God—“Aleph” through “Taw” (A to Z). In some ways, the Psalm itself is a grade-school alphabet primer to teach not only a language, but the greatness of the Word of God. While it might have been used in an educational environment to teach Hebrew children their ABC’s, the Psalm itself shows a powerful aspect of God’s Word that is often overlooked—namely its beauty. Consider for a moment the creativity of a writer who took the painstaking time to consider and weigh every word so that each line began with the proper Hebrew letter as well as making sure that the lines themselves were coherent. Each point makes sense. For the writer, the language became an artistic tool, like a chisel in the hands of a master carpenter to create something solid and indelible. Language became the vehicle of beauty and that beauty created desire.

Beauty is the spring of desire. It makes perfect sense that what our hearts, minds, bodies, and even our tongues and ears perceive as beautiful becomes more and more desirable to us. The Bible itself becomes an artisan spring of refreshment calling us to desire God more and more. God uses words to display his beauty, and even the words themselves are beautiful, artistic, creative, and delightful. But we frequently overlook the beauty of the Book.

The Bible As Textbook

When I was a senior in high school I began to visit colleges to assess whether the school would be a good fit for me and to see if I would click with a program of study that I would pursue as a vocation. I remember spending time one evening with a group of guys in a Bible college dorm asking them about the school and what pitfalls and snares I might face there. The students didn’t talk about the pitfalls of the city or the allurements of the party scene. They talked about the danger of the Bible.

Specifically, my counselors warned me against the danger of the Bible becoming a mere textbook. Yet this is how so many of us treat the Bible today. Instead of God’s Word being a beautiful, artistic, life-giving stream the Bible is shaped to become to just a history text book. Most history textbooks I remember were pretty boring. This is the approach we often take to the Bible. “Now class, open your book to page 116 where we are going to study the exodus of Israel.” Pretty boring.

The Bible becomes a textbook when we allow it to just be a source of information. We just look for knowledge to help us identify what to do and when to do it. We use the Bible to know the facts, dates, and timelines of the history of God’s people so that when we reach the pearly gates we can answer the appropriate question about when Babylonians conquered Jerusalem and exiled the Israelites (hint: 586 B.C.). We become Bible fact-givers that could topple any foe in a rousing game of Bible Trivia with our knowledge and profound grasp of information.

But we stand in serious danger of losing out on the reality and heart of the Bible. The beauty that draws us to desire God more. The Pharisees’ of Jesus’ day were in perilous danger of the same thing themselves. Jesus confronted them and said, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life” (Jn. 5:39–40). We use the Bible as a textbook for information but miss the beauty Scripture seeks to make us eagerly desire—Jesus Christ.

Beauty in the Book

How does God use words to cause us to thirst and hunger for him? How does the Bible become a spring that makes us thirsty for the water of life? One way the Bible itself develops thirst is by itself being a thirst-inducing piece of literature. Creativity, beauty, imagination, and a master-level command of language creates something distinctly unique and beautiful. As Harper Lee said, “The book to read is not the one which thinks for you, but the one which makes you think. No book in the world equals the Bible for that.” Like Psalm 119 the creativity of the writers of Scripture is profound and deep. Scripture itself is a myriad of types of genre, style, and creative energy. If we really pay attention to these aspects of good literature within the Bible itself the beauty of the book shines forth in a new way that makes us thirsty for God.

The Bible is not just one style or genre. It’s abundantly creative in the types of writing it contains. God uses story to draw us into the drama of his work. He uses poetry to move our emotions and hearts. He uses genres like fantasy to spark and overwhelm our imaginations with things that we can not fully perceive. He draws us into life on the street through letting us read the personal letters of pastors to the churches they love so much. He shows us the power of sin through the legal documentation of the law so that we despair of our own righteousness and flee to Christ. He helps us walk well through life by giving us memorable, witty, yet dense sayings of wisdom. He provides language for our hearts through song so that we pray and answer God in all his glory.

The Bible is not a monochromatic history. The more we see the complexity and beauty of each genre, the more we will desire to know and delight in the God of the Bible.

Engage the Book

Psalm 119 powerfully invites us to love and engage the Bible because of its beauty. How do we sing and say with the writer of Psalm 119:24, “I find my delight in your commandments, which I love”? God doesn’t make it difficult for us, like taking down some awful tasting cough medicine. He attracts us with beautiful literature that leads us to a beautiful God.

To see the beauty of God’s word we should engage the Bible itself. Utilizing resources like Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart’s Reading the Bible For All It’s Worth will help us understand the genres and diversity of the Bible. Leland Ryken’s How to Read the Bible as Literature is another excellent source of help to see the beauty in the Bible’s diverse genres. Beyond helpful resources about the Bible we should open up and engage the Bible itself in its beauty.

Augustine was engaged by the beauty of the Bible as he heard little children singing “Tolle lege” (“take up and read”) so he took up the beautiful book and began to read the Bible. As God spoke Augustine saw the spring from which everlasting water flows—Christ himself. We would be wise to do the same. “Take up and read” to see the beauty of God’s word.

—

Jeremy Writebol (@jwritebol) has been training leaders in the church for over fourteen years. He is the author of everPresent: How the Gospel Relocates Us in the Present (GCD Books, 2014) and writes at jwritebol.net. He is the pastor of Woodside Bible Church’s Plymouth, MI campus. 

SaveSave

4 Principles for Disciples Who Last

Following Jesus is hard work! If you’ve been on the road with Jesus for a while you know I’m telling the truth, and if you’re just starting out . . . don’t worry, it’s worth it. I have seen many friends and family too start out with Jesus and give up when the going got tough. Life’s pressures can crush our spiritual passion. Other commitments get in the way of commitment to Christ. The allure of new relationships can lead away from knowing Jesus more. All of us must hear the warning in this: Stay close to Jesus at all costs.  One of my aims with the Gospel Praxis Project is to encourage believers to live Christ’s core commands so that we walk closely with, and like, Jesus.

Jesus himself was acutely aware that following him and his commands was a hard thing. His parable of the sower illustrates this well. When Jesus was arrested, his closest followers fled for the hills, hiding in fear of their lives. One of the Gospels states that his best friend Peter followed from a distance (Luke 22:54). Following from a distance always leads to trouble—Peter denies Jesus three times that night! Jesus knew he would do this. Jesus knows us really well!!!

So how do we cope when faith is tough? How do we become disciples who last?

These four points show us how we can develop discipleship resilience to live a life of faith to the fullest and to the end.

1. Learn

Jesus passed his teachings on to his disciples. They in turn passed them on to another generation of Jesus-followers . . . and so on.  Followers of Jesus learn how to live by learning from him. We must live close to the Scriptures. We must learn God’s way of living from all of them. We have been given them to live according to God’s pattern for humanity.

Now some might disagree with me. They might argue that the Bible isn’t really the Word of God. “It was written in a time that we no longer understand,” they might say. “It is no longer relevant; it can mean whatever you want it to mean.” This line of thinking is subtly destructive for believers, the church, and the world we are seeking to love and lead back to God. God says the Jesus even claimed the Holy Spirit would teach us all that we need to know (Jn. 14:26). We see the Spirit’s work through out church history providentially guiding the church away from error and to truth. We need Scriptures’ teaching and the Spirit’s illumination to help us stay close to Jesus. And the two never disagree.

We need to LEARN from God’s word what God says as we submit to the Holy Spirit’s inspiration and leading.

2. Apply

Application of the Word of God is essential for spiritual resilience. Applying the teachings of Jesus through the whole of Scripture is to our spiritual well-being what exercise is to the body. It makes us stronger, sharper and provides us with the mettle we need to persevere in faith.

Learning is in itself not enough. Knowledge alone puffs us up. Application humbles us as we realise that learning needs to be integrated with all of life. It’s not enough to know that God values every person—we need to apply that truth in all our relationships and interactions. This will reveal our true character as we realise that applying learning is difficult. This is where the Holy Spirit prunes our lives to make us more fruitful for the kingdom of God.

In summary: We need to apply our Learning to real life in order for learning to develop into Spiritual fruitfulness.

3. Share

Jesus seemed to know a lot of stuff about the world, about God, and about what God meant in the holy Scriptures. He was immensely wise and perceptive about how the world functions and about how people (even religious people) use power for their own gain.

Jesus chose to be different. he set out to share everything God had given to him. Jesus lived what he taught. Jesus shared what he taught. Jesus shared his life and teaching with anyone who would come to him.

Some people in our lives will follow us because they see hope and life of the gospel within us. They will not know the reason for that life and hope unless we share it with them. The gospel is powerful because it leads to salvation. It is powerful because when we learn and apply it our lives are transformed from the inside out. We are not given the gospel of Jesus in order to have a great life. We are recipients of the gospel so that we can be in close loving relationship with God, and, secondly, so that we will share it with anyone who would come close enough to learn it. Living our faith develops our confidence in God as we lean on him to live and share Jesus with the world.

We share our knowledge of Jesus and the gospel through our words and actions. People will “read” us to see the true motives behind what we do. They will watch to see if our faith is real. They will observe how we conduct ourselves. They will listen for our faith to match our lifestyle. We are called by Jesus to take the gospel out into all the world. We are called to share Jesus.

In summary: We grow in spiritual confidence as we live and share Jesus and his great Gospel.

4. Trust

I started off by saying following Jesus was hard, and it can be. Peter sure knew about that—he always seemed to mess things up—yet he never gave up after he messed up. For example, there was one occasion when Peter and some of the disciples were in a boat on the lake, Jesus comes out to Peter, walking on the water like some ghostly figure. Jesus calls Peter out onto the water, and not being an intelligent man he jumps out of the water expecting to be able to walk on it because Jesus was. And he did! But the waves and wind come (as they do in the busyness of our lives) and his eyes are taken off Jesus (as ours often are) and he begins to stop trusting Jesus (aren’t we so prone to this?).

Jesus does call us to trust him and it is difficult. The writer of Hebrews said we endure by fixing your eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith (Heb. 12:2). Wow! Fix your eyes in simple faith on Jesus. Keep looking to him. Keep trusting him. Don’t put your trust in your income alone. Don’t look to other props of life to sustain your faith—just keep looking to and trusting in Jesus. This may defy logic and reason at times (just like Peter walking on water) but don’t worry . . . Jesus is there to hold you up.

In summary: We grow stronger in our walk with Jesus as we look to him in simple trust and faith.

L.A.S.T.

If you want to mature as a disciple of Jesus Christ:

• Learn from Jesus and be led by the Holy Spirit as you surrender to God’s word.
• Apply your learning in real life.
• Share your faith to grow your faith.
• Trust Jesus and keep looking to Him.

—

Stuart McCormack is husband to Jenna and father to Noah, Bella and Sophia. He loves reading & studying Theology and Leadership and in his spare time he tweets as @stu7p and blogs at www.gospelpraxis.wordpress.com. Stuart has served in his local church as youth minister and has experience of living and sharing the gospel in numerous multi-cultural contexts in Thailand and the UK over the past 20 years. He is passionate about helping others to learn, apply and pass on gospel and practices of Jesus.

How Rebellion Leads to Rest

Our hearts often flee to fear in seasons of waiting. We care more about the comfort of control than we do the uncertainty of steadfastness. Faith becomes doubt in the seasons where we feel like the rain is pouring too heavy and the ground beneath us may sink in. The natural reaction, as fallen human beings, is to then plant our own foundation that seems more stable than the soggy mess we stand in. So, we look down and become a little more confident after we see that we have built ourselves a little ground of our own. It’s like we prefer a false sense of security more than a genuine sense of dependence. Our hearts yearn for stability; only Truth helps them comprehend why.

For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” –Romans 1:17

For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.” –Romans 1:20

Believe it or not, college students, pregnant mothers, and retirees aren’t the first to endure uncertainty. Scripture is an entire story of people waiting for a holy God to reveal himself. If we were truly created in his image, then we cannot flee him. Even in the garden, he saw Adam and Eve in their nakedness. Yet they still ran from him in shame.

Uncertainty is a reality, and the fear that comes with it is okay. It scares us to have no control, but sin creeps in by how we respond to that fear. Rebellion is sinfully choosing to take control and build that faulty foundation ourselves. Submitting our fear under the authority of God is sanctification. It is the humble response of remembering and resting in his unwavering character.

Rebellion

The Israelites responded similarly in the wilderness, as they doubted their call to God’s Promised Land. I follow this pattern when I flee from him in fear that he will forsake me. I feel my feet sinking in the soggy grounds, and I choose to look down to gain my footing. In this act of “gaining control,” I take my eyes off of Jesus and struggle with greater uncertainty. My rebellion is not reckless defiance, but rather a doubtful and disbelieving heart. My doubt defies the promise of God’s faithfulness.Even more, my fits of fear reject the Source of Life and beckon a hardened heart.

Remember

We will never fully understand God’s ways, and we can’t attain the map to his will for our lives. I choose rebellion when I strive for control, and all I gain is a hardened heart. I will never gain assurance from self-made stability. The Holy Spirit is our assurance, and our faith is an investment in God’s promises.

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. –Hebrew 11:1-3

Our uncertainty should lead towards a deeper dependence on the faithfulness of God. It should lead our hearts to cry out for his Holy Spirit to guide us. God’s word declares his eternal faithfulness and our eternal hope. I wouldn’t fear the pouring rain if I remembered this Truth. I would stand on the soggy grounds with a lifted face looking to the sky for the glimmer of sunshine that I know is coming. A person who can stand in the rain trusts God’s eternal power and divine nature.

Rest

The grounds need rain in order to grow, just like we need uncertainty to test our faith. It is said that (in time) joy replaces mourning, and I think that (in time) rest replaces uncertainty. God promises that he has gone before us. Jesus said that he has prepared a place for his bride in the Kingdom. This eternal security should certainly have a profound impact on our present faith.

For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. –1 John 5:4

The beauty of dependence is that we can’t will ourselves to respond in faith. Confident faith is a consequence of eyes that are looking towards Jesus, and a heart calling out for his provision. Prayer connects our heart to the heart of God where we have access to rest and peace, even in uncertainty. We may not understand what God is doing, but we rest in his holy presence. Prayerful dependence has revealed God’s faithfulness more than any bible study ever has. Train your eyes to look to Jesus in the unstable times of life, and trust that he will steady the ground under your feet.

I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. – Psalm 34:4

Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,

“Today, if you hear his voice, ⁸ do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, ⁹ where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years. ¹⁰ Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’ ¹¹ As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’”

¹² Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. ¹³ But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. ¹⁴ For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. ¹⁵ As it is said,

“Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” – Hebrews 3:8-15

—

Chelsea Vaughn has served a ministry she helped start in the DFW Metroplex since she graduated from college. She received her undergraduate degree at Dallas Baptist University in Communication Theory. She does freelance writing, editing, and speaking for various organizations and non-profits. She hopes to spend her life using her gift for communication to reach culture and communities with the love of Jesus.

Beholding the Glory of Christ in Prayer

This is Part Two in our beauty series. —

I had to learn the hard way.

Isn’t that sometimes the best way though?

I remember as a child learning the importance of prayer. Bowing your head, folding your hands, and closing your eyes were all key elements. My friends and I made a game out of the process, sometimes accusing each other of not following protocol. “You had your eyes open,” someone would exclaim. “How would you know that if you had your eyes closed like you should have!” I would reply. It was fun at the time, but I didn’t quite grasp the importance of prayer until much later on in life. What started as a harmless game would later become a magnificent burden.

The Importance of Prayer

One of the challenges I have as a father is teaching my children to pray. In the Garwood home, we pray before we share a meal, before bedtime, and usually in the car when the occasion arises. My seven year old son enjoys thanking God for the great day he had, especially if it involved him getting to go outside for a while to play. My three year-old daughter likes to pray about things she wishes were true, like the family going to the water park or traveling to see the grandparents. My two year-old son prays in tongues (I’m kidding). Actually, the only thing I can understand with him is “Amen” at the end, as he moves on with his day.

All joking aside, when I pray with my children, I try to convey one of the most important reasons for prayer—the beholding of the glory of Christ. Why is this important? Take a look at what Jesus prays in John 17:24, “Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.” God the Son prays to the Father and asks that those who belong to him would behold his glory.

The goal of our praying ought to be the beholding of Christ.

What It Means to Behold

What does it mean to “see” Christ’s glory, and why would this be something worth pursuing? Ultimately, the Bible teaches us that we will see Christ’s glory in two ways: by faith now (2 Cor. 5:7-8) and by sight in eternity (1 Cor. 13:12).¹ The end result of our running the race is a face-to-face meeting with Christ. The challenge, however, is the running of the race. We live by faith, not by sight (2 Cor. 5:7), which means that our pursuit of God through the means of grace we call “prayer” involves faith. We must believe the promises of God. We must cling to the truths we find in the Scriptures. The beholding we do now by faith in prayer leads to the beholding we will do in eternity. One is temporary. The other is everlasting.

John Owen is helpful,

No man shall ever behold the glory of Christ by sight in heaven who does not, in some measure, behold it by faith in this world. Grace is a necessary preparation for glory and faith for sight. The soul unprepared by grace and faith is not capable of seeing the glory of Christ in heaven. Many will say with confidence that they desire to be with Christ and to behold his glory. But when asked, they can give no reason for this desire, except that it would be better than going to hell. If a man claims to love and desire that which he never even saw, he is deceiving himself.²

What Owen is getting at is the connection between what we do by faith here and now, and what will eventually be in eternity. “You wish to see Christ in the fulness of heaven? Great; live by faith now.” The correlation could hardly be clearer. Beholding Christ forever begins by beholding him by faith in this life. And what does it mean to behold? To gaze upon, cling to, focus upon, draw near to, and rely by faith on Christ. We must take him as our own today. Beholding is about attentiveness to Christ in the present.

Problems with Beholding

The truth of the matter is that we are busy. And it’s killing us.

“How are you doing?”

“Oh, I’m doing well, thanks for asking; I’ve been really busy lately!”

“Yes, me too. Life just seems to constantly get in the way!”

Ever had this conversation? Busy is the go-to answer in assessing ourselves. We’ve moved from “I’m fine” to “I’ve been busy,” as if either of those answers suffice. In our culture of discontinuous change, we simply cannot keep up. The next iPhone is out with a new processor and upgraded camera, and suddenly ours from just last year might as well be a bag phone. The struggle with gazing upon true beauty in the face of Christ today is our lack of attentiveness. We don’t have time and even if we did, we don’t.

Is this where you’re at today? Are you struggling to behold Christ by faith in earnest prayer because you think you don’t have time?

Prayer as a Means of Beholding

The reason I chose the means of prayer is mostly because it’s the one thing we almost all wish we did more of, and it’s the one thing we can do right now. You can’t read the entirety of the Bible this very second, nor can you figure out your entire life right this very second. But you can pray. And you can pray in faith. When we stoop before the Throne we can be assured that our prayers are being handled with care (Heb. 4:16). The Mediator who is both Priest and King invites us in to gaze upon his beauty as we pray in faith for wisdom, direction, and guidance.

We’re not too busy to behold the glory of Christ in prayer; we’re too dependent upon ourselves. Prayer is for people who are needy, not those who are self-sufficient. The way to behold Christ in faith through prayer is repenting of our self-righteousness and fall before him with tears. You may feel overwhelmed, busy, anxious, and stressed to the max. You may feel like you cannot go on. But let me reassure you: God gives you more than you can handle because the idol of self-sufficiency destroys you.

Drop the facade—we are not impressive, but Christ most definitely is. Beholding Christ by faith in prayer is a means of grace to strengthen your weary heart. Repent of excuse-making. Repent of self-sufficiency. Repent of feeling the need for instant gratification. Turn away from the need to indulge yourself with the newest and greatest, and instead behold Christ with patience wrought by the Holy Spirit.

^{1. John Owen, The Glory of Christ, abridged and simplified by R.J.K. Law (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 2009), 4.↩}

^{2. Ibid., 4-5.↩}

—

Rev. Jason M. Garwood (M.Div., Th.D.) serves as Lead Pastor of Colwood Church in Caro, MI and author of Be Holy and The Fight for Joy. Jason and his wife Mary have three children, Elijah, Avery and Nathan. He blogs at www.jasongarwood.com. Connect with him on Twitter: @jasongarwood.

How to Guard Against Mission Drift

New pastors and/or church planters have extremely high aspirations for maintaining the purity of their church’s mission. All those churches they used to work for got too messy, complicated, and unfocused. “This church won’t be that way!” they vow to themselves and other leaders. This is easier said than done. For most, after a few years of ministry, the challenges of mission drift come fast and furious.

Jesus is clear that our job as Christians is to make disciples (Matt. 28:19-10). Any church that doesn’t have this aspiration as a focal point of their mission simply disobeys Jesus. But mission drift happens even in organizations with clear goals and objectives. Consider the following points to help guard against this tendency.

Be ruthlessly redundant. I recall a time when I was giving announcements during a church service concerning an upcoming marriage retreat. It was the third week in a row that I made this same announcement. After the service I saw my friend Laura and asked her if she and her husband would be attending the retreat. I know she was present in the service all three weeks I made this same announcement. Yet she said to me, “Marriage retreat? I didn’t know there was a marriage retreat!”

We have to over-communicate everything for anything to be heard. So dare to be ruthlessly redundant. We have to learn to creatively over-saturate people with various modes of communication so they truly know our values and what we are collectively doing in light of those values. The bigger your organization the harder you must work to keep everyone on the same page. It helps to keep your mission statement simple. Because if no one can remember your mission, you won’t have to worry about mission drift, because you won’t have any mission.

Put the right people in the right place. Is everyone on your team fully convinced of the mission? If not, you’re simply waiting for mission drift. I know that most leaders can’t simply remove people from their team without causing huge conflict. Nuanced and difficult situations demand wisdom, patience, and prayer as you handle the complexity of hiring and firing. If you can’t change the team, at least you must be careful about who gets added in the future.

Say no to some very good things. Make the mission of your church the filter by which you determine your yes and no. You will need to say no to some very good things that don’t hit the bullseye of what God is calling your church to do.

Prepare for people to get mad, leave your church, or write you angry e-mails. This is the cost of a focused mission, but make no mistake—the payoff is beautiful. “Don’t spread yourself too thin” is a cliché for a reason. Everyone has a tendency to do it. But if you are in the habit of saying no to some really good things it will most likely free up space for you to accomplish your church’s calling.

Remember that you are not accountable to people who leave your church or write you angry e-mails. You will answer to God alone on the day that he has fixed. That judgment should provide the needed motivation to stay focused on your vision and mission.

Drip mission in every sermon. Larry Osborne writes in his book Sticky Teams about how he used to think that the most important aspect of casting vision was his yearly “vision sermon.” Over time this sermon proved challenging because people didn’t show up and faithful members tended to tune out since they heard the same message, with the same point, the year before. Now he practices a new approach to guard against mission drift:

Rather than blasting it all at once, I drop vision and core values into every sermon I preach.

The result has been far greater congregational alignment. Dripping core values and vision into every sermon makes them unavoidable. Anyone who would have missed my vision series or who would have tuned out because they’d heard it before is now stuck. Each week I plant a seed or two and then move on, long before they have a chance to tune out or put up their guard. And if they missed this week’s sermon, I’ll get them next week.

Beware personal drift. Most organizations reflect the values and personality of their leader(s). How’s that for a scary thought? Is there mission drift in your life? Can anyone around you diagnose this drift? If there is any disconnect between the stated vision and mission of the church and the life of the main leader(s), is it any wonder the church drifts from it?

Leading any organization is hard work. Staying aligned to our core calling to make disciples takes continued focus. This can be exhausting at times. Remember, in the end, Jesus will build his church. When we fear that everything is falling apart, that is the time to fall apart in prayer to the Father. As we faithfully pursue him, he will provide what we need to make sure that his church (not ours) will be focused on the right things.

—

Zach Nielsen (@znielsen) is one of the pastors at The Vine Church in Madison, Wisconsin, where he serves in the areas of preaching, leadership development and music. He is a graduate of the University of Northern Iowa and Covenant Theological Seminary and blogs at Take Your Vitamin Z.

Originally post at TGC. Used with permission of the author.

Reconciled At the Table

The way many churches exclude the Lord’s Supper from their regular worship service deeply concerns me. The Lord’s Supper forces the church to look itself in the mirror. When Jesus welcomes the congregation to the table of fellowship, we are confronted with the reality that he is far more welcoming and hospitable than we are. Christians can often be fickle people. On the one hand, this is understandable. Christians have an objective standard from which to judge right and wrong. This is a good thing because Christians have a moral and ethical compass with which we can navigate the swells of an increasingly relativistic society.

On the other hand, this can be a bad thing. Christians are often prone to use God’s objective standards to shun and exclude people when the God they worship is neither shunning nor excluding.

Look around the congregation.

How many people can you count that you would not invite to your table? There are great sinners in the congregation. There are people you don’t like. But all of these people are welcomed to the Lord’s table at the his invitation.

Jesus once told his disciples that he will draw all men to himself when he is lifted up (Jn. 12:32). What happened to Jesus when he was lifted up? He was broken. What happens to the bread when the minister lifts it up before the congregation? It is broken. The Lord’s Supper is much more than an act of remembrance for individual Christians. The Lord’s Supper is a participatory event where all men find themselves drawn to Christ’s broken body.

When Jesus’ body was broken the walls of separation between Jew and gentile, male and female, slave and free, black and white were broken as well (Gal. 3:28). This happens in the Lord’s Supper. People who would not dine together at their own tables are brought together at the Lord’s Table, they are brought together by the broken body of Jesus Christ. At the Lord’s Table, we participate in and show forth the great reconciliation of mankind.

Moreover, because the table is fenced, it is not up to us whether or not our neighbor will participate or not, it is up to use whether we will participate or not. At our own tables, we decide who we will invite and who we will exclude. At the Lord’s table, we are all invited, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28), but we are also told that we are to examine ourselves (1 Cor. 11:28).

When we are invited to the Lord’s Table each week, we are taught to look at our own hearts in regards to fellowship rather than to our neighbor’s faults. Sinful hearts look outward for excuses not to commune with others, sinful hearts turn in on themselves. In the Garden, Adam’s sin was a sin of consumption and blame shifting. When he was confronted, Adam shifted the blame on Eve, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate” (Gen. 3:12). In the Lord’s Supper, we are invited to eat rather than prohibited. Further, as we participate we are conditioned to remove the plank from our own eye before commenting on the speck in our neighbors (Matt. 7:5).

Look around the congregation.

How many people look just like you? Are they all white (let’s hope not)? Are they all black (let’s hope not)? Are they all republicans or democrats (let’s hope they’re libertarians)? No, there are people from all walks of life, all races, all socioeconomic classes, and all ideologies being drawn to the broken body of Christ.

In a world where selfishness has become a cultural virtue, the Lord’s table is hardly a place to perpetuate selfish interests. At the Lord’s Table, you dine with and commune with people you might never dream of inviting to your own table. But there you are, partaking of the same loaf and drinking from the same cup. In this act much is being proclaimed. Who you eat with says a lot about you and at the Lord’s Table we eat with Jesus, this cannot be overlooked. But while we eat with Jesus we are also eating with other people who are eating with Jesus.

The Lord’s table proclaims not only that we belong to Christ, but also that we belong to one another—all our differences and problems included. God’s people are not static in our relationships. Both vertically with God and horizontally with each other our relationships are dynamic. The Lord’s Supper images the dynamic nature to the life of Christ’s Body. We are growing, albeit with growing pains, further and further into the image of Christ, the head of the Body (Eph. 4: 15-16).

The church is a body of many members. Further, God’s word serves as a two edged sword cutting to the hearts of his people (Heb. 4:12) who have become living sacrifices (Rom. 12:1). Throughout each service God’s word has cut His church into pieces just as the levitical sacrifices are cut into pieces (the sermon). But the service does not end here. The church must learn that we are only broken by God’s Word because the Word of God was broken for us: “This is my body broken for you.” Moreover, as the body of many members (the church) partakes of the broken body of Christ we are made whole again by our participation in the one loaf (1 Cor. 10:17).

Perhaps the reason there is so much strife in the church nowadays is because we are not communing with one another as we ought. Our ultimate allegiances need to be formed not by who we would invite to our tables but by whom Jesus, weekly, invites to his.

Just food for thought.

—

Michael and his wife Caroline live in Athens, GA. Michael blogs weekly at Torrey Gazette. You can follow Michael on Twitter @_Michael_Hansen.

The Forgotten Essential of the Kingdom

We are starting a series that will explore the intersection between beauty, discipleship, mission, and the Kingdom of God. We will answers questions like: Why is beauty important for Christian living? Can we get by without it? What does the gospel teach us about beauty? How does the beauty of God inform lesser beauties? What is beauty in the Kingdom of God? This is part one. —

We hiked through the tangled woods searching for something beautiful. The trees had changed. We started on an open path with towering trees and far reaching boughs. As the path made its way closer to the water, the trees changed becoming smaller and reaching over the path which narrowed. These branches were bent and gnarled like the hands of my grandmother.

As the path descended, the air become cooler. We also heard the gurgling of water which grew into a growl as we approached our destination—a magnificent waterfall with a devastating 420-foot drop. This natural wonder is not the kind you walk by without awe at its beauty and danger. It demands you stop. We found a rock at the edge of the river looking over the waterfall and sat. We admired the beauty and danger of this tour de force of water.

Christians above all should be the kind of people who stop in awe of beauty.“The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork” (Ps. 19:1). The earth below and heaven above teach us how to declare the glory of God. They are beautiful for him. Yet some Christians think very little of beauty. Or maybe it’s not that they think little of it, but they don’t see where beauty intersects with their ordinary life. Our world is full of beauty. We have just lost the eyes to see it all around us. We are like a man who can only see the world in muted colors. We cannot live without beauty. We shouldn’t live without it.

Experiencing Beauty

In a recent article “Why Do We Experience Awe?” in The New York Times, Paul Piff and Dacher Keltner get at just this,

Why do humans experience awe? Years ago, one of us, Professor Keltner, argued (along with the psychologist Jonathan Haidt) that awe is the ultimate “collective” emotion, for it motivates people to do things that enhance the greater good. Through many activities that give us goose bumps — collective rituals, celebration, music and dance, religious gatherings and worship — awe might help shift our focus from our narrow self-interest to the interests of the group to which we belong.

They go on to introduce new research that may backup this initial thesis. In the research, people who regularly experienced awe in their life were more willing to help others. And it didn’t have to be ridiculously hard to reach Mount Everest type beauty. One group in the study spent time “on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, which has a spectacular grove of Tasmanian blue gum eucalyptus trees, some with heights exceeding 200 feet — a potent source of everyday awe for anyone who walks by.” This research tells us what Christians have been teaching for millennia, but many have forgotten: Beauty empowers love of neighbor. Let’s smooth the wrinkles even more: Beauty energizes love of God and, therefore, love of neighbor—because God is beauty and all beauty ultimately has its origins in his divine perfections. In the third century, St. Basil wrote, “Let us recognize the One Who transcends in His beauty all things."[1] And in the sixth century, St. Maximus the Confessor states,

Nothing so much as love brings together those who have been sundered and produces in them an effective union of will and purpose. Love is distinguished by the beauty of recognizing the equal value of all men. Love is born in a man when his soul's powers—that is, his intelligence, incensive power and desire—are concentrated and unified around the divine. Those who by grace have come to recognized the equal value of all men in God's sight and who engrave His beauty on their memory, possess an ineradicable longing for divine love, for such love is always imprinting this beauty on their intellect. (Philokalia, II)

Seeing the beauty all around us opens our eyes to seeing the beauty of the imago dei in all humans. In The Weight of Glory, C. S. Lewis plucks this same string:

There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations - these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit - immortal horrors or everlasting splendors. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously - no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption.

Beauty Must Not be Ignored

Some Christians today might consider spending a day hiking through the woods a waste. Some might be too busy to stop to gaze at 200-foot-tall trees. They might finding reading great fiction boring or might say, “I just don’t have time.” They might scoff at spending money at a museum. Or laugh off traveling to the Grand Canyon to sit and wonder at its terrible beauty. Others may want to do these things, but not have the means. Others might not see the importance. Beauty, however, is all around us and must not be ignored. It is essential for making, maturing, and multiplying disciples of Jesus Christ.

The same New York Times article ends:

We believe that awe deprivation has had a hand in a broad societal shift that has been widely observed over the past 50 years: People have become more individualistic, more self-focused, more materialistic and less connected to others. To reverse this trend, we suggest that people insist on experiencing more everyday awe, to actively seek out what gives them goose bumps, be it in looking at trees, night skies, patterns of wind on water or the quotidian nobility of others — the teenage punk who gives up his seat on public transportation, the young child who explores the world in a state of wonder, the person who presses on against all odds.

Christians, we must insist on experiencing more beauty—even in the smallest ways like sharing acts of kindness or admiring that “mundane” summer lightening storm. Find beauty wherever you can and stand in awe.

Beauty and Sadness

But what do we do when the most beautiful things in our world are littered with sadness? What happens when a mother dies giving birth to a child? What happens when a terrorists group destroys an ancient and awe inspiring cultural artifact? What happens when war breaks out and priceless art is destroyed? What happens when a loved one dies and you cannot see the beauty in that thing you once shared with them? Because truth and beauty cannot be divorced for now, Christians must acknowledge this uneasy union between beauty and brokenness. Sometimes we need permission to experience beauty in the midst of our sadness and suffering. When sadness intersects with beauty, gaze at the cross of Christ for permission. It embodies beauty and brokenness. J. R. R. Tolkien called the cross the ultimate eucatastrophe (eu = good and catastrophe you know). There we have the brutal, de-humanizing Roman cross and the Savior of the world sacrificing himself for our sins. The truth is we live in that kind of world and our Savior came to show us how to find joy in its midst. The writer of Hebrews says,

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. –Hebrews 12:1-2 (italics mine)

This tension then between beauty and brokenness creates more longing for a true and lasting beauty, for the kingdom of Jesus Christ to come fully to this earth. Until that day, we cry out “Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is heaven.” When the Kingdom is fully realized, all sadness will be undone and all things beautiful will be eternal. We will gaze at the beautiful unfiltered by sadness. We will truly see beauty because in the new heaven and new earth the King will return in all his beauty and majesty and his presence on earth will change everything forever.

Until that day we pursue the beauty we have. Not just for its own sake, but because God himself is beautiful, because beauty moves us with compassion for our neighbors, and because it creates longing for true and lasting beauty. Do not treat beauty as a luxury or something far off. Find beauty where you are and take the time to stand in awe of it. Consider how much more work we have to do in the world as we strive for the Kingdom coming.

It is meet and right to hymn Thee, to bless Thee, to praise Thee, to give thanks unto Thee, and to worship Thee in every place of Thy dominion: for Thou art God ineffable, inconceivable, invisible, incomprehensible, ever existing and eternally the same, Thou and Thine Only-begotten Son and the Holy Spirit. — St. John Chrysostom

[1] All quotations from the Church Fathers come from http://www.antiochian.org/node/23896

---

Mathew B. Sims is the Editor-in-Chief at Exercise.com and has authored, edited, and contributed to several books including A Household Gospel, We Believe: Creeds, Confessions, & Catechisms for Worship, A Guide for Advent, Make, Mature, Multiply, and A Guide for Holy Week. Mathew, LeAnn (his wife), and his daughters Claire, Maddy, and Adele live in Taylors, SC at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains with their Airdale Terrier. They attend Downtown Presbyterian Church (PCA). Visit MathewBryanSims.com!

SaveSave

Can We Do All Things?

It’s easy to misinterpret and accidentally use verses out of context. We all do it. Peter even tells us that Paul is hard to understand (2 Pt. 3:16)! However, one passage I see gets misused more than others. Paul writes to the Corinthians:

All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything. Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, but God will do away with both of them. Yet the body is not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body… Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body. –1 Corinthians 6: 12-20

Let’s talk about how many people interpret this passage. By “all things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable,” many people assume Paul is saying we have the freedom to do quite a lot, but that we just sometimes shouldn’t. We are not really bound by any rules, but sometimes it is unhelpful to follow our freedoms. We might have the right to drink, per se, but sometimes it is not profitable for us.

That sounds good on the surface, and may even have some truth to it in other places in the Bible (Romans 12, for example), but this interpretation has many problems. First, is it true? Can we do all things? Is the same Paul who says he is bound by the law of Christ (1 Cor. 9:21) and gives us multiple letters full of commands saying “all things are lawful for me?” Is he really saying I can do everything (murder? sexual immorality?), but that I just shouldn’t because it’s not profitable? That’s probably not the best interpretation of this passage.

Second, these people then interpret verse 18 to say that sexual immorality is somehow worse than all other sins. Paul does say, “Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body.” In other words, all sins are bad, but sexual immorality is against one’s own body, so it’s especially devious. Is this the right interpretation? Are there no other sins that are against your body (suicide, gluttony, cutting, drunkenness, etc.)? Is sexual sin worse than, say, assaulting someone?

This passage brings up so many questions. What does Paul mean by “All things are lawful for me?” What does he mean by “Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food?” What does he mean by saying, “Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body?” Does this make sexual sin some kind of “special” sin that is somehow worse than all the others? Why is this passage so difficult to interpret?!?!

Is Paul Stating His Own Position?

The problem with this passage (and the reason that it is so confusing) is because most people assume Paul is stating his own position. However, this text becomes clear once we realize he is quoting the position of the Corinthians then refuting it.

Before we delve into this further, three pieces of background information are needed:

• Slogans were as popular then as they are now. Our culture is rich with slogans. Nike has “Just Do It.” McDonald’s slogan used to be “Have you had your break today?” Now it’s “I’m lovin’ it.” Kay Jewelers has “Every kiss begins with Kay.” We are all familiar with slogans. In fact, we even have cultural slogans in the U.S. today. “To each his own,” “Don’t judge me,” “YOLO” (You only live once!) and many others. They had slogans in Corinth too. Some of which we will see in just a moment.
• The Corinthians separated their spiritual life from their physical life. Corinth was located in Greece and had been intellectually shaped by the philosophy of Plato who radically separated the concept of one’s soul from one’s body. Because of this dichotomy, those in the Corinthian church thought that they could commit sexual immorality with their body because it didn’t affect their spiritual life.
• The Greek New Testament was originally written with no punctuation marks, in all capital letters, with no spacing. Therefore, in English, the sentence: “Bob said, ‘I’ll go to the store tomorrow.’” Would look like this: BOBSAIDILLGOTOTHESTORETOMORROW

In fact, it looks much like a hashtag (#) on Twitter today. This means that we don’t have quotation marks to look for in Greek and have to discern who is speaking by context.

Using Their Arguments Against Them

With all that in mind, we are now ready to interpret this passage. The key to getting it right is to realize that Paul is quoting the Corinthians then refutes them and is not only giving his own thoughts. The ESV translation is helpful because it puts quotation marks around certain phrases (although it misses some other needed quotations). Here is what is going on, step by step.

The Corinthians say: “All things are lawful for me” (i.e. I can do whatever I want).

Paul refutes: “But not all things are profitable” (i.e. no you can’t).

The Corinthians say: “All things are lawful for me” (i.e. I can do whatever I want).

Paul refutes: “But I will not be mastered by anything” (i.e. you Corinthians are being enslaved by your sin and shouldn’t be).

The Corinthians say: “Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, but God will do away with both of them” (i.e. if you have sexual organs you are supposed to use them).

To summarize thus far, the Corinthians falsely believe they can commit sexual immorality because 1.) All things are lawful for them and 2.) They have been given sexual organs to use them. Paul refutes them at every turn.

That’s verses 12-14. What about verse 18? Now, this could be a quotation from Paul. If so, then he is showing how sexual sin uniquely unites you to another person because you become “one flesh” with them. No other sin unites your whole being to another person like sexual immorality. However, other people see this phrase as a Corinthian quote. If so, then Paul is refuting their position. If it is a Corinthian slogan, then there should probably be quotation marks around the phrase as well: “Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body.” In this reading this is not Paul’s position; it’s the Corinthian’s. Also, it is helpful to note the word “other” is not actually in the Greek. The translators added it to clarify what they thought the verse meant. But the addition makes sexual sin sound like a “special” kind of sin. You’ll see this if you look at the NASB quotation I used above because the word “other” is in italics. Verse 18 literally says “Every sin that a man commits is outside the body.” Did you catch that? Every sin! If this is a Corinthian slogan then the Corinthians are saying that sins committed with the body don’t affect the soul and, therefore, all sins are outside the body.

If this Paul’s position the problem is he contradicts himself later when he says “but the immoral man sins against his own body.” So, all together, when we understand that Paul is quoting Corinthian slogans this confusing passage in 1 Corinthians 6:12-20 looks like this:

Corinthians: I can do everything

Paul: No you can’t

Corinthians: I can do everything

Paul: No you can’t

Corinthians: If you have genitals, you are supposed to use them whenever you want.

Paul: No you shouldn’t

Corinthians: Every sin that a man commits is outside his body and doesn’t affect his spiritual life.

Paul: Sexual sin affects both your body and your spiritual life.

Paul is having a back and forth dialogue with the cultural and religious assumptions of the Corinthians. It is just hard to see because Greek didn’t use punctuation marks.

Doesn’t that make more sense? Isn’t that a better (and more probable) understanding of what Paul is saying?

Now, the idea of Corinthian slogans and quotations in this chapter is much debated. More research remains must be done. I personally still wrestle with verse 18 and whether or not Paul is separating the effects of becoming “one flesh” with another in sexual sin from other sins. However, knowing that Paul is quoting the Corinthians here helps us make more sense of God’s word to us in this difficult and multi-faceted letter. Though we are free from the Mosaic Law in every way we are still under the “Law of Christ” (1 Cor. 9:21) and all things are not actually lawful for us.

What About Discipleship?

Why write about this on a blog about discipleship? The answer: Holiness is a key aspect to growing in your faith.Not only will your spiritual growth be hindered by sin (sexual sin included), but you will also walk in less joy and freedom if you take up the Corinthian’s slogans. Now, the good news of the gospel is that Jesus’ lordship provides you with a loving God who forgives your sin no matter how much you mess up. We don’t “do better” by trying to do better. We “do better” by realizing that God loves us because of Jesus even if we don’t “do better.” We strive for holiness but it is a grace-motivated effort—not to make God love us but because he already does.

So make every effort to fight against sin. Get counseling, confess your dark secrets, get rid of your computer, cut off your right hand. Do whatever you must do to kill sin. All the while know that Christ has already and ultimately defeated sin and he loves you as you battle it. Whoever the Son sets free is free indeed—that includes freedom from minimizing sin like the Corinthians.

—

Zach Lee is Associate Home Groups Minister at The Village Church and is married to Katy.  Follow him on Twitter: @zacharytlee.

Our Freedom to Make Jesus Famous

In the months leading up to my daughter’s birth, I contemplated what it would be like to raise a child. I thought, if I can barely remember to put deodorant on in the mornings, how could I possibly steward another life? More importantly, how will I lead her to cherish Jesus? What if she one day rejects the gospel? I felt the enormous weight of Deuteronomy 6 where God commands his people to teach his statutes “diligently to your children, and you shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise” (Deut. 6:7). Raising an eternal soul was, and still is, terrifying.

The Bible tells us that the home is the most immediate context for discipleship. I am called to love God with all my heart, soul, and strength and to teach this diligently to my little girl. My wife and I have the unique mission of raising our daughter in a gospel-saturated home, reminding her about what God has done when we sit, when we walk, when we lie down, and when we rise. This is a beautiful calling, and totally beyond me.

When thinking of raising my daughter, I’m reminded that Jesus’s call for us to make disciples of all nations can also feel like a daunting task (Matt. 28:18–20). We wonder, how could I tell another sinner about Jesus when I myself am a sinner? What if I don’t say the right things? What if my own imperfections and foibles deter them from believing the gospel’s power?This calling, too, can be terrifying.

Beware the Obsession

I love being a dad. I thank God for my little girl every day. But as with any great blessing from God, the blessing of a child can make us want to squeeze too tight and never let go.

I have already been tempted to shirk the “prefab parenting models” in an attempt to raise my daughter the “right” way. There’s both an internal pressure within my own heart and an external pressure from the world to have a child who turns out perfect. I want her to love Jesus and to desire the supremacy of God above all things, but these pressures, and my inordinate concerns, often command me to focus on her conduct more than her heart. I hear others complain about unruly, bratty kids and I think, “That won’t be my girl!” This can be consuming.

When we invest ourselves in the lives of others, this tension is no different. We experience the extreme joy of God’s call to show them the ways of Jesus. Discipleship is wonderful. We feel responsible for their souls, and we long to see their lives radically transformed by the gospel. One of the greatest phenomena in God’s creation is watching the caterpillar become a butterfly, and this type of spectacle is beautiful to witness in the heart of an unbeliever.

The dangers lie in basing your own worth on the actions of those in whom you invest. It is tempting to allow our self-esteem to rise and fall based on another’s failures and successes. If the person you’re discipling fails morally, it is easy to blame yourself. If they show impressive growth theologically, it’s easy to congratulate yourself on the extraordinary ability to relay the deep things of God. This, too, can be consuming.

Certainly, there are many ways we can go wrong in discipling others. The sin that corrupts our hearts can lead us to dark places. Yet when we look to the cross, the hope we find in Jesus can take away all the anxieties and dangers of placing the results of discipleship on our own shoulders.

Pointing to Christ

In any discipleship relationship, whether our children or our neighbors, it is imperative that we continually point them to Jesus. And when we find ourselves getting rusty in this work, that’s when we need the gospel all the more.

Eugene Peterson says that “discipleship is a process of paying more and more attention to God’s righteousness and less and less attention to our own.” We were saved by grace through faith that was not, and is not, of our own power (Eph. 2:8). In the cross we see our need, how desperate we are, and the ultimate display of God’s love for us. The cross that we proclaim is also the cross that frees us from mistaking discipleship to be about us. This is the good news that we must keep at the center.

If we’re not seeing this glory, we cannot expect to lead anyone else to see it. At least, not in a way that will truly matter. However, Paul reminds us that “it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13). If we recognize this, the shackles of self-affirmation will no longer weigh us down. We can joyfully disciple others with the expectation that Jesus’s life-changing gospel will prevail regardless of our shortcomings.

Whether I’m holding my daughter or talking to my neighbor, I’m freed to make Jesus’s name famous rather than my own.

—

Brandon D. Smith serves in leadership and as an adjunct instructor in theology and church history at Criswell College, where he is also associate editor of the Criswell Theological Review. He recently edited the book Make, Mature, Multiply and is a contributor to Designed for Joy (forthcoming from Crossway, 2015). Follow him on Twitter.

Adapted from an article originally posted at Desiring God.

Remembering Pentecost For Mission Today

Few things incite heated debate among evangelicals quicker than the mention of Pentecost. A mere reference to Acts 2 invites detailed discussions on the nature of glossolalia that disrupts even the best unity. In a church culture undeniably divided over the details of Pentecost, it’s important to remember the ultimate redemptive-historical significance of Pentecost and the implications it has for the mission of the church.

The Significance of Pentecost For Redemptive History

Pentecost marked the beginning of the end. It was the final event in the saving career of Jesus Christ and the fulfillment of the long-awaited promise of the outpouring of God’s Spirit that initiated the last days (Joel 2:28-32; Ezek. 36:22-32). Jesus lived a perfect Spirit-filled life, died in the place of sinners as a substitutionary sacrifice, was raised from the dead on the third day, and was exalted to the right hand of the Father after forty days. He received the promise of the Holy Spirit from the Father and ten days later, on the day of Pentecost, poured out the Spirit upon all those who were gathered together (Acts 2:1-4).

Salvation history would never be the same.

The outpouring of the Spirit completed the inauguration of a new era in God’s redemptive program—the messianic age or the age of the Spirit—that begun in the first coming of Christ. This epoch stretches from Pentecost until the Lord’s second coming and is characterized by the radical evangelization of the nations. During these last days, all who repent of sin and believe in the Lord Jesus become participants in the blessings of this new age.

When it comes to Pentecost, I’d urge you not to miss the forest for the trees. What you believe about the glossolalia or the work of the Holy Spirit prior to Pentecost is a secondary matter. The defining feature of Acts 2 is the outpouring of God’s Spirit in fulfillment of the new covenant promises. Oh, how God’s people had longed for this day! One flawed generation after another testified to the fact that fallen humans could never keep God’s law; they could never carry out his mission. They needed more than the law; they needed a new heart that desired to keep the law. They needed more than a mission; they needed a new Spirit to empower them for God’s mission.

Acts 2 clearly conveys that that day had arrived; the long-promised outpouring of the Spirit had finally come as a result of Jesus’ work. A new age had dawned and now people from every nation under heaven could experience the indwelling presence of the Spirit and receive a new heart leading to new life. These people—saved by grace and marked by the Spirit—were then tasked with and empowered for the greatest mission ever conceived.

The Implications of Pentecost For Life On Mission

Christian discipleship would be unthinkable, even impossible, were it not for the coming of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost. Before he ascended Jesus told his disciples,

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” – Acts 1:8

Remember the disciples spent three years doing ministry with Jesus before his crucifixion, forty days listening to him speak about the kingdom of God after his resurrection, ten days devoting themselves to prayer after the ascension and yet—and yet!—it was only after Pentecost that they began to boldly proclaim the Word of God in power and call all people to repentance without wavering. The differences in the disciples’ lives and their ability to carry out Jesus’ mission pre-Pentecost and post-Pentecost are striking. This is because the outpouring of the Spirit transforms the people of God. Look at what happens in Acts 2:

• Believers become an empowered people (2:14-40).
• Believers become a missionary people (Acts 2:41; 47).
• Believers become a unified people (Acts 2:42-47).

As present-day disciples of Jesus we need to realize, we are no different from those first disciples. We too would be powerless to carry out Jesus’ mission apart from the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The Great Commission would feel like a mission destined to fail from the beginning were it not for the empowering presence of God’s Spirit. Praise God he did send his promised Spirit! Because of Pentecost we are now the empowered, missional, and unified people of God. We are commissioned by Christ to make disciples of all nations and equipped by the Spirit to live out that call.

Today, as you seek to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ and make disciples of those whom God has entrusted to your care, don’t live as if Pentecost isn’t a reality. Many of you are excessively burdened by Jesus’ call to make disciples because you are trying to do it in your own strength. You are trying to give life without acknowledging the Life-Giver; you are trying to impart understanding without relying on the Spirit of Truth; you are trying to witness to the world without drawing from the Source of Power. You look all too much like the disbelieving, scattered disciples during Christ’s passion rather than the empowered people of God sent on mission.

Many of you need to repent of your self-reliance and man-centered methods of discipleship. Human programs are a poor substitute for the power of the Spirit of God. Turn from those ways and learn to listen to the leading of the Spirit through God’s Word and prayer. Daily ask Christ to fill you afresh with his Spirit so that you might be empowered to live life on mission. As you remember Pentecost, acknowledge the redemptive-historical significance of it for disciple-making and celebrate the fact that you have been equipped with power from on high to be Christ’s witnesses to the ends of the earth.

—

Whitney Woollard has served in ministry alongside her husband Neal for over six years. She holds an undergraduate degree in Biblical Studies from Moody Bible Institute and just finished her Master of Arts in Biblical and Theological Studies from Western Seminary. She is passionate about equipping disciples to read and study God’s Word well resulting in maturing affections for Jesus and his gospel message. Neal and Whitney currently live in Portland, OR where they love serving the local church. Follow her on Twitter @whitneywoollard.

What We Build Will Be Tested by Fire

“Alright guys,” I instructed, “I want you to build something beautiful with the materials in front of you. But whatever you build has to be able to stand the test.” For an hour these young men created out of the materials I’d provided them. They could build with any combination of modeling clay, copper pipe, lumber, cardboard, rocks, and a host of other materials.

When time was up we surveyed their work. Some creations had an artistic flair; others looked like child’s attempt to mimic a Michelangelo piece. Some projects were towered vertically—miniature Babels. It was clear much effort had been devoted just to keep the creation upright.

With each young man still wearing a smile of pride and accomplishment, I poured lighter fluid on each project and lit them on fire. This fire was the test I told them was coming. The aftermath was entertaining. Besides the shock on the faces of the guys, it was fascinating to watch their creations burn. Depending on what they had used to build, some had more and some had less of their work remaining.

Now before you start calling me some kind of psychopathic pyromaniac, let’s be clear. The scene I created that afternoon wasn’t an original. Our construction project was actually designed to mirror a biblical text from 1 Corinthians 3:10-15.

Your Life is a Building Project Followed by Arson

According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw—each one's work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. —1 Corinthians 3:10-15

Paul is saying to the church at Corinth, “Friends I laid a foundation for you. I brought you the message of Jesus. Now it’s up to you to build on that foundation—for better or for worse.”

Just like my students built with different materials, every Christian, is building on the foundation they have received in Christ. However, Paul surprises us when he says what we build with our lives will be tested by fire.

There are two judgments described in Scripture. One for believers in Jesus (the judgment seat of Christ), and another for those who have not believed (the great white throne judgment).

According to Paul, your life is a building project followed by arson. Jesus is offering us a heads-up that we will stand before him face-to-face. During this conversation, the quality of the story you lived will be revealed. (It is important to note that for Christians, this conversation does not result in a verdict of heaven or hell but rather, reward or loss of reward.)

I’m prone to view my life as a smattering of disconnected parts. I can survey the different areas—husband, father, professor, coach, student, writer, athlete—and things seem kind of hodgepodge. But the Bible says that my life is progressing towards a singular and united outcome. That product is the finished picture of the story I have lived. That story, this lifelong building project, will either leave me smiling after my conversation with Jesus or it will leave me weeping and he will wipe away those tears.

So what are the materials we have to build with? What is the “gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw” that Paul refers to?

The answer runs deeper than the good things we do or don’t do. The story you live will not ultimately be the sum product of your behavior. The story you live is actually molded by the subterranean desires that drive you forward. When you stand before Jesus, he will test the purity of your affections. Were you pursuing false loves or responding to the Lover of your soul? Did you build your life around the true story of the gospel or around a hollow and broken story?

The most important task any of us can ever undertake is to launch a full investigation into these questions. What you find through this personal inquiry might change the trajectory of your life.

 Life as a House

The film Life as a House opens with a stunning panorama of the southern California coastline. We see the sun rise as it peeks over the cliffs and you can hear the waves crashing below. The camera pans and we are introduced to the main character who is facing the ocean, stretching, and urinating off the cliff.

George Monroe is the owner of this magnificent property and his neighbors hate him for it. Surrounded by pristine mansions, his embarrassing shack is in disrepair (and no functioning toilet, thus, the need for the cliff). The great irony is that George is an architect. However, he hates his job. He is divorced and alienated from his drug-loving son.

Early on in the movie, George collapses after being fired. Doctors discover that he has terminal cancer. Mere months remain in his life. With the end in view, he sets to work on the project he’s always dreamed of—pouring his energy and skill into the house. He enlists the help of his son Sam who violently opposes the idea but is forced to help by his mother. Sam moves in for the summer.

George has not shared the news of his cancer with anyone, but as his condition worsens the secret leaks. Sam begins to soften towards his father. As the cancer slowly kills George, his house is being constructed and repaired. But even better, a relationship between George and Sam blossoms out of the rubble.

As summer fades, George is hospitalized and it is clear that his death is imminent. Sam places Christmas lights on the house so George can see it from a distance in his hospital room.

George dies. The building is finished. The movie ends with a voice-over of his final words to Sam.

“I always thought of myself as a house. I was always what I lived in. It didn't need to be big; it didn't even need to be beautiful; it just needed to be mine. I became what I was meant to be. I built myself a life . . . I built myself a house. . . . If you were a house, Sam, this is where you would want to be built: on rock, facing the sea. Listening. Listening.”[1]

You and I can still build. You are, in fact, building something with your life right now. It’s the story you live.               

[1] “Life as a House (2001) - Quotes - Imdb,” IMDb, accessed April 17, 2015, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0264796/quotes.

—

Sean (@Sean_Post) lives in Maple Valley, WA with his wife and two sons and leads a one-year discipleship experience for young adults called “Adelphia”. He is completing his doctorate in Missional Leadership.

Adapted from Sean’s upcoming GCD Books title The Stories We Live: Discovering the True and Better Way of Jesus. Coming June 2015.

3 Essential Truths to Kill Our Desire to Prove Ourselves

Yes, my hand is raised. I am guilty. I didn't know it at the time. But my goal to become an Ironman was really an attempt to justify my existence—an opportunity to prove myself, to myself. I was a 27-year-old pregnant crying mess. Terrified by motherhood because my chance to make "something" of myself was passing. Sad that the next 20 years would not be all-about-me.

Deep down, I knew this was shallow. I wrestled with the value of temporary vs eternal success. My mind defined success as becoming a very obedient child of God, but my heart longed to defend its worth through achievement. This struggle birthed my theme song:

My hope is built on nothing less Than Jesus blood and my success, I dare not trust in my own fame, But halfway lean on Jesus name.

Do those lyrics sound familiar? Are you worried your life will be a failure without a strong resume? Do you have a history of chasing achievement, hoping that your next win will bring self-approval? Have you divided your life into two categories eternal and temporal? Clinging to Jesus to justify your eternal soul, but also clinging to success to justify your temporal life?

For the next two years, after my darling boy arrived, Ironman ran my life. Motivated and scared by the impossible task of a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, and a 26.2 mile run. The fear of failure and a persistent hope for self-acceptance inspired my training. I wholeheartedly believed crossing the finish line would validate my personhood.

In the cool evening air, applause erupted and the loud speaker bellowed, "Now, crossing the finish line is Tracy Richardson, a 29 year old mom from Arkansas. Tracy, you-are-an-Ironman!"

I eagerly anticipated that upon hearing those words I would burst into a stream of hot joyful tears. That I would be overwhelmed emotionally. That this achievement would be cemented as my defining moment. Nothing happened. Instead, I was slightly disappointed. First, because I'm from Alaska, not Arkansas. Second, I shed no tears. No fireworks went off inside of me. I couldn’t celebrate my newly justified self. I was still-just-me, only exhausted.

Ironman was a great experience for me, but it was not enough. Several days later, after some good rest, I came up with a new dream. Opening my own business. This time it would be different. Building my own little kingdom, from the ground up, would absolutely certify my success as a human being.

OK, so, why do I keep repeating these works for self-validation? Why do you? Why do we default to achievement, positive that it will validate our lives?

"Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through Jesus Christ" (Rom. 5:1). Paul instructs us on three essential truths to kill our desire to prove ourselves. These three gospel truths will combat our self-justification and selfish ambition.

1. God holds the position of Judge over our lives, not us.

As disciples of Jesus we submit to the standard God sets as judge. Our sin nature loves to play judge. We must resist the urge to analyze our faults and decide what will make us right. Our value and worth comes as we accept God’s judgment against us and cling to Jesus’ death as payment for the penalty. Our identity is no longer flawed; we have a new identity. You are a true child of God who lives to show everyone how awesome your Fathers is.

2. Peace with God is our greatest need, not peace with ourselves.

We all walk around with a gapping wound in our hearts. The wound is where intimacy with God once dwelt.  We feel our brokenness. This ache compels us to do "things" to bring peace to our hearts. Some of us try achievement, some the perfect body, some relationships. For believers this will be an ongoing struggle until we are transformed by seeing “the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 4:6). In the mean time, we must be in a community of believers who will faithfully point us back to the gospel. Brothers and sisters who will remind you that before you came to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ you were spiritually dead, without hope, and facing eternal punishment. We need the daily reminder that peace comes from a right relationship with God, not achievement.

3. Christ's work on the cross is the most important accomplishment, not ours.

As a disciple of Jesus it is faith in his finished work on the cross that gives us merit. In a culture that stresses our accomplishments as most valuable, we are easily tempted to lean on our resume. When we focus on our achievements to bring us wholeness, we make little of the cross. If it is our success that makes us acceptable in our own eyes, then we have trampled the cross and raised up our own accomplishments. It is only the Holy Spirit who transforms our self-promoting hearts.

Friends, join me and repent from vain-justification. Turn and savor peace with God. Ask the Spirit to renew your mind with John the Baptists words about Jesus "He must increase, but I must decrease" (Jn. 3:30). We will recognize the Holy Spirits work in our lives when we begin to boast more and more of Christ's accomplishments and less of our own.

—

Tracy Richardson (@alaskagospelgrl) serves at Radiant Church in Fairbanks, Alaska as the Church Planters Wife. She loves to study scripture, throw parties, and run trails. She has a B.S.S. in Fine Art and Literature. She is also Mamma Bear to two wild cubs.

Blessed Are Those Not Offended by Christ

Matthew’s story of John the Baptist asking who Jesus was (Matt. 11:1-6) deserves our undivided attention. This is a familiar passage and one we should run to in time of need. John the Baptist was imprisoned at the outset of Jesus’ public ministry (4:12), so he had heard about the deeds of Christ (11:2), but is somewhat baffled he’s still in jail. He wonders why cataclysmic judgment has yet to occur. Many at that time thought that the Messiah who was promised to come would bring fiery judgment against God’s enemies and vindicate his people. The prophets before had promised it. John himself continued to herald that message. But things hadn’t panned out for John. He was imprisoned somewhere east of the Dead Sea because of Herod’s self-involved infatuation and egotism, and Rome was still occupying the land. With a hint of bewilderment, John’s disciples ask Jesus, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” (11:3).

A UNIQUE RESPONSE

That’s a loaded question—but one that would be asked several times until Jesus asks Peter, “Who do you say that I am?” How does Jesus answer this? His reply is puzzling. Jesus pulls from several passages in Isaiah describing what is happening under His ministry: the blind can see, the lame are now walking, lepers are cleansed, the deaf can now hear, the dead are raised, and the poor hear the gospel preached. Careful readers will note that in quoting Isaiah, Jesus leaves off two remarkable things: The day of vengeance (which would come in A.D. 70; cf. Is. 35:4 with Lk. 21:22), and the release of prisoners (Is. 61:1). No doubt John the Baptist would have been mildly shocked to hear that the Messiah’s work would not involve a rescue and release plan for him. A cruel fate under the Sovereign care of God would await John (Matt. 14:1-12).

CRYPTIC WISDOM

The real shock comes when Jesus sends John’s inquiring disciples away with this beatitude: “Blessed is the one who is not offended by me” (vs. 6). John was not offended with Christ; he was merely inquisitive about this Lamb who was to take away the sins of the world. Just prior Jesus had explained God’s Kingdom demands for his disciples (Matt. 10). Mockery, ridicule, slander, and even death awaits the disciple of Christ. John’s story is no different. Don’t we face real temptation to be offended by Christ? Or to be put off, embarrassed, or ashamed by him?

Jesus calls the one who is not ashamed blessed. Remarkable, isn’t it? In terms of worldly standards, Jesus was just a nice guy who got caught up in something nasty. Wrong place, wrong time. Why should we waste time giving him a second thought? He failed to meet so many people’s expectations, so why bother?

True Discipleship

Many are so offended and embarrassed they angrily persist in an unrepentant, unregenerate state. They find the claims of Christ to be a stumbling block and a waste of time. They are put off by Jesus’ followers, message, and truth. Ultimately they will never take up their cross and follow Him because to them there is no holy and righteous God and, because of that, his atonement is irrelevant. Who needs a savior if there is nothing to be saved from?

Others, as Spurgeon said, profess Christ, “Who join the Church of Jesus Christ [and] after a time are offended.”^[1] For them he explains, “The novelty wears off.”  Of course, it does. I’ve seen it in my church. People come, are excited about the music, the kids programs, the coffee, and maybe even the sermon! They commit to serving the body of Christ, even jumping head first into the next opportunity—then the novelty wears off. In a culture that thrives on discontinuous change, we must consider, whether or not with so many options inundating us we want to continue in this vein of pleasure. The modern church movement hasn’t helped. Flash-in-the-pan ministry may amp up a crowd and “prime the pump” with exciting commodities, but then things get hard because a loved one got cancer, a marriage fell apart, or depression sets in. Novelty won’t steer you through that pain—only a deep and wide understanding of the gospel will.

When it comes to being offended by Christ, Jesus envisioned this last category for blessings. For those not offended like John the Baptist, for those not put off by him, and for those not ashamed to call him “Lord,” Jesus had blessings in store. Counterfeit discipleship cannot, and will not, stand the test of time. True discipleship is not being offended with Christ. Discipleship does not get tripped up by Jesus’ message, demands, and calling. It does not look to the things of this world for happiness. It abides, not in the whims of man and the tides of contemporary culture—but abides in Christ. Because of that, the Lord Jesus calls all those who are his disciples blessed.

As a pastor, this is the type of discipleship I strive to promote. It’s the hard stuff of life that shapes us into disciples of Christ. It’s calling people to endure through the trials and tribulations, that inevitably come our way. Don’t expect worldly success. It’s not attractive. The culture we swim in here in America places high value on the new and shiny. We cater to this by giving the novelties, and get upset when we realize that it just doesn’t work. Success and blessings come in the form faithfulness. Faithfulness is found in refusing to be offended by Christ.

^[1] C. H. Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, vol. 24 (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1878), 91.

—

Rev. Jason M. Garwood (M.Div., Th.D.) serves as Lead Pastor of Colwood Church in Caro, MI and author of Be Holy and The Fight for Joy. Jason and his wife Mary have three children, Elijah, Avery and Nathan. He blogs at www.jasongarwood.com. Connect with him on Twitter: @jasongarwood.

The Foundation for True Reality

“I feel abandoned and forsaken by God.” I’ve heard this sentence in one form or another countless times from people overcome by their feelings in the midst of life. I find feelings interesting because they can infiltrate our entire being and hold us captive to whatever impression they give in the moment. Although they aren’t bad in and of themselves, our feelings become problematic when they don’t reflect true reality.

As a “feeler” by nature, God’s constantly readjusting my feelings-based perception of reality to the truth of his Word. Recently, he used the book of Ezekiel to do this. Yes, Ezekiel comes to us from a distant land in the ancient world far removed from anything you and I experience. And, sure, this book is full of confusing imagery, strange sign-acts, and language that makes many modern audiences blush. If you’re willing to overcome some of its cumbersome content, you’ll discover that Ezekiel has profound implications for what it means to think and feel rightly as a member of God’s covenant community.

The Book of Ezekiel

Ezekiel 1:1 begins “In the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month.” Why begin with this date? Thirtieth year of what? Though it’s debated, many scholars believe it refers to Ezekiel’s age. If so, it was the year of the prophet’s thirtieth birthday. The significance of this lies in verse three, “the word of the LORD came to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the Chebar canal.”

Historically, we know Ezekiel as a prophet. As the son of Buzi, he grew up preparing to be a priest—the greatest calling one received in ancient Israel. His years would have been spent in preparation for the day when he would enter the temple in Jerusalem in holy service to Yahweh. Numbers 4:3 explains that priests were qualified to serve from the age of thirty to fifty; therefore, everything Ezekiel dreamed of doing from childhood on would come to fruition on his thirtieth birthday.

However his birthday had come and he’s not in the temple. Actually, he’s not even in Jerusalem. He’s “among the exiles by the Chebar canal” (1:1), “in the land of the Chaldeans” (1:3). Get this—Ezekiel’s in Babylon! He wasn’t ministering in the presence of Yahweh. He wasn’t enjoying the prestige of being a priest. He wasn’t even living in the comfort of his own land. Instead, he’d been taken as an exile in the first wave of the Babylonian captivity. He was living in an unclean land as a refugee surrounded by every imaginable evil.

“It was the fifth year of the exile” (1:2). He’d been there five years! Don’t miss the weight of this. He was ripped from his country, taken from his livelihood, denied the privilege of serving as a priest, and isolated from the presence of God . . . for five years. No Word of the LORD. No temple. No access to God. Furthermore, in the ancient world the victory of a nation meant the victory of their god. Thus, Babylon’s victory over Israel implied its victory over Israel’s God. Needless to say, Ezekiel was experiencing defeat in every conceivable way.

Humor me for a moment—imagine how Ezekiel must have felt.

Take him off his prophetic high horse and think about him as a real person. Do you think he felt abandoned by God? Possibly forgotten? Do you think he felt as if God were out of control or had given up on his people?

Christopher Wright insightfully writes,

“There is no reason to imagine that Ezekiel would have been immune to the doubts and questions that would have settled like the dust of the Mesopotamian plains on the huts of the exiles. For five years he had mourned and wondered and questioned. Five years is a long time for a refugee. The conclusion that Yahweh had abandoned them must have been close to irresistible.” ^[1]

Everything around Ezekiel pointed towards the conclusion that Yahweh had indeed abandoned him. But life is not always as it seems, nor is everything we feel the ultimate reality. Circumstances have a powerful way of shaping our feelings, but God stands above our circumstances and often works in mysterious ways. Thus, it is God’s Word, not our feelings, which offers the true interpretation of reality.

The Word of the LORD

Such is the case in the book of Ezekiel. It’s only when the Word of the LORD comes to Ezekiel that he understands what’s going on. He discovers all of his training as a priest was to prepare him for his true calling as a prophet. He realizes Babylon and its gods had not won the day. Instead, Yahweh, the God of all the heavens and earth, used Babylon as an agent of wrath to discipline wayward Israel. He learns the exile wasn’t happenstance; it was God’s sovereign plan to bring Israel to a place of recognition of sin and repentance from idolatry. He finds out God has a plan of restoration for his people, which he will initiate under the New Covenant.

Without the Word of the LORD coming to Ezekiel how could he have understood this? Praise God his Word did come to Ezekiel! We now have the written record of God interpreting redemptive history through Ezekiel in such a way that it gives us a filter greater than our feelings to make sense of circumstances. Ezekiel teaches us that despite everything we see and feel we can now we serve a God who is in control, meticulously working all things out to his ends for the glory of his name and the good of his people.

Ezekiel speaks powerfully to me about what’s really true. When I feel like God has abandoned me, I’m reminded God will never forsake those who have entered into covenant with him. When I feel like I’m spiritually and emotionally exiled, I’m reminded God pursues his children to the remotest parts of the earth—even into “Babylon.” When I feel like God doesn’t have a plan for my life, I’m reminded God is working all things out (including my life) for his purposes.

The Gospel of Christ

Moreover, Ezekiel points me forward to the supreme truth revealed in Christ. The prophet held out hope to languishing exiles that abandonment wasn’t the final word. God was going to bring about a New Covenant in which he would cleanse them and give them new hearts so they could be in right relationship with him (Ezek. 36:22-38). Christian, we are now living in the New Covenant. We are partaking in what Ezekiel longed to see. On this side of the cross, we have witnessed the climax of God’s prophetic promises in the person of the Son. Hebrews 1:1-2 says, “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son.”

You see, Jesus and his redemptive work is God’s final Word to us! The gospel, the good news that we can be in covenant relationship with God forever on the basis of the Son’s merit, is God’s definitive Word. God has spoken with finality about his love and commitment to us through the Son. So, when our feelings seek to distort this truth we must choose to believe the Word of the LORD as revealed in the gospel. Whatever you’re going through and feeling in this moment I want to remind you that Jesus is God’s Word to you—he’s your ultimate reality. His work on your behalf is the lens through which you can (and should!) interpret all of life.

^[1] Wright, Christopher J.H. The Message of Ezekiel: A New Heart and a New Spirit. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2001. Print.

—

Whitney Woollard has served in ministry alongside her husband Neal for over six years. She holds an undergraduate degree in Biblical Studies from Moody Bible Institute and just finished her Master of Arts in Biblical and Theological Studies from Western Seminary. She is passionate about equipping disciples to read and study God’s Word well resulting in maturing affections for Jesus and his gospel message. Neal and Whitney currently live in Portland, OR where they love serving the local church. Follow her on Twitter @whitneywoollard.