The Antithesis of Anxiety

We sold our home today. We signed the papers, handed over the keys, and completed the seven month process which felt all-consuming. Each stage seemed overwhelming—from the painting and redecorating at the beginning, to the actual packing/loading/moving/unpacking at the end (and all the “Hurry up and hide the toys, we have a showing!” in between). But dependence grows beautifully in the soil of overwhelmed.

During moments on this journey, fatigue and stress felt more real than anything else. Too many mornings immediately ushered in our mental to-do list. I hated the gnawing, low rumblings of anxiety just as much as I hated the snapping tone I heard come from my lips. At times the weight of all I felt responsible to accomplish was crushing.

“Do not be anxious about anything …”

I believed a lie. The circumstances were difficult, yes, but they were not what made my chest tight and my heart heavy. What did was believing the lie that I was responsible to affect change, to make sure that things went as planned, and to hold it all together. In the moments when I took my eyes off of Jesus and only noticed the waves, I was believing that I needed to make the water still again. It was pure, modern-day, totally-understandable-in-the-eyes-of-our-culture idolatry. Deep in my heart I was not trusting God really was who he says he is or that he would really do what he has promised.And in response to this blatant treason, my Savior King never left me. He never pointed a condemning finger or cast me away for my sin. The Spirit convicted and lovingly drew me back.

“…but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”

Apart from God’s grace I would not desire to pray, nor have the ability to access the blessings which prayer was designed to give. In my own strength, even on my most disciplined day, I could not drum up the righteousness to grant me access to the Holy, All-Powerful, Righteous Creator of the universe! He alone, out of the overflow of his own goodness and love, pursued me and granted me that access by the shed blood of his perfect Son, Jesus. He is very well acquainted with my broken condition and knows every moment of idolatry—past, present, and future. Yet He bids me, “Come.” He tells me to bring my anxiety and fear to him, as minuscule as they are in comparison to his greatness. And this Omnipotent God, who holds the stars and planets in place, bends to minister to me, a housewife in Ohio, who is disobeying him and robbing him of the glory he’s due. He draws me into his presence.

As I lie on my cluttered bed, tears flowing along with repentance, the Holy Spirit does what only he can. He exposes the lies, interposes the Truth, washes, comforts, and redeems. His commands are always for our joy, so when we’re told to be thankful instead of anxious, it is not another item to add to our to-do list. Rather, the Lord knows that anxiety cannot remain when we remember the greatest reason of all to be thankful: We get him! When we are in Christ Jesus, the reality of our right-standing before God, our temporary time here on earth, and our future, eternal home with him is the truest reality. The tasks don't disappear, but instead of believing that the outcome is dependent on my own works, I trust and rest in God. Resting in God’s economy is not the absence of our work, it is a heart-state that recognizes his ultimate authority and our position before him.

“And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Peace.

The perfect antithesis of anxiety. Just as my idolatry-produced-anxiety robs God of glory in my life, his perfect peace graciously given frees me to rightly enjoy him, thereby more rightly reflecting him to others. John Piper’s assertion that “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him” is confirmed right in the midst of a partially-packed box and piles of laundry. I talk to my kids more like Jesus when I am filled with his peace. I work on the to-do list with joy and grace when I remember that God is ruling and reigning and that he loves me. When my heart and mind are guarded against anxiety in Christ Jesus, I am freed to rest in the truth that he not only saves me, but he also keeps me, all for the praise of his glorious grace!

—

Myra Dempsey lives in the Columbus, Ohio area with her husband, Andrew, and their 3 children, Eli (5), Esther (3) and Gideon (1). Myra works part-time as a Licensed Professional Counselor and School Psychology Assistant.  She blogs at dependentongrace.com, contributes to the blog for her home church, at vineyardgrace.org, and has been blessed to be the keynote speaker at the iAm conference in Powell, Ohio, an event for teen girls. She loves reading, writing, and talking about God’s glorious grace!

5 Portraits of Gospel-Centered Counseling

Previously we asked, “How Does God Use His Word in Our Lives?” We pondered together what is most important in biblical counseling. Is the ministry of the Word primary and loving relationships are secondary? Or, is the relationship central and you need to wait to share truth until you’ve established a trusting relationship? We saw that God calls us to give both Scripture and soul, truth and love. We also noted that 1 Thessalonians 2 provides 5 portraits of a truth-and-love biblical counselor. Here we want to dig into those.

Portrait # 1: The Love of a Defending Brother

Portrait 1 paints the picture of the love of a defending brother. Paul uses the Greek word for “brother” twenty-one times in 1 and 2 Thessalonians. He starts his first letter to the believers in Thessalonica by letting them know that he always thanks God for them “for we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you” (1 Thess. 1:4). Paul is saying they are siblings in God’s family by grace. Imagine hearing from the great apostle Paul that you are family; you are equals—equally loved by God’s grace.

Paul’s use of the word “brothers” is not limited to a family context, but also extends to a military context in the sense of a band of brothers who have one another’s backs. Paul says it like this in 1 Thessalonians 2:1-2:

You know, brothers, that our visit to you was not a failure. We had previously suffered and been insulted in Philippi, as you know, but with the help of our God we dared to tell you his gospel in spite of strong opposition.

The word “opposition” means agonizing and struggling together. It was used of teammates training together and of soldiers fighting together in warfare.

Though persecuted, Paul courageously shares Scripture and soul because he cares. Paul’s brotherly relationship is not devoid of truth; it is richly focused on Christ’s gospel of grace.

Portrait # 2: The Love of a Cherishing Mother

In the first portrait, Paul says to his counselee, “I’ve got your back fam!” In this second portrait, Paul speaks as a mother who says, “I long for you with a nourishing and cherishing affection.” We read of Paul’s motherly love in 1 Thessalonians 2:7: “But we were gentle among you, like a mother caring for her little children.”

Paul’s describes his gentle relational ministry like a nursing mother, literally picturing the tender nourishing of breast-feeding. The word “caring” highlights cherishing, keeping warm, and tenderly comforting.

John Calvin portrays the scene beautifully:

A mother nursing her children manifests a certain rare and wonderful affection, inasmuch as she spares no labor and trouble, shuns no anxiety, is worn out by no labor, and even with cheerfulness of spirit gives herself to her child.

In 1 Thessalonians 2:9, we learn the nature of the nourishment Paul shares. “While we preached the gospel of God to you.” Paul’s motherly love is not simply touchy-feely love devoid of truth. It is passionate love filled with the meat of God’s Word applied to people’s lives.

Paul continues his theme of motherly affection in 1 Thessalonians 2:8. “We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God, but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us.”

I call this a ministry sandwich because Paul sandwiches loving them so much and being dear to us around sharing Scripture and soul. The phrase “we loved you so much” means to long for, to affectionately desire, and to yearn after tenderly. “Delighted” means to joyfully serve out of pleasure and not out of a sense of duty or obligation. “Impart” emphasizes sharing generously and personally.

Speaking about 1 Thessalonians 2:8, Milton Vincent, author of A Gospel Primer for Christians, describes well who we are, how we relate, and what we share:

We are significant players in each other’s gospel narrative, and it is in relationship with one another that we experience the fullness of God in Christ…. The greatest gift I can give to my fellow-Christian is the gospel itself.

Portrait # 3: The Love of a Shepherding Father

Paul’s third portrait of the biblical counselor communicates, “I love you as a father guiding you individually and uniquely.” We see this beginning in 1 Thessalonians 2:11, “For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children.”

The Greek word highlights the individual, focused attention that Paul gives each person he ministers to—each of you, his own children. Leon Morris notes that this is not just general group concern, but individual pastoral care. To Paul, no one was simply a number, or an item on a “to do” list.

Paul further describes his fatherly focused attention with these words, “as a father deals with his own children, encouraging, comforting, and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory” (1 Thess. 2:10b-11).

Paul’s ministry is not a one-size-fits-all ministry.

• To those in need of hope, Paul offers encouraging care—coming alongside to help and to en-courage (i.e., to implant courage into).
• To those struggling with loss, Paul offers comforting care—consoling the grieving and fainthearted, and sharing in their sorrows.
• To those in need of insight and direction, Paul provides guidance by urging them—discussing application of truth to the specifics of their lives.

Paul offers person-specific, situation-specific, and need-specific counsel (see also Ephesians 4:29; 1 Thessalonians 5:14; and Romans 12:15).

Portrait # 4: The Love of a Longing Child/Orphan

Paul now turns his portraits upside down. Previously he has described his relationships as a brother to a sibling, a mother to her infant children, and a father to his individual children. He now contrasts and communicates the love of an orphaned child bereaved of his parents. “But brothers, when we were torn away from you for a short time (in person, not in thought), out of intense longing we made every effort to see you” (1 Thess. 2:17).

“Torn away” is a phrase used of a child bereft from a parent. Chrysostom, a Church Father, depicts the word powerfully,

He sought for a word that might fitly indicate his mental anguish. Though standing in relation of a father to them all, he yet utters the language of orphan children that have permanently lost their parent.

It reminds us of Paul’s description of his leave-taking with the Ephesian elders.

When he said this, he knelt down with all of them and prayed. They all wept as they embraced him and kissed him. What grieved them most was his statement that they would never see his face again. Then they accompanied him to the ship. After we had torn ourselves away from them, we put out to sea and sailed straight to Cos. – Acts 20:36-21:1

And what was the content of Paul’s relational ministry to the Ephesian believers? It was gospel truth for daily sanctification.

You know that I have not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you but have taught you publicly and house to house. … However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace. Now I know that none of you among whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom will ever see me again…. For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God. … Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears. Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. – Acts 20:20, 24-25, 27, 31-32

When torn away, here’s how Paul responded. “Out of intense longing we made every effort to see you” (1 Thess. 2:17b). We could translate it like this, “We experienced such non-stop, eager desire to reconnect with you that we endeavored exceedingly to see you!”

Let’s be honest. There are some counselees whose struggles are so difficult and whose way of relating so troublesome that at times we think, “Couldn’t someone else counsel this person?” In those moments, we need to pray for the Spirit to empower us with the type of love and longing that Paul writes about in 1 Thessalonians 2:17.

Portrait # 5: The Loving Respect of a Proud Mentor

Paul’s final portrait of the personal ministry of the Word comes in a military context. He writes in 1 Thessalonians 2:18, “For we wanted to come to you—certainly I, Paul, did, again and again—but Satan stopped us.” “Stopped us” literally means a cut in the road—an obstacle placed in the road by a military opponent to impeded or slow the advance of oncoming troops.

Paul continues this military context in 2:19: “For what is our hope, our joy, or the crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes?” Paul now paints the image of the conquering king or general. Typically that general would gladly, and not-so-humbly, claim all the accolades for himself. Instead Paul turns to the “lowly private” and says, “You earned the victors crown. The glory wreath! You are a spiritual warrior. Well done!”

Sometimes we so focused on confronting the sins of our counselees that we forget that they are, by God’s grace, saints—victorious in Christ. And we forget to celebrate their victories.

As if to put an exclamation point on his respect for them, Paul concludes, “Indeed, you are our glory and joy.” Paul loves them and is proud of them. He publicly honors them for their esteemed service. They are spiritual champions in Christ.

Truth for Life and Ministry

Could the people we minister to say the following of us?

•  “I experienced you as a beloved brother embracing me as a fellow, equal member of God’s forever family by grace.”
•  “I experienced our relationship as a band of brothers and as a teammate who fights for me and agonizes on my behalf as you relate Christ’s grace to my life.”
•  “I experienced you as a nursing mother nourishing me with gospel truth through tender, cherishing love.”
•  “I experienced you as an affectionate, generous mother giving me Scripture and your very own soul because I am dearly loved by you.”
•  “I experienced you as a father focused on me with individual pastoral attention”
•  “I experienced you as a wise and caring father, shepherding me with exactly the biblical wisdom I uniquely needed at that specific moment.”
•  “I experienced you as longing for me so much that when we are apart you grieved like an orphan.”
•  “I experienced you as desperately longing for deep connection with me as a child longs for connection with a parent.”
•  “I experienced you as a mentor so proud of who I am in Christ that you give me a spiritual medal of honor.”
•  “I experienced you as a mentor so proud of who I am in Christ that I am your pride and joy.”

—

Dr. Robert W. Kellemen: Bob is the Vice President for Institutional Development and Chair of the Biblical Counseling Department at Crossroads Bible College, the Founder and CEO of RPM Ministries, and served for five years as the founding Executive Director of the Biblical Counseling Coalition. For seventeen years Bob served as the founding Chairman of and Professor in the MA in Christian Counseling and Discipleship department at Capital Bible Seminary. Bob pastored for 15 years and has trained pastors and counselors for three decades. Bob earned his BA in Pastoral Ministry from Baptist Bible College (PA), his Th.M. in Theology and Biblical Counseling from Grace Theological Seminary, and his Ph.D. in Counselor Education from Kent State University. Bob and his wife, Shirley, have been married for thirty-five years; they have two adult children, Josh and Marie, one daughter-in-law, Andi, and three granddaughters: Naomi, Penelope, and Phoebe. Dr. Kellemen is the author of thirteen books including Gospel-Centered Counseling and Gospel Conversations.

It is Finished

After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. – John 19:28-30

In 1862, French poet, playwright, and novelist Victor Hugo released his magnum opus Les Miserables, considered one of the greatest novels of the nineteenth century. In 1998, Hugo’s masterpiece found its cinematic zenith in the Bille August-directed film by the same name. In both works, one scene stands out above the rest.

At the beginning of the narrative, we meet ex-convict Jean Valjean who has just been released from a nineteen year prison sentence for stealing a loaf of bread. Trying to get on his feet, Valjean attempts to find a place to live but no one would take him in except for one—Bishop Myriel.

It doesn’t take long for Valjean’s old temptation to rear its ugly head. When everyone is asleep one night, Valjean goes to the cupboard and pilfers some of the bishop's silver. He makes a run for it but is eventually caught red-handed. The police bring him before the bishop.

Valjean stands before the bishop, being held by the police. Bishop Myriel looks at the police and proclaims something extraordinary. He says that he gave the silver to Valjean as a gift. If that wasn't enough, the bishop goes over to the mantelpiece, takes two silver candlesticks, and says that actually more silver had been forgotten by Valjean. He places the candlesticks in Valjean’s hands. The police have no choice but to let Valjean go free. But the story doesn’t end there.

After the authorities leave, the bishop looks at Valjean and says this to him, “Now, go in peace. By the way, my friend, when you come again, you needn't come through the garden. You can always come and go by the front door. It is only closed with a latch, day or night.”

The bishop not only gives him mercy by forgetting the original crime and letting him keep the silver he stole, he gives him more mercy by giving him more silver. And then, he gives him even more mercy by giving him the best gift of all: his trust. The bishop does something so radically counter-intuitive to us. Something that feels so unnatural to us. He gives him unconditional grace.

Quid Pro Quo

We live in a society based on conditions. When you look at the world around us, everything in our culture demands a trade of some kind. “You do this for me; I’ll do this for you.” “You scratch my back; I’ll scratch yours.” But unconditional grace? We just can’t seem to wrap our feeble minds around that. It doesn’t’ make any sense to us. We are so acclimated to a culture of quid pro quo that we believe everything must have a catch.

We impose this idea upon God as well. We think that in order for God to truly extend his mercy to us, we must give him back something in return. We feel like we owe him something. So we resort to a spiritual checklists because they feel much safer. We like conditions because they keep us in “control.” If we can complete our spiritual “to do” list, it gives us the illusion that things are good between God and us because we have played a part in it. Gerhard Forde, a Lutheran theologian, can help here:

The gospel … is such a shocker … because it is an absolutely unconditional promise. It is not an “if-then” kind of statement, but a “because-therefore” pronouncement: because Jesus died and rose, your sins are forgiven and you are righteous in the sight of god! It bursts in upon our little world all shut up and barricaded behind our accustomed conditional thinking as some strange comet from goodness-knows-where.

God’s grace isn’t conditional. It’s unreserved. It’s not a back-and-forth, two-way love. God’s grace always moves in one direction. And that is why it disturbs us. Forde continues:

How can it be entirely unconditional? Isn’t it terribly dangerous? How can anyone say flat out, “you are righteous for Jesus’ sake?” Is there not some price to be paid, something (however minuscule) to be done? After all, there can’t be such thing as a free lunch, can there?

That’s exactly what we do with God’s grace. We put conditions on it. We take a “yes grace but …” position. We think there is something that must be done on our end. There can’t just be free grace for the taking, can there?

The Beauty of Grace

The last words that Jesus spoke before he gave up his spirit on the cross were three words we need to massage into our hearts. “It is finished.” Grace announces that Jesus met all of God’s conditions on our behalf so that God’s mercy towards us could be unreserved. That’s the beauty of grace. It requires no work on our part. The work of redemption is complete in Jesus. In Christ, we are completely accepted. We are completely loved. In full. The work is done. It is finished.

This rightly rages against our insatiable need to work for our salvation. When we look to the cross and see the Savior of the world proclaim that the work is finished, it disorients us because we are a “conditional” people. Work, not rest, is our modus operandi. But that is exactly why Jesus breathed out those three words. God knew we would need to hear over and over, “Your effort is not needed. It is finished,” because to rest feels like a waste of time.

But deep gospel rest is exactly what we can find in the finished work of Jesus. Our hearts can truly engage with the words from Hebrews, “So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his” (Heb. 4:9-10). Entering spiritual rest means that we are resting in Christ’s finished work on our behalf—not our work or our reputation or our accomplishments. It means we are swapping effort for rest. It’s at the heart of what Jesus achieved on Calvary’s cross.

As we hear again the crucified Jesus’ final words this Holy Week, hope is uncovered. We are saved solely by grace through Christ’s work. In Jesus, we can be forgiven. We can be made clean. We don’t earn it. We simply receive grace because that’s the only way grace is received. Grace isn’t grace unless it’s unconditional. It looks as if there is such a thing as a free lunch after all.

—

Brad Andrews is a husband of one, a father of seven, and an advocate for grace. He serves as pastor for preaching, vision, and leadership at Mercyview in Tulsa, OK. He blogs at graceuntamed.com and his articles can also be found on Gospel-Centered Discipleship, For the Church, and Grace For Sinners. He served as a religion columnist for the former Urban Tulsa Weekly and was also one of the ten framers of The Missional Manifesto.

Today you will be with me in Paradise

One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” – Luke 23:39-43

On the cross, Jesus reveals a huge truth when he invites the criminal hanging next to him into Paradise.“And [the thief] said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ And [Jesus] said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise’” (v. 43). This man didn’t know religious jargon, but his confession is raw and authentic. He speaks in defense of Jesus, saying that he is innocent of the punishment he and the other criminal deserve. Yet, Jesus still hangs in the same place they do. This confession is a beautiful presentation of the gospel. Spoken by a man unworthy of the inheritance of Christ. His offense had to be among the worst if his punishment was death on a cross. The severe contrast of the two criminals is nothing but a posture of heart and the grace of God. Their reputation, infliction, and condemnation is the same, but Christ changed one man’s eternity.

Have you ever prayed for terrorists? Do you know drug addicts? Have you watched cyclic homelessness? What about pimps and prostitutes? A subtle lie has infected evangelicalism. It’s that someone can be too far gone to be saved. I realized this when I had a friend pray for a family member of mine. I sat in awe as she passionately pleaded for God’s mercy to be lavished upon my loved one. Her faith invigorated my own, even though at the time my hope for my family member’s salvation was extinguished. Honestly, I had stopped praying for them altogether. The infection of this lie dulls our hearts and minds. We choose to reside in the welfare of apathy rather than the dangerousness of compassion. The root is nothing more than hope deferred and rotted.

I grew up hearing that sin can’t be ranked because God sees it all as rebellion. It seemed simple. But a murderer can not simply be equated with a liar. It doesn’t seem natural, right, or moral to equate all injustice. However, no matter our sin when God considers those who believe in Jesus, the Father see us as the blameless Jesus. That truth that defeats the lie. If everyone who believes is seen in Christ, then we should boldly pray for the worst sinners. Because if they believe, they too will be justified by the blood of Jesus and seen as righteous in him. There is no boundary of too far and no unforgivable sin. We are blameless because of the Son before the Father. This justification is our victory and invites us into the very presence of God. We bear no weight of sin. Victory is ours and it’s for all. We can pray for the biggest sinner hoping to hear, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”

Nothing Outweighs Grace

Christ resurrects hope when we least expect it, when we least deserve it, and even when we seem to be out of time. Every story of the gospel’s work in the life of a sinner may not be told through a lifetime. It may be told in a short few minutes, or even seconds. The thief on the cross is delivered within moments of his death. He confessed with his mouth and believed in his heart (Rom 10:9). Therefore, he was justified and saved. But Jesus etched his story forever in the Gospels. This man may have wasted away his life. He may have killed and stolen and abused people. At the end of the day, he was rescued from the captivity of his sin. And in the last seconds of their lives, Jesus resurrected hope for this hope and so for all sinners. If God can save this man, then none of us are beyond hope. This man may not have had a lifetime to share the Good News of Christ, but his testimony lives.

When my friend prayed for the salvation and sanctification of my family member, it felt as though she showed me an empty well within my heart, but as she prayed, she began pouring water into the well until it was overflowing. Her prayer filled me with a hope that I had lost, but even more, she led me to the throne so that I could pray myself. God rescues us when we admit our insufficiency, just like the criminal hanging next to Jesus. “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.” (Rom. 15:13). The simple part of salvation is that we don’t do it. God alone through Christ alone uses the Holy Spirit alone to change the hearts of people. No sin outweighs the grace of God. My advice is this, don’t be afraid to ask for prayer. Even more, ask someone to pray over you and let the hope in their voice and the power of the Spirit remind you of the truth. Also, if you know someone who is lost or hurting, approach them and offer a prayer. The timing of God is not accidental, but absolutely providential. Trust and believe that Christ’s gift of salvation can be offered to anyone.

—

Chelsea Vaughn (@chelsea725) 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.

How We Read the Bible Matters

• I don’t really enjoy reading the Bible.
• I don’t get what a book written thousands of years ago has to do with my life today.
• I’m not really a reader.
• Did you know that people get drunk and have sex in the Bible?!
• I don’t understand what I’m reading.
• Did you know in the Bible there are these two people who were naked in the forest, eating fruit?
• I read the Bible everyday…Jesus Calling is my favorite.

These are all comments people have shared with me in regards to reading the Bible. One of them was from an 80-year-old grandmother, the other from a fourth grade student (bet you can’t guess which one).

So what is it about this book that is so complicated? Is it really that difficult to understand? Is it really relevant for today? What is going on with all the sex, drunkenness, murder, and naked people?

I didn’t grow up in the church, so my experience with the Bible was limited until I was about 20 years old. I just thought it was a list of rules to live by or some ancient book that told the story of the “two naked people in the forest, eating fruit.”

For many of us, perhaps we have learned that the Bible should only be opened on special occasions. Or that you should only turn to it when you want to feel good. Better yet, maybe you could just rip a verse out of context and make it mean what you what it to mean (hello, Jeremiah 29:11, anyone?).

It wasn’t until the Lord opened my heart to seek out truth that I discovered the life found on the pages of Scripture. And that’s when the paradigm shift happened: I learned that it’s not just if you read your Bible, but how you read it that will change everything. I learned a lie and three truths about the Bible that helped me understand who God is and what his plan is for us.

Let’s start with the lie.

Lie: The Bible is all about me

While the Bible is certainly for you, it is not all about you. It’s about God.

When we read the Bible, it’s to know and love God more. It isn’t to pull a verse out of context to apply like a Band-Aid; it isn’t to find a verse to thump those “in sin”; and it isn’t just to fill your head with more knowledge. It should produce a deeper understanding of God, a greater love for him, and lead us into worship.

Part of the reason I’m not a fan of many devotionals is they take you all over the place, pulling a verse here and there out of context, and slapping someone else’s meaning or application on it rather than reading an entire book of the Bible in its context.

Reading the Bible in a way just to “get something for me” is like only eating dessert at every meal. We all want it and it tastes delicious, but you can live off dessert. In the same way, if we only read for application, our diet of God’s Word won’t be sufficient. We need to observe what is happening and discover the meaning of the text to properly apply it.  This means we let Scripture interpret Scripture, or as my seminary professor would say, “We let the clear interpret the cloudy.” We look to other passages to help determine the meaning of the text we’re studying and allow the Holy Spirit to illuminate the Truth of God’s word. Understanding the literal, historical, and grammatical context will help reveal the correct interpretation of a passage, discovering what it first meant “back then” before we can understand how to apply it to our lives today. We also interpret correctly when studying within community or the context of the local church, under the leadership of elders and encouragement of other believers.

What a paradigm shift from what is sold to us in Christian bookstores: “Read this devotional for five steps to a better life!” That kind of me-focused-faith distorts what God’s Word is really for: to tell the redemption story of God’s people through the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Truth: The Bible is meant to be studied

One of the best ways to help grow in the Word is to pick one book or section of Scripture and study it. Sit in the passage for a while, reread it, come back to it, look up words, and become familiar with it. Like a letter written to a loved one, you read it from beginning to end. So it is with books of the Bible.

Reading a book in its entirety changes how you understand it and, therefore, deepens your understanding of God and his redemptive plan. When we read, we read to observe (What do we see?), interpret (What does it mean?), and only then apply (How should it change me?).

When I began to study the Bible inductively (observation-interpretation-application), when I began to look for what it teaches me about God and how I fit into his greater story, the Bible came to life. Actually, it became my life. I enjoy reading the Bible, I see its relevance for my life and the world today, it increases my understanding of God, and it helps me know why all those people were getting drunk, having sex, and committing murder—to help me see that I am just like those people, a sinner in desperate need of a Rescuer.

Truth: The Bible has many applications, but only one meaning

While there are many translations of the Bible and many applications, Scripture has one meaning. Our job is to discover that meaning. We should never ask, “What does this verse mean to me?” but rather, “What does this verse mean?” Our job as readers and students of the Bible is to uncover the original meaning of the text, which reveals how it is relevant and applies to us today. Biblical truth can apply to us in many ways, but it only has one meaning.

Truth: The Bible is all about Jesus

The Bible is a collection of books and stories that point to a greater hero: Jesus. The Bible has 66 books, written over a time span of 1,500 years, by 40 different authors, in three different languages, on three different continents, about one message: God’s rescue mission for his people through the person and work of Jesus Christ. The Bible is a story meant to be read that points to One who makes the unrighteous, righteous; the unclean, clean; the outcast, redeemed; the sinner, a saint.

This paradigm shift helped me to understand the Bible and, therefore, to better love and understand God and live in obedience to him. What has anchored me in times of pain and suffering has not been a verse I ripped out of context to chant when I’m anxious or afraid, but studying God’s Word in a deeper way. It’s knowing his character through understanding the big picture of Scripture from beginning to end that helps me (and all of us) endure suffering.

How we read the Bible matters—reading it will change your life and shift your paradigm completely.

—

Melissa Danisi serves at The Well Community Church in Fresno, CA and has been married for nine years. She spends her days encouraging and equipping women by teaching God’s Word and shepherding women. Her greatest passion is to see women walk in the freedom of the gospel and grow in their love of Jesus through the study of Scripture. She has written several bible studies and also enjoys one-to-one mentoring or small group discipleship. She is a graduate of Western Seminary, pursuing a M.A. in Ministry and Leadership with an emphasis in pastoral care to women. You can find her writing gospel-centered articles at selftalkthegospel.com, her church's blog , and her personal blog melissadanisi.com.

Adapted with permission from Unlocking the Bible 

Biblical Meditation As Experiential Reading

Perhaps one of the greatest ironies should be assigned to our current situation: we have more access to Scripture and its rich historical truths than ever before and yet we have in our churches an ever-increasing lethargy when it comes to the exploration of said truths. In other words, we have the Bible in our pockets with information at our fingertips and yet we lack a desire to experience the Word afresh. Maybe instead of calling it an irony we could call it a tragedy. The truth is, we have Study Bibles, Bible software, Bible studies, Bible apps, Bible commentaries, Bible dictionaries, Bible lexicons, and voluminous works after voluminous works of history’s finest theologians—and we’re not any smarter, any more holy, or any more passionate about God and his Word. What’s the problem?

Biblical Meditation

In our drive-through Christianity in America, we value our time and our dollars, which means we don’t have the time or the capital to slow down and digest Scripture. Either we’re not hungry because we’re not walking with Christ, or we are hungry but we prefer the dollar menu rather than the fine dining banquet. We lack time and we lack passion.

Consequently, Biblical meditation requires us to swim upstream from our culture. When the Apostle Paul challenged Timothy to “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Tim. 2:15, KJV), I can’t believe for one second that he meant it should be easy.

Biblical meditation is when the Spirit-filled reader ruminates on the word of God and is shaped by the Spirit to its message. When a person desires to meditate on the Word as we are told to do often in Scripture (e.g., Josh. 1:8; Ps. 1:2, 19:14, 119:97-99, 143:5; Eph. 4:17-18), she reads the words on the page, brings its truth to mind, ponders it in light of what it says about God and herself, and seeks to apply it to every aspect of her being. While many various eastern religions emphasize the “emptying” of one’s mind, Christian meditation emphasizes the filling of one’s mind so as to align with the Triune God.

Experiential Meditation

It is my contention that in order to have a healthy spiritual life built on sound, fervent, and frequent meditation on Scripture, we must do so experientially. This is by no means a new concept, for the Puritans built their ministries on this concept. What does it mean to mediate on the Bible experientially? Simply put, we are to “love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (Deut. 6:5).

Experiential Bible meditation is different from what’s practiced by many Christians today. Typically the Bible is read in a superficial way. The words are read in our minds or even aloud, and instead of getting out the exegetical shovel and doing the hard labor, we move on to the next thing. (Hence the appeal to short devotional readings—we don’t have time to spend processing and pondering a passage, so we need someone to help us get a little nugget and get it quickly).

In our 140-character world, it’s no wonder we can’t dig deep and do honest experiential Bible meditation. We’re trained to consume short amounts of information, oftentimes sharing an article on Facebook, for example, because of the headline instead of actually reading the entire article.

Inevitably, this type of consumption of content breeds spiritual lethargy. Therefore, we must slow down and return to experiential meditation—the process whereby we take a verse, or a set of verses and we spend time allowing our hearts, minds, souls, and hands to be shaped by the Spirit through the Word. It’s not enough to just read the Bible; the Bible must read us. Meditation is the key to experiential Bible reading. Instead of just reading words and passively processing them, true experiential meditation ought to stir the heart and motivate the hands. To read the Bible is to simply hold up a mirror. To read the Bible experientially is to gaze upon the mirror with inquisitive wonder.

Experiential Christian Living

So how does this work? What does it practically look like? To meditate biblically is to read the Bible through the power and promises of God in Christ. Bible reading ought to point us to Christ and the implications of his Kingdom in the world. Not only do we mediate on the Word for knowledge and understanding, we meditate on the Word for practice and piety. Orthodoxy leads to orthopraxy. The Christian life consists of theology going in and doxology going out; doctrine in the heart and mind, worship with our lives. We dare not only hear the word; we must do the word, too (Jas. 1:22).

Biblical, experiential meditation means that we focus in on what the Holy Spirit inspired so we align our heads, hearts, and hands with what God intends to impress upon the soul. The head, heart, and hands paradigm coincides with repentance, faith, and mission.

• Repentance (Head) – When reading Scripture, we should, like King David, weep. “I am weary with my moaning; every night I flood my bed with tears; I drench my couch with my weeping” (Ps. 6:6). The reason many people fail to exhibit righteous behavior and the fruit of the Spirit is because in our efforts to follow Jesus, we’ve forgotten about repentance. The Christian life is a life of ongoing repentance. If we wish to follow Jesus into the world, we must follow him with repentant hearts. The reason this must start in the head? “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind” (Rom. 12:2). When our minds are renewed and refreshed, our hearts follow along. Instead of being deceived by our hearts (Jer. 17:9), we can be guided by the truth—the Word of God. Biblical, experiential meditation on Scripture aims to answer the question: “What sin have I let run amuck in my heart?” This type of meditation requires a true examination of self before God in his presence in front of his Word.

• Faith (Heart) – The charge of experiential meditation focuses on the gospel of King Jesus which corresponds with the Apostle Paul’s words: “[A] love…from a pure heart and a good conscience and sincere faith” (1 Tim. 1:5). Because the mind is prone to wander, the heart is not far behind. Instead of shrinking back into a lethargically obtuse spirituality, experiential meditation ought to push us to “draw near [to God] with a true heart in full assurance of faith” (Heb. 10:22). We read the Bible to know not just about God, but to know God. When the Spirit works in us, he works via the means of his inspired Word. The Bible ought to be stuffed deep in the soul so our hearts are set on fire with a passion for the glory of God. It does no good to read the words of Scripture at the surface—we must plunge ourselves by faith into the Word of God so the Spirit can change us. It takes time, energy, focus, and affection. The Lord is near to the broken-hearted, so step one is to acknowledge our brokenness. We can then rely on the promises that he is near us, challenging us to grow with a heart full of child-like faith.

• Mission (Hands) – It’s not experiential if it doesn’t lead us to act. The Spirit works in the life of Christians who make it their practice to meditate on Scripture producing heads full of repentance, hearts full of faith, and hands toiling for the Lord (1 Cor. 15:58). Part of the reason the American church has been lazy in mission is because we’ve been lazy to pursue a heart of faith and repentance. It does no good to talk about disciple making if we can’t get the full-orbed Christian life straightened out. The mission of disciple making and maturing cannot flourish if the mind and heart is not full of the gospel. Biblical, experiential meditation fuels mission. When we are saturated in the Word of God because we’ve gazed into the mirror of God’s Word, love in action for our homes, church, neighborhoods, and cities is the result. We want experiential disciples who make disciples who make more disciples. We can’t do this without loving others and we can’t love others when we do not love the Lord.

Experiential meditation on the Word of God isn’t an end to itself; it begins as a life transformed from the inside out. It is the duty of God’s people to shape their minds through godly repentance, aligning their affections with hearts full of faith in a very big God, while cultivating a life of obedience to what God has tasked us with: discipling all nations.

Ultimately, experiential meditation does not make us more righteous. Reading the Bible doesn’t some how magically transform your standing before the Throne of God. The righteousness you need is in Christ and you have every last ounce of it. Experiential meditation helps us live in light of the righteous standing you have before God and leads us to a vibrant, difficult, real, sorrowful, joyful, and holistic walk with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. You have been justified by his grace through faith, so now you can go in that same inebriating, experiential grace and live an abundant life for his glory.

—

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.

3 Lies That Hinder Our Mission According to John Calvin

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution? -Romans 8:35

I've often heard that "self, society, and Satan" are the three sources of lies. My flesh (like so many other's) often fights against these pithy sayings, but so far as I can tell all lies ultimately come from one of these three sources.

However, all of these "sin sources" are biblical (Eph. 2:2-3). I was reading Calvin's commentary on Romans the other day and came across his remarks on Romans 8:35. He writes:

Tribulation includes every kind of trouble or evil; distress is an inward feeling, when difficulties reduce us to such an extremity, so that we know not what course to pursue. . . . Persecution properly denotes the tyrannical violence by which the children of God were undeservedly harassed by the ungodly.

It struck me how closely his definitions of these three words lined up with the "self, society, and Satan" line of thought. Let's deal with them in turn:

Self

Calvin refers to the word translated "distress" in Romans 8 as "an inward feeling." In other words, we come under distress when we stop trusting in God and His sovereignty and start looking at our own circumstances and allow our own thoughts and feelings to get carried away with worry. Surely someone like Moses could have had this happen to him when he was chased to the edge of the Red Sea with the Egyptians hot on his tail. But instead of "leaning on his own understanding" (Prov. 3:5-6) he trusted the Lord. It just so happens that God can make ways of escape for his people that humans can't do or understand on their own (in this case, parting the Sea!).

Experientially I confess that often I am the cause of lies I believe. I resonate with the theologians rock band Lit who said, "It's no surprise to me I am my own worst enemy."

I can also cry out with Paul who in Romans 7:24-25 wrote:

Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

Thankfully, Jesus sets us free from ourselves. Through him I can be liberated from my ability to deceive myself.

Society

Society tells me t hat certain kinds of clothes, food, jewelry, car, house, neighborhood, weight, size, shape, skin color, teeth, school, or work determine my self-worth. While these things have varying degrees of importance, God tells me that my identity is drawn from Jesus and to seek him above all these things. If I'm honest, at times I'm too quick to believe the lies society bombards me with rather than what I confess to true from Scripture.

Calvin's comments (v. 8:35)  focus specifically on what the people of God suffer at the hands of those who are opposed to God. While most people in the US have not experienced physical acts of violence as a result of their faith, some are concerned that this sort of persecution is on the horizon. In the meantime, it is far more likely that society will woo us to conform to its image through its clever marketing and that we will adopt their markers of success.

Churches are truly tempted to make budgets, baptisms, and “butts in seats” synonymous with success. These are all good and important things, but don’t necessarily equate to faithfulness to Christ. God desires above all that his Church seek him and make disciples that obey the teachings of Christ (Matt. 28). Yet, it’s not hard to find churches that have abandoned this distinctive for societal marks of success and brought the Church’s mission into subordination to the American Dream.

Just as Jesus gives us the power to overcome our own self-deception, He's given us the power to overcome society's lies. In Galatians 1:3-4 we read: “The Lord Jesus Christ . . . gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father.”

Satan

Finally, we come to Satan, our adversary and "the father of lies" (Jn. 8:44). If not for him, no sin or lies would exist within humanity. He is the source of all tribulation that’s not tied to the first two sources. Satan filled the heart of Judas on the night he betrayed Jesus. There’s an evil lie that tells us money is better than God and this lie shaped Judas in his betrayal (Matt. 26:15; 1 Tim. 6:10).

While Satan should be feared and we should not underestimate his ability to deceive us, we can take comfort knowing that God is sovereign and Satan can only do what God permits him to do (see Job 1 for this). While he prowls around like a roaring lion seeking to devour us (1 Pet. 5:8), we need only resist him and he will flee (Jas. 4:7).

Not surprisingly, Jesus has given us the power to overcome Satan as well:

Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. (Heb. 2:14-15)

Finding Our Way Back To The Truth

While all of us will give in to believing lies from time to time, thankfully Jesus has overcome these things and has imparted His victory to us by our faith in Him. We have God's inerrant truth in the Bible and can always turn there to help us in fighting off these lies. We also have prayer so we can trust in God with all our heart instead of leaning on our own understanding (Proverbs 3:5). What is prayer if not a vocal reliance upon our sovereign God?

Thankfully, despite this "unholy trinity" working against us, nothing can separate us from God's love that was made available to us through Jesus. In fact, Paul goes on to say that we are "more than conquerors" (Rom. 8:37). What does it mean to be more than a conqueror? Well it's possible for an army to conquer a competing army in battle yet suffer many casualties. But we are more than conquerors, so even if everything in creation was against us (even ourselves at times!) since God is for us we will not suffer casualties. We may be martyred for our faith, but we will live again and have life abundantly.

As we seek to make, mature, and multiply disciples, we must beware of the lies that threaten to hinder our mission.

—

Sean Nolan (B.S. and M.A., Summit University) is the Family Life Pastor at Christ Fellowship Church in Fallston, MD. Prior to that he served at a church plant in Troy, NY for seven years and taught Hermeneutics to ninth and tenth graders. He is married to Hannah and is father to Knox and Hazel. He blogs at Hardcore Grace and the recently started Family Life Pastor.

4 Considerations for Making Friends

God has given me the gift of being friends with outsiders. I am not sure why, but when I move to a new place or visit a new place it seems as though God sends people to me so that I can enter into relationship with them. I am not talking about merely having acquaintances, but entering into a real relationship with people. It’s weird how often this happens. A quick example. I was going to golf with a couple of friends at a really nice course, so I went for a warm up round at another local course. I went out by myself and didn’t want to be bothered. Even when I went to check in the guy at the front desk at the golf course asked if I wanted to play with others I said “no . . . please put me by myself.”

God had other plans.

After the first hole, we were backed up on the second and two golfers in front of me asked if I wanted to join them, I quickly said no, I’m good. But they persisted, so I joined them. For the next four hours I listened to their stories, said very few things, but asked some questions and continued to listen to their stories . . . it was a good time. After the first few holes I found out that one of the golfers was a retired baseball player, and a good one at that. He bragged about the course we were playing on and then bragged about his local pub that he owned and asked if I wanted to join him afterwards. I, of course, accepted.

We went to his pub and he ordered a ton of food and drinks and just wanted me to try a bunch of food and in exchange it seemed like he only wanted one thing: someone to listen to his stories. I did. I barely said a whole paragraph in our 6 hours of time together, but by the end, he was my new best friend and we exchanged telephone numbers and we now are going to be playing golf together regularly. What I found very interesting is his simple statement at the end of our day. He said: “This was such a great time, I am so glad that you joined us today, it was a pleasure to meet you and I can’t wait to introduce you to all my friends.”

Funny to think that I had this much impact on him in merely 6 hours and I hardly said anything. Instead, I did what many Christians, or should I even say evangelists, do rarely: listen.

In keeping with this example, here are four consideration for making friends today:

1. Be Available

The church has done a really good job of many things in the last 100 years, but one thing that really sticks out to me—We’re busy. It seems like we are either coming from something or going to something. Rarely do we have time for the Spirit to engage us in our schedule when and where and with whom he wants. We are simply too busy for the Spirit to sovereignly interrupt us.

Start clearing up your schedule so that you can be ready for the Spirit to send you people to engage with. Not only that, but start doing more things in public where people actually are. If we do these two things and we add to this a simple prayer of asking the Spirit to send us people he wants us to engage in, then we’ll be ready when he does and more open to engaging the world around us with purpose, intention, and excitement.

My wife has said over and over the best way to start meeting people is by simply going to the same public space weekly. Find a place where people are and keep visiting that place over and over again at the same day and time week after week. Not only that, but invite friends alongside you and see the fruit of being available yet intentional.

2. Be a Listener

Some people assume that one of the essential qualities of a good evangelist is the art of not shutting up. It’s as if the wittier the person is with their rhetoric, the more we hold them high on the pedestal of a good evangelist. I believe the most effective method of engaging the culture is the opposite approach. Your average person simply wants someone to actually listen to what he or she has to say.

The importance of evangelistic listening actually should be pretty freeing for most people.  Many think that they must have some great answer to the most pressing problem in today’s world, but they don’t have the first idea on how to go about discussing that concern. In other words, I believe the abundance of social media avenues in our generation gives rise to a unique concern; many people spend very little time conversing face-to-face with people who will listen to them. So, just by you listening, you are giving them an answer to a problem that faces them—even if they don’t know it yet.

Don’t just be a listener, but think about a few of these things as you listen:

• What is a common thread in this person’s story?What seems to hurt them most?
• What do they celebrate most?
• Where do they need redemption?
• What do they see as their functional savior for their problems?
• How could Jesus and the good news be the answer to their hurt and their issues?

Be careful that as you think of these things you aren’t merely listening so you can be ready to speak next...that isn’t good listening. Listen so much that you desire the Spirit to tell you when to speak, if you are supposed to speak at all. I’ve found myself listening so intently to people that at the end of their rant, story, or whatever that I have nothing to say. But I am ready to listen and ask more questions for deeper understanding.

3. Be Curious

The worst thing you can do as you listen to people’s stories is to jump to conclusions and try to answer questions that they never asked. Be very curious and ask questions until they tell you they don’t want to answer. But I’ll be honest I’ve never had someone say that they don’t want to answer a question that I ask...and I ask very personal questions. But remember...if you are a listener and not merely someone who seems to think they have all the answers, people actually want to talk to you and go deeper with you.

The posture of a listener opens people up to talk about and come to you about very deep issues and they’ll give you permission to ask the deepest questions about identity, idols, sin that you desire to ask.

The easiest way to be curious is when you hear details of someone’s story, never come to your own conclusions on the “why” in someone’s story and keep prodding them and asking them so you can uncover the “why” as they would tell it.

I’m always curious when people tell me their stories. I don’t hold back asking questions. And they aren’t bashful in giving me answers to my questions and going even deeper than I expected.

I believe the deeper the story goes, the longer the friendship will last.

4. Be Transparent

When you hear brokenness in their story that you can relate to, don’t hold back in telling them so. When they are vulnerable, make yourself vulnerable. This is where the church has, for the large part, disappointed many people. We haven’t been willing to open up about our own sins and hurt, but merely desire to point out other’s. As you open up about your story and your hurt, it opens up an actual relationship. An actual relationship is a vulnerable, two way street, not merely a one way relationship.

Do not hesitate to go as deep as they are going or press further into your sins and hurt to allow them the freedom to go deeper as well.

At this point many in the world have been better than some in the church. They know they’re broken, but some in the church act as though they are whole, without sin. Because my wife and I are transparent with who we are, we’ve found that it helps us develop deep friendships with the world, while it hurts us with the church where we receive constant pushback. The church would rather the scars and hurt stay deep within, so that she can look as though she is without stain. The problem is that when you do this, you hold in contempt those you are trying to reach and they can feel it. They can see it. And, they disdain it...and you...then Jesus.

We must know that we are not Jesus, but we represent Jesus. We actually get to show people Jesus the more transparent we are, showing our brokenness. When we show our brokenness, yet have joy in Christ, it gives hope that maybe our friends can also be loved by our Dad through Jesus as well.

Jesus Calls Us Friends

Jesus was called a “friend of tax collectors and sinners” then uses that same term as he speaks to those who were merely curious about who he was, to his very own disciples, and even to the one who betrayed him. I believe this is very purposeful, as everything Jesus did was, to make sure we identify, not just a few of God’s image bearers, but with all of God’s image bearers. Just think of this. The King of Creation, who could be friends with anyone, sent his son down so that we could be called his friends, that we could make friends, and that we could do exactly what Jesus has done for us: show us who the Father is.

This is the whole point. Jesus continually tells us that the reason he was sent was to show the Father. So, as he makes friends, that’s why he is doing it—to show off the Father.

The one who created time, makes himself available for us so we could be available to others knowing he holds time in his hands

The one who knows all things, is a listener to what we need and desire, so he can give it to us for the sake of making disciples. “Ask and it will be given” (Matt. 7:7).

The one who created us and is the center of the ultimate story is curious about us and our story. Jesus shows this with all his questions to his disciples and especially to the woman at the well.

Jesus…the one who Created the heavens and earth and was completely free of sin and was transparent with his creations. He pleaded with God to see if there was another way in the garden, because he was genuinely troubled with what was about to happen and to show us what it looked like to have an actual relationship with our Dad.

If the church, which is us, would just listen and start practicing these four simple truths, I would bet we would see how easy it is to not only make friends but share the hope that is within us (1 Pt. 3:15). You see Peter tells us to always be prepared to give a defense of the hope that is within us when people ask. But, my question is this: Are people in such a deep relationship with us that they would come to us and ask us about our hope? Or, do we see evangelism as something we have to go out and “do” with those outside of relationship because we don’t have any friends who are different than us in both appearance or beliefs?

Relationships take time and patience, judgment and condemnation takes seconds. May we pursue relationships the same way that Jesus has pursued us.

—

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.

Open-Handed Apologetics

OS Guinness believes that having truth is not good enough. He believes that simply “sharing the gospel” or presenting airtight arguments for God will not convince people to have faith in Jesus. He says there needs to be a creative element to presentations of truth that appeal to beauty and creativity as well as logic and science. He says we need to add a convincing element to our presentation of the truths of scripture and I, for one, have been persuaded. Guiness starts Fool’s Talk: Recovering the Art of Christian Persuasion by giving a story of an interaction he had with Norman Mailer. He witnessed how a man that was degrading to women was still able to capture the attention of a mostly feminist crowd by kicking it off with a joke. In a situation in which an entire group did not want to listen to his speech he was able to disarm them and cause them to be more open to hear his claims.[1] This is just one example of what Guiness defines as creative persuasion.

Guinness contrasts what is termed closed hand apologetics (the approach most people are familiar with) with that of open handed apologetics. Closed hand means utilizing the best of our knowledge in the areas of logic, science, reason, philosophy, ethics, and history to make the case for God’s existence that are as convincing as possible. This approach refutes objections and makes cases for what one believes.

On the other side an open-handed approach uses different tools to convince. This approach uses “all the highest strengths of human creativity in the defense of the truth” as Guinness says. This includes creating good art, writing beautiful stories, creating intriguing videos, or using the common philosophers of our day (like comedians and musicians) to display the ridiculousness of false viewpoints.

Not Secular Knockoffs

Now some will hear this and immediately think that means we create art with an agenda. Or that there should be a higher volume of art that has some over-arching and explicit message. Christian creativity is oft sacrificed at the altar of the salvation narrative that seems to be necessary for most content creation. Hank Hill summarized it best in an episode of King of the Hill when he told his son Bobby, who had been exploring the hype version of pop Christianity, "Can't you see you're not making Christianity any better, you're just making rock 'n roll worse."

This is not a call for pigeon-holing Christian artists into making their art explicitly apologetic but rather for these apologetic messages to be more creative. This approach calls for those who craft presentations and defenses of the gospel to not recite facts as if they alone convince the human heart to change.

When art is created only to push a message or just to make it relevant than much is sacrificed. This can be “Christian” art or overly content driven messages. For example this is what makes some people appreciate an older album by Lupe Fiasco but think that his newer content (which is clearly more message driven) is not as artful.

However, a sweet spot exists where art and message blend beautifully to create a persuasive message that stirs the heart and moves people into action. From Bob Dylan to Public Enemy to hearing “We Gon Be Alright” being chanted by #BlackLivesMatter protesters  it’s clear that art can influence cultures when created excellently.

These songs as well as visual artists have been able to speak to culture and have a persuasive presence. Now if they were simply aiming at a strictly fact driven message set to simplistic music this would not have had the same effect. If people did not enjoy the visuals aesthetics then no one would care what Banksy says. If Marvin Gaye had a bad singing voice and a terribly written song then people would not care “What’s Going On.” The quality of work matters when viewing the trajectory of its popularity. If it’s not good then people just won’t care.

Heart and Head

The problem in much of modern apologetics is not primarily a matter of scholarship. In the fields of philosophy and apologetics the Christian worldview has made a strong impact. By the presence of such apologists such as Alvin Plantinga, William Lane Craig, JP Moreland, Ravi Zacharias, to name a few.

If this is the case, then what’s the disconnect? If strong, rational cases are being made then shouldn’t a wave of belief in God be on the rise?

This brings us back to where we started. Many of us who interact in the world of apologetics need to understand that appealing to the imagination is just as important as appealing to the intellect.There are many who are apathetic about truth until it is creatively brought to their attention.

When I use the word imagination I do not mean things made up in our mind or daydreaming. Rather I mean the underlying conscious part of our selves that forms all of our ideas, desires, and longings. James K.A. Smith referred to this as the way in which we navigate the world primarily through aesthetic forms.[2] The imagination being better described as the central portion of our hearts which guides all others.

For example William Wilberforce labored tirelessly against the evils of the slave trade in Great Britain. People could hear his words all day long but they weren’t moved until he forced the politicians of his day to see a ship that was being used for the trade. They now could smell the death and see the conditions that others were put under. He also enlisted others who had been on those ships to speak out at congressional hearings.

Wilberforce was not satisfied with merely a transfer of information. He wanted them to feel the full weight of what they were voting for. He wanted them to see, taste, and feel the evils of the choices they were making. He recognized that a factual argument alone would not convince their hearts (which loved money) but their head (which can believe one thing and love another). An appeal to the imagination was needed.

Our Messages

Antoine de Saint-Exupery is credited with saying, "If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea."

Whether we are trying to craft messages that persuade in a pastoral sense, through the written word, or perhaps in a particular art form, we must appeal to people’s hearts and imaginations as well as their minds. There is no “Solus Intellectus” that demands we appeal only to head but not the heart.

Jesus used various methods to communicate timeless truths to people who were indifferent to him. If we want to persuade others of the attractiveness of our gospel we should use our entire God given creativity hand in hand with our logic and rationality to aid us in being a public witness for Christ.

[1] Guinness, Os. Fool's Talk: Recovering the Art of Christian Persuasion. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Books, 2015. 1.

[2] Smith, James K. A. Imagining the Kingdom: How Worship Works. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2013. 36.

—

Kevin Garcia is married to a beautiful woman, Miriam Garcia, and is a senior at SAGU. He will be continuing his studies in seminary afterwards particularly to study in the areas of philosophy, theology, social issues, and apologetics. He is passionate about seeing God work in urban contexts and examining the worldviews that influence people. He serves in a variety of areas at his church including teaching and preaching at LifePoint Church in the OakCliff neighborhood of Dallas, TX. Follow him on Twitter at: @kevingarcia__

Loving Enough to Share Our Lives

Not too long ago, I stopped through the grocery store on the way home after a long day at the office to pick up a few things. I was so focused on getting in and getting out, I was nearly running to get what I needed. In the midst of scaling my list of necessities, I found my heart prodded to share the gospel with a complete stranger that stood near me in the middle of the frozen meat section. In public, I often wonder if the people that surround me know Christ personally. This particular wonder developed a desire within me to share Christ with this person. However, doubt enveloped me. What if I act on this pressing from the Holy Spirit to tell this person about what Christ has done on their behalf and it blows up in my face? After all, it’s likely that they’re going to be like, “Dude, I’m really just trying to buy some pork loin. Can you leave me alone?” I let this prevailing thought win. I didn’t act in obedience to what I was being called to do.

Have you ever felt the need to say something, but because of your pride you didn’t? Here’s mine: Sharing my faith isn’t easy.

It’s rather hard. I fail even when I know I’ve been qualified and empowered to do so. At times, I talk myself out of doing it. It’s uncomfortable. I don’t want to impose on them. Maybe you’ve experienced these same feelings. A study conducted by LifeWay Research a couple of years ago concluded that 80% of “church-going Protestants” believe they have a personal responsibility to share their faith. Yet, only 39% of those surveyed had done so in the previous six months. If it was easy, surely more people would do it, right?

Think back with me to the last time you shared the gospel of Jesus Christ with someone. Was it last week? Last month? Last year? What drew you into that conversation?

When I share the gospel, it’s often a result of reminding myself what was done for me through the death and resurrection of Jesus. I remind myself who I was—dead in my own sin and transgression and unable to do anything within my own strength to bring about a change in myself. When I reflect on the fact that when I was utterly helpless, God stepped in and saved me though I deserved nothing but death, I am unable to be apathetic. God’s grace and mercy on my behalf overwhelms me and my thankfulness expresses itself through the desire to share the gospel with others.

The desire to share the gospel is love. Through the beautiful and gruesome display of affection on the cross to the triumphant conquering of the grave, God has has been lavishly bestowed love on us. 2 Corinthians 5:14 says, “The love of Christ controls us.” The love that we’ve experienced spurs us on that others may join in the hope that we’ve received. Pastor Robby Gallaty puts it this way: “The gospel came to you because it was on its way to someone else.” The intent of our receiving the gospel was not that we would hold onto it with clinched fists. When we truly love others, we set aside every comfort and pleasure for the sake of salvation.

The Apostle Paul understood this love well. He allowed this love to control his life. Because of the gospel, Paul loved and cared for unbelievers with such intensity, that it drew him to travel over 10,000 miles throughout his missionary journeys. However, was sharing the gospel the pinnacle of the abundance of his love for people?

DO WE LOVE ENOUGH TO SHARE OUR LIVES?

In his first letter to the Thessalonians, Paul writes:

“So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God, but our very own selves, because you has become very dear to us.” – 1 Thessalonians 2:8

When we share the gospel, God does the work of salvation.It often doesn’t require much from us. For our part, we see lost people excitedly come to new life in Christ then feel as though our job is to move on to the “next one.” That particular regenerate person is “finished.” This is a model of sharing the gospel that the Western Church has “perfected.” Paul is speaking here of a sharing that results in a greater depth than mere words. He writes that his affection for those in Thessalonica has drawn him to share his life with them.

This was not just any affection, mind you. When Paul writes that the Thessalonians had “become very dear,” he uses the Greek word agape. Agape love means sacrifice. Paul’s love was devoid of seeking personal comfort, because the grace of the gospel had taken hold of his heart.

What does that even require? How was Paul really sharing himself with these people? He expounds in verses 10-12:

“You are witnesses, and God also, how holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct toward you believers. For you know, like a father with his children, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into His own kingdom and glory.”

Paul, along with Silas and Timothy, offered themselves up to be examples in which the Thessalonians could follow. Essentially, here’s what they were saying:

“You’ve been brought from being dead to being disciples. You’ve committed yourself to a lifetime of followership, allow our lives to be the blueprint for how you ought to live out every aspect of your life for the Lord Jesus.”

The growing body of believers in Thessalonica was very young. Paul knew that sharing the gospel but leaving without teaching them the discipline of being a disciple would be disastrous. He goes so far as to say that his love for this body was likened to that of a father for his children. Is there a greater connection than a father and his children? A mighty love compelled by the gospel enveloped the heart of Paul. He loved them as his own and committed himself to their maturing in Christ.

This was hardly a Pauline initiative. The Gospels paint a vivid picture of the imperative of life investment. The mission of Christ was world evangelization. His method was making disciples. And the same mission (Matt. 28:18-20) that the Father sent him to do, he was sending his followers to continue (Jn. 20:21). Paul understood well that a disciple is a student of Jesus, so devotion to discipleship was imperative in his life. His desire was that those who God was sending him to reach would join him in this lifelong process in Christlikeness.

And so, if Paul was to be like Christ, he would need to invest his life in other men so that they would multiply and make more disciples. His understanding of the gospel as word and deed led him to teach others what it looked like to pick up their cross and follow after Jesus. There is no other option. We follow in the footsteps of Christ and make disciples his way. Who are you loving enough to intentionally invest your life into, for the sake of joining Christ in his mission of making disciples who make disciples?

This process involves investing in life with others and showing them how the gospel permeate every area of your life. I meet with a couple of guys weekly for Bible study and Scripture memorization. If I were to confine this discipleship group to getting together once a week, it would hardly be life investment. We eat together; we also pray together outside of our meetings. We enjoy playing nine-ball together. My goal is that these men would see how Christ is preeminent in my life, in every circumstance. We really are investing in life together.

PRACTICAL

What does it look like for me to allow someone to imitate me as I imitate Christ?

1. Pray and ask who God might allow you to disciple. Who has God placed within your sphere of influence that might need spiritual direction? When I was discipled, it started with a man approaching me and saying: I see that you desire to grow in your relationship with Christ, but you just aren’t sure what your next step is. Allow me to help you. It was true. I did desire a deepened and more meaningful relationship with Christ. Yet, no one had ever taught me what that looked like.

2. Allow those you lead to see how the lordship of Christ governs your life. Let them see what Spirit dependence truly looks like and how the Word of God informs every decision you make. Allow them to see your shortcomings and failures and remind them that the goal is progression, not perfection.

3. Let the Word of God be the foundation throughout the discipleship process. Teach them how to study the Word, how to store the Word, and how to share the Word. Create accountability with each other, holding fast to Paul’s commitment to the Thessalonians to “charge you to walk in a manner worthy God.”

More discipleship classes or programs will not work. We’re going to have to allow the love of God through Christ to control us that we might share our very lives with others for the sake of the gospel.

—

Tre Wiggins is the Campus Pastor at Kennesaw Mountain High School with NorthStar Church in Kennesaw, Ga. Tre grew up in Warner Robins, Ga. in 2009, he left to attend Kennesaw State University, where he met his wife Rachel, and eventually earned a degree in Political Science. You can connect with him on Twitter @trewiggins7

Fight or Flight? Engaging Opposition in Social Media

In 2006, Jack Dorsey and his peers put their heads together to create what we now know as Twitter. Dorsey, years later, shared why the name made perfect sense for their product:

[W]e came across the word ‘twitter’, and it was just perfect. The definition was ‘a short burst of inconsequential [read: insignificant] information,’ and ‘chirps from birds’. And that’s exactly what the product was.¹

When I saw the company’s CEO refer to Twitter’s original intentions with this kind of nonchalance, I was floored. I certainly don’t think Dorsey expected Twitter to become what it is today, not only in terms of size and popularity. I think even the purpose of Twitter has done an about-face. Everyone is on Twitter with a mission to be affirmed for what they’re saying or selling. Everyone has significant information for the masses to hear. Even the “Follow” and “Retweet” actions are often viewed/used as a vote of support or endorsement, which only furthers users into the mindset that what they have to say is of extreme importance.

Facebook follows a similar line. The etymology stems from its simple purpose: connecting people. It was designed primarily as a connecting tool, helping university students see who is in their class, who shares mutual friends, and so forth. Though they have become the most widely visited social networking site in the world, I would argue that our purpose for Facebook has shifted. Oftentimes the goal of Facebook is no longer to connect, but to exhibit the disconnect between people, groups, sects, and parties. Long gone are the days when family pictures and literal “status updates” were the majority of Facebook feeds. “Status Updates” are now “Opinion Updates,” where we clue in our friends how we feel about a current event. Most of the pictures shared on the site are shared precisely because of their divisive message in nature. Oftentimes satirical or sarcastic, oftentimes offensive, oftentimes not the kind of pictures Facebook was designed to share.

What is the end result of these two streams of thinking? “Listen to me. I am against this.” This causes a fault-sized divide day in and day out. Pick your topic: Syrian refugees, #BlackLivesMatter, Planned Parenthood, child vaccinations.

Fight

In today’s culture, social media is a Coliseum of sorts.Like the famous Rome amphitheater, social media sites have become architecturally designed to create gladiator-like battles between opponents, all while the masses cheer on from the stands. Not only do we want to wage war with our enemies and slaughter them in the public square, but we want the crowd to roar in approval all the while.

Comments have turned into pre-meditated, bloodthirsty diatribes, where we nearly max out the 8000-character limit, or we start a chain of 140-character tweets to get our full message across. Hashtags have been implemented as a way of raising what flag you represent and waving it for everyone to see. These are even further provoked when the “Trends” section features controversial talking points, inviting the crowds to pick up their weapons and wage war. What was once deemed “chirps from birds” have become sharp talons we use to sink into our opponent, sometimes passive-aggressively, sometimes outright.

Flight

But not everyone is out for digital blood. Some, in fact, have gone to the opposite end of the spectrum. They disengage and want no part of it by avoiding the Coliseum altogether. They “take the high road” and leave social media, when in reality they may be taking the high horse. Or (perhaps worse), they want to sit in the stands, watch everyone else fight, and spend their entire time being critical of those fighting in the arena. These people love to tell others that it’s so beneath them to be involved in the current online Coliseum. They’re the good guys. They’re staying out of it. When in reality, they’re just being “holier than thou.”

The constant flood of metrics around every status update, every tweet, every post beckons us to “be entertained.” Even a popular meme floats around social media that expresses this idea. It’s a picture of Michael Jackson, famously eating popcorn in his Thriller music video, with a remark that says, “I’m just here for the comments.” This is flight at its finest: A kicked-back, popcorn-eating attitude while watching the melee.

Neither extreme works. A fight-heavy approach leaves folks battered with deep wounds. A flight-heavy approach leaves folks disengaged and careless. Neither can be the answer, and neither are what God has called us to in Scripture. So, how do we respond? What is the right approach to engagement with opposition on social media?

We must use wisdom, which means it isn’t cut and dry. There is a give and take and the pendulum swings constantly. We must navigate these obstacles when addressing how we engage with others in social media. We must evaluate ourselves. Below are some introspective diagnostic questions we can ask ourselves in our own social media habits. I do not have the silver bullet for this dilemma. Many times I have wrongfully abandoned these self-checks, but I hope to launch the dialogue and save some of you from making the kinds of mistakes online that I have made. This list isn’t exhaustive, but it is an on-ramp to better, clearer thinking about how we handle being in the Coliseum of social media.

1. Do I know where I stand, and why I stand there?

The most fundamental problem with evangelicals is our lack of familiarity with Scripture. Christians are called to “always be prepared” (1 Pt. 3:15), but many of us lack proactiveness in this regard. J. Vernon McGee comments:

The tragedy of the hour is that there are so many folk who say they are Christians, but the skeptic is able to tie them up into fourteen different knots like a little kitty caught up in a ball of yarn — they cannot extricate themselves at all. Why? Because of the fact that they do not know the Word of God.²

That was written over thirty years ago, but still rings true today. The reason culture equates the skeptic with reason as opposed to the Christian is because oftentimes it’s the Christian who cannot formulate a seemingly reasonable argument for his position. We oftentimes look like Peter online. We draw our sword to bring harm (Jn. 18:10) or we just want to withdraw completely (Jn. 18:25). We act out of fear or emotion instead of reason and wisdom. If we cut their ear off, they won’t hear.

In order to engage opposition correctly, we must first know what kind of weapon we have in the Word, and more so, how to handle it. This means before turning to Facebook to share our opinion on a current event, we must turn to the Scriptures to discover how God’s Word may advise us. As I’ve said before, your words will always be fruitful if they are founded in Scripture and prayer. We wouldn’t trust our military to defend our country if they had absolutely no training with guns and weaponry. Why should the Christian be different? Preparation is vital to our message (1 Pet. 3:15). As John Newton notes, when God's Word is at the forefront of our attention, “We seldom make great mistakes.”

2. Do I know where he stands, and why he stands there?

A common mistake we make in engaging others online is that we don’t take enough time to reason with others from their perspective/worldview. We’re so infatuated with getting our point across that we’re susceptible to missing the undertones of what is actually being advocated for. Doing the extra work to understand other’s presuppositions will save us much trouble. This takes a lot of patience, listening, and not talking.

Proverbs tells us, “A prudent man conceals knowledge” (12:23) and “even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise” (17:28). This does not mean flight or avoiding the confrontation. It means shutting up. It means letting the opponent have the floor and respecting his voice. It means being wise and discerning.

It’s baffling why we Christians struggle with this, especially with unbelievers. For one, we know the truth, and it’s rooted in an omnipotent God. Nothing can stand superior to the truth of God and the Scriptures. We should believe, then, that the longer we let a skeptic talk, the more he will expose the flaws in his own logic, for it’s not truth! More than this, if we expect to be given a chance to share our beliefs or viewpoints, we must offer the same to our brothers and sisters online. Football teams study the opponent’s game film because they want to know how to capitalize on their weaknesses. We can only learn from our opponents when we practice careful listening with patience.

3. How am I loving people with the gospel?

That was terribly painful to type. I think back to many of my snide, off-center remarks made online. Harsh, bruising words leave a permanent online wound that no post editing or deleting can fix. Absence and silence is deafening when we don’t love unbelievers enough to share the good news we know. Any time we engage in discussion or debate online, especially when someone opposes our stance, this question should be burning in our hearts. It’s in these moments that we have a chance to demonstrate the offense and the love of the gospel all at once. The Holy Spirit will remove scales from eyes and soften hearts, so let’s be more concerned with loving our neighbor as ourselves. Sometimes, that means appropriate confrontation. Sometimes, it means private conversation. But it should always mean grace, humility, clarity, patience, more grace, and love.

The truth is, we do have significant message to share. We have the opportunity to connect authentically with real people. Fight won’t fix the dynamic of social media. Flight won’t fix it, either. Only the good news of Jesus Christ can bring true restoration, even to our communication! Until then, let us labor to be grounded in truth, patient to listen, and willing to love.

1. Sano, David (February 18, 2009). "Twitter Creator Jack Dorsey Illuminates the Site's Founding Document". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved June 18, 2009

2. McGee, J. Vernon. Thru The Bible Commentary. Accessed November 18, 2015 at http://preceptaustin.org/1peter_verse_by_verse__313-22.htm

—

Zach Barnhart (@zachbarnhart) currently serves as a church planting intern with Fellowship Church in Knoxville, Tennessee and is pursuing pastoral ministry. He is a college graduate from Middle Tennessee State University and lives in Knoxville with his wife, Hannah. He is a blogger, contributor to For The Church and Servants of Grace, and manages a devotional/podcast at Cultivated.

Following a Crucified Messiah

Lately my self-talk has been more subtle than usual, but no less harmful. During an ongoing season of being stretched in about every imaginable way, I’ve caught myself offhandedly thinking, “Don’t you wish you chose an easier path?” Or, “Why can’t you just have a normal, more comfortable life?” Undoubtedly, in these moments, I’m believing the lie that I can be a follower of Christ and a friend of the worldI want to experience all the benefits of salvation without the consequences of following Jesus. I want to follow Him and have a comfortable, convenient life. I start buying into the idea that my time is mine, my money is mine, my plans are mine, my family is mine, even my physical life is mine. But, when I stop and think about it, it’s actually quite ridiculous. As a Christian, I serve a crucified Messiah! To act as though this doesn’t have implications for my own life is simply foolish.

As a matter of fact, the words of Jesus in Matthew 16:24 make it clear what following a crucified Messiah will demand—devotion unto death.

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”

The literary context is key to understanding the full thrust of Jesus’ words. He says this to His disciples immediately after rebuking Peter for challenging His Messianic suffering (see Matt. 16:21-23). Surely Peter’s concern is not only for Jesus’ final destiny, but also for his own. You see, if Jesus were to go to Jerusalem, suffer many things and be killed (Matt. 16:21), it would have serious implications for anyone who identified with Him. Peter knows this and being influenced in some capacity by Satan (Matt. 16:23), attempts to prevent Jesus’ mission. Jesus, the condemned King on the road to His execution, rebukes Peter (Matt. 16:23) and goes on to make the disciples’ mission as explicit as His own (Matt. 16:24-28); His path would inevitably become theirs.

I SERVE A CRUCIFIED MESSIAH! TO ACT AS THOUGH THIS DOESN’T HAVE IMPLICATIONS FOR MY OWN LIFE IS SIMPLY FOOLISH

Jesus is demanding nothing short of a willingness to die (literally!) for His sake. This is important to realize because language such as “cross bearing” and “self denial” is frequently used among Western Christians to mean they missed the latest episode of The Voice to go to community group or they had to do coffee with “that” person on their day off. But this isn’t what He had in mind. Jesus wasn’t only speaking about the demands on His disciples’ lives, He’s referring to the future of the disciples’ deaths.

If you think this seems a bit extreme, it’s helpful to finish reading the passage (see Matt. 16:24-28 for the full account). Jesus continues by providing three reasons, set off by the word “for” (Gk. gar), in verses 25-27 as to why His followers should give up their lives. This is why they (and disciples today!) should be willing to lose their lives.

Reason #1. To lose physical life for the sake of Jesus is to find the only true life, which transcends death. “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Matt. 16:25)

Reason #2. To save physical life and succeed in attaining everything the world has to offer is to ultimately lose eternal life. “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?” (Matt. 16:26)

Reason #3. To lose physical life out of loyalty to Jesus is to gain eternal reward on the final Day of Judgment. “For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done.” (Matt. 16:27)

What I find fascinating about Jesus’ words is that it isn’t a call to blind martyrdom. It’s a call to eternal life! Loss of life for the sake of mere self-denial is no gain. But, Jesus says, the life lost out of love for Him and loyalty to His mission is true life gained. Followers of Jesus must be willing to give all, even their very own lives, for the sake of Him and His eternal life.

And this isn’t bad news; it’s good news!

For those of us on this side of the cross, we know we’ve been saved through the sacrificial life, death and resurrection of the crucified Messiah. We have a fuller picture of Jesus’ redemptive work than the disciples originally did at the moment of hearing these words. We understand that Jesus’ radical call to die is really an opportunity to live. We know there is a type of life that leads to death and a type of death that leads to life!

FOLLOWERS OF JESUS MUST BE WILLING TO GIVE ALL, EVEN THEIR VERY OWN LIVES, FOR THE SAKE OF HIM AND HIS ETERNAL LIFE

Needless to say, the words of Jesus in Matthew 16:24 are incredibly convicting in light of my unbiblical self-talk. The temptation to ask, “Why can’t I just be a Christian and have a normal, more comfortable life?” doesn’t even make sense in view of Jesus’ words! When I say to myself, “Why can’t my path be easier? Perhaps I should have chosen option A instead of option B because it might have been a bit more comfortable,” I’m missing the entire point. Whether I chose path A or B in this lifetime isn’t of ultimate significance because thirteen years ago I chose to follow Christ.

Period.

I chose to follow a crucified Messiah knowing he demanded nothing short of my entire life. He demanded I be willing to die for Him. He demanded I be willing to be counted as a martyr for his sake. He demanded I be willing to lose this life so that I might gain eternal life. Therefore, every single decision I make while still breathing becomes subject to that first one.

WHETHER I CHOSE PATH A OR B IN THIS LIFETIME ISN’T OF ULTIMATE SIGNIFICANCE BECAUSE THIRTEEN YEARS AGO I CHOSE TO FOLLOW CHRIST

Period.

I had to remind myself of that this week. I had to spend time considering the crucified Messiah and His cross-centered perspective. I had to meditate on the implications that following Him has for my life. I had to remember that if I’m truly willing to die for Jesus, how much more should I be willing to live for Him by sacrificing my personal comforts, cares, concerns, and choices for the sake of Him and His mission? As I preached the gospel to myself using the truths highlighted in Matthew 16:24-28, my unbiblical self-talk simply lost it’s power.

—

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.

Used with permission. Originally posted at Self Talk the Gospel

Overcoming Discouragement in Ministry

Once a month, I have the great privilege of meeting with a number of extremely wise and godly ministers alongside of whom I minister in the PCA. We either discuss a topic or share with one another certain things that are going on in life or ministry. Recently, we shared with one another the ways in which we have learned to deal with discouragement in ministry. Here are a few takeaways from our time together:

1. We must remember that we need to be sanctified

Just as we often say that marriage helps us recognize our need for sanctification in areas that we might not otherwise see, so too in pastoral ministry. When the hardships and trials come, we must remember that we need to be sanctified in certain areas of our lives that we might not see, were the trials and challenges not there. For instance, pastors might not realize sinful anger that remains in their hearts until some unjust action takes place in the church and that anger begins to well up within. Pastors may not recognize their need to listen better or communicate better until some issue arises that helps them see their own sinful deficiencies. God may have placed this trial or challenge in your ministry to sanctify you as a pastor.
 We must remember that we need to grow in wisdom. Just as we need sanctification, pastors need wisdom. A faithful pastor will want to grow as a wise shepherd of the flock. Solomon asked the Lord for wisdom above everything else because he wanted to pastor God’s people with great skill (1 Kings 3:6-9). I have, many times, gone to older and wiser men for counsel as I face trials and challenges in ministry; and, I hope that, to some degree, I am growing in wisdom as I press through one challenge and head into another. The experience gleaned from both successes and failures often brings with it a greater measure of wisdom. We learn this from the book of Ecclesiastes. There were things that Solomon learned from the experiences of life. Often the trials and challenges of ministry serve as the vehicle by which God grows ministers in wisdom.

2. We must remember that we are insufficient for ministry

The Apostle Paul repeatedly told the members of the church in Corinth that ministers are insufficient, in and of themselves, for ministry (2 Cor. 2:16; 3:5: 12:9). This was necessary because there were certain “super apostles” who cast aspersions on the Apostle Paul were boasting as if they were sufficient. When trials and challenges come, ministers feel their own insufficiency. In the midst of challenges with congregants, ministers remember that they cannot change the hearts of the people to whom God has sent them to shepherd. In many cases, the only course of action in a particular trial is go to the throne of grace and plead with the Lord to bring whatever we are facing to a felicitous end.
4. We must remember our calling to ministry. When Timothy began to retreat from ministry, or act in fear, the Apostle Paul charged him to remember his ordination to ministry. In fact, he did it twice. In 1 Timothy 1:6, he wrote, “This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare;” and in 2 Tim. 1:18 he told Timothy, “For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.” Remembering that God has set us apart to pastor His people helps fan the flame of our zeal for ministry. This is essential for ministers to remember when the discouragements come in ministry. Knowing that God has called you into ministry enables you to keep going when things get tough.

3. We must remember that the particular church to which we have been called needs us to be faithful pastors

It has become almost cliche for ministers in Reformed churches to say things like, “Don’t think that God needs you for ministry. He can replace you with anyone He wants.” While this is absolutely true, it is just as right to say, “While God does not need you for ministry, the church to which you have been called does!” The Apostle Paul told the church in Philippi, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account” (Phil. 1:22-24). This is one of the keys to contentment in ministry in whatever church in which you serve. Pastors must remember, when they faced ministry challenges, that the Lord has called them–and not another–to minister in just the right church, in just the right town at just the right time.
6. We must remember that we have been called to suffer. There is a solidarity that pastors have with the Lord Jesus, the Apostles and other faithful ministers who have suffered before them. The Apostles strengthened the members of the early church with the following words: “Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22). We should not be surprised when trials and challenges come because God has promised that we will suffer. In one of his most astonishing statement, the Apostle Paul, told the church in Colosse, “I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church” (Col. 1:24). In 2 Corinthians 1:6-7, Paul wrote, “If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.”
7. We must remember that we are in ministry to bring glory to Christ. The ultimate encouragement to help ministers press through the discouragements they experience when they face trials and challenges is that we were created, redeemed and called into ministry in order to bring glory to Christ http://buff.ly/1X7M2Mq The cry of the ministers heart must ever be, “He must increase, I must decrease.” The ministries to which we have been called by God are not for our own glory. So often the discouragements that ministers feel are on account of a wrong view of ministry. A wise pastor once told me, “Too often, we think that we will be happy if we can get people to do what is right rather than simply being happy that we are doing what is right in order to bring glory to God. We do so while we recognize that only Jesus can bring about change in the lives of the members of the church or peace in whatever trial or challenge that we face.” We exist to bring glory to God through exalting the Lord Jesus Christ.

—

Rev. Nicholas T. Batzig is the organizing pastor of New Covenant Presbyterian Church in Richmond Hill, Ga. Nick grew up on St. Simons Island, Ga. In 2001 he moved to Greenville, SC where he met his wife Anna, and attended Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. He writes regularly at Feeding on Christ and other online publications. Follow him on Twitter: @Nick_Batzig

Originally published at Feeding on Christ. Used with permission.

Holding Hands to the End ... and How Everything Sad Will Come Untrue

Being a pastor is a hard job, but I think it can also be the best job. As a pastor, I have had the privilege of being invited into the most sacred, intimate moments of people’s lives. When a baby is born, I get to be there. When a man and woman recite their wedding vows, I get to officiate in front of their closest family members and friends. When someone is dying—a man, woman, or child—I get to be there also. While each intimate event has its special features, the one that speaks to me most about God, humanity, and the meaning of everything, is the one that includes a deathbed. I am welcomed to the deathbed because of my role—to shepherd, comfort, pray and speak words of life to people in their final days. But these dear ones rarely see that almost always, I am the one who ends up being pastored, comforted, and instructed the most about God, humanity, and the meaning of everything, by them.

Close to Home

As I write this, I am aware of the clock. In four hours, I will accompany my parents to Vanderbilt Medical Center, where my mother will be examined by some of the best doctors in the world. As of late, Mom has struggled with a later-in-life condition that serves as a cruel reminder of human mortality. As I watch her struggle, I am filled with sadness and anger, two emotions that are familiar to Jesus. Tears about Mom’s situation remind me of the tears Jesus cried over the loss of his friend Lazarus. Anger about her illness reminds me of how Jesus got angry at death—that unwelcome, invasive guest in the garden of God that eventually gets us all (John 11:28-37).

As I watch my parents suffer together, I am deeply moved. All the temporal things that we in the modern west tend to build our lives upon—the accumulation of wealth, material things, health, popularity, status, career success and the like—these things fade into the background to a place of lesser gravity and significance. In their stead comes an awareness of the things that really matter; things like love, conversation, laughter, eye contact, holding hands to the very end, the treasuring of every moment, and tear ducts—the release valve that our weeping God created to help us exhale our grief. Tears are our stake in the ground, our tender yet tenacious protest against things like death, mourning, sorrow and pain—things that we know intuitively are not supposed to be.

I am also deeply moved by my Dad, whom I have always known as a person of stubborn strength. But his strength has taken on a new form these days, one that reveals something truly heroic in the man who, up until recently, I have never seen cry. Dad’s tender tears over Mom are giving me a fresh glimpse into the nature of God. God, in whose image Dad has been created, is a God who weeps over things gone wrong in his world. He is a tender God who takes no pleasure in sorrow, suffering or death. He is a God who comes alongside and assures us that he is there, and that we are never alone. Moreover, he is a God who suffered a voluntary death-blow, to save us from death’s ultimate and final sting and to assure us that he knows and has tasted death and sorrow firsthand. As we face our mortality, we now know that the immortal God did also. As we grieve the decline of those we love most deeply, we now know that God did also. God buried a Son, after all.

These days, Dad is giving me a glimpse of this God, and a front row seat to observe what a real man looks like. Dad’s tears are not a sign of weakness, but strength. The vulnerability of tears, and the admission of mortality that accompany those tears, is a sign of true greatness.

Dad never leaves Mom’s side these days. He is fully present with her, and he is fully present for her. His response to a struggling bride is to tell corny jokes that make her laugh. He holds her hand…a lot. He helps her with her hair and speaks tenderly, so tenderly, to her. These days, I catch myself looking at my Dad and thinking, “This is the kind of man, the kind of husband, the kind of lover, that I want to be.”

His valiant tears, even more than his strength and successes, make me want to be a better man.

The Pastor I Want at My Deathbed

Pastor David Filson, who serves on our team at Christ Presbyterian Church in Nashville and is known by many as “Pastor David,” is a remarkable human being. He is remarkabe because of how he comes alongside people in their transition from this world into the next.

David does not avoid or run away from sorrow, grieving and death. Instead, he moves toward these unwelcome enemies of ours. He is always a first responder when people are in their most vulnerable moments. It is here that David shines. It is here that we get to see David at his best. Because no one is more aware than David of the power that Jesus gives us to stare death in the face and say boldly, “You have no power over us. You have lost your sting. In the end, you will lose. In the end, you will be swallowed up, O death, by the One who conquered and defied you with an empty tomb.”

This is why David and I have made a deal that I will go first, because I want him to be the one singing hymns and reading Psalms over my deathbed. I want him to be the one, after I breathe my last breath, who looks into the eyes of my wife and children and reminds them that death loses in the end, that resurrection is coming, and that we will all be eternally reunited together with Jesus and each other. I want him to be the one to preach hope eternal at my funeral. Because no one preaches a funeral like David Filson does.

How did David become the death-defying man that he is? The clear answer, as I see it, is that David has himself faced death many times. After a long battle with Alzheimer’s, his father was welcomed into the presence of Jesus. After being temporarily defeated by cancer, his mother, too, was transitioned to paradise. And then, as if to add insult to injury, the Filsons lost their dog. In these kinds of moments, David weeps a flood of tears. But through the tears he reminds his own soul that for the Christian, tears never get the final word. Like no one else I have known, David immerses himself in the Scriptural truths—the written-in-blood guarantees that death, mourning, crying and pain have no ultimate power over the story line for God’s children. Death and sorrow are merely a middle chapter, a chapter that will resolve fully and finally when Jesus comes to make his blessings flow, far as the curse is found.

In the struggle against death, real hope cannot be found outside of Jesus. To face death without the risen Jesus in our corner, without the faith that alone enables us to grieve with hope, seems unimaginable. But for those who do trust in Jesus, for those whose lives are forever “hidden with Christ in God,” there is an unshakable hope that will never perish, spoil, or fade away.

Christ has died; Christ has risen; Christ will come again.

The risen Christ has told us, “These things are trustworthy and true.” These things are so because he is the resurrection and the life, and those who believe in him, even though they die, yet shall they live…and everyone who believes in him shall never perish (Revelation 21:1-7; John 11:25-26).

Dying and Being Sad with Other-Worldly Strength

I have had the privilege, many times over, of walking closely with Christians in their final days. One such person was Billy.

Billy was 35 years old when he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. For a few short months, I watched this loving husband and father of two wither away from the evil that had taken residence inside his lungs. When Billy was close to the end, I went to his home for a pastoral visit, but he ended up pastoring me instead. “Scott, let’s talk about you this time,” he said. “How are you? How can I serve you? How can I be praying for you?”

There we sat, a dying man offering hope-filled prayers of love and life for his able-bodied pastor.

Soon after this, Billy died before my eyes. I still remember that sacred moment like it was yesterday. Friends and family, including his wife Shannon, surrounded his bed and sang him into glory with hymns like Great is Thy Faithfulness and It Is Well With My Soul. This was their not-so-subtle way of defying death, and stirring the imagination with reminders of what is true, even truer than the wreckage before their eyes. They were preaching the gospel to their own souls, reminding themselves and each other that there is a weight of glory that awaits them all—a weight that is so wonderful and certain that even the worst affliction will, in the end, seem light and momentary by comparison (2 Corinthians 4:7-18).

After Billy gave his final exhale, I retreated to the waiting room. Here, I would sit and wait for Shannon to emerge. I anticipated all of the appropriate responses from this youthful widow—tears, anger, questioning God, stress and sorrow about pending funeral logistics and raising two children alone. The emotional roller-coaster would come to her eventually. But in that brief moment, Shannon became to me a sign from heaven, an other-worldly creature, perhaps an angel of sorts. The first words she spoke as a grieving widow and single mother were, “Scott, how are you doing? Billy was your friend. How can I  pray for you?”

As I walked to my car that day, I couldn’t help but think how unworthy I was to know people like Billy and Shannon.

There are also others. I could tell you about John, whose body literally wasted away from ALS in two short years, but who never grew cynical. Even on the hardest days, John was the most poised, prayerful and hopeful person in the room. Jesus and God’s promises of a new body and everlasting life, not his awful affliction, were John’s ultimate reality.

I could also tell you about Steven and Mary Beth, who several years ago held a funeral for their young Maria—a horror that no parent should ever have to experience. Through their deepest sadness, these wounded warrior-heroes went on national television, along with their courageous children, to tell the whole world that death will not win. Because Jesus has risen and defeated death, there is a final chapter yet to be written in Maria’s story—the chapter in which, as Steven has said in a song written in Maria’s honor, “Beauty will rise! Beauty will rise! We will dance upon the ruins; we will see it with our own eyes!” Also in Maria’s honor, Steven and Mary Beth opened Maria’s House of Hope, a place of refuge for Chinese orphans with special needs. Many of these children, like their Maria, will be adopted into permanent families through Show Hope, the non-profit that they founded.

I could also tell you about David and Nancy, who lost not one child, but two. Their Gabriel and Hope both died in infancy due to a rare congenital disease. Years later, the tears are still there and the grief is still real. And like Steven and Mary Beth, David and Nancy are stewarding their tears in a way that brings hope to others. Each year they sponsor and lead a conference that brings comfort and hope to parents who, like them, have lost a child. Additionally, Nancy, a prolific author, has written several books that help thousands of people process their pain beneath the shelter of God’s sovereign mercy and love.

Greatness Through Sorrow

As I consider these and others who have shown faith, courage, other-centeredness, and even joy in the face of sorrow and death, I have noticed a common theme that describes all of them:

They are all people who have, for years, leaned heavily on the Bible.

If you poke Pastor David with a fork, he will bleed Old and New Testament. When I asked Billy and John how they could live with such other-centeredness and other-worldly joy in their darkest hour, both said that they had read Scripture almost daily for years, and Scripture’s promises had prepared them for the hardest days. David and Nancy, Steven and Mary Beth, and many others would agree: Their refuge in the valley of the shadow of death is nothing more—and certainly nothing less—than God’s Bible promises about the future of everything, including promises like this one:

Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away…Behold, I am making all things new (Revelation 21:1-5).

In a strange way, I think those who lean heavily on the Bible are like the Olympic lifter who shows up at the gym every day for his workout. The unseen, daily, faithful routine—the crunches, squats, bench and shoulder presses, the bicep curls—these are his preparation for the day of heavy lifting when it finally comes. On that day, with all of his might, he lifts. He sweats, grunts and groans with all of creation. At moments, he doubts he will be able to find the strength to press through. But in the end, he overcomes. In the end, he wins the gold.

For a Christian, the daily workout is one of mind and heartInstead of treadmills, iron plates and weight benches, her equipment consists of a receptive heart, a belief that God is sovereign, wise, and good, and a well-worn Bible. Her final piece of equipment is the doubter’s prayer, the weighty prayer that must be “lifted” whenever she is tempted to follow her doubts and fears above what God has promised: “Lord, I believe! Help my unbelief!” (Isaiah 55:8-9; Mark 9:23-25)

God’s promise is truly breathtaking, and is best summed up by CS Lewis, who said that for believers in Jesus, heaven will work backwards and turn even agony into glory. Or, as Lewis’ close friend JRR Tolkein hinted, in the next world, everything sad is going to come untrue.

One person who knew this future reality well, and who believed it all the way down to her bones, was Kara Tippetts—wife of Colorado pastor Jason Tippetts and mother of four—who died of breast cancer in her late thirties. Kara, knowing that her own death was immanent, wrote these words toward the end, an end which was also—if these promises of God are true—a glorious new beginning:

My little body has grown tired of battle, and treatment is no longer helping. But what I see, what I know, what I have is Jesus. He has still given me breath, and with it I pray I would live well and fade well. By degrees doing both, living and dying, as I have moments left to live. I get to draw my people close, kiss them and tenderly speak love over their lives. I get to pray into eternity my hopes and fears…I get to laugh and cry and wonder over Heaven. I do not feel like I have the courage for this journey, but I have Jesus—and He will provide. He has given me so much to be grateful for, and that gratitude, that wondering over His love, will cover us all. And it will carry us—carry us in ways we cannot comprehend.

—

Scott Sauls is senior pastor of Christ Presbyterian Church in Nashville, Tennessee, and author of Jesus Outside the Lines: A Way Forward for Those Who are Tired of Taking Sides. You can connect with Scott at scottsauls.com or on Twitter at @scottsauls.

Originally published at scottsauls.com.

The Strange Silence

After the SCOTUS decision on same-sex marriage, evangelicals responded in droves through social media, sermons, and press releases. Our compulsion to respond is not surprising given core theological convictions about the institution of marriage. What is surprising is that evangelicals, with the exception of the ERLC headed by Russell Moore, have mostly remained silent in response to an onslaught of racial incidents: police brutality towards black young men, chants of lynching African-Americans by white fraternity members, and the killing of nine black Christians at a church in Charleston. Should we not speak? Why the strange silence when it comes to the scourge of racism? One thing’s for sure—it’s not for lack of something to say. Racism is rooted in sin and injustice—things about which the Bible has a lot to say. According to the Washington Post, recent polling on racial issues shows that approximately half of white Americans do not perceive any unfair treatment of blacks by police, employers, doctors, restaurants, or schools. This perception is especially the case for white evangelicals who tend to embrace an individualistic view of racism. In Divided By Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America, Michael Emerson and Christian Smith show that, because of core theological convictions, white evangelicals are prone to spiritualize and individualize social ills—racism is reduced to personal racial prejudice and individual acts of discrimination. Given that understanding, the “race problem” really is quite minimal. As one evangelical pastor observes, “I don’t think there’s that much division. ... If we didn’t give it so much attention, I think it would die of its own accord” (Divided By Faith 83). The strange silence of evangelicals may stem from denial. If racism doesn’t exist, there is no reason to respond.

But our emphasis on individualism leaves us with an inadequate, truncated view of racism. Although much in the Bible points to the influence of social structures on individuals, evangelicals have historically had difficulty seeing racism as being anything other than an individual problem. Indeed, many white evangelicals would see any effort to define racism systemically as a sinful attempt to shift blame away from depraved individuals to “the system.” We are right to emphasize individual accountability and salvation—individuals must personally trust in Jesus Christ for salvation. But, in the wake of a barrage of racial incidents, it’s time for evangelicals to acknowledge that racism cannot ultimately be eliminated only through individual experiences of repentance and salvation.

First, evangelicals need to accept the reality that racism is both personal and systemic. According to the apostle Paul, sin expresses itself in the created order through “authorities” and “powers,” “spiritual forces of evil” which pervade all aspects of existence; these powers rebel against God and influence human existence toward evil through social, economic, cultural and political systems, practices and institutions that dominate, oppress and exploit (Eph. 6:12).  These powers affect all of us in both personal and systemic ways.

Racism is one of these “authorities” and “powers.” It is a structural evil—something that exists apart from the conscious willing of specific individuals, but nevertheless exercises controlling influence on how groups of people think and act. Racial bias in the United States may thus be seen in both personal attitudes and actions and structural patterns and practices. Most school administrators would deny being racist; black children, however, are three times more likely to be suspended or expelled from school by those same administrators than white children. Most employers would deny being racist; black college graduates, however, are twice as likely as white graduates to struggle to find a job. The New Testament is clear: Satan, “the prince of the power of the air” (Eph. 2:2), wants to exercise dominion over us. The adversary will attack on a personal level through attitudes of racial superiority and intentional acts of discrimination and he will attack on a structural level through patterns of oppression and practices of discrimination and exploitation. To respond to racism, the church must do more than preach an individualistic call to repentance and salvation. We must also engage the “authorities” and “powers.”

Perhaps the most disturbing reason evangelicals have been silent is that we have been seduced and enslaved by these “authorities” and “powers.” First, in our laissez-faire, consumer culture where churches market for members like Madison Avenue and congregants shop for a church like buying a car, pastors remain silent about systemic racism for fear of losing members or their job. Indeed, popular pastors and larger churches may be least likely to speak and act prophetically on racial issues because they have more to lose in the community by challenging the status quo (Divided By Faith, 166).

Second, enslavement to the powers can also be seen in the thousands of segregated churches dotting the American landscape. Not much has changed in the fifty years since Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. observed that is was “appalling that the most segregated hour of Christian America is eleven o’clock on Sunday morning.” According to one recent study, 86% of churches in the United States are still segregated—one racial group comprises at least 80% of the congregation.  While integration is the standard in society, segregation is the standard in churches.

Segregated churches initially developed as a consequence of slavery and Jim Crow laws. Today, predispositions toward homogeneity foster continued segregation. The reality is, however, that segregated churches lose their ability to influence culture toward racial reconciliation: pronouncements to “do as I say, not as I do” always fall on deaf ears. Segregated churches must remain silent because they rightly risk being labeled as “hypocrites.”

Third, segregated churches also promote prejudice and reinforce stereotypes, which further demonstrates enslavement to the powers. Christena Cleveland, in “The Myth of Harmless Homogeneity,” observes that decades of research indicates that segregation and prejudice have a bi-directional relationship:

“Prejudice tends to contribute to division between groups and division between groups tends to contribute to prejudice. ... What begins as seemingly harmless homogeneity often snowballs into distrust, inaccurate perceptions of other cultural groups in the Church, prejudice and hostility.”

Recent Lifeway Research polling bears that out, finding that 71 % of evangelicals say their church is racially diverse enough. Making sense of the data, Ed Stetzer, Executive Director of Lifeway Research, notes that “most churchgoers are content with the ethnic status quo in their churches.” Enslavement to the powers keeps segregated churches silent, maintaining the status quo of racial fragmentation in our society.

Evangelicals must repent of our silence and find our voice. To find our voice, we must be intentional about integrating evangelical churches. Segregated churches witness to division, fear and prejudice; integrated churches witness to the “manifold wisdom of God” which Paul describes in Ephesians. Churches are called by God to display the “multi-colored” wisdom of God to the “authorities” and “powers” (Eph. 3:10). The Greek word typically translated “manifold” could be translated “multicolored” as it was used to describe Joseph’s “coat of many colors” in the Greek Old Testament. The apostle Paul envisions churches as multi-racial communities bearing witness to the power of the Spirit to transcend divisive human patterns of homogeneous grouping.

We must also encourage evangelicals to form diverse friendships. Such friendships can help alter our individualistic understandings and make us more open to structural understandings related to racism. If white evangelicals become less racially isolated, we might look at racism differently and become more amenable to multidimensional solutions.

Ultimately, integrated churches and cross-race friendships help us get our theology right.The true environment for doing theology is not an ivory tower, but concrete relationships with real people who differ from us, whose life experiences differ from ours, who read the Bible through a different set of lenses. Many white evangelicals view racial incidents through the lens of individualism while many black evangelicals view those same incidents through the lens of structuralism. Both rightly claim biblical authority for their perspective. Scripture warrants both individual and structural views of racism and other sins. It is not an either/or but a both/and. Solutions to racism that call only for individual change are as naïve as solutions that call only for structural change. As long as we remain segregated and isolated, our theology will inevitably be one-sided and incomplete.

The issue of racism reminds us that our discipleship must be corporate as well as individual. As part of the eternal plan of God, churches are to be signs and instruments of the Kingdom of God—“counter-communities” holding out and embodying an alternative vision of what it means to live in community. An integrated church in a segregated society can be a powerful witness to the transformative power of the cross, which destroys all “dividing wall[s] of hostility” (Eph. 2:14-16). Together we are the Body of Christ, the one new humanity in which, having been “baptized into Christ” and “clothed” with Christ, there is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for [we] are all one in Christ Jesus (Eph. 2:15; Col. 3:27, 28).

—

Greg Brooks (@gregkbrooks) has served churches in Florida and Kentucky, most recently as the Executive Pastor at Frist Baptist Church at The Villages. A graduate of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (M.Div., Ph.D), he has also taught various theology and ethics classes as an Adjunct Professor. He and his wife, Fran, live in Florida and are the proud parents of three grown children. 

The Unquenchable Longing for the Infinite God

I was young when I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior. I loved the image of God that my church instilled in me.  He was my good and loving Heavenly Father who sent his son to die for me.  That was enough for me to trust him for eternity. However, that trust was a commitment far deeper than my younger self could understand. It’s not that my declaration was dishonest; it’s that it was naive. It took me nearly 20 years to realize it, but what I knew of God was not enough. I had to be humbled and broken to realize that I needed more. That realization was the beginning of a search for “more” that I needed that still drives me to this day.

The Reason Behind My Wandering Heart

When I reflect on this period as a young adult, what fascinates me about my story is the vast deficiency in my understanding of God, and yet, the extraordinary longing that existed in my heart to understand. With me exists an unquenchable curiosity that would have me stand, mouth agape under metaphorical waterfalls of knowledge only to step out from under the flow and find myself longing for more.

“He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.”— Ecclesiastes 3:11

I have learned that my unquenchable curiosity is not me being an annoying child asking her father question after question just for attention. Far from it. This unquenchable curiosity is a gift from God calling me into a deeper devotion to him. This eternal well within me that seems to never fill completely is God whispering to me that there is more to be learned, more to be seen, and more to be experienced in him.

I read book after book and listen to preachers from all over the world in pursuit of enough water to fill this well, and while knowledge was gained, it was never enough. These men and women, though intelligent and passionate in their writing and speaking, were all just like me; finite beings looking at and chasing after an infinite God. These realizations lead me to seek satisfaction of my unquenchable curiosity from the only infinite source.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”— Isaiah 55: 8-9

God is above us. His thoughts are above our own. What better source for knowledge than the Creator of knowledge?

Learning How to Humble Ourselves

When the veil was torn and we received communion with God, we also were granted access to God’s throne. This means that we now have the ability to approach God with our request and our inquiries.

We have all asked God “Why me?” But this prayer has always irked me. It’s a way of telling God that we know better than he does. But we don’t. We are not enough to fill our own curiosity. I know myself intimately and I am not enough to quench my thirst. In order to quench that thirst, we must recognize that we are not enough and that we are not the point. We must humble ourselves before the Lord and lift his name high as we confess and proclaim that we are not sufficient.

So my prayers are now like King Solomon’s, who shared my curiosity. I ask for knowledge.

Praying for God’s Wisdom

“Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD, or as His counselor has taught Him? With whom did He take counsel, and who instructed Him, and taught Him in the path of justice? Who taught Him knowledge, and showed Him the way of understanding?”— Isaiah 40:13-14

Prayer is an act of humility, but asking for wisdom even more so. This act acknowledges that I do not have the answers. That I need help. If we are honest, this is difficult for most of us.  We live in a world where you never have to say, “I don’t know.” Most of us carry in our pockets a phone that gives us instant access to more knowledge than some of the greatest minds in recorded history could have imagined. We have been trained to be self-sufficient in our search for wisdom but true wisdom can’t be found on Google. Wisdom is only found when we are willing to bow before God as the ignorant creatures we are and beg him to reveal snapshots of his infiniteness.

Although it takes courage to enter that prayer, it reaps the greatest reward—that is the exchange of our wondering with God’s wisdom. Prayer has the power to fill our minds with instruction, with understanding, and with counsel. He created all things and holds all things together by the power of his word. But just like my young self understood, he is also my good and loving Father and when I ask him for wisdom, he is faithful to give it. When I stand before God’s throne with my unquenchable curiosity, he smiles at me, undaunted by my constant requests.He gives me wisdom and tells me, “There’s plenty more where that came from.” He quenches my thirst every day and in the morning is ready with more.

He never gets tired with us, and as we learn to listen to him and hear what he is speaking to us, our souls could never get tired with him. He welcomes and even encourages our curiosity; it is the longing he placed within us all that draws us into his throne room, into the only true fount of knowledge.

—

Chelsea Vaughn (@chelsea725) 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.

—

Editor: In our Theology Proper: The Antidote to Insatiable Desire we are seeking to understand how knowing God is indispensable to make, mature, and multiply disciples. We want to explicitly connect the theology of the church to its mission. So far in our series:

• Theology Proper: The Antidote to Insatiable Desire by Whitney Woollard
• The Grace and Mercy of God by Chelsea Vaughn
• The Ever-present God by Jeremy Writebol

3 Lessons on Holiness from John Owen

In the West, we’re increasingly appreciative of authenticity. Being yourself, regardless of your good or bad qualities, is applauded while pretending to be something else or acting disingenuous will invoke public shaming. Advertisers have picked up on this and use it to their advantage. One example is the Domino’s Pizza ads from a few years ago where they used negative reviews to their advantage to launch a massive rebranding campaign. The general public praised their humble acknowledgement of negative feedback. When it comes to the Church, I’m thankful the culture around us continues to challenge our authenticity (here’s to hoping the market for corny “Christian” product lines will dwindle to extinction). We should all be intolerant of insincere expressions of Christianity.I hope this environment, both inside and outside the Church, will contribute to a revival of what John Owen called “gospel holiness.”

1. Gospel Holiness Opposes Legal Holiness

What comes to mind when you hear the word “holiness”? Like most words, it’s picked up baggage: some good and some bad. To differentiate “gospel holiness” from the ordinary use of the word, J.I. Packer tells us:

“‘Gospel holiness’ is no doubt an unfamiliar phrase to some. It was Puritan shorthand for authentic Christian living, springing from love and gratitude to God, in contrast with the spurious ‘legal holiness’ that consisted merely of forms, routines and outward appearances, maintained from self-regarding motives.”[1]

Holiness, according to the Puritans, comes in two forms: “Gospel holiness” which springs from an inward devotion to God and the counterfeit “legal holiness” which is primarily an outward act. But to be sure, the difference is difficult to spot at a glance. Both result in similar actions but stem from entirely different motivations. The legal being attempts to look holy outwardly and the gospel is cultivated as an outward expression of the inward reality of our ever-increasing union with Christ. Or as John Owen puts it, “What, then, is holiness? Holiness is nothing but the implanting, writing and living out the gospel in our souls.”[2]

Jesus himself speaks of the difficulty in discerning the two when he mentions “that day” when many will not enter the kingdom of heaven despite prophesying, casting out demons, and doing many mighty works in his name. The reason they will not enter? Jesus “never knew them” (Matt. 7:21-23). This is sobering and should challenge us to examine our relationship with Jesus (after all, it’s the relationship that distinguishes the two). Are we living a life of “gospel holiness” where holy living is the result of dwelling on the good news we have in Christ? Or are we merely trying to convince others (and maybe even ourselves) of our superior spirituality?

2. Gospel Holiness Is A Result Of The Indwelling Holy Spirit

When Jesus told his disciples that he would give them his peace (Jn. 14:27), it was directly tied to the comforting presence of the Holy Spirit. That same Holy Spirit that dwells inside us and brings us peace is the same Holy Spirit that is working in us to sanctify us and make us more like Christ (Phil. 2:13). This transformation to be more like Christ by the work of the indwelling Holy Spirit is what sanctification is and what the Puritans meant when they spoke of gospel holiness. Oddly enough the same John Owen who famously remarked on Romans 8:13 that we must be killing sin or it will be killing us, knew that the key to unlocking this verse is the place of the Holy Spirit in that battle. The same God that fought for Israel and put the Egyptians to death at the Red Sea (Ex. 14:14) fights for us (and through us) to put to death our crimson sins (again see Rom. 8:13).

The war cry of discipleship is to put to death our god-replacements (i.e., sin) with the true God. Legalistic attempts at holiness conflict with this because they put our effort front and center and leave God on the sidelines like a cosmic cheerleader cheering for our victory. Our flesh tempts us to make ourselves the heroes of the story by achieving holiness on our own accord, but the Holy Spirit inside us prompts us to rest in the victorious defeat of sin at the cross. By focusing on what Christ has done for us in the gospel and his gift of righteousness we are no longer enslaved to our own fickle attempts at holiness. While the gospel frees us from the pressure of having to be our own savior it denies us none of the benefits that rightfully belong to the victor. Christ absorbs all our sin at the cross and transfers all the recompense due for his perfection and glory to his imperfect bride: the Church.

Too often we slide into the error of believing holiness is achieved by aiming at a destination when it was actually achieved for us by a declaration (see 2 Cor. 5:21 for starters). Gospel holiness means resting in the identity Christ has procured for us and clinging to him amidst temptations to do otherwise. The world, the flesh, and the devil oppose gospel holiness, but Jesus (who overcame these three enemies) said: “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace (John 16:33)”. Owen sums it up nicely: “Sanctification is a fruit of that peace with God which he has made and prepared for us by Jesus Christ. . . . So God, as the author of our peace, is also the author of our holiness.”

3. Gospel Holiness Is Just One More Expression Of God’s Grace

Ed Marcelle[3] has often stated that if we see how big and ugly our sin is our need for the cross only increases. Put succinctly: only a big cross will pay for our big sins. God’s grace has achieved the payment for our sin in the death of Christ as our substitute. When the old nature creeps up and wants to do war with the new man—the man in Christ—the same grace that bought us at the cross can bring us back to the cross. The same gospel that saves us sanctifies us. Owen states: “The one who sanctifies us is God. As God gave us our beings, so he gives us our holiness. It is not by nature but by grace that we are made holy.”

There is the temptation to view the gospel as the starting point of Christian discipleship and look at sanctification as a process that happens subsequently and independent of it. But Owen’s insights into the Scriptures show us a different sanctifying grace. A gospel holiness which makes no distinction between saving grace and sanctifying grace. It’s all a gift of God, as he states: “Holiness, then, is a glorious work of the Holy Spirit.” Or as Paul put it before Owen:

Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh (Gal. 3:2-2)?

[i] Packer, J.I., Knowing God, p. 249

[ii] This and all following John Owen quotes can be found at this helpful primer on Gospel holiness: http://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/articles/onsite/holyspirit_owen.html

[iii] Ed has also contributed to GCD and pastors Terra Nova Church in Troy, NY.

—

Sean Nolan (B.S. and M.A., Summit University) is the Family Life Pastor at Christ Fellowship Church in Fallston, MD. Prior to that he served at a church plant in Troy, NY for seven years and taught Hermeneutics to ninth and tenth graders. He is married to Hannah and is father to Knox and Hazel. He occasionally blogs at Hardcore Grace.

—

Editor: In our Family History Series we are seeking to understand how Christians of the past have pursued making disciples. We want to connect the church’s current efforts to make, mature, and multiply disciples to its historical roots as well as encourage the church to learn from her rich past. So far in our series:

• 4 Simple Ways Fred Elliot Discipled His Children
• 4 Lessons from St. Patrick for Making Disciples the Irish Way
• 3 Counter-Cultural Lessons from Elisabeth Elliot
• 2 Principles for Living Free from J. R. R. Tolkien
• 4 Convictions for Boldness from John Knox
• 3 Essentials of Discipleship According to Herman Bavinck
• 4 Gifts to the Church from Mechthild of Magdeburg
• 3 Lessons from John L. Girardeau for Crossing Divides
• 4 Lessons for Making Disciples from Jan Hus

The Ever-Present God

Location: Where Did Place Come From?

Where are you right now? Take a moment and look around . . .

As I write, I am sitting in a café on Bitting Avenue. I can smell the aroma of roasted coffee. I can hear the patrons of the shop discuss their lives, what they will see on TV this evening, the rise and fall of the economy, and who will win the Super Bowl. I feel the warmth of a heater turn on as it is an unusually cold day. Light streams in from the front windows and illuminates the orange walls to bring a warm, homey ambiance to the room. Latin American guitars and beats fill my ears as the music from the café stereo plays. The apple-carrot coffee cake I am eating has a sweet, buttery flavor to it. The padded chair where I am sitting keeps me comfortable but awake. Right now, I am in a place. There are specific and unique events happening in this space that are not occurring simultaneously anywhere else in the universe. This place is special. This place is one of a kind. This place is the only place where I can be in the world right now.

This is not true of God. The Bible tells us that God fills heaven and earth (Jer. 23:24). It says that the highest heaven is not large enough to contain God (1 Kgs. 8:27). Nor is there a single place in the entire universe where a human can go and God not be present (Ps. 139:7–10). The word "omnipresent" sums up this spatial reality of God. He is present everywhere, all the time, in every way. He is not limited by anything and is fully present wherever he is, which is everywhere. Maybe we should venture down the path of comparison. We’ll start with God. He is immense and infinite. He alone can be spatially present everywhere all the time. You and I, on the other hand, can’t even exist in two places at once. This comparison can be helpful to put us in our place. But we need more than just a reminder of how ant-like we are. We need to see the importance of our limitation and the uniqueness of our specific place. We need to see that we are inferior to God in our inability to be everywhere present. And yet the places we inhabit, and specifically our presence in those places, has deep importance. Maybe we do need to be put in our place. What if being "put in our place" isn’t about being humbled to insignificance but elevating our vision to see the dignity in the places we inhabit; to see that our presence is valuable and deeply important. We need to talk about God’s space and place.

The Creation of Place

As I sit here at the café, I am privy to some special things: color, taste, smell, feeling. I can see two musicians meeting with a local artist to discuss album cover designs. Various cars drive by in front of me. Occasionally, I see a biker, although the winter cold prevents this from happening too frequently. This is a very unique place. It is a very creative place.

Who made it? Why was it made? If we ignore the Biblical story, we don’t have great, cosmic answers for these questions. But if we look at the opening pages of Scripture, we have a fascinating drama unfolding before us. The first words of divinely inspired writing from the pen of Moses declare that in the beginning, God made the heavens and the earth (Gen. 1:1). Location is created. All of a sudden there is the creation of "place." Place alone, however, is boring. We have heaven and earth. Two categories, two ideas, but not really specific realities. The story continues to unfold. God doesn’t just make categories; he creates places. The earth is filled with vegetation, inhabitants, colors, creatures, textures, liquids, solids, atmospheres, environments—places. The specific place called the Garden of Eden is unique. There are places within the Garden. A river flows through the Garden. The middle of the Garden has specific and diverse vegetation. Four rivers diverge from the main river on the outskirts of the garden. They flow to places with specific names and specific features. Some of those places have gold, some have precious gems. Each distinct. Each unique. Each a special place.

God, who cannot be limited by place, creates multiple locations. He makes places. Each of them are as unique and varied as he is. All of them created good. All of them beautiful. All of them reflecting and imaging his creativity and his diversity. Why does he make these distinct places? He makes them for himself. He creates all the diversity of place and location, with all its varied colors and dimensions, to display his varied and multi-colored glories. The song at the end of the Scripture story sings praise to God because he has "created all things and by [his] will they existed and were created" (Revelation 4:11). The everywhere-present God makes places because he can’t help himself. Place is an overflow of his creative glory. Worship is our response.

Does Place Matter?

Why does all this matter? Since showing up at this specific café, I have noticed the flow of traffic in and out of the store. The aromas that exist in this room now are especially different than the ones that were here a few hours ago. The sounds are new, different, exciting. The musicians are playing their guitars and harmonicas now. It is a new and different place than the one that existed an hour ago. This place is unique and one-of-a-kind again.

Place or location is created by God for his glory. That means that everywhere we go, every location we inhabit, every neighborhood where we dwell is made for God. It shows us a multi-faceted and creative God, a God who is so unique and innovative that one specific location alone could not reflect his glory well. Each place sings the glories of God. Each location tells of his wonders. Each address displays his majesty. Does place matter? On every level, it inherently must.

The way the glory of God is seen at the Grand Canyon is different than the way his glory is seen on Bitting Avenue. The majesty of God takes on a different view in Mumbai, India than it does in London, England. The worship of God sounds different in the jungles of Ecuador than it does in the high rises of New York City. Yet each place is made by his will and for his glory. Each place has a specific role to play in declaring the glory of God, and no one place holds a monopoly on the display of that glory.

This isn’t to say, in some sort of pantheistic way, that God is in everything or that we each have to find our own way of expressing him wherever we are. Just as a diamond will refract light differently in different places, so God’s glory is seen differently in different places. Some places reveal it better than others. We cannot dismiss the broken and dark places of this world. They do not reflect the glory of God well. It is difficult to see the mercy and justice of God in the slums of Rio or the prisons of Iran. Not every place seems like it is God’s place. This is why there must be restoration. If every place is made by God, for God, then the broken places that do not reflect God’s glory must be restored. It’s for this reason that every place matters.

If all things are created for his glory and if all places should uniquely reflect the varied glories of God, then we are called to see our places (including our workplace) as places of worship. Our specific place becomes uniquely important to our lives because it is from this place, and this place alone, that we can magnify God and bring glory to him. I look at my friendly café and I wonder: “How is God’s presence displayed here? How is this place reflecting his glory? Where do I see his fingerprints of majesty? Does the coffee, the conversation, the art, and the atmosphere reflect anything of God’s nature and glory?”

Take a moment and look around (once again) at the place you are inhabiting as you read this sentence. How does this place glorify and magnify God? How does it reflect his multi-faceted nature? What do you see?

God has created this very place where I am writing. He has created the very place where you are reading. He has created it by his will. He has created it for his glory. Now, you might challenge that statement because you know some architect drew up the design for this building and a contractor came in and had carpenters, builders, electricians, and plumbers actually make this place. But under God’s authority, using the agency of humanity, he created and holds all things together (Col. 1:15). Place matters because God made it matter. You might feel indifferent to this place right now because it isn’t where you want to be or because it is somehow broken and in disrepair. This place might be a comfortable, quiet place for you right now. It might be a place that doesn’t belong to you; you are a visitor in it for only a season. Whatever the situation, because God has made it and made it for his glory, you are suddenly in God’s place.

The Transforming Perspective

For way too long, Christians have considered church buildings as "The House of the Lord." We’d show up at specific places and feel that God was, in some way or another, more present there than anywhere else in the universe. Christians have called them “sacred spaces.” We’d return to our homes and workplaces from Monday to Saturday and believe that the "secular" places were the outskirts of the presence of God. Sure, we knew he was there at our homes or jobs, but not in the same way he was "there" when we went to the church building. God was there; we are here.

Funny, God doesn’t think like that. He’s everywhere. He’s in your house. He’s in your car. He’s at your job. He’s present at your local coffee shop. He exists in the slums, ghettos, high-rises, and cathedrals of this world. There is no place where he is not. That means the place you are right now is God’s place. This ought to be a transforming perspective for us. Where is God? Here. Now. Specifically. Uniquely. The very place you inhabit is God’s place. He is here, right now. The Psalmist wonders, “Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?” (Ps. 139:7). Jeremiah the prophet asks if a man can hide himself from God (Jer. 23:24)? The answer again and and again is “no!” There is no where we can escape from God’s presence. He is everywhere. He is here.

I wonder what it would be like if we had this perspective more often. How would it change the way we see our neighborhoods? How would we live differently in God’s place? How would we work? How would we play? How would we worship? What would we do with the broken places within God’s place? What would we say to the broken people in God’s place?

We should begin asking ourselves these questions. Our perspective concerning our homes, workplaces, gyms, restaurants, parks, office buildings, theaters, and everywhere in between should be that this is God’s place and God is here. When I see those places this way, I am changed. I want this place to be a reflection of God’s beauty, creativity, majesty, righteousness, mercy, loveliness, and hope.

This place is for God. This place belongs to God. This little ramshackle café on Bitting Avenue is God’s place. The room, the building, the place where you are right now is God’s place too. Seeing place this way moves mountains.

—

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. 

—

Editor: In our Theology Proper: The Antidote to Insatiable Desire we are seeking to understand how knowing God is indispensable to make, mature, and multiply disciples. We want to explicitly connect the theology of the church to its mission. So far in our series:

• Theology Proper: The Antidote to Insatiable Desire by Whitney Woollard
• The Grace and Mercy of God by Chelsea Vaughn

The Grace and Mercy of God

Editor: In our Theology Proper: The Antidote to Insatiable Desire we are seeking to understand how knowing God is indispensable to make, mature, and multiply disciples. We want to explicitly connect the theology of the church to its mission. So far in our series:

• Theology Proper: The Antidote to Insatiable Desire by Whitney Woollard

— Holy Moments

My eyes filled with tears as I watched her eagerly wait my response. My pride flared up the a cobra ready to strike. I didn’t have a response. I was short out of words. Wisdom had not yet ventured to this depth.

A few weeks before this incident, I sat with a girl I disciple as she wept over the merciful nature of God. The realization that she had been Jonah this past year, running as far away from obedience as she could, washed over her. I prayed with her as she confessed her broken heart of disobedience and neglect. In a moment birthed out of sinfulness, I looked at her and saw such grace. It was a holy moment, as I witnessed the gospel more alive than I have ever seen it.

The reality, though, was the tears in my eyes revealed my own heart. What she didn’t know was that her words penetrated the defenses I had built before the Lord. I rejected his whispering voice and continued my pattern of self- sufficiency. This girl who I was trusted to pour into was acting as a conduit of conviction and grace for me. Isn’t that the nature of discipleship? As we pour into others, they often pour back into us—even if they don’t knowingly do so. In an act of unknowing honesty, I took in this beautiful moment and articulated what only the Holy Spirit could. I divulged wisdom on repentance and humility, while in secret the Spirit applied it to my own heart.

I believe the Holy Spirit acts on our behalf and I trust he spoke what she needed to hear. However, I could have shared this holy moment with her, humbly approaching the throne of grace together, rather than only ushering her there as she needed. It’s natural to discern what should be shared in discipleship, but I think there’s a choice we get to make too. This choice asks if we will lay down our defenses to share from a place of wisdom and repentance.

“Now it’s time to change your ways! Turn to face God so he can wipe away your sins, pour out showers of blessing to refresh you, and send you the Messiah he prepared for you, namely, Jesus.”— Acts 3:19 (MSG)

The need for humility in discipleship

Some of the most memorable times in my life are when people I respect cry out for God. These times remind me how powerful and almighty he truly is. It’s a grace of discipleship that we don’t get everyday. It is a refreshing representation that we all need Jesus, and that his holiness beckons repentance from even the most respectable person. There is no level or limit to the insurmountable grace that God gives. The sad thing is that we often stifle it for a selfish façade of having everything together. That is what I did. I chose to conceal my face from God and suppress my need for grace in this moment. In response to this girl, I would return with a disposition of humility. My heart would reconcile to hers as I shared with her my own prideful disobedience. Her humility declared the gospel as worthy, but I’m not sure my response rendered the same. Instead, I would repeat those words that the Lord prompted me to share, but I’d conclude by saying with a smile, “I need him too.”

“Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus”— Philippians 2:3-4

The fruit of gospel freedom

“Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.”— Matthew 3:8

God is holy, so when we regard him as such our lives are transformed. His eternal nature is higher than our limited understanding, which creates a genuine sense of awe and wonder. We can’t behold his glory completely, but he choses to share it with us anyway. This is humbling and leads us to the foot of the cross. It’s in this place that we are able to better understand our deficiency, our need for a Savior, and his grace filled sacrifice. This intimate exchange of grace is repentance. This act brings forth humility, gratitude, and most important, abundant life. It’s what I saw happen within in the girl I disciple and it’s what I choose to walk in from here on out. I want to make disciples with every intention to share the grace and mercy of God; not only from past experiences, but current battles as well.

Thy mercy is more than a match for my heart, Which wonders to feel its own hardness depart; Dissolved by Thy goodness, I fall to the ground, And weep to the praise of the mercy I’’ve found.

Great Father of mercies, Thy goodness I own, And the covenant love of Thy crucified Son; All praise to the Spirit, Whose whisper divine Seals mercy, and pardon, and righteousness mine. All praise to the Spirit, Whose whisper divine Seals mercy, and pardon, and righteousness mine.

—John Stocker, “Thy Mercy, My God”

—

Chelsea Vaughn (@chelsea725) 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.

3 Reasons to Love Halloween

I love Halloween. It’s true. Usually, I still dress up. My children love to put on costumes and collect candy from our neighbors. Often times we have people over, or are invited to someone’s house where we just enjoy good times. Halloween puts a smile on my face. It reflects the joy and frivolous generosity of my Heavenly Father—which is one of the many reasons I love it. Consider a few more reasons.

1. My Children Smile, Laugh, and Play

On Halloween my kids can’t stop laughing and giggling. They’ve found the best costume they can and wear it all day long. They go door to door and ask the neighbors for candy. The other children smile, laugh, and play as well. They have more sugar coursing through their veins than should be legally allowed. They simply have a lot of fun.

I love seeing my children happy—as a father their joy is my joy. I love to hear their little laughs and screams of delight as they run back to me as we walk and show me what they got from the next door neighbor. This reminds me of the Father’s joy over his children. He really loves us and delights in giving us infinite joy. He celebrates our joys and delights. He works for our good and his glory in all things. Halloween reminds me of Heavenly Father’s joy in his children’s joy in Christ.

2. My Neighbors Are Known

Think about this—what other day of the year can you walk through your neighborhood, knock on your neighbors door, and not have them shut off the lights and hide? On that day, it’s permissible and even expected that you take your children to your neighbor’s home and ask for candy. It would be very strange in our culture except on Halloween.

Jesus came to seek and save the lost. I ask myself: Would he go to the home of the “worst” person on the block? Would he “trick-or-treat” the grumpiest, most miserly person on the street? I think he would. He would find the person with no joy or hope and would knock on their door and bless them.

Halloween reminds me that Christ came to my home. He knocked on my door, not to receive anything, but to give me a blessing. He came and rescued me from my outright rebellion and pride. He came to my house to love me and know me.

I love Halloween and the opportunity to go to my neighbor’s homes merely because it reminds me of the pursuit of Christ for the lost. I get to put my costume on, bundle up the kids, and visit those who I wouldn’t normally hang out with. Halloween reminds me that I am a missionary (and so are you) in our neighborhoods.

3. The Generous Are Known

Guess who my children talked about after Halloween last year? The home that gave out the King-Sized Snicker Bars. He wasn’t skimpy and didn’t just give one little “fun sized” bag of M&M’s. He went all out and bought the good stuff, the best candy. And all the kids talked about the extravagantly generous home at the end of the street. They love that house!

Jesus was the generous one with all he did for us. I want to be like him. He came and gave everything for us and it cost him everything. He gave the best! He gave the most!

On Halloween, I’m challenged to display the love of Christ by my generosity. Just as my family goes around the neighborhood, the neighborhood comes to my home too! I can either display a judgmental, self-righteous, Pharisaical attitude and condemn every kid that comes by my house for dressing like a ghost or vampire or something silly like that. Or, I can display the prodigal love of God (which means “wastefully extravagant”) and give the best candy and have the most fun and be the house that the neighborhood kids are talking about. I can display the generous love of God by the generous way I live towards those who are far from God.

I want to encourage you this year to display the love of God on Halloween. Have fun! Go visit your neighbors. Be wastefully extravagant and generous. Live in such a way that your neighbors might just begin to ask, “What’s the reason for their joy and hope?” You may just win an opportunity to tell them about the love of God! I’m praying for that already.

—

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.