Jonathan Parnell 12/21/12 Jonathan Parnell 12/21/12

Who is Your Neighbor? Well, Who Are You?

"Who is my neighbor?" an earnest lawyer asks Jesus in Luke 10:29. We soon learn it's one of those conversations that's padded out in advance. He asks a question to set up something he wants to say. He was earnest to "justify himself," as Luke makes clear. And obviously, he was feeling pretty good about how it was going through verse 28. But then comes the curve ball. Whatever this lawyer had in mind for the answer, it wasn't the story Jesus told. And it's not what we would expect either. Yes, we may all know the parable of the Good Samaritan, but it can be a little confusing. The “neighbor,” it would appear, is the man going down from Jerusalem to Jericho who was beaten and left for dead (Luke 10:30). The neighbor is the object, the one of whom the three other characters encounter. But in the end, Jesus says the Samaritan who helped his man "proved to be the neighbor" (Luke 12:36–37).

So here we are, along with the lawyer, trying to figure out whom we're supposed to love, and Jesus turns the question around. Look at this man who acts in mercy. Stop asking, "Who is my neighbor?" There are deeper questions to ponder. As John Piper explains, "When we are done trying to establish, 'Is this my neighbor?' — the decisive issue of love remains: What kind of person am I?" (What Jesus Demands from the World, [Crossway, 2006], 264).

"Who are you?" — that's the question.

Are we going to be like this Samaritan who gives help when help is needed? Or are we going to be caught up in questions about who we're supposed to help, and when and where and how, and what if it will make me late for Sunday School?

What grounds the way we think about neighbors is actually our identity, not theirs. What matters first is who we are.

Grace for Standing and Action

In his book, Union with Christ, Todd Billings builds on Calvin's teaching on the "double grace of justification and sanctification." He explains that when we are made new in Christ we receive forgiveness of sins and Christ's righteousness — we are saved from God's wrath. And we also receive new life by the Spirit — we are saved to fellowship with God and love others.

This is a radical truth. In Christ we are given a right standing before God (justification), and we are propelled in love for God and others by the new power of his Spirit in us (sanctification).

This affects the way we see those around us. It's not because they've become something different, but because we have. God's justifying work for us and transforming work in us commissions a path of good works prepared beforehand "that we should walk in them" (Ephesians 2:10). On this path are real people with real lives full of real stories. And now when we encounter them, they are a divine call to us. They are an opportunity — a welcomed mandate — for us to be who we are in Christ.

Of course, we could make a thousand qualifiers. The Good Samaritan didn't give his spare change to fill an empty whiskey bottle, and that’s not the best use of our resources either. But perhaps we should have some concern that we get lost in these qualifiers too often — about when help can hurt and who are the poor and what's not the Great Commission. These are all important questions, and we do well to give them careful thought.

But while we think — and think we must — may we never lose sight that the central issue has to do with how the gospel miracle bears on our own souls. God has made us new creatures in Christ — righteous before him and empowered to love others for his sake.

Editor's Note: This is a repost of "Who is Your Neighbor? Well, Who Are You?" from the Desiring God blog. It appears here with the author’s permission.

Jonathan Parnell is a content strategist at Desiring God. He lives in the Twin Cities with his wife, Melissa, and their three children: Elizabeth, Hannah, and Micah. Twitter: @jonathanparnell

For more free articles, read: Send Well by Lindsay Fooshee and Mission is Where You Are by Jeremy Writebol.

For more on mission, read: Unbelievable Gospel by Jonathan Dodson

Casey Lewis 12/19/12 Casey Lewis 12/19/12

God Doesn't Help Those Who Help Themselves

America is a hard working nation. The average workweek is no longer 40 hours a week, but 50, 60, or even 70 hours a week. Why do we work so hard and for so long? We have been told no one is going to do it for us and so we operate under the mentality that we have to go out there and earn it ourselves. While that is partly true in the secular world, it is not true when it comes to salvation found in Christ. Sadly, many have applied this concept of 'earning it yourself' to Christian life. They live by the motto 'God helps those who help themselves.' If we do our part, then God will do his part. Even though that may sound right to our ears and in our culture, it is not true.

What does living by this motto mean?

Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. -- Galatians 5:2-4

Paul is saying that if we believe we need to do something other than have faith in Christ for salvation, we do not understand the gospel. Instead of understanding Christ we have rejected him and are obligated to keep the whole law, which cannot be done.

So then, by thinking we can add works or merit to the gospel we will earn acceptance with God, we, in fact, do the opposite. We do not gain the acceptance from God for which we were hoping. God doesn’t help those who help themselves. God helps those who can't help themselves. That may come as a shock, but that is what Scripture tells us.

By thinking we have to do our part, we prove we don’t believe Christ’s sacrifice is sufficient; we believe we have to make up for something that it lacks.

Christ’s sacrifice, however, lacks nothing. His work on the cross sufficiently paid the price for our sins - past, present, and future. We do not need to do anything to earn or pay God back for our salvation. Christ paid it all and earned it all for us.

How do we try to earn God’s Acceptance?

Even though the Bible tells us that we are accepted and made righteous because of Christ’s work--not because of our works--we still have a tendency to try and earn God’s acceptance. Why do we do this knowing it doesn’t work? The temptation of moralism is powerful. It fits within the framework of our society. Moralism is the idea that we can earn righteousness, or acceptance through our works, and it is inherent in our DNA; it is natural to us. For example, if you do well in school, you will be rewarded with recognition or accepted into an elite program. If you do well at work, you will be acknowledged and promoted. This is how our society works, but it isn't how the gospel works.

In order to combat something so natural to us, we must know what things we typically add to the gospel. If we know some of the things we add to the gospel, we can watch out for them and seek to rid them from our lives.

What are the things we add to the gospel?

Before we get into it, let me first say, we should do all of the following, but for different reasons. The reason we do them is because Christ has made us righteous, not in order to gain acceptance or righteousness.

What are the things we may add to the gospel, thinking we become more righteous by doing them?

A Quiet Time – Some believe that if they miss their quiet time they will loose God’s acceptance and things will go bad for them. It is almost as if they treat their quiet time like Karma. However, the reason we do a quiet time is to commune with God, learn more about him, and how he would have us live in his kingdom, not so that things will go well for us.

Church Attendance – There are those in the Church who think themselves superior to others and more accepted by God because they come to church every time the doors are open. Yes, we should attend church services. The reason we attend should be to fellowship with, encourage, and serve other believers; worship the Lord; and learn more about our Savior, not to make ourselves more righteous or acceptable to God.

Holding to a Certain Political View – In the South, I think we have this false notion that being a Republican is the same as being a Christian. Well, not necessarily. There are some who genuinely follow Christ who politically identify with Democrats or Independents. In order to come to Christ, you don’t have to change your political affiliation; you only have to believe in Jesus as your savior. That doesn’t mean; however, all believers should not hold to their party affiliations without biblical discernment.

Social Justice – It is right and good to fight and provide for the needs of others. Scripture calls us to love our neighbor, take care of widows and orphans, and provide for the poor and needy. All these things, however, are the result of the gospel melting our heart of stone into hearts of flesh. In other words, we do them because we have been made righteous, not to gain righteousness.

Being on Mission – Our God is a God of mission. He both calls us and uses us to accomplish His mission. While it is true a large number of Christians avoid, or half-heartedly accept God’s call to mission, those who actively take it up are not more righteous than those who do not. I need to be careful here because I do not want to discount the necessity to be on God’s mission. I do, however, want to make sure those who label themselves as missional do not create a false sense of superiority, or believe they are more accepted for their labors. We are on God’s mission because He has called us to it, not to puff ourselves up or gain greater acceptance from God.

Community – Since we are made in the image of God, community is in our DNA. The Trinity has existed in community for all eternity, serving, loving, and glorifying one another. We are called to reflect or image that community here on earth as those redeemed by Christ. By God’s grace some reflect that relationship better than others. Where I believe some go wrong is to believe better community equals greater acceptance from God. The only reason, however, we can exist in community with one another is because the gospel has changed our heart. Better community then does not equal greater acceptance from God. Better community is the result of God’s work in the gospel.

Other things we may have a tendency to add to the gospel are:

Prayer
Community service
Adoption
Home schooling
Baptism
Giving
Eating organic

Again, all these things are right and good, but none of these things make us more acceptable to God. We are justified by faith alone. You see, in Christ, we are as accepted as we will ever be. We can do nothing to make ourselves more acceptable. Nor do we need to do anything. Christ’s sacrifice on the cross is sufficient. Attempting to gain acceptance outside of Christ, will merit us nothing but exhaustion, because our work will never be done. Exhaustion will turn into anxiety because we never know if God accepts us or not. Exhaustion and anxiety will turn into distress, and finally disappointment as we realize we cannot be made righteous through our own work.

In addition, by adding these things to the gospel message we functionally prove we don’t believe Christ’s sacrifice is sufficient. Rather, we prove we actually believe we have to make up for something that it lacks. But what Paul is telling us, and why this message is so important, is that if we think we must add to the gospel in order to be saved, or to maintain our righteousness, even though we say we believe in Christ as our Savior, we may not be saved.

So as Christians, we have to examine our hearts. We have to ask ourselves why we do the things we do. Is it because Christ has saved us and the Holy Spirit is working in us to produce the fruits of righteousness through the means of grace? Or is it because we think we have to do these things in order to either gain or maintain our acceptance with God? Your answer will be telling of your understanding of the gospel.

God doesn’t help those who help themselves

God does not help those who help themselves; God helps those who humble themselves. He helps those who completely and utterly depend on Him for salvation. He helps those who see Christ’s sacrifice as sufficient and who do not attempt to earn his acceptance through their work.

God wants us to depend on him completely and to trust that Jesus’ sacrifice is all we need for salvation. If we are trying to help ourselves, then we do not really understand the gospel. We do not really know what it means to accept God’s free grace for our sins. We do not understand that all our works are like filthy rags and they are not able to merit us even one ounce of God’s acceptance.

We are saved by God’s grace through Jesus Christ’s death on the cross, which means we must stop laboring for God’s acceptance. We must stop laboring for our salvation. We must trust in Jesus Christ for our salvation! Once we realize our salvation doesn’t come through our labors but Christ’s, we can then labor for the right reason. We can labor because we have been accepted, not for acceptance.

Casey Lewis currently serves as the Senior Pastor of Sycamore Baptist Church in Decatur, TX. He is a graduate of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, a husband to his sweet wife Jennifer, and follower of Jesus Christ. He currently blogs at ChristianityMatters.com. Follow him on twitter: @caseylewis33

Read more free articles: From Moralism to Evangelism by Seth McBee or The Gospel Gives Us a Secure View of Self by Jared Wilson.

Read the e-book: Proclaiming Jesus by Tony Merida.

GCD Editors 12/17/12 GCD Editors 12/17/12

Inter-Trinitarian Joy, and the Joy of Knowing and Loving God

by Dave Jenkins.

Dave Jenkins is the Director of Servants of Grace Ministries. He earned his M.A.R. and M.Div. through Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary. He is happily married to his wife Sarah and lives in Caldwell, Idaho where he enjoys spending time with family and playing golf.

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Inter-Trinitarian Joy

Luke 10:21-22 - “In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him."

The greatest joy of all is the joy that God the Son has in God the Spirit and God the Father. The word that Luke uses for rejoicing in this passage is more intense than any other word for joy including the other terms he has used in Luke 10. The Greek word agalliao is a word for exuberant ecstasy meaning complete exultation in the fullness of joy.

Jesus rejoices to see Satan defeated and to give the free gift of eternal life. Here was an even greater joy because it took place within the triune being of God, who exists eternally as one God in three persons. By its very nature, the joy of Jesus is greater than any joy that we could ever experience. Jesus is the God the Son, so His joy is a divine rejoicing. It is a perfect joy, unspoiled, and undiminished by sin. Here His joy is especially intense because He is rejoicing in the revelation of the Holy Spirit and in the secret, saving work of His Father. Luke is showing us the joy at the heart of the universe – the rejoicing that takes place within the Godhead, where God is both the subject and the object of His own joy.

The Father, Son and the Spirit glory in one another. When Jesus was baptized in Luke 3:22 and again when He was transfigured in Luke 9:35 we see the pleasures that the Father takes in His own beloved Son. Jesus rejoices in the Spirit and the Father, and as He rejoices we catch a glimpse of God glorifying and enjoying Himself. There can be no greater joy than this: the eternal joy that God Himself enjoys in the being of God. Jesus was so overwhelmed with the triune joy that in a spontaneous outburst He rejoiced out loud. He rejoiced in the Holy Spirit finding His enjoyment in the Third person of the Trinity. He also rejoiced in the Father, praising him for his supreme greatness over heaven and earth.

The Glory of God in Salvation

Many people would be surprised at the occasion for this joy. Luke 10:21-22 gives the reason for this rejoicing. Jesus was rejoicing over the sovereignty of God in salvation, over the doctrine of election, over the fact that God reveals the truth of salvation only to His own beloved children. People often consider the sovereignty of God’s grace to be a dark and difficult doctrine.

Why does God bring some people to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ while others are left to perish for their sins? The Bible never gives us a full answer to this question except to say that God does it for His own glory. Far from treating this mystery as an occasion for anxiety the Bible presents it as a comfort for the soul.

The doctrine of election, which proves God’s sovereignty in salvation, is a doctrine of joy. We find this on Christmas night with the angel singing “glory to God in the highest” and “bless the people who are in God’s pleasure” in Luke 2:14. We find it in Romans 9-11 where Paul’s exposition of election ends with a grand doxology of praise. We find it in Ephesians 1, where the fact that God has chosen us in Christ is celebrated with high praise to God. We also find it here in Luke 10, where God’s sovereignty in salvation brings joy to the very Godhead.

Jesus rejoices in the Father’s gracious will to reveal salvation to some but not to others. To be specific, God has hidden the secrets of His Gospel from people who think that they are wise and revealed them instead to little children. In other words, He reveals to people who know that they do not know everything and who therefore come to Him in simple, childlike faith. When Jesus spoke about the wise and understanding He may have been referring ironically to members of the religious establishment like the Pharisees and Sadducees theological know-it-all who refused to believe that He was the Christ. When Jesus spoke of little children, He was referring to ordinary disciples who for all their weakness were learning to follow Him in faith and obedience. Jesus is not praising ignorance but humility.

Searching Our Hearts

The contrast here in Luke 10 is not between educated and uneducated but between those who imagine themselves to be wise and sensible and want to test the Gospel truths by their own intellects, and to pronounce judgment according to their self-formed ideas. Those who live under the profound impression that by their own insight and their own reasoning demonstrate they are utterly powerless to understand the truths of God and to accept them.

Which two of these categories describes your own attitude toward Christ? Are you still trying to evaluate Christianity according to your own belief system or are you ready to learn what God wants to teach you? If in our arrogance we insist that God wants to meet our own intellectual standards, we will never be saved.

The mystery of God’s person, His mind, His heart, and His salvation are infinitely too exalted and wonderful to be penetrated and understood simply by submitting them to a sufficiently powerful intellectual analysis. By God’s own choice and decree they remain hidden from the wise. By the grace of God, the Holy Spirit plainly reveals these same profound mysteries to humble sinner who come to God with nothing except their need for him. God is not an intellectual elitist.

There is no minimum IQ for membership in the family of God. The Gospel is not restricted to people who are smart enough to understand it. All we need is a teachable spirit and a childlike trust in Jesus. Giving God’s grace to the humble is one of God’s greatest joys.

In Luke 10:21, Jesus had rejoiced in the revelation of the Father; here in Luke 10:22, He rejoices in His own revelation as the Son. It is all interconnected. Jesus Christ is God the Son. Therefore everything that belongs to the Father – such as His sovereign power and divine authority – also belongs to the Son. When Jesus said that the Father had given Him all things, He was making the strongest possible claim to His own deity. All things belong to Jesus Christ the Son of God. Not a single atomic particle in the entire universe is outside His supreme Lordship. Due to His divine identity, the Son has perfectly knowledge of the Father, in the same way that the Father has perfect knowledge of the Son.

The Father and the Son share mutual intimacy with the Spirit in the fellowship of their triune being. Only God can know God perfectly and therefore no one knows the Son as does the Father, or the Father as does the Son. We ourselves are able to have fellowship with the triune God. By the grace of the Father, according to the will of the Son, through the revelation of the Holy Spirit, the Christian knows the living God. It is the work of the Son to bring us into fellowship with the Father and Jesus rejoices that this is so. God the Son came into the world so that we could enter His joy, the joy of knowing and loving God. As the Son of the Father, He enjoyed unique knowledge of the intimate relationship that lies at the heart of the Godhead, and with that unique knowledge the unique privilege of communicating it to whomever He pleased.

The Joy of Salvation

Luke 10:23-24 - “Then turning to the disciples he said privately, "Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.”

Jesus ends this conversation with a blessing that came from a heart full of joy – a blessing that must have made His disciples joy complete in Luke 10:23-24. This joyous benediction is in keeping with what Jesus already said about the secrets of salvation belonging only to God. The Father and the Son have exclusive, mutual, intimate fellowship within their triune being. According to the Father’s gracious will, by His own sovereign choice and through the revealing work of the Holy Spirit, the Son invited His disciples – and His disciples alone – to share in their fellowship. Theirs was the high privilege of knowing the Father and the Son, with the Spirit.

To make sure they understood what a great privilege this was, Jesus referred to all the men who desperately wanted to have this knowledge but never lived to that day. He was referring explicitly to the prophets and kings of the Old Testament who prayed for the coming of the Christ. How these men longed to see the promise of the ages fulfilled in the long awaited Messiah! Imagine what Jeremiah would have given to see the righteous branch raised up from David described in Jeremiah 23:5. Or Isaiah to see the son conceived to the virgin described in Isaiah 7:14. Or Micah to see the baby born in Bethlehem in Micah 5:2.

Imagine what David would have given to see his God-forsaken Savior poured out like water or laid in the dust of death. Or Isaiah to see the Suffering Servant wounded for his transgressions and buried in a rich man’s tomb. Imagine what Job would have given to see his risen Redeemer standing on the earth. With a holy jealousy these mighty kings and faithful prophets longed to know the Christ as the disciples knew him. What a blessing it was for the twelve to see the ancient promises fulfilled in the birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. What a blessing and what a joy!

Only one thing could add to the disciples’ joy: our own believing response to the Gospel. The apostle John who had been with Jesus the day he rejoiced in the Spirit wrote about this saving response in his first epistle. John began by testifying to the things he had heard with his own ears and seen with his own eyes – the Gospel realities that were the envy of prophets and kings. Then he celebrated the joy he had in knowing God. 1 John 1:3, “that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeedour fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. “

John’s joy was not yet complete. There was still one thing he had desired which was to join him by trusting in Jesus for our salvation. 1 John 1:3-4, “that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. And we are writing these things sothat ourjoy may be complete.” The joy of the apostles is complete whenever we join their fellowship with the Father and the Son through Jesus Christ. Their joy becomes our own when we come to Christ. The ancient kings would have laid down their crowns, and the old-time prophets would have left behind their ministries to know Jesus the way we know Him in the Gospel: as our Savior from sin and our God forever.

What joy is ours! We have the great joy of having our names written in heaven and the still greater joy of knowing the Father, the Son and the Spirit in their rejoicing. No one is more greatly blessed than we are and therefore no one should live with greater joy.

Jake Chambers 12/17/12 Jake Chambers 12/17/12

Long Live the King

I used to work in sports television. One of my favorite parts of this old job was getting to go to Seahawks football practices. Seeing professional athletes train, compete, and prepare for games up close was truly thrilling. I remember watching linebackers smash into pads and quarterbacks throw the same pass a hundred times in a row. I have one memory that sticks out above them all. It was the last offense vs. defense drill of the day. Practices were structured around stations and timers. You would be in your station until a loud horn went off and then you would sprint to the next station or drill. At the end of practice everyone would be at the same station for an offense vs. defense drill. Close to a hundred football players, plus coaches, trainers, medical teams and the media all at one station. When the final horn sounded, everyone would jog off to the locker rooms and practice was over.

One day the team was at its last station and the horn went off. As usual, hundreds of people set in motion towards the locker room when all of the sudden the Head Coach Mike Holmgren yelled, “stop!” With absolute authority a hundred giants in full gear stopped. Coach Holmgren then said, “let’s do a few more.” Without question everyone returned to their places and kept on going. I went to tons of practices and I only saw this happen once. What I and everyone there knew was that Coach Holmgren was in charge. He was the King of that football team. Total authority.

In the Bible, Jesus is called the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He is the one with absolute authority. He even has authority over those who have political and religious authority. There is no second guessing and will be no second guessing when he returns. When he speaks, even the wind and the waves obey. He is the king.

Good King vs. Bad King

I grew up playing a lot of sports and so I had a lot of coaches. Some were cool and some were jerks. One thing I learned was that when you have a bad coach it doesn’t really matter how much you love the sport the coach can ruin it for you. The same could be true with a good coach. Good coaches could take lame sports and make them fun and make you play and practice harder. The good coaches knew your name. They took interest in you outside of just the sport. They were coaches you had relationship with. They let you know what was expected of you and they let you know they were there for you on and off the playing field/court.

I believe the same can be said about kings. We all have things that rule our lives. Things that we serve and that have absolute authority over us. It can be bosses, money, work, education, sports, sex, anxiety or anything really. The problem is that nothing in creation was created for us to serve and obey completely. Nothing in creation was created to be our lord and king. Lots of things were created for us to enjoy, but just like a bad coach, they make bad kings and destroy what enjoyment we once gained from them.

Take money for instance. When was the last time money cared for your heart? Sacrificed for you? Loved you? Money is a greedy king that demands you take time from family, steal from friends and hoard everything for yourself only to leave you as unsatisfied as you were before you had the last dollar. Money is helpful to serve Jesus the King with but terrible to worship as King and be enslaved to.

Jesus on the other hand is a different kind of king. He is a good and perfect king. A king that loves his people and listens to his people. He is the good shepherd who knows his sheep. He is such a good king that obeying him, even when it leads to suffering, ultimately leads to joy. He is not a distant king but, in fact, is a high priest who listens to our struggles and sympathizes with our weaknesses. He is not a controlling or demanding king but a king who came to serve us. He is a king who washes feet. He leads in love, tenderness, service, and care. He is not a greedy king but a generous king. He loves us.

The Loving King

How do we know that he loves us? Look at the cross. At the cross, Jesus took our guilt, our shame, all of our ugliness, and sin upon himself. We committed treason against him and he takes the death penalty for our treason. Not only does he take what is bad, but he gives what is good. He gives us forgiveness, righteousness, grace, mercy and hope. This is not just a good king, this is a great king. A glorious and generous king! And he loves us!

The truth of the Bible is that the one with absolute authority knows who you are and he deeply loves you. He knows every hair on your head and he died to save and rescue you. Our king is not just a king but a savior and a shepherd. He doesn’t treat us like slaves but calls us friends. This is good news. This changes how we serve our king and how we live. Theology is important. Knowing who our God is and who we worship affects every area of our life and every area of the church.

At the Service of the King

Many of our problems in the American church are due to us thinking King Jesus is really a distant and demanding coach or boss. Instead of us seeing ourselves as blessed to serve a good and gracious king we run, hide or complain when given the opportunity to serve because we are worried that we will once again fail to please another person in authority over us. This life of hesitant or disgruntled service is really a life of poor theology.

Good theology frees us to run to King Jesus as one that we get to serve. If Jesus is always king, then we must always be his servants. We are not in some higher or lower class where some people should serve us and we should serve others. That is not who we are. All of creation is here for the sole purpose of serving the king. That means that we are servants in our home even if we are the head of the house. It means we are servants in the workplace even if we are the CEO. It means that the homeless, ditch digger is at the same status as the Oscar award winning actor--a servant. We no longer have to fight to prove the lie that we are king; we get to rest in our rightful place as servant to the king. This is who we are.

Service goes from a chore to a joy as it is us being who we were created to be and us doing what we were created to do. We will find ourselves at home serving all kinds of people at all sorts of times as we are ultimately serving Jesus. A life as a servant enables humility as we grow in realizing that we are never the one with absolute authority and this frees us from being enslaved to people or things that also are not in absolute authority.

I want to encourage you to get to know King Jesus. Learn to listen to him and to obey him. He truly is the only one worthy of our complete obedience.

Jake Chambers is a member of Jesus’ bride - the church, husband to his beautiful bride Lindsey, and a daddy to his boy Ezra. Jake is passionate about seeing the gospel both transform lives and create communities that love Jesus, the city, and the lost. He currently serves Red Door Church through leading, preaching, equipping, and pastoring. You can read more of his writing at reddoorlife.tv. Follow him on twitter: @JakeJayChambers

Read more free articles: The Implications of Obeying God by Jennie Allen and Gospel Centered Religion by Jason Seville.

Jared Wilson 12/14/12 Jared Wilson 12/14/12

The Gospel Gives Us a Secure View of Self

The church in the West is sleepwalking. Why? We don't lack for dynamic preachers, innovative church models, entrepreneurial spirit, wealthy benefactors, high technology, or widespread media and cultural saturation. Yet while the biggest churches get bigger, the number of Christians in America is shrinking, and even in those big churches, leaders are discovering a discipleship deficit of emergency proportions. I am not an expert in missiology or ecclesiology or sociology, but I can read what the Bible says. In its pages I read that the source of the church’s power is the Holy Spirit working through the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ. No other source is credited with transforming power, not even intelligence or good works, much less creativity and good marketing. Uneducated men with stuttering tongues and unclever speech set the world on fire because they were content to simply arrange the wood and trust the torch of the gospel to do its thing. What we are left to deduce is that either we are faithful to gospel-centered ministry but God doesn’t work that way anymore—in which case the Bible’s claim that the gospel is power needs a retroactive expiration date—or else our half-hearted, defeated, apathetic Christianity is a result of our gospel-deficient Christianity. What can wake us up? A better vision. The gospel does not merely give us a ticket to heaven, a lifeline to stuff in our pocket for safekeeping—it gives us a new worldview. It gives us eyes to see and ears to hear; it expands our vision to behold the vistas of eternity and deepens our vision to see the world through redemption colored glasses.

Isaiah was undone by the vision of God’s glory in the temple. Paul was hijacked by a blinding light. Peter was shaken by the descending linen. The disciples fell on their faces during Christ’s transfiguration.

None of them was unchanged by what they saw, and while none of them followed God perfectly after their vision, they certainly saw God, themselves, and the world differently even after the vision had faded.

When John the Baptist began preparing the way for Jesus’s entry into public ministry, he cried out in the words of Isaiah 40:3–5:

A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

What a beautiful cataclysm this foretells! When the king comes, his arrival is earth-shaking. The gospel changes the landscape.

When we behold the gospel’s bigness, we behold the true bigness of everything else. There are three primary things the gospel expands our vision of, and I see them embedded in these words of Peter:

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. (1 Pet. 2:9)

Peter is admonishing the church to abstain from fleshly talk and actions, to obey diligently in order to commend the gospel and reflect the holiness of God. It is as if he’s saying in 1 Peter 2:9, “Besides, don’t you know who you are?” And his declaration of who they/we are evinces the gospel’s threefold vision.

The Gospel Gives Us a Secure View of Self

Many Christians’ problems of fear, doubt, and complacency stem from forgetting who they are, which is to say, who they are in Christ . Paul is quite clear: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Cor. 5:17). It is true that we are simultaneously sinners and saints, but when we are not operating according to the gospel’s resurrection power, it is because we believe that greater is the world than he that is within us.

Even the Christian with his nose to the obedience grindstone can miss out on this transforming positional view. I may outwardly look very diligent in the faith and dutiful in good works, good words, and good manners, but if inwardly that is all the result of an insecurity about my standing with God, the hardest work I can muster will be both worry-inducing and worthless. The performance treadmill simply leads to exhaustion.

But the gospel says I am free from the curse of the law, which means I am free from the burden of the law’s demands. Christ has met them for me. Christ’s righteousness is credited to my account. Christ hides me within himself. If all this is true, I am as secure as Christ is. God’s affection does not have to be earned; in fact, it can’t be earned (by us, anyway). God’s affection is freely given. When we really grasp that the gospel is saying this about God and about ourselves, our sense of identity will blossom, swell, and strengthen.

Look again at how 1 Peter 2:9 describes our position, thanks to the gospel of Jesus.

A Chosen Race

This means that God picked us. In the days of my youth in Houston, Texas, I played pick-up basketball or football with my buddies nearly every weekend at our favorite park. When it came time to form teams, I enjoyed very often being the first or second pick. I had serious game, I assure you. Then my wife and I moved to Nashville, Tennessee. I stopped playing sports every weekend.

Several years later on a visit back home, the old gang decided to get together to throw the pigskin around. We began to form teams, and even though I had given no more demonstration of my current fitness level than simply walking from the car to the field, I was picked second to last. Oh, how the mighty had fallen! I was humiliated. All these guys had done was look at me; I guess several years had taken the sheen off their memories of my athletic prowess. I suddenly looked less Tom Brady and more Tom Bosley.

I felt very keenly in that moment how good it feels to be picked. Everybody wants to be picked. The gospel tells an interesting story about being picked. If I had to relate it to my weekend football humiliation, I would put it this way: God looks at the available selection, sees that I have no evident talent or ability and that in fact I give all indications of being a liability to the team, not an asset, and says, “I’ll take him first.”

He does this for all of us. He picks us. Not because we’re great players, but because Jesus is. We can contribute nothing to God; he is not needful of us. There’s nothing that he can’t get done without us. But there he goes, picking us. And he purposefully picks the scrubs, the benchwarmers, the C team. In God’s economy, he chooses the last to be first, blesses the poor in spirit with riches aplenty, and exalts the humble.

You thought this whole deal was your idea? Nope. “You did not choose me, but I chose you” (John 15:16). You think you were picked based on your ability? Nope. “So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy” (Rom. 9:16). You think you were picked when you entered the draft? Nope. “He chose us in him before the foundation of the world” (Eph. 1:4).

A Royal Priesthood

God doesn’t just take the scrubs; he takes the scrubs and turns them into frontline warriors. He makes the C team the A team. He raises our estate. He makes us not serfs in the kingdom, but brothers and sisters of the King, princes and princesses under his lordship. He has seated us with Christ in the heavenly places (Eph. 2:6); the gospel gives us the royal treatment, and one day we will have the crowns to show for it (James 1:12; 1 Pet. 5:4).

But we aren’t just any kind of royalty; we are royal priests. We’re made ambassadors for Christ, go-betweens charged by God to bring the ministry of reconciliation to the lost, commissioned to make disciples of the nations. We pour out our lives as Christ did his own, in order that we might testify to the saving sacrifice of him who makes our sacrificial witness a glory to God. In the days of old, we needed priests to make atonement for us. Now that the High Priest has made atonement once for all, we have become priests ourselves, given full access to the throne of grace inside the holy of holies. Indeed, our bodies are now the temples of the Spirit.

Are you catching yet just how much God makes of us? There is more.

A Holy Nation

When God tells us “You shall be holy, for I am holy,” it is a command, but it’s also a promise. And because we can’t make ourselves perfectly holy, he does it for us. The blood of his Son cleanses us from all unrighteousness. Christ’s goodness is set to our account, and we are set apart from the condemnation hanging over the world. We are set apart for special use, consecrated by our saving God whose plans for us include demonstrating the expansiveness of his perfect holiness throughout the world.

A People for His Own Possession

Put simply, God owns us. Of course, God really owns everybody, but he treats those trusting in his Son as his own children. He treats them differently, specially. He marks them out, covers them, secures their future, and gives them a hope. He sends his Spirit to indwell, convict, teach, and comfort them.

And here’s the deal: nobody steals God’s stuff. If he owns you, he owns you. Those whom Christ has purchased for the Father will not get lost or be forfeited (John 6:39; 10:28).

Jesus cleanses us from all unrighteousness. How are we not staggered by this minute by minute? Look how saved we are!

While I do not agree with all of what Neil Anderson has written, I greatly appreciate the following list of gospel affirmations he includes in his book Victory Over the Darkness, and have used it personally and in counseling:

Since I am in Christ, by the grace of God . . .

I have been justified—completely forgiven and made righteous (Rom. 5:1).
I died with Christ and died to the power of sin’s rule over my life (Rom. 6:1–6).
I am free forever from condemnation (Rom. 8:1).
I have been placed into Christ by God’s doing (1 Cor. 1:30).
I have received the Spirit of God into my life that I might know the things freely given to me by God (1 Cor. 2:12).
I have been given the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16).
I have been bought with a price; I am not my own; I belong to God (1 Cor. 6:19, 20).
I have been established, anointed and sealed by God in Christ, and
I have been given the Holy Spirit as a pledge guaranteeing my inheritance to come (2 Cor. 1:21; Eph. 1:13, 14).
Since I have died, I no longer live for myself, but for Christ (2 Cor. 5:14, 15).
I have been made righteous (2 Cor. 5:21).
I have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. The life I am now living is Christ’s life (Gal. 2:20).
I have been blessed with every spiritual blessing (Eph. 1:3).
I was chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and am without blame before Him (Eph. 1:4).
I was predestined—determined by God—to be adopted as God’s son (Eph. 1:5).
I have been redeemed and forgiven, and I am a recipient of His lavish grace.
I have been made alive together with Christ (Eph. 2:5).
I have been raised up and seated with Christ in heaven (Eph. 2:6).
I have direct access to God through the Spirit (Eph. 2:18).
I may approach God with boldness, freedom and confidence (Eph. 3:12).
I have been rescued from the domain of Satan’s rule and transferred to the kingdom of Christ (Col. 1:13).
I have been redeemed and forgiven of all my sins. The debt against me has been canceled (Col. 1:14).
Christ Himself is in me (Col. 1:27).
I am firmly rooted in Christ and am now being built in Him (Col. 2:7).
I have been spiritually circumcised . . . (Col. 2:11).
I have been made complete in Christ (Col. 2:10).
I have been buried, raised and made alive with Christ (Col. 2:12, 13).
I died with Christ and I have been raised up with Christ. My life is now hidden with Christ in God. Christ is now my life (Col. 3:1–4).
I have been given a spirit of power, love and self-discipline (2 Tim. 1:7).
I have been saved and set apart according to God’s doing (2 Tim. 1:9; Titus 3:5).
Because I am sanctified and am one with the Sanctifier, He is not ashamed to call me brother (Heb. 2:11).
I have the right to come boldly before the throne of God to find mercy and grace in time of need (Heb. 4:16).
I have been given exceedingly great and precious promises by God by which I am a partaker of God’s divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4).

Isn’t this cause for confidence? This is not self-help. This is God-help. This is not self-esteem, because none of these affirmations can come from self, none can be accomplished through pulling up of bootstraps or the turning over of new leaves. These statements—and many more found in the Scriptures—are God-esteem, because they are what God does for us and what God says about us.

Jesus says something remarkable about us by virtue of something remarkable he says about himself: “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live” (John 11:25). There is no more secure position than this. If you are in Christ, you cannot be stopped even if you are killed.

Because of Christ, I am free to confess that I am a sinner deserving the wrath of God, but I am also free from both sin and wrath. Why do some Christians think that to seek our identity in Christ, the way the Scriptures say we ought to, is thinking too much of ourselves? Why are they afraid to trust what God says about them? When God says to his people, “Whoever touches you touches the apple of my eye” (Zech. 2:8), am I to think he doesn’t mean it? In fact, to live in insecurity (or to insist upon it doctrinally) is to side with the accusations of the Devil, whose chief end is to convince us that our sin is greater than our God’s promise to forgive it.

In Martin Luther’s “Letters of Spiritual Counsel,” we find this word of encouragement written to a young correspondent:

When the devil throws our sins up to us and declares that we deserve death and hell, we ought to speak thus: “I admit that I deserve death and hell. What of it? Does this mean that I shall be sentenced to eternal damnation? By no means. For I know One who suffered and made satisfaction in my behalf. His name is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Where he is, there shall I be also.”

When you see who you are through the lens of the gospel, it changes everything.

Editor's Note: This article is an excerpt from Jared Wilson's book, Gospel Deeps, posted here with the authors permission.

Jared C. Wilson (@jaredcwilson) is Becky’s husband and Macy and Grace’s daddy, and also the pastor of Middletown Springs Community Church in Middletown Springs, Vermont and the author of the books Gospel Wakefulness, Your Jesus is Too Safe, Abide, Seven Daily Sins, and Gospel Deeps. He blogs almost daily at The Gospel-Driven Church.

Seth McBee 12/13/12 Seth McBee 12/13/12

Experiential Discipleship

We’ve gotten discipleship backwards. Jesus put it like this: “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31-32).

We’ve gotten discipleship backwards. Jesus put it like this: “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31-32). In discipleship, we have reversed this. Instead, we start like this: Know the truth. Be set free. Follow Jesus.

Knowing facts about God is not enough

Many people have never actually seen what God is like. They only know facts about him. They can list off many things: He is loving, gracious, all knowing, all powerful, everywhere present, infinite, provider, caring, passionate, and more. But here is the issue: We never fall in love with someone by simply knowing a list of things about them.

I was speaking to a young woman who said she was struggling with her faith. She expressed deep confusion about what God was like, as this was the very One she was supposed to tell her friends, neighbors, and strangers about. She would describe for them God’s varied characteristics, but for some reason they were unaffected.

Then I pressed her. She has a boyfriend so I asked her: “What if I were trying to set you and your boyfriend up and I said: ‘He has two eyes, two legs, a face, hair, a mouth, he eats, he hugs people and he wears clothes.’ Would you be so caught up about him that you’d fall in love with him?” She laughed and said, “Of course not!.” I said, “How have you fallen in love with him?” She responded, “Our time in relationship with each other.” Exactly.

She spent time with him and walked with him to see what he was like. So much so, that if I told tell her, “Your boyfriend is a thief and a liar,” she wouldn’t believe me, because of her experiential understanding of who he is and what he is like. His being called a thief and a liar is a contradiction to his character that she knows intimately. This is how it is with God. He has always wanted a relationship with us, so we could show off what he is like to the entire world. We see this right away in the Garden of Eden, as God walks with Adam and Eve, God’s image bearers, in the cool of the day.

This is why discipleship starts with the first time we have contact with a person. Now, don’t read this and hear that facts about a person or facts about God aren’t important. Of course, it is important that her boyfriend has an actual heart that keeps him alive, just as it is important that God is, in fact, spirit. But, if you asked Adam and Eve why they believe God is their provider, they’d point to the variety and lushness of the garden, not because they found a tract behind the tree of life that told them so.

We show off what God is like as we walk in his ways

When we do not merely memorize facts about God, but actually experience those facts in relationship with him, we can show him clearly to others. So, instead of just saying, “God provides,” we see that he provides as we lean on his provision and wisdom. We don’t merely call him Comforter, but we have experienced his comfort in our lives. We can then authentically show off what God is like to others as we live in community with them. So, when they begin to trust in Jesus, they’ve already seen what a disciple does and experienced it. Because of this, they have an affectionate relationship with God and not merely an intellectual relationship with facts about God.

Isn’t this moralism? No. Instead, we are open with our sin, showing people how forgiving, loving and pursuant God is, even in our sin because of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. We aren’t saying we are the gospel, but we are the image bearers of God, showing others the fullness of God in every way, in our righteousness and our sin. Of course, both of these are only possible because of the gospel (John 15:15; 1 John 1:5-10).

Where did we get so off track?

We’ve never had relationships like this. We’ve never merely known facts about someone and said we were in intimate relationship with them. Yet we can see many people living this way. They believe this list of facts, then they work the rest of their lives trying to do things to prove that God is real and true, the same way they know it with their minds. In reality, they’ve never been set free. They are still slaves. Jesus’ burden is heavy, not light. And, in the end, the gospel isn’t good news and definitely doesn’t bring great joy.

Maybe this is the reason why so many pastors and Christians are burnt out. They have a relationship with a spreadsheet of facts instead of walking in the ways of Jesus who sets them free, brings great joy, and whose burden is light. I wonder what would happen if our list of facts, or our systematic theology actually came from the truth of the Spirit working in our lives and seeking what the Word of God says about himself. If we allowed this sort of patience and long-suffering to happen, we’d truly experience God for he is and what he’s done in our world and in our lives. The Spirit would disciple us in the truth of who he is in both word and deed, showing us experientially who he is. The problem with our method of discipleship, is we often want people to cross this line of truth overnight, instead of resting in the sovereign work of God by trusting him to reveal himself to people as he sees fit, in his perfect timing.

If you fall in love with someone through experiencing who they are by seeing their beauty, both physical and spiritual, why wouldn’t you expect that shadow to point you to the reality of who God is, especially in light of his exponential depth of glory?

We need to go back to a discipleship that starts with walking with others as we walk with Jesus, so they’ll know the truth and that truth will set them free as it has set us free.

Cross-posted from Gospel-Centered Discipleship.

Jeremy Writebol 12/12/12 Jeremy Writebol 12/12/12

The Presence of Advent

What is the single greatest fear that most people have about the Advent season, especially Christmas day? I doubt it has to do with finding the perfect gift. Nor does it seem like the inevitable holiday weight-gain would rank as the greatest fear. Debates over religion and politics at the dinner table might earn a higher rank but even those fights are nothing compared to a deeper fear of the soul.

What might be the single greatest fear during Christmas?

I believe it to be the lack of presence. Not a lack of presents (or gifts) but a lack of presence. No one wants to be alone during this season. We sing songs about being home for Christmas. Many Christmas films riff on the theme of being separated from family and loved ones at Christmas. We cower at the thought of waking up to ourselves with no lit tree, no joyful laughter, and with nobody to share the day. Consider the very ghosts that haunted Scrooge in Charles Dicken's A Christmas Carol, they haunted him with lonely Christmases. Studies indicate that depression hits widows and widowers deepest at the holidays. I can almost guess that a full 98% of people reading this article would prefer to have someone, even if they didn't really like them, to be with on Christmas over spending it with no one at all.

What is it about Advent that reveals this fear in almost all of us? If we look at the very nature of what Advent means we will find the very reason being physically alone during this season troubles so many. At its core Advent is more than just remembering the coming of God into our existence, Advent is about the actual presence of God in our existence. Advent is the one season that reminds us that God is with us. So, when we consider a season that tells us God is with us and yet functionally experience it in loneliness a massive discord hits. The discord, for most, isn't with God, it's within ourselves. We should be experiencing presence. We should be with others and God should be with us.

Presence on the Way

Four hundred years is a very long time to wait. The United States of America has barely existed for half of that time. It would be nearly impossible to understand then the absence and silence from God for that long. However, that is exactly where the people of Israel were. National culture and identity would go through an immense rewriting if it had been four hundred years since you had a prophetic word from the national center of worship activity. Certainly brief and dim glimpses of recovery and hope came and recharged everyone's expectations but they were just that, brief and dim. Sure, they had the prophetic words of old to lean on. Isaiah did promise Emmanuel, even if that was seven hundred years ago.

Then, rumors started cropping up. Angelic visitations occurred. Barren old women conceived. Kings from the East traveled West. A nation immigrated within itself because of a census. A virgin was with child. Then, the rumors died down. Things went back to normal for another thirty years until a shabbily dressed man like Elijah began to speak for God in the wilderness. He was no respecter of persons and calls kings, priests, and publicans to repent. A nation finally received a prophetic word: “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world is present. God is with us. Emmanuel has come.”

Yes, Emmanuel, God-With-Us. He was attested to be God by his words and works by doing things only God could do. God-With-Us possessing authority to drive out sin, devils, and death. God-With-Us doing justice, loving the outcast, and the stranger. God-With-Us dinning with the drunkards, the harlots, and the sinners. God-With-Us clothed in the material flesh of our bodies, Emanuel experienced the physical limitations, pains, and agonies of our condition. God-With-Us bearing the wrath of God in our place for our offenses against God and taking our very own death-blow. God-With-Us being laid in a tomb dead for three days, he, God-With-Us, was miraculously raised to glorious new life again by the power of God--securing resurrection life for all who trust in him. God-With-Us sent his eternal presence to indwell and empower us for lives of glory and mission. He hasn’t left us, in fact, God-With-Us has come, became flesh and lived in our very domain and gifted us his eternal presence so we would always be with him.

Advent as a Missional Teacher

This is what Advent points us towards. A seasonal reminder of presence. An annual celebration of God’s personal intervention and presence with us. Advent teaches us that God is with us and that God is for us. Advent shows us God-in-action working for his glory and for our good. Our reflection of this reality can not leave us to merely feel good about God With Us, it must propel us forward to display the God whose image we bear.

Advent becomes a missional teacher to us as we consider that God shares life with broken, messed up, needy, people of disrepute. As we increasingly consider God-With-Us we must ask ourselves are we displaying this reality to the world? Are we showing lonely people God-With-Us by our presence with them? Are we enacting this good news for the same broken, messed up, needy, people of disrepute that God hung out with?

As much as Advent is a season for gathering with family and friends, for the church it is a missional launching point for us to inhabit and take the gospel to the world. The world sits and waits year after year for a savior. They make functional saviors of sex, power, possessions, comfort, and a billion other idols they can find. Yet, all the while being let down year after year by their little, failing, and distant gods. The world is waiting, the Savior has come, the church must be present!

Practically this boils down to one thing: be with them. In the same way God was became present the world he sends us to go and be with the world. Be at the parties, the Christmas programs, the neighborhood celebrations, the family dinners, and the company gift-exchange. As you are with them, love them. Be the presence that the lonely, lost, waiting world is so eager to receive. Show them their savior through your love, by the way you honor them, give them dignity, listen to their stories, and hear their hurts.

A rocket-science degree isn’t mandatory for this, just ask the Holy Spirit to show you someone that he can display his presence to through your presence with them, and then follow his lead. Go be present with the world because God is present with you. The world waits for God-With-Us and we are blessed to display that God is with us!

Jeremy Writebol (@jwritebol) is the husband of Stephanie and daddy of Allison and Ethan. He lives and works in Wichita, KS as the Community Pastor at Journey the Way and the director of Porterbrook Kansas. His book, everPresent Gospel, is forthcoming on GCD Press and he writes at jwritebol.net.

Read more on Advent: The Object of Our Hope by Jonathan Dodson and download the free devotional, Come Lord Jesus Come by Will Walker and Nathan Sherman.

Guest User 12/10/12 Guest User 12/10/12

Being Ministers of Reconciliation

The ministry of reconciliation acknowledges two truths: humans are sinful and we need a savior. The message of reconciliation is that God dealt with sin himself and saved humanity. This is the Christian's message.

In a world of subjective truths, tolerance, and acceptance, Christianity has become nothing more than ‘another’ religion in the eyes of many. Western culture, in particular, is grievously enamored with the idea of self-reliance, self-dependence, and self-worth. Christianity is extremely counter-cultural because it teaches the actuality of human depravity, the necessity for a savior, and an eternal focus for our temporal lives. For unbelievers at-large, this can be something that can seem intolerant and outdated, a tradition steeped in rigid tradition, and a stumbling block to the progress of the society and the world. For Christians, however, depraved humanity in need of a savior is true reality. This is life for the human race. As we consider our calling to be “ministers of reconciliation” (2 Cor. 5:18-20), we must understand the people we are living around, their view of the world, and the journey they are on. Likewise, we have to continually allow the Spirit to draw us to repentance in areas of life where we fail to “let the love of Christ control us” (2 Cor. 5:14). Though loving others is often difficult and even scary, the pressure is not on us to change hearts, for only God can save through the transforming power of the gospel (Acts 4:12). As a friend of mine says often, “We do the ministry, God does the miracles.” The ministry of reconciliation acknowledges two truths: humans are sinful and we need a savior. The message of reconciliation is that God dealt with sin himself and saved humanity. This is the Christian's message.

How Can this Message be Rejected?

Perhaps a substantial reason for the negative view of Christianity is the attitude and actions of Christians themselves. As a world religion, the stigma of dependence on something outside ourselves is already a built-in excuse to reject believers. In addition, Christians have a tendency to mistake their salvation as license to be self-righteous and judgmental, wondering why unbelievers are not intelligent enough to “figure it out.” Like the Pharisee in Luke 18, we often look at the people around us exclaiming, “Thank you God that I’m not like these tax collectors!” As the story goes, the Pharisee has much to learn from the tax collector whose only justification is in the mercy of God and not in his righteous (or unrighteous) works. I have encountered many non-Christians and de-churched Christians who use Christian hypocrisy as the chief reason for their unbelief. Often times there is a deeper issue at hand, but just as often this objection is simply as real to them as Jesus is to us.

For Christians to be catalysts for change in the world, we must first wear his name with humility, dignity, and fervor. As Jesus so clearly states in Luke 19, even if we do not worship him, creation itself will cry out his name. He doesn’t need us to change the world but, nonetheless, he uses us as ministers of reconciliation. It is our duty and obligation to speak truth into the lives of others (Matt. 28:18-20), and there is no “out clause” for the Christian. We are to be salt and light (Matt. 5:13-16), loving God and others because he first loved us (1 John 4:19). There is a story going on all around us, a story that God has been writing since before the foundation of the world. Acts 17 tells us that God has appointed to every person the time and boundaries in which they live so that they will find him. So, for the Christian, this means that not only are you in the time and place that you are to find God, but those around you are in a similar position. Again, you cannot save anyone, but it is your burden as a Christian to treat everyone as though they will turn to Christ in that instance. As Charles Spurgeon once said (and I paraphrase), “I believe that God will save his elect and I also believe that if I do not preach the gospel, he will lay the blood of the lost at my doorstep.”

Hope

In the end, we do not know the answers to every question about how and why God saves anyone, but his Word is very clear that the proclamation of the gospel is a key component to transformation (Romans 10). People’s hearts cannot be ultimately changed for the better by new legislature, war, personal enlightenment, or secret philosophies; it can only be changed by the sin-stomping, life-altering life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ. He is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father but through him and by him (John 6:44; 14:6).

This is our hope, and this is hope for those who are far from God. God is reconciling all things to himself and as reconciled people, Christians are to reflect Christ in a way that is not self-righteous and proud, but rather humble and sacrificial. Perhaps one of the most telling verses in the entire New Testament comes in Acts 2. After hearing the preaching of the Word, the early Christians went about their daily lives following the apostles’ teaching, sacrificing for one another, and spending genuine time in community. The result? They were loved by those around them and “the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved” (2:47). People were being saved through the Spirit of God just by watching these Christians live their lives! This is the gospel at work, changing lives through lives that love God and love others. The Word being preached is extremely important, as seen earlier in Acts 2, but there is so much more to it. Christians can make an eternal impact by obeying and worshiping God the way these early believers did. The truth, and only the truth, sets hearts free (John 8:32).

Toward Being Ministers of Reconciliation

As someone who is in constant prayer and repentance about my own selfishness and propensity to avoid serving others, there are a few ways that I personally seek to love my neighbors as Christ calls me to:

Pray, Pray, Pray – Nothing of this magnitude can be accomplished without the Spirit’s work (1 Cor. 2:12). When you share the gospel and when someone receives it, there is supernatural power weaved throughout the entire process. Knowing that I need – and have – God’s help encourages me to worry less about my own fear of man.
Remember Christ – Though WWJD? bracelets have largely come and gone, this slogan is actually highly missional. When speaking with others, praying for others, and serving others, I have the perfect model in Jesus. When I don’t feel like being generous, I am reminded of how generous Christ is to me on a daily basis. When I don’t feel like serving, I am reminded that God himself stepped into human history and suffered the cross with joy (Hebrews 12:2).
Go – Loving and reaching my neighbors is frequently a better idea than action. Upon relying on the Spirit and remembering how Christ lived, I am finally reminded of the Great Commission’s call to literally take this good news to the lost (Matt. 28:18-20). This may be the hardest part, but an understanding of who Christ is, what he’s done, and what he calls me to propels me into his mission. May we all trust him with this responsibility.

Originally published at Gospel-Centered Discipleship.

Bethany Jenkins 12/10/12 Bethany Jenkins 12/10/12

Incarnation in the City

If we do not understand the weight of the miracle of the incarnation of Christ, it is because we do not understand the weight of the holiness of God. The incarnation is shocking. It is outrageous to think that an infinite and holy God would voluntarily become finite to live with unholy sinners. In fact, the incarnation is so appalling that it is the thing that separates Christianity from Islam and Judaism. The Jerusalem Talmud says, “If man claims to be God, he is a liar” (Ta’anit 2:1), while the Quran says, “Allah begets not and was not begotten.” (Sura al-Ikhlas 112). Jews and Muslims understand how ludicrous it is to think that a holy God would humiliate himself by becoming human.

The Dreadful Holiness of God

The holiness of God is fearful. But if we want to know God and ourselves, we must begin by seeing how much God loves his holiness and cherishes his purity. If we do not start here, the gospel will become cheap to us. As A.W. Tozer wrote,

“Unless the weight of the burden is felt, the gospel can mean nothing to man; and until he sees a vision of God high and lifted up, there will be no woe and no burden. Low views of God destroy the gospel for all who hold them”. The Knowledge of the Holy

Under the old covenant, people responded to the holiness of God with awe and reverence. When Moses met the Lord, he “hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God” (Exodus 3:6). Then, years later, when he begged to see God’s glory, God said, “You cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live” (Exodus 33:20). When the ark of the Lord was being brought back to Israel, some men looked inside of it and, as a result, the Lord struck down fifty thousand men. The people despaired, “Who is able to stand before the Lord, this holy God?” (1 Samuel 6:20). When David was bringing the ark to Jerusalem, one man merely touched it, and God struck him down immediately, “And David was afraid of the Lord that day, and he said, ‘How can the ark of the Lord come to me?’” (2 Samuel 6:9). The nearer Ezekiel approached the throne of the Lord, the less sure his words became: “Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it, I fell on my face” (Ezekiel 1:28).

Not only did people tremble at his holiness, the Lord himself frequently spoke about it. Through Isaiah, he said, “Who has measured the Spirit of the Lord, or what man shows him his counsel … All the nations are as nothing before him, they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness” (Isaiah 40:13, 17). When Job finished calling his character into question, the Lord answered from the whirlwind, “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? … Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?” (Job 38:2, 4).

The Incarnation of that Dreadful Holiness

Jesus embodies the holiness of God because he is God and has been with God from the beginning. This means that, when God acted under the old covenant, Jesus – as part of the Godhead – was right there with him. This is why the incarnation is a shocking miracle. In Christ, God has effected self-disclosure. Our holy God, who told Moses, “for man shall not see me and live”, became incarnate. People saw him and lived. Our holy God, who struck down a man for touching the ark and another fifty thousand for looking inside of it, became incarnate. People spit upon him and lived. Our holy God, whose throne was so magnificent that Ezekiel failed to find words to describe it, became incarnate. He was born as a baby in a manger, not a throne. Our holy God, who demanded blood sacrifices to atone for sin, became incarnate. He allowed himself to be butchered on a cross. Our holy God, who asked Job, “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?”, became incarnate. He was born in an insignificant little town and worked as a mere carpenter in Nazareth.

Incarnation in Our Cities

What does the incarnation mean for us today? First, the incarnation means that we live in the world, but not of it. As Jesus prayed for his disciples, “I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world”. In other words, we pursue holy lives of obedience and sacrifice even as we engage in our cities.

Second, the incarnation means that we seek opportunities to deny ourselves. Self-denial is not a popular topic in our culture, but it is the starting point for Christian growth in the mind of Christ. When Jesus became incarnate, he voluntarily denied himself the privileges of being God in order to be mocked and killed. He did this because he longed to redeem us and knew that, in order to accomplish our salvation, the demands of his holiness had to be met. We could not meet them, so he met them for us. We, in turn, are to have the same mind, “do[ing] nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count[ing] others more significant than [our]selves” (Philippians 3:3). We deny ourselves to love others.

Third, the incarnation means that we do not love money. God is the richest being in the universe. Everything is made by him, through him and for him. Yet as he looked upon the world and decided into what family he would come, he chose the poorest of the poor. When Mary and Joseph went to the temple after the birth of Jesus, Luke records, “And when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, they brought [Jesus] up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord … and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the Law of the Lord, ‘a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons’” (Luke 2:22-24). Under the Law, the regular sacrifice was a lamb, but there was a provision for poor mothers: “If she cannot afford a lamb, then she shall take two turtledoves or two pigeons” (Leviticus 12:8). This is what Mary brought. Jesus, who had all the riches of the world at his disposal, chose to be incarnate into a family that could not even afford a regular sacrifice. Let us not love riches.

Fourth, the incarnation means that we should not overvalue physical beauty. Our culture loves external appearances, but the incarnate Christ chose to come as someone who had no physical beauty or majesty. He is the most glorious person who has ever lived, but we did not recognize his glory. Thousands saw him with their eyes, but they saw nothing with their hearts. We, in turn, must look for beauty in our world with the eyes of our heart. What will we see when we look at the world this way? We will see that, today, the Lord lives in the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick and the prisoner. As Jesus taught, when we care for such people, we do this unto him.

Finally, the incarnation means that God is for us. Paul was not merely referring to the crucifixion when he wrote, “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:31-32). He was also referring to the incarnation, when Jesus left the side of the Father to become man and accomplish our salvation. The incarnation means that God is for us. Jesus left the Godhead and all the privileges thereof to die. He lived a humiliating and self-denying life to bring us to God, where there are pleasures forevermore. He veiled his awful and fearful holiness so that we could touch him, see him, know him and love him. No longer does he say, “No man can see my face and live”. Today, he says, “See my face and be satisfied” (Psalm 17:15).

When we live in light of the incarnation of Christ, our lives will be shocking to others. Although we are sons and daughters of the King, we will humiliate ourselves by serving others. All things may be permissible, but we will deny ourselves certain things or activities so that we can grow in our love for God and others. We will earn money, but we will strategize how to give it away for the sake of the kingdom. Living in a physical world, we will spend more effort on cultivating our inner beauty than our outer beauty. We will trust in the promises of God more than our circumstances because we know he is for us. When we live like this, people will think we are ludicrous. They will find our choices shocking. Yet we will point to the miracle of the incarnation of Christ. Our lives will testify to the great news of Advent. That news is this: Christ has come, God is with us.

Bethany Jenkins is the founder of The Park Forum, a New York City based nonprofit that seeks to encourage urban professionals to read the Word daily. Prior to founding The Park Forum, Bethany worked at the New York Stock Exchange, the State Department and in Congress. She received her B.A. from Baylor University, M.A. from George Washington University and J.D. from Columbia Law School, where she served on the editorial board of theJournal of Law & Social Problems, worked at the U.S. Attorney’s Office and summered at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett. Bethany lives on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and loves running in Central Park and eating french fries. Twitter: @BethanyJenkins

Read similar articles: The Object of Our Hope by Jonathan Dodson and Mission is Where You Live by Jeremy Writebol.

Download the free Advent devotional, Come Lord Jesus Come by Will Walker and Nathan Sherman.

Micah Fries 12/7/12 Micah Fries 12/7/12

Unconscionable

I’ll be honest. I’ve known for a while that sex trafficking exists, and that it is becoming a growing problem. However, when I read this article at Forbes, it took my breath away, hacked me off, and made me want to cry all at the same time. The very idea that 100,000 American children are being abducted and enslaved in sex slavery each year, and that there are only 100 shelter beds available – in the entire country – for these children, blows my mind. Even worse is the reality that in 40 of our states, children who are caught by the authorities are incarcerated and treated like criminals, rather than being cared for and treated like the victims that they are. This is unconscionable. It is immoral. Consider a few more statistical realities about the state of child sex trafficking in the U.S.:

Human trafficking is the 2nd fastest growing criminal enterprise, behind only drug trafficking.
On average, trafficking begins when the child is 13-years old.
The average child who is trafficked for sex is expected to see 10-15 clients PER DAY.
This means that the average child will be raped 6,000 times during their victimization.

The article goes on to provide much more detail. I hope you will read it.

What Can We Do?

So the question then becomes, what can the church do? What can a follower of Christ do? I am no expert – I hope I’ve already made that clear – but it seems to me that there are two immediate needs that we could work toward.

First, we have to put pressure on the legislative authorities of our various states to decriminalize underage victims of sexual exploitation. If we would simply stand up, contact our state senators and congressman, write the governor, etc., maybe they would begin to act on behalf of these exploited children. I’m planning on writing my first letter today.

Secondly, particularly for those who live in urban areas, the lack of shelter beds for children who are being exploited seems tragic. I don’t know what it would have to look like, but it seems to me that we could create opportunities and places to provide shelter to victims of exploitation. Whether it be an actual home, or a network of homes, those of us who love Christ and love children should be the most likely to step up and help facilitate this kind of care.

May God have mercy on these children, and may the church step up and be their advocates.

Cross-posted from Micah's personal blog.

Jonathan Dodson 12/7/12 Jonathan Dodson 12/7/12

The Object of our Hope

In the coming weeks, many churches will touch on the themes of Advent: hope, faith, joy, and peace. But our world is riddled with despair, unbelief, sadness, and violence. There seems to be all too many reasons not to have hope, faith, joy, or peace. How does the gospel make sense of this apparent contradiction of Jesus’s birth? Why is the hope of the gospel still relevant even (especially) in this apparently hopeless world? I encourage you to read through the first two chapters of Luke on your own or with your family to contemplate these important questions before reading further.

The Nature of Hope

What is hope? Hope is human—rocks don’t hope. Birds don’t hope. Fish don’t hope. Humans hope. And if we lose hope, we can’t go on living. Hell is a kind of hopelessness, which is why at the entrance to Dante’s Inferno stand the words: “Abandon hope, all ye who enter here.” Hope makes all the difference in the world. Hope is not only human; it’s forward-looking, future-oriented. Hope is belief that the future can change the present.

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life. - Proverbs 13:12

Temporal hopes will wax and wane. This very fact shows us that hope is the beat of the human heart. Hope makes all the difference in the world.

The Tension of Hopelessness

First, a word about the word “hope.” In English it possesses a degree of uncertainty. “I hope to make it home by 5.” Uncertain but hopeful.

In the Bible, hope possesses certainty. “Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience." (Rom 8:24-25) or the “full assurance of hope” (Heb 6:11). Biblical hope looks forward in certain anticipation.

If we're honest, we often lack this biblical hope. Perhaps, we even lack normal uncertain hope. Although hope is the heartbeat of every human, our hearts are beating slowly, strangled by the tension of hopelessness. Josef Pieper, a German theologian, wrote a book in the middle of the 20^th century called On Hope, and in it he argued that we all tend toward hopelessness, in one of two directions. Hopelessness, he says, has two forms—despair and presumption—and we all bend one way or the other.

Presumption

Presumption, Pieper writes, “is a premature, self-willed anticipation of the fulfillment of what we hope for from God.” Presumption is a leap into the future, an insistence that the future be the present. It bypasses hope, insisting we have heaven on earth now.

In an edition of Atlantic Monthly a few years ago, the cover article read: Did Christianity Cause the Crash? The article pinned the blame for the housing market crash on Christians who preach and live a prosperity theology. God wants you to be wealthy and healthy. The article was getting at this presumption, this bypassing of Christian hope to insist on the future in the present. So take your house, your car, your clothes, your possessions by faith (whether you can afford it or not)!

The presumption of prosperity theology is that it insists Christians are entitled to the future heavenly blessings of security and prosperity now. They refuse to hope and endure, and tell those who lack security and prosperity that they lack faith. Get that house, regardless of your present income. When the wife of a prosperity preacher was pressed about this as irresponsible, she responded by saying: “But if the Lord is telling you to ‘take that first step and I will provide,’ then you have to believe.” This isn’t a matter of belief, it’s a matter of greed, of inordinate desire for more stuff or more security. So they, we, get into mortgages we can’t afford. How presumptuous.

Now, it’s easy to point the finger, to prosperity presumption, but what about our presumption? Are we insisting on the future in the present? A little heaven on earth? Are you stockpiling assets for your own security? Insisting on a standard of living that is supported, not by hope, but by irresponsible debt? Driving cars we can’t really afford, renting where we don’t belong, paying bills and buying Christmas gifts on the credit card? We try to eliminate hope in our quest for security and wealth.

Presumption refuses hope. It rejects the persevering nature of hope, which makes it so admirable, and as a result, becomes “the fraudulent imitation of hope.” (Pieper) But Christian hope forgoes present joys for the greater future joy. It sacrifices present comfort for the sake of others. It goes not into irresponsible debt but into deliberate generosity. It goes through the cross before entering the new creation. Do our lifestyles reflect hope or presumption? What could you do this Christmas to express true Christian hope?

Pieper notes: “In the sin of presumption, man’s desire for security is so exaggerated that it excels the bounds of reality.” (67). Our material desires are exaggerated beyond reality and beyond God’s promise. God never guaranteed a mansion this side of glory. Somehow we forget that Jesus was a homeless Messiah, who told us that no disciple is above his master (Luk 6:40). Some of us bend toward presumption, a sinful distortion of hope.

Despair

Others of us bend toward despair. Pieper describes despair as “a premature, arbitrary anticipation of the non-fulfillment of what we hope for from God.” Presumption anticipates fulfillment, despair anticipates non-fulfillment. Presumption is overconfident; despair is under-confident. Instead of making a leap into the future, despair sits down in the present, sulking, depressed, and gives up on God. It abandons hope. Instead of bypassing it; despair rejects hope altogether. There is no hope. We spiral down, so far down we can’t look up.

Hope makes all the difference in the world. Without it we can tumble into despair, where we would rather sulk in self-loathing than lift a finger for change. Despair says: “It doesn’t matter what I do, nothing will ever change. I will never succeed.” It’s self-centered, not others-centered. It insists on self. It is a parasite of hope. Despair cannot exist without hope, but it ever remains the cynic, refusing to trust in God’s promises, to look up instead of down. Instead of choosing the persevering, arduous path of hope in the midst of trial, it surrenders to become the antitype of hope. It exaggerates self in the face of God. When it comes to hope, we all fall toward presumption or despair, leaping into the future or settling down in the present. We bypass hope or reject it. Overconfidence or under-confidence. So how do we reclaim biblical hope, enduring confidence in the future that affects the present?

The Story of Hope

Luke 1:67-80 tells a story of hope about a people of hope, the Jews. A people of unparalleled resilience—exodus, exile, holocaust. Of course, Israel swayed between presumption and despair like any people, but there was always a remnant that endured, embracing the difficult path of hope in God. We come upon a faithful Israelite, Zechariah the priest, who is met by an angel and promised a son. He and his wife Elizabeth have been unable to bear a child, a scandal in Jewish society. No doubt they struggled with despair, but God would restore their standing in society with the birth of John the Baptist.

It has been 400 years since the last prophet, Malachi, who prophesied about John. John was the appointed prophet of the 1st century. Now, since Malachi a lot had happened to Israel. Although they lived in their Promised Land, it was not their land. It had been occupied by pagans for centuries. Israel was subject to a series of foreign powers: Persian, Greek, and now Roman. Over the centuries leading up to John’s birth, various Jewish leaders rose up to overthrow the occupying powers. Some of them claimed to be the messiah. Can you imagine what this did to Israel? Up and down, presumption and despair, their hope battered and bolstered over and over again.

Over time, splinter Jewish groups formed. The sectarian Jews withdrew from society, radically conservative and presumptuous, believing they were God’s special elect people. His new covenant people appointed to usher in the kingdom of God. They were called the Essenes, led by the messianic pretender, the Teacher of Righteousness, whose authority could not be contested. Convinced they were to usher in the Kingdom of God, they prepared for holy war. They were presumptuous. Leaping into the future, they bypassed hope claiming heaven on earth. They were overconfident, disengaged from society. They did not contribute to the social needs of Israel nor did they love their neighbors.

Then there were the secularist Jews, who abandoned faith and integrated into Greek and Roman society, so much that they were indiscernible from the pagans. Non-practicing we might call them. They gave up on God and hope, disillusioned and despairing of any messianic rescue from their enemies. They were under-confident and settled despairingly down into the present, jettisoning hope.

It’s in this context that the prophet, John the Baptist, is born. We are told that when his name was announced the news travelled throughout the hill country of Judea, “and all who heard them laid them up in their hearts saying, ‘What then will this child be?’” A spark of hope rising in the Jewish heart. We die without it. Israel was beginning to come back to life. John’s father, Zechariah, who had despaired and been struck mute for not believing the promise of his son, stands up and, filled with the Holy Spirit, makes a prophecy of hope.

The Object of Hope

Zechariah proclaims, "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us…” (Luke 1:68-71)

The object of hope. Zechariah declares the visitation and redemption of his people, a time referred to by the prophets as the Day of the Lord. And then regarding his son he says: "And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins." (Luke 1:76-77)

Zechariah is so taken with this newfound hope, that he almost neglects his son! Why was John born? To prepare Israel for the Day of the Lord, by giving the “knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins.” Israel had been lingering in unbelief and hopelessness, splintering into presumptuous groups and despairing groups, into sectarian and secularized Jews who either bypassed or rejected hope in God. They found themselves in a predicament with God. Guilty of sinful presumption and despair. How does God respond? Salvation in the forgiveness of sins!

God extends forgiveness for their hopeless presumption. For jumping ahead of him, for pimping him out for security, wealth, and power. For the hopeless, overconfident, self-reliant American who has an exaggerated, idolatrous desire for security and cash, God mercifully extends forgiveness. Forgiveness the person who rids himself of hope in God, and hopes in self-wrought security and happiness. Forgiveness for the person who holds onto his goods or money - refusing to give it away.

If we will turn away from greedy presumption in repentance, we can turn to faith in God’s promise of forgiveness. Then we can hope. We must bank on God, not on his gifts or power. To the hopeless despairing ones, God extends forgiveness for not believing in his promises, if we will unseat ourselves from despair and step into hope.

Wherever you are this Advent season -- despair or presumption -- God in Christ is extending you hope, hope for forgiveness and for healing. Hope in the Son of righteousness, who has risen with healing in his wings. Hope makes all the difference in the world.

Jonathan K. Dodson (MDiv; ThM) serves as a pastor of Austin City Life in Austin, Texas. He is the author of Gospel-Centered Discipleship and has written articles in numerous blogs and journals such as The Resurgence, The Journal of Biblical Counseling, and Boundless. He has discipled men and women abroad and at home for almost two decades, taking great delight in communicating the gospel and seeing Christ formed in others. Twitter: @Jonathan_Dodson

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For a free Advent devotional ebook, check out Come Lord Jesus Come by Will Walker & Nathan Sherman.

For more on the gospel & Christmas, read: Taking in Christmas by Timothy Keller.

Guest User 12/3/12 Guest User 12/3/12

Jovan Belcher, Bob Costas, and Jesus

Jovan Belcher didn't need a law telling him not to own a gun; he needed to see that God was and is the only solution to whatever deep anguish he was experiencing.

The sports world was rocked this weekend when Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher killed his girlfriend Saturday morning, then proceeded to fatally shoot himself in the head at the Chiefs' practice facility. Though no motive has been declared, it is safe to assume that Belcher was a very troubled man (if even during the short time frame of the incident). Prompted by this event, NBC anchor Bob Costas used his "Sunday Night Football" platform last night to give a speech on gun control at halftime of the Dallas Cowboys vs. Philadelphia Eagles game. This led to immediate reaction from fans and news outlets (search "#Costas" on Twitter for reference). Though much of the fallout was politically- and emotionally-charged, the fundamental concern regarding Costas's advocacy of gun control appeared to be his timing. Many asked, "Is this the right time to pontificate about your personal beliefs on gun control?" Still others argued that such a time was the perfect opportunity to speak on this matter.

Regardless of whether or not Costas was "right" or "wrong" to voice his opinion in that venue (and a consensus is not on the horizon, of course), there are a two general issues with his thesis.

1. Guns don't kill people. People kill people. Overused phrase? Yes. True? Yep. Costas's argument that Belcher and his girlfriend "would still be alive" if he was unable to obtain a gun is a stretch. Sure, it could theoretically be true if Belcher only wanted to use a gun, but that's unlikely. Over recent decades, Chicago learned that banning guns did not lower homicide rates. In fact, they increased. And John Lott argues that this isn't isolated to Chicago or any other specific area. Additionally, anyone who has been a parent or in some sort of ministry to teenagers knows that making a child come home by 10 p.m. every night does not guarantee his or her chastity.

Abortion restrictions, for example, statistically show potential in saving lives while homicides and suicides play out differently. Obama's endorsements led to 300,000 more abortions through Planned Parenthood. That's raw data in support of such restrictions, so I don't want to demonize law. However, homicide and suicides are conducted through a myriad of means. Guns are one of many weapons of death. Though stats may vary in different contexts, the statistics - at the very least - call for much more debate than was allowed in last night's broadcast. Costas might have been able to save face if he used more conditional language like "might" or "who knows if...?" Instead, he matter-of-factly pounded the gong.

2. Only God changes hearts. It cannot be stated enough that laws do not transform sinful hearts. The void that was clearly in Belcher's heart would not be filled by tighter regulations, but by the life-transforming power of the gospel. It must be said that we should always fight to legislate godly virtues in our society, but we must also remember that Jesus Christ's life, death, resurrection, and ascension bring the only true hope to mankind (John 14:6-7; 1 Cor. 12:12-16). Christians have the propensity to either hate law and government or idolize it; instead, let us support legislation where it helps society but let nothing replace the foundational human need for the gospel.

Jovan Belcher didn't need a law telling him not to own a gun (assuming that he did, in fact, own it legally); he needed to see that God was and is the only solution to whatever deep anguish he was experiencing.

This post was the topic of discussion when I co-hosted "For Christ and Culture" on 90.9 KCBI in Dallas. LISTEN HERE

Scott Sauls 12/3/12 Scott Sauls 12/3/12

A JESUS-LIKE CHURCH CULTURE

In a very real sense, the work of Jesus is complete. When it comes to our standing as beloved, forgiven, delighted-in children of God, “It is finished,” just as Christ said. His sinless life secured for us a new and irrevocable status—holy and blameless in God’s sight. His death fulfilled the requirements of God’s justice toward our sins. Jesus lived the life we should have lived, and he died the death we should have died. Therefore, we are free. What a wonderful and humbling reality in which we now live—God does not treat us as our sins deserve, because on the cross, he has already treated Jesus as our sins deserve. This being true, there is still much work that Jesus intends to do! Acts 1:1 indicates that the work of Jesus on earth was not completed with His death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seating at the right hand of God. Luke writes, “In the first book (the Gospel of Luke), O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach.” Began to do and teach? How could there be more for Jesus to do than he what has already done? That’s where we, as Christ’s “ambassadors,” come into the picture. We are sent into the world, filled with his Spirit and enriched by his grace and truth, to represent him. In short, the work of Jesus continues through Christians.

WHAT ARE CHURCHES SUPPOSED TO BE ABOUT?

As Jesus’ ambassadors, Christians have been set apart to faithfully mirror him in our neighborhoods, our places of work and play, and our realms of influence. Therefore, our calling is to labor in every way possible to model our ministry and message after his. We are to live as those who are “full of grace and truth,” whose churches and ministries, because we are walking in the path of Jesus, will attract the types of people who were attracted to him, and, by unfortunate necessity, will draw criticism from the types of people who criticized him.

The purpose of this article, then, is to consider what constitutes a ministry that is full of both grace and truth. In other words, our task is to align our collective life and ministry to the life and ministry of Jesus.

CULTIVATing an Atmosphere that is “Full of Grace”

What does it mean to have a ministry atmosphere that is “full of grace” (John 1:14)? We will consider this question from a few different angles.

First, we must address the barriers created by Christians—barriers that have hidden the real Jesus from the world.

Gandhi was once asked why He never became a Christian. His answer was, “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” Gandhi had an admiration for Jesus, but could not reconcile how Christians were such poor representatives of their master. In his mind, this is what kept him from becoming a follower of Jesus.

If we are serious about being Jesus’ ambassadors, we need to listen very carefully to statements like this one. We must examine the most common barriers that stand between the real Jesus and people’s false impressions of him—impressions which, unfortunately, have been projected to a watching world by many sincere yet misguided Christians. These barriers include:

Condemnation. Philip Yancey often asks people he meets what they think of Christians. The answer he hears, with very little exception, is that Christians are judgmental, intolerant, and holier-than-thou. When the September 11 terrorist attacks took place on the World Trade Center, one very well-known Christian leader confirmed this stance by saying on national television, “If you are a homosexual, a member of the ACLU, in favor of abortion, or part of the People of the American Way, then I point my finger in your face and say you did this. You made this happen.” A Christian friend of mine who is an actor once invited a gay friend over to have dinner with him and his wife. Their guest soon realized (from the Bible on the coffee table) that they were Christians. He then said to my friend, “You are a Christian, and you actually like me?” This is tragic, yet all too common.

If we are serious about being Christ’s ambassadors, we must humbly own the fact that many people believe that Christians dislike them. Whether this is actually true or not, it is our starting point in the minds of most non-Christian people. If we are not guilty ourselves, then we are at the very least guilty by association with believers who have misrepresented the biblical Jesus to our culture. So we must take personal responsibility, as far as it depends on us, to reorient people’s perception of Christians, and especially of Christ himself.

Separation. In a day when many Christians want to separate themselves and their children from people and things that are considered secular, Christ’s ambassadors must resist this “us against them” mindset. We must do everything in our power to become friends with as many non-Christians as we can—no conditions attached. This must be a central value of our Christian communities. It is helpful to look at the life of Jesus in this regard. Luke 15:1-2 says plainly that all of the “sinners” made a habit of hanging around Jesus. They wanted to be near him, and they wanted to hear what he had to say. Meanwhile, religious folk were accusing Jesus of being a glutton, a drunk, and a friend of sinners (Luke 7:34). We know that these accusations were false—Jesus was tempted in every way. However, he was unapologetically a true friend to the lost, to all who were alien to the religious communities of his day. He seemed to welcome parting ways with religious folks if that was necessary to get close to sinners. The one who “welcomed sinners and ate with them” now insists that his followers assume the same posture. “God’s grace is for real sinners” must be more than a statement on our church websites. It must characterize the life and practice of our ministries.

Reputation. There is a price to pay if we get serious about cultivating atmospheres that are full of grace. In becoming a friend of sinners, as Jesus did, we should expect some resistance. When we pursue friendship with those who are outside the faith, some fellow believers will be suspicious of us. Consider Luke 7, for example, when a “sinful woman” enters the home of Simon the Pharisee. In the name of love, and in the spirit of demonstrable grace, Jesus received her very un-orthodox display of affection toward him. He breaks with religious customs, allowing the woman to touch his feet (feet were considered unclean—one could not even ask a slave to touch them for this reason). He breaks with social customs also, receiving her as his disciple. It was scandalous in Jesus’ day for a rabbi to receive a woman as a disciple, much less a woman with a scandalous history. Most scandalous, however, is the way that Jesus breaks with moral customs. The woman lets down her hair (this was grounds for divorce in that culture—a woman could do this only in the presence of her immediate family). She touches him with the tool of her trade, a prostitute’s perfume, and kiss him with a prostitute’s lips…and he allows it! Of course we know the rest of the story—Jesus was shunned as a man of ill repute. Giving positive attention to this woman, who to them was clearly “a sinner,” was evidence enough of moral compromise.

This has serious ramifications for those who wish to follow Jesus in a modern context. We must come to terms with the fact that if Jesus were a 21^st century American, he would not associate godliness with membership in a political party. He would not tell a lesbian she was outside of God’s will without also offering her a personal, no-strings-attached friendship. He would not talk about how smoking destroys God’s temple while simultaneously devouring his third piece of fried chicken at a church potluck. He would not condemn adultery as being any worse than studying the Bible for the wrong reasons. If we are accustomed to setting up our own Mishnah, our own set of “clean laws” that define one’s worthiness to be received into Jesus’ company, we need to give serious re-evaluation to our methods and priorities!

Pride. Becoming a friend of sinners begins with the understanding that we are much more like the “chief of sinners” than we are like Jesus Christ. Our approach with all people, no matter who they are or what their history, must assume the posture of “fellow beggars humbly telling others where to find the bread” (Steve Brown). If we really want people to be impacted by the Gospel and to enjoy the riches of God’s grace, they must first see in us the humility of those who have been, and continue to be, genuinely impacted by grace ourselves. Our humility must be authentic and not just an act. Paul was not above humbling himself. In Romans 7 he gives us a window into his personal struggle with the sin of coveting—a sin nobody would see unless he told them—and the ways in which the Gospel heals that sin. In 1 Timothy Paul identifies himself as the chief of all sinners. If we intend to be the aroma of Jesus in our ministries and our messages, we need to move past our love for reputation and image. Without realizing it, we can begin to build our identities on how good we look—on being “model Christians” that people are supposed to admire because of how put-together we appear to be. This is a trap and it will rob our ministries of power. If people in our midst are going to be changed by the grace of Jesus, they must regularly witness the Gospel working effectively in our lives—healing us of our sins and deepest wounds and fears.

our communities must be sinner-safe

There was a reason why all the sinners ran to Jesus on a regular basis (Luke 15:1-2). Though they knew he was against their sin—he never watered down the law’s demands—they wanted to be around him because they knew the reason why he was against their sin—because he was for their flourishing! If we want to be his ambassadors, therefore, several commitments must characterize us, our ministries, and our message.

Respecting and valuing all people. People must sense us relating to them on the basis of their God-given dignity, not on the basis of their shortcomings. If we are not careful, we can easily fall into the trap of diminishing the worth of a human being by thinking first of the ways they need to be fixed versus valuing them as bearers of the divine image, made for glory. The following quote from CS Lewis offers helpful perspective:

It is maybe possible to think too much of your own potential glory hereafter. But it is impossible to think too often or too deeply about that of your neighbors. The weight of my neighbor’s glory should be laid daily on my back. So heavy a weight it is that only humility can carry it. It’s a serious thing to live in a society of immortals. To remember that millions of years from now, the dullest and most uninteresting person you meet may one day be an incredible creature, who if you saw him now you would be strongly tempted to worship. - CS Lewis, The Weight of Glory

A biblical view of sin. Treating people with dignity does not imply a reluctance to challenge sin. If we are going to love people as Jesus does, we will be committed to their flourishing, which means we will deeply desire that they be obedient to God! So, the question is not, “Will we challenge sin?” but rather “How will we challenge sin, and with what motivation will we challenge it?” We must be on God’s agenda here. God is vehemently opposed to sin both for his own glory and very much for the person. God’s desire is that we live by his design, which is life to us.

A grace-filled posture toward sinners like ourselves. Whenever we challenge sin of any kind, our motivation must be because we care so deeply for those, like ourselves, who sin. Otherwise, we shouldn’t say anything at all about sin. You are no doubt familiar with the group from Topeka, Kansas who picketed the funeral of Mathew Sheppard, a young gay man who was beaten to death by some of his peers, with signs that read “God hates fags” and “Thank God for AIDS,” among other horrible, evil things. This example is certainly extreme. However, there are going to be seeds in our own hearts that are prone to look down on those to whom we feel superior. It is an evil thing to desire or celebrate someone’s harm instead of his or her well-being. As Jesus stood over Jerusalem, which had rejected his love, he wept for them. Do people, especially people who are “not like us,” sense this kind of love from us? Jesus did much more than merely tolerate sinful people in his midst. He cherished them and pursued their hearts that they might become free indeed. We have no option but to do the same.

we must keep first things first

Jesus, and nothing else, must be our “main thing” at all times. Our main emphasis must always be on the person and work of Christ. We must follow the example of the Apostle Paul who decided to know nothing except Jesus Christ and him crucified (1 Corinthians 2:2).

Therefore, everything else takes a back seat to Jesus. Often, we will equate “outreach” to converting others to the norms of our particular tribe (our political views, our theological tradition, our dress code, our ethics, our parenting philosophy, etc.) instead of converting them to a love and adoration of Jesus. But the norms of our tribe must always be secondary to, and in many cases discarded because of, a greater vision for people to see Jesus and know him for who he really is. Additionally, in all things we must lead with the grace of God versus with the law of God. When we require people to “get their act together” before we give them access to Jesus and his grace, we fail to follow the methods of the Lord, who welcomed and “graced” people before he called them to change (Luke 7:36-50, Luke 15:1-2, John 8:1-11, etc.). A cosmetic, outside-in, second-things-first approach to change contradicts the inside-out, first-things-first approach of the gospel.

Cultivate a Ministry of Grace

In cultivating a “full of grace” ministry atmosphere, we must carefully consider how we are presenting Christ to people who are either not Christian or somewhere along the journey of overcoming sin. That’s all of us, isn’t it?

Scott Sauls, a graduate of Furman University and Covenant Seminary, is foremost a son of God and the husband of one beautiful wife (Patti), the father of two fabulous daughters (Abby and Ellie), and the primary source of love and affection for a small dog (Lulu). Professionally, Scott serves as the Senior Pastor of Christ Presbyterian Church in Nashville, Tennessee. Prior to Nashville, Scott was a Lead and Preaching Pastor, as well as the writer of small group studies, for Redeemer Presbyterian of New York City. Twitter: @scottsauls

Editor’s Note: This is a repost of A Jesus-Like Church Culture by Scott Sauls. It appears here with the author’s permission. Website: cpcblogs.blogspot.com.

Other helpful writings on this topic are: An Unbelievable Gospel by Jonathan Dodson and Religion-less Spirituality by Timothy Keller.

Ben Roberts 11/30/12 Ben Roberts 11/30/12

An Advent Story

I grew up in evangelical megachurch smack dab on the golden buckle of the Bible Belt. As a kid, I was a little foggy on the meaning of Advent. Like, I knew it meant my friends at evangelical mega-private school would start rehearsing their caroling chops for the Singing Christmas Tree, a perplexing spectacle oddly similar to watching the Star Wars Holiday Special only with extra manger. Then my parents got divorced, and Christmas became a fairly miserable balancing act, which involved dressing up like Norman Rockwell and driving to one house or the other listening to Twisted Sister’s A Twisted Christmas at maximum volume, dead to all the presents and noise and decorations. When I was old enough, I moved out to the mountains, and Christmas just kinda dropped off the radar. It was a good day for snowboarding. The lifts were empty until after lunch.

I’ve gone full circle on a lot of things in my life, but it’s only been by the grace of God that Christmas has been redeemed from out of the morass of consumerism, politics, and nihilism into which it has fallen. Why is Advent important? What changed Christmas for me? I’ll be the first to say my change was a gradual process that began with authentic gospel-centered fellowship, scriptural preaching, and a whole lot of prayer. Which isn’t to say I’m some kinda Grinch. Well, maybe a little. But in more recent years, as I’ve discipled folks in the gospel during the holidays, I’ve come to see a different side of Christmas, one that they don’t make into Hallmark movies, and at the heart of it all is the importance of Advent.

Adventus

Derived from the Latin word adventus, “coming,” Advent marks the beginning of the Western Liturgical Year and commences on Advent Sunday (generally the fourth Sunday before December 25^th). All important stuff to know if you’re writing that Wikipedia article in your bucket list, but here’s where it gets cool. Adventus is the Latin translation of the Greek word parousia –typically used in reference to the Second Coming of Christ.

For as the lightening comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. – Matthew 24:27

For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. – 1 Corinthians 15:22-23

And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming. – 1 John 2:28

Related terms from the Greek include epiphany variously translated “appearing” or “glorious manifestation” and apocalypse, that oft misunderstood word meaning “revelation” or “to disclose what is invisible.”

So, here’s the thing, forget everything you thought you knew about Advent candles and the local live nativity play and reading Luke 2 at your kids… Wait. Rewind. Don’t forget that stuff, it’s actually important, too. But it’s equally important that we engage with what scripture is saying about the meaning of Christ’s expectation and appearance to us. If we simply focus on the history of Christmas, we are inviting the same host of problems that attended the Pharisees—myopically pouring over dusty scrolls, refusing to see the living God right there in front of them.

Said another way, during Advent we are not simply remembering some fateful event in the past, we’re celebrating a Messiah who was and is and is to come. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever (Hebrews 13:8). There is a special significance in this mystery as we approach the celebration of God’s incarnation. Advent is the time to shout hallelujah for his coming return, to pray to hasten the day that we might see our Redeemer with our own eyes, to fast for revival in our cities, churches, and families.

So, I ask you: how does Advent change if you are the one who’s going to see the Son of God? Can you imagine the wonder such a sight will inspire?—the Christ born of the Spirit, one with God, the hope of the nations? Emmanuel. God is with us. Who can be against us? (Romans 8:31)

On that coming day my eyes will see something sweeter than honey, more precious than gold! Until then, I keep my eyes fixed on that goal—it's a struggle, sure—but all the mall Santa pomp and circumstance goes mute before it.

A Light for Revelation

Luke 2 takes on a new light when I read it with a mindset that it isn’t just some old traditional tale. The story of the Birth of Christ teaches us how to await our own future encounter with Christ. Like Simeon, we look for God’s consolation to this sick and hurting world, we hope in a Living Redeemer, and we too can seek Christ in the Spirit. We, too, can praise him like Simeon, singing, “You are a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.” (Luke 2:32)

Likewise, Advent is an invitation to enter into the story of Christ’s coming, and Christmas is a wonderful time to bear witness to what Christ has done in your life by entering into the excitement of the celebration with your family, friends, neighbors, and fellow disciples.

OK, maybe I was initially a little too hasty to knock the Singing Christmas Thing. Over and over in the gospels we read about folks singing and bearing witness to the Messiah— prophets, prophetesses, priests, shepherds, kings, folks from every segment and class of society—and not just people, angels too. They bring gifts. They sing songs. They celebrate. So, if a Singing Tree is your idea of a party, rock on. I’ll be down at the local children’s shelter tearing up some Guns N’ Roses on the karaoke.

Whatever we wind-up doing during the Christmas season, remember we do it to magnify the King of Kings. We’re also bearing witness to the world about just how deeply the light of God’s love has changed our lives. So while Christmas pickles and mistletoe are fun… it might be time to rethink some of the worn-out ways we wade through the holiday madness. I’m reminded of Simeon’s final words to Mary and Joseph: “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.” (Luke 2:34-35)

Bad example, but I got asked to pray at the office thanksgiving potluck the other day. I remember thinking, ‘I can do this, right? I mean I won’t get arrested?’ And so far the Prayer Police haven’t come for me yet. What I’m saying is Christ pierces right to the heart of things. The Spirit has an absolutely timeless way of revealing the thoughts of many hearts. So, during Advent, pray for the Spirit to guide you to Christ this Christmas. Pray for a revelation of how best to proclaim Christ to your friends, family, fellow believers, and neighbors during this celebratory time of year. The Spirit wanted me to write Christmas poems for my church. So I’m working on that, and yeah, I’m wearing a Santa hat.

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Ben Roberts is follower of Christ & an Editor at both Gospel Centered Discipleship & the speculative literary journal, Unstuck. A graduate of the Michener Center for Writers, he lives in Austin with his wife, Jessica & son, Solomon. They fellowship and worship at Austin City Life.

For more free article read: Redeeming Worship by Matt Oakes or Rethinking Devotion by Matt Manry.

Guest User 11/29/12 Guest User 11/29/12

Crossway Book Giveaway

Well, well, well... another book giveaway.

It's that time again! Thanks to our continued partnership with Crossway, we will be giving away the following books:

How to Enter:

Follow us on Twitter and Retweet our giveaway tweet OR
Like us on Facebook and Share our giveaway post
EXTRA CREDIT: Do all of the above!

*There will be five winners (each winner will get one of the five books).

**Giveaway ends December 2, 2012 at 11:59 CST.

May the odds be ever in your favor...........

GCD Editors 11/28/12 GCD Editors 11/28/12

The Importance of the Pastoral "I Don't Know"

by Jared Wilson.

Jared Wilson pastors Middletown Springs Community Church and has authored several books including Gospel Wakefulness and Gospel Deeps. He is the husband of Becky and father of Macy and Grace. He blogs regularly at The Gospel Coalition.

*Editor's Note: This was #12 on our Top Posts of 2012.

___

“My happy conviction is that pastors ought not to be experts on everything.” - John Piper

One of the most valuable sentences in a pastor’s arsenal is “I don’t know.” The pressure to know and be everything everybody expects us to know and be can be pride-puffing. I once worked at a bookstore where we were told never to say “I don’t know” to a customer. We must give them some answer, any answer, even if it was a guess or a likely wrong answer. Customers don’t want to hear “I don’t know” from service people, but even a wrong answer makes them feel helped. I confess the temptation to “satisfy the customer” has persisted through my ministry days, for a variety of reasons. I want people to feel helped. And I also don’t like looking like a rube.

Why is it important for pastors (and Christians in general!) to say “I don’t know” when they don’t know? 1. Because it’s the truth. First and foremost, if you don’t know the answer to something, say you don’t know the answer. Making up stuff up is not our calling. We all know some folks who seem pathologically unable to admit ignorance in any area. I don’t trust those people, and neither should you. Better a disappointing truth than a manipulative or misleading fabrication.

2. Because it impresses the right people. I’ve done more than a few Q&A’s after preaching or on panels at speaking engagements before, and the desire to impress with wisdom and insight can be nerve-wracking. Once during a Q&A after a sermon at our church in Nashville, I got real honest when a question stumped me. I don’t remember what it was, but I remember realizing I had no information available to my brain to even begin formulating a halfway intelligent response. So I just said, “I’m sorry, but I don’t know the answer to that.” Afterwards a young lady approached me to thank me for saying “I don’t know.” She said she wished more “religious people” could say it too. The reality is that acting like you know everything impresses shallow, naive, or otherwise easily impressed people. But saying “I don’t know” impresses people who value honesty and appreciate their pastor admitting weakness, ignorance, or just general fallibility.

3. Because it trains others not to be know-it-alls. A few weeks ago a fellow came up to me after our service to ask about the Old Testament figure Ahimelech. I recognized the name but could not recall his biblical importance or the narrative where he was found. My inquirer expected that, as a pastor, I would know all about this figure and even the references where he would be found. I blanked. When I looked him up later, of course, I “remembered” who Ahimelech was, but in the moment, despite losing face with a relatively new Christian, I said, “Brother, I don’t remember. I just don’t know.” This led to a great talk about so-called “Bible trivia,” knowledge, learning, wisdom, and righteousness and the like. I think it was a teachable moment for both of us, but I walked away believing that when a leader is open about the gaps in his knowledge it trains others to be okay with not knowing everything. Of course, we want to know our Bibles as well as we possibly can, but we want to remember that knowledge puffs up and that the Scriptures and the doctrines they teach are meant to make us full-hearted with Christ not big-headed with minutiae.

4. Because it cultivates humility. It is good for a pastor’s heart — no matter the reception — to make his “I don’t know”‘s public.

Cross-posted from Jared's blog.

Guest User 11/28/12 Guest User 11/28/12

Being Ministers of Reconciliation

In a world of subjective truths, tolerance, and acceptance, Christianity has become nothing more than 'another' religion in the eyes of many. Western culture, in particular, is grievously enamored with the idea of self-reliance, self-dependence, and self-worth. Christianity is extremely counter-cultural because it teaches the actuality of human depravity, the necessity for a savior, and an eternal focus for our temporal lives. For unbelievers at-large, this can be something that can seem intolerant and outdated, a tradition steeped in rigid tradition, and a stumbling block to the progress of the society and the world. For Christians, however, depraved humanity in need of a savior is true reality. This is life for the human race. As we consider our calling to be “ministers of reconciliation” (2 Cor. 5:18-20), we must understand the people we are living around, their view of the world, and the journey they are on. Likewise, we have to continually allow the Spirit to draw us to repentance in areas of life where we fail to “let the love of Christ control us” (2 Cor. 5:14). Though loving others is often difficult and even scary, the pressure is not on us to change hearts, for only God can save through the transforming power of the gospel (Acts 4:12). As a friend of mine says often, “We do the ministry, God does the miracles.” The ministry of reconciliation acknowledges two truths: humans are sinful and we need a savior. The message of reconciliation is God dealt with sin himself and saved humanity. This is the Christian's message.

How Can this Message be Rejected?

Hope

Toward Being Ministers of Reconciliation

Pray, Pray, Pray – Nothing of this magnitude can be accomplished without the Spirit’s work (1 Cor. 2:12). When you share the gospel and when someone receives it, there is supernatural power weaved throughout the entire process. Knowing that I need – and have – God’s help encourages me to worry less about my own fear of man.
Remember Christ – Though WWJD? bracelets have largely come and gone, this slogan is actually highly missional. When speaking with others, praying for others, and serving others, I have the perfect model in Jesus. When I don’t feel like being generous, I am reminded of how generous Christ is to me on a daily basis. When I don’t feel like serving, I am reminded that God himself stepped into human history and suffered the cross with joy (Hebrews 12:2).
Go – Loving and reaching my neighbors is frequently a better idea than action. Upon relying on the Spirit and remembering how Christ lived, I am finally reminded of the Great Commission’s call to literally take this good news to the lost (Matt. 28:18-20). This may be the hardest part, but an understanding of who Christ is, what he’s done, and what he calls me to propels me into his mission. May we all trust him with this responsibility.

Brandon Smith is Editor of Project TGM and Pastoral Resident at CityView Church in Fort Worth, Texas. Connect with him on Twitter @BrandonSmith85.

To read more about how sharing the message of reconciliation read Jonathan Dodson's book, Unbelievable Gospel.

Lance Humphreys 11/26/12 Lance Humphreys 11/26/12

The Question of Discipleship

The path of discipleship is not short or easy. But it is a road well worn by the many faithful saints that have gone before us. As disciples, and as disciple-makers, there is no other better guide than looking at the first disciples of Jesus. The Bible gives us precious peeks into both the way Jesus made disciples and the way the disciples responded and grew as they followed him. Their journey of seeking to know and obey Jesus was filled with success in understanding the gospel at times and forgetting it later. Their time with Jesus was marked by faithfulness to the good news and failure to apply it. They forgot the good news of Jesus and they struggled to understand what Jesus was doing. And yet, Jesus walked with them patiently and didn’t give up on them. We have everything to learn from Jesus, and we have every right to place ourselves in the story as his disciples. In the Gospel of Matthew we find a powerful moment that we all must enter, a conversation we must all have. This moment is the turning point in Matthew’s story. It isn't the call to discipleship, though that is fundamental. In this case it is not a command but a question. A question we must answer for ourselves. A question we must continually ask as we make disciples of Jesus.

Within the Rhythm of Life

Before we get to the question and the key moment, we must understand the context. Because discipleship happens life-on-life and not in a vacuum, we can’t become over zealous and just skip to the short moment. What was going on in their lives? What had the disciples seen in Jesus? Leading up to this question, Jesus began his ministry. He called 12 men into his inner circle and they spent their days with him. They saw Jesus perform miracles and run into opposition from the religious rule keepers.

They saw Jesus teach with authority. They saw his compassion for people. A compassion not based on dire circumstances but based on the condition of the people's hearts. He grieved because he saw how exhausted they were, trying to earn God’s love by keeping an overwhelming set of added-religious rules. Jesus' message was different from rules, he said, “Come! Come to me if you are worn out from trying to be good enough for God. Come connect with me and you will enter into a new life where we walk together in a way that gives freedom and life and peace - because my way of life isn’t heavy, it’s free." (personal paraphrase of Matthew 11:28). Jesus poured his heart out in teaching about what life was meant to be like. He told parables, made claims about the Kingdom of God and did miraculous things.

Jesus' words and ministry were drawing huge crowds. Matthew tells us many in the audience wondered out loud the greatest question that has ever been or ever will be: “Could it be that Jesus is really the savior that God has promised to us?” The more people witnessed Jesus, the more this question about his identity grew. I know for me, the more I saw Jesus in the lives of others, the more I saw his handiwork, the more I asked, "Is this Jesus, the thing I've been looking for?"

The Question in a Place of Fear and Lust

This was daily life for the first disciples’ when Jesus asks his discipleship question in the town of Caesarea Phillipi, a pagan town outside jewish territory. A place famous for the worship of the greek god Pan, the god of fertility and the god of fear. Though it was a pagan place, it was a beautiful city nestled at the foot of a huge rock. And from this place of fear and false life Jesus stood up and asked his closest friends and followers the question, the most important question in history, the dominate question facing humanity: “Who is Jesus?”

Jesus began the conversation, “Who do people say that I am?” The disciples collaborated and answered with things they had heard, “Well most people think you are a prophet like Elijah or John the Baptist or one of the other guys.” How often do we speak more to what others say about Jesus than to what we know and believe to be true about Jesus ourselves?

And this is where we stop and place ourselves in the story--as we have every right to do and in fact should. Because in this story, you are just like the disciples--you are a follower of Jesus. You aren’t fully aware of it, but the reality is you have left everything to follow Jesus, you’ve seen him perform miracles, you’ve heard his words and your heart still leaps every time he speaks. However, the reality is on most days you struggle to get it. You don’t understand who he really is and what that means for you and for the whole world.

Like the disciples, you are probably in both a beautiful and sinful context. You stand in a place that is full of false hope for life--fertility through lust, lust for things and lust for people and lust for some fake version of real life, i.e. the American dream. You stand in a place of fear--fear that controls, fear that paralyzes, fear of what people will think, fear that you can’t really cut it, fear that you’ll be found out for who you really are, fear that at the end of your life there will be nothing to hope for.

Who Do You Say I Am?

Then Jesus looks at you specifically and asks the question: “Who do you say I am?”

And for all the times you’ve screwed it up, this time you get it right and you don’t even know where it came from. You’ve never thought it before, but as you say it you know it’s the most true thing you’ve ever said and you believe it: “You are the Messiah - the anointed savior and deliverer - you are the Son of the Living God.” And Jesus says, “Bless you, because you didn’t get that from any book or any teacher or any friend, but God himself, my Father, has revealed that to you.” (Matthew 16:15-17).

We have to know who Jesus is. Everything rests on who he is and who you believe he is. When the glamour fades, the pain kicks in, and you really don't have anything left, the disciple will have an answer for that question: "Who is Jesus?"

Who Jesus is and what he has done has everything to do with who you are and how you live:

If Jesus is the savior, you are saved and can rest in his work.
If Jesus is king, he is ruling and you are not. His reign is coming and yours is ceasing.
If Jesus is the Lamb of God, then your sin, fear, insecurity and iniquity has all been dealt with. You are delivered.
If Jesus is the Son, then his life, death, and resurrection is sufficient. Nothing else can be added! So you can stop trying to be good enough for others and God.
If Jesus is Lord, he is bringing everything under his authority, we can trust him with unwavering hope. All of our lives are submitted to him.

Lance Humphreys is an entrepreneur, executive coach and a mentor to young leaders. He is an encouragement and friend to many church planters throughout North America and beyond. He lives and makes disciples in Oklahoma City along with his wife and their two teenage kids. Follow Lance on twitter: @LanceHumphreys.

For more free articles on discipleship process of Jesus read: How Jesus Made Disciples by Winfield Bevins and The Gospel and the Great Commandment by Abe Mysenburg.

Guest User 11/26/12 Guest User 11/26/12

Advice to Young Pastors

Being in ministry at a young age can be daunting. The fact is, ministry is never as it seems. Your bad days are sometimes the days that you grow the most (unknowingly), and the good times are always sweeter than expected.

Being in ministry at a young age can be daunting. Often times, young men dive head first into a ministry role (typically working with youth is an entry point for any wet-behind-the-ears pastor) with a swagger and confidence that screams, “I’m gonna change this church MY way!” At least, that was my mindset. Successes and failures come, heartache makes you want to quit, growth makes you want to pat yourself on the back, and everyone in the church has “advice.” The fact is, ministry is never as it seems. Your bad days are sometimes the days that you grow the most (unknowingly), and the good times are always sweeter than expected. The hardest part for me was the disadvantage that comes with being the youngest guy on the staff. No matter how much you read or how much experience you have (I served in four significant vocational ministry positions by 25), many of the staff and congregants will not take you as seriously as you’d like. As an elder and multi-functional pastor at several churches, there were times where I felt hesitant to speak into meetings or general conversation because I wasn't sure that anyone would heed my opinion. Fortunately, the other leaders respected my voice but, trust me, it’s difficult to tell a 40-year old pastor, “I told ya so.” When I get the opportunity to preach and/or teach, I have to try and use the experience that I do have as the backbone for my message so that people don't tune me out. As much as I’ve read about and would love to teach on parenting, I’m not a parent and would be ignored even if my sermon is spot on. And on and on it goes.

All this to say, there is hope for the young pastor. Here is some advice to young pastors from a young pastor:

Trust the Lord – For whatever reason, God has placed you in this position. Whether you are a youth pastor, single’s pastor, or the lead preaching pastor, God has allowed you to do so. Pray, pray, pray. You will be looked at sideways and tuned out at times, but God will place his Word on the hearts of those it is intended for.
Heed Paul’s Words in 1 Timothy 4:12 – “Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.” Regardless of detractions, set an example to even the older crowd in your church. Do not be defensive or arrogant, simply teach and live doctrine and love. Be a Christian first and a pastor last; this order of things will work itself out beautifully. If you’re loving Jesus and living for him, your life will outflow into your ministry. People will notice.
Listen to Advice – You won’t always take it or put it to use, but advice from older men, more seasoned ministers, and (gasp) even the little old ladies that storm your office all week is invaluable. You cannot learn everything from books or podcasts and the best teacher is almost always experience. Take full advantage of any criticism or counsel you can get your hands on.
Persevere – Ministry at any level can and will crush you at times. You can have strong theology and talent, but you are an emotional human being who will take a beating regardless of how strong you are. As Matt Chandler once reminded me, pastors spend all week dealing with other people’s sins and it can absolutely wear you out. Young pastor, grab ahold of Jesus’s grace and immerse yourself in it. Your greatest weapon is the endless grace of God and a great salvation that only he can provide.

This is an adaptation of something that I previously wrote for SBC Voices.

Jonathan Dodson 11/21/12 Jonathan Dodson 11/21/12

Why Give Thanks?

Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever! Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he has redeemed from trouble. - Psalm 107:1-2

Psalm 107 doesn’t begin by marshaling reasons to thank God. Rather, the worshipper leads off with gratitude: “Oh give thanks to the LORD!” Bubbling over before the Lord, he enjoins us to worship with him. Sometimes we find it difficult to be spontaneously grateful to God. Complaining comes more naturally. Fortunately, the Psalmist gives us specific reasons we should give thanks to God. Two big reasons we should be grateful to God are: 1) Because he is good and 2) Because his goodness overflows.

Give Thanks Because He is Good

The first reason for giving thanks to God is because he is good. You might be thinking, "You don’t know how much bad I've experienced this year." Hold on. Notice the writer doesn’t say give thanks because of what God has done. Rather, we are to give thanks because God, in his essence, is good. We have to get our attention off of ourselves to see it. What does it mean for God to be good? His goodness can refer to his moral excellence, an inherent goodness. We thank him because he is the origin and fountain of goodness. In fact, apart from God being the source of good, we wouldn’t know and experience the good. We would have no basis for delighting in the good done by our children or praising the character of a public servant saying, “That was good.” God gives us a reason for goodness—himself—and as a result we have a moral compass. We can discern between good and bad and delight in what is good.

Goodness can also refer to God’s beauty. This meaning of goodness refers to the superior quality of his goodness. When a mountain top view of moving film is particularly striking, we will say: “That was very good" or perhaps "Awesome.” Beauty calls out awe. God’s innate goodness isn’t just morally laudable; it’s aesthetically provoking. His glory furnishes us with a sense of beauty, an aesthetic witness that says, yes, there are things that are truly beautiful because there is a God of beauty. Elsewhere the psalmist tells us: “Out of Zion the perfection of beauty, God, has shone forth” (50:1). We should thank God because He is morally good and aesthetically good, both virtuous and beautiful. He has left us a moral compass and an aesthetic witness.

Give Thanks Because His Goodness Overflows

With God's goodness in view, why can we give thanks for his goodness? Because God’s goodness overflows. God is so good he can’t contain himself. He has to overflow his goodness in an expression of everlasting love. Not only do we get morality and beauty from his goodness, but we also receive love. Through his love he imparts his goodness to us. We know he is good because he is good to us. So, we thank him, not just because he is good in abstract glory, but also because he is good to us in concrete ways. How is he good to us? Through his never-ending love. His goodness isn’t a side hug or a splash of affection. It is a continual, never-stopping, never-giving up, always and forever love (thanks, Sally-Lloyd Jones). A never-ending fountain. He loves you. He loves us, with love inexhaustible. Now you may think you are unlovable, but the goodness of God transcends the mess of your life. You may say, "Oh, you don’t know my life. God can’t really love me." Or, "You don’t know how many mistakes I made this year." It simply isn't true, his steadfast love endures forever; it extends beyond anything you’ve ever done. Instead of asking: "Can he love me?" We should ask: "How can I get under his love?"

Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he has redeemed from trouble. - Psalm 107:2

It’s the redeemed that can sing of God’s goodness and love. How can we get under his fountain of love? We become one of the redeemed. How are we redeemed? Not by being moral, not by being good. We get redeemed and loved by actually giving our badness to God. Like the Israelites, we return from exile. We open up honestly and say to him: “I’m bad, I’m actually worse than I really know, and I’m an offense to you in your never-ending goodness. Forgive me and take my badness. Take it in exchange for your goodness, the goodness that overflows to me in Jesus.” We get under the fountain of God’s love by walking under it with Jesus. Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Jesus. Romans 8:38 says, “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” How do we get under God’s goodness? By faith in Jesus, God becomes good for us. He is good, and he overflows in never-ending love for all who hope in Jesus. So, we give thanks to God because he is good. And he is good, not just as a basis for morality or an object of spiritual adoration, but in the gift of his goodness through the gospel, through the good news that God takes our badness in exchange for his goodness, our deformity for his beauty, our imperfection for his perfection in Jesus.

The Redemption of Thanksgiving

Why should we be filled with gratitude to God? Because he redeems us from trouble. The redemption here isn’t individualistic with God redeeming little individuals from little troubles all over the world. No, his redemption is corporate. God is redeeming a people, a community. He says: “And gathered in from the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south” (Psalm 107:3). Historically, this is a reference to God rescuing Israel from exile. And yet, he’s continuing this gathering through Jesus, people from every tribe, tongue, nation, and language (Rev 5:9) and this people is the church. When God redeems; he gathers. He redeems us into a community. He converts us not just to the Head but to the Body. God redeems, not individuals but a people, a community that joyfully shares in their redemption, giving thanks for their Redeemer. He redeems us from trouble into a new community. As you consider God's goodness, don't forget to see it overflowing in the community around you. The church is his gift to us, and though awkward at times (because we are awkward at times), God's people remind us of God's redeeming grace. Pause to look back and look around you to consider the ways he has redeemed you and others from trouble. Often we see him redeem us from our trouble by sending us a community who reveals God’s goodness to us by buying us groceries when we cannot afford them, being supported through grief, pointed to Jesus in our sin, encouraged about our growth, prayed for and loved.

Gratitude is not complete until it is expressed. I can be grateful for my wife in my heart, but if she never hears it, she never benefits. Express your gratitude with words. Like a fountain, like God, gratitude for goodness should overflow. Take some time to call, email, or text someone today to point out the goodness of God in their lives. Thank or encourage a friend, someone from your church family, or a relative. Most of all, pause and give thanks to God. Give thanks to God because he is good--morally, aesthetically, and redemptively. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good!

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For more work from Jonathan on thinking through the implications of the gospel in our everyday lives, check out Unbelievable Gospel by Jonathan Dodson. It is now also available in print.

For more free articles on the gospel and holidays, read: Against Transactional Sanctification by Bill Streger and 8 Ways to Fight Consumerism by Hugh Halter.