Is it Possible to Be Content with My Calling?

In the fall of 2013, I was visiting a local park with my four-year-old and two-year-old in tow when I saw a mom with a newborn baby and felt a sudden, overwhelming relief that I was “over” that baby phase. Earlier that summer, I had come to an emphatic decision that we would not have any more children. Being a notoriously open-ended person, this was a rare, clear decision. Little did I know, I would become pregnant within the month.

A BABY

To say I cried about my pregnancy is an understatement. It took months of processing with friends to even come around to the idea that having another baby could be a good thing. It sounded like terribly tedious work. And though it might seem obvious that this was God’s calling for me, I couldn’t quite accept it.

When little Rosie was born, I delighted in her. But I also delighted in knowing I was only two years away from potty training and “normalcy.” Those next two years, however, turned out to be some of the hardest of my life.

On the outside, my life may have looked fine. I participated in church community groups, discipleship groups, and women’s bible studies. I was an involved parent and had pulled my eldest out of public school and started homeschooling.

A BREAKDOWN

But on the inside, I felt like I was dying. The addition of a baby to homeschooling and full-time care for three kids under five felt like more than I could physically and emotionally bear. I felt like I had lost my worth, my dignity, and my hope. How could God be calling me to this? I remember many times cleaning up after my five-year-old, three-year-old and baby thinking, The sole purpose of my life is picking things up and putting them down again, like Sisyphus, pointlessly pushing a boulder up a hill only to have it fall down again. What was the point?

There were times I would wander all over the house and say over and over again, “I hate my life; I hate me.”

So I started clawing at anything that promised what I was craving: worth, significance, meaning, and purpose. I threw myself into homeschooling classes, curriculums, and co-ops. I revived my doula business. I planned ministry events.

But as I attempted to busy myself, my body started shutting down. A trip to the doctor to address the fatigue ruled out major illness but hinted at depression. It was a wake-up call. I finally surrendered my crusade for meaning and purpose, submitted to my husband and stopped homeschooling (after the 100th time he asked, “Why are you doing this?”) I took a break from some responsibilities and my body slowly healed. My kids started school. I made some new friends and visited some old ones. I started seeing glimmers of hope all around.

But my questions lingered: “Why did God allow this? What is my life for?”

A WILDERNESS

Around this time, I read a very helpful article that started to give me a picture of what God might be up to:

“Time and again, God calls his people to himself by leading them out of the familiar and into a wilderness. In this wilderness, the urgent needs of survival require a radical assessment of their identity and what their life is really about… In every case God brings his people to a point in which they have to reckon with their identity as his children. They can live for their own agendas, wants and needs, or choose to trust in their Heavenly Father.”–Winston Smith, ‘The Hunger Games: Appetite and Identity’

God was leading me through a wilderness. It was full of service and mundane repetition. He had given me a good gift—the task and the joy of serving a child—but it had become a burden because I insisted on pursuing other agendas, wants, and needs. God had brought me very deliberately to this point to reckon with my identity and my agenda. He obliterated my “felt need” to be recognized and to use my talents. He shut the doors to easy escapism and freedom from responsibility. He pressed the gas pedal on the effort needed to serve my family.

My response was to fight and question God for bringing me on this path—being a wife, being a mom, being . . . everything that I was. My flailing for meaning and pursuit of other activities actually drained my resources for my true calling. Suffering was compounded by sin. And in the wilderness, I so often chose escapism, depression, anger, self-pity, regret, selfishness, indulgence, sensuality, sulking, isolation, and fear.

But I knew, as a daughter of my Heavenly Father, there must be a better way than demanding my own agenda, living for my wants or needs of recognition, success, or escape. How could I learn to trust my Heavenly Father?

AN ENCOUNTER WITH JESUS

In May of this year, I had a dream. In the dream, I was taking my two-year-old into our shower. She had poop in her diaper and on her fingers and she had smeared it all over her face. In my frustration, I muttered, "Why did you do this? You know better. Ugh!"

Then, suddenly, Jesus was there to my right, in a white robe on the threshold of the shower. I was aware it was Jesus, but didn’t dare look at his face. I just stared at the ground, frozen.

Then he spoke to me with clear, authoritative, and kind words. I was so mesmerized and giddy by Jesus’ presence that I didn’t even remember exactly what he said! He was speaking words of truth over me about who I was in him—a beloved daughter. He spoke to me about my identity. He was so kind, and his words so true. His presence was full of intensity and wonder and joy. His glory was magnetic. And I was filled with so much love for him. Not just love, but adoration and worship.

My heart melted, and in a puddle of tears and love, I blurted out, “I will clean up poop for the rest of my life if you want me to. I’ll do it for you!” It seemed to be the only natural response to give him anything he’d ask for.

Then I woke up.

ANSWERS TO THE WHY

This encounter with Jesus was so richly layered with meaning. Jesus Christ is present with me in every moment (Matt. 28:20). He prays over me (Rom. 8:34). He sees me and speaks to me (John 10:3). His words are truth (John 18:37). He has absolute authority and it is a good authority (Matt. 28:18). He is beautiful and wonderful, and our worship songs don’t go far enough to describe him!

But it took me days to realize that in this dream were the answers to the questions I had been asking: Why did he lead me into this wilderness? What is my purpose? Who am I?

In the midst of a poop- and frustration-filled scene, Jesus’ presence changed the “why” of it all. His presence transformed a dirty task into a complete joy because I knew it was the King of the Universe who was asking me to do it. And this King of the Universe was so full of glory and radiance that to be asked by him to have any job on this earth was a complete privilege and not a frustration.

Now, imagine if the King of the Universe came to you and personally asked you to do the earthly work you are currently doing—because he has done just that! In God’s complete control, he has appointed your earthly tasks, work, and relationships. It isn’t appointed in some impersonal or vague way, but Jesus asks you, “Will you do this, for me?”

Paul’s exhortation to the Colossians captures this: “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving” (Col. 3:23-24). Your work, even your mundane work, is a personal service to the Lord of all.

REMEMBERING WHO CALLED ME

So much in the previous two years—the homeschooling, the fantasizing, the jobs, and, dare I say, the ministry events—was a confused scramble for identity and purpose. What God had given me—a baby—was an opportunity to work and serve, not just a helpless infant, but Jesus Christ himself! The job didn’t give me money or worldly glamour. It didn’t require my “skills” or talents. But it was a gateway to joy and purpose.

And Jesus isn’t asking us to serve when he hasn’t. This King of the Universe, our master, is the ultimate servant. “For even the Son of man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).

Jesus Himself went into the wilderness. He was tempted. But he was keenly aware of the Father’s will and calling for him. While he was physically run down, Jesus returned Satan’s lies with truth. Jesus could have used his earthly fame for comfort, money, a plush life, and demands for others to serve him. But his Father’s will and calling was his food—his sustenance—and he didn’t forget it in the wilderness or afterward. For the joy set before him, he served and served until the dust of humiliation and execution on a cross (Heb. 12:2). And by this service, we have new life!

Remember to whom and for whom you are working. Joyful contentment is possible even in the most ordinary work and dirty jobs when you realize it is the King of the Universe you are serving. If you find yourself in a wilderness, God is intimately present with you and has appointed this journey so that Jesus Christ will be magnified in your life. And his countenance and beauty are so wonderfully beyond compare, it will give you the strength for any work or service to your family and community until you see him face-to-face.

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Robin McGee lives in Austin, TX with her husband and three daughters. She spends most of her days loving and serving her family and church. She enjoys singing, playing the piano and researching.

Rhythms of Life-Giving Groups: Word and Prayer

When Jesus spoke, people listened. He didn’t come to put an end to the Old Testament law but instead to “fulfill” it—to bring it to completion and fullness by rooting God’s ways in the hearts of God’s people. In our community groups, we can encourage one another in a number of spiritual rhythms—Bible study, confession, prayer, and so on. But how might our small groups actually learn together how to meditate on God’s Word?

THE RHYTHM OF SCRIPTURE

Our community groups can go beyond increasing knowledge to actually cultivate and practice devotional Scripture reading together. Devotional Scripture reading, or biblical meditation, has often been described as a middle road between reading and prayer: Our minds are engaged in God’s Word, yet our words come directly from our heart and are expressed to our Father in prayer. This is a reading for the purpose of increased fellowship with God together.

Learning to Meditate Together

For centuries biblical meditation has been practiced both individually and communally, and we can restore this practice in our small groups today. The church fathers spoke of “descending with the mind into the heart”—a helpful phrase describing biblical meditation. Meditation engages the mind by focusing it on God’s Word. In the midst of a thousand concerns and thoughts, it directs our minds to stillness on God’s Word in his presence. Like a centripetal force, meditating on Scripture slowly pulls us inward toward the center of communion with God.

The best place to begin Scripture meditation, whether individually or in a group, is with the Book of Psalms. We must remember the Psalms were written for congregational use; they were penned to be read aloud, sung aloud, and prayed aloud with others. As Eugene Peterson once noted, just as a farmer uses tools to cultivate the ground and produce crops, so we can use our prayers to stir up our hearts and become more like Christ.

In other words, if our prayers are tools, the Psalms are our toolbox. God has given us 150 rich, impassioned songs and prayers for our devotional life. Unlike any other genre of the Scriptures, the psalms enable us to express ourselves, understand our own hearts, find perspective for our circumstances, give language to our emotions, and pray God’s Word back to him.

In our group prayer, we can pray the psalms to our Father in a powerful way—together, we can descend with our minds into our hearts.

Here are two recommendations for making the most of these prayers.

First Reading: Content and Meaning

Gather your group and introduce the topic of biblical meditation. Before beginning your reading and prayer time, ask the Lord to bless your time of reflection together.

In this first reading, read the psalm aloud. Since it was written to be read (or sung) aloud, there’s likely a natural rhythm and flow to it. The first time through, get a feel for the psalm’s content and pause for a moment whenever you see the word Selah. After the first reading, take about five minutes to ask basic questions about the psalm’s content and meaning. What was the psalm’s original context? Was the psalmist primarily writing a private prayer or a congregational song? How would you put the message of the psalm into your own words?

Second Reading: Application and Meditation

Remind one another that the goal of devotional reading is increased fellowship with God, not merely understanding the psalm. With a basic understanding of the psalm’s content and meaning, now read the psalm aloud again, this time more slowly and with longer pauses. As one person reads the psalm, the rest of the group can follow along in their Bibles or simply close their eyes and listen. The goal is to personally absorb the psalmist’s prayer as much as possible. When you reach a Selah, pause for a few moments and reflect silently on the previous stanza.

After this second reading, take twenty to thirty minutes to discuss the psalm’s movements in a more personal way. How do you resonate with the psalmist’s cries for help? Where do you see yourself similarly in need of God? What aspects of your life are driving you to seek refuge in the Father?

THE RHYTHM OF PRAYER

Descending Into the Heart

After your discussion time, close with prayer together. A great exercise for our prayer lives is to learn to reword and then pray the psalm aloud. Take turns doing this, putting the most significant or applicable part of the psalm into your own words and praying it to our Father. Use the language of the psalm and add your own requests, praise, and prayer for others. (This exercise will be awkward the first time or two, but don’t get discouraged.)

In our groups, we have found new life in this historic pattern. Slow, meditative reading of Scripture, heart-level discussion and application, and deep personal prayer have drawn us closer to God and to one another. Groups can practice this kind of Bible-based prayer with visitors and non-Christians present, so long as it’s explained well. We’ve found that outsiders expect us to be doing spiritual things, and are refreshed by a group of people who long to be more deeply connected to God’s presence.

Prayer Together

Of course, prayer in community group doesn’t always feel this majestic. In most community groups I’ve been a part of or led, prayer has become just a way of listing others’ needs out loud to God. We try hard to summarize Frank’s work situation, try not to be condescending as we pray for Jim and Amy’s struggling marriage, and make sure we “lift up” Sue’s second cousin’s knee soreness. My goodness, this doesn’t feel significant at all.

So, why is praying together important as a community group?

Think back to Jesus’s life and ministry again. In his famous teaching on prayer in Matthew 6:5-15, it’s important to note that the Lord’s Prayer seems to be instructing us in a prayer that we could offer together: “Our Father… Give us… Forgive us… Lead us…” Prayer certainly can and should be practiced in private, but it’s instructive that the pattern our Lord gives us in his most famous prayer is a shared prayer.

In the same way, our heavenly Father wants us to come to him together with our needs and problems. Following the pattern of the Lord’s Prayer, we have the opportunity to pray for each other’s needs and so intercede on their behalf. As we pray for others in their presence, they feel God’s love and presence. Similarly, we can pray boldly together for God to advance his kingdom and then live that prayer by faith together.

Think about it: Where did you learn how to pray? Probably from watching another person praying for you or around you. I learned prayer from my father around the dinner table, from my earliest community group leader when we blessed dinner, from my wife when our sons have been sick, from my pastors when we have gathered to plead with God for renewal in our midst.

Praying together is an essential aspect of community life and, along with the other rhythms and practices, it enables a life of growth in Christ.

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Taken from Life-Giving Groups: "How-To" Grow Healthy, Multiplying Community Groups by Jeremy Linneman (Copyright 2017). Used with permission.

Jeremy Linneman is lead pastor of Trinity Community Church in Columbia, Missouri. He was previously a community pastor of Sojourn Community Church in Louisville, Kentucky for seven years. Jeremy's recent writing projects include Life-Giving Groups; How to Grow Healthy, Multiplying Community Groups and the Grace is Greater Small Group Kit. He and his wife, Jessie, have three sons and spend most of their free time outdoors.

Your Tongue Needs Open Heart Surgery

Where I live people are pretty familiar with wildfires. This summer, multiple factors, such as high temperatures and minimal precipitation, created perfect conditions for dozens of fires to rage not only in Oregon, but throughout the Pacific Northwest. However familiar we are with wildfire, it’s fairly rare for most residents to actually see a wildfire. This summer, we became very familiar with the effects of these fires, as smoke and ash obscured our skies and choked our lungs for weeks on end. This year, one single lightning strike in Southern Oregon smoldered as a relatively small wildfire for a full month before quickly swelling into a massive conflagration that torched over 190,000 acres, forced thousands to evacuate, burnt several homes, and cost over $61 million to fight. All from one single spark. And this paled in comparison to the loss of property and life caused by the recent fires in Northern California.

So when we read of “how great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire!” and, “the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness” (Jas. 3:5b-6a), the words not only hit home, but cause me to step back, look at the destructive and noxious capacity of these fires, and say, “My words can be like that?!”

As physically devastating as a fire might be, our words carry even more destructive capacity. Unlike wildfires, words have an inherent moral element: a capacity for right or wrong in their form, content, and effect. Our words have eternal significance because they influence, shape, and impact, not just mere mortals, they affect those who are made in God’s image.

Like fire, the effects of our words aren’t just direct and immediate, but long-term and wide-ranging. Hurtful words may smolder for days, weeks, even years—affecting a root of bitterness that slowly grows into hatred, branches into aggression, blooms into rage, and eventually bears the toxic fruit of relational destruction. Like smoke that chokes and blinds, the effects of our words can be far-reaching and noxious.

TONGUES OF FIRE

The tongue is a “world of unrighteousness.” Not a thimble-full or an ant-farm, but a world—literally, a “cosmos” of unrighteousness. There is a cosmic abundance of sin, iniquity, and unrighteousness that awaits entrance into the world through the gate of the human tongue, which taps into this wicked cosmos like an electrical cord into an outlet, allowing vileness and iniquity to flow through us and into the world.

The tongue, then, is a kind of gate; a gate through which the fires of hell itself make their way into our world. And we are the gatekeepers.

Also inherent in the phrase “world of unrighteousness,” is the inordinate capacity of the tongue in proportion to its relatively tiny size. As John Calvin wrote: “A slender portion of flesh contains in it the whole world of iniquity.” What other part of the body has this kind of influence and wide-ranging effect: “staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life and set on fire by hell” (Jas. 3:6)?

We not only unleash hell into the world through our tongues, we also unwittingly place ourselves in the path of the flames. In the end, each of us will, as Jesus said, “give account for every careless word [we] speak, for by [our] words [we] will be justified, and by [our] words [we] will be condemned” (Matt. 13:36b-37).

“For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue” (Jas. 3:7-8). The Message translation puts it like this: “This is scary. You can tame a tiger, but you can’t tame a tongue—it’s never been done.”

The picture is getting more and more desolate and hopeless. How will we ever be able to live a counter-cultural life of love and obedience to Christ if we can’t even get our mouths under control? It seems impossible.

HEART SURGERY IS THE CURE FOR A HELLISH TONGUE

The best move might just be for all of us to go ahead and cut our tongues out. Which reminds me of one of Jesus’ starker and oft-ignored commands. And, I would add, one of the places where he talks about hell, as well:

"And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire.” (Matt. 18:8-9)

Replace “hand,” “foot,” or “eye” with “tongue,” and you get the point.

Curiously, I have yet to meet a believer who is missing a hand because they are prone to violence, or who is missing a foot or an eye because they can’t seem to keep themselves out of adult bookstores. But I don’t think this is a sign of disobedience as much as a sign of Jesus’ true intentions in these verses. The point here isn’t that we should be hacking off body parts in order to be saved from hell. Jesus is using hyperbole—a form of exaggeration—to make the point that it isn’t these body parts that make us sin. Rather, it is our sinful hearts, for “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matt. 13:34b).

And this really is the issue: the “cosmos of unrighteousness” which the tongue taps into is the cosmos of the human heart. The tongue, as Jesus makes clear, doesn’t control itself. Rather, the tongue is controlled by the heart, the moral seat of our desires, will, and emotions.

So, left to ourselves, it seems we are out of luck. Left to ourselves, we will destroy one another with our tongues, and eventually destroy ourselves. Left to ourselves, we will light the world on fire and die in our self-made inferno.

But let’s remember one important gospel truth: We are not left to ourselves.

Yes, we are rotten to the core. Yes, our tongues are often out of control. And, yes, when our tongues are out of control, we can bet that underneath it all our hearts are out of control. The Scriptures are clear that none of our hearts are right, so the answer isn't that we need to have our tongues cut out. The answer isn’t even that we need to work really hard at controlling our tongues.

The answer is that we need someone to cut the sin out of our hearts. We need a heart surgeon.

A SKILLED AND FAITHFUL SURGEON

Thankfully, there is a surgeon who can and does specialize in transforming dead, sin-drenched, hateful, slanderous, deceitful hearts into hearts that can submit to God and overflow with love. So verse 8 of James chapter 3—“no human being can tame the tongue”—is not a sad descent into a pessimistic fatalism, but an invitation to confess our dependence and need. A way out is implied, and it’s a path requiring God-driven, Spirit-empowered heart change. As God promised:

“I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.”  (Ezek. 36:26-27)

When my dad had open heart surgery several years ago, the procedure didn’t affect the way that he spoke or chose to use words. It didn’t affect the clarity of his speech or clean up his language. In modern medicine, brain surgery is much more likely to have these kinds of effects on speech. What his surgery did do for him was to give him a new perspective on his own mortality, which has had effects on different areas of his life, including his relationships.

The heart surgery God desires to perform on each of us will be no less painful or invasive than a surgeon cracking open a chest and rearranging arteries. But the effects of this kind of Spirit-led, transformative surgery will bear fruit in deeper and more eternal ways—including a tamed tongue that spends less time sparking wildfires, and more time being a balm for burnt souls.

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Mike Phay serve as Lead Pastor at FBC Prineville (Oregon) and as an Affiliate Professor at Kilns College in Bend, OR. He has been married to Keri for 20 years and they have five amazing kids (Emma, Caleb, Halle, Maggie, and Daisy). He loves books and coffee, preferably at the same time.

Practice What He Preached: Imitating the Goodness of Jesus

Have you ever wondered what made Jesus so effective in reaching out and helping others? Granted, he knew the Scriptures backwards and forwards and applied God’s Word perfectly to each person’s situation. But what made people willing to listen to him in the first place? How did they know they could trust him, that he had their best interests at heart?

The people Jesus encountered had countless religious teachers and counselors available to them, yet you don’t see the multitudes swarming to them for advice or help. There was something about Jesus that, even as he maintained an uncompromising standard, drew people to him in droves. Publicans, prostitutes, even some of the Pharisees—sinners of every description flocked to Jesus for help and spiritual healing.

It was the goodness of Jesus, as much as anything else, that made his ministry so effective.

GOOD MINISTRY

Jesus’ popularity was clearly due in part to the wisdom with which he spoke. The multitudes were constantly marveling at the authority and understanding so clearly displayed in his teaching. Yet even this does not explain what made untouchable, despicable sinners huddle up with Jesus at the dinner table and converse so eagerly with him.

The goodness of Jesus was at least as much of a draw for people as the content of his message. They could see—anyone could see—that Jesus lived a very different life than the pompous Pharisees and Sadducees. This man practiced what he preached.

It was also clear, from his actions as well as his words, that Jesus had a genuine, consistent, and intense compassion for the pain of those around him. This man wept with those who were weeping, went to those who were lame, waited for those who were blind, and sought out those who were overlooked.

Scripture makes it plain that goodness is one of the absolute essentials for real ministry. Whether in private or in public, whether declaring the gospel from the pulpit or sharing it in the break room—any ministry must flow out of good living, good motives, and good counsel in order to be Christ-honoring and personally useful.

This is the unmistakable implication of Paul’s words to the Romans: “I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another” (Rom. 15:14, emphasis added).

The confidence Paul expressed in the church’s ability to instruct and edify one another was grounded, first of all, in the goodness that was displayed in their lives.

GOOD LIVING

We cannot help others draw closer to God if we are not ourselves maintaining a close walk with God. As elementary as this may sound, it is widely ignored in many modern approaches to church organization and growth. People who have experienced little, or no, sanctification themselves are put in positions of leadership in Sunday School classes, small groups, or even public preaching.

Several years ago, I actually had a preacher sit across from me and tell me he was unrepentant for some well-known sexual sins in his life because he felt he could not possibly minister effectively if he did not understand the sinners among whom he labored. He said if he was living in sin himself he would be able to reach out to and help other sinners.

Apparently, this man did not consider the best example of ministry in the whole Bible—Jesus Christ himself. According to this man’s criteria, Jesus could not have had a useful ministry because he rubbed shoulders with sinners his whole life without ever sinning.

Of course, this is ridiculous, because Jesus’ life is to be our model. Any other philosophy of ministry results in one drowning man or woman trying to save another. Neither will be helped.

The Bible makes it clear that personal virtue, or goodness, is necessary for even Scriptural knowledge to be useful. Peter exhorts us that the first thing we need to add to our God-given faith is personal virtue—and then, to that virtue, we are to add knowledge (2 Pet. 1:5).

Paul expressed his desire that the church at Colossae be filled with knowledge so that they might “walk in a manner worthy of the Lord” (Col. 1:9-10). Knowledge and goodness go hand in hand.

Paul’s language of “goodness”—especially being filled with goodness—might sound strange to those who feel they are great sinners and unworthy of the least of God’s mercy. But God’s mercy is exactly where this goodness comes from.

Paul tells us in Galatians that goodness is a fruit of the Spirit ( Gal. 5:22), and, again in Ephesians, that the fruit of the Spirit is “is found in all that is good and right and true” (Eph. 5:9).

Sanctification and growth in godliness is not something we can aspire to on our own, yet it is clearly expected of us and should be displayed in us. Paul shared his prayer request with the church at Philippi, that they would be “filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God” (Phil. 1:11).

The fruits of godliness, including good living, can only come by Jesus Christ, but they are expected from us in order that God might receive praise and glory through us.

GOOD MOTIVES

However, the idea of goodness carries with it more than just right living. Even the Pharisees could put on a show of “good works.” Goodness also carries with it the idea of right motives. In other words, the person who is trying to encourage, admonish, or advise another must be clearly doing so out of a desire for that person’s good.

This seemingly obvious criterion is broken daily in households all over the world. Husbands hurl instructions or expectations at their wives or children and wonder why they are not well-received in the midst of their tirade. Wives criticize and belittle their husbands, then are surprised when they do not see any change in behavior.

The problem is that knowledge without genuine love—without good motives—is utterly unprofitable (1 Cor. 8:1). We cannot realistically expect to help anyone if our advice and counsel are not flowing from a deep, Christ-centered love and desire for the other’s good.

One of the pastors under whom I grew up used to remind us as up-and-coming leaders in the church that people will listen to you only if they already know that you love them. However, if they do know you love them, they will follow you almost anywhere and receive almost any criticism. How many young ministers need to remember this maxim!

Our goal, then, with any counsel we give, should be the good of the person to whom we are speaking and, ultimately, the glory of God. Our goal for each other, in other words, should be the same goal God has for us. As Paul prayed in 2 Thessalonians 1:11, our hope for each other should be that God will “fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power,” in each of us.

GOOD COUNSEL

Despite living a godly life and desiring the good of someone, many saints have failed to actually share helpful counsel when it was needed. This is because good counsel does not always feel or sound good to the listener. Since every one of us struggles with a people-pleasing nature to some extent, we sometimes hesitate to share what we know needs to be said simply because we know it will not be easy or pleasant to hear.

Goodness sometimes requires that we be stern, share unwelcome advice, or even “wound” a loved one for their own good. The writer of Proverbs, however, reminds us that “faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy” (Prov. 27:6).

As much as we may be tempted at times just to say, “Everything is going to be alright,” or “things will get better soon,” this is simply not always the case. Sometimes drastic, personal change is needed before things can turn around for the better.

If a person doesn’t stop spending more than he or she makes, they will not get out of debt; if a couple continues to fight and wrangle over every little thing, their marriage will not improve; if parents do not correct their child, their relationship with the child will only get worse.

Goodness, then, does not always look like a warm and fuzzy hug or an encouraging slap on the back (though it might include these). Goodness is a personal investment in the glory of God, which overflows in a desire to help others draw closer to God, no matter what challenges we may have to face to achieve this end.

Personal goodness, coupled with an intimate knowledge of God’s good word, equips us to help the many hurting people that need the goodness of God so desperately in their lives.

Truly good ministry must flow out of good living, good motives, and good counsel in order to be Christ-honoring and personally useful.

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Justin Huffman has pastored in the States for over 15 years, authored the “Daily Devotion” app (iTunes/Android) which now has over half a million downloads, and recently published a book with Day One: Grow: the Command to Ever-Expanding Joy. He has also written articles for For the Church, Servants of Grace, and Fathom Magazine. He blogs at justinhuffman.org.

That Awkward Moment When Shame Entered the World

We’ve all had weird, awkward moments with others. You probably hate those moments as much as I do. You say something but it doesn’t come out right, and what comes out is embarrassing. Your embarrassing little quip is then followed by what is probably a few seconds, but seems like an eternity of strained silence. You then feel the need to explain, but you just end up digging a deeper hole for yourself. You wish one of your listeners would rise to your rescue, but no one does. Finally something else happens that grabs everybody’s attention, and the horribly awkward moment ends. But it doesn’t really end for you; you carry it with you for the rest of the night. In fact, it is the pain of the moment that wakes you up the next morning. A few years later, that awkward moment has morphed into a humorous moment, and you retell the story over and over again to the delight and amusement of your friends.

THE FIRST AWKWARD MOMENT

I want you to think today about the most horribly awkward moment in human history. This one wasn’t a minor moment of embarrassment, and it will never morph into a humorous story. As you read the account, you know you are dealing with something so shocking and out of place that the world will never be the same again. Every time I read this account, I want to weep. Every time I think about it, I am hit with the painful thought that it really did happen and that we still see its results in our lives today. When you read it, you better know that this is not the way things were meant to be, or you will never understand the biblical story, and Christmas will never make the kind of sense that it should make to you.

Here is the Bible’s account:

And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” (Gen. 3:8–13)

Adam and Eve had just endured the first awkward, embarrassing, shame-inducing moment between them. For the first time they realized that they were without clothing, and they felt instant shame. This is an immediate clue that their disobedience had destroyed their innocence, and human relationships would never be the same again. But that sad and shameful moment pales in comparison to what happened next.

THE AWKWARDNESS OF SIN

God was walking through the garden, and rather than being filled with awe and joy at the thought of his presence, Adam and Eve were filled with fear. Their reaction was weird, awkward, and unusual. They had been designed for intimate, moment-by-moment, loving, and worshipful communion with him. They were made to delight in God and he in them. They were created to live in an unbreakable bond of love with him. So their reaction seems strange and out of place. It tells us that something has gone drastically wrong.

God notices that they have not approached him with the usual expectant joy, and so he calls out to them, inquiring where they are. Adam answers and confesses that he was naked and afraid. The effects of sin are immediate and catastrophic. The bond between God and mankind has been broken. Fear has replaced love. Hiding has replaced communion. Adam and Eve have not only damaged their spirituality, but have lost a huge chunk of their humanity. It is a tragedy of historic and universal proportion. Made to live in the center of God’s love, people hide from him. In the psyche of every human being since lives this weird and uncomfortable battle between hunger for God and a desire to hide from him.

JESUS HAS BROKEN THE AWKWARDNESS

Sin has broken the most important relationship in all of life, the relationship between people and their Creator. This separation alters everything in each of our lives. That’s why it is so wonderful and encouraging to know that Jesus came to earth to be the Prince of Peace. Through his life, death, and resurrection, he would make peace between God and us. By his righteous life, he would earn our acceptance with God and purchase our right to be God’s children.

It is this vertical peace that then allows us to live in peace and harmony with one another. The fearful awkwardness between us and God has been forever broken by Jesus, so we can run with confidence into God’s presence and know that he will never turn us away.

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Content taken from Come, Let Us Adore Him: A Daily Advent Devotional by Paul David Tripp, ©2017. Used by permission of Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, Wheaton, Il 60187, www.crossway.org.

Paul David Tripp is the president of Paul Tripp Ministries, a nonprofit organization. He has been married for many years to Luella and they have four grown children. For more information and resources visit paultrippministries.org.

Just Say 'Thanks'

In this season we call “the holidays,” sandwiched between Thanksgiving and Christmas, many Americans find themselves see-sawing with gratitude. In the midst of the hustle and bustle of the holidays, there are subtle exhortations calling us to be thankful, while others call us to be thankless. We watch ourselves rock back and forth between gratefulness and criticism, contentedness and dissatisfaction. The holiday season seems to be broken because such a season has virtually no bearing on how our society lives the other eleven months of the year. Social media is filled, not with gratefulness, but with animosity, hostility, divisiveness, impatience, and critique. Save a few days of the year where we sprinkle in heartfelt posts, most of our social media feeds are saturated with thanklessness.

Some of us have lost all of the thanksgiving in our Thanksgiving (and the days that follow), despite what the Instagram posts might say. But the Christian need not lose heart. Holidays, despite whatever they represent culturally, are powerful opportunities for us to remember, reflect, and, most of all, to recover Christian thankfulness, propelling us into the year to come.

The same God who can make dry bones live can revive even a dead consumerist back to his glory and praise.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO GIVE THANKS?

Most of us, Christian or not, know we ought to be thankful. As Andrew Peterson poetically puts it, “Don’t you want to thank someone?” The question then becomes, How do we begin to work that thankfulness out in our lives to the praise of God’s glory and grace?

Perhaps we should go a little deeper: What does it mean to give thanks at all?

I turned to the Bible for wisdom in answering this question, and I was amazed at what I found. A quick search through the ESV Bible shows that there are well over 100 instances in which the words “give thanks,” “grateful,” “thankfulness,” or “thanksgiving” occur. But that’s not the amazing part.

What’s amazing is how these verses describe what it means to express gratitude and thankfulness. Time and time again, the biblical authors make the act of thanksgiving primarily something we say. There are too many examples to list them all, but consider this brief list:

• Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever! Say also: “Save us, O God of our salvation, and gather and deliver us from among the nations, that we may give thanks to your holy name and glory in your praise.” (1 16:34-35).
• When all the people of Israel saw the fire come down and the glory of the LORD on the temple, they bowed down with their faces to the ground on the pavement and worshiped and gavethanks to the LORD, saying, “For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.” (2 Chr. 7:3)
• And they sang responsively, praising and giving thanksto the LORD (Ezra 3:11)
• Then I brought the leaders of Judah up onto the wall and appointed two great choirs that gave thanks. (Neh. 12:31)
• The LORD is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him. (Ps. 28:7)
• At that time Jesus declared, “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. (Matt. 11:25)
• And coming up at that very hour she began to give thanks to God and to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem. (Lk. 2:38)
• If you give thanks with your spirit, how can anyone in the position of an outsider say “Amen” to your thanksgiving when he does not know what you are saying? (1 Cor. 14:16)
• And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying, “We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, who is and who was, for you have taken your great power and begun to reign. (Rev. 11:16-17)

Of course, Scripture tells us of other ways humans can give thanks to God. There are thank offerings, which were ritual sacrifices performed in the Old Testament (2 Chr. 29:31). The act of bowing reverently before Christ’s feet was considered an act of thanksgiving (Lk. 17:16). We can give thanks in our hearts (Col. 3:16). Even eating and honoring God in our eating is an act of thanksgiving (Rom. 14:6), so bring on the Christmas cookies!

The point, however, is that most often the way to express the gratitude and thanksgiving we feel in our hearts is by voicing it. Perhaps it’s through song, praying aloud, or simply making it public knowledge with our mouths that we are grateful. Voiced gratitude was a common expression of one’s devotion and love for God in biblical times, and it has become a bit lost on us.

HOW CAN I EXPRESS GRATITUDE TO GOD?

I know in my own life how often I reflect a spirit of taking God’s blessings, whether spiritual or tangible, totally for granted. I know his love for me and am reminded of it often, but do I thank him for it? Does the world know that I am grateful for what he has done for me?

We don’t have the same kind of privilege the biblical authors did, able to display for the world to see that they were indeed grateful to God through written letters and books. But we can voice our gratitude in a myriad of ways. A gratefulness to God for who he is, for who he has made us to be, and what he has given us will lead to a holiday season loaded with so much more than food and football and family interaction—namely meaning and significance.

How do we practically express our gratefulness to God the way David did? Not many of us have his poetic talent, and even less of us can play the harp as he did. What hope is there for us to voice our thanks? Here are four ways, in this season and beyond, for us to practice the discipline of spoken gratitude.

FOUR WAYS TO PRACTICE THE DISCIPLINE OF SPOKEN GRATITUDE

Pray as a family, and don’t forget to praise. Too often, prayer time in our lives morphs into a laundry list of things we need help with. We should make our requests known to God, yes, but prayer is more than this. Chiefly, it is an opportunity to praise. There is a reason Jesus began the Lord’s Prayer with, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name” (Matt. 6:9). Praise took pride of place in his prayer, as it should in ours. And, not to mention, modeling this pattern of prayer for our children is an easy way to disciple them.

Share your testimony, and don’t forget the present. Stories are a profound way we communicate the goodness of God, and when we tell stories to one another we help others feel thankful to God. Importantly, we should not just tell others about our past story, highlighting just what God did for us at sixteen at Bible camp. We should show others how God is leading and teaching us today, and what we are learning. Becoming aware of one another’s stories makes us grateful to God for his work in us and in others.

Get creative, and don’t forget who gifted you. Write a poem, lyrics to a song, a journal entry, or create something that communicates gratitude. You never know how your creative influence could invite someone into their own vocal gratitude to God. God has given you gifts to use to proclaim his excellencies, so use them! Don’t put too much pressure on yourself to “perform,” either. God loves when his children color for him, even when it's a scribbled mess. He takes pride in their art and displays it on his heavenly fridge.

Remember that everything is God’s gift, and don’t forget the greatest of them. Matt Chandler once remarked that under common grace, every man can enjoy a steak (or a turkey, to keep it relevant), but only the Christian can turn that simple human enjoyment into deep, lasting gratitude. With every bite of a wonderful meal, every intricacy of creation, and every hug from a family member, one truth abides for the Christian: “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change” (Jas. 1:17). And the greatest of these perfect gifts is the salvation of our souls, the gospel that is such good news that we ought to burst with gratitude.

Be thankful this holiday season. And if you're not sure where to start, just say "thanks."

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Zach Barnhart currently serves as Student Pastor of Northlake Church in Lago Vista, TX. He holds a Bachelor of Science from Middle Tennessee State University, and is currently studying at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, seeking a Master of Theological Studies degree. He is married to his wife, Hannah. You can follow Zach on Twitter @zachbarnhart or check out his personal blog, Cultivated.

Biblical Authority as Relationship, Not Rulebook

Editor's note: The following is an excerpt from our latest book, That Word Above All Earthly Powers, written by Gerry Breshears with Whitney Woollard (Whitney is one of our staff writers). If you like this article, then be sure to pick up a paperback or Kindle copy.

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Our generation has a problem with authority—we don’t trust it and, quite frankly, we don’t like it. This presents unique challenges in speaking to the Bible’s authority, a concept rejected by many as antiquated and stifling. How can an ancient document have the right to command me to any belief or action in the twenty-first century? And how can, or perhaps why should, any book bind my conscience in all matters of faith, life and practice?

These are legitimate questions to be dealt with well as Christians engage a world that is increasingly shaped by anti-authority sentiments. The idea that someone should do this or that simply “because the Bible says so” no longer holds up. It may work in a Christian bubble or conservative movement, but not in the world. Besides, those whom we call to follow Jesus need to know what makes the Bible authoritative and what that authority means for their new life in Christ. This is particularly important as we disciple them in the Word of God and instruct them to submit their entire lives to it. Obviously, no small call.

To help us towards that end, we’ve asked Gerry Breshears, Ph.D., professor of theology and chairman of biblical and theological studies at Western Seminary in Portland, Oregon to share his approach to the Bible and its authority. A work this size can hardly be comprehensive. Yet, Gerry and I (Whitney) have highlighted key pieces to consider when working with the Bible as an authoritative document binding upon God’s people.

WHAT MAKES THE BIBLE AUTHORITATIVE?

You have to start here. Ask yourself, “What is it that makes the Bible authoritative?” Of course, a significant piece is that it’s God’s Word, it’s inspired text. This is what theologians call the doctrine of inspiration: That work of God wherein he providentially prepared and moved the human authors enabling them to receive and communicate according to their individual personalities and styles the truth he would have his people know for his glory and human salvation.

A whole book could be written explaining inspiration but, in short, it means that God speaks to us through his Word. The Holy Spirit “carried along” the authors of Scripture in such a way that their words were God’s very words (see 2 Peter 1:19-21). They were literally “breathed out” by him so that we could receive salvation, learn truth about him and his world, and understand how to live God’s way in order to enjoy his best for our lives (see 2 Timothy 3:15-17).

The implication of this doctrine is that when we read the Bible, we are actually reading the words of God! Pretty profound, huh? Therein lies a significant piece of its authority. Far from being a book that gives “basic instructions before leaving earth,” the Bible, as God’s Word, has divine authority because God has authority in your life as the one who alone created the universe and rules over all. This is not authority as “Bible” but authority as that which comes from the triune God (who, to be clear, is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit not God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Bible). It’s authoritative because it’s God’s words.

But what’s the nature of that authority? Inspiration tells you God has the right to command you to do something simply because he is the authoritative God who has spoken to you through his Word. But if we stop here we end up back where we started — “just do this because the Bible says so” — never understanding the God revealed in the Bible. Isn’t that the simplistic argument our generation has rejected? Moreover, isn’t it what the sufferers of authoritarianism, dogmatic fundamentalism, and spiritual abuse have cast off? So, it seems to us that inspiration is a key piece of the Bible’s authority but it’s not the entire picture.

A FULLER PICTURE OF THE BIBLE’S AUTHORITY

To get this picture we need to look at the nature of the God who speaks through the Bible. Gerry goes to Exodus 14 where God redeems his people from the hand of the Egyptians with an outstretched arm as they cross the red sea on dry land. You get the song of triumph by Moses, Miriam, and company in Exodus 15 where together they praise God for his redemptive work. Unfortunately, the story doesn’t end at this high point. You turn to Exodus 16 and the people are already grumbling about having no food. What does God do? He provides food. In Exodus 17 they’re grumbling about having no water. What does God do? He provides water.

Then at the end of Exodus 17 the Amalekites attack Israel and you get that interesting battle where the Israelites are winning so long as Aaron and Hur are holding up Moses’ hands. You see that God is with Israel and he protects them from their enemies. After their victory God tells Moses, “Write this as a memorial in a book and recite it in the ears of Joshua” (Exodus 17:14). This is the first command to anyone in Scripture to write something down. Which means it’s pretty important. What was Moses to write down and recite? A bunch of rules? Actually, no. He was to write down all the ways that God had redeemed, provided for, and protected his people. So that’s the first thing—God is there to redeem, provide for, and protect people who don’t deserve it.

Then in Exodus 19 God invites the people, the grumblers of chapters 16 and 17, into a covenantal relationship. This covenant is ratified in Exodus 24 when Moses takes the elders up onto the mountain and draws near to the Lord. After he does the sacrifice and sprinkles the blood he comes to the people and tells them “all the words of the Lord and all the rules” (Exodus 24:3). In verse four we see Moses write down all these words, thus getting more written Scripture. Now you see that God is not only the one who redeems, provides for, and protects, but he’s also the God who initiates and invites covenant relationship with humans. The invitation to relationship comes first and the “rules” of that relationship (i.e., the law which the Israelites understood to be authoritative) come after. When you put the pieces together the following theme emerges in regards to the Bible’s authority:

The Bible is authoritative because it comes from God (inspiration) and he has the right to command us to do things and tell us how to relate to him not only because he is the God of the universe, but also because he is the God who redeems, provides for, and protects, and he wants to have a good relationship with us.

THE BIBLE AS A COVENANT DOCUMENT

So you see the Bible is not a book of rules that you try to obey to get into heaven when you die or feel guilty about when you break. Rather, it’s a covenantal document written by people telling the story of God acting in history to redeem and protect his people. It recounts how God invites people into a covenant relationship – like a marriage – with rules of relationship so we can have an intimate relationship with him and become a people characterized by faithfulness, generosity and justice.

Think of it as a father in a loving relationship with his kids. Or a spouse in a faithful marriage to his wife. Don’t think rulebook used by teacher in a classroom. It’s not that. It’s a covenantal God who has redeemed and provided for us through Jesus the Messiah and will protect us until his return. Thus, the Bible is the binding covenant document given by this God so we can know and receive Jesus, learn how to live for him, and be sent out on mission with him.

If people are going to reject the authority of the Bible (and many will), let’s make sure they’re rejecting the Bible rather than some pop-cultural view of God that hands us a rulebook with impossibly high standards to get his kicks and giggles from watching us fail. That’s a distorted, unbiblical view. The God who gave his own Son to be in relationship with you is the same God who gave you the inspired Word so you could know him and enjoy good relationship with him.

Does this mean that the Bible is all relationship and no rules? Of course not. Look back at Exodus 24:3. Moses was to write down all the words and all the rules of the Lord. The Bible does have rules (or “commands”) that help navigate our walk with Jesus just as every good relationship comes with rules.

THE “RULES” OF RELATIONSHIP

If you’ve ever read the Bible you’ve come across rules. The infamous ones are known as the ten commandments. You shall have no other gods before me, you shall not make for yourself a carved image, you shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, and so forth. Almost everyone is familiar with these commands. But often they’re taken out the context of Israel’s story. These rules were given by God after he redeemed them and entered into covenant with them. They were the positive things God put into place to help humans cultivate a happy relationship with him and others.

Before you balk at this idea, consider how we see this in marriage or family. We all have rules that help make our relationships work. Gerry’s rule for his sweetheart Sherry is “Thou shalt not touch thy husband at night unless thou is having a nightmare and needs to be touched.” The reason being, once he’s awake he’s up for the night. Or, “Thou shalt kiss thy wife whenever she walkest into the house.” When a husband gets adequate sleep or a wife gets lots of kisses it makes for a happy marriage. See, happy rules! But they are rules.

A lot of the Bible is like that. A covenantal God giving rules to his people so that they can be in a happy relationship with him and others. For example, the command not to commit adultery is put in place so a husband and wife can enjoy fruitful, faithful intimacy with each other. It is an authoritative rule God’s people are to live by but it’s a good rule that protects a marriage. It’s for our benefit!

I (Whitney) remember a time right after my conversion when I was “hanging out” with a boy I had crushed on for years. It was finally happening! Then one morning I opened by Bible to 1 Corinthians 6:18 (all new to me, by the way) and came across these words: “Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.” The Spirit gripped my conscience with those words. I realized this was a boundary marker or a “rule” that I needed to live by. Immediately I broke it off. I see now how those words were for my benefit from a loving father. To this day I thank God for that rule.

The point is, when we reject the Bible’s authority we’re rejecting the very things that have been put in place by a loving God for our good. Far from being that which stifles our “true selves,” the rules in the Bible set us free to be fully human. The Bible teaches us how to cultivate a heart that loves Jesus and Jesus’ people and how to walk with him in a way that nourishes our souls. It warns us to run from those things which hurt us or vandalize the image of God in others. It trains us to become people of justice and mercy and righteousness. It gives us guidance on how to carry out his mission in his world.

Submitting to the Bible’s authority is actually a good and beautiful thing. As Gerry helpfully teaches, accepting God’s authority in Scripture means loving him, taking his values to heart, obeying his commands, embracing his promises, declaring those promises in life and word wherever we go. Isn’t this something we, as believers, should desire not reject? Shouldn’t his words bind our consciences in all matters of faith, life and practice?

BUT, WAIT, WHAT ABOUT…?

If you accept our proposition, that as the inspired Word of God the Bible alone is the final authority for all matters of faith and life and what it teaches comes with divine authority because it is the covenant document of God’s redemptive relationship with his people, you may still have some questions. Namely, what do you do with all the parts of Scripture that isn’t commands or rules? How do you “obey” a narrative or submit to a song? And is all the Bible equally authoritative and binding on your life as it was for the original hearers? Plus, why are there so many issues in your life that the Bible doesn’t speak to? Good questions! Here are some points to consider when thinking about the Bible’s authority in your life:

1. HOW CAN NARRATIVES AND PSALMS BE AUTHORITATIVE?

The Bible is one big story. It’s the story of God acting to save people from sin, self, and Satan, to judge and condemn evil and sin in the world and to set people free to be fully human, just like Jesus. Genres like narrative or psalms are authoritative in the fact that they help us learn that story, show us the character of God, and reveal his purposes for his world. We see that the whole story points towards the true Hero, Jesus, and teaches us how to receive his salvation and then live like him. As we read the Bible, we are called to live in a way that is consistent with God’s redemptive purposes in Christ, its characters and themes revealed, and the directions that have been set up in the story. For example, as we navigate relationships with broken people we follow the narrative of Jesus who loves and serves the prostitute who is under the death penalty even as he calls her to repentance. That’s something we learn through narrative. Or, like the psalmist, we choose to trust in God’s stated outcome even though we have not seen it come to pass yet. So, even though these texts aren’t strictly “legal” we can submit to them by following the mission and character of God revealed in them.

2. IS ALL THE BIBLE EQUALLY AUTHORITATIVE?

All the Bible is equally God’s Word, but there are parts that were written for a particular era which give us broader principles to apply but are not directly binding. For example, the Mosaic covenant was given to Israel after the Abrahamic covenant until the Messiah came and the New Covenant was inaugurated. In Galatians 3:19-4:7 Paul explains how the law acted as a “babysitter” or a “guardian” to help keep Israel until the fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant. Now that Jesus, Abraham’s offspring, has come and inaugurated the New Covenant promises, we are no longer under the Mosaic code. Gerry ate bacon for breakfast the day we met about this article. I (Whitney) ate sausage. We’re okay to do that. However, much in the law of Moses is a part of the bigger picture of biblical morality and reveals to us what the divine priorities are. We would do well to apply culturally appropriate applications from the principles set forth in those texts. Of course, this will require the hard work of good interpretation which we encourage you to do.

3. WHY ARE THERE SO MANY ISSUES WHERE THE BIBLE DOES NOT TELL US WHAT TO DO?

There are a lot of specifics in our daily life that just aren’t addressed in the Bible. So how do we submit to its authority in areas that seem unclear? Well, first off, what the Bible prescribes we must believe and do. This is the black and white stuff. Faith in Jesus and repentance of sin is the only way to the Father (see John 14:6). Looking at porn is a sin (see Matthew 15:18-20). Being a part of a vibrant faith community is a must (see Hebrews 10:25). Next, what the Bible describes we should follow as closely as possible. The book of Acts is a great example. It’s a descriptive narrative telling us how the gospel spread to the ends of the earth. As we engage the same mission, we should follow the disciples in the book of Acts as closely as possible. Finally, when the Bible is silent, he intended to give us freedom to be Spirit-led and wise. This pertains to issues like who you should marry, if you should take that job offer, if you should move your family overseas, and so forth. The Bible didn’t tell me (Whitney) to marry Neal. Rather, it shaped the values I was looking for in a spouse. When I met Neal I saw that he loved Jesus, had integrity, and was missionally-minded, so I married him! A lot of life is lived in this area. You seek wisdom and guidance from God and people, pray for the Spirit’s leading and then make a decision. The authority of the Bible sets you free to make decisions, it shouldn’t paralyze you.

READ YOUR BIBLE!

One final admonition from us—read the Bible! What a treasure we have in our hands. At any moment we can open the Bible and hear the voice of God. In a culture that is growing increasingly confused, we can go to the Bible and receive authoritative words with clarity and confidence knowing that it comes from a loving Father who wants his kids to have a good relationship with him.

So take up and read.

Read the Scriptures in the context of the whole story and in the context of the worshipping, serving body of Christ, as well as privately and devotionally, for the sake of joining God’s gospel work in the world. Then together, with the Spirit’s help, submit your life to God’s Word in all matters of faith and life and experience the joy that comes from faithful submission.

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Gerry Breshears has been professor of theology at Western Seminary since 1980. In addition to teaching and lecturing at a number of colleges and seminaries around the world, he speaks in many churches. He ministers with a wide variety of people and issues in the pastoral side of his life. He works in leadership in the Evangelical Theological Society nationally and regionally, including having served as national president. Gerry and his wife, Sherry, have two sons, Donn and David, and a daughter, Cyndee, and four wonderful grandchildren. He is an elder and a member of the preaching team at Grace Community Church of Gresham, Oregon.

Whitney Woollard is a writer, speaker, and Bible teacher. She serves as a staff writer at Gospel-Centered Discipleship and contributes to various ministries, including YouVersion, 9Marks, and the Bible Project. She holds her M.A. in biblical and theological studies from Western Seminary and loves sharing her passion for the Word with others. She has been married to Neal for over ten years and together they serve Jesus at Hinson Baptist Church in Portland, Oregon. You can contact her at www.whitneywoollard.com.

Male or Female: Fidelity to Your Sexuality

Let’s probe a bit further into what it means that God created us male and female. But before we do that, we should take a small step back and consider something even more basic. Each of us is created either male or female. This may seem so obvious that it’s not worth stating, but given the challenges we face, it does need to be pointed out. It’s the clearest thing we can say about being created in the image of God. All of us are either one or the other. The tragic developmental anomaly of intersex notwithstanding, there really is no third option; there is just this basic dual reality.

SEXUALITY AS VOCATION

When God created you in his image as male or female, he called you to a certain way of life—as either a male or a female. By virtue of being created in the image of God as male or female, you have a call on your life; you have a vocation. It is your most basic vocation, your most fundamental job in life: to joyfully embrace and faithfully embody your sexuality—whether male or female—for the good of others. God’s first call on our lives is to acknowledge rather than deny our sexuality. We are to rejoice in it rather than seek to downplay it. We are to lean into it fully rather than avoid it entirely. We are to use our sexuality to bless others rather than neglect it to the loss of others. And we are to embrace its limits rather than try to transcend it.

There is always the temptation to depart from God’s call on our lives as either male or female, to downplay or even deviate from who God has made us to be. Tragic things happen when we begin to despise our own sexuality and the bodies God has given us. When we fail to thank God for who he has made us to be and allow ingratitude to define our attitude toward God, the results can be very serious and sad. This is what Paul describes in Romans 1:21, where both men and women find their lives going off the rails in sexual ways, precisely because they failed to honor God or give him thanks.

Melinda Selmys, in her book Sexual Authenticity, describes how for years she wrestled with her own sexuality. She was a professed, practicing lesbian who underwent a profound transformation and eventually got married to a man. She explains how significant change came when she began to come to terms with her own sexuality and with who God had made her to be as a woman:

"I realized that my own sex was not inferior, that its strengths throughout the ages had always been strengths, that its contributions to the world were not second-class or insignificant. It was here, in this, that the cracks opened enough that I could risk falling in love with a man. Suddenly, I was not an interloper on his territory, trying to seize his castles and make them my own.

I had my own kingdom, my own square of land, my own integrity. I did not need to demand power: I had it. I did not need to take something of value away from him and hold it to ransom: I had valuable things of my own. At last, I understood something of who I was. Not lesbian. Not bisexual. Not gay. Not straight, either. But a woman, made in the image and likeness of God. In possession of myself, with the right and the ability to give the gift of myself to another, sincerely, in love."

To be created in the image of God as male and female means that each of us is either male or female. We are called to embrace who God has made us to be, whether male or female. We must be faithful to our calling as male or female and must own who we are sexually as one of God’s greatest gifts to us—for the good of others.

MALE AND FEMALE: COMPLEMENTARITY IN OUR SEXUALITY

The truth that God has made us male and female is very good news. God not only created two genders, male and female, with unique and glorious and mysterious differences; he made these two genders complementary. They don’t simply fit side by side, like peanut butter and jelly; they fit together in an interlocking pattern like puzzle pieces. They have been created for each other, to complete each other in the most profound sorts of ways. This means that to be faithful to your own sexuality, whether male or female, you can’t idolize your own sex—as though your sex is the be-all and end-all of the human race. Sure, there’s a place for donning the “Girls Rule” T-shirt or descending into the “man cave.” Yes, there’s a place for same-sex friendships and even a little “bromance.” But the relationships we have with those of our own sex should not replace or exclude the beautiful dynamic at work when we relate to those of the opposite sex.

We need opposite-sex relationships not only to complement and strengthen the other sex but to learn more about our own sex. Women learn who they are as women by interacting with other women but also with men. So, too, men learn who they are by interacting not only with other men but with women as well. Interaction with the opposite sex is essential to our growth and self-understanding as creatures made in God’s image as male and female. Karl Barth put it brilliantly: “It is always in relation to their opposite that man and woman are what they are in themselves."

Think about what this means practically. You won’t grow into the kind of person God wants you to become if you don’t have meaningful relationships with those of the opposite sex. You can’t, because the opposite sex isn’t just some strange creature from another planet, but it is God’s gift to you, as your complement, whether you are male or female.

Of course, one of the most obvious ways this interaction between the two sexes takes place is in marriage. But that’s not the only place we interact meaningfully (even if not sexually) with the opposite gender. If you are a man, you interact with the opposite sex all the time—mothers, sisters, friends, employers or employees, teachers, coaches, classmates, neighbors, aunts, cousins. So too, if you are a woman, you encounter men all the time—fathers, brothers, friends, employers or employees, teachers, coaches, classmates, neighbors, uncles, cousins.

Don’t overlook these opportunities to learn about what it means to be who God has called you to be, whether male or female. We should grow to appreciate the distinctive yet complementary strengths males and females bring to every task, whether planning a party, running a business, cheering from the sidelines of a soccer game, or raising a family. We should not only appreciate but be dazzled by these complementary differences.

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Excerpt from Mere Sexuality: Rediscovering the Christian Vision of Sexuality by Todd Wilson (©2017). Published by Zondervan. Used by permission. Purchase a copy.

Todd Wilson (PhD, Cambridge University) has spent over a decade in pastoral ministry and is currently the Senior Pastor of Calvary Memorial Church in Oak Park, Illinois. He is the cofounder and chairman of The Center for Pastor Theologians, a ministry dedicated to resourcing pastor theologians. Todd has authored or edited a number of books including Real Christian: Bearing the Marks of Authentic Faith and The Pastor Theologian: Resurrecting an Ancient Vision. Todd is married to Katie, and they have seven children.

Lead with Your Ears

“The most basic and powerful way to connect to another person is to listen. Just listen. Perhaps the most important thing we ever give each other is our attention.” —Rachel Naomi Remen

Research suggests the average person listens at a 25 percent rate of efficiency, which means most of us aren’t very good listeners.

One reason for our attention deficit is that the media we’re immersed in—especially social media and the ubiquitous smartphone—is shaping us. The more immersed we are, the shorter our attention spans become.

As a result, we are more attuned to the visual rather than the aural. Smartphones lure us into believing we can relationally “multitask”—we think we can give a portion of our attention to virtual relationships through our screens, while simultaneously acting like we’re truly listening to the flesh-and-blood person right in front of us. Even when not actively engaged with a screen, our attention and minds are often drawn to our devices and away from whatever, or whomever, is in front of us.

We live in and are increasingly being shaped by an age of distraction that makes listening a lost art. Which means a good listener is one of the rarest and most beautiful things in the world today.

LISTENING IS AN ACT OF LOVE

In one of the earliest Christian writings, Jesus’ half-brother James makes listening to others a priority: “Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger” (James 1:19).

James directs his readers to open their ears rather than their mouths. “Be quick to hear,” he says (emphasis mine). This quickness is not an indication of speed, but of priority. In other words: listening is of primary importance, so it should be done first. There should be a sense of urgency to our listening, and it should consistently be our intuitive, default, automatic posture toward others.

The research cited above suggests this is not the case for most of us. How about with you?

Are you a good listener? Where does your mind go as people speak with you in conversation? Are you more interested in hearing or being heard? Do you attend to those in your presence, or are you constantly distracted by the ever-present virtual world on your smartphone? Do you respond to those who are angry at or critical of you with a “soft answer,” or with a reflection of their anger?

Our first response to others should always be with our ears rather than with our mouths. In the command “be quick to hear,” James is essentially calling us to “lead with our ears.”

There is no better way to misjudge or misunderstand someone than by failing to listen to them. This failure to listen often leads to, as James warns against, a quick tongue and a sharp temper. But listening is an act of love in which the other person’s interests are put in front of one’s own.

Listening is an essential part of what psychologist and spiritual director David Benner calls “soul hospitality”—the creation of space and safety for someone to be themselves, to be welcomed, to be loved, and to share their innermost self.

As with the hospitality of an open home or an open table, soul hospitality requires at least two things: reception and attentive presence.

RECEPTION

The ear is an organ of reception. It does not produce anything but simply receives. This is the perfect organ for providing hospitality because it gives deference to the speaker, offering space for them to be heard. Benner writes, “the essence of hospitality is taking another person into my space, into my life.”

It is intuitive to think of hospitality as generosity—as giving something of substance to someone—and listening tends to follow this general pattern. In this model, listening becomes a necessary but over-rated launching pad for response formulation.

In these cases, most conversational energy is given over to what will be said next, rather than what’s being said now. The posture taken by the purported listener is therefore not one of reception but of provision. It is a position of power rather than humility.

But soul hospitality, which includes true listening, “is more demanding than giving advice, money or some other form of help,” Benner goes on to say. It is an act of humility.

The assumption for the truly hospitable listener is that the other person has much more to give. The most appropriate posture to take, then, is one of reception. And reception’s proper response? Gratitude.

Providing hospitality while also being the one to show gratitude is counter-intuitive. Yet truly hospitable people are often the most grateful people, blessed beyond measure at the grace-filled presence of their guests.

For this reason, reception is not equivalent to consumption. It is not a receiving into the self for the sake of the self. It is not self-centered at all. As an act of love, reception is focused on and for the other.

ATTENTIVE PRESENCE

Leading with an open ear, although it implies reception does not equate to passivity. It includes the giving of a gift: the gift of attentive presence.

Like reception, attentive presence is another act of love and humility. Benner again: “To be present to you means that I must be prepared, temporarily, to be absent to me.” To be “absent to me” is to set aside thoughts, responsibilities, text messages, emails, and a plethora of other distractions that play tug-of-war with our attention.

If hospitality implies space-making, then attentive presence requires boundary-setting and the removal of distractions for a time, creating an opportunity to be present and attentive to the person whose image-of-God-bearing soul has been entrusted to the listener in this sacred space and time.

The command to listen is not easy. It takes something from us, especially when it is met with sin or anger. It is difficult to attentively listen when what is being spoken is emotion-laden and dripping with hostility. Attentive presence requires the difficult work of self-differentiation from attack, blame, or anger in order to truly listen. The natural response to emotionally furious assaults is often tantamount to an explosive chemical reaction.

But God would call us instead to the attentive, humble, loving response of the open ear—not only when it’s pleasant and congenial, but, even more importantly, when it’s inconvenient, tense, and downright difficult.

FIRST, LISTEN TO GOD

To serve others by leading with an open ear is to quickly recognize our great need for God. When shortfalls, inadequacy, and inability are easily recognized, we must make haste to run to his grace.

To have any hope of being receptive and attentively present to others, we must begin with attentiveness to God’s voice. As James goes on to say: “Therefore . . . receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls” (James 1:21).

First, we must listen to God, which takes place when we prayerfully and humbly attend to his voice. To become familiar with God’s voice is to listen to how he has chosen to speak to us in the Scriptures. As we listen to God, we will find ourselves crying out to the One who is quick to hear: “I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry” (Psalm 40:1).

God is quick to listen and will attend to the poor and needy sinner who comes to him asking for grace in their time of need.

You cannot become someone who is quick to hear unless you first call upon the One who inclines his ear to you. Truly it is from him that we learn to listen.

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Mike Phay serve as Lead Pastor at FBC Prineville (Oregon) and as an Affiliate Professor at Kilns College in Bend, OR. He has been married to Keri for 20 years and they have five amazing kids (Emma, Caleb, Halle, Maggie, and Daisy). He loves books and coffee, preferably at the same time.

When the Words of My Mouth are Pleasing Mostly to Me

I've always been a fast thinker, deducing concepts, abstracts, illustrations, and material quickly—on almost everything except math. Sadly, that quick thinking gave me a smart mouth, and I don't mean a studied, intelligent, and wise mouth. I mean the kind that got slapped, taped shut, and soap stuffed in it regularly when I was younger. I could not bridle my tongue. I was a melancholy girl, prone to long spouts of reading and ruminating, and saving up zingers to drop at the moment of maximum potential. One of my parents' favorite disciplines was to make me write the book of James by hand in a series of black and white composition books. I wish I'd saved them.

To this day I both shudder and cling to the book of James because it holds so much gold for a wily, unbridled tongue like mine.

KNOWING ENOUGH ABOUT GOD TO SHUDDER

Beginning in my late teens and into my twenties, I began to realize the way to gain friends and influence people was not to speak words of death to or about them. I have always been interested in outcomes and results, especially when they seem to benefit me. I learned to unbridle my tongue with good ideas, principles, formulas, and carnal wisdom.

If there was a question, I wanted to have the answer. If there was a weakness, I wanted to be the healer. If there was a puzzle, I wanted to figure it out. I wanted to be the go-to girl—if you need wisdom, gentleness, friendship, pity, a listening ear? Go to Lore.

I didn't realize how pervasively this pride had grown in my life and heart, though, filling all my joints and marrow with the belief that I had enough of the answers or the right amount of gentleness or the perfect principles for someone's problems. I was okay if people saw me as the solution, even as I pointed to Christ as the ultimate solution. I was the conduit, but he was the water. Surely folks could see that?

The problem is, folks don't see that, not unless you hit them over the head with it, and I wasn't about to do that and lose their respect. I wanted to tickle their ears, not box them.

WISDOM COMES FROM THE WORD

One of the things that drew me to my husband Nate, before I even met him, was his Bible. I walked past him often enough in our coffee shop, he always sat there with his open Bible counseling men. His Bible was so underlined and scribbled in I thought, "Well, here's a guy who loves the Word." One of our first conversations was about a heated and polarizing issue, and he sat across from me with his Bible gently responding to all of my questions and points with Scripture.

He just never wandered far from what the Word said about anything.

As I began to know him and move toward marriage with him, I saw this come out in the way he led our relationship, the ways he interacted with others, the ways he spoke and didn't speak, the ways he shared his sin and the brokenness of his former marriage, the ways he ministered to men, the ways he walked in discipline situations, the ways he submitted to our pastors and elders, and so much more.

He was a man who for many years simply read the Word or about the Word, but in the past few years he had become a man who was empowered with, immersed in, captured by, and full of the Word of God.

None of this changed in our marriage. In fact, I've seen even more up close and personal how he doesn't offer counsel, wisdom, good ideas about anything unless they're drenched in the Word of God. He has learned the way to truly bridle his tongue is to put on the reins and bit of the Word—to let the words of God direct, lead, and guide him in the direction he goes.

I am so challenged by this. I want to be more like this. I know at the end of every day when he asks me about my day, the folks I saw, the people I prayed with, the counsel I gave, the counsel I received, we're going to have a conversation about whether and how Scripture influenced the words spoken.

I have spent decades trying to figure out how to bridle my tongue, going from one extreme to the other, from utter silence to rampant zingers. This discipline of letting the Word of God be my bit and reins for a bridled tongue is the only thing that's changing me, really, from the inside out.

HOW TO LET THE WORD BECOME YOUR BIT

Read the Proverbs. I've been sitting in the book of Proverbs for weeks now, originally because I'd encouraged a friend to get in it, but now because I'm just so convicted about my tongue in my own life. You can't read five verses without stumbling across one dealing with the mouth, wisdom, the tongue, speaking, or being foolish. I've been getting wrecked in my own heart about my tongue and the pride in me.

Read the book of James. Write the book of James. Get the book of James inside you. Eat the book of James. 

Ask the Holy Spirit to convict you. Ask him to convict you immediately when your words are coarse, unkind, gossipy, idle, unforgiving, or rooted in pride. And then, this is important, repent for your actions in the moment. This is really hard for me. I feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit seventy times a day and can't even count on one finger how many times that actually drives me to repent in the moment.

Trust the Holy Spirit to do the work, not you. It's not your job to share the tidbit you think will make all the difference, especially if your desire is simply to be heard. Zack Eswine said, "It's not our job to finish what Jesus has left unfinished," in regard to our desire to sweep up, clean up, or tie up loose ends. Leave room for the Holy Spirit.

Before giving counsel, ask lots of questions. Ask what in Scripture is comforting, convicting, teaching, leading, guiding the person with whom you're speaking. Ask how the Holy Spirit is comforting them. Often times your questions will lead them to remember the power of Scripture and the ministry of the Holy Spirit—the sources to which and whom they can always go.

If you're someone who is quiet, maybe you need to speak up. If you're someone who's quiet and only thinks the zingers, find Scripture that's life-giving and speak it in the situation. Sometimes opening your mouth is the way your tongue is bridled. Ask the Lord to increase your empathy and love for people, to help you be patient, even in your listening. Sometimes your courage to speak Scripture in a situation will be the thing that changes you and the person with whom you're speaking.

If you're someone who is not quiet, maybe you need to remain quiet. If you're someone who's quiet and says the zingers, maybe a fast from speaking is in order. A time of intentionally crafted silence, full of reading the Word, studying the Word, repentance, asking the Holy Spirit to convict you, change you, and help you to see your words are not the answer to everything.

Friends, I'm convicted as I write this even more. I want the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart to be pleasing to God. I want to see my words and heart meditations as they are, being heard by the God of the universe, the Father who loves me, the Son who died for me, and the Spirit who is saying things too deep for words on my behalf.

My zingers and smart-mouth and good ideas are like filthy rags to this God.

I want to please my Father, and the best way to do that is to fill my mouth with the words he's given me in his Word.

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Lore Ferguson Wilbert is a writer, thinker, and learner. She blogs at sayable.net, and you can follow her on Twitter or on Instagram. She has a husband named Nathan and lives in Flower Mound, Texas.

Featured Book | A Guide for Advent: The Arrival of King Jesus

As the season of Advent comes into view, we wanted to invite our readers to pick up our resource, A Guide for Advent: The Arrival of King Jesus. With essays that will help you focus on the meaning and anticipation of the Advent season, this guide will help you walk closer to Christ as the day we celebrate his birth draws close. Enjoy this excerpt from our Executive Director, Jeremy Writebol, and pick up the ebook or paperback in time for the first Sunday of Advent, December 3.

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The Greatest Fear


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.

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 it means we will find the very reason being physically alone during this season troubles so many. At its core it is more than just remembering the coming of God into our existence, Advent is about the actual presence of God in our existence. It’s 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 long time to wait. The United States of America has barely existed for half of that time. It would be nearly impossible to understand the absence and silence from God for that amount of time. 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 called 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. Emmanuel 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.

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Jeremy Writebol is the Executive Director of GCD. He is the husband of Stephanie and father of Allison and Ethan. He serves as the lead campus pastor of Woodside Bible Church in Plymouth, MI. He is also an author and contributor to several GCD Books including everPresent and That Word Above All Earthly Powers. He writes personally at jwritebol.net.

Finding Thankfulness Amidst a Trial by Fire

On the night of October 8th, fires were sparked that would ravage my community in Sonoma County, California. That first night the fires burned with unreal and terrifying speed, sweeping over the wooded, sparsely populated hills, and into the very heart of Santa Rosa, a city of over 150,000. The fires continued to burn out of control for over a week. Nearly 8,000 structures were lost, most of them homes, displacing thousands of residents in an area already experiencing a housing shortage. Over forty people lost their lives.

Rebuilding will take years. An uncertain future faces our community. Will there be enough housing? Will there be enough jobs? Is it worth rebuilding? Will this happen again?

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, those of us living in Sonoma County are learning how to be thankful in the midst of unspeakable tragedy.

WHAT IS THERE TO BE THANKFUL FOR?

No one in Sonoma County was unaffected on a personal level, including me. My family evacuated our home three different times, though our home survived. The fire was stopped a mere 500 feet from my parents’ house. My aunt and uncle, three of my co-workers, and several friends lost their homes.

In such circumstances, “What is there to be thankful for?” seems a legitimate question.

Yet, in spite of the catastrophe, there are reasons for thankfulness. While any loss of life is tragic, if not for the work of first-responders evacuating those in fire zones as the world burned around them, the losses would have been much higher.

That first night, neighborhoods engulfed in flames threatened two Santa Rosa hospitals directly across the street. Firefighters were able to stop the fires from crossing the roads, keeping those vital facilities from being lost. There are countless stories of everyday citizens warning and rescuing their neighbors, defending their neighborhoods against the fires, and saving their homes. For these acts of heroism and selflessness, we can be thankful.

There is one act, in particular, I’m especially thankful for—one I am convinced saved not only my church, but possibly my home as well.

THE KIND OF HEROIC ACT WE CAN ALL BE THANKFUL FOR

Pete Halpin is the Facilities Manager of my home church, Santa Rosa Bible Church. I first met Pete several years ago when he and his family moved into the house next to the church property. They began attending our church, and, right away, Pete struck me as one of the friendliest people I’d ever met. We got to know each other over the years through pick-up basketball games, church functions, and a missions trip to Ecuador.

A few years ago, Pete became the Facilities Manager for the church. He was a great guy for the job, and he could never beat that commute: open the back gate, and he’s at work. As someone who also once worked at the church and lived on the other side of the fence from the property, I could attest to the convenience. I had long since moved from that close proximity, but not by much; I still live less than a quarter-mile from the church campus.

The night of October 8th, with the fire rapidly approaching, Pete, his wife, and one of his sons loaded up three cars and evacuated. Before they made it even a couple blocks, the engine in the car Pete was driving, an older car he was working to restore, began to knock. Evacuation is no time to deal with an unreliable vehicle, so Pete abandoned the car on the road. When he did, he suddenly remembered his 79-year old neighbor. Unsure if the neighbor was aware of what was happening, Pete sent his family on their way and went back to check on the neighbor. Once he determined the neighbor was safe, Pete went back to his house.

That’s when the embers began to fall into Pete’s backyard. Because of the severe winds earlier in the night, the yard was covered with a blanket of dry redwood needles. Pete put out spot fires in the yard ignited by the flying embers. He promised his wife he would not risk his life to save property, but as the embers continued to drop and the fire burned ever closer, now visible on the ridge north of the house, it was a promise that was getting harder to keep. Finally, it was time to go.

But before he could, a feeling came over Pete. A calm that told him he was supposed to be there at that moment. Pete has described himself as an anxious person, but in the midst of this crisis, he felt a divine peace overcome him.

He had to check on the church.

ENTERTAINING UNAWARE ANGELS

He crossed the parking lot to the church building and began assessing the situation. On the northern end of the campus, closest to the fire, Pete saw a spot fire burning behind the maintenance shop. Besides the threat to the shop itself, the area behind the shop was a storage area for all sorts of combustible materials. Pete emptied six fire extinguishers putting out the fire.

While battling the flames, he encountered two men wearing backpacks skulking behind the shop. Surprised to see anybody else there in the face of an impending inferno in the middle of the night, Pete asked who they were. After a brief hesitation, they said they were there to help. Pete didn’t hesitate and put them to work. He had them attach hoses to the spigots and help him move vehicles away from the fence line where it appeared the houses directly on the other side were already engulfed. Pete asked them to help him hook a trailer up to a truck to pull it away from the fence. The two men kept saying they had to leave. Pete yelled, “No! You need to help me move this trailer!” The two stayed and helped before fleeing.

It wasn’t until later, when things calmed down, that Pete realized what he had missed earlier in the tension of the moment. The two men were probably looters who, already in those early moments of the tragedy, had been out preying on the victims. Thanks to Pete, the cowards were forced into service for something good.

After hearing this story, a friend of mine expressed disappointment that Pete was not actually, as Hebrews 13:2 says, “entertaining angels unawares.” I pointed out the verse still applied; the two were just unaware they were angels.

With the fire behind the shop extinguished, no other buildings on the campus were in immediate danger. Fires burned portions of the neighborhood on three sides of the campus but never made it across any of the streets onto the property. If the shop, which contained fuel and chemicals for the various vehicles and tools used to maintain the grounds, had caught fire, it is entirely conceivable that the rest of the church would have burned. If the church had caught fire, there is the very real possibility it would have spread to the houses and many trees in the surrounding neighborhoods, including mine. It could have pulled fire-fighting resources away from the fire that was stopped less than 500 feet from my parents’ house, allowing that fire to spread further.

It’s not a stretch for me to say that, thanks to Pete, my church, my home, my parents home, and maybe my entire neighborhood was saved.

WHAT THANKFULNESS REALLY LOOKS LIKE

Almost a month after that terrible night, my church family met in the auditorium which had been saved by the Lord through Pete’s actions. An opportunity for testimony was given.

A long-time member stood to give her’s. She is 80 years old; her husband is 90. They lost a beautiful home in which they had lived for decades, along with everything in it. The first words out of her mouth during that testimony were, “I am so thankful we lost our house”; said without an iota of bitterness or false sentiment. She was thankful for the opportunities her and her husband’s loss had given them to share Jesus with people.

Such a comment would seem out of the ordinary, given the circumstances. But that has not been the case among those in my church family who lost everything. Time and time again, I hear them say how thankful they are; thankful that although their things are gone, they are safe; thankful for the support of their brothers and sisters in Christ in their time of need; thankful to be a light in a dark time; thankful for the opportunity to serve others who are in the same situation.

LEARNING TO BE THANKFUL

1 Thessalonians 5:18 tells us to “give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” This is often easier said than done. In times like these, are there moments when doubt and despair creep into our thoughts? Of course.

But, if we go back to God’s command in Philippians 4:6, to “not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God,” we know he will listen. We know his plans for us are for good and not for evil (Jeremiah 29:11). That plan may not be what we thought it should or would be. No one wants to hear that God’s plan for their life is for their house to burn down. But we can be thankful that his plan, while it may not be clear to us all at once, is perfect, and is for our greater good.

For those of us in Sonoma County, this is a trial by fire in the most literal sense. I am thankful for what God is doing in my hometown and how his people are responding.

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Andy Bauer, husband and father of two, is a police officer in Sonoma County, California. He attends the Santa Rosa Bible Church, where his father, Chris Bauer, serves as Lead Pastor.

What Does Mission Look Like in the Suburbs?

“Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.” – Karl Marx

I was at a church conference, listening to an impassioned young pastor talk about the work he does in inner-city high schools in his neighborhood:

“Everyone should be getting in on this. It’s the greatest need in our city. Young men without fathers need attentive, compassionate, strong men to pour into their lives and mentor them.”

I listened to him with a mixture of admiration and annoyance. I admired how he’d discerned local mission in his neighborhood and galvanized his community to action. Men putting their lives on the line for young men stirred my heart and excited my mind.

But I was also annoyed (and feeling more than a bit guilty about being annoyed). What if my neighborhood doesn’t have the same problems as your inner city neighborhood?

Does mission in the suburbs count, too?

THE BEST PLACE TO LIVE?

The city where I am living and planting a church (Fishers, Indiana) was recently named the BEST place to live (in all of America!) by Money Magazine (based on factors that a magazine named MONEY would base it on: healthy economy, affordable homes, and a “high quality of life”).

This is a very different environment from inner-city realities described by the young pastor above. So what does mission look like in the affluent suburbs? Should we drive 30 minutes to mentor high school teens in a more impoverished area?

What does mission look like here in the suburbs?

THE HIDDEN PAIN OF THE SUBURBS

My friend and co-pastor Ben says that mission in the suburbs is more difficult to discern because the needs we see most quickly are those that contrast with the American Dream (poverty, homelessness, crime, etc.). But the American Dream isn’t the same thing as the Kingdom of God.

The needs in the suburbs are just as pressing, but it takes some discernment to see them because they’re hidden under the veneer of the apparent fulfillment of the American Dream.

Our church has been inhabiting and praying for our suburban city for three years now. And we’ve noticed a glaring issue largely left untouched and ignored by the affluent, active culture of our city: there seems to bea deep well of unprocessed sadness, unfinished grief, sorrow, and relational pain that people carry with them on a day to day basis.

One recent study suggests that loneliness is rampant, and it’s just as dangerous to our health as obesity. And unlike poverty, homelessness, and hunger, most people who are chronically sad don’t know it. They can’t identify what’s actually haunting them.

AFFLUENCE AND ACTIVITY NUMB US

Part of the reason we don’t know we’re sad is that the affluence and relentless activity of the suburbs insulate us from having to feel our pain. We’ve generally got enough money and power to find a way to numb the pain if we ever start feeling it.

• Lonely? Watch another Netflix show, refresh your Facebook pic of your family to see how many likes you’ve received, kill off that box of cookies.

• Ugly? Get free botox from your neighbor, start a gym membership and lose that weight, buy more expensive (and flattering) clothing.

• Hurting from a relationship? Eat, drink and be merry; change churches; just begin to ignore that awkward relationship.

• Insignificant at work? Find your significance in your kids' performance, or your meticulously cared for lawn, or your car.

• Stressed out and unable to cope? Pop open another bottle of wine, plan a guys’ weekend, play another round of golf, download another mobile phone game.

CHURCH DOESN'T HELP (MOST OF THE TIME)

And our suburban churches aren’t helping.

Worship services are often called “celebrations.” Preachers regularly tell people that the answer to their unhappiness is to “just praise God!” Our liturgies are full of thanksgiving, praise, and exhortation, but often bereft of lament, mourning, and weeping. Our Christian radio stations are full of “positive and encouraging” programming, implying that to be a Christian is to be happy, positive, smiling, and put together.

If Karl Marx thought the religion of his day was the “opium of the people,” there’s a case to be made that the kind of Pop Christianity described above is the opium of the American suburbs.

Drop the kids off at childcare, get emotionally moved by awesome music, listen to an inspirational message about God that tells you to try harder and do more, and God is good all the time and all the time God is good . . . and come back next week for your next spiritual hit!

But none of this frenetic spiritual activity really heals us. It just keeps us sedated and unaware of our immense sadness and pain. Church just becomes another activity to distract me from my pain.

RECKONING WITH REALITY

Instead of this kind of happy-clappy faith, the suburbs desperately need a faithful Christian witness of how to lament pain and evil in our world.

One of our foundational assumptions about life (because we see Jesus make this assumption over and over in his dealings with people) is that God is so real he most fully meets us where we really are.

We need a reckoning with reality, a dealing with “what is,” a rhythm that makes way for healing, and a robust community with which to journey.

We need the emotional safety to name what’s actually going on, a pruning of distractions to become aware of how we are really doing, language to describe “I think that feeling of loneliness and anxiety is really just sadness that I haven’t dealt with yet.”

LEARNING A LITURGY OF LAMENT

Mission in the suburbs can begin with learning to lament. And thankfully, even though most of us aren’t practiced in it, the Bible is filled with lament, especially the Psalms. Lots of Psalms are mainly lament!

Our church gatherings must make room for lament because this is the only thing that can heal our sadness.

We can start with sadness for our own life tragedies: relational ruin, personal trauma, individual sin. And we can enter into solidarity with the suffering of the world as well: victims of natural disasters, systemic oppression, the principalities and powers of racial and economic injustice, broken families, physical and emotional abuse.

Healing and restoration happen when we move beyond merely “standing up for” or “speaking out against” things. Underneath speaking and standing, we find the aching need to suffer in solidarity with actual people.

GROWING ROBUST CHURCH COMMUNITIES

Loneliness and isolation are the privileges of affluence. In the suburbs, we live in large castles of independent self-sufficiency, closing ourselves off to connection and dependence on others.

Much of our pain in the suburbs is due to past and present relationships that are not healthy. If relationships have caused us pain, it will be relationships that play a role in our healing.

Our discipleship must be built on creating relationships of emotional and spiritual safety. At a minimum, this means cultivating a culture where:

• Shame is dethroned through regular confession and proclamation of good news.

• The worst thing about me can be brought into light in community because the grace and truth of Jesus Christ are trusted and celebrated.

• People can share pain without others dismissing, denying, ghosting, fixing, or gas lighting.

• We learn how to be present to others pain; suffering solidarity with each other.

• Hope and healing are held together with despair and pain.

This isn’t easy, of course. Most people have to pay professionals $125 an hour to receive this kind of relationship and care. And of course, professional counseling is important and good and necessary. It’s just sad that it’s often the only place people experience this kind of care.

What if we can create a fabric of community that is able to bear more and more suffering as we learn to name our own in community?

In the suburbs, creating spaces where it’s safe for people to learn to lament is mission, because it addresses one of the hidden ways the kingdom of God needs to come to the suburbs.

Matt Tebbe has been a coach, communicator, and consultant for over 4 years with churches in North America. He holds a Masters of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and has worked as an adjunct professor at Trinity College. Matt co-founded Gravity Leadership and is planting a church (The Table) in the northeast suburbs of Indianapolis, where he and his wife Sharon live with their children Deacon and Celeste. You can follow him on Twitter or check out Gravity Leadership for more of his work.

The Wastefulness of God

EFFECTIVE. EFFICIENT. PRACTICAL. It is remarkable how often one hears these words in the world of Church, Inc. Their frequency may reflect our desire to be wise stewards of the resources God has entrusted to us, or they may reflect the influence of a culture that strives for control and values ROI (return on investment) above all else. I suspect both motivations are at play. Scripture rightly warns us to be careful with money. It is a tempting master broadcasting a siren promise of omnipotence—the power to control one’s life and circumstances. We have all heard the heartbreaking stories of pastors lured into wealth’s maelstrom. We have also heard the stories of ministries that simply mismanaged their finances and slowly, quietly disappeared beneath a tide of debt. Regularly telling these tales of woe keeps church leaders vigilant. They provoke us to be effective, efficient, and practical. But might these values carry a hidden danger, perhaps even more perilous than wealth?

When efficiency becomes an unquestioned value within Church, Inc., we risk embracing the ungodly ethic of utilitarianism. Rather than seeing people as inherently valuable regardless of their usefulness, we begin to wonder how we might extract more money, volunteer energy, missional output, or influence from them. Our goal as pastors shifts from serving and equipping to extracting and using. Rather than asking how we might love someone, we wonder how we might leverage them, and we can hide these ungodly motivations from others (and even from ourselves) by appealing to the universally celebrated virtue of stewardship. After all, isn’t it poor stewardship to have a CEO sitting in the pews every week and not utilize his wealth and leadership capacity for the church? And would a good steward invest the church’s resources into young adults who are too transient to become leaders and too poor to give back?

We condemn our culture for devaluing human life it deems useless—the unborn, the elderly, the mentally disabled, the immigrant, the poor, etc.—yet the same utilitarian values of efficiency and practicality that fuel these societal sins are no less common within the church. As ministers of the gospel of Christ, we must stand boldly against the popular belief that everything and everyone exists to be useful. We must remember that in His grace God has created some things not to be used, but simply to behold. After all, the Lord not only created a garden for the man and woman with every tree that was useful for food, but also every tree that was beautiful to the eye (Gen. 2:9). Sometimes we are the most like God when we are being the most impractical.

The graceful, “wasteful” nature of God was revealed shortly before Jesus’ death. While reclining at a table, a woman poured a very expensive ask of oil upon His feet. When His disciples saw this, they were appalled. Like many church leaders today, they could only see through the lens of practicality. “This ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor,” said Judas, and the disciples rebuked the woman.

“Leave her alone,” Jesus shot back. “Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me.”

For those who believe that the beautiful must submit to the practical, it is impossible to view the woman’s action as anything but wasteful. The disciples saw the spilled oil as a lost opportunity. To them the oil was only a commodity to be utilized and exchanged for a measurable outcome. What they interpreted as a waste, however, Jesus saw as priceless. He recognized the spilled oil as beautiful, impractical worship. True worship can never be wasteful because it seeks no return on investment. True worship is never a transaction. It is always a gift—an extravagant, “wasteful” gift.

Perhaps our captivity to efficiency, like that of the disciples, explains the dismissive posture many pastors have toward the arts. Sure, we appreciate beautiful architecture, music, and paintings if they serve the practical goal of communicating a biblical truth or drawing people through the church’s doors. But art for art’s sake? How could that possibly glorify Christ? Why would that be a wise investment?

Artists who cultivate beauty in the world remind us that the most precious things are often the least useful. Artists provoke us to see the world differently—not simply as a bundle of resources to be used, but as a gift to be received. Therefore, the creative arts serve as a model of God’s grace, and how the church affirms and celebrates the vocations of artists is likely to inform its vision of God. As Andy Crouch said, “If we have a utilitarian attitude toward art, if we require it to justify itself in terms of its usefulness to our ends, it is very likely that we will end up with the same attitude toward worship, and ultimately toward God.”

To combat the utilitarianism of our culture, and to foster a right vision of God, perhaps the church needs to learn to be more wasteful rather than less. Maybe there is a time for the voices of practicality to remain silent as the artists prophetically call us back to extravagant worship, to behold God rather than to use Him. And maybe it is good to embrace the impracticality of having young children, the mentally handicapped, and other “useless” people in our worship gatherings as a way of valuing what the world discards, detoxifying such ungodly values from our own souls.

And perhaps the church should spend money on what the world deems impractical and wasteful. When the voices of the world cry out in protest against the church, as they inevitably will, maybe the voice of Jesus will speak in defense of His precious, often useless bride: “Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me.”

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Taken from Immeasurable: Reflections on the Soul of Ministry in the Age of Church, Inc. by Skye Jethani (©2017). Published by Moody Publishers. Used by permission.

Skye Jethani is an author, speaker, consultant and ordained pastor. He also serves as the co-host of the popular Phil Vischer Podcast, a weekly show that blends astute cultural and theological insights with comical conversation. Skye has authored three books, The Divine Commodity: Discovering a Faith Beyond Consumer Christianity, WITH: Reimagining the Way You Relate to God, and Futureville. Skye and his wife Amanda have three children: Zoe, Isaac, and Lucy and reside in Wheaton, IL.

A Tale of Talents

I have never met a writer who does not have some ambition to have his or her words read and appreciated by others—and I am no exception. Words have been bursting out of me since I was a small child. As I have walked with the Lord, I have come to see my love for words as a gift (that is not to call myself gifted, a title I would bestow upon the likes of Flannery O’Connor and Marilynne Robinson).

This gift, or talent, of mine, is much like the talents God gives to anyone—he gives it; I choose what to do with it. Recently I had time to reflect on gifts and talents when answering a question submitted to GotQuestions.org about a troubling verse. The verse in question was: “Why didn't you deposit my money in the bank? At least I could have gotten some interest on it” Matthew 25:27 (NLT).

I could understand why this verse could throw a reader off—it sounds like someone is a little money-hungry! Not exactly the kind of principle we expect to learn in the Bible.

Each of the Bible translations said the same thing here, but I thought the New Living Translation perhaps made the intent more readily apparent. Before we look at this verse, we need to summarize the parable from which Jesus was teaching a valuable lesson.

A TALE OF TALENTS

The Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30) is told by Jesus to illustrate that anything good we possess is a gift from God, and is intended to be used for his glory and the advancement of his kingdom. In Biblical times, talents were a form of money.

The word serves as a nice metaphor to our modern ears because God gives us many gifts that we may then put to use for his kingdom—such as talents, skills, blessings, and opportunities.

In the story, Jesus tells of a man who is going away for a bit and has three servants. He knows they have different abilities, so he divides eight talents (coins) between the three servants so they may work to increase the master’s money using their own abilities. He gives Servant One five talents, Servant Two two talents, and Servant Three one talent.

We should pause to consider these different amounts. Wouldn’t it have been fairer to give them all the same amount?

No, and here is why: We are all created uniquely, with different characteristics, gifts, and talents. As Christians, each of us is also at a different point in his or her faith journey. A person who has just received Christ likely doesn’t have the same level of study, understanding, or maturity as someone who has been a Christian for many years, and who is actively pursuing greater knowledge of God and deeper faith and understanding.

A MODERN PARABLE

Let’s look at a modern metaphor to better understand this concept.

If the CEO of a company hoped to grow a sum of money, would he or she be more likely give it to the mailroom clerk or the chief financial officer (CFO) to invest?

What this CEO might do is to give a large chunk of the money to the CFO who has a lot of experience with handling money and is known to be loyal to the CEO, and of the same mind to advance the company to its fullest potential. He or she might then give smaller amounts to those who show promise, in order that they might grow in confidence and execution of their tasks without overwhelming them with responsibility for which they are not yet prepared.

In our parable, God has given the bulk of the responsibility to the servant we will call CFO, one who has proven trustworthy, faithful, and effective. He gives the middle amount to one of his new accountants—one who has had proper training, has proven eager to please, and is ready for an opportunity with more responsibility.

Finally, God has given the smallest amount to the mail clerk who regularly shows up for work, has never had too much responsibility, but is someone the CEO is willing to invest in by providing the means and the mechanism (in this case, a coin) for doing good things.

So what do the CFO, accountant, and mail clerk do? The CFO and accountant both double the master’s money. Returning to the Biblical parable, they have trusted in the principles they learned from knowing God, obeying his commands, and following his ways. Often the Lord’s ways are very countercultural and seem bizarre to our way of thinking, so it is through faith that we can actually put them to use.

The CFO and accountant are greatly rewarded with the words every Christian longs to hear from his or her Father: “Well done good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21).

Notice both the CFO and the accountant are rewarded with yet more responsibility because they have proven themselves with the smaller amounts they received from the CEO. They are ready for advancement.

The mail clerk, however, does not grow the master’s money. He reveals his heart when he tells the master he knew him to be “a hard man, reaping what you do not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed” (Matthew 21:24).

Ouch! He tells God he is greedy and wants more than he has worked for and deserves. He does not believe God is the one who created the earth, all living things, and his very life. He does not believe God gave him everything good in his life. He reveals no desire to serve the Lord. He believes God to be impossible to please, and that he would be working in vain to try and do so. It makes me sad to think about someone misunderstanding and misrepresenting my Lord.

God then calls out the servant’s hard heart. If he would have just put the money in the bank he could have at least earned a few extra pennies—something you might expect someone truly afraid of the master to do. This servant, however, had no desire to advance the kingdom, and, by choice, does nothing with the master’s gift or opportunity. Thus, God rightly takes the talent back and sends this man to the eternity he chose for himself. It’s a very sad day.

THE PRIVILEGE OF SERVING THE MASTER

In explaining this parable and the third servant’s outcome, commentator Matthew Henry points out there is nothing good in any of us, except what comes from God. All we own on our own is our sin. We must understand that we were created by God with a purpose. He created you and me for his great pleasure and to build the kingdom.

Henry states: “It is the real Christian's liberty and privilege to be employed as his Redeemer's servant, in promoting his glory, and the good of his people: the love of Christ constrains him to live no longer to himself, but to him that died for him, and rose again.”

Servants One and Two chose to believe in God’s goodness, his plan, and to work with the gifts he had given them to fulfill his purpose in their lives. Servant Three refused.

Servants One and Two were promoted and rewarded and will continue to do good things for God and His people—most important of all, sharing the good news of Jesus Christ who has a plan for their lives too! Servant Three refused to believe, promote, or even do even the least amount possible to serve God.

GIVING IT BACK

As a young woman, my writing reached only an audience of family and teachers. I became a Christian as an adult, and it took me many years of studying God and loving him to start to sense my place in His Kingdom, and that my compulsion to write might play a small part in that.

Since college, my audience has gradually grown, sometimes one person at a time, as I answer the biblical and spiritual questions of others. I consider this an awesome way to contribute my talent in God’s Kingdom. Occasionally my writing has reached a broader audience, but I am determined that anything I contribute will be something that honors my God. More than commercial success, I pray for opportunities to give my God-given talent back to him ten-fold.

WHAT WILL YOU DO WITH YOUR TALENT?

The application for you and me rests in how we answer these questions. Who do we believe created us? For what purpose? Do we recognize the gifts, talents, blessings, and opportunities God has given us? What are we willing to do with them? Where do we draw the line? Ultimately, do we trust our lives to God?

Friend, I pray you know God as your creator. I pray you have given him access to your entire being—that you have availed all of your life to the advancement of his Kingdom and to fulfill his purpose in you. His requirements will always stretch you, but will never be more than he knows you can accomplish.

Once started on a path of serving the Lord, your opportunities will increase in responsibility and frequency as you continue to show faithfulness. Does this mean you and I will always be perfect? No. Our journey will be filled with days when we stumble or outright fail. We are not the mail clerk on those days; we are CFOs who accept failure as part of the process, learn and grow from our mistakes, and keep on pressing forward until the day we land at the feet of our Father. He will look down on us with love and utter the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

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Rhonda Maydwell is a staff writer for GotQuestions.org, and co-author and copy editor of the recently published, 7 Women, 7 Words, a collection of faith-filled essays based on seven common words from seven different perspectives. She is a wife, mother of two, and grandmother to Georgia Kate.

Gospel-Centered or Pharisaical? Five Evaluation Questions

Last year, my family and I enjoyed some vacation time at the beach. After finding a place to put our towels, my oldest son and I jumped into the ocean to go body surfing. Fifteen minutes later, I looked up to find my wife—but nothing on the beach looked familiar. I thought I was still directly in front of her but, without realizing it, I had drifted a few hundred yards. The gradual pull of the ocean can be so subtle that it's hard to notice you're drifting further away.

Likewise, for the believer who desires to be gospel-centered, the drift toward becoming more Pharisaical is also so subtle we might not even notice it.

THE PHARISAICAL PULL

Nobody wants to be a Pharisee, yet our flesh seems naturally bent in that direction. The good news of the gospel seems too easy for our works-based, achievement-driven hearts. We know Christ achieved it all, but we still want to contribute. Even while we proclaim the gospel of grace, we fight the intense pull toward self-righteousness.

Jesus was explicit in his rebukes against the Pharisee. He welcomed the repentant sinner with grace and mercy, but offered sharp critiques to those who had supposedly achieved righteousness. Even as I read the "woes" to the Pharisees in Matthew 23, I find myself thanking God I'm not like them . . . thus revealing I'm closer than I think.

My father-in-law, a former surfer, informed me that when playing in the ocean it's important to find a "point of reference"—a large, stationary object on the beach, like a lifeguard stand, unique landscape, etc. As you are enjoying the waves, you must continually look back to your point of reference and re-adjust yourself. Constant checks and re-adjustments keep you from drifting too far without realizing it.

For believers, the gospel is our point of reference. We continue to behold the beauty of the gospel and live under its truths. As we seek to live this kind of gospel-centered life, we must be aware of the drift towards a Pharisaical mindset and be ready to evaluate our hearts.

Here are five evaluation questions to ask ourselves to point us back to the gospel and keep us from drifting.

WHERE DO YOU FIND YOUR RIGHTEOUSNESS?

In Luke 18:9-14, Jesus tells a story to those who "trusted in themselves that they were righteous." Two men went to the temple to pray. One was a Pharisee who thanked God that he wasn't like the sinners, and then he went on to point out all the good he had done. The other man was a tax collector who wouldn't even look up to heaven, but simply prayed "God, be merciful to me, a sinner!"

Only one of those men went home justified before the Lord. The Pharisee was looking at his own good works to establish his righteousness and standing before God. Truly understanding our sinfulness and God's holiness is incompatible with this type of self-righteousness. The tax collector recognized his sin and pleaded for mercy.

We also see that self-righteousness leads to treating others with contempt, judging others, and considering yourself better than others because you think you have accomplished something they haven't. In the Pharisee's mind, he's been good enough. Why can't other people get their act together?

Gospel reminder: The gospel teaches that believers are righteous, but it is an alien righteousness. We've been made new by a righteousness outside of ourselves, the very righteousness of Christ. Therefore, a true believer has no reason to boast except in Christ and him crucified. Any goodness we see in our life is the result of a changed heart and indwelling Holy Spirit, to which all glory belongs to God.

WHY DO YOU DO GOOD WORKS?

The Pharisees did good works, but only to be seen by men. In Matthew 23, Jesus says:

"For they preach, but do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. They do all their deeds to be seen by others."

In Matthew 6:1 we are warned: "Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you have no reward from your Father who is in heaven." Jesus goes on to teach that our praying, fasting, and any good deed should be done without advertising it. We must be careful that we don't "sound the trumpet" when we do good works, making sure that everyone sees us.

Gospel reminder: Our acceptance is based on the works of Christ, so we don't need to try and win favor with God and man. We can rest in the gospel, which continues to bear fruit and good works (Colossians 1:6). As we serve the Lord, our motive should be to glorify God and not ourselves. "Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 5:16).

IS YOUR “RELIGION” MERELY EXTERNAL?

Jesus rebukes the Pharisees in Luke 16:15: “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For that which is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God." In Matthew 23:25-28, Jesus tells the Pharisees they are whitewashed tombs who focus on the outside but neglect the inside. A whitewashed tomb looks nice on the outside, but inside it’s full of death and decay.

We can go to church, volunteer, give money to the poor, and other good, external works, but still be dead in our sins. God is concerned about our heart. Are the commands of God constantly burdensome (1 John 5:3)? Are we constantly trying to produce on the outside what we don't feel or believe on the inside?

Gospel reminder: The work of the gospel changes us from the inside out. The New Covenant promised in Ezekiel 36 provides a new heart instead of simply changing us with external laws.

DO YOU PROCLAIM THE COMMANDS OF MEN AS COMMANDS OF GOD?

The Pharisees followed many man-made rules and enforced them on others. When Jesus and his followers refused to obey them, the Pharisees didn't appreciate it. Jesus tells them in Mark 7:8, "You leave the commandment of God and hold to the traditions of men."

There might be things that bother my conscience, so I personally refuse to take part in them. However, unless God calls something sin, we should be very careful about pushing men's opinions as commandments of God.

Gospel reminder: Oftentimes, when we add to God's law, we are doing so in an attempt to look or feel more holy. We might think such a strict lifestyle will win us extra favor before God, but the work of Christ is already complete and perfect, so we cannot add anything to it.

DO YOU FIND A WAY TO JUSTIFY YOUR DISOBEDIENCE?

The Pharisees found ways to justify themselves for disobeying the laws of God. In Mark 7:9-13, Jesus gives an example where the Pharisees were not helping their parents financially because they were "giving that money to God." While that might sound spiritual, Jesus said it's sinful not to honor one's mother and father, even if you are giving that money to the church.

We often find it easy to justify our sin. For instance, we justify our anger toward others by arguing they deserved it. Our secret sin isn't really a big deal because it's not hurting anyone, we tell ourselves. Our lack of church attendance is excusable because we're listening online. On and on we go, making molehills out of mountains. While the excuses may seem valid and appease our seared conscience, at the end of the day disobedience is still disobedience.

Gospel reminder: None of us can justify ourselves. Our debt has been paid by Christ, so we are now justified in him. Which means we should own our sin, confess it, and repent. Then, by God's grace, we press on without the weight of shame and guilt.

As we strive to be gospel-centered people of grace, let’s recognize the ease with which we can drift into a Pharisaical mindset. Let’s fight against this drift by continually looking to the gospel and beholding its beautiful truths.

"God, be merciful to me, a sinner!"

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James Williams has served as an Associate Pastor at FBC Atlanta, TX for four years. He is married to Jenny and they currently have four children in their home (three biological, one in foster care). He is in the dissertation stage of a PhD in Systematic Theology. You can follow James on Twitter or his church’s blog where he writes regularly.

How to Turn Down the Volume of Your Anxiety

Perhaps you’ve met Ms. Frantic. She arrives at the gym at 8:00 a.m. Hours later, she’s still pounding the treadmill, pumping iron, and powering away on the rowing machine, barely stopping to catch snatched sips from her water bottle. She looks exhausted, miserable, and ready to faint, but still she goes on. You ask her why she is doing this, and she replies, “Because I must.” When you press her, asking, “But, why must you?” she looks at you strangely, and impatiently exclaims, “I don’t know, I just must! There’s always more to do.”

Ms. Reflective also starts bright and early at 8:00 a.m., but she’s different. She uses the same machines and works equally hard at points, but not all the time. Every now and then, she enjoys a drink of refreshing cold water. Sometimes she pauses to look out the windows and simply watch the world go by. She laughs at the children splashing in the nearby swimming pool. She even spots a friend exercising and has time to wave, give a big encouraging smile, and sometimes chat.

Now ask yourself, “Which of these two images reflects how I live my life before God?” Am I Ms. Frantic or Ms. Reflective? Am I overworking and over-stressed, or am I taking time to think and to enjoy God’s world?

A MARTHA WORLD

“Women Are Working Themselves to Death,” warned a recent headline.[1] It was based on a joint study by Ohio State University and The Mayo Clinic that compared almost eight thousand men and women over a thirty-two-year period and found that working over forty hours a week did serious damage to women’s health, causing increased risk of heart disease, cancer, arthritis, and diabetes.[2] Working sixty or more hours a week tripled the risk of these conditions. Not surprisingly, the report’s lead author, professor Allard Dembe, warned: “People don’t think that much about how their early work experiences affect them down the road. . . . Women in their 20s, 30s, and 40s are setting themselves up for problems later in life.” Unexpectedly, the risks are elevated only for women, not for men. Further analysis led the researchers to conclude that the greater risk to women is not necessarily because women are weaker but because they are doing so much more than men:

"In addition to working at a job, women often come home to a 'second shift' of work where they are responsible for childcare, chores, housework, and more, according to sociologists. All of this labor at home and at work, plus all the stress that comes along with it, is severely affecting women. Research indicates women generally assume greater family responsibilities and thus may be more likely to experience overload compared to men."[3]

Professor Dembe also pointed to less job satisfaction among women because they have to juggle so many obligations at home as well. But this is not a problem just in the greater culture; it’s a problem in the Christian population too. A survey of over a thousand Christian women, sponsored by Christian Woman magazine, found that 60 percent of Christian women work full-time outside the home. Reflecting on this, Joanna Weaver, author of Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World, commented, “Add housework and errands to a forty-hour-a-week career, and you have a recipe for weariness.” But she also warned homemakers: “Women who choose to stay at home find their lives just as full. Chasing toddlers, carpooling to soccer, volunteering at school, babysitting the neighbor’s kids— life seems hectic at every level.”[4] Maybe you’re now seeing Ms. Frantic in the mirror or hearing her in your heart and mind.

OUR INNER ORCHESTRA

Every Christian wants to know God more; few Christians fight for the silence required to know him. Instead, we spend our days smashing stillness-shattering, knowledge-destroying cymbals on our ears and in our souls. And with so many gongs and clashes in our lives, it can sometimes be difficult to isolate and identify them. So let me help you do this and then provide some mufflers.[5]

First, there’s the din of guilt, the shame and embarrassment of our dark moral secrets: “I should have . . . I shouldn’t have . . . I should have . . . I shouldn’t have . . . ” clangs noisily in our deep recesses, shattering our peace and disturbing our tranquility.

Then greed starts banging away in our hearts with its relentless drumstick: “I want it. I need it. I must have it. I will have it. I got it. I want it. I need it.” And so on.

And what’s that angry metal beat? It’s hate stirring up malice, ill will, resentment, and revenge: “How could she . . . I’ll get him! She’ll pay for this!” Of course, anger often clatters into the cymbal of controversy, sparking disagreements, debates, disputes, and divisions.

Vanity also adds its proud and haughty thud, drowning out all who compete with our beauty, our talents, and our status. “Me up . . . him down, me up . . . her down, me up . . . all down.”

Anxiety tinkles distractingly in the background too, rapidly surveying the past, the present, and the future for things to worry about: “What if . . . What if . . . What if . . . ” And is that the little, silver triangle of self-pity I hear? “Why me? Why me? Why me?”

The repetitive and unstoppable jangle of expectation comes from all directions—family, friends, employer, church, and especially from ourselves. Oh, for even a few seconds of respite from the tyranny of other people’s demands and especially from our demanding, oversensitive conscience.

And smashing into our lives wherever we turn, we collide with the giant cymbals of the media and technology: local and international, paper and pixels, sound and image, audio and video, beep and tweet, notifications and reminders, and on and on it goes.

Is it any wonder that we sometimes feel as if we’re going mad? Clanking and clanging, jingling and jangling, smashing and crashing, grating and grinding. A large, jarring orchestra of peace-disturbing, soul-dismantling cymbals. Then.

“Be still and know that I am God.”

But how?

SILENCING THE CYMBALS

We can silence the cymbal of guilt by taking faith to the blood of Christ and saying, “Believe!” Believe that all your sins are paid for and pardoned. There’s absolutely no reason to have even one whisper of guilt. Look at that blood until you grasp how precious and effective it is. It can make you whiter than snow and make your conscience quieter than the morning dew.

Greed is not easily silenced. Maybe muffled is about the best we can expect. Practice doing with less than usual, practice not buying even when you can afford it, practice buying nothing but necessities for a time, and practice spending time in the shadow of Calvary. How much less you’ll find you need when you see how much he gave! Draw up your budget at the cross (2 Corinthians 8:9).

Our unholy anger can be dialed down by God’s holy anger. When we feel God’s hot rage against all sin and all injustice, we begin to chill and calm. Vengeance is God’s; he will repay.

The doctrine of total depravity is the ultimate dampener of personal vanity. When I see myself as God sees me, my heart, my mind, and even my posture change. I stop competing for the top spot and start accepting the lowest place. “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30).

Hey! I’m beginning to hear some quiet now. But there’s still that rankling anxiety tinkling away. Oh, to be free of that!

Fatherhood.

What?

Yes, the fatherhood of God can turn the volume of anxiety to zero. He knows, he cares, and he will provide for your needs. Mute your “what-ifs” at the bird feeder (Matthew 6:25– 34). As mother-of-two Sarah told me, “Sometimes the things that can start to burn you out or cause you weariness are often things you can’t leave. Just because you’re feeling burned out by the responsibilities surrounding your husband and kids doesn’t mean you can just up and leave—sometimes not even just for an afternoon! Sometimes you just have to put your head down and persist—but at the same time it is important to take to our Father in heaven our emotions and weakness and weariness.”

Oh, and call in total depravity again when self-pity starts up. “Why me?” cannot stand long before “Why not me?”

“She has done what she could” (Mark 14:8). Don’t you just love Christ’s words to Mary when she anointed his head? What an expectation killer! Every time the despotic Devil, other people, or your tyrannical conscience demands more than you can give, remind them of Jesus’s calming words, “She has done what she could.”

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Content taken from Refresh: Embracing a Grace-Paced Life in a World of Endless Demands by Shona and David Murray, ©2017. Used by permission of Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, Wheaton, Il 60187, www.crossway.org.

Shona Murray is a mother of five children and has homeschooled for fifteen years. She is a medical doctor and worked as a family practitioner in Scotland until she moved to the United States with her husband, David.

David Murray (DMin, Reformation International Theological Seminary) is professor of Old Testament and practical theology at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary and pastor of Grand Rapids Free Reformed Church. He is also a counselor, a regular speaker at conferences, and the author of Jesus on Every Page.

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[1] Jessica Mattern, “Women Are Working Themselves to Death, Study Shows,” Woman’s Day, July 5, 2016, http://www.womansday.com/health-fitness/news/a55529 /working-women-health-risks/.

[2] MistiCrane,“Women’s Long Work Hours Linked to Alarming Increases in Cancer,  Heart  Disease,” Ohio State University, June 16, 2016, https://news.osu.edu/news/2016 /06/16/overtime-women/.

[3] Mattern, “Women Are Working Themselves to Death, Study Shows.”

[4] Joanna Weaver, Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World (Colorado Springs, CO: Waterbrook, 2000), 7.

[5] Part of this section was previously published in Tabletalk, the monthly magazine of Ligonier Ministries. Used by permission.

Let Abundant Life Start Now

Our pre-teen conversation overheated quickly, as pre-teen conversations often do. While sitting in class, I argued for the doctrine of “grace alone,” with a friend of another faith, though I didn’t yet have the language to call it that.

I was extolling God’s ability to save anyone, yet my friend grew more and more indignant. “You mean to tell me,” he reasoned, “that the death-row prisoner who robbed and murdered all his life could whisper a prayer at the eleventh hour and go to heaven?”

His indignance was making me indignant. “Yes, of course!” Didn’t he want God to be like that?

More than twenty years later, I’m still right. The God I see in the Bible will condescend to save anyone who calls on his name (Romans 10:13). It should be our joy to know he is no respecter of our persons (Acts 10:34), and doesn’t exclude us on the basis of our sins—or include us on the strength of our resumes (Ephesians 2:8-9).

And yet I now see a little more nuance behind my friend’s response than I did years ago.

Recently while reading Dallas Willard’s The Divine Conspiracy, I came across a passage that clarified the conversation for me:

“It is now understood to be part of the ‘good news’ that one does not have to be a life student of Jesus in order to be a Christian and receive forgiveness of sins. This gives a precise meaning to the phrase ‘cheap grace,’ though it would be better described as ‘costly faithfulness.’ ”

To be clear, this wasn’t the argument my friend was making. His doctrine of salvation involved a divine ledger of debits and credits.

But there is something sad—a shame, really—to the idea that we would embrace Jesus at the last minute or treat him as a life-insurance policy. Not when we have the chance to enjoy him as long as we can on earth in view of enjoying him throughout eternity.

ERRORS ON BOTH SIDES

People on both sides of the Christian spectrum can uphold an incomplete view of salvation. Historically, conservative Christians have been guilty of perpetuating the idea that once you’re saved, you’re good to go. There is nothing left to do or think about. They easily can promote a “set it and forget it” view of our relationship to the Redeemer.

Christians with more progressive leanings have rightly criticized this view. Doesn’t the life and message of Jesus matter, they argue? We are intended to follow him in the here and now. How else will we follow him all the way to heaven?

But often it is people in this group who make the argument that unbelievers might, at the end of their lives, be saved through some miraculous act of God. Perhaps they’ll turn to Jesus in the afterlife—or, as some posit, it will be revealed that genuine faith in another god or way gets fulfilled in Christ.

Which is it? Are we meant to immerse ourselves in the life of Christ or not? Is salvation for now or for later?

We aren’t as careful with these questions as we ought to be, which reduces the conversation about who can be saved to an ethical or philosophical quandary.

“Who can God save?” keeps getting invited to the same parties and gets stuck in the corner talking to “Can God create a rock so big even he can’t lift it?” and “If you could, would you time travel back and kill Hitler?”

LIFE, NOW AND FOREVER

The cross is not a “get out of jail free” card; it is an invitation into the all-consuming life of God. Jesus does not preside over marriages of convenience; he enters into covenants with his people.

The gospel is good news for the death-row prisoner, the lifelong atheist, or the one who makes an eleventh-hour plea. That God would save anyone at all is amazing grace.

But when we treat that grace as a normal, or even desirable, view of salvation, we sacrifice God’s best at the altar of the merely good. We pit fullness of life against sufficiency to save. But these two things never were meant to be at odds.

The ideal seen in the Gospels is people who immediately answer Jesus’ life-changing call to “follow me” (Matthew 4:18-22). Those who wished to accomplish something first or wanted to wait for the right moment, walked away from their encounters with Jesus disappointed (Matthew 8:21-22).

Jesus came to save us eternally, no doubt (John 3:17). But he also came to offer us an abundance of life in the here and now (John 10:10). He treats us to a full measure of God’s presence; we get to open the treasure chest of delights he makes available (Psalm 16:11).

This should be our ideal: life now with Christ. Life forevermore with him.

CALLING PEOPLE TO MORE LIFE

What does this have to do with discipleship? Quite a bit, as it turns out.

In the same section of his book, Willard refers to what he calls “nondiscipleship” as the elephant in the church. He writes:

“The division of professing Christians into those for whom it is a matter of whole-life devotion to God and those who maintain a consumer, or client, relationship to the church has now been an accepted reality for over fifteen hundred years.”

There are at least two ways that our view of salvation affects our ability to make disciples.

First, how we win disciples is how we’ll keep them. From our pulpits to our casual conversations, we need to hold up a full and true doctrine of salvation. We should strive to be honest and complete about what it is we’re calling people into and who we’re urging them to follow.

If we hold up the cross as a way to avoid hell and herald Jesus as a victor who enables us to live free of divine worry, we can’t be surprised when we make disciples more interested in security than sanctification.

But if we call people to lose their life with the suffering servant (Isaiah 53) and to pursue a life which aims to know God no matter what it costs (Philippians 3:7-11), we will find ourselves leading disciples who are willing to bear their daily cross and fight for joy in Jesus.

Second, we are called both to equip people to live for Christ now while preparing them for heaven in the future. Biblically, this is one and the same pursuit.

I’ve heard numerous preachers ask congregations whether they could enjoy heaven and all its benefits—no sin, no sickness, no death—if Jesus were not there. This isn’t some rhetorical guilt-trip. It’s a question that really matters. If our lives today aren’t about enjoying as much of Jesus as we can, what makes us think we’ll enjoy his presence unleashed and unbridled?

Once again, Willard is here to challenge us:

“I am thoroughly convinced that God will let everyone into heaven who, in his considered opinion, can stand it. But ‘standing it’ may prove to be a more difficult matter than those who take their view of heaven from popular movies or popular preaching may think. The fires in heaven may be hotter than those in the other place.”

Life eternal and life abundant were always meant to go hand-in-hand. They are not enemies or opposites, but the closest of companions. The salvation experience you treasure is the one you will begin to live out.

Those who have been rescued and redeemed by Jesus are offered fullness of life and joy in him today. Right this very minute.

Let’s not wait. Let abundant life start now!

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Aarik Danielsen is the arts and music editor at the Columbia Daily Tribune in Columbia, Missouri, where he also serves Karis Church as a lay pastor. Find his work at facebook.com/aarikdanielsenwrites and follow him on Twitter: @aarikdanielsen.

Do You Take the Great Commission Personally?

In Acts 7, a leader in the Church named Stephen is dragged before the Sanhedrin and demanded to explain his beliefs. Assured by Jesus that the Holy Spirit would give him the words, he opened his mouth and started talking. What followed was a sweeping history of the people of Israel, culminating in their handing over Jesus to be crucified. As you might imagine, that didn’t go over so well with the Jewish crowd. Stephen was dragged out of the city and stoned to death. His death sparked intense persecution for followers of Jesus. So intense that, as we’re told in Acts 8:1,

There arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.

At the end of that verse, there’s an interesting detail. It says everyone was scattered “except the apostles.”

Why is that so interesting? Well, just before ascending to heaven, Jesus told his disciples they would spread his teaching from Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria and the rest of the world (Acts 1:8). The moment Jesus-followers were scattered, the spread of the gospel out of Jerusalem and into the rest of the world began.

And the Apostles weren’t a part of it.

Imagine if you had to pick one person or team of people from your church to go and take the message of Jesus somewhere new. You would probably pick your senior pastor or the team of pastors at your church, right? What a shock it would be to find out that, not only were they unable to go, but you and your small group were the ones that had to do it.

EVERYONE EXCEPT THE APOSTLES

That’s what the Bible is telling us here—a mostly unknown group of Christians took the gospel into places like Judea and Samaria, planting churches as they went. These were average people with normal jobs that had to earn a living and figure out how to spread the gospel.

That means they had to do something fundamental: they had to make disciples.

And they did. Acts 11 shows us where the believers who were scattered after Stephen’s murder ended up. They went all over the place, but some went to Antioch and started preaching the gospel to the non-Jewish people living there.

Barnabas, a trusted man in the church, was so impressed with what was going on in Antioch he brought his friend the Apostle Paul to check it out. Together they taught and encouraged this fledgling church where followers of Jesus were called “Christians” for the first time.

It’s easy to miss what’s going on here because, well, it’s missing. And that’s the names—the names of the Christians who took the gospel to parts unknown. These were literally no-name men and women who were making disciples and planting churches.

By the way, the church in Antioch ended up becoming the church planting center of the early church. The church in Antioch actually sent Paul and Barnabas out on their first missionary journey.

From the beginning of the Church, then, we see everyday Christians making disciples, planting churches, and sending missionaries.

TAKING THE GREAT COMMISSION PERSONALLY

These early Christians knew they were part of a close-knit, life-on-life community that was called to love one another like their own family. The book of Acts and the Epistles attest to that.

The Church knew then, like it does now, that it had collectively been given the Great Commission. But the first Christians went one step further—they took the Great Commission personally.

They knew they were each called to make disciples. Not just the elders. Not just the Apostles. Every one of them. The early Christians took the Great Commission personally and collectively.

We’ve seen a renewed focus on the gospel and its sending emphasis of late, which is incredibly hopeful. Much of that emphasis is on churches as collective bodies, and rightly so. But let’s not lose sight of our personal call to make disciples and teach them to obey everything Jesus commanded.

This lack of emphasis on a personal call to make disciples is why most churchgoers’ lives look no different than their unbelieving neighbors. It’s why the divorce rate is the same among Christians and non-Christians. And it’s why Christians believe they should share their faith, but most of them don’t.

DO YOU TAKE THE GREAT COMMISSION PERSONALLY?

Just imagine yourself in a modern-day version of the situation in Acts. Imagine being dropped off in the middle of a city like Los Angeles or San Francisco. But instead of churches all over the place, there are no believers to be found. There are no church leaders, no pastors, no denominations. If you found yourself in that situation, would you know what to do?

I’m afraid for too many of us the answer is a resounding no. We would have no idea where to begin. No idea of how to evangelize our neighbors, baptize them, and start teaching them to obey Jesus’ commandments. No idea of how to live in community with other believers in a way that’s so attractive that those around us can’t help but ask what’s going on.

We can say we don’t need to be directly involved in discipling people because we have the freedom to have large churches with lots of pastors and seminaries to train them to do the work (here in America, at least).

And that’s true. All of those things are possible, which is perhaps why that’s largely the way evangelical churches operate in America.

But does that make it the right way to operate? Just because we can structure things that way, should we?

Here’s a diagnostic question: If there was no church to invite people to, no engaging services to ease the anxieties of the unchurched, no safe and fun children’s ministry for their kids, would you still know how to tell your neighbors about Jesus?

The answer to that question reveals a lot about whether or not we should be operating in a way that removes personal responsibility for the Great Commission.

THE PERSONAL BURDEN TO MAKE DISCIPLES

Only when Christians wake each day with a burden to make disciples in their particular context—only when that is their primary calling and way they view the purpose of their life—does the church function the way it was intended. Only when Christians gauge their effectiveness based on their own fruit instead of their pastor’s does the gospel multiply.

Otherwise, the Church gets bogged down arguing about strategy and philosophy of ministry and all the things that keep it from focusing on Jesus’ last words (Matt. 28:18-20).

When Jesus came back from the dead, he called together the small band of people who followed him. His intimate circle included eleven men. At most he had 120 followers. It was to this small group that Jesus handed responsibility for completing his mission by making disciples just like he did.

True disciples have been made in this same way ever since: by a group of believers each investing in the people around them, giving them the best news they’ve ever received, and teaching them to follow Jesus.

Grayson Pope is a husband and father of three, as well the Managing Web Editor at GCD. He serves as Pastor of Community at his church in Charlotte, NC and has earneda MACS at The Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. Grayson’s passion is to equip believers for every day discipleship to Jesus. For more of his writing check out his website, or follow him on Twitter.

The Word for the World

The following is an excerpt from our newest release, That Word Above All Earthly Powers. You can pick up the book in Kindle or paperback format.

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In the film, Ghost in the Shell, the central character has an entirely upgraded body, complete with cloaking abilities and enhanced strength. Her brain, however, is intact, salvaged from her mangled body, just before she died.

Haunted by memories that don’t square with what she’s been told about her past, she lives between a distant humanity and a very real cybernetic present. She struggles to grasp who she is while concluding, “We cling to memories as if they define us, but what we do defines us.”

DO ACTIONS MATTER MOST?

In an age of activism and protest, it’s easy to think that words don’t really matter. It’s what we do that counts. But when we speak, we actually act. In marriage vows, the words of the bride and groom move them from friend to spouse. Words can make a vow, bring someone back from the brink of suicide, and inflict pain that lingers for decades.

Words are active and powerful.

This is why James warns that the tongue is like a tiny rudder which turns an entire ship, and can set the whole world on fire. The right words from our president could trigger a nuclear war, and the words, “I love you” spoken from a sincere heart can change the course of your life. If human words are that powerful, it stands to reason that God’s words are all the more vital.

So where do we find God’s words? In the Bible.

THE SPEECH OF GOD

The Bible is God’s personal speech to us. Over and over again the Scriptures record, “Thus said the Lord” or “The word of the Lord came to…” When you hear someone’s voice in another room, you can tell who it is without even seeing them. Why? Because their speech is uniquely personal; it reveals them and not somebody else. Similarly, God’s words are uniquely personal; they reveal him. The Bible is God speaking, in space and time, to us.

Now what is particularly unique about God’s voice is that it comes through other voices. Male voices, female voices, voices of all kinds of experiences, ethnicities, cultures and in three different languages. His word is modulated through speakers. But just because it is modulated through people doesn’t mean it originated with people, “For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21). So while the Bible is true to people’s experience, it isn’t dictated by experience; it is dictated, in a sense, by God’s Spirit. The authors of Scripture spoke from God, not themselves, as God exhaled his revelation through their unique personalities (2 Timothy 3:16). But, for some, this idea seems like a stretch.

If we rule out this possibility, that God can speak to humanity through his Spirit and his Word, then we’re left with two problems. First, we’re saying if there is a God he is incapable of communicating with us. But if he is God, shouldn’t he be free to communicate however he wants?

Second, if we approach Scripture with the assumption God can’t speak through people to reveal himself, and that the Bible can’t be trusted, we’re judging his voice before we’ve even heard it. We’re saying, without having heard his voice, what his voice is like—not the voice of Scripture. This would be like making up our mind that Morgan Freeman’s voice is not his voice without ever having heard it.

This places us over Freeman, assaulting his uniqueness, predetermining what he can and cannot sound like, when in reality his speech is just that—his speech. We cannot change what is. God speaks, and it is precisely because he possesses this attribute—speech—that we speak. We are cut from the cloth of a communicating God.

As Tom Wolfe points out, “Speech, and only speech gives man the power to ask questions about his own life—and take his own life. No animal ever commits suicide.” Indeed, speech allows us to explore these questions even now. It follows, then, that if God has chosen the Scriptures to communicate with us, and his words are the origin of all, shouldn’t we lean in to learn the sound of his voice?

THE SOUND OF JESUS

What, then, does his voice sound like? It sounds like Jesus.

The word of God is not only his capacity to speak, a divine attribute, but it is also a person, the Word, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). Jesus is the Word.

As history unfolds, the use of prophets taper off and the person of Christ takes their place, “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son” (Hebrews 1:1). Christ is the Word, the speech of God whom the Spirit bears witness to. But what does he witness Jesus doing?

Jesus did not just stand on a mountain, like a heavenly attraction, for people to visit and marvel at. The Word taught, using words. And when Jesus was on trial for all his words, words that upset the status quo, that questioned what people thought, Pilate asked Jesus if he was the king of the world.

Jesus replied, “For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth” (John 19:37). The truth, not a truth. We can’t overwrite his words here. Jesus says his purpose was to bear witness to the truth, the truth concerning his cosmic royalty and redemption. We don’t have to like his words, but that would be a silly reason to reject them. Do we truly think God will always agree with us, take our side, and support our every thought? Who then would be the real God?

Jesus taught that he was the Messiah of God come to rescue sinners who repent and trust in him for salvation. But the Word did more than teach; he enacted his teaching. He gave lessons that previewed his actions. Jesus did not pit word against deed. The Word stood up for the truth, and it cost him his life. He threw himself in front of the oncoming eighteen-wheeler of God’s holy wrath to deliver us from sin, death, and hell.

His blood still speaks . . . and his body rose from the dead.

THE WORD FOR THE WORLD

Walking on the road to Emmaus, the resurrected Word taught once again. He joined his journeying disciples, but they didn’t have a clue who he was. It wasn’t enough for the grieving disciples to see Jesus. They needed to hear his voice—for the Word to reveal himself, “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:27). He explained how it was necessary he suffer these things and then enter into glory. We’re told their hearts burned within them and their eyes were opened to the Word, and then he vanished.

The Bible is the Word of God, and the Word of God is the centerpiece of the Bible. The Word is God’s speech, and God’s speech is the Word. Scripture is God’s revelation, and it reveals, supremely, the person and work of Christ for the world. How can this be? John Frame explains, “There is no contradiction between thinking of the word as a divine attribute and thinking of the Word as the name of the eternal Son of God. Fatherhood is a divine attribute, but Father is also the name of the first person of the Trinity.”

Therefore, we can say that the Word points to the Word. The Law, the Psalms, the Prophets, every epoch of history points forward to Christ. They show us the need for a just ruler and a humble sufferer. A king who can lead us out of this mess, and a savior who can take our place. In this way, the Word is for the world.

The Bible is a collection of memories meant to inscribe us into redemptive history, eternally defining us in a way our actions never could, sons and daughters of a flawless Father, citizens of the cosmic King. But when we fail to return to these inspired, performative, transforming stories—the true story of the world—we fill in our own stories with lesser words.

WHEN WORDS ARE ENOUGH

When we wake up and peruse the news headlines, or spend our morning scrolling a social media feed, we replace the redemptive memories of the world with ephemeral chatter and fleeting headlines. If this process repeats, we will find ourselves at a distance from God and overcome by the brokenness of the world. Enough with the words. The controversy and chaos are simply too great.

This leaves us with two decisions, spiral into despair, reaching for a pint of distraction to wash it down. Or take up redemption ourselves, subtly believing it is what we do that the defines us and the world. If we choose the latter, every injustice necessarily becomes something we must right. We become savior and judge. Those who fail to join our crusades suffer our scorn. When in fact, we will be dead in a matter of time.

But those who saturate their hearts and minds with the speech of God, and behold day by day the Word of Christ, will respond with the very character of Christ, the Word become humble flesh. We will act out of the redemptive memory of a Savior who suffers and rises to make all things new. We will reject the dichotomy between thinking and doing, reading and acting, and allow the Word of Christ to dwell in us richly, so much so that we respond in all kinds of unexpected ways—service and silence, witness and study.

Far from ghosts in a shell, we are embodied souls shaped by the Word. We speak and we act because the Bible is personal speech of a crucified God—the Word for the World. But only in Christ do we find the perfect balance, a person whose actions do not speak louder than words, and words do not speak louder than actions; instead, they speak in concert, emitting the sound of redemption and forgiveness for all who will take them in. The Word that is enough.

The Bible is God’s speech to us, and we have it in our hands, but will we give it to the world?

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Jonathan K. Dodson (M.Div, Th.M) is the founding pastor of City Life Church in Austin, TX which he started with his wife, Robie, and a small group of people. They have three children. He is also the founder of GCDiscipleship.com and author of a number of books including Gospel-Centered Discipleship, and Here in Spirit: Knowing the Spirit who Creates, Sustains, and Transforms All Things (IVP, 2018).