Victor Scott - Jeremiah's Vow

Lent 2018 | Day #6: Purpose

Our purpose is not about what will satisfy our desire for recognition. I think that we have to let go of the world’s definition of purpose.

One of the most common questions people ask me is, “What’s is God’s will for my life?” I am not sure why people think I can answer this question. I am also looking for the answer to this question! And, I don’t feel particularly qualified to answer it even if I wanted to try.

There may be as many reasons to ask this question as there are people in the world. But, if we dig a little deeper, I think that everyone who asks this question wants to know if there is a greater purpose to life here on earth. When we talk about purpose we are wanting life to make sense. That there is something meaningful to our existence. That we are not just floating around, bouncing off each other (or the walls) aimlessly.

I don’t know how many people make this connection, but they should. The search for purpose is good and important. However, what tends to happen during the search is it is colored by the desires or wishes we are offered by the world. If this purpose we are searching for does not make us wealthy or famous, if it does not give us greater influence or, at the very least, more talented, then is it really a purpose worth having? And there is the danger.

Our purpose is not about what will satisfy our desire for recognition. I think that we have to let go of the world’s definition of purpose. The world is mosaic being composed by God. And it is God who sees the greater picture he is working together. Our place in the work of art is unique and ordinary at the same time. We are valuable for what we contribute, but we are also not better than every other piece God chooses. For many, this is not satisfying. It feels like a letdown, but why do we feel this way? Could it be because we have our own ideas of what will make us happy?

The farther we move away from what God is leading and prompting us to do, the greater our discontent. But, the closer we draw to God, the clearer we see what God is trying to do in us and through us. So, don’t jump to the second part without accepting the first. God wants to do something in us first. Then, and only then, can what he wants to do through us become possible. Until our hearts are right, we will fight God for credit for stuff that God is doing. Just look at what Paul said to the Ephesian church.

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10)

The works that we are going to do were prepared by God beforehand. That means that our living into and accomplishing our purpose begins with listening. Listening to God and asking him what work he has prepared for us to do. When I think about this I have to ask myself, “Why do I find myself wondering if the work God has prepared will be a drudgery?” Do I honestly believe that God will give me something to do that will be a drain on my life and soul?

We should trust God’s judgment. He has a purpose and a part of that purpose is helping us find our place inside of it.

Lent 2018 | Day #5: Peace

I desire to have more peace, to grow in peace, to experience higher levels of peace. But, all of this can only happen by drawing closer to Jesus. There is no other way.

If there is a subject that is difficult to discuss it has to be spiritual peace. How do we get? What causes it to go away? Is there anything we can do to make it last?

I am sure that there are more questions that have been asked. I know I have asked them too. In spite of the difficulty in talking about peace, there is one key reality that gives me comfort. And it is this, there is someone who not only understands it, to be with him is to have the very peace of God in you, surrounding you, and sustaining you.

One of my favorite descriptions of Jesus is that he is the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6). Now I know that Peace is not a country, a physical place. But for the sake of this conversation what if it was? What if when the Bible described Jesus as the Prince “of” Peace that it meant it like some earthly royal is the king of this place or the queen of the other place. What if peace were a place and not just something that we experienced within us?

I like this idea. I know that this is not the primary way, or even the best way, of interpreting what this phrase means. However, it is something that I have wondered about on several occasions. While Peace is not a place on the map, Jesus is a very real person. And to be with him is to be where peace is because he is the embodiment of this quality of being.

I desire to have more peace, to grow in peace, to experience higher levels of peace. But, all of this can only happen by drawing closer to Jesus. There is no other way.

As we continue to contemplate God’s love in Jesus, we should give thanks that God sent peace to reign in our lives because of Jesus. To have Jesus is to know true and everlasting peace.

I know that many have seen the image below on shirts or bumper stickers, but it is still true even if has become cliched in the minds of some.

Lent 2018 | Day #4: Joy

When we are denying ourselves something, it is difficult to see any reason to be joyful.

During the season of Lent, it is common practice to forgo something as a sacrificial act. And, along with the privation of this item you are supposed to add a time of intentional reflection on a spiritual reality or truth. While at the beginning that can be easy to do, as the weeks go by, it becomes increasingly challenging. I remember a friend giving up coffee one year. Let’s just say they were not a happy camper for about a week, at least until their body adjusted to not getting that caffeine.

When we are denying ourselves something, it is difficult to see any reason to be joyful. How could we? We are denying ourselves something that we enjoy. What is interesting is that it reveals something important about what “joy” is and how we maintain an attitude defined by this idea.

Joy is something we must choose to maintain. What I mean is this, if our denial of something thing we enjoy affects how we feel, then what we feel is not properly called joy, it is happiness. Joy is what we have when we can focus our attention on what is good and right and noble. Joy is what we have when we commit to holding onto those things we know to be true, rather than the circumstances we find ourselves in. How we think about joy has to change if we are going to experience what Jesus modeled for us. That is what we should be trying to do. Let’s look at a couple of interesting verses in Hebrews 12.

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

The part that really stands out and the part I want us to notice is there in verse 2. The writer of Hebrews says that for the “joy set before him,” Jesus “endured the cross.” Just think about that for a minute. Jesus was able to endure the current circumstances because he was able to think about something that was far more joy-inducing than the cross was pain-inducing. It is simply staggering to me what that could be. But whatever it could be it was worth the cost of the cross!

As we continue contemplating this journey of faith, it is important to consider if we have something that inspires such joy that we can endure the various and many trials of this life. We all need something to hold onto and if it is not found in God we may very well find ourselves disappointed when what we are holding onto crumbles through our fingertips.

Lent 2018 | First Sunday of Lent: “Reckless Love” by Cory Asbury

A lyrical reflection on the love of God.

Lent 2018 | Day #3: Preparation

It does not matter what you will ever do in life, the better you prepare the more effective you will be at the task. This reality could not be truer of the Christian life.

It does not matter what you will ever do in life, the better you prepare the more effective you will be at the task. This reality could not be truer of the Christian life. In every facet of our walk with Jesus, we ought to seek out and engage in a continual process of preparation. To be more to the point, we should always be growing in our understanding of the things of God. We should seek to be challenged and stretched in every area of our lives.

Now, I am not saying that this will be easy. I’m not even saying that we will like it! We might. But that is not a guarantee. Nor is it something that we should be overly concerned about. The process of preparation forces us to anticipate what may be coming down the road or just waiting for us as we continue forward by faith.

Anticipation of what is to come is not an easy skill to hone. The truth is that for many of us, it will come through failure rather than “getting it right” from the start. But, that is the normal course of life. We try doing something new and we fall on our faces. This does not diminish us, it only serves as an opportunity for development, if we accept it as one.

As we end these first few days of Lent, I hope that you will journey with me as we see to better understand the impact and import of Jesus life, death, and resurrection. These Reflections Toward Easter will help us to briefly ponder the majesty of God’s Gospel as it is embodied in Jesus. We should not be afraid of preparation. We should grow to love the process and joyfully endure it. That sounds bad, but it really is not. Engaging in the process may produce fruit in your life you never believed possible.

Lent 2018 | Day #2: Surrender

The reason we lay down our lives is because any effort we make to preserve our own lives, under our own strength, by means of our own wisdom is futile and bound for failure.

Surrender is not a word that many of us like. If we are the ones who must make this decision we often feel weak, demeaned, or belittled. To surrender implies, in the minds of some (maybe many), that we were not strong enough to win. This may be the reason that for many Christians the call to surrender our lives and wills to God can be so jarring. Why so many fight against the call God has made to bend our knew to Jesus, our King.

This conceptualization of surrender is not the biblical understanding of the term or the idea. Jesus, who is our model for this concept, shows us that surrender can be a demonstration of immense strength. Jesus told his disciples that he chose to surrender his life for the sheep God the Father has entrusted into his care. Those sheep are every person who has come to Jesus and believed that he is the promised Messiah.

¹⁴I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, ¹⁵just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. ¹⁶And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. ¹⁷For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. ¹⁸No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.” (John 8:14-18)

Jesus is able to save because he has the power and the authority to both lay down his life and take it up. And, while we are not Jesus in this same exact sense—that we cannot take up our own lives—we can lay them down. And the reason we lay down our lives is because any effort we make to preserve our own lives, under our own strength, by means of our own wisdom is futile and bound for failure. Listen to Jesus’s call to those who give the cares of this world greater priority than surrender to him.

³⁸And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. ³⁹Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. (Matthew 10:38-39)

John Gill, the great Bible expositor of the 18th century makes the following remarks about the implications of Jesus call to lose our lives for him.

He that findeth his life shall lose it,…. That man that seeks to preserve his life, and the temporal enjoyments of it, by a sinful compliance with his friends and the world, and by a denial of Christ, or non-confession of him; if he is not, by the providence of God, deprived of the good things of life, and dies a shameful death, both which are sometimes the case of such persons; yet he is sure to lose the happy and eternal life of his soul and body, in the world to come: so that the present finding of life, or the possession of it, on such sinful terms, will in the issue prove an infinite and irreparable loss unto him. On the other hand, Christ observes,

he that loseth his life for my sake, shall find it. That man that is willing to forego the present advantages of life, to suffer reproach and persecution, and lay down his life cheerfully for the sake of Christ and his Gospel, for the profession of his name, rather than drop, deny, conceal, or neglect any truth and ordinance of his, shall find his soul possessed of eternal life, as soon as separated from his body; and shall find his corporal life again, in the resurrection morn, to great advantage; and shall live with Christ in soul and body, in the utmost happiness, to all eternity.[Source].

As we continue in this time of reflection and anticipation of the celebration of Jesus’s resurrection, how are we practicing surrender? Are we cheerful in doing it? Or do we begrudge God this requirement of the crucified life?

Lent 2018 | Day #1: Self-Denial

When we know how loved we are by God we should make every effort to love others.

The season of Lent is a time where we are called to look at the totality of our Christian journey. The reason for this inspection is to better appreciate the glorious reality of the Gospel AND to better understand the implications of that same Gospel.

If we claim to have experienced the new birth, then we must not shy away from this process. To engage in introspection is to challenge ourselves to stoke the fire of faithfulness. We are not merely to be the beneficiaries of God’s goodness. We are to be the distributors of the same mercy that we have received. In many ways, this is the simplest and clearest way of demonstrating that we value God’s grace. If the Gospel of Jesus is good news to us, then it should also be good news to others.

It can be difficult to see this connection, but the truth is that we all find ourselves on the same sinking ship. We all are in need of saving from the same situation—our sin. Therefore, to recognize the predicament that we are in is to see the need that everyone we encounter has. My need and their need are the same. We may describe it differently or talk about it differently, but it is the same. We are all on the brink of eternal disaster.

This is why I feel that on this first day of Lent we should look at self-denial. We cannot share with others the message of hope if we are hindered by fear, doubt, or pride. In truth, it does not matter the reason. We have to value the reality of redemption in Christ, we have to esteem it greater than any and every obstacle we can conjure up. We must deny ourselves, not because we have some sort of self-esteem problem. No, we must deny ourselves because the very nature of sacrificial love should call us to care for our neighbors with the same love God has demonstrated in Jesus.

It is in this sense that we are called to love our neighbors as ourselves. When we know how loved we are by God we should make every effort to love others similarly, however imperfectly we end up doing it.

Lent 2018 | Ash Wednesday

With each passing day, the reality that every person who walks this earth needs Jesus grows.

It has been a while since I have posted anything. Life has been chugging along and work has been busy. However, as we begin another time of preparation heading toward Easter Sunday, I felt compelled to write.

With each passing day, the reality that every person who walks this earth needs Jesus grows. The reason I feel this weight is because of how much I know that I need him. The struggles of this life are too many to be able to handle them on our own. Even when we do not travel life’s road alone, we instinctively know that our fellow travelers are in the same situation we are. Just because we are not going through the same thing at the same time does not mean that we are not all subject to it.

Time, this unrelenting hound that chases after each of us, never gets tired. We can hear its charge every day, with some days being louder and more persistent than others. But, it is there keep a steady pace.

This in the end is what makes Ash Wednesday such an important day. It is a reminder that no matter what we do we all must face our eventual demise. The question we must ask ourselves will we die alone, or will we die with Christ. The latter is to be preferred.

I remember my time serving with United Methodist Church where I learned to appreciate this simple truth. Various words were used as the ashes were imposed upon my forehead by my pastor. They would say: “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return,” and “Repent, and believe the Gospel.”

This is a powerful reminder. I hope that you remember that we will not live in this world forever, therefore, repent, and believe the Gospel. That is not merely a message for the lost, it is also the message of the redeemed. The former hear it and are put on the path of the life. The latter are given a chance to remember that life could have been different, but God who is rich in mercy has provided a sacrifice, Jesus the Christ, a propitiation for our sins. Amen!

The Pastor’s Greatest Enemy

It was one of the most pronounced encounters with the Holy Spirit of my life because I knew that I had crossed a line in my relationship with God.

I have shared this story in a couple of places, but I will share it again here for those who may not be familiar with it. It is the best example I have of what can happen to those of us called to vocational ministry if we are not watchful over our lives. I actually give thanks to God for his grace in teaching me through the events you will read below about how wrong my thinking was with regard to my place in God’s great plan.

I was 19 years old and had accepted the position as Interim Pastor of a small, country church. I want to say from the outset that this was a wonderful church filled with some of the finest folks I have ever known. This is not a story about them exactly even though God used the intersection of our paths to teach me an important lesson.

My responsibilities were to preach on Sunday morning and evening and to teach a Wednesday night bible study. At the time I was trying to figure out what I should be doing because I knew God had called me into full-time ministry. At the campus ministry where I was involved, I saw an advertisement had been posted for someone to come and preach. After some “encouragement” (a story for another day) I called and made plans to go and preach. For the next three weeks, I was asked to return and preach the following week. After the fourth week, I told the members (all 7 of them) that I would continue to preach until they were able to find someone to take over the position full-time. I was still in school and did not feel that I should take on the church.

Everything was going wonderfully (or so I thought). After several months I was growing frustrated because I felt that my talents were being wasted in this small, country church. I decided to vent to my dad as I was driving home one Wednesday night. I can’t remember if I actually said these words, but they capture the sentiment from which I was speaking. To summarize, I was essentially telling my dad, “I am too good for this place.”

Even now as I write those words it is shocking how pretentious and arrogant they are. But that is how I was feeling at the ripe old age of 20. My dad reminded me that I wouldn’t be there forever; that God was using that small church to help teach me some things about preaching and ministry. I don’t remember everything he said, but I do remember not being entirely satisfied with his words.

A few days later it was Sunday again. The service was going as normal. We typically sang a song before the message and this morning a song I had never heard before was chosen. It is called “Little Is Much If God Is In It” by Kittle L. Suffield.

Here is a rendition of that song by The Gaither Vocal Band.

They do a much better version of the song than I heard that day. However, I can tell you, as God is my witness, I will never forget how the Holy Spirit used that moment and that song to absolutely take a wrecking ball to my pride.

In particular, the second verse brought on me such a heavy weight of conviction after the things I had said and thought in the days prior, that I began to weep. I lost all control. It was one of the most pronounced encounters with the Holy Spirit of my life because I knew that I had crossed a line in my relationship with God. I could not deny it and I accepted the burden of my shame. I had not only been disobedient, I had become rebellious against God’s purposes in my life.

The second verse goes like this:

Does the place you’re called to labor
Seem so small and little known?
It is great if God is in it,
And He’ll not forget His own.

Refrain:
Little is much when God is in it!
Labor not for wealth or fame;
There’s a crown, and you can win it,
If you go in Jesus’ name.

After that day, I made a promise to God. I told God that I would NEVER hold back in my preaching or shy away from any opportunity to share the Gospel. I promised to never look at the numbers and determine how good I was going to preaching. If all I was called to preach to were 7 (as was the case in that small church), I would preach with everything within me. And if it was to 700 or 7,000, I would preach with the same energy and passion. I have not gone back on my promise.

If you are a pastor or called to some form of vocational ministry, you have a great enemy. But, that enemy does not exist “out there.” That enemy is that small voice that keeps telling you that some task is beneath you. It is that feeling that you are too good for some assignment or that you are too talented to listen to someone of lesser ability. That is not the posture of a servant of God.

Your calling is a gift to you. God did not have to call you, but he did. But your calling is also a gift to those to whom you are sent. When you accept an assignment you are there to take what God has placed within you and share it with others.

That is why when we hold back we are doing harm to both them and us. We harm those we serve because we deny them the best we can offer. And, we harm ourselves because we grieve God with our disobedience, causing a rift in our relationship with him.

I want to encourage you to not give ground or to give in to this enemy. Never forget that where you are is where you are supposed to be. God is at work if we are available to work alongside.

I’ll say this as final thought. It’s something my dad says frequently: “I want to be so available to God that he has no choice but to use me.” That has become a helpful reminder to me.

How about you? How available are you to God?

Confessions of a Functional Deist

Sometimes we assume too much about how far we have traveled down the road of spiritual maturity.

Sometimes we assume too much about how far we have traveled down the road of spiritual maturity. We assume that we have gone farther than we actually have. We talk with too much confidence about what we know; pretend at having more insight than we actually possess; greater wisdom than we have actually attained. I know that has been a part of my story. I have learned a few lessons along the way, but I try and remind myself that if I am not careful I can slip back into bad patterns of living.
Continue reading “Confessions of a Functional Deist”