Christianity - Jeremiah's Vow

Lent 2023 | Day 7: The Gospel’s Clarity

The particular genius of the Gospel is that is focuses on the singular issue that keep us separated from God.

The Gospel’s Clarity is Intentional

The particular genius of the Gospel is that it focuses on the singular issue that keeps us separated from God. Because of this characteristic, today’s theme becomes even more significant.

The Gospel’s clarity is founded on the fact that God is not trying to resolve every issue we have before our relationship with Him is restored. The gradual, but steady, process of transformation is already a part of the plan. Too often, and for too many people, there is a “pre-righteousness” mindset. It’s the idea that we have to “fix” ourselves before we come to God. We have to become holy and clean, and then we come.

This is not only wrong, but it is also the exact opposite of what God has designed in the Gospel. When the Gospel is declared, and we understand how terrible the problem of sin actually is, we must make a decision. Will we accept the offer of redemption or will we not?

The offer of salvation offered in and through the Gospel is clear. Jesus died for the sins of the whole world. In his death, the repeated sacrifices of animals in the temple were completely abolished. What’s more, the quality and scope of Jesus’s sacrifice are both sufficient and efficient to save all who trust in him. And it doesn’t matter when they trust in him. God will apply the promise of salvation to all who believe.

The Gospel’s Clarity Leads to Sanctification

The Gospel’s clarity is what makes it effective. When we complicate it, when we try to help it along, when we miss the essential point of it we make it harder for people to know what they are being asked to do.

What makes the Gospel particularly beautiful is that it is so clear, we think we have missed something. There are many who think there must be more to what God is asking of us. Those who wonder about this would not be wrong about the question. They would just be asking it at the wrong time.

Sanctification is the word describing the process of becoming more like Jesus. This process is initiated at the moment of salvation. It does not precede it. This is a big part of the problem. When we fall into the trap of thinking that we have to fix ourselves before we come, we are essentially saying that sanctification has to happen before redemption.

To fully appreciate the Gospel’s clarity we should consider that it is clear enough for a child to understand. A child can understand the reality of sin. Yes, it is at a child’s level. But this doesn’t diminish their ability to grasp what is being asked of them.

A child knows when they have been disobedient. A child knows when they have fallen short of their parent’s desires and expectations. A child knows when they have offended their parents. And when the parent corrects their errors, instructs them in proper conduct, and extends to them grace and mercy, those same children can understand that too.

Once I began to appreciate this aspect of the Gospel, I was overwhelmed by a sense of peace. The Gospel is not complicated. The Gospel is not intended or designed to be complicated. And because of its clarity, the Gospel can have the effect God intended in my mind and heart.

Lent 2023 Series

Can we still ask questions when revival comes?

I want to start by unequivocally stating that I am for how God started to and continues to move at Asbury during a chapel service last Wednesday.

College was a crucial time in my own spiritual story. And so I’m always happy to see college students experience the same thing.

I’ve also seen many others going to join in on what’s happening in Asbury in order to experience it. And I’m excited to see how it has rejuvenated their faith in real ways.

Overall, I’m always thankful when I see people having genuine encounters with the God who wants to be their friend. And this instance is no different.

But that’s also why I want to share how I’m processing a crossroads of emotions when it comes to naming something a “revival,” the Gen Z as a “chosen generation” insinuations I’ve been seeing, and what in recent years has been inconsistent support (or lack thereof) for various expressions of “revival.”

Why?

Because I’m concerned we can find ourselves blinded in these revivalistic situations to the wholeness of what God is doing.

We can find ourselves unwilling to address potential blindness that has been around for a while within contexts we are most familiar with.

We can unintentionally put our hopes in something God does instead of who God is and who He wants us to be.

I’ve spoken to others feeling similar ways but who are nervous about voicing it for fear of coming across as “against” how God is working.

We don’t have these feelings because we don’t long to see God move, or haven’t seen Him move in our own lives and ministry settings – time and time again.

Those I’ve spoken to are not against the movements of God. We are for them. We’ve been a part of them. Most of us still are. Just not in the same box we once used to think God’s movements happened in.

We just have questions about what I’ve been calling spiritual dissonance that seems to exist in the midst of what is happening (and has existed for some time now).

I’ve been defining spiritual dissonance as an inconsistency in behavior, attitude and/or thoughts concerning someone’s (or a group’s) expressed faith statements and what really gets experienced by those around them.

And I actually think if we will deal with the dissonance – instead of ignoring it all out of the fear of offending someone – a revival might genuinely spread farther than it has in a long time.

Don’t think I’m posting these things lightly or hastily. It’s taken me a week to unpack the reasons I’m struggling, and here’s what I’ve talked with Jesus about so far…

FIRST

I am unsure why we need to label something “revival” so quickly.

Merely 3 hours into the continuous worship service at Asbury we were already seeing this language. Similar worship services are popping up elsewhere and people are immediately calling them “revival.”

Why do we “need” God to be at work in this specific way or measure up to our expectations of such words?

That’s a real point of wrestling for me.

What God is doing is not what I’m questioning. I’m asking why we need it to be “something” instead of just being present to and describing what is happening.

Especially when we mix social media into it, the lines blur between attention grabbing and sharing what’s going on. Definitely once we escalate the language to using words like “revival” and “awakening.” Those are loaded words.

This has been a problem for a long time in the recent American church culture. The use of words that hype things instead of just describe them.

It’s a weird dissonance since we believe in a God who doesn’t need to be hyped.

I’ll be honest, it comes across as us needing God “to move” more than us just needing God alone.

I’ve seen this across the spectrum of denomination and theological preference. This deep need for God to be “at work” as opposed to just allowing God to “be.”

Revival involves a heightened awareness of God’s presence.

Can’t we just be present to that heightened awareness of Him, instead of needing to name it something so quickly?

SECOND

I’m not sure the things I’ve already seen being spoken over this generation are helpful for them nor actually helpful for spreading “revival.”

I am (in generational terms) an elder millennial.

My generation was spoken over by our spiritual fathers and mothers as if we were a “chosen generation” to bring revival so many times I can’t count.

Remember, we are the WWJD and True Love Waits “purity ring” generation told to be like Jesus in every area of our life.

We are the the Passion Conference’s 268 generation fulfilling the promise of God to raise up a new generation of Christian leaders to change the world.

We are the World Changers, World Race, Charity:Water, TOMS generation (and on I could go listing numerous organizations) that come out of the “change the world” complex we were handed.

We are a generation that popularized youth worship bands and attended packed out youth group conferences across the nation.

We are a generation that has ushered in the era of worship concerts and worship bands becoming chart topping recording artists.

And we are now a generation that is in widespread deconstruction of many of these things.

Being a part of a generation who has experienced all this is why the “Gen Z as a chosen generation” insinuations reveal such a dissonance.

Are we just going to repeat the mistakes with this generation that were made with my generation?

Are things being spoken over them that could lead to the same disillusionment it has for so many in my generation?

Instead, couldn’t we just give them the space to, at their own pace, embrace the work of God in their lives and in the world thru them?

Without it needing to “lead” to something like “revival.”

Can’t we just encourage them and be present to what is happening and not what we desire something to become?

THIRD

Probably the largest reason for my mixed emotions deals with a cultural bias that I can no longer look past in the church world.

Actually, it’s the blindness of not being able to see a major cultural bias that continues to be present in many quarters of Christ’s body.

One example of it relates to what happened just a couple years ago when revivals were breaking out on the streets. In the midst of the protests and pain of racial injustice, we were seeing worship services, salvations, baptisms, miracles. The reports of what was happening were amazing!

But I didn’t see my social media feeds blow up with the same excitement about those moves of God in the same way it is with the current one. Instead I saw skepticism and cynicism.

I didn’t see many of these same church leaders and people flocking to those revivals like they’re flocking to this one. Instead I saw discouraging remarks or at best distant platitudes offered.

I have many thoughts on why, but I’ll only share just a few.

It’s easy to support a “revival” when it fits into the box of the cultural expectations we have as to how “revival” should come.

Of where we’ve been taught God should be moving.

Of whom we’re used to expecting to see God at work among.

Of historically who we’ve become accustomed to “revivals” as starting with.

Of politically who we’ve been influenced to believe are the real Christians who must have the Holy Spirit.

I’ll be blunt: this current “revival” fits the right box for majority white American church culture.

It started at a majority white Christian college, in their chapel, expressed thru an ongoing time of worship and personal confession and scripture reading and such.

It fits. Its comfortable. It’s normative.

But because it’s firmly planted within a specific set of cultural expectations, it’s also disconnected from how God has been at work among His people who do not see those specific cultural settings as normative.

There are other “moves of God” and “revivals” that have been happening across various church circles, that don’t check this same cultural box, all over the country for a while now.

Many in those circles have been experiencing such movements for decades even.

Maybe you haven’t seen or heard about them because they don’t fit in the box that would get the approval or attention of majority culture.

Maybe they just happened in places that didn’t get the same coverage as this one is getting.

But they’ve been just as real. And just as “revivalistic.”

Spontaneous prayer vigils going for days.

Worship services that last however long they need to.

Miracles.

Salvations.

Testimonies.

Confessions.

Altars flooded.

The Spirit moving.

Some of these things are even normative in church cultures that the majority white church culture has struggled to fully embrace.

And yet when they happen in these cultural contexts that aren’t normative to majority church culture – the same support, acknowledgement, social media frenzy, and flocking to be a part doesn’t seem to follow.

This reveals a blindness.

A blindness along the lines of cultural preference. It’s a cultural bias. And we can say it’s cultural because it’s not cultivating a unified community.

It’s a bias that has kept us siloed and consistently isolated from others who are also members of the one body of Christ.

If we’re honest, this blindness is not about whether something is a “revival” or not – but rather whether God is moving in the way and among the people I’m comfortable with or not.

SO WHAT NOW?

I will continue to struggle with all 3 of these areas of spiritual dissonance, while also praying for a continued experience of God’s presence in what is happening. Not just at Asbury, but all over the Church.

I won’t let any of these feeling keep me from continuing to pray that what is happening would spread.

It’s not an either-or for me.

But it is an acknowledgment of the reality of these things.

And of the crossroads of my own life experiences, cross-cultural relationships, and ministry contexts.

I am not against what is happening.

I am not skeptical of it.

It’s genuine.

And I am for it.

But I also just can’t act like these other things aren’t still very real at the exact same time.

Or else I wouldn’t be true to what the Spirit of God has been “reviving” in my own relationship with Him and His people for decades now.

See, I was a part of a church that experienced a year and a half long revival when I was a teenager. You’ve never heard of it, just as most of us never hear of most of these things.

And then just last month I spent a weekend leading a retreat with Gen Z teenage guys where we saw the Spirit move in powerful and humble ways, just as we’re seeing at these colleges.

I’ve experience a number of “revival” moments throughout my life. That sort of movement of God is a part of my lived experience.

So my struggle is not with the work of God happening right now in peoples lives. It is with the dissonance that seems to continue to remain unaddressed in many of these settings.

My goal is not negativity. But it is honesty.

I don’t know what God’s plans are.

I hope it’s to spread “revival” across all our lives. Across all our churches. Across our nation and our world.

If I didn’t want that, I wouldn’t be a part of an international prayer movement seeking that very thing.

So, seek “revival.”

Go to Asbury or expect it right where you are.

But also be cautious about the expectations you place on God and others concerning such things. And make sure to look for it even when it doesn’t fit into your expected cultural box.

God is with us. He has always been.

In the “revivals” we’ve experienced.

In the ones we’ve overlooked.

And in the everyday ways that never get called “revival.”

My plan is to stay true to the path He’s got me on and pray for those on the path He’s got them on.

And hopefully all of our paths will cross, and all of our dissonance will be resolved, into a beautiful unity that leads to widespread revival.

May it be so, Lord.

May it be so.

A Reflection on the Irony of Methodist Denominations and the Kingdom of God

I fell in love with the work of God in and thru the Moravians in my “Church Since The Reformation” church history class in Seminary.

I know that may sound weird. But the Moravians captivated me.

To the point that I forced my wife to go with me to Winston Salem, NC to go see the first Moravian community that formed in the United States.

The struggle and imperfection of the people.

The difficulty of living in close community with one another.

The devotion to prayer (almost 100 years of 24-7 prayer) and confession.

The dedication to taking the Gospel to the whole world (before it was easy – they’d literally send family members off on boats to unknown places only to never see them again).

Hardly any of us in today’s world commit ourselves to anything like these people committed themselves to one another and to God, if we’re honest.

Then, shortly after Seminary, I fell in love with the Wesleys and the Methodist movement in the same way.

Of course, I had learned about them in that same class. But there was something about the practicality of working in a church that created the context for the principles of the Methodist movement to come alive for me.

The desire for all people to hear the Gospel – not just “preach” in a church gathering.

The intentionality of grouping people together to care for one another’s souls.

The balance of relational structures with Spirit-led movement.

Just like the Moravians, it took my breath away. How God was at work in and through people in such normal and yet powerful ways.

And these movements captured me because the Spirit who is in me resonated with the same Spirit in those people. The same Spirit that has always been ushering in the kingdom of God.

Thru the elders and craftsmen of Israel.

Thru the prophets and poets of the Old Testament.

Thru the disciples and apostles of the New Testament.

Thru the priesthood of all believers of the Church today.

The love I felt that drew me toward these movements was the very love of God for His people, actually for all people that He wants to come to know His love.

And this is why, after “swimming in the Methodist waters” for the last nearly decade, I’ve grown even more confused by the “denominationalization” of the kingdom of God.

Yes I just made up a word.

And this isn’t just true of Methodists. I have friends in so many denominations that started as kingdom movements and yet now, let’s just be honest, aren’t.

So we must ask ourselves: Why are denominations consistently the place that kingdom movements go to die or become dormant?

And then secondly, and potentially more importantly, if thats true, then: Why do we keep creating the same things expecting different results?

So many Christian leaders continue to say they want to be a part of something like these kingdom movements that happened outside and alongside the established religious structures of their day, but then attempt to do the work of kingdom movement within the structures that have consistently not allowed for kingdom movement. And then are confused when it doesn’t work.

It’s either ironic or insane. I can’t decide which anymore.

It’s what I did for nearly half of my life. I kept holding out hope for “renewal” or “revitalization” or “reformation.”

But over the last 7 years or so I’ve been asking myself: Is that really how resurrection happens though?

So for the last several years I’ve made it pretty clear that I think God is doing something he’s done before, if people are willing to follow Him into it.

Something He did in Acts.

Something He did in the Monastics.

Something He did in the Moravians and the Methodists and other modern kingdom movements.

He’s calling entire communities of people into renewed relationship with Him and one another.

Not for the “purpose” of revival or awakening. Just simply for the purpose of His love.

Not with a “plan” of creating the next big thing or fast-moving, multiplication model. Just simply with a plan to devote themselves to one another and to Him.

Prayer and presence will mark these communities.

Hospitality and hope will be their commitment.

Sacrificial love and sustainable life rhythms will become their pious work.

Hidden acts of service and homes filled with God’s presence will permeate all they do.

The thing that unites them won’t be organizational, nor performative, nor attractional, nor visionary.

It will be incarnation.

Real life with one another, with God.

They will work and play full of the Spirit.

They will raise kids and grandkids and other’s kids together in the faith.

They will work thru conflict and practice forgiveness as a means of grace.

They will listen and give generously and celebrate God’s creation.

They will be a kingdom movement. Whether they have a name or logo or website or building or bylaws is irrelevant. It will barely cross their mind if at all.

Because they will have one another.

And they will have God’s presence.

And after all, isn’t that what this whole Advent of the kingdom we just celebrated is all about anyways?

God with us.

God among us.

God experienced through our relationships with one another in the midst of our every day life.

That’s incarnation.

That’s a kingdom movement.

It’s simply beautiful.

And it captivates the depth of my very soul.

An open letter to “church experts” trying to lead the conversation on people “leaving”

Another good title would be: Why leaving a ministry job might be saving their souls, and why you should stop talking about them.

[If you haven’t read the pontifications of church “experts” about why people are leaving ministry jobs, then you can if you’d like. There are so many opinions on the stats out there and I’ve grown tired of reading them (just Google about Barna stats and “the Great Resignation”).]

To the Church Experts,

I am saddened by how you are talking about people leaving ministry jobs (or thinking about leaving).

It reveals a great deal of ignorance.

It also displays a great deal of insecurity.

One of the main evidences of these things is that the way you talk is simply a guilt trip clothed in Biblical language or “Christianeze.”

STOP SPEAKING BEFORE LISTENING

There are 3 main things I wish you would take time to explore by listening to those “leaving” before speaking any further about them:

1. Most are becoming ministers in a new way. They are not “leaving” ministry.

Framing what’s happening as “leaving ministry” reveals an unfortunate ignorance of what ministry is, who is expected to be in ministry, and where the locus of ministry takes place.

That people say phrases like this in general is lamentable enough.

But then that you would apply them to someone who is leaving a job working for a ministry is detrimental.

When you do this, you have just communicated to others that “real ministry” is only what happens when those who are in leadership and/or work for the ministry are doing it.

And that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Too often I’ve seen you talk out of both sides of your mouth when it comes to this topic. You tell people to find their place in ministry generally, but then create a special category for those who are especially “qualified.”

As long as someone is following Jesus and living, they’re in ministry. It is just a question as to who they are in ministry to and with.

It’s a weird dynamic when “church experts” misunderstand, or simply contradict, their own teaching that everyone is a minister and we just have different roles within this thing called ministry.

A believer doesn’t leave ministry. They simply change contexts and roles.

For those who have left ministry jobs behind, they have not “left ministry.” And for you to say so as a supposed church expert only further reveals the ignorance that exists about what ministry is and who is “in ministry” among God’s people today.

2. Most are allowing their calling to be integrated into the rest of their lives. They are not “abandoning” a calling.

This is one point of contention that I am very passionate about.

There are two main issues I have with how people have been taught to understand calling (and they’re related): 1) too many people confuse their calling with their identity, and 2) too many never integrate their calling with the rest of their lives.

It’s ironic that these two issues seem divergent and yet are not in the least.

Your calling is not who you are.

Who you are is foundational. Your calling builds upon that.

And if you haven’t dealt with that, then your calling becomes the tail wagging the dog. And it creates all sorts of confusion and pain.

It also typically means you’ve separated out your calling from the rest of your life.

A whole person who starts with the foundation of who they are being the most important thing to God, is then fully capable of understanding their calling as an integrated part of their life.

People aren’t “called to ministry” as separate from “called to their family.” These aren’t competing values for someone who correctly understands and lives into what God is calling them to. They are one and the same.

And so, just like the last point, when understood correctly, someone is not actually abandoning a calling. They might stop living out that calling in a certain way. But the calling isn’t gone.

They may have misunderstood it, confused it with their identity, or separated it out from their entire life. But they haven’t abandoned it.

The pain caused by how you “church experts” are misspeaking about the concept of calling is causing trauma upon trauma upon trauma in most people’s lives who are leaving a ministry job.

When you tell them they have abandoned their calling, it only retraumatizes them or causes them new trauma to the already difficult circumstances of changing careers.

The pain that’s being caused by your words when you actually think you’re helping is heartbreaking.

3. Most are courageously following Jesus by doing what they’ve challenged others to do for years: to live out their faith in a non-Christian workplace and community.

The absolute craziest part of the confusion you’re causing as “church experts” in this conversation is the fact that when someone leaves a ministry job and becomes a person following Jesus out in the workforce, they become the very thing you continually give lip service to being the most important thing a Christian can be: a missionary.

The person leaving a ministry job is simply following to its logical conclusion the single most important theological belief we hold to as Christians: incarnation.

They are locating themselves, with all the skills they’ve developed to care for people (pastor), to convey truths in relevant ways (teacher), to walk with someone thru coming to know Jesus (evangelist), to speak in love the mysteries of God (prophet), and to do it among people who may never come to know God unless someone goes to where they are (apostle).

They’re literally embodying out in the world the entirety of the gifts God has given to the Church by making the very decision you are now critiquing them for making.

This is not only confusing to the person going thru it [who feels like they’re actually doing what the Gospel compels them to do like every other Christian in the world], but it is also confusing to every other Christian who has been told to live as a missionary out in the world yet are watching the person leaving a ministry job being shamed for becoming a missionary.

The way you “church experts” have spoken about those leaving (or thinking about leaving) has created such a convoluted context for this conversation that it’s nearly impossible to even have it anymore.

It’s angering if I’m honest.

I have sympathy for you as you’re trying to do your best to wrestle with something you were wrongly taught, but unfortunately you are now becoming the one wrongly teaching it.

STOP KICKING THEM WHILE THEY ARE DOWN

All of this doesn’t even get into the emotional and spiritual damage that’s being done to people “on their way out.”

You “church experts” consistently lament how difficult it is to be in ministry, how ministry leaders get wrongly critiqued by others, and how people need to support ministry leaders during these difficult times…

But then you turn around and kick them while they’re down…and that shouldn’t be lost on anyone.

It’s “church-culture acceptable” spiritual abuse honestly. And I won’t refrain from calling it that.

I’ve been the recipient of it. And I will not remain silent on behalf of those who have made such a difficult decision to only be abused in the process.

STOP DE-PERSONALIZING WHAT IS HAPPENING

I’m in ongoing conversations with at least a dozen people who have left ministry jobs over the last 2 years. Each of them have left for varying reasons. To lump them all together as a statistic would be to miss what is actually happening in this moment in the Church in America.

Each story of those I speak with are as uniquely beautiful and complicatedly gut-wrenching as the next.

And you’ve missed the whole point of the Gospel if you don’t treat them as such.

If instead you just lob your opinion out there as a grenade, with no awareness of the damage you’re doing, then you are no church expert to begin with. And why people are giving you a platform as if you are one is beyond my comprehension.

The church should not simply be an organization that provides a severance package on the way out.

It should be a family that says “we will see you at the next reunion.”

This depersonalizing of people’s stories of why they are leaving ministry jobs is disheartening. And for those of you perpetuating these kinds of conversations, I beg you to stop.

You are not being Christ in their lives in this moment.

You are instead being a Pharisee that is heaping burdens upon them.

[Side note: most of what I’ve said in this blog post could also be applied to how too many established church pastors are talking about church members who have “left.” The guilt trips laced with Biblical language. The spiritual abuse of kicking them while they’re down. I’ve seen all of it the last couple years and it’s sickening.]

And for those who are reading this who have left or are considering leaving a ministry job, here’s a prayer I offer you during such a difficult season:

Be kind to Your little children, Lord; that is what we ask of You as their Tutor, You the Father, Israel’s guide; Son, yes, but Father as well. Grant that by doing what You told us to do, we may achieve a faithful likeness to the Image and, as far as is possible for us, may find in You a good God and a lenient Judge.

May we all live in the peace that comes from You. May we journey towards Your city, sailing through the waters of sin untouched by the waves, borne tranquilly along by the Holy Spirit, Your Wisdom beyond all telling. Night and day until the last day of all, may our praises give You thanks, our thanksgiving praise You: You who alone are both Father and Son, Son and Father, the Son who is our Tutor and our Teacher, together with the Holy Spirit.

– St Clement of Alexandria, 150–215 AD

I am angry with my fellow Christians today

If you believe that what happened in Uvalde, Texas, was an act of evil, this post is for you.

If you are tired of the way our world is becoming more divided and divisive, this post is for you.

If you consider yourself a Christian and to be redeemed by the blood of Christ, this is post is for you especially.

I am angry.

I am angry at Christians on the “right” who get defensive when tragedies involving “our rights” happen.

I am angry at Christians on the “left” who use tragedies to throw accusations at those who disagree with them about those rights.

I’m angry at Christians in the middle who throw their hands up and claim there is nothing that can be done because the world is “full of sin.”

Every single one of us is guilty of using events like this to promote ungodly and unholy agendas. Either through an intentional act or by passive disengagement. And you know how I know, because the gospel is only a byline to the tragedy.

The comfort God supplies is used as just a platitude we throw out there to sound spiritual. And that right before we launch into “what we really want to say.”

I am so angry.

I’m angry because we keep talking like the world. Thinking like the world. Engaging with each other about the social ills we face like the world.

We have placated the world, accommodated the world, compromised with the world, and even prostituted ourselves to the world.

And for what?! To be liked? To be accepted? To make the Gospel more palatable and the Church more respectable? To be allowed access to what the world has defined as success or affirmation?

Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!

This approach by the Church to engaging the world has been proven a failure. And we look like fools for continuing to use these approaches.

These strategies and methods are not working because they are not biblical. They cannot produce the transformation the human soul needs. And they are incongruent with the character of God.

And for those wondering what I mean when I say “the world”, let me tell you what I mean. It is the way of living that seeks its own way and pleasure rather than the way of obedience to God in Christ. It is a way of looking at life that is defined by selfishness, “winning”, and self-righteousness.

It is marked by posturing and virtue signaling and the pretense of looking like Jesus, being near to Jesus, but never actually embracing the life of Jesus. Never fully appreciating that anonymity is closer to the goal, and not some bug to the outworking of holiness in our lives.

We keep talking about God but haven’t truly spent any real time with him.

We keep preaching about the gospel but haven’t really been convicted to the point of contrition and transformed by it to such a degree we mourn our former ways of life.

We keep calling people to repent of sin but are walking around with logs in our eyes the size of redwoods.

We talk about what needs to change and cry out for revival in our nation while at the same time holding onto the millstones that have been drowning us in the oceans of sin and worldliness.

And then, when tragedy after tragedy happens, we become as shrill and incoherent as the supposed pundits who are “looking out” for us.

This vacillating makes us idolatrous. Not wise. Not shrewd. Not contextual. Not culturally sensitive.

It makes us hypocrites. And charlatans.

There are too many claiming to be emissaries of Jesus who have become prophets in the service of false gods. Who function more like priests in the temples of the same rather than a royal priesthood in the kingdom of God.

When evil like we have seen in the last couple of weeks, and years, rears its head, the church should be the first to show the world how to mourn with those who are mourning. To weep for the innocence lost and the hopes fractured by the wickedness of broken people.

When the world sees the members of the body of Christ engaging in the same finger-pointing as the rest of the world, we have become the salt that has lost its saltiness. We have moved from abdicating our moral authority to participating in the moral corruption of the world.

The people of God should be the first to call out the evil, especially from those on “our side.” Or did we think those around us don’t notice our duplicity?

Do we actually think we can give them a pass because they are like “us?” Because they are on the “right side” of history (and it always seems to be “our side”). We should not only be ashamed of behaving like this, we should be revolted. We should be disgusted with not just our cowardice but in too many cases our complicity.

And just so we are all clear, I’ve had it with political Christianity. The kind of Christianity that uses faith as an excuse for politicizing and justifying anything and everything they think is right.

I’m done.

I hate it with every fiber of my being.

When our primary framework as Christians is political in nature, we have become more secular than holy. We have surrendered the moral ground and ceded it to the enemy of our souls.

What is happening around us may look like physical warfare, but it’s not. This is a spiritual war. This is why using the methods of the world will fail us over and over again. And yes, spiritual warfare often has catastrophic physical consequences. But not recognizing what is happening around and behind the visible tragedy is a terribly short-sighted understanding of what is happening.

The political approach is a failed endeavor for the Church. And those who continue to use it will become victims of their own self-deception.

The reason I hate the political methodology is because it is a lie. It is based on the same premise that sent the human race into the fall—that we can know good and evil and live. No, we cannot. That is the principal lesson of the Garden. With knowledge comes responsibility. And with that responsibility accountability.

For the Church, the political arena is the fountainhead of death in our world. And it tricks us into thinking we are making a difference. It seduces us with promises of being “agents of change” or “making a difference”. Welcome to the failures of the Maccabean revolution and the betrayal of Judas.

If our worldview is framed by the political ideas of the world we cannot be a Christian who properly reflects the character of God. But if we are trying to be Christians whose understanding of the word is constrained by the revelation of God, then we must reject the use of politicized language, rhetoric, and accusations outright. We must work harder to be charitable with those we disagree with. Not less.

And don’t confuse what I’ve just said with being engaged in the civic process. We can be good citizens without becoming ideologues. And to think it can’t be done is to misunderstand the very power of the Gospel. It’s to accept the notion that engaging in the civic process requires a conversion from Christianity. Or at minimum a compromising of our faith.

It has become clear to me that in the eyes and minds of too many, both inside and outside the Church, there is no tangible difference between the world and the people of God. And that is not the world’s fault. That’s on us as the Church.

We are the ones bringing disrepute to the name of Christ. We are the ones smudging the spotless dress of Christ’s bride with the filth of this world. We are the ones scandalizing the world by creating confusion and fomenting apostasy through our inconsistent witness. That’s an “us” problem.

To all the Christians talking about ____ today… WE are the problem.

When we don’t love our neighbors because we don’t know them… we are the problem.

When we don’t forgive those who have wronged us because they deserve what’s coming to them… we are the problem.

When we don’t turn the other cheek or go the extra mile because that is a violation of my rights… we are the problem.

When we wax more eloquent on political talking points than the gospel of life…. We are the problem.

When we moralize tragedies for political advantage and excuse wickedness out of fear… we are the problem.

When we stand in judgment over each other as self-appointment executioners of God’s holiness… we are the problem.

When we think we know what’s wrong with the world and have “the” solution… we are the problem.

When we allow our emotions to be enflamed by those who neither know God nor are led by God… we are the problem.

When we abandon the Truth for the next and newest cultural phenomenon… we are the problem.

We can continue to get disappointed at a world ruled by sin and wickedness. Or we can do what we were saved to do.

The tools, definitions, rhetoric, and mechanisms of the world will not address or solve what is wrong in the world. Every time we think they will, every time we substitute what God gave us for what some other fallen person has invented we will fail. And we will continue to fail until we surrender our wills and our wisdom to God.

Lent 2022 Series

In this season we are looking to bring into clearer focus the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ as it was incarnated in Jesus as he died on the cross and was raised from the dead on the third day.

Tomorrow we begin the season in the Christian calendar called Lent. The season of Lent is a time of contemplation and preparation. It is a time when we refrain from indulging in certain things for the sake of our souls.

It is not that continuing with the normal rhythm of life is bad or wrong. It’s just that in this season we are looking to bring into clearer focus the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ as it was incarnated in Jesus as he died on the cross and was raised from the dead on the third day.

In the season of Lent, we contemplate the reality of sin and the impact it has on our lives in our journey of faith. We take the time to look back at where we have been and to look forward to where we are going. This time of reflection and contemplation serves to prepare us for what we will be celebrating on Resurrection Sunday morning.

Lent is also a time of preparation. This means we are looking forward to the fulfilled hope of Christ’s resurrection. The regular rhythm of the liturgical calendar provides us with a framework that helps us to remember how the promises of God have been fulfilled throughout the passage of time. This continual call to preparation will persist until Christ returns. We need to be reminded that until we see the fulfillment of our redemption when we have finally entered into God’s eternal rest, we must not lose sight or lose heart along the way.

The journey of the Christian faith should be a steady and persistent walk with God. What this means for us on a daily basis is that in spite of the challenges we might encounter we can trust in God’s goodness toward us.

And so we enter the season of Lent. Readying ourselves to celebrate the great gift of salvation and the resurrection of Christ. But also recognizing that in order to properly appreciate this gift of grace we must put our hearts in a proper posture to receive.

I invite you to read the reflections and devotions over the next several weeks. Meditate on the ideas discussed. Pause when led to do it. Pray a little more than you may feel comfortable. Read Scripture seeking to hear rather than to be informed. In these small and simple practices, we cultivate the kind of faith that endures difficult times.

For many of us taking the time to consider where God has brought us can be challenging. But it is worth the effort and I invite you to join this journey towards Easter morning as we contemplate various ideas over the next few weeks.

Series Page

According To Your Word

Where will you be when God reveals to you what you are here for? What will you say? Will you be ready to say anything at all?

³⁰Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. ³¹And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS. ³²He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. ³³And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.”
³⁴Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?”
³⁵And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. ³⁶Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren. ³⁷For with God nothing will be impossible.”
³⁸Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.
Luke 1:30-38 NKJV

Where will you be when God reveals to you what you are here for? What will you say? Will you be ready to say anything at all?

I think Mary’s experience is typical of many people who seek to do God’s will but are not waiting for God to speak. We pray, we plead, and we seek to know what God is going to do with us and yet we are stunned when he speaks. If we believe God speaks, we should not be so surprised when he actually does.

Where were you when he spoke the first time? Or are you still waiting?

I find that most people have become jaded with the notion that God is going to use us to do his will. We say it, but we don’t believe it anymore. We are sitting in our homes, offices, cars, and maybe in our churches and we want to believe. We want it to be true for us.

We see it in others and we desire to be an instrument of his will. His perfect will for us, but the notion that it will ever come to pass has become nothing but a dream for the foolish, the wishful thinking of the immature dreamer.

We have become “realistic” about God’s will for our lives. But we have actually done is given up on God we have lost a sense of expectation that God will speak. In a way, we have become disappointed with God. We wonder if we can trust him at all.

What at one time was a deep passion has become bitter and stagnant. It is a lingering resentment at God.

We don’t tell anybody, we don’t want anyone else to know the truth of it. We want to be God’s servant, but instead, we have become hatred’s slaves. What else could it be? We are festering inside wishing that we could know what God is going to do with us. But all we hear is that painful silence.

Where were you? Were you in the pit of some confusion? In the midst of circumstances beyond your control?

Or did you find yourself broken and bruised hiding in the shadows of a church despising God and trying your best to be rid of him, or maybe that was just me. But he just would not let me go.

Or was it that I just could not afford to let him go and so I recanted. I repented and found myself at the feet of Jesus.

There are so many names that the scriptures ascribe to the Messiah, but the one that really touches my heart is the one that the prophet gave to him—Immanuel, God with us. The eternal God chose to come down and enter time and to be one of us.

God in his eternal power and magnificence poured himself into the frail and limited body of a man? And for what? To take that which he created out for a test run? No. He came to understand us and to provide a way back to the Father. But how was this to be done? How was God going to make it here to this earth? He would come as all other men had come. He came as a baby. And like every babe born to men, there was the need for a mother.

I love Christmas because it is a continual reminder of that fact, the truth, that God came to dwell among us. He came to show us what it really means to be human beings.

Where will you be when God comes through the door of your heart and asks for a favor? The angel came into Mary and said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one…”

Rejoice? Are we the kind of people that when God comes he commends us for the way that we have lived our lives? Will God be able to say of us that we are blessed because of the righteousness and faithfulness that is present in our hearts? Because I have to believe that God would not have picked just anybody to be the mother of His Son.

I know that there are some within the Christian faith that elevates Mary much further than is necessary, but I have to concede that Mary was not just anybody. Of all the women, in all the world, through all of history, God chose her. That makes her special. That makes her unique. And even though no one else will ever have that opportunity extended to them again, we should strive to be the kind of people that God would trust His son with.

But in a way he has. Any man or woman who has believed in faith has taken a similar step, as Mary did. By saying yes to Jesus we are accepting the responsibility to care for Jesus. We have accepted the responsibility to love him and share our lives with him. We are in a way like Mary carrying him with us because he lives in us and through us. With each passing day, with each opportunity to share our witness and testimony we give him life in a world that is lost and in need of him.

There is Mary finishing the chores of the day, thinking of the wedding that is only months away now, when all of a sudden an angel comes bearing strange news. “You are going to have a son and you will call Him Jesus.”

Where will you be?

Mary was minding her own business and all of a sudden she must make a choice. There was no time to think about it. There is no time to make him wait. Mary is stunned and asks the only question that comes to her mind, “How can I have a son when I am still a virgin.” The angel answers that there is nothing that God can’t do. And the most remarkable thing happens, that response is sufficient for Mary and she makes her own faith-filled statement, “Behold, the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.”

Where will you be when your faith is required of you? What will you do? How will you respond? The Christmas story is more than just the miracle of the incarnation. The Christmas story is a miracle of faith. It is a story of a young lady, struggling to make sense of life and marriage and without asking for it is chosen to bring the son of God into this world. Faith, whenever it is expressed, is a miracle because faith is the audacity to say, “According to your word.”

“According to your word” is the kind of faith that can move mountains.

“According to your word” is the kind of faith that can make kings come crashing to their knees.

“According to your word” is the kind of faith that touches the heart of God.

Let me tell you something, “according to your word” is the kind of faith that Mary taught to Jesus as he toddled around the house so that when Jesus stayed in the temple the teachers marveled at him. When Mary and Joseph came back to get him, Jesus responded that he was about his father’s business. We see a shadow of Mary’s faith in the Garden of Gethsemane when Jesus says to the father, “not my will, but thine be done.” Yes, he was a man, a man with a mama that taught him about faith. A man who understood that in order to live a life that is pleasing to God He must live “according to your word.”

Christmas is such a wonderful time of year. Enjoy the lights and the family. Enjoy the gifts and the tree. Enjoy the festive nature of the year, but let us not forget the babe. Let us not forget that the joy we have comes and stays when our lives are lived “according to [His] word.”

Some people in this world may be frustrated with God because he has not said anything to them and they are waiting. Could it be that we have not said what God is waiting to hear? Where will you be when God sends his angel? I’ll be waiting. May you have a Merry Christmas.

Originally Delivered: December 19, 2004. It has been edited and expanded.

Why is our evangelism broken?

A friend posted the following question on Facebook. I wanted to respond, but I did not want to blow up the thread. So, I decided to take some time to think about the question and respond more fully (mainly for my sake).

On to the question.

Should our focus lean more towards training church members to invite someone to church so they can hear the gospel or on training them to share the gospel without a church invite in mind?

Let me make a couple of observations right at the beginning.

I believe framing of the question is all wrong, but I understand (at least I think I do) why it is asked this way.
The problem the Church has to address is its insistence on defining/describing the church as a location.

I want to unpack my two observations a little more fully. This is an important issue and one that we have to work harder at addressing in the Church.

First, I believe the question is all wrong.

Why? Because it poses a question that God, Jesus, the Bible, the apostles, church history will NEVER be able to answer. And the reason the question won’t be answered is that it doesn’t actually identify a problem the aforementioned saw as an issue. The idea of inviting people to go to a location to receive information has been completely foreign to the life of the church.

The notion of “thought leaders,” “content matter experts,” “influencers” and gurus is a modern innovation. This is not the way that people generally looked for answers to their questions. Life was the great teacher. And the people you did life with were the primary source of learning and growing.

To go a little deeper here, the Church does not have a focus, it has a mission. Christians don’t do training, we engage in discipleship. We don’t invite people to church, we receive them into the body. The church is not the place to hear the Gospel, ~~it’s where believers receive instruction for Gospel mission~~ it’s when believers assemble to receive instruction for Gospel mission. Until we straighten out how we are thinking and talking about these issues, we will continue to have issues.

Second, we have to stop talking about the Church as a place. Period.

The Church is everywhere. And, there may be expressions of that one Church in local congregations. And, those congregations may meet in a variety of locations. But there is still and always will be one Church. No matter how messed up the people who make her up.

This is something I’m actually working on myself. I don’t want to invite people to church. I want to invite them to visit our fellowship, or to come and enjoy our community, or attend our gathering. Anything that makes the invitation about the people present.

We have to move away from using the concepts of marketing and branding as the lens through which we interpret the Church’s identity and purpose. These are tools. Tools that we should redeem. But when the tools become the means by which we understand who and what we are, it may be time to check our hearts!

Satisfied with God

As a Christian, my greatest joy and deepest satisfaction is found in God, and God alone.

Introduction

The culture in which we live tells us that we should have whatever we want.¹ As a matter of fact, if we are unable to get what we want then some injustice has been perpetrated against us. As a Christian, I have to fight against the weight of this temptation. It has become so pervasive in our culture that we have begun exporting it around the world. The craziness is that there is a secular and a religious version of this message. As an American, we call it the American Dream. As a Christian, it takes the form of “name it and claim it” theology. In either form, it is harmful to the human soul and detrimental to our societies and local communities. Continue reading “Satisfied with God”

Book Review | The Complete Guide to Bible Translations: How They Were Developed – Understanding Their Differences – Finding the Right One for You

One of the most helpful and concise guides for understanding Bible translation.

The Complete Guide to Bible Translations: How They Were Developed – Understanding Their Differences – Finding the Right One for You by Ron Rhodes
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

If you are looking for a helpful, easy to read introduction to the background of the most popular Bible translations, this is the book for you. I will definitely be referring back to this volume.

The Good
The major issues surrounding Bible translation are covered in this book (translation philosophy, textual basis of each translation covered, gender-neutral language issues). The historyical context that caused each translation to be undertaken is provided. And, several benefits and cautions are provided for each translation.

The Bad
There is not much to complain about in this book. The author offers his own opinions, but they are measured and brief.

View all my reviews