Sacrifice - Jeremiah's Vow

Lent 2022 | 5th Sunday in Lent: Celebrate!

Every Sunday in Lent is a time of celebration. And in our journey through this season of Lent, we have been focusing our attention on God’s grace. Today we celebrate the volume of God’s grace. By volume, I mean the sheer amount of it as God has given it to us.

Several weeks ago while serving on a spiritual retreat for youth, I was reminded of the fact that God has withheld none of his grace from us. We may experience God’s grace in different ways because of where we are on our journey with God. It could be a result of our immaturity or lack of discernment keeping us from fully appreciating God’s grace. But God is not stingy with us regarding his grace.

I’m always surprised by the way many people think of God’s grace. God has never withheld from his people anything he has promised. This may seem odd to think about but it is no less true. In particular, when God gave his grace withheld none of it from us. What makes this statement difficult for many is that we do not always feel it or even know how God’s grace is at work in our lives. That topic alone would take far longer than we have room for in this devotional. But I would like to offer a thought as to why we should reconsider any thought that leads us to think God has kept back any of his grace from us.

When I think about God’s grace the first place I look to understand the nature, scope, and volume of it is at the cross of Calvary. On the cross we see the wrath of God poured out upon Jesus for the redemption of the whole world. In that encounter and through Jesus’s death a great exchange takes place. The wrath of God is satisfied by the sacrifice of the Son and the righteousness of Christ is extended to all who surrender in trust and faith to him. It is in this exchange of wrath for righteousness that God’s grace is manifested.

Jesus’s sacrifice is not only offered once but it is offered completely. Never to be repeated because it was perfectly satisfying the requirements of redemption. It is in these particular and unique qualities of that moment that we must assess the volume of God’s grace. In light of Jesus’s sacrifice, as a sacrifice for the sins of the world, we must consider God’s grace as being at least equally as effective as Jesus’s sacrifice. To think any less is to make a mockery of the entire thing.

We can rejoice in God’s grace because there is no sin that escaped Christ’s offering of his life. That means that regardless of where we find ourselves on life’s road God’s grace is there waiting for us. Because Jesus’s sacrifice can never again be repeated God’s grace will forever be available to all who trust in his Son.

What a glorious thing to consider, that God’s grace can never run out for Christ’s sacrifice can never be diminished. These two realities exist in a perfect relationship and in perfect proportion to each other. And it’s not until we understand this and accept it that we will find clarity and peace about the volume of God’s grace.

Let us rejoice today in the volume of God’s grace. It is immeasurable. It is indescribable. It is undefeatable. And it is every beautiful superlative we could ascribe to it. Thanks be to God!

Give Us Ears To Hear Ep. 4 – Toxic Relationships

In this conversation we are talking about the cultural phrase “toxic relationships.” It’s something that we hear used and something maybe you have used – but have we thought about what it actually applies to and what it doesn’t? If you’d like to continue the conversation, leave a comment or send a message. I would love to hear from you!

My hope is not to condemn people in how they’ve used the phrase. But to simply reorient ourselves to how we can take seriously the unhealthy things in our life while at the same time looking to live like Jesus. Check out the video:

Give Us Ears To Hear Ep. 4 - Toxic Relationships

Lent 2019 | Day 14: The Sacrifice of Obedience

To live out our faith each and every day is an act of obedience…

After the events of Sept. 11, 2001, there were innumerable acts of heroism, as first responders and average citizens mustered their collective wills to find a way forward. The sheer acts of selfless service and courage it took to see through the wreckage and loss of life to see a future that was more hopeful than hateful and gave those of us looking on from thousands of miles away a glimpse of what could be after the tragedy.

Hours after the smoking towers fell, we began to hear stories of brave souls climbing the stairs in search of those who may have been trapped. They risked life and limb in the hopes of bringing another soul to safety. For many, it would be their last act of obedience in this world. I imagine that many wondered if they would make it out as they climbed. And yet they climbed.

One of the stories I remember most vividly was from (if memory serves me) a retired Battalion Chief of the NY Fire Department. He gave an interview to a magazine where he shared about the commitment of the brave men and women of the department to serve their city and each other. He offered a quotation of a famous Fire Chief named Edward F. Croker. He paraphrased the lines in the interview, but I was able to find what I believe to be a fuller accounting, I offer it here in full.

“Firemen are going to get killed. When they join the department they face that fact. When a man becomes a fireman his greatest act of bravery has been accomplished. What he does after that is all in the line of work. They were not thinking of getting killed when they went where death lurked. They went there to put the fire out, and got killed. Firefighters do not regard themselves as heroes because they do what the business requires.” – Edward Croker, February 1908 (emphasis added) [Source]

The highlighted portion is what I remember from the Battalion Chief. There was something about it that spoke to me given the severity and burden of the task after 9/11. But in this sentiment, I find a corollary idea in the Christian journey.

As Christians, the only sacrifice we make is to forsake our own lives for the cause of Christ. The apostle Paul said, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20 ESV). This is the full extent of what it means to deny ourselves and take up our crosses and following Jesus (Matthew 16:24).

To live out our faith each and every day is an act of obedience because the sacrifice has already taken place when we said “yes” to Jesus. Everything else we do because we recognize and accept it as being “in the line of work.”

Lent 2019 | Day 13: The Simplicity of Obedience

Obedience is simple, but it is rarely easy.

I want to make sure that I make this distinction right from the beginning. To say something is simple does not mean it is easy. Obedience is simple, but it is rarely easy.

As we have seen over the last couple of days, the call and difficulty of obedience are related to the problem we have to submit to what we have been told to do by God. The more we seek to know and do God’s will, the greater our chance of confronting the greatest obstacle of our faith: We do not want to do things God’s way. We wonder quietly (and sometimes openly) if God really wanted to he could make it easier for us to obey.

Let me answer this simply: NO! God will not make it easier.

Obedience will always be a challenge because it will always ask us to actions that challenge our comfort. I don’t know why we want to make obedience to God easy. It is not easy. It’s not supposed to be because God is working to remove the vestiges of sin from our lives. That means that until all God sees is Christ in us, there is a continued need for obedience.

The miracle is that God has not left us powerless. When Jesus ascended into heaven, he promised to send another. One who would be both our comforter and our source of strength. When I say this I mean two specific things. First, the Holy Spirit comforts us not in our sinning. No, the Spirit of God comforts us by reminding us that in spite of our sin, we have been forgiven; that in spite of our tendency toward failure, Christ’s success on the cross cannot be revoked or rescinded.

Second, the Holy Spirit is our strength. What I mean by this is that we are not going to win the battle for obedience against sin in our own ability. It is divine enablement that makes the life of a born-again believer of Jesus possible to live until we see Jesus face-to-face. The Holy Spirit pokes and prods our conscience, letting us know we are moving away from God’s will and purpose. When we heed this prompting we are drawn away from danger and reset on our journey.

Obedience is hard, but not because God has made it hard. It is hard because we make it hard. When we fail to obey, it is not an indictment on God, but on us. We have failed to obey because we found something of lesser value than God more worthy of our time and efforts.

Obedience is simple. We just want to make it complicated. And this is what makes it hard.

Lent 2018 | Day #30: Service

As followers of Christ, we are the beneficiaries of Christ service to us.

Our service to our neighbor is one of the greatest testimonies of the Gospel’s power to transform. Service does not come easily to me, and I would imagine that is true for a lot of others. It’s not that I don’t want to serve. There are two big reasons I struggle in this area. First, I trend toward laziness. I like to just have my space. Second, I don’t feel qualified to do too many things.

For some others, the struggles may manifest themselves in different ways. But, since I know where the fight is for me I have to be more diligent it confronting these two tendencies. I have to push back against them because service is a vital component to the mission of the Church. And, I have to do my part in helping the Church extend her reach into the world and, more specifically, the community God has planted me.

We all must take the time and assess why we fail to serve as we should. As followers of Christ, we are the beneficiaries of Christ service to us. Jesus taught and exemplified a life of service. Everything he did was in service to God and to us. Jesus’s death on the cross was an act of service. We could not die for our own sin, so Jesus died for us.

This is the key to genuine Christian service, we do for others what they cannot do for themselves. And this is especially true when we have it within our power to do it.

I pray that we will seek to increase our sacrificial service in this season of Lent.

Lent 2018 | Day #17: Sacrifice

What did God value in humanity to set into motion the sacrifice of Jesus upon the cross?

You never know what you are willing to give until you are faced with having to make the decision. Our willingness to sacrifice cannot be understood in a vacuum. We are willing to sacrifice when the reason for doing it is tied to something we value more than what we are being asked to give.

When we bring this reality to our conversations about the Gospel we are confronted with some interesting questions. The most obvious of which is this: What did God value in humanity to set into motion the sacrifice of Jesus upon the cross? I know there are some who would balk at this question. I will admit that it makes me uncomfortable as well. But, we have to wrestle with the implications of the fact that Jesus died for the redemption of a fallen humanity. He made this choice willingly. He was not forced to die. He chose to allow sinners to crucify him on the cross.

As Christians, our lives are to be patterned, as best as we can, to the example of Jesus. We have so much left to learn about what it means to sacrifice like Jesus. But, we have to see his sacrifice and we have to do our best to understand it if we are ever going to embody it in our own lives.

Jesus sacrificed his very life for us. He died so that we might have life, and that more abundantly. And the reason he did it was not just so he could be called a savior, or for God to simply avoid the accusation of being unjust. The sacrifice of Jesus on the cross was also an expression of what he valued in us, the image bearers of God. As tarnished by sin as we were, there was still a vestige of that perfect image resident within us. There was still something of value in us. But this value was borrowed from God, it was not inherent in us.

The season of Lent should cause us to reflect on the nature of God’s love toward us. His love infuses us with value. Sin has robbed us of any value we had before the fall. But God, who is rich in mercy has restored that value by covering us with the righteousness of Christ. This is a wondrous thing. We should not take it for granted.

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.

Are We “Pro-Jesus” or With Jesus?

Our pastor has been preaching a series of sermons on the difference between being a fan and a follower of Jesus. This Sunday we looked at the difference between having a knowledge of Jesus and have an intimate relationship with Jesus. While you need to have a knowledge of Jesus in order to have an intimate relationship, you can have knowledge of Jesus and completely miss the intimacy. The Scripture reference was the story of the Sinful Woman that came and washed Jesus feet with her tears and hair. This is a powerful story. (Read it here.)

As Pastor David preached he said something that was funny at first glance, but after I gave it more thought really made me think. Am I “Pro-Jesus” or am I with Jesus? I will be splitting the proverbial hair here, but it just struck me odd after thinking about it. It can be so easy to be satisfied with being around Jesus, being near Jesus, being close to Jesus that we never push forward to being with Jesus. The idea is that we can be in the same room, but never engage in the conversation.

I don’t want to just be someone who is known for liking what Jesus stood for. Or knowing everything there is to know about Jesus. I want to be known by him. This is the idea that Paul is getting after when he says that there will come a moment when all of this will change.

¹² Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely. (1 Corinthians 13:12, NLT)

There it is. God’s way of knowing will becoming my way of knowing. That is going to be a glorious day. When we are “Pro-Jesus” we are only interested in the exterior. How does this look? What do other people think? This was the problem with the man who invited Jesus to have a meal with him. He invited Jesus, failed to pay customary courtesy and then becomes indignant when another, the sinful woman, outshines the host, even when it was completely inappropriate. Simon the Pharisee missed out on the greatest opportunity of his life, and for what? He missed it because he was looking at the wrong person.

The sin of religious piety and of false humility will always lead to a skewed perspective of how things ought to be. As soon as the woman came in and began to worship Jesus, because that is what we have to call it, the “holiest” man in the room had this thought, “If this man [Jesus] were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner” (Luke 7: 39b, ESV). And, as if on cue, Jesus answers the mans thoughts and puts him in his place.

The bottom line is that we should never be satisfied with being mere acquaintances with Jesus. We should be willing to go the ends of the earth for Jesus. Even if, or better still, especially when it costs us our dignity and self-respect. The sad reality is that for many of us who claim to be Christians, if Jesus asks us to give up our dignity and self-respect, we would rather have him move along until he comes to his senses.

We can know how deeply our commitment is rooted when we consider how far we are willing to go to show our devotion and faithfulness to God and his Son. Until we know how far we will go, we will not truly know or understand how valuable Jesus is in our lives.

http://youtu.be/FBNfkZKnsaw

What is the Gospel? (Pt. 13) – “Obedience is Greater than Sacrifice”

This is part of the series “What is the Gospel?”

Jesus’ final admonition to the disciples has been called the Great Commission. Matthew records it this way for us: “¹⁹Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” [Matthew 28:19-20 NIV]. Jesus said in another place, “And you are my friends, if you obey me” [John 15:14 CEV]. The idea of the word obey is that of a continued process. Jesus is telling us that we are His friends, His faithful servants if “we keep on doing” what He has commanded.

I have often wondered at the meaning of this phrase: Obedience is Greater than Sacrifice. It has not been until now that I understand its meaning. If God makes His will known we are commanded to obey. But what if the result of obedience is death, as it was for Jesus? What will we do then? I think that this is the mystery inherent in the command. God is not asking us to submit to pain, suffering or injustice. God has called us to submit to Him, trusting that the ends that lie outside of my purview will achieve the ultimate will and purposes of God. Sacrifice can be self-serving because it validates us and our motives. But obedience only serves the greater good of the one who commanded us to act. When we obey we are bending our will to that of our King. If we have committed our lives to the service of Jesus, then everything else is just what we do in the line of duty. No more reward will be offered other than the praise of our God, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” Is that enough for you?