service - Jeremiah's Vow

Lent 2022 | Day 14: Labor

The word labor can be used to describe a variety of activities. And I’ll leave that up to your imagination what those could be. But regardless of how you envision what the word describes, at its simplest level it will involve effort in order to accomplish the task.

We live in a world where convenience and easy access to resources and entertainment are all around us. It is becoming so convenient to get what we desire. We can order it in one minute and have it at our doorstep within a couple of hours. Now, this is not true of every place in the world but it is very common in many places. This is not to denigrate those who have access to such conveniences. This is merely an observation.

The reason I make the observation is to ask a question: what impact has this convenience had on how we understand our faith?

My friend, Pastor Drew Anderson, has written several blog posts and two follow-up books that speak in greater detail on the questions of how, in my particular case, the American cultural experience has impacted my Christian faith. And I think it’s a question worth exploring. I bring it up in this conversation about labor to highlight the fact that an integral part of the Christian experience is the work of building vibrant faith communities in those places where we live. This is not some overtly strategic campaign by a local congregation. This is the simple call of discipleship and to discipleship for which Jesus lived, died, and was resurrected.

As Jesus departed from this earth he instructed the disciples to go into all the world and make disciples. This was the labor to which they had been called. And it is the labor to which we must enter in. It is not one we can pass off to those with official titles or organizational endorsements. The call to obedience to make disciples is the work by which we will be judged when we stand before God. Not that it will put our salvation at risk, but it will be a measure of our faithfulness to what God requires of his people.

For some, this may seem harsh or even exaggerated. But I don’t believe that it is. Think for a moment about what Jesus said in Luke 18:8. In that passage, Jesus asks a simple question. It is a question offered after describing the parable of a woman who persisted in seeking justice from a judge. Jesus asked, “when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

When Jesus returns, what will he be looking for? He himself says he is looking for faith. But what will be the evidence that faith has persisted? It will be the presence of his people on the earth. For if they are not present it will mean that his command to make disciples will not have been obeyed. But as long as disciples are made and formed by the people of God the hope that Jesus will find faith endures.

The season of Lent is a good time to draw these various strands of thought together. What does it mean to serve the Lord with our labor? What does it look like to obey Christ in the making of disciples? I think the answer to these questions is simple in one sense and complex in another.

It is simple in that we are called to faithfully declare the gospel of Jesus Christ. This means we point people to Christ for salvation. This means we call all sinners to repent, to surrender their lives and purposes to those offered by God the father. And it means we should not make it complicated for people to understand this message.

This can be complex for a variety of reasons. But I think the one that concerns me the most is when we add requirements to the message of hope and salvation that Jesus never did. Living a life of obedience is hard enough without the added burdens we can impose upon ourselves or others. The Scripture is replete with examples of people doing this. And each time those who initially heard what Jesus said, and those of us who read it now, are admonished to fight against the tendency and temptation.

So as we think about our labor, may we never lose sight that we do not work in our own strength. But we labor according to the strength that Christ supplies us by the Holy Spirit (Colossians 1:29).

Lent 2022 | Day 8: Call

I recently began rereading the book of the prophet Jeremiah. This book has been important in my development as a follower of Christ. The story of the prophet Jeremiah is interesting for a variety of reasons. The foremost of which is that for many his ministry may be described as a failure. And if that seems too harsh, we could say it was marked by lack of change among the people to whom he was sent. Jeremiah has been oftentimes given the moniker of “the weeping prophet”.

It seems odd that within the pages of Scripture we can read the story of the ministry of a man who was not able to elicit much noticeable change in the people whom he served. I find some comfort in knowing that faithful ministry will not necessarily lead to “successful” ministry. How we define what success really is can be a moving target. Therefore it becomes critical for us not to make a habit of comparing what God has called us to do with what others are doing.

This is at the center of our word focus for today. What does it mean to have a call on your life? The question itself is rife with nuance and even ambiguity. For me, the challenge is discerning what it means for God to use me in the greater scheme of his purposes, both in my life and in the world.

I find some comfort in knowing that faithful ministry will not necessarily lead to “successful” ministry.
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It is worth the effort to try to define this idea of calling. The simplest way I believe to do so is to acknowledge it is an internal acceptance of our surrender to God’s will. Not to some specific task or to a particular mission, but in the sense of surrendering our own pursuits for the labors God will place in our hands. This is what it means to be called in my mind. That we no longer are striving to make a way according to our desires or preferences. Rather we are making an intentional effort to seek the mind of God for how we should conduct our lives.

To shift from a focus on our own ideas of what a meaningful life would be to accepting the journey God places us on gets us closer to what I believe a call is. It is difficult to be too specific because each person is unique. The gifts and passions and talents any individual person brings and offers to God are as varied as the number of people who have ever walked the face of the earth. And it is in this variety of human expression that some feel a particular drawing to participate in the completing (in the sense of being ambassadors of the kingdom) of God’s will. Not that any energy of hours is necessary or requisite to the work being done, but that we are willing to give of ourselves to be instruments in the hand of God.

This may seem to some a foolish way of engaging with God. And the sentiment is to be expected. To surrender our own desires and plans in order to serve a God we have never seen will appear quite foolish to some of those around us. But in our circle of influence, there will be those who recognize the irresistible drawing of God’s love and grace. And in this drawing away from the opportunities the world around us would provide there are many who find a deeper sense of fulfillment and satisfaction in the work God calls them to.

A calling can be difficult to define, or even to describe. But it is evident in those who have been called by their inability to let go of that impulse to forsake all other things in life and to give our gifts and talents to the work of God.

In the season of Lent, we too are being called. We all are being offered an opportunity to forsake the enticements of the world for a time. It is not a complete abandonment of the world in which we live. It is a momentary pause and intentional refraining from allowing ourselves to be engulfed by the multitudinous opportunities available to us.

I invite you to consider this time of Lent as a special call from God to look at the world around you and consider what in it may be drawing too much of your attention away from him. And then to take a moment to embrace the reality that God desires to have a deeper and abiding relationship with you. If this is something you desire, something you have wondered about but have been unable to determine how to access, I would say to make that desire to grow closer to God the primary focus of this season of reflection.

It’s never too late to start.

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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.

Live Like Tomorrow Is Your Last Day

You are going to die tomorrow.

Morbid thought right? But really, what if you knew for a fact that you would die tomorrow? I, for one, would probably freak out. I’d have a million thoughts running through my mind. But I think my first question would be how would I die? Would I go out like a hero and save kidnapped hostages and die with valor? Or would I trip into the street and get hit by a truck? I wouldn’t want to die like a chump. But that’s not really the purpose of this post. Continue reading “Live Like Tomorrow Is Your Last Day”

Growing Pains, Pt. 4 | “Participation (Time)”

What Do You Value?

If looking at your checkbook will give you an idea of where and for what your money is being spent, what will determine where and for what you life is being spent? The simple truth, I believe, is that what we give to most is what, in the end, we value most. This is not a comment of judgment, but a reality. When I look at what I do with these few precious moments that I have been given in and on this world, I have to ask, “What good is coming of my being here?” When the time comes for all of us, and it will, when we will breath our last, will what we remember be memories of a life filled with years or years filled with life?

Being a Christian means that we have made a choice. Whether we understood it completely or not the choice was made. It was a choice to live by a certain code of morals, ethics and values. The choice was to change the way we were living our lives because we had met someone who had a better way. A vote of confidence in Jesus is a vote of no confidence in ourselves-that we cannot find the best way, let alone live that way on our own. I think that it is an injustice to new Christians not to explain this to them. If a plant is not growing or bearing fruit the assumption is that it must be dead. Continue reading “Growing Pains, Pt. 4 | “Participation (Time)””

Growing Pains, Pt. 3 | “Service”

Prove It!

Caring for our neighbor is not something that can be passed by and overlooked as unimportant. Of all the things that Jesus said, the love of God and the love of neighbor are the most important. Jesus went so far as to say that upon these two commandments hang, hinge, stand, all of the law and the prophets (Matthew 22:34-40, NKJV). Everything that we, as Christians, believe and hold to be true can be summarized with these two statements. That is significant and should be treated in a way that reflects this.

While other religions in the world want to add more and more things to do, God says, “Here, just try these two.” In Christianity there is a shrinking of the requirements. And yet, the struggles that come from trying to do these two simple commandments are incredible.

As we go through this process of growing in faith we come to a very sharp and unyielding challenge. What are you doing WITH your faith? James, the brother of Jesus, tells us that faith without works is dead. We say you have faith! “Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works” (James 1:18, NKJV). If nothing has happened since we have professed, confessed and have been baptized, we should be some concern. Our faith was not meant for ourselves, but for those around us. That’s why God gave it to you.

Finding A Place To Serve

Service has a way of healing the one that is doing the work. This experience does not come from watching, but from doing. We must put our hands to the plow if we are going to see the fruit of that labor. We live in a society that tells us that we can have it all-at a very reasonable price. Well, the price that God found reasonable was the blood of His Son Jesus. That means that if we are going to have it all, then we must also pay the price that has been set, and that price is our service. “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service” (Romans 12:1, NKJV). What God expects is not unreasonable. We must learn to acknowledge this truth whenever we are tempted to say that “God would not…” followed by something we do not want to do.

To serve is to return to where God intended for us to be from the beginning. He commanded Adam to go and tend to the garden. Adam was not created to just recline on the soft grass and eat grapes and do nothing. Adam had a job and it was to see after the creation of God. The older I get the more I realize that it is in doing the simple things of God that I find the most joy.

What Are You Doing?

If there is anything at all that is hard about being a Christian it is this-we have to do something. To sit back and kick our feet up just will not do. I believe that God demands us to be proactive. It just is not good enough to do nothing because we will not be satisfied if we are not serving.

When we look at our lives do we think that God is pleased? This is not a question meant to bring guilt. If we cannot answer this question in a way the leaves a sense of peace in our hearts, then something has to change, someone is going to have to give. I can assure you of this, God will not be the one doing the moving.

It is true that I may not be able to judge the quantity or quality of faith that you have in your life, but there is one thing that the world can do and that is it can see and consider the effect that our professed faith has had or has not had in our lives. What do they see? The better question is what should they see?