Radical Enough?

There is a lot of talk these days about Christians becoming more radical. And it is good discussion. It is this discussion that is calling us to a more devoted walk with Christ. David Platt had his Radical Sermon series and now has his Radical book. Not just Platt that is addressing this issue. Many Evangelicals have been on this topic over the last few years. I love the discussion, because I want to live up to the life that I have been called to.

The thing that makes the radical faith hard are the statements that are used to start this discussion. "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters..."Luke 14:26 or "You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." Luke 18:22

What do we do with these statements? Some will dismiss them and say they are not relevant. Some will take them to heart literally and choose to walk that path. Is there somewhere between those two responses that allows us to really follow God's will? Can I be radical enough if I don't literally sell everything I have and give to the poor? Is there a way to radically love my wife that points people to God? Or by asking that am I the guy that Chan talks about in the video above that is looking for a "new middle road" to follow? A while back I was on Bill Streger's blog and took his advice to go to a blog with a post titled, The God of the Mundane. This post addresses the radical calling from another angle. Here is one of the thoughts from the post. I would encourage you to go read the whole thing.

It is almost like a new legalism is emerging. "Quit your job. Do something crazy. Pick up and move. If you do not then you are suspiciously lacking in the necessary requirements of what we deem 'spiritual.'--Matt Redmond

When I read that, I thought maybe I am being a little bit like the Pharisees. If people don't follow these statements from Jesus exactly like I do, then they aren't real believers. That is what the Pharisees did. But then I think these are words from Jesus' mouth. I can't ignore them. So what are we to do?

The person who understands the evil in his own heart is the only person who is useful, fruitful,and solid in his beliefs and obedience. Others only delude themselves and thus upset families, churches, and all other relationships. In their self-pride and judgment of others, they show great inconsistency. --John Owen

I came across this quote in Sacred Marriage. I have read over it several times. I just keep coming back to asking myself, "How often do I try to understand and acknowledge the sin in my life?" The problem for me is sometimes I am too busy pointing out the speck in my brother's eye that I ignore my own. I admit my "faults", however, I downplay the seriousness of them in comparison with the terrible sins of others. The truth in Owen's statement "is the only person who is useful, fruitful, and solid in his beliefs and obedience" makes me want to get myself in check. Jesus warns about this kind of living and it is time we start taking him seriously on this issue.

Happiness or Holiness?

While reading the Freakonomics blog the other day I was blown away with the topic. It tells about an up and coming business in Japan. You pay this up and coming business and they will put someone in the life of your spouse or fiancé with the intent to get them to cheat. Once the person succeeds they provide you with photos of the act and then you have a legal reason to call off the relationship with the other person. Sometimes in-laws will also use this service if they are unhappy with their child’s choice in a mate. I was disgusted. Even though this is in Japan I am certain that it is only a matter of time that businesses like this will take off here also, if it hasn’t already taken off.

True, the person who goes through with the act of cheating is wrong but I believe if a person uses this kind of service, they are just as guilty as the person who did the cheating. They are recognizing that there are issues in their relationship and are unwilling to do anything to fix them. On top of that they are finding a way to lead that person into sin. I am reading a book titled Sacred Marriage by Gary Thomas. The cover asks this question. “What if God designed Marriage to make us holy, not to make us happy?” I think this addresses the issue at hand here. Our culture is so wrapped up in us being happy that we are ignoring what we are called to do. What ever happened to “For better or for worse”?

I stood next to my wife at the Weekend to Remember Conference a few weekends ago and we pledged our love through vows again. It was beautiful. It was an important reminder that I have made a commitment to this woman and to God.

This post may seem to be an attack. I really don’t mean for it to be that way. I just want each of us to start honoring the commitments that we make from now on. Let us not put our happiness before God’s demands for our holiness.

"After all, I, the Lord, am your God. You must be holy because I am holy." Leviticus 11:44 & 1 Peter 1:16

And God Said...

Some of you know that last night we attended a Labyrinth Prayer service. Before we walked through the prayer labyrinth they had a small service on prayer. One of the speakers referenced a prayer from the Old Testament. A woman from their church who was in advanced stages of Lou Gehrig’s Disease who couldn’t talk any more requested that someone pray this prayer for her.

The prayer comes from Habakkuk 3: 17-18.

Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior.

The speaker went on to talk about the importance of a prayer life that goes beyond just taking request to God and asking God to help us with our problems. Our prayers should focus on the full Glory of God. It was humbling to think about. I am a “God help me with this” kind of prayer person. And then I hear this story of a woman whose life is being destroyed by this disease and instead of asking for healing or relief, she prays this beautiful passage that says no matter how bad things get, I will rejoice in you and find joy in you alone God.

As far as walking the labyrinth, I found it amazing. I had thought of all of these things I was going pray for, but they recommended you don’t go into this prayer labyrinth with things to pray about. They gave us some verses that we could read before or during the walk and they said we should just let this connection between us and God grow. When you got to the middle circle of the labyrinth you were supposed to just focus on receiving a word from God.

I know this type of prayer service may sound odd, but it was wonderful. I would recommend a labyrinth walk to anyone. The Woodlands United Methodist Church is going to have their labyrinth set up all next week. You have to contact them ahead of time to set up a time to come use it. If you are interested I would be glad to get the information for you.

Some will ask, “Well did you hear from God?” Yes! And he spoke the most beautiful and comforting words. They were the exact words I needed to hear.

Today I decided to look up those verses in Habakkuk and then decided to read the book. It is only 3 chapters. It starts out with a complaint from Habakkuk and then there is an answer from God. Then there is another complaint and another answer from God. The 3rd chapter is a prayer that he sung. Here are two of the verses that I really liked from the book.

The first one comes from God’s response to Habakkuk complaining about the evil in the world. The second verse is the beginning of the song that Habakkuk sings to God.

“For the time will come when all the earth will be filled, as the waters fill the sea, with an awareness of the glory of the Lord.” Habakkuk 2:14

“I have heard all about you, Lord, and I am filled with awe by the amazing things you have done.” Habakkuk 3:2

Half the Gospel

“So he got up from the table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, and poured water into a basin. Then he began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them clean with the towel he had around them.” John 13: 4-5

Last night in Steve’s bible class he referenced this verse and reminded us what Jesus did after it was over. He asked the disciples if they understood. Which we would say probably not, at least not fully. Then Steve said something that I hadn’t thought about. What do you think they thought about the next time they sat down at someone’s house and a servant came in to wash their feet? They couldn’t sit through that without remembering what Jesus had done the night before his death and also remembering what he called them to do, which was serve people like He had served them.

That call applies to us also. Christ has sacrificed for us and we should be dying to ourselves to show that love to others. And yet for some reason this call is overlooked by so many. So many Christians say a prayer, get baptized, and then spend the rest of their lives trying not to do something wrong. Well the last time I checked, me not saying a cuss word, or me not cheating on my wife, has yet to impact a lost soul for Jesus. That is not to say that we shouldn’t live by example and follow the instructions of God, but it is to say this is not enough. We live right while serving and showing the love of Christ. If we choose one or the other, then we are not showing people the full love of God. We either show them a set of rules and no love, or we show them love but no reason for it. This is not what we are called to do.

Half the gospel only distorts the truth of God

I found this video of Francis Chan where he is talking about Jesus as your role model. Unfortunately this is true for too many and it has been true in my life for too long.

Who or What can separate us?

Romans 8:35-39 is a beautiful passage that reminds us that nothing nor anyone can ever separate us from the love of God. Tonight as we read from My Utmost for His Highest we were reminded of this passage. I loved what Chambers said at the end of the devotion.

Either Jesus Christ is a deceiver, having deceived even Paul, or else some extraordinary thing happens to someone who holds on to the love of God when the odds are totally against him. Logic is silenced in the face of each of these things which come against him. Only one thing can account for it--the love of God in Christ Jesus. "Out of the wreck I rise" every time. --Oswald Chambers

And we too shall rise every time if we will hold fast to the love of God through it all.

Remember When...

Many of you reading this were either at Weekend to remember with us this weekend, or if you weren't you might have known we were there. This was a great opportunity for Gracie and I, like all other couples there to draw close together and remind each other what we are committed to and why we made those commitments in the first place. Now the classes were not necissarily the greatest classes, however the weekend as a whole was fantastic. Now the point of this post is not to talk about how much I love my wife, although you should know and probably already do know that she is amazing and I love her deeply. The point of this post is to bring up one of the things that I got out of this weekend.

On different occassions Sarah Grace and I have read the bible together and prayed together each day, as long as it was possible. We were really good about it for a while, but have gotten away from it. While in the Man to Man session (guys only Hoka He-!) the speaker talked about studying with your wife. He had an idea about doing this that makes it not so hard to commit to. I thought I would share. He suggested you get a devotional and each day, you and your spouse read the one short devotion thought for the day and then choose one thing from that or from your hearts to pray about together. This is a good thing to do for those who always seem to be short on time. It will take 3-5 minutes. I would guess most of us can find 3-5 minutes to do this with our spouse, or your fiance, or the person you are dating.

So I told Sarah Grace that I wanted us to do this again. We have a copy of My Utmost For His Highest by Oswald Chambers, so we decided to start with that last night. I would like to encourage you that if you aren't already doing something like this with your spouse that you join us as we pick this up again.

Here is one of the thoughts I liked from the devotion yesterday.

No sin is worse than the sin of self-pity, because it removes God from the throne of our lives, replacing Him with our own self-interests. It causes us to open our mouths only to complain, and we simply become spiritual sponges— always absorbing, never giving, and never being satisfied. And there is nothing lovely or generous about our lives. --Oswald Chambers

Sarah Grace, do you remember when we studied the word together regularly?
Remember when we prayed constantly for our 1st child as he was still being formed inside you and we watched as Gideon grew into the strong healthy little boy that he is? Remember when we prayed that God would use us to serve Him. Remember how close we felt as God used this time together to help solidfy our relationship bound up in His love?

Just think of the amazing things we will see this time!

Jesus Loves the Little Children!

Sometimes I wish I was a kid again. Sometimes it is because I would like to have their energy. It usually is because I would like to have less worries or less responsibility. It is rarely because of Mark 10:14-15. But that passage is an important reminder.

But when Jesus saw what was happening, he was very displeased with his disciples. He said to them, "Let the children come to me. Don't stop them! For the Kingdom of belongs to such as these. I assure you, anyone who doesn't have their kind of faith will never get into the Kingdom of God."

Think about kids. They can have faith in things that we adults have a hard time buying into. You tell an adult some of the amazing stories from the Bible and they start thinking well maybe, but I don't know. They start wondering if things might have been lost in translation or misunderstood. You tell a child the same story and their response is "Wow!"

Forgiveness. Often kids can give it and receive it much easier than adults. We want to hold onto things and will not let go of them. Kids can let go of others mistakes and their own much faster.

I read this statement by the photographer Keith Carter the other day and it reminded me that we need to be more like kids again.

In my world of truths and half truths, the inhabitants might be amiss or fallen from grace, buy my children inhabit a peaceable kingdom where everything that falls deserves a chance to be restored.

That statement is beautiful!

God give me...

This short video comes from Frances Chan and kind of goes with my post from yesterday.

"Jesus, Look At My Shells!"

I have been seeing a lot of things that address this concern lately. The concern is the effect the American Dream has on our faith. We are trained to want more, get more, save more, and enjoy all the stuff until the day we die. Here is a quote from a John Piper Sermon that he gave at Passion several years ago. You can read or listen to the whole sermon here.

“I tell you what a tragedy is. I'll read to you from Reader's Digest (Feb. 2000, p. 98) what a tragedy is: "Bob and Penny... took early retirement from their jobs in the Northeast five years ago when he was 59 and she was 51. Now they live in Punta Gorda, Florida, where they cruise on their 30 foot trawler, play softball and collect shells." The American Dream: come to the end of your life - your one and only life - and let the last great work before you give an account to your Creator, be "I collected shells. See my shells." THAT is a tragedy. And people today are spending billions of dollars to persuade you to embrace that tragic dream. And I get forty minutes to plead with you: don't buy it.” --John Piper

Jared Wilson had a post recently titled Crucifying the American Dream. I highly recommend you read it also.

I think we need to pray about the effect it has on our lives and the effect it has on our witness for God. The luxuries of this life are worth nothing compared to the treasures in heaven. "What good is if for a man to gain the whole world, but loose his soul?"

Criticism Within the Church

It has been going on since the church got started. Churches and people in churches spend a lot of time criticizing other denominations or other churches. Let’s take Joel Osteen and Lakewood for example. Osteen has been bashed since the time he began preaching at Lakewood. The Catholic Church is constantly criticized and mocked by Protestants. Non-Denominational churches criticize the traditional churches that they left behind so they could do things the right way.

I just wonder what this looks like to the lost unchurched world. All of these negative things spewed from our mouths have to make people think, why would I want to go to church? We are supposed to be focused on making disciples of Jesus, instead we are focused on who does infant baptism, who has instruments, and the list goes on and will continue to go on for eternity.

The reason I bring this up is the other day on KSBJ(local Christian radio station) they were interviewing Joel Osteen. They were asking him about the criticism about him, his preaching style, and some of his comments that had upset some people. I was really impressed with what he had to say about it all. He talked about feeling the call to help others focus on the hope that they have in God through salvation that comes Jesus Christ. Isn’t that the most important thing; pointing people to Jesus Christ as their only means of salvation? Let us rejoice that others are preaching Jesus and not get wrapped up in details that are man made details. I am not saying you have to agree with everyone theologically, or that you have to like their preaching styles.

I am just saying that it is time the church comes together as one to show Jesus to the world. We may do it in different ways, with different songs, but we need to do it together.

Paul addresses this partially in Philippians 1: 18. “But whether or not their motives are pure, the fact remains that the message about Christ is being preached, so I rejoice. And I will continue to rejoice.” So if you don’t like the style of someone’s preaching or of another church’s worship, that is ok. We can still rejoice in the fact that Christ is being preached. Paul could do this for people with impure motives but we can’t even do it for people who have pure motives.

Its Our Job!

Finished Christianish today. I liked the following thought from the author.

“This world, this nation, this culture—they will only be transformed for Jesus if we make the first move. We must answer the great commission in its entirety. We must step down off of our soapboxes and love those whom we have deemed so unlovable. It will change them—and, oh yes, it will change us.” –Mark Steele

It seems like the church quite often uses the Great Commission as a reason to be involved in foreign mission work, and it is. We just have to make sure that we don’t stop there. It is not about giving money to and praying for a foreign mission. All nations means all people and that means the people we see on a day to day basis. It applies to us all and it is the final thing Jesus left us with.

Jesus Calms the Storm

"Gideon, what did you learn in bible class?"

"Da rain comed, and da ligtning went CRASH! And da dunder go BOOM! And Jesus stopped da storm." Mark 4:37-39 GMV(Gideon Michael Version)

Usually he just says Jesus, so at least this time we actually know he paid attention to the lesson.

Grace

I am getting close to the end of Christianish by Mark Steele. There is a chapter that talks about grace and how quite often we abuse it. We use it as a coupon to cover up our shortcomings, but then don’t do much to get rid of those shortcomings. I really liked this part about what grace should do in our lives and I wanted to share.

Grace should humble us, prompt us to make our lives right. It should make us want to please that sort of caring savior so much that every time we fail and need grace, it drives us toward purity—toward accountability. Grace should be met by gratefulness and gratefulness should prompt responsible action. –Mark Steele

Shut Up And Listen

I have something to admit. It might put me in the same category of people who cry during long distance telephone commercials. I love the Kleenex let it out commercial that I posted above. I think it came out during the time I was considering going back to school to get a counseling degree.

The other day I remembered this commercial and I thought about the truth behind it. The world is full of people who need someone to shut up and listen. Someone who will slow down in all the busyness in life to pay attention. To be able to meet someone’s needs we have to be able to hear their needs first.

Marvelous Victory

When we were studying Your Jesus is Too Safe by Jared Wilson, one of the topics we covered was the Compassionate Jesus. The Jesus who looks at the crowd and is pained by what he sees. But he doesn’t stop there. Christ had such a pain from looking at the needs of the crowd he was moved to action. And that is what compassion is; doing something to try to help. It is not just feeling bad for someone. It is looking at a lost, hungry, or hurting person in need and doing something to provide them with relief.

We as believers are called to show that kind of compassion. It is the same compassion that Jesus has for us. Jeff reminded our church on Sunday the promise of blessing that God has for those who show compassion. “For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.” --Matthew 25:35-36

Stop feeling. Start doing!

The historian Howard Zinn said the following words about going beyond just seeing the bad in this world and trying to do something to make it better. I believe this thought can be applied to what we are called to do in Christ’s name.

To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places -- and there are so many -- where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.

And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory. --Howard Zinn