What if we were like Him?

In preparing to talk about "God-developed character" -- the fruit of the Spirit and some other qualities, I keep coming back to humility. Andrew Murray called it "The beauty of holiness" -- meaning that humility is the real mark of the man or woman who "gets it" spiritually. Even though I use Mark 10:45 often to encourage a serving spirit, I've forgotten that its context is the prediction of Jesus' brutal death, the whiny disciples all wanting to be "somebody" and Jesus reminder of His role among them even as His prophecy of suffering and death still hung in the air:
Mark 10 (NLT)
Jesus Again Predicts His Death
32 They were now on the way up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them. The disciples were filled with awe, and the people following behind were overwhelmed with fear. Taking the twelve disciples aside, Jesus once more began to describe everything that was about to happen to him. 33 “Listen,” he said, “we’re going up to Jerusalem, where the Son of Man will be betrayed to the leading priests and the teachers of religious law. They will sentence him to die and hand him over to the Romans. 34 They will mock him, spit on him, flog him with a whip, and kill him, but after three days he will rise again.”

Jesus Teaches about Serving Others
35 Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came over and spoke to him. “Teacher,” they said, “we want you to do us a favor.” 36 “What is your request?” he asked. 37 They replied, “When you sit on your glorious throne, we want to sit in places of honor next to you, one on your right and the other on your left.” 38 But Jesus said to them, “You don’t know what you are asking! Are you able to drink from the bitter cup of suffering I am about to drink? Are you able to be baptized with the baptism of suffering I must be baptized with?” 39 “Oh yes,” they replied, “we are able!”

Then Jesus told them, “You will indeed drink from my bitter cup and be baptized with my baptism of suffering. 40 But I have no right to say who will sit on my right or my left. God has prepared those places for the ones he has chosen.” 41 When the ten other disciples heard what James and John had asked, they were indignant. 42 So Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers in this world lord it over their people, and officials flaunt their authority over those under them. 43 But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever wants to be first among you must be the slave of everyone else. 45 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Heart Check

How can I know how my heart's doing? Jeremiah said it's "deceitfully wicked...desperately sick, who can know it?" The Bible does provide some barometers that give me some indications. For instance:

• What's been the primary focus of my attention? One term the Bible uses is "affections" -- what are the attractions or the loves that take hold of my heart? What do I keep wanting or wishing to have? The objects of my affection take the front seat in my heart. Are those good and right things or selfish and me-centered stuff?
• How have I been responding to circumstances and people (especially negative ones)? Do my reactions demonstrate a heart of faith -- knowing that God is in charge of what enters my life -- or am I more anxious and angry and centered on "how does this thing or person affect ME?"Where's the money been going? Jesus informed us that our hearts and our money occupy the same real estate. In other words, take a reading on my finances and you get a simultaneous reading on my heart. Are my resources mostly going toward needs, pleasures, comfortss and stuff I want, or am I demonstrating increasing generosity and a greater heart for ministry and people?
• Am I loving God and loving people more and more? Jesus' encounter with the young wealthy man reinforced that Truth: loving God with my whole heart and loving peple around me in ways  just like I love myself are the test of where my heart is. Is God getting more of my heart and mine and attention, or less? Are my relationships more marked by compassion and gentleness than by human responses?
• Am I more know by the fruit of the Spirit, or by the outflow of the fleshly nature? When God's Spirit gets possession of a heart, people nearby will notice! Do they?
• Am I responding well and regularly to God and His Word? Does it speak to me...do I believe it and begin to take steps to obey it? Do I read and hear Scripture and respond well, no only agreeing but expressing a willingness to change?
• Am I an active servant? Jesus said that He Himself did not come to be served, but to serve...do I observe needs and move to meet them, or am I just another who's first in line at the pot lucks and gone long before the clean-up time begins? Do I notice needs in the fellowship and the community...and my own family...ones that touh me in such a way that I am moved to serve?

Walking on

In Matthew 28 Jesus said, I am with you always, to the very end of the age.

"Don't look back. You are never completely alone." Daniel Silva, Moscow Rules.

By its very nature, to move ahead and make good spiritual progress means leaving behind comfortable and self-absorbed habits of the flesh...and also, more often than not, it will mean leaving behind former companions, who simply will not take the road less traveled. The temptation to slow or stop, to stay with the former ways and former friends, is always insidious and great.

What people know

From Ed Stetzer's blog...

Even the unchurched know 2 things: Jesus loved the poor & the sick,

so they're confused when they don't see us doing either.

What's in a name?

I've tried in vain a thousand ways, My fears to quell, my hopes to raise;
And all I need, the Bible says is Jesus.

My soul is night, my heart is steel, I cannot see, I cannot feel;
For light, for life I must appeal io Jesus.

He dies, He lives, He reigns, He pleads, There's love in all His words and deeds;
All, all a guilty sinner needs is Jesus.

Though some will mock, and some will blame, In spite of fear, in spite of shame,
I'll go to Him, because His name is Jesus.
- Author Unknown

...you are to give him the name Jesus, because He will save His people
from their sins. (Matthew 1:21)

Lewis on purpose

The church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time. God became a Man for no other purpose. - C.S. Lewis

Vacation books

I've been working through Organic Church for a few weeks, but on vacation I really got into it -- and it got more into me. Neil Cole successfully got my attention with other writing. Organic Church resonated profoundly as it analyzes the American Church setting.

Following a sober discussion of Jesus' parable of the soils, he writes in chapter 5, "I am convinced we have made a serious mistake by accommodating bad soil in our churches...We try to woo people to come and keep coming. What we end up with is an audience of consumers shopping for the best 'services'."

Chapter 7 begins by stating the result of that accommodation. "American Christianity is dying...We are deathly ill and don't even know it..."

Then if that's not enough, he unloads with stuff that most pastors never utter in public (because we're engaged with a business model of "church"). It's time we said what Cole says, and what we've whispered to each other. He writes under a heading of "Church Shopping" --

"Imagine...people come to us because they are impressed by our music, children's programs, clean toilets, and parking spaces. What if suddenly being a Christian is cool and the newest fad is to attend church. What have we done? Are we better off? I don't think so. Now we have churches full of consumers looking for the one that offers the best "service" for them or their family. Whatever the next great show is, that is where the multitudes will flock. Does it sound familiar at all? What we draw them with is what we draw them to. If they come expecting to be entertained, we had better entertain them if we want to keep them coming back every week..."

I'm going to start praying for God to move some desperate seekers and new believers into our part of the Kingdom -- the sort of folks willing to dump the carnal urge to "have it their way" and just be serious about a Lord Who'd say things like, "unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains by itself alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. He who loves his life loses it; and he who hates his life in this world shall keep it to life eternal." (John 12:24)

Can you imagine what Christ might do with that band of followers like that?

Cole ends chapter 7 like this: "Christianity is always just one generation away from extinction. If we fail to reproduce ourselves and pass the torch of life into the hands of the next generation, Christianity will be over in just one generation. Yet because of the power of multiplication, we are also one generation away from worldwide fulfillment of the Great Commission. The choice is ours."

The human enigma

The hardest thing to believe when you're young
is that people will fight to stay in a rut,
but not to get out of one.

Ellen Glasgow

No interest in heaven

"When the followers of Jesus Christ lose their interest in heaven they will no longer be happy Christians and when they are no longer happy Christians they cannot be a powerful force in a sad and sinful world."

A.W. Tozer, Who Put Jesus on the Cross

We're reading and studying "God as He Longs for You to See Him"with our small group; we hear Chip Ingram often quote Tozer. He's a great, classic author who's been mostly lost to our generation; he's one we need to revive.

Kierkegaard on church

Christendom has done away with Christianity without being quite aware of it. Soren Kierkegaard

I read that line in Neil Cole's Organic Church the day after getting an email from a friend. The email included a link to a news story about a massive church split in Florida -- the split was over "style, not substance" and there were big names involved. The friend said, "it's reading stuff like this that makes me never want to participate in a church again." If the outward forms and man-centered expressions of Christendom were all there was to "church" I'd agree wholeheartedly!

Serious Intake

A friend and I going to try it:

• read a significant portion of Scripture in a week's time, asking God to speak to us; if one of us (in a group of 2-3 men or 2-3 women) doesn't finish the reading, we do read it again until each has completed the reading and each hears God speak.


• we get together and discuss what God has said and confess our sins to one another.


• we pray strategically for 2-3 people who need Christ.

The reasoning behind a heavier intake of Scripture -- in part -- to develop your appetite for God's Word. Doesn't happen with a verse or short passage every day or two or less often. This week, Steve and I agreed we'd read John's gospel. My dear wife was gone Tuesday evening, so I sat down with John. He held my attention for a solid hour and five minutes. I saw such good things, ones I've not put together before, like: Jesus' clear call to the curious and the crowds and then the committed to -- "believe" (John is the "gospel of faith"), then to "come to Me", then "love Me" and finally "obey Me." But with the religious leaders -- the terms are often the same, but sort of in reverse. "You don't believe in Me because you don't believe, or know My Father." "You will not come to Me." Then, the final description, speaking to His men, "they will hate you because they hated Me."

It was astounding, and deeply encouraging to read through a longer book. I remember someone saying once: when you're reading the Bible "don't get too far from Jesus" -- don't stray too far from the gospels. Think I'm going to have to get through John again, before Monday.

Serving

Ray Stedman alludes to a thesis of an old book, The Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life; in it, a group of psychologists -- decades ago -- proposed that television was at the root of Americans forgetting how to serve. Stedman says: “perhaps in a Christian congregation this is not nearly as evident as it is in the world at large, but we face it also in the body of Christ.”

Jesus said that He did not come to be served, but to serve and to give Himself as a ransom for many. (Mark 10:45, Matthew 20:28) Stedaman wrote, the source of true richness and fulfillment is in serving, not being served. When we demand to be served, always have something titillating our senses; “the end is loneliness, emptiness and ultimately despair”. The proof of that is visible everywhere today.

Imagine the influence if a group of Christians simply determined to connect what Jesus connected in that statement: serving and reconciliation. I wonder how a people who've forgotten what serving looks like would react if they saw it lived like He lived it?

The rare value of a good sidekick!

Reading a great book by Neil Cole (Search and Rescue, Becoming a Disciple Who Makes a Difference) I was reminded of a scene in Lord of the Rings. Describing the futility of being lone ranger Christians, and needing "sidekicks" Cole paints the picture of Frodo and his faithful companion, Samwise, collapsed on the side of Mt. Doom in their attempt to destroy the dark and evil ring of power. Alone in a dark place, surrounded by evil and hiding from the ever watchful eye of the dark lord, it was Frodo's task to get the ring to the end of the journey where it would be destroyed. Sam tries to encourage Frodo by describing the beauties of home in the Shire. But there was nothing Frodo could see but the dark lord's evil eye. Finally, faithful sidekick Sam spits out, "Then let's be done with it! I may not be able to carry it [the ring] for you, but I can carry you!" And Sam lifts Frodo up onto his shoulders and proceeds one step after the next up the steep climb of loose rocks, with his friend on his shoulders.

Sidekicks in life and ministry are exceptionally rare, therefore of highest value -- imagine the kingdom impact if everyone had one, and was one. (cf. Exodus 17:12)

He's willing to forgive

Ernest Hemingway told the story: there was a father and his teenage son, whose relationship got so strained, the boy ran away from home. His father began then the journey -- searching for his rebellious son. Finally in Madrid, in a last desperate effort to find him, the father placed an ad in the newspaper. It simply read: "Dear Paco, Meet me in front of the newspaper office at noon. All is forgiven. I love you. Your father."

When the father arrived the next day he saw the staggering sight: eight hundred sons named Paco were there in front of the newspaper office -- all wanting forgiveness and all hungering for the love of their father.

We pardon to the degree that we love. And so does our Father. (Luke 15)

Contented too long?

Complacency is the deadly enemy of spiritual progress.

The contented soul is the stagnant soul.

A.W. Tozer

I wish you were mine

In her story, The Whisper Test, Mary Ann Bird writes: "I grew up knowing I was different, and I hated it. I was born with a cleft palate, and when I started school, my classmates made it clear to me how I looked to others: a little girl with a misshapen lip, crooked nose, lopsided teeth, and garbled speech. When schoolmates asked, "What happened to your lip?" I'd tell them I'd fallen and cut it on a piece of glass. Somehow it seemed more acceptable to have suffered an accident than to have been born different. I was convinced that no one outside my family could love me. There was, however, a teacher in the second grade whom we all adored. Her name was Mrs. Leonard. She was a short, round, happy, sparkling lady. Every year we had a hearing test. Mrs. Leonard gave the test to everyone in the class, and one year I went last. I knew from past years that as we stood against the door and covered one ear, the teacher sitting at her desk would whisper something, and we would have to repeat it back--things like "The sky is blue" or "Do you have new shoes?" I waited there and listened and heard words that God must have put into her mouth, seven words that changed my life. Mrs. Leonard said, in her whisper, "I wish you were my little girl."

The Face of the Father

Working on 3 messages on Luke 15, I've been struck again how we've consistently misnamed the story of "the Prodigal".

After all, Jesus' reason for the 3-part parable was to answer the murmuring Pharisees who clearly were possessed of a twisted view of God. The shepherd and his lost sheep, the woman and her coin and the father with his missing son are Jesus' clear Word, to them and to the rest of us (we've also got twisted views!) about God.

He's a Father with a great heart for lost people.

Psalm 103 says it: the Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will He harbor His anger forever; He does not treat us as our sins deserve, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His love for those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from Him. As a father has compassion on His children, so the Lord has compassion on His children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him. (vv. 8-13)

Hot or Cold

Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important. C.S. Lewis

If I were the devil, my first aim would be to stop folks from digging into the Bible.

J.I. Packer

Holier than Thou

Ray Ortlund's blog post this week is so good. He writes:
I was asked recently, "How come a stereotype of the church today is one of a 'holier than thou' mentality?"

Great question. It's a real problem. Three thoughts.

One, the problem is not sin in the church. The problem is concealed sin in the church. That problem is intensified by Christian aloofness: "You people over there have cooties. We Christians are better." Are we?

Two, when church people put others down, there are two possibilities. One, their faith isn't in Jesus' superiority. Their faith is in their own superiority. There is no awe, gratitude, humility, because they aren't really Christians. Two, they're new Christians, they're coming in with some baggage, and they're learning. And can any of us say, "I'd never do that"?

Three, if you accuse Christians of being judgmental, are you being judgmental? Do you feel that Christians are beneath you? Why are you so comfortable with your non-Christian friends? Does their company help you feel safe from Jesus? Is that what really bugs you about Christians -- you feel another Presence, and he scares you?

I know this. We Christians will see more repentance in our city when our city sees more repentance in us. And we can be honest about our failings, because it isn't our performance that makes us okay. It's Christ's performance for us. That's the gospel. It's so freeing.

The Judge and the judges

I'm preaching Sunday on Jesus' encounter with the Pharisees, teachers of the Law and the woman caught in adultery; it's the opener of a short series on "God's Scandal". This one is called "The Judges Meet the Judge".

I remembered my first taste of judging! I was probably only 8 or 9 when a family moved into our little town in Southwest Kansas. They weren’t much different from the rest of us; they were just poorer. They moved into an old ramshackle house -- really a shack -- and little by little, to us kids in school, they became the "untouchables." Their kids wore old, maybe dirty clothes; maybe they wore the same ones over and over (like me!). But they were slow in school.... and held back... and we judged and condemned them. We treated them like they were unclean! You couldn’t sit by one of them on the bus; you couldn’t touch their desk or their books; you couldn't even be near them in class. I shudder to think of the awful things we said and did in those early years of our lives. And I cannot imagine what it must have done to their hearts. We judged them and we condemned them as "unworthy".

John Fisher writes, "few activities in life rival the thrill of passing judgment on another human being. I don’t believe I can go a day on God’s green earth without in some way indulging in this forbidden art. It is the particular pastime of the self-righteous to hold court, and I have been long at the bar. For many, judgment and condemnation have become a way of life. The act of mental sentencing is the mind-set most readily available to those who have been neither willing nor prepared to bring their own actions, thoughts and motivations into the light." (Emphasis mine) From: 12 Steps for the Recovering Pharisee (like me).

Pride: the antithesis of Grace

"Grace humbles a man without degrading him and exalts him
without inflating him." Charles Hodge

God give us some national leaders…

…who will first be people of character -- then people willing to lead.
…who will attack problems with tenacity, creativity and perseverance, instead of wasting time attacking opponents.
…who will recognize that real evil exists in the world and it isn’t embodied in the opposing political party.
…who will be more concerned about people than their own image and ongoing power.
...who will appeal broadly to peoples, organizations and companies to take on common issues instead of pitting one against the other for stupid political advantage.
…who will be servant leaders, glad to serve and solve problems, then return to ordinary life after a few years.

Faithful??

I've been looking at the word "faithful" every morning, praying it will be what characterizes my relationship to Christ and to the individuals He places in my life.

I was challenged this morning by words I read from David Olford in Find Us Faithful: Leadership That Leaves a Legacy: "Rather, there is a more basic issue related to this issue of faithfulness which confronts all of us. It is the giving of our attention to priority concerns and matters while we have the God-given opportunity to do so. We never know how much time we have in any given relationship, responsibility, ministry or situation. And because of the awareness of the potential brevity of any season, we need to determine what really matters, what really counts and what really must be done. We must be occupied faithfully with what God wants us to be and do in any given relationship or situation before we have to say, 'Good-bye.'"

How far can Christ reach?

The film "Amazing Grace" (2007) chronicled the life and cause of William Wilberforce. He fought for most of his life to end the British transatlantic slave trade of the 19th century.

Wilberforce had made an earlier visit to his old pastor and friend John Newton. Newton was captain of a slave ship prior to his conversion to Christ. Wilberforce had earlier hoped that Newton would write an account of his slave ship days -- but he refused -- because the experience and the "20,000 ghosts" haunted him too greatly.

Near the end of the struggle to end slave trade, Wilberforce visited Newton and discovered, that the one who had written "Amazing Grace" had now written his full account. His eyesight now gone, Newton tells Wilberforce, "You must publish it. Names, records, ship records, ports, people—everything I remember is in here. Although my memory is fading, I remember two things very clearly: I'm a great sinner, and Christ is a great Savior."

The World on Our Doorstep

My wonderful wife and I are going to volunteer again with a group serving international students. At the training of the local ministry, we learned the statistic we'd heard years ago has slightly improved. It used to be 80% of international students come to the U.S. and leave (1-6 years later) never having seen the inside of an American home. It's still 70% of the 700,000 students who are here.

What an opportunity to establish friendship, and love and serve individuals from all over God's world -- and also to then answer their questions -- about family, work, and what we believe about Christ. Many students come assuming all Americans are "Christians". No wonder they so often leave our country deeply disappointed at reactions they've received to their presence here.

....go and make disciples of all nations [all people groups].... (Matthew 28:19)

God is no one's Fool

We spent yesterday evening with some grieving friends. No, they didn't lose someone, not in the classic sense anyway. But someone near and dear to them -- a Christian -- steadily, surely is walking away from Christ -- moving step by step to immorality and will not listen to anyone's warning or admonition.

Then I opened my Bible this morning and read two passages: one, Ezra 8:21-9:15. That one is the account of Ezra's mourning, fasting and prayer over how his people so gladly welcomed God releasing them from the slavery of captivity, then so blatantly snubbed Him, ignoring His warning not to intermarry with the pagan people in the land around them. The second passage was 1 Corinthians 5:1-13. It's Paul record of how dumbfounded he was that the church in Corinth just "overlooked" (and even seemed glad about) the gross sin of one of their members. Both passages hold dire warnings that God -- as much as we think He will -- won't play our fool and overlook what we know is in essence a disregard of Him when we actively choose sin.

Then I was reading in "God: As He Longs for You to See Him" (Chip Ingram) in the chapter on "The Holiness of God." Writing about Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5) Chip says, "They chose to make a mockery of other believers, God's holiness and the privilege of giving. They treated God as someone they could fool. God, everyone discovered, will not be mocked....."

"If you are hard-headed like me, the experience can be tough because the vice often gets very tight before I even start paying attention. God often uses our finances, our circumstances and our relationships. He will do whatever it takes to get as much of our attention as he needs to say, 'Be holy, for I am holy.'"

Wrong Number?

For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ
so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. Ephesians 2:10 (NLT)

I was reminded last week of a sweet little elderly lady we knew in Kansas City. She came to mind, because -- I had a note to call the cell phone number of a man who had called a few weeks earlier, asking what small groups we would offer this Fall. We've got our list together -- and it's a good one! -- so I called. But, I was one digit off (the older I get the more dyslexic!). When another name was on the voice mail, I knew what I'd done. I didn't leave a message, but hung up and redialed correctly. A couple of hours later, the "wrong number" called me back -- in a hesitating voice, (having called a "church" -- and we know how much fear there is in that!) he said, "someone called my number....?". I explained I'd dialed incorrectly -- and he -- again with almost sounding sad, said, "okay" -- and that's when the little lady from Kansas City came to mind. She got more telemarketers and "wrong number" callers calling her than anyone in the Midwest! And regularly, sitting in her room in a nursing home, unable to get out much, she shared Jesus Christ with nearly all those callers! And in the prayer time, she'd share, often, how another one had come to faith, because of calling the wrong number!

Christians used to term those "chance" meetings divine appointments-- God arranged meetings! I wonder why we don't think like that anymore!

Pray for yourself, II

A great idea, from Chip Ingram in Good to Great in God's Eyes -- the last book the elders and I read together: in his chapter on "Dream Great Dreams" he says, write out your God-given dreams, and then pray over them regularly. Here's one illustration from my stack of 3 x 5's, now in my One-Year Bible:

Finish Well
I long to be faithful to Christ, and to the people He has and will place around me, until the day I die.

Pray for yourself

<sup>One of my "summer plan for growth" goals was to read through, print, then pray every day, one of the prayers of Paul for the Ephesians and Colossians. (Remember, those are the parts we usually skip over quickly to get to the rest of the letters!)

It's been an amazing exercise. Along with time in the Word, and now praying some additional things for myself, my mind and heart have gotten re-focused, and for the most part, the days are filled with more awareness of what God wants to do in my life and I'm more willing to be available to let Him do it. Try it out for 90 days! Here's one of several:

9</sup> For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. ¹⁰ And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, ¹¹ being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully ¹²giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. ¹³ For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, ¹⁴ in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Colossians 1:9-14

What am I out to prove?

There have been men before now who got so interested in proving the existence of God that they came to care nothing for God Himself ...there have been some who were so occupied in spreading Christianity that they never gave a thought to Christ. C.S. Lewis

Today Matters

I'm working this week on what I thought would be the most straightforward of the messages on "Satan's plan for your life" -- this one is "he wants you in a spiritual coma" from 2 Corinthians 11:1-3 (And now I'm afraid that exactly as the Snake seduced Eve with his smooth patter, you are being lured away from the simple purity of your love for Christ.); so far it's not so straightforward! But I was encouraged and challenged by a good and strong word from C.S. Lewis; he wrote,

"Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance. The smallest good act today is the capture of a strategic point from which, a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of. An apparently trivial indulgence in lust or anger today is the loss of a ridge or railway line or bridgehead from which the enemy may launch an attack otherwise impossible." C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Grace at the Table

Jesus shared the Last Supper with Judas. He offered it to Judas, even knowing He'd already determined to betray Him. Jesus invites me to the table too. He knows all about me, as much as about Judas, but He still loves me and invites me there. I like the story of the Scottish girl who came in from the Highlands to the city of Edinburgh, started hanging with the wrong friends, and soon was living an immoral life. It was against all she'd learned as a kid in Sunday School and Church; one Sunday she slipped into a church covered with shame and need. They were celebrating communion that day, and when a sweet old deacon came by with the plate, she shook her head sadly and said: "I can't take it. I'm too unclean." The old deacon, well versed in the Gospel, whispered: "All the more reason to take it lassie. It's not meant for saints. It's for sinners. Not worthiness but willingness, that's the issue."

To please people

From Chuck Swindoll -- a word to one of pastors' toughest temptations -- pleasing people:

Though we are accountable to the churches we serve, ultimately, each one of us, as a pastor, answers to God. Without that sort of single-minded devotion to the Lord, we run the risk of becoming people-pleasers or worse, slaves of other’s expectations. Pastors who become pawns as they focus on pleasing people are pathetic wimps.

Our responsibility is to deliver what God’s people need, not what they want. As we do, that truth should hit us with the same authority as it does the folks to whom we communicate. May God deliver every honest pastor, every truth-seeking church leader, and every Christian from the bondage of pleasing people.

“For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ” (Galatians 1:10).

Grace is what sets Christ’s message apart

English preacher Charles Spurgeon got a letter from a man who wrote to say he’d been examining Christianity -- he’d been going to church for some time, but he'd been repeatedly disappointed by what he’d experienced there. He wrote to say he was ready to abandon his experiment with Christianity and walk away. But, before he did, he wondered if Spurgeon might have something to say to his situation.

Spurgeon responded with a story. There was a man who had a wonderful apple tree; it bore the most beautiful and sweetest red apples imaginable. But there was a problem. Everyone knew how good his apples were, so everyone who came by helped themselves to his apples. To stop the thefts, the man decided he’d plant lots of other apple trees all around the good tree. Except the others all produced only sour apples.

Spurgeon said, "you need to know that out on the fringes of Christianity and churches, there are lots of sour, bad apples. You’ll find anger, dishonesty, hypocrisy. But, he told the man: if you will press on, if you will press inward, toward the center, you will discover that the heart, the trunk, of Christianity is sweet and delectable beyond your wildest imaginations. When you reach the trunk, I guarantee, you’ll never be dissatisfied."

The heart and trunk and center of Christianity is God’s grace revealed in and through His Son Jesus. As the NT unpacks grace, it is the heart of our faith. Grace is what sets Christ’s message apart from every religion on earth. You will discover that most religions have some concept of justice. Justice means, people will get what they deserve.

In some religions you even discover some thought of mercy. Mercy says that you may not get the punishment you deserve. Only Christianity introduces you to grace. Grace says God gives you as a gift, what you do not deserve. No religion offers grace! But, the sick truth is, in Christianity, it also is often missing. Grace is a theory we believe or a concept we sing about, not a Truth we celebrate and enjoy and live. But if we’ll get hold of what the NT says, we’ll realize grace is a truth we should feast on, one we need to hear again and again.

Man at Odds with the World

Working on 1 John 2:15-17 this week for the "Satan's plan for your life" message series -- this week it's "He wants you buying what the world is selling". I read this quotation from Bonhoeffer:

"In a world where success is the measure and justification of all things, the figure of him who was sentenced and crucified remains a stranger." Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German theologian, pastor, and martyr (1906–1945)

A refreshing word from a far country

What pastor wouldn't get encouraged by a simple note like a missionary friend sent yesterday.

Dear Dean,
I am praying for you personally. I know the struggles of pastoral work very personally and intimately. How can I pray for you more specifically?
Your friend in Jesus,
Chris

Jesus Loves Me

According to the story, the great intellectual man (I think he was even a theologian) was asked by someone after a lecture, "what's the greatest thought you've ever had?" His reply was swift and simple: "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so!" In his "time alone with God" book and instructions, John Maxwell said, in your time with God you need some time to just sit and "let God love you." That was a new one for me! That's what verses I read this morning allowed me to do -- sit and bask in the Father's love.

³⁵ Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? ³⁶ (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”) ³⁷ No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.

³⁸ And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,^b]">[b] neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. ³⁹ No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:35-39 NLT)

Me? Humble?

My wife and I talked again yesterday about humility. In part it flows from Paul's word in Philippians to consider others' needs as more important than our own -- to put others first! You can't get much more antithetical than that to a "me first!" culture. Maybe again, that's why humility is clearly one of the most accurate barometers of how we're doing in Christ-likeness. Don't imagine I'll tell you how to become humble! It's kind of like they used to say about being a member of the Brethren Churches. The moment you say "you are" -- you no longer are!

Someone said, you need to fail miserably before you discover how deeply you need God and people -- and the more you need humility in your life. If humility is a barometer, what are its barometers?

• Thinking your opinion or behavior is superior than most others’ opinions or behavior.
• Wanting your own way: even in the stupid, small things of life.
• Arguing on -- even when it's obvious you’re wrong -- or when you are right, acting badly about it.
• Inserting your opinion when its your heart people need to see.
• Forgetting that it is God Who gives you all the stuff and gifts you "possess" and He can also take them away.
• Using “I” much more than "you" in conversations.
• Saying things that smack of “false humility” -- so others will really think you're really humble!
• Making excuses when you get corrected
• Hiding your faults
• Being hurt when others get recognized and you don’t
• Never volunteering to do the menial tasks (or being willing to do them when no one's watching!)

Where are the servants

It strikes me that we "full-time Christians" get so driven to do the ministry rather than equipping others to do it (Ephesians 4:11-17). I wonder -- does that directly short-circuit Christ's transformational process in people -- in developing all Christians to be servants first. ("serve" is the root word for "ministry" in all the languages I know). Instead of servants, we've now got a generation of spectators. Maybe we "full-timers" need to re-visit how deeply interconnected Jesus' ideas of serving, humility and leadership really are. Maybe then we wouldn't be looking so in vain for servants -- and leaders.

Lethargy

Had lunch with Christian; we puzzled on
"lethargy in American Churchianity" --
what's the disease vs. what are the symptoms,
and where are its roots and what are the cures?

Evangelize the Unchurched

Thomas Rainer, in his research of unchurched people, found that:

• 4 out of 10 unchurched people are "highly receptive to what you say about Christ".
  
• 4 out of 10 people who don't know Jesus Christ want to hear: "What must I do to be saved?"
• The majority of unchurched people have never had anyone tell them how to become a Christian.
• Unchurched people indicate they want to have a relationship with a Christian in whom they can see Christ, ask questions, and get better acquainted.

I long for and ask God for the time when I can regularly get with people "outside the 4 walls" (church) and outside of Christ. The temptation for a solo pastor is to stick with what's expected inside the walls. The last week, I've looked for where God might open some doors -- the Chamber of Commerce meeting, 2 hours at the City Mission and their new free medical clinic, a fundraiser, an emergency call to a hospital (I'm an on-call chaplain for patients and families from out of town) -- and a meeting of the "pug club". May God shake us (me!) out of our walls and to the individuals Rainer encountered!

Grace Killers

"The North American Church is at a critical juncture. The gospel of grace is being confused and compromised by silence, seduction, and outright subversion. The vitality of the faith is being jeopardized....the lying slogans of the fixers who carry religion like a sword of judgment pile up with impunity. Let ragamuffins everywhere gather as a confessing Church to cry out in protest. Revoke the licenses of religious leaders who falsify the idea of God. Sentence them to three years in solitude with the Bible as their only companion." Brennan Manning

What good is it for a man to gain the whole world? Luke 9:25

Henri Nouwen writes in his book, With Open Hands, "It is hard to bear with people who stand still along the way, lose heart, and seek their happiness in little pleasures which they cling to....You feel sad about all that self-indulgence and self-satisfaction, for you know with an indestructible certainty that something greater is coming...."

Satan's plan for your life

Summer message series are always tough to plan, with people in and out. But it's time to talk about the enemy, who so wants us American Christians to remain lethargic, even comatose. So, we'll dive in, beginning this week, with "Satan's plan for your life" -- messages will be

July 19 -- He wants you doubting God (Genesis 3:1-7)

July 26 -- He wants you succumbing to temptation (Jesus -- Matthew 4:1-11 and Joseph -- Genesis 39:6-12)

August 2 -- He wants you buying what the world is selling [the desires of the eyes, desires of the flesh, pride of life] (1 John 2:15, 16)

August 9 -- He wants you in a spiritual coma (2 Corinthians 11:2, 3)

Why forgiveness is so tough

C. S. Lewis said, “Everyone says forgiveness is a lovely idea
until they have something to forgive.”

Blaming God

People ruin their lives by their own foolishness and then are angry at the Lord. Proverbs 19:3

Generosity

The current message series (Financial wisdom in tough times) concludes Sunday. Looking at generosity this week (Proverbs 11:24-26, 23) I also came across Psalm 112.

Even in darkness, light dawns for the upright,
for the gracious and compassionate and righteous man.
Good will come to him who is generous and lends freely,
who conducts his affairs with justice.
He will have no fear of bad news;
his heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord.
His heart is secure; he will have no fear;
in the end he will see his desire on his adversaries.
He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor,
his righteousness endures forever;
his horn [dignity] will be lifted high in honor.
- Psalm 112: 4-5, 7-9

Winston Churchill said, "We get to make a living; we give to make a life."

Christ in Print

"On these pages you will find the living Christ and you will see Him more fully and more clearly than if He stood before you, before your very eyes."

Erasmus' preface to his Greek New Testament, quoted in Earl Radmacher, ed. Can We Trust The Bible?

The Power and Freedom of God's Forgiveness

Rosalind Goforth was a missionary to China who, with her husband Jonathan, enjoyed an illustrious career and ministry. For years, even as a faithful missionary, Rosalind was often oppressed by a burden of sin. She felt guilty and dirty, nursing an inward sense of spiritual failure. Finally one evening when, she settled at her desk with Bible and concordance, determined to discover God's attitude toward the failures, the faults, the sins of his children. At the top of the page she wrote: "What God Does With Our Sins". She searched through the Bible and compiled a list of 17 Truths:

1. He lays them on his Son-Jesus Christ. Isaiah 53:6

2. Christ takes them away. John 1:29

3. They are removed an immeasurable distance-as far as East is from West. Psalm 123:12

4. When sought for are not found. Jeremiah 50:20

5. The Lord forgives them. Ephesians 1:7

6. He cleanses them all away by the blood of his son. 1 John 1:7

7. He cleanses them as white as snow or wool. Isaiah 1:18; Psalm 51:7

8. He abundantly pardons them. Isaiah 55:7

9. He tramples them under foot. Micah 7:19

10. He remembers them no more. Hebrews 10:17

11. He casts them behind his back. Isaiah 38:17

12. He casts them into the depths of the sea. Micah 7:19

13. He will not impute us with sins. Romans 4:8

14. He covers them. Romans 4:7

15. He blots them out. Isaiah 43:25

16. He blots them out as a thick cloud. Isaiah 44:22

17. He blots out even the proof against us, nailing it to His Son's Cross. Colossians 2:14

G. K. Chesterton said, "God paints in many colors,
but he never paints so gorgeously as when he paints in white."

Small Groups

This Summer, we've planned for each of Trinity's Strategy Team members to lead a new small group in the Fall. For growth in others as well as in us, Patty and I will offer God: As He Longs for You to See Him. I can't wait!

A.W. Tozer said, "What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. Worship is pure or base as the worshiper entertains high or low thoughts of God. We tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God."

This study will help us learn and apply the Truth God declares about Himself and what He's like -- specifically seven of His attributes. Included are videos, discussion guides and books, centering on:

• Is Your God Too Small?
• The Goodness of God
• The Sovereignty of God
• The Holiness of God
• The Wisdom of God
• The Justice of God
• The Faithfulness of God
• The Love of God