Choosing apathy or faith?

 

I think I first read the following line in Peanuts, the cartoon strip - "Blessed is the man who expects nothing for he will never be disappointed!"  There is a lot of truth in that statement, but giving up hope to avoid disappointment is a not a choice I’m willing to make.

·         Love is a risk, but I love anyway!   

·         Prayer can be a mystery, especially when we’re asking for the 'impossible.'  God seems to ignore us at times. Yet, I continue to pray.

·         Taking on a big project can result in a big failure instead of the success we hoped for. But, I’m going to keep on trying.  

Some might see those choices as unwise, but I see them as expressions of faith. What we need most on those days when disappointment shows up is faith that leads us to deeply trust in our Father’s care. “But, Jerry, God didn’t cause this problem. My ____________ did!”  You can fill in that blank with ‘my own stupidity,’ ‘my ex-wife,’ ‘my kids,’ ‘my boss,’ … and it may be true. Choices of others and even our own best intentions create unforeseen results.  But, God knew and He’s bigger than your present situation.  He knows the steps I will take today, but at the same time, He does not make me (or anyone else) a robot. He invites us to walk in His will and He allows us to sin against Him, against others, against ourselves.  He also is perfectly capable of working in all those choices, good and bad, to bring us to maturity. We have this promise: "the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will. And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." (Romans 8:27-28, NIV)

Faith allows us to live with joy and acceptance of circumstances beyond our control. It demands the humility of a child, a choice to take each day to our “Abba,” profoundly trusting His purposes and plans. When disappointment comes, we tend to ask: "How could You allow this to happen to me?"  Let me suggest a slightly different prayer: "Lord, reveal why You’re allowing this to happen to me." The Bible says, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will direct your paths." NLT Proverbs 3:5-6

In this broken world, full of sin and hatred, of war and of uncertainty about tomorrow those who trust in the Lord will be people of hope. Theirs is not a naive hope that refuses reality. They are blessed with hope that trusts in God's promise to make all things right. And so we pray, ever more earnestly, "May your Kingdom come, and Your will be done - on earth, as it is in Heaven." Amen.

AA taught me the Serenity Prayer.  If you’re struggling with disappointment today, make it your own.

“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next. Amen.”
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O Love That Will Not Let Me Go

O love that will not let me go,

I rest my weary soul in Thee.

I give Thee back the life I owe,

That in Thine ocean depths its flow,

May richer fuller be.

O joy that seekest me through pain,

I cannot close my heart to Thee.

I trace the rainbow through the rain,

And feel the promise is not vain,

That morn shall tearless be.

Matheson, George / Peace, Albert Lister

© Public Domain

New and Improved

NEW! IMPROVED! Those words are prominently displayed on various products, promising us that designers worked hard to make what we already like even better. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

Anybody remember the famous flop of the 'new' Coca Cola back in 1985? After a major marketing failure, Coke brought back 'classic' Coke.  Microsoft brings out a 'new and improved' operating system every now and then. It seems to me that they get it right only about every other time!  Vista was not that great, but Windows 7 is a major step forward.

There is one thing that never needs improving, that we must not try to make 'new.'  The Gospel of Christ Jesus is a 'finished work.' From age to age, culture to culture, person to person - He is the same, unchanging, and trustworthy. As He died on the Cross, reconciling Creation to the Creator, He breathed the words, "It is finished!" John tells us "knowing that all was now completed ... Jesus said, "It is finished." With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit." (John 19:30, NIV) He was not saying, "I'm done in, beaten, dying!" He proclaimed that He had completed the mission of satisfying the just demands of a holy God, making it possible for us to be true sons.

The letter to the Hebrews speaks of the finality of the work of Christ Jesus. Unlike the priests of the first covenant who offered sacrifices for the sins of the people year after year, Jesus "entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption." (Hebrews 9:12, NIV)  What He accomplished cannot be improved. "As a priest, Christ made a single sacrifice for sins, and that was it! Then he sat down right beside God and waited for his enemies to cave in. It was a perfect sacrifice by a perfect person to perfect some very imperfect people. By that single offering, he did everything that needed to be done for everyone who takes part in the purifying process." (Hebrews 10:12-14, The Message)

Disciple, I make much of this today. There will be those who try to bring a 'new and improved' Gospel to you. They will claim their additions are necessary to stay 'relevant' to the time, that they have found a new truth that will unlock the mysteries of God, that their message is the truth for this era. Don't believe it!  Christ finished the work of our salvation and there is but one thing for us to do:  accept Him in full faith. The Gospel is "Christ has died. Christ has risen. Christ will come again!"  This is our creed, our hope, our confession.

Here's the word from the Word. Meditate on it for a few moments today. Then give thanks that He has done for us what we could never do for ourselves, that He did not leave  the work incomplete, but gives us a finished work.

"Don't let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ. For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority. When you came to Christ, you were "circumcised," but not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision-the cutting away of your sinful nature. For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. And with him you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead." (Colossians 2:8-12, NLT)

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Mystery

Sweet Jesus Christ my sanity

Sweet Jesus Christ my clarity

Bread of heaven broken for me

Cup of Salvation held out to drink

Jesus mystery

Christ has died and

Christ is risen

Christ will come again

Celebrate His death and rising

Lift your eyes proclaim His coming

Celebrate His death and rising

Lift your eyes lift your eyes

Christ has died and

Christ is risen

Christ will come again

© 2008 worshiptogether.com songs | sixsteps Music (Admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing) | (Admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing)

Charlie Hall

CCLI License No. 810055

“Radical Gospel?”

Casual, uncommitted Christians populate the Church. Many ‘sin and grin’ acknowledging their failure to live a holy life with a wink, occasionally feeling a passing pang of guilt. Of their lives they say,  “Normal human behavior,” and they are right. What of the call of the Father to keep step with the Spirit?  Do those who allow sin to clutter their soul really know Christ? As a shepherd of God’s flock, the question is not academic to me. Not a day passes that I am not conscious that I will stand before my Shepherd to give an account for the way I led and taught. My work has eternal consequences!

I admit to sometimes being strongly tempted to follow the path of ‘scared straight!’ Remember that tactic used with juvenile delinquents? Kids that were heading for trouble were taken to prisons where tough men shouted at them, described prison life in vivid detail, and told the kids how eager they were to have them join them in the big house. The goal was to frighten the kid so much that he would change course. The results were marginal, as most kids shrugged off the threats, convinced that they were somehow different, that it could not happen to them. As a preacher sometimes I wonder if I should preach more Hell, if I ought to adopt the tone of an Old Testament prophet!

But, I am dedicated to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In Galatians we learn of a group of Christians who decided to mix their rules with the Gospel. The result was "turning away … from God, who called you to himself through the loving mercy of Christ. You are following a different way that pretends to be the Good News but is not the Good News at all. You are being fooled by those who deliberately twist the truth concerning Christ." (Galatians 1:6-7, NLT)  Making religious laws and coercing people to keep them produces behavioral change, but not mature disciples of Christ. “Holiness” that is based on style of dress, attendance at church, levels of giving, avoiding certain kinds of entertainment, and controls on daily life looks great from the outside - - for a while, but then the hidden rot of an unchanged heart bubbles to the surface and the ‘disciple’ often disappears from the church, ashamed of his inability to ‘be as good’ as those who play the game better than he does.

The Word says that a “Christianity” based on religious rules is Christ-less and is no gospel at all. The true Gospel that makes us right with God is centered on Christ. The Scripture says that "regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence. Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things." (Colossians 2:23-3:2, NIV)

Are you committed to a radical Gospel?

Are you courageous enough to completely trust Christ to save you completely from your sin?

The Gospel does save. Christ does transform sinners to saints. Holiness that comes from an inside out change is real. So I will preach Christ with the goal of leading people to love Him wholly, until they "reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ." (Ephesians 4:13, NIV)

Here’s the word from the Word.  "I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.” (Romans 1:16-18, NIV)

Has to be ‘inside out’

The discussion I enjoyed with the young man was fascinating. He was a churched kid, well taught in the Scripture, knowledgeable of the traditions of Christianity. He is morally upright and in comparison to most of his peers, would seem to be a saint! Yet, he somehow senses there is more, that for all his goodness he cannot claim a rock solid assurance that he is God’s child. He was a little like the man who came to Jesus asking how to inherit eternal life. When Jesus asked him about his observance of the Commandments, he responded: “I’ve kept them all for as long as I can remember.”  (Luke 18:21, The Message) Since the Lord did not challenge his claim, I believe he was being truthful. He was scrupulously moral, yet he did not know God as his “Abba,” his real Father.

Jesus told that righteous man he had to go and sell all he had, because the Lord knew it would break him, reveal to him the one thing he could not do on his own. God brings everyone of us, in one way or another, to the end of ourselves. It is not because He is the Divine Sadist, enjoying our misery. It is because He desires that we will open our mind and heart to Him, faithfully receiving what we can never earn or gain. It’s a transformation that comes from the inside out, by revelation, instigated by the Spirit of God acting on us. We are not passive. In the mystery of His plan, He asks us to answer His gift of grace with faith.

Paul describes this as the ‘foolishness of the Gospel.’ It takes away any reason for pride, any hope that we have in our own discipline, intelligence, or heritage. At the Cross, the rich and the poor, the young and the old, the royal and the commoner, those morally upright and those whose lives are a drama of self-destruction – stand on level ground. "We neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing." (Ephesians 2:10, The Message)

The Christian life is an ‘inside out’ transformation. God does look for change. The things we once love should lose their appeal as we come to love Him. As we ‘keep in step with the Spirit’ we will learn to say yes to love, forgiveness, and generosity;  no to self and sensual indulgence.  Jesus was not compromising on the truth. If we claim a revelation of God’s grace, then there will be new life in us. That new life shows up in ever increasing measure. "By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit." (Matthew 7:16-18, NIV)

Have you been broken?

Are you desperate for the love of your Abba?

Don’t insult Him by pointing out how good you’ve been or how much you have sacrificed in pursuing Him! Rather, thank Him for His amazing love. Invite the Spirit to overflow. Worship humbly, listen intently, wait for Him. And, He will come to you.

Here’s a word from the Word.

"I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry.
He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.

He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord.
Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust, who does not look to the proud,
to those who turn aside to false gods." (Psalm 40:1-4, NIV)

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Like a foolish dreamer,
trying to build a highway to the sky
All my hopes would come tumbling down,
and I never knew just why
Until today, when you pulled away the clouds
that hung like curtains on my eyes
Well I've been blind all these wasted years

and I thought I was so wise
But then you took me by surprise

Like waking up from the longest dream,

how real it seemed
Until your love broke through
I've been lost in a fantasy,

that blinded me
Until your love broke through

All my life I've been searching

for that crazy missing part
And with one touch,

you just rolled away the stone that held my heart
And now I see that the answer

was as easy, as just asking you in
And I am so sure I could never doubt

your gentle touch again
It's like the power of the wind

Like waking up from the longest dream,

how real it seemed
Until your love broke through
I've been lost in a fantasy,

that blinded me
Until your love broke through.

-       Copyright, Keith Green

Band of Brothers

In 2001, a TV mini-series called “Band of Brothers” aired. It is great television, one of a rare few productions worth seeing again and again. It is the story of Easy Company of the US Army 101st Airborne division and their mission in WWII Europe from Operation Overlord through V-J Day. Malarkey, Nixon, Winters, and Roe were from completely differing backgrounds but they became brothers under fire. The men who told the stories that are the basis of this docu-drama remained friends through the decades that followed WWII. They were connected in a way that went beyond blood bonds, beyond mere association. They treasured the ties that had been formed in those terrible years.

God gave us a treasure that few disciples value as they should. It is sometime neglected, sometimes ignored all together, often criticized, and a few reject it completely. Only after time do the results of those choices show up in life. I’m talking about the Church, the fellowship of Believers! In Acts 2:42, we read that the first disciples “devoted themselves to the fellowship.”  The NT word is “koinonia” and takes in much more than simply going to a worship service on Sunday morning! “Two fellows in a ship” was the way a Sunday School teacher helped me to remember it. Koinonia is about creating life together, staying in touch, helping one another out, laughing and crying with each other. "All the members care for each other. If one … suffers, all … suffer, and if one … is honored, all … are glad." (1 Corinthians 12:25-26, NLT)

A church ought to be a kind of band of brothers (and sisters), with a connection so strong that nothing of earth or the spirit realm can tear it apart. The Scripture calls it ‘the unity of the Spirit.’  This kind of fellowship (think, ‘koinonia’) never happens without real effort, investment of time and resource, and willingness to love in a way that goes way past Hallmark sentiment! But, what a rich return on that investment. When things are going well for us we have almost no appreciation for the value of the church. When life goes awry, it is often too late to try to create the relationships that keep us going through the storm.

• Are you building ‘koinonia’ in your church?  
• Are you making ‘the fellowship’ one of life’s highest priorities, making connections that will last for life, connecting your kids to a way of life that makes building connections with other disciples something they do almost naturally?
• Are you sacrificing Self to build up the Body of Christ?  Let me be clear – this is not about making some program more successful or feeding the pastor’s ego. This is about the family of God.

Here’s the word from the Word. May it challenge us to move beyond just ‘going to church,’ to a life of real koinonia that encourages us to be mature, effective, fruitful, and secure followers of Christ Jesus.

"And mark that you do this with humility and discipline—not in fits and starts, but steadily, pouring yourselves out for each other in acts of love, alert at noticing differences and quick at mending fences. You were all called to travel on the same road and in the same direction, so stay together, both outwardly and inwardly." (Ephesians 4:2-4, The Message)

“At the center of all this, Christ rules the church. The church, you see, is not peripheral to the world; the world is peripheral to the church. The church is Christ’s body, in which he speaks and acts, by which he fills everything with his presence.”  (Ephesians 1:22-23 The Message)
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