'Be Jesus'

This phrase "Be Jesus to the world around you" has been getting under my skin lately. Not necessarily in a bad way, just in a sense of--well--I have just grown more cautious to it. This is a phrase that requires careful consideration and examination. I guess you could say that sometimes this phrase scares the bejesus out of me. My apologies. Terrible joke. Anyway, the way I see it...there are two ways to go about looking at this phrase. First of all, we must understand that you will not find the words "be Jesus to the world around you..." anywhere in Scripture...but you will find the concept if looking in the right context. If by "Being Jesus" you are implying that others should be able to imitate you as you imitate Christ, then it is a worthy cause and the phrase is used appropriately. Basically, you are striving to give the world a visual model to look to...you are shining the light of Christ in a dark world. This is exactly what Christ talked about when He said that we should be as a city on a hill...the light of the world. Paul urges the Corinthians to be "imitators of me as I imitate Christ." This is a very biblical concept that should be lived out by believers. The problem with the phrase comes when people begin to convince people that they are the Christ. Most of the time, this is a very unintentional thing. They begin to take on this role of Messiah to people. They begin to send mixed signals (not on purpose) that the people around them will never be saved without them. This is where the lines blur and confusion sets in. I remember in my later years of high school...I had a friend that I was bringing to church. I desperately wanted to be a good influence on her...but my desire to be a good influence turned into a Messiah-Complex...I thought, "She will never be saved without me." This is where I took "be Jesus" too far. We are not trying to confuse people into thinking that we are Jesus...we are trying to point them to Christ with our lives. I have seen students take this phrase and use it to be the "be-all-end-all" righteous judge of their peers. So, youth pastors, if we use this phrase...please be extra cautious and explain it well. I have to tip my hat to my cousin Chris, he explained it well by quoting Paul's words to the Corinthians. Basically, help your students see it in the right context, as with everything in Scripture. With real estate, it's all about location, location, location. When it comes to theology, it's all about context, context, context.

Thy will be done...

I am re-reading the book, "The Reason for God," and my eyes are opened wider each time I read it. When I line this book up with scripture and modern thinking, I find it to be filled with truth from God. In the book, Tim Keller quotes C.S. Lewis and it really made me think. Lewis, in summary, says that there are really only two kind of people in the world. There are those that say, "Your will be done," to God. Then there are those to whom God says, "Your will be done." The atheists delusion is that if they glorified God, they would somehow lose power and freedom, but in a supreme and tragic irony, their choice ruins their own potential for greatness. Hell is, as CS Lewis says, "the greatest monument to human freedom." In the end, God gives people what they most want--whether that be their desires or Him.

God--The Maker

The Sun. The Moon. The Stars. The Skies. Did you or I create these things? The Mountains. The Forests. Rain. Wind. Did you or I create these things? The Animals that tread the land. The animals that swim in the seas and oceans. Man. Woman. Did you or I create these things? No we did not. If you are a follower of Christ, you believe that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and in six days (with a 7th day of rest) He created all of these other things. So, if YOU or I did not create these things, and we believe God created them, who gave us the right to tell God who He is? We have adopted this poisonous “My God. My Rules,” belief in the Church today.  We say things such as, “I don’t believe in that part of the Bible.” We continue on with things such as, “Well that part was just their culture and is not relevant for today.” We have fallen into this arrogant belief system that our culture has advanced so far that some things do not apply to us anymore. Let’s shift gears for a second. Some of us believe in this way, “This is the way it has been since I was a child, so it must be true,” or “This is what my parents believe, so it must be the truth.” We try to humanize the God of the Universe. We dismiss commandments of God as suggestions. When the Bible says “Go into all the world…” we say, “That’s for the missionaries.” When the Bible says, “Make disciples of all nations…baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit…” we say, “That’s for the Pastors.” When the Bible says to train up your children in the ways of Christ…in things such as prayer, we say “We need to vote so that the school’s can teach them how to pray.”
    When we take the word of God and cut away at some of it to fit into our mold we have rejected the ENTIRE word of God. The word of God comes as a package deal, not a plan with options. If you have taken bits and pieces of the word of God and applied them but dismissed others, I’d like to welcome you to the Gospel of Personal Preference. This is not the gospel of Christ. This is not belief in Christ. This is a selfish, prideful, arrogant belief system that is serving no one but the Enemy that demands repentance. These ideologies have spread like wildfire among young and old believers alike. People who claim that they are followers of the Way have begun to try and squeeze God into their mold. Last time I checked the word of God, we were made in His image, not vice versa. It was God who knew us even before we were in our mother’s womb. It is only God who is good and righteous, not us. The Bible says that “no one is righteous...not one.” Who are we to try and create God in our image. When has a clay pot ever molded the potter? When has a painting ever created an artist? When has a building ever drawn out the plans for an architect? When has anything created ever been able to limit their creator? Never. Not in the past. Not in present. Not in the future. God CANNOT fit into our self-righteous molds. To try to contain God is like a flea trying to hold back a lion…it can’t be done. To try to contain God is to place yourself on a pedestal higher than God. If you place yourself, your opinions, or your so-called beliefs, your comfort on this pedestal higher than God then you have just fallen into idolatry…and what a hard, painful fall it will be. Have no other gods before me. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Christianity and Peach Preserves

     I have been reading, quite literally all day, Bob George's "Classic Christianity." At the rate I am going, I should be done with the book by this weekend at which point I will give a complete review. However, I wanted to share one part of the book which has finally explained what I have been feeling about faith in a very simple and yet profound way. I have been feeling lately, as I study scripture, that we are giving an incomplete gospel to people when we merely preach accept Jesus and ask forgiveness. It seems that we may even be teaching believe Jesus and fix yourself. But the gospel is not simply about being forgiven and going to heaven. The gospel is about new life. George had this (in summary) to say about preaching a half-gospel...
     The process of canning is an excellent illustration of the two parts of the gospel. Let's say you are going to preserve some peaches, what is the first thing you have to do? Sterilize the jars. Imagine a husband walks into his home and his wife is boiling jars. He asks her what she is doing and she replies, "Sterilizing jars." He then asks what she plans to do with the sterilized jars and she replies, "Keep them clean." That does not make sense right? The only reason one would sterilize jars is to fill them with something. We would not expect a person to be apart of simply half of the canning process by only sterilizing jars. However, this is what we do with the gospel! We have separated God's sterilizing process--the cross--from His filling process--Christ coming to live in us through His resurrection. By separating the forgiveness of sin from the message of receiving the life of Christ, we have not only missed out on life, but also on the purpose of forgiveness in the first place. The reason one sterilizes a jar is to prevent spoiling in the preserves. The reason God had to deal with sin once and for all was so that we could be filled with Christ "without spoiling." As a matter of fact, there is one more step after sterilizing and filling--sealing. After sterilizing the jars and filling them with preserves they are sealed. Sealing keeps the good things inside and keep the bad things from entering. The scriptures say that having believed in Him, we have been marked with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit. Cleansing, filling, and sealing is a wonderful picture of the full picture of salvation. Once we see that the whole purpose is not simply forgiveness, but bringing the dead to life, it is easy to see why Christ had to deal with sin issue once and for all.
     All throughout the Bible, from the Old to the New Testament, there is one theme that runs throughout and that is new life--restoration and resurrection. Don't miss out on the life Christ wants to live through you. 

When Creation Sings...

Lately, I have been spending a lot of time in my own personal sanctuary a.k.a my back porch that overlooks Cort's grandfather's pasture. I spend time reading and thinking, and then the sunset catches my eye. In moments like these my reading and thinking seems to move to the back of my mind and in the forefront it is replaced by a very simple, effortless worship. This morning (for clarification--mostly for my dad--I reflected on what I had seen the night before), I even wrote my own personal "psalm" about the beauty of God's creation and how it reflects the beauty of our great God, who created it all. One of the lines in the song is, "When creation sings it sets a mind to wandering. How can you have love for one like me?" In these sunset moments, I feel so small. When I think about the vastness of the stars and skies, the sun and moon, the entirety of the universe, I am overwhelmed with praise because God is still mindful of wretches like me. When creation sings, my heart echoes the song.

Moderately Christian

C.S. Lewis said, "Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important." The Scriptures address the issues of casual Christianity numerous times, and elaborate on the strong consequences of one who claims Christ but follows self. We see examples in Revelation in the letter written to the church at Laodicia, also in the Gospels when Christ presumably turns away potential followers on multiple occasions by making them count the cost of following Him. Now, think about Lewis' statement...there is no casual Christianity. To be casually Christian is to be fully hypocritical. This is the danger in selling Christianity like a high-pressure time-share. We offer this awesome vacation next to a crystal sea and golden roads if we will just 'accept Jesus right now'. I am a Southern Baptist, and this is a very hot topic right now. David Platt brought this to light, and I tend to agree with him for the most part. I fear we are selling people a faith built on sinking sand rather than a solid foundation. Let me summarize this post...IF YOU ARE CASUALLY CHRISTIAN...RETHINK YOUR SO-CALLED FAITH.

Content in Christ

A few years ago, a sunset was merely a sunset and nothing more. Tonight, I walked through my new yard hand in hand with my beautiful pregnant wife and looked at the sunset. In that brief moment, I did a quick reflection on my life. I used to think that like was about how many treasures I stored up here. It's funny how God works sometimes...this morning I taught 1 Timothy 5&6 in Sunday School. In 1 Timothy 6, the Word says...
     "But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.
    But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness."

God has blessed me so richly in my life. I have a roof over my head, food to eat, and clothing. He has blessed me with an amazing Godly family and in-laws. I have been given a beautiful, loving wife and a beautiful soon-to-be born daughter. Most of all, I have been given the greatest gift of all--the grace that comes from Christ Jesus. Because it is God that has blessed me so much, I am going to pursue God.

And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”

This is the only way to live with perfect contentment.