Month: March 2014

Categories
Christian Living

My Un-Righteous Life

I wish I could say I that I was a good person. But unfortunately this is not true. Now it is true that if I decide to compare myself to others, I find that if I choose the right people to compare myself to, I can make myself feel pretty good. I just have to make sure to pick comparison people who don’t make me feel bad.

But in reality, it doesn’t matter who I compare myself to… Because the only real standard is Jesus. And when I compare myself to Him, I always come up un-righteous.

But fortunately I don’t have to stay there.
God has made a change in me through Jesus, and He has brought me into His family. Now I’m one of the “called out ones.”

“The called out ones.” The word is plural. Believers, therefore, are placed in community with others for one reason: because God has called them out of their former ways of life. Everyone in the community is deeply sinful. Everyone is called by the same God. And everyone has been mercifully placed in community together. So why pretend we’re more than we are if everything is built on Jesus’ righteousness and not our own? Why the need to be fake? The gospel frees us to be authentic, to admit that our struggles and strengths have not been fully sanctified, and to allow others to apply the grace of God to areas of our lives that desperately need it. When community is honest and authentic, people begin to experience freedom from wearing a mask, because Jesus sets people free from the need to be hypocrites.
        We all possess the same amount of righteousness — none.
The only righteousness any of us have is the righteousness God freely gives to us in Christ.

And it is because of that righteousness that I get to be a part of His family. The community we find in His family is one that brings freedom. I now have freedom and liberation to be myself. I am no longer forced to find people to whom I have to compare just so I can feel good about myself. Knowing that I have a righteousness before God through Jesus brings me an amazing sense of satisfaction and joy.

You can have that same joy, liberation, and satisfaction.
Seek out His righteousness and His community.

(How has your relationship with God given you a sense of freedom?)

Categories
Relationships

Designed for Community, pt. 2

As I mentioned previously, you were designed for community.

You were designed to have both an intimate relationship with God and intimate relationships with others. Without both, you will never find complete satisfaction in life. Here’s another great quote on community from “Creature of the Word”

…The reason most community is shallow in our world is because it’s built on temporary foundations. The reason most relationships don’t last is because they’re built on commonalities that change over time.
When the common bond changes, the relationship changes. If you’re married, you see this happen immediately when you have kids. You once had friends you would hang out with late at night, but now you can’t do that. Even if you get a babysitter, you’re not staying up till 1:00 in the morning, because your kids are waking up at 6:50 and you’ll be exhausted.

If you play sports with a group of guys, and if nothing deeper than your love of basketball binds you together, that community will weaken and likely disappear if you blow out a knee and can’t play anymore. If relationships aren’t built on something deeper than finding good restaurants, working at the same company, or having kids in the same activities, they will change whenever the common bond is no longer there. Community is only as strong as what it’s built upon. And nothing is as strong as the gospel.

The gospel is the deepest foundation for community. What connects believers is the reality that we were all very messed-up people, broken before a holy God, yet rescued and given new life in Christ. What unites believers is deeper than anything that can divide.

A unity that is deeper than anything that can divide.

That’s what I want.
That’s what I long for.
That’s what I need.

A community built on the strongest foundation.
A community built on the gospel.

Make sure that you are a part of that community!

(How have you found this to be true? How have you found that the community you have with others through the gospel is deeper than anything that can divide?)

Categories
Relationships

Designed for Community

The Purpose for Life… What is it?
What is your purpose for life?
Could you verbalize it if someone asked?

I don’t know what you have chosen as your purpose for living, but I do know what you were designed for… Relationships.
Connectedness.
Community.

We all want to connect.
We all desire community.
But how will we get this community that we crave?guys cooking on a big grill to signify relationships and community

We find little connections all the time – at the ballgame with fellow fans, at the office with our co-workers, with our neighbors at the barbeque. But isn’t there a deeper connection we can find?

I love how this is explained in “Creature of the Word” as the authors discuss the early church of Philippi:

So the little growing church in Philippi was now home to people like this: a Wealthy, upscale businesswoman… a slave girl with a deep, dark, wounded past… a tough-nosed jailer and his family…. What else did these people have in common but the gospel? They never would have gone to the same restaurants, hung out in the same parts of town, or listened to the same music. But because God had radically transformed them, they shared a common bond deeper than anything that divided them. They were together only because of the gospel.

Together only because of the gospel….
You see, you were created for an intimate relationship with God and others.
It is the only thing that’ll satisfy completely.

Leave one or the other out, and you’ll still be missing a part of the community that you need.

What we find out is that the gospel is the only thing that can truly put us together in real community. It is what we were designed for.

Categories
Christian Living

My Independent, Private, Personal Faith

burst pipeWhen you have a burst pipe under the house… you call in the expert – a plumber.
When your car won’t start… you call in the expert – a mechanic.
When someone sues you… you call in the expert – a lawyer.
When you have a major health concern… you call in the expert – a doctor.

And when you have a theological crisis… you call in the expert…no… wait… nevermind… instead you begin thinking: “I don’t need someone to tell me about belief… I don’t need someone to instruct me about faith… I might not like their take on it… I am more than sufficient to make my own decision… I am the expert.”

It is funny how in so much of life we know that we need help by those who have been trained in areas of specific expertise, but when it comes to the matter of faith, we decide that we are always sufficient and do not need anyone else’s help.

Now don’t get me wrong, you have the same Holy Spirit available to you as Mr. Distinguished Theology Professor at the Super-Duper Preacher School (sidenote – I was unable to get accepted into that school). But while we do have the Holy Spirit available, the truth is that discipleship does not occur in a vacuum. We need others to aid us in spiritual growth. But that ain’t the American way.

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We are so very independent. We don’t want anyone telling us what to do. That is why there is usually a bunch of trash piled up under the signs that say “No Dumping.” We think, “Who are you to tell me I can’t put my trash here? I’ll show you!” (Dump.)

And in the same way, we don’t want anyone telling us how to live out our faith. That is one of the problems with calling it a “Personal relationship with Jesus.” It is personal, in that Jesus saves us individually. But again, discipleship does not occur in a vacuum. The disciples were trained by Jesus. The early church was discipled by the apostles. The people in the churches were to be discipled by the pastors and elders. In the same way that “iron sharpens iron” or a metal file sharpens an axe, we are to sharpen one another. We are told to hold each other accountable for godly behavior.

The phrase “‘Personal relationship with Jesus Christ…’ could give the impression that the Christian faith is private—‘just between you and God.’ For while our faith is indeed very personal, it is definitely not private. Private Christian faith is an oxymoron.” (from ‘Creature of the Word’ by Matt Chandler)

We each want to create a system of belief and faith that is easy and palatable to us. The problem is… that just isn’t Jesus’ plan. His plan costs your life and is to be lived out in community under accountability to the rest of the faith family.

So when you consider your own personal faith, just make sure your “Personal relationship with Jesus Christ” leads you into the accountability of a Faith Family that holds you accountable to deeper and deeper levels of God-honoring thought, speech, and behavior.

Categories
Relationships

Being Sick, But Acting Healthy

Apologies all around to those who expect to see a post from me at least once a week!
In fact, I like to post something at least a couple of times a week, but this is my first post in exactly two weeks. No excuses other than just got too busy!

Who goes to the hospital? Those who know they are not well. Those who are sick. a stethoscope symbolizing the idea of being sick Other than the medical staff, other employees, and visitors, the healthy folk generally try to avoid hospitals. Jesus said that He did not come for the healthy, but for those who knew they were unhealthy and needed help.

That leads me to think that churches should be very open to those who know they are spiritually unhealthy. So why is it that we often find church to be a place where it is not okay to be anything less than perfect?

“The Church must be a place where it is okay not to be okay. The culture of the Church needs to be a safe place for the weary, weak, and wobbly. Of all places, we should welcome those who are honest about their burdens, frustrations, and pitfalls. Our people cannot be honest about their shortcomings in the marketplace. The Church provides the release valve of grace that we all desperately need, leadership included.

“It is far too common for the church to expend precious energies masquerading and upholding images rather than walking in transparency and authenticity. Ministry is messy because life is messy, and nobody is excluded from the mess. If it is not okay not to be okay in a church, then what are we doing? Where is the gospel? The hope we have in Christ is that it is okay not to be okay, but that He is leading us to greater levels of health and maturity.”
(‘Creature of the Word’ by Matt Chandler)

We are all… not okay.
We are all… not healthy.
We are all… in need of a Great Physician.

And yet… we try to hide this truth from one another so often… even at church.
Let us always remember that “The church…is a hospital in which nobody is completely well, and anyone can relapse at any time” (J.I. Packer).

Let us have grace for one another in our sickness, longing for the day of wholeness from the touch of God’s healing hand.