Just Try Harder???

Many times in my life when I have been struggling in a certain area, I have been advised to just try harder to be holy. I grit my teeth and determine that I will not do that thing again but before long, I find myself right back where I started. It seems like the harder I try not to sin, the more I end up sinning.

Last week I was reading in the book of Acts where Paul comes to the city of Ephesus and finds out that the people only knew of the baptism of John. He explains that the baptism of John was for repentance but that there was another baptism into Jesus that they needed to know about (19:1-7). Now, I am pretty sure he was not worried about what ritual they performed, what words were spoken, or how they got wet. He wanted them to understand a foundational fact about salvation. Namely, that salvation does not come from trying to be a better person; it comes from knowing and following a better person.

John’s baptism was all about trying harder. Repent you brood of vipers… That kind of thing. There was no grace. There was no forgiveness. There was just a harsh call to try harder. There was no hope. When Jesus came, things changed. He came to show us we can’t be good enough no matter how hard we try. He came to die in our place and take the punishment for our sin. He came to bring grace not rules. The message of Jesus could not have been more different than that of John.

I am not saying that Jesus told us we could do any sinful thing we want. I am saying HE made provision for our failures and offered to lead us in the ways of righteousness. HE could have been like John and said, “go do better.” Instead HE said, “Come follow ME.” There is a huge difference between rules and relationship. John said “don’t do this or that or God will smite thee…” Jesus said, “don’t do that because it will destroy you and harm our relationship.” I am much less likely to sin when I focus on my relationship with JESUS rather than concentrating on not sinning. After all , the more I think about not sinning, the more I am thinking about sin. When I replace the thought of sin with love for JESUS I am much more likely to live a holy life.

I want to move from the religious baptism of repentance to the life giving relationship of grace. I want to graduate from trying to following. I want to go from fear of GOD to relationship with GOD. After all, fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, not the end.

Go Out Among Them AND Be Ye Separate

There seems to be an eternal struggle among followers of Jesus. I know there are many disagreements and theological arguments but there is one big behavioral diving line. That line seems to be between those who feel we should “come out from among them (sinners) and be ye separate” and those who believe we should be “in the world but not of it.” Which of these verses resonate with us in the strongest way, determines how we live out our faith.

If the first verse resonates with our spirits, we want to be holy and so we pull away from everyone who does not follow Jesus (not to mention those who do not follow Jesus the way we do). We form Christian alteratives to everything and pretty soon don’t know anyone who is not already a follower. Evangelism becomes going out on the streets and telling the sinners what is wrong with them.

The problem is that the first verse is Old Testament. Of course it is still inspired scripture but Jesus came to fulfill the OT. That means all of the Old Testament must be filtered through His words. It was Jesus who prayed that we would be in the world but not of it. He did not want us to physically separate from those who do not yet follow Him. He wanted us to engage them. To work with them, befriend them, love them. Evangelism is doing life with people who don’t know Jesus and explaining to them why He makes a difference in our lives along the way. Of course we keep our hearts pure in the process. But remember holiness is being set aside for a purpose, not just being set apart. The purpose is to change the world. We can’t do that from the commune.

This all jumped out at me recently when I was studying about Paul planting the church in Corinth. Corinth was the sin city of it’s day. It was THE commercial and business center of ancient Greek. It was the center of worship of Aphrodite, the goddess of love. They had a temple there with 1,000 temple prostitutes. Going to church consisted of sleeping with one of them (talk about a user friendly church). There was a saying at the time, “not every man can afford a trip to Corinth.” When Greeks did a play and wanted to bring in a character from Corinth, the actor always had to act drunk. It was the kind of city that made any God fearing person sick. But when Paul arrived, he did not run away. He stayed a year and a half. He wrote letters, he kept coming back. In other words, he engaged the culture. Instead of opening a church door and saying, “come in when you are ready to behave” he lived among the people and built relationships with them before they were ready to change.

If we avoid all the “sinners” out there, who will reach them? It won’t be the guy on the street. Overwhelmingly people start following Jesus because of other Jesus followers they know, not because of strangers.
They reason most people think Christians are judgmental gay bashers is that they don’t personally know any Christians. Who will change that perception? Who will go out among them AND be separate?

Go After Jesus

Hey, for anyone who is interested, there is a new video of a talk I did recently on this blog page. Click on the video window in the right sidebar and check it out. It is about how one person can accomplish so much more than they ever thought possible if they will just worry about pursuing Jesus.

Effective and Fruitful

For many years I have taught that there are two reasons for our existence. More specifically, there is a reason for our existence and a reason that we continue to live on this earth. We exist to know and love YOU, LORD. But we are still here on earth to lead others toward knowing YOU. If the only purpose was to know YOU, why don’t we immediately go to be with YOU when we get saved? Why leave us here? As I was reading 2 Pet 1:8 today, I saw these two parts or purposes clearly. Peter tells us, “If these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Peter is saying that there is still a reason for us to be here once we know YOU. While we are still here, we are expected to be effective and fruitful.

So what kind of fruit are we to bear? Is Peter talking about spiritual fruit? No, he just listed the qualities we normally associate with spiritual fruit (Vv. 5-7) and told us that those qualities are to keep us from being ineffective and unfruitful. So this fruit must be leading more people toward YOU. Once we come to know YOU, it is no longer just about YOU and us. It is about YOU, us, and everyone else.

Of course to lead others toward knowing YOU, we must develop the qualities that Peter listed. We need faith, virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection, and love (Vv. 5-7). If we focus on knowing You. Your Holy Spirit will produce these qualities in us. And the natural outgrowth of knowing You and growing in these qualities is bearing fruit, leading others toward YOU. Lord, I want to fulfill both my purposes. I want to be effective and fruitful.

New Book Chapter

Hey everyone,

I just added another chapter to my “book.” Go check it out at www.thetab.wordpress.com. Let me know what you think…

Knowing God’s Will

I think we all want to know YOUR will for our lives. We want to know the is a reason we are here. We want to know what YOU want us to do. I know I do. I love to plan. I want to know what I will be doing today, tomorrow, next week, and five years from now. Oh God, just tell me what to do. Then this morning I was reading Paul’s prayer for those who follow YOU in Colossians 1, I am struck by how he defines knowing YOUR will. First, he prays that we may be filled with the knowledge of YOUR will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding (v. 9). That sounds good to me. I would like to know what YOUR will is for my life; what job do YOU have for me, where do YOU want me to go, what do YOU want me to say, etc… Basically, I only want spiritual wisdom and understanding to know stuff.

But that is not what Paul is talking about. He prays we would be filled with the knowledge of YOUR will so that we may walk in a manner worthy of YOU, fully pleasing YOU (10a). Then he goes on to describe how we can do this; by bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of YOU (10b). So knowing YOUR will for my life is not about knowing where I will be in five or ten years but knowing how to live each moment to please YOU. Not needing to hear YOUR voice tell me to reach out to a hurting person but simply bearing fruit in every good work that comes along. Not racking up points and trying to make YOU bless me but increasing each moment in my knowledge of YOU. It is so interesting that to know YOUR will is not about stuff but is about knowing YOU better.

Lord, let me know YOU today. Help me focus on YOU. Loving YOU, serving YOU, being YOUR hands. Don’t let me be caught up in religious thinking but in relational thinking. Let me remained focused on YOU rather than YOUR will, YOUR face and not YOUR hand, YOUR presence and not YOUR presents.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

“Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with Him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with Himself depends on faith.
I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised Him from the dead. I want to suffer with Him, sharing in His death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!” (Phillipians 3:8-11)

In this passage, Paul keeps intensifying his refusal to live in the past. Three times he says he counts everything in his past as loss. He culminates with saying, “I count it all as rubbish that I may know Christ….” Lots of people advise us to let go of the past and focus on the future. Paul is saying let go of the past and focus on YOU. The danger is not that my past will make me proud or depressed but that it will keep me from completely knowing YOU. The passion of this passage is not to escape the past but to push through the past and pursue YOU without the baggage. There are three types of baggage that can keep me from YOU; the good, the bad, and the ugly.

THE GOOD: Paul was specifically talking about all the good “religious” stuff he had done in this passage. He is saying that religion and good works can keep me from fully knowing YOU. Lord, help me to never rest on my accomplishments. Help me never think that I have done enough. All the things I have accomplished have not made me better than anyone else or earned any special privileges from YOU. I have not impressed YOU with my piety. Everything I have done has been for YOUR glory. I don’t want to stop or slow down in doing good but I don’t want pride to keep me from YOU. I want to go on expressing my love and passion for YOU with my whole life. Let the things I do come from a grateful heart and not from trying to manipulate YOU into giving me something or trying to impress other people. I want to know YOU, not get stuff or impress people!

THE BAD: Another way the past can keep me from YOU is when I focus on the bad stuff in my past. I can so easily sink back into guilt and self-condemnation. Somehow I think that YOU came and died for my sin but if I do it again, YOU will reject me. As if YOU haven’t proven that YOU will push through every barrier I put up in order to have a relationship with me. YOU are determined to pursue me and nothing I have done can disqualify me. Help me to not dwell on my failures. Help me press through them to know YOU!

THE UGLY: I can also miss out on knowing YOU fully by dwelling on the ugly things that have been done to me in my past. YOU told us to forgive, not because those who hurt us deserve it, but because unforgiveness keeps me from YOU. I want to forgive so I can be free to know YOU completely. Help me let go of everything so I can push on toward YOU.

For Me???

Though He was God, He did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, He gave up His divine privileges; He took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When He appeared in human form, He humbled Himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross. (Phillipans 2:6-8)

As I read that this passage, I am again blown away by the love You have shown for me. I can’t comprehend how You could not consider equality with God something to cling to. I would have grasped it and held on to it for dear life. I probably would have couched it in religious terms and said something like, “I need this power to help people…” But You experienced equality with God for eternity and didn’t consider it something to be grasped or held onto. Instead You emptied Yourself and, fully knowing what you were getting into, You came here and became one of us.

The unbelievable thing is, You did it for us. Or even more unbelievable, You did it for me. I focus so much on the cross (and rightly so) but You had already shown Your love in giving up heaven to come here and suffer with us. And You did it all before I did anything of worth. You gave up heaven knowing how I would reject You and knowing all my filth. You didn’t test me to see if I was worthy. Your love went first. You proved Your love long before I ever even thought about responding.

What really stretches the powers of my comprehension is that You consider a relationship with me to be more important than equality with God… I am more important to You than being in heaven with Your Father. I am more important to You than Your comfort. Wow, how can I treat our relationship so lightly when it is that important to You? Lord, help me remember today how much You love me. Help me respond throughout this day in that kind of love.