Keep Changing My Mind

One of the most dangerous things that can happen to one of YOUR followers is for us to begin to think we have perfect understanding of YOU and YOUR word. When that happens, we begin to think we speak for YOU and that our opinions are YOURS. It is dangerous when we stop listening to others and to YOU. We reject any thought that does not fit our system instead of being like the people of Berea and studying to see if it could be true. We are dangerous when we only study to prove things are wrong.

Even though this concept petrifies the average Evangelical (including me sometimes), YOU want us to remain open minded. In chapters 2 & 3 of Revelation, YOU address 7 churches. Out of those 7, YOU tell 5 of them to repent. To repent means to change ones mind and with a subsequent change in actions. So YOU seem to be telling people who are already YOUR followers that they still need to change their minds on some things. Could it be that even those who have followed YOU for many years may not have perfect understanding? Could we actually just be so stuck in tradition that we can never rethink the reasons for our traditions and/or repent from time to time?

YOU have not called us to a destination but to a journey. As we walk out this journey, we will need to continually change the way we think about things. We cannot assume YOU will always work the same way or speak the same way. We cannot assume that we understand YOU as well as we think we do. As Tony Campolo says, we should be humble enough to know that “we are never as right as we think we are or as wrong as we think we are.” YOU are constantly amazing us and showing new facets of YOUR character. If we close our minds and lock into one way of thinking, we may miss YOUR beauty. The minute we think we know it all and have it all together, we start falling apart.

My Brother’s Slave

I am amazed at the way James, the brother of Jesus opens his letter. If I was writing to a bunch of people and I wanted them to listen to what I had to say, I would open with something like, “James the brother of God, the one who knows Him better than anyone, acknowledged leader of the church in Jerusalem…” Instead, James simply says, “James a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.” The only title he claims is servant. Actually, he calls himself a slave. There was no such thing as a hired servant in those days, you bought your “servants” at the slave market. So James is calling himself his brother’s slave. Talk about humility!

This attitude seems to differ with much of the teaching I hear these days. We are always trying to talk about who we are in Christ. It doesn’t matter who I am in Christ. What matters is who Christ is in me! I am a slave, He is everything. I don’t need to pump myself up with pop-psychology, self esteem building words. I choose the words of James, I am a slave. This doesn’t mean I walk around with a woe is me attitude. It is better to be slave to the king than to be owner of nothing. He is the best master in the universe. He cares for His slaves!

Lord, help me find myself in You. Help me humble myself and trust You. Simply being Your slave is better than anything this world has to offer.

Rights or Freedom?

The other day I read a really weird story in the Bible.I know, I know, I will need to be more specific than that: There are a lot of strange stories in the Bible. But this one is not actually spelled out in the Bible. It is the back story behind a letter. It takes place while Paul is in prison. He meets a man in this prison and leads him to the Lord. Then he finds out that the man was a runaway slave. Coincidentally, the slave, Onesimus, belonged to another man, Philemon, that Paul had led to the Lord. So Paul insists that the slave go back to his master. He writes a nice letter using guilt better than just about anyone to make sure the master takes the slave back without hurting him. Paul even offers to pay anything the slave may owe the master or that he may have stolen. Very nice of him, don’t you think? But I still have a hard time with the fact that Paul sent the runaway slave back to his SLAVERY. What is up with that?

I believe Paul is more concerned for the slave’s spiritual freedom than his physical freedom. Onesimus would be free spiritually if he submitted and did the right thing even when it was incredibly hard. Paul chose not to make a political statement by resisting slavery at that moment. He knew that when an individual fights for his/her rights they usually becomes so independent that they tell God what to do. Whenever we defend our own rights, it creates bitterness in our hearts. Bitterness is more dangerous than outward injustice. Bitterness can kill us inside where it matters, injustice can’t. Whenever I start thinking in terms of what I deserve, I become hard and dry in my spirit. Maybe I am struggling for the wrong kind of freedom. Maybe I need to fight for  spiritual freedom and let God deal with the injustice that has been done to me.

I know there is a time to stand up against the system. I know there is a time for political statement. Without the Word of God, slavery would still be widespread in the world. We all need to stand up together against injustice. But maybe it is not for ME to defend MY rights.  I need to stand up for YOUR rights but demanding my own makes me self-centered and angry.

Whatever the implications of this little letter in the back of our Bible, it does show that spiritual freedom is more important than physical freedom. My flesh does not like that. But maybe that is why my flesh needs to be crucified daily. Lord, help me understand that the softness of my heart is more important than being right and more important than making sure everyone else treats me right.

I Gotta Know Who I Am

This is the last in the series of posts about how Jesus connected to world by humbling Himself, making Himself a slave, and serving the world. If this is how Jesus lived, shouldn’t His followers follow?

In John 13 we see a very interesting story. We all know the story. It is the one where Jesus washes His disciple’s feet. Read it one more time, “3 Jesus knew that the Father had given Him authority over everything and that He had come from God and would return to God. 4 So He got up from the table, took off His robe, wrapped a towel around His waist, 5 and poured water into a basin. Then He began to wash the disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel He had around Him.” Usually, we are so grossed out by the foot washing thing that we miss verse 3. Before Jesus started wash camel poo out from between grown men’s toes, John tells us HE knew who HE was, where He came from, and where He was going. We cannot serve without understanding these things.

Jesus knew the Father had given HIM authority. Do we know that? I am not talking about authority to boss people around or to command the seas to be still. The authority here is the authority to serve. It is the authority of being a son. Jesus knew He was the Father’s son. HE had nothing to prove to anybody. The reason I can’t serve is that I am afraid someone will treat me like a servant. I am always concerned about my position. Jesus didn’t worry about HIS position so HE could freely serve. If I really understand that I am the son of the Father and HE loves me no matter what, I can humble myself. You can treat me how you want to, it won’t change who I am.

Jesus also knew where HE came from and where HE was going. Many times, I don’t know where I am going but I do know WHO I am trying to follow. I know I am going to be with HIM. I can lay down my life and stop demanding my rights and respect because I am am following the ONE WHO showed me how. There is freedom there. There is life there.

My life will be much fuller when I stop trying to impress people. I will be free when I stop trying to fight for my position in the hierarchy. I will be truly and fully alive when I realize my worth comes from being a son of the Living God and not from how you treat me or judge me. After all, the true test of a servant is how we act when we are treated like a servant. Jesus filled the role; Will I?

Serving is the Point

A couple weeks ago I did a talk on how Jesus connected to the world. I believe the Lord would have all HIS followers follow him in connecting to the world the same way HE did. So how did HE do it? He connected by serving the world and according to Paul, we all need an attitude adjustment to learn to serve the way Jesus did.

Another reason we have a hard time following Jesus as He made HIMself a slave to others is that we think service is just a minor point. There is only one (BIG) problem; when we read Jesus’ words, we find that service is THE point. The goal is to become a slave to others. We read in Matthew 20:25 Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. 26 Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever wants to be first must be your slave– 28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” James & John’s mother had just asked Jesus if they could be 2nd & 3rd in command. They wanted to most important positions in the kingdom that were left since “God” was already taken. Jesus explains that the point is to become a servant/ slave, not to work your way into being the boss. This is not minor, it is important.

We sometimes think that serving is just something we did early on in our walk with Jesus but now we have “paid our dues.” We would not say it but we think we are too important to serve others any more. I once served as the “Minister of Helps” in a church. That meant I painted the ten rental houses the church owned. Then I became the Youth Pastor of the same church. They paid me $100/month and I paid them $350/ month to live in one of the rental houses that they owned free and clear. That pastor believed that everyone should pay their dues in ministry. But that was just something you did until you got important enough to be served by some other kids paying his dues. The danger in this thinking is not about paying a pastor, it is the thought that there comes a time when you stop being a servant. When did Jesus stop being a servant? If HE didn’t stop until HE went back to heaven, should I stop before I go to heaven? When I think I am too important to do a certain job, I am missing the mark of the high calling of God for my life! When I do just enough to get by in any area of my life, I am falling short of HIS abundant life for me. Servanthood is the high calling; it is abundant life; it is the point.

Remember Where You Came From

I love how Paul never forgot where he came from. He says, YOU “came into the world to save sinner, of whom I am the foremost…” (1 Tim 1:15). By this time in his life he had already traveled the world establishing churches. He had already written most of the New Testament. He had already been beaten and imprisoned many times. Yet he says, I am the foremost of sinners. No chest beating. No faith proclamation that he is a saint and not a sinner. Not even an “I used to be…” Just plain and simple. YOU came for sinners and I am the biggest sinner…

I know Paul is not saying that he is living in sin. He is remembering where he came from. It is so easy to forget. After twenty years of following YOU I sometimes forget my past. When I do that, I tend to get puffed up with pride and think of myself as better than others. I tend to become real religious and judgemental in those moments (and they can be really long moments). Lord, deliver me from these things! Paul never did them because he remembered where he came from. I want to remember also.

By remembering where he came from Paul also kept his eyes on YOUR priority for the world. To lead the lost into a relationship with YOU. He goes on to say that he “received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display HIS perfect patience as an example for those who were to believe in HIM for eternal life.” (v. 16). In other words, if God can put up with me, HE can put up with anyone! There is hope for the worst of sinners!

Lord, help me remember where I came from. Help me remember that I am nothing special. I know I am special to YOU but it is not because of my holiness or my accomplishments. Let me be a living example of YOUR mercy that inspires hope and hunger in other people.

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.

The Measuring Rod

Each one should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to somebody else, for each one should carry his own load (Gal 6:4-5 NIV)

This verse really jumped out at me this morning. So many times I spend my time comparing and measuring myself against others. I spend so much time trying to see if I am better than someone else at this or that instead of just judging if I am doing the best I can. What good is it to be better than someone else at something but not the best at it that I can be? We do this in physical training. When I ran I always timed myself and compared to my fastest time. When I lifted weights, I recorded everything to compare to my “max” or personal best in that lift. What good was it to lift more than a child if I wasn’t challenging myself to grow stronger? That is what it is like when I judge myself by comparing myself to others. That is a sure path to either pride and judgmentalism or jealousy and depression.

One way I need to apply this verse is in regards to those I think I am better than in certain areas. Many times I find myself judging people harshly because I do not struggle with what they struggle with. And then I give myself grace in the areas in which I do struggle. For example, I feel holy because I don’t smoke but excuse jealousy and laziness in myself. Paul says I should test my own actions. I know the filth and selfishness that dwells in me. I need to judge my holiness but how much of that I am turning over to You not by how long ago I got over what so and so is doing. Doing this simple thing will keep me humble.

The other way I need to apply this verse is in regards to those I think have it better than I do. Just yesterday I found myself struggling with jealousy over a young couple in ministry who are being blessed. I was jealous that I who have been in ministry for 20 years am struggling to pay bills while they who have been at it for just a few years have lots of cool toys (this refers to some of the ugliness mentioned above). You are telling me to judge or test myself against myself. You have taken care of me every step of the way and I need to focus on that not on comparing myself to others.

Lord, please help me today to only measure myself against myself and against You. This will drive me to Your grace and strength. I can’t do this without Your power.