Who You Callin’ A Sinner???

We rarely notice but Jesus was a very sarcastic guy. One of the most sarcastic statements He ever made was directed to the religious leaders of the day. They had just asked His disciples why He hung out with “tax collectors and ’sinners.’” Jesus answered, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick… for I have not come to call the righteous but sinners” (Mt. 9:11-13). Obviously, Jesus did not consider the Pharasees to be healthy. What He was really saying was, “Those who think they are healthy and have it all together don’t realize they need a doctor, only those who know they are sick know they need help… I did not come to call those who think they are righteous and holier thasn thou but those who know they are sinners in need of a savior.” (You will have to excuse the spirit of Eugene Peterson [author of the Message] that has come over me).

Ok, so what is my point? I guess it is that as I read these words, my heart cries out to be called by the doctor (to mix the metaphors). I want to be with Him and the only way I see to do that is to admit that nothing good lives in me. I know that I am forgiven and that I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. But I also know I am nothing more than a sick sinner without Him. The minute I forget that, I become a self righteous person denying my sickness as puss oozes from my wounds. I just cover them up so others can’t see them. The problem is that when I do this, everyone around my knows I am sick.

I want to embrace my sickness and let it drive me to the doctor. I know what resides in my heart. It needs to be surgically removed. I am desperate for the doctor to heal me and keep me healthy. I know that my works are as filthy rags and I can do nothing on my own. I must remain in Him. I must dwell in Him. I must remain desparate for His presence in my life. The minute I settle for my self righteous religiousness, I rot from the inside out.

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.

Flee TO Love

Paul tells us to flee youthful passions (2 Tim 2:22). In 20 years of ministry, at least 12 of those with youth, I have found myself teaching this over and over. I have preached quiet a few “Don’t do this…” “Stop doing that…” type sermons. No wonder people develop religious/ controlling spirits. We teach rules; people try to follow the rules and impose those rules on more people. Eventually, we realize that we struggle with the rule so we create a new, more stringent rule to protect people from breaking the first rule… And the wheel keeps spinning around. Then we wonder why dead religion is so prevalent.

But Paul did not teach dead religious rule keeping. He did NOT stop with flee youthful passions, he went on to say and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace… Paul was not just telling us not to be bad, he told us to pursue the good. Many times I have tried to resist temptation and found myself failing because while I was resisting, the temptation was all I thought about. Paul says, run from the temptation and replace it with righteousness, faith, love, and peace. Flee TO these things. When tempted to exact revenge, don’t just resist it, DO good to them. When my spirit is dry and I’m tired, I need to do more than just not let the enemy steal my joy. I need to force my flesh to get up and worship God. I need ask what true love would do in the situation. I need to let the love of God flow out through me. In short Paul is saying be more concerned about righteousness, faith, love, and peace and you won’t have to worry so much about righting youthful (or not quiet so youthful anymore) lusts… Stop fighting against things and start running to God.

Lord, help me get this deep down in my spirit. I need to live FOR you not against stuff. If I immerse myself in YOU, the lusts of the flesh will melt away. Help me get it straight. Help me focus on letting YOUR love flow in and through me. I can’t do this alone, Lord, fill me.

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.

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…

Don’t Start Backwards

Lately I have begun to really struggle with the way I have always been trained to share my faith. I was always taught the Romans road. Everyone is a sinner that needs salvation; sin causes a break in our relationship to YOU; YOU died to make a way for restoration; we must repent… I have always heard that we have to convince people they are sinners so they know they need to be saved. This all comes form the book of Romans where Paul lays these ideas out in this order.

The problem is that the book of Romans was not written as a tract. It was not written for unbelievers. It as a letter to a church. Paul is setting out systematic theology so that those who already believe could understand their faith better. When I look at Paul’s sermons I don’t see him walking into the marketplace and telling people they are sinners. I see him walking in and explaining the good news that YOU came and died and were raised. He always concludes with a warning about what happens if we reject YOU but that is not the lead. He does not start with the threat of hell. When YOU talked about hell, it was always in warnings to the religious people, not to those who were not yet followers.

Could it be that we have the good news backwards? Should we be starting with the good news, the message of YOUR love and ending with a warning of what happens if we reject YOU rather than start with a threat and hope they grasp the life preserver? I believe we should. Starting out with the threat of hell only leads to lifeless religion. Understanding YOUR love leads to real life and freedom. Fear of hell only lasts for a little while. YOUR Love is eternal. If I try to follow YOU to escape hell, I may never understand YOUR love, YOUR purpose, YOUR plan, or how to have a relationship with YOU. If I begin following YOU because I understand that YOU love me more than YOUR own life and that YOU desperately desire a relationship with me, then my heart leaps to follow YOU and to trust YOU. After all, actions flow out of what is in my heart. Action does not produce love but love produces action.

Religion Does Not Work (II)

Lord, why do we always want to paint the outside of the car when it needs a new engine? We always want to fix the outside and ignore the real problems. We want people to clean up the outside and then hope their hearts will change. But we are not alone in this kind of thinking. Even in the early church they had a problem with it. Immediately after Paul came back from his first missions trip, people showed up telling the new believers that they could not follow YOU unless they followed all the religious rules first. How silly! When YOU were on earth, YOU just walked up to people and said follow ME, not follow rules. We can start following from wherever we are.

In Acts, Peter got up in a meeting to discuss this problem and said, “Why are we burdening Gentile believers with a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors were able to bear?” (Acts 15:10) He is saying, ‘Why are we expecting these people to follow a bunch of religious rules when we can’t even follow them?’ This reflects the human condition. I know I can’t keep the law. I know the filth that still resides in my heart. But I seem to love imposing the law on everyone else. Peter is saying, we hate living by a bunch of religious rules, why are we trying to put it on them? At some level, all humans hate rules. But we love giving rules. Why?

If I start with rules, they will always be a burden and I will always despise them. But if I start with following YOU, spending time with YOU, getting to know YOU, falling in love with YOU, I will want to be like YOU. Then I won’t be hung up on rules. I will know that any rule YOU give is good and for my benefit.

Lord deliver me from religious thinking. Not just me, but deliver me from imposing religion on others. Help me extend the grace and mercy I want for myself to everyone else.

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.

Religion Does Not Work

Galatians 3:23  Before the way of faith in Christ was available to us, we were placed under guard by (religion) We were kept in protective custody, so to speak, until the way of faith was revealed. (24) Let me put it another way. (religion) was our guardian until Christ came; it protected us until we could be made right with God through faith. (25) And now that the way of faith has come, we no longer need (religion) as our guardian.
(26) For you are all children of God through faith in Jesus Christ.

As I continue to read through Galatians and replace the term “the law” with “religion,” I am amazed at how clearly the difference between religion and relationship pops out.

Paul says that the law was given as a guardian until You came to earth. But now I am a son through faith in YOU, not through following rules so that You are not angry at me or so You give me stuff… You gave us OT religion to show us that religion does not work. It is impossible to do it well enough. I can’t keep all the rules! There is no hope there. But now, I am a son of God. Now I walk in relationship to You, not in fear or manipulation.

I must strive to get out of this religious mindset. I must walk in the knowledge that I am Your son. You are not angry at me. You took my punishment and I deny Your cross every time I think You are still angry at me. You are not someone I need to bribe by following rules and trying to earn enough points to get stuff. Your are my loving Father. You have my best interests in mind. You desire to care for me like a good Father.

Of course, You have standards (commandments) but they are standards to make my life better not checkpoints to see if I have been good enough to get something. You know better than I do how I work, how I think, etc… Your standards are there because You want the best for me. When I ignore them, You are only angry because I have hurt myself and any loving Father does not want to see their child hurt themselves or throw away good things. I want to obey because I love You. You have already proven Your love and earned my trust. Help me to walk in this freedom every day.