How Big Is Your God?

Throughout life, you will likely find yourself in situations in which you are asked to compromise.  Compromise, in and of itself, is not necessarily a bad thing.  For example, in ministry, we cannot be so stubborn as to not be willing to work with others and find solutions that are conciliatory to keeping peace in a congregation of believers.  In ministry, an unwillingness to compromise can never be based on pride (Prov 11:12), hardness of heart (Zech 7:11,12), arrogance (Prov 18:12), or haughtiness (Prov 16:18).  In many cases, compromise can be a very good thing.  At Ephesians Chapter 4, Paul instructs us to walk worthy of the calling we have received, "with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, and with diligence to preserve the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace." (Eph 4:2,3).  Therefore, according to the intent and purpose of preserving unity through the bond of peace, God calls us to be willing to make certain necessary compromises.

What God will never call us to do however, is to be willing to compromise His word.  God will never call us to neuter the convicting, soul-stirring effect of the truth of His word.  Should you ever find yourself in a situation in which you are asked to compromise your wording because the term for what you are preaching is controversial, you would do well to remember that is exactly what Jesus experienced. In many ways, over the course of the last 2000 years, the religious establishment hasn't changed much.  Jesus' teaching was doctrinally sound, but what He was preaching was very controversial to the accepted religious establishment of His day.  In fact, Jesus was so controversial, that they crucified Him for it.  If what you are preaching is doctrinally sound, then there is no reason to compromise your wording.  In the words of Charles Spurgeon, "O fools, and slow of heart! Open that door! Let the lord of the forest come forth free. Who will dare to encounter him? What does he want with your guardian care? Let the pure gospel go forth in all its lion-like majesty, and it will soon clear its own way and ease itself of its adversaries."

We tend towards manufacturing our churches to seem as inviting as possible, whether that means a never-ending building fund or the expense of compromising our message for the sake of appeal.  We want to make sure that we make no offensive posturing, that we exude no potential controversy, lest we ward off any potential visitor, and we want a service that is as streamlined and predictable as possible.  We want to be seeker-sensitive, and the more sensitive we are to their sensitivities, the greater the chance we'll have at drawing them in. 

We tend to be drawn more towards catering to the crowd, rather than catering to God, Who is the only One Who draws men.  But we have this whole notion that it is us-- our ideas, our abilities, our foresight, our manufactured appeal, our streamlined application of the church program-- who draws people to Christ.  We've built a whole generation of churches based on the notion of "entrepreneurship"-- good public relations insight, risk vs. reward, productive business models, congregational development strategies, rousing worship, emotionally engaging messages-- all of which, being the driving force behind our notion of a "successful" ministry.  In so doing, we have robbed the Holy Spirit of His work.  Sure, we are willing to acknowledge when God has "blessed our ministry", we thank God for blessing "our efforts", but who is really receiving the glory here?  What would happen if God stripped a church of everything, back down to the foundations of Spirit and Grace, where all the work that was done by that church, in that church and through that church could only be attributed to God and God alone, rather than the notion of God merely blessing our methodology?  Most churches today have lost such a sense of total abandonment towards God, which is why most churches today have been abandoned by the miracle-working presence and power of the Holy Spirit.

We follow a castrated version of Christianity.  We have a "form of godliness, but deny its power." (2 Tim 3:5).  No longer should we practice an empty religion in a church whose congregation has been built on the backs of their own effort.  It is far better to be in a congregation of a few fellow believers who have a whole-heart commitment to God, who are utterly dependent upon God at every turn, who have counted the cost to follow Christ and are willing to forsake this world and everything in it, and who have been supernaturally led together as a congregation by the Holy Spirit to truly walk-out what it means to be the Body of Christ-- for better or for worse.  We have to break free from the notion that it is we who determine what church we go to, and come to the realization that a church that is truly full of the Holy Spirit, is one which God has arranged by divine providence.  The problem with the church today, is that we have lost faith in a God that big.

A.W. Tozer sums up this problem as such:

"Right now, we are in an age of religious complexity.  The simplicity which is in Christ is rarely found among us.  In its stead, are programs, methods, organizations, and a world of nervous activities which occupy time and attention, but can never satisfy the longings of the heart.  The shallowness of our inner experience, the hollowness of our worship, and that servile imitation of the world which marks our promotional methods, all testify that we, in this day, know God only imperfectly, and the peace of God scarcely at all."

Scripture is very clear as to Who draws people to God: "No one can come to Me unless the Father Who sent Me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets: 'And they will all be taught by God.' Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from Him comes to Me." (John 6:44,45).  It is God Who prepares the soil of a person's heart and mind to receive the truth of His message.  God speaks, and we hear, learn and follow.  God draws, we surrender.  This is God's business model.  Which means, if it is God Who is drawing someone to salvation and/or church fellowship, then there is nothing that will keep them from it.  Not even a controversy worth being crucified for.

"My message and my preaching were not with persuasive words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith would not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power. Among the mature, however, we speak a message of wisdom--but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing." (1 Cor 2:4-6).

Words Of Eternal Life

In my last blog post, I mentioned that a friend sent me a message on Facebook asking me about my thoughts in regard to a portion of a recent interview between Timothy Keller and a self-proclaimed doubting Christian, Nicholas Kristof, entitled, "Am I A Christian, Pastor Timothy Keller?"  At which point, I then went off on a tangent that turned into an entirely new blog post than the one I originally intended.  My original intent was to share my response to the portion of the interview of which my friend asked for my thoughts.  The portion of the interview of which my friend asked my thoughts, was written about in a commentary article, based on the original interview referenced and linked above, which accuses Keller of making Jesus' teachings "ethical teachings" of secondary importance to belief in His death and resurrection. 

My response to the article and my friend's question, "Do you think there is a difference or order of importance between the resurrection and Jesus' teachings?" is as follows:

Jesus' death and the reception and application of His teachings are mutually inclusive. Without His death, the reception and application of His teachings would never have brought us eternal life. By the same token, without His teachings, His death would have only opened the door to eternal life because it is our faith in, and the application of, His teachings which lead us through it unto eternal life. 

Jesus said, "The Spirit gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words I speak to you are spirit and they are life." (John 6:63). When Jesus was being examined under Pilate and Pilate asked Him if He was a king, Jesus answered, "You say that I am a king....For this reason I was born and have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to My voice." (John 18:37). Jesus said His words are "spirit and life" and that the reason He came into the world was to "testify to the truth." We must receive those words by faith and surrender to their application to our lives, to have eternal life. Jesus said that we must remain in Him to have eternal life, and to remain in Him, we must apply His words to our life in obedience (John 14:15,21,23; John 15:5-7,10; 1 John 2:3; 1 John 5:3; 2 John 1:6). Which is not to say that we are saved by our own works, but we are saved by grace through our faith in, and submission to, what Christ accomplished. Salvation is by grace, but the onus of daily surrender to that grace to be worked out in our lives, falls upon us.  And it is His Spirit working within us, that compels us to such a surrender.

Having said that, we would not have the possibility of eternal life unless Christ succeeded in His sacrificial death. Jesus also said the reason He came was, "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." (Matt 20:28). Thus, He came to "testify to the truth" with His words that are "spirit and life" for the purpose of "giving His life as a ransom for many." His words profit us nothing, lest they are accompanied by His death which opens the door to their eternal life-giving power. Jesus' death canceled out the power of death and sin over every human being that would receive His words and apply them to their life. He holds the keys to death and hell, "Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last, the Living One. I was dead, and behold, now I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of Death and of Hades." (Rev 1:18). And because of that victorious death, everything in existence has been subjected to His authority, "Then Jesus came to them and said, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me.'" (Matt 28:18).

Therefore, I believe that is the thrust of Keller's argument, which is to say, that although Jesus' teachings and His death are mutually inclusive and equally important, His death and resurrection trumps everything because without it, His teachings would be just that: ethical teachings that would simply be good works in a person's life. It is only because of the death and resurrection of Christ, that His words transform our spirit and lead us to eternal life, "So Jesus asked the Twelve, 'Do you want to leave too?' Simon Peter replied, 'Lord, to Whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life.'" (John 6:67,68).

"If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned. If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you." (John 15:6,7)

"So He said to the Jews who had believed in Him, 'If you continue in My word, you are truly My disciples." (John 8:31)

"Anyone who runs ahead without remaining in the teaching of Christ does not have God. Whoever remains in His teaching has both the Father and the Son." (2 John 1:9)

"As for you, let what you have heard from the beginning remain in you. If it does, you will also remain in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that He Himself made to us: eternal life." (1 John 2:24,25)

"Jesus replied, 'If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make Our home with him." (John 14:23)

"Whoever keeps His commandments remains in God, and God in him. And by this we know that He remains in us: by the Spirit He has given us." (1 John 3:24)

Am I A Christian?

A friend sent me a message on Facebook the other day, asking me about my thoughts in regard to a portion of a recent interview between Timothy Keller and a self-proclaimed doubting Christian, Nicholas Kristof, entitled, "Am I A Christian, Pastor Timothy Keller?"  The gist of Kristof's argument was, is it necessary for a Christian to believe the basic tenets of the Christian faith to be a Christian?  That this is deemed a valid question, seems absurd to me.  However, as absurd of a question as this may sound on the surface, I can see the value in its debate, especially in our current age of "cafeteria style" Christianity.

Questioning whether or not you have to believe the basic tenets of Christianity to be a Christian, is truly absurd, but questioning just exactly what makes a person a Christian, is a concept I feel worthy of debate.  At what point do we cross the Rubicon of eternal salvation in Christ?  Where, exactly, is the delineation on the event horizon between eternal damnation and eternal salvation?  Not only do I find these questions worthy of our consideration, but I also find them necessary at this point in Christendom.  A point, it seems, where anything goes as long as you have an intellectual awareness of Christ and repeated a prayer, or as long as you've been baptized and go to church, or as long as you've done one or the other, or all.   A point at which current evangelism says that as long as you do "A", "B", "C" and "D", you are forever-locked into the kingdom of God.  A point at which people are told that simple acknowledgment of Christ is enough to inherit eternal life.

When I study scripture, I marvel that Jesus seemed to deftly avoid the "grocery list" of necessary tasks people sought from Him to define the path of eternal life.  Every time someone asked Jesus what they must do, He seemed to give a different answer:

- We must be born again (John 3:3-6)

- We must be converted (Matt 18:3)

- We must be obedient (Matt 7:21)
-We must not commit adultery, murder, or theft; we must not lie and we must honor our parents (Luke 18:21)
-We must forsake our possessions and follow Him (Luke 18:22)
-We must hate our life in this world (John 12:25)
-We must serve and follow Him (John 12:26)

- We must believe in Him (John 7:38)

- We must keep His word (John 8:51)

- We must drink the Living Water of Christ (John 4:14)

- We must live in Him (John 11:26)

He did this because the only way to eternal life is through a personal relationship with Him, which must be sought with our whole heart, rather than works of our own effort checked off like items on a grocery list.  It is not that scripture is in error when it says that we must only believe in Christ to be saved, but rather, it is our understanding of what it means to believe.  When scripture tells us that we must believe in Christ, the implications of such a belief is to acknowledge Him as Lord.  And the only proper response a human being can have when they acknowledge Christ as Lord, is to surrender to His Lordship.

Jesus said, "For it is My Father's will that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day." (John 6:40).  Yet we are told by James, "You believe that God is one. Good for you! Even the demons believe that, and shudder!" (James 2:19).  The demons believe in God and shudder, yet they are not saved.  And yes, I am aware that Christ died to save men and not demons, but I feel it is worthy to note what is being articulated here by the dual use of the word "belief".  The Greek word translated in the New Testament as "belief" is the word "PISTEUO".  It is the context of the use of this word that determines its meaning, whether a belief of simple intellectual acknowledgement or a belief that leads to submissive faith.  A belief of simple affirmation versus a belief of trustful surrender.  James differentiates a belief based on simple affirmation from a belief that leads to trustful surrender when he goes on to say, "But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless?" (James 2:20)  Not only is James referring to a faith that results in bearing fruit for God's kingdom, but also a saving faith in Christ that is willing to conform to His authority and will, rather than a faith that is defined by simple intellectual acknowledgment of a certain list of beliefs.

Is it necessary for a person to believe in the basic tenets of Christianity to be a Christian?  Absolutely.  The definition of any religious movement is a belief in a certain set of fundamental tenets.  If you do not believe in the set of tenets that define that religious movement, then find another faith that is more appealing to you.  Does belief in the basic tenets of Christianity make a person a Christian?  Absolutely not. Jesus said, "Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness.'" (Matt 7:21-23).  Salvation is by faith alone, in Christ alone, but our faith must be one of surrender, rather than one of simple acknowledgement.

At what exact point in our belief do we cross over the Rubicon into God's kingdom?  What is the defining moment of transcendence from eternal spiritual death, to eternal spiritual life in Christ?  Despite the squawking pontifications of many theologians today and the formulaic "Roman Road" to salvation used by contemporary evangelism, that is truly a question that only God can answer to any degree of absolute certainty.  Because it is only God Who can see a man's heart, "God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart." (1 Sam 16:7).  But what I can tell you with absolute certainty, is that there is no salvation without surrender.


"All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out." (John 6:37)

Silver And Gold

As I read Proverbs Chapter 17 during my devotional time, God drew my attention to verse 3 which says, “The refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, But the LORD tests hearts.”

One of the many problems with what we call the church today, is that most of us never make it through the refiner’s pot.  Many never even make it to the pot itself.  Our Americanized version of Christianity implies that our relationship with Jesus should be at our convenience, completely unburdened by any personal sacrifice on our part because we are saved by grace, no strings attached.  But that is not what Jesus taught.  Jesus said that being His disciple would come at great personal cost to us.  That we must be willing to forsake all to follow Him:  our family, our children, our plans, our culture, and even ourselves, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:26).  He said the crucifixion of our self would be required to follow Him and be His disciple, “And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:27).

You see, when Jesus spoke to first century hearers of “carrying your cross”, what they heard was “you must carry an instrument of your own death….daily.”  This would not have been an attractive component of what Jesus' teachings were calling them to do.  What Jesus was basically telling them was, “Follow Me to your own death, and I will give you new life, but that new life will cost you everything.”  At Luke Chapter 14, verse 28, Jesus tells His followers that they must count the cost to follow Him, then at verse 33 He tells them what that cost will be, “In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.” (Luke 14:33).  Notice that Jesus is not saying here that we must simply be willing to give up everything to follow Him.  He is saying that those who do not give up everything they have, cannot be His disciples.  Jesus calls His followers to a radical devotion that has been largely lost within what we call the church today.

For the most part, what I see in the church today, is a congregation of people who want to follow a Jesus that doesn’t require anything from them.  They want to follow a Jesus that would never place them in a refiner’s pot, much less, ever lead them into the furnace.  I see people comfortable in their commercialized version of Christianity, worshiping the Jesus that they are being taught about by other people, rather than the Jesus they are personally pursuing themselves through prayer and careful study of scripture.  For the most part, those within the church today are following someone else’s version of Jesus rather than the real Jesus of the Bible Who says things like, “He cuts off every branch in Me that bears no fruit, and every branch that does bear fruit, He prunes to make it even more fruitful.” (John 15:2).

I guess the question we must ask ourselves is, are we silver or are we gold?  Or are we just a branch that should be cut off because we are bearing no fruit for God with our life?  Are we a branch that is even willing to be pruned by the refining pot, so that the salvation we have received by His grace will be a fruitful branch for His kingdom?  The refining pot will come at a great personal cost, it will be painful, you will grieve the loss of many things that you never realized you were holding onto.  One of the hardest things God ever asked me to do was to let go of what I aspired to do for His kingdom and submit to what He aspired for me to do.  How many of us are truly willing to let go of everything, no matter how much we have reasoned in our heart to continue to hold on?  How many of us have convinced ourselves that we are approaching the cross with empty hands, as we ought, only to look down and see them holding on to something we are trying to bring with us? 

As I meditated on the refiner’s pot versus the furnace, I realized how few people actually give themselves wholly over to Christ.  The refiner’s pot serves to prune a person, but the furnace utterly destroys them.  Pruned silver versus pure, untarnished gold.  The furnace leaves nothing of the old person remaining, everything is lost in the furnace, burned away into oblivion, leaving only a purified soul, flawless, whole and complete.  Our great aversion to the refiner’s pot should serve as an acute reminder of how desperately far away each of us are to the spiritual wholeness that comes by the furnace.  The refiner’s pot should remind us that no matter how righteous we think we are, there is always more work to be done in us.  As Christians, we should never be comfortable where we are at in our spiritual growth, but rather, we should long for the refinement that brings us to the spiritual wholeness that is promised by our Savior, Jesus Christ. 

The more you truly, personally know Christ, the more you will long for the refinement that comes at great personal cost.  The more you truly, personally know Christ, the more you eagerly anticipate, “the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day--and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.” (2 Tim 4:8).  

“If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw, the work of each will be evident, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will prove the quality of each man's work. If what he has built survives, he will receive a reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss. He himself will be saved, but only as one being snatched from the fire.” (1 Cor 3:12-15)

“These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold--though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.” (1 Peter 1:7)

“But he knows the way that I take; when he has tried me, I shall come out as gold.” (Job 23:10)

“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way as to take the prize. Everyone who competes in the games trains with strict discipline. They do it for a crown that is perishable, but we do it for a crown that is imperishable.” (1 Cor 9:24,25)

Harbinger Emotions

Sometimes God puts challenging people in our lives to remind us that, without Him, we are broken too.  Lest we get too puffed up in our spiritual growth, sometimes God will place people in our lives to serve as a reminder to us of everything we have been forgiven. 

In 2 Corinthians, Chapter 12, Paul spoke of a, "thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me." (v. 7).  We are never told what Paul's thorn was and although many speculations abound, it could have been anything from a particular emotion he may have struggled with, or a particular person, or both, or neither.  However, in my own personal experience, it is my emotions and the people that incite those emotions in me, which seem to be my thorn of torment, reminding me of my own weakness toward sin.

It is no casual confession for me to say that many times, the people that seem to torment me the most, are those who have the very same flaws that I have overcome or may continue to struggle with myself.  To which God must continually remind me, I would never have overcome those flaws if not for His grace and His grace alone, which is the very same thing He reminded Paul, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness.” (v. 8).

For example, when I feel like someone is manipulating another person for their personal gain, I feel contempt.  I feel great contempt against manipulation because God has placed in my heart a raging desire for truth.  Thus, in my quest for truth, my contempt against all things non-truth is a thorn in my side because it is an emotion that can easily and seamlessly turn into resentment, bitterness, rage, criticism, condemnation and grudge-bearing, all of which are sinful.  Contempt, which is disapproval tinged with disgust, is not necessarily a sinful emotion in and of itself.  It is quite likely Jesus felt contempt when He overturned the money changer's tables in the temple (Matt 21:11-13).  However, my personal temptation towards contempt is a messenger of Satan in my flesh, reminding me of my own personal proclivity towards sinful emotions. 

Jesus had full mastery over His emotions and although He may have been superficially tempted by sinful emotions, He never, ever indulged in them because He was utterly sinless and always in control of His thoughts, emotions and behavior.  I, however, am not, therefore, for me personally, contempt is a harbinger of other emotions crouching at my door (Gen 4:7).  It is a thorn that pierces my flesh to remind me that I am vulnerable to temptation, which makes me vulnerable to sin.

Why make such candid, intimate confessions and expose myself?  Because when we expose our flaws, we give the enemy nothing to work with.  When we acknowledge and confess our sins and areas of weakness, we shine the light of truth upon any potential foothold for the enemy in our life and rob him of the opportunity to do his work in secret.  I feel very strongly that this was one of the many reasons that Paul himself was so candid in his confessions about his own shortcomings.  He was simply exposing any potential within himself towards sin, and in so doing, fully submitting himself to God to work in those areas in his life.

We all have thorns in our flesh.  For some of us, those thorns may be harbinger emotions that easily and quickly lead us to sinful emotions crouching at our door.  For example, admiration can be a harbinger of lust, immoral arousal, covetousness, envy, dissatisfaction or ingratitude, all of which are sinful emotions.  Confidence can be a harbinger of pride, insensitivity or narcissism.  Harbinger emotions are thorns in our flesh, messengers of Satan to remind us of our own sinfulness, our own weaknesses, and our desperate need for Jesus every moment of every day.  They are thorns of temptation which serve to sharpen us, refine our flesh, and drive us into the arms of our loving Father Who is mighty to save and always eager to pour out His endless grace upon us.

"So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." (2 Cor 12:7-10)

Our Form Of Godliness

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. (Psalm 91:1)

As I meditated on this scripture this morning, God impressed upon my spirit that rather than dwelling in the shelter of the Most High God, Who so many of us claim to worship and follow, we are, instead, dwelling in the shadow of the world.

Jesus reiterates in the New Testament, that to truly be His disciple, we must abide in Him:  “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch is not able to bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither you, unless you abide in Me… If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.” (John 15:4-10).

Far too many of those who claim to belong to Christ, are living spiritually fruitless lives because they are not dwelling in the shelter of the Most High by reading, studying and living according to His word, fellowshipping with other mature Christians, nor spending significant, heartfelt time in prayer seeking His presence and will for their lives.  But rather, our thoughts, desires, likes and dislikes are all shaped by the world.  Instead of being products of the life-changing, transforming power of the Holy Spirit, we are products of our culture.  A genuine relationship with Christ is supposed to free us from all that.  When Jesus said, “Follow Me”, He was calling us to an act of surrender that would lead to our freedom.  But truly, “All of us, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way.” (Isaiah 53:6).

The foundation of the Gospel is repentance that leads to salvation.  Jesus’ first recorded words in the Gospel of Mark, when He begins His earthly ministry, are:  "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel." (Mark 1:15).  Jesus preached the Gospel by saying, “Repent.”  To repent means to turn away from one thing and turn towards another.  And Jesus said to be His disciple, we would have to do it every day, for the rest of our lives (Luke 9:23,24).  Despite all our efforts to repackage the Gospel, to make it “culturally relevant”, or more appealing and “seeker sensitive”, the foundational message remains the same.  We have confused “relatability” with “appeal”.  Jesus never sought to make the Gospel appealing, but He did seek to make it relatable.  People are affected by the Gospel of repentance and Lordship salvation because they can relate to it, not because it appeals to them. 

On the contrary, the Gospel, in and of Itself, is wholly UN-appealing to sinful men.  The Gospel accuses us of treason against God and convicts us of our guilt as sinners condemned to hell.  The Gospel forces us to look at our desperate, lost condition, magnifying the warts of our flaws and weaknesses.  It is an eternal reality-check that reminds us that we are but clay vessels, broken and shattered, useless and dead in our sins.  Yet at the same time, it gives us the single, solitary answer to our wretched condition:  Jesus Christ.  The hopelessness of our condition is remedied through our surrender to follow Christ, Who is the Way, the Truth and the Life (John 14:6); The Light of the World to those who live in darkness (John 12:46); The Gate for the lost sheep (John 10:7-9); The Fountain of Living Water to those thirsty for truth (John 4:10; 7:38); and The Bread of Life for those hungry for righteousness (John 6:35,48,51).

However, the transformation to newness of life offered by Christ can only come when we truly follow Him.  And to truly follow Him, we must repent and turn away from the brokenness and sinfulness of our world and culture.  We must die to our self so that Christ can live in us to do His work through us.  Salvation in Christ is the free gift of grace offered to all mankind, through faith in Jesus Christ as Lord of our life (Eph 2:8).  Which begs the question we must all ask ourselves:  Is my faith in Christ simply an intellectual awareness of Him, or have I truly let go and surrendered to Him as Lord?  Is my faith based on an ideal?  A denomination?  A concept?  Or do I truly know Christ as a person?  Can I recognize His voice over my own?  Do I have intimate knowledge of His commands and teachings?  Do I long to apply His words of truth to my life?

The Apostle Paul warns young Timothy of the characteristics of many of those who will call themselves Christians in the last days.  Among those characteristics, he says that they will be “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power. Have nothing to do with such people.” (2 Tim 3:4,5).  Of this verse, Arno Froese asks, “What power are they denying?”  To which he answers, “The power of turning a sinner into a saint; the power of turning a saint into a sacrifice; the power of the Gospel to take away my rights, my self-assertion, and replace it with total servitude to the Lord.  That is the power of the Gospel being diminished and denied today.”

Snotty Tissues

As I sit at my computer this morning and cry, I ask God to write something beautiful.  Something that will spiritually feed me and others.  I ask God to write it because I often get to points in my faith where I simply don't have any words.  Overwhelmed with weariness, all I can do is cry.  I cry because I am a sinner.  I cry because I don't have the answers.  I cry because this world is broken.  I cry because I want to serve God with my life, but I'm still not sure what I'm supposed to be doing.  I cry because I don't want to get it wrong.  I cry because I don't want to be prideful when I get it right.

The reality is, we are all a mess and we all need Jesus every second of every day.  Some days will seem more desperate than others.  It is on those days that we are reminded of just how fragile and insufficient we are to fight this battle in our own strength.  I can't tell you how many times I have just wanted to throw my hands up in the air and walk away-- frustrated, disgusted, defeated.  But then I remind myself of Jesus' words, "Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm and endures to the end will be saved." (Matthew 24:12,13).  I remind myself that I fight this battle because it is a battle worth fighting. 

I have cried out to God so many times, asking Him why He made me the way He did-- a woman with the heart of a lion, with the resolve of a steel beam, with the determination of a mule.  He made me in such a way that all I know how to do is fight and stand firm.  Just like a vase was made to be a vase, or cup was made to be a cup, I only know how to do what I was made to do.  The devil screams in my face that there is no place for such a woman in the church, he beats me over the head with scriptures that say a woman is to be silent and gentle (1 Cor 14:34; 1 Tim 2:11,12).  I am not quiet, nor gentle, so I often find myself wondering where I belong.  The devil knows our weaknesses, so he sweetly whispers in my ear, "You don't belong anywhere." 

I may not know my end-game purpose and I may still be figuring out my place, but the one thing I do know is that the devil is a liar.  I also know that God is perfect in mercy and perfect in love and I cannot base my relationship with Him on my feelings and misperceptions.  God's word says, "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart." (Psalm 37:4).  The desires of my heart are to change lives, save souls and pierce people's hearts with the truth of God's word, and I believe that God will use me to do that, even if my only weapons are a box of Kleenex and a pile of snotty tissues.

Jesus never promised us that our commitment to follow Him would be easy.  On the contrary, He warned us that the world would hate us (John 15:18; John 17:14; 1 John 3:13), that we would have many trials and sorrows (John 16:33), that our hearts would be troubled and to not succumb to fear (John 14:27), and that we would endure many hardships to enter the kingdom of heaven (Acts 14:22).  But God has promised that we wouldn't have to fight alone (Deut 31:8; John 14:16-18) and that we would be more than conquerors through our great, mighty and capable Savior Who loves us (Rom 8:37).

"Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He will do it. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday. Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him;" (Psalm 37:3-7)

"For then you will delight yourself in the Almighty and lift up your face to God. You will pray to Him, and He will hear you;" (Job 22:26,27)

"Cast your burden upon the Lord and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken." (Psalm 55:22)

"Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears our burden, The God who is our salvation." (Psalm 68:19)

"How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. How vast is the sum of them!" (Psalm 139:17)