I had in mind a different encouragement today than what I’m now going to share, but the Lord caused me to see and feel the urgency of this message yesterday.  You see, I had my night already planned out; I grabbed some dinner, I was going to go study for a while, and then go to the gym, only when I went to the place I was going to study, I found that it was temporarily closed.  No big deal, I could still get a good workout in.  After all, I had an entire pizza the night before, and I was sure that the entire thing had no nutritional value whatsoever.  After getting in my car to leave to, I pulled out into the street to go home, but got stuck at a stoplight.  Sitting at the stoplight I looked to my left and realized that there were people on their phones calling 911 for a guy that had just gotten in a motorcycle wreck.  He wasn’t wearing a helmet, and it was clear that he was hurt very badly – not 20 feet from where I was in my car, I and the others there helplessly watched as this man died.  Now, this story isn’t unique of course, this happens every day.  It happens to strangers, it happens to loved ones, and eventually our thoughts turn to the inevitability that one day, perhaps soon, it will happen to us.

There is a saying that there is no sure thing except for death and taxes.  Have you noticed that every year, we make plans about our taxes, but we never consider our own death?  There are tax planning services, but certainly there are no “death planning” offices open for business.  This is the very thing, however, that God says we ought to do.

Psalm 90:9-12 – “For all our days pass away under your wrath; we bring our years to an end like a sigh.  The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away.  Who considers the power of your anger, and your wrath according to the fear of you?  So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.”

With so many options for planning – planning for a job, planning for taxes, planning for vacations, planning for families – God wants us to take time to plan our lives with a view of eternity.  What if you could know exactly when you were to die?  Let’s say it was 4 years from now.  How would you organize your life?  Since you cannot know that, let’s just saying that you live to be eighty years old.  If your years between now and then will be what you carry with you into eternity, if the next 80 billion years are determined based on your next eighty, how will you spend them?

Some of us go about our lives without this view.  We set our eyes towards temporary pleasures, monetary gain, or just living our lives apart from God.  We have time, right?  We can always turn back to God when we’re dying.  We may not have that chance.

James 4:13-15 – “Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”

Jesus also spoke of this.  You know, I think a lot of people want to think of Jesus as this warm and fuzzy Jesus, that prances around and sprinkles love dust everywhere he goes – but listen to his response to a group of people lamenting the loss of some of their loved ones.

Luke 13:1-5 “There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

Jesus looks at these people and flatly tells them that, yes, these people have died, and they will too.  Can you imagine that kind of response to someone telling you about loved ones who had died?!  Jesus, the only One who ever knew the exact hour of his death, was immensely desirious that these people see that their life too is short, and that for them today is the day of salvation – what will they choose?  Repentance, turning from sin and turning to Christ, or to continue on living for themselves, knowing that the day is coming when they must give an account before God, and that day may be coming soon.

I know this isn’t a happy message, but each of us needs to look inwardly and ask ourselves, what if we died today – would we feel secure in our faith before God?  God did not create death, death is the consequence of sin, but God did give us eternal life in His son.  What we fear in death, is nothing compared to the loss we would experience without God for eternity.

How are you intentionally seeking the Lord and His will for your life?  What we can confidently say, grounded in God’s own Word and promises, is that everyone who loves God, who delights in Him, need not fear death – death will bring a fullness of joy in the presence of Christ.  But do you want Christ?  Do you love a God, who knowing your own sinfulness, would die in your place?  What depths of mercy and love await us in Christ; we can only hope and long for.  God is so much more than escape from death, escape from hell, He is a fullness of joy that words cannot describe.  None of us will live forever, and for some that is scary, but it doesn’t have to be.  Instead of living life for the next 80 years, start living life now for eternity.  Make each day, a step towards a God who loves you.

Grace and Peace,
Adam

The more I learn about myself, and the closer I draw to God, the more I am convinced that there is no greater doctrinal truth that needs to be driven home into our hearts than that of “total depravity” or the inability of man to do good apart from God.  Now, many people will say that teaching “doctrine” isn’t sexy, the hearers won’t listen, and it’s better to throw up a softball topical lesson on life.  I say that’s ridiculous, doctrinal truth of God and man is central to our understanding of the God we worship, and if we love God, we want to know about Him.  I can’t begin to express just how a relevant an issue in our post-modern church, I’ll only say even within the church, if I walked up to 100 people, maybe 10 would have heard of this doctrine, and maybe 1 would be able to articulate a Biblical understanding of it.

Let me explain the background first.  Most people don’t like the idea that there isn’t an innate goodness in themselves.  There is this idea that we are all kind of good, kind of bad, and we’re all seeking for some higher power.  So now you have some churches who want to tell you that you’re ok, you’re seeking after God, let’s make you comfortable and entertain you, maybe get you to say a prayer, baptize you, and generally just make you feel good about you.  God doesn’t want you to feel bad, right?  Now that sounds loving, doesn’t it?  It’s not very hard to see why this is appealing to many people.  They are never really confronted with the weight of their sin – they have no idea about the depth of their condition, they are just on a journey, littered with Christian rock bands, comfortable chairs on Sunday, with a latte in their hand.  Repentance is a catch phrase that means kind of feeling bad when you do things you shouldn’t do.

Now, there’s probably enough sarcasm in my previous paragraph that I’ll need to pray through whether or not I’ve got some sin of my own I need to confess… most likely I do, but am I that far off?  People are told that they just need to choose God – and they do.  They’ll say their prayer, get baptized – do whatever they are told to do.  They approach God on their own terms, and they keep God on their own terms.  They remain under the impression that there’s good in them, they just need God’s help to bring it about.  Now before I explain why that is not Biblical, and an impossibility, I want to point our attention to Jesus, and His parable of the rich young ruler from Matthew 19 – “And behold, a man came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.” He said to him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, “You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” The young man said to him,”All these I have kept. What do I still lack?” Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”

Jesus was telling him, that there was no good that he was capable of.  There is only One who is good, and the rich young ruler was talking to Him.  Later, he tells him to give up all that he has, and to follow Christ.  Jesus wasn’t telling him that for Him to be “good” he needed to keep all of the commandments, the whole point was to show him that he wasn’t good – he lacked “one thing” – Jesus.  The rich young ruler had deceived himself into thinking he was good in himself, Jesus lovingly wanted to show him the condition of his heart, that he would trust and follow the “one thing” he lacked, Jesus, who is good.

Couple this with Paul’s referencing Psalm 14 in Romans 3:10-18 when he says – ”    “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.”  “The venom of asps is under their lips.”   “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”  “Their feet are swift to shed blood;  in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known.”  “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

This isn’t me talking here – God’s Word stands on its own.  What is important for us to understand, as we approach a holy God on a daily basis, is that there is NOTHING that we bring to the table.  If any of us think we’re choosing God, that there is some good in us that he will accept, we will find our meeting with Him to be a cold, and wrathful occasion.  There is none who stand before Him in their own righteousness.  Even the faith to believe on Christ, is a gift, it doesn’t come from within us but from God (Eph 2:8-9).

Now, my goal here isn’t to beat everyone down, but maybe for some of us, we haven’t heard this, and we need to be beaten up a bit.  Maybe we’ve lost sight of this truth, and have been walking under our own power for a while.  What I want our eyes to be opened to, is the beauty of this doctrinal truth.  Let’s look at the two options:  If there is any measure of our own goodness that causes us to choose to place our faith in God, then that goodness must be sustained until death by us to secure our salvation.  That is a burden, that personally, I don’t want to bear.  If on the other hand, God has granted you eyes to see the depth of your depravity, the depth of your need for Him, you will find a savior that has accomplished for you all that you need to be reconciled to Him, even your faith to believe.  If you are walking in your own righteousness, feeling secure in your faith because of your good works, I hope you are living perfectly (I know I’m not), because God will not accept less than perfect righteousness into His presence – He is an all consuming fire (Duet 4:24, Isaiah 33:14, Heb 12:29).  Rather, my security is in the perfect life of Christ, the Righteous One, who has credited to my account His perfect life of righteousness, so that when I stand before a holy God, I can feel confident not in my own life and flawed righteousness, but in His.  We don’t need to hear how good we are, we don’t need to be coddled like infants – we are men and women of faith.  We come to Him daily, broken in our sin, but joyful, knowing that our dependence on Christ is hope indeed, He will never fail us.

2 Corinthians 6:9-13 – “We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything.

I’ll close with the lyrics of a hymn, “All I have is Christ” that I love for it’s simplicity, and the beauty of it’s truth.

I once was lost in darkest night
Yet thought I knew the way
The sin that promised joy and life
Had led me to the grave
I had no hope that You would own
A rebel to Your will
And if You had not loved me first
I would refuse You still

But as I ran my hell-bound race
Indifferent to the cost
You looked upon my helpless state
And led me to the cross
And I beheld God’s love displayed
You suffered in my place
You bore the wrath reserved for me
Now all I know is grace

Hallelujah! All I have is Christ
Hallelujah! Jesus is my life

Now, Lord, I would be Yours alone
And live so all might see
The strength to follow Your commands
Could never come from me
Oh Father, use my ransomed life
In any way You choose
And let my song forever be
My only boast is You

 – Jordan Kauflin

When we stand before God daily, and into the halls of eternity, I hope our hearts will sing the same song – Hallelujah!  All I have is Christ  Hallelujah!  Jesus is my life

Grace and Peace,
Adam

My mind rejoices at knowing that no matter how big I try to make God look with my words, He is bigger.  No matter how good I try to make good seem, he is better.  No matter how faithful I try to convey that God is, His faithfulness exceeds my abilities.  The list goes on.  Sometimes I let my mind just ponder that for a bit, and what happens is that I realize that whatever picture of God I had in my mind, it was insufficient.  Have any of you ever thought about that?  It’s a good exercise to do, especially if you are struggling to “see God” amidst your circumstances.

What happens is that when we see God clearly as He is, we realize that there is no treasure greater than God Himself.  Everything else in our lives is incalculably less important than having God.  The joys we could pursue outside of God become incalculably less desirable.  The relationships in our lives become not an end unto themselves, but a means by which we are pursuing more of God in our lives.  This is the heart of a Christian.

I often tell people that if you want to know if you are truly saved, you only need to answer 1 question “Do I love God”.  Now, that question is a legitimate question – it is true that no one can love God without the Holy Spirit within Him, and the Holy Spirit is God’s seal that our faith is real, and we will spend eternity with him.  The problem with my question is that you first have to define who God is, and what love for Him means.  In reality most people who have said a prayer, can recite the gospel, have no real affection for God, and it is evident by their lives.  This is why 90% of American is “Christian” according to polls, but we are one of the most immoral countries imaginable.  This is what it means in James 2:17-20 – “So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.  But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.  You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!  Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?” 

Now the Bible is a great gift from God, however it is greatly misunderstood.  The Bible is not a toolbox for how to live a Christian life (even though it is mistakenly used that way often).  The Bible is God’s revelation of Himself to us.  Jesus spoke to the Pharisees, and said that all of the old testament prophets, all of the stories of old testament Israel – they were all talking about Christ.  Everything is about Him, and for those who love Him, this is great news.  For those who really don’t want Christ, but rather just what He can give them, you probably this is horrible news, but you probably have already closed out of this email, so I’ll continue for the rest of us…  Many people don’t want to read their Bible because they don’t want to be confronted by the One true God.  They want to continue in their lives thinking that their love for God is consistent with a life of greed, adultery, sexual immorality, malicious behavior, etc.  Others simply say they “can’t find the time”.    Here is my response.  Name some activity that you enjoy doing?  Maybe it’s watching TV, playing Golf, spending time with your friends, etc.  Have consistently engaged in that activity without spending time with God in His Word?  Whatever that is that you just named – that’s your God.  That is what you worship and adore.  You cannot say you have genuine affection for someone or something, yet consistently it “loses” out to something else.

Ok, now that we’ve all been beaten up a little bit, be comforted to know that we are all sinners, and all fall short.  Let me give you this exhortation, though – if you do love God (The real God of the Bible, Jesus, not merely the idea of God, or what he can give you like escape from hell and reconciliation with dead relatives in heaven, etc) then wouldn’t you want to spend time with Him?  There are some things about God that we cannot know, because they are too great for us right now, but wouldn’t you want to know everything you could know?  God wrote a book about Himself to us – wouldn’t you want to read it over and over?  Reading your Bible isn’t an act of obedience, it is a heart issue that pierces all the question of our salvation.  Everyone who truly loves God, will pursue Him, and He is ever present in His Word, greatly desirous that we would come to know Him more.  If you don’t have affections for God, that drive you to want to know Him from His Word, start there – set aside time to read your Bible, and as you do, ask God to pierce your heart, and ask Him earnestly to give you genuine affections for Him – That is NEVER a request God will say no to.

Our lives are a daily battle, and there is no greater offensive weapon than the Word of God.  I hope your time with Him is immensely beneficial, I know it will be, because the Word itself gives me confidence of that very thing – 2 Timothy 3:16 –  “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.”

Grace and Peace be With You,
Adam

I felt this would be a good word, since I missed my WFTD yesterday, and I’m just getting this out this afternoon.  So right off the bat, you know I’m right there with you all when I say that we have to battle daily against those things that keep us from the Lord and His work.

This battle against business begins anew each morning.  Each of us is beaten down by sin, the world, and all the temptations that are thrown at us each day.  Jesus offers us comfort in Himself in Matthew 11:28-30 – “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Many people ask the question – “What is the meaning of life?”  They spend their entire lives trying to answer that question with work, family, sports, fame – whatever place they look though, all of their efforts are in vain.  Some people work so hard their entired lives seeking out joy, they cannot fathom that true peace and joy isn’t found in themselves, but in knowing the One who created all things.  The meaning of life is God.  To see Him, to know Him, and enjoy Him now and forever.  Jesus was telling these weary people that everything they’ve been looking for could be found in Him.  Not only that, but He was going to help them, and in doing so, people would find rest for their souls.

Here is a question to answer individually – Do you see time spent with God as a burden, or as a time of renewal and refreshment?  Does your heart delight in the good news of the gospel that everything necessary for your greatest good, reconciliation to God Himself and eternal life, has been accomplished already by Jesus?  Can you take rest in seeing the revealed goodness and faithfulness of God in His Word, and then know that that is the God who loves you, and is right there with you no matter what you’re going through?  This is the very peace and rest that Jesus offers, and we all so desperately need.

My exhortation today, even as I myself struggle among the many commitments and concerns surrounding me, is to root the truth of God’s sufficiency for rest in our hearts.  TV cannot give me rest for my soul, golf cannot give rest to my soul, food cannot give rest to my soul, a husband/wife cannot give rest to my soul… All of those things can be good and gifts of God, but they were never meant to give the rest that flows from God alone.  Secondly, even as I root that truth of God into my heart, be intentional about spending time with Him.  We plan for 100 different things a day, but are we as intentional about seeking the Lord in His Word as we are about our career?  Financial Planning?  Watching the newest TV series?  My challenge is to begin today making a plan of when that time will be – not as an end unto itself, but as a dedicated time to renew ourselves in God, that the rest of our time will be fruitful and restful.

Grace and Peace,
Adam

One of my modern heroes of the faith is a pastor out of Minneapolis, MN named John Piper.  I remember being introduced to his teaching by a mentor of mine, and at the time everything he was saying seemed to be new, and exciting.  Over time, and as I read a few of his books, I realized that essentially he was saying pretty much the same thing over and over again – we are saved through no merit of our own, chosen by God to be reconciled to Him through faith, and God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.    Now in our society, with almost unlimited opportunities to be entertained, we are constantly looking for something new – something better.  That was my initial reaction to Piper, and in a larger sense, the gospel as a whole.

It wasn’t until I had grown in my faith some, that I began to cherish men like Piper, who realize that the gospel doesn’t come with flowing words, and it certainly doesn’t change over time or because of culture. There are men who feel the need to cater to their congregations and readers need to be entertained, and thereby fall victim to make the gospel something it was never meant to be – complex and changing.  The good news of God is not that you fill an empty hole in your heart, it isn’t that your family life will become better, it isn’t financial prosperity.  God may do all those things, if it aligns with His will, but that is manipulating and counterfeiting the truth of the gospel.  The gospel answers the question of how sinful man, can be reconciled to a holy God, for our good and joy, and His glory.  The gospel is a simple message, everyone can hear it, and understand it, yet we need to be reminded of it constantly, because we struggle with sin daily.  How comforting is it to know that when we are confronted with temptations and sin, our refuge is not a complex mathematical formula, it is simply a person, the completed work of Jesus Christ on the cross.

I love the men and women God has put in my life, who remind me of the simple truths of the gospel, who listen to me as I go on about how I’ve failed (again), and just tell me that Jesus knew all of my sin, not just my past, but my present and future sin, and took it all with Him to the cross.  They know I’ve heard that before, they know I teach that to others, but we – all of us need to be reminded of that, our ears need to hear those words, we need to encourage each others’ hearts with that truth daily.  We need to go through life with our hearts clinging hard to those simple unchanging truths, holding on as the waves of life crash against us.  What we will find, is that in those simple truths is a depth of joy, born out of the faithfulness of God amidst life experience, growing closer in fellowship with others who likewise cling to those simple truths, and a beauty – not in the words or idea – in seeing and savoring the God that we have come to know and love.

Paul, perhaps one of the greatest religious teachers of his day, began as a persecutor of Christians, until he was called by Jesus.  Paul was a Pharisee, a group of men known for making long speeches and prayers in public to be admired by others.  This group of men would have memorized the first 5 books of the Bible by the time they were 12, and continued on through the rest of their lives.  These men were so consumed by a complex group of 600 laws (many of which were made up not by God, but by themselves), and details of scripture, that when Jesus came, and explained that all those legal demands, all of the history of Israel as a nation, were only meant to expose in our hearts that we can’t be perfect as God requires – we needed a savior.  Paul, explained to the church of Corinth, as a former Pharisee himself, “ And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom.  For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.  And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” (1 Corinthians 2:1-5)

My hope is that we will never grow tired of the gospel – let’s continue to remind each other of the simple truths of the gospel, let it deeply take root in our hearts, for our good, and His glory.

1 Corinthians 15:1-6 – “Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you— unless you believed in vain.  For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.”

 Grace and Peace,

Adam

The title of this email is seemingly an oxymoron, right?  Grace, after all is unearned/unmerited favor.  Workers work and earn their wages, so how does this title make sense?  Well if you read through the Bible, you’ll see this dichotomy, over and over again.  We are accepted by God solely based on Christ’s work on the cross, yet we are called to workers for the gospel.

For example Ephesians 2:8-10 –  For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

How then does God want us to work?  Definitely not as someone who believes they are righteous because of our works, but not someone who indifferently stands by when there is much good work God wants to accomplish in and through each of us.

2 Timothy 2:4-6 – “⁴No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. ⁵ An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. ⁶It is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops.”

John 14:15 – “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”

1 John 5:3 – “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.” 

What are the great commandments of God?  To love Him with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves (Matt 22:36-39).  Now I don’t know about you all, but I definitely don’t do that all the time.  More than that, I don’t do that perfectly, as God requires, any of the time.  So how can that not be a burden?  Grace.  The knowledge that God has reconciled all of me, all of my sin and failings on the cross.  God has then imputed (big Christian-ese word meaning credited to me) Christ’s righteousness and His perfect life to me.  That is grace for the believer.

Now, we all love the grace of God, but here is my question.  Do you love God enough to desire to work hard to keep his commandments?  Not because He will accept you if you do, but because your eyes have been opened to see the beauty of Jesus Christ, that He already has accepted you if you trust Him, and you want more of Him in your life.

Lately God has been pressing more and more into my own heart the need for more spiritual discipline.  If someone desires to get in better shape, they work out, and exercising spiritual discipline is the same idea.  What are the things in my life that can bring more of God into my heart and mind?  I definitely wouldn’t limit it to this list, but here are some things I’ve found helpful, and grounded Biblically.
·         Daily time of meditation and prayer through the Bible, God’s Word – After all, if the Bible is God’s revelation of Himself and His will to us, that’d be a pretty good place to start, right?

·         Prayer – Are we seeking God in prayer?  Not just giving Him a list of wants – not that that’s wrong, God does want us to bring those requests to Him, but does your prayer life begin and end with a desire for God?

·         Confession of Sin to God – If your sin has been covered by Christ, holding onto it, only seeks to bring God down by either ignoring that God already knows, or thinking that your sin is too bad to be forgiven, which there are none.  Does your heart see that this is an opportunity to be renewed by the grace of God, to thank Him for doing for you, what you could never do for yourself?

·         Confession of Sin to others – Do you see this as an opportunity to manifest the grace of God to others?  Both in knowing that in Christ your sin has been forgiven, and to encourage yourself and others to draw closer to God in holiness?

·         Fasting – Have you ever wondered why God made us have a need for food?  God certainly didn’t have to; He’s God and could have made us without that need.  Jesus fasted – why? Could it be that when we fast what we are really doing is skipping the physical need (food) to remind ourselves that our greatest need is met in God alone?

·         Financial Giving – Do you see all of your money, not just 10%, as a means to enter into God’s work, and draw closer to Him?  I’m not saying you should go out and give all your money away, because I don’t believe the Bible says that. I could ask you about your 401k and your retirement plans and get hear the results of some great financial planning, but are you investing your money now to show the world that God is more valuable than anything money could buy?

·         Serving Others – especially those who are incapable of paying you back, or those who are undeserving.  Can your service be reminding you of how you must’ve been to God, when He was walking to the cross carrying all of our sin with Him?  We could never pay Him back, we were completely undeserving – can your service be a means for God to manifest Himself to you, and then to others?
We all make plans.  We even make a list for the grocery store.  Do you plan how you are going to draw closer to God in your life?  By the grace of God, you love Him.  Now you are free to have as much of Him in your life as you want.  Do you see that all the “work” of God is really a means of grace itself?  God is calling us to work, to keep His commandments because these are the things that will draw us closer to Him.  Sin and the world will offer us happiness in many ways, but if we’ve been freed from that deception, to know that the things in the world can only point us to God as our joy, but never be a substitute for Him – all of these “works” will be good news.

The grace of God will lead us to live passionately for an eternal reward, God Himself.  By the grace of God purchased by the finished work of Jesus, we are free to work in joy towards having more of God in our lives now, and manifesting Him to others.  The grace of God enables us to work and fail, knowing that Christ never did, and never will.

Grace and Peace,
Adam

Mark Dever, a pastor out of Washington DC told a story recently about his conversation with an older lady who was not a believer.  He asked her if she belonged to a church.  Her response was “No, I don’t want to be a bunch of hypocrites, those people are no different from the rest of us.”  Mark then asked her is she thought that a majority of people thought that they were bad people, to which she replied “no”.  Mark then gently suggested to her that “maybe the difference between those in church and those outside, is not that they are different, but that they recognize they are not good, and are sinners in need of a savior.  Now I’m not going to say this woman instantly turned to the Lord, it was a process of months of conversations; after all she was an older lady stuck in her ways and stubborn, ha ha.

What I want to note is that the point made by Mark is so important.  Many people think of the church and the people in at as hypocrites, and often times they are correct.  If you find a church that focuses on your behavior, instead of your heart, you will always find hypocrites.  That is because they will whitewash their lives, while their heart, the root of their lives remains unchanged.  Jesus spoke of this when confronted by the religious leaders of his day – Matthew 23:25-28 – “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.”

One of the marks of a healthy church is an openness about struggles.  This is the gospel, that we are sinners, that have been declared just and righteous because of Jesus, and his atoning death on the cross for sinners.  So what does it look like to be a believer, who struggles well with their sin?  It begins with personal openness about your sin before God, and others.    1 John 1:8-10 says it plainly – “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.”  

There are a mountain of tactics beyond confession and prayer to make war on the sin in our hearts, but none of them will be helpful if attempted under your own power.  You have to understand that you can change your behavior, but you are powerless to change your heart, and your heart will eventually win out.  Only God can change your heart, and as he already knows your heart’s struggles, you’re not telling Him anything he doesn’t know, you’re going to Him as our only hope for healing and change.

Beyond that, struggling well with our sin does not focus on behavior, it focuses on the heart’s affections, the thought patterns that give birth to sin.  Ask yourself this question – “Does my heart delight more in the things of the world than in God”?  “When I think about my future, does my mind process decisions with a view of eternity with God, or my time here?”  This is the root of our sin that God wants to change in us.  Struggling well is filling our hearts and mind with those things that bring about passionate affections for God, and that seek to live with a mind set on eternity.  I would be remiss if I didn’t say that in my own personal experience, there is no better weapon in this internal war, than time spent with God in His Word and Prayer.  Involvement in a church, Christian community, spiritual disciplines, wisdom in placing barriers in your life – all of these things will be helpful as you struggle, but make sure your battle is one of the heart and mind – your behavior will follow where your heart and mind’s affections push you.  Psalm 37:4 – “Delight yourself in the LORD,and he will give you the desires of your heart.”  Nehemiah 8:10b – “And do not be grieved, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.”   

My hope is that we all struggle well, and continue to put to death the sin in our lives.  It is a life-long battle.  There will not be a point when we “arrive” or “conquer” all the sin that is in us.  There are no perfect people.  Thanks be to God, that He Himself, came as a perfect man, Jesus Christ, and conquered sin on our behalf, that in Him all who delight in Him would be reconciled to God.  We have a great conqueror King, Jesus, who has already won the war, let’s all push forward to win the battles daily, for our good and His glory.

Grace and Peace,
Adam

At some point in church history, it became tolerated for someone to say that their faith is a “private” thing.  This of course is veiled under the idea that they are actually more caring because they do not want to “bother” others who may not share their beliefs.  Even among professing Christians, there is an idea that there is a divide between their public life, and their private one, and if anyone questions something that they’ve put into the “private life box” in their mind, they become defensive, even countering that the person should maybe “mind their own business”.

So what does the Bible have to tell us about God, and His desire for us to live in community?  Well let’s look at God first.  Our God is a triune God, He exists and always has existed as one God in three persons, existing in perfect harmony within himself.  God made man in his own image, including His communal nature.  We see this everywhere, and know this to be true.  One of the harshest punishments that can be given to someone is to put them into solitary confinement, which can often lead that person to having a mental breakdown.  How else do you explain 90% of Americans professing to be Christian, even showing up to church on Sunday except for a desire to be approved of by others, and have a sense of community?  One quick look around us tells us that not even a majority of those 90% of people truly love God and are seeking after His will for their lives.

During creation, after every work of God, He claims that what he sees is “good”. That is, until he gets to Adam, and sees that He is alone.  Genesis 2:18 – “Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”  

So from the beginning God created us to be in community.  The problem is that even though we were designed for community, we’ve got a big barrier keeping us from pursuing real Christian community – namely sin.  Both pride and the seeking the approval of man verses the approval of God keep us from pursuing relationships with other Christians that would challenge us to grow in our love for God and holiness.  Now some of us are saying, well I tried to be open with someone once, and they beat me down judging me, or they went around gossiping about what I’d told them.  Every Christian has some of that in our background – the difference is, I can’t judge God, or what He has said is good for me, based on the actions of sinful man.

From personal experience, Christian community is one of the hardest things to pursue.  You have different personalities, different schedules, different life stages, etc.  But like most things that are difficult, the reward is equally great.  I cannot count the amount of times that I would have fallen deep into a pattern of sin, were it not for the intervention, encouragement, and rebuke given to me by other Godly men who knew me, and what was going on with me.  This is Biblical.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 – “Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up!”

Ecclesiastes 4:12 – “And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken.”

So what of the person that goes it alone.  Who says to himself that all they need is themselves, that they don’t want anyone else to “slow them down”, etc.

Jeremiah 50:31-32 – “Behold, I am against you, O proud one, declares the Lord GOD of hosts, for your day has come, the time when I will punish you.  The proud one shall stumble and fall, with none to raise him up, and I will kindle a fire in his cities, and it will devour all that is around him.”

My exhortation is simple.  Each of us needs Christian community.  For many, this is new, you have never intentionally pursued deep relationships with other Christians, given them time to grow, to be open and vulnerable with our struggles, to seek out counsel in all areas of life, including the ones labeled “private” before.  This is what it means to walk in the light, this is where God is at work, to free you from your sin that binds you, keeps you from the God you love, and the peace and joy He brings.

My challenge to us all is to take one step today, towards deeper community.  Maybe that’s getting involved with a small group within church, maybe it’s making that small group and the people in it a greater priority for you, maybe that’s grabbing dinner with a Christian brother or sister to discuss your struggles and ask for their counsel and prayer, maybe it’s bringing to light a struggle or sin that has remained hidden, but that God wants to heal you from.  Whatever it is, know that God is with you, there is no condemnation for those in Jesus Christ, and we’re all here to encourage and spur one another on towards God daily.

Grace and Peace,
Adam

Whether your married or single, one of the most challenging sections in the Bible is found in Ephesians 5:25-27 – “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.”

Now before we go on to thinking this call to sacrificial love is only for men, the preceding verses in Ephesians talk about the wife respecting her husband, and more importantly, there are no qualifiers given.  There is no respect your husband…if he’s having a good day or …if he’s being the man God has called him to be.  No, wives are called to love and respect their husbands, knowing they are flawed.

Husbands clearly are being called to love in the same way as Christ loved the church.  There are explicit instructions to serve, even unto death as Christ did.  So there you have it, men and women are on equal footing, we are both called to love sacrificially.  Here my point isn’t to address married life, as much as it is to give a picture of the heart of love God desires in us.

Let’s start off by extending grace to us all – NO ONE loves sacrificially as they ought to.  This is something that must be a work of God in and through us.  So we’re all hopeless to live this way under our own power.  Given this is only possible through God, prayer and time with God in His Word are the fuel for this love.  Some of you have been trying for a long time to love others without any fuel in your tank.  Like a person on the side of the road that ran out of gas, when someone comes with a gallon of gas, don’t be prideful to reject it, accept it as a gift.  God’s gift to us is His Son, and His Word through which we come to know God, His love for us, and His desire to manifest Himself in and through us by our trusting in Him.

In order to learn what it means to love sacrificially we need to define those two words – love and sacrifice.  First, Love – many of us have bought into the lie that love is an emotion, a feeling that can come and go.  How often have we heard in media that someone “fell out of love with someone” or they “grew apart”?  If that is a picture of what love is, that is the scariest idea in the world.  How awful is it that I could love someone for many years and then just one day they “grow apart”?  That is not a Biblical idea of love.  1 John 4:8 says this – “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.”  So love is not an emotion, love in its purest essence is a person, Jesus Christ, and He does not change.  Numbers 23:19 tells us about God’s unchanging nature – “God is not man, that he should lie,or a son of man, that he should change his mind.Has he said, and will he not do it?Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?”  So if God is love, and He is unchanging; our definition of love cannot be something that is “moved” by external forces, it must be something that wells up within us, and overflows unchangingly to those around us.  Where do we begin, some might ask?

How can you love someone else unless you know the One who is love?

Begin with Jesus.  Read about Him in the Gospel books – Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.  Look at how he treated people who were marginalized by society.  Look at how he painfully died, gave up his life, so that others by faith might have a new life in Him.  He is love.  What you will find is that the only way to love sacrificially is for God in you to be at work, and all you can do is seek more of God in your life.

How do we know what it means to love sacrificially?  Look right before Christ died at how the church treated Him?  There was no great uprising to save him, no, even his closest disciple Peter denied Him three times.  Yet Jesus did not walk away; rather He was beaten, and led to die on a cross for the church that mocked him.  What we see in Jesus, was Him doing whatever was necessary for the church’s greatest good.  As believers, we know that the greatest good accomplished on the cross, and chief end of the cross was our reconciliation to God (1 Pet 3:18) to know, love, and enjoy God.

Would you be willing to sacrifice your life so that others might be reconciled to God, encouraged gently to grow in their faith?  What if this sacrifice meant you had to take a different job for less money, what if it meant you had to turn down a job offer in another city, because your family was rooted in your current city?  Would you turn off the TV to go spend time with someone?  Would you sacrifice your personal desires for the well-being of others?  Will your heart be so rooted in a love for God, that your joy in obeying Him is greater than the sacrifice you make to do it?  Can your eyes be opened to see that difficult circumstances in your life are not necessarily a cause to walk away, but an opportunity to magnify the worth of God?  What a blessing it is when you can see that, and really feel that – a peace and joy washes over you that cannot be explained to others.

In Matthew 16:24 Jesus says – “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”  This is a weighty charge.  Each of us has a mountain of sin compelling us to live for ourselves.  Know that Christ has overcome sin.  In Him alone, we are able to have victory, to love God and love others sacrificially.  I hope today you’ll seek to know the Person who is Love, Jesus.  I hope that His sacrificial love will compel your heart towards the same.  1 John 4:19 – “We love because He first loved us”.  Know you’re prayed for, and God is with you; as we all struggle for more of Him in our hearts and lives.  He is mighty to save.

Grace and Peace,
Adam

Is knowability a word?  From the red underline in my spellchecker it’s saying it’s not, but oh well, it’s a word today.  I’ll add that to the list of things for me to work on… loving God well, pursuing joy in God, serving others better, and …. spelling/making up words as I go along.

Ok, over the weekend I was looking up at God’s creation, and the vastness of it all, I realized that just as we only know a glimmer of creation, we only know a glimmer of who God is.  As we pursue to know the Lord, to grow into His likeness we all are confronted by how much there is to know.  How can finite man, reach into the infinite?  The reality is that we will never know everything there is to know about God.  Moreover if you grasp even a glimmer of God’s infinitude, then you will know that what we can know of God is incredibly little compared to what there is to know.  Kind of like a child can’t understand the vastness of the ocean from being in a kiddie pool.  So what does that mean?  Is that good news or bad news?

I want to touch on those in reverse order, so first is this good or bad news?  I hope for you it is good news.  We are promised in Jeremiah 31:31-34 – “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

Moreover, 1 Corinthians 13:12 tells us “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.”

This is good news of the gospel, we will know God fully when we see him face to face.  Everything required to reconcile us to God to enable that to happen was purchased by God in the flesh, Jesus Christ, on the cross.

So if we can only know a very small amount about God, what is the point?  God has given us more than enough to live, to manifest Him in a world that is darkened by sin.  This is the point, the glory of God magnified in us, whom God has shown mercy on through His son. This point I believe is given in 2 Corinthians 4:6-11 – “For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.  We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair’ persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.  For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.”

For those like me who take great joy in knowing more and more about God, the question I have to ask myself is this – “How has my life manifested what I DO know of God, in the person of Jesus Christ?”  Are there things about the character of God that I do know that I am not living out?  God is glorified not merely in knowing, but in our doing and becoming more like His Son.  I have yet to meet someone who has read through the Bible and said “yeah I got all that, I figured that whole sin business out / don’t do that anymore, and I need something else”.  If you do meet that person, run, ha ha.

I hope you all had a great Memorial Day weekend, and today is a profitable day of introspection and prayer with the Lord.  May God bless and keep you.

Grace and Peace,
Adam