Each day brings it’s own struggles.  Some of us have been struggling with one thing in particular for a long time, and it has just become “normal” to us.  Whenever suffering enters our lives, we sometimes have the impulse to ask God, “Why?” or “Why me?”.  At this point, this coversation I could turn to God’s sovereignty over evil in general, and how sin and suffering entered the world through Adam, however, that is not the goal of the day.  I’d like us to be encouraged by God’s purpose in your particular suffering.  How is it that God loves us, yet He intentionally ordains suffering for us, and even acts to bring that about?

Yesterday someone asked me how things were going, and I told them that honestly I had a lot going on, and was struggling somewhat.  They told me not to worry, that it wouldn’t rain forever.  Right about then two things came to my mind… one was little orphan annie singing “The sun will come out… tomorrow…bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow…” (this is the randomness that is my mind) – and the other was a realization that for all the struggle that I’ve gone through, I’ve been able to see God’s faithfulness in a new way, and I wouldn’t change that even if I could.  I told them, that I was ok, that there isn’t any growth without rain.  That idea is exactly how a loving Father, can and does use suffering in our lives for our good.

If you could ask for anything from God, what would it be?  For me, aside from Him immediately taking me up into His presence like Elijah, it would have to be for greater faith.  Not the kind of intellectual thinking or that defines “faith” for most, I’m talking about a heart and mind that is transformed by the goodness of God, to trust Him in every moment, and to call out to His name with power and assurance that He is an all powerful, Holy and righteous God.  I want the kind of faith.  I want the faith that will transform me to love selflessly, to love the unloveable, to serve beyond my power, and look back on a life of compassion towards others in front of the Father hearing the words “Well done good and faithful servant”.  God desires that kind of faith in me as well.  In fact, He’s already answered my request for that kind of faith with, “Yes”.  The means by which He will grow that faith in me is suffering.

Romans 5:2-5 – “Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”

Paul in writing to the church in Rome is outlining first the foundation of his joy – the gospel, which was received by faith, and provides the grace by which we have been reconciled to God.  This is what Paul is saying, that when you become a Christian, there is a measure of joy in your life in being reconciled to God.  As you suffer, God is producing in you a faith that endures, that changes your character increasingly into the image of Christ, which gives assurance of your faith, and produces immense joy.  Have you all ever seen or used a blow torch?  Basically you have some kind of oxygen mixed with acetylene, which when lit, produces a flame.  As you increase the oxygen level, the flame gets hotter and hotter, until it is bright blue and can melt metal.  The gospel and faith are the oxygen, we are lit by the Holy Spirit, and God wants to increase our faith, so that we can accomplish all that He has for us, and our joy would be ever increasing as our faith increases.

Now, to do justice to what this all looks like I have to pull out a larger section of scripture from Romans 8.  I want us to see and know how our sufferings related to the glory that is to be revealed to us, and how by the Holy Spirit, we are being guarded and prepared for that day.

Romans 8:18-30 – ” For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.”

That is a great big chunk of scripture.  I’d love to pick it apart, but for the sake of brevity, I’ll try to be concise (as best I can… you all know me).  When you were a child, what was Christmas morning like for you?  You probably began counting the days as it came closer, and your anticipation was so great that you would wake up at 5am in the morning charge into your parents room, and jump on their bed until they woke up.  There was great joy in that day.  Now how is Christmas for you as an adult?  Likely you’ll roll out of bed around 8am… you might make some breakfast first, check in on the news, and overall, its still a happy time, but the anticipation and eagerness has dwindled, as has your joy.  For us, when we are suffering, and turning to the Lord to sustain us, we have no choice but to remember and trust that our treasure and joy is not in this world, but by faith, it is waiting to be revealed to us.  As we rest in the Lord in obedience, God is allowing us to see Christ more and more, so that our anticipation grows, and grows, and grows.

My friends, when the glory of God is revealed to us in Christ, the suffering that produced anticipation in us, will not even be worth comparing to the mountain of joy we will be confronted with in Christ.  It is so much sweeter than we could ever know, and yet, the suffering we endure now is preparing us for that day.  The hope we have in Christ today, is magnified through suffering, and God loves us enough to intentionally use suffering in our lives to grow our anticipation of that day, to magnify the worth and glory of God in our hearts, to prepare us for our bridegroom Christ, to begin growing us in a joy that will be ever increasing for all eternity, where 10 million years after the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ was revealed to us, our love and joy will feel new, greater than the day before.  We will be made complete in Him.  That is the purpose and love of God in suffering in the lives of believers.

James 1:2-4 – “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” 

This world is not our home.  When bad things happen to good people, the answer isn’t that… well God must not know, or care.  He cares for those people deeply, passionately.  When people are suffering, we shouldn’t tell them that God has a purpose in their suffering (there is a time for that, but it is not in the midst of suffering), we should mourn with them, love them selflessly as Christ loves us, and point them to only hope they have, salvation through the shed blood of Christ.  We should remind them that they are not alone, that Jesus suffered much, and is with them in their suffering.  Hebrews 2:9-10 – “But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.  For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.”  Jesus Christ is the only answer real answer to the suffering we see in the world.  If God is good, and yet there is suffering, that suffering must be meant to point us to a greater good – God Himself.  Do not seek to avoid suffering – press into it deeply.  Let God remove from you all things that cause your hopes to rest in anything but Him.  Rejoice when times are good, but rejoice also when times are not – nothing grows without rain.

Grace and Peace,
Adam

Most of us have some fears in our life.  We’ve had things happen in our past that skew our perception of reality.  Now to give a few quick examples, we need only look to our mothers.  Now if your mother was like mine, she would tell you that she KNEW with 100% certainty, that everyone who played high school football would end up a paraplegic, and that the very first time someone decided to get on a motorcycle they’re going to get in a wreck and kill themselves.  To be fair though, let’s turn to the fathers.  Fathers KNOW with 100% certainty, that the minute their daughters go off to college, they’re going to forget to change the oil in their car, and they will have to replace the engine when it blows up.  Fathers KNOW with 100% certainty, that every boy their daughter dates, is in some way attempting to besmirch their daughter’s honor, and likely are a tool of Satan to accomplish this task.

Now these are extreme examples, right?  When confronted with someone who is clearly speaking or acting irrationally based on one of their fears, the first reaction is to try to explain their irrationality to them.  This is pointless, and unhelpful, and I’m guilty of trying myself.  The problem is this is that you cannot address the irrationality brought on by fear, unless you determine the root cause of the fear to begin with.  After all, the reality is that some football players are paraplegics, people do die on motorcycles, daughter’s do forget to change their oil and have their engines blow up, and who knows… that boyfriend just might be a tool of Satan, ha ha.  (Shotgun’s loaded just in case…)

The physical manifestations of fear, however, can have little to do with the actual root.  A mother who doesn’t want her son to ride a motorcycle might not be afraid of her son’s health, as much as she is of being alone in life.  Maybe her father left her family when she was young, and now she wants to hold her family so tight, that nothing could happen that they might leave.  Maybe the father, who claiming concern over his daughter’s oil, is afraid of not being useful anymore.  Maybe when he was younger, his own father used to tell him that he “wasn’t useful for anything”, and so he associated usefulness with affection.  Now that his daughter doesn’t need him as much, he’s afraid her affection for him will fade as well.  There’s a million different examples, and the truth is that no one is going to find that out after 5-10 minutes talking with someone.  It takes a person who really wants to grow being willing to ask themselves questions about why they do certain things, and why they feel like they do about certain things, and then asking why they feel/act that way about the first answer.  This process can go on for multiple levels, like peeling back layers until someone finds the root fear that is causing their behavior.  What is interesting is how often it is seemingly distant from the physical manifestation.

What is amazing is how these root level fears bind us in ways that are unhelpful, and often sinful.  It’s amazing at the amount of joy God has prepared for us, that is missed by misplaced fear in our hearts.  In the Bible, we are told that we should fear only one thing, the Lord.  That fear is the beginning of wisdom – all other fear is the beginning of sin.

Psalm 111:10 – “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom;all those who practice it have a good understanding.”

Proverbs 1:7 – “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.”

We all have fears, based on something in our past, based on our individual experience in life; and by not addressing them through introspection and scripture, we default our emotions to be led by them.  The fear of the Lord is not something that is innate to us – Psalm 111 says that it is something that is practiced.  The encouragement we have as believers in Christ, is that in Him we have everything we need to overcome those fears, to have life, and joy, and peace.

1 John 4:19-20 – “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.  We love because he first loved us.”

How does perfect love cast out fear?  Romans 5:8 – “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”  When we fear, apart from God, we fear some sense of lack, or that something bad will happen to us.  Being “perfected in love”, is finding everything you need in the gospel of Christ, so that while you might be tempted into fears, you can practice the fear of the Lord by proclaiming His steadfast love as superior to anything else the world would offer you.  For those of us who have feared the Lord, we fear His name, because He is the Holy One, Perfectly Righteous, but we no longer fear judgment.  Psalm 118:4 – “Let those who fear the LORD say,”His steadfast love endures forever.”

Have you ever stopped to be honest with yourself about your own fears?  What are your fears about marriage?  What are your fears about your job?  What are your fears about family?  What are your general fears that impact how you live?  My encouragement is to spend an hour or two really thinking about what these fears are and where their root lies.  Ask yourself the question “why do I feel this way” repeatedly until you come to a peace about the root of a fear, pray through that time seeking the Holy Spirit’s illumination, and then look to scripture to see how your identity in Christ and His love for you frees you from bondage to that fear.  We are free to love because God first loved us.  We fear God, but rest secure the steadfast love of God, that in Christ, we have EVERYTHING necessary for this life, and a future hope of glory with Him.  My prayer is that this will a fruitful time for you, and I’d encourage you to share what you find with a fellow believer you trust, and asking their encouragement to practice the fear of the Lord, and accept the peace of Christ.  Know you’re prayed for.

Grace and Peace,
Adam

Jesus’s ministry included preparing a group of 12 men to go out into the world and spread the good news of salvation through faith alone, by grace alone, in Christ alone.  Often a lesson would be preached to a large group, but then the truth of the message would be explained only to the twelve.  These men studied the actions and words of Jesus, and rightly so, because He not only spoke the truth, He is the Truth.  Jesus poured out his life through time spent with these men, and we are given a similar charge, as we see when Paul instructed Timothy:

2 Timothy 2:1-2 – “You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.”

So where is this kind of discipleship today?  If this was the model given to us by Jesus, why don’t we find more of this now?  A quick look at church history should be helpful.

If I said that American culture overall is the enemy of Christianity, I don’t think many people take offense.  We live amongst a sea of post-modernism, where objective truth is consistently attacked as arrogance, where morality is called intolerance, and living as a Christian has become punchline for late night comedy.  We as a society are largely made up of indviduals who fall into one of two camps.  There are individuals who believe truth is either found within the individual and therefore relative, or those that believe truth is found through a melding of everyone’s thoughts and ideas. So what about church culture?  How has it responded to the changing cultural landscape?

During the mid and latter part of the last century, the church largely was made up of individual persons who attended Sunday services and perhaps a mid-week service.  This model of personal piety in isolation was not Biblically grounded, and ultimately was unhelpful as individuals would fall through the cracks.

In the 1990’s and around the turn of the millenium, you began to see the emergence of the megachurch, and cultural Christianity took a new turn.  Seeing the deficiencies in the modernist church, where isolation was the norm, the post-modern church would seek to resolve this problem with community.  This was a good change.  After all, as image-bearers of the triune God, we were created for community.  Likewise, Jesus modeled Christian community during his Earthly ministry, and there is a mountain of scripture explaining how community is a means of grace by which God sustains us as believers.  So community was held up as the answer to the problems of isolation within the modernist Church.  Churches wanted to be “open”, for everyone to “feel welcome”, and the result was a watering down of the call to discipleship.  Sunday school was largely replaced with small groups that would meet during the week.  Leaders of these small groups within the church were told they were “facilitators”.  These small group leaders did not necessarily have to be well-versed in the Bible, they just had to lead encourage discussion, and to foster social interaction outside of church on Sundays.  This is largely where most American churches find themselves today.  Where the modernist church failed persons through isolation, the post-modernist church has failed through lack of content and purpose.  We shouldn’t be surprised at this, after all, it was prophesized of by Paul.

2 Timothy 4:3-4 – “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.”

I love Jesus.  This was not a guy who was pursuing the latest church growth strategy… he just laid everything out there, and said whoever wants to come, come.

Luke 14:25-29 – “Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.  For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?” 

Jesus was not calling people to believe in Him, He was calling people to be disciples – to follow Him.  In Paul’s ministry as well, we see the same goal.  Paul’s goal was not that people believe in Christ, but that people be mature in Him.

Colossians 1:28-29 – “Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.”

The call to discipleship is costly, as Jesus warns, but there is no other path for Christianity.  There is no Christian fellowship without the truth of God’s Word, mediating those relationships.  We should engage with other Christians in community as a means of grace by which God, through the Holy Spirit can transform us.  We must not be passive in this task, however, but purpose our hearts to pursue relationships where iron sharpens iron.  We should pursue relationships that grow our faith, and where our faith can grow others’ faith.  Each of us should personal be discipled by those more mature in the faith, as Jesus was to the disciples, and Paul was to Timothy.  Likewise, we should always  seek to pour out our own lives, and faith to encourage and grow others.  Each of us must prepare our own hearts, through the study and meditation on the Word of God, so as to be fruitful for God’s kingdom.  This is the discipline of discipleship, where personal pursuit of God in His Word, meets intentional relationship building for the purpose of growing each other’s faith.  This is the charge we are given by God, the model we are given in the Bible through Christ, and this is the only hope we have as a Church.

Grace and Peace,
Adam

Many people believe that grace is a means in which they are to live in sin under a cloak of forgiveness, rather than a means by which God creates in us a new heart that delights in obedience to Him and His teaching.  Now the former persons are likely those who do not struggle with sin, and mistakenly call themselves “Christians”.  This word of encouragement is not for them, their professed faith is betrayed by the fruit of their heart in passivity towards their sin (1 John 3:9).  The testing of their faith (2 Cor 5:13) proves it to be false, and they by their actions, mockers of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

For those of us in the latter group, however, we delight in being reconciled to God, in knowing Him, and pursuing obedience to Him with our whole heart.  Yet, for all the change God has already wrought, we are not perfect (or anywhere close) – sin still dwells in us, and bears fruit at times.  I want to write an encouragement to those faithful, believing Christians, who delight in obedience to God, are putting to death the deeds of the flesh by the Spirit (Rom 8:13), yet still fall.

Hebrews 8:12 – “For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.” 

If you are in Christ, every one of your sins was paid for through the shed blood of Christ.  As such, while we can hurt our fellowship with God by our sin, it will never follow us.  We are not storing up wrath for ourselves, to be unleashed upon the judgment of God, as are non-believers (Rom 2:4-6).

Numbers 23:19 – “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?”

Isaiah 40:8 – “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.”

When God has told us that our sins are forgiven in Christ, and by His blood, He will remember our sins no more, and that through Him we have been reconciled to God by the payment of our sins (1 Peter 3:18), we can KNOW that God is not going to change His mind.  His Word endures forever, even into eternity.

Knowing that the promises of God are true, because God is unchangingly True, and will never change His mind, we should rest in the salvation we have in Christ.  Even more, we should be eager to quickly confess our sins to Him, that God would restore our fellowship, cleanse us, and continue drawing us closer to Him through the obedience wrought by the Holy Spirit in us.  We hate our sin, but we cannot ignore it – it must be dealt with.  For us, our sin was dealt with on the cross, and that is where we must turn in prayer.

1 John 1:8-10 – “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.”

Finally, know that the nature of God towards us is no longer one of vengeance, but of a loving Father.  For non-believers, God can only be seen as a fierce judge, but to us He loves us, delights in fellowship with us, and pursues us, even when we may be far from Him.

Lamentations 3:22-26 – “The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.  “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”  The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.  It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.”

My exhortation is this.  Turn to the Lord – daily and often.  There is no longer any anger in Him towards us, we only hurt ourselves for not approaching Him.  He loves us, and there is no better place to be, than in prayer with God, confessing sin, and praising God for the once and final payment made through His Son, Jesus Christ.

Grace and Peace,
Adam

In the beginning, Satan desired to be God, instead of worshipping Him.  his sin became our sin when we desired to be like God instead of worshipping Him, in the garden of eden by eating fruit from the tree of life.  People usually speak of sin in terms of doing bad things, but at its root, sin isn’t the things we do, it’s the condition of our heart.  The condition that was present in Satan is the same that was present in Adam – we all want to be God, instead of worshipping Him.  You even hear pastors appealing to this sin, by telling you that God is a means to have “Your Best Life Now”.  It’s no wonder that our churches have become as large as they have… it’s the newest church growth strategy… tell your people that they’re ok just as they are.  They can continue to pursue the life they live, and God is just a way to make it even better!  The tragedy is that a day will come when those people who for many years lived in church, served on committees, did service projects, maybe went on a missions trip or two… will hear the words from the One True Living God – Depart from me, I never knew you, you workers of lawlessness (Matt 7:22)

C.S. Lewis said in his book, Mere Christianity, that there were two ways to view yourself rightly before God.  One was as a completely depraved sinner, in capable of any good on your own, or to not think of yourself at all, and simply focus your attention on the cross.  He (and I) recommended the latter.  What does that look like though?

We find our answer in the life of Christ.  Philippians 2:4-9 – “Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

Romans 5:8 – “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in thatwhile we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

God’s love was manifested in a choice – to go to the cross and die for us – even while we mocked him from the crowds.  Do you have that mind in yourselves?  Can someone objectively look into your life and ask the question “What is going on?  You keep loving this person, even when they’re unloveable.  You keep serving this group, even when they never thank you.  Why do you make $100k a year, and drive a honda?”

Jesus explains in Luke 6:32-33 – “If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same.”  Who are the unloveable people in your life that you are choosing to serve and care for?  Who are the ones that cannot repay you, that you are serving.  That is love.  That is the mindset of Christ, that we are meant to have when God says to love our neighbor as ourselves. 

We should each consider ourselves sheep to be slaughtered (Rom 8:36).  This will not be easy, and we will need the grace of God daily to sustain us in this task.  We can look at God’s own words to us through Paul to see, that life as a Christian serving others, isn’t a means to “feeling good” or “prosperity”.  Our joy then, is not rooted in our circumstance, but in our identity with Christ.

2 Corinthians 4:8-10 – “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.”

We are men and women of the cross, followers of The Way, guardians of the Truth, ambassadors of Life, and proclaimers of reconciliation through the One True God, Jesus Christ.  There was a time when we lived for ourselves, but we have been freed from that bondage to sin, to live out of a fullness of joy in the peace brought by the shed blood of Christ.  We are free to die to ourselves, and live for God.  Death to ourselves, is life to Christ.  Each of us have been placed by God exactly where he wants us to be, surrounded by a multitude of people that do not know Him.  In light of their need, and the fullness of life we have in Christ, let us purpose our heart’s desires to be for the good of others as 2 Corinthians 4:5-6 says – “what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 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.” 

Grace and Peace,
Adam

Each of us is confronted with decisions each day.  Now, for those who who do not have a prayer life, and do not seek after God’s will, this message will not be meaningful.  However, if you do desire to be in God’s will, we’re going to take a look at what that means Biblically.

Many times people walk haphazardly through life, and then retroactively say that it “must have been God’s will, because He is sovereign.”  That is a horrible way to go through life, and definitely not rooted in the Bible.  Yes, God is sovereign over all things, but just as God hates sin, yet it still exists, He also has a desire for your life, that you will either walk in or not.  The Bible is explaining how you can be in the moral will of God, where you can live in such a way that is in accordance with His perfect nature and righteoussness, where He desires you to be.  To appeal to God’s sovereignty as justification for any behavior or emotions, makes a mockery of God’s love for us.  At best, that kind of god is apathetic, and at worst not good at all.  God give us His Word, as an umerited gift to us – grace, that we can know Him, and in knowing Him, know what He desires for us.

Romans 12:1-2 – “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed bythe renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

What is the framework by which we should filter decisions to determine God’s will?  First we must know that God’s will means sacrifice for us.  We must choose to follow God, even when it is not easy (it seldom will be).  We must choose to follow God, when we do not feel like it.  We are to be living sacrifices.  Following God’s will doesn’t always mean doing what the world does, just in a slightly better way, it means that we follow the Word of God, regardless of social norms, regardless of peer pressure, regardless of our own anxieties.  We shouldn’t conform ourselves to the world, but we should allow the Holy Spirit, through the Word of God, to transform our minds.  Only then, when we see and savor God Himself in His Word, will we be able to see clearly what His will is for us.

From God’s Word, our mind sees to understand God, and our heart’s affections are pierced to desire God Himself.  We see for example, in Matthew 6:31-33 that because God is sovereign over all things, we should pursue first His Kingdom and righteousness.  “Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”  The knowledge of the sovereignty of God, is meant to allow our hearts to have peace in the goodness of God amidst life’s struggles, so that we are free to pursue a life glorifying to God. 

Where do Christian’s go wrong in discerning God’s will?  Usually it is one of two ways.  1)  They aren’t looking for God’s will in His Word.  If you pray to God to reveal His will to you, and you aren’t looking for an answer from His Word, you are allowing yourself to be deceived.  Now, these aren’t the people who are going through life haphazardly.  These are Christians who are genuinely seeking God’s will through prayer.  The problem is that they allow their own emotional response to be the arbiter of truth.  Our hearts are sinful and deceiving.  Jeremiah 17:9 – “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”   That’d be like me wanting to flip off the driver in front of me after he cuts me off, and saying – well that must be God’s will because He is sovereign over my emotions.  No, my heart is sick, and needs to be transformed into the image of God, so that its desires will be for God, not my own personal wants.

2)  They are receiving bad counsel.  I thought about breaking this out into two categories, but I’ll keep it to one.  Obviously if you are receiving counsel about what you should do in life from a non-believer, you should assume that is likely not God’s will for you.  The second category would be receiving counsel from believers who do not point you back to God’s Word, but only talk about your feelings.  God’s sovereignty over feelings doesn’t mean you should place trust in them, your trust is in your identity in Christ.

I’ve learned this much about myself and others throughout my time here on earth.  Romans 3:10-11 is true.  “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God.”  That any of us have a heart’s affection for God, is the grace of God upon our lives.  We’ve been ransomed by the blood of Christ, not to continue on as slaves of sin, but as slaves to Christ in righteousness.  This righteousness will never be found apart from God in the counsel of non-believers, in the will of a fallen world/society, or in our own personal emotions.  The righteoussness of God is found in seeing and savoring God in His Word, sacrificing your own desires to His, and trusting that He is good above all else.

Psalm 1:1-2 – “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.”

Grace and Peace,
Adam

My word of exhortation today is going to be extremely pragmatic.  I thought after the rest of this week’s WFTDs, it’d be good to wind down with some encouragement about things you can do to spur on your growth and fruitfulness in the Lord.

Let’s first look at a passage from the Apostle Paul to the Church at Corinth:  Corinthians 3:5-9 – “What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.”

If you are a true believer in Christ, then God dwells in you as the Holy Spirit.  As such, God is always at work, conforming you into His image.  The are, however, means of grace by which God accomplishes His work in you; His Word, Christian Community, Prayer, Discipleship, Marriage, Service, etc.   I want to use a different picture than Paul, and suggest that of a Trellis and a Vine.  A Vine will go wherever there is a Trellis.  It will climb vertically up the side of a building, it will cover an entire porch, or even an entire castle – wherever there is a support for it to grow from.  Now the point of Paul’s message above was to be crystal clear that if He, or Appollos, or anything else had been helpful to people as they conform to the image of God, it was not them, but God at work through them, and in the individual causing the growth.  Likewise I want to suggest that things I’m encouraging below are not themselves what is going to change you, but the means by which God might work in your life to change you.  What things are currently present in your life to help support your growth in the Lord.  Is there a piece of trellis missing?

• Do you have time, every day with just you and the Lord in prayer over His Word?  If not, you need that.
• Are you being discipled in some way?  If not, you need that.
• Are you discipling others?  If you’ve been a Christian for more than a few years, you need to be.
• Do you have a group of Christian men (if you’re a man) or women (if you’re a woman) who really know what’s going on in your life, and you can turn to for Biblical encouragement?  If not, this would be greatly helpful to you.
• Do you have a prayer life that is growing?  If not, work towards that.  Start by… praying for it.
• Are you serving others with your time and money?  If not, you need to be.

As a small side note – If you’re not giving anything at all of your money, you’re missing out on a massive amount of joy as a Christian.  Is your church helpful to you?  Support it financially so that you are taking part in God’s kingdom building that way.  Do you have a passion to help orphans?  There are a multitude of Christian ministries/missionaries that desperately need your support.  Pray, and whatever needy person God has given you a passion for – partner with a ministry and get involved.

This is a small list, but hopefully something popped out as an area that is weak or missing in your life.  Every one of these things is Biblically commanded, not merely so that you can be “obedient”, but because God loves you, and these are the ways He is going to work in your life – exposing sin, drawing you closer to Him, revealing Himself to you for your joy.  Know you’re all prayed for – hope you have a great weekend.

Grace and Peace,
Adam

I’m going to preface todays WFTD by saying that I’m completely stealing this message from John Piper.  I’m ok with this because I know that John is a better preacher/teacher than I am, and since it was helpful to me, I assume it may be helpful to you all as well.  In any case, I’ve enclosed a link where you can listen to his sermon below – it is probably the most clear and compelling sermon I’ve heard in my life about our need for Christ’s righteousness.

If you walk up to anyone on the street evangelizing, usually the conversation will go something like this.  Super Christian (SC) – “Where do you think you’re going to go when you die”.  Arbitrary Pagan (AP) – “I’m going to heaven”  SC – “That’s great!  Why do you think you’ll go there?”  AP – “Because I’m a good person, and I’ve treated people well my whole life.”  SC – “Have you ever done anything wrong, like lied to someone?”  AP – “Of course, I’ve done some things I’m not proud of”  SC – “Well, the Bible says that God is perfectly holy, and only those who are completely sinless can be in His presence in heaven”  AP – “Well no one’s perfect”  SC – “Ha ha, that’s true.  None of us are.  That’s why God came to live a perfect life, and die in our place, so that whoever believes in Him, would never perish, but have everlasting life” The conversation would likely continue from there, but that’s usually about 80-90% of how things go usually.  (Side note – It’s really interesting when you get the people who admit right off they think they’re going to hell, ironically, those people are easier to evangelize to… it does kind of catch you off guard though!)

I’m actually not going to talk about non-believers though today.  I want to discuss believers who believe they they are right with God based on their works.  There are a great many professing Christians today, that slowly mix together the idea of their being justified before God, and being continually sanctified by Him through the Holy Spirit.  Now, we all know that we are able to judge the validity of a professing believer’s claim of faith based upon their works.  That is true, and Jesus calls us to be discerning in that way, so as to protect ourselves from false teachers.  Unfortunately however, there are a great many professing Christians, that are now believing that their own works of righteousness, are co-mingled with the death of Christ on the cross, to be the foundation of their being justified (declared righteous) by God.  We can say that our works give evidence of our justification and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit/saving faith, and we can say that it personally gives us assurance of our justification, but our works must never be the grounds of our justification before God, even as an addition to Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection.

The foundation of the gospel of Jesus Christ is that on the cross, Jesus was not making people saveable, but he actually saved sinners.  He is the author and perfector of our faith.  All grace, necessary to cover our sin, was purchased by the blood of the Spotless Lamb on that cross, and we cannot add to his work with our own.  Christ fully ransomed His bride, the Church, on the cross, our sin was put on Him, and His righteous life was credited to us.  Now I’m going to fight to not make todays WFTD turn into a 12 page essay, so let me try to be concise, and then encourage you to listen to the sermon below.

Luke 18:9-14 – “He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee,standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Now at first, it’s easy to dismiss the Pharisee as saying his works were his own, but that’s not actually the case.  Look at who he thanks – God.  The pharisee is thanking God for being the foundation of who he is, and producing in him righteous works.  He is trusting in his own righteousness, that he believes is wrought by God, not in himself.  This would be similar to someone today saying, “thank you God for making me a new creation in Christ, and through no merit of my own, but according to your choosing, giving me a new heart that wishes to serve the poor, and live according to your will.  I am righteous before you God, because of these things that you are working through me.”  Now at first glance, I would have to admit, I’d have a lot more in common with the Pharisee, than the tax collector.  I believe that who am I rests in God’s choosing, not my merit, and I do believe that the Holy Spirit is at work in me producing works to the glory of God.  But there is one crucial difference.  The pharisee is looking towards his own works to be the foundation of his righteousness before God, whereas the tax collector is pleading for God to be merciful (for Him to be forgiven and given a righteousness apart from his works).

Let’s look down a few verses, still in Luke 18, verses 18-22 – “And a ruler asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.'”And he said, “All these I have kept from my youth.”When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”

Here was a man that was coming to Jesus, trusted in God, and had many righteous works to back up His claim to be a believer.  In the end, Jesus commands him to do 3 things – sell everything he owns, distribute to the poor, and follow Him.  Why then does Jesus say there is only “one thing” that he lacks?  The one thing, is a righteousness apart from his own works, found only in the one Good Teacher, Jesus Christ.  This man needed the perfect righteousness of Christ to be reconciled to God.  We have no hope apart from the perfect righteousness of Christ.  Any trust in anything beyond the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ as the one final act of reconciliation, and justification of sinners, is no gospel – it is not good news.  May we all rest our hope only in the blood of Christ, and peace wash over us that while we have nothing to offer, God in his great mercy and grace has given us His son, all that we need.  Below is a hymn that seemed relevant I wanted to share “Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me” as well as John Piper’s sermon message.

Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me

Today is one of those days I’m glad I’m not the pastor of a mega-church… I’m sure the emails generated off of today’s discussion would reach triple digits.  Here we go!

One of the marks of American culture is the idea of the rugged individualist.  This can be helpful as a society to encourage people away from laziness, but ultimately is not helpful in understanding how we are to live day by day, as followers of Christ.  The idea of Christianity being an individualistic experience is a fallacy, that has permeated many of our churches, but I assure you, is not supported Biblically as we will see.  The Gospel of Jesus is a message that is to be preached to the whole world, yet we know that not everyone will hear it, die to themselves, and follow Christ.  Jesus, Himself, did not pray for the entire world, but for a specific group within it.  Jesus prayed for those whom the Father had chosen out of the world, to be redeemed by Christ’s blood through faith – the Church.

John 17:6-9 – “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you.For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.”

I know this is going to ruffle a lot of individualistic feathers here, so let me preface this by saying that Jesus loves you – this I know – for the Bible tells me so… (I’m breaking into song now in my head).  He does love you, individually, immensely.  Each of you unique reflects the glory fo God, and are loved by Him.  What I’m going to say though, is that Jesus’s purpose was not to save you, me, or anyone individually, but to ransom a people unto Himself.  Jesus came to ransom His bride, the Church, and it is composed of every people of every tongue of every tribe and nation of the world, men, women, children, elderly, from every walk of life, with every sin struggle you can imagine.  I also want to quickly stop and define the Church (big “C”) as the body of believers whose trust and faith rest solely upon the God of the Bible.  The church (little “c”) generally refers to the local building where people gather, which is composed of believers and non-believers alike (at least until we start doing a better job of church discipline, but save that for another day).  Now, what Jesus dying for His bride, the Church, mean to us, and how does this tie into how we are to live?

I think God gives us an answer in Philippians.  I love the book of Philippians.  To me it’s a beautiful picture of what it means to live as an individual pursuing God, for the Kingdom of God, sustained by the promises of God.  The context for the writing of the book of Philippians, is that Paul has been imprisoned, and he is writing to encourage a church that he helped to found, during his missionary journies.  There is a clearly a special affection that Paul has for this group of people that he had poured himself into over a long period of time.

Philippians 2:1-8 – “So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” 

Ok, now when you read Philippians, put it into the context of Paul writing to the Church at Philippi.  What do you see?  Paul above all is encouraging people to die to themselves, and love God, by serving their brothers and sisters in Christ.  When is the last time that you really wanted to have a quiet night at home, but you chose instead to do something to help a brother or sister in Christ from your local church body?  How are you humbling yourself before other Christians, and considering their needs greater than your own?   Our business as Christians, is to be encouraging and building up the Kingdom of God, and that begins within the church.  Do the people around you at within your church body know that you love them, care for them, and are actively at work encouraging them to grow their knowledge and faith in the Lord?

My goal isn’t to discourage anyone from spending time and resources evangelizing to the poor, and other non-believers, but if you’re doing that while there is a homeless person at your church, isn’t something wrong?  We’re all a bunch of a struggling sinners, and we need to be the hands and feet of God to each other – to strengthen our faith for the good of Christ’s bride – the Church.  Our purpose should align with Christ’s – not that we would individually become super theologians (red capes optional), but that the Church as a whole would grow together.  I want to encourage you to take a look at your life, is your pursuit of God only individualistic?  My hope is for your joy to be similar to my own.  Just as the fullness of joy is found in the presence of God, marveling at His glory outside of ourselves – seek that now, in others.  My greatest joy isn’t in finding a new theological truth, and it isn’t gaining ground on sin in my own life, but in seeing the glory of God magnified in my brothers and sisters in Christ around me.  My exhortation is to get involved in the lives of those in your church around you; intentionally love and encourage others.  Intentionally seek to grow your own knowledge in the Lord from His Word, and then intentionally share that knowledge with your brothers and sisters in Christ.  Pray for them as much as you pray for yourself.  Give of your time and resources as much to them as to those outside of your church.  The fruit and joy you gain is eternal.  I hope this finds you well, know that you’re prayed for.

Grace and Peace,
Adam

Have you ever stopped to think about how amazing a time we live in?  We have computers that can do in seconds, calculations that used to take months or years.  We can watch hundreds of television shows on a phone that fits in our hand.  If we want to talk to a relative, we can, from anywhere in the world instantly with a cell phone.  If we want to know anything about anything, we can find it within 30 seconds by searching on the internet.  Amazing.  At the same time this interconnectedness is a great blessing, it also opens us up to limitless opportunities for temptation and false teachers.  Now temptation is nothing new, but never before in history have believers been confronted with so much false teaching in the name of Christ.  All you have to do is look on TV at the televangelists, each wants to tell you that Jesus wants your dreams to come true… for $19.99.  This would be comical, if it weren’t so tragic that the largest “church” in America, is led by a pastor who teaches that God wants them to have “Their Best Life Now” and defines that as being healthy and financially prosperous verses joy in God Himself.  So how should we defend ourselves against false teaching, and how will we know it when it comes to us?

Before returning to the Father, Jesus gave this warning about false prophets, as well as the means to discern false teachers.

Matthew 7:15-20 – “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.”

Now many Christians misunderstand what God means by “judge not, lest ye be judged” (Matt 7:1).  Clearly, immediately after saying that in the 1st verse of Matthew 7, Jesus tells people to judge false teachers by their fruit.  So we are called as believers to judge the fruits of others.  Jesus was saying not to judge from a sense of pridefulness, such as the Pharisee judging the tax collector in Luke 18:11.  Clearly God wants us to be wise about who we put in positions of authority over us in matters of teaching the Word of God.  So then, if the great commandment of God is to love Him with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and to love others as yourself – Look at the teacher’s life – is this true of them?  What about the people they have discipled – are their lives marked by a passionate love for God Himself and others?

What other fruit should we look for?  Galatians 5:22-23 – “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control;”  Do you see these fruits increasingly in the person’s life?  If not, be wary.  The Spirit of God dwells in every believer, and these are the characteristics of God.  Therefore, if someone does not have these fruits increasingly present in their life, what comfort do we have that the Spirit they are speaking from is of God?

We know that there are many false teachers.  Satan Himself tried to tempt Jesus by twisting scripture, and disguises himself as an angel of light.  What are some of the marks of false teachers?

2 Peter 2:1-3 “But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.”

The root of sinfulness is the desire to be God rather than worship Him.  Therefore, does the person delight in the glory of God, or do they make much of themselves with their lifestyle and speech?  Are they trying to appeal to individuals based on sensual experience apart from a delight in God?  As someone who struggles with pride, know that no man or woman of God, comes face to face with God in His Word, and comes away with a desire to make much of themselves, they come away amazed, humbled, in awe of the beauty, lovingkindness, and goodness of God, and delight to see God rightly made much of, He alone is worthy.  If you find a teacher that isn’t marked by a sense of humility before God and His Word – run.

My exhortation in light of these things, is to be like the Bereans, who after hearing the professed Word of God, went back to the scriptures to see for themselves if it was so.  Acts 17:10-11 – “The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. ¹¹Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.”  Now, more than ever, we live in a world where ideas are constantly being pushed on us, information is immediately available to us via the internet.  This can be a great blessing, but wisdom demands that we filter what we consider to be true, but the Truth that we find in the Word of God.  People sometimes ask me my opinion about authors, pastors, churches, etc.  Often I do not know much about the individuals or churches, so I refer the questioner to the above passages and encourage them to be a Berean, and trust the Holy Spirit will lead them in their decisions.  Find your safe refuge in the Word of God, be a Berean.  We are all sheep amongst the wolves, be on your guard.

Grace and Peace,
Adam