Something More

It should mean something to us that we belong to Christ. It should mean something more that the life we labor to live in devotion and obedience to him. It should mean something about who he is more than what we attempt to be, no matter how noble or faithful the reason for our efforts. Jesus, God's beloved Son and our beloved Savior should mean more than just a reason to try harder.

How might we arrive at this "something more"? First, we must put forth faith in the Lord Jesus revealed by the Spirit in the word of God. He is who he says he is, and this we must see with the eyes of faith, else we will only see what we allow him to be. If we gaze upon Christ with only the eyes of duty and obedience we may see only a taskmaster worthy of our efforts, a Master to be served but not a Savior to be loved.

If we look upon him with only the eyes of grace, we may see an equal friend worthy of our consideration but not necessarily of our loyalty. If, though, we consider Jesus with the eyes of faith, we will see the promise-making, promise-keeping Savior, the King of kings and the Lord of lords who, in love and mercy, sacrificed himself to make the least of these like unto the greatest, most Beloved of all.

Second, we must surrender to the Spirit of God who alone makes known to us the deep things of God. That which is spiritual makes no sense to the unspiritual man until the Holy Spirit illumines the mind and turn the Light of God upon the spirit of a man. All is darkness in a room before someone knowledgeable flips the switch on the wall. Darkness is the natural phenomenon until light sheds its grace.

We must set before the Holy Spirit all our "I don't knows" and "I don't get its" and allow him to fulfill his role as Teacher and Guide. If we resist him, spurn the methods and tools he uses; if we quench the Spirit, we turn out the light and there is nothing left for us but the blackness and bleakness of spiritual ignorance.

How hard it seems for the people of this time to be students. Each wants to be his own teacher, master of his own thinking. Mary's earnest position at the feet of Jesus remains empty while many take the role of Martha, preferring not to listen but to make demands, telling Jesus what to do and defining for him what role he ought to have in their lives.

How might we arrive at this "something more" we already have in Christ? We must set aside our arrogant self-indulgence and learn to listen with all our heart. We must let Christ set the terms of our relationship with him. Love is the better thing, from him and for us. He will not abandon love to satisfy us with some lesser thing. He will have us come to treasure Love best of all. Love with him is the best thing and he will not suffer us to lose love to lesser things.

Finally, like Sir Hilary attaining the summit of Everest, we must press on, in faith, in surrender, in learning, and in love, for Christ is the prize of perseverance and most worthy of the climb.

"Will it be easy, this climb to Christ?" It will not. The mountain to be climbed is Calvary and at the top a cross and none may pass but through it.

"Will it be fraught with obstacles and peril?" It most certainly will. There more who would have you fail than would support your success. But there is One who overcomes them all, who both waits for you and walks with you.

"Shall I be discouraged, fearful, anxious?" At times, but as well there will be exhilaration, adventure, insight, and accomplishment which fill the soul with purpose and overflow in praise.

"But will it, in the end, be worth it, this attaining 'something more,' this gaining Christ?" Eternal life in the presence of the Glory who created us and redeemed us for indescribable joy testifies it is so . . . very . . . worth it!

Do not falter today or turn aside to lesser pursuits that attain no more than the temporary and fading pleasures connected to this world. Just beyond that dark and threatening ridge, just a mile further down the winding and wearisome road lies a city whose builder and maker is God.

We are almost home to the city of Something More, our eternal habitation. We are almost home where Christ is the all-satisfying answer to every question. We are almost home, dear saint, where the shadows of doubt lurk no longer in the silent recesses of the heart and mind and spirit, for the Son is the sun of that city and nothing is hidden from his sight. We are almost home, almost home to that place where secret sin no longer hobbles us, where fear no longer frightens us, where guilt no longer plagues us, where pride no longer burdens us, where comparisons among men fade forever in the incomparable glory of the One Who sits upon the throne and of the Lamb.Take heart, my brother. Be of good courage, my sister. For "he who endures to the end will be saved." It is only a little farther. We are almost home.

The final means of gaining this "something more" is looking ahead, watching where you're walking, and heading where you actually want to go. If you want to go to Target, don't drive to Walmart. If you want more of Jesus, don't bury yourself in Asimov. Take the appropriate action for the outcome, for, in the end, you will arrive exactly where you were headed. Only if action and intention coincide will destination and expectation meet.

In the infinite, inexhaustible God, there is always something more to be known and experienced. He invites us to spend our life energy exploring our desire for him and his glorious availability to us. Put forth faith, surrender to the Spirit, learn of love, press, look ahead. Gain your heart's something more in Christ alone.

Second Sunday in Advent:: Finding Peace with God

Scripture Focus (GOSPEL)        Matthew 10:34-39
“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household.  Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

Message    Advent: Finding Peace with God

Does it seem odd to you that the Prince of Peace himself would declare from his own lips that peace on earth is not his purpose? Does it seem kind of weird that instead of resolving the conflicts people have with one another, Jesus seems intent on making them worse, creating conflict in the most basic and precious of relationships? On this second Sunday of Advent, when our hearts turn to the cry for peace, it is important we understand the reality of the truth Jesus proclaims in these words.

People long for peace. Conflict is hard. Conflict is costly. It takes great emotional and spiritual energy to fight against God, against other people, against circumstances, and even against our own conscience and will. Deep within us we know that we were made for peace. We know that we were created for rest in the goodness of our sovereign and trustworthy God. We know that our lives are meant to radiate his perfections. But we struggle against His purpose for us, demanding for ourselves the glory that belongs to God. We want to be our own gods, determine our own paths, set our own goals, fulfill our own desires. We have no delight in the righteousness and holiness of God. We have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We hear “peace, peace,” but we know there is no peace. We long for peace.

At first glance, the answer Jesus provides here to our cry for peace seems somewhat disappointing, at the very least. Jesus appears to say that peace is not his mission. But, consider this, in the synagogue in Nazareth, Jesus reads the passage from Isaiah 61:1-4. Find the passage in Luke 4:16-21.

And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read.    And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind,  to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”     And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him.  And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
At that very moment, Jesus tells them, everything they looked forward to in regard to the Messiah they longed for was sitting right in front of them. He himself was the One who would deliver them, set them free, bless them, redeem them, and bring them peace.

Now, along with these verses, consider also the words of Jesus to his disciples in the hours just before he is betrayed and taken away to be crucified: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid." (John 14:27).  

How then can Jesus say he did not come to bring peace on the earth? I believe what Jesus means for us to understand is this: the peace he brings to those who commit themselves to him will be rejected by others creating a spiritual division between those who surrender their lives to him and those who do not. Following Jesus as Savior and Lord may cost you your most precious relationships, but only those who are willing to pay the price are worthy of the peace Jesus brings. Following Jesus will always require a trip to the cross where we lay down our lives to him just as he laid down his life for us.

The faith to count the cost and trust Jesus with our lives is the path to real peace. Jesus calls us to a singular love for him above anyone and anything else in this world. He is quite clear about this. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

Many Christians today live with Jesus as simply one of many loves. They are as committed to him as they are to their own self-preservation, or their own families, or their own futures. Few throw themselves upon the Savior as the love of their life for whom they would do anything, even lay down their lives. But wholehearted, single-hearted love for Jesus is the way of peace, so it is no wonder so many today have found a religion in Christ but have not found a true and lasting peace.

Think with me, for a moment, about Jesus, through whom we do in fact find peace with God. Jesus fulfilled every requirement of God’s covenant with man. There is no longer a reason to fear God as the just Judge, for Christ’s obedience and God’s choice to accept Jesus’ death on the cross fully satisfy all the demands of the law. We are free by faith to engage with God on the basis of love, not fear. And where there is no fear, peace reigns. Peace is possible for everyone who puts their faith in Jesus.

Through Jesus Christ, the just wrath of God against us is removed. Through Jesus Christ, the mercy of God is applied. Through Jesus, the forgiveness of God is offered. Through Jesus, the way to God is opened. Through Jesus, peace with God is gained.

But peace with God only comes through Jesus. If we do not come to God through faith in Christ, then we must come bearing our own sin and shame and guilt and stand before God as rebels who have much to fear in the light of eternal justice. Finding peace with God means finding faith in Jesus Christ alone and loving him above all other loves.

And how do we come to faith and love for Jesus? Through repentance. Through acknowledging and confessing to God our rejection of him and turning to him for forgiveness and the ability to live in loving accord with him. We find peace by baring our hearts to God and asking him in faith to make us new and keep us new as we live in obedience to his commands.

The second candle is the peace candle. It beckons us to come to Jesus, not because we will necessarily find our peace with everyone else, but because in him we will find our peace with God. And only when we are at peace with God can we be at peace with ourselves, with others, and with the lives we live in a world hostile to true peace.

Sometimes, God removes his peace from us in order to create a deeper sense of dependence on him. Sometimes, the believer’s peace is interrupted by the effects of living in a fallen world (illness, etc). Sometimes, we permit our attention to be turned away from God and engrossed in our trials. Sometimes, we forget that the faith to which peace is promised is a working faith that expresses itself in good works. Sometimes, and I believe more often than not, peace flees because of sin, and most often that sin is loving something or someone more than Jesus. We know that Jesus is not in the position of Lord and Savior and Love that he deserves to be in our hearts and our confidence before him is undermined, our trust in him is sabotaged, our reliance on him is abandoned, and we are left on our own to stand against the world.

The way to peace is through the cross to the Christ. Wherever you are today, whatever your heart condition, the invitation of Advent is to prepare your heart for peace, to find your peace with God through new or renewed faith in Jesus Christ.

God loves you. He has made the path to peace crystal clear. Jesus has come. Jesus is coming. Come to Jesus. Find your peace with God.

Love One Another (Part 3) John 15:9-17

Love One Another (Part 3)
John 15:9-17

The question of love IS a question of specific, quantifiable activities that actively and accurately express an internal commitment to radiate the character of God toward other people. But this love, this love with which Jesus loves, before it can be adequately or accurately portrayed in action, must be experienced as condition. Before we can do love, we must have love.
   
Before we can love one another as Christ loves us, the moral and spiritual character of God must be instilled in us as it was in him. If we attempt to follow the command to love without accepting the invitation to be filled with God’s love, we risk becoming merely another generation of Christian Pharisees, following the letter of the command without the heart or spirit of the One who issues the command.

Jesus warned the Pharisees of his day, acknowledging their commitment to doing what they were told, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. (Matthew 23:23) When Jesus answered the man’s question about what is the greatest commandment, he defined the “weightier matters of the law” again. Love was what the Pharisees left undone. They followed the letter and left the love out. Unless we gain Christ’s own character, his own heart, we may well become men and women who speak the words of Christ but lack the substance of Christ; who do the works of Christ, but lack the Spirit of Christ; who follow the command of Christ but lack the love of Christ; men and women described by the apostle Paul as having a “form of godliness, but lacking the power thereof.” [2 Tim. 3:5]

The command to love as Jesus loves is more than a command to action. It is a command to become, a command to spiritual formation, a command to BE, in spiritual character and physical action, like Jesus.

Now, practical-oriented people, when they encounter the requirements of spiritual formation, of becoming like Jesus, often want a grocery list of specific actions. They think to themselves, “I don’t really need all this spiritual, theological stuff. Just tell me what I have to do.” Be concrete. Be practical. Speak to my hands, not my spirit.

Let me remind the practical-oriented folks among us of two important truths. First, when God created human beings, he created them for what they would be, not for what they would do. Read the creation account in Genesis 1. Pay special attention to Genesis 1:26-27. Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

Human beings are created in the image of God. Before they are sent to multiply and fill the earth they are created to BE the physical and spiritual representation of the moral character and spiritual nature of God. They were not created to be God, but to be God’s personal portrait in the physical world. In our persons and in the relationship as male and female, we were created to give all the created order an accurate picture of who God is by being like him.

If we do the things God does, but we do them without manifesting God’s true character in our character, then we actually represent our selves and not God. Only when external action flows from internal godliness can we fulfill our purpose as those who bear the image of God. The condition of our hearts, our spiritual conformity to the moral nature of God is absolutely essential to validate the things we do. We’ve got to get the heart right first so that what we do, we do out of the right heart.

The second important truth we need to remember is this: God redeems and re-creates human beings first and foremost to be conformed to the image of His Son. (Romans 8:29 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.) Hebrews 1:3 reveals the Jesus “is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature.” He perfectly fulfils the purpose for which human beings were created by God. When we are born again, when the gospel of Jesus Christ comes to us and we are enabled to believe unto salvation by the Holy Spirit through faith, God makes us a new creation which is to be like Jesus. The man Jesus Christ bore the image of God, redeemed men and women are to bear the image of Christ. That means, believers, that experiencing the moral and spiritual nature of Christ must be as high a priority in our lives as doing the mercy and compassion and righteous work of Christ.

Practical-folks, being like Jesus is no less important than doing like Jesus. Being like Jesus requires that we be filled with the Spirit of Jesus who, according to God’s word, is responsible for spreading abroad the love of Christ in our hearts.

Are you prepared to be filled with the Holy Spirit? Are you ready to let God have full, complete, unhindered control of your heart, your life? Are you prepared for God to make you into what you are not yet, conformed to the image of his Son?

When the Holy Spirit comes, he will not merely make room for Jesus in your life, he will take over your life for Jesus. When the Holy Spirit comes, Christ will not be just one of several guiding influences in your decision making and value system, he will be the decision maker and THE guide. When the Holy Spirit comes, you will no longer belong to yourself, but to God, who purchased you with the blood of his Son. When the Holy Spirit comes, you will want Jesus more than life itself.

When the Holy Spirit comes pride falls, jealousy fades, hatred ceases, arrogance ends, selfishness dies, greed grovels, immorality withers, anger wilts. When the Holy Spirit comes, love will be your priority, joy will be your reward, peace will be your outreach, patience will be your clock, kindness will be your response, goodness will be your character, faith will be your agenda, gentleness will be your manner, and self-control will be your witness.

God is prepared to fill you with his Spirit. Are you prepared to be filled with the Spirit? When the Holy Spirit comes, you will be endued with power and you will be witnesses of Jesus to the uttermost ends of the earth. When the Holy Spirit comes he will convict the world of sin, and righteousness and judgment. When the Holy Spirit comes he will teach you all you need to know and remind you of everything Jesus said. When the Holy Spirit comes he will be your comforter and your counselor. When the Holy Spirit comes, he will turn the world upside down through you. Are you prepared to be filled with the Holy Spirit?

Some of you are prepared, but many of you are not. The disciples were not prepared. To them Jesus gave these instructions: “Stay where you are and actively wait for God’s promise.” Get together with God and stay there until he pours out his blessing. Pray, fast, seek, ask, and when he has prepared you, receive. If you are to fulfill the command of Christ, then you must be filled with the Spirit of Christ. Practically-oriented people, are you prepared to be filled with the Spirit?

And let me speak this morning to the spiritually-oriented people as well. Spiritually-oriented people often just want to be left alone. They think to themselves, “I am tired of being told what to do. I have Jesus in my heart. I’ve been saved. I have a relationship with God. That’s all I need. I’m spiritually aware and theologically sound. I pray. I read my Bible. I know Jesus and that’s enough. I love people in my heart, now enough with this ‘to do’ list stuff.”

Let me remind the spiritually-oriented folks among us of two important truths. First, you were created to do good works. The Spirit reveals through the apostle Paul that Christians, true followers of Jesus, are “God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Eph. 2:10). The apostle writes to those who are “created in Christ Jesus.” He writes to those who have Jesus in their hearts. He writes to the saved, to the people of faith, to the spiritually aware and theologically sound, to those who glory in the Spirit and word of God. (Come on, spiritually-oriented people, you know you want to put your name in that verse!) The Spirit writes to those who have been worked on by God and instructs them to got to work on God’s “to do list!”

God has a list. Did you see that? We were created in Christ, redeemed by his blood, saved by his grace, transformed by his love, given a new heart and a new spirit, made a new creation to do the good works which God “prepared in advance for us to do.” “Prepared in advance.” God has a list. Spiritually-oriented folks, God actively works in the world to spread his glory and advance his kingdom. He created you to participate, to be in the world but not of the world, so you could actively, through daily engagement, spread his glory and advance his kingdom.

Now, please listen, spiritual-oriented people, if you fail to do the good works for which God has saved you, recreated you, you fail as well to actively and accurately bear his image in the world. God’s love for people is practical and personal. He cares for both the spiritual AND the physical condition of these people for whom he sent his Son to die! Jesus fed. Jesus healed. Jesus wept. Jesus touched. Jesus gave. Jesus died. Jesus loved. Wounded, hurting, lost people loved by God abound. There is more than enough work to do. There is work for you.

The second truth I need to set before the spiritually-oriented folks is this: knowledge of God leads to godliness and true godliness leads to good works. Read Paul’s letter to Titus, please. He opens the letter by telling us his whole purpose in ministry is to assist God’s people in gaining the knowledge of God that leads to godliness. Godliness is the spiritual condition of heart and life whereby we are conformed to the likeness of Jesus. He summarizes the teaching in the letter with these instructions: (Titus 3:8) "The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people." Then he concludes the letter saying, “And let our people learn to devote themselves to good works, so as to help cases of urgent need, and not be unfruitful” (Titus 3:14).

Godly people do good works. Godly people engage in lives that reflect God’s moral character and his active concern for others. Godly people don’t avoid the “to do list.” Filled with the Spirit they are empowered and enabled and motivated to accomplish God’s “to do” list.

Spiritually-oriented folks, being like Jesus means doing what Jesus does for the reasons Jesus does them. Being like Jesus means doing like Jesus. And doing what Jesus does requires that we be filled with the Spirit of Jesus who, according to God’s word, is responsible for spreading abroad the love of Christ in our hearts and drawing that love out of our hearts.

Are you prepared to be filled with the Spirit? Are you ready to let God have full, complete, unhindered control of your heart, your life? Are you prepared for God to send you into the world to manifest the very heart and life of Jesus among spiritually dead and blind people whose greatest need at the moment is to see Jesus with their own eyes by seeing him in you?

When the Holy Spirit comes, he will bestow spiritual gifts, divine enablements, so that you can serve him according to his will. When the Holy Spirit comes, he will thrust you into the life of the church and the life of people to manifest the power and grace of God. When the Holy Spirit comes, worship and service will be all one glorious, purposeful activity. When the Holy Spirit comes, Jesus will fill the vistas of your desire and your life’s purpose will be bound up in him. When the Holy Spirit comes, you will think of Christ first and yourself last. When the Holy Spirit comes, all that God loves will be your love. When the Holy Spirit comes, nothing will matter more than Jesus. When the Holy Spirit comes you will take up your cross daily, deny yourself, and follow Jesus.

God is prepared to fill you with his Spirit. Are you prepared to be filled with the Spirit? When the Holy Spirit comes, you will be endued with power and you will be witnesses of Jesus to the uttermost ends of the earth. When the Holy Spirit comes he will convict the world of sin, and righteousness and judgment. When the Holy Spirit comes he will teach you all you need to know and remind you of everything Jesus said. When the Holy Spirit comes he will be your comforter and your counselor. When the Holy Spirit comes, he will turn the world upside down through you. Are you prepared to be filled with the Holy Spirit?

Jesus commanded his followers to love one another as he has loved us. Practically-oriented people will want to make sure their hearts and spirits are right before God, that they are aligned with him and conformed to the image of his Son, in order to fulfil this commandment properly. Spiritually-oriented people will want to take specific action toward the people around them in order to fulfil this command properly. Each will want to be filled with the Holy Spirit, filled with Christ as they set out to keep the command.

But let me ask, is there a risk? Is there a risk in just shrugging all this off and treating it as just more Sunday morning words? Is there a risk to not examining our heart condition or not engaging in God’s good works? I’ll close this morning with two passages of Scripture, both from the lips of Jesus himself, one for the practical people and one for the spiritual people.

The first is found in Matthew chapter seven in Jesus’ sermon on the mount. He says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’  On the day we stand before God, it will not matter what we have done in Jesus’ name. It will only matter that we have borne Jesus’ name. It is not what you’ve done, but who you know, more so, who knows you. Make sure that relationship is in place.

The second passage is also found in the gospel of Matthew, chapter 25, verses 31-46: “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’

Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’

“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Ultimately, the risk of ignoring God’s messages can be eternal. God is here today. His Spirit is among us, speaking to us about the condition of our hearts, our spirits, our lives. I know what he is saying to me. You know what he is saying to you.

Perhaps God is calling you out of sin and selfishness into a new relationship with him. Perhaps he is pressing you to surrender your all to him and be filled with his Spirit. Perhaps he is laying some person or some need upon your heart to which he would have you lay your hands. Whatever God is saying, now is the time to respond. Now is the time to say “yes” with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. Now is the time to say “yes” to God with all your yesterdays, today, and all your tomorrows. “Now,” is the appointed time. Today is the day. Say “yes” to God.

Love One Another (Part 2)

Love One Another (Part 2)
John 15:9-17

Jesus gave his disciples a specific command, and told them that if they loved him they would keep his commandments. He added to the authority of the command the requirement of relationship. Their obedience is more than a fulfilment of obligation, a duty performed. Their obedience is an expression of their own heart for Jesus himself (just as their disobedience would be an expression of their true heart toward Jesus.) If they truly loved him, their love for him would show in their love for one another. If they did not truly love him, it would show in their disdain for one another.

This is the commandment that Jesus gave to his followers then. It is the commandment that comes through the eternal word to His followers today: “That you love one another as I have loved you.” (John 5:12)

We have begun to identify three broad categories into which Jesus’ own acts of love fall into place. Jesus loved incarnationally. He was and remains the embodiment of God’s love, love both for God’s glory and the people God creates. When a man came to Jesus and asked him what is the greatest commandment, Jesus responded by saying, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength.” He continued by pointing out the second greatest commandment, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Jesus embodies these two love commands. Every act and every attitude toward God and the people around him expresses the love within him. He loves the Lord with all his heart, mind, soul, and strength; he loves his neighbor as himself.

We know that because Jesus was raised from the dead that he perfectly fulfilled every command of God upon men without failure or flaw. We know then, by virtue of his resurrection, that Jesus is the perfect embodiment of love for God and love for one another. Jesus loves incarnationally and commands his followers, the Body of Christ in the world, to love incarnationally as well, to embody in our lives, individually and corporately the love of God for God’s glory and the love of God for God’s people.

We also identified that the only way we can love incarnationally, as Jesus loves, is to be born again and filled with the Holy Spirit. We cannot be filled with the Holy Spirit until we are genuinely born again, and we cannot genuinely love incarnationally until we are filled with the Holy Spirit.

The first and greatest fruit of the Spirit, the true evidence of being filled with the Holy Spirit is love, love for Christ and love for one another. Paul listed the fruit of the Spirit for us in Galations 5:22-23, “But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” In the middle of his discussion on spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12, 13, and 14 Paul points to this fruit of the Spirit as the greatest priority in the entire discussion, suggesting that the condition of our heart in the Spirit is of greater priority than the work of our hands in the Spirit. He writes, “So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. Pursue love” (1 Corinthians 13:13-14:1).

Within the context of Paul’s teaching on spiritual gifts and Christian life and community he essentially says, above all, be filled with the Spirit from whom you gain the ability to love, for, “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. (1 Cor. 13:1-3) Without love, we are nothing. Love is the condition of faith and the command we follow, but unless we are filled with the Holy Spirit we cannot love as Jesus loved.

But let’s take a step back here and ask an important question. What is this love that we are talking about? Is Jesus commanding us to have a specific and consistent emotional response to the people around us? Is he asking us to feel about everyone the way we feel toward our beloved spouse or our precious children? Is Jesus saying that in order to follow and obey him we must have a warm, fuzzy feeling about all the other Christians we may encounter? Is Jesus commanding us to take a specifically prescribed action toward every other Christian we encounter? Are we being asked to treat the people around us in a “cookie cutter” fashion, doing the same thing for everyone as though love has only one single strategy we are to continually and consistently apply? Is love an emotional response or a prescribed action?

Before I give you a “yes” or “no” answer to that question, let me suggest this: Love, as Jesus loves, is a condition of the heart that influences the emotions and directs the will toward seeking the greatest good for those who are the objects of love.

Emotions serve an important purpose. Created within us by God himself, emotions provide the context in which we respond from the world within us to the world around us. Emotions are about us. They are personal. They are self-derived. They are self-focused. They give a means of self-expression for self-experience. They are created by God to be self-centered so that we have a way of interpreting and coping with our life experiences.

When we talk about love as an emotion, we are often talking about the feelings of joy, security, pleasure, encouragement, meaning that we derive from someone or something else. It is possible that taking seriously Jesus’s command to love one another will result in some pleasant responses from within ourselves to the people with whom we develop these relationships, but it is also possible that our investment of love in other people will reap sorrow, pain, anxiety, fear, or some other unpleasant emotional response to our experience. While we will undoubtedly experience some emotional response as we love one another, I do not believe Jesus is primarily commanding us to seek an emotional response for ourselves when he command us to love one another. I believe he is commanding us to obtain from him, through faith and the Holy Spirit, a condition of the heart that influences our emotions AND directs our will toward seeking the greatest food for those who are the objects of love.

Love as Jesus loves, may be accompanied by a pleasant emotional response or it may not. When Jesus, dying on the cross, looks upon those whom he loves and who have demanded his death and nailed him to a cross, he says, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” Whatever Jesus’ emotions may be at that moment, he makes a choice. He expresses an act of will. He chooses what is the greatest good for them regardless of what it costs him or what he may or may not feel in that moment.  That is the way Jesus loves. The condition of his heart is love and he brings his emotions and his will into conformity with love and does that which is best for those he loves. He gives his life for them. And as he said, “No greater love has any man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”

Love as Jesus loves is a condition of the born again, Spirit-filled heart that influences the emotions and directs the will toward seeking the greatest good for those who are the objects of love.

Now, since love seeks the greatest good for those who are the objects of love, let’s nail down two ideas. One, Jesus commands that fellow believers be the objects of our love. There are other instructions, commands and life examples that apply to non-believers, but this command is to Jesus’ disciples that they are to love one another. The followers of Jesus focus their love under this command on the other followers of Jesus they encounter in their lives.

Take a moment and look around you. While Jesus does require us to think and act globally in our discipling mission, he commands us to love locally, to love one another, to practice compassion for the world by expressing genuine, incarnational love for the Christians in our lives. Love one another.

The second idea we need to get a hold of is this: the greatest good for any person at any time, but especially for believers, is a genuine, vital relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ. Love one another means helping one another to have the clearest, purest, holiest, most Christ-centered, Spirit-filled love for God through a relationship with Christ that we can possibly have in this world. God is the greatest good there is. A relationship with God in which he is rightly cherished, adored, honored, respected, obeyed, loved is the greatest good to which we can possible lead one another.

We may need at times to provide resources to one another, point out sin to one another, extend forgiveness to one another, practice discipline of one another, offer comfort to one another, teach truth to one another, but whatever specific action we take, we must be guided by a commitment to seek the greatest good for those who are the objects, the recipients of our love.

The command to love one another as Christ has loved us is a command to do everything necessary, within the power of the Holy Spirit, to help one another know and love God, even if it costs us our life. Love aims for the greatest good in the life of the beloved, so Jesus says, “Love one another as I have loved you.” He loved us with his life for God’s sake.

Now, if you truly love Jesus, love one another.

By Request: Sunday's Sermon

Several folks asked me to post yesterday's sermon (5/1/2011). Each has interest in it for a different reason. Here it is in its entirety:

Got Jesus? Moving from Religion to Relationship
Mark 1:1-14; Matthew 24:1-4

Religion can be a very good thing. Religion, often marked by special ritual and traditional routine, provides a means of expressing one’s thoughts and understanding of the eternal. Ritual offers tangible connections with intangible realities. Tradition and routine can bring real comfort in chaotic times. But when practicing religion becomes a substitute for a personal relationship with God, religion becomes a problem. Religion should open a pathway to God, but when we let it become a fortress in which we hide from God, then change is called for.

If religion has become our hiding place, if religion has simply become a set of constants that lull us into spiritual complacency, then when the day of persecution or adversity comes, our fortress will fall. Our hiding place will be overwhelmed.

Religion becomes a hiding place when we use ritual and routine to avoid God. For instance, some people trust that their weekly attendance at worship services is all the attention they need to pay God. They spend little time in prayer, little time studying and reflecting on God’s word, little time putting into practice the few tidbits of spiritual food that falls by their heart’s table.

Other people count on a long history of attachment to a theology to carry them on their spiritual journey. They believe as long as they generally conduct themselves as “Baptists,” for instance, their duty to faith and obedience is fulfilled. For them, they need not look for any pertinent word from God today, because they have what they have always had, and what their fathers before them had, and that, surely, is enough.

Others for whom religion has become a hiding place, sing the songs, and make the offerings, and do the ministries. They are publically redolent in their faith, but personally, privately, their hearts are filled with doubt and fear. They live just hoping that if somehow they present the right face and do the right things, that someday God will be happy with them, maybe . . . perhaps . . . but they’re not sure.

Still others use religion to mask anger, jealousy, rage, despair. They hide the darkness of their hearts in the light of grace, never actually letting grace into their lives, else they would have nothing left of their old selves to hold on to. Religion is not a pathway to peace, but a prison for the soul, where the sinful nature is whitewashed and pretty, but down deep they are tombs of death full of dead men’s bones.

For the deepening of true, life-giving faith today and for victory over death, and sin, and the devil tomorrow, we must, each of us must, all of us must move from mere religion to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Otherwise, what will happen when ritual fails? What will we do when routine falters? Christians, we must move from mere religion to personal relationship with God through Spirit-inaugurated faith in and wholehearted devotion to Jesus Christ!

The Bible demands of us that we “examine ourselves to see whether we are in the faith.” Again, the imperative directed to us implores, “Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall” (1Co 10:12, ESV). And again, Paul directs us, “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Php 2:12, ESV). Each of these directives can be understood in the larger context of the New Testament as a provocation from God to be continually on the move from mere religion to a vital, authentic, biblical relationship with God through Christ.

The question we face, then, is an eternally important one. If we answer it wrongly, we will simply build more layers of religion that will insulate us even further from the relationship God plans for us. The question is, “How? How do I move from religion to relationship, especially when I think my religion is my relationship? How do I engage in an authentic relationship with Jesus when all along I’ve thought that the traditions, and rituals, and routines, and theologies were supposed to accomplish exactly that?”

That question is the question the Gospel of Mark sets out to answer. Probably written by John Mark shortly after the death of the apostle Peter at the hands of the Romans in 64 or 65 AD, this gospel paints a clear picture of Jesus for the Christians in Rome who will themselves soon face severe persecution under the emperor Nero. Mark purposes to show the church how to stand in faith under the most severe pressure to recant, to give up, to give in. The message of this gospel is simple: know this Jesus, the Son of God, and you will face persecution, even death, just as He did, with grace, truth, and in the power of the Holy Spirit.

We’re going to spend some time here in the Gospel of Mark. We are going to share Mark’s purpose: to know Jesus in order to leave mere religion behind (as the Pharisees should have) and enter into a relationship with the Son of God that will change our lives, and through us, call the whole world to Him (as did the disciples of Jesus’ day, and all those wholehearted disciples since.)

It may well be that the church in America stands on the eve of a wave of persecution such as it has never experienced before. The church throughout the world, as they have given themselves without reservation in faith to Jesus, has suffered. The global church that knows Jesus the way he intends to be known, knows suffering. They have come to know him and love him even more deeply in and through their sufferings. And there is much evidence that suggests the church in America will share in these sufferings in the days ahead. Believe me when I tell you, life cannot, and will not continue as it has, with the world quietly assimilating the church and the church quietly acquiescing to the world. The Bible promises a day when God himself will “purify the sons of Levi.” Paul reminds us that Christ is active in the world today preparing a Bride for himself, “without spot or wrinkle.” That Bride is the church, and that church will be pure and holy and blameless.

Kate Middleton may have chosen to wear white on her wedding day, but after ten years of living with William it is unlikely she deserved to wear white. However, God will work in the church and when Christ takes his Bride she will deserve to wear the white robes of righteousness in which he will dress her for eternity. How will this purification take place? Jesus explained it to his disciples in Matthew 24.

[READ MATTHEW 24:1-14]

Jesus taught his disciples about the “signs of [his] coming and the end of the age.” He speaks to them of false Messiahs, of wars and rumors of wars, of nation and kingdom rising up against nation and kingdom, of famines and earthquakes in various places. Let your mind think of the civil unrest in the Middle East, the increasing frequency of earthquakes around the globe, the famines, both physical and spiritual, that plague the peoples of the world. All these things we can document today, even as happening within the last few months. But Jesus said of these things, they are just the beginning of the birth pains. They are just the onset of labor, the twinges that capture your attention and let you know something momentous is on its way. He goes on to tell of conditions when full labor sets in.

Brothers and sisters, persecution of Christians characterizes full labor. Jesus tells his disciples they will be delivered up to tribulation and put to death. He warns them they will be hated by all nations for his name’s sake. Let me tell you, friends, mere religion will not be adequate in the day when persecution breaks out against the church! Jesus said, “At that time many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another.” We ought to gasp for breath at this teaching! Jesus shows us that persecution will not only arise outside the church.  It will also burst out within the church.

Even today people sit in churches with other people they hate. Their hearts are filled with bitterness and rage, which Jesus said is the same as murder. People name the name of Christ, but hold grudges against their brothers and sisters in the Lord. One day, the hatred that today boils silently beneath the surface will burst out. One day, unforgiveness will bring forth its offspring: jealousy, accusation, persecution, and death. Like the huge volcano that exists beneath Yellowstone, or the mother of all earthquakes that will send California tumbling into the ocean, resentment and bitterness foment in the heart waiting for the day of their release. And that day will come. Listen, what we are in hearts, what we are when no one is looking but God, that’s what we truly are. Jesus said, “Out of the heart come the things that defile a man.” If the heart is bad, so is the man. Fresh water does not flow from a salt water spring.

Merely religious people, people who have lived the routine and practiced the ritual will suddenly turn on one another like ravenous wolves on a weak, old moose. Betrayal rather than loyalty, and hatred rather than love will devastate the church. Many false prophets will arise to attempt to justify themselves in their error with error. And many who have practiced religion but neglected their relationship will be led astray.

Now listen.  This is Jesus talking. He’s talking to his disciples. He’s talking to those he loves and those who genuinely love him back. He is teaching them. He is preparing them and preparing us for what is coming. Christ demonstrated his love for us on the cross, but he also expressed his love for us by teaching us what we needed to know to love him and stand in him in the day when faith is challenged to the core.

He says to us that in that day, as it already is in our day, lawlessness will increase. This doesn’t mean criminals will multiply. It doesn’t mean we will have more murderers, more rapists, more thieves, more drug addicts, even though that may be an outcome of lawlessness. What Jesus means is that people will increasingly jettison God’s moral law as a personal and social guideline. Neither the public court nor the private heart will have room for God’s commandments. Lawlessness means people will increasingly deny and reject God’s claim on their lives. And because of this increasing lawlessness, the love of many will grow cold. Listen now! Jesus is speaking of the love of many in the church! Many who have laid claim to Jesus and professed faith will prove to have been merely practicing religion. They will be revealed as nothing more than modern day Pharisees having a form of religion but lacking the power thereof. These same people will abandon God and His word. The love they will have seemed to have had will fade away and their true hearts will be revealed.

Ritual will fail. Routine will falter. Mere religion will flounder. And what then?

Jesus says, “The one who endures to the end will be saved.” The one for whom faith is not mere religion but a true relationship will be rescued, delivered, saved in and through these persecutions. How? How will Christ’s disciples be saved? The Gospel of Mark tells us: through the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. At the end of the parallel passage in Mark’s gospel he states the purpose of the entire book: “Everyone will hate you because of me, but those who stand firm to the end will be saved.” Stand firm. Stand firm in Jesus. Stand firm in this one whom you know in your heart and soul by faith. Stand firm in him on whom you have staked your life because he gave his life for you. Stand firm in this one, the knowledge of whom will give you the will and the heart to stand.

Several years ago an ad campaign burst on the scene that had an amazingly effective outreach. You’ve very likely seen the ads featuring prominent sports, movie, and television stars wearing a while milk mustache and asking the question, “Got milk?” The ads, created by Goodby, Silverstein and Partners, first began running October 24, 1993. Today the creators of that ad claim it has 90% awareness in the US. That means nine out of 10 Americans will think of their ad if you walk up to them and say, “Got milk?”

Do you know what I mean if I pose the question to you, “Got Jesus?” Do you know and have a personal relationship with this Jesus, whom Mark introduces in the opening paragraphs of his gospel as the Son of God who is greater than the greatest prophet. Jesus offers a baptism greater than even the baptism of John, which was wildly accepted? Jesus bestows God the Holy Spirit. Jesus brings God from heavenly theory to personal experience.

 Do you really, truly have a relationship with the One whom God Himself claimed as His beloved Son at his baptism? Imagine, God Himself declares Jesus to be his own beloved Son, and you can know him, love him, be led by him, and through the working of the Spirit, become like him.

Are you in love this morning with this man from God, who faced temptation at the hands of Satan himself and was sustained in the aftermath of the challenge by angels from heaven? Temptation comes from both the outside and the inside and is the ever present potential to disregard God and take our lives into our own hands. Jesus faced temptation from Satan himself. And Jesus won. Jesus remained faithful, so completely faithful that wild animals didn’t eat him and angels took care of him.

Honestly, where are you this morning? Wrapped up in a religion or deep in a relationship?

Have you repented and been baptized with God’s Holy Spirit? Have you believed and accepted with all your heart that God’s beloved Son is your beloved Savior? Do you face the temptations that come from outside you and inside you through the power you gain from your deep love of Jesus? Do you have a mere religion that concedes these things are needy, but not for you, or do you have that relationship with this Jesus that would never let an unrepentant heart, or lovelessness, or lawlessness come between you and Jesus?

The Lord has indicated that for some of you, this may be the last opportunity you will have to respond to the message of repentance. For years you’ve hidden behind a screen of dishonesty and pretense regarding the true condition of your soul. You’ve claimed a relationship, but in truth you have little more than a self-centered religion. Your heart has longed for more, but like Pilate who crucified Jesus, you’ve been guided more by pride in your reputation than any real urgency to do right by Jesus. The word for you today is a final mercy before judgment comes.

Repent. Let nothing keep you from accepting God’s new life in Christ. Confess your sins. Turn from your self-centered religion and Spirit-quenching ways. Acknowledge Jesus as your Lord and Savior once and for all. Receive the Holy Spirit on His terms. Now is the appointed time. Today is the day of salvation. There is no other sacrifice for you than the one Jesus made on the cross. No amount of good works done under false pretense will save you from the wrath of God that is coming on the children of obedience. No language of the Spirit will save the heart that turns from Jesus to follow its own way. God knows what you have claimed to be and God knows what you truly are.

He will separate the sheep from the goats according to his knowledge, not of their deeds, but of their hearts. Their religion will not stand when God compares its eternal value against a faithful relationship to His Son. Some of you are trusting in a broken reed, and God says it will pierce your hand unless you repent. Though you have done good things, if there is no true relationship, he will say to you, “Depart from me, you workers of iniquity. I never knew you.”

Some of you in this very room know God’s Spirit is speaking these very words to you, and you are building resistance in your heart against them. You want to reject the word because Dale McIntire is speaking it. I urge you, do not. The messenger is nothing.  The message is everything. You want to reject this good word this morning because you do not trust Cornerstone to surround you, and love you, and support you. I urge you, do not reject this word from God. Even if Cornerstone Community Church fails you, God will not fail you. The Spirit will not fail you. You want to dismiss this word because you will have to rewrite your reputation in your family, among your friends, and out in the community. No one knows the struggle you’ve endured. You don’t want them to know. I urge you, do not dismiss the Spirit and the call that echo in your soul today. The peoples of this world need nothing so much as to see the real transforming, forgiving, life-giving grace God offers those who will turn over their hearts, their secret loves and lives to him.

You have every reason to repent today and no real reason to resist. Yield to God’s Spirit as He calls to you and invites you to relinquish your religion and take up a new relationship with Jesus. Yield to mercy. Yield to grace. Before the invitation is withdrawn, before God closes the book, before the opportunity passes, repent and turn to Christ with all your heart.

God loves you so much and wants this relationship with you, this relationship that makes sense of and gives substance to true religion. In his mercy he sent His Son, Jesus, to take on himself the punishment for sin so that his judgment would be no obstacle to this relationship. By his grace, he sends his Spirit to woo and invite us, to entreat us and empower us to respond to God’s desire for a covenant with us. He declares in his word, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” If we will but take our loving and holy God at his word, he will work on behalf of His Son to change our lives, to forgive our sins and wipe away our debt, to set us on the right track in a right relationship with him where Christ is our exalted head and God is our goal.

Have you “Got Jesus?” this morning, truly? Is God’s grace a living reality in your heart? Do you have his hope, his peace, his joy, or are you striving day after day to produce a replica, a copy, a fake? His love is here. God is here. Take the step today and move by faith from religion to relationship.

You Can Only Do What You Can Do

John the Baptist came preaching and baptizing. Dressed in camel hair and leather and eating gross desert stuff he must have cut quite a figure. Mark tells us that the "whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were flocking to him." Guess he caused quite a commotion in his day.

The people to whom John preached confessed their sins and were baptized by John in the Jordan River. Imagine, the whole countryside and the entire population of the capital city experiencing spiritual revival and a God-wrought change of heart. Nothing like that had happened since the whale belched up Jonah at the doorstep of Nineveh.

But here's John, preaching a baptism of repentance. Here's John, dressed like a desert hermit calling people to identify, acknowledge and turn away from their sins and commit through baptism to living a new life, and everybody's buying in. Here's John not letting folks get away with anonymous conversion but making a public event of evangelism, and people are responding. Here's John, preaching, baptizing, doing what he can for the kingdom.

But here's John recognizing that for all the success he appears to be having in ministry, he can only do what he can do. He says to his audience, "Someone more powerful than I will come after me. I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the strap of his sandals. I have baptized you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit." John recognizes God has given him some spiritual power, but it's nothing compared to what the One will bring. John acknowledges God has given grace for repentance but there is yet more, more that John cannot give. More than what John's preaching can initiate. More than baptism with physical water can accomplish. Here's John telling the people, "You can only do what you can do."

Today, you can act in faith. You can preach the gospel. You can enjoy a measure of success, but in reality, you can only do what you can do. The real glory, the real Spirit comes not from the hands of men but from the heart of God. We can baptize with water, but only Jesus can baptize with the Holy Spirit, God Himself in the heart and lives of believers. We can minister to the outside, but only Jesus can minister to the inside.

And we need to be okay with this arrangement. "I am not worthy to stoop down and untie His shoes," John said. He felt no need to compete with Jesus. He felt no need to exalt himself. He needed only to prepare the people for the coming of Jesus. It was Jesus, not John, who would give them the Promise of the Father, the Holy Spirit, so it was Jesus, not John, to whom John pointed the people.

I think the challenge will often be contentment. I think the obstacle will often be stepping back and taking the approach that John took to his dying day: "He must increase and I must decrease." You know what? Like John, you can only do what you can do, but the glorious truth is that as we live and act in faith, God will do what only He can do both in our lives and in the lives of others. And that is the foundation of our contentedness, that God will do what only God can do.

So Lord, let my heart be at rest in the labors to which you've called me, knowing that I can only do what I can do, but as I live and minister faithfully and obediently, You will do what only You can do, pour out the Holy Spirit for Your glory and for our joy. Let me give up both the straining and the guilt that come with taking up more responsibility than is rightfully mine. And let my life be marked by John's attitude: "Increase, increase, increase, O Lord, while I decrease."

Old Blog, New Blog

Blogs come and go as bloggers' and readers' needs change. Notes from the Northland is headed for a slight change. Instead of blogging the results of my reading and thinking and praying, I'd like to try blogging the process. I'm reading and praying through the book of Mark. The very nature of pastoral ministry, the administrative and leadership demands, seems to inevitably draw my heart and attention away from Jesus and on to the needs, actual and perceived, that surround all of us. In and of itself, being sensitive and available to the needs of others is not a bad thing, but right now, having just turned 50, facing the needs of aging parents and dispersed family, attempting to be meaningfully present in the lives of a church and a community, right now, I miss Jesus. I miss the time spent with him, just thinking about the immensity and purity of his person, the glory of his purpose, and the love of his intention. I miss being around him and experiencing the overflow of his heart into my worldview and my hope. I find myself often just sitting and longing to be with Jesus.

So that's what I'm going to do here. I'm going to just sit and be with Jesus, and, Lord willing, I'm going to do it "out loud," so if you want to, you can come and sit here with us and enjoy him too. I'll record my thoughts, my prayers (some of them), the struggles of life that I so much want Jesus to enter into with the eternally adequate wisdom he offers. But in the end, my desire is that Notes from the Northland will not be about me, or about you, but about Jesus.

This morning I was sitting in Rooster's Coffee and Cafe in Arab, Alabama (where my wife's parents live). I've been trying to lay out a preaching schedule through the book of Mark for this summer. I opened my Bible (the one with half the book of Revelation and all the concordance falling out) and realized I'd skipped the final event in chapter five. A man, the ruler of the local synagogue, comes to Jesus with a request that Jesus come and minister to his twelve year old daughter who is deathly ill. On the way Jesus is pressed by the mob. A woman reached out in faith and was healed of a disease she's suffered with for twelve years. Jesus stopped to minister to her soul and her position in the community, and there are so many lessons in grace, and compassion, and mercy to be gained from their interaction. But while he was ministering life to this woman, news came that the young girl they were headed to see had died.

That's where my thoughts picked up this morning. People come from the synagogue leaders house. They say to him, "Your daughter is dead. Why bother the Teacher any further?" I have so been there, haven't you. I haven't lost a daughter, but I have seen a long time dream die before my very eyes. I have seen hopes dashed. I have seen confidence and security terminated. You have too, haven't you? Some of our most precious things, dearest to our hearts, come to an end and are taken from us unexpectedly. And what advice do we hear? "Let it go. Move on. Get over it." Without realizing it these advisers diminish the value of our dreams AND the value of Jesus and his love for us and the things that are precious to us.

Jesus, however, gloriously, does not support these worldly advisers. He says, "Do not fear, only believe." At the end of our dreams, in that moment when hope teeters at the edge of the abyss, Jesus offers himself as our eternal hope. "Do not fear, only believe." Loss makes us afraid. Loss makes us aware that death lurks in the shadows and nothing we hold in this world can bear the passage with us. Loss makes us afraid not only of its coming, but of its repeated return. So Jesus says, "Do not fear." Why? Why, "do not fear?" Because he is permanent, unchanging, eternal. He won't get lost and he won't lose those who trust and believe in him. In Jesus loss no longer threatens, for what is gained through faith cannot be lost. So he says to fear-filled us, "Do not fear, only believe."

I think it is reasonable to ask, "Believe what?" It is a question to which Jesus responds, "You believe in God, believe also in me." Believe in Jesus' love. Believe in his good intent. Believe in his plan. Believe in his power. Believe in him and let your hope be in him. Believe not merely in what Jesus can do, as you might believe a trip to Walmart will stock the pantry shelves, but believe in him, the Savior, the Son of God, very God in human flesh full of grace and truth and fully committed both to revealing God the Father to us and drawing us through that revelation into the Father who loves us and sent his Son to die for us.

"Do not fear, only believe," and keep walking in faith. Jesus spoke the words to a man who had just received the most life jarring news a father can receive. I see that scene in my mind. To my heart's eyes Jesus lays his hand upon the man's shoulder and looks deep into the eyes now brimming with tears. The pressure of his hand urges the man homeward. The look from his eyes steadies the man's heart.

They arrive at the ruler's house where Jesus finds a crowd of people and great commotion, people "weeping and wailing loudly." You just have to love the audacity of Jesus that is born out of his relationship with the Father. "Why are you making a commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but sleeping." Stop a minute and consider what Jesus has just done. Jesus enters a room and describes the reality not as perceived and experienced by the gathered crowd, but from the wise, thoughtful and loving perspective of heaven. These people know death. They've seen it, experienced it, suffered from it, and survived it, but no one's come back from it. They know death. Jesus knows life.

The people laughed at him when he said the girl was sleeping, but they weren't laughing when that little girl emerged from her room sound and well a little while later sound and well. How wise we would be if we would just let Jesus describe our realities from his perspective rather than assuming that whatever we perceive is final. We see death. He sees rest. We see hopelessness. He sees opportunity. We see defeat. He sees victory. We see things as we think they are. He sees things as they really are. We perceive through limited experience. He understands through infinite wisdom. We see things that are not as though they cannot be. He sees things that are not as though they are. Why then do we laugh when Jesus challenges our perception of our life experience? Why do we put forth no faith when he offers great grace? Why do we assume we must "bury our dead" when he appoints us to life?

Do you think you cannot have hope? Why? Do you think that conditions and situations cannot change? Why? Have you discerned Jesus' perception? Do you know the Father's mind? Do not say, "Well, this is how things always are," because Jesus may very well respond, "Do not fear, only believe."

Today there are several situations in my life under which I have written the caption, "I don't know." I don't know what to do. I don't understand the real nature of some circumstances. I don't know how to respond, or if the responses I imagine are appropriate or not. I race around in my mind trying to conceive every contingency and I arrive time and again at the starting point under the banner, "I don't know." Jesus, I need you to describe the reality of my situation for me, because I am not confident that I see clearly. Please help me know. Please help me fear not and believe.Take ahold of my distress, and brokenness, and fear, and concern, and ignorance, and selfishness, and let Your resurrection power flow into them.

Jesus offers resurrection power which flows from God through him. He took the little girl by the hand and spoke the sovereignty of God into her life. "Little girl, I say to you, arise." I expect he had to speak definitively to her or else every little girl that ever died would have come forth at the power and authority of his word! In fact, had he simply said, "Arise!" (which he will one day) every person that ever lived would have answered the call!

In this instance, though Jesus calls one little girl back to life, he demonstrates the power and the love that brings forth hope and life and dreams that have died in me and in you but still have the potential to to serve his purposes and bring him glory. The girl's parents, and the disciples who were there, were "immediately overcome with amazement." When was the last time you were amazed with Jesus? I want to be amazed with him. I do not want to be one of those pragmatic people who dismiss him as someone who should not be bothered with my deepest hurt or greatest need. I don't want to reject him as unable to understand my current heart experience. I want to be amazed because my heart and life are open to him and he proves himself amazing. I want to be amazed with Jesus every day, not because he constantly has to prove me wrong, but because he proves himself so loving and willing to one whose life is a constant battle to "fear not and believe"

What Makes You Pray?

The fiery furnace and the lion's den were yesterday's news when Daniel found a precious answer to a heart wrenching question. The question was one many of us have asked at one point or another, perhaps in  a moment of weakness or hopelessness or discouragement or despair. It is the question of slaves who know no kindness; exiles who know no future; champions who know no end. "How long, O LORD, how long?"

Reading through the books he had with him, Daniel found within the writings of the prophet Jeremiah the number of years that "must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely seventy years." God set a limit to the exile! God set parameters on punishment! God circumscribed the circumstances! The events that propelled Daniel and the people of Israel from their native home to once again dwell as aliens and strangers in a foreign land  had quantifiable limits set by the hand and heart of the Almighty Himself!

Daniel 9:3 records Daniel's response to this revelation, "Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. I prayed to the Lord my God . . . ." It was not the situation of his times but the revelation of his God that drove Daniel to prayer. Daniel prayed because he understood from his reading of God's word that God is merciful, that the judgment the Lord declared for Israel was not permanent, nor without compassion. It was necessary and it was bounded, limited by God, and thus revealed God's merciful inclination toward his beloved people. Daniel interceded for himself and his people not because of the desperate nature of their circumstances but because of the gracious nature of their God!

Daniel turned to God's word. What he found in God's word led him to turn to God. He did not begin to pray on the basis of the situation at hand. He turned to God's word as a response to the situation. He turned to God in response to the word.


The point here is this: how often do we pray and intercede for ourselves, our church, our community, our country, or our world based on our perception of the need rather than our perception of the One who meets our need? Do we seek mercy because we perceive we need mercy, or do we seek mercy because we perceive God is merciful? Do we seek peace because we are restless and anxious or do we seek peace because God is omniscient and omnipotent? Do we pray because of who we are and what we need, or because of who God is and what he desires? Is God both the source of our prayer and it's answer as well?

Your situation and circumstance is not irrelevant to God, but He is more relevant to you than your situation. Let the environment and events of your life lead you to find God in his word, then let the revelation you find of him lead you to pray.

What's Your Context?

We've been focusing on Jesus' seven letters to the church in Asia Minor in this sermon series. I've found it interesting how the Spirit has led me to approach each letter and each sermon differently. I had originally thought I would apply the same structural considerations to each letter and use the structure to make it easier to understand the point of each letter, and the point of all the letters together. But that is not how it has worked out.

Yesterday, for example, we looked at Revelation 3:1-6, the letter to the church at Sardis. I had already entitled the message, "The Church That REVIVES From Sleep." Yet, in the message itself, I did little to describe either the condition of the church at Sardis or its application to the church of our day. I found myself simply assuming the application and building the sermon around a response to Christ's letter by a sleeping church willing to be roused by the warning of a loving Savior. Sleeping people, after all, don't need to know they're asleep. They need an alarm to wake them up.

I sat down at the coffee shop a little while ago to read over the next letter, the letter to the church at Philadelphia. It wasn't peaceful and quiet there this morning, and I did wind up in a very providential and beneficial discussion with another community leader, but before my attention turned elsewhere the Spirit raised a question with me. In each of the letters Jesus reveals something personal about his nature as God that both gives him the right to demand something of the church to whom he is writing and to provide a basis for an appropriate response from them. The One who "walks among the seven golden lampstands" tells the church at Ephesus to return to their first love or face having their lampstand permanently removed. This same One is the One "who died and came to life" and encourages the Christians at Thyatira to remain faithful even though their faithfulness may cost them their lives.

Each letter begins with a revelation of Jesus and that revelation provides the context for what Jesus asks of the church. The churches response to their individual environments and to Christ himself is set in the context of who Jesus is himself. They are to determine their values and responses in this world based not on their personal preferences or experiences, but upon the Person of Jesus Christ, his experiences and his sovereign preferences.

So that led me to ask, "What other contextual clues do we use to determine our values and responses when Christ is not our context?" I believe it is a fair and necessary question because Jesus is writing to churches who in one form or another have either abandoned him as their context for life or are in danger of doing so. And I believe that churches today, and Christians today, face either the same spiritual ailment or the same danger.

So, what other contextual clues do we use to determine our values and responses in life when Christ is not our context for living? I thought of five and would be very interested in knowing what others you can think of. My five are:

1. cultural "norms" - these are values and responses broadly acceptable to the society in which we live and function; 
2. peer pressure - these are values and responses made specifically in reference to the people whom we feel most responsible to please;
3. selfish inclinations - these are the values and responses that we are most likely to resort to for self-preservation and self-advancement; 
4. personal experiences / history - we naturally allow the results of previous choices to influence future choices, sometimes to our detriment; 
5. church traditions - these are values and responses that might seem more positive and beneficial than the previous list, but can nonetheless stifle an authentic, personal response to the word of God.

 Jesus makes it clear that He alone is to be the context for developing and evaluating our values and life responses. He reveals himself to be the only adequate Source and Model for the life God rightly requires of faithful people. So, in the Spirit of these seven letters I find myself wondering, what other sources do we engage for determining spiritual values and life responses? And why would we entrust our lives and eternal destinies to anything less adequate than the Son of God himself? And what do people today need to do to establish our hearts in Him?

What do you think?