Success?

There are such temptations as a pastor when it comes to church. Most of these are connected to our insecurities and pride. We can so quickly wander from keeping the main thing the main thing. We begin to redefine what success is; the number people on any given sunday, how many people are involved in ‘ministry’ as if ministry was something that happened only on church time, did people find the sermon entertaining and practical (although the call to follow Christ never promised to be practical but it has been called foolish!), were people happy and energetic when the service was over....again sarcastically we assume that when God moves we feel all warm and fuzzy...I’m not sure that is what Isaiah felt when we saw Christ. You get my point...we make common assumptions as to what success is that have absolutely zilch to do with Jesus and the display of the Glory of God. Usually it is more about making me feel better that someone took the time to come so that I could feel my time in the bible was not a waste this week....after all I only read the bible to write a sermon anyways....more sarcasm.

Where did we get so bent out of shape about success, I mean really think about it....We have been called to preach a foolish message to dead people in hopes that they would hear it....the last time I checked I didn’t get a response from the dead guy...and not only hear it but embrace it, respond to it and rejoice in it. We have fallen into the pattern of the world: bigger is better, speaking your mind and believing in absolute truth is arrogant and we better set goals and make sure that they are measurable so that we can recognize success when it happens but again it is measuring success according to what we think it is.

Have you ever thought about it, we are the body of Christ because of a supernatural work of the Grace of God. It is impossible to put God’s grace in a box like some quantifiable substance. God is infinite and His grace is infinite. God is all powerful and His grace is All powerful. Once we had not received mercy and now we have received mercy. What is impossible with man is possible with God. Instead of running around trying to measure and define success I wonder if we could take a lesson from the Apostles and devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word (Acts 6:4).

Sometimes I think that we are so insecure that we want to create success so that we will not feel insignificant. We desire to have the praise of men....I mean we wouldn’t say that...like someone would admit that they are insecure... but in reality it might be the admission of it that shows that we really aren’t insecure...what was I saying...Oh yah...like it is a big deal to have some sinner think that another sinner is good because they did something that was tainted with sin. Unless the Lord builds His Church the laborers labour in vain. Now is that not refreshing that the success of the church is not about me but it is all about God. We have been called to be faithful in believing in Christ. We have been called to proclaim the word of God because we believe that it can actually change people...’so faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ’ (Romans 10:17). ‘For the God who said, ‘Let there be light,’ made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the Glory of God in the face of Christ’ (2 Corinthians 4:6).

Anyways you get the gist...I better stop or this will turn into a sermon!!! Blessings [From Success?]

Why Not Church?

Over the last few years I have witnessed ‘mature’ christians decide to sever their relationship with a particular body of believers (church). Most times it is for very good reasons; bad theology, manipulative leadership, legalism, abuse of power, unwillingness to listen and the list could go on. Once they decide to leave there is a decision to take some time away to heal and so church takes on a different look. Walks on the beach, yard work, sitting on the deck with a great cup of coffee and a book (Christian of course), family time or just sleeping and lazing the day away, if that can be called church...we know it really isn’t It’s starts out as a time for healing but ends up becoming a habitual ritual of selfishness.

The reason I use such harsh words is because it is completely inconsistent with the gospel to isolate ourselves from other believers and be under the preaching of the word of God, in person. Christ came to break down the dividing wall of hostility between people. He came to make us one. Think of all the imageries that God has created to show connectedness, or dependency for the sake of demonstrating His sufficiency, his headship. There is: The Body of Christ; the Vine and ‘we’ the branches; the Household of Faith; a Temple with each of us being one of the bricks; Marriage; Adoption into a family; Kingdom; Priesthood and others. Then there are the scriptures of assumption; ‘and on the first day of the week when you come together’. You would find Jesus in the temple weekly to hear the word read and then to stand up a declare that He was the fulfillment of that word. There does not seem to be any indication in the NT that believers would ever not consider meeting weakly in an organized fashion, the concept was foreign. Or what about brothers and sisters in other countries under intense persecution who are executed, slaughtered for wanting to be together on the first day of the week to celebrate the Lord’s supper, worship Christ and hear from His word.

Forgive, Forbear, have compassion, show kindness, humility, meekness and above all put on love. This is the call of God on His children. They require interaction and cannot be attained insolation. He knows that we will be hurt and hurt, be frustrated and sin against each other, that is why He has given us His spirit to show that we are spiritual people, that we have the supernatural living in us, that the love of Christ can compel us to love the unloveable. It takes no supernatural grace to isolate yourself from your sinful brothers and sisters and then we seek to justify and spiritualize our actions but it is not of God, it is of the flesh. You miss out on blessing your brothers and sisters and being blessed as God has made us to be conduits of His grace to each other. When we step away we are not trusting in the mediatorial work of Christ, we begin to walk counter to the gospel and God’s intentions. The sad part is that in not trusting Christ to be our savior in this situation the testimony of Jesus’ glorious grace is marred.

Each of us have been made uniquely by God and in His image according to His wisdom. We need to stop trying to fit people into the image, our image, of who we think they should be. We must humble ourselves and once again come to the cross and ask for God’s Spirit to once again reign. [From Why Not Church?]

Forgive As You Have Been Forgiven

The question that I pose to myself this morning is this...Why is it so hard to forgive when you have been hurt? As children of the Almighty Holy Forgiving God we know that we are to “forgive as we have been forgiven”. But why is it so difficult?

Luke 7:47—But he who is forgiven little, loves little, and he said to her, ‘Your sins are forgiven.’ The woman that Jesus was speaking to was a woman of the world, having a reputation of being a sinful woman of the street. Many families could have been destroyed by this prostitute. The Only way we can forgive with that magnitude of greatness that we have been called to is to see the magnitude of forgiveness that we have received. To will ourselves to forget because that would be the right thing to do is devoid of the love that makes it praise. To forgive out of a hearts response to the forgiveness we have received from Christ is worship, it is where Christ is exalted.

Forgiveness is my visible expression to the offender that I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ because I have been forgiven far worse..offending a Holy God.

August 12, 2009

We were hiking up Paradise Meadows the other day. As we sat down for lunch we were joined by the ‘Whiskey Jacks’. These are small birds that love to borrow you lunch if you let them. If you hold our your hand, they will land on it and eat what ever you might be offering. They have become so bold that it makes eating your lunch somewhat of a challenge. You can wave

your hands, yell, make a fool out of yourself, and all this to no avail.

It struck me that this is how accustomed we can become to sin. We become so comfortable with it that we do not see the warning signs of danger. Brothers and sisters in Christ are waving at us and warning us but to no avail. We grieve the Spirit so much that we have become oblivious to his warnings.

[From August 12, 2009 ]

John Newton on Calvinism

John Newton
Calvinism

“I am an avowed Calvinist; the points which are usually comprised in that term seem to me so consonant to Scripture, reason (when enlightened), and experience, that I have not the shadow of a doubt about them. But I cannot dispute; I dare not speculate. What is by some called High Calvinism [or Hyper-Calvinism] I dread. I feel much more union of spirit with some Arminians than I could with some Calvinists; and if I thought a person feared sin, loved the Word of God, and was seeking after Jesus, I would not walk the length of my study to proselyte him to the Calvinist doctrines. Not because I think them mere opinions, or of little importance to a believer—I think the contrary; but because I believe these doctrines will do no one any good till he is taught them of God. I believe a too hasty assent to Calvinistic principles, before a person is duly acquainted with the plague of his own heart, is one principal cause of that lightness of profession which so lamentably abounds in this day, a chief reason why many professors are rash, heady, high-minded, contentious about words, and sadly remiss as to the means of divine appointment. For this reason, I suppose, though I never preached a sermon in which the tincture of Calvinism may not be easily discerned by a judicious hearer, yet I very seldom insist expressly upon those points, unless they fairly and necessarily lie in my way.”

Christian Community

What has become of Christian community. The 'me, me' attitude of the world has fallen into the lap of the church. We begin to define community based on what it is that we get rather than the call of God on our lives to give. To give the grace that we receive from Him back into the lives of our brothers and sisters in Christ and beyond.

The problem, the lack of true Christian Community, has arisen because of our tireless efforts and demands in seeking and finding community....this is the wrong pursuit. Have have been called by God, empowered by God through His Spirit not to seek community, but to seek 'Communion' with God Himself.

True Christian Community can only exist and happen when the members of that community are finding 'communion' with God in being alone with God. It is there that are hearts are filled up with His graces, it is there that we are humbled, and it is there that we are reminded that we have been called to serve. It is in serving each other the graces of God the we ourselves have received through Christ that we become a Christian Community, because it is there that Christ is magnified and exalted. This is 'Christ'ian community!