Tag: Jesus

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Believing and Behaving

Morality-Freethought-Large (Small) In the study of Acts, we are seeing the stresses and strains that grew out of preaching of the gospel to people whose roots were firmly planted in Judaism. This clarifying article , “Does our Ability to act Morally depend on Who we Worship?” by John Piper addresses what Paul was facing chapter after chapter of Acts. 

This helps us weigh what was at stake when Judaizers sought to pull the gospel off the axis of Jesus and what He has done– to some man centered religion about what man seeks to do for God. 

Our goal of making ourselves the source of righteousness reveals who we are worshipping!

I am reminded of a quote that I have read in so many places I do not know who to give credit to:

All we have or have ever had to offer God is sin!

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Its All About Me

me“If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves.Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness.And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross.”Philippians 2:1-8

Then he said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.” Luke 9:23

The verse is Philippians snatches the rug out from under my natural “Me-ology.”  Jesus was not like us Americans!  He did not think equality was the highest value in life!  For Him the highest good–the greatest joy was found in emptying Himself for the sake of others.  He did not demand that it be all about Him–even though in reality it is!

As Paul describes the self giving attitude of Christ, he invites us to consider a value that he says leads to complete joy…having the same mind and the same love as Christ.

“I am personally convinced that this submission, this dying to self, this crucifying of pride is crucial to our joy.  We think of denying self as somber, grim-faced business when it is in truth a prelude to dancing.

The reason our death [to self] increases the joy level all around is that it also increases the love level all around.

Only when we die to self can we fully love another.

Self is a devilish creature, demanding all of our energy, wanting our constant attention, reaching even into our pocketbooks for favors.

How can we ever hope to be attuned to another when self screams for our constant care?

When self is alive and well, it offers us an all-or-nothing proposition.

We either pacify self, or crucify it!”

Judson Edwards

Pathway to joy is the pathway that goes from “Me-ology” to “Thee-ology!”

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Nazarite Vows

“Jesus…cried in a loud voice, “If any man is thirsty, let him come to me and drink!  He who believes in me–who cleaves to and trusts and relies on me–as the Scripture has said, ‘Out from his innermost being springs of living water shall continuously flow.'”   John 7:37-38 Amplified Bible

The real question, however is this: Where are we to find our fresh springs of life? 

“Glorious things are said of you, O city of God…All my springs [of joy] are in you!”  (Psalm 87:3, 7)

water_fallb Can you or I say the same thing truthfully?  Or is it not a fact that quite without realizing it, certain forms of “recreation” have taken hold of us and hinder rather than help?

A Nazarite was one who made a special vow—the vow of one who is willing to be separated from worldly pursuits and snares—to separate himself totally so he may be put to service by the Lord.  The special vow meant total abstinence, even from certain things which were not wrong in themselves and which, to other people, might actually be beneficial.

Those of us who are God’s emissaries are to treat the world (not just its corruptions, but its legitimate joys, it privileges and blessings also), as a thing to be touched at a distance.  We must be aware at all times that, if we are caught by its spirit, or fed by its meat, we lose our sensitivity to the very breath of the Highest and will no longer receive the manna that falls from heaven to feed our souls.

Therefore, we may bind ourselves to God with the kind of vow that commits us to this: to look upon the world, in all its delights and attractions, suspecting that traps are set there for us, reserving ourselves for a higher way.

We are called to live daily in a higher Kingdom, where we are touched and our souls drink from the Spirit of God. ((Amy Carmichael, God’s Missionary,p. 4-5))

My Father, so often I feel restless.  Unsatisfied.  Wanting something more.  I try to satisfy my inner thirst for life in ways that don’t satisfy–they only leave me thirstier still.

Maybe underneath, I don’t really believe you are what you say you are: Life itself, pure-flowing.

Today, Father, help me to “cleave” to you–to embrace you fully with my trust.  To see the things that draw me for the mirage they are.  And to drink more deeply from your spring of living water. (David Hazard)

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What’s better than life?

I began my morning reading the Mission Network News report.  As I scanned the stories, this one from Africa caught my eye.  The study of Acts has tenderized my heart once again to the truth that the spread of the good news of Christ comes at great cost.  Therefore, it is news of great worth!

Two Christians killed in Northern Nigeria

Nigeria (MNN) — Voice of the Martyrs Canada reports the deaths of two young Christian men in Nigeria. According to a Compass Direct report, the pair died at the hands of Muslims militants in Kaduna state. Local Christians believe these two murders are an effort to wipe out Christianity from northern Nigeria and stop ministry growth. Although the government is trying to initiate dialogue between the two faith groups, their efforts have been undermined by the wave of violent attacks on Christians.

Full story: http://www.MNNonline.org/article/10522

My mind considered the stories of Stephen who was the first Christian martyr and James who was beheaded for his faith in Christ.  These saints and others seemed to understand what the Psalmist meant when he penned the words, “Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you.” (Ps. 63:3)

The martyrs all believed Christ was worth more than life, more than falling in love, more than marrying and having children, more than seeing their children grow up, more than making a name for themselves, more than having the dream spouse, the dream house, and the dream cruise.  Christ to them was worth more than all their plans and dreams.  They all said, “It is better to be cut off in the midst of my dreams, if I might gain Christ.” ((John Piper, “Life’s Blood,” Tabletalk December 2001, p. 53))

Christ is the treasure that is better than life!  He is real life.

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Promise Driven Life

“Christ lived the purpose-driven life so that we would inherit his righteousness through faith and be promise-driven people in a purpose-driven world.”

2005-6-smallI confess my cynicism.  Christian books that have mega sales always make me suspicious.  Anything that is widely popular within and without the church, is more likely scratching a “natural” itch or poking a “flesh” button rather than pressing us on in the pursuit of holiness.

I ran across this quote from Michael Horton and thought, “Of course… we would love to be purpose driven people rather than promise trusting people.”   

The first way gives us the flesh satisfying illusion of being in charge–we can continue to be self – driven with a deflecting Jesus spin added to the mix!

Click here to read the Horton article in its entirety

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Bark on the Tree

 Q:  Many Christians look at the state of the church and say it’s dead, merely an institutional expression of the faith.

“What other church is there besides institutional? There’s nobody who doesn’t have problems with the church, because there’s sin in the church. But there’s no other place to be a Christian except the church. There’s sin in the local bank. There’s sin in the grocery stores. I really don’t understand this naiive criticism of the institution. I really don’t get it. bark (Small)

Frederick von Hugel said the institution of the church is like the bark on the tree. There’s no life in the bark. It’s dead wood. But it protects the life of the tree within. And the tree grows and grows and grows and grows. If you take the bark off, it’s prone to disease, dehydration, death.

So, yes, the church is dead but it protects something alive. And when you try to have a church without bark, it doesn’t last long. It disappears, gets sick, and it’s prone to all kinds of disease, heresy, and narcissism.

In my writing, I hope to recover a sense of the reality of congregation–what it is. It’s a gift of the Holy Spirit. Why are we always idealizing what the Holy Spirit doesn’t idealize? There’s no idealization of the church in the Bible–none. We’ve got two thousand years of history now. Why are we so dumb?”  ((Eugene Peterson, “Spirituality for All the Wrong Reasons” Christianity Today, March 2005))

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Thirst Quencher

“The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)  Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, “Give me a drink,” you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.?  The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water?  Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.”  

Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again,  but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.  The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”  The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”  (John 4:9-15)

Sitting at a real well with real water present, Jesus engages the woman at the well in a conversation concerning “spiritual water.”  He calls what He has to offer a “gift of God” and describes its effect as the ultimate thirst quencher–an unending spring of life.  These verses came to mind yesterday as I sat in church and heard the Pastor, Harriss Ricks, describe the work of Christ’s Spirit in a similar way.

pond His vivid illustration began by having us consider ourselves when we were apart from Christ as being like a pond.  A pond is self-enclosed–individualistic. A pond is still, quiet and doesn’t really impact it’s surroundings much.  In fact, the nature of the pond is that it responds to the changes in the environment around it.  If it is dry and the sun shines too long and hard, the water level in the pond recedes and algae begins to grow.  The pond is left with stagnant, murky water.   The woman at the well had lived like a pond for years.  She was influenced by her environment–and the day she met Jesus — He knew she was stagnant and murky–He knew she was thirsty for something refreshing and reviving.  He offered her the deepest refreshment–Himself.stream

Rather than face life like a stagnant pond, Jesus casts a vision of a life that is more like a living stream.  A life that would indeed quench her deepest thirst.  A stream is constantly replenished with water–it receives and releases fresh water every moment so that it becomes a vivid demonstration of what it means to be alive.  Something that is moving, cascading, reviving, impacting everything that it touches.

Thinking about this word picture and the story in John, I remembered that this woman did indeed receive the Living Water and the first thing she did was to run to the people of her town to release the life giving water that she had received– the news that there was an ultimate thirst quencher–His name is Jesus.