Category: Christian life

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Suffering and Glory

“Man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward.” So says Eliphaz, one of Job’s “comforters.” Unfortunately, it is easy for us to “comfort” others in the same way. We sometimes don’t know what to say when someone is suffering, and we go ahead and say it anyway because we feel we should say something. So much of what we say can come across as uncaring or cliche and usually does more harm than good. Often times, simply being with the one who is suffering and being quiet is the best thing we can do at first.

Suffering is a fact of life, and Scripture recognizes this. One of the characteristics of the Christian faith is the recognition that we suffer. Many of the other religions of the world seek to escape suffering, or teach that it is all a state of mind. Unfortunately, within Christianity itself there are a couple of streams that see suffering as something to avoid or escape. Some preach that suffering is something that comes straight from the devil, and that God wants us to not suffer. Others preach that we will one day escape this evil old world, and in the meantime we just put up with it. Both groups miss the idea that God works through and redeems our suffering. So, where does the connection between suffering and glory come in?

In Romans 8, Paul tells us that our suffering doesn’t even begin to compare with the glory that will be revealed to us. Just before this statement, he says that this suffering enables us to share in Christ’s glory. It seems that our suffering is an indication that we are children of God and fellow heirs with Christ. The early church understood this. They saw their suffering as bringing the kingdom to earth the same way the suffering of Jesus did. That’s why they could rejoice in their troubles.

Paul continues to state that the very creation is groaning and waiting for the final redemption of our bodies. We live in a broken world and will deal with that brokenness until Christ comes again. We can take comfort in knowing that God is with us in our suffering. He knows what we are going through, because he suffered in the incarnation. We also can know that the sufferings we go through
are things that  our Father can and does redeem and work for our good and for the good of his people. God works through our troubles to make us more like Jesus.

Paul goes on to tell us that we not only will be glorified with a glory far surpassing our suffering, but that we are already glorified. God has begun the glorification in us and will finally bring it to completion when Jesus returns. We can look at our suffering and see it not only as something that will bring God’s glory in us in the future, but also something that is bringing God’s glory in us in the here and now. We also know that there is absolutely nothing that the powers of this world or the powers behind those powers can do that will rip us out of our Abba’s loving arms.

When we suffer, let us take heart in the realization that God is with us in the midst of our suffering, and that he is working through it for his, and our glory.

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Blast From the Past: Fixed?

This was first posted on October 29, 2008.

On Tuesday, October 28, John Fischer wrote about “falling into grace” here. In this article he wrote about churches full of Christians who attempt to give the appearance of being fixed rather than broken and needy. He then went on to speak of the burden this puts on those who act as if they are fixed, yet know deep down how broken they really are.

I started thinking that maybe a big reason for the impotence of today’s Church is the belief, or at least the appearance, that we are “fixed”. Think about it. What does a veterinarian do to a male dog to keep it from siring puppies? He “fixes” it. Maybe churches are not multiplying because the people inside are “fixed”. Maybe in our attempt to appear as if we have it all together, to “keep a good testimony”, we have neutered the Gospel.

We are all broken. We are all in desperate need of God’s grace in our day-to-day. None of us has it all together. As Switchfoot sings:
“We are a beautiful letdown,
Painfully uncool,
The church of the dropouts
The losers, the sinners, the failures and the fools…”

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Blast From the Past: The Presence of God

This was first posted on January 26, 2009.

Have you ever been in a church service and heard someone pray and thank God for the chance to come into his house and worship in his presence? Or maybe you’ve prayed that yourself? I have. Or maybe you’ve sung the hymn, “In the Garden.” You know, the one that talks about meeting Jesus in a particular place at a particular time and then going out on your own into the world outside the “garden.” I think songs like “In the Garden,” and prayers that speak of “coming into” God’s presence have unwittingly helped foster a dualistic way of looking at the world.

Growing up, I was always taught that it was important to have a time and place set aside to “meet with God”, to spend some time reading the Bible and praying in order to be able to face the challenges of the day. We were told that first thing in the morning was the best. On top of that we should attend church services on Sunday morning and Sunday night to be prepared for the week ahead, and also show up on Wednesday night in order to refresh your faith for the second half of the week. Behind it all was the idea that if you weren’t in church three or more times a week and having your own devotional time, you weren’t spending enough time with God.

Don’t misunderstand me. I am NOT saying that setting aside a regular amount of time to read Scripture and pray is a bad thing. I am NOT saying that a time of corporate worship and instruction is a bad thing. I AM saying that we fall short of the life that Jesus came to give us when we act as if those are the only times we are in the presence of God.

I see this in the theology that teaches that salvation is only spiritual and guarantees that one day we will escape this old world of sin and misery and go to our home in heaven. I believe that if we see heaven as “somewhere beyond the blue”, it makes sense to believe that God isn’t really with us in our day-to-day, and that it is essential that we go to church a lot and carve out a special time to “meet” 
with God. While folks may protest that they don’t believe that, I think the evidence in their lives shows that they really do. Having said that, I know that there are people who use the words of this 
theology because that is what they grew up with, yet live as if they are always in the presence of God.

If we believe that God fills all of creation and that he is not limited to a particular place, then we can realize that heaven is all around us and that God is making all things new right now, and will finally restore his creation when Jesus returns. If we really believe that, then while we may set aside a certain time and place to focus on the Father, we will live in our day-to-day aware that we are continually in God’s presence and don’t have to rely on whether or not we had our “devotions that morning. We have the Spirit in us to guide us and reveal to us what God wants us to know and do.

Yes, we need to read and know the Bible. Yes, we need to pray. But we should never think that a certain time of the day or day of the week is the only time we are in God’s presence. As the Psalmist asked, where can we go where God is not there?

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Keep On Keeping On, and Rest

I’ve entered into one of those “I don’t know” phases of my life. I feel like I’m beginning a period of transition. It seems as if there is more for me to do with the gifts God has given me, or at least something different. As my involvement in our community of faith has grown and evolved, I am sensing that God wants me to shift my focus.

What I believe the Spirit is leading me to do is to keep on doing at least part of what I am doing. At the same time I sense that I am to rest and let God lead me rather than to go out and push things as far as relationships and service. Any of you that know me know that I have a tendency to run ahead and try to make things happen. It is hard for me to rest and trust that my Father is going to take care of everything. Two of the things God has given me are the ability to teach, and a heart that is empathetic towards other people. I care deeply about others’ well being (sometimes it seems as if I care too deeply, but that’s another story that’s yet to be written). Because of these things, I sometimes push things too far and forget to give space for God to work, hence the need to rest and trust.

I am learning that I can rest while working because I have seen the Father work time and time again through what I do, and sometimes in spite of what I do. I have seen God redeem my mistakes, and turn them into something far better than anything I could have brought about. It’s a hard lesson to learn, and is one that I am continually learning. Thankfully, God has placed me in a community that is all about the gospel, discipleship, and bringing the kingdom to bear in our surroundings. I am learning how to use the gifts God has given me in a way that shows the truth, goodness, and beauty of Jesus to those around us. Not just to “build a church,” but to be the church. To be in this world as a witness to the gospel, rather than just witness to people while somehow being apart from them.

It wouldn’t surprise me if some of you are going through the same sort of thing. You believe that God has gifted you in certain ways and you aren’t sure how to proceed at this stage in your journey. I don’t have any pat answers, no series of steps to take to fulfill your potential or whatever. All I can do is
suggest a couple of things because of how I’ve seen God work. These are things I’ve come to believe are vital.

The most important thing is to find a group of believers who are committed to living life together. Join with them, be willing to take off the masks and walk through the messiness of life with them. Not just a “small group,” but a group of folks who will love and accept you as you are, and who will
also challenge you in your walk with Jesus. Commit yourself to them, and be willing to be discipled. God will also bring some your way that you can disciple. Second, allow the Spirit to use the messiness of community to work in you and shape you. In the give and take of a family of faith, you learn how to use what God has given you in a way that advances his kingdom. You learn how to live as Jesus loved, and serve as he served. Be willing to put up with the imperfectness of other people and situations in order to live life together with fellow pilgrims on this journey. Be in it for the long haul. It will not be easy, but it will be worth it.

May the Father lead you to a community of believers where you can grow in love and grace.

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Blast From the Past: Hands

This was first posted on April 11, 2008.

Nickel Creek has a song titled “The Hand Song”. The words are challenging.

The boy only wanted to give Mother something
And all of her roses had bloomed
Looking at her as he came rushing in with them
Knowing her roses were doomed
All she could see were some thorns buried deep
And the tears that he cried as she tended his wounds
And she knew it was love
It was one she could understand
He was showing his love
And that’s how he hurt his hands

He still remembers that night as a child
On his mother’s knee
She held him close and she opened her Bible
And quietly started to read
And seeing a picture of Jesus he cried out
“Momma, he’s got some scars just like me.”
And he knew it was love
It was one he could understand
He was showing his love
And that’s how he hurt his hands

Now the boy’s grown and moved out on his own
When Uncle Sam comes along
A foreign affair, but our young men were there
And luck had his number drawn
It wasn’t that long till our hero was gone
He gave to a friend what he learned at the cross
But they knew it was love
It was one they could understand
He was showing his love
And that’s how he hurt his hands

How willing are we to do whatever it takes to show our love? We who have learned at the cross – do we give to others what we have learned?

Are we even willing to get our hands dirty, let alone hurt them to show the same love that Jesus showed us at the cross?

They understand love. May we show it.

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Blast From the Past: Another Lesson Learned

This was first posted on May 30, 2010. The circumstances have changed but the lesson still remains.

This morning, after our gathering, we were waiting for some food to be delivered. I was on the front porch of the house talking with a friend. Partway through the conversation the food that we were waiting for arrived, and help was needed to carry it into the house. Without thinking, I immediately left in the middle of the conversation to help. There were others there who could have helped, so it wasn’t like it was absolutely necessary for me to get involved. A bit later I thought about that and realized that I had abandoned my friend right in the middle of our conversation, and I wondered why I did that.

Part of it could be that I’m not a great conversationalist, so it was more comfortable for me to help out in a way that didn’t require talking. That’s something I need to continue working on, although I am better than I was. Part of it could be that I feel like I have a reputation as a servant to uphold. That is one of my gifts, and I do feel more comfortable behind the scenes than out front, so of course I don’t want people to think I’m being lazy. Regardless of the reason, I should have stayed on the porch and not abandoned my friend.

I think that a bigger reason is something that most of us deal with in our walk with Jesus, and that is the tendency to feel that we have to do something all the time rather than just be in the moment. I know that I sometimes will let things to do draw me away from spending time with the Father or with my brothers and sisters. A lot of evangelicalism, especially the fundamentalist branch, is built on “doing something for God.” Great churches are built on the efforts of the leaders and members. Christians are made to feel guilty if they aren’t involved in one of the programs of their church. Pastors burn out because they feel that it’s their job to build a great work. In the midst of all this busyness, churches find that their members are not being discipled and are not growing in their walk with God.

The thing is, many of the programs and things that we try to do for God can be done without the Holy Spirit. Huge, “successful” churches and ministries can be built completely on human effort. Some of those come tumbling down, some get even bigger, but they really don’t have much impact for the Kingdom. We bemoan the fact that people aren’t knocking down the doors of our churches, and young people are leaving as soon as they are able. I think one reason is that we have presented a gospel that claims to be all about grace and a relationship with God, but is really about working. Not for salvation, but to please God.

God invites us into relationship with him. He tells us to be still and know that he is God. God is our Father, not our employer. It is true that we serve God and others. It is true that there are things that each one of us is called to do. But, do we do them in our own strength or in the power of the Spirit coming from just being in a close relationship with the Father? It is out of that relationship that we walk in God’s love through our day-to-day. It is in that relationship that we learn the Father’s heart and find out where he is working so that we can join in. The closer we draw to our Father, the more sensitive we will be to his agenda, and the more we may realize that we need to let our agenda go. Our efforts will be to join God’s work rather than trying to get him to bless ours.

Joining in God’s work might just mean that we continue a conversation on the front porch and let someone else help with the other stuff.

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Free Grace or Come and Die

The message of free grace is becoming more and more widespread in the church these days. It is a message that resonates with many who feel beat down by legalistic messages they have heard in churches. There are many proponents of free grace, such as Steve Brown, author of Scandalous Freedom and Three Free Sins, and Tullian Tchividjian, author of  Glorious Ruin and One Way Love. At the same time, there is a push back from those who believe the idea of free grace cheapens the gospel and produces folks who just feel free to sin all they want. These people would refer to Bonhoeffer’s writing that Jesus calls us to “come and die,” and against “cheap grace.”

I believe that the message of the free grace of God to sinners and the calling to die are not incompatible. In fact they are parts of the same message. Jesus tells us that we cannot follow him if we don’t take up our cross and die to ourself. Scripture also tells us that the finished work of  Christ on the cross frees us from the law of “do and live.” We are not under condemnation if we are in Christ and we have been made brand new. In Romans 6, Paul anticipates the arguments of those that say teaching grace leads to lawlessness and of those who say that grace allows us to sin more and more. In the first two verses, Paul asks if we should sin more in order for more grace to be given and then answers his question with, “No way! We’ve died to sin! How can we live in it?” In the rest of that chapter Paul goes on to tell us that we are to count ourselves as dead to sin and no longer under it’s control.

In Galatians, Paul says that he has been crucified with Christ, but that he lives because it is now Christ living in him. When grace captures us, we die to our self and begin to live in Christ. Unfortunately, because we still live in a broken world and sin is still present in us to varying degrees, we have to continually take up our cross daily. That taking up our cross is not striving to make ourselves acceptable to God by keeping the law. It has to do with giving up our interests because of what God has done for us.

One way of looking at it is to look at our relationship to God and our relationship to others. The grace that God freely gives us is what makes us his beloved children. There is nothing we can do to earn it or lose it. In response to this grace and because Christ lives in us, we then do those things which show that same love and grace to others. We love because God first loved us. We die to ourselves by putting others first. Jesus said that the greatest love is to lay down our lives for others. We only do that through the grace of God in our hearts.

So, God offers us his free grace which will make us right with him and his beloved children. That grace causes us to give up ourselves, to die, in order that we may show that same grace to others. In the words of the song, grace calls us to “come and die, and find that I might truly live.”

I pray that you are resting in that grace.

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Blast From the Past: Motive

This was first published on November 17, 2009.

The other day, I heard someone say that the motivation for the Christian life is not in gaining what we do not have, but in living up to what we do have. I immediately thought, “That seems kind of legalistic.” The emphasis is on what we can do, what we need to do. Knowing the background of the speaker, I am sure that many of the things we must do to “live up to” what we have in Christ include things like going to church every time the doors are open, avoiding things like tobacco and alcohol, and keeping ourselves “separated” from those outside. If the “Christian life” consists of sins to avoid and certain practices to embrace, then it makes sense that we are to be motivated by a desire to live up to a certain standard.

My fundamental disagreement is with the implied definition of the “Christian life.” I believe that life in Christ is not a set of “standards” that we must keep. It is not a set of “truths” that we must give assent to. There are certain things that we believe, and certain things we will or won’t do, if we are followers of Jesus, but the motivation behind that is not an attempt to live up to anything. I believe that the motivation for the Christian life is found in God’s grace through the Holy Spirit. The Spirit teaches us and takes what we learn and changes us. Our knowledge becomes somethng more than just something rattling around in our brain. It is something we experience, something that becomes who we are as the Father’s love and grace fill us.

As we spend time with Jesus, and the Spirit works in us, we will be changed so that the things the Father wants us to do will become more and more natural for us. We’re not perfect, and there is a certain amount of responsibility on our part to put ourselves in the place where God can work, but doing what God desires and becoming more like Jesus is something that God must do. It is not a case of trying to live up to what we have in Christ. If that is our motivation, then we will fail, because it is impossible for us to lift ourselves up in that way.

If you are in Christ, rest in God’s grace for you. Trust that everything you have in Christ is everything you need, and that the Father loves you and sees you as he sees Jesus. It is already accomplished. Let the Spirit guide you and teach you, and change you in the way the Father wants you to change. It’s all about God’s grace, not our own puny efforts.

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Blast From the Past: The Truth Hurts?

This was first posted on September 24, 2009.

Last night I saw a church sign which read, “If the truth hurts, it must be working.” Well, maybe. It is true that there are times when the truth does hurt in order to work, times when hard changes need to be made in our lives. We can all think of times when truth was spoken to us, causing us pain that, in turn, caused us to change.

Unfortunately, many times the truth is used as a club. Some have an idea that they know God’s truth and that it is their responsibility to make sure everyone knows it. They claim to be “speaking the truth in love,” saying that they are showing love simply by speaking the truth, no matter how harshly the message is proclaimed. Of course, sometimes the “truth” that they loudly speak is nothing more than their interpretation.

There is also truth that does not hurt. The message of God’s grace and mercy is one example. The promise of resurrection is another. And while it is true that we all struggle with sin, it is also true that the Father loves us unconditionally, has given us the Holy Spirit to work in us, and is forming us into the likeness of Jesus Christ.

The reality is that truth transforms as the Spirit takes it and uses it in the life of the Christ-follower. It may hurt, but then again it may feel wonderful.

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And Another Year Passes

Another year is upon us. It seems to happen on a regular basis, no matter what we try to do. Along with a new year, there comes something called New Year’s Resolutions. This is when people determine that they are going to do certain things and accomplish certain goals in the next 365 days. That is why you see special deals on weight loss programs, fitness center memberships, and home fitness equipment. Other resolutions include career, financial, relational, or spiritual goals.

I have nothing against resolutions as such. It is good to have goals for the coming year. My problem is I tend to make resolutions and then not keep them. It seems that is a problem common to the human condition. It is very easy for us to see resolutions as devices to make us better people, much like the 5 steps to ________________ that you can hear in many churches on Sunday mornings. If we fail to keep these resolutions, we can become filled with guilt and frustration. If we are able to keep them, we can become self-righteous.

Pam Hogeweide has written a good article on what she wants for the coming year. It is titled, “Soaring into Everday Loveliness With One Word.” Pam writes that, rather than making resolutions, she has chosen the word “soar” as what she wants to do in 2014. She also asks her readers to comment with what their one word would be. I chose “grace.”

In the last couple of years, I have been learning what grace is. The idea that Abba loves me no matter what and sees me as his beloved son is liberating. As I learn, it is becoming more and more clear that absolutely nothing I can do will ever change the Father’s love for me or my standing as his child. I’m not saying that nothing I do matters, because it does. I’m saying that my actions can not make me a better person inside, that they can not make me righteous. I am righteous because of God’s grace through what Christ has done. It is finished, and there is nothing more for me to do.

I want to live every day in and from my Father’s grace to me. I want to do everything out of love and gratitude, not out of a desire to earn God’s favor or stay right with him. I want to walk looking at Jesus and his finished work, and not fearfully looking over my shoulder or around me, worried that I might screw up. Because I will screw up, sometimes royally. But, it’s okay because it doesn’t change who I am in Christ. It also doesn’t change the settled fact that God is redeeming everything in my life for his kingdom and his glory. I want to live out of that reality.

I also want to live a life that extends that same grace to others, to those whom I love and to those who are difficult to love. I want to love my neighbor (who just happens to be everyone) as Jesus loves me. I want to love others without putting conditions on them. No reciprocity, no demanding, and certainly no “exacting a pound of flesh.” I know I can only do that as I am able to rest in the grace of Abba. Otherwise it becomes just another one of those resolutions that I can’t keep.

My word for 2014 is grace. I’d love to hear what word you would choose.