Part 14

Been a while since I have posted, I apologize for that. Life has just been busy! Hopefully we are back on track now. 

You can tell a lot about a person by their creation. A painting reveals much about a painter. The colors she or he chose. The objects he desire to paint. The details she chooses to put in or leave out. The painting is an extension of the painter. A cabinet will tell you a lot about a carpenter: round edges or square? Did he sand the surface carefully by hand or use a electric sander? Are the drawers dove tailed or just nailed together? A cabinet is an extension of the carpenter. 

As much as you can tell about the painter by their painting, or the carpenter by their cabinet, you cannot know the actual painter or the carpenter through their creation.  You have to get to know the person.  In order to do get to know them you have to spend time with them. You have to learn about them. You have to know them. And here is the cool thing; once you know them, their actual creation, the painting or cabinet, will come even more to life. The creation will make even more sense once the creator is known more fully. The obscurity and dark colors of the painting will make more sense in light of the dark past of the painter. The intrinsic detail of the cabinet will make sense in light of a carpenter who grew up with a father who could never be pleased. Or the painter choosing to paint mountains will make more sense when you know how much peace the mountains bring the painter. Or the smooth surface of hand sanded wood will make more sense when you realize the joy of the carpenter feeling the wood and smelling the wood as they work with is slowly and methodically.  Something that once made little sense about the creation can all the sudden make complete sense when the creator is known. 

The bible talks a lot about us (human kind) worshiping the created. It starts at the beginning when our original parents chose the created tree over the Creator God. And it has not let up since. The man still worships his work. The woman still worships the man. The parents still worship the children. The environmentalist still worships the environment. The alcoholic still worships the alcohol. On and on it goes. The heart is crying for the Creator, but instead settles for the creation.  Even though the creation is just a reflection of the creator. 

The sun shines on the moon from the other side of the earth at night. The reason we can see the moon is because the sun bounces light off of it. Without the sun, we would not see the moon. However, the light from the moon is not "moonlight" it is still sunlight, it just bounces off the moon first. But the moon is not the sun, it is a refection of the sun. Just like the creation is not the Creator, it is a reflection of the Creator. 

Just like the sun and moon we would not see anything in the created were it not for the Creator. The Creator gives the created life. The Creator gives the created meaning. The created is only a reflection of the Creator. It is a shadow. We can know things about the Creator through the created, but if we want to know the Creator we have to do that through a relationship. 

This is where it gets tricky, because God cannot be physically seen or touched or heard. His creation can, but he cannot. So when we say we want a relationship to the Creator, there is only one way to have a relationship; faith. "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." (Hebrews 11:1). 

The question becomes, how do I have a relationship with a God I cannot talk to, or hear from? And in the question lies the answer. You have a relationship by talking to and hearing from Him. But it's only by faith. You talk through prayer, you hear through his word. But not just reading his word; studying his word over and over. Meditating on his word for hours. Taking retreats with just you and God and staying soaked in his presence. And trusting in a God you cannot talk to or hear from but trusting that you are talking to and hearing from him. 

Now for the grand finale, your gonna love this; once you come to know the Creator God more and more, the more his creation will make sense. The more the sky will look more blue, the more the taste of food will bring joy and not addiction. The more relationships will point to him and not self. The more you know the Creator God the more you will enjoy his creation, but not worship it. Instead, you will worship the Creator God who is to be forever praised, Amen.  

Part 13

Instincts. We all have them.  Organic instincts you are born with while neurological instincts you have to train.  For instance; putting your hands in front of you when you fall is an organic instinct. From early childhood you had it. As soon as you could walk, and even before, if you fell face first your hands would instinctively go in front of you to prevent busting your nose. If someone throws something at your face you instinctively put your hands up, close your eyes and turn your head. Those are organic instincts. You didn’t do anything to get them; they are just part of who you are.

Neurological instincts are quite different. You were born with a “seed” of them, but it takes practice to train them into effectiveness. For example, throwing a ball. Everyone can throw a ball. You can instinctively pick up a ball and throw it. But I have a friend whose brother plays baseball for the Giants and he can throw a baseball 100 miles an hour. He was not born with that ability. He has spent hours of his life practicing, studying and doing exercises to make him a better pitcher. Or how about hunting? I was born wanting to hunt. Before I was old enough to go I knew I wanted to be a hunter, shoot guns and kill tasty animals. I was born with that. But it took years before I could see a deer before it saw me, or call up a turkey before it could see me. It took practice.

You see there are certain things you are born with, and then there are certain things you have the capability to do, but practice sharpens the instinct.

Solomon wrote in his journal, the book of Ecclesiastes 3:11, “He [God] has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.” Here is the thing, God has written eternity in your heart and my heart. Every person alive has, written in their heart, a knowledge that we will live forever. Somewhere. Even the atheist deals with it; they just choose denial as their means of dealing with it. We all have it. Eternity, in our hearts.

But check out the second part of the verse, the part that says, “yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.” A little weird. We have eternity in our hearts, but yet we cannot know what God has done? Let’s look at another passage written quite a few years later.

A prophet named Ezekiel wrote this verse. Prophets were men whom God called to speak truths to His people. In this particular passage Ezekiel is writing about a time to come in the future (their future our past) when God will no longer deal with His people externally, but will deal internally. Check it out, “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statues and be careful to obey my rules.” (Ezekiel 36:26-27).

This was a whole new idea. The Spirit of the Living God in us? No longer out of us? No longer do we have to go to him, but he is coming into us? Mind blowing.

But what does this mean to us?  

Before Jesus’ death, burial, resurrection and the giving of the Holy Spirit, all mankind had was the idea of eternity in our hearts. We knew something else had to be. But after the giving of the Holy Spirit we have Eternity in our hearts. Literally. The Jesus who gives us eternal life dwells in our hearts. The Hebrew understanding of the heart was not the organ currently pumping blood through your body, but the place of all origin of who you are. The heart was understood to be the center of all mankind is. So before, we knew about eternity.  Now we have eternity. Simple as that.

But it gets better. Ezekiel says that God will not only give us his Spirit, but he will teach us how to live by his law. Here is where instinct comes in.

So you were born with the organic instinct that there is a God and there is an eternity. However, at salvation, you were given a seed, the Holy Spirit, in which you now are able to bring forth a neurological instinct. A godly instinct. A life lived pleasing to God. Paul says in Romans 12:2, “Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” Renewing your mind. Neurological. Paul also says in Philippians 2:12 we are to. . . “work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” Work it out. Exercise it.

That’s a lot to digest. But let me try to summarize. You are born with an organic instinct of eternity. But God is external, he is outside of you. At salvation you are given the Holy Spirit, God with you, and the seed for knowing God and obeying his law. However, it is in your mind, your thought process, your world view, your paradigm, whatever you want to call it, where this new law gets worked out. Starts to change who you are. And that takes practice.

I started taking piano lessons at a young age. Mom and dad just realized I liked it so they put me in lessons. And the first thing my teacher had me to do is learn how to play scales. I played them over and over and over and over. . . I started hating scales. So I quit practicing them. When I would struggle with a fairly difficult piece she would ask me, “Have you been practicing your scales?” Because she knew, I had to practice the elementary things in order to achieve the complex things. But I thought I was far enough along to leave those scales. I was wrong. If I wanted to keep playing the same elementary songs I could stop playing scales, but to progress, I had to keep practicing the basics.

Many Christians do this. We will start to create a godly instinct with prayer, bible study, fasting, giving, seeing God in nature, looking for God in the small things like family and friends. But then somewhere along the line we tend to move away from those things. We may start to think we have moved past them. But the next thing you know we stagnate, stop moving and get discouraged. We must keep doing the basics if we want the more complex maters of God to come clear. We have to nurture that godly instinct he put in us at salvation if we want to be able to be all the God wants us to be.

Press into the God who lives inside of you. I know there are a million things telling you that it’s too hard, it takes too much time, you don’t know the Bible well enough. . . on and on and on they go. But I will make you a promise, if you will discipline yourself to “Feed your godly instinct” you will not regret it. Matter of fact you will find, “The peace that surpasses all understanding and guards your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” 

Part 12

My family and I were at the lake a few weekends ago celebrating my son’s birthday. I was sitting on the back porch early one morning reading, and just enjoying time to reflect on my life when two fishermen came by bass fishing. When I saw them something immediately resonated in my soul. It wasn’t the people, or their boat, or that I wished I was the one fishing; it was nostalgia, it sparked memories. 

I grew up fishing with my dad. Some of my fondest times with him were fishing on Lake West Point. We would get up early and drive, stop at the Huddle House to eat, and be on the water before the sun came up. It was great. Some days we would catch a lot, and some days we wouldn’t catch a thing, but we were always together fishing. Inside of me something was growing, a love of fishing and wonderful memories; something which will be with me the rest of my life. 

I enjoy taking my son fishing now. We go when it’s cooler outside. We go trout fishing and someday want to go to Alaska for salmon fishing. He loves it. And he is good at it. Something is growing inside of him also. Something which one day, when he is sitting on the back porch reflecting on life, will resonate with him also. We are making memories. 

I don’t think I can explain the feeling I got on the back porch. It was a feeling something was “right” with those guys fishing. It was a “I should be fishing” feeling. I get the same thing when it comes to hunting, or camping, or anything I loved to do when I was a kid. It is like there is something inside of me that knows I am supposed to do “that”, it’s in my soul. It’s part of me. Something in me remembers those times and longs to feel that again. 

I think you know the feeling I am talking about. It’s a feeling you get when you see something that feels like you were made to do “that”. Whatever “that” is. Maybe when you go to a football game you can feel the game coming back from childhood. Or maybe when you watch someone play the piano it takes you back to where you know you are meant to be. It’s strange, you can’t put a finger on it, but it’s there. That feeling is sparked by memories. 

Experiences make memories, and memories shape our life. History, our history, shapes everything about us. It makes us into the person we are. It shapes what we love, what we don’t love, how we react to people. Memory is a motivator. You can act on faith when you have memories. For instance I will fish one spot longer than another if I have had good luck in that spot in the past, because I have a memory in that spot.  

Memories also make that which we can’t see easier to believe. For instance, I love to go ride my mountain bike at Bull Mountain. There is a creek crossing there I have been over many times. In the middle of the creek there is a deep channel that will suck your tire under and throw you over the handlebars. However, there is one rock there in the middle; if you hit that rock just right it makes a bridge to scoot right across. I was recently riding up there after a rainy day. When I got to the creek crossing the water was up and muddy.  I could not see the rock, but I knew it was there; I had a memory of it being there. Without hesitation I went right across. Someone who had never been there would have gotten off and walked because they would not have known the rock was there. My memory gave me trust to have an experience. 

We also have a faith memory. It is the things God has done in our lives which brought about change. The thing about your faith memory however, is you are more apt to forget those. You are more apt to write those off because they are spiritual instead of physical. It’s easy to speak about seeing the fishermen reminding me of my dad and our memories; it’s quite different to tell about an experience with Jesus changing my life. I think what can happen is in the spiritual realm there is more room for doubt, or it's easier to forget because it isn't necessarily tangible. I can see the rock in the creek but I can’t see the Rock that leads me through my life. I can feel the rock under my tire but I can’t physically feel the Rock that I stand on every day. This can create a problem. 

So many times I think about the Israelites. I feel like they were idiots in a lot of ways. Think about it, God delivers them out of Egypt in a mighty and miraculous way. He not only gets them out of Egypt, they plunder the Egyptians as they are leaving. They take their gold and silver with them when they go. And when the Egyptians pursue them, God not only parts the Red Sea so Israel can walk across on dry land, he collapses the sea on Pharaoh and his army and kills them all. Now I don’t know about you, but I would consider that little story a miraculous deliverance! That would make one heck of a memory. You would think Israel would learn to trust God from it . . . you would think. 

As soon as Israel gets across the sea they start to complain and doubt. They complained about water, (Ex 15:24) they complained about food (Ex 16:2-3). Every time God provided and then Israel would find something else to complain about. Even after all of these miracles when it came time to take the promise land Israel decided the task was too big, even though God told them he would give them victory (Num 14). You would think after all this Israel would have all the faith in the world, you would think the memories they had would produce faith. 

Moses was constantly telling the people, “Remember the LORD your God who brought you out of Egypt.” Over and over again in the Old Testament there was a calling to remember. When you remember you literally re – memory. You recall memories from the past. Moses was asking Israel to recall the memories of what God had done in the past and trust him to do it again. When faced with monumental tasks, Moses called them to remember. He wants them to rest in what God has already done so they can trust he can do it again. 

I find this at work in me. I am an idiot as well. I know what God has done. I have seen him provide when I had no idea where provision would come from. I have seen him heal when healing seemed impossible. I have seen him repair relationships when it seemed all was lost. Over and over I have seen God at work. But I still find myself doubting. I find myself thinking, “That was then, this is now” kind of thoughts. But if I will get still long enough I can feel myself get calm. I can feel the memories bringing me peace. 

It’s the times when God came through that will bring you the strength to take the next step forward. Many people get stagnant in their faith. They sit still. They don’t want to move forward. Because they forget. They forget all God has done and therefore lose sight of all he wants to do. God has worked in your life. He is also working and also wants to keep working until you are complete in Christ Jesus. Some of the steps God may ask you to take are scary. Some of the steps God may ask you to do seem crazy, like crossing a sea he promises to part, but the fact remains memories will get you through. Memories of what God has already done and can do. 

Sometimes when I leave these posts I feel as if I leave you empty handed, so today I want to give you something practical to do. I want you to go get a spiral notebook. I think they are 99 cents at Kroger. I want you to write down every time in your life when you remember God doing something. Then, daily, I want you to write the things God continues to do in your life. Because when things go bad, when faith seems to get thin, you can go back to memories, times when you and your Heavenly Daddy went fishing together, times when the Rock was in the center of the creek, and the peace of God can flow through you and relieve your anxiety. 

Part Eleven

We have been talking a lot about law, and obedience to the law.  Today, I want to talk about grace and how it interacts with the law.

How should God react to our sin when we break his law? Is there to be no consequence? Is He just supposed to say, “Aw shucks, it’s ok, don’t worry about it. Try and do better next time.” Is that just?  Is that holy? Is that righteous? Imagine someone broke into your house, stole your grandmother’s jewelry sold it all and got caught. The day of court comes and the judge says, “Aw shucks, it’s ok, don’t worry about it. Try and do better next time.” How would you feel? I would hope you would feel outraged! That’s not just! No just judge will let a criminal go no matter how miniscule the crime is.

The next logical thought in the world of Christianity is, “Yeah but Jesus paid the price for my sins, so God will not judge me for my sins.” Now this is very true, but this is also where grace gets sticky. So let me ask a logical question. Does forgiveness make one sin more?

Consider this scenario.

 Someone breaks into your house, steals your grandmother’s jewelry sells it all and gets caught. They go to court and you are there to hear the sentence.  The judge pronounces the thief guilty, the gavel falls, and the penalty is announced “Ten years in jail.” Just then the perpetrator’s father walks in and says, “I will take that penalty for him.” It turns out the man who broke into your house has 5 kids and a wife with a drug addiction and he is doing all he can to provide for them. He works two jobs. He used to be a thief and quit ten years ago but came out of retirement to provide for his family. His dad hears about his problem and steps in to take his place so he can continue to care for his family. Now what do you do? Well you still want justice, as you should. Someone has to pay for the wrong someone has to pay the price for stealing your grandmother’s jewelry which can’t be replaced. A price has to be paid for justice to be served.

The sentence has been passed.

Judgment has been made.

The righteous judge then allows the father to do the ten years and lets the son go free. We have quite a few questions don’t we.

First why should someone else be able to pay the price? Second, why should the guy’s story be taken into account? And finally how could a just judge let a guilty man walk free? One word. . . grace. There is no other explanation but grace. Grace allows someone else to pay the price, grace allows the story to be taken into consideration and grace lets the guilty man walk free. Grace. But you could say, “That’s not fair!” BINGO! It is not fair, it is grace! It is not fair, it is unmerited favor.

But now let’s deal with another problem, what if the guy walks out of the courtroom, goes down the street and breaks into another house and steals another grandmother’s jewelry? Now it’s getting really bad right? Why? Why would that outrage you so much? Because his dad is sitting in jail paying for his crime and he is out doing it again! The father does not deserve that. The first time this happened we could possibly understand, even if we didn’t like it, why a “stand in” was necessary, but now, now we say, “But you went and did the same thing again. The sacrifice was for nothing!” The dad sacrificed his life for the son but the son went right back and committed the crime again.

If the son would have felt the weight of the gift he had been given there is no way he would ever walk out the door and rob again. He would have been transformed by the power of forgiving grace, instead of feeling like he got away with it and could go do it again.

This is deep.

This is the making the eighteen inch journey from the head to the heart.

Check out this scary verse that has been translated a million different ways, “For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of truth, there no longer remains sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of the judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.” (Hebrews 10:26-27) I have heard people say this is not saying what we think it is saying, but I think it is straightforward because of one word in there, “knowledge”. If we keep going into sin deliberately after we know what has been done for us there is nothing else that can be done for us. Knowledge creates belief and belief changes behavior.  If you truly believe Christ died for your sins, stood in your place and took the penalty, then you will not keep doing the same things over and over.

I realize this may bring even more difficulty. Paul said himself “For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. . . For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.” I get it, I truly do, (more than you know) but here comes the question, does “that” break your heart? Do you say what Paul said, “Wretched man I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” Does the fact you keep doing what you are doing break your heart to the point you feel the weight of the sacrifice Jesus made for you? If you cannot feel that weight, then I am not sure you have fully understood grace.

I don’t think Jesus is as worried about what we do as much as he is worried about why we do what we do. If we keep doing what we do and it breaks our hearts when we do it then we are being transformed. If we keep doing what we do with no regrets then we have not understood exactly what Jesus did.

The simple truth is we all “steal grandmother’s jewelry”, we have all, as Christians, walked out of the courtroom with our penalty paid by our father, but the problem is we are prone to steal again. Is there progression though? Is there movement toward leaving the “old life”? Does that proneness bring you to tears at night? Does your ability to keep on sinning in spite of what Jesus did drive you toward him or away from him? That’s the issue. The life transforming power of Jesus is in the grace he has given us in spite of our guilt. It should drive us to Him.

I realize no matter what metaphor I try and use it will break down at some level. We are dealing with a mystery of God. He forgives over and over and over no matter how much we sin. But on the other hand we cannot just keep sinning as if we have a license to do so. There comes a point where the sacrifice of Jesus breaks us to the point of obedience. And obedience starts to bring blessing. I will save that for the next post. 

Part Ten

We went on vacation last week. I really needed it. My family looked forward to it for weeks. We would say, “two more weeks”, “One more week”, “Three more days”. . . it was a countdown until we left. Once we got there and got settled in it started to feel like home.

We were fortunate to be able to stay on the beach this trip. We had a patio outside that over looked the ocean on one side, and a lake on the other side. In the mornings sometimes I would go out on the patio to sit and enjoy the day. One morning, as I relaxed on the porch, I started thinking about the guard rail. We were quite a few floors up and I was thinking, “If that guard rail were not here I would not feel safe sitting here.” As a matter of fact if that guard rail had not have been there I probably would not have wanted to be on the patio at all. It would have changed the whole dynamic. A place of peace and serenity would have become a place of anxiety and fear.

And then I thought what if the guard rail was lower? Like maybe 6 inches lower? I may still feel safer, but it would definitely be less safe feeling. And then I thought (yes I know, welcome to my world) what if it were two feet lower and the rail itself was only one foot high? In that case it may as well not even been there. This rail was playing a huge part in my morning peace and quiet. It was enabling my serenity. I could stand up and lean on it, I could prop my feet up on it, I could hang my wet towel off of it. The rail had so many uses, but if it were removed the entire balcony would become useless. One piece of metal ten feet long and three feet high held in by eight bolts made my whole vacation more enjoyable and less stressful.

So you must be asking, “What does this have to do with my life and the eighteen inch journey?”.  . .  Glad you asked. . .  Everything.

I want you to envision the guard rail as The Law of God. And I want you to envision the patio as the world. God offers you peace and serenity in this world. He does not want you to leave this world like the monks thought, nor does he want you to dive off into the world mindlessly, like satan tempted Jesus to do. Instead he wants you, in this world, but protected by his law in order to keep your peace in place, in order for your “patio” to remain safe. His laws are not meant to restrain you from having peace they are there to secure your peace, to make sure you stay safely on the patio which brings the serenity you are looking for.   The Law is not there to restrain you from living life it is there to enable you to live life in a way that brings you freedom. God is not trying to keep you from happiness he is trying to give you true happiness. The Law is your guard rail to keep you inside of true life.

Think about this, what if we lower the law just a little bit? What if we say, “Well God wrote that for Israel back then. The Law doesn’t pertain to me now. We are now under the New Testament. We don’t follow the law. So the Law may have some good moral ideas, but it does not mean much to me.”? What you just did was lower the protection of your patio and endangered yourself. You lowered the law. 

In lowering The Law what we are saying is, “I know how to live. I don’t need anyone telling me what I can and cannot do. I Got this.” That is exactly what happened in the Garden of Eden. And it is why you will buck The Law. It’s wired into your DNA. But you have to trust The Law and The Law Giver. You have to trust not only is The Law good and holy and righteous, but so is the Law Giver.

Once you realize this you can lean on The Law, you can prop your feet on The Law, you can hang your dirty laundry on The Law. Then you can know the law is good because you are trusting in The Law.

So many people see The Law as a condition of God’s love. In other words, if I will follow The Law then God will love me. Nothing could be further from the truth. Instead The Law is a product of God’s love. He loves his people so much he wants to keep them safe, and in peace.

So pick a Law, any Law, how about, “Thou shalt not bare false witness to thy neighbor”. In redneck terms, “Don’t gossip about your friends”. What if we remove that rail? We just tell whoppers all the time about your friends? What if you expose peoples business and expound on it into places you do not even know about? It will not be long before no one trusts you, no one wants to be around you, no one enjoys the company of a gossip. How about, “Thou shalt not commit adultery”? What if we remove that one? Peace is gone, serenity is gone, lives are ruined etc. . . are you getting the point?

The sooner we see God’s Law as a guard rail and not a jail cell, the sooner we can find the freedom and peace that he so desperately wants to give.

Part Nine

Wednesday night, in my sermon, I talked about a subject in a negative light.  Since then, after much thinking, I’ve become quite convicted about it. I was preaching about belief and how our belief system drives our entire lives. All of which is true. However, at one point in the sermon I said, “And I am not talking about fake it till you make it. That’s just behavioral modification, which never works.” That statement is true, but it is also not true. Just like with many of the things of God this subject is just not as simple as we would like it to be.

In my mind, “fake it till you make it” is hypocrisy. It means, to me, act like you are something you are not until you become something you want to be. Sounds a lot like mystical hocus pocus to me.  I imagine a bunch of people showing up on Sunday morning dressed in nice clothes, singing songs about God and saying things like, “praise the Lord” or “God is good”, in hopes someone will think they are holy. Or maybe hoping their religious “Christianese” will get them some kind of notoriety. That kind of acting drives me crazy. In this context I feel like we need to be open  and honest. We should not try to put make-up on our infirmities, but we should be honest about them and be healed from them. However, while there is hypocrisy in trying to be something you are not so people around you will not see who you truly are, there is something to be learned about lining yourself up with truth. Which is not “fake it till you make it”.

When I was young I used to dress up like my dad. I would put on his work boots, I would wear a hat like he did, I would carry a note pad like him, I would say things like he would say I would do whatever I could to be like my dad. My sister on the other hand played with baby dolls and played house. She would play like she was cooking supper and changing diapers. I hate to admit this, but sometimes she would make me play like I was her husband, yeah I know. So why would we do that? Because we were lining ourselves up with what we had been created to be. God created me to work and provide, and he created my sister to “make a home”. We were not even close to being old enough to do what we knew we were meant to do, but inside of us, deep down, we knew we were created for “that”, so we pretended. We called it playing, “make believe”.

Why would we call that “make believe”? Some would say it’s because we are making something up in our minds, we are imagining things, but I think it is much deeper than that. I think we are making ourselves believe what is true by our actions. By putting the two words together, “make” and “believe” the process is revealed. You could say it like this, we are making what we believe to be true by acting out that belief even though it is not yet fully realized.

So what is the difference between “make believe” and “fake it till you make it”? Well one says we are acting out what we already believe to be true, the other says we are being a fake in hopes that one day we can achieve a goal. One says, “I know what I am meant to be so I am going to act like that until I grow up in to it.” The other says, “I know what I am supposed to be so let me do that in hopes that one day I will get there”. See the difference?  Let me give some application.

Let’s say you get saved. And after your salvation you start to want to walk with Christ more deeply and so you chase after him with all you have. You read your bible and the words just jump off the page, you pray for a red light to turn green and it does, you go to church and you just feel the presence of God all around you. It is awesome and you love every minute! But then something happens, a dry spell. God feels distant. You bible is boring. Your prayers seem to hit the ceiling and come back down. Church is boring. What do you do? You have three options.

First you can just quit. Give up. Decide it’s never going to be the same. Say ignorant things like, “I don’t have to go to church to worship God” and “God speaks to me, I don’t have to read his word” or “I pray while I am driving to work”. Say what you want, those are all just excuses to not even try and walk with God anymore. It’s a cop out. And it’s a dangerous place to be. 

Second, you can “fake it till you make it”. You can go to church and pray and read you bible in spite of the dry feeling. And this is right! But hold on and check your motives. Fake it means you are an imposter. Fake it means you are going to pretend to be something you are not until God does what he is supposed to do and make you get that feeling again. Fake it till you make it means there will be an end. It says, “I am going to be a fake, until I make it to my destination.” The question is, then what? You’ve arrived? Really? If you have arrived what will you do if the dry feeling comes back?

Third, you can “make believe”. You still go to church, pray and read your bible in spite of the dry feeling, but here is the difference, you do it because it is who you truly are. You are not looking to “make it” to a destination, you have already “made it”, now you live as if you have “made it” and God will transform you to look more like his Son Jesus. But you have to trust.

Now we are getting somewhere, it’s about trust. One way says, “I will trust in my ability. I will work harder, do more, pray more and do better. I will give it my best. I will be a better Christian!” See all those “I”’s? I am trusting in my own ability. I will fake it till I make it. But make believe, it’s something different all together. It says, “God your way is better than my way. Your law is better than my law. Your Word is more powerful than my logic. So I will make believe I am what you say I am.” Now that will change your life!

The issue comes down to motive. If I am going to fake it till I make it so that I can get the results I want and then go back to what I was then it will never work. That’s behavioral modification. But, if I “make believe” I am already what God says I am so I can be transformed into “that”, then I am on the road to being more like Christ.

God does not want a fake. He wants you. All of you. Exactly like you are. Not some future version of you. He does not want you to try and clean up your act so he will like you more. He does not want you to stop sinning so that he can bless you more. He loves you just like you are. But, he does want you to have true life. And God knows that true life comes from living as you were created to live.

Play “make believe” today. You may be surprised how it changes your life. 

Working

Hey guys,
Just letting you know I am working on the next post. Just been really busy!

Jason

This is from Nora and beautiful

I read this morning in my little In Touch devotional book, "Commandments are in place to protect us from enslavement, which is the natural result of persistent wrong doing...We are privileged to have a Father who breaks our human chains. However, we are not freed so that we can disobey; rather, God offers us freedom from the domination of sin." I have to practice a daily communication with God because without it a weight of "meness" builds and it stinks. Its like the definition of insanity, doing something over expecting same result. I'm insane and God knows it, I'm glad God's love is from God. Constant. So constant I can't even quite grasp how constant it is.

Part Eight

Why should a Christian, saved by grace, be concerned with obeying the law? I mean after all aren’t we just supposed to do the best we can with what we have? A lot of us have been dealt difficult lives, we have baggage that is no fault of our own, surely God does not expect us to follow all these laws! He loves us, he died for us, Jesus paid for our sins, I mean can I not just do what I want?

Good question… lets pick the thought apart.

In the Garden of Eden man’s relationship to God was what some theologians call a “Covenant of Works”. A covenant of works means if Adam did his part he could stay in eternal communion with God; if Adam did not do his part he was condemned to eternal separation from God. We must not get confused into thinking that Adam would receive special treatment because of his obedience.  God did not say, “Now Adam, if you will go two years without eating of the tree I will give you a special treat. And if you go 5 years, then Adam, you will get an even more special treat. And Adam, believe it or not, if you make it 10 years without eating of that one tree then I will let you in.” Not even close. See Adam already had everything. He had all of God. Nothing held back from Adam. He had it all. The only thing Adam had to do to stay was not eat of the one tree.

The one tree in the middle of the Garden was not meant to be a punishment, it was meant to show one thing and one thing only. That single tree represented God’s sovereign reign over his people. That one tree said in essence, “I am God, I know what is best; you are not, obey me out of love.” But the temptation from satan was, “God is trying to hide something from you.” (Genesis 3:5) Satan won, (not completely, it backfired on him, but he won this battle) Eve & Adam lost, and here we are. Now we all view any law as, “Someone is trying to hold me down and hide something from me.” But what if the opposite is true?

If you come to Open Range Church this is going to be a little redundant, but you need to hear it. What if the law was meant to set you free and not bind you down?

The saying goes, “Father knows best.” And I have found that to be true. However, I did not find it to be true by trusting the saying, I found it to be true by experience. Somewhere in my late twenties, early thirties I found myself declaring the wisdom of my dad a lot. A whole lot. Especially when I had kids. (I think I just heard him say amen) It dawned on me was that he was not as big of a kill-joy as I thought he was, he just wanted to protect me from pain. He wanted to keep me from making mistakes. He wanted to set me free. He loved me. At the time I just thought he was making up weird things to keep me from knowing all that he knows. Trying to hold me back. I was a moron. Still am.

So let us tie all this up. What if God, in his sovereignty wants to give us life, as Jesus said he does? And the way he chooses to give us life is laws to live by. Laws to protect us? And what if we stopped looking at the laws and what does or does not apply and just trusted that he is good and that he is right and that he is just and we can trust him? Now I know there are some weird laws in the bible, you guys have pointed some out, but I am going to show you that even those weird ones were laws of love. They may have been cultural, but they displayed the sovereign love of God.

Now I am not suggesting that we are supposed to obey all of the laws in the bible. Many of those were for the Israelites in their day and age to protect them from harm and danger. But what I am saying is we cannot dismiss the function of the law. (More to come on that)

One more thing, what if we believe that we have all of God? Every bit of him right here with us through Jesus. No longer in a Covenant of Works, but now a Covenant of Grace. Jesus paid the debt of the Covenant of Works, that’s done, now we get to live in grace. We have it all. Nothing held back. No more to get on this earth. All of him he gives to us. And in our obedience to the law we love him back. We live in his peace. Think about this. And I will be back shortly.  

So far I have three questions about purity laws! Keep them coming! I will respond to them later this week. In the mean time I am working on another post.

The Laws

So I want to ask you guys, what laws do you see as ridiculous or restrictive? I am not talking about the Decalogue, I am talking about the full law. Leviticus, Number etc. . . if you response will not post to the comments email me at pastorjason01@gmail.com . . . I look forward to seeing what you all come up with! In my next post I will address these laws.

Part Seven

After my question “What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think about ‘God’s Law’”, I received two responses. So I want to put those on here and then respond to them.

 First response was simply “Communication”. Great response even if it is just one word; because it is pretty much spot on.  God was communicating his requirements of being in relationship to him. But we have to be careful to not turn this into God communicating the way to salvation, more on that in just a minute.

The second response was a little more detailed, “I either think of "love The Lord your God & your neighbor as yourself". Or I think of weird purity laws that obsess about food, skin, and normal bodily functions” Awesome! I love it.

So what if the answer lies in both the questions? What if God is communicating Love the Lord your God and your neighbor, while at the same time he is communicating weird purity laws about food, skin and normal body functions? What does that sound like? To me it sounds like parenting.

There are a couple of things that parenting shows us in relation to the God and his law in this context.  First, God is always communicating to us in a way we can understand. This is most recognizable in the incarnation. God is coming, in the form of one of us, in order to communicate his love for us. Remember God is always communicating his love. Whether that be his love in compassion, his love in blessing, or his love in wrath (more on that later) God is always communicating his love. Much the same way, parents are always looking to communicate our love for our kids. Sometimes it’s by showering blessing on them, sometimes it is in disciplining them, and sometimes it is by letting our anger and wrath show, but one way or the other we are always trying to communicate love to our kids. And, we are trying to communicate to our kids that we know better than them and to trust us. And to trust us is to love us.

Love is a fickle thing. We see love as this dreamy, mystical, evasive, tangible noun that we are forever seeking. But that is not love. Love is a verb. Love is in doing. Love is when we believe something is worth fighting for, or even more worth trusting in. Our kids show love for us by obedience to our rules, trusting in us that our rules are best for them. Hugs and kisses are great, but how many times has a disobedient teenager tried to hug and kiss their way out of punishment? It does not work. Why? To suck up after disobedience just shows that they are trying to leverage love to get out of wrath. At that moment love is wrath (more on that later).

Whew, that’s a lot.

Second, rules are not meant to constrain but bring freedom and relationship. There are some weird laws in the bible. One that sticks out to me is, “Do not cook a baby goat in its mother milk.” That’s weird. I don’t cook anything in milk, and I sure wouldn’t cook goat, much less baby goat! But in the time the bible was written I am sure this was a dietary restriction for a reason. What about pork? We know that pork carries all kinds of disease and parasites, but they did not. They didn’t know proper cooking times and temperatures. How about mold, dead bodies, blood, washing hands, sexual cleanliness etc. . . ? Through those things God is trying to communicate a way to live, a way to have life, true life, without sickness and restraint.

Think about the kids again. Why do I tell my kids to be home by a certain time? Because I know that nothing good happens out on the roads after about 11pm at night. People are partying, or hiding, or just looking for trouble late at night being out and about. So I institute a rule, be home by 11. When I was a kid my mom used to make me be inside by a certain time. She wanted me to have time to eat dinner, take a shower and get plenty of sleep before the next day of school. Why? because she loves me. I saw it as her trying to stop me from having fun. I would whine and kick the ground, but the truth was she loved me and wanted what was best for me. I would love her back by trusting her law and going inside and mom would delight in me because of my obedience. My obedience did not make me her son, but it showed that I trusted and loved her.

Can you see it? I hope you are starting to get the big picture.

Before God gives the Decalogue, aka The Ten Commandments, he starts the whole thing off with, “I am the LORD your God…” (Exodus 20:2). In other words, “You are already in. I am your God you are my people. Now let me give you some ways to love me and obey me,” WOW! What if we started to view the law this way? All of it. What if we believe God cares about us so much that he gave us rules and statutes to live by? I think that would change things.

Jesus was asked one day what the greatest commandment is. And he replied, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the greatest commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Then Jesus adds, “On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”  All of them Jesus? All of them. Okay so this is huge, if every Law in the bible depends on loving God and loving people then we need to take notice. I think it’s simple. When we love God with all we are we will care about what God cares about. And God cares about you, so keep his law, and God cares about people, so love his people.

So I want to wrap up with another question for you, how does this order, God loves me-> God gives me Law-> I obey law to love God back, change the way you view God if in fact this can make the eighteen inch journey from head to heart? Because the standard order has often been, God gives me law-> I obey law -> God loves me. What if you are in? What if he already loves you so much that he gave you a law to keep you from cooking a baby goat in its mother’s milk, whatever that means? But in order to love him back you trust that baby goats do not belong in their mother’s milk. This is revolutionary. This will change your life.

Problem

Hey guys I understand some of you are having a problem responding to my post. If you are just email me your response to pastorjason01@gmail.com

Question

So I want you guys to respond to this question before I write my next post. And I do not want the standard Sunday school answer, I want your true answer, and that will probably be the first thing that comes to mind.

What do you think of when you think of God's Law?

Part Six

I'm amazed by the comments I've received after the last few posts about , ”The Law”.  I've heard, “So am I just not supposed to do anything?” Or, “So I can just live however I want and God will just forgive me?”. And  my favorite, “Should I just embrace how bad I am and live in that, never trying to be better?” These are all great questions! And they all ask the same thing, “What do I do?”

At my house there are rules. Quite a few rules actually. Load and unload the dishwasher. Clean the kitchen, vacuum the floor. Be home by a certain time. Don’t be disrespectful to anyone in the family. Rules. Laws. A code we live by. But here is the catch,  if someone breaks the rules, which they are certain to do, they are not kicked out of the family. Watch this; the family connection is not by keeping the rules, keeping the rules flows from the family connection. That is HUGE!

Religion as a whole has always taught: law + obedience to the law=getting to God. By inference you can conclude then: law + disobedience to the law = not getting to God. This requires a lot of work to stay connected to God. And when you blow it by breaking the law you think, “Oh great, now I have to start all over.” Not to mention the problem of which laws must we keep? Because I may not commit adultery, but then Jesus adds I cannot even lust. That changes things for every man I know of. But what if we change the order of that first equation just a bit? Instead of law + obedience = God, what if we say: I have God + The Law = Obedience to The Law? Now that changes things doesn't it?

So if we say, “Jesus paid the cost for my sins so now I don’t have to obey the law.” We would be wrong wrong wrong! Jesus said himself in Matthew 5:17, “I did not come to abolish [the law], but to fulfill the law.” (More on fulfill later).  But if we say, “I must obey the law if I want to go to heaven” we are once again wrong wrong wrong! Paul said, “I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law.” So Paul is saying it is an all or nothing proposition. So what do we do with the law?

A rich young ruler came to Jesus one day and the conversation went like this. . .

¹⁶ And behold, a man came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” ¹⁷ And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.” ¹⁸ He said to him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, “You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, ¹⁹ Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” ²⁰ The young man said to him, “All these I have kept. What do I still lack?” ²¹ Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” ²² When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. (Matthew 19:16-22)

There it is right there. The same question that is in every one of our heart, “What should I do…?” I have been asked that question more times since starting this blog than ever before. We just feel like we need to “do” something. I mean this deal cannot be free can it? If Jesus is going to forgive my sins, then I need to pay him back somehow don’t I? I need to strive to be a better Christian do I not?

Well interestingly enough when the dude asks Jesus what should he do, Jesus gives him rules to follow it seems. Jesus says, “Hey man, you know the deal, keep the law.” And the young man says, “Done”. WOW! What a statement! Jesus says, “do these things” and dude man says, “I have”. Now I wonder if at this point Jesus is just kind of taken back. Like maybe Jesus has a “wow” moment himself. Or maybe Jesus just smiles wryly and winks at his disciple.  Either way look at the words recorded by Matthew, “All these I have kept, what do I still lack?”

This young man has been doing a lot of stuff. A lot of rule keeping. And by his own admission he is still lacking something. There is still something in him that is just not quite right. In another place this story appears in the Bible he says he has kept the laws from his youth. That’s a bold statement. But Jesus pushes further, Jesus says, “I want it all. And I especially want those things that you worship.” Now we are getting somewhere.

Let’s make some application and then next post we will come back to this idea again a little deeper. If the rules were meant to bring us closer to Jesus then why does Jesus always go to the ones who cannot keep the rules? And, if the rules were meant to bring us close to Jesus why is he so hard on the rule keepers of his day? One word; motive. It is your motive for keeping the rules that Jesus is getting after. Jesus doesn’t just want obedience; he wants you, all of you. The rich young ruler did not want Jesus, he wanted eternal life. He didn’t even seem to want God, he wanted eternal life. Jesus offered the young man himself, the Way, the Truth and the Life.

So why are you striving to keep the rules? Do you want to make sure that Jesus is on your side so bad things will not happen? Or are you keeping the rules because you want to follow Jesus so closely and look so much like him that you don’t want to miss a single point of obedience?  Because these are two drastically different things, one makes Jesus a means to your end and the other makes Jesus the end all to be all. Which is it?

We are going to keep going after this point in my next post. This is the most important part of the journey. But for now, let this sink in.

Saint Augustine Said

"When any one knows that he is nothing in himself, and has no help from himself, the weapons within himself are broken, and the war is ended." 

St. Augustine 

Part Five

I took Greek one semester in my undergraduate work, and was awful at it.  Rote memory does not stay with me for some reason and this class had a lot of memorization in it.  Vocabulary words have never been my strong point anyhow, and there were tons of them in my class. But there was one Greek word; well there was more than one, but one in particular that “stuck” with me: Euaggelion.

Euaggelion in the New Testament is translated as “Gospel”.  And the word Gospel simply means “good news”. So good news is the gospel, and if something is not “good news” then it’s not the gospel. Now, we want to define “Good news” by our own standards, don’t we. We think anything that makes us happy is good. But not everything which brings you joy is “good”. For instance, it is “good” for us to have a physical yearly, but it’s not fun. It is good for us to discipline our children correctly, but it’s not fun. So good is not determined by the events themselves, but by the outcome of the event. Some of the most painful things I have ever been through sure didn’t feel good when I was going through them, but looking back on them now they were very good. So they were good news. They were the Gospel.

So I think it is time that I “tip my hand”. So far my posts have mostly been about how sinful we are as a group of people, and how even our best efforts are not enough to gain favor with God. However, I don’t want you to think the point of this blog is to tell you how bad you are, it is not. Recognizing your sinfulness, though, is the beginning of the eighteen inch journey. Because we cannot see our goodness, until we see our badness. Our badness magnifies Jesus’ goodness. And it is his goodness we draw from in order to become good. And that is the “Good News”. That is the euaggelion.  That is the Gospel.

In my last post I quoted Paul in Romans 7:18. Let me quote that again, because there is something in there important to our understanding of the euaggelion. Paul says, “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.” “In my flesh” are the words I want us to focus on. Because the goodness we have is not from our flesh, the goodness we have is the opposite of our flesh, the goodness comes from the New Spirit which Jesus gives to us.  And this new Spirit Jesus gives to us manifests itself through our flesh.

Let’s go old school, Ezekiel 36:26-27 to be exact. Many times we look over the Old Testament because, I think, of the wording. Old. We think it to be “out of date” or “the old way of doing things”. I want to combat that thought, and I want you to think with me that the “good news” started in Genesis when God did not kill Adam and Eve. When God provided protection for them with the death of an animal, grace began. (Genesis 3:21. I will provide more information on this later, but for now this will suffice.)

Back to Ezekiel. Prophets in the Old Testament were spokespeople for God. Not only did they tell of things to come, but they also told the truth, even when it hurt. Many times these prophets would speak and it would sound weird to the people, but sometimes it would sound profound. This passage in Ezekiel 36:26-27 would have been one of those profound passages. Check it out, “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statues and be careful to obey my rules.” Read that again, “I will put my spirit within you” and “cause you to walk”.  There is the good news. God is giving us His Spirit; He is causing us to walk; His goodness is coming through in our flesh. These are profound words. But wait. . . there is more.

Jesus is teaching his disciples one day right before he was to be crucified and he says something that would have pointed those good Jewish boys back to Ezekiel in more ways than one. He said, “If you love me you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth. . . “ A spirit. We are going to get a spirit. From Jesus’ Father, whom Jesus says is God.  But wait . . . there is more.

Look at what happens on the Day of Pentecost, “When the day of Pentecost arrives, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and tested on each one of them. And they were filled with the Holy Spirit and because to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.” (Acts 2:1-4). God speaking through Ezekiel, “I will put my spirit within you.” Jesus says, “[The Father] will give you another Helper . . . the Spirit of Truth”. Then in Acts, “They were filled with the Holy Spirit.” And in the very next verses we see a once cowardice Peter stand and preach with such conviction that thousands are saved. Why? The new Spirit manifesting itself in Peter’s life.

The word “helper” in John is the Greek word Paracleat (see I did listen). It means simply helper. Para, means come along side of, as in parallel. And cleat means to grab a hold of. Think about cleats on the bottom of your shoes. So Jesus is sending His Spirit to come alone side us to help us grab a hold of things. What are we grabbing a hold of? The Law.  (More on this to come, so don’t get hung on the Law)

Whew there is a lot in here. I hope you tracking. And I will keep coming back to this, but we need to get this. This is important. If we don’t get this then information will stop at our head and never make it eighteen inches to our heart. Follow me.

2 Corinthians 5:14-21, “For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and have us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

The love of Christ controls us. . .

No longer live for themselves. . .

Regard no one according to the flesh. . .

In Christ, he is [we are] a new creation . . .

Do you see? Can you see what Paul is trying to tell us? IT IS NOT ABOUT YOU BUT IT IS ABOUT CHRIST! This is GOOD NEWS! We don’t have to strive to be awesome, we are awesome! We don’t have to strive to be righteous, we are righteous! This is huge. Get this.

The objection will be, “But I don’t act righteous, I don’t feel awesome.” But that doesn’t make it untrue. You may look at my kids and say, “Goodness you have some ugly kids” but to me they are the two most beautiful children that have ever been born. What you think doesn’t change my truth. They are MY kids, they come from MY life, they belong to ME.   And that is “good news” to them.

See, what God says about you is what is true. If you will believe what God says about you goodness will come. But not the kind of goodness where you expect to get something in return, or the kind of goodness where you want to be recognized, but the kind of goodness where you can say, “My Daddy is already pleased with me, therefore I am good.”

This is a lot. Let it sink and we will come back to it next post. 

Part Four

Okay, I feel kind of bad for telling you all how awful you are in my last post. Some of you may think that I am being too harsh. So I want to take just a second to talk to you about my thoughts, and why thinking you are “okay” is a stumbling block on your eighteen inch journey.

Paul said in Galatians 5:2, “Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you.” Why would he say that? And how in the world could anyone say that Christ would not be an advantage to you in any way ever? The answer is in why the people wanted circumcision.

Get circumcised.  What a weird thing for God to ask a grown man to do in order to become one of God’s people. I can imagine the talk of the camp on that day. In Genesis 17 God says, “Every male among you shall be circumcised.” Can you imagine being Abraham that day? Going back to the fellas you’re traveling with and saying, “Uh… guys… I have some bad news. . .” I mean why that? By all means, cut anything but that! So what is God getting at here? God wanted to remind the men of Israel every day that they were set apart, that they were different. And God wanted to do it in such a way that they would never forget. And they didn’t.

Fast forward a couple of thousand years to Paul’s day. No longer was circumcision only an identifying marker of being set apart. It had become a status symbol; a symbol of being an Israelite. But even more importantly it was a way the Israelites identified themselves as “saved”. It was believed unless you were circumcised you were not saved. It was believed, and this is important, what you do determines your standing with God. So Paul writes against this. Why? It seems like a pretty good idea. God said do it, let’s do it. If circumcision is part of being a “Christian”, whatever that means, then let’s get to cutting! But Paul says if the Galatians take the circumcision, Christ is of no use to them.

Like the Israelites then, Christians today still debate this, Faith+ ______= salvation. And what people put into that “blank” matters. Is it faith + works? James alludes to that. Is it Faith + baptism? Faith + church attendance? Faith + not watching rated R movies? What is it? This matters! If we are to add something to our faith then we need to know what that is so that we can do “That”.

There is no “That”. Paul’s point is precisely that there is no “That”. Follow me.

If there is a “that”, then we rob the cross of Christ of its power. If we are somehow saying that something in us is good enough, then we are saying Jesus + our good stuff = our salvation. “What is the problem with that?” some may ask. LOTS.  First, the obvious, where is the line? What I mean is how do we measure (Robbing Andy Stanley) “How good is good enough?” And even if we have a standard of how good good enough is what if we can’t maintain good enough? How many good works in a week make me good enough? How many times a year should I go to church to be good enough? How many times a day should I pray, read my bible, repent of my sins. . .That’s the first problem. The second is more complex.

I have a confession. I like to do just enough to get by. I know, I know. . . it’s not a very good trait to have, and I fight against it all the time. It just seems to be a waste of time to me to keep going once you have achieved the purpose. If my goal is to vacuum the floor then once that is done why do more? Why move the furniture? If my goal is to write a paper and the requirement is 15 pages you can bet I will not write 16. Like I said, not a good trait, but one I have nonetheless.

BUT, (I capitalize for emphasis) if it’s something I like, or see value in I am ALL IN. Not only will I maintain the standard, I will go above and beyond. If you remember part two where I shared about my CrossFit journey you will remember an example of this. In the name of getting better at CrossFit I would do two workouts a day. Measure my food. Eat only the best foods I could find, even if it meant not eating at certain events until after I left. I saw the value in CrossFit, so I went far beyond what it took to just be healthy.

Another example would be marriage.  Do you want your spouse to do just enough to get by or do you want him/her to be “all in”.  I know what I prefer!  I’m so glad when my wife married me she went past just the standard. What I mean is she went past “I do” into something more significant. She went to dedication no matter what, because that is love.

So let us apply all that. God does not want your “goodness” to be a part of salvation because first of all you are not good. Paul says, “I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh.” There is nothing that you can do fleshly, that is good. Some may argue, “I do good things all the time!” I reply to that, why do you do them? To feel better about yourself? To combat karma? To be better than the other guy? So is that “good”? In short God does not want our good works to be based on getting out of hell. “I better do this if I want to avoid bad things in my life.”  Our good works are not a part of your salvation but they do come from your salvation. (I will come to good works next post, don’t freak out. I believe that Christians above all should be doing good works, just not motivated from merit but motivated by demerit. I will explain further next post.)

Second of all, and I think more importantly, God wants all of us to not just do enough to get by. Christians have always been notorious for wanting the “thing”: rules, boundaries, “that”, whatever you want to call it.  That is why we love books that give us, “Five ways to a better marriage”, “Six ways to financial freedom.”  Show me where the “line is” and I will get there. We want to get a close to that “line” without going over it. We want to know how close we can get to sin without actually sinning. We love three point sermons with plenty of application because we want to know what to do to get God on our side. God does not want to be “on our side; He wants to consume our lives. He wants to be our everything.

Finally if you point to your goodness, you end up comparing yourself to everyone else. Look at the Pharisee and the tax collector parable. “I thank you God that I am not like this tax collector.” In other words I may have some bad things but at least I am not like him. Is that godly? Does that bring glory and honor to our God? No. It does not. It serves increase our pride and hurt our fellow humans. And really, the standard of goodness is not those around you but God Himself.  It’s relatively easy to find someone to compare ourselves to who will make us feel better about ourselves.  But who wants to compare themselves with Jesus?  Anyone?  Anyone?

So back to the original Scripture, “Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you.” Paul is saying, “You are not setting your goal high enough.” Paul is saying, “If you accept circumcision you are going to miss Christ.” If we depend on “that”, you fill in the blank, and it is anything but Christ, then we miss Jesus and all that he has for us. Paul knew, just like I know, if we “settle” for the outward signs of Christianity, we will miss the inward transformation that Christ has for us.

Please feel free to comment to these posts so I can clear up anything you may have questions about. Thanks.

Busy busy busy!

I have not forgotten about you guys. And I will have lots to share after this class! :)

Update

Hey guys. Just wanted to let you know I am in class this week. It's a work shop so I am in all day long. However, I am working on a post. It will just take me a minute to get it completed and proof read. Thanks for your patience. 

Part Three

“Where are you?”  That’s the first thing God asks after Adam ate the fruit.  What an odd question for God to ask. As if God lost Adam. As if all of the sudden the all-knowing, all-powerful God could not locate his creation. But it’s a good question. A question mankind has been trying to answer ever since that day.

The first thing that happened in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve “fell” was they lost a sense of who they truly were and where they truly were. Hence, God asked the question, “Where are you?” he wanted them to be honest with themselves. God knew where they were, that wasn’t the problem. Adam and Eve were the ones lost. Not God. God asked them this because before he could move them toward the next part of the journey with him, they had to be honest with themselves.

We inherited this from our original parents.

Where am I?  Well, physically I’m sitting at a coffee shop enjoying my favorite brew of coffee and a baklava. That’s obvious, but is that really where I am?  Or am I in the whirl wind swirling inside my soul, my mind, my spirit. That’s not as obvious. And I am a master at hiding that, even from myself.

It’s a funny thing; being honest with yourself. Why do we try and lie to ourselves anyhow? It’s not like we can outrun the truth. But we try. The smoker keeps smoking saying, “This isn’t hurting me”. The obese keep eating saying “I am just a big person”. The husband and wife keep living separate lives saying, “This is normal, all couples do this.” It is lies. All lies. And those lies lead to death. Sometimes those lies lead to a physical death, and sometimes to the death of a part of our lives.

But truth, the truth sets you free.

If you ever want to move from where you are, you have to first be honest about “where you are”. Most of us think where we are not that bad. We rationalize. We make excuses. We will do anything in the world to keep from accepting where we truly are. The truth of the matter is, however, until we are honest about where we are we are doomed to stay stuck there. You cannot possibly move from where you are to where you want to be without knowing where you really are!

Let’s play pretend. Say someone blindfolds you. Then they put you into a helicopter. You fly for hours and hours. Then you land in the middle of the woods in some wilderness, are taken out of the helicopter, given a map but not told where you are, just topography, and a compass, the blindfold is removed and people who brought you leave you only telling you to meet them back in Atlanta Georgia. What do you do?  You would have a million questions wouldn’t you? But before any of those questions mattered you would have to know one essential thing, “Where am I?” You must know where you are before you know which way to head. Go north? I don’t know! Where am I? Go south? I don’t know where I am? And what if the helicopter just flew in circles for hours and you are only a few miles from Atlanta? Or what if the helicopter flew all the way to New York State? You don’t know so you are LOST!

So where are you?

Probably not where you think you are.  Now, I am going to drop a bomb on you. This is going to take some of you by surprise. Some of you will argue with me, and that’s okay, I am used to it. But before you can move anywhere you have to be honest about this one thing. You are not okay. You are not okay, and you are not ever going to be okay in and of yourself. This is where Adam went wrong. Let us make fig leaf loin cloths. Let us hide behind a tree. We will be okay. But the fig leaf can’t hide our brokenness. And a tree, that God created, couldn’t hide the brokenness that was inside of Adam and now inside of us. 

So why is this essential? Because until you realize you are a sinner you will never need a savior. Charles Spurgeon said, “If your sin is small then your Savior will be small. But if your sin is great then your Savior must be great also.” Honesty. You need honesty. You are not that great. You are not doing okay. You do not have it under control. You are a SINNER! You may answer, “Well at least I am not _________” you fill in the blank, a murderer, prostitute, drug dealer, child molester. . . To that I would say to you, that’s great that you are not those things. However, do you ever tell a lie? Do you ever get jealous? Ever envy anyone? Get angry? Yeah, I thought so. The bible puts those things in the same list as the former. You are not okay.

Now that I have boosted your self-esteem, let’s close this part out with a promise. If you will become honest with yourself about where you are, and if you will come to grips with your sinful human nature, God will do some pretty miraculous stuff in your life. I promise. He’s not going to make you awesome. He’s not going to stop you from sinning, he paid for those anyhow, but what he will do is show you your need of The Savior. This is how we begin that journey of eighteen inches. 

Part Two

Last time we were together, I made a statement in closing, “If you want to know what you believe, look at where you are headed”.  I posted that same thought on Facebook and twitter. I even got a retweet. It was from my daughter so I am not sure it counts. Anyhow, I was curious whether or not anyone would comment on it. In the end, a lot of people “liked” it, but no one really commented. It’s a deep thought. I hope you didn’t just glance over it and keep going. Let’s break it down, shall we?

What we believe drives the direction of our feet. You will go toward what you believe will bring you happiness and peace. If you believe soccer will do it you will head toward soccer, if you believe more money will do it, you will head toward acquiring more money. If you believe a better body will do it, you will head toward a better body. Whatever you think will “do it” is what you will head toward.

In a sermon I once heard the preacher say, “If you want to know what you are really trusting in look at where you spend your time and your money. Look at your calendar and your checkbook.” That one stuck. It’s true. We will spend money and time on what we believe will make us happy.

I am a CrossFit coach as well as a pastor. I would say CrossFit is a hobby. Even though I own a gym, we do not profit from the business. I love to be with the people that join our gym, and having a place to work out. But my journey through CrossFit has not always been “healthy”.

I was overweight. Severely overweight most of my adult life. I started my fitness journey in 2006. I belonged to a group of guys that worked out together and we always had a blast. We ate decent and worked out hard. Then we found CrossFit. For those of you who do not know, CrossFit is an extreme work out program. To give you an idea, just this morning we ran 1 mile then did 100 pull ups, 200 push ups, 300 air squats and then ran another mile. Yeah it was tough. It is not the average CrossFit work out, but you get the picture. Anyhow, it doesn’t take one long to start seeing changes in the body when working out like that. Muscles show up you didn’t know you had, you feel better, your clothes fit better, everything feels good. And there is nothing wrong with that. But I took it too far.

My friends and I discovered diets that were strict on what you should and should not eat so that our performance would get better. We found out if we did more than one work out in a day results would come faster. So we did. A lot. We only ate certain kinds of foods, we weighed and measured our food. We would schedule our entire day around when to be at the gym. One friend had shoulder surgery, I had elbow surgery, and it was ridiculous. Our lives revolved around CrossFit. But you know what? I saw results. But the results were never good enough. I always wanted more. (Remember that)

So why did I tell you all that? And what does that have to do with Jesus? A LOT! During this whole time of my CrossFit endeavor I was still following Jesus. I was still praying, reading my Bible studying for sermons etc… but the problem was Jesus was not Who I was chasing after with all my might. I believed CrossFit would make me happy. I knew I needed Jesus, but I believed CrossFit would make me happy. And I was willing to sacrifice for it.

At any point during this entire time if someone would have asked me if I believed Jesus was my only source of happiness I would have said yes. But if the same person would have looked at where I spent all my spare time, and my spare money, they would have seen different. You see what I mean? If I would have looked at where I was headed I would have seen what I really believed.

This comes in so slowly, so secretly you hardly notice it. I just looked up one day and thought, “Man this isn’t where I am supposed to be.” However, even after coming to the realization that I was off track it took a long time to start back to where I belonged. I had to come to the reality of where I was before I could go to where I needed to be. (That’s our next post.)

 Jesus understood this dynamic. Jesus understood that what you believe drives the direction of your life. Check out this passage from Mark:

“Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” Passing along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” And immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going on a little farther, he saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, who were in the boat mending nets. And immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him. (Mark 1:14-20)

            Jesus understood what someone believed controlled the direction of their life. Look at what he says, “Repent and believe in the gospel”. Repent means to change the direction you are headed, and Jesus says you do that by believing in the Gospel. Then Mark gives us a clear illustration; Peter and the fellas leave everything they know because they have met Jesus.

            I always assumed that this is the first time Peter, James and John met Jesus. I had some ethereal Jesus in mind, kind of floating down the beach and the guys were like zombies following him in a trance. But I think it’s different.  I think these guys have heard Jesus speak, maybe they saw him baptized and heard the voice from heaven. Maybe they saw him perform miracles. I don’t know what they experienced, but whatever it was changed their lives enough to redirect them in a radical way.

            I want to leave this part with three questions, first where are you headed?  Look at where you spend your time and money that will tell you. And don’t answer with the church answer. You’re doing no one any good lying about it. Be honest with yourself. Where are you headed? And the second question, how is that working for you? Are you finding peace? Are you finding joy? Or do you feel like a hamster on a wheel? And the final question is, do you want to change it? If you do, meet me back here later this week, and we will begin with exactly where you are.