Sin And Holiness - Even Though The War Is Won, Battles Rage On!

Someone smart once said that misery loves company.  Now I know that it’s probably not very Christian for any of us to wish misery on someone else but the truth is that when we are struggling it is comforting to know we aren’t alone and that someone else might not just sympathize but empathize with our plight.  We are in a battle friends and we have to be careful that as Christians we don't pretend that we have arrived at holy perfection.  We need to be transparent with each other and to those who haven't yet come to know Christ because the battle for our minds doesn't end the day we say yes to Jesus.

Yesterday I had one of those Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde days when I didn’t even recognize myself part of the time.  Now I know that I love God and he loves me more.  I know that I have been saved through my faith in Jesus Christ and am thankful for the amazing gift he gave me at the cross. I know that the Holy Spirit of God lives in me. I know that I’m being conformed to the likeness of Jesus - a process the Bible calls “sanctification” (a big word meaning the process by which we grow closer to God and our lives become more holy).  But I also know that until Jesus returns to call me home I am stuck in this body of flesh and some days the flesh wins out over my spirit. 

Yesterday was one of those days.  I was tired, not feeling that great, and had a very frustrating morning. I found myself thinking thoughts I shouldn’t have been thinking and saying things I shouldn’t have been saying.  Toward the end of the day I was feeling like I totally let God down and that he might just want to find someone else to do this work because there MUST be someone much more “righteous" he could use.  But as I was contemplating writing God my letter of resignation I spoke to two believers who reminded me that it is the holiness of Jesus in me and not my own holiness that is the power God uses through me.  Good thing because I didn’t have much good to bring to the table yesterday.

Like I said at the opening, it’s good to know I’m not alone but I don’t think just anyone who told me that they fight sin and temptation would suffice.  I needed someone who everyone thinks is so “HOLY” but still admits the battle exists.  I looked around then I found him!  The Apostle Paul or St. Paul.  Oh yeah I forget that New Testament saints were all of those who were saved and following Jesus.  St. David? Hmmmm?  I feel like one some days but yesterday I think they would have needed to retire my statue!

So what did Paul say about his battle against sin and the flesh?  I recommend you read the whole seventh chapter of the Book of Romans but I will share with you verses 15-25:

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.  I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.  So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Look, Paul was not saying it was ok to sin or falter but he was acknowledging the battle that is raging in those who have been saved.  He goes on later in Romans to remind us that we who are in Christ Jesus are not under God’s condemnation but also that we are to be controlled by the Spirit of God.  He promises that we can do all things through Him (Jesus) who gives us strength.  The Bible also says that God’s mercies are new every day and as I write this I feel a fresh shower of God’s grace over me.  I also see the work that God has done in me since the day he reached down and plucked me from death.  He is SO good.  So, if you are a child of God and have failed Him, let him know your sorrow over it and trust that if you confess your sins he is faithful and just and will forgive your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness.  WOW!  How much unrighteousness?  ALL!  Thank you Father God for that and thank you Lord Jesus for doing what I could NEVER do!

Grace and Peace, David

Hearing God's Still Small Voice - You Have to Keep Your Ears Open

I've heard people say this many times, "I wish God would speak to Me." or "How do I hear the voice of God?"  I think as God has grown me I am beginning to understand.  I have met people who have the amazing gift of revelation from God in audible words, dreams, or visions and that is amazing for sure!  And when I tell my wife that the Lord gave me a verse today she wants to know how I heard it.  I have a hard time explaining it.  It's not audible but it’s not just a thought either. It’s clear and direct and unmistakable.  But most times, I think, God’s voice is small and quiet and we need to be open to hear it.  Today I want to share with you a story that reveals how God sometimes speaks to us and gives us the choice to listen and be amazed or shrug it off and miss a blessing.  This is a story of Don Frey, a man made in the image of God.  I called Don this morning for his permission to share this story and he seemed pleased to have it told so here it goes!

A couple of years ago I was asked to fill in for my pastor and preach from the pulpit (or I guess not from the pulpit if I so chose).  I spent a few weeks praying and seeking God's direction and I felt Him leading me to speak about man's being made in the image of God.  I had recently learned of Nick Vujicic a man who was born without arms or legs but was preaching the Gospel all over the world.  A man who swims, trades commodities, and types with the toes of his small, deformed foot.  I planned on showing a video clip of Nick and his ministry "Life Without Limbs" in the middle of my message. 

On the Saturday before I was to preach I was meeting with Ivor (my partner in this ministry and our worship leader) at a small local coffee shop.  We were discussing the I-61 Project and while we were there a man came into the coffee shop and walked up to the counter.  I was not aware of this but Ivor happened to be at the counter at the time.  The man appeared to be in his late fifties.  He was somewhat disheveled and his shirt was buttoned up wrong.  He told the young woman working at the counter that he had schizophrenia but was on medications and was looking for work.  Ivor came back sat down and our meeting went on as before.  I never saw the man that day.

Sunday morning comes along and I am on the platform getting ready for worship when I see Ivor walking up to me with that look on his face.  It was one of those, “I just heard from God” looks.  Here is the dialogue:

“David, the man from the coffee shop is here!”

“What man from the coffee shop?”

He tells me the story I told you from Saturday at the coffee shop then continues,

“David, he walks in and the Holy Spirit pushes me to introduce myself and when I do he says, ‘My name is Don. Do you have any doughnuts?’ So I tell him that I don’t think so but when I look down the hall a lady is walking toward me with a plate of . . . you guessed it . . . doughnuts!  So I say, ‘I guess we do have doughnuts after all.’  Then Don asks me if we have a piano in our church so I show him the piano in our fellowship hall.  He sits down and starts playing Chopin, like I mean,  flawlessly.”

So they we were looking at each other with the same crazy thought:  “God wants Don to play for us at church today.”  Alright, I reckon that I’ll never be asked to preach here again but let’s pray about it and see where the Holy Spirit leads.  So I preach the first half of my message and queue up the video of Nick Vujicic, sit down, and begin to pray like crazy!  In my spirit I hear the Lord say, “Chuck your notes.”  I’m like, “No Lord.  I worked for three weeks on this message!”  Again I hear, “Chuck your notes.”  I look up and see Don sitting in the front row and Ivor sitting behind him.  Ivor was smiling a “God said go for it” kind of smile.  OK God, this is your service not mine.  I stood up and said, “I had a fair amount more to say to you today but the Lord has other plans.  God wants us to see one of the people made in his image. God made music and made Don to share that music.  Don would you like to play the piano for us?  Don smiles, stands up, gives the congregation a somewhat lengthy but interesting introduction then sits at the piano and plays like an angel from heaven.  I wept and others wept as well.  Some, as you would expect were like, “Who in the world let this random guy, off the street, play piano during a ‘church’ service?! His name is not even in the bulletin!”  What if Jesus showed up?  Would he be permitted to play?  Hmmmm?

Here is the moral of the story.  God by the power of his Spirit directs our lives but we have to be willing to listen and obey.  I have spent way more time with my eyes closed and in willful disobedience but as I walk with God I am starting to see miracles and they are blessing me almost daily.  One last bit of trivia and a little icing on the cake (God does that I think just because he can):  Don’s father (Eric Frey) invented and holds a US patent for one of the Braille Typewriting machines. Don just wanted you to know.

Grace and peace,

David

Ninety-Five Percent of Church Should Happen Outside of Church

I've struggled so much with "church" lately.  I don't mean the "Church" as in the Body of Christ but the places, the denominations, the politics, the programs, the plans, and the rest of what most would call the "church".  This isn't about one church but the general trend of the church particularly in the west.  I will say up front that this is a generalization and that there are local bodies of believers that don't fit this mold.  I will say that we each need to look at ourselves individually and then as local bodies to see where we stand.  Self-examination is important because if we don't regularly check our walk we may find that we have taken a slow but dramatic detour from the path God had us on.  There is a trend away from the truth of Scripture, away from God's call for holiness, and a seeming  scarcity of consumed, Holy Spirit filled, passionate, radical lives changed by Jesus.

I remember the day I was saved.  I don't remember the day I was born but I remember well the day I was born again. I've seen childbirth and what I can say (at least from the perspective of an observer) is that it is both brutal and beautiful at the same time.  It is a time of pain and a time of immense joy.  It is a miracle.  Well, the birth of a spirit that was once "dead in transgressions and sins" is no less a miracle.  But here is the question I have for us today:  Why?  Why does God save us then leave us here in this broken and sin-filled world?  What did the church of born-again believers look like in the first century as depicted in the Book of Acts.

So, what am I getting at?  I want to start by answering the question I posed at the beginning.  Why didn't God just take us to heaven when he saved us?  So that we could be comfortable and happy for a few more years here on earth?  So that we could fill our bank accounts and houses with more money and trinkets?  So that we could gather together once or twice a week to do church.  I think not.  As far as I can tell there are three main things to do while we are here:

1)  Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and love your neighbor as yourself.  Luke 10:27

2) ". . .  to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?  Isaiah 58:6-7

3) Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.  Matthew 28:19-20

What does it look like to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind?"  Seems pretty consuming doesn't it.  A life radically changed by the grace of God through the sacrifice of Jesus becomes consumed.  What is the word that is repeated here? "All" That means God consumes our emotions, our thoughts, and our efforts.  It's like from the moment we wake to the time we lay our heads on the pillow, our lives are consumed with the things of God.   Paul said these words in his letter to the Philippians:  "What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him." Where are you and where is your church?  See also Galatians 2:20

Can we break the chains of injustice, set the oppressed free, feed the hungry, cloth the naked, or provide shelter for the wanderers if we spend 95% of the time as the "Church" within the walls of the "church"?  Doubtful.  When I look at the disciples in the book of Acts (By the way, they were the Church) it seems that they were on the streets and in homes more than they were in the temple or specific buildings called "churches".  This isn't to condemn buildings called "churches" but if we gather like a small social clubs and fail to get out of the walls we have failed.  One more thing here.  Just because a church does a mission trip or donates some money to the needy doesn't mean we are doing what the Lord has asked.  Acts 4 tells it like this:  "There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need."  Where are you and where is your church?

Social justice is good but if we stop there we have left people with full bellies and warm feet but still dead in their spirits.  We are commanded to go and make disciples.  I think the key word here is "go".  We expect them to come.  Jesus didn't say wait for them to show up at church then tell them the "Good News".  He said, "go".  Our most important task is to bring people to the cross.  Jesus also said, "teach them" so that they would know the commands and obey them.  Holiness and obedience have very much been put out with the dogs as we have preached grace.  Grace is amazing but Jesus said obey as well.

I want to finish by saying that I don't believe we can do these things with finely tuned plans devised by men void of the power and direction of the Holy Spirit, for man's plans will never produce more than man-sized results.  So like I have said before, we should probably spend way more time praying, fasting, and seeking God than meeting in committees with rigid agendas and a final vote or two to make it official.  The Holy Spirit says, "Go." and you go.  He says, "Speak." then you speak.  He says, "Preach your sermon." Then you preach.  He says "Tear up your sermon and say this instead" then rip away!  

Love God. Love and care for the people.  Share the Gospel and teach the people; all with an all-consuming passion.  I understand that some days you'll not feel passionate or consumed but this isn't about emotions.  I understand that even in the first century the people, like us, were flawed and imperfect.  But let's not get stuck in the mundane and the irrelevant.  Let's get a little crazy for Christ!  

Peace in the risen Jesus!

David

Do I have that Kind of Faith? I Don't Know....

It was Christmas morning 1980.  I was seventeen years old but I remember it in HD with surround sound.  I vividly remember each agonizing step of the basement stairs that my mother crawled down to reach the Christmas tree. I recall the rest of my family standing at the bottom of the stairs looking up while my little sisters cried.  I was pleading with my mother to let me carry her down the steps and end the pain but she resiliently and somewhat angrily said, "No!  I can do it!"  There were thirteen steps and it took about half an hour but she made it to the bottom, sat there, and cried.  That was the last Christmas we spent with her.  The cancer that started in her lungs had spread to her bones, her eye, and her brain. She was a strong woman and I admire her courage and her fortitude.  There came a day however when she became weary and gave up.

What if I had to suffer this kind of pain not in the grip of cancer but for the Gospel of Jesus Christ; could I keep moving?  It seems like a daunting proposition.

I look back at martyred followers of Jesus Christ, from those in the New Testament to those on foreign mission fields today and wonder how they had the strength to carry on until the end.  Paul reminded us of the struggles he endured for the Gospel:

"Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches."

Paul was eventually beheaded in Rome.

Sanctus, in the first century, suffered for the Gospel:

"He suffered many torments devised by men. When these men could do no more, they fastened hot plates of brass to the most tender parts of his body. He withstood all the suffering, but his body was one continued wound, mangled and shrivelled, that had entirely lost the form of man to the external eye. Again, he passed through the tortures. These included the strokes of the scourge, the draggings and lacerations from the beasts, other tortures demanded by the audience, and the iron chair upon which his body was roasted. Other tortures followed until he died."

We live a pretty cozy Christianity these days.  We worry about silly things and argue about silly thing but what if Jesus asked us to walk a road like Sanctus or Paul.  What would we do?  What kind of faith did these men have to endure the pain, fight the fear, and not deny the Lord Jesus?  Was it a weekend faith?  Was it a faith that was spoken of or one that was lived out?  Where did it come from and how can I have that kind of faith?  I want that kind of faith.  It scares me to even ask for it because it seems like an invitation to suffering.  I don't want to suffer.  Who does?  But I think that one day as we stand before the Lord (the Bible says to whom every knee shall bow) we will understand what our lives really looked like.  We'll see clearly what our priorities were, what our aspirations were, what our desires were, and how much we truly walked with Christ.  So while Paul spent his days fearing for his life in spreading the Gospel and Sanctus' was dragged through the streets I wonder what it looks like when we bicker over which hymns we're going to sing or what color the sanctuary carpet is going to be.  I wonder what it looks like when we spend more time in church than on the streets.  I wonder what it looks like when we Jesus is a bracelet we wear and not a God we worship.  I wonder. 

Today I am a little weary and I have never been flogged, shipwrecked, or stoned. Today I pray for courage, for strength, for humility, for endurance, and for a Word from God.  I pray that God gives me a fresh filling of his Spirit so that I can do what he wants and not what I want.  The Word tells me that with God we can do anything, and if God is for us who can be against us, and all things together work for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose.  I'm glad.  So today I trust that God will lead us all the way to the finish line with just as much strength as we need.  

I'm not sure if I wrote this today for you or for me. . . maybe both.

Peace and faith,

David