What Am I Pursuing?

“Thou madest us for Thyself, and our heart is restless,until it rest in Thee.” Tradition tells us that St Augustine once spoke those words regarding the futility of man’s search for happiness and satisfaction in anything other than God. The wise King Solomon also spoke to this in the book of Ecclesiastes. At the beginning of this book he records his pursuit of satisfaction through pleasure, money, possessions, power and a variety of other means. Afterward, he made this observation: “Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun (Ecclesiastes 2:11).” At the end of the book, Solomon comes to the same conclusion as Augustine: “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man (Ecclesiastes 12:13).”

Though mankind throughout all history has sought to fill the emptiness in their hearts with anything and everything they can imagine, only a life lived in the pursuit of God will actually bring satisfaction. Jesus summed this up in His sermon on the mount when he said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied (Matthew 5:6).”In the very broadest sense, this means to desire or long for a right relationship with God. True satisfaction will only come when God is what we are longing for. If you pursue him, you will get him and he is enough.

This begins with pursuing and receiving the righteousness of Jesus that God gives us at salvation, but it does not end there. Pursuing righteousness also means that we are pursuing and living a holy lifestyle – a lifestyle that reflects Jesus. It also means to fulfill the expectations of Micah 6:8 to “do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.” This kind of life is what Jesus promises to reward with satisfaction. It is this kind of life that the genuine believer will strive to live.

Since this goal is not one that can be perfectly achieved during our life on earth, it would serve us well to spend some time in evaluation. Is this the life we live? Is it even the life we want to live? How do I know whether or not I am pursuing God with my life? I believe there is great value in simply asking the hard questions of one’s self. A willingness to ask honest, evaluative, difficult questions of yourself reflects, in itself, a desire to pursue righteousness. To help in this evaluation, let me leave you with a few questions you might consider:

1. Have I identified specific areas for spiritual growth in my own life? If I am truly pursuing Jesus, than I am not going to be satisfied with my current level of spirituality. I can never believe I have arrived. I must look at particular areas for growth and improvement.
2. Are material things of low priority to me? I am not saying that we cannot have and enjoy material things. I’m not even suggesting we can’t ever have more than we need. However, I must always be aware that material things can take a stronger hold on me than I think they have. I have to regularly evaluate the priority that material possessions hold in my life.
3. Do I desire to spend time in God’s Word? How regularly do I read the bible? How important is that time to me? I have to have a regular time set aside from the rest of life to spend time with God through the reading of His Word. Additionally, I should integrate scripture into my life in as many ways as possible as often as possible.
4. Do I find genuine value and enjoyment in spiritual things? If I am pursuing God and His righteousness, than spiritual things will never be a bore or a drudgery to me. Church, Bible reading,worship, Christian music, spiritual conversations, etc will never be mere routine or ritual. These will be the defining points of my joy and happiness.
5. Am I willing to sacrifice anything and everything to be more like Jesus? I know this one is tough, but am I ready to make the hard choices in my life? Will I give up a promotion, a relationship, a career in order to do the right thing?

These questions are just a beginning, but I would urge you to take a long, hard look at your life through the lens of these questions. The process may be tough and uncomfortable, but the end result is one of immeasurable blessing. This commitment to pursuing God and His righteousness through a process of commitment and evaluation is the proper response to the beautiful invitation that God offers in Isaiah 55:1-2. “”Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Yes,come, buy wine and milk without money and without price…Listen carefully to Me, and eat [what is] good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance.”

Hungry Hearts

On the way home from a church dinner I was explaining to my kids that when we got home it would be nap time and quiet time. This is pretty routine for a Sunday afternoon at our house, so there really wasn’t much push back. Not much, that is, except for the 2 year old who blurts out quite forcefully, “No! No! No! Nana (banana). Cheese. Apple.”

Now I know that a toddler’s obsession with food is pretty cute, but I’m starting to get concerned that this might be a serious problem with my kids. They will eat a meal, cry “I’m stuffed,” and literally 15 minutes later want to eat something. We recently went out to eat for our daughter’s birthday. She was turning 5 and she wanted to go to a buffet. After eating a fantastic meal, as much as she could hold, she looks at me while we were getting in the van to go home and says very sweetly, “when will we eat lunch?”

While my children seem to experience it in an extreme fashion, this cycle of eating and fullness followed by hunger is a relatively normal and acceptable part of our lives when it comes to food, but unfortunately it also describes the desperate way that many men and women go through life with a deep sense of longing for something that they can never seem to find. Jesus spoke of this desperate longing in terms of hunger and thirst in Matthew 5:6, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”

This sense of desire is a universal trait of the human heart. In fact, Ecclesiastes 3:11 says that God “… has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.” We have a natural, God-given emptiness within us that we try to fill with pleasure, accomplishments, stuff, substances, and on and on but the longing remains. It is not satisfied. Maybe you have felt that longing before. Maybe you feel that way now. You have a hungry heart. Your soul is starving for something out there that you desperately have to have. This desire is God’s Spirit calling you to himself, but most of us will turn away time and again to other means of filling the void.

We find temporary pleasure, but then it is gone and we are chasing that high, that feeling of satisfaction again and again. The Bible talks about some of the deceptive desires that we pursue. In His Word God warns us against pursuing things like power (Isaiah 14:13-14), glory (Daniel 4), possessions and pleasure (Luke 12:17-20), worldly success (Matthew 4:8-9) and money (Matthew 6:24). While not all of these things are completely bad, they all fail to satisfy when they are our sole pursuit in life. Consider the following thought from C.S Lewis:  “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”

This longing we all have is not meant to be satisfied by the fleeting pleasure of this world. Instead, it is a reminder that you were made for something bigger than this world. You were made for a kingdom not of this world. You were made for God! As you contemplate the desires and pursuits of your own life, I challenge you to let those desires, whatever they might be, draw you to the loving God that created you to want and need Him.

Learning to Love

Sometimes when God is trying to teach you something, He sends the same thought or message to you multiple times or in a variety of ways over the course of a short period of time. A wise believer will notice the theme and begin to ask what God is trying to teach them. I recently noticed this familiar process taking place in my own life regarding the theme of love.

It began three weeks ago when a guest speaker at church spoke about the Good Samaritan and our need to love others even when it is inconvenient for us. Our church is currently going through a pastoral transition, so the following week we once again had a guest speaker and once again he spoke on the Good Samaritan and the need to love everyone. As I sat in that service I began to smile as I remembered a conversation from earlier in the week in which my friend who would be speaking the following Sunday had shared that he would be preaching about loving our enemies. I thought, “We must all need to hear about love right now.”

When I got home from church, after eating lunch, I headed downstairs to my office to do my daily scripture writing and the passage was the passage about loving others from 1 John 4 that ends with these words: “Those who love God must also love their Christian brothers and sisters.” Now I’m thinking, “wait a second, maybe I need to hear about love right now.” With that thought in my mind, I wake up the next morning to do my scripture reading and it was the passage describing God’s love in terms of the shepherd leaving the 99 to look for the one lost sheep. A couple of days later, I opened my Bible app for my daily reading and the assigned passage included Luke 10:27, “You shall love the Lord your God…and your neighbor as yourself.”

As you can see, God was bombarding me with the importance of loving others and that fact was certainly not lost on me. The problem was that even though I felt like I appreciated the reminder, I didn’t really feel like I needed to learn the lesson. I mean, I know that I should love others. I know I have to love everyone. I know I need to love my enemies. I know God commands it. I know I want and try to love others. I know! What could God possibly be trying to teach me? And then it hit me! After listening to the third sermon in a row about love, I finally began to realize the answer to that question. He isn’t trying to teach me about the need to love others. He is trying to teach me to evaluate the way that I love others.

While I still have an enormous amount to learn about love, I want to share three specific lessons God has taught me about love over the last couple of weeks.

• Love others because of who God is – not because of who they are or who I am. Most of the time when I feel or show love toward someone, it is about them or me or a combination of the two. We love those who do, give or feel something for us. Or we love those who make us feel something such as pleasure, pride, sympathy, compassion, etc. While none of those things are wrong, none of them are truly the reason for loving others. The need, desire, and motivation to love others is all about God’s person and character. He is love and love originates with Him (1 John 4:7-8). He commands that we love both Him and others (Matthew 22:37-39), yet he measures our love for Him by whether or not we love others (1 John 4). As I contemplate the need to love others, it should not be about whether or not that person deserves my love nor should it even be about me and my desire to show them love. Instead, love toward others is really a matter of worship to God. I experience His love and then respond by loving him. The practical outworking of that love is loving actions toward others regardless of who they are and what they’ve done.
• Love in a way that reflects God’s love. Not only should God’s love be a motivator in my love for others, it is also my example. So much of what I classify is love is very superficial. It is what should more rightly be considered nice or even merely courteous. Instead, when we love others, we should love in a manner that reflects the selfless, sacrificial, practical, and serving love that God has toward us. I was reminded of this by an incident involving two of my kids earlier this week.

We were on our way out to eat to celebrate a birthday and this particular restaurant gives drinks to the kids with the purchase of a meal. Unfortunately, my wife had spent most of the drive dealing with one particular child’s attitude and behavior issues and finally said, “Ok. As a consequence for this behavior, you are going to drink water and miss out on choosing a drink.” While this may not seem like a big deal to you, trust me when I say that in my family this is roughly the equivalent of the biblical 39 lashes or perhaps water boarding. It’s a big deal. That’s why it was an even bigger deal when immediately our oldest speaks up and says, “Mom, can I take [their] punishment for [them]?” My wife and I glanced at each other in surprise and I quickly said, “yes, buddy we can do that.” I felt that the lesson learned by this act of love was more valuable than the consequence would have been. Sure enough, that child’s behavior turned around much quicker than I suspect it would have otherwise.

That wasn’t easy, convenient, self-serving love. That was God’s love at work. It was love that saw a hurting, struggling, sinning person and felt compassion and desired to show mercy. It was a love that chose to endure pain and suffering (from a child’s perspective) in order to alleviate that of another child. I was moved and convicted as I continued to ask God what I needed to learn about love. I knew that in order to love in a way that demonstrated my love for God I must love in a way that reflects his love. I have to those who are unlovable. Love when it isn’t convenient. Love those that hate, hurt, or even persecute me. Love those who are in my family and church family. Love those who reject faith altogether. Love those who are the same and love those who are different. I must love those who Jesus loved in the way that Jesus loved.

• Love in a way that brings people closer to God. This is always going to be the result of genuine, Christ-like love, but this fact can serve as a standard for judging whether or not my actions are indeed loving. This kind of standard is necessary because we have so many wrong ideas and misunderstandings about what love is. For instance, a few days ago I had to discipline one of my children and through their tears they angrily spat out this statement: “You don’t love me!” I calmly held that child and responded, “Actually, it’s because I love you that I had to correct you.” Correcting someone is not generally enjoyable for either party involved, but it is the loving thing to do. When we face difficult decisions about our own actions toward others, it is important to remember that the short term ease or comfort of either party is not the test of love. The test of love is whether my actions will bring them closer to God or drive them further away.

These thoughts will by no means be the final word on Christ-like love, nor will they likely be the final lessons that I learn about this deep topic. They are simply meant to be a few more ideas for us to consider together as we seek to fulfill the command that Jesus left us with: “…as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another (John 13:34-35).”

 

photo by Nick Youngston used by Creative Commons license

Blessing Upon Blessing

 

 

I recently spent a morning out in my yard raking leaves. At my house, this is no small task. We have quite a few large trees in our yard and combined with a lot of recent rainfall and a busier than normal schedule, we had quite the leaf problem to deal with. So, with the rain holding off and nothing pressing on the schedule, I grabbed a couple of the kids and started passing out the rakes and gloves. It didn’t take long to have a large portion of yard finished and a dozen garbage bags of leaves sitting on the curb. As we were about to finish I was taking a break, sipping some coffee, and surveying the work we had done when I noticed that while we were working the wind had begun blowing leaves back into the yard we were just about done raking. Though I was fully aware that this was a job that would need to be done several times over the course of the next month, there was something about the futility of it all that struck me. I thought, “Isn’t that just like life? Just when you think you’re done, it piles on some more.”

Maybe you’ve felt that way from time to time yourself. Not just about a yard full of leaves, but about life in general. Sometimes the difficulties of life just seem overwhelming. One problem piles up on top of another. You feel like you just can’t get one problem under control before another pops up. The futility of life’s problem can sometimes be overwhelming.

Those were the thoughts running through my mind as I finished raking and went about the rest of my day. However, later in the day as I thought again about the same incident, a completely different thought struck me. “That’s just how God’s blessings are to me.”

Maybe you’ve felt that way before, too. He piles blessing upon blessing upon blessing. You can’t get finished with one blessing before he is passing out another. Sometimes life is just so full of wonderful, incredible, unbelievable blessing that you just can’t wrap your mind around it. The enormity of God’s blessing can sometimes be overwhelming.

While it is natural to focus on the first observation and bemoan life’s problems, it is more healthy and honoring to our Lord to dwell on the second. The difference between these views isn’t circumstance. It is choice. I have to make the choice to see life through the lens of God’s blessing. In order to make that choice, I have to be confident that He truly is a God that blesses. Fortunately, the Bible is filled with passages that demonstrate this. Here are a few of my favorites.

• For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly. – Psalm 84:11
• And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. – John 1:16
• And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. – 2 Corinthians 9:8
• Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. – Ephesians 1:3
• And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. – Philippians 4:19
• Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. – James 1:17

These verses are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Bible passages that speak of God’s willingness, desire and plans to bless us. I would challenge you today to begin diving into God’s Word to discover these promises for yourself and then take a look at the world around you to see that you are already so very blessed!

A Map for Life

My children recently discovered an enjoyment of maps. While we were traveling, they picked up several different of those folding paper maps that are distributed for free at rest areas and, in this case, park offices. They were so cute pouring over those maps talking about the places they were going and how they were going to get there that I chose to ignore the fact that I knew for a fact they would end up torn to bits all over my van! Their fascination did cause me momentary concern though when they came to me one afternoon and asked to walk down to the playground in the campground where we were staying. They assured me that they could get their on their own (and it really wasn’t far) and in fact they had already been there and found their way home “because, dad, we have a map.” Their argument made me smile because there was a childish confidence to their statement that actually contained some logic. The problem I had was this: their map was a map of the state and it barely registered our campground as a blip on the page. It was completely useless to get them to the playground, but this fact wasn’t about to stop them as they set off down the driveway “headed to Allegheny.” They may have made it there and back, but their map did nothing more than aid their imagination and make them feel like grownups.

As I consider this incident that I honestly found quite adorable, I find a real life parallel to the lives of many Christians. We as Christians have also been given a “map” for life – the Bible, God’s Word. Unfortunately, many Christians are living their lives by their own terms, taking whatever path they feel like and then attributing their results to the Bible, saying as my kids did, “look, I have a map!”

Think for a moment about the map my kids had. It was useless, but at no fault of its own. It was a good map. It was accurate and readable and generally well done. But because it was being used improperly, it was useless. In the same way many of us render the Bible virtually useless because we do not know how to use it properly. We know it’s important. We read it and maybe even study it. But when it is all said and done, we treat it in much the same way my kids treated their map – we believe that just having it around and consulting it from time to time will get me the right results. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way.

Here are few tips to making sure you are using God’s Word in a way that will allow it to properly impact your life.

• Read it – this ought to be assumed, but it is painfully obvious that for many Christians it isn’t. When we talk about reading God’s Word, we need to clarify that we mean it should be read regularly and not sporadically. While the Bible can certainly be beneficial when it is consulted about specific situations, it is not meant to be a topical index to life. If I read it regularly, I allow its message to permeate my heart and life. This regular reading of God’s Word also allows for exposure to all of God’s message for you and not just certain favorite or popular passages. Start today reading God’s Word everyday in a consistent, organized way. There are an abundance of reading plans available. Pick one and stick with it!
• Understand it – the fact is that at times the Bible can be difficult to understand. We must be willing to put some time and effort into making sure that the Bible says what we think it says. I have personally seen people use verses of scripture to support all kinds of ridiculous beliefs and actions mainly because they were too lazy or disinterested to check out what it really means. You can ask questions, get a commentary, compare it to other scriptures and even use Google! Whatever you do, be willing to put in the time to understand the Bible.
• Apply it practically, not mystically. Once the Bible is understood, it should be obeyed and applied. The application though is meant to be practical. God’s word will shape the way you think and act if you let it. However, it is not to be applied like a magic eight ball in which I open it up and look for an answer to jump off the page. It is also not a fortune cookie to be dissected for statements or mantras that somehow give guidance. Sometimes these individual snippets of God’s Word are still helpful, but more often than not they are stripped of their full impact by not being considered in a broader context. Instead, I should apply God’s word as God intended it. Sometimes this is literal and specific – “do not murder.” However, sometimes the practical application is to my thinking and decision making process more than to the specific action I am taking. As you read God’s Word ask yourself “how should I change or what should I do if I believe this to be true?”
• Conform to it, don’t conform it to you. Many Christians are guilty of doing whatever they want or feel like and living no differently than an unbeliever and then turning to God’s Word and looking for some justification for what they have done. We must always look at God’s Word as the guiding force for how I live my life, which means I must look to it FIRST. Next time you have a decision to make, prayerfully consult God’s Word before you decide what to do.
• Let it transform you not just inform you. One of the biggest mistakes we make as Christians is that we approach the Bible as if it were merely information to be learned. It does contain fantastic information and it is all completely true. However, it is not first and foremost an information source. It is not a text book. It is not a self-help manual. It is the living and active word of God and it is meant to permeate your heart and soul and change you. As you read God’s Word, actively and intentionally submit yourself to its authority over you as you read.

While this is certainly not a thorough explanation of Bible study and application, if you begin to approach God’s Word with these principles in mind you will find that it can and will change your life. The Bible will truly become a roadmap for your life that leads to all the many blessings that God has in store for you!

 

 

photo taken by Ryk Neethling shared by license

Life Lessons from Build-a-Bear

Yesterday morning, my family and I set out for a day of fun and adventure, the first stop of which was supposed to be Build-a-Bear Workshops to take advantage of a promotion we had heard about a few days prior. It was a “pay your age” promotion in which kids could get a stuffed critter for merely the price of their age and for a family of our size this promised to be a deal that was just too good to pass up. Apparently we were not the only ones to think so, because before US stores even opened the Build-a-Bear Workshops corporate offices had to issue a statement apologizing that they would be limiting the promotion because of unexpected turn out. Well before noon, they issued another statement essentially shutting the whole thing down. Personally, I was relieved to not have to stand in line all morning. My kids were disappointed, but kids are resilient and easily bought off with Chic-Fil-A and ice cream so it was kind of a win – win for me. Not so much for Build-a-Bear though as they found themselves the rare victim of an idea that was so successful it became a complete and total failure.

Ordinarily, it takes a pretty slow news day for something like this episode to make much of an impact, but I find myself continuing to think about it because of two important questions that it raises in my own mind. While you may have no concern whatsoever with Build-a-Bear or its failed promotion, I think it will serve you well to contemplate these two questions.

Am I prepared to deal with the consequences of my actions?

Everything we do has consequences and some of those consequences are more predictable than others. It is good practice to think through any decision and try to determine some of the potential consequences you may face and be sure you are prepared to deal with it. Life is filled with unexpected consequences, but many of the consequences we face on a daily basis are totally predictable. For instance, you may not be able to predict being in an accident on your drive home, but you certainly can predict that if you are driving while intoxicated you have increased your odds of an accident.

I believe that each of us as individuals is responsible for the consequences of our actions and that it is wise to consider ahead of time whether or not you really want to face those consequences. This is exactly the type of thinking I try to teach my children on a regular basis. I frequently tell them something to this effect: “I cannot make you be kind to your sister, but if you are unkind this is the consequence that you are choosing for yourself. If you choose this consequence, you are doing it to yourself and you cannot be upset with me. Got it?” They always agree and they still usually get upset when they face their consequence, but we are attempting to help them grasp at a young age something that many adults still don’t understand – they are responsible for their actions!

What if I succeed?

Consider what it is that you are currently investing yourself in as it relates to your time, energy and finances. What are you trying to succeed at? Are you trying to get a business off the ground? Are you trying to save up to by a home? Are you trying to finish college? Or maybe you’re just trying to get your kid to stop eating day old toast that got forgotten under the table. It doesn’t matter; we all have something that we are trying to accomplish. We have endeavor, be it big or small, at which we are trying to succeed. Often times we consider the possibility of failing at those endeavors, but I challenge you to consider the possibility of succeeding. What impact will success have on you? What impact will it have on others? Will it make a difference for eternity? I am totally fascinated by the fact that what went wrong with Build-a-Bear’s promotion is simply that it went so right. It was a tremendous success. Everyone loved it. It was great. Until it wasn’t.

I just wonder if there are things in my life and yours that we want so badly that we do not see the potential negative outcomes of success. Do you get that promotion and lose your family? Do you build that house and lose everything because you can’t afford it? Do you raise perfectly well-mannered children who feel unloved by you because all you cared about was stuff and rules? I once heard a man say that his greatest fear was not that he would fail, but that he would succeed at things that didn’t matter. This challenges me to constantly evaluate my life and my goals to make sure that I am pursuing things that are actually important.

Seek first the kingdom!

We can never predict all of the consequences we might face and we should never live in fear of either success or failure, so how do I live a life that is both fulfilling and honoring to God? I think the answer lies in Matthew 6:33 where Jesus says that we are to “seek first the kingdom of God, and all these things will be added to you.” “All these things” is the stuff of daily life mentioned in the previous verses. For a Jesus follower, the priority of your life should be God’s kingdom. That means you put God first and pursue His will and plan. If you make that the aim of every decision, every goal, every action that you take, then He will take care of everything else. He will guide your steps and enable you to have the best possible version of your life!

 

photo credit to Doug Kline used by permission.

Exercise for a Healthy Body

I recently read that almost half of Americans say they want to lose weight, but only about half of those people are actually making any attempt to do anything about it. While the lack of follow through is disturbing, I think this desire for physical health is great because God has given us these bodies and a healthy body is a good thing! However, of far more importance than a healthy physical body is a healthy spiritual body and far more disturbing than a lack of effort at physical health is a lack of effort at spiritual health.

THE CHURCH; THE BODY OF CHRIST

Interestingly enough, God frequently uses the physical human body as a metaphor for His body – the church. While this term can be accurately used to refer to both the universal church (the entirety of believers in all times and in all places) and the local church, the majority of the New Testament emphasis on the church is referring to individual local churches. That’s because the local church is of great importance to God. It is through the local church that He plans to spread His gospel. It is through the local church that He intends to cultivate mature believers. It is through the local church that He intends to provide accountability, support and opportunities for ministry. It is, in fact, the local church that He has chosen to represent Him in a world that has rejected Him. With this tremendous responsibility in mind, the health of the local church should be of great importance to each of us who claim to be followers of Christ. Since the church is made up of people, a healthy local church is really just believers living the way God expects – and a big part of that is how we get along with each other. Just as weight loss cannot take place without working at it, a healthy church won’t just happen without some intentional effort. So, here are three spiritual exercises that will lead to a healthy church body.

PURSUE UNITY

First is unity. In order to have healthy relationships with your church family, you must make unity a priority. I don’t mean unity as in everybody being the same and I certainly don’t promote a lack of diversity. Too many churches think that the fact that they look the same, like the same things and agree on everything is unity. That’s not unity – that’s laziness. Unity is being different and even having disagreements and still being able to have mutual love and respect because of Jesus. Unity is working through differences for the greater purpose of God’s Kingdom. Unity is the deep and genuine joining together of the hearts of believers to each other through a mutual pursuit of Christ. True unity is only achieved through pursuit of Christ above all. You must stop pursuing your ideas, your desires, your comfort, your convenience and start pursuing unity through Christ!

RESOLVE TO PRACTICE HUMILITY

That type of unity requires humility, a quality that is foreign to our natural selves and is only through achievable through God’s grace. As Paul points out in Philippians 2, practical humility is basically a selfless concern for others. We reject selfishness and pride. We do not strive for our own glory or positions of power. We do not try to manipulate to get our way because we truly believe that other people are more important than us. A healthy church consists of believers that live out the creed: “others matter to me more than I matter to me.” Too many churches are filled with believers who just care about themselves. We must renounce this kind of selfishness and embrace a Christ-like humility.

RESOLVE TO PARTICIPATE IN SERVICE

The final characteristic of healthy church relationships that I would like to mention is sacrificial service. Service costs something. It costs something in terms of effort, money or time. It might also cost in reputation. It certainly costs in pride. The cost might be different for each of us, but serving others will cost something – though in the long term those costs are meaningless. After all, what is money and time and energy other than currency to be spent for the kingdom?! When that is our mindset we realize that though there is a temporal cost to serving others, there is also an eternal reward. God honors His humble servants. Additionally, there is also a very real benefit here and now. When we commit to serving and caring for others we find ourselves cared for beyond our wildest imagination.

God’s plan for His church is designed to be best for all of us. His plan is that individual believers will function as a single local community that loves and cares for each other. This won’t happen if each of us is only concerned with what we can get out of church or how our interests can be served. It is time that we stop doing lip service to the idea of a healthy church and begin exercising the principles that will actually make it true.

 

Photo Credit Dwight Burdette. Original here.

Christ-follower or Blessing-follower?

“2016 – the year without presents on Christmas.” This (accompanied by a few masterfully timed sighs) was the dramatic exclamation of my ten year old a few days before Christmas. His over-the-top theatrical outburst was due to the fact that we decided to move our traditional family Christmas activities (including presents) to Monday and intentionally focus on celebrating Jesus on Christmas Day. In the interest of full disclosure, this was primarily due to the busy nature of a Sunday Christmas rather than any super-spiritual aspirations on our part. However, this decision has taught me at least one thing: regardless of my best efforts and intentions, to small children Christmas is about one thing – getting presents!

A Fatal Flaw

In children, this is generally cute and eventually outgrown along with many other childish attitudes and behaviors. However, it does reflect one universal and fatal flaw in the human condition – we make everything about us. This includes the gospel and salvation. A common focus of gospel presentations and personal testimonies is all of the good stuff we get from God. We get joy. We get peace. We get a savior. While each of these is good and true, this is essentially a reversal of emphasis between two aspects of a single truth. The truth: God sent Jesus to earth and provided a way of salvation for all mankind. Our distorted perspective focuses on the benefit we gain from receiving this gift, while the true emphasis is on an awesome God giving a gift that we need.

 

A Self-centered Gospel

This may seem like the proverbial splitting of hairs, but as we build upon this faulty foundation our faith can take a very self-centered turn that was never intended. If the focus of the gospel is all about us getting joy and peace and salvation rather than about a great God giving us those things, than our life of faith becomes all about what we can get from God. The Christian experience becomes all about personal needs and desires. Following Jesus becomes nothing more than a means of getting what I can from God, from faith, and from the church.

This type of self-centered faith is why there are so many professing Christians who seem to live like nothing more than moral unsaved people. You know the ones I’m talking about – the “Christian” who might cuss more mildly, drink a little less, and go to church several times a month. But when it comes right down to it, these professing Christians are just living for themselves and have found a way to add God into their life on their terms. They want the blessings of being a Christian without any of the personal sacrifice or inconvenience.

The Heart of the Gospel: Sacrificial Love

I am not denying the tremendous blessings that come as a result of salvation. I am simply saying that the American church tends to overemphasize the getting to the neglect of the giving. You see, at the very center of the gospel story is God Himself giving up His place at the right hand of the Father. God gave up His high position in heaven to become human in order to redeem us. The very heart of the gospel is that “God so loved the world that He gave His only Son…” The heart of the gospel is sacrificial love!

As we build upon this foundation, we will certainly receive blessings, but we will also live a life intentionally focused on imitating the kind of sacrificial love we see in Jesus. My faith becomes about responding in worship to a God to whom I am eternally grateful. My Christian experience becomes all about opportunities to sacrifice my wants and desires for the sake of serving Jesus through service to others.

A Practical Impact

This change of perspective will have tremendous practical impact on one’s daily life. You will be less offended when your rights are violated. You will be less hesitant to help someone in need. You will be more willing to go out of your way to serve someone. You will certainly be less concerned about getting your way all the time.

There will also be an impact on your attitude and behavior toward the local church. You will view church as an opportunity to use your gifts for the blessing of others. You will be more willing to sacrifice your preferences, like music, and decorations, and preaching styles. You will be less determined to make everyone cater to your comfort and desires. In short, you will desire to serve in the church rather than simply be served by the church.

Life as God Intended

I am not proposing that we do not receive blessings from God and I am certainly not saying that we shouldn’t enjoy them. They are a real and special and important part of what God has done for us. However, just like presents at Christmas, we cannot let these benefits and blessings become our primary focus. They are not the whole story. My prayer and desire for every true Christ-follower is that while enjoying the blessings of faith, you will live a life in passionate pursuit of the God of the blessings rather than the blessings themselves. That is living the way God intended; that is living in the manner that Christ lived. I challenge you to examine your own heart. Are you a Christ-follower or a blessing-follower? Prayerfully consider the answer and remember, it isn’t too late to make the change today!

Stranded…Again!

Driving down the road in the first big snow storm of the season, my oldest son says, “Hey Dad, I hope we don’t get stuck in the snow like last year.” To which I replied, “Well, if we do, let’s make sure we all handle it better than we did that time.” The incident he’s referring to was quite memorable -especially to small children-, but certainly not a highlight from my career as their role model and not one of our better moments as a family. We were driving in a snow storm and chose to drive up the steepest hill I’m aware of anywhere near where we live. And we had bald tires because I’m also not so great at the whole vehicle maintenance thing. Needless to say, we didn’t make it very far and ended up stranded part way up with children whining and mom and dad not so politely or quietly blaming each other for the predicament. As I said, not our finest hour. So, when I replied to my son that we should all do better, it was a sincere desire as well as a reasonable goal, but certainly not anything I wanted to test out in the near future.

However, fast forward a matter of minutes and we are once again stranded on a snowy road discussing our options for getting home. The situations were very similar, yet wonder of wonders, we did indeed all respond quite differently. Certainly I was frustrated that the vehicle was in all likelihood totally shot and my wife had her suspicions that I could have done something about it and the kids definitely were uncomfortable. Just like before. But unlike “last time” there was no whining, complaining, yelling, screaming or blaming. (And the kids did well, too.) There was laughing, joking, calm conversation about God’s plan and provision and even some prayer. After a good Samaritan stopping to help and a phone call to some great friends who came to our rescue, we finally made home. All in all, a good night.

We certainly aren’t perfect and probably didn’t pass with flying colors, but we responded better this time than last. And in this crazy journey of life, that’s a victory! Now, I’m not saying we didn’t feel discouraged and that we weren’t a little bit curious about how God would provide. Difficulties like this, though a fairly routine part of life, can certainly be frustrating. However, they can also be a reminder of God’s great love and mercy. You see, He didn’t give up on us when we failed miserably at responding to difficulty. He provided for us anyway. He loved us anyway. He gave us many opportunities to grow our faith. He showered us with His forgiveness and mercy and loving kindness for an entire year and then put us in a very similar situation to the one in which we failed so that we could see the product of all His hard work in us.

As you face whatever rough patches come your way, I encourage you to look for what you can learn and for how you can improve. Accept God’s forgiveness for whatever shortcomings you find and praise Him for His grace and mercy. Let go of the failings of yesterday and embrace the small successes that God brings your way. And most of all, trust His goodness even when you find yourself stranded for a little while.

Some Thoughts on Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving as a holiday is many things to many people. It might be little more than a day off to one or a significant and profoundly meaningful day of reflection to another. It could be about turkey and football or the end of fall and the beginning of Christmas. Perhaps it is a day for family gatherings, parades and Charlie Brown specials. Whatever your Thanksgiving entails, I’m guessing that in the midst of it all there will be a time of reflection and giving of thanks. For the Christian, this should be a special day filled with worshipful gratitude to our heavenly Father, but even for those who are not a part of the family of faith it is generally a special day filled with greater than usual gratefulness.

It’s about more than more.

Though gratitude should be a constant companion of every Christian, we generally find ourselves putting forth greater effort over the holiday season to “be thankful” and “count our blessings.” Along with everyone else, I usually focus on the quantity of my thankfulness. You know the drill: more thankful for more stuff more often. While this is certainly good and commendable, I have found my thoughts going in a little bit different direction this year. I’ve been thinking more about the quality of my thankfulness.

Don’t forget quality!

I don’t mean how good I am at being thankful, but rather the quality or substance of that for which I am thankful. Don’t get me wrong, I know that I should be thankful for everything. However, I recently read a statement that caused me to consider the types of things for which I am most frequently thankful. The quote by D.A. Carson is this: “…by and large, our thanksgiving seems to be tied rather tightly to our material well-being and comfort. The unvarnished truth is that what we most frequently give thanks for betrays what we most highly value.”

While a general attitude of gratefulness and thanksgiving is important and becoming in the life of a Christian, it can also be an effective gage of where our priorities really lie. This realization has led me to consider whether all or most of my gratitude is focused toward material things, possessions and physical blessings. There is much to be thankful for that is outside of the scope of the material realm.

Expand your thankfulness.

Here are some areas to consider as you offer thanks this holiday season and the rest of the year.

• Spiritual blessings and not just stuff. Are you as thankful when you are shown grace, mercy and patience as you would be if you were given cash or some other material gift?
• Meaningful relationships. Do I value people or am I merely thankful for I get from those relationships?
• The Holy Spirit’s indwelling presence. Are you truly grateful for God’s direction in your life and His Word that is available to you?
• Spiritual growth. Do you feel as grateful when your children manifest Christ-like character as you do when they excel in school or sports? Are you as thankful for personal spiritual growth as you are for career or personal success?
• Trials and difficulties. Are thankful for the hard things God places in your life or are you only grateful when life is easy?

Be thankful for your treasure.

Obviously we should also be thankful for material blessings and personal comforts, but that isn’t world that we should be most preoccupied with. After all, Jesus tells us in Matthew 9:19-21 that we should “…not lay up … treasures on earth…but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven… For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Make it your goal this season to evaluate what is truly most important to you. If necessary, make some adjustments and be sure to offer thanks for your real treasure.