During our time back in the States, one question came up probably more than any other when discussing our long-term calling to the mission field: "Is it worth it?" This blog post is my long-winded response to that question.
The short answer:
When we see someone who formerly never even heard the name of Jesus, or had the slightest inkling what the cross they see Christians wearing means, come to Christ, it definitely makes everything else worth it.
The long answer:
Honestly if the mission board we are with told us tomorrow that they couldn't fund us any longer and we had to leave, we would just trust God to provide and find another way to stay. Friends and family have asked "How long are you going to stay in [East Asia]" and I just wrinkle my brow because either they don't understand what a calling is, or I don't completely understand the question. We are here as long as God lets us stay here, but if He calls us elsewhere, we will go. I pray He doesn't call us to the Middle East, or to North Africa, but if He did, I would go and trust Him to give me the same heart for Muslims that He has given me for the [East Asian Peoples].
Friends always ask about what we gave up, leaving a six-figure career and selling everything we owned to move to the other side of the planet, but sitting here right now I don't feel like I gave up anything. I feel like we shed ourselves of the shackles of a mortgage, car and insurance payments, a job serving mostly ungrateful and unsatisfied clients, and all the other things that "owned" us. (We really don't own our house, cars, etc, they own us, and we have to continue to work in order to make sacrifices to appease these gods every month while they give us the "illusion" that we actually own them). When we sold the house, all the furniture, and everything we owned except what fit in a few suitcases, it was the most freeing feeling I have ever had in my life.
In exchange, God has given us the chance to walk on one of the seven wonders of the world, to play with live tigers, to zipline through the jungles of [East Asia], to see natural wonders that weren't even in the best textbooks I ever studied. But much more important than those worldly pleasures has been the chance to start ministry from scratch. To leave behind all the traditions of men and teach brand new disciples how to follow the Bible, not tradition. To see disciples we have made making new disciples. To see people passing from death into life through faith in Christ. To see groups of believers forming a church, sharing the gospel, and baptizing and discipling new believers. That is what it is all about. Even though I was very active in ministry as an ordained minister in the States, it was never anything like this. I can't imagine all the treasures in the world amounting to a greater treasure than God has provided us with this life.
If it means living on peanuts and sacrificing a lot of personal freedoms that my former job as an executive afforded, it is worth it. If it means giving up western comforts, climate, and familiar things, it is worth it. If it means physical separation from friends and family back home, and only getting to see them briefly every few years, it is worth it. And if, due to our service in a closed country, it means that my family were to be arrested, imprisoned, and possibly even killed for the opportunity to bring even one more person to Christ, it is worth it.
Sunday, August 10, 2014
Friday, July 4, 2014
The Blessings of Good Stewardship
Being Good Stewards
It has been a month since my last blog post, but I am going
to endeavor to be more regular with it.
I know, I know, we’ve all heard that song before, but up until now I
have generally reserved my Making Disciples blog for when God lays something
strongly on my heart. I have come to realize that diligence is its own reward,
and that there are valuable insights to share more regularly, even if I don’t
feel they are specifically laid on my heart by God. So I will try to post more
regularly going forward, with a goal of once a week, but will be certain to
differentiate the posts that I feel are particularly laid upon my heart by God,
and those I am just sharing from my study and experiences. This is one of those
God-burdened posts, however.
Everyone knows that in the past few years, the economy in
America has been at a low point. Cutbacks, layoffs, double-digit unemployment,
and general reduction in available funds to spend are all symptoms of this
problem. This blog is not going to try
and examine the causes of these issues, but rather is focused on their effects,
specifically upon international missions.
The International Missions Board of the SBC is an organization with
which I am intimately familiar. I am an SBC minister and serve overseas with the
Board, and have for over three years now. In that time we have seen continued
belt-tightening as funding shortfalls in giving continue to impact the funds
available to accomplish the task around the world. I would like to commend the
leadership of the IMB for the amazing job they have done in continuing to lead
and provide vision and direction and adjustments which, while not easy, have
allowed the work to continue despite the shortfalls.
Living overseas and only seeing the effects as they ripple
down to the field, I just assumed that things in America were equally tight,
and that churches everywhere were having to make the same adjustments that the
overseas work was having to make, i.e. doing more with less. Unfortunately,
while we were back in the States for six months at the beginning of 2014, I was
rather surprised at what I found. We visited a number of churches where I got
to speak, but we saw many, many others that I was not directly involved with.
What I found across the board, with a few exceptions, was large churches with
all the latest audio/video equipment, large sprawling campuses, major
construction projects, and huge, beautifully-adorned sanctuaries being either
built or updated. There really was no openly apparent sign of the knuckle-down,
make-due with what you have mentality that is the norm for the work around the
world.
After talking to a number of people from many different
churches, it seems that the five and ten year plans for most of these churches
have continued unimpeded by the realities of the adjusted economy. The main
difference being that instead of saving up tithes and offerings and being able
to expand the churches as funds were available, loans were being taken out to
cover the difference. Now borrowing
money is not specifically forbidden in Scripture, nor is it called a sin, but
in a number of places it is described as unwise and something to be
avoided. For example we have these poignant
examples:
Proverbs 22:7 The rich rules over the poor, And the borrower
becomes the lender's slave.
And
Proverbs 22:26 Do not be among those who give pledges, Among
those who become guarantors for debts.
But above and beyond the unwise nature of borrowing from the
secular world to fund the comforts of the church are the opportunities being
missed. Think about the numbers for a
moment. A ten million dollar building
project loan, actually fairly conservative by today’s standards, at 5%
interest, with let’s say an aggressive payoff schedule of only five years,
would result in interest payments of over 1.134 million dollars over the course
of the loan. Now while real estate loans have the interest front-loaded, so
they aren’t evenly spread across the loan, that is still an average of
$227,000/year being put not to the work of God at home or abroad, but lining
the pockets of bankers. Now that is just
ONE church with ONE conservative building project. Think about multiplying that across the
thousands upon thousands of churches just in the United States alone.
Now for a moment, just considering SBC churches, my
denomination, there are 46,000 churches in the SBC in America. Out of those, according to a recent survey (http://thomrainer.com/2013/08/03/2013-update-largest-churches-in-the-southern-baptist-convention/)
1/3% of those, or just under 600 churches, have an average attendance of 1,000
people or more. While many SBC churches
are very small, and have bi-vocational pastors and are unlikely to be
undertaking multi-million dollar building projects, I would dare to say at
least those 600 or so churches with over 1,000 in attendance most definitely
would be building and expanding. So let’s
again just take 600 churches with these types of building projects paying an
average of $227,000 per year in interest on loans. That’s 136.2 MILLION dollars every year
paying banker paychecks rather than funding the work of God.
Just think what a difference those funds could make if the
principle on those loans were placed into savings until whatever building plans
were planned could be paid for 100% in cash, and the amount being currently
spent on interest were instead funneled to international missions. In 2013 the
projected budget for the IMB was $323 million, but receipts of gifts from 2012
were only $245 million, despite record giving year after year for the Lottie
Moon offering. Where the shortfalls
continue are the donations coming through the cooperative program, which is
basically the amount the churches themselves give to fund things like Baptist
Seminaries, the North American Missions Board, and other cooperatively funded
projects including the IMB. So while
Southern Baptists across the country continue year after year to demonstrate a
genuine heart for seeing mission work around the world done, as evidenced by
the ever-increasing Lottie Moon budget giving (which goes 100% to the work of
the IMB), more and more churches have cut back their cooperative program giving
to keep more dollars “in house”. Given
the numbers we looked at for building projects and interest payments, this is
not surprising.
We need to remind ourselves of one key thing. Deuteronomy 28 calls out specifically the blessings
which will befall a people whose heart is following God first and foremost,
while also spelling out the curses that will fall upon those whose hearts have
wandered. When we supplant the Biblical
values of saving over borrowing, and we funnel so much every year to fund usury
paid to banks on loans while reducing the funding going to support the work of
missions around the world, could we not imagine we might have gotten our
priorities a bit out of balance? I have no idea how far this blog post might
spread, but I urge each of you who read it to share it with your fellow church
members, with your church leaders, online, and wherever you can. This is not meant to be a condemnation, but a
call for a return to stewardship and an awakening and awareness that in these
times of want, these tight times, we all should be tightening our belts and
finding ways to continue on God’s plan rather than finding alternative, secular
ways to fund the plans of men.
To those who hear and obey God’s word: Deuteronomy 28:12 "The LORD will open for you His good storehouse, the heavens, to give rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hand; and you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow.”
To those who hear and obey God’s word: Deuteronomy 28:12 "The LORD will open for you His good storehouse, the heavens, to give rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hand; and you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow.”
And to those who hear
and do not obey God’s word: Deuteronomy
28:43-44 “The alien who is among you shall rise above you higher and higher,
but you will go down lower and lower. He shall lend to you, but you will not
lend to him; he shall be the head, and you will be the tail.”
Not sure about you, but
I’d rather the former than the latter…
On a final note, I know of several of those 600 churches in the SBC who have in fact recognized this fact and have dug themselves out of debt and are now operating all new projects on a cash only basis. Those churches have been able to greatly increase their missions giving and also fund a great deal of local ministry projects with the funds they formerly were paying to banks. One of the most stunning examples of this faithfulness comes from First Baptist Church Euless. You can read that story here: http://www.firsteuless.com/miracle-story/
On a final note, I know of several of those 600 churches in the SBC who have in fact recognized this fact and have dug themselves out of debt and are now operating all new projects on a cash only basis. Those churches have been able to greatly increase their missions giving and also fund a great deal of local ministry projects with the funds they formerly were paying to banks. One of the most stunning examples of this faithfulness comes from First Baptist Church Euless. You can read that story here: http://www.firsteuless.com/miracle-story/
Saturday, May 31, 2014
Be Still and Know That I Am God
As we spent our first few hours in our new city, one of the most populous cities in the world, my overwhelming impression, summed up in one word, was: LOUD! Streets filled with cars, music pouring out from storefronts, and a general cacophony which arises from streets of a city housing over twenty-three million people just in the city proper.
As I looked around, walking in the midst of the overwhelming lostness here among the revelry and noise of life, I was reminded of a passage from Isaiah:
Isaiah 5:11-14 Woe to those who rise early in the morning that they may pursue strong drink, Who stay up late in the evening that wine may inflame them! Their banquets are accompanied by lyre and harp, by tambourine and flute, and by wine; But they do not pay attention to the deeds of the LORD, Nor do they consider the work of His hands. Therefore My people go into exile for their lack of knowledge; And their honorable men are famished, And their multitude is parched with thirst. Therefore Sheol has enlarged its throat and opened its mouth without measure; And Jerusalem's splendor, her multitude, her din of revelry and the jubilant within her, descend into it.
Everywhere are people living their lives in contentment and the buzz of their fleeting moment in eternity with little to no thought of what is to come. How many are even aware of their sin? How many even know that two millennia ago God Himself took on flesh and gave His life to make a way for them to be saved? If we talked to people every waking second of every day, we couldn't keep up with the birth rate in the metroplex of two cities totaling over fourty-four million souls combined.
The task is overwhelming, and if we looked at our work through human eyes, discouragement would quickly overcome us. It is times like this where the command and promise of Psalm 46:10 ring encouragement and hope through every part of my being:
Psalm 46:10 Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!
He was here working long before we were born, and He will be here long after we are a fading memory in the minds of men. This is not our work, it is His work, and He has promised He will accomplish it. It is our privilege to be tools in the Master's hand. He has granted us the joy of being a part of what He is doing in this place. With that in mind, the task is not too big for the One who has promised to accomplish it. The burden to reach this place is not ours, but the task of obedience in taking our part in the work is. May the Lord always keep us mindful of this as we wade into the din and clamor of lostness around us, seeking for that inner quiet from which we draw strength, and through which we seek to share the gift of eternal life.
As I looked around, walking in the midst of the overwhelming lostness here among the revelry and noise of life, I was reminded of a passage from Isaiah:
Isaiah 5:11-14 Woe to those who rise early in the morning that they may pursue strong drink, Who stay up late in the evening that wine may inflame them! Their banquets are accompanied by lyre and harp, by tambourine and flute, and by wine; But they do not pay attention to the deeds of the LORD, Nor do they consider the work of His hands. Therefore My people go into exile for their lack of knowledge; And their honorable men are famished, And their multitude is parched with thirst. Therefore Sheol has enlarged its throat and opened its mouth without measure; And Jerusalem's splendor, her multitude, her din of revelry and the jubilant within her, descend into it.
Everywhere are people living their lives in contentment and the buzz of their fleeting moment in eternity with little to no thought of what is to come. How many are even aware of their sin? How many even know that two millennia ago God Himself took on flesh and gave His life to make a way for them to be saved? If we talked to people every waking second of every day, we couldn't keep up with the birth rate in the metroplex of two cities totaling over fourty-four million souls combined.
The task is overwhelming, and if we looked at our work through human eyes, discouragement would quickly overcome us. It is times like this where the command and promise of Psalm 46:10 ring encouragement and hope through every part of my being:
Psalm 46:10 Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!
He was here working long before we were born, and He will be here long after we are a fading memory in the minds of men. This is not our work, it is His work, and He has promised He will accomplish it. It is our privilege to be tools in the Master's hand. He has granted us the joy of being a part of what He is doing in this place. With that in mind, the task is not too big for the One who has promised to accomplish it. The burden to reach this place is not ours, but the task of obedience in taking our part in the work is. May the Lord always keep us mindful of this as we wade into the din and clamor of lostness around us, seeking for that inner quiet from which we draw strength, and through which we seek to share the gift of eternal life.
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
The Power of Peace
I have many close friends who are avid 2nd amendment advocates. I see memes so often on Facebook about how if guns are taken away, how will we protect ourselves from an imperialist regime? Now this post is not anti-2nd amendment, I firmly believe in and support the 2nd amendment advocates and them exercising their rights under the law. The point of this post, however, is that while there is a time for war, there is also a time for peace (Ecclesiastes 3:8), and that there can be as much power in peace as in war.
In the wake of Martin Luther King day, I am reminded of a brave group of people known at the time as the Freedom Riders. There were Jim Crow laws still prevalent throughout the south even up until the 1960's in America. These laws called for segregation of the races. Blacks and whites were not allowed to ride the same long-haul buses, train cars, or even wait in the same waiting areas in the terminals. Blacks could not enter the whites only restrooms or restaurants. Racism had been institutionalized in states like Alabama and Mississippi.
Well in 1961, brave volunteers both blacks and whites, decided to follow in the footsteps of Rosa Parks, who some say was the spark that ignited the Civil Rights Movement in America when she refused to give up her seat to a white person on a public bus. These Freedom Riders gathered and boarded buses bound for Alabama and Mississippi and were determined, through peaceful means and non-violence, to risk being beaten and possibly killed in order to draw attention to the unjust laws.
They did. Busloads were beaten, threatened and arrested in Birmingham, and still they pressed on. A church full of the riders who had gathered in Montgomery were nearly burned to death in the church before federal marshals intervened, and still they pressed on. In Jackson, the governor of Mississippi had them arrested and sent to one of the most famous and harshest prisons in the country, yet the response was that the call went out and people of all denominations and races flocked to Jackson with the determination to fill up Parchman Farm Penitentiary and make it the new center for the Civil Rights Movement.
In the end, so much attention was garnered by the peaceful defiance of the Freedom Riders that the ICC moved to strike down the Jim Crow laws all across the country, and blacks and whites were finally able to walk and sit and ride and eat together as the creations of God and brothers and sisters in mankind that we are. This battle was won without a gun, without a bullet, and without even so much as a clenched fist raised in anger on the part of the Freedom Riders. How could this happen?
Because the Prince of Peace was in their hearts and at the center of their message. Ministers stood arm in arm saying that such laws were tyrannical and not in keeping with God's word. Their message was a message of truth, brought into deep persecution, but carried in a heart of peace. This is the power of peace. This is how we are instructed to handle our disagreements.
2 Timothy 2:24 "And the Lord's bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, 25 with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, 26 and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will."
When we bring the message of the gospel to the lost, we are going to be facing certain opposition. In some cases, like in America, it may be as simple as ridicule and rejection, but in the other extremes, like in part of the Middle East, India, Burma, North Korea, there it might very well cost our lives. Is our message worth it? The Freedom Riders all filled out their Last Will and Testament before they embarked on that journey, prepared that if it took their deaths to bring attention to the truth of the message of all men equal under God, then they were prepared to pay it.
How much more precious is the message of the gospel? This is the power of God unto salvation for those who believe. It is the the message of eternal life for the dying and condemned. If bringing that message to the lost cost us our lives, would it be worth the price? Jesus thought so. All of his disciples save for Judas Iscariot (who took his own life) and John who, to our knowledge was not martyred, thought so. The thousands upon thousands who were killed by Romans for refusing to deny Christ and His resurrection thought so. The countless martyrs who have died in the last 2,000 years bringing the gospel and living their faith thought so. The thousands of ministers and missionaries who have died bringing the gospel into hostile nations thought so. So what do you think?
There is power in peace, and it is the power of God. When Christians bring their message in peace, and are willing to put their own lives at risk to have it heard, that speaks volumes to the hearers. When false witnesses like Westboro Baptist Church and others bring messages in hate and condemnation, the sympathy swings against them. If the Freedom Riders had ridden in armed and guns-a-blazing into Alabama and Mississippi, seeking to take by force what was denied by law, thousands would have died and the opinion of the world would have been that a lawful government had put down armed terrorists and insurgents. It was the power of peace that made the victory won by the Freedom Riders possible. And it is the power of peace which will win the world to Christ.
We cannot be hate-filled and contentious witnesses and be true to the teachings of the Prince of Peace. We cannot shy away from sharing the whole truth, and that includes coming judgment of sin, but it is not OURS to judge. Jesus did not come to condemn the world, and neither do we need to, because as Scripture tells us, those who do not believe are already condemned and the wrath of God abides upon them. The message Jesus brought, and that we are to bring, is that there is hope for those who will repent and believe. That we can have peace with God. That we can be forgiven. That the God who created the world loves His creations and has made a way for all those who will believe to be saved. That is the power of peace.
Let us recognize the value of the message of the gospel, and let us value it above our own lives, for if we are in Him, our lives are fleeting but our eternity is secure. If by my death I can rescue even one person from hell, it is a price I will gladly pay. I should hope that by my life and my witness many might be saved, but given that all of heaven will rejoice at even one lost sheep turning away from sin and toward God, then if my life is the cost, then let it be. What price will you pay to bring the power of peace to a lost and dying world?
In the wake of Martin Luther King day, I am reminded of a brave group of people known at the time as the Freedom Riders. There were Jim Crow laws still prevalent throughout the south even up until the 1960's in America. These laws called for segregation of the races. Blacks and whites were not allowed to ride the same long-haul buses, train cars, or even wait in the same waiting areas in the terminals. Blacks could not enter the whites only restrooms or restaurants. Racism had been institutionalized in states like Alabama and Mississippi.
Well in 1961, brave volunteers both blacks and whites, decided to follow in the footsteps of Rosa Parks, who some say was the spark that ignited the Civil Rights Movement in America when she refused to give up her seat to a white person on a public bus. These Freedom Riders gathered and boarded buses bound for Alabama and Mississippi and were determined, through peaceful means and non-violence, to risk being beaten and possibly killed in order to draw attention to the unjust laws.
They did. Busloads were beaten, threatened and arrested in Birmingham, and still they pressed on. A church full of the riders who had gathered in Montgomery were nearly burned to death in the church before federal marshals intervened, and still they pressed on. In Jackson, the governor of Mississippi had them arrested and sent to one of the most famous and harshest prisons in the country, yet the response was that the call went out and people of all denominations and races flocked to Jackson with the determination to fill up Parchman Farm Penitentiary and make it the new center for the Civil Rights Movement.
In the end, so much attention was garnered by the peaceful defiance of the Freedom Riders that the ICC moved to strike down the Jim Crow laws all across the country, and blacks and whites were finally able to walk and sit and ride and eat together as the creations of God and brothers and sisters in mankind that we are. This battle was won without a gun, without a bullet, and without even so much as a clenched fist raised in anger on the part of the Freedom Riders. How could this happen?
Because the Prince of Peace was in their hearts and at the center of their message. Ministers stood arm in arm saying that such laws were tyrannical and not in keeping with God's word. Their message was a message of truth, brought into deep persecution, but carried in a heart of peace. This is the power of peace. This is how we are instructed to handle our disagreements.
2 Timothy 2:24 "And the Lord's bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, 25 with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, 26 and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will."
When we bring the message of the gospel to the lost, we are going to be facing certain opposition. In some cases, like in America, it may be as simple as ridicule and rejection, but in the other extremes, like in part of the Middle East, India, Burma, North Korea, there it might very well cost our lives. Is our message worth it? The Freedom Riders all filled out their Last Will and Testament before they embarked on that journey, prepared that if it took their deaths to bring attention to the truth of the message of all men equal under God, then they were prepared to pay it.
How much more precious is the message of the gospel? This is the power of God unto salvation for those who believe. It is the the message of eternal life for the dying and condemned. If bringing that message to the lost cost us our lives, would it be worth the price? Jesus thought so. All of his disciples save for Judas Iscariot (who took his own life) and John who, to our knowledge was not martyred, thought so. The thousands upon thousands who were killed by Romans for refusing to deny Christ and His resurrection thought so. The countless martyrs who have died in the last 2,000 years bringing the gospel and living their faith thought so. The thousands of ministers and missionaries who have died bringing the gospel into hostile nations thought so. So what do you think?
There is power in peace, and it is the power of God. When Christians bring their message in peace, and are willing to put their own lives at risk to have it heard, that speaks volumes to the hearers. When false witnesses like Westboro Baptist Church and others bring messages in hate and condemnation, the sympathy swings against them. If the Freedom Riders had ridden in armed and guns-a-blazing into Alabama and Mississippi, seeking to take by force what was denied by law, thousands would have died and the opinion of the world would have been that a lawful government had put down armed terrorists and insurgents. It was the power of peace that made the victory won by the Freedom Riders possible. And it is the power of peace which will win the world to Christ.
We cannot be hate-filled and contentious witnesses and be true to the teachings of the Prince of Peace. We cannot shy away from sharing the whole truth, and that includes coming judgment of sin, but it is not OURS to judge. Jesus did not come to condemn the world, and neither do we need to, because as Scripture tells us, those who do not believe are already condemned and the wrath of God abides upon them. The message Jesus brought, and that we are to bring, is that there is hope for those who will repent and believe. That we can have peace with God. That we can be forgiven. That the God who created the world loves His creations and has made a way for all those who will believe to be saved. That is the power of peace.
Let us recognize the value of the message of the gospel, and let us value it above our own lives, for if we are in Him, our lives are fleeting but our eternity is secure. If by my death I can rescue even one person from hell, it is a price I will gladly pay. I should hope that by my life and my witness many might be saved, but given that all of heaven will rejoice at even one lost sheep turning away from sin and toward God, then if my life is the cost, then let it be. What price will you pay to bring the power of peace to a lost and dying world?
Sunday, January 5, 2014
Grateful for God's Grace
I have been weathering a real storm lately, but the wind and the waves are of my own making. Just as with Peter, taking my eyes off Him and focusing on other things left me sinking fast. As I struggled to figure out how to keep my own head above water, the gentle voice of Our Savior whispered, "I'm right here when you decide to let me lift you up again."
Pastors and missionaries aren't immune to failing. Failing to live as we should, failing to believe as we should, failing to trust as we should and failing to focus on what we should are all too frequent occurrences. Most of the time they are just momentary lapses that we quickly recognize and recover from, but occasionally, at least speaking for myself, I can become so entrenched in what "isn't", that I lose sight of the most important thing: Who "IS". Namely this means "Who is my Lord?", "Who is Jesus?", "Who is the One who saved me?", and "Who is the perfecter and finisher of my faith?"
I am grateful to Pastor Greg Mathis of Mud Creek Baptist Church in Hendersonville, NC where I fellowshipped this morning. His message cut through the cloud of funk I had found myself in the last few weeks (or longer depending on when one started counting the downward spiral) and brought my focus back on a few things.
1) I deserve hell, but I don't have to go there. This has absolutely nothing to do with anything special or any entitlement on my part to anything other than damnation, but it has everything to do with the grace of God. I didn't do anything to earn God's favor, He chose by His sovereign will to shed His grace upon me that I might be saved. If we focus on that for just a moment, we can't help but have an adjusted attitude of humility, gratefulness and joy. This IS the good news of the gospel. I have been given the unmerited favor of God. How can one focus on the insignificant ups and downs of life in light of this amazing truth? I hope you all take some time and meditated today on this and all the implications. You will find your pride slipping away like water off a duck as you realize everything you have is only because the God of all has chosen to give it to you. Be grateful for that grace.
2) I was saved to serve. Ephesians 2:8-9 is one of the favorite Protestant memory verses, but why do we stop halfway through Paul's thought there? Continuing on to verse 10 gives us the FULL picture of salvation, that it is BY grace, THROUGH faith, but FOR works.
Ephesians 2:8 "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them." (NASB)
Don't leave out verse 10. We have not been saved so we can be placed like a precious ornament to set on a shelf and be admired. We have been saved because Christ has work for us to accomplish. He didn't create us to be idle and he didn't save us to sit around in self-satisfaction while the world is dying in its sin. We were saved so that we could become a servant to others. Jesus modeled that for us, so why are so few willing to follow His example? When you recognize that God poured out His grace abundantly upon you, much more than you can use, you begin to realize that all the excess is not to go to waste, but it was given to you to share with others. Give to the needy, teach the unlearned, help the helpless, encourage the downhearted, hug the mourning or lonely, support the unsupported, love the unloved and the unloveable, lift up the downtrodden, pray for those in need, minister to the hurting, share with the lost, answer the seeking, hold hands with the ill, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, give drink to the thirsty...serve them all as you would serve Him who has given you His grace. Serve others with a heart filled with gratitude for the grace you have been given.
3) Be a Christian model. Note, I did not say "be a model Christian". That idea so often leads to the attitude of self-righteousness and judgment, because it puts the emphasis on "Christian" as if that is some standard to hold up. May a CHRISTIAN NEVER BE A MODEL to hold up. It would be like holding up a shadow puppet as an example of how to make a man. No CHRIST is to be our model, not Christians. But when I say be a Christian model, I don't mean hold yourself up as some standard to be emulated, I mean live in a way, by how you interact with others, that will show you as set apart. By being a Christian who is not being held up as a model, but rather is modeling themselves after Christ, THEN we can point people to the perfect rather than to merely the shadow. Christians are sinners saved by grace. Christ is the model to which we should point others. If we are so busy with an attitude of "look at me", then we are just asking for a fall. So don't seek to be a "model Christian", but rather be a "Christian model", which is a believer whose life points to Christ and encourages others to point to Him with their lives.
By modeling only who we point to and emulate, rather than holding ourselves up as a model, we constantly keep that humility of heart that knows we are only, always, one step from a fall ourselves. When instead we are Christian models of walking day by day with Christ and resting never in our own goodness but always resting in a state of gratefulness for the grace of God in our lives, then we will cease to fit the mold of the "hypocrite" so often associated with "model Christians" and will instead be humble, fallible, faithful servants of others and of our Lord who can be seen not in some light of self-righteousness one claims to have, but instead as mere reflectors of the One True Light, Jesus Christ, whose very lives shout every day how grateful we are for God's grace upon us.
I hope by sharing these lessons God drove home to me these last couple of days any of you who have similarly found yourselves focused on the wind and the waves of life rather than focused on the truly amazing grace of God will be drawn back to that first love, that igniting spark of our faith. I further hope that by dwelling not on our circumstances but on the grace of God that you will be moved toward humility, service, and being a Christian model of what it means to be a sinner saved by grace.
Grateful for His grace,
Rev. David G. Johnson
Pastors and missionaries aren't immune to failing. Failing to live as we should, failing to believe as we should, failing to trust as we should and failing to focus on what we should are all too frequent occurrences. Most of the time they are just momentary lapses that we quickly recognize and recover from, but occasionally, at least speaking for myself, I can become so entrenched in what "isn't", that I lose sight of the most important thing: Who "IS". Namely this means "Who is my Lord?", "Who is Jesus?", "Who is the One who saved me?", and "Who is the perfecter and finisher of my faith?"
I am grateful to Pastor Greg Mathis of Mud Creek Baptist Church in Hendersonville, NC where I fellowshipped this morning. His message cut through the cloud of funk I had found myself in the last few weeks (or longer depending on when one started counting the downward spiral) and brought my focus back on a few things.
1) I deserve hell, but I don't have to go there. This has absolutely nothing to do with anything special or any entitlement on my part to anything other than damnation, but it has everything to do with the grace of God. I didn't do anything to earn God's favor, He chose by His sovereign will to shed His grace upon me that I might be saved. If we focus on that for just a moment, we can't help but have an adjusted attitude of humility, gratefulness and joy. This IS the good news of the gospel. I have been given the unmerited favor of God. How can one focus on the insignificant ups and downs of life in light of this amazing truth? I hope you all take some time and meditated today on this and all the implications. You will find your pride slipping away like water off a duck as you realize everything you have is only because the God of all has chosen to give it to you. Be grateful for that grace.
2) I was saved to serve. Ephesians 2:8-9 is one of the favorite Protestant memory verses, but why do we stop halfway through Paul's thought there? Continuing on to verse 10 gives us the FULL picture of salvation, that it is BY grace, THROUGH faith, but FOR works.
Ephesians 2:8 "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them." (NASB)
Don't leave out verse 10. We have not been saved so we can be placed like a precious ornament to set on a shelf and be admired. We have been saved because Christ has work for us to accomplish. He didn't create us to be idle and he didn't save us to sit around in self-satisfaction while the world is dying in its sin. We were saved so that we could become a servant to others. Jesus modeled that for us, so why are so few willing to follow His example? When you recognize that God poured out His grace abundantly upon you, much more than you can use, you begin to realize that all the excess is not to go to waste, but it was given to you to share with others. Give to the needy, teach the unlearned, help the helpless, encourage the downhearted, hug the mourning or lonely, support the unsupported, love the unloved and the unloveable, lift up the downtrodden, pray for those in need, minister to the hurting, share with the lost, answer the seeking, hold hands with the ill, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, give drink to the thirsty...serve them all as you would serve Him who has given you His grace. Serve others with a heart filled with gratitude for the grace you have been given.
3) Be a Christian model. Note, I did not say "be a model Christian". That idea so often leads to the attitude of self-righteousness and judgment, because it puts the emphasis on "Christian" as if that is some standard to hold up. May a CHRISTIAN NEVER BE A MODEL to hold up. It would be like holding up a shadow puppet as an example of how to make a man. No CHRIST is to be our model, not Christians. But when I say be a Christian model, I don't mean hold yourself up as some standard to be emulated, I mean live in a way, by how you interact with others, that will show you as set apart. By being a Christian who is not being held up as a model, but rather is modeling themselves after Christ, THEN we can point people to the perfect rather than to merely the shadow. Christians are sinners saved by grace. Christ is the model to which we should point others. If we are so busy with an attitude of "look at me", then we are just asking for a fall. So don't seek to be a "model Christian", but rather be a "Christian model", which is a believer whose life points to Christ and encourages others to point to Him with their lives.
By modeling only who we point to and emulate, rather than holding ourselves up as a model, we constantly keep that humility of heart that knows we are only, always, one step from a fall ourselves. When instead we are Christian models of walking day by day with Christ and resting never in our own goodness but always resting in a state of gratefulness for the grace of God in our lives, then we will cease to fit the mold of the "hypocrite" so often associated with "model Christians" and will instead be humble, fallible, faithful servants of others and of our Lord who can be seen not in some light of self-righteousness one claims to have, but instead as mere reflectors of the One True Light, Jesus Christ, whose very lives shout every day how grateful we are for God's grace upon us.
I hope by sharing these lessons God drove home to me these last couple of days any of you who have similarly found yourselves focused on the wind and the waves of life rather than focused on the truly amazing grace of God will be drawn back to that first love, that igniting spark of our faith. I further hope that by dwelling not on our circumstances but on the grace of God that you will be moved toward humility, service, and being a Christian model of what it means to be a sinner saved by grace.
Grateful for His grace,
Rev. David G. Johnson
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)