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?
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
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)