Speaking of Heroes

Our culture seems to be enamored with heroes. What is it that draws our culture to embrace the exultation of men. Perhaps it is a deep-seated realization that we are all in need. We all know ourselves and because of this we know we are not sufficient. Turning to heroes is a hopeful reach for the expert the one who is capable. The one who is sufficient in the given situation. Yet heroes fail us again and again. Even the heroes on the big screen are shown to have flaws. Yet there is a hero who will never fail us. He is worthy of our attention and He is sufficient for every situation. That hero is the greatest hero ever and His name is Jesus.

 Jesus example is incredible. He is the creator of the world and has all the power in the world at His disposal. Yet in order to save us He became one of us. He was fully human but also fully God and He demonstrated that by what He did. He healed the sick. He made blind men see. He fed 5,000 people with just 5 loaves and 2 fish. He walked on water. He commanded the wind and the waves. He spoke with wisdom and compassion. He forgave sins. He was mostly rejected by us and yet He still loved us. As He was being crucified by us He prayed that God would forgive those of us who were acting against Him. He rose again by His own power and conquered death. After the resurrection He passed through walls and yet ate food. He was seen by over 500 people and literally flew into the sky. He now continues to rule and reign at the right hand of God on high. One day He will return and establish a new heaven and earth. He is the greatest hero ever and worthy of our greatest adoration and devotion.

Even the other great heros of the Bible point us back to Him. My second greatest hero in the Bible is Enoch. What strikes me as important about Enoch is that God recorded not what he did, but who he was in relation to God. As a matter of fact we really don’t know what he did. All we know is he walked with God and did not see death because God took Him. That would be totally awesome to be such a friend of God that He just takes you to be with Him in glory. Like I said, all of the other heroes in the Bible, like Enoch, point us to Jesus. The only reason Enoch could walk with God and have a relationship with God, is because of what Jesus did on the cross. Even though that event was a long way off, when Enoch walked with God, Enoch had to be looking to the forgiveness that could only be found in the savior. That savior was promised in the Garden when God declared that He would send a seed of the woman to crush the serpents head. Enoch walked with God by faith trusting in the coming hero of heros who would save all of those who put their trust in Him. It would be awesome for God to make us more like Jesus so we could walk with God like Enoch. One more reason to pray earnestly for God to grant us the ability to live a God focused life.

How do you make a marriage work?

According to an article on Yahoo today titled, "10 Ways to Make Your Marriage Divorceproof" it just takes some simple rules and reminders. What I find interesting about the article is that it reflects a desire among people in general. They want to have a successful meaningful committed relationship with someone. People want this because down deep inside there is something telling us that there really is something to be found in a relationship like that.

I think that this longing reflects God's command to Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden (Genesis 2:24). There is a desire within all of us to become one flesh with another. I believe it is this longing that inspires movie themes where people share a body or live out their lives in another body (think Avatar). This longing is deep seated in us and yet we are fallen, prideful and selfish. This trifecta of sins brings disarray to almost any relationship and especially marriage. And while the rules and reminders may strike a cord with you and be cute in their own way marriage problems are not this simple. Tony Robbins for all of his work in performing well in multiple levels of multiple relationships in life failed in the most intimate of relationships himself. Now I am no big Tony Robbins fan but the point is that here is someone the secular world considers to be a pinnacle performance guy. He could utilize all of the research He wanted and as long as he relies on the wisdom of men he is bound ultimately to fail.

How do you make a marriage work? All marriages need the Lord Jesus if they want real success. It is only in Him and His grace that we are given the tools of real success. On our own we are bound to fail. We will fail each other. We will bring disappointment. We will cause hurt. But when we realize the great grace that is ours in Jesus it gives us a framework for extending that grace to another. We can begin to live our marriages not just for personal fulfillment but for cosmic fulfillment in bringing glory to God. Moving our eyes from our spouse to our God and seeking to live out the role He has called us to, will make for a better marriage for anyone (Ephesians 5:31-33). Do you really want your marriage to work then the place to start is sitting at the feet of Jesus and learning of Him. He will show you grace and give you love that will lay a foundation for doing the same with your spouse.

Atheist just don't get it

Dave Silverman the president of American Atheist, inc. posted an article on Foxnews.com called, "It's No Surprise That Atheists Know More About Religion Than Most Americans." In his article he points to the article that I blogged about yesterday. The study from the Pew forum that showed atheist knew more about religion in general then the people who are actually part of the different religions in America. What is surprising to me is the same old rhetoric that gets trotted out by these guys. Silverman says:

The simple truth is this; the more someone knows about religion, the more likely they will reject it as mythology.

He then goes on to point out books like Leviticus, Job or Revelation as examples of books that are filled with barbaric rules, ruthless torture, and threats from a petty and bloodthirsty God.

Atheist like Silverman have just enough exposure to religion and faith to inoculate them from the truth behind it.

• Leviticus is where God gives to His people the guidelines for the sacrificial system. That system points the Israelites and those who joined them to the ultimate sacrifice that was completed in Jesus Christ. The people of Israel made these sacrifices for sins on a regular basis because the sacrifices of men were not sufficient to cover their sins. They looked forward in faith to the sufficient sacrifice that is found through faith in Christ. We are the ones that sinned and rebelled against God. That rebellion deserved death. The book of Leviticus shows us a God who is pointing His people to have faith in a reconciliation that is coming in Christ Jesus.
• Job is one of my favorite books because of what we see Job declaring in the end (Job 42:2-6). After all that he went through (and it was a lot) Job points out essentially that it was all worth it. Why? Because he has seen things too wonderful for him. Things that he did not understand. He had heard of God before but now His eye had seen Him. You see everything that he went through in his mind paled in comparison to the greatness of what he learned about God. Is this a God bent on torture? or a God bent on doing whatever it takes to bring His people into a greater relationship with Himself. I think Job would join me in declaring the later.
• Revelation is God declaring that His Son will return and put down the rebellious fallen kingdom. He declares that He will establish a kingdom of peace and joy for His people. I guess Silverman and the other atheist would not like this book because they stand squarely on the rebellious losing side.

You see the truth of the matter is that the more one knows about the God of the Bible the more one sees God's grace being poured out in abundance. I would argue with Silverman against the other religions. Why? Because none of them is filled with the grace of God that comes through Jesus Christ. The problem in the pulpits today is very real but its not an attempt to keep people in the dark. It is more an attempt to address people's felt needs. As long as we continue to support ministers that teach in a man centered way then we will continue on this spiritual decline. I would encourage you to read your Bible. If you need some help getting focused get my book, "The God Focused Life." It is geared at helping you identify and sweep away cultural barriers to loving and pursuing a passionate relationship with God.

Silverman is missing the one important part that He needs (John 14:16-17). Silverman needs a real relationship with God brought about by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Pray for Dave Silverman (John 10:25-29). He may be an atheist but if God has set His love on Him he won't be one for long (John 6:37).

When it comes to the next generation...

We could use a little less talk and a lot more action.

There seems to be a lot of talk about how to reach the next generation. There are a lot of different ideas out there. Many are good steps in the right direction. But in the middle of it all there is one thing that keeps getting tagged on almost as an afterthought. That these kids don't have a real commitment to their faith. Perhaps the faith is more the faith of their parents.

In case you have not noticed a lot of kids are growing up, leaving the church and never returning. We can lay the blame for this result at lots of feet with lots of different reasons. But at the end of the day lets face it, they are mostly lost kids who never really came to know Jesus. What the next generation needs is for this generation to get serious about living out their faith. If our kids never see us approaching our faith like it is a desperate life or death struggle for our very souls then they are never going to see this as something worth living for much less dying for...if it should come to that.

Fundamentally we need to have a passionate pursuit of God as a characteristic of our lives (John 4:23-24). If our kids don't see us living life bent on pursuing God how can we ever expect them to do that? So join me in pursuing living a God focused life for the next generation.

Confronting our brother

This is probably one of the most-ignored tenets of Scripture because obeying it forces us out of our comfort zone. As Americans, we naturally gravitate toward the easy path whether it’s diet gimmicks which promise weight loss without exercise and healthy eating, get-rich-quick schemes or sexual “freedom” without acknowledging the consequences.

While the mandate to confront a brother seems pretty clear, I have managed to come up with all kinds of creative excuses not to obey this command. Usually the thought process goes something like this: well, I’m not really sure he did such-and-such, or, it’s really too vague to know if what he did was specifically unscriptural, or, it’s just going to turn him off if I confront him—all convenient excuses which ignore God’s intent. The reason for this disobedience stems from same reason as any other sin: we decide that we’re the ultimate arbiters of truth and redefine God’s law to fit our desires.

I recently had to confront a Christian brother. In my case, this person owed my wife money for a business service she provided, and he failed to pay after numerous reminders. I was aware of what Matthew 18 says about confronting a brother and brought another person with me as I he had not responded after my one-on-one confrontation. When I decided to review the Matthew 18 passage prior to the meeting, I noticed something I had not considered before. The second part of Matthew 18:15 states, “If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.” While I wanted justice, God wanted me to gain a brother.

A selfish outlook on life looks out for our own interests, but a God focused life, like Elijah, is jealous for God’s glory and therefore doesn’t focus on our individual reputation or comfort level. If our deepest desire is God’s glory, then we will not only be willing to confront our brother, but we’ll do it for the right reason.

The gift of sleeplessness

We read the Bible, stories from Christian history and usually a good book to our children each evening. We are currently reading a book titled, "Prisoners of the Sea" by Florence M. Kingsley. It was initially published in 1897 and it is an exciting cast away and adventure on the high seas story. Tonight chapter thirty-eight held our attention as an escaped convict planned to kill some of the stories heros while they slept. One of our heros is a Huguenot Pastor. In the story he could not sleep. What he says was a really great perspective on sleeplessness.

But the Huguenot pastor, Constantin Dinant, was not asleep. He had not slept during the night; he had beguiled the long hours with prayers, none the less fervent because they were inaudible.

"Why bemoan a sleepless night?" he was wont to say. "These are the hours that God snatches for us out of the thirsty waste of our lives, wherein to give us the living water. Rejoice then, when sleep forsakes thine eyes, for it is a sign of favor. Surely communion with the King of king is better than the unconsciousness of sleep."

To see sleeplessness as a gift from God (James 1:17). A gift of sweet communion with Jesus the King of kings. Now there is a perspective that strikes at the very core of living a life focused on our great God, Jesus the Christ.

 

True women's rights flow out of a God focused life

I ran across an article on CNN's Opinion part of their web site titled, "Will Afghan women's rights be bargained away?". Gayle Lemmon ponders what the future holds for Afgan women after the advances they have made in the last 8 years. The fact that there is even a threat to the freedom of women should be abhorrent to anyone, but especially to a Christian.

One of the favorite topics for agnostics, atheist and feminist to pick on when it comes to religion is the oppression of women. So lets throw out religion and see what that would get you. When you consider an evolutionary perspective of survival of the fittest -- you inevitably conclude that might makes right. In that scenario there is nothing but oppression awaiting women. Just because some of the religions of the world oppress women it does not follow that all religions of the world do. There may have been some people in the past that have misinterpreted scripture but the Bible clearly teaches that women are to be valued. Genesis 1:27-28 describes the creation of man and woman and in that description they are presented as equals. In verse 28 in God's eyes they are both given the cultural mandate. Before God, men and women are on an equal footing. Do they have different jobs and responsibilities before God? Yes. But even though they have differing responsibilities before God they are still held as equals in Christ (Galatians 3:25-28). Culturally there is no better safeguard for women then Christianity. It is a guardian of their equality and should cause anyone seeking to live a God focused life to cherish the wife He has been given. After all she will be a co-heir with Him of the promise that is theirs in Christ (Ephesians 3:6).

Emotional reminders of our insufficiency

Today was an admittedly challenging day. I looked at our bank account. (When your unemployed this can be a discouraging thing to do.) While I know that it is God that supplies our needs sometimes I get hit with a tsunami of emotion when I contemplate the gravity of it all. After applying for what seems like hundreds of jobs one begins to feel a bit rejected. My pride quickly kicks in and begins to feel injured. Thoughts like "No one wants me", "I'm just not good enough" and "Perhaps if I had just contacted this person or that one". All of this is really an emotional roller coaster that takes off from the platform of self, climbs the mountain of pride and quickly plunges into the maddening spiral of self in the pit of pity. Thank God for His grace, and the examples that we have in His precious word. Paul talked about being buffeted by a messenger of Satan. He requested that it be taken away. God's responded that His grace was sufficient (2 Corinthians 12:9). God's grace is just as sufficient today. These times of my failing are valuable reminders of my insufficiency. They cause me to depend even more on Jesus. Without Him this time of challenge would be truly overwhelming. Because He has so graciously granted me a heart that desires to focus on Him, He saves me from myself. The Holy Spirit draws my eyes to my magnificent God and plants my feet on the solid rock of Jesus. If you find the trials overwhelming turn to our Lord and use our insufficiency to embrace the sufficiency that can only be found in Him.

How does a God focus affect tithing? Is it for today?

Is tithing for today? Have you ever wondered how it works now that we are under grace? Do we still have a legalistic requirement to give a tenth?

People go back and forth arguing about the issue of tithing. On the one side you hear people proclaiming that we should give 10% of our gross income. Someone else says you should give 10% of your net. Another guy comes along and says you don't have any requirement at all. What is it? Does the Bible give us a clue? I think that there is real clarity on this issue in the Bible. Without any question the Bible can be taken out of context and often twisted to make it say whatever we like. However the goal of this site is to look at relevant cultural issues through the lens of scripture and see if a God focus brings us greater understanding. So we will let God be God and submit to his clarity.


To begin with lets consider the issue of the ten commandments. Paul tells us in Galatians that the ten commandments are a school master to bring us to Christ. What he is saying is that the ten commandments were there to show us that we needed a Savior because we were insufficient to accomplish the task ourselves. Because of the ten commandments and our inability to keep them it becomes apparent that we need help of some sort to achieve communion with God. That help comes from the Holy Spirit and it manifest itself in the fruit of the spirit. One of the results of the Spirits work in our hearts will be a desire to know God better. So how can we know God better? Lets start with the ten commandments. Well how can we follow the ten commandments without being a legalist? First of all I would define legalism as any act done for the sake of making myself more spiritual in comparison to others. Legalism always carries with it the idea of comparison, i.e. how can I become more spiritual than someone else or how can I achieve the same perceived level of spirituality I observe in someone else. This is a very horizontal man-focused type of achievement. God's law is God centered it shows us what is pleasing to God. If we pursue the following of God's law in full awareness of our falleness and unworthiness with the idea of perhaps coming to know God better in this pursuit then we avoid the monster of legalism. So in this way the ten commandments truly teach us how to bend our will to bring it into subjection to the desire of God and the things that please Him. It really is a schoolmaster.


So what does all of this have to do with tithing. Tithing in the old testament was always a starting point. There were multiple opportunities for people to give more than a tithe. Some argue that this was also the de-facto tax levied on the Israelites to pay for their infrastructure. That may have been the case but tithing continued even when the Jews were under rulership in which they were taxed. Jesus lived in such a time and His words are instructive here. Matthew 23:23 and Luke 11:42 record Christ's words on tithing. He tells the Scribes and the Pharisees here that they tithe down to the very herbs they grow in their garden but they neglect justice, the love of God, mercy and faithfulness. He goes on to say that they should tithe without neglecting these other issues. In Christ eyes tithing was not just acceptable but something that should be practiced as a normal matter of pursuing God. Why? You see tithing gives us an objective standard much like God's law that we can easily follow. It gives us a standard of 10% that we can take off of the top. As a starting point it is often just enough to cause us to have to adjust our standard of living down. It means we have to give up some things. You see when we tithe out of a desire to know God better we end up giving up some things for the sake of pursuing that relationship. It means that there are a few less things to get in the way of our pursuit of God. Tithing puts us in a place where we are trusting that God knows better than us what we need. It is in a sense abandoning ourselves to the hand of God in the area of our finances. When we do it with the express goal of knowing God better it becomes a pure joy to us to take part in building God's kingdom. We know that investment will last more than anything else we could buy. There literally becomes no better thing we could do with the money God entrust to us. On top of all that the people in the old testament tithed and they had not yet seen the full magnificence and glory of God's grace given at the cross. How could any of us on this side of the cross knowing the full weight of what has already been done give less then those who never knew. Giving a tenth is a requirement for us just like God's law for the sake of our hearts being brought into subjection to God so that we might know Him better. Who would not want that?

Worthy Worship Wars

The question of worship music is one that is appropriate for consideration on this blog. When modern day Christians speak of worship they are usually referring to the music that begins a service at the church building. Often there is debate about what style of music should be used. We define services as contemporary, progressive, traditional or integrated. The goal in these labels is to help define what style of music the church service is employing in its worship. We used to think of the whole service as worship. Webster defines the worship of God like this,

“The act of paying divine honors to the Supreme Being; religious reverence and homage; adoration, or acts of reverence, paid to God, or a being viewed as God.” 

Perhaps the church body would become more healthy overall in its relationship with God if it got the idea of worship right. True worship is something that issues from the heart. It manifest itself in adoring Jesus in song, adoring Him in the giving of our offerings, adoring Him in the taking of the Lord’s supper, adoring Him in the act of baptism and adoring Him in the opening of His word. There are a multitude of additional ways that we can worship (i.e. personal evangelism, thankfulness for provision, etc.) they all have one thing in common. Worship comes from the heart. Since it comes from the heart it is the result of what our hearts are focused on. If we understand the fundamentals of worship then we can begin to better consider the mechanics of music.
Music is a framework for the words of the song. If you have music with no words there is nothing to sing. If you have words with no music you have a poem. To have a song to sing you must have both. Music can either compliment the lyrics or detract from the lyrics. But beyond the complimentary nature of music it can set the focus of our hearts. Music can be sensual. If our hearts are focused on sensual things I believe that is contrary to worship. Sensuality by its very nature focuses our hearts on the bodies of people. Music can also be transcendent and thus our hearts follow that focus to the transcendent realm of God. We can all think of times that our souls have been enraptured by a song. I have heard transcendent music coupled with man centered lyrics and it almost puts you in a place where your worship is of man. Both the lyrics and the music should move our hearts toward God. I think that Bob Kauflin in his book, Worship Matters: Leading Others to Encounter the Greatness of God
 has done a lot of good work in this area, and is well worth any music leader consulting his material. Does style matter??? In Colossians 3:16 Paul encourages them to sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. You could argue that these represent different styles of music. But perhaps the style issue would become a moot point if our goal in the music we sing in our church gatherings was the exultation and glory of God and not a sensual appeal to the entertainment of men. After all we are here because of God He is not here because of us.

Sports director calls the God play

I read a lot of different articles staying abreast of what's happening in the world and always have my eye peeled for something that might be a good topic to discuss the way a God focused life would change or impact the outcome. (My goal here is to make this a practical discussion of a spiritual relationship with God impacts or should impact the physical life that we lead.) I saw what I thought would be an article to discuss on Christianity.com. It was called, "Reviewing the video might be key to ending spiritual slumps..." I'll be honest my first thought was OK this David Burchett is a sports director. Given the title I thought he was going to talk about how we look back at our lives to see how to do better. I had my thoughts churning out a reply as I started to read the article. This was going to be an easy reply. Contrast David asking us to look at our own lives with the real answer which is to look at Jesus...And then as I got half way through the article I realized that I had just run across a brother who was living a God focused life in the real world. His article is great!!! Go read it (the title above is a link to it). His main point is that the good times in our lives are when we are living our lives looking to our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. The article is well written and short and well worth the read. So go. Go now and I will be back with more tomorrow.

The primacy of our marriages

Today is my wife and I's anniversary. We usually take some time off every year to get away for a day or three and just spend concentrated time together. Since we are still working with newborns we thought it prudent to delay taking some time off. But in honor of the great gift that God has given us in marriage it seemed appropriate to step back and dwell a bit on what it so appropriately draws our hearts to do. The married couple have a great responsibility before God. They are supposed to love each other. The husband's love should manifest itself in loving her as Christ loved the Church (Ephesians 5:25). The wife's love should manifest itself in submission to and respect for her husband as she would submit to and respect Christ (Ephesians 5:22-24). Why do these two things need to be so primarily in place??? Paul tells us in Ephesians 5:31-32 that the primary reason for marriage even existing in the first place is to reflect or be a shadow of Christ relationship to His bride the church. Because marriage and Christian marriage in particular reflects Christ relationship to His bride then the Christian married couple should be concerned about what their actions say about the church. You see our marriages are primary in reflecting the diversity and unity that is found in the God head. This is a sacred and honorable opportunity. How we personally pursue God will impact our understanding of how important this symbol is to God and ultimately how important this symbol is to us. You see if we men as part of Christ's bride love and respect who He is then what He says will be of vital importance to us. We will be looking to do what we know pleases God because if we really love someone we are always looking to do what pleases them. Do we love God? Are we living a life where everything we do is seen through a focus on our Lord Jesus Christ? If we are doing this then our desire will be to see our marriages as primary. What this means is that our marriages are more important because of what they symbolize than just about any other relationship we have. Our children and friends, our jobs, our hobbies, should all come as a second place finish at best when compared to our marriage. We must guard the symbol because it speaks to those around us about the greatness of our Lord Jesus. It shows them that our relationship with Him is important because our relationship with our wives is important. You see the thing that should drive this enhanced pursuit of the relationship is the relationship with Jesus. In knowing and loving our spouses we show the world that we value things as important that God Himself values as important. Lets work on having a passionate Biblical love in our marriages this is another way in which we can love God.

Sleep...to the glory of God?

With newborn twins my wife and I have had an increased lack of sleep. The sleep deprivation reminds me of how much sleep brings glory to God. God does not sleep (Psalm 121:3-4). He has no need of it. He never grows weary (Isaiah 40:28). The way that sleep brings glory to God is that it demonstrates physically our own inability to be completely self-sufficient. We physically need a break. We are dependent upon sleep to help us function properly. It is a reminder every day that we are not God. For the Christian it is a means of committing our way to God and physically demonstrating our utter need by entering into sleep meditating on Him. We commit our way to Him and trust that He will bring it pass. As a matter of fact our weariness should be a thing that drives us to greater dependence upon God. Isaiah 40:31 promises that if we wait on the Lord we will find Him renewing our strength. By focusing our minds and hearts on Him in the midst of weariness He promises to strengthen us so that we make it through. Join me in embracing our blessed rest in God to the glory of His name.

Sometimes even pagans acknowledge the wisdom of God

There is a social article on CNN.com called, "I believe in evolution, he doesn't". The article is in a "dear Abby" like column where Wendy Atterberry (aka: the Frisky) weighs in on peoples questions about life. What caught my attention about the article is the way that the Frisky ends up advising the couple. She basically says, "that beliefs are the basis for entire life philosophies values and behavior." She goes on to say that, "if the couple can't talk nicely about it (evolution vs. creation) now, it won't get any better later." She says that if she is not willing to accept him as an equal and back off then she should probably move on. Wow!! I almost could not believe what I was reading. God tells us in His word to not be unequally yolked with unbelievers (2 Corinthians 6:14). This woman is basically saying something similar but not exactly the same. She is pragmatically pointing out that it probably will not work and she would be better moving on. As a Christian I would be saying to the guy, "Do you really love God more than your evolutionist girlfriend?" Because at the end of the day if you really love God more, then the girlfriends beliefs will have to change or there will always be dissension, which is not pleasing to God. But what is really going on is that the guy probably really loves the girl more than God. So the issue is that he is trying to reconcile it all into one package. You may say that this is hard but Jesus is the one who said, “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me (Matthew 10:37-38).” In this case the guy has chosen the girl over the cross, and it is the girl getting the good advice from a pagan source. This is one more indication of how far a Christian can drift from the mooring of glorifying God in whatever they do (1 Corinthians 10:31). What is the solution? We need to get people to turn back to pursing God passionately with all that they are.

How fears point us to God

CNN has an article on their site called, "Who's afraid of snakes, spiders, vomit?" While the article deals with phobias it brings up a good point for Christians to consider. The very first time that we see fear mentioned in the Bible is when Adam tells the God that he heard Him and was afraid and hid himself (Genesis 3:10). Fear is a result of the fall and I think that in all of eternity this will be borne out. 2 Timothy 1:7 tells us that God has not given us a spirit of fear but God gave us a spirit of power, love and self-control. The main thing here is that power, love and self-control are all things that put fear to death. It is even this idea of self-control that counselors use to treat phobias. What should our goal be as Christian living a God focused life? To be so consumed with a desire for God and His kingdom that the things of this earth that produce fear in us are minimized. To put it another way we can say that we do not fear man or beast because God has ordained the day of our death (Hebrews 9:27). Men may try to intimidate us but we do not fear them because the power of God is greater than that of any man. Ultimately the thing that will fill our heart with the confidence we need to face and overcome fears of all kinds is the love of God filling and permeating our hearts. 1 John 4:18 says “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.” The love of God experienced in the context of a relationship with Him will fortify our hearts against fear.

Evangelistic motivation

As I reflected on the past two blogs and a thoughtful comment from Dwayne that added some great clarity I thought I might pursue some other aspects of this topic that I think are really important. From the perspective of living a God focused life what should be someones motivation to share the gospel. In many ways this is where the rubber meets the road when it comes to the focus of our theology. If you follow a man centered view of God then your motivation will be something like this:

Man is responsible before God for his sin and man is in need of a Savior. Jesus told us to be the ones to go and make disciples (Matthew 28:19) so it is my responsibility. If I do not go then they will not hear and they might go to hell if I fail them so I must go. I don't want to see people in eternity looking at me and asking me why I did not tell them. 

In this scenario God is simply a responder to man. He stands on the sidelines and waits to be called in to play and do His part. In this situation if I fail to tell someone then their eternal damnation might be on my hands. The main motivation in this situation is guilt and/or fear.
In a God focused God centered scenario it might look something like this:

Man is responsible before God for his sin and rejection of God. Man is dead in his sins (Ephesians 2:1-3) and he hates God being presented to him in any way even though he desperately needs Jesus (Romans 1:18-20). The reason that the natural man hates God is because God would dethrone the god of self from our lives. The main way in which God does this is through the work of evangelism (Romans 10:13-17). The Holy Spirit uses the words of men to communicate the message of salvation found in the Bible to hearts of the fallen (Ephesians 2:5). This communicated word of God brings about a work of redemption that leads to repentance. It is through this manifest grace and faith that one comes to Christ and is saved (Ephesians 2:8-9). God began the work and he will complete it (Philippians 1:6). My role in evangelism is simply the sower of seed (Matthew 13:1-23). Truly if God did not intervene in preparing hearts no one would ever come to Him because no seed would ever take root (Ezekiel 36:26).

In this scenario God is the initiator and the central player. He does not stand on the sidelines but is in play in all people's lives at all times. He even sustains my breath as I write this (Daniel 5:23). What then is my motivation to share the good news? When I look at God's creation and realize who saved me it is incredible. Just think the one who made all of the most magnificent most majestic and most awe inspiring things that we see is more magnificent than all of them put together. This utterly inspiring and incomprehensible being not only has forgiven me and saved me but has adopted me as His child and desires for me to know Him. I can hardly contain the thought. He has others that He is calling. They need to hear. He has asked me to be a messenger just like He has asked all believers. He asked me! I used to be a rebel against Him and He wants me to represent Him. I feel completely inadequate to be that representative but He promises that the Spirit He has sent to indwell me will be the one to apply the word to the hearts of others. How awesome is that! So I prepare as best as I can, to be a faithful and good representative and I go because He has called me to. We have this incredible privilege to share this great news with people who are in desperate need. My motivation is a great honor that is bestowed on me that I do not deserve and a great love that has been poured out on me that I can't comprehend. There is no guilt. There is no fear. There is only the joy of sharing this news and the anticipation of the joy that someone else will get to experience as well. So join me in the God focused evangelistic quest as we share the marvelous message of redemption that is ours in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Understanding Christianity's role in politics

Yesterday I talked about how Christianity should not really be associated with a political party. So how does Christianity come into play. Trusting in Jesus and following Him is not about joining a club or being part of a team. It is first and foremost about a relationship. It is about pursuing knowing and loving God. In Matthew 22:37 Jesus said, “And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” Jesus calls us first and foremost to love Him. Political parties are formed around ideas and ideals not relationships. When we reduce the relationship with God offered to us by Jesus death on the cross to a political ideal we cheapen it. Are we called to impact the world? Clearly! In Acts 17:6 the Jason and some others were accused of being part of those who have turned the world upside down. What were they doing that turned the world upside down? They were introducing others to Jesus. These people were so affected by the relationship with Jesus that they stopped worshipping the emperor. They were willing to face persecution and death rather than stop following Jesus. The way to influence and change politics is to change hearts. When hearts are changed and committed to following Jesus in everything then laws will change because the people have changed. The problem we face as a church in general is we have become too much like the world. 1 John 2:15-16 is instructive. It lists three things as being of the world.

1. Desires of the flesh
2. Desires of the eyes
3. Pride in possessions

For the most part most people who would call themselves evangelical Christians embrace these things. Those of us who are seeking to live a God focused life if we are honest struggle with these things at some level. These things make us an enemy of God and put us in alliance with the world. We must return to living lives that have an unquenchable desire for God alone. This is the really the only antidote to the influence of the world and the best hope for changing hearts and lives. This is the only real role Christianity should play in politics.

What's the focus?

My book, "THE GOD FOCUSED LIFE" just came out this week I had a meeting about church related items with a representative from a local Christian bookstore today so I took a copy with me to show him. As we discussed the topic of the book I pointed out that the book addresses often unrealized cultural barriers to loving and pursuing God. That seemed like a good topic to talk about in today's blog. I explained that one of the things that marks most of the devotionals produced in America is a basic pattern. The books typically ask us to summarize the passage being addressed or they summarize it in some unique manner. Then most books ask what does this mean for you or how does this apply to your life. While this is not necessarily a bad question it is the focus of the question that creates a problem for us. You see in this scenario God becomes a means to an end, and the end is us. To look at it another way think about the last movie you went to see or perhaps the last book you read or music you bought. Did any of those things happen because someone you know and like suggested them to you? Most of us are dramatically affected by relationships. We find our decisions influenced by those who are close to us. Similarly a relationship with God that is focused on God will have a dramatic impact on what movies we see, what books we read and what music we listen to. Why? Because a relationship with God will be helping us to know God better. If you ever received a letter from someone that you love you probably did not read it to figure out how it applied to your life. You read it to know the other person better. If they mentioned something that happened that caused them pain you would instantly make note of it. Applying something like that to your life about someone you love is automatic. The reason that I think this is a much needed topic and a really big deal is that the church by a large number shows a great disregard for the things that God does not like. The common catch phrase is that we live under grace. Indeed we do. But if we really loved God would we want to selfishly do whatever we wanted? If we cared about the relationship with Him would we treat His desires with such a high degree of disregard? Doesn't Jesus call us to die to self? As for me and my family we will seek to live a life focused on loving and pursuing God.

Does what we do matter?

Perhaps a better question is, "Does Jesus matter to you?" In the early church Justin Martyr talked about how the lives of Christians were remarkably different than their neighbors and accusers lives. He pointed out that they were different because of Jesus Christ. Why is it that Christians that you see during the week very often do not look any different from the world. What have we lost as Jesus bride. Do we feel like Christianity is binding and restricting? I can't count the number of times I have heard some version of the following phrase, "We live under grace not under the law!" What is that supposed to mean? I really do not get it. Which of the laws in the moral law is such a bad and restricting thing? Don't kill seems like a good idea. Don't steal is one I like. Not lying makes for better relationships. No adultery is a good one too. Honoring your parents is a good idea and a good example. Not coveting would help us all to be more content so I'm not sure that ones a bad one either. I guess when we really look at it, the laws of God that everyone hates are the first ones. We all want to nurture our own little god's. We want to be able to bow down and worship them on our weekends and our vacations. You know what they are. You want to feel like you can have them and Jesus too. You don't want to set one whole day a week aside to honor God in your life. You see we don't have a problem with the law. We have a problem with God. We want the idols of money, sex, power, porn, drugs, position, etc. We sense innately that those things and Jesus are incompatible. We sense that God is going to ask us to give them up. Your right! Once you give them up you will find that you do not miss them. You will look back on what you thought was freedom and see that it was empty and unfulfilling. You will never regret pursuing Jesus with all that you are. When you start to pursue knowing God you will find real fulfillment and satisfaction. You will find your actions changing because you will see the law, not as a restriction or a performance ladder to climb, you will see it as a means by which you might embrace pleasing the one you have come to love (Psalm 19:7-11). You see it is never a burden to please the ones that we love. So you see what we do does matter. It tells everyone around us what and who we love. May God fill our hearts with a passion for Him so that we might be more faithful in pursuing a life focused on Him.