Applying the Gospel to Life – 2009 ABC Men’s Conference Recap

I’ll bet you are wondering what a disco ball has to do with a confernce recap?  You think I’d tell you right off the bat? C’mon. What fun would that be? Read on, my friend.

Last weekend, I had the great joy of being with 180 other men deep in the Adirondack mountains – fellowshiping with them, worshipping with them, praying with them, listening to great teaching with them…and stuffing my face with them at Camp of the Woods.

The conference ran (“officially”) Fri PM to Sat PM…but once again, I stayed an extra night (thank you Ian and Susan!) in order to attend the Sunday AM service at Adirondack Bible Chapel. ABC actually hosted the whole conference and once again did an AMAZING job…they are some of the most humble, loving, hospitable, Christ-filled brothers anyone could hope to spend time with. It is a true joy to be with them.

I also was thoroughly blessed to play again with Mike Peck, Gary Mure, and Laura Peck with some great worship…to hear 180 men sing is pretty wild…kinda felt like I was in the Marines or something, but then realizing that they were all praising God made it sweeter!

Milton focused our attention on “Applying the Gospel to Life” in key areas such as the lost, those who wrong you, our wives, and our fellow Christians. Milton was also there last year, again saturating us with the Gospel and focusing us on the cross from his book The Gospel Primer. So, I kinda knew what to expect and was looking forward to another infusion of truth from this dear brother.

Milton defines “evangelize” as (1) to preach the gospel (2) to impart the gospel to others thru word and deed and -my fav - (3)to be a living embodiment of the gospel in relationship with others. Ouch. He hasn’t gotten past the first page of his overview…not even the first paragraph and already I’m convicted. Am I a “living embodiment” of the gospel to others? Ummm….sometimes?! His church has a saying “Always evangelizing, always being evangelized” – in other words we need to always be on mission, but we need to always, even (especially?) as Christians be reminded of the gospel and make it our center – always pointing to the gospel of Jesus and His work on the cross and applying it to every situation – it is the power of God!

Hopefully, I can do this well, but here are the high points from the outlines, with any relevant notes I made…

Session #1: Evangelizing the Lost

1. Infuse the gospel into your life, and then give your life away to people…do we do this with our neighbors, co-workers, parents do we do this with our kids, husbands our wives?
2. Be righteous, do good deeds, and suffer well. 
3. Do loving community with your fellow Christians….thru these examples of community, of hospitality you give others a view into your family — do we treat our family in a way that “embodies the gospel?” — so much so that if people saw it as you ‘did loving community’ they would be drawn more to Christ?
4. Care enough to weep and pray for the lost…if you don’t feel the burden, ask God to give it to you.   Here’s a thought ‘invite God to share in saving someone’.  Yikes.  How many times do we take that on our own?!  Hello…NOT our work to save, kids- we only scatter the seed, not change hearts. 
5. When you share the gospel, begin with God…not sin, not the Law.  The 10 Commandments start with “I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the the land of Egypt” (Ex 20:2) — why would we start with anything else other than God?  Also, this affects our perspective – We need to understand who we ALL have sinned against – ‘the greatness of our sin is the realization of how great is the one against whom we have sinned”
6. Be willing to celebrate and make use of ways the God is already acting as their savior…this blew me away.  God does show kindness and goodness to those who even reject him.  First, by letting them breath his air (OK “sustaining them”), but why?  Don’t panic, this isn’t ‘universalism’ this instead points out the purpose of God’s kindness – it’s not to stop and dwell on the blessings, but it should lead to repentance…Rom 2:4.  God’s blessings are supposed to lead people back to GOD, not the blessings. Ask God to do “great kindness” that will lead someone to repentance.
7. Speak of sin (and when you do, speak of it being against GOD)…they are not only sins, they are sins against God, that’s a much different perspective.  We can’t get around speaking of sin if we are truly sharing the gospel.  There are false prophets out there that will tell us that we can’t mention sin…they need ‘positive affirmation’ not ‘guilt’.  Unfortunately, that’s a load of doo-doo. We are ALL sinners, and God’s grace is AMAZING to save us from it thru Christ.
8. Speak much of the Savior and His Cross…AMEN!  Fresh from #7, when we talk of the “bad news” of sin, be very quick to get to the good news of Christ – His mercy and grace that saves us and forgives us.
9. Call upon people to repent and believe….at some point, we will need to get to that decision point, to obey the command of the Lord, the gospel isn’t just a set of facts, it is also a command — “Repent and believe” – (Mark 1:15)
10. Leave the results to God…

Session #2: Evangelizing those who wrong you…

Forgive – (v) to release a person from the consequences he deserves from you as a result of his sin against you; to positively show him favor he does not deserve.

Milton outlined 4 steps to forgiveness:

1. Go to the cross and do some gospel thinking…great quote from JC Ryle “A spiteful, quarrelsome Christian is a scandal…it is doubtful that such a one has sat at  the foot of the cross.”  Seriously…it’s pretty easy to forgive someone when we get the perspective that Christ died for my MANY sins.  We all sent Christ to the cross by our sins, we all are “murderers of God”.  A slightly more accurate way of interpreting Is 53:5 may be “he was pierced FROM our transgressions, crushed FROM our sin.” Before you start to simmer and boil over about how you’ve been wronged, think about how you have wronged God…
   1. Realize that I have committed greater evils against God…how do you see your own sin?  It probably is in direct proportion to the measure of grace you feel from God.  If you see your sin as a “2″ then maybe you think of God’s grace as a “2″ – in actuality all sin is a great offense to God.  If we see our sin and thus our grace from God as a “10″ — then aren’t you way more able to see evidences of God’s grace in someone else’s sin?
   2. Glory to God, Christ has purchased my forgiveness and justification
   3. Sometimes God purposes those whom he loves deeply to be painfully sinned against
   4. I am purchased and owned by God; and now I live to serve his purposes, not mine
   5. God the Father can be trusted completely on the receiving end of any wrongdoing
   6. Christ has suffered and I am suffering right now, which means I am never alone in any pain (Jesus also bore our “sorrows and griefs – Is 53:4)
   7. Forgiveness is suffering (that’s why people choose bitterness, it’s EASIER!)
2. Chose to forgive the way you’ve been forgiven…and do this in prayer, before GOD, yeah…that’s right…forgive them in prayer before GOD himself, as if you need another reminder of YOUR own sin and how in light of that, you need to forgive others.
3. Pray for the person who has wronged you…even pray that God blesses them….yikes.
4. Make yourself an agent of blessing in that person’s life….dont’ stop at just praying for them, actively seek to be a blessing for them

Session #3 – Evangelizing your wife

I loved his comments in the intro here, how humble he was…still seeking to grow in his marriage…he said “I’m about a year away from being a good husband.”  AMEN.  Me too! By his grace!

Quick facts about marriage:

1. Marriage was created by God, so it’s his intellectual property = we have no right to redefine it
2. The first sins occurred in the context of marriage
3. The institution of marriage got hammered as a result of the fall (remember what God said to Adam and Eve in Gen 3:16-19)
4. God intends for Christian marriages to be molded and shaped by the Gospel…check out Eph 5:23-32 and how many times “as” and “just as” are used.  Ex. 5:23: For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church.” The better we understand the gospel, the better we will understand marriage!

Milton also talked about being “good news” or being the “embodiment of the gospel” to your wife…amazing…he identified 6 ways to be the good news to  your wife:

1. Love your wife as Christ loveD the church. Notice that Eph 5:25 is PAST tense, Christ loveD the church by giving himself completely to her. In other words he loveD the church – look at the cross!
   • sacrificially –How many husbands would take a bullet for their wives, yet not give up their pride and selfishness?! True love is finding our joy in our wives joy.
   • purposefully  — be intentional
   • pre-emptively…don’t wait for her to start ‘doing what you want her to’ or ‘doing her part’ before you start loving her as Christ loved the church dude. 
2. Love your wife as your own body, just like Christ loveS the church…now this is present tense.  How does he lovE the church now…look in Eph 5 again – v29: nourishes and cherishes…in other words — not lecturing your wife, not distancing yourself from your wife in silence…but actively nourishing it. 
   • Milton told a great story of a picture of a wilted plant he has in his office with a sign on the pot that says “Its the SOIL, stupid.”  We are caretakers of the soil, don’t look for another flower to put in your bad soil – take care of the soil.  You wonder why men go from wife to wife to wife?  They aren’t taking care of the soil and keep looking for another “prettier” flower to put in bad soil!!
   • Be a lavishing husband – love her as she wants to be loved, not how YOU want her to be loved.  Men are different…we process differently communicate differently…be aware of this and make an effort to communicate well
3. Love your wife as you do yourself, just as Christ does the church…Eph 5:32
4. Dwell with your wife according to knowledge….knowledge of God’s word, of HER (be a student of your wife), knowledge of your and her weaknesses, model repentance- confess your sins to your wife! 
5. Honor her as a fellow heir of the grace of life…she will never be more beautiful than when you see her in the context of the gospel.
6. Pray with your wife….DO this, amazing intimacy here dudes.
   1. Prayer is the pinnacle of marriage
   2. Prayer is the first miracle – the fact that we can even TALK to God is a miracle in and of itself, thank you Jesus for your work
   3. Prayer is hard…is makes us face our own helplessness…well it should if done right…
   4. Prayer provides an opportunity to celebrate evidences of His grace we see in our lives.
   5. Pray also for ways to be the good news to each other

Session #4 “Mopping Up”

Milton called this session “Mopping Up” and he used the time wisely to tie up some loose ends.

1. The Gospel works…yes, it may seem obvious, but it really does.  As a matter of fact, it’s the ONLY thing that does:
   1. 2 Cor 3:18 – ¹⁸And we all, with unveiled face,^(A) beholding^(B) the glory of the Lord,^[a](C) are being transformed into the same image^(D) from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
   2. He brought an actual human rib with him that he keeps on his desk (I hope it was from reputable establishment!) to remind himself that we are all “Not very pretty and not much to work with”  – we are all created by God’s design and need the gospel daily.
2. Marriage…the devil will often attack society by attacking families, and often the wife is the first target.   As husbands we cannot be so entangled and distracted by sin that we then allow satan to attack our unguarded wives. (Luke 11:21) – that is NOT being good  news to your wife.
3. Ask yourself – “Do you really understand the gospel?” Embrace the opportunities to re-enact the gospel when you are wronged – model Christ. We are also called to be a conduit of his grace, we must pass it on if we understand the true gospel.
4. Pray – for wisdom, for divinely crafted opportunities to show grace
5. Be an agent of blessing – don’t even broadcast it, be willing to do a kind deed anonymously
6. Crucifixion is required – again, modeling the gospel we are to take up our own crosses daily and die to our desires and live for Christ
7. Forgiveness – if we are still angry…did it work?  The answer: yes, for 5 full minutes.  Now it’s time to forgive again!  Remember, sin is multifaceted like a disco ball having many mirrors that all reflect the light in different directions, you will come to see different aspects of someones sin against you and you will need to forgive each one of them.  As for when we mess up and need to be foregived…True humilty is confessing the wrong and owning the hurt, become a student of the hurt, be willing to look at the hurt…remember forgiveness is painful, but required.
8. Does forgiveness = trust?  No: we can’t give wholesale trust back immediately after it’s been violated. The answer is also ‘yes’ – there is an opportunity to re-earn their trust, but it takes diligence in pursuing forgiveness (see #7 above!)
9. When I mess up – RUN to the cross and keep it cross-centered…AMEN!
10. Remember there are 2 qualifications for salvation:  (1) you must be a sinner!  (2) must believe in Jesus. 

Session #5 (At ABC Sunday AM) – Evangelizing Your Fellow Christians

I will link to the audio for this one, as I didn’t have my notebook with me for some stupid reason on Sunday AM!

Rest…solitude…fellowship…renewal…and a honkin’ huge buffet

In a few hours I leave the annual Adirondack Bible Church Men’s Conference in beautiful NY state at Camp of the Woods. Our speaker again this year is Milton Vincent, author of The Gospel Primer. I LOVED his messages last year and can’t wait to hear him again this year and get fed with some truth from God’s Word. I’m also excited to be playing bass for worship again, with Mike Peck and some great servants.

Full update on my return!

-M

Val

Yesterday, a dear family friend went home to be with Jesus.  Val was very special to us – oftentimes the way to a parent’s heart is thru their children and “Miss Val” loved children, she loved our children, both Mikey and Morgan had her in Sunday School.  She was a source of light and joy to all who knew her.

I was thankful that last night in our family reading and study of the book of John, we were up to John 5.  Jesus is again tangling with the Jewish Pharisees who are more worried about the tiny infractions than keeping the whole spirit and purpose of the Law.  Jesus finally just lays it down for them and essentially says…”Guys, seriously, look…(John 5:23b-24)

Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. Truly, truly I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.”

There are some really important things in those verses.  First of all, Jesus inextricably links himself with the Father. If you were to back up farther in verses 19-23 you’d see he expands further on this. Jesus is from the Father, he really can’t say it any more clearly than that.  I’m it guys.  Hello?  Do you not get it yet?  Your whole religious lives are set up to honor God but you are failing to see that God sent me, and so you really aren’t honoring him then, are you?

Second, he explains the way of salvation and guaranteed eternal life. 

“Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me, has eternal life.”

If anyone hears what Jesus is saying, and you believe he is from the Father – he “has” eternal life.  Not “will have” eternal life. Not “could have” eternal life if you keep all the crazy laws about not carrying your mat on the Sabbath…”has”.  As in already has it.  Already obtained. A present reality.  This means there is no gap in our life if we understand who Jesus was and believe.  This means that moment Miss Val closed her eyes and breathed her last breath here on Earth, she opened her eyes in the presence of Jesus.  Think about that for a minute.

Third, those who believe Jesus “will not come into judgement.”  Why?  Well, a clue is back in verse 22 – “the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son.” If we understand who Jesus was where then was this judgement of our sins? On the cross.  That’s where Jesus, the Son, paid for all the sins of the “whole world” (1 John 1:22).  We all have a choice, God has offered his Son Jesus for the payment of the sins of the whole world – however if we do not come to understand that, we cannot then have our sins judged on the cross – our sins are still ‘on us.’ (John 3:36).   When Jesus returns, he will be returning to judge the sins of those who have not come to faith in Him, and that is place no one wants to be. Is God trying to get your attention? Is he stirring up your heart to know more about this?  Is he beginning to open your eyes so that you understand this?

Fourth, if you believe, if God has opened your eyes and given you understanding of this message – look at the end of v24- ”has passed from death to life.”  Now it’s past tense, like ’already happened.’  “Passed.” Our names are already written in the book of life, our sins are judged on the cross and we have assurance of eternal life.

Colossians 1:13-14 helps us out here too — (notice the use of more past tense!)

He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

  As I was talking and praying with Val’s husband on the phone last night, a part of us was rejoicing in the assurance of knowing that Val is already with the Father, already praising Jesus – she is receiving the benefits now of these wonderful words on John, and the rock solid promises that will get their family thru these coming days and years.

We love you, Val.  Can’t wait to worship with you again.

Reflections from Sunday

I really enjoyed today, though the worship time was a bit shorter than usual, I really enjoyed the songs – if you are only going to do a few songs…make them powerful, weighty songs rich in truth, eh?  It was also a communion Sunday which is always special!

1. I Exalt Thee (Sanchez)
2. You are Holy (MWS Smith)
3. Come Thou Fount (custom version)
4. Power of the Cross (Getty/Townend)

Today, after we hear from the Word, we will be celebrating Communion together.  We will be remembering the sacrifice that our Lord Jesus made on the cross to pay the penalty, the price, the cost of our sin – not only our sins, but the sins of the whole world.

 Pastor has been preaching on the coming of Christ and the life in Heaven that we will enjoy if we have put our faith in Jesus and that sacrifice.  It would be good to pause before we sing this next song to realize that we will never forget the sacrifice on the cross Jesus did when we get to heaven.  He is both the means and the end for us in Heaven.  He is the only way we can get to heaven, and he is the main object in heaven – we will forever worship this sacrificial “lamb” – here listen to what Revelation Chap 5:11-14 says:

 11Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering(S) myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, 12saying with a loud voice,(T) “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” 13And I heard(U) every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!” 14And the four living creatures(V) said, “Amen!” and the elders(W) fell down and worshiped.

JC Ryle says that one day preaching and praying will cease, but praise will never die.

 We will forever praise Jesus for his work on the cross. This next song explains the power of the cross – Christ became sin for us, took the blame, bore the wrath – and we – we stand forgiven at the cross.

 If you have faith in Jesus Christ – today – you are forgiven because of the cross – you stand justified before God because of the power of that sacrifice that Jesus made for you.

 Let’s sing and praise him, as we will do forever, for the Power of the Cross.

 

…but my rights?! 1 Cor 9

Click here to read 1 Corinthians Chapter 9 online.

We are continuing in our expositional study of 1 Corinthians – somebody remind me what expositional means?

Tonight we are up to Chap 9. And we see this section is mostly about Paul talking about his rights…my section heading says “Paul Surrenders His Rights”

Verses 1-12 he basically gives evidence for why he “deserves” his rights. He talks about being an apostle – what does apostle mean? According to the ESV Study Bible:

Apostles (plural of Gk. apostolos; used only here in Matthew; see note on Rom. 1:1) describes those commissioned to be Jesus’ special representatives, while “disciples” (Matt. 10:1) was also used more broadly to refer to anyone who believed in Jesus

He says look even oxen get to eat while they work! (Don’t muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain…Deut 25:4)

Then we see a turning point in v13. A big word, a word used to show a shifting of thought – “Nevertheless”

Nevertheless we have not made use of this right, but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ

Here we have Paul’s main thought to this chapter – hear this – the gospel is more important than anything…even my own rights and I will not put anything in the way of it.

Paul is mainly talking about money. Getting paid to preach or getting support from local churches to continue his ministry. Did he have a right to? Absolutely, but he didn’t want that to get in the way of the gospel. He would rather not get paid at all than get paid and have that get in the way of the gospel – he didn’t want any suspicion of his motives.

1-The Gospel is the most important thing

So here we see the first thing I want you to walk away with tonight – the gospel is really really really important, in fact there is nothing more important. Look at verse 16 “Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! More than anything. In one of my favorite verses 1 Cor 15:3 Paul says that the gospel is of first importance. What do we mean by “the gospel” Why is the gospel so important? It is the message of Jesus Christ it is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes (Rom 1:16). It is the main storyline of the whole Bible. Did you know that? Everything written in the OT points to Jesus Christ and his message. Points to the coming of the Messiah, shows God’s sovereign hand as he carves out a Jewish nation from which the Messiah (Jesus) will come. As a church, the gospel and message and work of Jesus, needs to direct everything we do.

Can we really get in the way of that? Well, sort of. The bible is very clear that if the gospel is being preached in purity not even the gates of Hell can stand against it, (Matt 16:18) but we in our own foolishness and selfishness can put stumbling blocks in the way of our brothers and sisters to obscure it.

When I preached on Sunday morning a few weeks back, I had a minor dilemma. It was more of a fashion crisis actually. I hate wearing suits. I really do. Sometimes I just have to, as an Elder, or at work for a meeting or a wedding or what have you…but I really would rather not. Plus I felt that I really wanted to express some freedom in Christ and wear jeans when I preached that Sunday morning. I mean it was my right, wasn’t it? Show me in the bible where it says “Thou shalt not weareth denim to bring the word.” I was bound and determined. I made a side comment to my good friend and trusted brother Tim Witten, he replied with a very simple but very profound sentence. “Do you want them to hear the word of God, or do you want them to look at your jeans?” Ouch. He was right. So, I wore a suit. I wanted to not distract anyone from hearing the word of God with anything I was wearing.

Do we distract or hinder people from seeing the Gospel? Maybe people who know we are Christians and we do things that are a bit “non-Christian?” Small stuff — like curse or go to a party or what have you. Aren’t you really clouding their view of Christ?

2-All Things to All People, with a purpose

Paul goes on to say in v19-23 that he makes himself a servant to all that I might win more of them. Paul was a pharisee, a Jewish religious leader, his job before apostle was living to kill and persecute Christians, he hated them – but he in fact was stopped in his tracks by the Lord and his life was changed forever. So Paul knows all about the Jewish religion – he knows all about feast and rituals, circumcision and traditions…does he have to follow any of that any more? NO, he is free in Christ. Christ came to set us from the old covenant with a new covenant, but catch what Paul is saying here – this is the 2nd thing I want you to walk away with, Paul purposefully related to people to win them to Christ. Notice the last part of that statement – there was a purpose to this – he wanted to win them to Christ – again it was for the gospel. v23 says “I do it all for the sake of the gospel.” He ‘became all things to all people” This is one of the most misunderstood, taken out of context verses in the Bible. Have you ever heard someone quote “I am all things to all men.” or “I became like all things to all men.” I was watching Larry King on TV, don’t ask me why and he had on Dog the Bounty Hunter…you know that dude, the burly blonde haired dude that goes and catches bail jumpers. He also calls himself a born again Christian. Is he? He claims to be, we learned from the last time I spoke to you all about Chap 5 that it’s not up to us, if someone claims to be a believer we treat them as one and judge their actions accordingly – we don’t know his heart! He said on Larry King, ‘There’s a verse in the Bible – that says I’m all things to all people, and that’s really what I am.” He totally missed the point – Paul was saying he is all things to all people so that he might win them to Christ!

Are you purposefully relating to people to share the gospel with them? Maybe it’s that chick or dude you kinda know from like 4th period health or something…he is into some stuff you like, some stuff you don’t — are you blowing him off? or are you purposefully trying to relate to him in order to expose him to the gospel? Paul did.

So we’ve seen so far that the gospel is the most important thing, even more important than our own “rights”; we’ve seen that Paul purposefully related to people to expose them to the Gospel, now lest look at the last part of the chapter.

3- It Takes Work

The last thing I want you to take home tonight is that it takes a four letter word – WORK. In fact, Paul mentions an even worse word “self-control”. We must master our own bodies, minds, thoughts actions. We must have self-discipline.

v24-26 say….

24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. 25 Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 26 So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. 27 But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

What is the goal of our Christian life here on earth? Our “internal” goal -

BBW (Big Bible Word): sanctification. We are supposed to look like, sound like, smell like Jesus. Another word for it – Holiness.

Our “outward” goal is to go and make disciples (Matt 28:19), but I would argue that to do that most effectively, we need to be growing in personal character like that of Jesus.   We need to make sanctification our goal!  (1 Thess 4:3a)

A great book for you guys to read…it’s not big…it’s small…and it’s very helpful is Jeff Bridges “The Pursuit of Holiness.” In it he has a chapter called “The Place of Personal Discipline”

Here is a great quote:

“Jay Adams puts his finger on the problem when he says “you may have sought and tried to obtain instant godliness. There is no such thing. WE want somebody to give us three easy steps to godliness, and we’ll take them next Friday and be godly. The trouble is, godliness doesn’t come that way.”

God is not in the microwave business, he is in the crock pot business. As cross movement says – he slow roasts a brother, it takes T-I-M-E.

So, how is your discipline coming? Are you, as Paul says, running in such a way to obtain the prize? The prize here being sanctification, the prize after we pass away being glorification – finishing the race well, being in heaven with Jesus. Are you disciplining yourself to live well, to not put a stumbling block in the way of the gospel? To purposefully relate to people to bring them to Christ? Are you being diligent in your work as studying to show yourselves as one approved before God? Are you in the word, faithfully? Regularly…is it changing you? Are you praying faithfully, regularly are you growing closer to God in prayer? Is Christ changing your life? If not, I recommend a few things – 1…a smaller bible word – repent. Tell God that you are sorry for not giving this Christian life thing the best effort and then do it. Knuckle down. Find someone to disciple you, read the word every day, read great books like the Pursuit of Holiness. Train. Discipline. Self control.The Gospel is too important for us to get in the way of others seeing it.

Can We Sing in the Same Room?

This was amazing live…and a great point.

You can’t (and shouldn’t) always get what you want

As Mick Jagger says…you can’t always get what you want…

So, how do we react when the things we pray for intensely get answered with a big fat NO?

Have you ever experienced that?   In my daily reading today,  in the Valley of Vision I came across this wonderful little paragraph:

I thank thee for the many prayers that have been refused
I have asked amiss and do not have,
I have prayed from lusts and been rejected,
I have longed for Egypt and been given a wilderness.

About a year and a half ago I was inches away from relocating to take a job.  I prayed intensely about this, Melanie was on board, I had gone thru 5 (count ‘em) FIVE interviews, we were really starting to get excited.

Then I get a cold, cruel e-mail from the admin simply saying, in form-letter-like fashion – “Thanks for your interests, but we are pursuing other candidates.”

In a word – I was near devastation. I was looking for the quickest route up to the roof in order to jump off.  I recall reading the e-mail out of the corner of my eye, and having someone come in my office to ask me a question and I didn’t hear a word they said.  I just needed to go and call my wife and start the old  “Can you believe that!?” routine.

A year and a half later,  I am very thankful that God didn’t say yes to my request – for a variety of reasons.

This isn’t going to be one of those “See, everything has a reason” posts.  I really get kinda nauseous when I hear that. The reason is that we need to submit to God and his sovereignty, and following him has a high cost – because ultimately it’s not about us, it’s about Him. We are like King Julien who says “It’s all about ME.”

Today I was in Luke 14 where Jesus is talking about the cost of discipleship.  In a word – if you want to follow me, it’s not going to be about you, it’s going to be about ME – so you’d better really seriously consider that before you become my disciple and understand what you are getting into.  Luke 14:33 says:

So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

Look at what Christ renounced for me?  His LIFE.  Temporarily…His GLORY, when he came to Earth on mission to be our payment, our justification, our righteousness. He calls us to be ready to do the same for him. For in losing our very life for Him – we will actually save it.

So, do I always understand and accept that perfectly? Oh heck no. But these passages are such good reminders of what we are called to as followers of Christ.

It goes against our own selfishness, right?

I think that may be why Jesus uses such strong language here, he knows our selfish hearts.

Romans 12:1-2…Let’s be rational about this…

Is basically what Paul is saying…I never got that until today…

That became readily apparent as I came upon the chapter “Paul and the Service of the Gospel” in David Peterson’s book “Engaging with God, a Biblical Theology of Worship.”

The author translates Rom 12:1-2 as:

Therefore, I urge you brothers, in view of God’s mercies, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, which is your understanding worship

“Understanding” worship?  Where the heck did he get that?

Even the mighty ESV has “spiritual worship.”  (KJV says “reasonable service…” a clue here…)

First, it’s important to realize that Paul is saying “therefore” – in other words, ‘because of the last 11 chapters I just explained to you about the amazing sacrifice of our Lord and Savior Jesus…think this way about worship’

On the one had you had the traditional Jews who still were advocating the traditional animal sacrifice for worship. On the other hand you have the Greeks saying “Animal sacrifice? Yikes. How gross. Let’s be ‘reasonable’ about this.”

Reasonable.  Logical. The words in question here in the Greek are “logike latreia.”   Looking it up on BlueLetterBible.com  – - ‘logiko’ agreeable to reason and ‘latreia’ – the service and ministry of God.

So, what is Paul saying we should be rational about?

In light of the fact that God sent His Son Jesus to die for my sin, in light of the cross, the amazing mediation, in light of the Gospel of Jesus – your worship should be the giving of your whole bodies – an ‘extreme realism’ as it is referred to in the book.

I’ll close with a direct quote from Peterson -

It may be best to read ‘understanding worship’ and to recognize from the context that this means ‘the worship which is consonant with the truth of the gospel, or the service rendered by those who truly understand the gospel and it’s implications‘

In other words – look what God has done for YOU.  The least you can do is offer your whole lives – every bit of them, every inch and dark corner of your heart, to him in service as worship.  I mean…let’s be rational here.

-M

Seeds

The parable of the sower is found in 3 places: Matt 13, Mark 4, and Luke 8.

It’s been one of those passages that I’ve read over and over…until now of course. 

There are 4 kinds of seeds that Jesus mentions: (“seed” meaning the word of God…the Gospel)

1. PATH Seeds: Seeds that fall on the path: these seeds fell out of the sowers’ hands or bag…obviously he didn’t want to plant seeds on the path, but they fell there.  Jesus explains:
   • When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. (Matthew 3:19)
   • And these are the ones along the path, whtere the word is sown; when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them (Mark 4:15)
   •  The ones along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts so that they may not believe and be saved (Luke 8:12)
2. ROCKY Soil seeds:
   • As for what was sown on rocky ground this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself but endures for a little while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away. (Matt 13:20)
   • And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy. And they have no root in themselves, but endure for a little while; then when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away.  (Mark 4:16)
   • And the ones on the rock are those who when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing they fall away.
3. THORNY soil seeds:
   • As for what was sown among the thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word,and it proves unfruitful (Matt 13:22)
   • And others that are the ones sown amonth thorns. They are those who hear the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful (Mark 4:18-19)
   • And as for what fell among the thornds, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choled by the cares and riches and pleasures of life and their fruit does not mature. (Luke 8:14)
4. GOOD soils seeds:
   • As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, on another sixty, and in another thirty. (Matt 13: 23)
   • But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word, and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold. (Mark 4:20)
   • And as for the good soil,the are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience. (Luke 8:15)

Again, I read thru the whole thing, to be blown away at the end of the comparisons. 

And as for the good soil,the are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.

Where did THAT come from?  I don’t think I’ve ever noticed that before?  How do I “hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience?”

I’m not good at holding things fast…and especially not good at patience.

But yet that is what we are called to do, by Jesus himself no less.

We are called to maintain, as Cross Movement says “hold it down.”

It brings to mind another similar passage in Colossians 1:22-23:

And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, IF indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you have heard…

That is a very active Christianity.

Not the “I-went-forward-and-prayed-’The-Prayer’-at-VBS-when-I-was-6-so-I’m-good” Christianity.

Once again, the “Valley of Vision” daily read has crashed into my Bible reading.  I love it when that happens.

Check out “A Neophyte’s Devotion” and you’ll see what I mean.

“let me be what I profess, do as well as teach, live as well as hear religion”

I’m off to pray for ‘an honest and good heart and to bear fruith with patience’ – I’ll need lots of help and grace for that.

-M

Jesus is a friend of mine

Not sure where to look here, there is so much going on…

The “dancing”, the matching vests, or all the theological mistakes in their lyrics.

O LORD HELP US!

Either way, I cannot STOP watching this!  Does that make me weird?

-M