Unamazing Grace

As I read through the Bible I love to see the progression and connection of truth. I am currently reading through the book of Matthew. The teachings of Jesus are always profound but are often best understood when we take the time to see how they connect and build on one another. This blog (and some others to follow) is some truth God has spoken to me as he has shown me some connections of truth in the teachings of Jesus. To better understand the truth I am going to share you might want to read Matthew 9-11.

In Matthew 9:27-31, Jesus has an encounter with and heals some blind men. There is an interesting twist to this story compared to our lives as Christ-followers today. Jesus gave these men specific instructions to not tell anyone about him or what he had done for them. He told them to do the exact opposite of what he has told us to do. We have been commanded to share this truth and Gospel to the ends of the earth. Yet, here is the twist. We, having been told to speak out, remain silent while these who were told to remain silent spoke out.

WHY?

Over the next couple of chapters Jesus touches on some truths that all scratch the surface of this issue. I want to take some time to just scratch the surface of each one and I might scratch deeper on each of the individual issues in some later blogs.

First he says that the harvest is ripe but the workers are few. This statement comes after we hear of Jesus' compassion and heart for the spiritual condition of the world around him. Quick truth is the fields still remain largely empty because we do not share his compassion for the world around us.

Then in Matthew 10 Jesus speaks of the great sacrifices required to follow him. The truth is boiled down to the truth that we must take our cross and follow after him. This will mean putting the Gospel before family at times in our lives. This will mean being ridiculed and criticized. This will mean being persecuted and put down. These realities should be the expectations of every Christ-followers life not the exception.

Then in Matthew 11 he flips the truth around and says ""Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." At first glance this sounds nothing like cross bearing, but look a little deeper. Take my "yoke" and my "burden."

So what is Jesus Christ saying about following him with these two very different sounding teachings and how does it connect to the blind men speaking in the face of instruction for silence?

Too many Christians today are completely unamazed by God's grace. I believe that is true because so many of us came to know Christ early in our lives and we fail to see the reality of God's grace. Let me use the two other passages to explain this thought.

Jesus called me out of the darkness and into his wonderful light when I was 8 years old. That was 26 years ago. I have lived the majority of my life in his light and in his grace and through his mercy. This has caused me (and many others) to have a greater memory of the burdens we have carried than our burden he bore for us.

We must realize that the reason his yoke is easy and his burden is light is because the burden and yoke we no longer bear – the price and penalty for our sins that he bore completely on the cross – is far greater. Our problem is that many of us fail to see the daily reality of this grace because we are so comfortable and familiar with it. Honestly, many of us fail to see how amazing God's grace is because he did not simply save us from who we were but he saved us from becoming who we would have been.

We are not amazed by his grace because we have a greater remembrance of all that we have done for Christ than we do understanding the reality of what he has done for us.

That is why we stay silent while being instructed to speak instead of speaking up when being instructed to remain silent. The blind men saw the reality of the grace and mercy of Christ with their own eyes. It was fresh. It was new. And it was real.

So these truths from Scripture have brought me to this prayer. I wonder if you would not pray it with me…

Lord, open my eyes that I may see. Show me not only the reality and truth of the grace of God that has saved me from what I had become but show me the reality of what your grace saved me from ever becoming. Lord, may I never again use an improper scale when considering the burden and yoke I carry. May my memory never again be more full of my own sacrifices than of yours. May my heart never again see what I have done without seeing what you have done. Lord, may I never again count the cost without the light of the cost you paid. May my heart always be full of your compassion for the condition of the souls around me. May I see them as you see them. Lord, may I always be in the field at work. Lord, I know that I will never remain in the field as a living sacrifice without a continuous view of your mercy in my life. So Lord, never again allow me to fail to see the compassion you had for me and exactly how much I needed it. Lord, may I not only see and realize the reality of it, may it move me. Lord, cause this truth to cause me to speak the name and grace of Christ and to serve him in all faithfulness with sincere gratitude.

Lord, thank you for your love, compassion, and grace…For I once was lost but now am found…was blind but now I see…

Life’s Mile Stones

Life is full of milestones. A milestone is simply a marker designating the distance one has traveled down a certain path or road. Life is lived on a path. The choices we make today will cause the milestones we pass in the future. Too often in life we like to say that the milestones we pass are simply there because of what has happened in life versus seeing that those are most often caused by our choices. The decisions we make cause the paths we live.

The path I live is one I enjoy very much. It is filled with its share of heartaches and trials and stresses but it is also filled with blessings and joys and successes. I realize that along the way I have made some good choices that now lead to joyful milestones.

Sunday I celebrated a great and joyful milestone. On January 3, 1998 the Lord blessed me with the privilege of marrying a beautiful, courageous, and faithful woman. As much as I knew her and loved her that day, I must admit that 12 years later who Wendy is still amazes me. I can say many things that declare her strengths, but today I will share one thing that I believe is true of Wendy that perhaps has the greatest impact on my life as her husband.

Wendy has a tenacious belief in me. She has seen the worst that exists in me. She has been the recipient of my ugliest moods and overwhelming stresses. She has seen me succeed and fail. She has seen my spirits rise and fall and in the midst of all of that her belief in me never waivers. It is almost surreal to me. Even in the moments that I think my church leadership is the poorest or my leading of our home is the worst it has been, her belief that I will be who God designed me to be and do what God has called me to do does not change.

Wives, I encourage you to give such grace and confidence to your husbands. I, honestly, believe this might be the greatest embodiment of submitting unto your husband. The truth is that her undying belief in me is not really because of me. This confidence that she has is her faith in the Lord. She believes in the Lord and she believes that he is the Lord of me. It is her faith that drives such confidence and belief.

And her confidence and belief drives me. There have been many days in my life that I thought I could not accomplish the things that God has called me to accomplish. In all those days there has been one person I share the depths of those struggles with and in each of those struggles her belief in me has not changed. Her confidence in me is simple and pure. And when I get through ranting over how I don't think I can do it, I look into two beautiful eyes that tell me I can because God can.

Wendy, thank you for this underserved but greatly appreciated gift. I pray that I never again give you any reason to doubt me, yet I am fully confident that when I do you will not.

The second meaningful milestone is today. Eight years ago today Fellowship Church had its first public worship service. 32 people (14 of which came for that one Sunday to help out from our sponsor church) gathered together in an old fire department rental hall to worship the Lord. The events surrounding that day were interesting. Our first mailout had gone out but had only hit about ½ of the homes the other ½ got there the next week. I had stayed up all night the night before holding my 3 week old son in a position that would allow him to breathe as he was fighting the fever and cough of RSV.

I remember that the day was exhilarating and exhausting as well as encouraging and disappointing. Looking back the things that encouraged me still do. I saw some lives that needed Fellowship in them that day. I met some people who made the commitment of helping make this vision a reality. The exhausting part has changed. I no longer have to set up stage and screen and projector to have a worship service, but exhaustion still comes at times. I am still exhilarated by the possibilities of what Fellowship can be and can do. And I am still disappointed at times when I envision something working and that not happening as I envisioned.

But overall I am now simply awed by what God has done. Each week some 330 plus people worship together in two services at Fellowship in its own facility. Our church is now being involved in planting another church. I can't remember all the mile markers as clearly as some, but today I am simply grateful for being allowed to walk such a path. I realize there were some decisions I made and the Lord led me to make that started me on this path and have kept me on this path, but I am grateful for it.

We have climbed some mountains and walked through some valleys on this path. But the coolest part about this milestone, is the community of believers that will pass it with me. It is not simply about the number growing. It is about the changed lives that will pass this marker with me heading into the future of Fellowship Church. Lives that were once filled with addiction and are now living in freedom. The lives that were once full of mourning that are now filled with joy. Lives that once were set in the wrong direction that are now focused on the glory of Christ.

Those lives lived in community in Christ is what makes this milestone special.

I don't know what milestones you are looking forward to experiencing in 2010, but take some time to enjoy them. If you realize that today you need to make a decision to walk a new path, then do it. Maybe 2010 needs to be the beginning of the path or a great marker in the midst of that path that leads to the milestones God has planned for you.

And when you arrive at some significant milestone, enjoy it. Praise God for it. And then pass it by. For there are more ahead.

Smile or Cry

Leading up to Christmas I had the privilege of going to my daughters' Christmas presentation at their school. Kara and Melanie both got on stage and were proud to display the Christmas craft they had made. Each year all the children sing on stage together. It is funny to watch the different personalities on a stage during such a performance. Some kids seem obsessed with the motions and forget to sing the words, while others stand frozen but get every word right. Then there are those that sing loud and make big motions and those that sing quiet and make small motions. And then there are others that just stand there in great fear of the moment, while there is always at least one that is simply doing their own thing on stage but in a big way for everyone to see.

My two girls have extremely different personalities. Melanie is quiet and reserved while Kara is, well let's just say, not quiet and reserved. They are both great joys to my heart and soul. That day I was sitting in the crowd trying to watch two girls standing in two different parts of the stage sing, when God showed me something interesting about my fatherhood that taught me something about his Fatherhood.

As I sat there I would move my eyes and head back and forth between the two of them so they would both know that I was watching them and was proud of them. What I quickly realized was that many times by the time I looked back to the one I had not been watching, they were looking for me to watch them. I would catch their eye and without fail each and every time they would smile. Kara a great big smile followed by louder singing and bigger motions. Melanie with a smaller more steady smile. Her singing and motions would not change so much as her gaze would. Kara would look back at the teacher and jump back into the performance. Melanie on the other hand might get a little distracted from the song because she would keep her eyes on mine.

Honestly, it was neat experience. I pray that my two girls never struggle with feeling valued and important. I want them to know that I am their biggest fan, that I love them, and that I am proud of them.

The thing that really hit me was that the simple gift of my gaze added to their enjoyment. They both enjoyed performing and singing more because they knew I was watching them. Truth is I had no part whatsoever in their performance. I simply was present. I was there and they knew it.

This experience caused me to think about my relationship with my Heavenly Father for a moment. I thought about the fact that he never has to lose his attention on one child to enjoy the other. God is always present. He never misses a performance (like I have had to do because of other responsibilities in my life.) He is always watching.

Then I thought, if I caught the eye of my Lord Jesus Christ right now would it cause me to smile? Would I jump back into what I was already doing with greater joy and enthusiasm?

Or would I cry?

Peter caught the eye of Jesus one night in a courtyard while standing around the fire with powerless people who had asked him a difficult question. He had just denied any relationship to Christ three times. Scripture says that Jesus looked back at him, the rooster crowed, and that Peter ran outside and wept bitterly. He had failed his Savior.

Yet, not many days later, Peter had an interesting conversation with Jesus Christ in which he was restored to a right relationship with him. I think that day Peter wanted to cry again, as his Lord asked him three times, "do you love me?"

Yet there was also a day in which Jesus had asked his disciples who he was and Peter was the first to speak that he was the Christ and Jesus told him that upon that truth he would build his Church.

There were days in Peter's life that the gaze of the Lord made him smile. Those days he felt more empowered and emboldened to be who he was supposed to be and do what God desired him to do.

So the question I have for you is this, if you caught the Lord's eye in your life right now would it make you smile or cry? Not would it make him smile or cry, would it make you smile or cry? Would you be proud to be his child or ashamed to be seen by the Father in what you are doing?

I challenge you to live 2010 with that thought as a challenge.

Live the smile. Enjoy the presence of the Father. And give your very best for his pleasure. For He is a loving Father that is ever-watching.

Sweat the Details

A person with my personality does two things with details – obsess over them or pay no attention to them at all. This is typically the result of how important one considers a particular detail. My overall opinion is that if the big picture is good than it is all good.

Truth is some people get lost in the details. Some people get so consumed with how they want something done that it never really gets done. On the other side some of us can allow little things, that in the end don't really matter slip by, and they can have a negative impact on someone.

This Sunday I preached a B- to C sermon. (We have to grade each other's sermons in seminary so we actually learn how to grade sermons and unfortunately it is a skill we never lose.) The content in the sermon was good. The problem was that the content consumed more time than normal. It was hard to finish. So, I spent less time working on the "peripherals" – the illustrations, etc.

Well, I used a story that tied to an Old Testament law and then I said and applied the Old Testament law incorrectly. It is not a "big" deal but I was wrong. I am actually embarrassed by it because I know it better than that. The problem was that I had just not spent enough time thinking that part of the sermon through.

After the sermon a young man came by and corrected me on my use of the Old Testament law. (I have to admit I wanted to reply with a wise-crack, but I refrained.) My first thought was, I just preached this whole message that has good truth in it and that is what this young man is thinking about as he leaves. Later I thought about it some more and realized, it did matter.

That detail mattered. If one person was distracted from hearing truth because I said something untrue, it is not that person's fault for being distracted by that. It is mine. I can't let it consume me and worry about a mistake, but I know better than to get something incorrect from the Bible in a sermon.

The reality is that we have to sweat some details. The little things often do matter. They are not things we should obsess over. We should not get ulcers over the details, but often it is the way we handle the details that make the biggest impact.

He who is faithful with LITTLE will be given much.

Relax and take in a deep…thought

Everyone once in a while I will have something hit me that is deeper than the norm. Today in my personal Scripture reading a deep thought struck that I decided I ought to share. In my reading plan I read from the Old Testament and New Testament every day. (For those of you not sure what those are, the OT was written and is about times before Christ and the NT is written starting with the time of Christ and the early church. Reading from some of both is a great way to stay well-rounded in understanding the depth of what all God has done in the world through Jesus Christ.)

Today I read Ezekial 44-46 and 46:9 really jumped out at me. "'When the people of the land come before the LORD at the appointed feasts, whoever enters by the north gate to worship is to go out the south gate; and whoever enters by the south gate is to go out the north gate. No one is to return through the gate by which he entered, but each is to go out the opposite gate."

My question was, "why?" It is obviously not about north or south because you must simply leave through a different gate than you enter in. Here is why I believe God commanded that. At each of these occasions sacrifices would be offered and people would experience the power of forgiveness through obedience to the commands of God. God desired them to leave through a different gate so that they would go out different than they came in.

Then I read 1 John 2:1-6 from the New Testament. It says, "My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world. We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. The man who says, "I know him," but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did."

This is a powerful imagery and truth about what Jesus Christ had done for us. He is the "atoning sacrifice." This sacrifice is the one that is a substitute for the condition of our lives and our own sinfulness. He has atoned for that wrong by actually becoming the perfect sacrifice for the cost of our sin. This in itself is the most amazing act of love in history. Then it says that because of our faith in Jesus as Savior and Lord we should live in obedience. Our obedience does not cause us to be right with Christ we are obedient because we are right with Christ.

We walk out a different gate. We come to Christ and we are changed. Life is lived differently because we are different.

The deep thought was the combination of these two passages in this truth…

Old Testament worshippers walked into the presence of God with their sacrifice and their sin and they walked away without their sacrifice or their sin.

New Testament worshippers come before the presence of Christ with their sin but without a sacrifice and they walk away without their sin but with
the sacrifice.

(I challenge you to "chew" on that thought for a little while.)

The truth is that Jesus is the sacrifice and when we accept him as our Savior and Lord our sin is no longer ours – it is his. "He died for sin ONCE for all." We bring him nothing but our sin. He, himself, offers the sacrifice of Himself, yet through his resurrection he is our living Lord. So we come to him with nothing but our sin and we leave with him.

It is Christ himself…his presence…and his power…and his provision for our sin that leaves with us.

John 10:7 wraps the thought up for his when Jesus says, "I tell you the truth, I am the gate…"

Have you entered? And have you exited different?