The organizational part of church is glorious

 I wonder if you have ever considered how wonderful a business meeting can be.  There is rightly a lot of emphasis on the church as an organism- a living embodiment of the presence of Jesus Christ until He returns.  We are after all exactly that.  But as you read the Scripture you see that even in the early church there was a lot of organization.  Deacons formed in Acts 6 to care for an organized distribution.  Pastors instructed to teach those they were over.  There are collections taken up for other organized churches in different regions.  These were then delivered by people sent from one group to another.  We do not often take the time to think about the organization that this would take, but I was reminded of it when we had our business meeting.  God's people coming together to do business and vote and unite around our common desire to see God honored and glorified.  

This organizational aspect is rarely pretty or flashy or something that we would want to point others to.  We often focus on the programming (how do we think that this programming happens - by chance or organization?) we focus on the music (my wife plans the music each week for our church and I know how much organization goes into it) we focus on the youth group (organization is required) and many other aspects all of which require some level of organization.  We cannot have an outreach or a meeting or a ministry without formal organization.  This means that our planning and preparing is as much a part of the work that God does as is our actual participation in the event.  Sure it might not be glorious, but I am so thankful that God's people are willing to serve Him by simply showing up and participating in a business meeting.  To God be the glory!

Jesus is King

 I am really excited.  I am starting a new sermon series on the book of Daniel for 2022.  Today I was able to preach the theme of the book.  Allow me to summarize.  If you are interested, you can hear the whole sermon here (white lake baptist church | Sermon Cloud) just select the sermon titled "Jesus is King".  

Jesus is our king!

Yep, that is the summary.  It seems so simple and yet it is really a tough concept to live in reality.  In reality we think that we run the day.  After all, I wake up in the morning and decide what I am going to do with the day.  It is my to-do list on my phone that guides what I want to accomplish - a list that I created.   It is my thoughts and my actions that seem to direct what I do.  So, I can easily say something like "Jesus is King" without giving any thought to what that actually might look like.  In fact, popular musical artists can say things along these lines without giving much thought to the reality of it.  Anyone can say it.  Few can live it.  

So, what does it mean to accept that Jesus is my king?  Here is a really oversimplified three step process:  

    1.  Realize that Jesus is in charge.  Jesus is to set my course and my actions and my choices.  

    2.  Acknowledge that I am a servant.  Jesus is in charge, and I owe my whole allegiance and life to Him to do as He wishes, when He wishes and how He wishes.  

    3.  Trust that my King is returning for me.  I live in light of the fact that He IS returning!  

So, there it is - a really oversimplified three step process to living in the Kingdom of my Lord.  It takes a conscious choice to live in this way.  But the reward of living for Jesus is immense - we get to participate in His rule and reign as co-heirs with Christ.  What a rich reward - something worth living (and even dying) for!

A New Year

 Each time that the calendar rolls over and an additional number is added to the running total, people seem to get somewhat sentimental.  I can in some ways appreciate that.  Each moment that passes we move toward something and for those without Christ there is not much that they are moving toward that is in any way good.  Each moment that passes we move away from something.  Sometimes we are glad to be moving forward and sometimes we wish we could stay.  So the passing of time is in a way not so much about addition, but about memory and hope.  

I wonder as we consider memory and hope if we have ours grounded in their proper source.  I also wonder if this is why the Scriptures give us commands like "do this in remembrance of me" and tells us that we can have hope in Christ Jesus.    The Bible constantly encourages us in our present to remember and to look forward, but the one constant in all of this is that we are not looking back or ahead based on our own experience but instead based on the revealed Word of God.

In this sense our memory is focused not on what we have accomplished, or what has occurred within our lifetime, but instead of the corporate memory shared by the body of Christ across the centuries.  We are to remember what has been done FOR US and IN US by Christ.  I believe that this will help inform our lives as we think back even on the past year - what if our focus was not what happened to us, but what Christ has done FOR US and IN US?

In this sense also our hope is shaped.  For we do not just remember what has come, but what is to come.  And in this we can hope in what will be accomplished THROUGH US.  What is God going to do to use us in the next year for His honor and glory.  And in these things there can be certainty and stability because God has promised that He will USE US for His purposes.  

So as this calendar year goes into the bygone and we look ahead at 2022, would you pray that God who has been FOR US and is IN US will work THROUGH Us and USE US for His glory?  Amen.

Christmas may not be what you think

 "She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins."  Matthew 1:21 (NASB)

I think that sometimes Christmas is this time of year when we get so bothered by all of the busyness that when we see a peaceful manger scene we stop.  And we think.  But we usually think about the wrong things.  We think about how serene it was (it wasn't).  We think about how life changing that moment was (for most people on earth at that time it wasn't).  And for all of our thinking we miss the main point - Jesus had to come because of our sins.  

It is hard to think about ourselves during Christmas time.  At least it is hard in the context of our own sins.  We often think about ourselves when it comes to what our bonus should be, or what presents we are going to get.  But when God thought of us, He thought enough to send His Son to die for us to save us from our sins.  Christ came to save us.  Which means we need saving.  Which means that it His death that we celebrate and his resurrection.  His advent is simply the avenue He chose in order to accomplish His purpose of salvation - the cross.  And so we should celebrate His coming.  But not because of how pretty it was, but instead because of how grotesque our sins are that God had to send His one and only Son to live as one of us in order to die for us.  

Christmas is coming.  But it may not be what you think it is.  It is a reminder that we should have died.  It is a reminder of how dark our hearts are.  And we need the Light of Life in order to conquer our own dark deadness.  Praise God for Christmas.

Give Thanks

 The words of the song go, "Give thanks, with a grateful heart. . . "  I have often wondered about this repetition.  I mean after all, can I give thanks with any other way?  Is there any way to give thanks without having true gratitude?  

As I think about thanksgiving, I note that the words to the song are not the words of Scripture.  Of course we are called to have an attitude of gratitude and we are called to give thanks.  But the grateful heart is always assumed.  It is not a requirement for true thanksgiving, it is assumed.  In fact, the motivation and reasons for true thanksgiving are always given to us in Scripture - the character and nature of our God.  "Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. . . "  We give thanks because of the character and nature of our God.  This is what steadies us as believers.  We are not giving thanks because we feel good.  We are not giving thanks because we like what is happening to us all the time.  We are not giving thanks because our God is constantly meeting our felt needs.  No, we give thanks because of the character of God.  And God does not change.  My heart needs only be aligned to the truth of who God is!  Give thanks.

Losses and Gains

 Paul says in Philippians 3:7, "But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ." (NASB)

As I was reflecting on this verse and the verses that follow it (which I strongly encourage you to read) I thought about all of the things that Paul counted in the previous verses as loss.  His religious birth, his obedience to the law, his energy and vigor in following God, his own righteousness.  He counted all of these things as loss.  It was as if they counted against him rather than for him.  What could make such glorious things count against him rather than for him?  Only Christ Jesus.  And when compared with the work of Jesus Christ, these things that formerly he boasted in now are removed and all that is left for boasting is Jesus.  

I wonder in our lives if we take too much credit and count too much these things that when compared to Christ do not matter.  Do we talk about how much we give to the church?  How much time, how much money, how much service we give to the church as if our time and money and service can even compare to the sacrifice that Christ would make.  Do we talk about our Christian upbringing as if we have something to brag about compared to those who did not have it?  Do we think that we are better than others by virtue of any form of comparison?  All of these things fail when it comes to the work of Christ.

As I think about it, part of the problem is my attachment to a whole list of earthly things and often I fail to see the grandeur of what Christ has accomplished because I am not looking for grandeur, I am hoarding things that I should be counting loss.  Don't hoard losses.  Claim Christ's gains!

Being Established

 "Now to Him who is able to establish you. . ." Romans 16:25

Paul ends his book to the Romans with praise to God who is able to establish you.  This is an interesting way to speak to the body of Christ.  The word itself means to make more firm.  Kind of the idea of taking root and being firmly decided about a course of action.  What is interesting to me are the things that God says he will use.  

1. The gospel

2. The preaching of Jesus Christ

3. The revelation of the mystery revealed

4. The commandment of the eternal God

These things are not the things we might first think of, but when we are assured of these things, we can have hope because they are certain, and therefore we can be firm in our assurance that God is working for us.