Conversion

 I am currently reading Turning to God by David F Wells.  It is a good book on the nature and content of conversion - looking at it from the perspective of those that are "insiders" (i.e. people who have a pre-informed connection to the content and idea of turning to God) and "outsiders" (i.e. people who have a lot more change that needs to occur in order to come to God).  I wanted to share from this book a quote.  On page 151 he says, 

"Conversion has so often been understood as a narrow transaction that is religious but somehow not human, that does something in the soul but does not really involve the senses, one's laughter, one's will, where one wants to go, what one thinks about.  This is what sociologists have in mind by their talk of the sundering of the private from the public.  It is the twisting of faith that inevitably happens when people back into faith instead of building into it.  The Bible, after all, does not begin with John 3:16; it begins with Genesis so that we might first understand who God is, who we are, what his creation is like, why we are in it, and what the end of it will be.  To understand all of this and to be converted is to have what is needed to be a human who knows God; to have the gospel shorn of its biblical framework is to have a shard of religiousness that scarcely can penetrate all of the corners of one's humanity."

This is a great reminder that our goal is not a small change, but a total transformation to the likeness of Christ!

Mother's Day

 We do not give mom's enough credit in our lives.  Or at least, I should say that I have not.  I am 41 years old, going on 42 and I am about 90 percent confident that if it were not for my mother, I might not be here today.  I cannot count the number of times that she saved me from some certain doom with a warning about how dangerous what I was about to do was.  I cannot tell you the number of times I avoided certain behaviors and dangers simply because my mom loved me enough to tell me to avoid them.  She continues to be a fountain of wisdom and knowledge for me.  

I am married to a wonderful mom as well and it is a beautiful thing to see her do for my children what my mom did for me.  It gives me the wonderful hope that there is actually hope that my kids turn out ok, because it were left up to me I think that they would not be the well rounded children that they are. In many respects it is a travesty that we take the time only one day a year to celebrate our moms.  They deserve a lot more.  

So today, if you have a wife and/or a mom that you still have the privilege of talking with - take the time to tell them how much you love them!

Song Lyrics to Ponder

 We just got through the Easter season and I am so grateful for my praise team and the fact that they sang a song I have been wanting to sing for a while.  "O Sacred Head Now Wounded" has long been one of those songs that I love to hear and sing and get so few opportunities to do so.  I wanted to share the lyrics here for your consideration.

O sacred head now wounded
With grief and shame way down,
Now scornfully surrounded
With thorns thine only crown,
How art thou pale with anguish,
With sore abuse and scorn.
How does that visage languish,
Which once was bright as morn.

What thou, my Lord, hast suffered
was all for sinners’ gain.
Mine, mine was the transgression,
but thine the deadly pain.
Lo, here I fall, my Savior!
’Tis I deserve thy place.
Look on me with thy favor,
and grant to me thy grace.

What language shall i borrow
To thank thee dearest friend?
For this, thy dying sorrow,
Thy pity without end.
O make me thine forever,
And should i fainting be,
Lord, let me never, ever
Outlive my love to thee.

When thinking about these lyrics the one thing that I keep coming back to is the fact that Jesus took my place and died the death that I should have died due to my sin. Instead, He took the pain for me.  Take a moment today and say thank you!

Response to Oppression

 We had a missionary guest with us over the weekend and he spoke on our response to oppression out of Acts chapter 4.  I was so pleased to hear him speak and wanted to think on again his 4 main points that out line our response to oppression.  

1. Submission

2. Provokes a Response to the message

3. Realize God is working behind the scenes

4. Create an opportunity to share

As I think about these things I realize that the more that I look back on my life, the more I realize that the times of greatest growth have come from times of difficulty.  It seems to be that when things are easy we do not grow as individuals and we do not grow as a church body.  It seems that through difficulty and trial we develop the endurance that James and Paul talk about will be a response to trials.  And through enduring we develop Christ-like character by the power of the Spirit of God.  And so when we face oppression we ought to realize what is really happening instead of simply responding in fear or panic!

Not even 1?

 Have you ever considered the truth of Scripture that there is no one who is righteous, not even one?  I mean that seems really absolute, and you should never ever speak in absolutes, right?  I find it humorous how often I over estimate my own ability to be good.  When I am good, I expect something in return.  So if I surprise my wife by cleaning or doing something above and beyond, I expect that she will do something kind for me - like make me brownies - I have "earned" brownie points.  So here is the question- was my "good deed" altruistic or did I do it to earn favor.  

I think that fundamentally all of us have ulterior motives revealed by how we feel when people do not respond in the way we think they ought to.  We say things like, "a simple thank you would be nice."  Or we say, "I am so under-appreciated."  We want people to take notice when we do good things and ignore when we do bad things.  We all have this ingrained in our inner being - to do things and expect the "proper" response.  Which means we are not doing them just for the sake of being good.  

There is no one who does what is truly right.  No one whose motives are pure, and no one who can stand before God and say, hey, "I have earned something here."  Not one of us.  

This means that we are all equal.  We all have fallen short of the glory of God and it really does not matter if I fall short by one meter or ten, the fall is still the same so the measurement is inconsequential.  And yet we spend so much time measuring ourselves to other people who have fallen short rather than praising God for offering us the righteousness of the One who did not fall short - Jesus. 

So today, praise God for Jesus - who gives us the righteousness we did not and could not possess on our own!

How God says, "I Love You"

 As I mentioned in my last blog, there is a severe difference between how our world defines love and how the Scriptures define love.  And so I thought that this concept of love was worthy of a second look to consider how God shows His love for us.

"But God demonstrated His own love for us, in that while we were yet sinner, Christ died for us."  Romans 5:8 (NASB)

There are a few things in this verse that I would note about love.  The first is that love is and can be one directional.  God loved something that did not love Him back.  In fact, the Scriptures indicate that this is a necessity - we love Him BECAUSE He loved us.  This kind of love is hard to apply - it is a supernatural love, but it is a love that we should aim for - to love others without expectation of love returned.  

Secondly, love must be demonstrated.  It is no good to "love" someone and not actually show this love.  God demonstrated His love and so must we.

Thirdly, biblical love is sacrificial love.  A love that gives itself for another.  Our love must mimic this love.  I must sacrifice for my wife, for my family, for my church.  Love is by our own nature selfish, but this is not true love.  Biblical love is unselfish and kind and ultimately sacrificial.

I think it is important to look at what the Bible says about love and pattern our love after what God says and does!

Love - the most misunderstood word in the English language?

 Valentine's Day is coming for those of you who celebrate those kinds of things.  Around February 14th each year, people celebrate their love for each other.  However this seems odd given that we have a divorce rate that some estimate to be around 40 - 50 percent.  The way that this is calculated is sometimes off, but think about this - which is more common - a 40 or 50th anniversary celebration or a divorce proceeding?  This is a bit startling. 

I remember back when I was young working through the conceptions then of what love was.  Today we see a progression of that movement to redefine love.  Let me explain what I mean and let me start with a biblical definition of love.

Love : the willingness to put someone else's needs before self.  There is a love for friends, family, spouses, but ultimately love is defined in God.  And God loved us without us being able to contribute to his needs.  This definition does not mean we do not love self - in fact we are to love others as we love ourselves.  The biblical understanding of love reminds us that we have a natural love of self that we need to overcome to serve.

Our culture takes this and turns it on its head.  We are to love self first.  In fact all other forms of love center on our need to love ourselves.  If we don't feel love, we need to end the relationship and find someone who makes our feelings better.  What is the impact when we center love on ourselves instead of in God and his definition?  I think I will only mention three things.  One - we become hyper focused on meeting our own needs instead of service.  Two - we self-justify our own bad actions and behaviors because we have an excuse based on our own needs not being met.  Three - we fail to realize accountability in love.

These three things cause immense problems for us when we are learning how to build relationships and impact not only marital love, but love in the body of Christ, and even love for the world around us.  May we as the Church of Jesus Christ keep focused on what true love is and how we are to imitate it.