No, Really ... part 2

What are we doing with the spirit of the message? Are we proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ for all the world to hear or are we proclaiming a different gospel? What are we doing with our witness to the world? A friend pointed out the posters in the church basement that explained where offerings were going to "missions" outside the local church. Probably half of the groups that were given funds were not even Christian groups. The picture is a bulletin board showing what PW is doing. While service has its place in the church and in the life of the believer (James 2:14-26), we should make the most of every opportunity to share the Gospel. Also, the works most often talked about in Scripture refer to helping brothers - fellow believers in Christ. Why should we squander our resources for social justice or service or anti-poverty by choosing to withhold the most precious gift of all - salvation in Christ Jesus? We are the light of the world. Let your light shine before others. What are we telling people if we preach the gospel of social justice or of prosperity rather than preach the good news of Christ's life, death and resurrection for all humanity? My qualm isn't with social justice or social services or doing good works. The problem is when we seek justice or service above our call to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them all that the Lord commands. Are we providing service without speaking the Gospel? If so, we may be making their time here less miserable, but their souls remain condemned to Hell.

By supporting service groups that are not Christian-based, especially as a church, we are saying that meeting physical/mental/emotional needs is more important than Christ meeting spiritual needs. If we are not proclaiming the truth and salvation that are found in Christ alone, we are like salt that has lost its saltiness (Matt. 5:13). Look again to the Great Commission; if the Church is using its resources to do something apart from making disciples, baptizing them and teaching them, why? We must proclaim Christ's gospel, not our own. It seems that the purpose of mission committees should be to support the work of advancing the Gospel. Why then are they supporting completely secular humanitarian programs? Why do they support social concerns more than they support evangelistic efforts?

It's our fault that the world doesn't know the truth and can't hear it. By our actions we're saying that however you choose to live your life is fine by us. We're happy with what we have, and we want you to be happy with what you have. Let's try not to offend anyone by proselytizing. We just need peace and understanding. Poverty is a terrible injustice from which we must save our fellow human. That is not the truth for which God incarnate suffered, died and rose again! Sin separates us from God, and salvation from the eternal consequence of that sin is found in Christ Jesus alone. It's time to stop promoting our own agendas. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!

Really, What Are We Preaching?

Do you ever have those days when you're trying to listen to what is being preached, but it seems like you must not be hearing it? The Scripture doesn't seem to have anything to do with what the person is saying and the story they're telling to illustrate a point seems completely irrelevant. Sometimes after the service, someone will ask you what the sermon was about and you can barely even remember the topic. There are times I experience this and then shamefully realize that I really wasn't listening at all. But what about the other times? Is there always substance to the sermon?

Coming up with effective messages to speak or write isn't always easy. Ideas can be difficult to bring to fruition (especially if we're not seeking God with a pure heart). We can pray that our words align with the Truth, that the Lord would use what we write and say and do. But ideas often aren't expressed exactly as we envision them. I've written things (blog entries, for instance) and prepared devotions that, looking back, appear to have missed the point that was intended. It gets messy when we try to see how God uses us, even when it looks like we fail. God can and does use what we do for His glory. I have had instances when I tried to speak the Gospel and immediately afterward felt like a failure; and more than once God reassured me that He used it to touch someone's heart. It's not about how hard we try. It's about obedience to the Lord. Back to the topic of substance - what's being preached?

The message conveyed by preaching can be two-fold: what is literally being preached and everything else, which I'll collectively call the spirit of the message. The spirit of the message is much broader not only for what affects it but also for whom it reaches. The former message largely affects the church while the latter message has a greater effect on non-believers. Let's look at the problem that I discussed in the first paragraph, the literal message.

Some weeks it seems like the pastor is preaching from his own strength and own knowledge rather than relying on God. Since the pastor is a sinful person like the rest of us (though hopefully also being actively sanctified), this shouldn't surprise us from time to time. Hopefully the preacher is made aware of this sin and repents so that the body would be edified and led by God through His chosen leaders.

The Great Commission as recorded in Matthew 28 has three parts to the command: i) Go and make disciples of all nations, ii) baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, iii) and teaching them to obey all that Christ has commanded. As the Church, are we accomplishing these things? To generalize these commands, we are to care for every part of a person's life - unbelief (evangelism), salvation experience (signified by baptism), and belief (sanctification).

How then do we care for those who believe? The ongoing focus of the local church for maturing believers should be teaching them to obey Christ's commands. We must not focus solely on ourselves, lest we forget the first two parts of Christ's command in the Great Commission. It is also vital to our own growth that we are instructed in the ways of our Lord in order to become mature in faith. Care must be taken for the body of believers to grow and mature in Christ (1 Cor. 3:1-3, Heb. 5:11-14, 1 Pet. 2:1-3).

When I was visiting my family on Christmas, I noticed a sheet of paper to follow along with the sermon from a recent service. The paper was fill-in-the-blank, and the answer to the first blank was "the Bible." No, this wasn't a preschool lesson; this was the head pastor's sermon outline. No wonder such people don't know what they claim to believe! No wonder that they are so easily led astray by false teachings and false doctrines. Nobody's ever really taught them the commands of Christ.

Jesus said in Matthew 5:17, "I have come not to overthrow the Law but to fulfill it." On this claim alone we should ask why there is not more teaching of (and adherence to) the Law in our churches. Matthew 22:37-40 states, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets." We need to ask ourselves if we understand these commands and if we are following them. We need to be teaching and preaching as the Lord commands both within the church and outside it. We need to look honestly at what we're saying and doing; perhaps it is time to repent and truly edify the church body and be lights in this dark world.

Up next: Taking on the spirit of the message

Failure

When I think of failure, it's usually as a result of not working or trying hard enough. If I say that I failed, it's probably because I didn't do something right. Somehow it all comes back to being my responsibility. Lately I've been hearing a different message. I've failed time and again, yes, but it's not from lack of trying.

I'm results-driven and detail-oriented. At work I make sure that everything is getting done that needs to be done. I keep busy. In a way, I'm a workaholic. I have difficulty surrendering control (ever notice how protective I get if I'm training someone?). In a work environment perhaps this sounds good, but when refocused with the perspective of God is always supremely in control, it doesn't make sense. It looks like I'm trying too hard. I'm refusing to give God control of every aspect of my life. I'm busy trying to do while God is patiently waiting for me to acknowledge Him and just be.

I wrote a letter to a friend a couple weeks ago and in it expressed my frustration in life and how I'm looking into several choices with my future. Here are some of the poignant parts of his response. "You don't have to be concerned with your future. God has everything in control! Dan, God wants to use you in ministry if you are willing to be obedient to Him." Speaking of his own struggle with how God might use him, he wrote, "You know, Dan, the only problem with that was I was doing instead of being. God can work through His children only if we are obedient to Him. The moment I surrendered to Him my all is when God showed me His plan for me to go to college to be a minister." And in case I still haven't heard God speaking to me through this, "We can spend our whole life in doing when all along God wants us in being with Him. . . . Are you ready right now to answer His call?"

Wasn't that one of the fundamental problems that Israel faced? God wanted a pure relationship with His chosen people. Even when they seemed to be getting it right, however, there was still the matter of the heart. Were they living based on the Law for the sake of the Law or because of their relationship with God and love for Him? At times God noted that "their heart is far from Me" (Is. 29:13). What reasons do we have for what we do? Is it truly for Christ? Often it is to do what is expected of me or in hopes of gaining what I desire or to keep from getting the consequences that I deserve. Even in the alleged "service of God" we can be doing things for the wrong reasons. Making food for the Friday night ministry became an unpleasant burden that was expected of me rather than a joy and an act of service. Going to the prayer meeting became a drudgery, a time of doing something that was expected rather than a true and open outpouring and conversation with my Lord. I felt stifled, unable even to pray what truly was on my heart. And for a while I tried to keep them up. Eventually I couldn't keep up the facade any longer; it wasn't productive or healthy or uplifting for myself or others. It has to be for the right reason or it will be offensive to God.

Hearing God's call is a fascinating topic to me. Maybe it's because I've wrestled with it pretty much since I was saved. Maybe it's because so often I feel like I still don't get it. Maybe it's because I think that slowly, by His grace, I'm starting to see it. We don't get the whole picture at once; instead God gives us a glimpse, a word, a desire and tells us to begin in faith. Did Joshua know what was ahead when God made him the leader of Israel during the conquest? Could Peter have imagined what would happen with him when he met Jesus of Nazareth? I want to know more of the picture while God is telling me to start and He'll reveal it in His timing.

This week I received a very encouraging letter from someone else as well. He wrote, "You need a faithful prayer-group. They will support you but you must be willing to go out without any support." Am I that dedicated to the call of Christ? Am I that sure of the call? And if I were to do that, would it be following God's call or doing it of my own accord, trying to push my way through? Would I be trying to make my will the same thing as God's will rather than submitting directly to His perfect will?

Even when it comes to working for God, we can do it for the wrong reasons. Am I doing it or is God doing it through me (or however else He sees fit, for the matter)? Am I building God's kingdom or my own? Who is it really about - God or myself? I confess that I fail a lot. I say that I'm letting go and giving God control, but then I reach for that last grasp of control and hold onto it for dear life. It's not about me or what I do. It's all about the Lord. I have relied on my own strength, on human means to accomplish things, but that isn't His desire. Lord, I repent and seek Your forgiveness. Father, please forgive me for these acts of selfish pride. Oh Lord, show me a better way. Show us a better way!

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a prayer (ii)

Lord, I'm broken and confused. This past year has been beyond words in so many ways. Here I am, Lord. Whatever your will, send me.

a prayer

Lord, You are in power, enthroned on high for all eternity. Lord, I want things to be made right. I confess that they haven't been for so long. It's beyond my control, but for You all things are possible. Please, Lord, make things right. May we be Your vessels of love and forgiveness and change.

I've been numb for so long that I barely remember what it feels like to feel things correctly. The last time I remember crying and praying like this was when Your Spirit allowed me to realize my role as a leader after the summer camp was over. I ached and cried on my drive back to Indiana, for the youth who were there, for how much they need the love of Christ continually, for how much they need to be lights in the darkness of the situations that only they will know, for the role that I had, for the many ways that I failed.

You gave me a heart of flesh. But gracious God, I gave it up in time, allowing pain and loneliness and disappointment to harden it again. Lord, I ask Your forgiveness, not on the basis of who I am or what I do or could do. I ask Your forgiveness fully knowing that I am a sinner who has chosen to sin, to separate myself from rightness with You, that I deserve nothing from You. But You had compassion on me before I even had life in my mother's womb, for You knew what would occur. Jesus Christ humbled himself by public humiliation, beatings, and death on a cross for my sake. Because of Your infinite love for mankind and the atonement of Jesus Christ who suffered death and was resurrected on the third day, I ask forgiveness. Make me a new creation as I seek You more dearly each day.

I need You, Lord. I gave up what I struggled to keep for so long. And the challenges have come so much since that time. I seek rest but find none. I fall, I fail. I stumbled and feel as though I will never be able to walk the straight and narrow path effectively. I long for a helper but find none. The struggles continually invade my life, my mind and my heart. In my weakness, old habits take over. Your power is made perfect in weakness, while my life falls apart. I become self-centered and judgmental, angry at my pain. Lord, please come and lift me up again. Show me a better way. Teach me to stand and to walk. Guide me all of my days. Be my God, my rescue, my rock, my confidant, my shield and my horn of strength. Lord, help me to come back into a right relationship with You and with others. And if it be Your will, Lord, may I be given the chance to make things right once more. Otherwise, oh Lord, please take this desire from me, for it is too much to bear. May my hope be placed in Your holy things above all else. Lord, show me a better way. Show us a better way. You alone are sovereign, alleluia.

Myopic Followers

What is the message of the Great Commission? So many believers and churches use it as a symbolic standard, a rallying cry for foreign missions. It commands and offers such a fuller view of the tasks of the Church than just foreign missions though.

In the Gospel of Matthew, Christ said, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

Let us compare that passage with the account recorded in the Gospel of Mark. "And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned. These signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues; they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover."

There is still discussion as to whether some powers endowed by the Holy Spirit were given only to the Apostles during that era (perhaps citing Matthew 10:8). Even if we were to accept that belief and assume that the signs accompanying those who have believed apply only to those of the Apostolic era, we still have two distinct instances in Scripture where the resurrected Christ commands His followers to go and preach the gospel throughout the world and baptize those who believe. In both cases, preaching, believing and baptism are just the beginning. There is life after salvation, and Christ explained what should happen through the Church. Teach the believers to observe all that Christ commanded. When was the last time your church, or even just your pastor, took a stand to teach what Christ commanded, in total obedience? That is a difficult task, especially one to be done in love; but we cannot possibly give up on His commands or simplify them until they are no longer the challenging, radical words of the Word of God. We must stand for the faith, even if it means standing for Christ in a dangerous place.

We seldom see the discipling, the teaching when we look at these passages. We see a command to go to all nations. We see the Great Commission as the Great Go. We romanticize what it might be like as a missionary in some foreign land. We take "mission trips" to other countries, often to help construct a church building or a similar project. It's about going somewhere else to us. I am guilty of this attitude myself. Instead of seeing the broken, needy world immediately around me, I look at other parts of the world and long to work there. I long for the different customs, the different culture, the different opportunities.

And I continue to neglect the gift that is in me for these people with whom I interact every day. How is it that I feel trapped in my normal way of life, unable to extend my heart to them? How can I write so openly here and clam up at work every single day? We are nearsighted in our approach to the Great Commission. We get to the phrase "go and make disciples of all nations," and we're heading somewhere exotic. There are people who need Christ all around us, wherever we are. And if they do not have faith in Christ when they die, they will stand before God condemned of their sin and headed to hell for all eternity.

Lord, give us a renewed heart for the lost. May we see them all around us. And may Your love and mercy overflow in us to them, that they would come to faith in Jesus for their salvation. Prepare their hearts and prepare our own, oh Lord. And may Your Spirit always be our guide.