Not what you would expect

We all have those moments when what we expect is not what we get.  One of my friends once surprised her dad with a glass of “Mountain Dew” that turned out to be an ice cold glass of pickle juice.  April fools! 

Amplify that sour taste a million times.  That must have been the shock the disciples faced as Jesus was arrested and taken to be hung on a cross.  This was not what they expected.

Skeptics of the resurrection of Jesus often say that the disciples must have stolen the body of Jesus, and lied about seeing the resurrected Christ.  Could this be the case?  Over 500 witnesses to the resurrected Christ—would they lie as well?  Would so many of the disciples—at least 10, if not all of them—willingly die for an elaborate hoax?  Would so many willingly face persecution—men and women who had ran in fear, boldly claiming the risen Lord?

It is important to recognize that no one, not even Jesus’ closest friends, expected Jesus to rise from the dead.  These 12 men who had devoted three years of their lives to following Jesus’ every move, going where he went, teaching what he taught, doing what he did—they thought everything had come to an end with Jesus hanging on the cross.  This one they believed to be the Messiah…was now dying the death of a criminal.  The one they believed would bring revolution; establish a new kingdom, save their people, now hung helplessly on a blood-stained cross, struggling for breath and slowly dying.  How confused they must have been!  How heartbroken!  How desperately afraid!  So afraid, in fact, that they scattered and hid.  Peter even denied knowing the one he had called Lord!  To them, this wasn’t how it was supposed to be.  This wasn’t what was supposed to happen!  They never expected this. 

                Jesus cried out with his last breath, “It is finished!”  To the disciples, did those words seem to be the death of hope?

                There was another who received that day a gift that he couldn’t have expected.  A criminal, with crimes so heinous his punishment was death on a cross.  Amidst the barrage of hateful mockery flung at Jesus, and the cowering fear of fleeing disciples, this one man recognized the truth.  “Jesus, remember me when you enter into your kingdom.”  The commentary in my bible draws this phenomenal contrast.  After Jesus death, one of his followers said to the yet unrecognized Christ on the road to Emmaus, “We had thought he was the Messiah who had come to rescue Israel.”  Christ’s followers thought the hope for a kingdom was over, while the thief recognized the hope for the Kingdom had come!  A dying criminal became the first person to receive new life in the sacrifice of Christ.  …not what you’d expect.

“It is finished.”  This was not the death of hope.  This was the death…of DEATH!  Hell was conquered on the cross!  Jesus planted his kingdom through his ministry, watered it with his shed blood, and it blossomed with beauty and might as he rose from the grave—Jesus, the conqueror of death—the first fruit of a great harvest!  As we place our faith in Christ, and make him Lord of our lives, we each are invited into his kingdom, into new life, into resurrection. 

What a beautiful gift; a gift like nothing we could have ever expected!

Integrity part 3: Lessons from the life of David

King David’s life slipped into territory reserved strictly for weekday soap operas pretty quick. Ironic since the whole incident started with a bath gone horribly wrong (get it…soap opera, bath…soap…bath…funny, right?). Equally ironic since the lady bathing was named Bathsheba…but I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s look at David’s blunder, and the how he responded to the confrontation of his sin.  2 Samuel 11 says,

1 In the spring of the year, when kings normally go out to war, David sent Joab and the Israelite army to fight the Ammonites. They destroyed the Ammonite army and laid siege to the city of Rabbah. However, David stayed behind in Jerusalem.


There is a bit of a conflict in that first verse. It was the time of year when kings go out to war, yet David was bumming at the palace. David was not where he was supposed to be. There was a battle for him to be fighting
Like David, we too have been given a war to fight. Ours is a spiritual battle. We have been called to make disciples, to share the gospel of Christ. To do this effectively, we also have to battle our own sinful desires. But doing both of these things works best with a team of warriors fighting beside us. 4th lesson in integrity: Are you fighting your battle with a team of soldiers?


God has graciously given me a group of guys who I meet with regularly. They are my fellow warriors. Like David’s army, they are mighty men. Friends, we need brothers and sisters in arms fighting the spiritual battle with us—fighting our own sin and temptation to maintain integrity, and fighting to win souls. What is church if not that? I want to be a battleship—not a cruise line. When Christ returns what do you want to say to him—I sought souls for your kingdom, or I spent my years warming a pew?

2nd Samuel 11 goes on to say,

2 Late one afternoon, after his midday rest, David got out of bed and was walking on the roof of the palace.


Let’s just stop there, shall we? What was David up to? Napping mid-day, taking strolls on the roof…there is no problem with finding rest every now and then—in fact God asks us to, but this was not the right time for it, not when his men are out fighting his battles. He is not using this time wisely. Chances are if you got a bunch of free time with nothing constructive to fill it with, you also have a lot of sin issues that need dealing with. Idle time is the breeding ground of all sorts of evil. 5th Lesson in integrity: Don’t be idle?


…As he looked out over the city, he noticed a woman of unusual beauty taking a bath.

David was in the danger zone. He saw a beautiful woman and instead of fleeing temptation he lingered. Jesus says in Matthew 5:28 that if you look at a woman with lust in your eye, you have already committed adultery with her in your heart.  6th Lesson in integrity: Flee the danger zone.


What temptations do you need to flee from? Gossip, alcohol, anger, sex? We all have our sins of choice—let’s not give ourselves an opportunity to choose. When temptation attacks, run for your life!

3 He sent someone to find out who she was, and he was told, “She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” 4 Then David sent messengers to get her; and when she came to the palace, he slept with her…


And that dirty slushy ball of sin grew as it snowballed down the hill. Unrepentant sin tends to breed new sin. David got Bathsheba pregnant, and attempted to cover it up through deceiving her husband; inviting him home from the battlefield, with the hope that he would sleep with his wife. Because Uriah is an honorable man, he refuses to face the comforts and pleasures of his wife’s company while so many others were suffering out on the battlefield. Since Uriah doesn’t bite the bait, David conceives a plan to have him killed.

David the king  royally messed up!

So, how does David’s response to confrontation compare with Saul’s? Let’s read it:

2 Samuel 12: 1-13,

1 So the LORD sent Nathan the prophet to tell David this story: “There were two men in a certain town. One was rich, and one was poor. 2 The rich man owned a great many sheep and cattle. 3 The poor man owned nothing but one little lamb he had bought. He raised that little lamb, and it grew up with his children. It ate from the man’s own plate and drank from his cup. He cuddled it in his arms like a baby daughter. 4 One day a guest arrived at the home of the rich man. But instead of killing an animal from his own flock or herd, he took the poor man’s lamb and killed it and prepared it for his guest.”


5 David was furious. “As surely as the LORD lives,” he vowed, “any man who would do such a thing deserves to die! 6 He must repay four lambs to the poor man for the one he stole and for having no pity.”


7 Then Nathan said to David, “You are that man! The LORD, the God of Israel, says: I anointed you king of Israel and saved you from the power of Saul. 8 I gave you your master’s house and his wives and the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. And if that had not been enough, I would have given you much, much more. 9 Why, then, have you despised the word of the LORD and done this horrible deed? For you have murdered Uriah the Hittite with the sword of the Ammonites and stolen his wife. 10 From this time on, your family will live by the sword because you have despised me by taking Uriah’s wife to be your own.


11 “This is what the LORD says: Because of what you have done, I will cause your own household to rebel against you. I will give your wives to another man before your very eyes, and he will go to bed with them in public view. 12 You did it secretly, but I will make this happen to you openly in the sight of all Israel.”


David Confesses His Guilt


13 Then David confessed to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.”


7th Lesson in integrity: Do you have a Nathan in your life? Are you willing to listen to him or her? I have a friend who really cares about me. He asks me the tough questions. When I fall short, he calls me on it, and helps me get my feet walking in the right direction again. We all need a Nathan in our life.

When looking at Saul and David and comparing their two mistakes, if you were to ask me, it appears that David’s was a little bit more extreme. Yet, David was the one who was made right again. Why is that?

What sets Saul and David apart in their responses to the criticism from the Lord they received through two godly prophets? Like Saul, David confessed his sin, but unlike Saul, David admitted his sin right away without any justification. Why was David’s confession more favorable to God then Saul’s? We are not told, and can only guess. God does not look to our outward actions, but the motives of the heart. David was truly repentant, when it appears Saul was not. David cared about what God thought, while it appears Saul was concerned with the opinions of others.

David wrote a Psalm in response to his sin. I will share a few verses with you. Notice how similar his words are to the response given to Saul after he fell from grace.

Psalm 51:10-12, 16-17

10 Create in me a clean heart, O God.
Renew a loyal spirit within me.
11 Do not banish me from your presence,
and don’t take your Holy Spirit[d] from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and make me willing to obey you...


...16 You do not desire a sacrifice, or I would offer one.
You do not want a burnt offering.
17 The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit.
You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God.


May we walk in companionship with the Lord our God with repentant hearts, and offering our obedience through a spirit broken for his Glory.

Integrity part 2: Lessons from the life of Saul

We all have moments in life when we forget that God is with us behind our closed doors. Instead of boldly proclaiming “I will not be shaken”, we stumble and fall. Let’s look at two men who took some pretty significant spills in their lives: Saul and David. Both men were anointed by God to be king of Israel. But only one was called a man after God’s own heart.

In both instances, these men were confronted by Godly men. What can we learn from these men’s mistakes, and how they respond to confrontation? First, we will look at Saul. In our next post we will look at David’s great stumble found in 2 Samuel 11.

We read in 1 Samuel 15 that God commanded Saul to wipe out the entire Amalekite nation—all the people, and even their animals. It is hard for us to grasp how a loving and gracious God could command such a thing, but we must remember that God’s mind is much bigger than our own. He is just, righteous, and cannot sin. Israel were his chosen people, and he did not want them intermarrying with people who would bring their false gods into the lives of his people, robbing them of the joy they could find in him. The Amalekites were also a very violent people group who could harm Israel…and had done so in the past. God’s extreme response was to wipe them out—completely.

1st Lesson in integrity: What are the Amalekites in our lives—those things that desire to pull us from God and harm us? We all have things in our lives we need to kill off. Is it an unhealthy relationship that needs to end? Sever the ties. Temptations online? Get rid of the Internet in your home. Debt on a card? Fast from needless spending. Are these extreme responses? Yes—but so was Gods. Jesus says in Matthew 5, if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out, and if your hand causes you to sin cut it off—it is better for these parts to parish then for the whole body to be thrown to Hell!

Saul failed to obey the task God gave him, leaving the king alive, and taking the best of the livestock. Deuteronomy 25:18 tells us that the Amalekites did not fear the Lord. Saul’s disobedience shows that neither did he.

When confronted by the prophet Samuel, Saul justified his disobedience saying the plunder of the battle was to be sacrificed to the Lord. But God desired obedience over sacrifice. 2nd Lesson in integrity: We too must ask ourselves, what sin are we justifying in our lives? Justifying sin reveals the true nature of our heart before God.

Samuel responds to Saul’s justifications in verses 22-23

22 But Samuel replied,
“What is more pleasing to the LORD:
your burnt offerings and sacrifices
or your obedience to his voice?
Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice,
and submission is better than offering the fat of rams.
23 Rebellion is as sinful as witchcraft,
and stubbornness as bad as worshiping idols.
So because you have rejected the command of the LORD,
he has rejected you as king.”


In verse 24 of 1 Samuel 15, we see Saul finally admit his sin, and plead for forgiveness. Next week, we will see that David too admitted his sin to the Lord. Yet, God’s response to these men is strikingly different. The Lord does not forgive Saul like he does to David. Why is this? We are not told directly, we could only guess. But I think the passage gives us hints.

Verse 12 tells us that after fighting the Amalekites, Saul set up a monument to himself. Only a man very full of himself would do such a thing, right? Yet, verse 17 reveals that God knew how little Saul actually thought of himself. When Saul confesses in verse 24, he admits that he was afraid of his people and did what they demanded—this is why he disobeyed the Lord. After confessing, he begged Samuel to honor him before the people by going to the temple to worship the Lord with him.

It appears that Saul’s heart found its value in what his people thought of him. He was more concerned in pleasing others than in pleasing the Lord. 3rd Lesson in integrity: Who are our hearts set to please?

Integrity part 1: God behind our closed doors

I look forward to being a father one day. In all honesty, I shouldn’t. I know what kind of child I was. I am the reason patience is also called “long-suffering”. I have put my parents through a lot! Many of you have an idea of the different uses of a spatula—flipping pancakes, lifting fresh cookies from a hot tray. When I was a child, I had a very different understanding of the spatula. The spatula was a tool of discipline…one which paid me a visit quite often!

I bear no ill will towards my parents for my many spankings, in fact, I am grateful. They always came from a place of love; wanting to see me learn to walk in right behavior. They were always partnered with a “this is what you did wrong, this is how we can make it right, and here is the game plan to keep from making this mistake again.”

Part of growing up is learning through discipline, maturing, and putting childish behaviors behind us.

This is true in our Spiritual maturity as well. But sadly, as a pastor friend put it, there are many white-haired spiritual babies; grown men and women who have never grown in spiritual maturity; never learned to walk with the Lord in integrity.

I’d like to look at two men: Saul and David, and what their lives can teach us about integrity. Both men were anointed by God. Both were given the responsibility of ruling the nation of Israel. Yet, only one was called a man after God’s own heart.

1 Samuel 24 reveals an incident that was significant to both Saul and David’s lives. At the time, Saul held the thrown of Israel, but because of his disobedience, he’d already been told that God had found a man after his own heart who would rule the thrown. David was that man; he had already been anointed as the next king.

Saul wanted to see David dead. David hid with his soldiers in the wilderness of En-gedi, and Saul came with 3000 men to hunt him down. It just so happened by divine providence that Saul stepped into the very cave David and his men were hiding in to “relieve” himself. David literally caught Saul with his pants down—he was completely helpless! David’s men encouraged him, “now is your chance!” David snuck up behind the king, and snipped off a piece of his robe…and that’s when his conscience got the best of him.

I love this—David was so in tune with God, his conscience troubled him for damaging the clothing of the man who came to murder him in cold blood! Saul on the other hand, had closed God off so much that not only did he want to kill David—he dragged 3000 other men into sin with him.

There couldn’t be a greater contrast between David and Saul here. What sets them apart? The most simple, basic answer is that one recognized the presence of God while the other didn’t.

David listened to his conscience—Saul had shut his off.

Huddled in a room, there we sat— a group of friends confessing our trials; opening up behind a closed door in our chaotic college dorm. Many of us admitted the deep struggle it was to keep our minds and eyes pure behind the closed doors of our dorm rooms. “I don’t have a roommate…there’s no one to see what I do! How can I remain pure?” After a pause, one of my best friends thoughtfully spoke. “I’ve been thinking…what if we really…I mean really…believed that God is always with us—that he is there behind those closed doors. That he sees what we do. How would that change the way we live?

That question stuck with me and has formed the way I understand integrity. Integrity is recognizing that God is always with us, and living as such.

If we are honest, there are many times that we perhaps don’t want God to be with us. In those moments, it is only because we hold a skewed view of God. It is easy to slip into seeing God as a cosmic referee—he’s just waiting to blow the whistle when we mess up! You can’t do this, you can’t do that—can’t, can’t, can’t! In our skewed perception, God looks like a major killjoy. But how could the author and creator of joy kill it? No! God wants to bring us true joy, and let us experience it to the fullest! He’s like the father of a toddler who reaches down to grab the dog food, worm, or pine cone from his child’s hand before the tot’s pudgy fingers plop it in his mouth. “No! You don’t want to eat that! I have something better—much, much better for you.” False joys leave a bad taste in our mouth. Our greatest joy is found in walking with God.

David writes in Psalm 16 about the joy found living one’s life in companionship with God. Here are a couple verses…

… 8 I know the LORD is always with me.
I will not be shaken, for he is right beside me.


... 11 You will show me the way of life,
granting me the joy of your presence
and the pleasures of living with you forever.


As we continue this blog series on integrity, we will look at those moments when the “I will not be shaken” becomes the stumbling and falling down that we all do. Both Saul and David had some significant slip ups. Both were confronted by godly men for their sin. What can we learn from their mistakes, and the way they responded?

The Lord's Prayer

One of the most beautiful things about becoming a Christian is that as the Holy Spirit transforms our lives, He begins to align our desires with those of the Father so that as we mature in our prayer life, we begin to pray not for the desires of our flesh, but for the desires of the Father.  Our desires become one and the same with His.

I love to look at the Lord’s Prayer in light of that truth.  Matthew 6: 9-13 says,

⁹ “This, then, is how you should pray:

“‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
¹⁰ your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
¹¹ Give us today our daily bread.
¹² And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
¹³ And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.’

Right before these verses, Jesus warns his followers not to babble on like the pagans when they pray.  The sad irony is that the words of the Lord’s Prayer have become so familiar to us that it is easy not to really think of what it is we are saying.  What I love about this prayer is that it’s active—it is a prayer we participate with the Spirit of God in answering as we align ourselves with Him.  What do I mean by that?  Look at this:  How is it that our Father’s name is hallowed?  We lift up his name!  It is our privilege and responsibility to lift up our Father’s holy name and proclaim it to those who are lost.  How is it that the Father’s will is done on earth as it is in heaven?  We do his will!  It is our privilege and responsibility to follow the Spirit’s leading, and to obey God in carrying out the Great Commission He has given to us in going and making disciples.  How is it that God provides us with our daily sustenance?  It is not through our slothfulness that God provides for us, but we can praise Him for giving us the ability and opportunity to be able to work hard in order to provide food for our tables.  We can thank Him that we live in a place where hard work can provide food.

A foolish man prays for God to open locked doors…and then never reaches out to turn the knob himself!  James 2:16-17 says,

¹⁶ If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? ¹⁷ In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

How important that our prayer life is accompanied by action.  After all, God is not our servant—we are His!  That we participate in answering our own prayers does not make the answers any less amazing—if anything, the answers are all the more amazing as they reveal our transformed hearts.

                There is one part of the Lord ’s Prayer we cannot participate in.  We cannot forgive our own debts.  Only the blood of Christ can forgive us our debts, and deliver us from evil.  We, however, are given the responsibility and the power to forgive the debts others have against us.  What a beautiful opportunity to mirror our heavenly Father—to live in his transforming power. 

                Matthew 6: 14-15 says,

¹⁴ For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. ¹⁵ But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

                This is a verse that should cause each of us to pause.  Some pains are hard to let go.  It’s easy to cling to a grudge, massaging it in the palm of our hand.  But what this reveals is that we don’t truly recognize what it is that Christ did in forgiving us.  We become no less foolish than the servant who demanded his payment of a few coins when the king had released him his debt of thousands (Matt 18:21-35)!  When we refuse to forgive, we reveal the true heart within us.  Is yours a prayerful heart transformed by the King, or a demanding heart convinced that it is king?  Align your heart with the Fathers—let your prayers be active, and your forgiveness mirroring the likeness of Christ’s.

Meeting God's Glory

We all have those moments when gravity seems to pull a little stronger; when a weight presses down upon our shoulders and we are left weary.   Christ’s words in Matthew 11:28 bring us great peace.   “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. “  How comforting to know that our savior and creator desires for us to find rest in his arms!  If we want to experience the full joy of this promise, it is important to recognize the context in which these words were spoken.  In Matthew 11:20, Jesus denounces the cities in which he had performed his miracles—he revealed His glory—and yet they did not respond.  They saw the glory of Christ…and chose to continue sinning rather then follow him.  The burden Jesus has come to relieve us from…is our sin.

I desire to show this to be true: it‘s when we recognize the devastation of our sin in the light of Christ’s glory that Jesus relieves our burden…and invites us to participate in His mission.

As Jesus continues to speak in verses 21-24, he mentions the cities of Tyre, Sidon and Sodom—cities of intense wickedness.  Tyre was so wicked, the prophet Ezekiel used the king of Tyre as an analogy for Satan!  Sidon so evil, God refers to them as his enemy (Ezekiel 28).   Both these cities where destroyed by their enemies.  Sodom was such a corrupt city that God wiped it off the face of the earth with fire and brimstone from heaven!  And yet, he said these cities would be better off than Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum on the day of judgment.  Why?  The later had witnessed the works of Jesus…and didn’t respond.

In verses 25-27 Jesus prays.

^… “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. ²⁶ Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do.

   ²⁷ “All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

I wonder if these cities refused to lay down their sin, because they couldn’t see it as the burden it truly was.  Children willingly share their burdens…they have no choice—so much reliance and trust in their parents!  But as we grow older, we become a bit more independent; we like to try to handle things on our own.  We even try to handle our own sin; managing our burdens rather than releasing them.  Does this sound familiar?  “I know I shouldn’t do this….I know this is wrong…but no one has to know.  I can manage this.  I can keep this hidden.”  Or how about, “It’s not gossip if it’s true…my tongue is burning, I just have to share this!”  Or maybe, “She makes me SO ANGRY!  I refuse to talk to her…it’s her fault, not mine anyway!”

The burdens Christ invites us to lay at the cross, we instead hoist to our shoulders.  We have no comprehension of the burden we carry and the freedom we lack!  Who does Jesus choose to reveal himself to?  To childlike hearts willingly dropping their burdens at the foot of the cross.

           And so, verse 28: “Come to me all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.”  No longer do we have to hold on to these weights that wear us down.  We can be free!

There are two lies I tend to buy into when it comes to my sin: either that it’s not that big of a deal, or that I’m damaged goods…God couldn’t possibly want or use someone like me.   God’s word addresses both these mindsets.

In Isaiah 6, Isaiah witnesses the glory of God in a fantastic way— He sees the Lord, the train of his robe filling the temple.  There are awesome heavenly creatures singing praise with such power the ground shakes.  Smoke fills the temple.  It is in this place Isaiah has a “Woe is me” moment! 

“Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.” Isaiah 6:5

Have you ever had a “Woe is me moment?”  It’s like a car accident that can’t be prevented.  Isaiah, clothed in sin, was on a crash course into the blazing glory of God.  He sees his sin in the light of God, and knows he’s a dead man.  And yet, Isaiah’s lips are touched with a coal from the altar—his guilt is taken away, and his sins are atoned for.  He is made right!  God says, “Whom shall I send?  Who will go?”  

It’s in this place that Isaiah says, “Here I am!  Send me.”

I have begun meeting with a few guys weekly for prayer, encouragement and accountability.  They have become a reminder of God’s glorious presence in my life.  He is watching me.   I may quickly forget God’s watching eye, but it’s much harder to forget that my brothers are going to ask me how my week has been.   Sin I brushed off before, I now see in the light of Christ’s glory.  I rejoice in the freedom of laying down those burdens so that I can respond to God, “Here I am!  Send me!”

Perhaps you are in a place where you recognize the seriousness of your sin.   Words like “fake” and “hypocrite” constantly ring in the back of your mind.  You wonder how God could ever use someone like you.  I think Peter may have wondered the same thing.

Jesus asked Peter to drop his nets on the other side of the boat one morning, but Peter was a bit hesitant.  He was a professional.  He’d been out all night and hadn’t caught a thing…what pointers could this rabbi give him?  But he did anyway—and so many fish filled the nets they began to break, and two boats were filled with enough fish that they were on the verge of sinking!

^“When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” Luke 5:8.  Peter saw his sin in light of the glory of Christ.  Maybe he remembered  a coarse joke he shared with the other fishermen the night before.  Perhaps he remembered the face of a person he had cheated in business.  Maybe he thought of the temper that sometimes got the best of him.  All we know, is Peter recognized that he was in the presence of overwhelming glory.  Jesus met Peter where he was at…and called him.  “Don’t be afraid!  From now on, you will be a fisher of men.”  Peter found the glory of God while sitting on his knees amongst a bunch of slimy, flopping fish.  Jesus will meet each  of us wherever we are at too.

I love that Jesus doesn’t end with, “Come to me all who are weary and carry burdens, and I will give you rest.”  He goes on to say, “Take my yoke upon you.”  That’s an instrument of work!  God has a duty for us to do.  But it’s not a burden…the burden has been taken away—it’s a joy! 

When we recognize our sin in the light of Christ’s glory, we see ourselves for who we are…and God for who he is.  We begin to see the depths Christ stooped to make us holy in the eyes of the Father, and our only natural response is to cry out, “Here I am! Send Me!” 

oneness

Visiting a new church can be exciting and intimidating.  In my own experiences with other churches, I have found that in some, the visit becomes nothing more than sitting in a pew, one stranger lost in a sea of others.  Sadly, some churches are as cold and hard as their pews.  I have visited other churches however, where though I’m among strangers, there is the overwhelming warmness and reality of worshipping with family—these are my brothers and sisters in Christ.  The Holy Spirit that lives in and works through them is divinely evident, shining brightly.  As a congregation invites strangers in with warmth and welcome, the stranger experiences God in a very real way, because it’s the Spirit of God working through the church to touch the life of the person who has walked through their door.  I tell you, with that kind of love a stranger won’t remain a stranger much longer.   When the Holy Spirit is alive and moving within a church, there is no sense of strangers amongst strangers, but rather the beauty of oneness in Christ Jesus.

I had a friend in college who conducted a social experiment that every church should hear about.  He grew a scraggly beard, disheveled his hair, wore dirty, worn out clothing, and did not bathe.  Yeah, I know—isn’t that what most college guys do?  Well maybe, but the next part is not.  He went to several of the most influential churches in the city looking like a homeless man to see how they might respond.

One church greeted him warmly at the door, but didn’t do much beyond that.  In two others he was not spoken to at all; only met with confused and bewildered glances in one, and cold darting glances accompanied with whispers of “…who is that….what’s he doing here…he doesn’t belong here…” in the other.  In the last church, he was warmly welcomed, even being offered some money and an invitation to someone’s home for a warm meal following the service!  I know which church I would return to.

I wonder what I would have done.  How would I have responded?  Would I have squelched the Spirit within me and missed my opportunity?  How are we perceived to those who visit us as a church?  Do they see oneness and love, or strangers amongst strangers?  How will we respond to those who come through our door?

Jesus, the night he was arrested, after praying for his disciples…prayed for us.  “My prayer is not for them alone.  I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.  May they also be in us so that the world may believe you have sent me.  I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me.  May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” John 17:20-23   

                 

His Story

History.  What images does that word conjure up for you?  For some it brings up images of sleepy afternoons spent drooling on gratified school desks, staring blankly at a dusty chalk board, the dull hum of a dry lecture from a monotone teacher sneaking in their inattentive ears.  For others, the word summons movie screens of adventure projected on the wall of the mind; decisions—both good and bad—made by strangers of the past that directly affect their present.   For them, history is the earlier pages of a script they have a part in, a story still being told.

Do you see the big picture—that this life you live, this world you experience is part of a grand piece of art?  We are just single brush strokes on the ceiling of the Sistine chapel!  Being one brush stroke doesn’t make us insignificant, no, quite the contrary—this is where we find our significance—we are part of something bigger than ourselves, something beautiful!  Our lives have purpose; one scene in the ultimate story written by our creator. 

The great temptation is to let our eyes role back in their sockets so that we are inward focused, spending all our time centering on ourselves and concentrating on our own little stories; refusing to acknowledge the great story that God has invited us into.

Our church has been participating in the video series The Truth Project these last couple months.  A recurring theme continues to appear.  Man chooses to ignore the truth, instead governing himself by lies—he becomes his own authority; because to walk in truth means there is a higher authority than one’s own desires and opinions—the authority of God.  We are not in charge.  In our self-focus, we forget the Sovereignty of God—His ultimate authority.  He is the author of history.  He is in control.  Isaiah 46: 9-11 illustrates this point well.

⁹ Remember the former things, those of long ago;
   I am God, and there is no other;
   I am God, and there is none like me.
¹⁰ I make known the end from the beginning,
   from ancient times, what is still to come.
I say, ‘My purpose will stand,
   and I will do all that I please.’
¹¹ From the east I summon a bird of prey;
   from a far-off land, a man to fulfill my purpose.
What I have said, that I will bring about;
   what I have planned, that I will do.

To deny God and his hand in history draws our focus onto ourselves.  If there is no God, then there is no purpose to life beyond what we individually desire to make of it.  “We live. We die. We become worm food. Game over. The end.”  There is no greater cause we are accountable to then our own pleasure, “eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die!”  If there is no personal God to hold us accountable for our actions, we can manipulate history to tell us what we want to hear; rewrite it to teach others what we want them to believe.  Dr. Tackett, the tour guide through the truth project, uses the example of the Mayflower Compact.  Most of us in our History classes read the opening lines to be something to the effect of, “We whose names are underwritten…having undertaken, a voyage to plant the first colony…” but there are some key phrases missing.  “In the name of God, Amen.  We whose names are underwritten…having undertaken, for the glory of God and advancement of the Christian faith…, a voyage to plant the first colony.”  The whole story is not told.  It is left devoid of the true purpose…devoid of God.  What we are left with is an incomplete story, or in other words, a lie.  This is nothing new; the serpent in the garden hissed, “Did God really say you could not eat from any fruit in the garden?”  Satan revised history right from the beginning in order to convince Adam and Eve to believe what he wanted them to.

The Roman Guards who stood watch at the tomb of Jesus at the time of his resurrection were likewise encouraged to revise the history of the event.

¹² When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, ¹³ telling them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.’ Matthew 28:12-13

These are the two most significant moments in history.  One is a lie—bringing about sin and death—and the other is attacked by a lie—deceiving people from believing upon the Lord—the only one who saves them from sin and death! 

History is important to God.  Throughout scripture God continually tells his people to Remember!  When Israel forgot the things God had done, they began to walk their own paths, living out their own selfish stories, forgetting their purpose as the chosen people of God.  Their gratitude and obedience to God vanish with their dissipating memories of him.   Whether we actively revise history or passively forget what God has done, either way, we will begin to believe the lie that this life is about us. 

Pastor Skip has a question he continually asks us every Sunday: “So What?”  Why does this all matter?   Dr. Tackett states, we tend to forget the things we should remember…and remember the things we should forget!!!  When we make history into a little story about ourselves, neglecting to see God’s full picture, we tend to focus on the petty things—personal annoyances, personal injustices, personal preferences, personal privileges—these become the things of utmost importance.  This is unfortunate…because these are not the things of utmost importance to God.  God has a much bigger vision for us—to love God and love people (God’s greatest command) and to go and make disciples (the great commission).  How unfortunate when we allow little things to derail the train from pressing onward in the will of God.  The lost must be found, the blind must see, the deaf must hear.  Only when we look at life through Christ’s eyes (seeing the bigger picture) and not our own (self-focused as we are), will we begin to discover…and fulfill…our role in history—His Story.

Shape your culture

After standing at the base of that significant tree, I am sure those sweet, juicy bites of fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil sat like cement in the stomachs of Adam and Eve, sending up bile of bitter regret.  The irony of Satan’s lie is that he told them eating the fruit would make them just like God, yet they—the crown of creation—were already created in the image of God!  It is our sin that pulls us further from God and his image, further from what he intended us to be.  Satan’s lies will always pull us in the exact opposite direction of God’s intentions for us, yet his lies are enticing; so much so, that they often become the cultural norm.  The sweet fragrance of the vile fruit stills lingers in the air, and oh, how quickly we grasp for it!

Speaking with a high school student recently, it was obvious how great this cultural pressure weighs on him.  He feels desperately alone as he strives to live a life pleasing to God, and often wonders how he could ever make a difference in this overwhelmingly evil culture.

I’m encouraged that Jesus has used individuals to drastically change culture, pulling people back to the ways of the one whose image they bear.  Jesus tells us that just a little yeast can permeate the whole dough.  Throughout history, we have seen a few people change their world.

I have been reading an excellent book, Why not Women, by Loren Cunningham, founder of Youth with a Mission.  It’s a book that examines God’s word, and history to see how God has used women in ministry, and examines difficult texts concerning women in roles of leadership in the church.  In it, Loren shares some examples of men and women who have transformed their culture.  Here are some examples.

William Wilberforce pursued the cause of abolishing slavery in England for thirty years in parliament.  The law passed the year after he passed away. 

Though the image is absurd to us now, the pubs of England used to have stepping stools for children to order their gin!  General William Booth and the Salvation Army fought against this cultural norm.  It was Christians who spoke out against the atrocity of child labor as well.  In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, children were used in Britain’s mines to do long hours of intense work.   The reason being, if a mine collapsed, children were the cheaper beast of burden—much less expensive than a valuable horse.  Christian’s refused to allow the image of God to be stripped from these children, standing against this inhuman treatment. 

In 1819, after a Spiritual awakening in Geneva, Switzerland, Henry Dunant and some people from his church formed a group to actively serve those dying on the battlefield of war.  Before this point, wounded soldiers were left to die.  This group is what we now call the International Red Cross.

Even within the church, there have been cultural norms that needed to be changed.  A man named William Carey became convinced that God was calling him to bring the Gospel to India, yet this was not something that was done in his day.  When he told the leaders of his denomination his desire, one replied, “…When God pleases to convert the heathen, He’ll do it without consulting you or me.”  William did go to India, and others followed suit, bringing the Gospel message to many other nations as well.

As we look back over history, it is enraging to see the state of what was culturally normal.  Yet, a few people following the Spirit of God transformed their culture.  At times, we may feel we are in the minority as we stand for the Truth, but one person walking with God will always outnumber a thousand walking with lies.

Prayer

The last two weeks of August, I spent camping along the North shore of Lake Superior.  Excitement filled me like a natural helium…I’m sure I was floating two feet off the ground.  But my balloons quickly popped.  Very rarely is there a convenient time to lock your keys in your car.    The first evening I stopped to buy some groceries in Two Harbors.  When I got back to my car and reached for the door handle, the door didn’t respond the way I expected it to.  No squeaky hinges opening.  It was locked—as were the other doors.  They were still locked when I walked around the car another five times to check each door again.  The simple truth is I could jiggle the handle all I wanted, but without the key, I wasn’t getting in.

Many times in life we rush towards our big decisions, but we are destined to crash into a closed door because we forgot the key.  Prayer is our spiritual key.  Perhaps we see no better example of this then in Mark 9 starting at verse 14.

Jesus was walking and in the distance he saw a large crowd.  In the middle of the crowd were some of his disciples, and the religious leaders were arguing with them.  When the people see Jesus in the distance they run to him.

“What are you arguing with them about?” he asks.

A man answers Jesus, “Teacher, I brought you my son, who is possessed by a spirit that has robbed him of speech.  Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground. He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth and becomes rigid. I asked your disciples to drive out the spirit, but they could not.”


“You unbelieving generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy to me” (vs. 17-19).


When the demon sees Jesus, it becomes violent; throwing the boy to the ground…he is convulsing, rolling around, and foaming at the mouth.  When Jesus asks how long this has been happening, we learn that this is a normal day in the life of the boy—he has been tormented by this demon since he was a young child.  It is such a serious situation that the demon has actually attempted taking the boy’s life by throwing him in fire and water.  The father’s plea is desperate,


“…if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us” (vs. 22).

Do you find yourself approaching Jesus the same way?  “Jesus, if you can, could you help me?”  Do we attempt to limit God-sized answers with human sized expectation?  Do we really believe that God can answer our prayers?

“What do you mean, ‘If I can’?” Jesus responds.  “Anything is possible if a person believes.”

I think there is a lot we can learn about belief in the father’s response.

“I do believe, but help me not to doubt.”

We often associate belief with our heads—beliefs are something we think.  But our actions, behaviors and choices show our true beliefs.  Though it was hard for this man’s head to ‘believe’ that Jesus could help, he chose to trust.

After Jesus drives out the demon his disciples ask him why they could not.  They have driven out others, so why not this one?  This demon was different—it was deaf and mute.  Jesus said that this kind can only be cast out by prayer.

Just as this boy was held captive by this deaf and mute demon, Satan holds the world captive to his lies, deafening their ears to truth.  We can be captive to the lies as well.  Sometimes we choose not to listen to truth.  It's easier to believe the lies.  Prayer is the key to freedom.

Follow me

The theme at New Life bible camp this summer came from Isaiah 43:19, which says,

¹⁹ For I am about to do a brand new thing.
      See, I have already begun! Do you not see it?
   I will make a pathway through the wilderness.
      I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.

In this passage God is speaking to his chosen people, Israel.  The people were in captivity, bound from the freedom they once knew. These were the consequences for their idolatry, but God chose to save them, showing them his greatness and love, something their idols could never do.  Not only did they face physical captivity, but God was showing them that idols bring spiritual bondage and that only he could break their chains and set them free.

Though our idols may not be made of wood or stone, we’ve all turned to idols and felt the sting of its consequence.   We’re all in desperate need of the living God who can do a new thing in our lives.  We all need the freedom that only he can bring.

Idolatry comes in many shapes.  I think of the story of the rich young ruler in Luke 18.  Here is a young man who wants to experience something new!  He asks, “Good teacher, what must I do to get eternal life?”

Jesus’ response is not what I would expect.  “Why do you call me good?” Jesus asked him. “Only God is truly good.  But to answer your question, you know the commandments: ‘You must not commit adultery. You must not murder. You must not steal. You must not testify falsely. Honor your father and mother.’”

What is in this response?  First he says that only God is good.  And then he lists off a few commandments—laws that if we could obey, would make us good.  It is interesting that Jesus chose to use the commandments that deal with relating to other people.

The young man believed that he had kept all these commands his whole life.  But didn’t Jesus also say that if you look at a woman with lust, you commit adultery?  If you have anger in your heart, you are guilty of murder?  Sin is not just the things we do; it’s the condition of the heart.  Jesus had to help this young man see that.

Jesus said, “There is still one thing you haven’t done. Sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

After telling the young man to obey the commandments to treat others right, Jesus strikes to the core with an impossible challenge—sell all you have and give it to the poor.  The mask is off, the condition of the young man’s heart is revealed.  He could believe that he was doing pretty well—on the surface he was keeping the commandments and living a holy life, but when he had to give something up for the sake of others…well, that was something else completely.  The idol of his heart was revealed.  Leaving his treasures behind was a challenge too great.

Why would Jesus respond in these ways—asking this young man to do the impossible?  This reveals a truth to us all.  We’re all in the same spot as that rich young man.  The young man asked what he must do to receive eternal life, and by naming the impossible, Jesus made it clear that there was nothing he could do.  None of us can do anything to earn eternal life—we just can’t be good enough.  But Jesus said to this young man that only God is good…and we know that Jesus is God!

After challenging with the impossible, Jesus offers a simple invitation.  Follow me.  Because it’s impossible for us to be good, we must follow the only one who is.  We are utterly dependent on him “What is impossible for man, is possible for God.”

This person is left with the same decision all people must face.  Whom will I follow?  To what will I cling?  Will I lord my life, and bow to my wealth and idols, or will I will I recognize true faith as dependence on the only one who brings eternal, life--starting now.    

Jesus says, "Follow me."  the story ends with the young man's head drooped in sadness as he walked away.  Which direction does the story go for you?  For me?  

Who will you follow today?

Its not about me

At the end of July twelve youth and leaders hopped into a 15 passenger van and a suburban anticipating a week of seeing God move in and through us; impacting a community that lives a life of poverty foreign to us.  My very white, middle class, small-town youth group made its way to NE Minneapolis. God, in his faithfulness, did move in us and through us, and opened our eyes to some new things about ourselves.

I was nervous about this trip.  I stressed about funds—could we raise enough money in time?  Stressed about unity—would the two youth groups meeting for the first time on this trip get along?  Stressed about the unknowns—what is this all going to look like?  Stressed about our youth’s engagement—will my group enjoy themselves, will they jump in and participate?  I was stressed about what God would do…and what he would ask me to do—God, will you show yourself this week, and will I be willing to join you in what you are doing in NE Minneapolis?  But God revealed to me that all of these concerns funneled down to one point—ME. What will people think about me if this trip is a flop?  I’m responsible for this trip and so if things don’t go just right, I’m the failure. 

I was sitting upon a self-focused thrown, concerned about the praise of others, but this wasn’t my mission trip—it was God’s.  It wasn’t for my glory, but for his.  Even if I failed, God could not. 

As we presented the gospel to children this week, we were challenged to help them see that sin is not just the bad things we do like lying and disobeying our parents—it’s the condition of each and every person’s heart—a condition that we are born with.  It is making ourselves king of our lives instead of making Jesus our king.  Its making this life about me.  God challenged me in that this week.  For a trip with the purpose of focusing my heart on God and others, I sure was spending a lot of time thinking about myself!  How easily I could have missed out in truly ministering to people in my pursuit of fabricating the perfect mission trip product for our youth to consume.

I can’t help but think of Jesus inviting the little children into his presence.  His disciples wanted to turn the children away.  Maybe they were concerned that Jesus wouldn’t look “professional” enough—that he couldn’t take care of the really important things if a bunch of snot-nosed kids were clinging to him.  But it wasn’t about the disciples, or the way Jesus looked to others.  It was about who Jesus is.  He is love, and he desired to show children the depth and beauty of his love.  This was the purpose of our trip too—to show children the love of Jesus Christ.  The trip was not about me, it was all about bringing children to the lap of Christ.

On your Facebook profile page there is a section where you can write a bit about yourself titled “about you.”  One of my friends simply wrote, “It’s not.”  This life is not about me.  As Christian’s we are never to be a bright neon sign blinking “Look at me!” but rather a  shining city on a hill illuminating the glory of Jesus Christ, it’s ruler.

                

Fishers of Men

Being the program director at New Life bible camp forces me to ask myself what the purpose of our camp is.  Two weekends ago was Men and Boys retreat.  Old gray headed men and dirty faced little boys both enjoyed spending time with friends, playing games, worshiping, and learning new things together.  There was plenty of great food, a few games of horse shoes, golf, baseball, archery, laughter, and campfire stories—all in all, it was a great weekend

Camp is a fun place for me, filled with a lot of fond memories, but if that is all that it is, I’ll miss out on an eternally significant purpose.  As I think about the purpose of camp, I think back to the illustration Pastor Skip has used of two different types of ships—the cruise liner and the battle ship.  We can look at camp as a cruise liner—a fun and relaxing place to visit for a while, or we can look at it as a battle ship—a ministry with an intense and urgent mission, a tool fighting for the souls of men.

I have an opportunity to invite men, women and children to camp this summer; a place where they might for the first time hear the message of a God who loved them so much, he came down to earth to die on their behalf, inviting them into eternal life with Him.  We then have the opportunity to continue building relationships with these people, inviting them into our church family.  In doing this, camp becomes more than another summer vacation opportunity; it becomes a chance for us to invite people into an eternal saving relationship with their creator, and into continual fellowship with a body of believers.  That’s a perspective with purpose.

The speaker at Men and Boy's retreat shared with us an illustration about the Titanic that he took from a book by Ron Hutchcraft.  The “unsinkable” ship brought death to 1500 people that fateful evening April 15, 1912.  Though there simply weren’t enough life boats for the amount of passengers on the Titanic, the sad truth is that even still, most of the boats rowed away from the sinking ship less than half full.   Many people desperately cried out “Help me!” as they splashed frantically in the frigid water begging to be saved, but shockingly, those in the life boats paddled past the desperate cries.

3 days later when funeral ships returned to the scene of the horrific event, 328 frozen bodies were found floating in life jackets.  These people did not die because a ship sank.  They died because those who could have saved them refused to help. 

There is a healthy dose of perspective in this illustration.  As Christians, do we recognize we sit in a life boat amidst thousands of drowning souls?  Countless people all around us are perishing without the hope of Jesus Christ, yet most Christians paddle by, concerned to take the risk of reaching out with truth.  Will you? 

We are not on a comfortable cruise, we are on a rescue mission!  I pray we remember our purpose and that we live it out.   Are we extending our hands to those drowning in the water, or are we paddling away from there cries for help?  Jesus called his disciples to be fishers of men.  Let’s pull drowning souls into the hope that we have.

The mat or the miracle

It is illegal to eat a hamburger in St. Cloud on a Sunday.  Why?  …I don’t know.  My guess is at one point in time there was some legitimate reason for such a law, though I could never guess what that might be.  Laws generally don’t just happen—most often there is a reason.

My guess would be that if you were to go to McDonald’s in St Cloud on a Sunday, there wouldn’t be an officer waiting outside the door saying, “Excuse me, I’m going to have to see what you have in that bag.”  The law carries no benefit.  Avoiding hamburger on Sundays will not make a person into a better citizen of St. Cloud. 

In the bible, we see that the Jewish religious leaders made up many of their own rules to help them keep God’s laws.  For example, God’s law said, “remember the Sabbath and keep it holy”.  The Pharisees added 1500 other laws to this one in order to help them keep the Sabbath holy!  But here is the problem: those rules became so important to them; they became equal to scripture itself.  They missed the heart of God’s law, and reduced it into a bunch of rules that if followed, would make them better than the next guy.

In John 5, there is a man who lies on a mat by the pool of Bethesda.  For 38 years he has been lame, unable to walk on his own.  The bible doesn’t reveal much about this pool, but apparently it was believed to have healing powers.  For this man to be so close to this pool, yet unable to walk to its waters must have been an unbearable heartbreak.  And then, one day, he meets Jesus.

 “Would you like to be healed? … Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!”

After 38 years, to stand once again, to take your first steps, to feel the ground beneath your feet--what an amazing moment!  But somehow…the Pharisees missed it.  This man had picked up his mat and was carrying it.  By the Pharisees rules, that’s work, and you cannot work on the Sabbath!  Their self-righteous rules blinded them to the miracle of Christ!  A man who hadn’t walked for 38 years was standing right in front of them, and all they saw was the mat in his hand. 

Do you see the irony?   The original intended purpose of their rules was to help them be close to God, but their rules prevented them from accepting the Son of God who was right there amongst them!  After all, why would they need Jesus to make them holy if they could do it on their own by following some rules?

We may look at these laws and laugh at their foolishness, but I think it would be wise to ask ourselves—do we do the same things?  It is pretty easy to cast a judgmental eye on those who don’t fit the mold of our North American Christian culture—those who don’t bow to our churchy rules.

The issue is not obeying a bunch of rules; it’s honoring and loving Jesus Christ.  We must always remember that nothing we can do—no rules we obey; no customs or traditions we practice—can ever earn us right standing with God.  When we think that, we become like the Pharisees who missed out on the one who came to save them.  They were too busy trying to do it themselves.

Let’s not stare at the mat and miss the miracle.

Clutching to Purpose

When we first step into a new job, the boss generally hands us some papers that explain our job description.  This description lends guidance, gives purpose, and help us stay focused.  John the Baptist was an incredibly focused man.  I'm sure locusts and wild honey make good brain food, but his focus comes from a place deeper than his morning breakfast.  Isaiah 40:3 prophecies of John's purpose hundreds of years before his birth saying,

"Listen! It’s the voice of someone shouting,'Clear the way through the wilderness for the Lord!  Make a straight highway through the wasteland for our God!'"

In Luke 1, the angel Gabriel spoke of John's purpose to his father, Zechariah, before John was even born.  Talk about job description--written in prophecy and spoken from the lips of an Angel!  But even with such a grand calling, John was a human being.  Luke 1:15 says that John was filled with the Holy Spirit even before he was born.  He needed the Holy Spirit's guiding to keep him focused on his purpose--keeping the important things in the foreground and letting everything else fade to peripheral.  

The whole purpose of John's ministry was to baptize people as an outward sign of their repentance so that they would be ready for the coming Messiah--Jesus.  "Repent!  For the Kingdom of Heaven is near!"  

Shortly after John baptizes Jesus, Jesus' disciples begin to baptize people too.  You would think that John's disciples--his right hand men--would surely understand why it is they do the things they do, yet when they see that Jesus' disciples are also baptizing, they get a bit jealous.  "...Rabbi, that man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan—the one you testified about—look, he is baptizing, and everyone is going to him." (John 3:26).

The implications here are huge.  I am sure these disciples had great intentions, and they were doing a great thing, yet they completely missed the point!  Their job was to point towards Jesus, yet when the people went to Jesus...they became jealous!  They forgot the purpose of their ministry in the first place!  But John never did.  His response is, "...He must become greater, I must become less"(John 3:30).  John continually recognized that his purpose was to direct hearts toward the Messiah.

In ministry, it is critical to get in the habit of stepping back, examining our programs, and asking, "Now, why is it that we are doing this again?"  It would be foolish for the UPS man to drive from place to place with nothing to deliver.  We too must continually make sure our purpose hasn't fallen from the truck!

As Christians, do we keep our purpose at the forefront of our minds?  Like John's disciples, we might be doing all the right "stuff", but if we aren't pointing others towards Jesus, we've missed the point.  We've lost our purpose.  It's time to focus!  He must become greater, we must become less.

"What's love got to do with it?"--exercising spiritual gifts in loving unity

I don't know yet how to post audio to my blog.  So until I find a way, here is the sermon I preached this last week in written form.

If someone had explained to me ahead of time how much work a canoe trip would be, I probably would have never gone on one.  Canoe trips are a curious thing.  You are sun burnt, tired, sweating, hungry, and thirsty.  Your muscles ache, and you are continually surprised by the unique places you discover wood ticks on your body.  Paddling across the lake, I would begin to long for the shore so I could be free from paddling, but when you get to shore, you hoist on your packs and portage your canoes to the next lake—the whole time thinking, “I can’t wait until I get back in the canoe so I can be free from carrying all this stuff!”  Even with all this—with stepping from the canoe into two feet of mud, falling into the lake with your camera, digging holes when you need to “take care of business”—the strange thing is…you kind of love it!

Canoe trips provide a person an opportunity to discover what they are really made of.  They are an opportunity to grow in skill and character.

But the thing I love most is the bond that is formed with other people.  You become reliant on one another.  You support and encourage each other.  Each person has their task—digging the latrine, getting the fire going, boiling water, pitching tents, preparing the food—each person must do their part to make the trip successful.

If you want to grow close to a group of people quickly, a canoe trip is a good way to do it.  Having common goals, a task to share—the need to rely on one another; these are the things that bring people together.

Skip has been talking about Spiritual gifts the last few weeks. Here are a few that the bible mentions—apostles, prophets, teachers, those who do miracles, those who have the gift of healing, those who can help others, those who have the gift of leadership, those who speak in unknown languages (1Corinthians 12:28).  We know that at least some—if not all of these gifts are present in this church.  How?  Because there are Christians in this church, and each believer is given spiritual gifts by the Holy Spirit.

1 Corinthians 12 :4-7 says, “There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all. There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord.  God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us.  A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other.”  Our spiritual gifts are not for our own benefit, but for the benefit of the entire church.  They work best when used together.  In many ways being the church is a lot like a canoe trip.  We face many challenges, and just like a canoe trip, if we desire to journey successfully—bringing glory to God—we need to be a united team.

When believers stop simply going to church, and instead become the Church, we find a bond that is unbelievable!  It is a unity like no other—bound in the Spirit, united in serving each other through our spiritual gifts—living to bring glory to Christ!

Why is unity so important?  Hours before Jesus was to die, he prayed for us—you and I.  John 17:20-21 say,   “I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message.  I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.”  We were on Jesus mind right before he was betrayed to death.  Our unity is that important to Christ!  Through using our gifts to the benefit of the church—we fulfill Christ’s prayer for us.  Our unity is purposed so that the world will believe on Christ!

However, our own selfish desires can trump out this kind of unity.  “Spiritual gift” unity is others-focused.  Our selfish, flesh inclination is to be self-focused.  The sad truth is that often the world doesn’t see our unity, but our division.  In the Corinthian church, even the Lord’s Supper—something meant to unite all believers in the body and blood of Christ—had become a selfish act!  It was celebrated with a feast, and some were scarfing it all down before the others even arrived!  They were creating division with no care of it.

But in the following instructions, I cannot praise you. For it sounds as if more harm than good is done when you meet together. ¹⁸ First, I hear that there are divisions among you when you meet as a church, and to some extent I believe it. ¹⁹But, of course, there must be divisions among you so that you who have God’s approval will be recognized!—1 Corinthians 11:17

            Our flesh will quickly sacrifice unity on the altar of self-satisfaction.  Who cares if there is unity…just as long as I get my way!

Let’s break this down, shall we?  1st Corinthians 8:1 shows us that love strengthens the church, while 1^st Corinthians 12:7 shows this to be the purpose of our spiritual gifts—benefiting the body of Christ.   So…practicing our spiritual gifts for each other’s benefit is an act of love!  Jesus prayed for our unity so that the world will know God sent Him, and he also said his disciples would be known by their love, so…we are to be known by our love—a love that is practiced through spiritual gifts—spiritual gifts that unite us together!

All this is confirmed as we look at 1 Corinthians 13.  Why would a chapter on love be placed smack dab in the middle of two chapters on spiritual gifts?  Because the Corinthians needed to be told that love is the key ingredient to spiritual gifts.  Without love, there so called “spiritual gifts” were useless—they were self-serving rather than other- serving.

On one of my first canoe trips, one of my best friends—a novice at canoeing was in the canoe with another girl.  If you watched closely you could see that she was doing all the work.  My friend was simply dipping his paddle in the water, and allowing the current to pull it back.  It may have looked like he was paddling, but he wasn’t benefiting anyone!

In the same way, are we content to “look” the part for our own glory, or do we desire to work out our gifts to benefit the body of Christ?  Selfishness can mascaraed as the practice of spiritual giftedness, but if spiritual giftedness is not practiced in love, we are not acting from the Holy Spirit’s leading at all.

I never liked puzzles—they don’t make sense to me.  Why would you break a picture into pieces with the purpose of putting it back together again? 

The secret to enjoying a puzzle is that you have to be patient!  The fun isn’t just in seeing the final picture, but in the process of getting there.

The church body is like a puzzle—some pieces you know exactly where they fit—their purpose is clear.  Others are still searching for their place in the picture.  But each of us has a purpose—we each contribute to making the final picture.  If a piece is missing the picture is incomplete!

I find it exciting that right now in our own church, people are stepping in to new roles, excited to put their giftedness to use in benefiting this body of believers.  If we are faithful in this, God will grow us into a stronger church.  But there will be hiccups along the way.  We will fall short at times.  Sometimes we will act out of our own selfish flesh rather than the Spirit of God.  It is a continual process fitting our puzzle together.  Like with any puzzle, as we fit our giftedness together, we need to be patient with one another.  Ephesians 4:2 says, “Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love.”

When we click all of our pieces together, our unity makes an astounding image—that of Jesus Christ.  Bound together in the body of Christ—what an unshakable unity, what a beautiful gift!  What an amazing love.