Gospel and loving our enemies

       As we continue to look at how knowing, grasping, and cherishing the Gospel helps us to live out the life Jesus calls us to live we are going to look at the command to love our enemies.  Matthew 5:43-44, "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbors and hate your enemy.'  But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you."  We are commanded by Jesus to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us.  That kind of love is not our natural response.  We don't naturally love our enemies.  We don't naturally pray for those who persecute us, but that is what Jesus is calling His followers to do.  

       How does knowing, grasping, and cherishing the Gospel help us to love our enemies?  The Gospel tells us that because of our sin we are God's enemies.  Romans 5:10, "For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of Son, much more, now that we are reconciled shall we be saved by his life."  Do you see what Paul is saying here?  He is talking to Christians and reminding them that before they were reconciled to God they were enemies of God.  That doesn't get talked about a lot today.  It doesn't feel very good to be told that unless we have put our faith in Jesus we are actually enemies of God.  However, that is what the Gospel proclaims. It proclaims that we who were once enemies have been reconciled to God by Jesus and that is GOOD news!  We like to think that before Jesus we were pretty good people, but that is not what the Bible says.  The Bible says that we were enemies with God and anyone who is an enemy of the God of the universe is not a pretty good person.  That is a person who is in desperate need to be restored and reconciled to God and that is exactly what Jesus did when He took the punishment, death, and wrath upon Himself that you and I deserved because we were the ones who were God's enemies, not Jesus.  

       Friend, that is the Gospel and that is indeed God news.  Do you see how this connects to loving our enemies?  The Gospel shows us how the God of the universe was able to love and reconcile us while we were His enemies and that should be our motivation for loving our enemies.  Loving our enemies is doing exactly what God did for us.  The more we realize the desperate state that we were in before Jesus the more willing we will be to offer that same kind of love, grace, and mercy to others that God offered to us.  You don't have the capacity to love this way in and of yourself but that is exactly why God gave us the Holy Spirit so that we would have God's love dwelling within to give to others.  Knowing, grasping, and cherishing the Gospel helps us to love our enemies.

Gospel and living a life of gratitude.

   It is so easy to complain and honestly I am pretty good at it!  Most of us seem to be pretty good at complaining and do not find difficulty in finding multiple things every single day to complain about.  However, as followers of Jesus it is very clear that we are not to complain.  Philippians 2:14 states, "Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world."  Do all things without grumbling.  That is hard, really hard, but it is what we are called to do!  Did you see what this verse says will happen if we do all things without grumbling or disputing?  You will shine as light in the world!  Why?  Because everyone is complaining and grumbling all the time!  

 We are looking at why it is so important to get the Gospel right because when we get the Gospel right it helps us live out the radical life that we are called to live, and living a life without grumbling and arguing is a radical life.  Instead of complaining we have been called to live a life of thankfulness, Ephesians 5:20, "Giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. "  So how does the Gospel help us move away from a life of complaining to a life of thankfulness?  

In the Gospel we see grace; incredible, amazing, astounding, incomprehensible, undeserved, unearned, grace!  The Gospel tells us that there is absolutely nothing that we can do to restore our relationship with God.  Nothing.  We can't be good enough, we can't go to church enough, we can't read our bibles enough, we can't pray enough, we can't tell enough people about Jesus.  There is nothing we can do to restore our relationship with God.  We broke the relationship through our sin and we are powerless to restore it.  That is a pretty helpless place to be.  It is our fault that it is broken and we can do nothing to fix it.  Here is where the Gospel enters in.  God did for you what you could not do for yourself.  God restored the broken relationship by sending Jesus to die in your place, in my place!  That is incredible!  Not because you are good, or deserving, or worthy, but because He LOVES YOU!  WOW!  Let that sink in and I guarantee you the more you grasp what God has done for you the more gratitude and thankfulness will come bubbling up from deep within you and overflow into the life that you live day by day.  

So what do we do when we catch ourselves in those complaining moods?  Tell ourselves the Gospel message.  Tell ourselves what Jesus did for us.  Tell ourselves how God restored the relationship that we broke and that we could not fix and don't stop preaching the Gospel to yourself until gratitude and thankfulness begin to take over the complaining and grumbling spirit that you found yourself in.  

Why we have to get the Gospel right

       We HAVE to get the Gospel right.  What is the "Gospel" that we have to get right?  It is the good news that Jesus Christ is Lord!  The Gospel is Jesus in our place.  The Gospel is Jesus taking on Himself the punishment, death, wrath, and consequences that you and I deserved.  The Gospel is God's grace given to us which is wholly underserved.  That is the Gospel that we have to get right!  We have to get it right because it is the only way by which we can be saved.  We have to get it right because it is the only way that others can be saved.  We have to get it right because in coming to grasp, know, and cherish the Gospel more and more we find the power to live rightly!
        After a person puts their faith in Jesus we are called to live a life that is very much counter cultural.  We are called to live a life that goes against the flow of our culture, and if we are honest goes against our natural tendencies and desires.  Think about some of the crazy demands that Scripture calls us to; deny yourself, forgive everyone, LOVE your enemies, store up your treasure in heaven, take care of the least of these, consider others above yourself, love the hard to love, be content in ALL circumstances, live in a place of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control.  We could go on for awhile listing the way in which we are called to live as followers of Jesus but that list should be sufficient to remind of us the counter-cultural way we are called to live.  I would argue that our failure to live the way we are called to live is in-part connected with our failure to cheerish, know, and grasp the Gospel.
         Over the course of the next several posts I want to demonstrate how grasping, knowing, and cherishing the Gospel more and more gives us the ability to live out the calling that God has on our lives more and more.  In order to do this we will look specifically at the following in light of the Gospel; forgiveness, loving those who are hard to love, denying self, and living a life of gratitude.  My prayer is that as we journey through these specific examples we will see more clearly than ever before why we need to grasp, cherish, and know the Gospel.

Faith Like a Child: The "One-Another's" of Scripture

       The other night I looked down the hallway to see my two year standing on top of a chair that he had pulled out of his room and having opened the hall closet was attempting to reach something.  I went to see what mischief he was getting himself into and he told me that he was trying to reach a bandaid for mommy's "owie."  He had noticed a small scratch on my wife's leg and wanted to get a bandaid so that he could take care of her!  It was awesome to see his care and love for his mom as he took the initiative to help her and as he was carefully putting the band-aid on her "owie."  At first I was surprised that he took the initiative in taking care of his mom as it is not always the typical response of a 2 year old.  However, I shouldn't have been that surprised because day after day he is the recipient go great care, concern, and love that his mom showers upon him and when someone is daily impacted by another's love, care, and concern, it become natural for that person to also demonstrate love, care, and concern for others.  This led me to think about all the one-anothers in Scripture.
       There are a lot of "one-another's" in Scripture that call us to relate to those God has placed in our lives in a certain way.  We are called to; love one another, be devoted to one another, honor one another above ourselves, live in harmony with one another, serve one another, be kind and compassionate with one another, forgive each other, and many more!  If we are honest with ourselves these things do not necessarily come easily for us.  Maybe we do a decent job with the "one-another's" with the people that we find it easy to get along with, but how do we do with the "one-another's" when it comes to people who are not as easy to get along with.  The reason Ty was able to care for his mom, is because he has experienced her care time and time again.  If we are going to carry out the one-another's in Scripture we need to see how God, through Jesus, regularly loves us, serves us, is kind and compassionate to us, forgive us, and much more.  When we live in that time and time again it becomes natural for us to demonstrate those things to others.  If you are struggling to live out the "one another's" that are found in Scripture the best place to start is by realizing how God is living out each of those in your life on daily basis.  To daily notice how God is loving you, serving you, being kind to you, forgiving you and so on.  As we do that we will begin to notice that we are growing in our ability to love, serve, be kind, and forgive others that God has placed into our life.
       Ty cared for mom because mom has cares for him.  We love, serve, and forgive others because God has loves, serves, and forgives us.

The Christian trump card.....

       We have a Christian trump card!  A card that we like to play in order to effectively end arguments and debates that we find ourselves in.  A card that we also use to fight against conviction from God and to refrain from having discussions with others about the choices they might be making.  What is that trump card.....  legalism!  Countless times in discussions I have been in with others either I or they have used the phrase, "but I don't want to be legalistic" and that seems to effectively end the conversation.  We also use the trump card to avoid conviction from God especially in the areas of entertainment, possessions, finances, dress, etc.  We feel that God is calling us to make changes, big or small, in these areas and as a way to avoid that conviction we think and/or say, "but I don't want to be legalistic."  The other way we frequently play this trump card is in discussing difficult issues with another person and we begin the conversation by saying, "I don't want to sound legalistic, but...."  I believe that the legalistic trump card instead of guarding us against legalism actually hinders our growth in Christlikeness and thinking carefully and deeply about how the Gospel ought to impact every area of our life.  

       What is legalism?  Legalism is the process by which we define our relationship with God by the rules we follow.  Our relationship with God is defined by the things we avoid.  If we don't drink, sleep around, cuss, watch R rated movies, dance, gamble, etc then our relationship with God is good. However if we, or anyone, does those things we become judgmental and assume there is no way that person is in a relationship with God because of the things that they are doing.  Legalism is based upon works and we should rightly rebel against any system of thought that moves our relationship with Jesus away from grace.  "For it is by grace that you have been saved, that not of yourself, it is a gift of God lest anyone should boast."  We are right to argue vehemently against any form of legalism  because it is not the Gospel that Scripture proclaims where we are saved by grace.  However, our fear of legalism has made it so that any rule that was promoted by those who practiced legalism we assume to be a legalistic rule in which we no longer have any need to follow.  The difference between legalism and the deeply thinking about how the Gospel impacts every area of our life is the starting place.  

      In legalism the starting place is the law.  We start with the law and we become so afraid of offending God or harming our relationship with Him that we focus a lot on the rules.  There is an underlying belief that God will love me more if I do the right things and avoid the bad things and that if I don't do that God will love me less.  In deeply thinking about how the Gospel impacts every area of our life we start with the Gospel.  We start with the truth that we are saved by grace through faith alone.  We believe that after we put our faith in Jesus that God cannot love us more or less than He does right now.  We believe that on the cross Jesus took our sin upon Himself, and gave us His righteousness.  We believe that He paid the debt we owed and took the wrath of God against our sins upon Himself.  We start with the cross, we start with grace and that makes all the difference, even if we come to the same conclusion.  

       Let me give an example using movies.  Legalism begins with the law by looking at the commands that God has given us (do not murder, do not commit sexual immorality, etc) and if a movie contains the things which God commands us to not do they come to the conclusion that it is sinful to watch those movies.  Gospel thinking begins with grace and the cross.  It affirms that watching a movie or not watching a movie will not change my eternal standing before God.  It affirms that if I refrain from watching this movie God will not love me more and if I watch this movie God will not love me less because our justification is not tied to our behavior.  Sadly, that is often times where we stop.  However, because the nature and magnitude of the Gospel we must go further.  We must begin asking questions such as; what is my motivation in watching this movie?  How does my freedom to watch this movie work with my understanding that not everything is beneficial for me?  How my freedom to watch this movie work with my understanding of not causing my brother of sister in Christ to stumble?  Will watching this movie help or hinder me in thinking about life the way God desires me to think about life?  Will this movie help me pursue Jesus or not?  Will this movie help me in becoming more like Jesus?  Why is it that I so badly want to see this movie?  Deeply thinking about how the Gospel impacts all areas of our life might bring us to the same conclusion that legalism might lead another person too, however that does not make it legalism.  The Gospel is to big, too beautiful, to magnificent, to glorious, to not impact every area of our life.  It should impact not only what we watch and listen to, but also how we watch and listen.  It should impact how we spend our money and how much we pursue material possessions.  It should impact how we dress, how we talk, and much more.  Too often I desire to live a Gospel life that allows most of these areas to remain untouched, but the Gospel doesn't allow that to be an option.  The Gospel did what the law could not.  The Gospel changed us from the inside out, but it is indeed changing us on the outside.  

       We need to be careful to not confuse legalism for deeply thinking about how the Gospel impacts all areas of our life.  They may, or may not, come to the same conclusion but where they began makes all the difference.  

You are PERFECT...... kind of.

       You are PERFECT!  If you have put your faith in Jesus you are perfect, you are righteous, you have been justified, you have been declared innocent, not guilty, you are perfect...kind of.  Scripture also teaches that you are a work in progress.  Scripture teaches that after you put your faith in Jesus you are not perfect, you still sin, and that you will not be perfect on this side of eternity.  Two beautiful truths are standing together here, not as contradictions, but as a picture of what the cross has done and is doing.
       Hebrews 10:14, "For by a single offering He (Jesus) has perfected for all times those who are being sanctified."  We see both of these truths in this passage.  You have been (notice the past tense) made perfect because of what Jesus did on the cross.  On the cross Jesus made an exchange with you once you put your faith in Him.  The exchange is that He took your sin, your ugliness, your consequences, your punishment.  Jesus took all of that upon Himself.  He took on your sin and he took upon himself the wrath of God against your sin.  He paid the penalty of death that you and I owed because of our sin.  In exchange for our sin, Jesus gave us His perfection, His righteousness.  Jesus made you and I perfect by taking our sins upon Himself.  Hebrews 10:14 made that clear Jesus perfected us!  Jesus perfected all who would put their faith in Him!
      Understanding our perfection in Christ is important for us to grasp.  It frees us from trying to earn God's love.  When we understand our perfect standing with God we are released from the roller coaster of trying to earn God's love and approval.  We stand firmly on the truth that because of what Jesus did on the cross that it is not possible for God to love us more or less than He does right now.  He sees the perfection and righteousness of Christ on us ALL the time!  Some of us believe that if we just read our Bible's more, if we just prayed more, if we just shared our faith more, if we just ___________, than God would love us more.  That is a lie.  God cannot love you more than He does right now!  Rest in that glorious truth.  The opposite is also true, God cannot love you less than He does right now.  When we sin, when we fail to spend regular time with him, when we don't exhibit His love in our relationships, when we fail to exhibit the fruits of the Spirit, God's love for us does not lessen.  Rest in that glorious truth.  You are perfect......
       Kind of.  In Hebrews 10:14 after talking about Jesus perfecting for all times it says for those who are being sanctified.  You are (notice the present tense) being sanctified.  It is a process that takes place over time.  The definition of sanctification is, "being made holy."  The word holy in the Bible when referring to God's people means being "set apart for God."  Sanctification is the process by which over time we are being "set apart" for God.  The process by which we are becoming more like Jesus.  Our need for sanctification reveals that we have not attained moral perfection.  It reveals that we still struggle with sin, we still fall short of the glory of God.  This truth teaches us about our moment by moment dependence upon God to make us Holy.  To make us more like Jesus.  It shows us our need for God's grace in a moment by moment basis and not only His grace to forgive, but also His grace to help us rely upon Him.  The truth that we don't reach perfection on this side of earth is a constant reminder of our need for God and that is a good thing.  When we are impatient we are reminded how much we need God's patience.  When we struggle with un-forgiveness we are reminded how much we need God to help us forgive.  When we struggle to love those who are hard to love we cry out to God to help us, and He does.  The beauty of sanctification is that although it is a process over time we will look back on our lives and we can see God working in us to make us more like Jesus.  The result?  We praise God!  We trust Him more!  We depend on Him more!  We ask Him to change us even more, and that is a good thing!
        You are perfect.... kind of.

When God's mission is not compelling enough...

      When God's mission is not compelling enough good things become god things.  Several weeks ago one of the big stories within the sports realm was focused on a college basketball player who shoved an opposing fan during a game.  Sadly, it didn't surprise me that an athlete who is thriving on adrenaline and emotion in a close game against a rival would lose their control and shove a fan that had been badgering them all game.  What shocked me was who he shoved.  As I waited for the video to load (does that make me a bad person that I wanted to see the video of the incident?) I fully expected to see him shoving another college student from the opposing team.  However, that was not the case.  As the clip plays you see a man in his middle ages (maybe older) pointing his finger at the player and screaming.  I was shocked.  My first thought was how is it possible for a middle age man to get so worked up about a college basketball game where men half his age are competing.  How is it possible for a middle age man to think that it is ok to point, and yell in the face of a player from the opposing team.  How do we get to the place where this can even happen?  It is a basketball game.   In the middle of my self-righteous judgement God stopped me in my tracks and reminded me that anytime His mission is not compelling enough in my life good things turn into god things.
      After we put our faith in Jesus we have been given a mission.  We have been called to be about making disciples of all nations.  God's mission, which is to make Himself known, becomes our mission.  Our mission is to make God known.  Our life is to be about making God known to the ends of the earth.  That is a God sized mission and it is a mission that is so massive in scope that it can and should dominate our earthly lives.  It is a mission that countless people have given their lives for.  It is a mission that countless people have made huge earthy sacrifices for.  It is a mission that God was and is so passionate about that He sent His son Jesus here to die on a cross to clearly communicate that He wants to make Himself known, and He wants to invite people into a relationship with Him.  The problem is not with the mission.  The problem is that somehow we take this God-sized mission and we file it away under "church" and unless we are at "church" this mission that God has called us to is pushed to the side and forgotten about while we dive head long full of passion, enthusiasm, and support into a basketball game.  You see, the problem isn't the basketball is bad.  The problem is that God's mission is not compelling enough in our minds so instead of those resources going to God's mission, they go to basketball and all of a sudden a good thing becomes a god thing.
       When we treat things that are not ultimate things, as if they were, we look foolish.  I look foolish way too often and up until this point I can be thankful that my foolishness was not caught on national television.  I look foolish when good things become more important than God's mission.  I look foolish when good things affect my emotions more than God's mission does.  I look foolish when I look forward to mindless entertainment more than I look forward to participating in God's mission.  I look foolish when I am more concerned about what others think about me than what God think about me.
        So what do we do?  I don't know all the answers, but one thing I have been doing is reminding myself of God's mission in every area of my life.  Reminding myself that....
-God wants my marriage to be a part of making Him known.
-God wants my work to be a part of making Him known.
-God wants my leisure to be a part of making Him known.
-God wants my parenting to be a part of making Him known.
-God wants my neighborhood to a place where I am making Him known.
-God wants my family to be a part of making Him known.
-God wants my gifts, and passions to be used to make Him known.
-God wants my money to be used to make Him known.
-God wants my time to be used to make Him known.
      I wish I knew exactly how this looks in each of these areas but I don't.  What I do know, and what I need to keep reminding myself is that God wants to use ALL of my life to be about making him known.  When I forget that good things will become god things and I will look foolish.  When I remember that truth, good things (like enjoying a basketball game) never become a god thing and are seen as another opportunity to be a part of God's mission to make Himself known to all people.
     

Thinking that destroys our growth

       I have found that one of the desires that most (if not all) followers of Jesus have is the desire to grow.  We have a desire to be more like Jesus.  We have a desire to grow closer to God.  We have a desire to be more patient, to be more loving, to be more forgiving, to be more generous.  Those, and many others, are good desires for us to be having as Christians, however I have also found that many of us struggle to grow in those areas as well.  Let's take patience as an example.  We have the desire to become more patient (a good desire) so we resolve to be a more patient person.  We pray that God would help us, we spend time in the Word, we work to remain connected with the Spirit in order to obtain the "fruit" of the Spirit, in this case patience.  In many ways we begin to see growth in the area of patience with most of the people around us, BUT there is always that one person isn't there.  There is always that one person that makes us realize how not patient we are.  There is always that one person that makes us realize how not loving we are.  There is always that one person that makes us realize that we still have a lot of growing to do and here is where dangerous thinking can come in that will destroy our growth.
       "If only that person would change _____________, then I would be a much more patient, loving, kind, forgiving person.  If only my boss would change then I would stop gossiping about him/her.  If only my kid would change than I would be more patient with them.  If only my neighbor would stop doing ___________ then I would be able to love them more.  If only my spouse would ____________ then I would be a better spouse.  That thinking destroys our growth because we make our growth in Christlikeness dependent upon that person.  We think that person is the problem and not us.  When we think that way what in essence we are saying is I cannot grow anymore in the area of patience.  I am as patient as I can possibly be and now it is up to them.  We have killed the possibility of future growth.
       So what do we do?  We need realize that the only person we can change is ourselves (and only ourselves with the help of Jesus).  You can't change your boss, you can't change your spouse, you can't change your neighbor, you can't change your kid, you can only change yourself.  Since that is the case we need to stop blaming our failures in being like Jesus on others and confess our sin to God.  It is amazing how your perspective changes when you realize that the only person you are in control of in a situation is you.  You cannot control the anger of the other person, you cannot control the annoying attributes of the other person, you cannot control the attitude of the other person, but with the help of Jesus you can control yourself.  Just realizing this truth will help you to grow to be more patient because you won't be waiting for that person to change in order for you to be patient.  Instead, you will be working on your self.  You will be praying that God would help you be patient.  You will be focused on staying connected to the Holy Spirit and allowing Jesus to live through you more and more.  When that happens you will continue to grow, maybe not as quickly as you would like (especially if you really do struggle with patience!)  but you will continue to grow over time and become more like Jesus as He works in you to change YOU.
        I need to stop killing my growth.  I need to stop waiting for others to change and instead by the grace of God focus on me changing and becoming more like Jesus.  How about you?  Are you killing your growth?

Leaving a legacy of a faithful marriage.

        Came across an inspiring front-page article in our local newspaper a few weeks ago.  Here is a picture of the front page…

What a great celebration of marriage faithfulness.  What a great legacy that Edward and Ruth Bostrom passed onto their kids and grandkids, and great-grandkids, and great-great grandkids!  This article gave me pause to reflect on what my marriage right now is teaching my kids for when they get married.  I have a lot of questions and a few answers.

       The questions:    

-Are Heidi and I showing our kids the beauty of marriage?

-Are Heidi and I showing our kids the joy of marriage?

-Are Heidi and I showing our kids the challenges and struggles of marriage?

-Are Heidi and I showing our kids how to keep God at the center of the marriage?

-Are Heidi and I showing our kids the hard-work and sacrifice that both husband and wife need to make in order for marriage to work?    

-Are Heidi and I showing our kids that marriage is to be a picture of God's extravagant love for the church?                                      

-Are Heidi and I showing our kids that marriage was created and designed by God?

-Are Heidi and I showing our kids the importance of forgiveness in marriage?

-Am I showing my sons what it means to love and serve their future wife in the way Christ loves and serves the church?

-Am I showing my daughters a picture of a man who is worth being married to?  One who loves God, one who loves and serves his wife, one who takes initiative in leading the family towards God

The Answers

-God must remain the center of our marriage if any of the above questions will be answered with a positive reply.

-Our marriage and what makes it work over the long-haul cannot remain a mystery.  Our kids need to not just know that it worked, they need to know what made it work.  As they get older Heidi and I need to talk to them a lot about our marriage!  The good and the bad.  The joys and the struggles.  How to ask for forgiveness, and how to grant forgiveness.  How to love when the "feelings" of love are not present, and much more.

 -I need to begin praying now for the future spouses of my kids, for their future marriage.  I need to be praying that as they grow up they make choices that will increase the likelihood of a faithful marriage.  I need to pray.  I need to be praying a lot.

-Heidi and I need to continue to become more like Jesus.  We desperately need Jesus to continue to change us.  To make us more loving.  To make us more selfless.  To make us kinder.  To make us more patient.  To make us more gracious.  We need Jesus to continue to change us into people who can continue to give a better and better picture of marriage to our kids who are watching everyday.

There is no guarantee that my kids will get married.  There is no guarantee that they will never get divorced.  There is no guarantee that their life or the life of their spouse will not end long before they could celebrate 50 years of marriage.  I get that, but I want my kids to experience marriage as God has created it and desires for it to be.  I want them to experience marriage as a beautiful picture of God's unending love for the church.  I want them to experience a marriage that as a result helps both them and their spouse to be more like Jesus.  If you are married and you have kids, regardless of their age, you are teaching them about marriage.  They are watching us.  They are listening?  They are paying attention.  I was teaching my kids about marriage when I left home for work today, and when I get home from work I will be teaching again.  I want to leave a legacy of marriage for my kids!  How about you?