Church is relationships.
A healthy church is just a healthy collection of relationships. If the people in a church don't have healthy relationships with one another, then they aren't really a church but a collection of lone-ranger Christians. If you think you are in an unhealthy church, it is more than likely that the relationships in the church aren't healthy. Sometimes a church can be unhealthy for other reasons, but I have yet to see a case of that. We have severe relationshp problems in our churches.
And it starts with the leadership.
A healthy leadership is a group of people who have healthy relationships with one another. If they don't have healthy relationships, then it will be just a matter of time before the church falls apart. If they do have healthy relationships, it will be just a matter of time before the church is healthy. Obviously, the fact that they are focused on the will of God and living out the teachings of Scripture are prerequisites. But I do believe most church leaders try to do that. It is in the area of healthy relationships that I see a lot of failures.
Watch out for the potholes.
God in Music Pt. 4
More hopelessness in the lyrics. I don't really know what to say except that lyrics like these continue to put in me a fire to help the lost know the hope that is in Christ. It's when I get a glimpse of who I once was and remember the lostness I was in that I find a fire burning within me to help the lost around me.
Mess by Ben Folds Five
There was a time that I had nothing to explain
Oh, this mess I had made
But then things got complicated
My innocence has all but faded
Oh, this mess I have made
And I don't believe in God
So I can't be saved
All alone as I've learned to be
In this mess I have made
All the untested virtue
The things I said I'd never do
Least of all to you
I know he's kind and true
I know that he is good to you
He'll never care for you more than I do
But I don't believe in love
And I can't be changed
All alone as I've learned to be
In this mess
I have made the same mistakes
Over and over again
There are rooms in this house that I don't Open any more
Dusty books of pictures on the floor
That she will never see
She'll never see that part of me
I want to be for her
What I could never be for you
But I don't believe in God
So I can't be saved
All alone as I've learned to be
In this mess I have made
Mess by Ben Folds Five
There was a time that I had nothing to explain
Oh, this mess I had made
But then things got complicated
My innocence has all but faded
Oh, this mess I have made
And I don't believe in God
So I can't be saved
All alone as I've learned to be
In this mess I have made
All the untested virtue
The things I said I'd never do
Least of all to you
I know he's kind and true
I know that he is good to you
He'll never care for you more than I do
But I don't believe in love
And I can't be changed
All alone as I've learned to be
In this mess
I have made the same mistakes
Over and over again
There are rooms in this house that I don't Open any more
Dusty books of pictures on the floor
That she will never see
She'll never see that part of me
I want to be for her
What I could never be for you
But I don't believe in God
So I can't be saved
All alone as I've learned to be
In this mess I have made
Coercion and Ignorance
I asked for and received Andromeda Season One for Christmas. I like Andromeda. The acting is usually sub-par (sorry if you're an Andromeda actor/actress and run across this) and the settings seem unrealistically contrived at points. But I don't really watch television for good acting or completely realistic situations; I want good points that make me a better person after having invested an hour watching. True, I would like to have a total package with them all together, but I can't even get that with my favorite show, Lost. I take what I can get.
One episode in particular really touched me, "To Loose The Fateful Lightning." I'm not going to go into the full story and review it. That is done at other websites. By the way, this website gave it a F- for a review. I think it is my favorite episode.
The captain, Dylan Hunt, was offered nova bombs, bombs that destroy whole solar systems, to use power to bring on his vision of the Commonwealth. He refused. He was then offered the option to use the nova bombs as a manipulative tool to bring back the Commonwealth. He refused again. It wouldn't be the Commonwealth he envisioned if people are brought into it by force or coercion. They must be brought into it by the truth. They must buy into the ideal of the Commonwealth in order for it to really be the Commonwealth.
I found that a good concept for church leaders to adapt. We have a vision for the church and where it should go. We see what the church is really supposed to be and we know what needs to be done to get us there. But we need to always realize that when it comes to church, the means are always as important as the ends. We need to let the truth stand up for itself and never try to coerce someone into having a Christian faith or doing a Christian action. If we don't, our churches will be filled with people who really aren't convicted of the Truth. We will end up with churches that aren't really examples of the kingdom of God, but just social clubs for the Biblically-impaired.
Another neat scene took place in the show. The Andromeda and its crew ran across a battle station that was inhabited by nobody older than 20. A radiation leak from the nova bombs was killing them away. Anyway, through the years and many generations they had turned the technical schematics of the station into holy writs. The sad thing was that nobody could actually read them. They just passed down the information that the holy writs contained rather than teaching the next generation to read. This led to a total misunderstanding of what was really in the schematics.
This scene, unfortunately, reminded me of some people I have met who have grown up and continue to go to church. Now, I'm not saying that children who grow up in the church don't know how to read; however, I do think that some of them never really learn to derive what they believe from the teachings of Scripture. They just believe things because that is what they were told to believe. Removing the Scriptures as the central point of authority and placing tradition in its place is a very dangerous step to take.
Speaking of children, Isaac is calling my name right now. I must go get him out of bed. Have a great day and...
...watch out for the potholes.
One episode in particular really touched me, "To Loose The Fateful Lightning." I'm not going to go into the full story and review it. That is done at other websites. By the way, this website gave it a F- for a review. I think it is my favorite episode.
The captain, Dylan Hunt, was offered nova bombs, bombs that destroy whole solar systems, to use power to bring on his vision of the Commonwealth. He refused. He was then offered the option to use the nova bombs as a manipulative tool to bring back the Commonwealth. He refused again. It wouldn't be the Commonwealth he envisioned if people are brought into it by force or coercion. They must be brought into it by the truth. They must buy into the ideal of the Commonwealth in order for it to really be the Commonwealth.
I found that a good concept for church leaders to adapt. We have a vision for the church and where it should go. We see what the church is really supposed to be and we know what needs to be done to get us there. But we need to always realize that when it comes to church, the means are always as important as the ends. We need to let the truth stand up for itself and never try to coerce someone into having a Christian faith or doing a Christian action. If we don't, our churches will be filled with people who really aren't convicted of the Truth. We will end up with churches that aren't really examples of the kingdom of God, but just social clubs for the Biblically-impaired.
Another neat scene took place in the show. The Andromeda and its crew ran across a battle station that was inhabited by nobody older than 20. A radiation leak from the nova bombs was killing them away. Anyway, through the years and many generations they had turned the technical schematics of the station into holy writs. The sad thing was that nobody could actually read them. They just passed down the information that the holy writs contained rather than teaching the next generation to read. This led to a total misunderstanding of what was really in the schematics.
This scene, unfortunately, reminded me of some people I have met who have grown up and continue to go to church. Now, I'm not saying that children who grow up in the church don't know how to read; however, I do think that some of them never really learn to derive what they believe from the teachings of Scripture. They just believe things because that is what they were told to believe. Removing the Scriptures as the central point of authority and placing tradition in its place is a very dangerous step to take.
Speaking of children, Isaac is calling my name right now. I must go get him out of bed. Have a great day and...
...watch out for the potholes.
God in Secular Music Pt. 3
First, I have a confidential prayer request. So if you could please pray for me today. It's a one-day only thing. I would share but it involves something that needs to remain personal for reasons outside of me. I'm sure I will share some day in the future. (I hate unspoken prayer requests.)
****
Michael Stipe of REM wrote the following song. It's not as bitter as Trent Reznor's yesterday, but it is still sad. One thing I notice that the things that infuriate artists are things that should also infuriate Christians. I couldn't find out what specific show, if there was one, he was writing about.
New Test Leper by REM
"I can't say that i love jesus
That would be a hollow claim.
He did make some observations
And i'm quoting them today.
"judge not lest ye be judged."
What a beautiful refrain.
The studio audience disagrees.
Have his lambs all gone astray?
Call me a leper
Call me a leper
Call me a leper
"you are lost and disillusioned!"
What an awful thing to say.
I know this show doesn't matter.
It means nothing to me.
I thought i might help them understand
But what an ugly thing to see.
"i am not an animal"
Subtitled under the screen.
Call me a leper
Call me a leper
Call me a leper
When i tried to tell my story
They cut me off to take a break.
I sat silent 5 commercuials
I had nothing left to say
The talk show host was index-carded
All organized and blank
The other guests were scared and hardened
What a sad parade.
What a sad parade
Call me a leper
Call me a leper
Call me a leper
Watch out for the potholes. My wife use to be a Lepper. Then she married me. I have cured her.
****
Michael Stipe of REM wrote the following song. It's not as bitter as Trent Reznor's yesterday, but it is still sad. One thing I notice that the things that infuriate artists are things that should also infuriate Christians. I couldn't find out what specific show, if there was one, he was writing about.
New Test Leper by REM
"I can't say that i love jesus
That would be a hollow claim.
He did make some observations
And i'm quoting them today.
"judge not lest ye be judged."
What a beautiful refrain.
The studio audience disagrees.
Have his lambs all gone astray?
Call me a leper
Call me a leper
Call me a leper
"you are lost and disillusioned!"
What an awful thing to say.
I know this show doesn't matter.
It means nothing to me.
I thought i might help them understand
But what an ugly thing to see.
"i am not an animal"
Subtitled under the screen.
Call me a leper
Call me a leper
Call me a leper
When i tried to tell my story
They cut me off to take a break.
I sat silent 5 commercuials
I had nothing left to say
The talk show host was index-carded
All organized and blank
The other guests were scared and hardened
What a sad parade.
What a sad parade
Call me a leper
Call me a leper
Call me a leper
Watch out for the potholes. My wife use to be a Lepper. Then she married me. I have cured her.
The frustration of sharing about God
For ice cream seller, A. Subramaniam, the safety of a few hundred picnickers was his main concern when he saw an unusual wave moving towards Teluk Bahang beach.
“I had never seen such a wave. I knew something was wrong as the wave was dark and as high as a coconut tree,” he said.
Riding a 200kg motorcycle loaded with ice cream, Subramaniam said he rode on the sand and screamed to the picnickers to leave the place.
“But many of them just stood and watched the coming wave. The first wave was not that strong but the second one was very powerful and lasted about five minutes,” he added.
Subramaniam said he managed to prevent a 16-year-old girl from being swept away by the wave.
“Fortunately enough, the people there ran to safety before the second wave came. But when I rushed to Batu Ferringhi, I saw many people being swept by the wave,” he said.
His son, Kugilan, 14, who was selling ice cream in Tanjong Bungah, said he saw several children being swept by the waves.
“Their parents tried to pull them but the waves were very strong,” he said.You can go read the full article here.
Watch out for the potholes or the giant waves.
God in Secular Music Pt. 2
I can't start without acknowledging all of the lives lost in the Tsunami. It makes 9/11 seem like a bike accident. The only difference is on 9/11 some evil guy pushed the bike over.
(On a side note, does anyone know any church that is sending money to help? How does it work? One of my dreams is to be in a church that interacts with the news. We see a tragedy. We contact a church or missionary in the area to give them money to love the people the way he feels they best need it. That would be awesome, and I believe God would be tremendously glorified in the process.)
****
This, sadly, was one of the rock anthems of my pagan life. When I went to see them in concert, I was saddened that they didn't play it. Maybe Trent Reznor had a change of heart from the time in which he wrote it. Another glimpse at the sadness and seperation:
Heresy by NIN
He sewed his eyes shut because he is afraid to see
He tries to tell me what I put inside of me
He's got the answers to ease my curiosity
He dreamed a god up and called it Christianity
God is dead, and no one cares
If there is a hell, I'll see ya there
He flexed his muscles to keep his flock of sheep in line
He made a virus that would kill off all the swine
His perfect kingdom of killing, suffering and pain
Demands devotion, atrocities done in his name
Your God is dead, and no one cares
Drowning in his own hypocrisy
If there is a hell, I'll see ya there
Burning with your god in humility
Will you die for this?
(On a side note, does anyone know any church that is sending money to help? How does it work? One of my dreams is to be in a church that interacts with the news. We see a tragedy. We contact a church or missionary in the area to give them money to love the people the way he feels they best need it. That would be awesome, and I believe God would be tremendously glorified in the process.)
****
This, sadly, was one of the rock anthems of my pagan life. When I went to see them in concert, I was saddened that they didn't play it. Maybe Trent Reznor had a change of heart from the time in which he wrote it. Another glimpse at the sadness and seperation:
Heresy by NIN
He sewed his eyes shut because he is afraid to see
He tries to tell me what I put inside of me
He's got the answers to ease my curiosity
He dreamed a god up and called it Christianity
God is dead, and no one cares
If there is a hell, I'll see ya there
He flexed his muscles to keep his flock of sheep in line
He made a virus that would kill off all the swine
His perfect kingdom of killing, suffering and pain
Demands devotion, atrocities done in his name
Your God is dead, and no one cares
Drowning in his own hypocrisy
If there is a hell, I'll see ya there
Burning with your god in humility
Will you die for this?
God in secular music Pt. 1
I wish I ran across this quote before my sermon yesterday.
A quote from John Fletcher's Potrait of St. Paul:
"Christian humility has its source in the knowledge of our corruption as Christian charity flows from the knowledge of the great salvation which Chris has procured for us: and if these two graces are not resident in our hearts, our religion is but the shadow of Christianity."
***
The Caulfields wrote a song in the early nineties that was a prayer from the lead singer to God. I think it is a great insight into the non-believers mind. I was there at one time. It saddens me and increases my desire to help people see the Lord as he truly is.
Fragile by the Caulfields
I'd love to hear your thoughts
On sinners you have caught
And what about the ones who got away
Where are they today
You see them everywhere
And they don't care
And if we all seem terrified
IT's just because we are
We're fragile
Don't let us down too hard
God
What does it all achieve
The orphaned family grieves
But still believes
In our rebirth
You damned us all to earth
And turned it into hell
And wished us well
And if we all seem petrified
It doesn't mean we're hard
We're fragile
Don't let us fall too far
Is this the part
When everyone gets on their knees for you
I always wanted to believe in you
But you never gave me half a chance
Or half a reason to
Are you fragile too?
God
I'd love to make you proud
But I know
They sure put on a show
And man they say it loud
They're not my crowd
And if I can't believe in you
It doesn't mean I don't
I'm fragile
Don't let me fall alone
I'm fragile
I can't fall alone
Watch out for the potholes.
A quote from John Fletcher's Potrait of St. Paul:
"Christian humility has its source in the knowledge of our corruption as Christian charity flows from the knowledge of the great salvation which Chris has procured for us: and if these two graces are not resident in our hearts, our religion is but the shadow of Christianity."
***
The Caulfields wrote a song in the early nineties that was a prayer from the lead singer to God. I think it is a great insight into the non-believers mind. I was there at one time. It saddens me and increases my desire to help people see the Lord as he truly is.
Fragile by the Caulfields
I'd love to hear your thoughts
On sinners you have caught
And what about the ones who got away
Where are they today
You see them everywhere
And they don't care
And if we all seem terrified
IT's just because we are
We're fragile
Don't let us down too hard
God
What does it all achieve
The orphaned family grieves
But still believes
In our rebirth
You damned us all to earth
And turned it into hell
And wished us well
And if we all seem petrified
It doesn't mean we're hard
We're fragile
Don't let us fall too far
Is this the part
When everyone gets on their knees for you
I always wanted to believe in you
But you never gave me half a chance
Or half a reason to
Are you fragile too?
God
I'd love to make you proud
But I know
They sure put on a show
And man they say it loud
They're not my crowd
And if I can't believe in you
It doesn't mean I don't
I'm fragile
Don't let me fall alone
I'm fragile
I can't fall alone
Watch out for the potholes.
A Christmas Message
This is the sermon I will be preaching tomorrow in church. Please pray that it goes well.
In case you were living in an isolated bomb shelter 100 miles under the earth without any form of communication the last few days and only come out for church on Sundays, I am going to take on the role of Captain Obvious and point out that yesterday was Christmas. However, the reason for celebrating Christmas wasn’t so obvious. Suppose you were an alien visiting the earth with the intention of writing back to your home planet about our culture, you would be able to observe this madness we call Christmas and have a very good chance of not even realizing what we consider the true meaning of Christmas. Christmas would appear to be about shopping, about giving and getting presents, about getting together with family, about being stressed out and traveling all over the country, and for some people about just hanging out in airports, about overeating, about festive lights and trees decorated with shiny balls and other assorted things. But the true reason of Christmas is not among the obvious.
This brings me to our passage for today. Similar to the way the American culture sometimes misses the true meaning of Christmas, we, the people who claim to follow the baby boy that was born in the lowly manger in the insignificant town of Bethlehem, also have the tendency to miss and ignore one of the key traits that Jesus modeled for us to follow. If you would, please turn with me in your Bibles to Phillipians 2. We will be reading verses 1-11. I’m going to be reading from the Message today, so feel free along with your own translation if you have one.
Philipians 2:1-11
1 If you've gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care - 2 then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. 3 Don't push your way to the front; don't sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. 4 Don't be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand. 5 Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. 6 He had equal status with God but didn't think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. 7 Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! 8 Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn't claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death - and the worst kind of death at that: a crucifixion. 9 Because of that obedience, God lifted him high and honored him far beyond anyone or anything, ever, 10 so that all created beings in heaven and on earth - even those long ago dead and buried - will bow in worship before this Jesus Christ, 11 and call out in praise that he is the Master of all, to the glorious honor of God the Father.
One trait made the first Christmas possible, the humility of Jesus. If you have heard me preach before, you probably have gotten the picture that I like to use illustrations from television shows, novels, and movies; however, when it came to humility I struggled trying to find an illustration in our culture of entertainment. Humility is not a trait that our culture exalts. We exalt individualism, vengeance, materialism, and independence. Just like our culture does with the meaning of Christmas, it does a good job of hiding humility.
(I might not do this little guessing game. But I do think it would be fun.)
Let’s play a little game, the first kid to guess who I am describing will receive this little bag of delicious and fun fruit snacks, maybe to eat now, maybe to eat later, or maybe never to eat at all. It is all up to the parent’s discretion. You have to be younger than eight.
He wears red and blue.
He lives in New York City.
He shoots webs.
He fights Doctor Octopus and the Green Goblin.
He loves Mary Jane, the woman not the plant.
His first name is Spider. His last name is man.
Spider-Man. If you watched Spider-Man 2 last summer you would’ve seen a man struggling with being humble. He gave up his role as Spider-Man, threw his costume into the trash, and walked away thinking that he would never look back. But then came the villains. They forced him to either decide to let people suffer or to give up his plans for a normal life and return to the life of the hero. He had to put aside his own dreams of what he wanted out of life and do what was intended for him to do. He wanted to be a good college student, hold down a steady job, and win back the love of his life. There's nothing wrong with any of those goals; however, they were not the goals he was intended to fulfill. Spider-Man is a modern-day example of humility, putting aside your selfish dreams and aspirations - no matter how noble they might be – for the benefit of those around you, even when doing what benefits those around you isn’t particularly what you think is for your personal best interests. Spider-Man showed us genuine humility.
It’s up to you and me to turn the fictionalized humility of Spider-Man or the genuine historical example of the Christmas founding humility of Christ into a living reality to those around us. We need to put our own dreams and aspirations aside, notice the needs of those around us, and act to meet those needs.
C.S. Lewis described humility in his book Miracles:
"In the Christian story God descends to re-ascend. He comes down; down from the heights of absolute being into time and space, down into humanity ... down to the very roots and sea-bed of the Nature He has created.
"But He goes down to come up again and bring the ruined world up with Him. One has the picture of a strong man stooping lower and lower to get himself underneath some great complicated burden. He must stoop in order to lift, he must almost disappear under the load before he incredibly straightens his back and marches off with the whole mass swaying on his shoulder…
"In this descent and re-ascent everyone will recognise a familiar pattern: a thing written all over the world. It is the pattern of all vegetable life. It must belittle itself into something hard, small and deathlike, it must fall into the ground: thence the new life re-ascends….
"So it is also in our moral and emotional life. The first innocent and spontaneous desires have to submit to the deathlike process of control or total denial: but from that there is a re-ascent to fully formed character in which the strength of the original material all operates but in a new way. Death and Rebirth--go down to go up--it is a key principle. Through this bottleneck, this belittlement, the highroad nearly always lies"
Humility is a tough concept to grasp. Examples of it are not exalted in our culture. It's even tougher to live out. But the perfect example of humility was shown to us on Christmas morning over 2000 years ago. God, who has all power and knowledge, emptied himself of those things and took on the flesh, skin and bones just like you and me. He humbled himself and put his security in the arms of Joseph and Mary, humans like you and me. He lowered himself to our level in order to exalt us to His. That is the beauty of Christmas. Jesus came so that people like you and me can become what we were intended to be. We, through his example and the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives, can give up our selfish and fruitless dreams and aspirations and clothe ourselves in the humility that Christ began to model on that Christmas Day thousands of years ago. If we want to make the Christmas story come out of hiding in our society and take its proper place at the center of this season, then we need to take the first steps as followers of Jesus and swaddle ourselves in his humility. We cannot grasp hold of what God intends for us and those around us if we continue to hang on to our own goals and desires.
Matthew 18:1-4
1 At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”2 He called a child, whom he put among them,3 and said, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.4 Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
We cannot be Christians without modeling the humility shown by Jesus, a humility that can, at times, seem almost unreal. But, obviously, it is real. We can see it in the lives of some of the great reformers of church history, in some of the quiet spiritual warriors in our church, and, most evidently, in the life of a newborn baby, not just one born 2000 years ago.
A newborn is a perfect example of humility. They totally depend upon others to feed them. They are completely vulnerable if they' aren't kept safe. There is not one ounce of self-reliance in them because they do not have the capability to be self-reliant.
Then they grow and reach Isaac's age. Humility is, unfotunately, no longer their dominant trait. It seems to be a disappearing trait. Independence, selfishness, and self-reliance are beginning to creep to dominance. They want to do everything on their own. He will try and try to tie his shoe lace or to stack his blocks in some gigantic structure, but he will usually - or in the case of the shoelaces, always - fail. But in Isaac humility doesn't always manifest itself when he fails, frustration sometimes does. Sometimes, he will become angry and tearful, yet he will still try to do it on his own. That boy will not give up. But once he reaches an emotional frenzy, he will never be able to do it no matter how much he tries. He has to give up and allow us to help him. When he does that, whatever he was trying to do gets done. And hopefully, through the process, he learned a little more how to do it, so next time he can do it better or even completely on his own.
Humility is much easier to grasp a hold of when you are completely ignorant of how to do what you need to get done. For instance, some of you might know Brian Reinhart. He's a good friend of mine. And the summer before last he refreshed my memory on how to do an oil change on my car. He was always gifted at mechanical things and I seemed to have missed the boat on that one. My attitude of submission to his knowledge made it real easy to learn. I accepted that he knew better than me, and there was no problem.
That's the way it usually works for most of us in areas where we don't know what to do; however, in areas that we think we know what to do, we are not as good of a student. Take for instance the serious subject of folding towels - something that I have, luckily, been able to get out of lately. Back when we lived in Lansing and we were newly married, I wanted to fold the towels the way I had always folded the towels. It worked fine for me to fold them that way when I was single; I couldn't fathom why it couldn't work the same way when I was married. I wouldn't accept a new way. Lindsay would try to show me, and I would just get frustrated. I know. It's silly. Getting frustrated over folding towels. In my mind it all made sense at the moment. I knew how to fold towels, and I wasn't going to change. However, the way I folded them didn't allow them to fit well on the shelves in the closet. When they wouldn't fit in the closet, they had to be refolded. It was a frustrating experience (probably moreso for Lindsay) because I could never remember how to fold them and I probably never really tried. I still don't fold them "properly" to this day.
We oftentimes don't give our stresses, our problems, or our heartaches up to God until they become so severe that we can't exist with them any more. God will be faithful and help us in our time of severe need; however, that is not the plan he has for our life. He wants us to model the humility that Jesus showed and walk our lives humbly submitted to him, always. Never should we think we are so great as to do great, or even lowly, things without him. And never should we think we are so strong as to go through the pits, that surely come, of life without him. He wants to be there every step of the way.
But humility is difficult to live out. It is a constant battle with our selfish ambitions. Surrendering our goals, plans, and idea of independence doesn't come easily. But if we truly want to live life and experience it to the full - to taste the greatness that God has planned for us - then we must deny ourselves and dailyand humbly submit to His will. Matthew wrote:
The Cross and Self-Denial - Matt 26:24-28
24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25 For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?
27 “For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done. 28 Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”
God's kingdom is here now (or else Jesus was a liar - and you can probably figure out where I stand on that one since I am up here saying we need to be more like Jesus), and we, the church, are a glimpse of that kingdom. But what picture of God's kingdom do we give to the world? What do the people of Antwerp think about God because of us? It all depends on if we are truly humbly submitting to God and his will or living in our own selfish ambitions, no matter how noble they might be. God wants us, along with every group of believers throughout the world, to be His people living together to show the world what it means to be the Kingdom of God. This can't happen if a spirit of humility is not exhibited among us. A genuine spirit of humility will guide us to follow the example of Jesus, humble ourselves, and take on the form of a slave to all of those around us.
Picture Christ as yourself. If you were to literally switch bodies with Jesus and he was to live your life for a week, would your life be any different than it currently is? Would our church be any different if each of us took seriously the call to humble ourselves and become a slave to our community?
Galatians 5:13-14 reads:
13 For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. 14 For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
When we miss the mark on attaining humility, we encounter humility's arch-nemesis, pride. Pride allows us to think that our church is the best church in town. Humility causes us to see our church, with all of its faults, in the light of the ideal church and encourages us to strive for perfection. Pride allows us to compare our lives to our weaker brothers and sisters in Christ or to those who do not even know Christ and think how great our faith is. Humility causes us to compare our lives, with all of their faults, to Christ and strive for perfection. Pride allows us to view ourselves as more fortunate than others who are not as well off. Humility causes us to get down and dirty and love those less forutnate.
Someone wore a t-shirt to church a couple of months ago and on it were the words, "I'm like a superhero with no powers and no motivation." I hate to analyze a silly statement. Okay, maybe I enjoy it. But if we look at that sentence - I'm like a superhero with no powers and no motivation - what makes it funny is that it can't be true. What makes a superhero "super" is their powers and what makes a superhero a hero is there motivation. You can't be a superhero without any powers and without motivation.
I think a lot of us fall into the same category when it comes to our Christian lives. It would be beneficial for non-Christians if a lot of us wore a similar shirt with a disclaimer on it. "I'm like a Christian with no humility and no loving actions." However, like the superhero statement, I don't think we can be Christians without humility or without loving actions. They are essential ingredients to being a Christian. A proper humility allows us to acknowledge our faults and view people and events the way Christ viewed them.
Humility's end result is always love. The humility of Christ as a baby in the manger led to the love of Christ for everyone on the cross. And our humility, if it does not result in similar sacrifice and love, is not the humility of Christ but a disguised form of pride. If our life is not filled with loving actions then we should be honest with ourselves and acknowledge that we have a faith problem. We can't be Christians without loving actions. All the faith in the world, if it does not show itself in love, is meaningless. You will find a better rendition of that thought in 1 Corinthians 13.
Somewhere along the way we have turned our invisible faith into being more important than the works that accompany it, a concept that I have yet to run across in Scripture: I actually run across the contrary. We have even gone so far as to say good works are evil. We take the "do not let your right hand know what your left hand is doing" passage out of context and do not read it in the light of a verse that is in the same Sermon on the Mount, which includes the following verses only 25 verses before that one.
Matt 5:14-16
14 “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. 15 No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.
The "do not let your right hand know what your left hand is doing" passage is a warning against doing good works before men for your personal glory. However, we are told in the passage that I just read that we are to do our good works so that they shine before others and bring glory to our Father. Our good works cannot be done in secret if they are supposed to bring God glory through our shining. We shouldn't discard the baby with the bath water. The problem isn't doing good works, the problem isn't even doing good works that others can see. The question we must ask is "Who we are trying to glorify by doing good works?" If we are trying to glorify ourselves, then they are not good works but selfish evil actions. But if they are done by us in order to bring glory to God, then they are exactly in line with God's plan for our lives.
Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of us look not to our own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in us that was in Christ Jesus...who empited himself, taking on the form of a slave and humbled himself to the point of even being obedient on the cross.
It is our calling to make the humility of Christ visible to the community of Antwerp and those around us where we work and live. As I mentioned, humility is not something our culture exalts, yet we know living a lifestyle of humility is something we have to battle for our whole lives. God has placed the salvation of others in our hands. We can either live our lives in such a way in order to help them see the humility that Christ began to show in that manger over 2000 years ago, or we can choose to be a barrier to Christ by proclaiming to be his followers yet living a life completely contrary to the example he set for us to live. I hope we all choose to be the humble hands and the humble feet of Christ to the world. Merry Christmas.
Watch out for the potholes
In case you were living in an isolated bomb shelter 100 miles under the earth without any form of communication the last few days and only come out for church on Sundays, I am going to take on the role of Captain Obvious and point out that yesterday was Christmas. However, the reason for celebrating Christmas wasn’t so obvious. Suppose you were an alien visiting the earth with the intention of writing back to your home planet about our culture, you would be able to observe this madness we call Christmas and have a very good chance of not even realizing what we consider the true meaning of Christmas. Christmas would appear to be about shopping, about giving and getting presents, about getting together with family, about being stressed out and traveling all over the country, and for some people about just hanging out in airports, about overeating, about festive lights and trees decorated with shiny balls and other assorted things. But the true reason of Christmas is not among the obvious.
This brings me to our passage for today. Similar to the way the American culture sometimes misses the true meaning of Christmas, we, the people who claim to follow the baby boy that was born in the lowly manger in the insignificant town of Bethlehem, also have the tendency to miss and ignore one of the key traits that Jesus modeled for us to follow. If you would, please turn with me in your Bibles to Phillipians 2. We will be reading verses 1-11. I’m going to be reading from the Message today, so feel free along with your own translation if you have one.
Philipians 2:1-11
1 If you've gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care - 2 then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. 3 Don't push your way to the front; don't sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. 4 Don't be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand. 5 Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. 6 He had equal status with God but didn't think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. 7 Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! 8 Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn't claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death - and the worst kind of death at that: a crucifixion. 9 Because of that obedience, God lifted him high and honored him far beyond anyone or anything, ever, 10 so that all created beings in heaven and on earth - even those long ago dead and buried - will bow in worship before this Jesus Christ, 11 and call out in praise that he is the Master of all, to the glorious honor of God the Father.
One trait made the first Christmas possible, the humility of Jesus. If you have heard me preach before, you probably have gotten the picture that I like to use illustrations from television shows, novels, and movies; however, when it came to humility I struggled trying to find an illustration in our culture of entertainment. Humility is not a trait that our culture exalts. We exalt individualism, vengeance, materialism, and independence. Just like our culture does with the meaning of Christmas, it does a good job of hiding humility.
(I might not do this little guessing game. But I do think it would be fun.)
Let’s play a little game, the first kid to guess who I am describing will receive this little bag of delicious and fun fruit snacks, maybe to eat now, maybe to eat later, or maybe never to eat at all. It is all up to the parent’s discretion. You have to be younger than eight.
He wears red and blue.
He lives in New York City.
He shoots webs.
He fights Doctor Octopus and the Green Goblin.
He loves Mary Jane, the woman not the plant.
His first name is Spider. His last name is man.
Spider-Man. If you watched Spider-Man 2 last summer you would’ve seen a man struggling with being humble. He gave up his role as Spider-Man, threw his costume into the trash, and walked away thinking that he would never look back. But then came the villains. They forced him to either decide to let people suffer or to give up his plans for a normal life and return to the life of the hero. He had to put aside his own dreams of what he wanted out of life and do what was intended for him to do. He wanted to be a good college student, hold down a steady job, and win back the love of his life. There's nothing wrong with any of those goals; however, they were not the goals he was intended to fulfill. Spider-Man is a modern-day example of humility, putting aside your selfish dreams and aspirations - no matter how noble they might be – for the benefit of those around you, even when doing what benefits those around you isn’t particularly what you think is for your personal best interests. Spider-Man showed us genuine humility.
It’s up to you and me to turn the fictionalized humility of Spider-Man or the genuine historical example of the Christmas founding humility of Christ into a living reality to those around us. We need to put our own dreams and aspirations aside, notice the needs of those around us, and act to meet those needs.
C.S. Lewis described humility in his book Miracles:
"In the Christian story God descends to re-ascend. He comes down; down from the heights of absolute being into time and space, down into humanity ... down to the very roots and sea-bed of the Nature He has created.
"But He goes down to come up again and bring the ruined world up with Him. One has the picture of a strong man stooping lower and lower to get himself underneath some great complicated burden. He must stoop in order to lift, he must almost disappear under the load before he incredibly straightens his back and marches off with the whole mass swaying on his shoulder…
"In this descent and re-ascent everyone will recognise a familiar pattern: a thing written all over the world. It is the pattern of all vegetable life. It must belittle itself into something hard, small and deathlike, it must fall into the ground: thence the new life re-ascends….
"So it is also in our moral and emotional life. The first innocent and spontaneous desires have to submit to the deathlike process of control or total denial: but from that there is a re-ascent to fully formed character in which the strength of the original material all operates but in a new way. Death and Rebirth--go down to go up--it is a key principle. Through this bottleneck, this belittlement, the highroad nearly always lies"
Humility is a tough concept to grasp. Examples of it are not exalted in our culture. It's even tougher to live out. But the perfect example of humility was shown to us on Christmas morning over 2000 years ago. God, who has all power and knowledge, emptied himself of those things and took on the flesh, skin and bones just like you and me. He humbled himself and put his security in the arms of Joseph and Mary, humans like you and me. He lowered himself to our level in order to exalt us to His. That is the beauty of Christmas. Jesus came so that people like you and me can become what we were intended to be. We, through his example and the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives, can give up our selfish and fruitless dreams and aspirations and clothe ourselves in the humility that Christ began to model on that Christmas Day thousands of years ago. If we want to make the Christmas story come out of hiding in our society and take its proper place at the center of this season, then we need to take the first steps as followers of Jesus and swaddle ourselves in his humility. We cannot grasp hold of what God intends for us and those around us if we continue to hang on to our own goals and desires.
Matthew 18:1-4
1 At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”2 He called a child, whom he put among them,3 and said, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.4 Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
We cannot be Christians without modeling the humility shown by Jesus, a humility that can, at times, seem almost unreal. But, obviously, it is real. We can see it in the lives of some of the great reformers of church history, in some of the quiet spiritual warriors in our church, and, most evidently, in the life of a newborn baby, not just one born 2000 years ago.
A newborn is a perfect example of humility. They totally depend upon others to feed them. They are completely vulnerable if they' aren't kept safe. There is not one ounce of self-reliance in them because they do not have the capability to be self-reliant.
Then they grow and reach Isaac's age. Humility is, unfotunately, no longer their dominant trait. It seems to be a disappearing trait. Independence, selfishness, and self-reliance are beginning to creep to dominance. They want to do everything on their own. He will try and try to tie his shoe lace or to stack his blocks in some gigantic structure, but he will usually - or in the case of the shoelaces, always - fail. But in Isaac humility doesn't always manifest itself when he fails, frustration sometimes does. Sometimes, he will become angry and tearful, yet he will still try to do it on his own. That boy will not give up. But once he reaches an emotional frenzy, he will never be able to do it no matter how much he tries. He has to give up and allow us to help him. When he does that, whatever he was trying to do gets done. And hopefully, through the process, he learned a little more how to do it, so next time he can do it better or even completely on his own.
Humility is much easier to grasp a hold of when you are completely ignorant of how to do what you need to get done. For instance, some of you might know Brian Reinhart. He's a good friend of mine. And the summer before last he refreshed my memory on how to do an oil change on my car. He was always gifted at mechanical things and I seemed to have missed the boat on that one. My attitude of submission to his knowledge made it real easy to learn. I accepted that he knew better than me, and there was no problem.
That's the way it usually works for most of us in areas where we don't know what to do; however, in areas that we think we know what to do, we are not as good of a student. Take for instance the serious subject of folding towels - something that I have, luckily, been able to get out of lately. Back when we lived in Lansing and we were newly married, I wanted to fold the towels the way I had always folded the towels. It worked fine for me to fold them that way when I was single; I couldn't fathom why it couldn't work the same way when I was married. I wouldn't accept a new way. Lindsay would try to show me, and I would just get frustrated. I know. It's silly. Getting frustrated over folding towels. In my mind it all made sense at the moment. I knew how to fold towels, and I wasn't going to change. However, the way I folded them didn't allow them to fit well on the shelves in the closet. When they wouldn't fit in the closet, they had to be refolded. It was a frustrating experience (probably moreso for Lindsay) because I could never remember how to fold them and I probably never really tried. I still don't fold them "properly" to this day.
We oftentimes don't give our stresses, our problems, or our heartaches up to God until they become so severe that we can't exist with them any more. God will be faithful and help us in our time of severe need; however, that is not the plan he has for our life. He wants us to model the humility that Jesus showed and walk our lives humbly submitted to him, always. Never should we think we are so great as to do great, or even lowly, things without him. And never should we think we are so strong as to go through the pits, that surely come, of life without him. He wants to be there every step of the way.
But humility is difficult to live out. It is a constant battle with our selfish ambitions. Surrendering our goals, plans, and idea of independence doesn't come easily. But if we truly want to live life and experience it to the full - to taste the greatness that God has planned for us - then we must deny ourselves and dailyand humbly submit to His will. Matthew wrote:
The Cross and Self-Denial - Matt 26:24-28
24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25 For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?
27 “For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done. 28 Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”
God's kingdom is here now (or else Jesus was a liar - and you can probably figure out where I stand on that one since I am up here saying we need to be more like Jesus), and we, the church, are a glimpse of that kingdom. But what picture of God's kingdom do we give to the world? What do the people of Antwerp think about God because of us? It all depends on if we are truly humbly submitting to God and his will or living in our own selfish ambitions, no matter how noble they might be. God wants us, along with every group of believers throughout the world, to be His people living together to show the world what it means to be the Kingdom of God. This can't happen if a spirit of humility is not exhibited among us. A genuine spirit of humility will guide us to follow the example of Jesus, humble ourselves, and take on the form of a slave to all of those around us.
Picture Christ as yourself. If you were to literally switch bodies with Jesus and he was to live your life for a week, would your life be any different than it currently is? Would our church be any different if each of us took seriously the call to humble ourselves and become a slave to our community?
Galatians 5:13-14 reads:
13 For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. 14 For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
When we miss the mark on attaining humility, we encounter humility's arch-nemesis, pride. Pride allows us to think that our church is the best church in town. Humility causes us to see our church, with all of its faults, in the light of the ideal church and encourages us to strive for perfection. Pride allows us to compare our lives to our weaker brothers and sisters in Christ or to those who do not even know Christ and think how great our faith is. Humility causes us to compare our lives, with all of their faults, to Christ and strive for perfection. Pride allows us to view ourselves as more fortunate than others who are not as well off. Humility causes us to get down and dirty and love those less forutnate.
Someone wore a t-shirt to church a couple of months ago and on it were the words, "I'm like a superhero with no powers and no motivation." I hate to analyze a silly statement. Okay, maybe I enjoy it. But if we look at that sentence - I'm like a superhero with no powers and no motivation - what makes it funny is that it can't be true. What makes a superhero "super" is their powers and what makes a superhero a hero is there motivation. You can't be a superhero without any powers and without motivation.
I think a lot of us fall into the same category when it comes to our Christian lives. It would be beneficial for non-Christians if a lot of us wore a similar shirt with a disclaimer on it. "I'm like a Christian with no humility and no loving actions." However, like the superhero statement, I don't think we can be Christians without humility or without loving actions. They are essential ingredients to being a Christian. A proper humility allows us to acknowledge our faults and view people and events the way Christ viewed them.
Humility's end result is always love. The humility of Christ as a baby in the manger led to the love of Christ for everyone on the cross. And our humility, if it does not result in similar sacrifice and love, is not the humility of Christ but a disguised form of pride. If our life is not filled with loving actions then we should be honest with ourselves and acknowledge that we have a faith problem. We can't be Christians without loving actions. All the faith in the world, if it does not show itself in love, is meaningless. You will find a better rendition of that thought in 1 Corinthians 13.
Somewhere along the way we have turned our invisible faith into being more important than the works that accompany it, a concept that I have yet to run across in Scripture: I actually run across the contrary. We have even gone so far as to say good works are evil. We take the "do not let your right hand know what your left hand is doing" passage out of context and do not read it in the light of a verse that is in the same Sermon on the Mount, which includes the following verses only 25 verses before that one.
Matt 5:14-16
14 “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. 15 No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.
The "do not let your right hand know what your left hand is doing" passage is a warning against doing good works before men for your personal glory. However, we are told in the passage that I just read that we are to do our good works so that they shine before others and bring glory to our Father. Our good works cannot be done in secret if they are supposed to bring God glory through our shining. We shouldn't discard the baby with the bath water. The problem isn't doing good works, the problem isn't even doing good works that others can see. The question we must ask is "Who we are trying to glorify by doing good works?" If we are trying to glorify ourselves, then they are not good works but selfish evil actions. But if they are done by us in order to bring glory to God, then they are exactly in line with God's plan for our lives.
Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of us look not to our own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in us that was in Christ Jesus...who empited himself, taking on the form of a slave and humbled himself to the point of even being obedient on the cross.
It is our calling to make the humility of Christ visible to the community of Antwerp and those around us where we work and live. As I mentioned, humility is not something our culture exalts, yet we know living a lifestyle of humility is something we have to battle for our whole lives. God has placed the salvation of others in our hands. We can either live our lives in such a way in order to help them see the humility that Christ began to show in that manger over 2000 years ago, or we can choose to be a barrier to Christ by proclaiming to be his followers yet living a life completely contrary to the example he set for us to live. I hope we all choose to be the humble hands and the humble feet of Christ to the world. Merry Christmas.
Watch out for the potholes
A few excerpts from Martin Luther's Christmas Day Sermon
My mind is exhausted, so I have asked one of my good friends to share with us what he thinks about Jesus and Christmas. (I actually find it weird that I know more about many people that are dead than I do people that go to my church.)
Without further ado, here is my good friend and guest blogger Martin Luther. I've bolded the best thoughts of each paragraph for the skimmers. It was much lengthier than our modern sermons. I bet it would take over two hours to preach, so I present to you a very condensed version.
He was preaching from the text of Luke 2:1-14.
"If you would be enlightened and warmed, if you would see the wonders of divine grace and have your heart aglow and enlightened, devout and joyful, go where you can silently meditate and lay hold of this picture deep in your heart, and you will see miracle upon miracle...
...Behold how very ordinary and common things are to ur that transpire on earth, and yet how high they are regarded in heaven...Imagine how she (Mary) was despised at the inns and stopping places on the way, although worthy to ride in state in a chariot of gold...They were the most insignificant and despised, so that they had to make way for others until they were obliged to take refuge in a stable, to share with cattle, lodging, table, bedchamber, and bed, while many a wicked man sat at the head in the hotels and was honored as lord. No one noticed or was conscious of what God was doing in that stable...See how God shows that he utterly disregards what the world is, has or desires; and furthermore, that the world shows how little it knows or notices what God is, has and does...
...It is the purpose of the divine Word, to teach us to know God and his work, and to see that this life is nothing. For as he does not live according to this life and does not have possenor temporal honor and power, he does not regard these and says nothing concerning them, but teaches only the contrary. He workd in opposition to these temporal things, looks with favor upon that from which the world turns, teaches that from which it flees and takes up that which it discards. And although we are not willing to tolerate such acts of God and do not want to receive blessing, honor and life in this way, yet it must remain so. God does not change his purpose, nor does he teach or act differently than he purposed. We must adapt ourselves to him, he will not adapt himself to us...
...The right and gracious faith which God demands is, that you firmly believe that Christ is born for you, and that this birth took place for your welfare...This is the principal thing and the principal treasure of every Gospel, before any doctrine of good works can be taken out of it. Christ must above all things become our own and we become his, before we can do good works...See to it that you do not find pleasure in the Gospel only as a history, for that is only transcient; neither regard it only as an example, for it is of no value without faith; but see to it that you make this birth your own and that Christ be born in you...This is our foundation and inheritance, upon which good works must be built.
If Christ has now become your own, and you have by such faith been cleansed through him and have received your inheritance without any personal merit, but alone through the love of God who gives to you as your own the treasure and work of his Son; it follows that you will do good works by doing to your neighbor as Christ has done to you. Here good works are their own teacher. What are the good works of Christ? Is it not true that they are good because they have been done for your benefit, for God's sake, who commanded him to do the works on your behalf? In this then Christ was obedient to the Father, in that he loved and served us.
Therefore, since you have received enough and become rich, you have no other commandment to serve Christ and render obedience to him, than so to direct your works that they may be of benefit to your neighbor, just as the works of Christ are of benefit and use to you...
...Observe now from this how far those have gone out of the way who have united good works with stone, wood, clothing, eating and drinking. Of what benefit is to your neighbor if you build a church entirely out of gold? Of what benefit to him is the frequent ringing of great church bells? Of what benefit to him is the glitter and the ceremonies in the churches, the priests' gowns, the sanctuary, the silver pictures and vessels? Of what benefit to him are the many candles and much incense. Of what benefit to him is the much chanting and mumbling, the singing of vigils and masses? Do you think that God will permit himself to be paid with the sound of bells, the smoke of candles, the glitter of gold and such fancies? He has commanded none of these, but if you see your neighbor going astray, sinning, or suffering body or soul, you are to leave every thing else and at once help him in every way in your power and if you can do no more, help him with words of comfort and prayer. Thus has Christ done to you and given you an example for you to follow.
These are the two things in which a Christian is to exercise himself, the one that he draws Christ into himself, and that by faith he makes him his own, appropriates to himeslf the trasures of Christ and confidently builds upon them; the other that he condescends to his neighbor and lets him share in that which he has received, even as he shares in the treasures of Christ. He who does not ecercise himself in these two things will receive no benefit even if he should fast unto death, suffer torture or even give his body to be burned, and were able to do all miracles as St. Paul teaches in 1 Corinthians 13...
There are many who are enkindled with dreamy devotion, when they hear of such poverty of Christ, are almost angry with the citizens of Bethlehem, denounce their blindness and ingratitude, and think, if they had been there, they would have shown the Lord and his mother a more becoming service, and would not have permitted them to be treated so miserably. But they do not look by their side to see how many of their fellow men need their help, and which they let go on in their misery unaided. Who is there upon earth that has no poor, miserable, sicke, erring one, or sinful people around them? Why does he not exercise his love to those? Why does he not do to them as Christ has done to him?
It is altogether false to think that you have done much for Christ, if you do nothing for those needy ones. Had you been at Bethlehem you would have paid as little attention to Christ as they did; but since it is now made known who Chist is, you profess to serve him...Therefore, if your neighbor were now what he shall be in the future, and lay before you, you sould surely give him attention. But now, since it is not so, you beat the air and do not recognize the Lord in your neighbor, you do not do to him as he has done to you. Therefore God permites you to be blinded, and deceived by the pope and false preacchers, so that you squander on wood, stone, paper, and wax that with which you might help your fellow man.
Christ has again brought back the glory to God, in that he has taught us how all we have or can do is nothing but wrath and displeasure before God, so that we may not be boastful and selfsatisfied, but rather be filled with fear and shame, so that in this manner our glory and self-satisfaction may be crushed, and we be glad to be rid of it, in order that we may be found and preserved in Chhist...Where there are true Christians, there is no strife, contention, or discord...
...There is a great deal in this article, of which, in time of temptation, we would not be deprived, for the evil spirit attacks nothing so severely as our faith. Therefore it is of the greatest importance for us to know where in God's Word this faith is set forth, and in time of temptation point to that, for the evil spirit can not stand against God's Word. There are also many ethical teachings in the Gospel, as for example, meekness, patience, poverty and the like; but these are touched upon enough and are not points of controversy, for they are fruts of faith and good works.
Thanks to Martin Luther for sharing with us. He would've received an F in Homoletics class for that conclusion, but history has graded him much better than any Homoletics professor would. It amazes me how powerful a sermon can be almost 400 years after it was originally given. We serve a great God.
Watch out for the potholes and Merry Christmas.
Without further ado, here is my good friend and guest blogger Martin Luther. I've bolded the best thoughts of each paragraph for the skimmers. It was much lengthier than our modern sermons. I bet it would take over two hours to preach, so I present to you a very condensed version.
He was preaching from the text of Luke 2:1-14.
1 In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2 This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3 All went to their own towns to be registered. 4 Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. 5 He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. 7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.
8 In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: 11 to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger." 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, 14 "Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!""If you would be enlightened and warmed, if you would see the wonders of divine grace and have your heart aglow and enlightened, devout and joyful, go where you can silently meditate and lay hold of this picture deep in your heart, and you will see miracle upon miracle...
...Behold how very ordinary and common things are to ur that transpire on earth, and yet how high they are regarded in heaven...Imagine how she (Mary) was despised at the inns and stopping places on the way, although worthy to ride in state in a chariot of gold...They were the most insignificant and despised, so that they had to make way for others until they were obliged to take refuge in a stable, to share with cattle, lodging, table, bedchamber, and bed, while many a wicked man sat at the head in the hotels and was honored as lord. No one noticed or was conscious of what God was doing in that stable...See how God shows that he utterly disregards what the world is, has or desires; and furthermore, that the world shows how little it knows or notices what God is, has and does...
...It is the purpose of the divine Word, to teach us to know God and his work, and to see that this life is nothing. For as he does not live according to this life and does not have possenor temporal honor and power, he does not regard these and says nothing concerning them, but teaches only the contrary. He workd in opposition to these temporal things, looks with favor upon that from which the world turns, teaches that from which it flees and takes up that which it discards. And although we are not willing to tolerate such acts of God and do not want to receive blessing, honor and life in this way, yet it must remain so. God does not change his purpose, nor does he teach or act differently than he purposed. We must adapt ourselves to him, he will not adapt himself to us...
...The right and gracious faith which God demands is, that you firmly believe that Christ is born for you, and that this birth took place for your welfare...This is the principal thing and the principal treasure of every Gospel, before any doctrine of good works can be taken out of it. Christ must above all things become our own and we become his, before we can do good works...See to it that you do not find pleasure in the Gospel only as a history, for that is only transcient; neither regard it only as an example, for it is of no value without faith; but see to it that you make this birth your own and that Christ be born in you...This is our foundation and inheritance, upon which good works must be built.
If Christ has now become your own, and you have by such faith been cleansed through him and have received your inheritance without any personal merit, but alone through the love of God who gives to you as your own the treasure and work of his Son; it follows that you will do good works by doing to your neighbor as Christ has done to you. Here good works are their own teacher. What are the good works of Christ? Is it not true that they are good because they have been done for your benefit, for God's sake, who commanded him to do the works on your behalf? In this then Christ was obedient to the Father, in that he loved and served us.
Therefore, since you have received enough and become rich, you have no other commandment to serve Christ and render obedience to him, than so to direct your works that they may be of benefit to your neighbor, just as the works of Christ are of benefit and use to you...
...Observe now from this how far those have gone out of the way who have united good works with stone, wood, clothing, eating and drinking. Of what benefit is to your neighbor if you build a church entirely out of gold? Of what benefit to him is the frequent ringing of great church bells? Of what benefit to him is the glitter and the ceremonies in the churches, the priests' gowns, the sanctuary, the silver pictures and vessels? Of what benefit to him are the many candles and much incense. Of what benefit to him is the much chanting and mumbling, the singing of vigils and masses? Do you think that God will permit himself to be paid with the sound of bells, the smoke of candles, the glitter of gold and such fancies? He has commanded none of these, but if you see your neighbor going astray, sinning, or suffering body or soul, you are to leave every thing else and at once help him in every way in your power and if you can do no more, help him with words of comfort and prayer. Thus has Christ done to you and given you an example for you to follow.
These are the two things in which a Christian is to exercise himself, the one that he draws Christ into himself, and that by faith he makes him his own, appropriates to himeslf the trasures of Christ and confidently builds upon them; the other that he condescends to his neighbor and lets him share in that which he has received, even as he shares in the treasures of Christ. He who does not ecercise himself in these two things will receive no benefit even if he should fast unto death, suffer torture or even give his body to be burned, and were able to do all miracles as St. Paul teaches in 1 Corinthians 13...
There are many who are enkindled with dreamy devotion, when they hear of such poverty of Christ, are almost angry with the citizens of Bethlehem, denounce their blindness and ingratitude, and think, if they had been there, they would have shown the Lord and his mother a more becoming service, and would not have permitted them to be treated so miserably. But they do not look by their side to see how many of their fellow men need their help, and which they let go on in their misery unaided. Who is there upon earth that has no poor, miserable, sicke, erring one, or sinful people around them? Why does he not exercise his love to those? Why does he not do to them as Christ has done to him?
It is altogether false to think that you have done much for Christ, if you do nothing for those needy ones. Had you been at Bethlehem you would have paid as little attention to Christ as they did; but since it is now made known who Chist is, you profess to serve him...Therefore, if your neighbor were now what he shall be in the future, and lay before you, you sould surely give him attention. But now, since it is not so, you beat the air and do not recognize the Lord in your neighbor, you do not do to him as he has done to you. Therefore God permites you to be blinded, and deceived by the pope and false preacchers, so that you squander on wood, stone, paper, and wax that with which you might help your fellow man.
Christ has again brought back the glory to God, in that he has taught us how all we have or can do is nothing but wrath and displeasure before God, so that we may not be boastful and selfsatisfied, but rather be filled with fear and shame, so that in this manner our glory and self-satisfaction may be crushed, and we be glad to be rid of it, in order that we may be found and preserved in Chhist...Where there are true Christians, there is no strife, contention, or discord...
...There is a great deal in this article, of which, in time of temptation, we would not be deprived, for the evil spirit attacks nothing so severely as our faith. Therefore it is of the greatest importance for us to know where in God's Word this faith is set forth, and in time of temptation point to that, for the evil spirit can not stand against God's Word. There are also many ethical teachings in the Gospel, as for example, meekness, patience, poverty and the like; but these are touched upon enough and are not points of controversy, for they are fruts of faith and good works.
Thanks to Martin Luther for sharing with us. He would've received an F in Homoletics class for that conclusion, but history has graded him much better than any Homoletics professor would. It amazes me how powerful a sermon can be almost 400 years after it was originally given. We serve a great God.
Watch out for the potholes and Merry Christmas.
Bad Father of the Year Award
It's time for the year end awards at Pulling Weeds out of Potholes.
After having to stay the night at work last night, I am the winner of this award. It was 12:30 and the roads were starting to become snow-covered. I still wasn't done with things here at work, so I had to wake up early today and start hammering away. The Christmas season sure has a different perspective if you work retail.
I'm brief because I'm busy.
Watch out for the potholes covered with multiple inches of snow. You can't see them but they're still there.
After having to stay the night at work last night, I am the winner of this award. It was 12:30 and the roads were starting to become snow-covered. I still wasn't done with things here at work, so I had to wake up early today and start hammering away. The Christmas season sure has a different perspective if you work retail.
I'm brief because I'm busy.
Watch out for the potholes covered with multiple inches of snow. You can't see them but they're still there.
Bad Father of the Year Award
It's time for the year end awards at Pulling Weeds out of Potholes.
After having to stay the night at work last night, I am the winner of this award. It was 12:30 and the roads were starting to become snow-covered. I still wasn't done with things here at work, so I had to wake up early today and start hammering away. The Christmas season sure has a different perspective if you work retail.
I'm brief because I'm busy.
Watch out for the potholes covered with multiple inches of snow. You can't see them but they're still there.
After having to stay the night at work last night, I am the winner of this award. It was 12:30 and the roads were starting to become snow-covered. I still wasn't done with things here at work, so I had to wake up early today and start hammering away. The Christmas season sure has a different perspective if you work retail.
I'm brief because I'm busy.
Watch out for the potholes covered with multiple inches of snow. You can't see them but they're still there.
Who We Need To Be Humble For
I finished editing the beginning of my sermon and I had one of those little "coincidental" heart touching moments of faith. I think I might have my conclusion now, but I have to change my hero from Spider-Man to Superman. Then again, maybe it was just for me on this night that I don't seem tired or have the desire to sleep.
In the background as I was editing I was listening to Five for Fighting, one of my favorite bands. As soon as I uploaded my post, the song Superman came on.
I can't stand to fly
I'm not that naive
I'm just out to find
The better part of me
I'm more than a bird...I'm more than a plane
More than some pretty face beside a train
It's not easy to be me
Wish that I could cry
Fall upon my knees
Find a way to lie
About a home I'll never see
It may sound absurd...but don't be naive
Even Heroes have the right to bleed
I may be disturbed...but won't you conceed
Even Heroes have the right to dream
It's not easy to be me
Up, up and away...away from me
It's all right...You can all sleep sound tonight
I'm not crazy...or anything...
I can't stand to fly
I'm not that naive
Men weren't meant to ride
With clouds between their knees
I'm only a man in a silly red sheet
Digging for kryptonite on this one way street
Only a man in a funny red sheet
Looking for special things inside of me
It's not easy to be me.
Maybe it isn't what he was really writing about, but it touched me. He wants to have a faith in a home that he will have some day. He wishes that he could even lie about it. But he just can't because he is not a superman. But it is in that hopeless that we really do find that special thing inside of us. We find a heart that can be completely submitted to God.
Every so often a song that I listen to strikes me about why I must be humble and live a servant like faith. People are out there hurting, people like John Ondrasik of Five for Fighting. They need Jesus, and they don't even realize it. Unfortunately, it is hard for them to see what Christ wants for their life because those that claim to follow Christ are so astray, almost as much as those who don't presume to know him, maybe even moreso. As far as it depends on me, and hopefully on you, we will live our lives as humbly as we can so that Jesus can be shown to the world through us.
Watch out for the potholes unless you can fly.
In the background as I was editing I was listening to Five for Fighting, one of my favorite bands. As soon as I uploaded my post, the song Superman came on.
I can't stand to fly
I'm not that naive
I'm just out to find
The better part of me
I'm more than a bird...I'm more than a plane
More than some pretty face beside a train
It's not easy to be me
Wish that I could cry
Fall upon my knees
Find a way to lie
About a home I'll never see
It may sound absurd...but don't be naive
Even Heroes have the right to bleed
I may be disturbed...but won't you conceed
Even Heroes have the right to dream
It's not easy to be me
Up, up and away...away from me
It's all right...You can all sleep sound tonight
I'm not crazy...or anything...
I can't stand to fly
I'm not that naive
Men weren't meant to ride
With clouds between their knees
I'm only a man in a silly red sheet
Digging for kryptonite on this one way street
Only a man in a funny red sheet
Looking for special things inside of me
It's not easy to be me.
Maybe it isn't what he was really writing about, but it touched me. He wants to have a faith in a home that he will have some day. He wishes that he could even lie about it. But he just can't because he is not a superman. But it is in that hopeless that we really do find that special thing inside of us. We find a heart that can be completely submitted to God.
Every so often a song that I listen to strikes me about why I must be humble and live a servant like faith. People are out there hurting, people like John Ondrasik of Five for Fighting. They need Jesus, and they don't even realize it. Unfortunately, it is hard for them to see what Christ wants for their life because those that claim to follow Christ are so astray, almost as much as those who don't presume to know him, maybe even moreso. As far as it depends on me, and hopefully on you, we will live our lives as humbly as we can so that Jesus can be shown to the world through us.
Watch out for the potholes unless you can fly.
Christmas Humility
The beginning and first point of my sermon for Sunday.
(Begin with the typical good morning.) :)
In case you were living in an isolated bomb shelter 100 miles under the earth without any form of communication the last few days, I am going to take on the role of Captain Obvious and point out that yesterday was Christmas. However, the reason for celebrating Christmas wasn’t so obvious. Suppose you were an alien visiting earth with the intention of writing back to your home planet about our culture, you would be able to observe this madness we call Christmas and have a very good chance of not even realizing what we consider the true meaning of Christmas. Christmas would appear to be about shopping, about giving and getting presents, about getting together with family, about being stressed out and traveling all over the country, about overeating, about festive lights and trees decorated with shiny balls and other assorted things. But the true reason of Christmas is not among the obvious.
This brings me to our passage for today. Like the way American culture sometimes misses on the true meaning of Christmas, we also have the tendency to miss and ignore one of the key traits that Jesus modeled for us to follow. If you would, please turn with me in your Bibles to Phillipians 2. We will be reading verses 1-11. I’m going to be reading from the Message today, so if you don’t like the Message feel free to read along from your own Bible. And if you don’t like the Message and didn’t bring a Bible to read along with, you have no leg to stand on.
Philipians 2:1-11
1 If you've gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care - 2 then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. 3 Don't push your way to the front; don't sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. 4 Don't be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand. 5 Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. 6 He had equal status with God but didn't think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. 7 Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! 8 Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn't claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death - and the worst kind of death at that: a crucifixion. 9 Because of that obedience, God lifted him high and honored him far beyond anyone or anything, ever, 10 so that all created beings in heaven and on earth - even those long ago dead and buried - will bow in worship before this Jesus Christ, 11 and call out in praise that he is the Master of all, to the glorious honor of God the Father.
One trait made the first Christmas possible, Jesus’ humility. If you have heard me preach before, you probably have gotten the picture that I like to use illustrations from television shows, novels, and movies. When it came to humility I struggled trying to find an illustration in our culture of entertainment. Humility is not a trait that our culture exalts. We exalt individualism, vengeance, materialism, and independence. Just like our culture does with the meaning of Christmas, it does a good job of hiding humility.
(I might not do this little guessing game. But I do think it would be fun.)
Let’s play a little game, the first kid to guess who I am describing will receive this little bag of delicious and fun fruit snacks, maybe to eat now, maybe to eat later, or maybe never to eat at all. It is all up to the parent’s discretion.
He wears red and blue.
He lives in New York City.
He shoots webs.
He fights Doctor Octopus.
He loves Mary Jane, the woman not the plant.
His first name is Spider. His last name is man.
He looks like this. (Show picture of Spider-Man.)
Spider-Man. If you watched Spider-Man 2 last summer you would’ve seen a man struggling with being humble. He gave up his role as Spider-Man, threw his costume into the trash, and walked away thinking that he would never look back. But then came the villains. They forced him to either decide to let people suffer or to give up his plans for a normal life and return to the life of the hero. He had to put aside his own dreams of what he wanted out of life and do what was intended for him to do. He wanted to be a good college student, hold down a steady job, and win back the love of his life. There's nothing wrong with any of those goals; however, they were not what he was intended to do. That is an example of humility, putting aside your selfish dreams and aspirations - no matter how noble they might be – for the benefit of those around you, even when doing what benefits those around you isn’t particularly for your personal best interests. Spider-Man showed us genuine humility.
It’s up to you and me to turn the fictionalized humility of Spider-Man or the genuine Christmas founding humility of Christ into a living reality to those around us. We need to put our own dreams and aspirations aside, notice the needs of those around us, and act to meet those needs.
C.S. Lewis described humility in his book Miracles:
"In the Christian story God descends to re-ascend. He comes down; down from the heights of absolute being into time and space, down into humanity ... down to the very roots and sea-bed of the Nature He has created.
"But He goes down to come up again and bring the ruined world up with Him. One has the picture of a strong man stooping lower and lower to get himself underneath some great complicated burden. He must stoop in order to lift, he must almost disappear under the load before he incredibly straightens his back and marches off with the whole mass swaying on his shoulder…
"In this descent and re-ascent everyone will recognise a familiar pattern: a thing written all over the world. It is the pattern of all vegetable life. It must belittle itself into something hard, small and deathlike, it must fall into the ground: thence the new life re-ascends….
"So it is also in our moral and emotional life. The first innocent and spontaneous desires have to submit to the deathlike process of control or total denial: but from that there is a re-ascent to fully formed character in which the strength of the original material all operates but in a new way. Death and Rebirth--go down to go up--it is a key principle. Through this bottleneck, this belittlement, the highroad nearly always lies"
Humility is a tough concept to grasp hold off. Examples of it are not exalted in our culture. It's an even tougher to live out. But the perfect example of humility was shown to us on Christmas morning over 2000 years ago. God, who has all power and knowledge, emptied himself of those things and took on the flesh, skin and bones just like you and me. He humbled himself and put his security in the arms of Joseph and Mary, humans like you and me. He lowered himself to our level in order to exalt us to His. That is the beauty of Christmas. Jesus came so that people like you and me can become what we were intended to be. We can give up our selfish and fruitless dreams and aspirations and clothe ourselves in the humility that Christ began to model on that Christmas Day thousands of years ago. If we want to make the Christmas story to come out of hiding in our society, then we need to take the first steps as followers of Jesus and swaddle ourselves in his humility. We cannot grasp hold of what God intends for us and those around us if we continue to hang on to our own goals and desires.
Onto Point 2.
Watch out for the potholes.
A Foretaste of the Kingdom
"The church is then not simply the bearer of the message of reconciliation, in the way a newspaper or a telephone company can bear any message with which it is entrusted. Nor is the church simply the result of a message, as an alumni association is the product of a school or the crowd in the theater is the product of the reputation of the film. That men are called together to a new social wholeness is itself the work of God which give meaning to history."
Individual salvation is not the focus of the New Testament, the arrival of the Kingdom prophecied in the Old Testament is. The good news of the New Testament is the Kingdom of God has arrived. I won't repeat how I came to that conclusion here. If you are interested, I posted on it very early in the history of Pulling Weeds Out Of Potholes. It is a foundation upon which everything I think and write is based on. When it was explained to me, the floodgates of the Word of God opened up and everything made much more sense.
I'm left wondering. If the end result of salvation is becoming part of the Kingdom of God, then why is it such a forgotten topic in our churches? I had never even heard of the teaching of the Kingdom until three years ago, after I had graduated from Great Lakes Christian College. It is a teaching that has almost disappeared, yet it is plainly written throughout the New Testament.
We live in a church culture that has the tendency to focus on the minimals of the Christian faith. "What is the minimum I have to do to be saved?" "How far can I go in a sin before it is too far?" "My faith is personal and I don't need community with others." These thoughts are not foreign to many in the church. They have all played a role in my faith at one point in my life or another.
We live in an alien culture that teaches us to desire the maximum benefit for a minimal investment. Efficiency is the gospel. However, efficiency attacks the true Gospel square in the face. We all know we can't be Christians without denying our whole selves, yet that is something we often like to try. We try to have as much of the world while having just enough of God as we need to get by. We want to be Christians without making the sacrifices it takes to live in community with our brothers and sisters.
We will never experience the maximum life that God has planned for us if we don't consciously combat the individualism, independence, and fear of authority that our society ingrains in us from birth. The Kingdom of God cannot be experienced to its fullest if we continue to cling on to the teachings of this world. Christ is our King. We are residents of His Kingdom. That changes everything.
And the old motto that I hear all the time and have bought into on multiple occasions - "Just worry about your own faith" - falls flat on its face if you truly believe in being part of the Kingdom of God. A strong faith is nourished by a strong healthy church. Not a church in the sense of a place that is focused on meeting our individual needs, but a church that is focused on exemplifying the Kingdom to the best of its abilities. Gathering together with people that are consciously trying to be a foretaste of the Kingdom is essential to being a healthy Christian. May God bless every one of us with such a group of people.
Watch out for the potholes.
Individual salvation is not the focus of the New Testament, the arrival of the Kingdom prophecied in the Old Testament is. The good news of the New Testament is the Kingdom of God has arrived. I won't repeat how I came to that conclusion here. If you are interested, I posted on it very early in the history of Pulling Weeds Out Of Potholes. It is a foundation upon which everything I think and write is based on. When it was explained to me, the floodgates of the Word of God opened up and everything made much more sense.
I'm left wondering. If the end result of salvation is becoming part of the Kingdom of God, then why is it such a forgotten topic in our churches? I had never even heard of the teaching of the Kingdom until three years ago, after I had graduated from Great Lakes Christian College. It is a teaching that has almost disappeared, yet it is plainly written throughout the New Testament.
We live in a church culture that has the tendency to focus on the minimals of the Christian faith. "What is the minimum I have to do to be saved?" "How far can I go in a sin before it is too far?" "My faith is personal and I don't need community with others." These thoughts are not foreign to many in the church. They have all played a role in my faith at one point in my life or another.
We live in an alien culture that teaches us to desire the maximum benefit for a minimal investment. Efficiency is the gospel. However, efficiency attacks the true Gospel square in the face. We all know we can't be Christians without denying our whole selves, yet that is something we often like to try. We try to have as much of the world while having just enough of God as we need to get by. We want to be Christians without making the sacrifices it takes to live in community with our brothers and sisters.
We will never experience the maximum life that God has planned for us if we don't consciously combat the individualism, independence, and fear of authority that our society ingrains in us from birth. The Kingdom of God cannot be experienced to its fullest if we continue to cling on to the teachings of this world. Christ is our King. We are residents of His Kingdom. That changes everything.
And the old motto that I hear all the time and have bought into on multiple occasions - "Just worry about your own faith" - falls flat on its face if you truly believe in being part of the Kingdom of God. A strong faith is nourished by a strong healthy church. Not a church in the sense of a place that is focused on meeting our individual needs, but a church that is focused on exemplifying the Kingdom to the best of its abilities. Gathering together with people that are consciously trying to be a foretaste of the Kingdom is essential to being a healthy Christian. May God bless every one of us with such a group of people.
Watch out for the potholes.
Christian Community
I just started reading a new book, Living In Christian Community by Arthur Gish. So far I highly recommend it. It is now a link in the books I am currently reading section.
Nothing can state my experience with Christian community like the introduction by his wife, Peggy Gish. It stirred up emotions of excitement and encouragement in me. I long for the day I can experience living in Christian community once again.
Here are some excerpts from her intro.
Too often we try to do Christianity alone. It shows up in our evangelism when we try to convince people of a belief statement in order for them to attain a personal salvation. That just isn't what our Christianity should be. Our faith should be lived out in community as a group of believers. I discovered in Lansing when living in Christian community that witnessing came naturally when living a collective faith. We were (They still are) an example of what the Kingdom of God should be. It is joining that physical, tangible Kingdom that makes one a Christian, not individually adhering to a set of belief statements and practicing the spiritual disciplines. Now, I have to use the disclaimer when talking with non-Christians that the church really doesn't exhibit what the Kingdom of God is but is more of a collection of some genuine, some mediocre, and some fake Christians. I want to be in a group of Christians striving for perfection, a group in which I can tell seekers, "View the faith of anyone in this church and see what it means to be a follower of Christ. This is the Kingdom of God. Welcome and see God."
The view of Christian community and living in it is contrary to most popular Christian thinking of the American Christian. "All that matters is one's individual salvation." "There really isn't a tangible church; it is invisible." These are almost a necessary beliefs to hold due to the sorry state of the church around us. However, I don't think it is the right belief and living our lives as if those statements are true is stifling the growth of the Kingdom of God. If we want to see a revival in our towns, cities, nation, or the world, then we need to see the church become the Church. There is no scriptural basis for an invisible church, and there seems to be a consistent teaching about the physical Kingdom of God, the Church.
I like that. The church is "a necessary consequence of faith."
Watch out for the potholes.
Nothing can state my experience with Christian community like the introduction by his wife, Peggy Gish. It stirred up emotions of excitement and encouragement in me. I long for the day I can experience living in Christian community once again.
Here are some excerpts from her intro.
"When Art and I began to talk about the need for Christian community in ourI'm sure I will be quoting from this book more in the near future. It touches on what I feel I am currently missing in my church experience. The same passion that causes me to long for community was the same passiong that God used to prompt me to plant the church in Lansing. I long for Christian community, not for Christian community's sake, but for the sake of the glory of God.
lives, it was mainly theoretical for us. Yet we felt moved in that direction and we began seeking. It was only after living and sharing more closely with other Christians that the concepts took flesh. We began to see and understand more than with our minds what community meant - but also with our hearts and innermost beings.
Not only did the church become alive to me, but I also found myself challenged to examine and deepen my own faith and commitment to God. I began to experience much more the daily leading of the living Christ in my personal life and in the
corporate life of the Christian fellowship. The Scripture began to
speak more directly and authoritatively to me.
I began to see that so much of the gospel does not really make sense taken in fragments, as concepts, or "Christian principles." It must be understood and experienced in a loving, sharing, deeply committed community of believers who daily lay down their lives for each other. Apart from such a fellowship, so much of what Jesus calls us to seems impractical and impossible to live out. It has been exciting and encouraging in our pilgrimage to discover groups of Christians who, in psoite of their human weakness and imperfection, have been living out their faith together with real depth and power."
Too often we try to do Christianity alone. It shows up in our evangelism when we try to convince people of a belief statement in order for them to attain a personal salvation. That just isn't what our Christianity should be. Our faith should be lived out in community as a group of believers. I discovered in Lansing when living in Christian community that witnessing came naturally when living a collective faith. We were (They still are) an example of what the Kingdom of God should be. It is joining that physical, tangible Kingdom that makes one a Christian, not individually adhering to a set of belief statements and practicing the spiritual disciplines. Now, I have to use the disclaimer when talking with non-Christians that the church really doesn't exhibit what the Kingdom of God is but is more of a collection of some genuine, some mediocre, and some fake Christians. I want to be in a group of Christians striving for perfection, a group in which I can tell seekers, "View the faith of anyone in this church and see what it means to be a follower of Christ. This is the Kingdom of God. Welcome and see God."
"To some, what is written here may sound idealistic. That has been a
common criticism of radical Christianity. For me it is a living reality
that I have seen, touched, and tasted. God really does give people the
strength to live aout the new life that is offered to us. Although still
very human and imperfect, genuine community is possible for all who will open
their lives totally to God's love.
Another reason for not seeing this as idealistic is that, not only down
through history, but also today, many communities are actually trying to live by
the Sermon on the Mount, are living in peace and unity, and are demonstrating
for the rest of the world the reality of God's kingdom...However, while seeing
some validity in it, most have not seen such an approach to Christianity as a
live, compelling and practical option."
The view of Christian community and living in it is contrary to most popular Christian thinking of the American Christian. "All that matters is one's individual salvation." "There really isn't a tangible church; it is invisible." These are almost a necessary beliefs to hold due to the sorry state of the church around us. However, I don't think it is the right belief and living our lives as if those statements are true is stifling the growth of the Kingdom of God. If we want to see a revival in our towns, cities, nation, or the world, then we need to see the church become the Church. There is no scriptural basis for an invisible church, and there seems to be a consistent teaching about the physical Kingdom of God, the Church.
In light of this blessing of community which is offered to us, and all the
biblical emphasis in this direction, it is curious that a tendency in Protestant
thinking from the Reformation period to the present has been to maintain that
the true church is invisible. Many Protestanst today do not even have
a doctrine of the church. For them salvation is individual and, at most,
there can be a gathering of individual Christians for praise and edification,
but little sense of the visible, coprorate body of Christ.
Protestantism has been weak in the whole area of its vision of the
church. The Reformation was more concerned with reform of worship and
doctrine than the nature of the church. Many popular
revival preachers openly suggest that new converst go to any existing
church which suits their fancy. The implication seems to be that there are
not many differences between groups, or that these differences are not
important. The emphasis in the Bibles is on a visible community of
faith. There is no mention of an invisible church in the New Testament nor
any suggestion that the true church is the invisible collection of individual,
pure Christians around the world. Although the church certainly has a
spiritual foundation and nature, this is expressed in her social character and
cannot be separated from it. Rather than"an external support of faith"
(Calvin), the church is a necessary consequence of faith."
I like that. The church is "a necessary consequence of faith."
Watch out for the potholes.
I'm a guest blogger
If you head on over to Mike Fabian's hilarious blog, Fabian's World, you will see a guest post by me.
The infamous, villainous Mr. Anonymous appears to be a regular there as well.
It is a little cynical, but I hope it is viewed as a cynical spanking rather than just cynicalness for cynicalness's sake.
Watch out for the potholes.
The infamous, villainous Mr. Anonymous appears to be a regular there as well.
It is a little cynical, but I hope it is viewed as a cynical spanking rather than just cynicalness for cynicalness's sake.
Watch out for the potholes.
You Can't Be A Christian Without Humility And Love
Here is point 3 of the my Christmas sermon. You're always welcomed to come to Antwerp Community Church on Sunday, December 26, and listen. Point 2 can be found here. Point 1 is not yet written. Neither are the intro and conclusion. The verses to be used can also be found here.
***
When we miss the mark on attaining humility, we encounter humility's arch-nemesis, pride. Pride allows us to think that our church is the best church in town. Humility causes us to see our church, with all of its faults, in the light of the ideal church and encourages us to strive for perfection. Pride allows us to compare our lives to our weaker brothers and sisters in Christ and think how great our faith is. Humility causes us to compare our lives, with all of their faults, to Christ and strive for perfection. Pride allows us to view ourselves as more fortunate than others who are not as well off. Humility causes us to get down and dirty and love those less forutnate.
Someone wore a t-shirt to church a couple of months ago and on it were the words, "I'm like a superhero with no powers and no motivation." I hate to analyze a silly statement. Okay, maybe I enjoy it. But if we look at that sentence - I'm like a superhero with no powers and no motivation - what makes it funny is that it can't be true. What makes a superhero "super" is their powers and what makes a superhero a hero is there motivation. You can't be a superhero without any powers and without motivation.
I think a lot of us fall into the same category when it comes to our Christian lives. It would be beneficial for non-Christians if a lot of us wore a similar shirt with a disclaimer on it. "I'm like a Christian with no humility and no loving actions." However, like the superhero statement, I don't think we can be Christian without humility or without loving actions. They are essential ingredients to being a Christian. A proper humility allows us to acknowledge our faults and view people and events the way Christ viewed them.
Humility's end result is love. The humility of Christ as a baby in the manger led to the love of Christ to everyone on the cross. And our humility, if it does not result in similar sacrifice and love, is not the humility of Christ but a disguised for of pride. If our life is not filled with loving actions then we should be honest with ourselves and acknowledge that we have a faith problem. We can't be Christians without loving actions. All the faith in the world, if it does not manifest itself in love, is meaningless. You will find a better rendition of that thought in 1 Corinthians 13.
Somewhere along the way we have turned our invisible faith into being more important than the works that accompany it, a concept that I have yet to run across in Scripture. We have even gone so far as to say good works are evil. We take the "do not let your right hand know what your left hand is doing" passage out of context and do not read it in the light of a verse that is in the same Sermon on the Mount 25 verses before that one.
Matt 5:14-16
14 “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. 15 No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.
The "do not let your right hand know what your left hand is doing" passage is a warning against doing good works before men for your personal glory. However, we are told in the passage that I just read that we are to do our good works so that they shine before others and bring glory to our Father. Our good works cannot be done in secret if they are supposed to bring God glory through our shining. We shouldn't discard the baby with the bath water. The problem isn't doing good works, the problem isn't even doing good works that others can see. The question is: "Who we are trying to glorify by doing good works?" If we are trying to glorify ourselves, then they are wrong. But if they are done by us in order to bring glory to God, then they are exactly in line with God's plan for our lives.
Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus...who empited himself, taking on the form of a slave and humbled himself to the point of even being obedient on the cross.
Then onto the conclusion.
Watch out for potholes.
***
When we miss the mark on attaining humility, we encounter humility's arch-nemesis, pride. Pride allows us to think that our church is the best church in town. Humility causes us to see our church, with all of its faults, in the light of the ideal church and encourages us to strive for perfection. Pride allows us to compare our lives to our weaker brothers and sisters in Christ and think how great our faith is. Humility causes us to compare our lives, with all of their faults, to Christ and strive for perfection. Pride allows us to view ourselves as more fortunate than others who are not as well off. Humility causes us to get down and dirty and love those less forutnate.
Someone wore a t-shirt to church a couple of months ago and on it were the words, "I'm like a superhero with no powers and no motivation." I hate to analyze a silly statement. Okay, maybe I enjoy it. But if we look at that sentence - I'm like a superhero with no powers and no motivation - what makes it funny is that it can't be true. What makes a superhero "super" is their powers and what makes a superhero a hero is there motivation. You can't be a superhero without any powers and without motivation.
I think a lot of us fall into the same category when it comes to our Christian lives. It would be beneficial for non-Christians if a lot of us wore a similar shirt with a disclaimer on it. "I'm like a Christian with no humility and no loving actions." However, like the superhero statement, I don't think we can be Christian without humility or without loving actions. They are essential ingredients to being a Christian. A proper humility allows us to acknowledge our faults and view people and events the way Christ viewed them.
Humility's end result is love. The humility of Christ as a baby in the manger led to the love of Christ to everyone on the cross. And our humility, if it does not result in similar sacrifice and love, is not the humility of Christ but a disguised for of pride. If our life is not filled with loving actions then we should be honest with ourselves and acknowledge that we have a faith problem. We can't be Christians without loving actions. All the faith in the world, if it does not manifest itself in love, is meaningless. You will find a better rendition of that thought in 1 Corinthians 13.
Somewhere along the way we have turned our invisible faith into being more important than the works that accompany it, a concept that I have yet to run across in Scripture. We have even gone so far as to say good works are evil. We take the "do not let your right hand know what your left hand is doing" passage out of context and do not read it in the light of a verse that is in the same Sermon on the Mount 25 verses before that one.
Matt 5:14-16
14 “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. 15 No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.
The "do not let your right hand know what your left hand is doing" passage is a warning against doing good works before men for your personal glory. However, we are told in the passage that I just read that we are to do our good works so that they shine before others and bring glory to our Father. Our good works cannot be done in secret if they are supposed to bring God glory through our shining. We shouldn't discard the baby with the bath water. The problem isn't doing good works, the problem isn't even doing good works that others can see. The question is: "Who we are trying to glorify by doing good works?" If we are trying to glorify ourselves, then they are wrong. But if they are done by us in order to bring glory to God, then they are exactly in line with God's plan for our lives.
Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus...who empited himself, taking on the form of a slave and humbled himself to the point of even being obedient on the cross.
Then onto the conclusion.
Watch out for potholes.
Blue Flame LP Gas and other random thoughts
I slept in this morning and don't have time to write my third point of my sermon. Hopefully, that will come tomorrow. Instead you get to hear about some of the stuff going on in my life.
Yesterday, Blue Flame LP Gas came and filled up our propane tank. I would have to say the situation was infuriating. I have come to the conclusion that Blue Flame are crooks. This is the second time they have tried to screw me.
Let's teleport back to last year.
I needed my tank filled. It was in September, so gas rates were still cheap. I called and asked them to fill up my tank. They said it would be a 1.50something/gallon to fill it up. I said okay. For those unaware with heating one's house in the country by propane gas, there is a 500 lb. tank that is on lease (or that you own) from the gas company that you get filled. Then I thought that the price was outraeous. I called the locally ran competitor, Briceton, and asked them how much it would be. They said it would be 1.19/gallon. I called Blue Flame back and asked them to not fill my tank because Briceton said they could save me around $125. Blue Flame said they could match that price. I acquiesced and said okay.
However, I should've hopped out when I saw there true colors. I didn't.
Then yesterday, they came on their monthly route - something we signed up for last year but they have never done - and filled up our tanks. They put in 151.5 gallons at $1.96/gallon. That's a total of $297.14. Lindsay called me after she had received the bill. I was outraged. I called Briceton to find out what they are charging. It was $1.59/gallon. That would've been a total of $240.88, a saving of $57. So I called Blue Flame and politely asked if our bill could get lowered because Briceton is charging less. She put me on hold, apparently checked something, and then got back on and very rudely told me she wouldn't lower the bill. I politely asked her to take me off the delivery schedule. She very rudely told me that Briceton wasn't giving me their real numbers. I very politely told her thank you and goodbye.
According to the heating oil and propane update, the current price of propane is supposed to be around $1.70. They stink. It stinks even more because that site shows that wholesalers are getting the propane at .86 a gallon.
The moral of the story. Switch to Briceton at the quickest available opportunity. Hopefully, our tank will last the rest of the winter because those late winter rates get even more attrocious.
So this is my warning to everyone in the northwest Ohio area. Stay away from Blue Flame LP in Defiance, OH.
***
A Christian band is not allowed to play at an anti-drug assembly in nearby Toledo, OH.
I would almost have sympathy for the band except that one band member's father is on the school board and he didn't even stand up for them. We can have anything happen in a school as long as they don't speak the name of Jesus. It's silly. I don't expect the world to be any different. I would just love to live in a society that was different.
***
How is a leader a servant like Christ yet a visionary leader? I'm having a tough time reconciling the two in my head. I know he was, but we really don't have that thorough of a textbook on how it was worked out. He seemed to have alienated a lot of people. Do we need to lead in such a way that we alienate a bunch of people? Any thoughts?
Watch out for the potholes.
Yesterday, Blue Flame LP Gas came and filled up our propane tank. I would have to say the situation was infuriating. I have come to the conclusion that Blue Flame are crooks. This is the second time they have tried to screw me.
Let's teleport back to last year.
I needed my tank filled. It was in September, so gas rates were still cheap. I called and asked them to fill up my tank. They said it would be a 1.50something/gallon to fill it up. I said okay. For those unaware with heating one's house in the country by propane gas, there is a 500 lb. tank that is on lease (or that you own) from the gas company that you get filled. Then I thought that the price was outraeous. I called the locally ran competitor, Briceton, and asked them how much it would be. They said it would be 1.19/gallon. I called Blue Flame back and asked them to not fill my tank because Briceton said they could save me around $125. Blue Flame said they could match that price. I acquiesced and said okay.
However, I should've hopped out when I saw there true colors. I didn't.
Then yesterday, they came on their monthly route - something we signed up for last year but they have never done - and filled up our tanks. They put in 151.5 gallons at $1.96/gallon. That's a total of $297.14. Lindsay called me after she had received the bill. I was outraged. I called Briceton to find out what they are charging. It was $1.59/gallon. That would've been a total of $240.88, a saving of $57. So I called Blue Flame and politely asked if our bill could get lowered because Briceton is charging less. She put me on hold, apparently checked something, and then got back on and very rudely told me she wouldn't lower the bill. I politely asked her to take me off the delivery schedule. She very rudely told me that Briceton wasn't giving me their real numbers. I very politely told her thank you and goodbye.
According to the heating oil and propane update, the current price of propane is supposed to be around $1.70. They stink. It stinks even more because that site shows that wholesalers are getting the propane at .86 a gallon.
The moral of the story. Switch to Briceton at the quickest available opportunity. Hopefully, our tank will last the rest of the winter because those late winter rates get even more attrocious.
So this is my warning to everyone in the northwest Ohio area. Stay away from Blue Flame LP in Defiance, OH.
***
A Christian band is not allowed to play at an anti-drug assembly in nearby Toledo, OH.
I would almost have sympathy for the band except that one band member's father is on the school board and he didn't even stand up for them. We can have anything happen in a school as long as they don't speak the name of Jesus. It's silly. I don't expect the world to be any different. I would just love to live in a society that was different.
***
How is a leader a servant like Christ yet a visionary leader? I'm having a tough time reconciling the two in my head. I know he was, but we really don't have that thorough of a textbook on how it was worked out. He seemed to have alienated a lot of people. Do we need to lead in such a way that we alienate a bunch of people? Any thoughts?
Watch out for the potholes.
Beware of Microwave Popcorn
My dog loves popcorn. He snarfs it up whenever we have it. Isaac loves to throw it to him. However, when we have microwave popcorn he will not eat it. Should we eat what my dog won't even eat?
A Preventative Dose of Humility Goes a Long Way
Today I wrote the second point of my sermon. It is the first point I have written, so I still have to write the introduction, point 1, point 3, and the conclusion. This is obviously not the final draft. Anything you can add to make it better understood or correct some wrong thought would be greatly appreciated. And prayers for guidance are always appreciated.
***
Matthew 18:1-4
1 At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”2 He called a child, whom he put among them,3 and said, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.4 Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
We cannot be Christians without modeling the humility shown by Jesus, a humility that can, at times, seem almost unreal. But, obviously, it is real. We can see it in the lives of some of the great reformers of church history, in some of the quiet spiritual warriors in our church, and, most evidently, in the life of a newborn baby.
A newborn is a perfect example of humility. They totally depend upon others to feed them. They are completely vulnerable if they' aren't kept safe. There is not one ounce of self-reliance in them because they do not have the capability to be self-reliant.
Then they reach Isaac's age. Humility is, unfotunately, no longer their dominant trait. Independence, selfishness, and self-reliance are beginning to creep to dominance. They want to do everything on their own. He will try and try to tie his shoe lace or to stack his blocks in some gigantic structure, but he will usually - or in the case of the shoelaces, always - fail. But in Isaac humility doesn't always manifest itself when he fails, frustration sometimes does. Sometimes, he will become angry and tearful, yet he will still try to do it on his own. That boy will not give up. But once he reaches an emotional frenzy, he will never be able to do it no matter how much he tries. He has to give up and allow us to help him. When he does that, whatever he was trying to do gets done. And hopefully he learned a little more how to do it, so next time he can do it better or even completely on his own.
Humility is much easier to grasp a hold of when you are completely ignorant of how to do what you need to get done. For instance, some of you might know Brian Reinhart. He's a good friend of mine. And the summer before last he taught me how to do an oil change on my car. He was always gifted at mechanical things and I seemed to have missed the boat on that one. My attitude of submission to his knowledge made it real easy to learn. I accepted that he knew better than me, and there was no problem.
That's the way it usually works for most of us in areas where we don't know what to do. In areas that we think we know what to do, we are not as good of a student. Take for instance, folding towels - something that I have, luckily, been able to get out of lately. Back when we lived in Lansing and we were newly married, I wanted to fold the towels the way I had always folded the towels. It worked fine for me to fold them that way when I was single; I couldn't fathom why it couldn't work the same way when I was married. I wouldn't accept a new way. Lindsay would try to show me, and I would just get frustrated. I know. It's silly. Getting frustrated over folding towels. In my mind it all made sense at the moment. I knew how to fold towels, and I wasn't going to change. However, the way I folded them didn't allow them to fit well on the shelves in the closet. When they wouldn't fit in the closet, they had to be refolded. It was a frustrating experience (probably moreso for Lindsay) because I could never remember how to fold them and I probably never really tried. I still don't fold them "properly" to this day.
We oftentimes don't give our stresses, our problems, or our heartaches up to God until they become so severe that we can't exist with them any more. God will be faithful and help us in our time of severe need; however, that is not the plan he has for our life. He wants us to model the humility that Jesus showed and walk our lives humbly submitted to him, always. Never should we think we are so great as to do great things without him. And never should we think we are so strong as to go through the pits of life without him. He wants to be there every step of the way.
But humility is difficult. It is a constant battle with our selfish ambitions. Surrendering our goals, plans, and idea of independence doesn't come easily. But if we truly want to live life and experience it to the full - to taste the greatness that God has planned for us - then we must deny ourselves and daily, humbly submit to His will.
The Cross and Self-Denial - Matt 26:24-28
24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25 For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?
27 “For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done. 28 Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”
God's kingdom is here now (or else Jesus was a liar - and you can probably figure out where I stand on that one since I am up here saying we need to be more like Jesus), and we, the church, are a glimpse of that kingdom. But what picture of God's kingdom do we give to the world? What do the people of Antwerp think about God because of us? It all depends on if we are truly humbly submitting to God and his will or living in our own selfish ambitions. God wants us, along with every group of believers throughout the world, to be a group of people living together who show the world what it means to be the Kingdom of God. This can't happen if a spirit of humility is not exhibited among us. A genuine spirit of humility will guide us to follow the example of Jesus, humble ourselves, and take on the form of a slave to all of those around us. Picture Christ as yourself. Would your life be any different than it currently is? Would our our church be any different if each of us took seriously the call to humble ourselves and become a slave to our community?
Galatians 5:13-14
13 For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence,but through love become slaves to one another. 14 For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
This will lead into point 3.
Watch out for the potholes.
***
Matthew 18:1-4
1 At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”2 He called a child, whom he put among them,3 and said, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.4 Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
We cannot be Christians without modeling the humility shown by Jesus, a humility that can, at times, seem almost unreal. But, obviously, it is real. We can see it in the lives of some of the great reformers of church history, in some of the quiet spiritual warriors in our church, and, most evidently, in the life of a newborn baby.
A newborn is a perfect example of humility. They totally depend upon others to feed them. They are completely vulnerable if they' aren't kept safe. There is not one ounce of self-reliance in them because they do not have the capability to be self-reliant.
Then they reach Isaac's age. Humility is, unfotunately, no longer their dominant trait. Independence, selfishness, and self-reliance are beginning to creep to dominance. They want to do everything on their own. He will try and try to tie his shoe lace or to stack his blocks in some gigantic structure, but he will usually - or in the case of the shoelaces, always - fail. But in Isaac humility doesn't always manifest itself when he fails, frustration sometimes does. Sometimes, he will become angry and tearful, yet he will still try to do it on his own. That boy will not give up. But once he reaches an emotional frenzy, he will never be able to do it no matter how much he tries. He has to give up and allow us to help him. When he does that, whatever he was trying to do gets done. And hopefully he learned a little more how to do it, so next time he can do it better or even completely on his own.
Humility is much easier to grasp a hold of when you are completely ignorant of how to do what you need to get done. For instance, some of you might know Brian Reinhart. He's a good friend of mine. And the summer before last he taught me how to do an oil change on my car. He was always gifted at mechanical things and I seemed to have missed the boat on that one. My attitude of submission to his knowledge made it real easy to learn. I accepted that he knew better than me, and there was no problem.
That's the way it usually works for most of us in areas where we don't know what to do. In areas that we think we know what to do, we are not as good of a student. Take for instance, folding towels - something that I have, luckily, been able to get out of lately. Back when we lived in Lansing and we were newly married, I wanted to fold the towels the way I had always folded the towels. It worked fine for me to fold them that way when I was single; I couldn't fathom why it couldn't work the same way when I was married. I wouldn't accept a new way. Lindsay would try to show me, and I would just get frustrated. I know. It's silly. Getting frustrated over folding towels. In my mind it all made sense at the moment. I knew how to fold towels, and I wasn't going to change. However, the way I folded them didn't allow them to fit well on the shelves in the closet. When they wouldn't fit in the closet, they had to be refolded. It was a frustrating experience (probably moreso for Lindsay) because I could never remember how to fold them and I probably never really tried. I still don't fold them "properly" to this day.
We oftentimes don't give our stresses, our problems, or our heartaches up to God until they become so severe that we can't exist with them any more. God will be faithful and help us in our time of severe need; however, that is not the plan he has for our life. He wants us to model the humility that Jesus showed and walk our lives humbly submitted to him, always. Never should we think we are so great as to do great things without him. And never should we think we are so strong as to go through the pits of life without him. He wants to be there every step of the way.
But humility is difficult. It is a constant battle with our selfish ambitions. Surrendering our goals, plans, and idea of independence doesn't come easily. But if we truly want to live life and experience it to the full - to taste the greatness that God has planned for us - then we must deny ourselves and daily, humbly submit to His will.
The Cross and Self-Denial - Matt 26:24-28
24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25 For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?
27 “For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done. 28 Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”
God's kingdom is here now (or else Jesus was a liar - and you can probably figure out where I stand on that one since I am up here saying we need to be more like Jesus), and we, the church, are a glimpse of that kingdom. But what picture of God's kingdom do we give to the world? What do the people of Antwerp think about God because of us? It all depends on if we are truly humbly submitting to God and his will or living in our own selfish ambitions. God wants us, along with every group of believers throughout the world, to be a group of people living together who show the world what it means to be the Kingdom of God. This can't happen if a spirit of humility is not exhibited among us. A genuine spirit of humility will guide us to follow the example of Jesus, humble ourselves, and take on the form of a slave to all of those around us. Picture Christ as yourself. Would your life be any different than it currently is? Would our our church be any different if each of us took seriously the call to humble ourselves and become a slave to our community?
Galatians 5:13-14
13 For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence,but through love become slaves to one another. 14 For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
This will lead into point 3.
Watch out for the potholes.
Humility, Christmas, and The Gift
I'm working on the sermon I will be giving the day after Christmas. Here is the outline I have so far. I'm looking for great and appropriate illustrations on humility. If you know of any, please feel free to share. I can't believe how hard they are to come up with. Due to its lack of examples in our entertainment, I have come to the conclusion that humility is one of the Biblical principles that our culture frowns upon. I might talk about other things in the next week, but until I get this sermon done this subject will be foremost on my mind.
Point 1: Christ humbled himself allowing us to be forgiven. Now that is a great Christmas gift!
Phillipians 2:1-11
1 If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy,2 make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves.4 Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.5 Let the same mind be in you that wasa{a Or that you have} in Christ Jesus,
6 who, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
as something to be exploited,
7 but emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
8 he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death—
even death on a cross.
9 Therefore God also highly exalted him
and gave him the name
that is above every name,
10 so that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
Question: Do you think this quote is too long to share in my sermon? I think it explains humility better than I could.
C.S. Lewis wrote in Miracles:
Matthew 18:1-4
1 At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”2 He called a child, whom he put among them,3 and said, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.4 Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
The Cross and Self-Denial - Matt 26:24-28
(also in Mk 8.34—9.1; Lk 9.23—27)
24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25 For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?
27 “For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done. 28 Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”
Point 3: We allow Christ's love and example to be shown to the world when we become humble servants
Matt 5:14-16
14 “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. 15 No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.
Dr. J. H. Jowett has said, “Ministry that costs nothing accomplishes nothing.”
Point 4: Our reward is great when we truly follow Christ. (I might not include a point 4.)
The Request of the Mother of James and John
(Mk 10.35—45)
20 Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to him with her sons, and kneeling before him, she asked a favor of him. 21 And he said to her, “What do you want?” She said to him, “Declare that these two sons of mine will sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom.” 22 But Jesus answered, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?”g{g Other ancient authorities add or to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?} They said to him, “We are able.” 23 He said to them, “You will indeed drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left, this is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.”
24 When the ten heard it, they were angry with the two brothers. 25 But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. 26 It will not be so among you; but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave; 28 just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”
Watch out for the potholes.
Point 1: Christ humbled himself allowing us to be forgiven. Now that is a great Christmas gift!
Phillipians 2:1-11
1 If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy,2 make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves.4 Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.5 Let the same mind be in you that wasa{a Or that you have} in Christ Jesus,
6 who, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
as something to be exploited,
7 but emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
8 he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death—
even death on a cross.
9 Therefore God also highly exalted him
and gave him the name
that is above every name,
10 so that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
Question: Do you think this quote is too long to share in my sermon? I think it explains humility better than I could.
C.S. Lewis wrote in Miracles:
"In the Christian story God descends to re-ascend. He comes down; down from the heights of absolute being into time and space, down into humanity ... down to the very roots and sea-bed of the Nature He has created.Point 2: Our acceptance of Christ's gift begins with our following his example of humility."But He goes down to come up again and bring the ruined world up with Him. One has the picture of a strong man stooping lower and lower to get himself underneath some great complicated burden. He must stoop in order to lift, he must almost disappear under the load before he incredibly straightens his back and marches off with the whole mass swaying on his shoulders.
"Or one may think of a diver, first reducing himself to nakedness, then glancing in mid-air, then gone with a splash, vanished, rushing down through green and warm water into black and cold water, down through increasing pressure into the death-like region of ooze and slime and old decay; then up again, back to colour and light, his lungs almost bursting, till suddenly he breaks surface again, holding in his hand the dripping, precious thing that he went down to recover. He and it are both coloured now that they have come up into the light: down below, where it lay colourless in the dark, he lost his colour, too.
"In this descent and re-ascent everyone will recognise a familiar pattern: a thing written all over the world. It is the pattern of all vegetable life. It must belittle itself into something hard, small and deathlike, it must fall into the ground: thence the new life re-ascends.
"It is the pattern of all animal generation too. There is descent from the full and perfect organisms into the spermatozoon and ovum, and in the dark womb a life at first inferior in kind to that of the species which is being reproduced: then the slow ascent to the perfect embryo, to the living, conscious baby, and finally to the adult.
"So it is also in our moral and emotional life. The first innocent and spontaneous desires have to submit to the deathlike process of control or total denial: but from that there is a re-ascent to fully formed character in which the strength of the original material all operates but in a new way. Death and Rebirth--go down to go up--it is a key principle. Through this bottleneck, this belittlement, the highroad nearly always lies"
Matthew 18:1-4
1 At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”2 He called a child, whom he put among them,3 and said, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.4 Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
The Cross and Self-Denial - Matt 26:24-28
(also in Mk 8.34—9.1; Lk 9.23—27)
24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25 For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?
27 “For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done. 28 Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”
Point 3: We allow Christ's love and example to be shown to the world when we become humble servants
Matt 5:14-16
14 “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. 15 No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.
Dr. J. H. Jowett has said, “Ministry that costs nothing accomplishes nothing.”
Point 4: Our reward is great when we truly follow Christ. (I might not include a point 4.)
The Request of the Mother of James and John
(Mk 10.35—45)
20 Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to him with her sons, and kneeling before him, she asked a favor of him. 21 And he said to her, “What do you want?” She said to him, “Declare that these two sons of mine will sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom.” 22 But Jesus answered, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?”g{g Other ancient authorities add or to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?} They said to him, “We are able.” 23 He said to them, “You will indeed drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left, this is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.”
24 When the ten heard it, they were angry with the two brothers. 25 But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. 26 It will not be so among you; but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave; 28 just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”
Watch out for the potholes.
Thoughts Concerning Last Weeks Discussions
I guess I'll jump in on the discussions that happened after my posts last week.
I think everyone in this discussion would agree on this one. I just think everything gets lost in the wording, comes from different perspectives, emphasizes one thing more than the other.
God focuses on what we can do for him. It's true that he empowers us and what we do isn't by our own strength, but he doesn't empower us to sit around and be happy that we are right with God; he empowers us to do things to bring him glory. We shouldn't ever be prideful about what we do, but we also shouldn't be ashamed of doing. The things we do are never enough to make us right with him, but he does expect us to do good works to bring him glory.
"Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven."
And on the counseling discussion.
I think that many people don't want a quick answer to their problems. I could easily show someone in general principles what God wants them to do with their life and how to fix their problems. I would pray with them for strength and specific guidance. Many people that go to counseling don't want that. They want to feel good and have their life the same way they have it now. A lot of problems could be fixed by a lifestyle change. I really don't want to waste my time on those people as a pastor, but I do want them to feel loved. Some people enjoy giving empathy. I'm not one of them. The sponges who would suck me dry can go to them. People that have a need that can be resolved in one or two sessions can come to me or other qualified people in the church. I don't feel a pastor should have a monopoly on couseling or any other task that a church does.
And on the all-sufficiency of the Bible.
I think I have an unpopular belief here because I don't think the Bible provides answers for everything in our life, but when we get down to it I think we just disagree on semantics. Principles are outlined in Scripture; however, many good and honest Christians disagree on how to live out the various principles. We've had this discussion before, and we'll probably have it again. God gave us the Holy Spirit to guide us in how to apply the principles. If not, then I don't understand the role of the Holy Spirit. If the Bible is all-sufficient, we should all just be Bible scholars in order to know God's will for our lives. I don't think that is the case.
For instance, what vocation God wants me to do isn't outlined in Scripture. Principles are, but specifics for my life aren't. Some vocations are shown to be off limits, but the specific vocation for my life is not there. How about another example? It is not outlined in Scripture how a Christian should act in a democracy. Should we force the pagans to adhere to our morals or should we be tolerant with the immorality of pagans? That isn't outlined in Scripture either.
I think everyone in this discussion would agree on this one. I just think everything gets lost in the wording, comes from different perspectives, emphasizes one thing more than the other.
God focuses on what we can do for him. It's true that he empowers us and what we do isn't by our own strength, but he doesn't empower us to sit around and be happy that we are right with God; he empowers us to do things to bring him glory. We shouldn't ever be prideful about what we do, but we also shouldn't be ashamed of doing. The things we do are never enough to make us right with him, but he does expect us to do good works to bring him glory.
"Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven."
And on the counseling discussion.
I think that many people don't want a quick answer to their problems. I could easily show someone in general principles what God wants them to do with their life and how to fix their problems. I would pray with them for strength and specific guidance. Many people that go to counseling don't want that. They want to feel good and have their life the same way they have it now. A lot of problems could be fixed by a lifestyle change. I really don't want to waste my time on those people as a pastor, but I do want them to feel loved. Some people enjoy giving empathy. I'm not one of them. The sponges who would suck me dry can go to them. People that have a need that can be resolved in one or two sessions can come to me or other qualified people in the church. I don't feel a pastor should have a monopoly on couseling or any other task that a church does.
And on the all-sufficiency of the Bible.
I think I have an unpopular belief here because I don't think the Bible provides answers for everything in our life, but when we get down to it I think we just disagree on semantics. Principles are outlined in Scripture; however, many good and honest Christians disagree on how to live out the various principles. We've had this discussion before, and we'll probably have it again. God gave us the Holy Spirit to guide us in how to apply the principles. If not, then I don't understand the role of the Holy Spirit. If the Bible is all-sufficient, we should all just be Bible scholars in order to know God's will for our lives. I don't think that is the case.
For instance, what vocation God wants me to do isn't outlined in Scripture. Principles are, but specifics for my life aren't. Some vocations are shown to be off limits, but the specific vocation for my life is not there. How about another example? It is not outlined in Scripture how a Christian should act in a democracy. Should we force the pagans to adhere to our morals or should we be tolerant with the immorality of pagans? That isn't outlined in Scripture either.
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