To My Christian Friends, Do You Really Want To Follow Jesus?

Do you really want to follow Jesus?

The American church has made it too easy for too long to pretend that we're follow Jesus. We have turned following Jesus into something similar to choosing your favorite sports team or television show. It's something you can decide to do and then put into one small compartment of your life. Even in doing that we've got it all wrong because, unfortunately, most sports fans and fans of specific shows are more passionate about their team or their show than they are about following Jesus.

Because of this, we have the church in America (and in a way our local church) in the state that it is in.

Which is a state much different than the state of the early church. When I read about the early church, I can't help but ask, "Why don't we have this?"

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.  And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.  And all who believed were together and had all things in common.  And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts,  praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. (Acts 2:42-47 ESV).

This is what I want to experience. This is the church I want to be part of. This is why I went to college and trained to be a minister. This is why I come here week in and week out, trying to convince you all of the things I preach up and try to motivate you to live them out. This is why I serve. Maybe it's the reason you are part of a church. But why don't we have this?

People coming to the Lord. People sacrificing to meet each other's needs. People passionately studying and praying together. People having real community. This is the type of church that God blessed.

But somewhere along the way, the church has lost this. So I ask again, "Why don't we have this?"

I'm pretty sure that God wants it. He's not the weak link. He's done what is needed to make this happen. He died on the cross, rose again, came as the Holy Spirit, established the Church, gave us the written word, and dwells within us. He is doing what He should be doing. He doesn't need me to encourage Him to do what He should be doing. We are the weak link. And this article, I don't need to convince God to do His part. He's done that. I need to convince us to be determined to pursue the life God is calling us to no matter what the obstacles. We must to be determined and willing to seek and do God's will.

Do you really want to follow Jesus?

Right before the church boomed and arrived as we just read, we see the arrival of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. And we hear Peter's message to the people of that time. He tries to convince them to believe in Jesus.

At the end of His message, he states:

"Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified" (Acts 2:36 ESV).

The answer to why we don't have the early church that we read about earlier - something that should come about naturally when a group of people are in tune with God - is because we don't really believe that Jesus is both Lord and Christ.

We're quick to accept that He is "Christ." That word can also be translated "The anointed One", or "Messiah." This is the fun word. In using this word, we recognize that Jesus was the king who the Jews of the Old Testament times were waiting for. It's easy to accept and believe that Jesus is the Christ because it really makes no demands on our life. It's the good part. He's bringing about God's will. He took away our sin. He was the long-awaited savior of the world. Good. Good. Easy.

But we're not so quick to accept that He is Lord. Oh, we may state it, but we struggle to live it. The word translated "Lord" here literally means being the owner of something. When we call Jesus "Lord", we are renouncing our freedom and claiming to live for Him. We are giving up our will and desires and saying that we want to have the will and desire of Jesus. Do we really want to surrender our goals and desires and live for His goals and desires? Is Jesus really our Lord? Do you really want to follow Jesus?

Francis Chan wrote,

"Most of us use 'I'm waiting for God to reveal His calling on my life' as a means of avoiding action. Did you hear God calling you to sit in front of the television yesterday? Or to go on your last vacation? Or exercise this morning? Probably not, but you still did it. The point isn't that vacations or exercise are wrong, but that we are quick to rationalize our entertainment and priorities yet are slow to commit to serving God." (169 in Crazy Love)

A while back, we did the First Fruits challenge and focused on giving God our first fruits for two weeks. If that was the first time that you did them, I hope that you have continued. I can tell you that these are things that God wants from your life. Prayer in the morning, giving your day to him, giving him the first of your earnings, encouraging others, and sacrifice your own desires to do His will. If you aren't even able to do these types of things, then you really need to ask yourself, "Am I really following Jesus?"

We like to skip ahead and not even do these minimal things yet expect God to guide us in less clear things, which He will, and give us eternal life. But here's the secret. He will do those things after you have given Him your life and made Him both Lord and Messiah of your life. We must remember that guidance, blessings, and eternal life aren't the goal; they're side effects of the life committed to Jesus as Lord and Messiah.

We turn making Jesus Lord and Messiah into something like agreeing to terms of service before installing some software we want to use. Of course we agree to the terms of service because we want to use the software. And of course we agree to Jesus being Messiah and Lord because we want the blessings of being His followers. We want guidance, protection, and eternal life. Yet we want the blessings of being His follower without actually being His follower.

Jesus shared a parable,

 What do you think? A man had two sons.

And he went to the first and said, "Son, go and work in the vineyard today." 

And he answered, ‘"I will not," but afterward he changed his mind and went. 

And he went to the other son and said the same. And he answered, "I go, sir," but did not go. 

Which of the two did the will of his father?

They said, “The first.”

Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you.  For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. And even when you saw it, you did not afterward change your minds and believe him. (Matthew 21:28-32 ESV).

Even after they saw it, they didn't change their minds and believe.

Think of it like my kids cleaning their room. Imagine, for some reason, my wife and I were  going to leave the house for two hours and rounded up our children and told them to clean their rooms. A few of the children said they would. The others said they wouldn't. Not that our kids would be allowed to say they wouldn't, but imagine we allowed them this time. - Now you may be thinking, "You let your kids say 'no' to you?" I don't. They know better than that. But the strange thing is that we turn around and say no to God all the time. - Anyway, we leave the house after giving our kids an assignment to clean, go do what we had to do, and come back.

To our surprise the kids that said "no, we're not cleaning our rooms" were in their rooms finishing up cleaning, while the kids that said "yes, we will gladly clean" never picked up a thing and played video games and watched the television the whole time.

Who were the kids that did what I wanted them to do? The ones who told me what I wanted to hear? Or the ones who actually did what I wanted done?

Too often, we're like the disobedient kids who say "yes" but then turn around and just entertain ourselves instead of following God. God doesn't want lip service. He wants changed lives and action. And changed lives are the naturally occurring results of really believing that Jesus is both Lord and Christ. Do you really want to follow Jesus?

Let's zoom back to the beginning of the early church again. We left off with seeing the end result. An incredible church where people gathered together to pray, shared what they had in common, had true friendships in the Lord, spent studying the word together, and saw greats signs and miracles. We saw this occurred after Peter taught them that Jesus was both Lord and Christ.

So how did they respond to that teaching. The story continues:
"Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, 'Brothers, what shall we do?'" (Acts 2:37 ESV).

Jesus is both Lord and Christ, and we should have the same question. What do we do? Notice "do". "Doing" naturally follows believing.

I want to read Peter's reply to the "What shall we do" question.

And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.”  So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls. (Acts 2:38-41 ESV).

Repent and be baptized. This promise of forgiveness and the gift of the Holy Spirit was a promise to the and fro all those who are far off. It's a promise for us nearly two thousand years later. What should you do once you believe that Jesus is the Lord and Messiah? Just repent and be baptized.

Baptism is relatively easy. It's kind of like the "Lord and Christ" scenario mentioned earlier. You can choose today to be baptized and it will be done. It's similar to stating Jesus is Christ. It's the fun part. People celebrate it and throw parties. It's a big step, but an easy action. One time and it's done. So if baptism is an action you need to do, find a church to help you take that step.

Repentance, at least living a life of continual repentance, is much more difficult. Repentance means change. It means turning and heading toward God. It really implies, in the context of this passage, to stop making anything other than Jesus the Lord of your life.

Are you repenting? Have you been baptized?

Do you really want to follow Jesus?

Repenting is big. Unlike baptism being a one-time event, repenting has to be something we do for a lifetime. I would much rather have a church full of people who have repented and trying to live a repented life than a church filled with the baptized yet not repented. The first can be worked with. They're willing to grow. They latter are dead and they don't even know it. It's like they died in the waters of baptism and didn't rise to live in a new life.

Repenting means turning away from all the things our culture mistakenly thinks is valuable and turning toward God. Repent and head toward God. Oh, there may still be room for sports and entertainment in your life after becoming a follower of Jesus, but they will take a new place in your priorities. They will no longer be the goal. They will no longer be what we think can bring us happiness. Instead, they will be used toward reaching the real goal of glorifying God.

Francis Chan wrote,

"There is another path, an alternative to the individualism, selfishness, and materialism of the American Dream (even the so-called Christian version)."

Are we living that life? Or have we bought into the individualism, selfishness, and materialism of the culture around us?

The harsh reality is that we don't want to be found straying when Jesus returns. We don't want to be found lost when our time comes. Our lives are fragile. The longer I live the more tragedies that I see where people are unexpectedly gone in the blinking of an eye. Not all of us will die of cancer and have time to put our relationships, emotional state, and spiritual beliefs in order. Paul wrote in Romans, "Each of us will give an account of himself to God" (Romans 14:12 ESV).

What do I want to be doing when Christ comes back or my time here on this earth is over? Am I living that life now? Am I living the life that Jesus wants me to live? Do I really want to follow Jesus?

I worship a Savior who was beaten up and killed for me. He didn't come riding on a horse, a tactical missile, or a drone and take over the world. He came in love, eventually bearing a cross that He was nailed to. If you are willing to surrender yourself to Him and His mission to love others...If you want to be part of a group of people doing the same, then following Jesus and getting involved in a church should be just the thing for you.

In the New Testament we are never called to mimic God's justice; we're called to mimic His love. He reminds us that vengeance is His, not ours. We're called to love our neighbor, enemy, and everyone else. Even when it is not convenient, cultural, or safe.

We, the church - you and me - people in relationship with Jesus and each other - not a building - we, the church are striving to be the people God wants us to be, loving the world the way God wants us to love it.

Are we really doing that? Or do we just say it? Are we striving to be the people God wants us to be, or do we just want to do enough to "get saved?" Are we loving the world the way God wants us to love it, or are we just loving it when it is convenient to us, fits nicely into our schedule, and doesn't really cost us anything?

Last week, I was blessed with the opportunity to be the middleman in delivering a $1000 anonymous gift. God had laid it on another person's heart to give a certain family that money. They were faithful and did it. So I was able to deliver a great gift, a tremendous blessing, at really no cost to myself.

And I enjoyed being used to do that.

Then it struck me. Everything I do is like that. God has given me everything; it's all a blessing from Him. One of the greatest lies that we buy into as Americans is that we actually deserve this. We deserve to wake up every morning and have food available unlike others around the world. We deserve to be in a loving family unlike others around us. We deserve to have all the excess entertainment options we enjoy unlike those less fortunate. We deserve to have a safe home. We deserve this and we deserve that. Because we work hard. Because we're smart. Because of this or that.

But it's all a lie. We don't deserve it.

It's by God's grace. Don't get me wrong. I think we can create fair and just systems that help accommodate His blessing. We can live lives that God's grace can more easily flow into. But we have become prideful. We think we deserve God's blessings because of how great we are. And we don't.

That's the nature grace. It isn't something deserved. All our blessings, We don't deserve them. When we think we are deserving, then we fail to see all the love being poured into us.

We're coasting on the fumes of the faithful who have come before us. If we don't turn back to God soon, those fumes will run out. We'll sputter to a stop and find ourselves left on the side of the road of life - hungry, weak, without a family, without all the entertainment. All the blessings that our prideful selves have taken for granted will be taken from us. But the good truth is that you don't need to hit rock bottom to turn and respond to God's grace.

Instead of building up pride, God's grace should inspire selflessness, service, faithfulness. His grace should inspire in us a desire to draw as close to Him as we possibly can. It should inspire us to work toward His vision of living that we each have been called to. We should start (or continue if you are already) feeding the hungry, loving those who can't give back, helping the poorest of the world, giving unconditionally - repenting from the priorities of this world and turning to God.

We truly love God and live for Him when we love others. Love, in this case, isn't some emotional, fuzzy sort of thing. You can tell a needy person that you love Him and not help Him, but you can't trick God that way. He knows your heart, and He knows your actions. He says that if you love the needy person, then you should help her. If you care for the hungry, then feed him. If you love the homeless, then house them. He says that in doing those things, you are loving Him.

It doesn't matter how emotional you get when you worship God, whether you're spinning around in a wheat field with your arms raised, raising your hands in worship, or you imagine Him wrapping His arms around you in your quiet time. What matters is how you treat the least of these. Strangers. The hurt. The hopeless. That shows whether you truly love God and have made Jesus the Lord of your life.

Because all that we do to love others is like that opportunity I was given this week to be the middleman in giving an anonymous $1000. We don't earn what we are able to bless others with. It was given to us by God. It actually still is God's possession. And we must learn, if we claim to follow Jesus, to use the things that are His in a way that will bring Him glory.

Do you really want to follow Jesus?

God doesn't care about a commitment that you make here today; he cares about you going out and living it. But if there is a decision that you need to make today, now is the time. Every commitment must have a beginning. If you have something you feel you need to publicly confess, now is the time. If you want to take the step of baptism, now is the time. Did you once claim that Jesus was Lord but strayed and want to recommit, now is the time? If you feel led, please do not resist. Do it. We will all be blessed from it.

Do you really want to follow Jesus?

Sharing the Gospel is Surrendering our Life

There is a pendulum swing in Christianity. For so long, the church has focused solely on words. Following Jesus, in this paradigm, was a belief statement to be believed. If you believe that Jesus is Christ, the son of the living God, repent and are baptized, then you are saved. So evangelism naturally focused on getting people to believe the right things in their head. Salvation, in that world, comes through having the proper beliefs and doctrine combined with a few religious practices, not through having a transformed life of love. A good evangelist would present the gospel to people through sharing it and asking them if they accept it. It was about bringing them to a decision point. And if they accepted the belief statement proposed, we would baptize them. As a follower of Jesus, if you weren’t presenting it in such a way as to make the person come to a point of decision, then evangelism was not effective.

If you were with me at Hilsboro Family Camp this year, you would have seen the death throes of doctrine only. It seems like a session could not go by without one of the sermons being on us having correct doctrine as if correct doctrine alone mattered. If you were to preach a sermon on love and not mention proper doctrine, then you were doing a disservice to the gospel according to the preachers of doctrine only. But in that world, it is okay to preach a sermon on doctrine and not mention love. Oh, how they must hate the teachings of Jesus in the gospels. He preached on love many times without mentioning doctrine.

Now, we are seeing a shift to not using words but just being loving. This is just as much of an error as the previous error. It’s the pendulum swinging back and forth. In this model, people just do loving actions with no intention of sharing the gospel because what people believe is fine for each person. We should not meddle in people’s beliefs.

It’s like someone watch one too many Star Trek episodes and has taken the Prime Directive, “Nothing within these articles of Federation shall authorize the United Federation of Planets to intervene in matters which are essentially the domestic jurisdiction of any planetary social system, or shall require the members to submit such matters to settlement under these Articles of Federation; But this principle shall not prejudice the application of enforcement measures under Chapter VII”, too seriously.

The happy, or should I say difficult, middle is where we need to be. We need to love people and also look for opportunities to share the verbal message of the gospel, but we realize that Jesus’ love, like the color blue, cannot be described through just words; it is best exhibited through our loving actions. This most often comes about through natural Christ-filled living among friends, co-workers, and family members. We need to broaden our natural sphere of relationships, whether through nurturing hobbies we do with other people or joining clubs or groups, in order to have more people we come into contact with.

And we need to create ministries within our churches that will allow us to show God’s love to people outside of our normal sphere of relationships. I think we are doing a good job, but we’re only beginning. Being a Christian is living with two, on the surface contradictory, beliefs. We understand that we are fallen sinners yet we realize the potential that God has designed us for. We live in grace when our fallen nature wins out, but we strive toward perfection.

Sharing the gospel is about surrendering our life, dying to our own will and desires, and living life the way Christ would have us live. It’s about letting Jesus live through us and reflecting Him for those around us to see. We need to live in such a way that when people see us, they really see Jesus.

The State of Our Heart is the Key to Salvation

Just a brief definition disclaimer before we begin. When I use the word "heart" I mean "heart" in the sense of the way it is used throughout the New Testament as the word kardios. The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament states the definition of heart as: "The heart is the center of the inner life of man and the source or seat of all the forces and functions of soul and spirit." In the LXX (Septuagint), kardios is the same word translated as heart oftentimes in the OT.

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I was one of those obsessive and immature guys who liked to know the status of my relationship with a girl or girls when I was dating growing up. I hankered for a tangible definition to something that was not really tangible. That temporary yet stated status gave me confidence and assurance.

We often take the same approach to salvation. I would like to have tangible salvation with a formula; however, it is the underlying heart that really matters - not outward actions or intellectual beliefs. Actions and beliefs can be revealing as to the state of one's heart, but just like the mean girlfriend from the past that ripped my heart in two, people can be fake and treat us like spectators at a performance. Some have this instinct to be fake so ingrained in them that artificiality spews from them without them ever realizing it. Only God can see behind the curtain and into the depths of our girlfriend's heart, and only God can see into depths of people's hearts when it comes to salvation.

There are many different proposed formulas for salvation: The four spiritual laws, the plan of salvation, some focus on just believing, or some other plan. The various formulas are scattered across the internet and are mostly based on Scripture.  All pick out Scriptures here and there to make their point. The formulas proposed are one of the most divisive areas in Christianity.

It doesn't matter what denominational or non-denominational background the teaching comes from, every formula seems to leave out elements that are linked with salvation in Scripture. The formulas also seem to emphasize one-time events. The focus is on getting saved rather than living saved. The formulas, which are the nature of formulas, exclude most if not all of continual aspects of salvation.

If you've said a prayer for salvation or been baptized, yet you ignore helping a neighbor, your one-time salvific event doesn't guarantee anything.  We have neglected what truly matters, and what matters are hearts being the home of the Holy Spirit. It is meaningless if you've completed all the steps in your formula and help your neighbors, yet your heart is not the home of the Holy Spirit. Its the depths of people's hearts that matter, and we cannot see past the surface into people's souls. We can't tell if our neighbor is saved. We have to have some sort of trust that people have transformed hearts when we consider them brothers and sisters based upon what they claim they are. It is impossible for us to examine the depths of anyone's heart.

I use the following example because it is the background I am familiar with. This logic could be applied to any steps of the various formulas that are spread throughout all the different formulas for salvation in Christianity. Many members of the Church of Christ/Christian Church have problems with accepting people as saved who have not been baptized. My question would be "Why did they ignore baptism?" If it was because of ignorance due to the fact that they were brought up in an environment that taught them it wasn't important, then salvation would not rely upon baptism but upon their heart, which they would show was in good standing when they decide to become baptized upon hearing that is what they should do. If it was because of stubbornness and disobedience to a teaching that they knew they should do, then we can almost be guaranteed that they are an individual that does not have a transformed heart.

This is all very reminiscent of what one of the founders of the Church of Christ said during the Rice-Campbell debate on on September 15, 1843. Alexander Campbell stated,

 "God is the judge of the world, therefore, judgment should be left to Him. It will require a Judge with infinite knowledge and wisdom to determine the fate of each individual on the basis of the opportunities for knowledge and the degree of ignorance, or of deliberate refusal to obey, or attempt to create and authorize the traditions of men in the place of the commands of God."

 Campbell echoes Paul in his letter to the Romans:

For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.
Romans 2:14-16 (ESV)

Many American Christians are in the group of ignorance rather than the group of rebellion. Most are not Bible scholars and have not studied Scripture like an educated believer, nor do they come from backgrounds that teach that laymen should. Churches from all branches of Christianity, even the Church of Christ, are guilty of this. Does that mean the apathetic studiers are not saved? Could an apathetic studier still have a transformed heart?

Even if someone has followed their church's formula for salvation to the letter, it doesn't mean they have a transformed heart. Back to my upbringing for instance. It could mean they grew up in a church that emphasized baptism and they did not want to be outcasts or disappoint their family. Baptism, without a transformed heart, is irrelevant and sacrilegious; however, a transformed heart is relevant even without the steps in a specific formula because a person with a transformed heart will do the steps in the formula once it is revealed to them to do so. They have a heart that is focused on following God. The process of their salvation has begun. It is this transformed heart that becomes home to the Holy Spirit that matters: All intellectual beliefs and physical actions are meaningless without that transformed heart.

I've beaten this to death, but there isn't a formula or a prescription for salvation. We cannot measure when salvation begins in other people. I wish it was all so clear as to be biblically prescribed, that we can complete a checklist and be saved. It seems to be that way to many people; it isn't that way to me and many others in Christendom. I'm sure taking this stance will make me evil in some eyes, but I believe our difference in opinion is because I have a different approach when it comes to studying the Bible, not because I don't believe the Bible has authority. My theory that the transformed heart is the key to salvation leaves room for disagreements on methods of studying Scripture because an intellectual pursuit such as how to study the Bible is in no way a measure of one's salvation.

We do not know the exact time of salvation because the heart is a nebulous thing, but we do know that salvation is not always linked to an outward action or a belief statement. It is linked to a change of one's heart. This change of one's heart will bring about proper beliefs, which will result in proper actions; however, proper beliefs and/or proper actions are meaningless without the change of heart. Proper beliefs and actions don't happen overnight. I don't even know if the process of us having proper beliefs and actions will happen on this side of the grave. Our complete transformation is a process, a process that begins with our heart becoming the home of the Holy Spirit.

A surrendered heart that is the home of the Holy Spirit cannot be separated from proper beliefs and actions. This concept seems to lend a stronger credence to baptism and all of the other key actions of the salvation formulas. A kingdom heart will do all of the actions God desires of it. To Focus on having a person live out the actions of a kingdom heart is fruitless until their heart is inhabited by the Spirit.

There seems to be various gateways to the Spirit inhabiting one's heart, which I equate with the beginning of kingdom living. It can happen at baptism, laying on of hands, upon hearing the Gospel, upon believing the Gospel, and at various other times - the Holy Spirit coming into a person's life and taking over cannot be kept in a neat, little salvific box, nor does it really benefit us to argue about that particular point at which a person begins kingdom living. The key is that the beginning is just that, a beginning. It is not something to get overly hung up on. At the point when one's heart is inhabited with the Holy Spirit and sealed for salvation, one's thoughts and actions will begin to align itself with God's perfect will. Having one's heart changed is the beginning of a process, not the arrival of perfection. Everything we do from that point on should be done to help us perfect our thoughts and actions as our heart was perfected.

This makes sense of our struggle with being saved yet continuing to sin. Our heart, the seat of all the functions of our soul and spirit, has been sanctified, yet our thoughts and actions are still out of tune with our sanctified heart. This doesn't give us an excuse to sin; it just assures us that when we catch ourselves sinning, our salvation is still secure. Our thoughts and actions still cling to the fallen nature of our self while God is trying to redeem our whole being and all of his creation, not just the heart where he started.

This leads me to ask, "How do I change my heart?" And the answer seems to be, "I cannot." We must stand on the truth that we are completely saved by grace. I would argue that at the sound of the gospel, whether that arrives through the voice of a person or an echo of God in nature, everyone's heart is knocked upon by the Holy Spirit. He wants to come into our heart and begin to change our life. We might give intellectual consent before allowing the Holy Spirit in, or our heart might be craving it without our intellect knowing. Sadly, some hearts will resist. I do not know the formula of how to have an open heart to God's Spirit, but all of the formulas provide physical and intellectual things we can do to help that process if it hasn't already occurred. But how we have an open heart is one of the great mysteries of Christianity. Opening up our heart isn't something we can manipulate; it is something that has to be a desire at the core of our being.

'This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds,' he also adds, 'I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.' Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin (Hebrews 10:16-18).

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Here is a list of some of the verses that inspired these thoughts:

"I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am the one who searches minds and hearts, and I will give to each of you as your works deserve." (Rev 2:23)

Acts 1:24 - "Then they prayed and said, 'Lord you know everyone's heart. Show us which one of these two you have chosen..."

Acts 15:8 - "And God, who knows the human heart, testified to them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us..."

Luke 16:15 - "So he said to them (the Pharisees), 'You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of others; but God knows your hearts; for what is prized by human beings is an abomination in the sight of God."

Romans 8:27 - "And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God."

Galatians 4:6 - "And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his son into our hearts, cring, 'Abba! Father!'"

The heart appears to be the home of the Spirit in us.

1 Thessalonians 2:4 - "Just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the message of the gospel, even so we speak, not to please mortals, but to please God who tests our hearts."

Romans 5:5 - "Hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us."

2 Corinthians 1:21-22 - "It is God who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us, by putting his seal on us and giving us his Spirit in our hearts as a first installment." This is a very similar passage to Ephesians 1:13-14 - "In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked wit the seal of the promised Holy SPirit; this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God's own people, to the praise of his glory."

2 Corinthians 3:3 - You show that you are a letter of Chirst, prepared by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tables of human hearts."

2 Corinthians 4:6 - "For it is the God who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."

Acts 16:14 - "A certain woman named Lydia, a worshiper of God, was listening to us; she was from the city of Thyatira and a dealer in purple cloth. The Lord opened her heart to listen eagerly to what was said by Paul."

Hebrews 10:21-22 - "Since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water."

Romans 10:9-10 - "If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved." Paul doesn't just write "believe" but "believes with the heart" and "believe in your heart". It is much deeper than just intellectual assent.

1 Corinthians 14:25 - "After the secrets of the unbeliever's heart are disclosed, that person will bow down before God and worship him, declaring, 'God is really among you'."

Castles Made of Sand

Jimi Hendrix wrote, “Castles made of sand melt into the sea, eventually.”

The other day I was spending some productive time watching sand castles being destroyed on YouTube. I found a lot that showed vandals destroying other people’s sand castles. I found some of people destroying their own sand castles, but the real neat ones were those where you could watch sand castles being destroyed by the rising tide. Watching a sand castle meet its inevitable fate from nature is a great reminder, like the snow statues, that we can either be building for ourselves something that will not last or we can build for God something that will be eternal.

Amidst the mean people destroying other peoples sand castles, I found three neat ones. One is a group of vandals destroying an amazing sand castle. That one is just a neat sand castle to see. Another is an impressive castle that was built by a family in which one of the family members decided to record it being destroyed by rising and falling of the tide. The last is one built by two little kids and set to Jimi Hendrix’ Castles Made of Sand. I just liked it.

We’re either building our own kingdom or we are joining in on building God’s kingdom. God intends so much for our life. He wants us to be part of a community that will last well past each one of our lives. Jesus is the cornerstone and foundation for that great spiritual house, but God wants us to be involved in its construction. Peter wrote, “As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:4-5).

Paul wrote that we are to presents ourselves as a living sacrifice. We do that, by doing what Jesus taught; we are to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. What would our life look like if that is what we were really doing? What would our relationships be like? What would our free time be like? Are we being built into something that will last or are we just building our earthly kingdom, a kingdom that will rot, decay, and just melt away.

Castles made of sand melt into see eventually. We are just building sand castles if all we focus on is ourself rather than on His kingdom. Let’s not build sand castles; let’s build something that will last long past our death on the cornerstone of Jesus

Complete Surrender Versus Our Pharisaical Tendencies

Look at me! I am a SuperChristian. I pray. I fast. I read my Bible daily. I give more than my ten percent because of the missions I support. I am the authority on all matters of Scripture. I believe that there is one way to follow God. If you're in doubt of what that way is, just ask me. I'm generous and will gladly share some of my time to enlighten you. Even if you're not interested, I think I will take some time out to enlighten you. For I am SuperChristian!

None of us are as extreme as the fictitious SuperChristian, but we each have a tendency to be religious for the wrong reasons. Whether it is to show off our own spiritual progress or to control others, we sometimes morph our faith into a religion. It becomes even more destructive when a group of SuperChristians assemble to do church - rather than be church - for all the wrong reasons. Lives are ruined; faith is squashed; and seekers have their seeking extinguished.

If we have not completely surrendered our hearts to Christ – if we just go through a few religious rituals or even a lot of religious rituals, then we are no better than the Pharisees. The Pharisees, individuals from one of the religious groups of Jesus’ time, thought they would have been the people who would have listened to the prophets instead of killing them, but then they led the charge to kill Jesus, the prophet of their time. Like the Pharisees, we often think they we every “I” dotted and every “t” crossed; we have no need to be open to anything else because we have it all figured out.

But without humility and a complete surrender to Jesus, we are creating a religion that we like rather than submitting ourselves to Jesus and the Spirit to live out the faith that He wants. When it is about me and how great I am, I am tempted to be like the Pharisees. My selfish side wants to appear perfect and have the crowds follow me without really humbling myself and serving them. It wants to fast, give to my local church, support missions, pray, and read the Bible while making sure that everyone knows how well I do those spiritual practices. It wants to appear that I help people without really ever making a sacrifice. I have more than a little Pharisee in me. We all do if we are honest with ourselves.

The writers of the Gospels would not have spent so much time telling us about Jesus’ conflicts with the Pharisees if we all didn’t harbor a pharisaical tendency, the tendency to love religion or religious practices more than God Himself. But Jesus gave the answer to the problem, and that is humility. He warned us of this tendency. Our response should be to keep examining ourselves. Am I doing this religious act for God or for man’s glory? Am I truly seeking God and His Kingdom with my whole heart or am I seeking my kingdom and my will? Am I just going through religious motions or do I love God with my whole being? God does not want empty religious rituals; he wants every ounce of us.

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Woe to you who desire the day of the LORD! Why would you have the day of the LORD? It is darkness, and not light, as if a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him, or went into the house and leaned his hand against the wall, and a serpent bit him. Is not the day of the LORD darkness, and not light, and gloom with no brightness in it? “I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them. Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream [Amos 5:18-24 (ESV)].

Jesus said the same thing to the Pharisees, only He used more words.

“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.

“Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’ You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred? And you say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is bound by his oath.’ You blind men! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. And whoever swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it. And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, saying, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell? Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of innocent Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation [Matt 23:13-36 (ESV)]