Jesus loves messy people

I've been reading through 1 Corinthians 12 over the past few weeks.  As I've read I've tried to remember all the issues the Corinthian church was struggling with.  They were struggling with cliques and which leader they were following.  They wrestled with lawsuits among themselves.  They seemed to be plagued with sexual immorality.  They were neglecting the poor.  They were putting certain gifts and manifestations up on a pedestal.  You name it and it they seemed to struggle with it.  This was a messy church.  And, it's to this church, with all its issues that Paul writes, "Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it" (1 Corinthians 12:27).  I'm so glad that Paul didn't write that to a church that had it all together.  So is your church messy?  Are there cliques?  Do people have sexual struggles?  Are people divided?  Take heart.  You ARE the body of Christ.  Jesus seems to love redeeming and restoring messy people and shaping them into His image.  In fact, if a church isn't messy, I would argue that it's probably just good at masking its issues.  If we want to see real transformation, we need to love the church and all her mess.  We need to humbly come to Christ in repentance, seeking the transformation that only He can do in our hearts.  My prayer is that you are encouraged today as you seek to love Christ's messy bride.    

if you love me you will love the church

I was reminded again this past Sunday how blessed our church is in so many ways.  One of those ways is musically.  I was preaching on the how we are each indispensable parts of Christ's body, gifted and empowered by the Holy Spirit to build the church up.  In other words we are gifted for the sake of others.  We are called to love and serve the church.  As I finished our musicians began playing a song that I didn't recognize about loving the church.  It turned out to be a song by Derek Webb called "The Church."  It was the chorus that kept ringing in my head and then my heart.  It says, "Cause I haven't come for only you, but for my people to pursue, you cannot care for me with no regard for her.  If you love me you will love the church."  Why bother with church?  Quite simply because Jesus loves the church.  Is she messy?  Absolutely.  Will she drive us crazy at times?  Probably.  Is it hard to love the church?  It can be at times.  Should we give up?  Not as long as Jesus continues to love and care for and call his church to be His bride.   

They Gave to Anyone Who Had Need...

Acts 2:44-45 records these words "All the believers were together and had everything in common.  They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need" (TNIV).   One of the reasons I believe church is worth bothering with is the way the God works through his generous people to provide for people in need.  This morning I found myself on the receiving end.  I am blessed to have a small number of really good friends.  One of these friends is also a colleague in ministry.  We often call each other when we're frustrated, discouraged, or just need to vent.  So I call him every day and he calls me every other day :-) (kidding of course).  Anyway, we were enjoying a coffee this morning when during our conversation he slid an envelope across the table and told me that he and his wife wanted to bless me and Michelle by paying for new tires for our truck.  I can't describe the feeling.  We recently found out that we have to put a new roof on our house, the tires on Michelle's truck are really bald, and we didn't know how we were going to pay for everything.  I was pretty overwhelmed at my friend's generosity.  He shared how God put it on his heart to bless us with this, and that this was what the body of Christ is all about.  I am so grateful and this type of generosity is one of the reasons I believe church is worth bothering with.  We are a body.  We should be there for one another.  We should care for one another.  We should love one another.  We should help one another.  This morning I found myself being blessed by a great friend.  My hope is that we can all be a blessing to others as God empowers and enables us.       

Revealed Hearts

At times I find myself across the table from someone who is pouring their heart out and wondering, "Why would God allow this to happen to me?"  The situations and circumstances are different, but the question is the same, "If God really cared about me, why doesn't he make my life better?"  Everything in me wants to assure them that God really does care and that things will get better.  The truth is, sometimes they don't get better.  Sometimes they get worse.  This morning as I was reading the second and third chapters of Jeremiah, I found myself wondering how God must feel.  He tells Jeremiah, "This is what the Lord says: 'I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved me and followed me through the wilderness, through a land not sown...What fault did your ancestors find in me that they strayed so far from me?  They followed worthless idols and became worthless themselves."  (Jeremiah 2:2, 5T NIV).  I suppose God, if he chose to, could easily flip the same kinds of questions back on us.  Why do we stray?  Why do we forget God?  Why do we follow worthless idols?  Why do we pursue selfish gain?  Why do we forsake God for broken cisterns (Jeremiah 2:13)?   I don't envy Jeremiah.  He was charged with the task of revealing people's hearts.  Yet it's at these moments, when our hearts are revealed, that we really seek the change we need and find ourselves running to the arms of a God who says, "Return faithless people...for I am your husband.  I will chose you" (Jeremiah 3:14).  Thank you Lord for choosing us.  Help us to always choose you, regardless of the choices of others.        

Put Words in My Mouth

God called Jeremiah to be a prophet to the nations (Jeremiah 1:5).  Jeremiah claims he doesn't know how to speak and that he is to young.  God responds, "You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you...I have put my words in your mouth" Jeremiah. 1:7-9.  As I read these words, I couldn't help but reflect on the words of the hymn, "breathe on me, breath of God, till I am wholly thine, till all this earthly part of me glows with thy fire divine."  A lot of times, I find myself tongue-tied and not knowing what to say in certain situations or conversations.  My prayer for us today as followers of Christ on the journey together is that our earthly bodies would blend with the divine and a fire would glow to all that we would come into contact with.  That God would put his words into our mouths.  In the words of David in Psalm 19:14, "May these words of my mouth and this mediation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer." Go ahead God.  Put words in our mouth.  Words that speak life.  Words that are pleasing in your sight.      

Living as Exiles in a Strange Place: part 2

I was away a couple days last week for my 10 year anniversary.  But these thoughts on living as exiles have been sticking with me, so before I move on to 2 Peter, I wanted to reflect a bit more on this idea.  I've been reflecting on the life of Christ and how he lived among the people, yet was without sin.  He impacted his culture without being co-opted by it.  Peter brings out this idea as he writes to "exiles scattered."  He writes things like: with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming.  As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance.  But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do. (1Peter 1:13-15 TNIV). or  I urge you as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.  Live such good loves among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.  (1 Peter 2:11-12 TNIV).  What strikes me about these things Peter writes is that we are to live among our unbelieving neighbors (I'm not fond of the TNIVs translation of the word pagans.  The NASB translates it Gentiles and the NLT translates it our unbelieving neighbors)  There are many implications that can be drawn from this idea, but it seems to me that at the very least we are supposed to be about the work of building relationships with the people around us.  Otherwise, how could they see the way we live?  We are called to be the people of God.  Called to live differently, or holy, among people who don't follow the same God we follow.  I don't know if we make this more difficult than it is, or whether it is more difficult than it sounds.  It seems like this would be a challenge in an individualistic culture of suburbia with our fences to keep people out, our lack of front porches, and our desire to live a private life.  But, after several readings of 1 Peter now, I can't find any line that says if it's difficult don't worry about it, or that this is only for people who live in urban settings.     

Living as Exiles in a Strange Place: part 1

This week, I'm reflecting on the book of 1 Peter.  I was struck by the way that Peter addresses his readers.  He doesn't address them as a specific church, nor does he address an individual person or leader.  Instead he writes, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the exiles...who have been chosen and destined by God the Father and sanctified by the Spirit to be obedient to Jesus Christ and to be sprinkled with his blood: (NRSV).  I don't know about you, but there are times where I feel this tension deep down in my soul.  It's a tension that wrestles with whether I'm out of place.  Don't get me wrong, there are times when I think that I fit in with the culture around me too much and find myself desiring the same things that most people desire.  But then there are other times when I wonder, what the heck am I doing here?  I feel so out of place or alone.  And then it hits me.  We are living as exiles.  When Christ gets a hold of us, and chooses us, and sanctifies us, we are destined to feel like exiles because we were created for something different; something better; a world without sin, and pain, and suffering.  Ecclesiastes says that God ...has set eternity in the human heart (TNIV).  So, I guess it's normal to feel out of place at times.  That doesn't mean we get to leave the world or withdraw from it into safe little Christian cliques.  Jesus, in John 17:15,18 prayed to his father, My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one...As you have sent me into the world I have sent them into the world (TNIV).  We are sent into the world to live as exiles.  More thoughts on this later in the week...  

The Devil Didn't Make Me Do It

Ok, so we've all heard the phrase "the devil made me do it."  While I certainly don't discount the seriousness of spiritual warfare, if I am being honest with myself, it is my self that usually causes me to do what I don't want to do.  I was reminded of this as I was reading James 1:13-16 this morning:  No one, when being tempted, should say, "I am being tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil and he himself tempts no one.  But one is tempted by one's own desire, being lured and enticed by it; then when that desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and that sin, when fully grown, gives birth to death.  Do not be deceived, my beloved (NRSV).  It's pretty clear that I'm often both tempted, lured, and enticed by my own desire.  Now when it comes to things that are blatantly sin, this isn't so hard to discern.  But, what about when you're trying to discern God's will or direction for your life?  It can be tricky to know when something that is pulling you is your own desires and purposes or whether it is from God.  I mean is it possible for me to be pulled or lured in the direction of something that is "good" and yet find myself being pulled away from God's desire for my life?  Maybe this is why James encourages us to ask God for wisdom in 1:5.  I seriously don't believe that God is up there trying to trick me up or see me go astray.  James says if we ask for wisdom that God will give it to us generously and ungrudgingly.  Psalm 37:4 says, Take delight in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart. (NRSV).    

Remembe How We Started

I'm back from a thee week hiatus.  I basically spent all my free time finishing up the last two papers for my Masters Degree at Fuller.  Hard to believe I started it 4 years ago.  It looked pretty daunting as I began and looked all the classes on my check list that I would have to take.  Now that journey has come to a close.  I'm looking forward to my first summer in a while where I don't have to take a class.  I'm also looking forward to doing some reading that isn't "required."  In any case, this week, I'm reflecting on the book of James.  Ironically, it was a neat reminder of how I started in my walk with God.  James 1:2-4 was one of the first scripture passages that I memorized.  It reads, "My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature an complete, lacking in nothing" (NRSV).  I'm reminded that starting something is just the beginning.  There will be trials.  The journey will get difficult.  That we're promised.  However, these trials and difficulties are all part of our growth.  It's the only way we become mature.  One of the things I find myself doing when I go through trials is going back and remembering how I started this journey with God.  I reflect on some of these early verses I memorized.  I read through old journals of my thoughts.  So if you find yourself going through a trial today, maybe it would be a good exercise to remember how you started, and how Jesus really did mean it when he said he'd never leave us nor forsake us.  Hope you have a great day!

Something Has to Give

I'm reading the book of Titus this week.  Every time I read this book, I seem to be drawn in by the image of Titus 2 of the older women encouraging the young women.  They seem to do this by modeling and telling hand in hand.  Titus 2:3-4 reads, "Likewise, tell the older women to be reverent in behavior, not to be slanderers or slaves to drink; they are to teach what is good so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children..." (NRSV).  Paul echoed similar thoughts in 1 Thessalonians 2:8 as he talked about being delighted to share not only the gospel but their lives.  As I've read this, I've wondered what this might look like for our church.  Obviously, we live in such a different time and place.  People seem so busy now.  We rarely live in close proximity to those we interact with.  How do we share our lives so that we're learning from each others' example and teaching?  The only think I can come up with in my mind is that something has to give.  If relationships are important, they require time and commitment.  The more I think about this, I just can't seem to get around it.  So I find myself reflecting on this question, and hope that if by chance you read this, that you would reflect on it too:  How can I clean out my life in order to make more time for relationships?  Something probably has to give.