Let's Get Out of The Church In 2020

In his Sermon on the Mount, found in Matthew 5-7, Jesus makes the point that those who follow Him as disciples are both salt and light (Mt. 5:13-14). He does not say that we are to become the salt of the earth or the light of the world but rather that we are the salt of the earth and the light of the world.  But Jesus also makes the point that it is not enough to simply be the light. Nor is it enough to simply let our light shine. Rather, what Jesus says is that we are to “let our light shine before men in such a way that they may see our good works” (Mt. 5:16). Therefore, that which manifests us as those who profess to follow Christ, Who is the light of the world, is our good works.  These good works, which we are to do manifest us as Christ's followers or His reflecting lights in the world.  And note, that these good works are to be worked out before men so as to be plainly seen.  

Apparently, Jesus wants our good works to be seen by men who do not know Him so that God the Father will be glorified (Mt. 5:16).  Now, Jesus does not discriminate between believers and nonbelievers in this verse.  He is saying that there is a sense in which even nonbelievers glorify God as they see and respond to the good works believers do as Christ's reflecting lights in the world. I take that to mean that as the result of seeing our good works done in Christ's Name, that they either end up repenting, trusting in Christ, and being saved or continue to reject Christ so as to finally get what we all deserve which is hell.  Either way, God is glorified as He will save those who see our Christ-honoring works and believe and condemn those who see them and do not.  The point is--that they see Christ reflected in us and in our good works which benefit  others.

Therefore, if our God-ordained, Christ-like, Holy Spirit empowered, Gospel-fueled, and beneficial “good works” are to be worked in such a way that people existing outside of Christ and are thus, of this world, may see them, we must do them outside the hidden, comfy, and safe walls of our churches.  We must be in the world to be seen by the world.  This demands that we be rubbing shoulders with all kinds of people....even people who are not the same as us as well as people we do not naturally gravitate to.  This might include the down and out, the rich and famous, the grocer and the butcher, democrats, republicans, pro-life, pro-choice, Trumpers, Never-Trumpers, gay, straight, climate change activists, progressives, tree-huggers, tree-slayers, conservatives, soccer moms, and every other label we humans can conceive—so that they glorify God--because our Christ-reflecting works are visibly and inclusively beneficial regardless of how they act out their rebellion to God.    

It goes without saying that it’s a whole lot easier dealing with people, especially the ones we disagree with and really don’t like, from a distance and as spectators--complaining about them from the safety and security of our pulpits and pews. But this doesn’t cut it when it comes to obeying and following Jesus. He told us to get up out of the pew, go out the doors of the church, and start doing some good things in this bad world so that people who don’t know, love and cherish Jesus can see what Jesus is actually all about and be brought into a saving relationship with Him which really glorifies God in the best possible way.   

So, can the world see us? Can people see our good works? Not if the only place we are known is at church. In the same way that lights are not meant to be covered up by baskets, Christians are not meant to hide out in their homes and churches.  So, let’s do something really drastic in 2020—let’s get out of our churches and our homes and go hang out with some unbelievers and let our light shine so they can see it and be impacted by it. They will glorify God one way or another and so will we!  

The Mystery of Christmas

On Christmas, we celebrate something quite wonderful: God entering our time and space. The eternal becomes temporal; the eternally infinite becomes temporarily finite; the Word that created all flesh becomes flesh.

It truly is a mystery!  The One who knows all things (John 16:30, 21:17) must “grow in wisdom” (Luke 2:52). The all-sufficient One (Acts 17:25) must hunger and thirst (Matt. 4:2, John 19:28). The creator of the world is homeless (Matt. 8:20), the Lord of life must die. (Phil. 2:8)

As Jesus, God the Son, Who knows the end from the beginning (Isa. 46:10), must watch His eternal plan unfold, bit by bit, moment by moment. He grows from infancy, to childhood, to adulthood, responding to events as they happen. One time He rejoices; another time He weeps. From day to day, from hour to hour, the changeless God endures change. But God the Son incarnate is still God, still transcendent. As He responds to events in time, He also looks down on the world from above time and space, ruling and governing all the events of nature and history in complete sovereignty—truly a mystery!

Why did God enter time in Christ?  First and foremost, for His Father’s glory so that God the Father could remain just in forgiving and justifying sinners who deserved His wrath (Rom. 3:25-26).  The Son of God took on the limitations of time, space even death, so that He would pay the penalty for the sins of anyone and everyone who would believe in Him.  In this way and only through this way is God the Father able to forgive believing sinners and remain true to His own righteousness.  Jesus entered time to glorify God in providing the means by which believers would be forgiven and find their joy in God.  

Whereas, at the incarnation, when God the Son became the God-Man, He entered time to live and die for those of us who believe—He also entered time to “be with us”.  That is what His Christmas Name “Emmanuel” means:  God with us.

He is still with us, now. Jesus said that He would be with us always (Matt. 28:20) in the Spirit (John 14:15-18). That means that God is an actor in history (His-story), as well as transcends history. He is with me as I write, watching one moment pass into the next, initiating yet responding to each event, bringing his sovereign Lordship to bear on every situation as it comes, hearing and responding to my prayers. But He is also looking down on the world from his transcendent, timelessly eternal viewpoint. He is both transcendent and immanent. As transcendent, He brings all things to pass according to His eternal plan. As immanent, He works in and with all things, moment by moment, to accomplish His sovereign will.  

Thus, in the incarnation, God the Son invades the time and space of history to become the “leading man” in His own drama of redemption which He planned in eternity past.  But as He plays His part in His own divine drama from below—He also and at the same time acts above History as its divine sovereign director holding every atomic particle of every being, thing, and action in place (Col. 1:17).

There are those, called Open Theists, who believe that if we are to do justice to this apparent “give-and-take” relationship that we see unfolding in the pages of the Bible between God and his creatures in history, we must reject God’s sovereign control over history, even his exhaustive knowledge of the future. Those conclusions do not follow logically, and they certainly are not biblical.  Rather, these biblical pictures of God’s seemingly “give and take” relationship with His creatures actions in time should lead us to a heightened view of God’s sovereignty. 

Our God is one who can and does accomplish his sovereign will, not only “from above,” by his eternal decrees, but also “from below,” by making all things work together for his good purpose (Rom. 8:28). Even those events which the biblically non-informed see as an apparent defeat for God such as the rejection and crucifixion of His Son, Jesus, are but, the out workings of his eternal plan.  In the very death of Jesus for our sins, God was acting in time to bring his sovereign purpose to pass (Acts 2:23).  Likewise, even in our our lives, when sin has gotten the best of us, God is not defeated.  Sin's work does not trump God's work in His people.  He is always at work in believers' lives (Phil. 2:13) even when we're sinning, taking what we mean for evil and using it ultimately for our good and His glory (Rom. 8:28).  

So Christmas reveals in a wonderful way that God acts in time as well as above it. Christmas shows us how wonderfully God relates to us, not only as a mysterious being from another realm, but as a person in our own realm: interacting with us, hearing our prayers, guiding us step by step, chastising us with fatherly discipline, comforting us with the wonderful promises of the blessings of Christ. Truly He is Emmanuel, the God who is really with us and Who is nonetheless eternally the Sovereign Lord above and beyond us.

Making Decisions About The Future Without Knowing The Future

Decisions, especially those major, life-changing decisions about the future, are challenging, to say the least.  What makes them particularly difficult, at least for me, is just the simple fact that I'm trying to make a decision about the future, that will affect my family's and my future, without being privy to what the future even looks like.  This can cause me as well as probably many of you some stress.  So, let me share with you some things I have learned and am learning right now as I lead my family through a particularly challenging decision-making process that will undoubtedly affect our future.

The big issue for us when making decisions about the future is risk.  We simply don't want to risk making a bad or the wrong decision because we do not know which decision is the best one to make. So, in order to alleviate as much risk as possible we want to know as many details about the future as possible, which for us as believers means asking God to give us clear leading as to what to do because He does know the future we don't know.  But, God doesn't usually work this way.  The future is His to know and ours to find out by experiencing it when it comes (Deuteronomy 29:29).  

As Kevin DeYoung puts it:

"Obsessing over the future is not how God wants us to live, because showing us the future is not God's way.  His way is to speak to us in the Scriptures and transform us by the renewing of our minds.  His way is not a crystal ball.  His way is wisdom.  We should stop looking for God to reveal the future to us and remove all risk from our lives.  We should start looking to God--His character and promises--and thereby have confidence to take risks for His name's sake." 

Our big problem in decision making is not so much a lack of trust as much as it is misplaced trust.  We get wrapped around the axle of trusting God to lead us to make the perfect decision, which will bring about the best possible results whereas, we should be asking God to help us make the wisest, most biblically informed, most gospel-impacting, and most spiritually healthy decision and then trust God with the results--resting in the fact that because of God's sovereignty--all of our decisions will end up being used by Him to accomplish His will for us.  Like, Scotty Smith writes, "Life isn't primarily about making the right decisions but, trusting the right Lord.  

Practically speaking, this means reaching the point in our decision-making process where we desire God's wisdom rather than His omniscience. Certainly, we should research our options and consider all our choices wisely.  But when, what we really want to know is every step, every turn, every possibility, and every outcome of God's plan for our lives we’re no longer seeking understanding, were wanting omniscience.  And quite frankly, the biblical way to making decisions isn’t found in grasping for God’s omniscience, but in grasping God’s hand as we trust that He has been leading and guiding us all along.

When it comes to non-moral choices about specific and perhaps major life-changing decisions, too often, too many of us, approach God's leading as something we just, with the onset of this decision, discovered we needed, rather than assuming that God has been leading us all along as Psalm 23 teaches us.  In other words, instead of assuming we need God's leading in choosing which fork in the road to take, perhaps we should assume that God has been leading us all along and the two options before us are the result of God's leading.  The assumption that God has already been leading us and therefore, has led us to this fork in the road means that either option would be a fine and perfectly good option to pursue since God cannot and would not tempt us to do that which is wrong (James 1:13).  

Looking at our arrival at a junction in life where a major decision is required as a divine appointment and then seeing the choices before us as the good options God has led us to consider and choose from removes the sting of fear from our decision making.  This perspective on decision making leads us to freely and responsibly choose between good, God provided, and God-engineered options so as to experience freedom rather than fear in our decision making.  

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells us not to worry about the future, which obviously encompasses the decisions we have made and will make about the future—not because we have access to the information God only has in His omniscience or because an unknown future isn’t scary, but because our Heavenly Father cares for us:  "Do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?" (Matt. 6:25–26)

The idea of our Heavenly Father caring for us is not merely isolated to providing for our material needs of food and clothing, but also to those multiple and important decisions we must make that end up providing definition to our lives.  Again, the assumption is that as we are seeking God's Kingdom and God's righteousness, He is leading us, and thus the choices He is leading us to are good options to freely choose from.  

But don't make the mistake of thinking that this freedom to choose--promises that our choices will always prove successful or safe.  Freedom has never been a synonym for safety.  In fact, most of the time, freedom is risky, at least from our perspective, because when we do grasp his hand and decide to trust him, we don’t know what he’ll do.  As Elisabeth Elliot writes:

"Our prayers for guidance (or for anything else) really begin here: I trust him. This requires abandonment. We are no longer saying, “If I trust him, he’ll give me such and such,” but, “I trust him. Let him give me or withhold from me what he chooses.”

You see, at the end of the day, assuming God has already been and is continuing to lead us as a result of His providential and sovereign care, as we seek his kingdom and righteousness, means we can freely live life by making the "risky" decisions that will define our lives without overanalyzing every decision or being paralyzed by fear or the prospect of failure.

  

Pastor Tim Keller once shared that when he first came to Manhattan to start Redeemer Presbyterian Church, people asked him, “Are you sure God has called you to start this church in New York City?” His answer surprised most of them and maybe it'll surprise you too.

I think He did. I see an opportunity. I don’t see anybody else taking the opportunity. I feel an obligation to come. I think it’s a good idea. I think God’s calling me. But I can’t be absolutely sure. I can be sure that I must not lie; it’s in the Bible. I can be sure that I must not bow down to idols; it’s in the Bible. I’m sure of a lot of things that are God’s will. But as far as I know, I won’t be sure that I’m called to plant a church until it happens.

And then when these same people would persist, incredulously asking him,  “But, didn’t you have a peace about it?” he replied:

No, it was too hard of a decision. It was too scary. But I know this: guidance is as much something God does as it is something he gives. Therefore, I knew that by selling my house and moving up here and signing a three-year lease that, if I failed to plant a church, God was preparing me for something I couldn’t envision.

In other words, Keller believed God had led him to the decisions and the options he needed to, freely and responsibly, choose between so as to grasp God's hand rather than trying to grasp His omniscience.  And this enabled him to rise above fear in making a life-changing decision and enjoy freedom.  In this, he followed the early Church Father, Augustine's advice, who, simply and succinctly, wrote in a sermon from 1 John 4:4-12, "Love God and do [choose] whatever you please."

GRACE-DRIVEN CHURCHES GLORIFY GOD BEST

Churches are often known for what drives them.  In other words, what they see themselves as existing to be and do.  And churches can be driven by all kinds of things.  Many are driven by tradition and their tradition in particular.  Others are driven by their resistance to change of any kind, having as their motto: "We’ve never done it this way before.”  Some churches are finance-driven and the only thing the membership wants to know before making a decision is "How much will it cost and can we afford it?"  Many churches  are numbers-driven, having as their bottom line--a bigger budget, a bigger building, and a growing membership roll.  Others still, are known for and driven by a certain theological perspective such as being reformed or non-reformed, charismatic or non-charismatic, seeker-driven or non seeker driven, liberal or conservative, contemporary/blended worship or traditional, etc.  And finally, there are churches which are driven by their programs, activities, ministries, personality, social causes, political progressiveness,  and a plethora of other possibilities.  

Personally, I think that churches should strive to be grace-driven and here are some reasons why.  First, grace-driven churches are driven by God’s saving grace to preach and live the gospel.  Second, they are driven by God’s sanctifying grace to speak words of grace to one another as well as to deal with each other in grace, correcting one another in grace, accepting one another as Jesus accepted them freely, unconditionally, and over and over again in and because of grace.  Third, they are driven by God's extravagant grace, in saving sinners, to take serious risks, expend great energy, significant resources, and exhaustive creativity in communicating and demonstrating the Gospel of grace to unbelievers both nearby and far away.  

God is grace-driven.  His plan of salvation, His desire to redeem, and His move to crush His own Son (Is. 53:10) so as to save us were all grace-driven acts.  But, while grace-driven, these acts were not simply carried out to make much of us and our need.  No, God’s grace-driveness is not about making much of us, which is often what many   of our churchs' "pet" projects, distinctions, preferences, and disagreements are driven by.  God's grace-drivenness is not an end in and of itself just as we are not an end in and of ourselves.  To think that would be to terribly misunderstand and pervert God's grace, which is a means to a much greater end.  That end is God’s glory. God is grace-driven because God is passionate about His own glory.  He justifies for His glory.  He forgives for His glory.  He redeems for His glory.  He saves for His glory and He keeps us saved for His glory.  God’s grace-driveness is first, foremost, and fundamentally about and for His glory.  

And this ultimately is for our good.  You see, wheres, God's grace saves and sanctifies us--God's glory satisfies us.  God's grace is the means by which we are able to see, enjoy, revel in, and forever be amazed by the glory of God.  This is what Jesus wants for us.  That's why He asked His Father that we who have been given to Him by the Father be with Him so that we may see His glory and be forever satisfied (John 17:24).  

Grace is the means to glory.  Therefore, if our churches really desire to glorify God by enjoying and being amazed by God, we absolutely must be, first and foremost, grace-driven!

We're Either Moving Forward Or We're Wandering In Retreat!

One of the things I have learned over the years both from Scripture as well as my own personal experience is that no matter how mature in Christ, how passionate about the gospel, how effective in ministry, and how greatly we may have sacrificed for the Faith, all of us are still very much prone to wander from the Lord we love.  And it doesn't take much to get us wandering.  For many of us its not as much an intentional walking away from Jesus or from His Word as much as it is an unintentional wandering resulting from the neglect of and inattentiveness to spiritual priorities and disciplines in our lives.  

One of the vivid examples the Bible gives us of such neglect is found in the Book of Nehemiah.  In this autobiographical report, Nehemiah gives us a “play by play” analysis of everything that took place when he traveled from the Persian city of Susa to Jerusalem to lead in the rebuilding of the wall around Jerusalem as well as be used by God to help ignite a spiritual revival.  The climax of this revival is seen in chapters 8-9 where the people, upon hearing the Word of God, read and taught, respond by confessing and repenting of their sins.   Then in chapter 10, they signed a covenant in which they promised to obey and honor the Lord from there on out.  

What a tremendous response to the preaching of the Word of God.  I’m sure Nehemiah was ecstatic.  What preacher wouldn’t be thrilled to have a whole nation respond to the Word of God in such powerful expressions of love and loyalty to the Lord?  

Well after his twelve year success in leading in this great work for God among his people, Nehemiah needed to return to his day job as the cupbearer to King Artexerxes back in Persia.  In preparation, he did what any good leader would do under the same circumstances.  He made sure the reforms he had set in motion would be carried on by qualified men.  Once theses arrangements were made, he then left to resume his service to the king.

Now, fast forward twenty some years and Nehemiah returns to Jerusalem, only to find that in the approximately two decades that he had been gone, the people had drifted back to the way they were before he had come the first time.  I’m sure he was shocked to hear about and actually see for himself that the mountaintop experience of twenty years ago had become a distant memory in the people’s minds and hearts.  And I’m certain, he was greatly saddened to find that the people’s zeal for God’s praise and glory, which burned hot twenty years ago, was now, cold as ice.

Nehemiah 13, is the record of how quickly and gradually God’s people can move from a spiritual high to spiritual decline.  Its a good reminder to all of us that even in our strongest and most vital  moments with God, we are still very “prone to wander from the God we love”.  

It appears, from reading chapter 13, that the people began their departure from Nehemiah’s reforms in very small and seemingly insignificant steps, that really could be described as inattentiveness to God’s Word.  More specifically, the people were guilty of a careless attitude toward corporate worship seriously (13:4-21) while the spiritual leaders were guilty of a nonchalant attitude toward their spiritual leadership responsibilities, giving their time, energy, and influence to following popular, yet unbiblical, trends (13:22, 28-30).

Spiritual and Biblical reform is always an ongoing experience.  If not, it, very quickly, becomes “dis-reform”, which sometimes leads us back to square one in our walk with the Lord.  We must never forget that regardless of whatever progress we have made in Christ, whatever growth and maturity we are experiencing, and however intimate our walk with the Lord is today--we are still prone to wander. We must not forget, that until Heaven, when the presence of sin is completely removed from us, that our hearts are still prone to wander from the God we love.  Therefore, as Proverbs 4:23 commands: We must always “Watch over our hearts with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life.”

Just like the people of God in Nehemiah's day, we cannot afford to underestimate the destructive inclination and desires of our own sinful flesh which we carry with us until the day we die and finally experience freedom from any further influence and inclination toward sin.  Nor can we disregard the powerful pull of the world toward its fruitless, fragile, and fleeting pleasures.  Certainly, we dare not forget that the enemy of our souls, who is none other than the devil, is always prowling around seeking those, who are careless among us, whom he can devour.   Finally, we must always keep at the forefront of our minds, the truth, that we are either moving forward in our battle against sin, our flesh, the world, and the devil or we are in retreat, which is nothing less than wandering.

My Trip To The Dentist--Maroua, Cameroon 2013 (A Repost By Request)

It was a late Thursday afternoon in Cameroon's Far North Region capital city of Maroua. I was getting hungry waiting for dinner so I grabbed a handful of peanuts, shoved them into my mouth, and started crunching vigorously. About three seconds into my munching, I chomped down on something a whole lot harder than any peanut I have ever encountered before. It was so hard, in fact, that it broke one of my molars. Turns out that one of those peanuts was not a peanut at all but actually a small brown stone that looked, to a 53 year old guy not wearing his glasses, like a peanut.

Well what do you do in Africa when you have shattered the back end of one of your meat-chomping molars? You go to the dentist of course. So the next day Fidele and I made the mile walk along a dusty makeshift road to whom I was told was the best dentist in our neck of the woods. As a plus, he had also attended dental school……somewhere.

Once there we walked into a small waiting room and waited about half an hour. Then it was show time. Fidele explained to the dentist why I was there as the dentist speaks a blend of Fulfulde and French while I barely get by with English. The dentist motioned for me to get in a chair and then he went to work. Tilting my head back as far as I thought it could go, he motioned for me to open my mouth and then he proceeded to take a small silver hand tool with a point and stuck it into the gaping hole in my broken tooth. Not being tied down or otherwise restrained Fidele must have thought the rapture was occurring and he was being left behind as I must have risen a good three feet out of that chair. Of course the dentist being a non-dispensational Muslim and not having read the “Left Behind” series thought no such thing and after stuffing me back in the chair uttered something that sounded a lot like “Allah have mercy”.

Then, all of a sudden realizing that Americans don’t quite have the same pain threshold as Africans the dentist yelled something in Fulfulde to his assistant who resembled, to me without my glasses, the African version of Osama Bin Laden. Hoping he was instructing him to load up a shot with Novocain before heading back into my mouth I was surprised and really concerned when the assistant took a strategic position next to me so as to better restrain me as the dentist made his next approach. With one arm holding my head in a sort of headlock and the other manipulating the silver tool, he once again stuck it smack dab in the middle of my broken tooth causing me more pain than I have felt since passing a kidney stone 14 months, 28 days, 7 hours and 25 minutes ago (But hey who’s counting?).

Finally, the dentist decided a shot of pain killer might leave less bruising, cause less trauma, and be less exhausting than having to keep me in a headlock. Whew, I was happy for that until I saw him loading up the shot. You see, every dentist I have ever been to in the States used these really tiny short needles when administering Novocain but this baby had to have been two to three inches or more. Anyway, with his assistant getting ready to grab a hold of my legs and the dentist putting me into another headlock he proceeded to threaten me with the hypo making motions for me to open my mouth. Wondering if the reason the needle was so long was because he might just run it through my cheek I submitted and the rest is history. I didn’t feel a thing after that. In fact, that one shot worked so well I couldn’t feel my nose or see out of my left eye for the rest of the day.

So what’s the moral to my story? Well, if you’re thinking it’s to avoid getting your dental work taken care of in Cameroon—it’s not. In fact, it’s been four days since my visit to the dentist and my tooth feels just fine. No, the moral is to watch out for counterfeits—whether they are rocks masquerading as peanuts, false teachers pretending to be preachers, or the fleeting, temporary, and fruitless pleasures of sin. The damage they will cause will be far greater than you ever thought possible and the pain experienced in dealing with and hopefully fixing the damage far greater, deeper, and possibly even more traumatic than you ever imagined.