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Author Archives: Jeff
Duty.
“It is the duty of every Christian to be Christ to his neighbor.”
—Martin Luther
Because “Christian” means “little Christ,” we are to walk in His steps, embodying His character in truth and grace, alongside those who don’t yet know Him. We aren’t Jesus, but we get to be like Him as He changes us.
“… whoever says he abides in Him ought to walk in the same way in which He walked.”
—1 John 2:6
For my money, this is the most challenging command/invitation in Scripture.
Image credit: “Neighborhood #1” by the woodstove on Flickr
Why today matters » National Global Human Trafficking Awareness Day.
Today, January 11th, is National Global Human Trafficking Awareness Day (NGHTAD), as set forth by a resolution passed by the US Senate on June 22, 2007, to mark January 11th as a day of awareness and vigilance for the countless victims of Human Trafficking across the globe.
As I write this, and as you read it, we are mostly free. Mostly free to do whatever we want. I say “mostly,” because we are limited in part by our circumstances, and our natures. Many others are not free at all, being oppressed by those stronger than them.
While we might think real freedom is being able to do whatever we want, true freedom is wanting to do what God wants. God wants to set the world right again, and in Jesus this is coming true. He somehow has chosen His people to be part of it. So we join with the Creator in breaking down the walls of injustice and embodying the life of Jesus as He sets the captives free. Though all will be made right on the last day, we do not have to wait for heaven to see justice breaking in. Continue reading
What are you trying to do?
Okay, I shall make it personal first: what am I trying to do?
Ask yourself the same.
Together, and personally, there are many goals we could focus our time, energies and talents toward fulfilling. Let’s ask ourselves, what must I be doing? What is my grand purpose in life?
As a believer in Jesus I believe the purpose of all humans is to know and enjoy our Creator, specifically shown through loving and serving one another. Those two directions — vertical, our relationship with God; horizontal, our relationships with one another — are inextricably linked.
The Apostle John puts it this way:
“Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.” —1 John 4:20
We cannot see God. Yet we can see people made in His image.
Our neglect in loving God and people is the reason why we feel to urge to renew our resolutions in the new year. We aren’t our true self when we’re living selfishly. It’s also the reason why more than 80% of us will fail in these new resolutions. (And the other 20% are pretending we ‘did it.’)
The Godward life is lived in the service of others. Yet the paradox is that this service is done not in order to earn their approval, but to show His approval that we already have in Christ. As my five-year-old would say, a paraphrase of his favorite verse of Scripture: “Jesus came to serve” (Mark 10:45). If we want to be great, we must become a servant like Him.
If you’re daily in fear of not living up to the demands of your boss, spouse, children, even ‘culture’ in general, then pleasing God is not your goal. Something else has become your god, and you will serve it relentlessly. It will prove to be a terrible substitute for the good Master. (As Bob Dylan famously sang, “You gotta serve somebody…”) Why do you and I feel the need to impress others and win their approval?
Back to question at the top: What are you trying to do? More to the point: Who are you seeking to serve?
Inside or Outside.
A follow-up on yesterday’s post. Here’s the context for Jesus’ words on what really defiles us:
14 Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. 15 Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.”
17 After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable. 18 “Are you so dull?” he asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? 19 For it doesn’t go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.)
20 He went on: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. 21 For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23 All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”
—Mark 7:14-23 (NIV)
My 7 Daily Sins (& yours too).
“Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.” —Mark 7:15
Perhaps you’ve heard of the Seven Deadly Sins:
- Lust
- Pride
- Greed
- Gluttony
- Envy
- Sloth
- Wrath
These are seven categories of sin; ways we creatively disobey God. But they don’t just reside “out there” in the world. They live in us.
The seven deadly sins aren’t just things we do—they’re who we are every day. Author Jared C. Wilson’s study Seven Daily Sins examines the good news that Christ offers a way to deal with these sins once and for all.
The bad news is we carry around sin inside of us every day.
The good news is, through the gospel of Jesus Christ, we can not only identify our daily sins … but kill them.
Let’s stop managing our sin and start experiencing freedom in Christ.
“What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!” —Romans 7:24-25
The power to change.
“…the most effectual way of withdrawing the mind from one object, is not by turning it away (to nothing), but by presenting to its regards another object still more alluring…The love of the world cannot be expunged by a mere demonstration of the world’s worthlessness. But may it not be supplanted by the love of that which is more worthy than itself? The heart cannot be prevailed upon to part with the world, by a simple act of resignation. But may not the heart be prevailed upon to admit into its preference another, who shall subordinate the world, and bring it down from its wonted ascendancy? …In a word, if the way to disengage the heart from the positive love of one great and ascendant object, is to fasten it in positive love to another, then it is not by exposing the worthlessness of the former, but by addressing to the mental eye the worth and excellence of the latter, that all old things are to be done away and all things are to become new… the only way to dispossess [the heart] of an old affection, is by the expulsive power of a new one.”
—Thomas Chalmers, The Expulsive Power of a New Affection,” (sermon date unknown), 2-8.
How to not give up.
There are no quick fixes. While it is tempting to find a drive-thru, feel good solution and “just do it,” we know life is far more complex for using simple methods to get a new you by Friday.
“Christian life does not arise spontaneously in us. The truth of the gospel cannot always be reached through a process of reasoning. We need to meditate long on the words of Jesus. It is only through familiarity and association with the Gospels that we begin slowly to learn to live like him.” 1
How do we not give up?
By staring at the one who never gave up, who was joyfully obedient to God His Father until the very end. And then follow in His steps.
If I invite Jesus into my life — which is a mess — I will become discouraged when He doesn’t change me as quickly as I want, or provide the comfortable life I envisioned. (Many “try” Jesus and conclude He doesn’t work. Because Jesus spoke mostly about the Kingdom of God and invited us to flee from the kingdom of self, He offers a better way than this.)
But if I respond to Jesus, who invites me into His life, I will place Someone at the center who can effectively navigate the twists and turns of life.
Know this: out of His great strength, He can make you and me whole. Will you surrender?
I can think of no greater ambition this year than studying the life of Jesus and being changed into His image. Of course not everyone will be changed as they read, for not all have faith. To really know God, we must really know Jesus.
An invitation: Pick up one of the Gospels this month, reading it through five times. With each thoughtful time through your mind will be awakened to the sheer awesomeness of this man. He will surprise, invite, confront, challenge, and inspire you. (And so much more. Like Aslan, Jesus is very good, but He is far from safe.)
- Mark is the shortest, looking at the pattern and purpose of His life, for those on the go. You can read it through in one sitting. (The clear outline: Who is Jesus » why did He come » What does it mean to follow Him?)
- Matthew gives us a healthy does of Jesus’ words, confronting our half-baked ideas about God, self and others. He fulfills the longings of the people around Him, but never in the way they assumed He would.
- Luke examines the evidence for Jesus and brings us accounts from numerous eye witnesses.
- John helps the right-brained (visual, artistic) learner envision Jesus as God come in the flesh. God in a Bod is better than we imagined.
Of course, those are not exactly the groups to which the Gospel writers made their arguments, but a simple way to approach which one to start with, based on how you’re wired.
Each writer was making an argument about Jesus, not just collecting the facts about Him.
- To the Romans » Mark portrays Jesus the Servant
- To the Jews » Matthew sets forth Jesus the King, promised for centuries to the rescue His people and the world
- To the Gentiles » Luke (the only Gentile writer of a NT book) portrays Jesus the Man
- To the Greeks » John shows what ultimately reality looks like as Jesus is the Son of God
If you’re curious why there are four Gospel accounts, Ray Stedman gives us a helpful reminder why:
“There is a reason for this, designed deliberately by the Holy Spirit. We make a mistake if we think these four Gospels are four biographies of the Lord. They are not biographies at all, they are character sketches, intended to be different, intended to present different points of view. Therefore, they constitute four distinct views of our Lord and of his work.
The Gospel of Matthew is written to present Christ as the King. The Gospel of Mark presents His character as a servant. The Gospel of Luke presents Him as the Son of Man — as man in His essential humanity. The Gospel of John presents Him as the Son of God, that is, His deity, and there you find the greatest claims for Jesus being God.”
—Ray C. Stedman, introduction to Mark, Adventuring Through the Bible
Who’s with me?
I’ll be reading through Luke five times in January. How about you?
Let’s meditate long on the words of Jesus.
- José A. Pagola, Following in the Footsteps of Jesus: Meditations on the Gospels for Year A. Translated by Valentine de Souza, S.J. Miami: Convivium, 2010, page 23. ↩
Starting with Knowing God.
As we seek to shape our minds with truth, especially as we begin a new year, good books are vital. During the month of January you may download the audiobook for J.I. Packer’s Knowing God for free.
I think you’ll thoroughly enjoy it and be challenged.
Packer writes in the 2005 preface:
“Late in life I have learned the right word to describe what I am up to in Knowing God. That word is catechising; I am an adult catechist. The catechist’s job is to spell out the truths, and the response to them, that constitute a Christian’s identity, and to apply this directly to people’s lives as evangelist, pastor, counsellor [sic], trainer, and encourager, according to the bearing of the truth itself upon them. Just as one of Moliere’s characters rejoiced to find he had been speaking prose all his life, so I rejoice to discover that I have been a catechist all my life, though I hardly knew it till recently. Knowing God is a catechism — maybe a catechism plus.”
Sure of something this new year.
What are you sure of this year? My good friend Chris Nye preached on “God and the Great Unknown” yesterday at WCC (audio forthcoming), where the saints gathered to bring in the New Year with a healthy dose of the Gospel. Certainty is an allusion, one we all cling to, especially when it comes to the circumstances of our lives. Yet even as we live in “uncertain economic times,” we shall pray to God for courage and boldness, and not just for clarity and confirmation (Acts 4:13-20, 29-31). God’s presence is the one thing I am sure of this year.
Should we even make New Year’s Resolutions in these un-sure times? I think so; more to the point, we shall pursue change this year. More on that later this week. There is one thing we Christians must all resolve to do, but before I get to that, let’s consider how the substance and shape of our resolutions have changed over the decades.
The late Woody Guthrie (songwriter, folk music legend, famous for “This Land is Our Land”) sketched out his “NEW YEAR’S RULIN’S” as 1941 drew to a close and his thirtieth year began in 1942. Here’s a glimpse at his list:
1. WORK MORE AND BETTER
2. WORK BY A SCHEDULE
3. WASH TEETH IF ANY
4. SHAVE
5. TAKE BATH
6. EAT GOOD – FRUIT – VEGETABLES – MILK
7. DRINK VERY SCANT IF ANY
8. WRITE A SONG A DAY
9. WEAR CLEAN CLOTHES – LOOK GOOD
10. SHINE SHOES
11. CHANGE SOCKS
12. CHANGE BED CLOTHES OFTEN
13. READ LOTS GOOD BOOKS
14. LISTEN TO RADIO A LOT
15. LEARN PEOPLE BETTER
16. KEEP RANCHO CLEAN
17. DON’T GET LONESOME
18. STAY GLAD
19. KEEP HOPING MACHINE RUNNING
20. DREAM GOOD
21. BANK ALL EXTRA MONEY
22. SAVE DOUGH
23. HAVE COMPANY BUT DON’T WASTE TIME
24. SEND MARY AND KIDS MONEY (his wife and kids did not travel with him; sadly they divorced in ’43)
25. PLAY AND SING GOOD
26. DANCE BETTER
27. HELP WIN WAR – BEAT FASCISM
28. LOVE MAMA
29. LOVE PAPA
30. LOVE PETE
31. LOVE EVERYBODY
32. MAKE UP YOUR MIND
33. WAKE UP AND FIGHT
[via Lists of Note; Image: The Woody Guthrie Foundation; Large version here]
Do you have any resolutions like those? Are you “keeping [your] hoping machine running?”
While that list is kinda fun, here’s one resolution, a goal even, that shall be our great passion in 2012:
“It ought to be the primary goal of every Christian to put aside confidence in works and grow stronger in the belief that we are saved by faith alone. Through this faith the Christian should increase in knowledge not of works but of Christ Jesus and the benefits of his death and resurrection.”
—Martin Luther, The Freedom of the Christian (Minneapolis, 2008), page 55. [Via Ray Ortlund]
Everything that is coming to us.
“Everything that is coming to us from God comes through Christ Jesus. Christ Jesus has won our pardon; he has reconciled us to God; he has canceled our sin; he has secured the gift of the Spirit for us; he has granted eternal life to us and promises us the life of the consummation; he has made us children of the new covenant; his righteousness has been accounted as ours; he has risen from the dead, and all of God’s sovereignty is mediated through him and directed to our good and to God’s glory.”
—D. A. Carson, A Call to Spiritual Reformation (Grand Rapids, Mi.: Baker Book House, 1992), 189.
Honest.
Quote
Here’s to more authenticity in the new year; for being humble and honest online, as well as in person. We can only be as successful in life as we are honest. And our power comes in the form of a confident humility. We no longer have to try to be the Hero of our own stories. Put Someone Else at the center.
“Facebook is where you lie to your friends. Twitter is where you tell the truth to strangers.” —unknown