Battleground

Came across this quote yesterday.

"The idea that this world is a playground instead of a battleground has now been accepted in practice by the vast majority of Christians." – A.W. Tozer

I have been doing a lot of thinking and reading recently on the mission of God and our mission as Christians within God's grander mission.  One of my passions since God captured my heart in the 9th grade has been seeing us American Christians get out of our comfort zones.  I tend to think that for many of us living in first world countries comfort is the greatest barrier to our hearts being fully captured by God's greatness and love.  We are surrounded by comforts, pleasures and distractions galore.  Why would we want anything else? 

In the parable of the sower, Jesus speaks of those who hear the word, yet the "cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful" (Mt. 13:22).  This world is not merely a playground.  There is a battle going on.  We are given a limited amount of time in this life and it is not for the purpose of just "having a good time."  There's nothing wrong with having a good time, but when it becomes the focus of our life, we are blind to the war that is raging around us. 

God is on a mission to rescue people from sin, darkness and death and bring them into his love and life.  God's glory is the purpose of this world and our lives and when we realize that, we find our greatest joy.  But as long as we find the comforts and pleasures of this world to be more exciting and glorious than Him, we waste our lives and miss our greatest joy.

The big idea

I've been trying to boil down the overall message of the Bible in way that is clear, memorable and relevant to youth.  I want something that I can continually point to and say, "Here's the big idea.  Here's what God is up to in the world.  Here's what God is calling you to do."  Here's what I've got so far. 

God is on a mission to rescue people from sin, darkness and death and to bring them into his love and eternal life! 

Therefore:

Have you been rescued by trusting in Jesus as YOUR God (that which is most important) and YOUR Savior (that which is most needed)?

If so, God has called you to be a part of his mission to rescue others?  Your work is not done; you have a mission from God. 

Attracted to the Good

Another post on the future hope of worshipers of Jesus (Tangent: I actually really struggled with how to word this first sentence.  As I said in the previous post, calling the future home of believers "heaven" is only partially correct and, more than that, we tend to have all sorts of unhelpful connotations and images related to the word "heaven."  So I prefer to say something like "the future hope", "life in the new creation", or "the resurrected life."  Furthermore, I struggled to know what to call those who will enter into this life.  My gut is to say "believers", but I'm afraid that word has become somewhat misleading in our culture as we can think that being a Christian only means agreeing intellectually to a certain set of beliefs.  Needless to say, the devil believed in God and it doesn't turn out to well for him.  I could have used the word "Christians" but, once again, we all know people who call themselves Christians who don't show any evidence or fruit of actually being a Christian.  So I went with "worshipers of Jesus."  Because those who have caught of glimpse of Jesus as he really is and believed that he is the Lord and Savior of the world will worship him with their whole lives.  They will live changed lives.  End tangent.)

N.T. Wright says, “All Christian language about the future is a set of signposts pointing into a mist."  I certainly don't want to put myself forward as an expert on "the future hope of worshipers of Jesus."  Most of what we can say about this hope is merely informed speculation, like reading "signposts pointing into a mist."   Here is one possible signpost:

Peter says that righteousness will dwell in the new heavens and new earth.  Now, I admit, hearing this eternal home characterized by righteousness doesn’t immediately get me jumping out of my seat in excitement.  Couldn't it be characterized by year round March Madness?  Or all-you-can-eat steak and lobster?  But let’s think through this.  

Righteousness means right living; it means thinking, feeling, and acting as we were made to, as we ought to.  Sometimes living right, or living as God wants us to, doesn’t seem very exciting to us.  Oftentimes, sin seems more enticing, more thrilling.  But anyone who’s been a Christian for long enough also knows that sin is deceptive.  It may seem more exciting, it may seem to give life, but it actually steals life, steals joy, and steal peace.  Sin lies; it tricks us.  It offers us happiness and then lets us down.

But when we arrive at our new home in God’s new creation, we will no longer be tricked and deceived by sin. Not only will we live rightly, but we will love living rightly; we won’t want to do anything else.  That which deceives us and steals life will no longer look exciting!  Sin will no longer seem appealing.  Rather, that which gives us life and joy and hope and peace will be attractive.  We will cling to what is good and love to cling to what is good.  

More than that, everything and everyone around us will also be living rightly and loving living rightly.  We won’t be hurt by other people’s sin.  We won’t be lied to, gossiped about, have trust broken, or have friends betray us.  Right living, and the love of right living, will be everywhere.  Things will be as they ought to be.  
 

Heaven (or whatever that place is)

I had a request for more stuff on heaven.  I am hesitant to publish my "thoughts" on heaven because that's really what they are: "thoughts."  Most of the Biblical passages on end times, including our final place of dwelling, are full of symbolism and imagery.  As was pointed out by C.S. Lewis in a previous post, we should recognize these literary functions and not assume everything is meant to be taken literally.  Furthermore, I have not done much studying on end times and what follows.  My dad wrote his dissertation on Revelation and OT prophetic literature so I feel completely unequipped to really say anything meaningful on the subject.  But I'll do a couple of posts on some stuff I shared in a recent sermon.  For further compelling reading, check out Lewis' "The Great Divorce", N.T. Wright's "Surprised by Hope", or Michael Wittmer's "Heaven is a Place on Earth". 
 
Peter says in 2 Peter 3:13 that we are waiting for “new heavens and new earth.”  So even just calling this place heaven can be misleading.  We tend to think of heaven as a place where only souls, or spirits, go, not bodies.  We tend to think of it as less real, less physical than this earth.  But Peter says our home will be in a new heavens AND new earth.  The terms “heavens and earth”, when used together in the Bible, mean all of creation, everything that has been created.  When Genesis 1 talks about God creating the “heavens and the earth”, it simply means that God created everything.  So when Peter talks of the NEW heavens and new earth, he means that we will live in a new creation, not in some non-physical, heavenly place, but a new creation, a new earth.

Furthermore, the Bible says that we will have new, or renewed, bodies (there is much debate about how much continuity will exist between this current creation and the new creation.  Will it be a complete wipe-out and do-over or will it be more of a renewal and refining of what already exists?).  We won’t merely be souls floating around.  We will have bodies that will be, if anything, more real and more alive and more physical than our current bodies.  When Jesus rose from the dead, he had a body.  When we are raised from the dead, we will have a body.  God is not in the business of making us less real and alive, but more real and alive.  God created us with bodies and our bodies are a good part of his creation.  Going to heaven does not mean we lose our good bodies and becoming merely spiritual souls.  If God's original creation had physicality to it (which God called good), why would his new creation be anything less than physical?  I say this because so many false ideas have crept into our thinking of heaven from art and culture, specifically from medieval times, that we tend to separate the physical and the spiritual when we think of heaven.  I don't think this is the biblical picture.

Low lying guilt

I had been a Christian for most of my life, yet would often feel condemnation for not doing enough in my Christian walk.  I would periodically be overwhelmed with low lying guilt that I was not working hard enough for God.  Particularly, I would feel like I needed to fast to be right with God.  I don't like fasting because it's hard and I like food too much.  Yet for this reason, by doing this difficult thing, I thought I could prove my worthiness to God.  I felt like I could get rid of my guilt by my hard work.

After several years of this struggle, I began to see some of the lies I was believing.  I began to see that Jesus’ death was completely sufficient to establish peace with God, to be right with God.  In fact, Jesus' death was the only thing that could do this.  No amount of effort or sacrifice of my own was sufficient to establish a good standing before God.  As I began to realize the significance of Jesus' death in my place and God's plan to save me by GRACE, I began to find freedom from the low lying guilt I was carrying around.  

As I continued to understand grace and be freed from condemnation, I found myself growing in new and unexpected ways.  Whereas before I was focused on one specific area in my life (fasting) in which I felt I needed to succeed in if I was to keep right with God, now spiritual growth was occurring in many areas all at once and without me really even thinking about it.  Better yet, there was no longer any nagging, underlying guilt about needing to do better or do more; there was now excitement over the ways in which growth was occurring and a desire to continue that growth.

I often hear people talk about the difference between condemnation and conviction.  As Christians, we should not feel any condemnation; we are no longer condemned because Jesus took the punishment and paid the payment that we deserved.  Looking back, I realize that what I experienced for those several years was condemnation (whether it came from my self or from the devil I do not know; probably both).  I am still learning what conviction looks like, but I know now what it does NOT look like.  Growth comes through God both changing our desires and giving us the strength we need.  We are not passive in this process, but we will often be surprised to see the changes God is making in areas we had not thought to focus or work on.

The Tyranny of Sin and the Freedom of a Christian

The following is the testimony of a friend of mine.  I was reading it again today and just found it so powerful I wanted to share it.  

“...but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles” 1 Corinthians 1:23
 

I do not remember when exactly that I started watching pornography. I do remember that perhaps from as young as the age of six or seven I had an interest in sexuality.  Pornography eventually reduced me to nothing more than a mere animal. In my quest to please myself I have inflicted deep wounds on women, destroyed friendships and injured my own soul. The consequences have been severe.

I have always hated pornography. At least some part of my soul hated it. Perhaps the same part of my soul that loves and believes in God. Yet, I also loved pornography. I considered it beautiful and right. Pornography was good and pleasurable. And so there was this internal contradiction within myself. Much the same as what Paul describes: “For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing” [Romans 7:19]  

I do not believe in freewill today, although if you had asked me five years ago I would have taken it as a given. Nothing about me was free as a youth. On the contrary: “Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin” [John 8:34].  If I had freewill, then I could have stopped loving pornography, and yet in my heart I loved it.  My heart was ever inclined towards pornography – thus I was not free – and this fact fills the loving Creator with pain.

What freedom can a man claim if he is still a slave to sin? What fool believes he is free while his enemy parades him through the street in chains and the crowds jeer and laugh at him?

As I grew older I became more and more desperate to rid myself of sin. I wanted to cast it all off and serve God with my whole heart. I wanted a solution.  This is when I learned about the “Victorious Christian Life” as I heard a local pastor coin it recently.   

“Jesus wants to set you free tonight – come up and pray with someone and Jesus will set you free tonight”
 
“Could this be true?” I thought to myself. Truly, I believed in the power of God to set people free!
So, up to the front I would go and confess my struggle with pornography to a youth leader. Then they would pray for me and I would go home. At first I might have lasted a week. Then perhaps I might last a few days. Finally it got to the point where I literally only lasted a few hours. Why did it just get worse and worse for me?
 
This became a cycle of sin, shame and defeat. And worse yet I began to believe that God didn’t really care about me.  After all, a few other young men were held up as examples of Christians that were “on fire for Jesus,” who had attained the victory that I sought so desperately. I looked to them like idols. I wanted to be free like them.  Certainly, either God has listened to their prayers for freedom and disregarded mine, or perhaps I wasn’t trying hard enough?  I decided that it was because I wasn’t trying hard enough.
 
“Come up to the front, confess your sins, if you take this step of faith, God will set you free tonight.”
So up to the front I went again, but this time was different. I confessed that I struggled with pornography in front of 200 young people.  In the crowd were many of my non-Christian friends who looked at me like I was crazy.
 
“Surely God will see how serious I am!”
 
I was instantly a hero. I remember several youth leaders approaching me and telling me that I was their hero. It felt good. Finally, I did it. I did what I needed to do.
 
Two weeks later I watched pornography again.
 
That was the last time I went up to the front. If God would not accept my sacrifice then why bother?

Slowly my heart became cold. So cold that years later when my niece was born I had to pretend that I cared. My faith and love had died. Yet I stuck around for a few more years.  I became an intern youth leader and taught Sunday school for a little while during this time. I felt like such a hypocrite because I knew in my heart that I didn’t believe it anymore. I eventually abandoned both these positions and any positive influence I might have on kids. I didn’t even tell them I was leaving. I couldn’t face anyone.  All I felt was shame.

In Korea I met a young man named Derek. Derek invited me to his Bible study. You see Jesus will never surrender one of his sheep to the darkness. “For I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day” - Jesus

Derek gave me a copy of Martin Luther’s “The Freedom of a Christian.” He told me I could probably relate to it. I put off reading it for some time. Finally I picked it up one day and started to read.
 
“They have made of Christ a taskmaster far harsher than Moses.” – Martin Luther.
 
Luther viciously attacked those who tried to obtain God’s favor in the way that I had tried so hard as a youth.  Luther argued with the depths of my soul. He desperately tried to convince me that the "Victorious Christian Life" I had believed in as a youth was a lie.
 
Instead Luther said to me:  “No! Put your faith in Christ! Cling to the cross on which he died! Accept in your heart that his death, and his blood, is sufficient to cover all your sins! Let Christ be your righteousness! Let Christ be your victory! Though you say unto God a thousand times that you will be a better man – you will always fail to achieve it! So then, do not make any such empty promises. Cleave yourself to the promise of God instead! When Satan comes and reminds you of how wretched you are – cling to the cross and answer him: ‘Christ is my righteousness! I believed him, therefore, I have already overcome the world through him! I have crossed over from death to life!’”

Faith in Christ – not obedience unto the law – is the true victorious Christian life.
 
You see, the reason God could not accept my sacrifice was because he had already prepared a sacrifice for me – one so great that it shook the foundations of the world. For when Christ died on the cross, the veil that separated God from man was torn violently in two. Christ’s sacrifice is enough to cover all my sins.
 
It has taken Jesus three years to convince my soul of this simple fact.  Although I have not watched pornography in a long while, I still am tempted by it daily until despairing. But, I know that even if I do sin tomorrow or even in a few hours – I have an advocate on high who intercedes for me always – offering a sacrifice that is enough to satisfy God – therefore it is enough to satisfy me.

“When Satan tempts me to despair and tells me of the guilt within - upward I look and see Him there who made an end to all my sin.”

The freedom I tried to obtain as a youth was counterfeit. It was not the freedom that comes with faith in Christ. The freedom I have now surpasses any “freedom” that a man may believe he has.
In the past I counted the number of days since I had watched pornography. I was so proud of myself. Today I count on the blood of Christ.

What about those who did overcome their sins– not by faith – but by sight?  I do not judge them. The Gospel is available to them as well. I say to such people: lay your counterfeit righteousness at the feet of Jesus – it is not sufficient. Take up instead the banner of faith and declare to the world that the death and resurrection of Christ is enough for your justification! In Christ alone you are righteous and victorious. There is no victory apart from faith.
 
I pray that you would believe in your heart – that no matter how sinful you may be – Christ’s blood is enough for God. If it is enough for Him – who are you – oh little man – to say: “It is not good enough for me?”

“Then Jesus said to him, "See that you don't tell anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded, as a testimony to them." Matthew 8:4

I present myself to you as a testimony of the power of the blood of Jesus. The priests could not offer me any solution for my sins. All those trips up to the altar (as it is actually called an “altar call”) where I offered my sacrifices were meaningless and counter-productive. In the past I stumbled over the stumbling stone or like gentiles I looked to the cross as foolishness. I was dumbstruck by the cross and perplexed as to its meaning. But, today I stand because Christ is able to make me stand.
I know that many of you share the same experience as me. You have tried, perhaps for a decade or more, as I did, to overcome a particular sin. You have hated and despised yourself as I did. You tried accountability partners, attended Bible camps, sought help, and you read your Bible religiously because you believed these were a solution. You made lots of promises –you broke them all.
 
Like Martin Luther, I plead with your soul here today: His grace is sufficient for you.

Good Books

I like lists.  I always find it easier to read things that are in lists.  So with the hope that some of you reading this might be like me, here's a list of some of the best books I've read in the past few years.  Disclaimer, I don't read across very many genres.  I wish I did.  I mostly read Christian living/theology/Christian ministry books.  Probably really boring to many but I find them exciting.  So here's the list...

Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy.  by Eric Metaxas.  Best biography I've ever read.  I guess it would be pretty hard to write a boring biography of a pastor who tried to kill Hitler.

The Reason for God.  by Tim Keller.  Excellent defense of belief in God.  Tim Keller rocks.

Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God.  by J.I. Packer.  Great discussion of how God's sovereignty and man's responsibility work together.

Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther.  by Roland Bainton.  Another excellent biography of an amazing life.

The Renovation of the Church.  Great book on moving from shallow, seeker-sensitive church to deep, discipleship-minded church.  I underlined a lot.

The Great Divorce.  by C.S Lewis.  Imaginative look at heaven and hell. 

The Twilight of Athiesm: The Rise and Fall of Disbelief in the Modern World.  by Alistair McGrath.  A meticulous, reasoned study of the history of atheism from 18th century to today.  Made me want to read more of McGrath's work.  McGrath is a former athiest and currently a professor at King's College in London.

Developing life-giving community

 

If church is limited to what happens on Sunday morning, then I want nothing to do with it. If Sunday morning is the totality of what it means to be a Christian then I'm looking for something more exciting to do on Sunday morning. Thankfully, there is much more to church and to being a Christian than what many church services lead us to believe. 

We need an understanding of church that is so much broader then a couple hour program on Sunday morning. We are legalistic to the core. We want to know the right thing to do so that we can quickly check it off of our checklist and move on with our lives. We feel that going to church is a good thing and that it will make us a good person so we put forth the minimal effort required to appease our conscience and continue living in smug, self-righteousness. We try to be our own mini saviors; we merely all have different standards as to what it takes to save ourselves.

But going to church saves no one. Jesus alone saves.

The Bible defines church as a community of people connected to Jesus and to one another through the salvation that comes from Jesus' sacrificial death in our place. Church is not primarily an event or service; church is an identity and responsibility given to every true follower of God.

The church is a community of people with a responsibility to love, support, and selflessly care for one another; to comfort one another in suffering and hold one another accountable in sin; to be faithful and persevere through difficulties and disagreements; and to share the love and forgiveness received from God with one another. When true to its calling, the church is the most life giving community that exists.

Be the church!

The church is not a building.  The church is not a service.  The church is not an event.  The church is people.  It is a community of people united by their common connection to Christ.  Though we may not actually believe it, it is ingrained in our language that church means a building or a service.  We say, “I am going to church” or, “How was church today?”  There is nothing wrong with using the word “church” to refer to the building or service, but I’m afraid that the word has lost it’s real meaning somewhere along the way.  Church is a people united to Christ, and thus, to each other.

 We see this all over scripture.  Acts 12:5 says, “So Peter was kept in the prison, but prayer for him was being made fervently by the church to God”.  The point is that buildings or services don’t make fervent prayer; people do.  Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11:18, “For, in the first place, when you come together as a church…”  What Paul does not say is, “When you come together IN the church,” or, “When you come together DURING church,” or, “When you come together AT church.”  He says, “When you come together AS a church,” because church refers to a group of people.

Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 1:2 are instructive.  He says, “To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling, with all who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours.”  Paul identifies the church as “those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling…who call on the name of...Jesus.”  In other words, the church is a community of people united by Jesus as Lord and Savior.”

Yet the church is much more than people with similar interests deciding that it would be fun to get together.  It is not analogous to a vintage car collector’s club or a business owner’s society.  The church is God’s plan and purpose; it is His idea, not ours.  Paul is very clear about this.  He says in Ephesians, “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her” (5:25).  Christ did not die to create a bunch of individual Christians; He died to create the church.  Paul goes onto say that Christ “nourishes and cherishes” the church (5:29).  Christ cares for the church as a whole, as an entity.  Paul describes the church as Christ’s body, with Christ as the head (Col. 1:18).  The point is that we belong to Jesus as part of the church, not as individual, isolated believers.  

May we BE the church to the world!