Entrusted with the Gospel

"But even after we had suffered before and were spitefully treated at Philippi, as you know, we were bold in our God to speak to you the gospel of God in much conflict. For our exhortation did not come from error or uncleanness, nor was it in deceit.  But as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who tests our hearts. For neither at any time did we use flattering words, as you know, nor a cloak for covetousness—God is witness. Not did we seek glory from men, either from you or from others, when we might have made demands as apostles of Christ” 1 Thessalonians 2:2-6.

I spend a lot of time thinking about how to effectively be a Christian in all circumstances. I find a great deal of what I would term worldly Christians- people who would tell you they believe but quite possibly don’t attend church, Bible studies or any other sort of communal place to worship, regularly sleep with people or drink heavily, both with no or at least inauthentic remorse, curse and use the Lord’s name improperly often, and generally don’t read scripture or spend time in prayer on any consistent basis.

Sounding familiar? They might be called convenience or nominal Christians (Christian when it’s convenient or politically correct) or lukewarm as scripture might say. If you fall into this category (or even occasionally feel yourself there) you’re not alone- we've all been there. But the lingering and most important question is how to safeguard from being there or going there again.

So how do we effectively be for Christ in all circumstances? For me, the way to not be lukewarm is to make the choice in every circumstance to be for Christ and not for public opinion or for myself. It is a lifelong commitment but it’s a daily choice—a daily choice to die to self and live for Christ alone.

I spend a great deal of time making sure I’m still light-hearted, fun, easy to be around, non-judgmental, approachable and unassuming.  Yes, I do buy into the idea that a great many people have been turned away from Christ because of “Christians” themselves. But no, I don’t buy they’re turned completely away if they were meant to know Christ in the first place. It may take them longer, and that’s a serious embarrassment to Christianity, but not irreparable. But despite all my attempts to be the perfect light for Jesus, I’m still going to fall very short.

But that’s OK  I think a great deal of the learning process of salvation is getting things wrong and getting back up to continue on with the fight. We’re going to be misunderstood. We’re going to be called over-serious. We’re quite possibly going to be criticized and whispered about, maybe even shunned. But when it happens our response shouldn't be either extreme- to change or to be prideful. Our response should be to spend even more time with the Lord, allowing Him to examine us, teach us, mold us a little more until we become as much of His spiritual likeness as we are His physical.  It’s a hard and unpopular fight. If it’s not, you’re not doing it right. But that doesn't mean you have any right to respond to the world’s ugliness with anything other than a large measure of grace and guidance.

You've been entrusted with the gospel. Don’t hide behind flattering words or cloaks of covetousness. You've been charged to be bold but you've been equally charged to be humble. And above all remember, it is God who tests hearts so no matter the outcome, find confidence in the counsel you sought and the direction the Lord led you in.

Influences

“…so stand fast in the Lord, beloved” Philippians 4:1b

As a commentary to this passage William Barclay once wrote, “Only with Jesus Christ can we resist the seductions of temptation and the weakness of cowardice.” He goes on to make the point that the word Paul uses for stand fast is a word noted for battle, when the soldiers stand unflinchingly as the opposition charges directly at them. That’s a great word picture.

I often think about standing firm in different situations and how emotions and the people standing near can make us stand strong or fall easily. When I’m with one friend it’s easy to talk about the Lord and feel so connected. But, with another friend, it’s easy to get a little carried away and talk about things (people) that are less than building to the Kingdom. Isn’t life interesting? Our mood, our self-worth, our friends so influence our every moment. They not only influence our moments, they change our emotions, our attitudes and eventually our viewpoints.

That’s not always a bad thing but it’s almost always a universal truth. We are who we spend time with.

Having never experienced life before the fall I can only imagine exactly how God created us. Were we designed strong, unflinching, needing nothing and no one? No. Even in Adam’s perfect state, even with lots of creature naming to consume his time, Adam needed a companion, someone like him. Adam needed someone to walk life with, not help him garden, not to do anything for him necessarily, just to be with him (admittedly the doing can often show how much you love the being).  But even the then-perfect human, Eve, fell for the Evil One’s trick and thus Adam listened and acted as well. Even two perfect people fell when someone didn’t act in their best interest so what hope is there for us?

I often underestimate the difficulty of the battle. We’re inclined to think we can do it on our own. I don’t cheat; I don’t steal; I don’t do any of the “real” lies. I covet occasionally and am jealous- but I’m only human, what do you want from me? But that’s a big Catch 22- the blame game. It’s not my fault, it is my fault, it’s someone else’s fault….on and on. 

The big picture is not what separated us from God. It's not your lifelong measure of good or bad. It's not a scale of deeds or your morality. It was one sin. One act barred us from eternity with the Lord. One willing person to be complicit with evil instead of the Lord's command.

Paul writes stand fast in the Lord, beloved not from the barred side but from the side already experiencing eternity. He writes fully human, fully on earth but fully absorbed in the knowledge and faith of being God's beloved, so much so that he desperately wants the receivers of this letter to experience it too. They're not supposed to be normal and he's reminding them to stand fast BECAUSE they are God's beloved, because they are in the Lord. And because they are in the Lord, they will never have to stand alone.

And it makes me wonder, are we standing with our friends, our family, our acquaintances and allowing their habits and viewpoints to invade our lives or are we stand[ing] fast in the Lord? Are we standing with Him, and He with us, and letting that relationship direct our lives or are we unknowingly letting culture attach? Relationship is so undoubtedly critical to our livelihood, and many a blessing emerges from many of them. But what of the others and what of the broken ones we've not gotten around to working on? And most importantly, what of the ones where we need to throw aside momentary pleasures and stand firm in the Lord? 

Christian and Cultural Beliefs

As I drove in to work today I listened to a song on the radio that struck me, as many often do. It was based on 1 Corinthians 13:2-3, “And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.”

If I’m being honest (and I likely shouldn’t be as forthright as I sometimes am), I have a hard time with verses like this. As I listened to the song, and as I’ve listened countless times to speakers, I’m initially taken back by statements like this before I fully connect that it’s taken directly from scripture. Once I draw the connection my mind flips over from doubt to passive acceptance, since after all, it’s the infallible Word of God so I have no right to question it.

And while the Word is infallible, I have every right to look into it and examine it against my life. If these two verses and the like were plucked out of scripture and I took the rest of the Bible, I should still draw the same conclusion. But I doubt I would.  Verses like these make me realize just how intimately the Lord knows me. He knew I needed to be told directly. He knew I wouldn’t get it from the likely hundreds of indirect ways he says it in the rest of Scripture.  He left nothing out but describes here great human power and ability, far exceeding mine, so I am left without any excuse but to believe I am and I gain NOTHING apart from loving people. That’s hard to swallow.

But looking at this made me even more aware of how my cultural christianity has invaded my God-like Christianity. My cultural side says, “Do what you can; we’re just human. Fight the fight but you need to give yourself a break and cut lose every once in a while. Jesus’ first miracle He turned water to wine, He knows how to have a good time. Give what you can to the church but don’t worry about it. Go to church when you can make it and smile at strangers. Try to repent if you do something really bad and don’t do things that would hurt other people…” My cultural christianity has no problem with really expensive lifestyles or drinking a little too much. It has no problem if I don’t actually talk about Jesus, ever, to anyone, since I am being nice and everyone in the South knows about Jesus anyway.

This is not a talk about how terrible all of the above is, even if I paint it in a negative light. I am just a person, trying to draw back the shade that is often cast by our culture onto our Christianity. It can be such a subtle difference that we don’t always recognize it. We could have grown up in it and never experienced pure belief and thereby have no authentic measure. I will spend a lifetime sifting my humanity, my culture, my familial values, my feelings and emotions to separate the wheat and the chaff. I may not ever come to the end.

One thing I do know- I have a Book accessible to me at any time that wants to be my guide. It wants to shine bright light on my life so that when any shadow comes upon it I can more distinctly separate it out.  And when I am taken aback by something like this passage before realizing it’s scripture, I pray to realize how thankful I should be that the Lord is not done working out my faith. He’s not done refining my belief system and my life so that I may be his vessel.  He’s not done teaching me that all the power in the world amounts to nothing if we do not love. And regardless of how my culture or history fights that statement, it’s true- plain and simple.

Human Ability

This past week I went through with a group the often-heard, very quotable and applicable passage of Jesus walking on water and Peter’s doubt. It’s a very vivid picture of walking calmly when faith is full contrasted to faith wavering and subsequently plunging into the waves. It’s a great passage of scripture. But as we talked through it someone brought up a rather intriguing point to me.

The statement was made that Jesus was able to walk on water because of His God-nature and that humans in themselves cannot walk on water. The point was well-made; Jesus was able to sustain Peter, allowing him the courage and ability to jump out of the boat. Could Peter have walked on water otherwise? Likely not. Could you walk on water at any given time? Likely not. Has anyone, besides this instance with Jesus present, ever seen someone walk on water? Doubtful.

But is it possible?

My humanity says no way. I could take the most faith-filled person I know and they would sink because in what context would we need in this day for someone to walk on the water?

But is it possible?

I’ve been reading scripture throughout my life and come on the thought many times that so much of our world exists in parallels or contradictions to the Holy Scriptures. So much of our humanity is much the same way. While I deeply wish I was like Christ and could be 100% one nature, much like He was 100% God, if I’m deeply honest I’m usually about 70/30 human to Christian (and it fluctuates but I’ll let you decide which percentage is in which camp…).  While His grace completely covers me, my humanity and the evil that subsequently follows, seeps through my God-likeness and too often reveals itself.

But I’ve been thinking about walking on water and whether someone in our modern world actually could do it, without the physical presence of the Lord. That may be a bizarre thought to dwell on and it most certainly is not a salvation issue to ponder, but it is possible?

Here’s what I know. Jesus himself said in John 14:12, "I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father.”  Or this passage in Luke 17:6, “The Lord answered, "If you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, 'May you be uprooted and thrown into the sea,' and it would obey you.” Or the similar one in Matthew 17:20, “You don't have enough faith," Jesus told them. "I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it would move. Nothing would be impossible."

I very likely will never see someone walk on water. I may never see a paralytic be instantly healed by a touch or see the dead walk again. I have a hard time with public healings and exorcism. I have an even harder time with living in the Spirit. But what I do know is that there is scriptural validity not only to each of these practices but also proof that they’ve worked. Maybe not backing for the specific ways we may practice them, but the passages above say without mincing words that we, who are not even 1% God, can do even greater things that Jesus who was 100%. I’m not planning to run over to my neighborhood pool anytime soon, but if He says I can move mountains, it’s time I start having the faith to discover what my life’s mountains look like.

Credibility

"For I was ashamed to request of the king an escort of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy on the road, because we had spoken to the king, saying, The hand of our God is upon all those for good who seek Him, but His power and His wrath are against all those who forsake Him. So we fasted and entreated our God for this, and He answered our prayer"  Ezra 8:22-23.

The delicacy here to maintain the Lord's reputation of strength and power is admirable to me. He's meticulous to think through perceptions and believes going to the king of Persia to say they need backup would damage God's credibility.

Part of me does wonder whether this was actually necessary though, to withhold asking for help. In a society plagued with individuality and the inability to reach out, I often see God present opportunities for us to humble ourselves and ask for help. He always equips us for His work but rarely equips us alone- we need other people! Was it really necessary for them to be ashamed to ask the king? Couldn't they have explained that God often uses our good planning to accomplish His plan? After alll, I do believe in a world order set by God designed so that we are responsible to use the things He's given us- and if the king's soldiers are at your disposal, shouldn't that fall in the category of being a good steward of God's resources? They were carrying significant funds and materials for the temple rebuild.

But alas, God responds in a powerful way to them: He answered our prayer. So despite my questions about our responsiblity, our first one quite definitely lies in praying to God about everything, particularly the building of His house and kingdom like they are doing here. I too often rely on the practical like preparing armies and organizing and too rarely choose to pray and let God lead. Prayer is not an excuse for lack of preparedness but it's a guide for action. It's the place we should start, and end, and meditate on continuously. It's a place we can quiet our souls, displace the clutter, and ask God to reveal what He's doing and what He'd have us do.

And if we care about maintaining the knowledge of God's power and authority as much as these men, I believe God will answer us too.

Withholding Blessing

"Is it time for your yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, and this temple to lie in ruins? Now therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways! You have sown much, and bring in little; you eat, but do not have enough; you drink, but you are not filled with drink; you clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; and he who earns wages, earns wages to put into a bag with holes. Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways! Go up to the mountains and bring wood and build the temple, that I may take pleasure in it and be glorified, says the Lord. You looked for much, but indeed it came to little; and when you brought it home, it blew away. Why? says the Lord of hosts. Because of My house that is in ruins, while every one of you runs to his own house. Therefore the heavens above you withhold the dew, and the earth withholds its fruit" Haggai 1:4-10.

This is an incredibly foreign concept in our world- the idea that our hard work won't pay off no matter how hard we try. Try, try again the saying goes. And while that is very, very true, if we try, try again and continue to withhold from the Lord He may again and again withhold from us. In a world built on results from smart business practices, God sure does throw a possibly huge wrench in our plans.

I often think I placate God in my prayer life. I spend time asking for God to bless this and bless that. Bless me; bless my work; bless my family and my friends; bless us as we travel and keep us safe; blah, blah, blah. God watch over us. Blah. Now I in no way mean to trivialize any form of prayer or dishonor any moment we spend with God or talking about God but simply put, a quality prayer life starts with getting out of the habit of praying monotonous, unnecessary prayers. He's already promised to never leave us or forsake us. He's already promised to bless us within His will. CHECK. No need to pray for that anymore. It's not a time saver in your time with God but it is a quality check and results booster.

But, steering back on topic, how often do we consider that God is withholding His blessing because of our lack-luster following or disobedience? In a world stricken with recession, it's an ironic juxtaposition to consider that possibly, in some individual or corporate cases, God just might be withholding our earthly blessings because of our unwillingness to further His kingdom. Your salary might just be frozen where it is until you honor God; your ability to have children or get married just might come second to what needs to be done in the church. Or what's more, our culture that most of us so willingly accept and absorb into just might be holding the lot of us back in one big sweep.

Do we believe God has this power? Do we believe He uses it? What God do we believe in, exactly? I don't know about yours but the more I read passages like this the more I realize my God's not as squeaky clean, good-guy, loving grandfather god. He is completely clean. He is completely good. And He is completely God. But He's not our world's definition of those words. He's different. He's God and if you don't fear Him, you don't know Him. And if you don't believe He would withhold from you, you don't trust Him enough and you just might find out the hard way like too many of us quite possibly are currently experiencing.

Satan's Calling

I sat just now listening to someone that I don't typically share much spiritual connection or conviction with. Several of us sat at the table discussing business, spiritual matters and various odds and ends of news. This person, who blends with so many before him, made a particular comment that irks me. Nothing harsh or intentional, nothing obscene or recognizable to anyone else at the table. Nothing unbiblical. But nonetheless, personal. And as I absorbed the words, I felt a presence that had no business in this conversation or any conversation.

Satan's calling. I can still feel the weight of that realization. "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places" Ephesians 6:12.

I'm not fighting any one person. I'm fighting Evil. I'm fighting the dark force in this world that loves disguising itself in ways it knows really get under my skin. But when someone says or does something harsh to us, we too often don't target our emotions at the correct enemy. We hate our fellow man. We throw brash comments, hateful little anecdotes and mean-hearted gestures at other people. We feel threatened and self-conscious and lash out at the wrong enemy. Our first problem is of course the incessant need to reciprocate at all, but a very close second is the direction of our hostility.

What's wrong with us today? Of course there are many answers to this question but I think one of the roots lies in incorrectly indentifying the source of our anger. Don't think for one second the enemy doesn't know you infinitely better than almost any one person, maybe even everyone. He studies your moves, he knows your weaknesses, your hot button topics, your irritations. He knows what will set you off. I think in our culture he particularly thrives on back-handed comments and tone of voice. He gets his thrills when no one else but you notices your blood boiling so no apology or amends will ever be made. But he's created a barrier that unless we forceably break through may remain as a hindrance to true relationship for a long time.

We can become people that are confrontational, and confrontation has its definite place and need in any culture. But what we really need to do is become people that correctly identify the enemy so that our emotions land on the correct source. We've got to change to become less irritable, less able to be thrown, less likely targets, or we continue to be such easy prey.  But until we master that discipline, we can practice love and by that forgiveness. We can practice giving people the benefit of the doubt and end our hostility on our fellow man. Practice it will take but I guarantee the world will be a better place for it.

Incurable Affliction

"'For I am with you,' says the Lord, 'to save you; though I make a full end of all nations where I have scattered you, yet I will not make a complete end of you. But I will not let you go altogether unpunished.' For thus says the Lord: 'Your affliction is incurable, your wound is severe. There is no one to plead your cause that you may be bound up; you have no healing medicines. Why do you cry about your affliction? Your sorrow is incurable. Because of the multitude of your iniquities, because your sins have increased, I have done these things to you. Therefore all those who devour you shall be devoured; and all your adversaries, every one of them, shall go into captivity. Those who plunder you shall become plunder and all who prey upon you I will make a prey"  Jeremiah 30: 11-16.


It's a condition that plagues us all: humanity. I often grumble as I wrestle with the ugly parts of me just how awful it is to have this darkness constantly sneaking up on me, living in my inner-being, just waiting for a foothold out. It's my human condition, my great depravity. It's an excellent excuse for the terrible things we do but not enough so that it excuses us from the consequences that follow wrong actions. This may be ironic to say, but I love the harshness of the passage above. Your affliction is incurable. You have no healing medicines. You can't do it. You can't save yourself. You may try, God only knows how many times I have and likely will continue to try. Your sins are piling up. Your incurable. It's so desolate and hopeless.


Then we reach deep into some of the context of this writing. The Israelites are so much like us it's scary. They've fallen away, big time. They didn't want to listen to God, didn't want to worship Him, didn't want to do anything but exactly what they wanted to do. If they lived in modern America they would be skipping church, only praying in emergencies or when they wanted something and idling their lives away on alcohol and lewd behavior (and for those who think lewd is antiquated, try worldly). They'd look surprisingly similar to you and me.


But in this passage God isn't saying they're utterly incurable. He's saying they're incurable in the path they've set themselves on. When you dig yourself a hole well above your head and you try to save yourself, all it's going to do it scrape away the edges and make your hole bigger when you try to climb out. Bonus, it may throw some of the dust in your face in the mean time. The Israelites had dug a HUGE hole- no way of climbing out and righting themselves. They'd fallen into this severe, destitute place far off from God. In their plight they were hopeless.


Then the next part, and don't miss it because I love this: Why do you cry about your affliction? Your sorrow is incurable.  Why do we feel sorry for ourselves? Why do we weep about the trivial things of life? Why do we drown on and on about the things that are temporal and don't truly matter? Our sorrow is incurable and our thirst unquenchable. Unless we go to the right source.
God says something rather uncomfortable next.  I have done these things to you. We don't typically like to think of God as inflicting sorrow on us much less severe wounds and incurable afflictions. We don't like to think of God as the power who swept the Israelites into captivity and desolation. But He's that God too and in this passage He mercifully gives us just a small glimpse of His reason: For I am with you... to save you... yet I will not make a complete end of you. But I will not let you go altogether unpunished. He loves us so much. It's real; it's raw; it's uncomfortable. He loved them so much, despite their wandering, to devour and plunder the nations He used to scatter them. I love the word therefore, it's such a great word to sum up. Yet here, upon first glance, it sits awkwardly between to seemingly unconnected sentences. Until you think about it. The Israelites were His chosen, call by His name. And even though they broke the sacred bond, He certainly wouldn't. And though He did everything to them, He still broke apart the nations and stood once again protecting them, much like a father for his child or a shepherd for his flock. He not only stood up for His people He destroyed any doubt that He was the controller and ruler, the Almighty God.


What a powerful, fierce and incredibly loving God we serve.