Today's thought:
Galatians 1:10, "Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ."
At age 26, Ken Elzinga joined the faculty of the University of Virginia. After a tenured colleague warned him that being explicit about his faith would hinder his career, Elzinga was stunned to see a flier with his face on it placed at a prominent campus location. A campus ministry had posted it to advertise a talk he had agreed to give.
A relatively new believer, Elzinga worried. Would fellow professors think less of him? Might this harm his tenure chances? He experienced a dark night of the soul, returning to campus and secretly taking the poster down. But the next morning, Elzinga put the poster back up. After hours of soul-searching, he concluded that his life was not about career ambition but about faithful discipleship, and that being private about his faith was not an option.
In the four decades since, Elzinga has been named professor of the year multiple times and is still a speaker in high demand. He will be the first to say that serving only one master has been liberating. Why? Because pleasing an audience of one makes us less anxious, less sensitive to criticism, and more courageous. Because in doing so, we become more secure and compete less for our honor. [Alec Hill, "The Most Troubling Parable," Christianity Today (July/August 2014)]
As someone said, "You can please some of the people some of the time but not all the people all of the time." If you are a people pleaser, as sometimes Christians tend to be, this fact can be incredibly disheartening. God frees us from the need to seek for approval from people. In seeking the approval of God alone we will gain—often times but not always—people's approval just by our courage and the good we do seeking God's approval. How liberating to only have to please an audience of One. Especially since, in Christ, we are already approved.
Prayer: Father, today we seek Your approval alone. We thank you that in Christ we have that approval and so today we will seek to do what pleases and makes You smile. Today we will seek for no greater good than hearing those precious words, "Well done, good and faithful servant!" (Matthew 25:23). In Jesus name, amen.
(Can we link up on Twitter? @ChristianArvada)
For when we ask why...
Today's thought:
"This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins" (1 John 4:10).
We look at this world with its evil, suffering, pain and brokenness and wonder, why? If God is so good why did He allow this world to exist in its present fallen state? Or, why does He not take evil out of this world?
These were the thoughts that we're going through my mind several years ago as I sat by the bed of my Mother as she lay dying in a hospice from lung cancer. The one who stood up for me all my life could no longer stand...or open her eyes, or speak an audible word, or wrap her arms around me in love's embrace. I watched as cancer slowly extinguished the flame of her spirit that once burned so bright. I wondered, why?
I grappled with this question in the quiet dark nights that followed. It would swirl in my mind as I lay in bed, my wife sound asleep beside me, as I stared at the ceiling, silent tears sliding down my checks into the pillow. My heart cried out to God in desperation and with a deep aching throb. "Isn't God good? Then why?"
The answer did not come right away. Not until I was ready and able to accept it. It was not what I expected or imagined, but once I saw it and God spoke it in my heart, I understood. I knew this answer theologically but it took on incredible depth and richness when it finally was spoke into my life. You might think the answer is trite or inconsequential but I assure you it is not. It is true and mysterious.
Why God does not take evil out of this world is simply this: He loves you. You see, it's in Jeremiah 1:5, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations." God knew us before we even took a breath. More than that, Ephesians 1:4, "For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love..." God knew us before He even created a thing and He responded to that knowledge in love.
Now consider this: what if God took evil out of the world tomorrow? To do that God would have to take you and I out of this world and out of existence. If this world were a perfect place, you and I would not be in it. It would be the same as wishing for a different father. Had my Mom had me with a different man, a better man, I may be better looking or stronger or smarter, but I can't ignore the fact, I would not be me. I would have never existed.
But God knew us. Before we existed we were a reality in the mind of God. Not just the work in progress that we are, mind you, but us, the finished product in Christ (1 John 3:2). He weighed out the evil, the horrors, the atrocities, the suffering, and death—all these things have brought Him great pain and anguish too (we do not suffer alone but God suffers with us throughout all human history)—in one hand and His love for you in the other and you were more important, you were more precious, more dear to Him than all the rest.
It's no less mysterious now that I have an answer. As the Psalmist muses, "When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?" (Psalm 8:3-4).
So now the mystery isn't, "Why evil?" but rather, "Why does God love us so much?" For God has suffered, perhaps the most, when He sent Love to this world in the form of Jesus. He had to turn His back on His own Son while on the cross, to pass upon Him our judgement and punishment. "This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins" (1 John 4:10). An answer and a marvelous beautiful mystery in one.
Prayer: Father, I am a sinner in need of Your grace. You have suffered greatly because of Your love for me. But still You loved me and sent Your Son to die for me that I might have eternal life. I thank You for this mysterious love, that I can neither fathom nor comprehend, but is all the same real and ever present. What can I say but that I love you because You first loved me. That is answer enough and mystery enough for me. In Jesus precious name, amen.
Freedom isn't free...
"Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends" (John 15:13). Thank you to all veterans who have served the for the greater cause of freedom. We also remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice of their lives so we may enjoy such freedom. They go to the hands of the One who understands what it means to sacrifice for the freedom of others—Jesus Christ. He said, "So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed" (John 8:36). Since the sacrifices of our veterans was made for our freedom, we honor them the most when we accept the gift of Christ's total freedom. "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery" (Galatians 5:1). God bless our veterans!
Sieze the day...
Today's Thought:
1 Peter 4:7, "The end of all things is near. Therefore be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray."
Peter says, "The end of all things is near..." Peter is not just stating a fact but describing an attitude.
Amazingly, this idea isn't foreign to our culture or times. We hear this message when someone points to global warming, or deforestation, or nuclear weapons, or some phenomenon happening on the sun, or the melting of the polar ice caps, or Ebola, or an increase in natural catastrophes, or some possible future event like a meteor hitting the earth. It is touted from the evening news to the front page of the papers. People are saying, "See! The end is near." And we have our fair share of "Armageddon" type movies coming out every few years to reinforce the thought.
We Christians say the same thing but in a much different tone. For the world the end of all things is "doomsday." For the Christian it is VC Day (Victory in Christ day). We are taught to long for this day. We are taught to pray for this day. We are taught to live for this day.
It's Dead Poet's Society where Robin Williams' character takes his students into a hall in the school where the walls are lined with pictures of students who had passed before and are now gone. He tells them to peer into the faces in the photographs for a while. Then he whispers, "carpe diem." Seize the day. He makes them look into the face of their own mortality and gives the message that those who have gone before would speak if their photos could give voice, "seize the day!"
That's the attitude Peter is talking about. We live with the expectancy of the immanent return of Christ. To wake each day and think, "this is the day!"
But you can't live a carpe diem life of expectancy without living a different kind of life. Recently I read a book called, "One a month To Live." The premise: What if you only had one month to live. What changes would you make in your life? Kerry and Chris Shook's book is subtitled, "Thirty Days to a No-Regrets Life" and encourages readers to face their own mortality and live life to the absolute fullest. Because living a life of expectancy changes your focus. You focus on what is really important. Of all the people's hands I've held who were dying I can tell you from experience the only thing you care about when the end comes is relationships and regrets. Living each day as if it is your last strengthens relationships and eliminates regrets.
Peter says, "The end of all things is near..."
"The Spirit and the bride says, “Come!” And let the one who hears say, “Come!” Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life" (Revelation 22:17).
Jesus says, "Yes, I am coming soon" (Revelation 22:20).
Now, we just have to live like it.
Prayer: Father, we cry out to You, "come quickly!" We are pilgrims and aliens in this land. We long for the end of all things and our heavenly home. Help us, by Your Holy Spirit, to live, and to love, as if today were the day. In Jesus, amen!
[Adapted from, "Rock Solid: Part 4: Jesus, His Immanent Return." Listen to the full message at: www.arvadachristian.org/sermons]
Suffering as a good soldier of Christ...
Today's thought:
2 Timothy 2:3, “Join with me in suffering, like a good soldier of Christ Jesus.”
C.S. Lewis once wrote, "Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny." Paul, an apostle of Jesus who knew a great amount of suffering in his life and ministry, said, "Join with me in suffering, like a good soldier of Christ Jesus." (2 Timothy 2:3) I hear this and think, 'Is Paul some sort of masochist?' I do not believe Paul wanted to suffer anymore than anyone else did. I do think that Paul had a much different attitude towards suffering than we have today.
I think the difference is between being resigned to suffer or accepting suffering. Resignation and acceptance are two different things. We have all met people who are resigned to fate. They say, "This is just my lot." They have given up fighting. "That's life," they say. I think of Eeyore the donkey from Winnie the Pooh. He used to say in his morose way, "Could be worse. Not sure how, but it could be." On the other hand the Christian accepts suffering and uses it as a springboard, a platform. "Resignation is surrender to fate; acceptance is surrender to God," says Elisabeth Elliot. She says, "Resignation lies down quietly in an empty universe. Acceptance rises up to meet the God who fills that universe with purpose and destiny. Resignation says, 'I can't,' and God says, 'I can.' Resignation says, 'It's all over for me.' Acceptance asks, 'Now that I'm here, Lord, what's next?' Resignation says, 'What a waste.' Acceptance says, 'In what redemptive way can you use this mess, Lord?'"
And who is Elisabeth Elliot? A woman whose husband lay flat on his face, dead in a river with an arrow in his back—martyred for Jesus Christ. What did Elisabeth Elliot do? She said, "In what redemptive way can you use this mess, Lord? I know that my Redeemer lives. He died to make me fit for heaven; he lives to make me fit for earth. Now, what are you going to redeem, buy back, out of this situation?" Elisabeth Elliot took the hand of her 6-year-old daughter, and Marge Saint, the wife of another martyred missionary, took her daughter's hand, and they all walked back into that tribe that had killed their missionary husbands. They weren't killed; they were accepted. They translated the Bible, and the whole tribe came to Christ.
Marge Saint's daughter, who went with her mother into that tribe, recounts what God did in that village. She says, "I remember at 15, I stood in the river where my father had died, and I was baptized by the man who killed him. That man is now the pastor of that tribe." In what redemptive way can you use this mess, Lord? Paul was not simply resigned to suffer but accepted his suffering as a "good soldier of Christ" knowing God can redeem any and all messes and use them for good.
Prayer: Father, we can’t always understand our suffering. We don’t know how You can use it, change us through it and work it out for good. It is not our task to understand but to push forward in the battle as one who is willing to suffer for Your purpose and glory. May that glory be seen in us today as we “fight the good fight” and seek Your will. We love You because You first loved us through Jesus, amen!