I'm sure you've all heard it before. "The Bible was written a long time ago to a different culture," or "I don't read the Old Testament because as a 21st century Christian, I just cannot relate to it," or "We want to be a church that invites people in, so we don't preach that old Fire and Brimstone stuff anymore."
Pastors and church leaders are slowly looking around at the world we live in, and they are seeing some disturbing trends. Divorce rates are crazy high in and out of the Church; People who claim to be 'Christian' openly confess that Jesus doesn't have to be the only way to heaven; Our country, which prides itself on being the center of the Christian world, is seeing legislation and popular movements that are absolutely pushing Jesus and his teachings further and further into the backdrop of our society.
In response to these trends, it has become common to see in Christian bookstores, and to hear on Christian radio and in the Sunday morning pulpit, discussions on how to become a force in the culture again. How do we assert the power of Jesus into the everyday lives of this nation? How can we inspire our members to take a stand and do what is right and needs to be done for the Lord in their everyday lives?
And these talks always talk about method. Some people have totally relaxed their church services in an attempt to make it more inviting. Coffee, donuts, superbowl parties, block parties, movie nights are all ways that churches have tried to become more appealing to the world around them.
But these men and women who are wrapped up in this game are missing the truth and the power of the situation.
WE MAKE IT RELEVANT. WE ARE THE FORCE FOR CHANGE, NOT A GIMMICK OR A COMPETING SERVICE TO SOMETHING THE WORLD OFFERS.
Zondervan and Lifeway can, and do, sell books by experts on culture telling us how to influence our neighbors and cities for Christ. They give strategies and tips on how to talk to people, how to break the ice, how to organize parties that people might like to come to.
But how is an 'expert in culture' supposed to know more about our city and our neighborhood and our schools and our friends, than we do? The average lay person knows more about the current culture where they live, and the trends and feel of their friends and neighbors than any two experts put together, simply because we live in that culture everyday and we talk and socialize with those people everyday.
In the book of Numbers, chapter 6, God lays the groundwork for those people of his who wished to take on extra responsibility and extra vows for him. They were laymen who were already considered holy simply because they were God's chosen people, but they wished to become as zealous in their holy living as they could in honor of their LORD.
God called these people Nazirites. Chapter 6 of Numbers lays out the rules and requirements that these people had to follow during their vow to him. Those who took this vow became almost as holy as their priests were.
Flash forward to the New Testament, and in 1st Peter 2:9-10, we are called "a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy."
God expects YOU to be his priest. He expects YOU to proclaim his name and his glory and mercy to your friends.
We want the preacher or the sunday school teacher to do everything. But we can do everything they do more effectively. What I mean by this is they want to reach men and women's hearts with the truth and hope of the Gospel, and so they try to preach relevant texts to people, in order to tell them of their need for Christ.
But we are the ones who live and work with these people. We don't have to think hard or long about how we can be relevant, because we share many of the same interests and activities.
God wants us to be a nation of priests for him. Where we see the church fail, we are seeing not the failure of the pastor or the administration, but of OURSELVES to go out and preach the Gospel.
We must take the lead, and become modern day Nazirites for the Lord.
-Brett
Friday, April 30, 2010
Monday, April 26, 2010
The Four Soils: You’re going to feel a slight prick….or maybe die.
Mark 4:1-9
This week we are going to talk about the soil with the thorns. I’m willing to bet that this soil is the most prevalent through out the world, especially for us here in America. Here is what Jesus says in verse 7, “Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain.” The word goes out, springs up but doesn’t produce fruit because the thorns choke it out. What happens here is very similar to what happens to the seed in the rocky soil that we looked at last week. The difference in the two soils is what hinders the growth of the plant. Last week it was that the soil was shallow and the sun, or persecution, caused the plants to whither and die. In this circumstance it is the presence of thorns. And in verses 18 and 19 Jesus says that the thorns are the cares of the world, the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things.
Have you ever had God speak to you and you get all fired up, but the next day your mind is filled with work or your spouse or your kids and you forget all about what God has said. This happens to me all the time, and not only to me. This is what I see most in the people around me. God tells us to stop worshiping possessions and the next week we have a new TV because that old one was just about to die. This is all silly and we are only justifying our sin to ourselves.
One of my favorite passages concerning this topic is Luke 21:34-36,
But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap. For it will come upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth. But stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.
Just before Jesus says this he is instructing his disciples on the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem as well as the second coming of Christ when judgment will be brought on the whole earth. Jesus warns his disciples and I think that we should heed his warning. We must watch ourselves so that we aren’t so weighed down that when he comes back, we’re surprised. Not only are we surprised by the coming of our Lord, but we are not able to stand before him. This is not a good thing. We must cast aside the sin that so easily entangles and chase after Jesus, longing for the day that he returns not falling asleep and being rudely awakened.
I fear that we have become too complacent with our American Christianity. We live lukewarm lives in the name of grace and freedom. And we are under both, but Paul tells us that we are not to continue in our sin just because we are saved by grace. And pride in possessions is sin. The love the world is sin. If you ever want to doubt your salvation read 1 John. He says if you love the things of the world, you don’t love God. But we continue to justify our materialistic lives in the name of God’s blessing, when maybe really he has given us over to the wicked desires of our heart, and we are storing up wrath for ourselves on the Day of Judgment.
Stay awake! Don’t let the cares of the world weigh you down and keep the word of God from bearing fruit in your life. He knows you have needs but seek first his kingdom. “[cast] all your anxieties on him because he cares for you.” Trust in God and not in the comforts of the world. Bear fruit.
-Mitchell
This week we are going to talk about the soil with the thorns. I’m willing to bet that this soil is the most prevalent through out the world, especially for us here in America. Here is what Jesus says in verse 7, “Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain.” The word goes out, springs up but doesn’t produce fruit because the thorns choke it out. What happens here is very similar to what happens to the seed in the rocky soil that we looked at last week. The difference in the two soils is what hinders the growth of the plant. Last week it was that the soil was shallow and the sun, or persecution, caused the plants to whither and die. In this circumstance it is the presence of thorns. And in verses 18 and 19 Jesus says that the thorns are the cares of the world, the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things.
Have you ever had God speak to you and you get all fired up, but the next day your mind is filled with work or your spouse or your kids and you forget all about what God has said. This happens to me all the time, and not only to me. This is what I see most in the people around me. God tells us to stop worshiping possessions and the next week we have a new TV because that old one was just about to die. This is all silly and we are only justifying our sin to ourselves.
One of my favorite passages concerning this topic is Luke 21:34-36,
But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap. For it will come upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth. But stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.
Just before Jesus says this he is instructing his disciples on the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem as well as the second coming of Christ when judgment will be brought on the whole earth. Jesus warns his disciples and I think that we should heed his warning. We must watch ourselves so that we aren’t so weighed down that when he comes back, we’re surprised. Not only are we surprised by the coming of our Lord, but we are not able to stand before him. This is not a good thing. We must cast aside the sin that so easily entangles and chase after Jesus, longing for the day that he returns not falling asleep and being rudely awakened.
I fear that we have become too complacent with our American Christianity. We live lukewarm lives in the name of grace and freedom. And we are under both, but Paul tells us that we are not to continue in our sin just because we are saved by grace. And pride in possessions is sin. The love the world is sin. If you ever want to doubt your salvation read 1 John. He says if you love the things of the world, you don’t love God. But we continue to justify our materialistic lives in the name of God’s blessing, when maybe really he has given us over to the wicked desires of our heart, and we are storing up wrath for ourselves on the Day of Judgment.
Stay awake! Don’t let the cares of the world weigh you down and keep the word of God from bearing fruit in your life. He knows you have needs but seek first his kingdom. “[cast] all your anxieties on him because he cares for you.” Trust in God and not in the comforts of the world. Bear fruit.
-Mitchell
Thursday, April 22, 2010
It's not about who's teaching the message, it's about the message
Matthew 3:9
"And do not presume to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father', for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham."
John Piper is my favorite pastor. I have been listening to him for a couple of years now, and I have really grown in my understanding and knowledge of God through his ministry. I am going to a conference later this year where he will be speaking, and I'm looking forward to it.
One of the reasons I am looking forward to it, is because it will be the only stateside speaking engagement he will hold all year. He is taking a sabbatical this year, and he may not even come back to the pulpit.
When I heard this, it filled me with sadness. I will miss hearing my pastor, for I consider him one of my spiritual fathers.
And when I heard yesterday that Francis Chan is stepping down from his pastorate, it made me sympathize for his flock out in California, and what they must be going through.
But as I've been reading through Matthew, and savoring and chewing on the words of the Master, it got me thinking. Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, are the only ones who do the teaching in Matthew. Jesus comforts his disciples when he tells them he will leave by promising them that the Holy Spirit will come and personally teach them in John 14:15-31.
And when the early church was trying to form factions around their favorite teacher, whether it was Paul or Peter or Apollos, the Holy Spirit rebuked the church through Paul in 1 Corinthians 3:4-9.
"For when one says, 'I follow Paul,' and another, 'I follow Apollos,' are you not being merely human? What this is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Aploos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who planst nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building."
I say all this to remind myself, and you guys, that whatever is good about church, whatever is uplifting, whatever is powerful about church, is God.
It's not our lesson.
It's not the preacher.
It's not the luncheon we have after the service, or the fellowship we have in the hallway.
These things are only good if and when the Holy Spirit breathes life into them.
This is why a good lesson at church stays with us for so long, when a good business meeting rarely carries it's weight for longer than a week. This is why a good preacher can show us something in the Scripture that will change our lives, and an equally good teacher at school can present an awesome lesson that will be forgotten at the end of the semester.
God is bigger than John Piper, or Francis Chan, or Andy Jobe, or Brett Crawford. I think he removes men like Piper or Chan to remind us that it is our Father in Heaven who does the work. We are just the messengers.
And lest we become worried that there will be nobody with the ability to carry on the ministry that these men had, remember the verse at the top. We all have hearts of stone, before God transforms them. If he ever needs a need filled, he just breathes life into another rock, and puts it to work.
Praise God!
-Brett
"And do not presume to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father', for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham."
John Piper is my favorite pastor. I have been listening to him for a couple of years now, and I have really grown in my understanding and knowledge of God through his ministry. I am going to a conference later this year where he will be speaking, and I'm looking forward to it.
One of the reasons I am looking forward to it, is because it will be the only stateside speaking engagement he will hold all year. He is taking a sabbatical this year, and he may not even come back to the pulpit.
When I heard this, it filled me with sadness. I will miss hearing my pastor, for I consider him one of my spiritual fathers.
And when I heard yesterday that Francis Chan is stepping down from his pastorate, it made me sympathize for his flock out in California, and what they must be going through.
But as I've been reading through Matthew, and savoring and chewing on the words of the Master, it got me thinking. Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, are the only ones who do the teaching in Matthew. Jesus comforts his disciples when he tells them he will leave by promising them that the Holy Spirit will come and personally teach them in John 14:15-31.
And when the early church was trying to form factions around their favorite teacher, whether it was Paul or Peter or Apollos, the Holy Spirit rebuked the church through Paul in 1 Corinthians 3:4-9.
"For when one says, 'I follow Paul,' and another, 'I follow Apollos,' are you not being merely human? What this is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Aploos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who planst nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building."
I say all this to remind myself, and you guys, that whatever is good about church, whatever is uplifting, whatever is powerful about church, is God.
It's not our lesson.
It's not the preacher.
It's not the luncheon we have after the service, or the fellowship we have in the hallway.
These things are only good if and when the Holy Spirit breathes life into them.
This is why a good lesson at church stays with us for so long, when a good business meeting rarely carries it's weight for longer than a week. This is why a good preacher can show us something in the Scripture that will change our lives, and an equally good teacher at school can present an awesome lesson that will be forgotten at the end of the semester.
God is bigger than John Piper, or Francis Chan, or Andy Jobe, or Brett Crawford. I think he removes men like Piper or Chan to remind us that it is our Father in Heaven who does the work. We are just the messengers.
And lest we become worried that there will be nobody with the ability to carry on the ministry that these men had, remember the verse at the top. We all have hearts of stone, before God transforms them. If he ever needs a need filled, he just breathes life into another rock, and puts it to work.
Praise God!
-Brett
Monday, April 19, 2010
The Parable of the Sower: There is no SPF 4000
Mark 4:1-9
If you remember from last week, we are talking about the parable of the sower. Last time we talked about the first soil mentioned in the parable, the path. This week we are going to look at the second type of soil Jesus mentions, the rocky ground. Verses 5-6 says,
Other seed feel on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and Immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil. And when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root it withered away.
In this instance the word of God hits the dirt and a plant shoots up, but because the soil is so shallow the sun kills the plant, and it doesn’t produce any fruit.
So here is what it looks like in our lives. God speaks to you and says, “Stop looking at those other women and be faithful to your wife.” Or “Find your identity in me. Find your value in me, not in how you look or what other people think.” And you say, “Yes Lord! I am not going to do that anymore.” Your plant springs up. You get excited and you start to run forward. You no longer participate in the conversations about the new receptionist. You stop worrying so much about how your hair looks, and everything is good. But then the sun comes out. In verses 16 and 17 Jesus says,
And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy. And they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while; then when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away. (ESV)
Your buddies start making of fun of you, or you hear those ladies whispering behind your back. This is the point where your plant is tested. And depending on the soil it is planted in, it will either live and produce fruit or it will die, whither and be burned. Our first response might be to try and hide from the sun, but there is no escape from it. Jesus says that the world will hate us. And like we talked about last week, Satan wants to destroy us. He is going to do everything he can to try and keep the word of God from bearing fruit. There is no escaping from the sun; it’s going to try and burn you. There is no SPF 4000. Luckily, the secret to saving the plant is not hiding it from the sun, but increasing the depth of the soil. So how can we make our soil deeper?
Psalm 1:1-3 says,
Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. (ESV)
The psalmist tells us that the people who obey God and remain in him; those who mediate on God’s law day and night, they are the ones who produce fruit. So if your soil is shallow, spend time reading your Bible. Know what the word of God says, so when the sun comes out it does not burn you up. Paul calls the word of God the Sword of the spirit. We can fight with it. Your friends say, “Come on man, it’s just looking. It’s not like your doing anything.” And you can say, “Jesus says if you look at a woman lustfully you have already committed adultery with her in your heart.” Or maybe that voice inside your head tells you that people won’t like you if you look like that, and you can answer back, “I am not to let my beauty be external but internal as the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit.” We can fight against Satan with the word of God, but we have to know it if we are to use it. There is a reason why Paul says to “take up” the sword of the spirit. Just because it is sitting on your night stand doesn’t mean it is protecting you. You must immerse yourself in the scriptures and prayer. We must know the promises of God if our plants are to survive the sun of persecution when it rises in our lives.
- Mitch
If you remember from last week, we are talking about the parable of the sower. Last time we talked about the first soil mentioned in the parable, the path. This week we are going to look at the second type of soil Jesus mentions, the rocky ground. Verses 5-6 says,
Other seed feel on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and Immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil. And when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root it withered away.
In this instance the word of God hits the dirt and a plant shoots up, but because the soil is so shallow the sun kills the plant, and it doesn’t produce any fruit.
So here is what it looks like in our lives. God speaks to you and says, “Stop looking at those other women and be faithful to your wife.” Or “Find your identity in me. Find your value in me, not in how you look or what other people think.” And you say, “Yes Lord! I am not going to do that anymore.” Your plant springs up. You get excited and you start to run forward. You no longer participate in the conversations about the new receptionist. You stop worrying so much about how your hair looks, and everything is good. But then the sun comes out. In verses 16 and 17 Jesus says,
And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy. And they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while; then when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away. (ESV)
Your buddies start making of fun of you, or you hear those ladies whispering behind your back. This is the point where your plant is tested. And depending on the soil it is planted in, it will either live and produce fruit or it will die, whither and be burned. Our first response might be to try and hide from the sun, but there is no escape from it. Jesus says that the world will hate us. And like we talked about last week, Satan wants to destroy us. He is going to do everything he can to try and keep the word of God from bearing fruit. There is no escaping from the sun; it’s going to try and burn you. There is no SPF 4000. Luckily, the secret to saving the plant is not hiding it from the sun, but increasing the depth of the soil. So how can we make our soil deeper?
Psalm 1:1-3 says,
Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. (ESV)
The psalmist tells us that the people who obey God and remain in him; those who mediate on God’s law day and night, they are the ones who produce fruit. So if your soil is shallow, spend time reading your Bible. Know what the word of God says, so when the sun comes out it does not burn you up. Paul calls the word of God the Sword of the spirit. We can fight with it. Your friends say, “Come on man, it’s just looking. It’s not like your doing anything.” And you can say, “Jesus says if you look at a woman lustfully you have already committed adultery with her in your heart.” Or maybe that voice inside your head tells you that people won’t like you if you look like that, and you can answer back, “I am not to let my beauty be external but internal as the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit.” We can fight against Satan with the word of God, but we have to know it if we are to use it. There is a reason why Paul says to “take up” the sword of the spirit. Just because it is sitting on your night stand doesn’t mean it is protecting you. You must immerse yourself in the scriptures and prayer. We must know the promises of God if our plants are to survive the sun of persecution when it rises in our lives.
- Mitch
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Show me faith without works, and I'll show you a sushi roll with jalapeno and egg on it
I had sushi for dinner tonight. It was delicious. I was enjoying the nice atmosphere and food, when two women came in and sat nearby to order their meals.
They began to chat about life, and one of the women told her friend that she was filing for divorce from her husband. She then said that she had already found a good man, and she was in love with him. Her friend asked her where they had met, to which the first woman replied "We were friends in church before I decided to get a divorce. He is a really great guy who understands me and I just love him like I've never loved before."
After this remark, the second woman asked her friend where they had gone to church, and after learning where they went, she told her where she went, and they both laughed and ordered salads and a very interesting sushi roll that included jalapenos and egg.
I was reading James before I had gone to eat, and it was in my mind as I heard these women talking, both of whom would consider themselves faithful Christians.
James 2:14-26 offers a stern warning to us.
"What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them 'Go in peace, be warmed and filled,' without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
But someone will say, 'You have faith and I have works.' Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe-and shudder! Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, 'Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness'-and he was called a friend of God.
You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead."
If you have never read this passage before, it might alarm you. After all, isn't the great sounding call of the Protestant "by faith alone?"
Many people have thought that Paul and James fought over this issue of justification by faith alone. Paul clearly states in Galatians 3:1-14 that only those who by faith accept Jesus will be counted righteous. And here, we have James saying that "... a person is justified by works and not by faith alone."
Read carefully my friends. Paul and James are not fighting each other; rather, they are complementing one another.
Paul uses Abraham's faith in following God away from his homeland into a foreign one to show that Abraham was saved and justified by God because of his faith in what God had told him.
James uses Abraham's faith in sacrificing his son to show that the Abraham's faith was "completed," or shown to be a genuine saving faith by his obedient actions towards God.
This passage goes on to say that "faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead." James uses the example of the "christian" who encounters someone with a physical need, and instead of supplying the need, the "christian" just says some cheap words and moves on.
Both Paul and James are echoing Jesus' teaching on those who call him Lord but do not obey what he says. Jesus says these people prove they are not true disciples because the storms and trials of life come, and they are not built up by a life of obeying Jesus' commands. The storms come, and the 'faith' of these people is totally destroyed and proven useless.(Luke 6:43-49)
Guys and gals, the Scriptures are not meant to be things we simply chew over in our heads a little bit, and then leave until we come home or get free on the weekend.
They are meant to be a measuring rod for our lives. We are expected to look into the Scriptures, and see how they tell us to live, and then go out and do that. If we look into the Scriptures and see an area or areas that do not line up, God is not content for us merely to be 'bummed out' about it. He expects us to meet him everyday and ask him to change our hearts until they love him and look like him in all areas of our lives. (Jeremiah 31:31-34)
I pray that God lets us see the wickedness in all our hearts, the wickedness that drives us back to our Father who is willing and loving to change us.
-Brett
They began to chat about life, and one of the women told her friend that she was filing for divorce from her husband. She then said that she had already found a good man, and she was in love with him. Her friend asked her where they had met, to which the first woman replied "We were friends in church before I decided to get a divorce. He is a really great guy who understands me and I just love him like I've never loved before."
After this remark, the second woman asked her friend where they had gone to church, and after learning where they went, she told her where she went, and they both laughed and ordered salads and a very interesting sushi roll that included jalapenos and egg.
I was reading James before I had gone to eat, and it was in my mind as I heard these women talking, both of whom would consider themselves faithful Christians.
James 2:14-26 offers a stern warning to us.
"What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them 'Go in peace, be warmed and filled,' without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
But someone will say, 'You have faith and I have works.' Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe-and shudder! Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, 'Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness'-and he was called a friend of God.
You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead."
If you have never read this passage before, it might alarm you. After all, isn't the great sounding call of the Protestant "by faith alone?"
Many people have thought that Paul and James fought over this issue of justification by faith alone. Paul clearly states in Galatians 3:1-14 that only those who by faith accept Jesus will be counted righteous. And here, we have James saying that "... a person is justified by works and not by faith alone."
Read carefully my friends. Paul and James are not fighting each other; rather, they are complementing one another.
Paul uses Abraham's faith in following God away from his homeland into a foreign one to show that Abraham was saved and justified by God because of his faith in what God had told him.
James uses Abraham's faith in sacrificing his son to show that the Abraham's faith was "completed," or shown to be a genuine saving faith by his obedient actions towards God.
This passage goes on to say that "faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead." James uses the example of the "christian" who encounters someone with a physical need, and instead of supplying the need, the "christian" just says some cheap words and moves on.
Both Paul and James are echoing Jesus' teaching on those who call him Lord but do not obey what he says. Jesus says these people prove they are not true disciples because the storms and trials of life come, and they are not built up by a life of obeying Jesus' commands. The storms come, and the 'faith' of these people is totally destroyed and proven useless.(Luke 6:43-49)
Guys and gals, the Scriptures are not meant to be things we simply chew over in our heads a little bit, and then leave until we come home or get free on the weekend.
They are meant to be a measuring rod for our lives. We are expected to look into the Scriptures, and see how they tell us to live, and then go out and do that. If we look into the Scriptures and see an area or areas that do not line up, God is not content for us merely to be 'bummed out' about it. He expects us to meet him everyday and ask him to change our hearts until they love him and look like him in all areas of our lives. (Jeremiah 31:31-34)
I pray that God lets us see the wickedness in all our hearts, the wickedness that drives us back to our Father who is willing and loving to change us.
-Brett
Monday, April 12, 2010
The Four Soils: The Perilous Path
Mark 4:1-9
The parable of the sower is one we all know, and I’ll bet every time you read it, you think of the gospel. Am I right? Of course I am. And you should, this parable is very much about the gospel, but I think that there is something very beneficial in expanding our view on the “word” that is sown.
The word of God is, like I said, very much the gospel, but it also goes out in other ways. God whispers to you, “Go help that person.” or “Are you really loving your wife like I love the church?” Each time God speaks to us he is sowing his word, whether it be through scripture and the spirit, prayer, or other people. We can use the parable of sower to help us guard ourselves so that we can effectively respond to the word of God when he speaks to us. Not only in his saving call of repentance and belief, but also in his sanctifying call to live like Christ.
The first soil that Jesus mentions is the Path. This path is not a good place to be. The ground is so hard that he seed can not even penetrate it, let alone bear any fruit. The seed just sits there and the birds come by and snatch it away. The soil in this parable is referring to our hearts. Have you allowed your heart to become so hard and insensitive that you don’t even hear the word of God when he speaks to you? Is simply snatched away by the birds? In verse 15 of Chapter 4 Jesus shows us what’s really going on. He tells us that the bird is really Satan, and he snatches it away.
In our society, we play down the spiritual world. It’s seldom mentioned in church, and, at least for me, when I do hear it I don’t take it as seriously as I should. But it is constantly pointed to in scripture that we find ourselves in the middle a battle that is entirely spiritual. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 10:3-4, “For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to demolish strongholds.” Not only is our spiritual battle very real, our enemy is very real. Peter says of Satan in 1 Peter 5:8, “Be sober minded; be watchful. Your adversary the Devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” Listen to Peter’s warning. If we are walking on the perilous path Satan has us. We are blind and deaf to the words of God. 2 Timothy says we are “taken captive to do his [Satan] will. To add to the power of Peter’s warning lets look at what Jesus tells him in Luke 22:31-32, before he denies knowing Christ.
Jesus says, “Simon, Simon behold Satan demanded to have you that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again strengthen you brothers.” Peter knew what it meant to have the seed snatched away, and he is warning us so that we won’t find ourselves in the same situation. Satan wants to destroy you! And if you find yourself on the Perilous Path, he is succeeding. He is snatching up the word of God before you even hear it. But even if we find ourselves there, we are not without hope. Christ is the one who intercedes for us. He is our savior and just like he kept Peter, he will keep us, but we must get off the path. How do we do this? James 4:7 is our answer. “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the Devil, and he will flee from you.” We must turn to God and submit to him to get off the path. He is our salvation. He is our hope. He is our savior. Submit to God, and resist the Devil.
-Mitchell
The parable of the sower is one we all know, and I’ll bet every time you read it, you think of the gospel. Am I right? Of course I am. And you should, this parable is very much about the gospel, but I think that there is something very beneficial in expanding our view on the “word” that is sown.
The word of God is, like I said, very much the gospel, but it also goes out in other ways. God whispers to you, “Go help that person.” or “Are you really loving your wife like I love the church?” Each time God speaks to us he is sowing his word, whether it be through scripture and the spirit, prayer, or other people. We can use the parable of sower to help us guard ourselves so that we can effectively respond to the word of God when he speaks to us. Not only in his saving call of repentance and belief, but also in his sanctifying call to live like Christ.
The first soil that Jesus mentions is the Path. This path is not a good place to be. The ground is so hard that he seed can not even penetrate it, let alone bear any fruit. The seed just sits there and the birds come by and snatch it away. The soil in this parable is referring to our hearts. Have you allowed your heart to become so hard and insensitive that you don’t even hear the word of God when he speaks to you? Is simply snatched away by the birds? In verse 15 of Chapter 4 Jesus shows us what’s really going on. He tells us that the bird is really Satan, and he snatches it away.
In our society, we play down the spiritual world. It’s seldom mentioned in church, and, at least for me, when I do hear it I don’t take it as seriously as I should. But it is constantly pointed to in scripture that we find ourselves in the middle a battle that is entirely spiritual. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 10:3-4, “For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to demolish strongholds.” Not only is our spiritual battle very real, our enemy is very real. Peter says of Satan in 1 Peter 5:8, “Be sober minded; be watchful. Your adversary the Devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” Listen to Peter’s warning. If we are walking on the perilous path Satan has us. We are blind and deaf to the words of God. 2 Timothy says we are “taken captive to do his [Satan] will. To add to the power of Peter’s warning lets look at what Jesus tells him in Luke 22:31-32, before he denies knowing Christ.
Jesus says, “Simon, Simon behold Satan demanded to have you that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again strengthen you brothers.” Peter knew what it meant to have the seed snatched away, and he is warning us so that we won’t find ourselves in the same situation. Satan wants to destroy you! And if you find yourself on the Perilous Path, he is succeeding. He is snatching up the word of God before you even hear it. But even if we find ourselves there, we are not without hope. Christ is the one who intercedes for us. He is our savior and just like he kept Peter, he will keep us, but we must get off the path. How do we do this? James 4:7 is our answer. “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the Devil, and he will flee from you.” We must turn to God and submit to him to get off the path. He is our salvation. He is our hope. He is our savior. Submit to God, and resist the Devil.
-Mitchell
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Luke 6:43-46
"For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. Why then do you call me 'Lord, Lord' and not do what I tell you?"
Our class name is going to be True Vine.
Are we bearing fruit as a class, and more importantly, are we bearing fruit in our everyday lives for Jesus?
Millions of people will attend church on Easter Sunday, confident that because they said a two minute prayer when they were 5, and they haven't missed more than 3 Easter services since then, Jesus counts them as one of his flock.
This is a tragedy.
Jesus never said "say a prayer like this, and I will save you." He said to repent, or turn away from the sin we were commiting, and follow him. He was very clear that the only people who he counted as his own were those who did what he told them.
In his sermon on the plain in Luke chapter 6, Jesus outlines what it means to be a follower of his. He tells us that we are to love our enemies (verses 27-36), and to judge ourselves before we judge others around us (verses 37-42). He closes out his sermon with the passage above about bearing good fruit. Why?
He is reinforcing the truth that the people who love him and truly follow him will LIVE as he lived, and not merely talk as he talk.
He expects us to "bear fruits in keeping with repentance." (Luke 3:8) If you are wondering what you are to look for in your life as evidence that you are saved, look for the fruit of the Spirit in your life, that is "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control." (Galatians 5:22-23)
Don't rest on a prayer found nowhere in the Bible for your comfort. Don't think that since Jesus died for your sins, how you live now doesn't matter. Don't use the standards that the church uses to gauge spiritual maturity, i.e. age or the regularity of your tithe or the number of committees you've chaired or the number of solos you've sang in choir.
Instead, let us look to the Master for our confirmation. Do we look like Christ? Do we feel pain when we fail him? Do we want to become more like him?
I pray our class truly bears fruit worthy of the True Vine.
-Brett
Our class name is going to be True Vine.
Are we bearing fruit as a class, and more importantly, are we bearing fruit in our everyday lives for Jesus?
Millions of people will attend church on Easter Sunday, confident that because they said a two minute prayer when they were 5, and they haven't missed more than 3 Easter services since then, Jesus counts them as one of his flock.
This is a tragedy.
Jesus never said "say a prayer like this, and I will save you." He said to repent, or turn away from the sin we were commiting, and follow him. He was very clear that the only people who he counted as his own were those who did what he told them.
In his sermon on the plain in Luke chapter 6, Jesus outlines what it means to be a follower of his. He tells us that we are to love our enemies (verses 27-36), and to judge ourselves before we judge others around us (verses 37-42). He closes out his sermon with the passage above about bearing good fruit. Why?
He is reinforcing the truth that the people who love him and truly follow him will LIVE as he lived, and not merely talk as he talk.
He expects us to "bear fruits in keeping with repentance." (Luke 3:8) If you are wondering what you are to look for in your life as evidence that you are saved, look for the fruit of the Spirit in your life, that is "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control." (Galatians 5:22-23)
Don't rest on a prayer found nowhere in the Bible for your comfort. Don't think that since Jesus died for your sins, how you live now doesn't matter. Don't use the standards that the church uses to gauge spiritual maturity, i.e. age or the regularity of your tithe or the number of committees you've chaired or the number of solos you've sang in choir.
Instead, let us look to the Master for our confirmation. Do we look like Christ? Do we feel pain when we fail him? Do we want to become more like him?
I pray our class truly bears fruit worthy of the True Vine.
-Brett