Obscuring the Heart's Condition

Obscuring the Heart's Condition

I have come to a disconcerting realization that church people avoid sanctification by adhering to rules rather than allowing God to transform their hearts. Recently, I found myself in a discussion about alcohol in response to an article in Relevant Magazine about Christianity's Most Famous Beer Enthusiasts.   The discussion, while good natured seemed to quickly stray into the bounds of legalism, a religious predisposition that is more dangerous than any other I know.  It reminded me of the dangers thereof as well as the good intentions that often fertilize it's root, inspiring me to address the issue here.  While the example I am sharing relates to the use of alcohol, the issue is much further reaching.  

John Oliver Hilariously Exposes a False Gospel

John Oliver Hilariously Exposes a False Gospel

The fundamental truth of the gospel is that Jesus has paid our sin debts, and salvation is free (Ephesians 2:8).  When you Trust Jesus, you follow Him.  Jesus is the God of creation.  He owns everything, but He chose to become as a servant (Philippians 2), to live as a homeless man (Luke 9:58), and to spend his time with broken people.  Following Jesus doesn't mean you have to be poor, but it does mean that you cannot serve riches.  

Making Noise

“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 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.
”
— 1 Corinthians 13:1-3

Christ-like love gives meaning to action. 

Has anyone ever done something for you that was supposed to be good but felt empty?

I had a boss who was coercive and blamed staff for his mistakes but would unexpectedly plan a “work fun day” when everyone was mad at him. It was bull crap.   He didn’t want to deal with the real problem but wanted to feel better about himself.  It was noisy.  It was empty.  

Sometimes people volunteer at a hot meals program and return talking about how good it made them feel to “give back.”  They get to feel like better people, but they never interacted with anyone there.  They didn't sit down to eat with anyone there.  They didn’t learn anyone’s name.  They were motivated by the desire to feel like a better person, not by love.  It is noisy.  It iss empty.  

Action without love is like a crashing cymbal clanging on without a band.  It is worthless noise.

It brings attention to the doer, but it's value is at best temporal and never eternal.   

Without love, ministry is selfish. 

When ministry is motivated by something other than love, even good deeds reek of selfishness.  

I’ve seen ministry manipulate people to get their way and then pout like a toddler or hold a grudge when their idea didn't get used.  I've seen spiritual mentors hold a grudge when someone didn't follow their advice.   How can selfishness be so prominent in actions that are supposed to be fundamentally others-centered.  

In the absence of love, pride becomes the motive for good deeds.  Instead of doing good out of love for God or love for people, it is done out of a desire to feel like a better person or to perceive oneself as having value in his or her ability to do something.  

Prideful motivation can't hide.  It manifests in all the things that love is not.   

Notice that as the Apostle Paul tells us what love is, he also tells us what it isn't. 

“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.
”
— 1 Corinthians 13:4-7

When good works are motivated by pride, the root of selfishness finds its way to the surface.  The pride motivated doer will lack patience and kindness.  He/she will insist on his/her own way.  The unity Paul refers to in 1 Corinthians 12 will be eaten away by irritable and resentful behavior.  Deceit will creep in.  The pride-motivated doer will not bear with the burdens of others.  They will not believe the best or hope the best.  They won't endure.  

On the other hand, when love is the motivator, the smallest act of kindness has eternal significance.  

When I was at camp in 7th grade, a counselor named Steve Classble told me that he would pray for me that year.   I never forgot him.  Once, in a moment of profound grief, my friend Ryan Aldefer gave me a bear hug as I wept over a loss.  I cannot overstate the value of his support. Though the action was small, his love was great.  My wife once sent me a note on a hard day, telling me that I was a good man.  I still live off of that compliment.  

More important than than the action is the love that motivates it.  

Gifts are temporary; love is eternal. 

“As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.””
— 1 Corinthians‬ ‭13:8-13‬

Paul reminds us that the spiritual gifts he listed in 1 Corinthians 12 are temporary.  They exist as a means to advance Christ Kingdom in love. Like warships in an eternal peace, their necessity will pass when Jesus' eternal Kingdom is fully established.  

There is no place for impatient pastors or resentful disciple-makers.  In the Kingdom of God there are no free passes for gifted leaders who lack love.  

Never treat the gift as something greater than love.  

Evaluate Your Love

We operate on the default assumption that we are loving.  Pride's poisoning effects are self-blinding.  The destruction of selfish motivation is only possible through the Holy Spirit's convicting work.  Take a moment to review Paul's description of love, but place your name in place of "love." If the Holy Spirit reveals you are lacking, abandon your pride and let God fill your heart with the love that comes from Him.  

“_____ is patient and kind; _____ does not envy or boast; _____ is not arrogant or rude. _____ does not insist on his/her own way; _____ is not irritable or resentful; _____ does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. _____ bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. _____’s love never ends.”
— 1 Corinthians 13:4-7

Let us seek to love like Christ, because love will remain when all else has passed.  

 

Image Credit: mwalshhome

 

 

Steps to Make Disciples

Steps to Make Disciples

Consistently, I come across church people that have never made a disciple.  Spiritual self-centeredness is antithetical to the Christian life.  To experience the gift of God's grace and keep it to yourself is one of the most selfish and least Christ-like thing a Christian can do.  

Be it for apathy or ignorance, too many of us have ignored Jesus' greatest call to action (Matthew 28:19-20).  Have we forgotten that we were once dead and now alive?  Do we neglect so easily the gumption of the Holy Spirit?  Or, do we simply not know where to begin.

Avoid Controversy

Avoid Controversy

Transcending Camps of Opinion

There are some issues that I seldom discuss, especially in the context of social media.  I find our current culture at large intolerant of nuanced opinions.  Anything less than unilateral agreement is labeled rather than understood.  Forgive my disgruntled comments.  I've grown weary of watching fruitless battles result in deeper encampments.  

I love truth, and I love people.  Understanding is a bridge between the two, and I can't build that bridge with labels.  Perhaps most disheartening is the knowledge that the greatest offenders in these wars of controversy are the least aware and most prideful.  

It is a frustrating thing to have an opinion that exists neither within nor between prominent camps. This is the lesser of two reasons why I haven't posted anything about recent SCOTUS rulings or battle colors associated with confederate states (save for comedic statements meant to lighten the mood at a very serious time).  I've avoided commenting, because there is no room anyone that doesn't fit in a "camp." And, Jesus doesn't fit into a camp, because He is King.  

Rational Belief

Rational Belief

Following Jesus should never involve a blind leap of faith.  

The idea that faith should be blind is false.  Due to an array of causes, some have falsely promoted an idea that religious belief somehow requires the suspension of logic.  The indication seems to be that religious matters are outside the scope of rational and scientific thought and are therefore false.  

First of all, the idea that matters of faith do not intersect science and rationality is a false premise leading to a false conclusion.  However, the idea that something is false simply because it cannot be tested scientifically is itself a false assumption.  It is akin to saying, “Since I have never seen a virus it doesn't exist.”  The limitation of knowledge is not an indication of existence beyond knowledge's limits.  

Without giving you the whole back story, much of this thinking came as a result of an array of philosophers who subscribed to Isaac Newton's view that the universe was a vast machine of cause and effect that could not be influenced by anything outside of itself.  This erroneously ruled out the miraculous work of God and led to a few of theology that puts the human subject at the center of knowledge, rather than viewing God as the source of knowledge about Himself.  This view led to many arguments against God's existence, as well as to a vast array of liberal theology that denies the essentials of faith listed in the last chapter.

Newton's mechanistic view of the universe has since been supplanted by Albert Einstein's theory of relativity, which aligns quite well with the Christ-centered worldview that sees God as the revealer of truth.  While the truth of God stands regardless of trends in the sciences, it is nice to see the realm of physics start to catch up a bit with what God has shown us in His Word.  

Beachheads: First Steps in Planting a House Church

Beachheads: First Steps in Planting a House Church

When we planted our first house church our planting coach, Todd Sovine said that we needed to establish three things from the beginning: 

  • Beachheads of prayer.
  • Beachheads of relationship.
  • Beachheads of discipleship.  

Before anything else happened, we started praying, building relationships, and intentionally discipling one another.  That was all we did at first.  We didn't have services.  We didn't advertise.  We didn't plan events.  We focussed on prayer, relationships, and discipleship.  

Church Multiplication and Giving Up Control

Church Multiplication and Giving Up Control

Dear Pastor, Jesus is King, and you are not.  

The hardest thing for people to admit is that Jesus is King and they are not. We all want to be in control.  We want to be the masters of our own destiny, but fundamental to Trusting Jesus is surrendering to Him.  It's no different for pastors. Pastors, like kings can fall into the self-deception that everyone is better off when they are in charge. "If everyone would just listen to me, everything would be ok." This is one reason why churches don't multiply. 

Multiplication means pastors aren't as important as they might think. It means their vision language will get diluted as the church becomes decentralized.  It means people won't hear their sermons every week.  It means they can't manage leaders within a church structure.  It means they lose control.  

I'm not saying pastors have sinister plans to control people. Their control doesn't usually come out of selfish motives...usually. It comes our of fear. They want the best for people, and they are afraid of what will happen if they aren't in control. They forget that Jesus has been leading the church since before they were born, and He will be leading it after they are gone.   

Rocks

Rocks

But what happens when they don't get better.  When your child is born mentally disabled, it is a life sentence.  I have a friend with a severely disabled son.  He isn't going to get better.  The trial isn't going to end.  He will need constant attention for the rest of his life.  Statements like, "just hold on" give no hope to situations like that.  Physical strain is compounded by fear in the form of questions like, "What if something happens to me?" or "What if I can't take care of him forever?" 

The same kind of long-term suffering comes with emotional and mental illness.  Christians think that depression is something to "bootstrap" your way out of.  Sometimes people tell you to just have faith for God's healing.  Others just dismiss you as weak.  The trial doesn't end.  

Sometimes in the midst of following Jesus, you find yourself beaten down by life.  I'm not talking about just a bad day or a bad week, though that fits too.  I'm talking about years of unending loss, stress, and trouble.  

It feels like being caught in a storm at sea and being thrown against the rocks again and again.  Before you have recovered from the last wave, you get hit with another and another for years.  

Where is God?  The question is inevitable. 

Decentralized Gospel Multiplication

Decentralized Gospel Multiplication

I am weary of hearing about the Church losing ground in the West while simultaneously hearing about churches focus on everything but the gospel.  In China and Vietnam, the church is booming.  They have very little money and very little safety, but the good news spreads like wildfire.  

Even in Syria an Saudi Arabia where you can be martyred for loving Jesus, the gospel spreads.  Trained pastors are few and far between.  Yet, the Jesus is made known.  I want to be like them.  

Here are a few principles to draw from them:

  • Decentralized.  Thery don't bring people to church; they take the church to people.  In Vietnam, they meet in houses and small buildings (I know of a chain of small, one room churches along the Ho Chi Minh trail).  When someone from another town Trusts Jesus, the church plants a house church there.  They don't ask them to travel long distances to get to church.  They establish gospel outposts wherever they can.  
  • Gospel.  They don't waste time debating the nuances of nonessential theology.  They don't have programs for every age group or affinity.  They make disciples.  They tell people of the saving work of Jesus, and invite people to follow Him.  Disciples make disciples.  
  • Multiplication.  The goal isn't bigger churches; the goal is to make disciples (Matthew 28:19-20).  As Peyton Jones says, the Church isn't supposed to grow big; it's supposed to grow out.  It isn't about a big pastor that everyone comes to hear; it's about multiple disciple-makers making more disciples.  The roles of teacher, shepherd, prophet, evangelist, missionary/apostle pop up in house churches everywhere.  

Restoration Church is about to take our next steps in becoming more like the Vietnamese church.