Tag Archives: grace

Brothers, we are all broken

1 Feb

My heart is hurting for people who have been deeply hurt by a church in my area.  As a leader in a church I know that it is not hard to offend someone.  As someone who goes to a church I know that it is not hard to be offended.

But the stories that I am hearing lately are too much.  Church discipline is intended to ultimately be redemptive, to help people get closer to Jesus.  It’s not intended to show your power or authority over your followers.

Pastors can you please take a moment to pray for the people in your area who are hurting because of church leadership.  It’s not fair to those people that their image of Jesus is tarnished because of human agents.

The truth is that we are all incredibly broken people.  The grace of Jesus is the only thing that helps us get our lives back together.  Can we talk more about that?  Can we humbly recognize our need for Jesus?

Leaders, let’s get out of the way of people who are trying to find Jesus.  We are not meant to be gatekeepers of faith.  We are guides.  The only reason that we can guide anyone in their faith journey is because some one guided us.  That person was a broken human too.

Let’s be honest.

Let’s be humble.

Let’s celebrate Jesus’ transforming love and grace.

Let’s help people walk away from sin and towards the grace that we find in the Cross of Christ.

I think that’s what people are looking for when they come to church for the first time.

Love.

Hope.

Healing.

Forgiveness.

Compassion.

Community.

We should be the best at creating environments like this because we have received all of this from Jesus in the first place.

Erasing Hate

2 Nov

Erasing Hate

This is Bryon.  Bryon is a reformed neo-nazi.  He used his tattoos to show his beliefs to the world.  When he had a change of heart and realized the destructive path he was on, he didn’t want to project that hate to the world anymore and so he went through the painful process of having his tattoos removed.

You can see the AP story here:

and you can see the trailer for the documentary Erasing Hate here:

Bryon considered this process a form of pennance for all the pain that he inflicted on others.

Wow.

Here’s the really amazing thing.  While no one can see my sins, Jesus bore all the pain of my sin on the Cross.  When God looks at me, he doesn’t see my sin anymore, he see’s Jesus.  What Bryon went through to change his physical appearance, Jesus endured something even worse to change Bryon’s and yours and my spiritual appearance.  That’s incredible grace and Jesus did that.

When God looks at us he sees Jesus grace.  When we look at others do we have that same kind of Grace perspective?  Do we see how Jesus wants to change people?  Or do we simply see the sin?

I’m amazed by Bryon’s story.  And I’m glad that he was able to transform his face, and I hope that his story will help many people to see the error and destruction of racism.  And I hope that this story will help us to see that even the people that we don’t think can ever be changed, can in fact be transformed.

Jesus please help me to walk in grace!

 

 

 

Freedom of God

4 Aug

“The idealized God is maintained at the expense of his freedom.  The idealized God lacks flexibility; initiative, the capacity to surprise.  The resulting picture of God is a sophisticated idol, but still an idol.” (Judson Mather, “The Comic Art of the Book of Jonah.” Soundings 65, no. 3 [September 1, 1982], 286).

I read this in my research on Jonah and Satire.  The author is essentially arguing that the Author of Jonah is satirizing the idealized God of ancient Israel.  The same God that uses Jonah as a kind of comic foil throughout the text.  But this passage got me thinking about Uber Calvinism.

As I understand it the challenge with theological systems that lean so heavily on pre-destination and the foreknowledge of God is that God can’t really change his mind.  And what Mather is saying is that God changed his mind regarding Nineveh because they repented.  This made Jonah angry, because God didn’t do what Jonah understood God was planning on doing.  (I understand that’s a really bad sentence.  Sorry).  Jonah is frustrated because he knew that God was a God of compassion and that he would relent of destroying Nineveh.  Jonah wanted to follow the formula, and he wanted the result that God had promised, That the city would be overturned.

Now, in the book of Jonah, the City did repent.  Nineveh was not destroyed but could it be argued that their hearts were overturned?  Which is more important, the destruction of a city or the destruction of wickedness and idolatry.

If we try to make God follow our formulas, then we are treating him like an idol.  Idols don’t work and they always disappoint.

I would rather serve a sovereign God who desires repentance rather than destruction, and would much rather dispense Grace than wrath.

It’s not my job to tell God that he has destroy cities or people.  It’s not my job to be angry when what I think is justice on the wicked is not delivered.  My job is to tell the truth about God that he has revealed through the Bible and through the leading of the Holy Spirit, and then let God do the rest.

I want God to be free to forgive, to love, to show mercy and grace.  I know how much grace and mercy I have received from God so for me to not be willing to let God give that to others is selfishness and worse it’s idolatry.

thoughts?

Thinking about Salvation

8 Dec

Yesterday after staff meeting Anh, Mike and myself were talking about the series that CSM is going through.  The students submitted a bunch of questions and Anh and her team are doing their best to answer them.  Great stuff!

One of the questions asked was something to the effect of, to be a Christian do you have to believe that Homosexuality is a sin?  That’s a pretty complicated question and I think most people would answer yes.

And I do think that Homosexuality is one expression of the sin nature that is found in all of humanity.  I want to be very clear on that.  I know this issue is very complicated and and usually very painful.  It’s painful for me because I know people who are gay.  I love them, and my heart is heavy for them.  I wish I could say that it was ok, but I cannot do that and stay faithful to the Bible’s definition of sexual immorality.  I can’t do it.  That’s where I land.

But the question that was asked is not so much about sin as it is about salvation.  So what does it mean to be saved?  And I’ve been thinking about this.  What does Jesus ask of us?

First, Jesus saved you from your sin.  Jesus died for your sin.  When you follow Jesus and accept the grace that he provided on the cross, he is calling you to turn away from your sin.  Are you following Jesus?  Are you letting go of your sin?  If the answer is yes, then I would say that you are a Christian.

Jesus is concerned about all the sins of the world, but for you and Jesus you need to see what your sin is and turn from it.  That could be lying, stealing, sexual sin, gluttony, gossip, greed, etc.  Know what your sin is and walk away from it.

Second, if you love people you will tell them the truth.  And the truth is that Jesus wants us to turn from sin and turn towards him.  All sin, from all people, can be forgiven by the Grace of Jesus.  Our job as Christians is the tell people about the grace of Jesus, and let Jesus do the work of tranforming hearts and drawing people out of their sin.  Your job is to tell them about Jesus.  You do your job, let Jesus and the Holy Spirit do theirs.

This is part of an underlying concern that I see in some church circles: naming other people’s sins.  Christian, do you have your sin all figured out and resolved?  Do you think you are helping Jesus when you yell at people because of their sin?  You can talk about sin and what the Bible says about sin, but if you start picketing people because of their sins then I think you make Jesus more angry than that person’s sin.

The Bible gives us guidelines for how to handle people who are blatantly sinning within the church.  The motivation must be love in all of these things.  But the Bible never tells us to protest the sin of those outside of the church. Rather, we are supposed to set an example for those who are outside of the church, so that they would actually want to get to know Jesus and find his grace.

Turn from your sin before you stone others.

Jesus wants your heart.  I don’t think he wants you to point out the sin in someone else’s heart.

one final image to help make sense of my ramblings.

I have two kids. Judah and Jocelyn.

They like to make a mess of my house.  They have toys all over the place.  That’s what kids do.  It’s fine.  However, sometimes when I ask Judah to clean up his toys, his response is not, “Ok daddy I’ll clean up my toys.”

Often he says this, “Jossy isn’t cleaning up her toys.”

To which I have to respond, “Judah, I will handle Joss.  I want you to get your toys cleaned up.”

When we busy ourselves with pointing out other people’s sins and faults, we are acting like my four year old son.  Jesus is talking to your about your sin, don’t try to deflect the issue to other people.  Get your heart in order before you start worrying about all the things that other people are doing wrong.

 

Why I Follow Jesus

18 Mar

I am not ashamed to call myself a Christian.  Something that I’ve been realizing while I practice my hobby stand-up comedy is that there are a lot of people who do not like Christians, Christianity or church.  This honestly breaks my heart because my relationship with Jesus has been so important to me, and I go to the open-mic and I always here something that is anti-Christian.

I can’t be ashamed of Jesus because as cheesy as it sounds he is never ashamed of me.  Even when I’m a complete idiot he still loves me and desires the best for me, more that I do for myself.  He is not afraid to associate with me.

Let me explain with Peter.

Jesus calls Peter by going fishing with him.  Peter was a fisherman.  Peter was having a horrible morning of fishing and Jesus said, “Hey Peter, through your net on the other side of the boat.”  Peter’s thoughts were probably, “Hey dude, what do you know about fishing?  Aren’t you a carpenter?  Why don’t you go and build something and leave the fishing to the professionals.”  But Peter obliged Jesus and threw his net on the other side of the boat, and they caught a boat load (literally) of fish.

From that moment on Peter decided that following Jesus was the way to go.  Now Peter wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed.  He was impulsive, sometimes reckless, didn’t think before he spoke, said he would never desert Jesus, but he did.  Jesus was crucified, Peter probably watched him die from a distance.

So what does Peter do?  He goes back to work to fishing.  Jesus was died, rose from the dead, appeared to the disciples, spoke to them, but what does Peter do?  He went back to fishing.  Maybe he felt like Jesus was disappointed with him, maybe Peter felt like he was out of favor.  So he goes back to what he knew.

While he was fishing someone yells from the shore, “Cast your net on the other side.”  I wonder if that story had spread, and Peter may have been sick of it.  I don’t know. But he throws the net on the other side, and what do you know, they catch a ton of fish.

Peter jumps out of the boat and swims to shore and there’s Jesus.  Jesus restores Peter, even thought Peter was ashamed of Jesus, Jesus was not ashamed of Peter.  I love that story.  Because I’m an idiot and I need Jesus because he’s not ashamed of me.  His grace is enough.

I follow Jesus simply because he sees more in me than I see in myself.  He believes in me when I don’t.  Am I embarrassed by some things some christians do?  yeah.  Am I ashamed of somethings churches do in the name of Jesus?  sadly, yes.  Kind of like a crazy uncle.  I love them because we are family, but I wouldn’t say the things they say.

I can’t speak for them and Jesus.  I can only speak for me and my relationship with Jesus.  And I know that Jesus is not ashamed of me.

Grudges

11 Nov

“what do you do in a situation where you know someone holds a grudge against you that is unfounded?”

Whether or not a grudge is founded or unfounded, there are some pretty clear scriptural guidelines, that we as Christ followers are supposed to follow. In Ephesians 4 we have some pretty good guidelines about what we are supposed to do:

25Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body. 26“In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, 27and do not give the devil a foothold. 28He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need.

29Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. 30And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. 32Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

We need to make sure that we are not talking trash about the person holding the grudge.  We need to make sure that we are willing to forgive them for their unfounded anger at us.  Paul is writing to the church in Ephesians in regards to how church people treat other church people.  So if the grudge holder is a Christian we need to follow these imperatives.  And if they are not Christ followers, then we need to be willing to take the first step, really we should always be willing to take the first step for reconciliation.

Anytime we have been offended, we need to be willing to go to that persons (Matthew 18), but I think Paul makes it very clear that we can’t wait to make it right.  “DO NOT LET THE SUN GO DOWN ON YOUR ANGER.”  Don’t wait for tomorrow.  Sometimes we say, we just need to sleep on it, and see if we care in the morning.  Sometimes that may be wise, but more often than not, I would say that is unwise.  We need to resolve our relational issues as quickly as possible, otherwise, we “Let the devil get a foothold.”   Our anger and bitterness that we hold against each other, gives the devil an entryway into our lives.

As we talked about in our Philemon series, sin is anything that breaks relationship first of all with God, and then with other people.  If we are allowing our relationships with others to be broken, then we have given the Devil an opportunity to speak into our lives, and to steall the blessings of Christ’s grace from us.

So, go talk to that person.  Do everything you can to make it right.  Do everything you can to bring the truth into the situation.

Of course, we can only do so much.  Sometimes no matter what we do or say that person will still hold onto that grudge.  When that happens, then we need to make sure that we are not holding that grudge up again.  We need to love them.  We need to speak kindly of them.  We need to make sure that we are not feeding into their bitterness.  And we need to make sure that we do not let ourselves be dragged down into the grudge.  You can’t control what the other person does or thinks, but you can control what you do and think.

Grace helps us to walk above the mud of that situation, grace helps us to not play the grudge games.  So whatever you do, don’t wait to try to make things right, watch what you say about that person, and be sure to give grace without limit, because Jesus does the same for you.

Prisoner of Christ

5 Nov

At Creekside we have been experimenting with extending the dialogue on Sunday mornings.  We’ve been playing with the idea of text messaging questions that people have from Sunday’s sermon.  If you are interested in doing this check out PollEverywhere.com.

Well I spoke on Philemon 1-7 this week and I received this question:

In vs. 1  prisoner of Christ  why does he say prisoner. figurative and literal? language a bit morbid?

So why did Paul use this phrase?  The simple answer is that he was actually a prisoner.  Paul is uses this phrase twice in Philemon (vv 1, 9), and then again in Ephesians 3:1.  For the writing of both of these letters, Paul was in Jail for preaching the Gospel. Paul spent a lot of time in prison, and he references prison and his chains often.

Prison during the first century was generally a miserable experience.  Our prisoners today have it way easier.  Paul never would have received free cable and a gym membership.  But Paul wasn’t always in the deepest, darkest pit that Rome could find.  In at least one of his imprisonments he was on house arrest.  During this time he literally had a Roman soldier chained to him at all time.  So Paul had someone to share his faith with every day of his captivity, so he had something to do at least.  Paul took his chains and used them as an opportunity to preach the gospel

12Now I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. 13As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard[a] and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. 14Because of my chains, most of the brothers in the Lord have been encouraged to speak the word of God more courageously and fearlessly. Philippians 1.12-14

Paul was able to take a bad situation and make it a gospel opportunity.  He had nothing to lose, he only had souls to gain for the Kingdom of God.

Part of the power of Paul’s Prison imagery, was the freedom that he found even though he was in physical chains.  No prison could hold his spirit.  And he was truly free from the chains of the law, and he was free to live in the grace and mercy that Christ purchased for him on the cross.

So Paul’s references to prison are, in a way, ironic.  Yes he is in physical chains, but the chains around his heart are gone.  And that’s what happens in our lives when we surrender our lives to Christ.  No matter what situation we are going through in our lives.  We are free in Christ.  The real trick then is to acutally live in the freedom.

In Galatians Paul is talking to a group of people who are reverting back to the prison of legalism.  They are putting themselves back in prison and closing the door, behind themselves.  Jesus broke the locks, he’s set us free.  Whenever we try to earn God’s favor, or live in a law-based, legalistic way, we are putting ourselves in prison and are denying the power of the Grace of Christ in our lives.

Whenever we play around with temptation and sin, we are putting ourselves back into the prison that Jesus set us free from.

The contrast between Paul’s physical chains, and his message of hisFreedom in Christ, should remind us that we truly can be free, and that we can only find that freedom through the Grace of Christ.  We just need to walk out of those open prison doors and into the grace of Christ.

Grace

7 Oct

I will be speaking on Philemon Nov. 2 and Nov. 9

This scene will be critical to the teaching

What an amazing picture of grace we don’t deserve.

Great Post on the Shack and it’s Author

1 Aug

I appreciated the Shack for it’s display of the relationship between the trinity.  It’s a book that has brough a lot of healing to a lot of souls.  It’s controversial, and I get a lot of comments from people who don’t see the potential for grace in this text.  

Today I read this post from Bob.Hyatt, who had a chance to interact with Paul Young.  Great post.  All you shack haters please read it.  It might stop the hating, if you hear from the source.

Perfectionism Quote from The Jesus Way

3 Mar

Read this passage this morning from The Jesus Way and had to share it.

The Way of David it the way of imperfection.  The story David lived and the psalms he prayed provide us with an imagination that is capable of understanding the operations of God to do his perfect work in us, not our capacities to perfect ourselves.  The stories tell us that nothing abou us, whether good or bad, is without significance; the prayers tell us that everything within us, whether good or bad, has to do whit God.  The stories and prayers together free us from a role and performance mentality, free us from the perfectionist expectations of others and perfectionist ambitions we set for ourselves.  If we believingly take in what is given to us in the stories and prayers of David, we are inoculated against the soul-debilitating germ of perfectionism.

…

Perfectionist talk and perfectionist illusions are generated by that fast-talking master of illusion, the “angel of light’ St. Paul warns us about (2 Cor 11.14).

To live in grace knowing that God loves and utilizes our lives even though we are imperfect is amazing.  When we look at David he’s the hero of much of the Bible and he was a jacked up imperfect person, but he knew that forgiveness and grace could be found in the love and mercy of YAHWEH.  And in Jesus we have that love and mercy extended to us.  How Amazing!

Of particular impact when I was reading this was the freedom from “role and performance mentality”.  As a pastor I try so hard to build something that is “successful”  but Jesus loves me no matter what.  If I try something that fail, he still loves me.  It’s his church, it’s his student ministry, it’s his.  He has entrusted me to do my best and point people to him, and that’s what I’m doing.

Jesus called me to teach people about Him and His incredible grace.  So that’s what I’m going to be about.  As long as I am sticking to his call on my life, then that is success.  What mission has Jesus given you?  Are you stickin’ to it?  Or are you trying to do the role and performance thing?  That’s really dissapointing in the long run.  Trust me.

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