For this very reason make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brother affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to make our calling and election sure, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

II Peter 1:5-11 (ESV)

I recognize we cannot earn our way into heaven. If we are saved, it will be because God is good enough; not because we are. At the same time, I recognize not just everybody will be provided with an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. In fact, it seems not just everyone who has ever believed and obeyed Jesus for a time will be provided that entrance. 

Rather, those who pursue this standard of growth will gain entrance. Our growth rests on the foundation of faith, but we must add to it. We must continually work on…

• Faith–believing in God, believing God and trusting God’s way is right.
• Virtue–the moral excellence to do what is right because it is right.
• Knowledge–getting God’s word into our heads and hearts.
• Self-control–doing what is right in the face of persuasion to do otherwise.
• Steadfastness–stringing moments of self-control together in a row, even in the face of opposition.
• Godliness–honoring God and revering Him with every action.
• Brotherly affection–treating our brethren with kindness, tender-heartedness and forgiveness.
• Love–obeying God from the heart and seeking what is best for others.

There are some things I recognize from this passage:

1. “Going to church” is not the equivalent of being a disciple.
2. I need to work on me; I need to work on my relationship with others; I need to work on my relationship with God; I need to work on these every day.
3. I don’t get to rest based on what I accomplished yesterday, I have to keep growing.
4. I don’t have to be perfect today, I just need to make progress.

Leprosy Victim

The leper of Mark 1:40-45 amazes me. Jesus told him to keep his mouth shut and he couldn’t. What saddens me is Jesus has told me to keep my mouth open and I don’t.

The thing I need to recognize about this whole scenario is the leper couldn’t keep quiet because of the joy over his cleansing. He knew exactly how defiled and vile he had been. Therefore, he was overjoyed at his newfound cleansing. He had to tell someone.

Who do you think he told first? I imagine he told the only people that had stayed with him, the other lepers he had been relegated to live with outside the city. He probably told his family. He may have told his friends. I bet he told the next person he saw in the street. 

What I need to do is realize just how defiled and vile I was spiritually. Only then can I have the joy of the cleansing Jesus has given. Perhaps, when I remember that and meditate on it, I won’t be able to help telling people about it either.

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

I’m not sure that there is a more comforting set of verses than Philippians 3:12-14.

“Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (ESV).

Wow! You mean Paul, the apostle, wasn’t perfect? He didn’t do everything right? I mean I know before he became a Christian he did some really bad things. I’ve always been certain he did become great the first day he was a Christian. But here he is writing letters to let people know how to live in their service to God and he claims he is still not perfect. He still has to grow. 

That just comforts me. I’ve been a Christian now for 22 years. That is hard for me to imagine. When I consider how badly I still mess things up spiritually I get very discouraged. Some days I even am willing to just throw in the towel. Why keep trying? 

Surely Paul felt that way sometimes. Yet, his response was to just keep pressing on. Think about it. If Paul could say he wasn’t perfect, then just like me, he could pinpoint somethings that had just happened that demonstrated his imperfection. Instead of allowing that to make him stop, he pressed on. He kept going. He understood that serving God is not about where we are, but about where we are growing.

If you’re like me, you can pinpoint a dozen things and more that have happened in the past few days to remind you how imperfect you are. Don’t let those get you down. Keep looking forward. Keep pressing forward. Keep running the race. As long as you don’t quit, you will win the prize.

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

DEATH!

The word strikes fear in the hearts of most people. Yet, it didn’t strike fear in Paul. In Philippians 1:21, he said “to die is gain” (ESV). Why? Because death was the doorway to being with Christ for Paul (cf. Philippians 1:23). Paul has accomplished here what few seem to be able to do.

We hear so much about living by faith. We also need to learn to die by faith. No doubt, I could probably write reams and reams and reams on what it means to live and die by faith. However, Paul actually gives us the key in Philippians 1:21. He wrote, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (ESV). He saw two options. If he died, he would have personal gain, going to be forever with Christ. If he lived, that would benefit Christ and Christ’s plan because he would have fruitful labor helping the lost be saved and the saved be strengthened.

The fact is, the only reason “to die is gain” for Paul was because “to live is Christ” for Paul. If the first half of that statement were not true, then the second half would not be. If we want our death to be gain, then we need our life to be Christ.

Therefore, we need to ask, “What is my life? Is my life about Christ?” If living is not for Christ and has no fruitful labor for Him, then dying will not be gain for us. We can’t have it both ways. We can’t live our lives totally for ourselves pursuing our own goals, following the desires of our flesh, seeking our own pleasure and entertainment and then expect death to be about Jesus. It just won’t work.

If we want our death to be gain, then our life has to be Christ. What is your life about today?

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

If I plant watermelon seeds, I won’t get pumpkins and vice versa. Or as Jesus would say, we can’t get figs from thistles or grapes from thornbushes. We grow what we plant.

Therefore Paul says:

Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life (Galatians 6:7-8, ESV).

All too often, as we Christians argue about where to draw our personal moral lines, we end up defending planting the seeds of the flesh. You may not agree with me regarding issues like the lottery, social drinking, couples dancing, etc. I just ask you to think about this passage.

What seeds are we planting if our best friends are drinkers? What seeds are we planting when we attend their parties filled with drink? What seeds are we planting when we hang out in casinos? What seeds are we planting if we look the other way as our friends get high? What seeds are we planting if unmarried couples rub their bodies together to the rhythm of the music? What seeds are we planting when we watch shows filled with the immodest and the immoral? What seeds are we planting when the songs that entertain us glorify immorality? What seeds are we planting if the books we read, the movies we watch, the tv shows we enjoy provide a constant and steady stream of the immoral?

I hear people all the time justify the “gray areas” in which they delight and then they wonder why they struggle so much with sin? Anecdotally, we hear of the increasing numbers of unmarried pregnancies, cases of adultery, alcoholism, drug abuse, homosexuality, prescription drug abuse, divorces, etc. These stories are not from the worldly but from within Christ’s body. I’m not sure a month has gone by over the past few years that I haven’t heard of another preacher or elder committing adultery. Of course, I cannot think about these who have fallen without thinking of my own sins and recognize but for the grace of God go I. 

What is happening here? Is the problem starting at the moment of the major sin? No. The problem is in our continual fight for our personal rights to claim we can watch what we want, read what we want, listen to what we want, go where we want, drink what we want and do what we want. Whether we realize it or not we are sowing seeds to the flesh. When our general practice is to justify and defend sowing the seeds of the flesh, we shouldn’t be surprised when we reap corruption. Paul proclaimed the hard and fast rule. If we sow seeds to the flesh, we will reap corruption from the flesh. 

Somehow, Christians today think we can plant thistles but get figs. We think we can plant thornbushes but get grapes. It doesn’t work that way. When we sow the wind, we will reap the whirlwind.

If we really want to help people overcome full blown immorality, we need to quit telling them to just say, “No,” to the biggies. We need to help them start planting the right seeds. We need to start planting seeds to the Spirit. We need to increase our prayer and Bible Study. We need to deepen our relationships with other Christians. We need to come clean and confess to our brethren. We need to assemble with the saints, worshipping God and edifying one another. We need to cut off our right hands and pluck out our right eyes if they get in the way. 

Here is the great comfort. If we plant grapes, we won’t get thornbushes. If we plant figs, we won’t get thistles. When we plant seeds to the Spirit, we will reap eternal life. That cannot be helped. It is just the way things work.

Keep the faith and keep reading.

ELC

I spent the week of New Years in the emergency room and then confined to my house because I developed pneumonia. I have never been so sick in my life. As I have heard other people say, for a time I was so sick, I was afraid I was going to die. Then I was so sick, I was afraid I wouldn’t. I was miserable. 

To be honest, in times like that I wonder why on earth God let that happen. It messed up an opportunity I had to teach at another congregation. It certainly didn’t help my family finances. It hit while Marita’s dad was extremely sick and she had to leave to go be with him. 

Now that it is eight months behind me, I recognize it really wasn’t that bad. I can hardly imagine what it must be like for people to go through really, really difficult times–the loss of a job, break up of a family, sickness and death of a child. 

There is one passage in today’s reading that really struck me. It almost seems like a throw-away statement just tucked in there between the important stuff. But it really gave me some comfort.

“You know it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you at first, and though my condition was a trial to you, you did not scorn or despise me, but received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus…” (Galatians 4:13-14, ESV).

This passage doesn’t give a great number of details. However, it does claim the reason Paul ended up preaching in Galatia was because he got sick. Perhaps it was something with his eyes as the continuing verses suggest. However, I can imagine how I would have felt if I were Paul. Here I am traveling around, trying to do the will of God, spreading the Gospel and saving souls. Then God up and lets me get majorly sick. I’m so sick it messes up my travel and teaching plans.

In the moment of sickness, I might be pretty upset. However, from the perspective of the letter written later, we can see God’s bigger plan. I don’t know what Paul’s interrupted plans were. However, God apparently had plans for Paul to teach the Galatians. In addition to that, God had plans for Paul to eventually write this letter to them, which would be incorporated in Scripture to help all Christians of all time. None of that would have happened if God hadn’t let Paul get sick.

Therefore, I have to remember my God is powerful enough to use my bad times in a great and glorious way to accomplish His plans. It may mess up my plans, but His plans are better anyway. 

I’m not saying it will be easy to face tough times. I’m just saying this faith can get me through, knowing that God is with me and He will use whatever happens in a way that makes me better and accomplishes His glorious work.

Keep the faith and keep reading.

ELC

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. An the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

–Galatians 2:20 (ESV)

Being a Christian does not just equal a moment of faith and then I get to do what I want. It doesn’t even equal being baptized and then trying to make it “to church” regularly. Really living as a Christian means living like Christ.

In this passage, it presents the picture of being crucified with Jesus. It calls to mind the teaching we read in Romans 12:1, which said we should be living sacrifices. This is about sacrifice. Jesus sacrificed Himself for us, we should sacrifice ourselves for Him.

This is a picture of total surrender. Instead of fighting against Jesus, trying to go our own way and do our own thing, we simply do what Jesus wants. We act as though He is the conquering King who has the right to tell us how to live.

Allow me to give another picture of surrendering to Christ and sacrificing ourselves for Him. Too often, we view this as trying to be obedient enough to go to heaven. We sometimes think we are trying to measure up and check off the list in enough ways to make the grade so we can get into heaven.

Let me share an illustration. Once, I went white water rafting. The first thing the guide said was that we had to listen to her absolutely. If she said paddle, we had to paddle. If she said lean right, we had to lean right. If she said get in the bottom of the boat, we needed to get into the bottom of the boat. Why did we do what she said? Did we do that because we were trying to measure up? Did we think if we obeyed her enough we would be good enough and therefore not fall in the water? No. We recognized that she knew what she was doing. Her way would work. Therefore, we surrendered our will to hers. Sometimes I was tired and didn’t want to paddle, but she said paddle, so we did. Sometimes it seemed to us that we needed to lean left, but she said lean right. So we leaned right. Sometimes, we wanted to ride high, but she said get down in the boat. We got down in the boat. Sometimes, we didn’t know which way to hit the rapids, so we just paddled the direction she said. She was the guide. We surrendered to her direction.

That is what Jesus wants us to do. He wants us to realize He is the guide and His way works. Even when we can’t see how or where His way is leading, we need to simply surrender to His direction. 

What is Jesus saying to us today through His word? Let’s just do it, surrendering to Him because His way really does work.

Keep the faith and keep reading.

ELC

Obviously, the title of this post is a bit tricky. The reality is, if we really love God, we will love His other children. However, I know at times it I can get into this idea that it doesn’t really matter how I treat other people, what matters is getting the doctrine of Christ right. Certainly, we need to study, understand and apply the doctrines of Christ when it comes to the patterns and plans for worshipping God and organizing the local congregation.

However, before figuring out how the collective should look, we need to look at our own heart and make sure it is on the right path. Do we love the people around us?

Romans 13:8-10 says:

“Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,’ and any other commandment are summed up in this word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law” (ESV).

It is not enough to “go to the right church.” It is not enough to have all the right answers about salvation, worship, miraculous gifts, Calvinism, Premillennialism, etc. We need to be working on our relationships with others. 

Romans 14 is not just some odd chapter thrown into the mix. It is a specific example of having relationships governed by love. When I love someone I don’t put them down because they are more restrictive than I am. I honor their conscience and work to protect it. At the same time, when I have enough doubts about an issue that I won’t be involved in it, I do not judge everyone who is comfortable with the issue as less spiritual than me. Instead, I work to have unity. Obviously, when someone is violating what I believe is the clear law of God, I can’t just get along and go along. At the same time, I do not make every single struggle a hill on which to die.

Love means trying to figure out a way to work together without compromising God’s will. 

We must learn not only to stand up for the truth, but to love each other while we do it. 

Keep the faith and keep reading.

ELC

“For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified” (Romans 2:13, ESV).

I recognize Paul is discoursing about the Old Law, but the principle applies across the board. In the context, he was saying that just because the Jews had heard the Law each Sabbath didn’t mean they were right with God. They actually had to obey it.

However, as we consider how the principle in this text applies to us right now in 2008, we need to understand that just listening to someone preach, even if they are preaching the truth, doesn’t cut the mustard. We actually have to live this stuff.

I’ve seen two kinds of people violate this principle in my years of preaching. There are those who love to come hear about God’s grace. They love to come hear that God loves them and Jesus died for them. They love to confess how awful and rotten they are and then rely on the blood of Jesus to simply cleanse them because salvation is by grace alone. But they missed the boat. It is not merely hearers of God’s word that have life, it is the doers.

But there is another kind of listener who violates this principle. This guy is at the opposite end of the spectrum. He doesn’t like to hear about God’s grace. He likes to hear hellfire and brimstone. He likes to hear about how bad he is. He likes to have mounds of guilt thrown on top of him. He likes to be beaten up with Bible. He thumps the preacher on the back and says, “You stomped all over my toes, Preacher.” Somehow, because he hears these hard messages all the time and agrees with them, he thinks it is okay if he doesn’t actually do what they say. As if it were some kind of baptism by fire, he loves to listen to hard preaching, he just won’t live it. He has also missed the boat. It is not merely the hearers of God’s word preached hard that have life, it is the doers.

James commented on this as well. I will end with his words.

“Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing” (James 1:23-25, ESV).

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

Paul: The Rotten Scoundrel

Just listen to the non-Christian Jews in Acts 23-24 and you will learn the truth. Christians are just troublemakers. Just look at what these guys have to say about Paul to the Roman officials.

“We have found this man a plague, one who stirs up riots among all the Jews throughout the world and is a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes. He tried to profane the temple, but we seized him” (Acts 24:5-6, ESV)

The only problem is, none of it was true. The fact is, this kind of nonsense has been going on for 2000 years. If we can’t find a good reason to be mad at the Christians, let’s just make something up. Therefore, we should not get too upset when people today get mad at us for trying to force our views on the world when all we are doing is trying to persuade folks with logic, reason and, yes, even faith. Let’s not get too upset when they say we are judgmental because we suggest that folks might be wrong sometimes. Let’s not get too upset when they trump up charges that just aren’t true. And most of all, let’s not back off from getting the only message that will save souls out to the world just because people accuse us of being closed-minded and unloving.

The fact is, everyone who makes those judgments will at some point find out just how loving we are being by passing the message on. They will either learn that when their eyes are opened by God’s word to the truth of Jesus’ message. Or they will learn when it is too late. But all will learn on some day that we tried to bestow love.

Now, having said that. Let me hit the other side. Sadly, too often, those who claim to be Christians have given reason for others to make accusation. No doubt, the biggest one we hear is the Crusades. But if that stands out as the most extreme example that everyone highlights, there have sadly been a thousand seeming trifling examples of Christians living like the world, taking their revenge, seeking their selfish ways, condescending with arrogance.

We should not be upset when folks wrongfully accuse and malign us. It happened to Paul, we should expect it to happen to us. At the same time, we must not give cause to receive truthful accusation. When we have given that cause. We had better make amends quickly.

Keep the faith today and keep reading.
ELC