Christians and Church Commitment
Yesterday, I posted an excerpt from an article by Ajith Fernando on Suffering. In the same article, he gave what I thought were some profound words on church commitment. The gist was: Christians in other countries would look upon American church-hopping as missing a significant part of the Gospel. Here are his words -
When people leave a church because they do not fit the program, it communicates a deadly message: that our commitment is to the work and not to the person, that our unity is primarily in the work and not in Christ and the gospel. The sad result is that Christians do not have the security of a community that will stay by them no matter what happens. They become shallow individuals, never having true fellowship and moving from group to group. Churches committed to programs can grow numerically, but they don’t nurture biblical Christians who understand the implications of belonging to the body of Christ.
Sticking with people is frustrating. Taking hours to listen to an angry or hurt person seems inefficient. Why should we waste time on that when professionals could do it? So people have counselors to do what friends should be doing …
Some years ago I was preparing a message on commitment while traveling in the West. Within the space of a few days, three people told me how they or someone close to them had left a group or a person because of problems. One had left an unhappy marriage; another, a church; another, an organization. Each person described his leaving as a merciful release from suffering. But I could not help asking myself whether, in each of these cases, the Christian thing to do would have been to stay and suffer.
The New Testament is clear that those who work for Christ will suffer because of their work. Tiredness, stress, and strain may be the cross God calls us to. Paul often spoke about the physical hardships his ministry brought him, including emotional strain (Gal. 4:19; 2 Cor. 11:28), anger (2 Cor. 11:29), sleepless nights and hunger (2 Cor. 6:5), affliction and perplexity (2 Cor. 4:8), and toiling—working to the point of weariness (Col. 1:29). In statements radically countercultural in today’s “body conscious” society, he said, “Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day” (2 Cor. 4:16); and, “For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you” (2 Cor. 4:11-12). I fear that many Christians approach these texts only with an academic interest, not seriously asking how the verses should apply in their lives …
The biblical model of community life is Jesus’ command to love one another as he loved us—that is, for members to die for other members (John 15:12-13). The model of Christian leadership is that of the Good Shepherd dying for his sheep, not abandoning them when the situation gets dangerous (John 10:11-15). When God calls us to serve him, he calls us to come and die for the people we serve. We don’t discard people when they have problems and cannot do their job properly. We serve them and help them come out of their problems.
Christians and Sacrifice
You need to read this post from Collin Hansen on our culture’s hatred for evangelism… especially in light of the recent murders of Christian workers in Turkey and Afghanistan. Here’s an excerpt…
The media keeps saying these medical workers weren’t proselytizing. OK, but is [it] OK to murder if they were? Indeed, would evangelism have disqualified these Christians from honorable treatment in death? …
Even non-Christians will grant that the men and women who lost their lives for treating eyes demonstrated their love for Afghans in their good works. But love turns to imperialism when eye camp gives way to Bible school. Evangelism is perceived as arrogant disregard, even hatred, for the Afghans or anyone else who does not yet believe in Jesus Christ for salvation …
While rejecting the Taliban’s tactics, Western unbelievers have no sympathy for the gospel, either. Both cringe over efforts to explicitly proclaim the good news that Jesus Christ died for sinners and raised from the dead. Yet Christians know no greater love than this, that Jesus Christ died so we might be his friends …
We don’t expect that unbelievers will understand why we treasure this priceless inheritance even more than health and why we want others to share it. But Jesus’ example unto death on a cross and the work of the Holy Spirit empowers us to lay down even our lives so they just might come to know God, too.
Similarly, you need to read this post by Ajith Fernando on why Christianity needs suffering Christians… The whole article is lessons learned while laboring on the mission field and is worth reading. But consider his closing words -
In a world where physical health, appearance, and convenience have gained almost idolatrous prominence, God may be calling Christians to demonstrate the glory of the gospel by being joyful and content while enduring pain and hardship. People who are unfulfilled after pursuing things that do not satisfy may be astonished to see Christians who are joyful and content after depriving themselves for the gospel. This may be a new way to demonstrate the glory of the gospel to this hedonistic culture.
I have a great fear for the church. The West is fast becoming an unreached region. The Bible and history show that suffering is an essential ingredient in reaching unreached people. Will the loss of a theology of suffering lead the Western church to become ineffective in evangelism? The church in the East is growing, and because of that God’s servants are suffering. Significant funding and education come to the East from the West. With funding and education comes influence. Could Westerners influence Eastern Christians to abandon the Cross by communicating that they must be doing something wrong if they suffer in this way? Christians in both the East and the West need to have a firm theology of suffering if they are to be healthy and bear fruit.
Grace Will Decimate You
Helpful thoughts here from Paul Tripp (relevant to our sermon series on the Gospel) -
Jason could explain to you what it meant to say that he had been “saved by grace,” and he knew that he was going to spend eternity with his Savior. His problem was in the here and now. Day after day, in situation after situation and relationship after relationship, Jason didn’t carry with him a vibrant and practical sense of the nowism of the grace of Jesus Christ. Yes, Jason believed in life after death, but he desperately needed to understand life before death; the kind of radical life you will live when you understand what Christ has given you for the life he has called you to right here, right now.
Tripp explains four aspects of the gospel and what grace will do to you:
- Grace will decimate what you think of you, while it gives you a security of identity you’ve never had.
- Grace will expose your deepest sins of heart, while it covers every failure with the blood of Jesus.
- Grace will make you face how weak you are, while it blesses you with power beyond you ability to calculate.
- Grace will take control out of your hands, while it blesses you with the care of One who plan is unshakable and perfect in every way.
HT: JT
First Things First
Helpful reminder from C.S.Lewis…
The woman who makes a dog the centre of her life loses, in the end, not only her human usefulness and dignity but even the proper pleasure of dog-keeping.
The man who makes alcohol his chief good loses not only his job but his palate and all power of enjoying the earlier (and only pleasurable) levels of intoxication.
It is a glorious thing to feel for a moment or two that the whole meaning of the universe is summed up in one woman—glorious so long as other duties and pleasures keep tearing you away from her. But clear the decks and so arrange your life (it is sometimes feasible) that you will have nothing to do but contemplate her, and what happens?
Of course this law has been discovered before, but it will stand re-discovery. It may be stated as follows: every preference of a small good to a great, or partial good to a total good, involves the loss of the small or partial good for which the sacrifice is made.
. . . You can’t get second things by putting them first. You get second things only by putting first things first.
HT: JT
Unfashionable
A quote from Charles Spurgeon -
The great guide of the world is fashion and it’s god is respectability–two phantoms at which brave men laugh! How many of you look around on society to know what to do? You watch the general current and then float upon it! You study the popular breeze and shift your sails to suit it. True men do not so! You ask, “Is it fashionable? If it is fashionable, it must be done.” Fashion is the law of multitudes, but it is nothing more than the common consent of fools.
HT: TT
Linkage
- Great article on teenagers from Tedd Tripp
- Great article from C.J. Mahaney on Teens and Video Game Idolatry
- The Danger of Lying (and preaching on it) by Mike McKinley
- Some Great Thoughts on the Importance and Dangers of “Community”
- Great Thoughts on Discipling Others from Carson (via JT) – here’s an excerpt…
You who are older should be looking out for younger people and saying in effect, ‘Watch me.’ Come—I’ll show you how to have family devotions. Come—I’ll show you how to do Bible study. Come on—let me take you through some of the fundamentals of the faith. Come—I’ll show you how to pray. Let me show you how to be a Christian husband and father, or wife and mother.At a certain point in life, that older mentor should be saying other things, such as: Let me show you how to die. Watch me.
Watch this…
Cardboard Stories from The Austin Stone on Vimeo.
I came across a great article on the Gospel today by Elyse Fitzpatrick, one that really helped me see the Gospel in a richer way -
The gospel is more than just the cross. When we fail to appreciate all the other facets of the good news about His work, we’ll be tempted to use Jesus’ suffering on the cross to motivate obedience. In other words, we’ll be tempted to feel sorry for the victim Jesus and try to guilt ourselves (and others) into submission, rather than seeing the victor, Jesus, who acted purposefully throughout His existence and acts powerfully upon us to transform us.
Briefly, here’s how the whole gospel message might impact me when I’m struggling with my own unbelief, idolatry and sin: Let’s say that I’ve got company coming over for dinner and I realize that I’m running low on table salt. I calculate the time I need to get to the store, get the salt and get home so that I can be a gracious, organized hostess (idols everywhere here). I jump in my car, race up to the store, grab the salt and run to the Quick Check Out line only to find myself stuck behind another woman who obviously didn’t read the “10 Items or Less” sign. Instantly I’m angry and then, because I know that my anger is sinful, I feel guilty and then, because I remember all the times I’ve failed like this, I despair. Now, what are my options?
- Option #1: If I’m a Happy Moralist, I’ll assure myself that my anger is “righteous” because the person in front of me is not obeying the rules like I am. I’ll remain angry but feel better about it.
- Option #2: If I’m a Sad Moralist, I’ll recognize that my anger isn’t righteous because I’m not loving my neighbor and I’m angry because of my idolatry. I’ll feel both guilty and angry but now I’ll despair because it seems as though I’ll never change.
- Option #3: If I’ve been thinking about the cross without considering the rest of the gospel, I’ll despair even more because I’ll know that Jesus suffered for this sin and I’ll be sad, guilty and despairing thinking about how much pain He endured on my account. In this case the gospel doesn’t elevate my soul, it crushes me.
- Option #4: If I’m seeking to live in the light of the whole gospel, my heart will be transformed in these ways:
- Because of the incarnation, Jesus Christ knows exactly what it is to live in a sin-cursed world with people who break the rules…like me. I am a rule-breaker but He’s loved me and he’s experienced every trial I face. He’s with me. He sympathizes with my weakness (Hebrews 4:15).This understanding of His love in the face of my sin drains my anger at my rule-breaking neighbor. I can love her because I’ve been loved and I am just like her.
- Because of His sinless life, I now have a perfect record of loving my neighbor. He perfectly loved rule-breakers. This record of perfect love for my rule-breaking neighbor is mine now; knowing this relieves my guilt. Even though I continue to fail to love, His record is mine.
- Because of His substitutionary death, I am completely forgiven for my sin…even the sins that I seem to fall into at the slightest provocation. God has no wrath left for me because He poured it all out on His Son. He’s not disappointed or irritated. He welcomes me as a beloved daughter.
- Because of His resurrection (and the justification it brings), I know that the power of sin in my life has been broken. Yes, I’ve failed again, but I can have the courage to continue to fight sin because I’m no longer a slave to it. This replaces despair with faith to wage war against my selfishness and pride.
- Because of His ascension and reign, I know that this situation isn’t a mere chance happening. He’s orchestrated it so that I will remember Him and be blessed by the gospel again. He’s ruling over my life and interceding for me right now. I’m not a slave to chaos or chance. He’s my Sovereign King and I can rest in His loving plan today and rejoice in Him.
- And, because of His promised return, I know that all the doubt, injustice and struggle will one day come to an end. This line in this grocery store and my plans for dinner isn’t all there is. There’s the great good news of the gospel. I can go home now and share with my family and guests how Jesus met me at the grocery store and we can rejoice together in His work on our behalf.
It is the whole message of the gospel that has the power to transform impatient, guilty, selfish, despairing idolaters into free and joyful worshippers of the Living God.
How Dads Should Treat Their Children
I found this note from CJ Mahaney very helpful…
Wise advice from C.J. Mahaney to a concerned dad who fears that that the way in which he insists his kids obey him in the Lord could lead them to think of God the Father apart from love and grace:
- You have the privilege of introducing them to God the Father and describing the ways in which he is different from you, different from all sinful fathers, and how in any way you are like him it’s only because of grace that you reflect him. See Luke 11:11–13.
- Your honest confession of your sin to your children will protect them from having hard thoughts about you or God.
- Communicating your affection for them—and joy when you are with them—promotes both good and accurate thoughts about God.
- Initiate time with them at both planned and spontaneous times. Don’t leave them with the impression that they get most of your attention when they disobey. Let them know you are so grateful for them and love being with them as much as possible.
- Bless your children with many gifts in many forms! See Luke 11 again. Study your children in order to discern what gifts would genuinely bless them and then purpose to surprise them as often as possible.
- Requiring appropriate obedience does not promote hard thoughts about God. This only happens when we do so in self-righteousness or anger. See point 2 again.
- Frequently preach the gospel to them (and not at them). Reveal to your children just how far God has gone to show his love for sinners like us.
See the whole post for a link to his two-part sermon on Jude where he touches on this theme.
Being Miserably Joyful
This is a GREAT quote from the great Princeton theologian, B.B. Warfield…
We must always be accepted for Christ’s sake, or we cannot ever be accepted at all.
This is not true of us only “when we believe.”
It is just as true after we have believed.
It will continue to be true as long as we live.
Our need of Christ does not cease with our believing; nor does the nature of our relation to Him or to God through Him ever alter, no matter what our attainments in Christian graces or our achievements in Christian behavior may be.
It is always on His “blood and righteousness” alone that we can rest.
There is never anything that we are or have or do that can take His place, or that can take a place along with Him.
We are always unworthy, and all that we have or do of good is always of pure grace.
Though blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ, we are still in ourselves just “miserable sinners”: “miserable sinners” saved by grace to be sure, but “miserable sinners” still, deserving in ourselves nothing but everlasting wrath. That is the attitude which the Reformers took, and that is the attitude which the Protestant world has learned from the Reformers to take, toward the relation of believers to Christ.
There is emphasized in this attitude the believer’s continued sinfulness in fact and in act; and his continued sense of his sinfulness. And this carries with it recognition of the necessity of unbroken penitence throughout life. The Christian is conceived fundamentally in other words as a penitent sinner.
But that is not all that is to be said: it is not even the main thing that must be said.
It is therefore gravely inadequate to describe the spirit of “miserable sinner Christianity” as “the spirit of continuous but not unhopeful penitence.” It is not merely that it is too negative a description, and that we must at least say, “the spirit of continuous though hopeful penitence.” It is wholly uncomprehending description, and misplaces the emphasis altogether.
The spirit of this Christianity is a spirit of penitent indeed, but overmastering exultation.
The attitude of the “miserable sinner” is not only not one of despair; it is not even one of depression; and not even one of hesitation or doubt; hope is too weak a word to apply to it.
It is an attitude of exultant joy.
Only this joy has its ground not in ourselves but in our Savior.
We are sinners and we know ourselves to be sinners, lost and helpless in ourselves.
But we are saved sinners; and it is our salvation which gives the tone to our life, a tone of joy which swells in exact proportion to the sense we have of our ill-desert; for it is he to whom much is forgiven who loves much, and who, loving, rejoices much.
Husband and Wife
From Ray Ortlund -
“Let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.” Ephesians 5:33
God made Adam first and put him in the Garden with a job to do, a mission to fulfill. In the heart of every fallen man is the self-doubt that wonders, “Am I man enough to climb this mountain God has called me to? Can I fulfill my destiny?” A wise wife will understand that question at the center of her husband’s heart. And she will spend her life answering it, communicating to him in various ways, “Honey, I believe in your call. I know you can do this, by God’s power. Go for it.” In this way, she will breathe life into her man.
God made Eve from Adam, for Adam, to help him follow the call. In the heart of every fallen woman is the self-doubt that wonders, “Do I please you? Am I what you wanted?” A wise husband will understand that question at the center of his wife’s heart. And he will spend his life answering it, communicating to her in various ways, “Darling, you are the one I need. I cherish you. Let me hold you close.” In this way, he will breathe life into his wife.
Conversation on Idolatry
Recently, at the birth of our fourth, we gave our three older kids a present each as a way to express our care and love for them. One of them received a gift of several toy horses. She promptly lost the baby horse (her favorite) in the house later the same day. For the next two days, she proceeded to mope and stomp and cry and refuse to be happy until the horse was found. It quickly became ridiculous. After several go-arounds, we sat down to have a talk and had a break-through.
I told her, in short, that she was being ridiculous. While helping her look for the horse, I had told her several times that we understood, that it was hard to get a toy and then to lose it. But now things had gone on so long, I wished we never would have given her the horse, if we knew it was going to cause such problems. She had been happy before she even had the horse, but ever since she had it and lost it, she had been miserable and making everyone else miserable. I told her that maybe there was a reason God hadn’t let her find the horse. (You have to be careful trying to interpret God’s will like this. Sometimes we will pray that God will help us find something that has been lost. But I didn’t think it was appropriate to pray that way when she was acting so angry and taking it out on everyone else. It is wrong to spend prayer on our desires when they are full of sin and prayer really needs to be spent on repentance.) Maybe God wouldn’t let her find the horse until she repented. She has informed us several times recently that she has been praying for God to change her heart and give her a new heart. Maybe this was something God was doing to help her know what that meant.
So I told her that the horse had become an idol. She was refusing to be happy until she had the horse back. She had been happy before she even knew the horse existed, but now she couldn’t be happy without it. Having the horse was more important to her than anything else, and she was willing to make everyone else miserable until she had it. (As I talked with her about it, she was still glaring at me.) We have talked about what it means to be a child of God – that when we’re trusting God, we have a peace with him in our hearts that is bigger than our circumstances, that the fruit of the Spirit is “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control”. I asked her if she had any of those things right now. She said, “No.” What do you have? “Angry.” What does that tell you? “The horse is more important and real to me than God.”
I then asked, “Does the horse talk?” She looked at me funny and said, “No…” “Does the horse run by itself? Does it play? Does it hug you? Love you? Is it good for taking you on long journeys? Does it listen when you tell it all your problems?” Again, “No…” The Bible talks about idolatry and says, a man finds a tree in the forest and cuts it down. Half of it he burns in a fire to stay warm. The other half he crafts into an idol and bows down and worships it. (See Isaiah 44:9-20.) Psalm 115:4-8 says, “Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see. They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell. They have hands, but do not feel; feet, but do not walk; and they do not make a sound in their throat. Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them.”
I asked her, “What do you think of that?” She said, giggling, “That’s stupid.” I said, “Does your horse talk?” Laughing again (obvious change of attitude), “No.” “Does your horse play with you?” “No”. “Can the horse really make you happy?” “No.” When you find the horse, is it really going to make that much difference in your life?” “No.” “Well then, what is it?” Smiling sheepishly, “An idol.” “What do you need to do?” “Trust God and repent.” “You know what Jesus did? You were his lost treasure. And he went to the ends of the earth and to his own death to find you and win you back. And he rejoices for eternity when you repent and are found by him.”
We ended the conversation with a very different attitude.
She found the horse the next morning.
