Jesus+Nothing=Everything! Even our resolutions...

          It is already January 3rd and how many of us I wonder have tanked our resolutions? I know there are at least two that I have failed to keep so far...but is that a bad thing? Tullian Tchividjian has some excellent thoughts on this very issue that I want to share with you.
          We need to be a people who try, who strive, who resolve and who commit, but we must never find our acceptance from God wrapped in our successes and failures, but ONLY in Jesus accomplished work of Salvation. Let 2012 be a year where you work harder than ever to be like Christ, but let it also be a year in which you rest in Jesus work for you more than ever as well.

          "Today is the very first day of a brand new year. And for many that means a fresh start.
This is the year. It all starts now. We resolve to turn over a new leaf–and this time we’re serious. This time we’re really going to try, we’re not going to quit. We promise ourselves that we’re going to quit bad habits and start good ones. We’re going to get in shape, eat better, lust less, waste less time, be more content, more disciplined, more intentional. We’re going to be better husbands, wives, fathers, mothers. We’re going to pray more, serve more, plan more, give more, read more, and memorize more Bible verses. We’re going to finally be all that we can be. No more messing around.
          Well…I say try. Seriously, try. You might make some great strides this year. I’m hoping to. There are a lot of improvements I’m hoping to make over the next 12 months. But don’t be surprised a year from now when you realize that you’ve fallen short…again.
          For those who try and try, year after year, again and again, to get better and better, with seemingly less and less success…I have good news for you: you’re in good company!
          My friend Jean Larroux sent me this powerful illustration that he got from Jack Miller.
Miller recounts the valiant efforts of Samuel Johnson (a literary giant of the 18th century) to fight sloth and to get up early in the morning to pray. Taken from Johnson’s diary and prayer journal, Jack gives us a record–through the years–of Johnson’s life-long resolutions, failures, and frustrations:

1738: He wrote, “Oh Lord, enable me to redeem the time which I have spent in sloth.”
1757: (19 years later) “Oh mighty God, enable me to shake off sloth and redeem the time misspent in idleness and sin by diligent application of the days yet remaining.”
1759: (2 years later) “Enable me to shake off idleness and sloth.”
1761: “I have resolved until I have resolved that I am afraid to resolve again.”
1764: “My indolence since my last reception of the sacrament has sunk into grossest sluggishness. My purpose is from this time to avoid idleness and to rise early.”
1764: (5 months later) He resolves to rise early, “not later than 6 if I can.”
1765: “I purpose to rise at 8 because, though, I shall not rise early it will be much earlier than I now rise for I often lie until 2.”
1769: “I am not yet in a state to form any resolutions. I purpose and hope to rise early in the morning, by 8, and by degrees, at 6.”
1775: “When I look back upon resolution of improvement and amendments which have, year after year, been made and broken, why do I yet try to resolve again? I try because reformation is necessary and despair is criminal.” He resolves again to rise at 8.
1781: (3 years before his death) “I will not despair, help me, help me, oh my God.” He resolves to rise at 8 or sooner to avoid idleness.

          I love the never-quit effort of Johnson. What he chronicles sounds so much like me over the years. Try and fail. Fail then try. Try and succeed. Succeed then fail. Two steps forward. One step back. One step forward. Three steps back.
          What I’m most deeply grateful for (as was Johnson) is that God’s love for me, approval of me, and commitment to me is not dependent on my success and resolve, but on Christ’s success and resolve for me. The gospel is the good news announcing Christ’s infallible devotion to us in spite of our lack of devotion to him. The gospel is not a command to hang onto Jesus. Rather, it’s a promise that no matter how weak and unsuccessful your faith and efforts may be, God is always holding on to you.
          It’s ironically comforting to me as this new year gets under way that I am weak and He is strong–that while my love for Jesus will continue to fall short, Jesus’ love for me will never fall short. For, as Mark Twain said, “Heaven goes by favour. If it went by merit, your dog would get in and you would stay out.”
Thank God!
Happy New Year!

A Great Prayer from Scotty Smith to start the Christmas season

A Prayer about Jesus’ Many Advent Names and Offices

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this. Isa. 9:6-7

          Lord Jesus, you are the one of whom Isaiah was speaking hundreds of years before a manger became your first bed in this world. Every name, appellation and office the prophet gives you in this Scripture underscores the greatness of your glory and the wonders of your love. Knowing the government of the whole world already rests on your shoulders profoundly gladdens me. It fills me with a joy second only to knowing your shoulders fully bore the sin of the world, including mine. As this day begins, I raise my face to bask in your beauty and I lift my hands to offer you praise.
          You are Wonderful Counselor, for in you are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. You teach me everything I need to know about great mysteries and things eternal, but you’re also the one to whom I look for counsel about old wounds, fresh hurts and unfulfilled longings. You care about everything.
          You are Mighty God—the one who created and sustains the entire universe; the one who upholds all things by the power of your Word; the one in whom all things are being summed up. But you also marshal your might to help me humble myself when I’d rather stay proud; to boast in my weaknesses when I’d rather be self-sufficient; to run to you, rather than just run away.
          You are Everlasting Father, for to see you is to see the Father and to know you is to know the Father. You tenderly care for the needs of the world—even the flowers of every field and the birds in every sky; but you also care about me. You didn’t leave me as an orphan, Jesus. Through your work, I’m not only declared righteous in God’s sight, but also secure in his embrace. I now cry, “Abba, Father!”, with certainty and joy.
          You are the Prince of Peace, for you paid the price of peace on the cross. Indeed, your cross was my Judgment Day. Because of you, God is at peace with me and his peace is ruling in my heart. We’re no longer enemies; there’s no more enmity left between us. You are my peace, Lord Jesus. There will never be an end to the greatness of your government and peace, for even as you are making all things new, they will stay new forever! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! So very Amen I pray, with humility and elation.

Paul Tripp nails it!

As You Are

Though the power of sin has been broken, the presence of sin remains. So it's vital that we remember the deceitfulness of sin. We tend to want to believe that we hold an accurate and reliable view of ourselves. But on this side of glorification that is not always true, precisely because sin lives in a costume. While counselling pastors, I have often been struck with the reality that the man sitting in front of me lacked accurate knowledge of himself. And you can't grieve what you don't see, you can't confess what you haven't grieved, and you can't repent of what you haven't confessed.
Evil doesn't always look evil, and sin often looks so good---this is part of what makes it so bad. In order for sin to do its evil work, it must present itself as something that is anything but evil. Life in a fallen world is like attending the ultimate masquerade party. An impatient moment of yelling wears the costume of zeal for truth. Lust masquerades as a love for beauty. Gossip lives in the costume of concern and prayer. Craving for power and control wears the mask of biblical leadership. Fear of man gets dressed up as being a peacemaker or having a servant heart. Pride in always being right masquerades as a love for biblical wisdom.
You'll never understand sin's sleight of hand until you acknowledge that a significant part of the DNA of sin is deception. As sinners we are all very committed and gifted self-swindlers. No one is more influential in your life than you, because you talk to yourself more than anyone else does. What you say to yourself is profoundly important. Your words either aid God's work of conviction and confession or they assist sin's system of deception. So it's important to humbly admit that we're all too skilled at looking at our own wrong and seeing good. We're all much better at seeing the sin, weakness, and failure of others than we are our own. We're all very good at being intolerant in others the very things that we willingly tolerate in ourselves. The bottom line is that sin causes us not to hear or see ourselves with accuracy. And we not only tend to be blind, but, to compound matters, we also tend to be blind to our blindness.
What does all of this mean? Even as you do the work of the ministry, it is important to remember that accurate self-assessment is the product of grace. Only in the mirror of God's Word and with the sight-giving help of the Holy Spirit are we able to see ourselves accurately. In those painful moments of accurate self-sight, we may not feel as if we are being loved, but that is exactly what is happening. God, who loves us enough to sacrifice his Son for our redemption, works so that we would see ourselves clearly, so that we would not buy into the delusion of our own righteousness. He gives us a humble sense of personal need so we'll seek the resources of grace that can only be found in him.
In this way, your painful moments of sight, conviction, grief, and confession are both the saddest and most joyous of moments. It is sad that we yet need to confess what we must confess. At the same time, accurately seeing and fully acknowledging our sin is a cause for celebration. Only Jesus can open blind eyes. Whenever a sinner accurately assesses his sin, the angels in heaven rejoice, and so should we, even when that sinner is us.

What Christians Really Believe: “I Must Try Harder”

Ed Welch wrote this very interesting article...

 

          “Hello, I am a moralistic therapeutic deist.” That’s the word from a number of evangelical teens.
          I really liked that phrase when I first read it, though it seemed a little clunky. It was introduced by the 2005 book, Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers. After listening to about 3,000 interviews the authors suggested that evangelical teens describe their beliefs this way:

God created
God wants us to be happy
God waits around until we have a problem then jumps in to help
Good people – people who are nice – go to heaven

          In other words, they are moralistic therapeutic deists.
And don’t bug these teens with religious questions for too long because they have more important things to do. They are disinterested moralistic therapeutic deists, and who wouldn’t be disinterested in such a religion?
          Oh – and this is important – teens are regular people who just speak a little more blatantly than the rest of us. Poll 3,000 evangelical adults and you uncover the same basic beliefs.
To these beliefs I can add one more (Thank you for pointing this one out, Laura Andrews!).

“I must try harder.”

          While so many other functional beliefs immediately sound heterodox, this one sounds biblical. Who among us isn’t trying harder to love our neighbor, love God, eat better, go greener, and exercise more? And aren’t we supposed to work out our salvation and live like athletes who want to win a race?
          Yet, “I must try harder,” as I have heard it used, is always doomed to fail, as it should. It can mean: “I have tried harder and it didn’t help, and maybe I should keep trying harder, but why bother?” It can mean: “I have tried harder, and it didn’t help, but I will keep trying harder because I don’t know what else to do.” Or it can mean: “Yeah, yeah, yeah, I messed up. I’ll try harder. Okay? (Now stop bothering me.)”
          “I must try harder” comes from the set of beliefs in which Jesus, at most, is our [distant] coach, giving direction, encouragement, and a good tongue lashing from the side-lines while we try to compete, without much assistance, against someone clearly more skilled than ourselves. Victory is never really possible. We just hope to avoid an embarrassingly lopsided loss.
          Life in Jesus, however, is restless rest, with the accent on rest. Faith, which is the primary human response to God, means that we trust him and not ourselves. More specifically, faith means, “Jesus, help!” And this is very different from a foundational belief, “I must try harder.”
          I want to try harder too, but in the right way. We need to be activists in our rest. We actively ask God to show us the way, to do what he is calling us to do, in the Spirit’s power. But the belief I hear most often is the resigned, self-reliant version of “I must try harder.”
          Now is always a good time to assign ourselves a new task, such as to rest in, abide in, believe in, trust in, know and enjoy the rescuer of our souls

A Prayer about Caring for Sin-Entangled Friends

          Pastor Scotty Smith has a very unique blog of prayers. He simply posts prayers about certian topics each day. I have so often been blessed and challenged by these prayers and this is one that I felt compelled to share.

          We often times know what the Bible says we should do but we struggle with how to do it. Scotty offers a prayer of transparency and honesty that articulates so well what we might be thinking and what we should be thinking.

          I hope this prayer will strengthen our resolve to obedience and encourage us in Christ. My prayer is that we will see, obedience is better than sacrifice with God. Love is not something that is easy but worth it and for the sake of both unity and purity may we confront each other daily with our sin. Oh God! May You get the glory today.

Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. Gal. 6:1-2

          Heavenly Father, we come to your throne of grace this morning praying for wisdom and gentleness to love our struggling friends well. None of us naturally likes confrontation, and we decry self-righteous busybodies who show up in our lives like self-appointed prosecuting attorneys. But these words of Paul paint a different picture and present a different way of caring for our sin-entangled friends.
          Give us kindness and strength. If a friend loves in all seasons, that certainly must involve the seasons when we get entangled in sin. Sin kills; it destroys; it brings death. We tend to forget this. If we saw a friend drinking poison, we wouldn’t hesitate to knock the cup from their hand. If we saw a friend stepping close to a pit of rattlesnakes, we’d yell and push them out of harm’s way. Help us hate sin enough and love our friends enough to get involved. Better to risk the awkwardness, anger, messiness, and defensiveness than to watch another life or marriage simply go down.
          Give us discernment and persistence. It’s not about a rush to judgment but about a journey to restoration. Help us to listen before launching. The goal must always be restoration, not just rebuke. Entanglements take a while to get disentangled. We may have to carry some of these burdens longer than we realize. Father, we need the power of the Holy Spirit and the love of Jesus. You promise to give us sufficient grace for all things, and we take you at your Word. We need great grace to do this well.
          Give us gentleness and hope. Those who remove specks the best are those who are most aware of the log in their own eye. Keep us humble and keep us aware of our own “temptability.” None of us is beyond the need of grace, and none of us is beyond the reach of grace. Make us wise and careful. Our joy is in remembering that Jesus is the great Restorer, not us. This is the law of Christ we are fulfilling; his yoke we are bearing; his story that’s being written. Super-size our hope in this messy process.
          Lastly, Father, we praise you for churches that are stepping up and are seeking to do the hard and heart work of discipline and restoration. Increase their tribe and bless their endeavors. It’s never easy. So very Amen we pray, in Jesus’ holy and loving name.

Jesus + Nothing = Everything

          Justin Taylor was so good to post this article on his blog. I could not pass up the opportunity to share it what you all as well. I have just ordered this book for myself and I am really excited to read it. Tullian is very honest in sharing the things that happened to him and how God molded him. Having been through some transition and change here, this was a huge encouragement to me and a huge challenge. It just confirmed again why I should buy this book and read it. I love to read books that will always point me back to, "The Bible". I believe this is one of those books.

          In this interview with Leadership magazine, Tullian Tchividjian describes some of the ugliness and pain that resulted from attempting to merge his church plant with Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in 2009:

There were people in the choir who, when I would stand up to preach, would get up and walk out.
People would sit in the front row and just stare me down as I preached. It was extremely uncomfortable.  

People would grab me in the hallway between services and say, “You’re ruining this church, and I’m going to do everything I can to stop you.” 

I would come out to my car and it would be keyed. . . .

They put petitions on car windows during the worship service.

They started an anonymous blog, which was very painful . . . fueling rumors and lies. The blog almost ruined my wife’s life.

Anonymous letters were sent out to the entire congregation with accusations and character assassinations.
It was absolutely terrible.

          He then recounts a family vacation that summer when he poured out his frustration to God. But then things began to change as he read God’s word:

But then I started thinking, why does this bother me so much? Yes, I have people writing nasty things about me, lying about me, spreading rumors about my team. They’re after power. And they’re not getting it, and these are the tactics they’re using. But why does that bother me so much?
I remember saying to God in that moment, “Just give me my old life back.” And he said, “It’s not your old life you want back. It’s your old idols you want back. And I love you too much to give them to you.”

I opened up my Bible. In the reading plan I was following, it so happened that the day’s passages included the first chapter of Colossians. As I read those verses, my eyes were opened. My true situation came into focus. I’d never realized how dependent I’d become on human approval and acceptance until so much of it was taken away in the roiling controversy at Coral Ridge.  

In every church I’d been a part of, I was widely accepted and approved and appreciated. I’d always felt loved in church. Now, for the first time, I found myself in the uncomfortable position of being deeply disliked and distrusted, and by more than a few people. Now I realized just how much I’d been relying on something other than the approval and acceptance and love that were already mine in Jesus. I was realizing in a fresh way the now-power of the gospel—that the gospel doesn’t simply rescue us from the past and rescue us for the future; it also rescues us in the present from being enslaved to things like fear, insecurity, anger, self-reliance, bitterness, entitlement, and insignificance.  

Through my pain, I was being convinced all over again that the power of the gospel is just as necessary and relevant after you become a Christian as it is before. When that biblical reality gripped my heart, I was free like I had never felt before in my life. It gives you the backbone to walk into a room full of church leaders and say “this is what we’re going to do and this is why we’re going to do it, even if it gets me thrown into the street.” There is a fresh I-don’t-care-ness that accompanies belief in the gospel. Whether you like me or not doesn’t matter, because my worth and my dignity and my identity are anchored in God’s approval. Christ won all of the approval and acceptance I need.

Five Warning Signs of Declining Church Health

Found this article by Thom Rainer today, and it really got me to thinking about Church health. I thought I would share this with any who read and would love and invite your comments. Grace Baptist Church is going through some transition. God has called one of our Elders to new ministry in Ontario and we are very excited for him and his family. But as we now look to see what God has in store for us it is a great time to pray and think about our own spiritual health and how God would have us respond.

The truth is, some things in this article convict and challenge me, while others encourage and confirm for me that God is working and we are on the right track. I am more convinced than ever that prayer and quiet time with God is needed to reflect and hear His still small voice.

Yet I am excited and thrilled to know God's love and grace and have a peace that God has amazing things planned for Grace Baptist Church. Praise God from whom all blessings flow and may God get all the glory in His Church both now and forever.

          "December 17, 2004, should have been a day of celebration.
           Nellie Jo and I had been married 27 years on that date. We were in Naples, Florida, enjoying the sunshine and each other.
Then the phone call came.
           We had been given a great deal of confidence that the biopsy would likely prove negative. Proceed with our anniversary celebration, we were told. In the unlikely event that the report was not good, they would let us know.
           The report was not good. Nellie Jo had cancer. The next two years would prove to be some of the most challenging years of our lives and marriage.

When an Unhealthy Body Looks Healthy

           Looking back, it is amazing to recall how healthy Nellie Jo looked. She showed no signs of fatigue or sickness. Had she not seen a couple of warning signs, she might have found out too late about her cancer. She might not be alive today.
           I’ve seen it countless times. My team would go into a church for a consultation, and we would begin interviewing church members. We would hear from many of the congregants that their church was healthy and thriving. Then we would see the warning signs. And we would begin to fear that the apparently healthy body was not really healthy at all.
The church was sick. Some of the churches were really sick.

Five Warning Signs

            What were some of the warning signs my team saw? Though the list is not exhaustive, these five issues were common. Some of the churches had one or two on the list; some had all five.

1. The church has few outwardly focused ministries. Most of the budget dollars in the church are spent on the desires and comforts of church members. The ministry staff spends most of its time taking care of members, with little time to reach out and minister to the community the church is supposed to serve.

2. The dropout rate is increasing. Members are leaving for other churches in the community, or they are leaving the local church completely. A common exit interview theme we heard was a lack of deep biblical teaching and preaching in the church.

3. The church is experiencing conflict over issues of budgets and building. When the focus of church members becomes how the facilities and money can meet their preferences, church health is clearly on the wane.

4. Corporate prayer is minimized. If the church makes prayer a low priority, it makes God a low priority.

5. The pastor has become a chaplain. The church members view the pastor as their personal chaplain, expecting him to be on call for their needs and preferences. When he doesn’t make a visit at the expected time, or when he doesn’t show up for the Bible class fellowship, he receives criticism. In not a few cases, the pastor has lost his job at that church because he was not omnipresent for the church members.

Where Do We Go from Here?

           The bad news is that few churches recover if the patterns above become normative. The church is a church in name only. It is self-gratifying rather than missional. It is more concerned about great comfort than the Great Commission and the Great Commandment.
           The good news is that a few churches have moved from sickness to health. The path was not easy. It first required that the congregants be brutally honest with themselves and God. It does no good to speak glowingly of a church that is unhealthy and getting worse.
            Many of the turnaround churches we consulted then moved to a time of corporate confession and repentance. They confessed to God their lack of obedience and their selfish desire for their own comfort.
            And still other churches made an intentional effort to shift the ministries and the money of the church to a greater outward focus. This step can be particularly painful since a number of church members often protest with vigor that their needs are no longer being met.

To Become a Healthy Church

             Indeed we could focus on the reality that the great majority of sick churches do not recover. But that focus provides little value.
             We should look at the admittedly few churches that have moved from sickness to health. We should learn how they turned from an inward focus to an outward focus. We should follow their examples of moving from selfish desires to radical obedience to God.
In His power the unhealthy church can become healthy.
Heed the warning signs.
It could be the difference between life and death.