Drivers Education

So the other day I was so encouraged when I read the story of Stan's sudden and unexpected death. . . encouraged knowing that even in death we can be a light and example to the world around us. Francis Chan isn't the only one who feels like life's fragility should motivate us to live with the right perspective. Paul talks about this same thing in Romans 13.

"Love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law. And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber,
because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is almost over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light."

I don't know when my time here on earth is up. It may come suddenly and prematurely, or it may come in my sleep when I'm 94. Either way, it is a short blip on the screen of eternity. So what am I going to do with the time that I have here? It is so easy to get wrapped up in the drama of friends, school, work, family, and politics. It is so easy to let Jesus take the back seat while we fill our days with 'bigger' priorities.

I don't want to stand before God in heaven and have to admit that I wasted the precious time he gave me here on earth. I don't want to look back at the story of my life and realize that it was all about me. I long for it to be all about Him. All about living his example, sharing his love, teaching his story, and following his call.

The hour has come for me to wake up from my sleep, because Jesus is coming back sooner than I might think, and the day when I stand before God to give an account of my life is nearer than it might feel. Today I choose to live in such a way that he would be proud. Today I choose to put on the armor of light and let Jesus hold the steering wheel; after all, he knows the path much better than I.

Perspective

Is it ok to admit that the last few days have been a struggle?? Nothing tragic or life-threatening. . . We were busy (as always!) but added to the normal day to day chaos of life was a small conflict that needed resolution. It is amazing how one small issue can impact my day, my attitude, and my ability to focus on God. I can get so overwhelmed with analyzing things that it is nearly impossible for me to sit and meditate on the word.

I am so glad that every morning is new. That the worries and stresses of yesterday don't have to impact today. It is so easy to get wrapped up in life's difficulties - but if we can manage to pull back and focus on the big picture, we'll see that there is so much more to life than those things. . . When I get discouraged or distracted I turn to the words of others for encouragement. Today I turned to Francis Chan, and I'd like to share some of his words with you. They inspire and encourage me to move beyond life's distractions and focus my eyes on the goal - Jesus!!

From Crazy Love, pg. 46-47:

Are You Ready?
As a pastor, I'm often called upon when life "vanishes like a mist." One of the most powerful examples I've seen of this was Stan Gerlach, a successful business man who was well known in the community. Stan was giving a eulogy at a memorial service when he decided to share the gospel. At the end of his message, Stan told the mourners, "You never know when God is going to take your life. At that moment, there's nothing you can do about it. Are you ready?" Then Stan sat down, fell over, and died. His wife and sons tried to resuscitate him, but there was nothing they could do - just as Stan had said a few minutes earlier.
I'll never forget receiving that phone call and heading over to the Gerlach house. Stan's wife, Suzy, was just arriving home. She hugged me and cried. One of her sons, John, stepped out of the car weeping. He asked me, "Did you hear the story? Did you hear? I'm so proud of him. My died doing what he loved most. He was telling people about Jesus."
I was asked to share a word with everyone gathered. There were children, grandchildren, neighbors, and friends. I opened my Bible to Matthew 10:32-33: "Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven."
I asked everyone to imagine what it must have felt like for Stan. One moment, he was at a memorial service saying to a crowd, "This is who Jesus is!" The next, he was before God hearing Jesus say, "This is who Stan Gerlach is!" One second he was confessing Jesus; a second later, Jesus was confessing him!
It happens that quickly. And it could happen to any of us. In the words of Stan Gerlach, "Are you ready?"


Well, if that isn't enough of a kick in the pants to refocus my heart on what is truly important then I don't know what is. Hope it does the same for you today my friend!

I am a C

Why is it that so many kids raised in Christian homes are bored, disconnected, and discontented with God and the Christian life? What makes the story that once turned the world upside down seem mundane to people who know it well? I'm not referring to kids who have thought about it deeply, taken it seriously, and then rejected it because on some level they disagree or do not believe. That's one thing. I'm talking about kids who know and believe that Jesus died for them; they just don't really care.

I don't get that. And its not just kids. I can look around during a worship service and see a number of faces registering boredom. Faces of adults who have been 'believers' for decades. Does the message of Christianity just get boring after a while? I don't see how that's possible. Is it that people just forget that they are sinful and daily in need of a Savior?

If that's the case, let me offer a sobering reminder to those of us who sometimes begin to take the gospel for granted. I'll put it in the first person - so that it doesn't seem like I am exempt from this truth.

I am selfish. I think about myself before I think of others. Sometimes I put my wants or needs aside, but often I don't. I judge other people for choices that I see as wrong, even though that's not my job. I am impatient when people don't understand, even when my 2 year old doesn't understand. I have exaggerated the truth, flat out lied, used the name of God in vain, and obsessed over my own stuff, my own life, and my own issues. I am a sinner.

God is good. Holy, just, merciful, faithful, loving, gracious, compassionate. . . think of something good - anything good. That's my God. He is incapable of thinking wrong, doing wrong, or being wrong. He created the universe - our galaxy and every star in it. He knit us together, knew us before we were born. He is awesome. He is God.

So what about me is so good? Why am I so deserving of His love and acceptance? I'm not. And when we forget that the cross is all about God offering something that we do not and will never deserve then we lose our sense of gratefulness for His sacrifice. . . and the cross becomes a cheesy Christian symbol instead of the very source of life that makes us new and washes us clean.

You're a sinner too. But when you look at the cross of Jesus, remember that his work there was enough to wash even the darkest, deepest stains clean. You are God's twice.

First He made you. Then He bought you back.

Worship

Almost every Saturday night Matt and I lead worship at our Saturday night service. We started the service almost a year ago with a few other couples in our church. When it began I had these visions of how God could use it in our church and community. I was so excited for what God was going to do. . . or, at least, what I thought God was going to do.

I do believe that He is using the service to reach, grow, and encourage people who have not yet made a connection with the more traditional types of services offered here. But I think perhaps the person most changed through this process so far is me. Its funny how you come into something thinking that you have it figured out; like you know what's missing and how to create something good. We had some good ideas, and some not so good ideas. The service has changed and grown as we have changed and grown, and I have been humbled time and again as I realize that I will never have it all figured out.

My absolute favorite thing about Saturday night is the worship. I had never led worship until we moved up here 3 and 1/2 years ago. It was nerve wrecking and stressful at first. I still get nervous every time - but God has done this amazing, freeing work in me. . . and every Saturday night when I sit behind that keyboard and begin to sing I feel the most powerful, intimate connection to my God. I am moved beyond words and encouraged and inspired beyond understanding. Worship is my love language with God.

But truth is what motivates those feelings. Like I wrote yesterday - we can't base our faith on feelings alone. I cannot base my trust in God and the quality of my relationship with him on how good the worship felt at church. If, however, I understand and acknowledge the truth in the words; if my worship is stemming from a deep understanding of what Jesus did for me and what that renewed relationship means - well, then there is hardly any way for me to worship without being moved.

I love Saturday night. I love sitting at my piano and singing to my Savior. He is worthy of all my praise and all of me. Every day we have is a day that we can offer ourselves to him. Next time you are in church singing songs - close your eyes and imagine your Savior standing in front of you. . . holes in his hands and love in his eyes. That isn't manufactured emotionalism.

That's truth.

20 Questions

I am in the middle of a fabulous conversation with a friend. She is a girl who thinks deeply, questions openly, and doesn't accept canned answers. I have great respect for the way she approaches life. That said, we disagree on almost everything. Talking with her provides a great opportunity to really think through what I believe and why I believe it. We've been having a discussion related to one of my previous posts (Level Ground). She liked my last comment enough to encourage me to copy and paste it as an actual post. So, here it is (you can see the conversation in its entirety in the comment section of the post Level Ground):

Erin said:

Well, we certainly can't base our view of truth on feelings. Sometimes we feel really good about things that are totally wrong. . . Like a girl who is in love with a guy who treats her like crud. Sometimes our hearts and emotions misguide us. I might feel good about my interpretations of certain passages of Scripture - but I'm basing my understanding on a lot more than feelings. I am studying those passages to try and understand what the author originally intended. Just like any writer, the authors of the bible wrote intentionally. They were trying to make a point. If you want to know what a particular section is talking about you need to know about the author, about the people he was writing to, and about the cultural issues that were prevalent at that time. If you know those things then you can gain a pretty darn good understanding of the overall principles that underscore the writing.

Its easy to leave a church on a Sunday morning having never felt the active presence of God. Sometimes there is a void in the service - a lack of passion, transparency, or authenticity. Sometimes its because our own hearts are hardened or turned away from God himself. But don't reject the Christian understanding of the bible based on fallen, sinful people who sometimes misrepresent the gospel it preaches. . . and don't question its validity because you feel better about a different way. God's word goes against a lot of common, accepted things in our culture. Not everything in the bible is going to 'feel' good - but that doesn't mean it isn't truth.

Misunderstood

I do not have a graduate degree in theology. I have not studied the Bible in its original Greek and Hebrew text. Sometimes I express what I have learned from a passage to someone who has done those things (like my husband) and they - in love - inform me that I am a bit misdirected in my interpretation. At first, that was fairly offensive. Embarrassing, too, maybe. . . But these days I have learned to welcome such responses (or at least try to), and to then passionately pursue truth where I might have been injecting personal explanation. I don't want to read the Bible and then create my own doctrine based on my limited understanding. I want to know the Bible as God intended - to read it and understand it as it was meant to be understood.

I can understand a lot of things in Scripture on my own. . . I don't want you to think that we are incapable of that unless we've been to seminary. However, there is a limit to how much I can get out of it totally on my own. Why? Well, because on my own I didn't know the climate of the culture in Corinth when Corinthians was written. But when someone who studied the social, political, and cultural atmosphere in Corinth when Corinthians was written explained those things to me - I was able to read and understand the letter in a deeper, more exciting way! I am so grateful that there are people who dedicate their lives to understanding the historical and cultural issues of the bible. I gain a lot from their studies. . .

So, while knowing the history behind some of the books of the Bible helps us to understand what the authors were trying to say - we have to be careful not to use the excuse of culture to explain the Bible away. I have heard people argue that because certain letters were written to specific people in a specific culture they are totally inconsequential to us. There is nothing that we can apply to ourselves today because we are in a totally different culture. I'm sorry - but that is wrong. God inspired the writers of the Bible to communicate timeless, eternal truths. They did write to specific people, in a specific time - but that only means that sometimes we need to dig deeper to grasp the eternal truths and not just the cultural implications.

For example, in one of his letters Paul talks about women dressing with modesty and then gives the example of not braiding hair. Braiding hair is not a sin, nor is it immodest in and of itself. It did, however, communicate something immodest in the culture at that time. So our application today would be to identify what physical expressions communicate similarly in our culture - and avoid them.

I don't know where this came from today. Before I sat down I was reading about something else entirely. . . but there you go. Apparently that is on my mind.

Level Ground

So, for those of you who read the entry on that gloomy day when I decided to read Romans 12, I'm still working on it. . . It is a pretty intense passage of Scripture you know. So this morning I was reading it again, and had a little ah-hah! moment I thought I'd share. . .

Verse 2 in the NASB goes like this:

"And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may prove what God's will is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect."

That is an important verse for those of us who live in the world (which, of course, is everyone). But what does that mean? Are we supposed to hide from the world? Berate the world? I have never believed that we are to hide - God's word makes it clear that in order to share the love and forgiveness of Jesus we have to be in the world. But how do we keep ourselves from conforming to it?

Well, as Scripture often does, I believe the following verses explain this process. Unfortunately, though, Christians have often explained and expounded on such verses without looking at them in their context. First of all, it says right in verse 2 that we are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. We are to know Christ, study the truths that have been revealed in Scripture. . . and in knowing him the life he desires for us will become clearer. After that the text goes on to talk about our uniqueness in Christ and the need for genuineness in our love and in our service. The chapter closes with a call to transparently love even those who hate us. I think all of those things go totally against the way our world works, don't you? So, after thinking about this for a bit, I'm pretty convinced that the way we avoid conforming to this world is in renewing our thinking, our loving, and our serving.

Now, I hate to be negative, but I have to share a frustration here. Sometimes Christians use verses like Romans 12:2 to promote an idea of Christianity that it separatist, exclusive, and judgemental. They decide that 'not being conformed to this world' includes abstaining from many of the enjoyable things of this world. I don't mind that - if that is what makes them feel connected to their faith and God. . . what I mind is when they then force those expectations on all believers and condemn those who do not feel the need to abstain from things that Scripture hasn't clearly asked them to. I think Paul knew this tendency might arise when he wrote the very next verse in Romans 12.

Verse 3 goes like this:

"For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgement, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith."

Or in the message version, like this:

"I'm speaking to you out of deep gratitude for all that God has given me, and especially as I have responsibilities in relation to you. Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it's important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings
it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by the what we are and what we do for him."

So Paul makes it clear that when we live for God, not conforming to this world but being transformed, we must acknowledge that it is God in us giving us the power to do those things! Not one of us could get it right apart from him.

So let's be careful as we live our Christianity in this world. Give each other the love and grace to live our faith as well as we can based on our understanding of Scripture. If you see a brother or sister who truly seems to be straying from the clear commands of God - talk to that person in truth and love! But when you find a believer who truly loves Jesus and yet has a different viewpoint on what movies are appropriate, what beverages are acceptable, or how to define modesty at the mall - try to extend grace and love without judgement. We can only live by the standards that God has defined for us.

Lets remember that the ground is level at the foot of the cross.