New Testament

The Life of Grace – VOTD.06.04.18

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God– not by works, so that no one can boast. Ephesians 2:8,9

Every true Christian knows that he or she has been born into the family of God by God’s grace alone . . . through faith in Jesus. That truth has been the motivation behind evangelism crusades, social work, and personal witnessing across the centuries. We are sinners. We cannot do a single thing to save ourselves from our deserved punishment of eternal death in hell. 

That’s the way of salvation in a nutshell: You and I are saved by God’s grace alone. We receive God’s grace by reaching out and accepting it by faith (which God will give us according to today’s verses). When this happens, there’s a lens change even for the most socially acceptable of us. What we don’t often see is that such a lens shift is the first of many.

Christians don’t have much trouble agreeing that Salvation is completely and entirely a work of God’s grace. However, the Scriptures teach us that Grace does not end on the day that we reach out and receive God’s gift of Jesus. That is only the beginning work of God’s grace. His grace is instrumental in our continued growth and our daily living. The same grace that God offers to save you and me is the grace that God offers to transform our lives into something that Jesus called, “abundant life” (Jn 10:10). (more…)

Continue ReadingThe Life of Grace – VOTD.06.04.18

Loving Us Loving Others – VOTD.05.29.18

For God proved his love for (each one of us) that he gave his one and only, unique Son as a gift… John 3:16

For the Christian walking in God’s grace, our posture is always love. Jesus, Himself, never did a thing outside of love. Even when He rebuked the Pharisees, He did not mock them. Nor did He rant. Too many of His followers, however, prefer loud to loving; yelling to relating. It is much easier. And there are plenty of Christian speakers out there who cater to the ‘Christian’ thirst for put-downs and mockery that is so popular in the Kingdom of this world.

The Bible doesn’t leave the Love matter up to personal choice: I’ve never heard a Christian get up and propose that we behave unlovingly—at least not blatantly. I have heard many redefine love so that it includes unkindness, mockery, verbal slamming, and the list goes on. So I’m wondering: Are we who comprise the local churches so blind to the implications of our love theology that we can snooker ourselves into believing that we are loving when we’re really hating?

Our theology says that we each of us has sinned. We embrace the concept of the total fallenness of humanity, but do we conveniently forget that fallenness does not display itself the same way in everyone? Our theology says that all sins are the same; to commit one is to commit them all; and the penalty for any sin is death. 

In Biblical love there is no wiggle room. Love does not allow us to decide who we will let off and who we will judge any more than it allows us to decide who we will love and who we will hate; who we will be in awe of and who we will mock.

If the love of God is not for people we fully disagree with; the person on the cover of all the supermarket tabloids, the politician who’s agenda is godless, the atheist… then it is for no one. The very essence of the Gospel is that no one is good enough to secure God’s love. And “no one” includes you and me and all those people we think we’re better than… why pretend that our hatred is ‘righteous indignation’ and as such, it’s acceptable?  

God’s grace is not a bunch of theological platitudes, but it is God’s hand finding each one of us in the miry pit. The hand that becomes coated with grime to reach down into the sewer of sin and grab us sets us on a solid rock and establishes us in righteous ways.

So, theology aside, why do many (most?) Christians consider some sins worse than others? While many would correctly reason that we can’t expect lost people to act like they are saved, why do we expect them to, anyway? Paul certainly was explicit about this. He required some standards within the group of people who claimed to be Christians, but he calls it futile to expect Christian behavior from non-Christians. (more…)

Continue ReadingLoving Us Loving Others – VOTD.05.29.18

Unity vs. Love – VOTD.05.28.18

Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Colossians 3:13,14

I’ve watched churches and individuals struggle with the unity thing for most of my adult life. And I’ve watched the grapple to build unity. If I’ve learned one thing from all this observation, it’s that if our goal is unity, we’re doomed. But if our goal is love, unity will grow out of that.

The key to true unity is to make sure that unity isn’t the goal—love is the goal. So, rather than seeking unity, we should seek love, and then we can let love be the key to unity.

Love forgives when we are wronged. Love chooses to ignore differences of opinion. Love overlooks variations in behavior. When we truly love people, differing political opinions and theological persuasions become all part of the diversity of the Living Organism we call the Body of Christ, rather than opportunity for taking offense which leads to division and strife.

This way, even if a unity of beliefs/behavior is not possible, a unity of love is. Unity is not sameness. It is love lifting us above our differences in order to pursue our common goal, the glory of God. This is crucial: God loves us unconditionally, and He calls us to love our siblings in Christ unconditionally. This kind of love never demands the casting aside of convictions or truth. In fact, it leaves that sort of thing in the hands of the Holy Spirit who is the author of unity. (more…)

Continue ReadingUnity vs. Love – VOTD.05.28.18

Our Harmonious Response to God’s Children – VOTD.05.22.18

I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.  Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. Ephesians 4:1-3

We’ve already seen that unity isn’t about identicality, it’s about like-heartedness. So how do we cooperate with God to live in unity and how is it maintained? It depends a lot on our character in Jesus. Paul lists 5 characteristics that Christian unity depends on: humility, gentleness, patience, mutual forbearance, and love.

No big surprise that he begins with humility. Humility is essential to unity. Pride almost always results in discord and discord is almost always the result of pride at some level. Humility is the attitude that Jesus displayed in becoming a human being in the first place (Phil 2:3-8). In fact the word Paul used here is actually “humility of mind”—Humble-minded. That it’s an attitude that recognizes the worth and value of other people and allows for their diverse opinions.

Think about it for a moment. The people we tend to like to be around are people who show us respect even though they may not agree with us in many areas. The ones we don’t like to be with are the ones we sense disrespect or feel smug superiority from. Rather than maneuvering for the respect or esteem of others (which is the nature of pride), if we give them our respect, because we recognize their inherent God-given worth (which is the nature of this humility of mind that Ephesians is talking about), then we’ll be promoting harmony in our relationships; and result will probably be that they’ll respond to us with the same respect they’ve received. (more…)

Continue ReadingOur Harmonious Response to God’s Children – VOTD.05.22.18

Our Harmonious Response to a Fathomless God – VOTD.05.21.18

(Present yourselves) as one united body living in perfect harmony. Form a consistent choreography among yourselves, having a common perspective with shared values.
1 Corinthians 1:10

Last time we were talking about the variety of metaphors God uses in His Word to describe Himself to us:
Potter – Clay (clay is a lump, simply receiving)
Shepherd – Sheep (sheep at least have some ability to respond)
Master – Slave (slaves work, they do their duty)
Father – Children (now we’re talking relationship, but it’s a pitched relationship)
Friend – Friend (we’re on the same playing field)
Lover – Lover (we’re in each other’s arms, entwined)
One heart, one mind (supernatural oneness, where it’s hard to define where one leaves off and the other begins)
Even deeper and deeper (the list never ends)

The diversity of metaphors exist because He is a Big God, beyond our understanding, but He wants to connect with us in ways we can fathom. (more…)

Continue ReadingOur Harmonious Response to a Fathomless God – VOTD.05.21.18

God’s Revelation of Himself – VOTD.05.15.18

I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. But now I call you my most intimate friends, for I reveal to you everything that I’ve heard from my Father.  John 15:15

Last time we ended by saying that when we are doubtful about who God wants to be for us and what He wants us to be for Him, then we’re perfectly positioned to discover Him in some new, glorious and breathtaking way.
…If we’ll let ourselves.

I wonder how many of us have lost—or maybe never had—that intimate knowledge of God as our true Father?
Or how many of us have lost—or maybe never had—that intimate knowledge of Jesus as our Bridegroom?
Our how many of us have lost—or maybe never had—that intimate knowledge of the Holy Spirit as our comforter and loving director of our path?

Our God wants to be all that to us and more. But we need to come to grips with the truth that God reveals Himself to each of us in different ways. Even in the Bible, we see God often reveals Himself as a father, sometimes as a mother… in the NT we see Him as a brother, a savior, a door, a flower, bread, water… lots of things. In the same way, God reveals His relationship to each of us in a series of ways: As a Kinsman-Redeemer to a young widow, as a brother to a sibling, as still small voice to a listening ear, as a Master to a slave, as a Friend to a friend, as a Husband to a wife or a Lover to a lover…

And not all of these relationship metaphors are equal. When Jesus said, “I no longer call you slaves, but now I call you friends,” that was a promotion, not a lateral move in their relationship. Yet in their future writings, they don’t introduce themselves as “friend of Jesus”; they introduce themselves as “servants of Jesus.” So becoming friends – experiencing Jesus at that status — didn’t negate the idea that they still identified with the “servant” relationship metaphor.

But why all the metaphors in the first place? All of these and more are needed for us to grasp the Bigness of our God and how He relates to us. But it also points to a reality that God often reveals Himself to each of us in different ways. So, my experience of Him might be a little different than yours. (more…)

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The Breadth of God – VOTD.05.14.2018

When Paul says, “Praise the Lord all you nations, and let all the peoples extol him” Rom 15:11, he’s saying that there is something about our God that is so universally praiseworthy and so profoundly stunning and so precisely worthy and so deeply satisfying that God will find passionate lovers in all sorts of different people.

Jesus’ true greatness is demonstrated in the breadth of people who identify themselves with Him and cherish Him. His glory is shown to be higher and deeper than if He was only found awesome by a narrow, insulated group of people who see everything the same way.

But instead of attracting only a single kind people, His appeal is to the deepest, highest, largest capacities of our souls. It all testifies to His incomparable glory.

And it all challenges the smallness of our personal image of God. And that’s important because our image of God drives every single part of our life and determines how we live out our lives. (more…)

Continue ReadingThe Breadth of God – VOTD.05.14.2018

Encouragement and God’s Love – VOTD.05.08.2018

Last time we looked at 1 Corinthians 8:1.” Knowledge [alone] makes [people self-righteously] arrogant, but love [that unselfishly seeks the best for others] builds up and encourages others.” It is a verse directed toward those whose have their facts right but hearts wrong. Here Paul addresses the Bible-brilliant-but-people-passive…the well-taught-but-self-absorbed…the knowledgeable-but-unloving.

We might think hard about the Scriptures, but we miss the point about people if we miss the ‘love, building up and encouraging others’ part. Eagerness to learn more about God is good…Zeal to learn more about God’s Word is good, and it’s often an important stage in a new believer’s development in their love for God. It’s all good. But the problem comes when we cloister with those we agree with and don’t love people…don’t have a passion for the people God has a passion for.

We don’t have to go to the other side of the world to do that; or even the other side of town. Some of us don’t even need to go to the other side of the church we attend or the other side of the house we live in. Paul knew the Scriptures better than any of us…he wrote a lot of them. And his conclusion is that knowledge comes with the danger of enabling a self-righteous spirit within us that manifests itself in arrogance. When that happens it creates an environment of elitism. It creates a pecking order. It creates an ‘us and them’ mentality.

Consider for a moment Jesus’ story about the Pharisee and the tax collector (Luke 18:10-13). One had a life saturated in all the teachings of God. That man knew the Scriptures and could recite astounding quantities of the written Word of God…He was approved of and by those who also knew the Word exceptionally well. He was on the team. He was a celebrity by the values and popularity measurements of his day. But he missed the point. His self-absorption and lack of love was palpable.

When we enable that kind of lifestyle for ourselves we become increasingly secluded. Our only friend increasingly ends up being ourselves. Because self-love is all that is left—and that’s at odds with “God is Love” (1 Jn 4:8). But do we think of Him as love? Do we know Him as Love? (more…)

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Encouragement and Our Unfathomable God – VOTD.05.07.18

Knowledge [alone] makes [people self-righteously] arrogant, but love [that unselfishly seeks the best for others] builds up and encourages others  1 Corinthians 8:1

One of the shifts in the way the Christian faith is being lived out today compared to 30, 50, or 100 years ago is that people have become less and less interested in explanations about God and more interested in experiencing His nature in their own lives. This comes from a Barna Research Group study of thousands of Americans from all walks of life.

Not that explanations about God is a bad thing, but that without love, it is nothing, zilch, nadda (1 Cor 13:2). God has been being explained for centuries and often today’s verse just gets proven all over again…Knowledge alone makes people self-righteously arrogant. Love, on the other hand, encourages people.

Despite millennia of study attempting to define God academically, many people—many Christians meticulously educated in prominent Bible schools and seminaries—have underdeveloped or distorted views of God. They see Him through lenses, shaped and clouded by a lack of love… lenses that have not accurately reflected His kindness and His goodness… His care.

But this has changed significantly in the past 10-15 years. George Barna, whose firm conducted the study mentioned earlier, pointed out that this is not mere speculation—something we’ll see in the near future—but that this spiritual makeover is already taking place.

A few interesting (to me) findings:
71% say they are “more likely to develop my religious beliefs on my own, rather than to accept an entire set of beliefs that a particular church teaches.” Levels of distrust toward churches, church leaders, and organized Christianity have been growing over the past two decades.  (more…)

Continue ReadingEncouragement and Our Unfathomable God – VOTD.05.07.18