Life, Love and Work

“For no matter what we achieve, if we don’t spend
the vast majority of our time with people we love and respect,
we cannot possibly have a great life.”
– Jim Collins, Good To Great

Every now and then I get asked if I would ever leave the church I currently serve. I don’t know the motives behind the question but I’d like to think that due to my superhuman ability to exposit God’s Word, razor-sharp leadership skills and theologically encyclopedic mind they know it’s only a matter of time 'til the ship sails to the land of being a Lead Pastor. (yes, the tongue is firmly planted in cheek) The hard truth is probably they can’t wait for me to leave.

One of the reasons I feel so strongly about where I serve and why it would be hard for me to ever leave is the leadership team I’m a part of. Life is too short to work with others you don’t like, can’t get along with or generally don’t respect or admire. Fortunately, this has not been my lot. There is no question that God’s grace has been rich to me in this area of my life because I truly feel I serve with the greatest guys on the face of the planet. I not only like, admire and respect these guys…I love ‘em! While teaching the Bible, leading others and influencing the direction of the church are activities that “fill my cup” personally and professionally, it’s “doing life with the ones you love” that seals the deal for what I do and where I do it.

Could I leave? Yes. But (unless God says, “Go. Period.”) it would need to be a situation that either meets or surpasses the deep blessings I experience currently. That would be a tall order to say the least.

If you don’t love those with whom you lead I have a word of advice. Quit. Start a church, business, whatever and get a team around you that you can love deeply and they can deeply love you. While some of us couldn’t seriously follow through with that there are some of us who can…and should.

Let me repeat. As far as God enables you to do so, do life with the ones you love. Life is too short to suffer any less.

A Poem for My Wife

Jennefer

Never in this world will there be
A more precious pearl than thee.

In thy presence is nourishing grace,
With deceit or guile, there is no trace.

Some men run after women of standard fare,
But in my possession is one beyond compare.

Of places to which God may deliver me,
All is forlorn lest it be with tbee.

If there is but one prayer I could pray,
T’would be thy presence at my side each day.

May His pow’r give reality to this rhyme,
For I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine.

Flying a Little Lower

"Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven
—for she loved much."
- The Gospel According to Luke 7:47 (ESV)

"There can be no doubt as to the center of gravity in New Testament teaching on worship. The lodestone which irresistibly draws the New Testament Church to the recognition of God's love and mercy
is His saving action in the Son of His love."
- Ralph Martin, Worship in the Early Church

For quite some time I’ve been stuck on the idea that most of the music we play in the corporate worship setting needs to revolve around Jesus and his work on the Cross.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s not that you can’t sing songs about God and his goodness, or how great of a creator he is or how much we love him. It just seems that most of the worship music I hear is cruising about 10,000 feet high when it comes to who God is and what is going on in redemptive history. The lyrics appear to be lifted from the Old Testament and are sometimes almost so generic that, frankly, any faith could almost sing along. Again, it’s not bad (I like the OT) it’s just that we could do better. We’ve been given much greater revelation to sing about, revelation that is the locus of redemptive history, revelation that all the cosmos revolves around, revelation that makes us who we are in the Church. In a phrase, “Where’s the cross?”

We are told in scripture that the greatest expression of God is in the person of Jesus, and his work on Calvary is the greatest expression of his love. If this is the zenith of both who God is and what he has done for us surely this should be the center of our worship? I wonder if some who find themselves disconnected emotionally during the time of corporate worship do so because they’re constantly bombarded with song after song laden with redemptively vague and theologically generic lyrics which give a paint-by-numbers view of God instead of a New Testament-saturated expression of Christ and him crucified?

In Luke 7:36-50 we see a former prostitute lavishly and passionately demonstrating great affection for the Savior due to the fact that she had been forgiven. Forgiveness fuels affection. It always has, it always will. What greater way can we reignite the embers of love for Jesus in the heart of the worshipper with music than by getting before him the truth that he has been greatly forgiven by God? The only way that happens is by using music that highlights Jesus and the work of the cross.

We're New Covenant members for Christ's sake (literally), let's worship like it.

The Gospel and The List

"O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?"

- The Epistle to the Galatians 3:1-3

One of the major tenets of Christianity, especially emphasized in its Reformed expression, is that we are justified by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. In other words, there is nothing that makes me righteous before God except the applied righteousness of Jesus because of his life and work on the Cross. As a Christian (especially one who’s of a Reformed character) this is a truth I embrace wholeheartedly.

At least I thought I did.

That was until through a period of reading, discussion and self-reflection that I realized there were activities I refrained from that undermined my affirmation of the cardinal truth that Jesus is my total righteousness.

Let me give a little backstory here…

Once my father became a Christian our family began to attend a church affiliated with a denomination known for abstaining from a long list of activities deemed “sinful” even though the Bible didn’t explicitly say they were sinful. Things like dancing, drinking alcohol, going to movies for example. They also used to look down on card playing, swimming with the opposite sex and long hair on men. (Some churches probably still hold to those as well). But one way or another this denomination, and others like them, always have had a list, it just gets revised and updated as time goes by.

The problem with lists is that they’re easy to create, easy to enforce and easy to judge people with; however, they take away from the Follower of Jesus a critical thing that demonstrates his maturity in Christ as he or she deals with issues that don’t fall into the black or white categories in scripture – discernment. With a list there’s no need to discern whether something is acceptable or not, it’s just wrong no matter how you slice it. The result is a Christian life which in principle says Christ’s righteousness is sufficient for being made right with God but in practice lives out a life with extra-biblical rules added on to it so that in observing them (with the approval of those in authority) the person will be holier and possess a greater righteousness that those who practice the activities on “The List”.

This was the spiritual no-man’s land in which I found myself. I believed in Jesus and his work to give me a righteousness that was not my own and yet deep-down I believed that certain activities I didn’t participate in made me better than others spiritually. Now, mind you, these activities were not mentioned in the Bible as sins, they were seen as such because for whatever reason they made “The List”. As I got older I became more lenient toward others who did things on "The List" and even got to the point where I would defend them but still I didn't dip my foot in the water, which told more of my real beliefs than I thought.

The ironic result was that in my abstinence of certain practices, instead of demonstrating my faith, I actually exposed my lack of it. My attitudes, beliefs and actions betrayed my confidence in the Gospel. With all the justifications I tried to convince myself of and straw man arguments I gave, the truth was that "The List" had invaded sacred ground. It was trespassing upon the Gospel of the Cross.

So I decided to put my actions where the Cross was. I chunked "The List" and reexamined everything, both engaging or abstaining by faith to the glory of God.

Let me ask you: Why do you do what you do? Do you do _________ and not do ___________ because the Bible says or because someone gave you a list a long time ago and told you this is what good Christians stay away from? Do you see your engagement or abstinence making you more spiritual than others? Do your actions say you trust the Gospel for your righteousness? Do you live out a life that proclaims you are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone?

I thought I did too.

Happy Chapter 15

"The Chronicles of Narnia" have always been close to my heart ever since I was young, and something happened a week or so ago that further deepened my affection for C.S. Lewis’ classic series. I was finishing the series’ most popular novel The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe in which Aslan, the Great Lion and Christ figure of the series is killed by the witch in a humiliating (they even shave off his glorious mane) and torturous fashion. Pretty big stuff for the ears of a five-year old who’s laying next to his dad in his parents’ bedroom. My son’s sobriety grew weightier with each line I read.

-End of Chapter 14-

I decided to let the moment linger: Son, how do you feel? Why would someone innocent die for someone who was guilty? Weren’t the witch and her evil helpers really mean to Aslan? He must’ve really loved Edmund to take his place, don’t you think? I wonder what will happen in the next chapter?

-Chapter 15-

“There, shining in the sunrise, larger than they had seen before, shaking his mane (for it had apparently grown again) stood Aslan himself.”

Upon hearing those words my son leapt out of bed, threw open the bedroom door and upon locating his mother in the room triumphantly shouted at the top of his voice as he jumped up and down, “Mommy, Aslan is alive! He has risen from the dead! Aslan is alive!”

Now, like with my son, let’s allow that moment to linger. Let it percolate a little bit.


...

“He is not here, for he has risen.”
- Matthew 28:6a (ESV)

Happy Easter.