Convinced to a Point

For 2,ooo years things have really not changed much concerning Jesus. During his day and all of the generations since, we can find many convinced to a point concerning who Jesus is. In John 3:2 we find the Pharisee Nicodemus having a conversation with Jesus. Here are his words:
"Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him".
Let's break this down:

• Rabbi - sign of respect to Jesus coming from a Pharisee, who were known as being very self-righteous. Jesus has broken through to him.
• You are a teacher - you words are persuasive, moving, fresh, inspiring, convicting, etc.
• No one can do these signs that you do - what you do is evidence that God is with you
• Unless God is with him

Four things moved Nicodemus to be convinced to a point, but not quite ready to step in and go all the way. Here are the four things:

1. What you are....Rabbi
2. What you say....your words are holy
   
3. What you do....works separate you from everyone, including the Pharisees
4. What empowers you....unless God is with Him.

Nicodemus is moved to a certain place close to trusting in Jesus, but not quite there. He still needs some of his questions answered and clarified. Like I said, nothing much has really changed in the last 2,000 years. This is where many are today. His curiosity and longing for real truth only brought him so far and he needed some help taking the next step. Jesus helped him take it. This is what we are to do now as well and that is why we should be both students of the heart of man and the Word, so that we can bring clarification to people's search.

It is knowing the word that will make all the difference in bridging the gap between what they are wondering about to actually seeing them making a decision for Christ and convinced for life.

Why We Open the Scriptures

Why do we teach the Bible and not some other things when we gather together? Sadly, some places do teach other things and it all falls short of what needs to be front and center when a body of believers come together. There is this great passage after the resurrection that shows why are to open the Scriptures.

Luke 24:32 "They said to each other, 'Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?"

We all want to see people's hearts burn and come alive when we teach the Bible as it means that the Spirit is moving in them. Three thoughts stand out here about the Word:

1. It is the Scriptures that move the heart - Not us, our creativity, fame, etc. Only teaching the truth "burns the heart" and moves people into a deeper love with Christ. Self help stuff will only go so far as the Scriptures alone have the sustaining power for people. Preach to honor Christ and aim for the heart.
   
2. Where His Presence is, God Will Be Speaking - On the road, in a car, at school, over coffee or running, God is speaking. For these 2, it was on the Emmaus Road. It is only going to happen when we are going His way as it places us in the path where He is going.
3. Therefore, Open the Scriptures - Teach, teach, teach the Scriptures. Do so with passion, creativity and honesty and God will honor the work.

What We Can't Stray From

How do you know if you really love Jesus and it is not just words that you say? Jesus himself answers that in John 14:15, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments". Pretty straightforward from the one who alone gets to define what it means to be His follower. No one else gets to define this but Him. Not the traditionalists, emergents, the liberals, or those of the seeker persuasion - He did not give us any kind of authority to redefine what loving Him looks like. Why then does it seem that this is some kind of debate today? Have we become so enlightened in our day that we have discovered something new? If loving Him is truly seen by walking, talking, and living in obedience, then we should preach the word, hold out the commandments, and implore all Christ followers to be keepers of the truth.
If we in ministry are not pushing this with the people we are servant leaders of, then it is short of what the gospel teaches. It is actually not the gospel. Keeping commandments means embracing the rule and reign of God and it happens because we love God much. How we got away from this aim is in large part why we have such confusion in the church today about who God is and what he desires of our lives.
Leading people to walk in obedience is the great task of the minister of the gospel. Paul said it to Timothy in this manner, "If you put these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, being trained in the words of faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed" (1 Timothy 4:6). If our aim is to be a good servant of Christ Jesus, then we will make sure all things from Jesus are taught.

We cannot stray from this aim.

The Content of our Message

JC Ryle was the first Aglican Bishop of Liverpool. He said there were seven characteristics of the preachers during the great awakening of the 1800's. They are listed below.

1. They taught the supremacy of the holy Scripture. 2. They preached the total corruption of human nature. 3. They taught that Christ's death upon the cross was the only satisfaction for man's sin. 4. They preached the doctrine of justification by faith. 5. They taught the universal necessity of heart conversion and new creation by the Holy Spirit. 6. They spoke of God's eternal hatred against sin and of God's love for sinners. 7. They preached that there was an inseparable connection between true faith and personal holiness. If one lived an ungodly life, then that was evident that there had been no true conversion as being converted means being changed.

What are we doing if we are not holding the supremacy of Scripture and the gospel as central to everything we do?

Even Paul, with his creativity in Athens and at the Areopagus (Acts 17:16-34) spoke of these things:

• vs 16 - Spirit was deeply bothered by idols
• vs 17-18 - Reasons with them about Jesus and the resurrection
  

Those 2 things show he watered down nothing. The gospel was his original message with them.

• vs 23-28 - Clearly portrays who Jesus is
• vs 30 - Tells them they have to repent
• vs 31 - a day of judgment is coming

This passage is championed by those who are calling for the church to communicate the gospel in new ways, but just look at the content of Paul's message and what happened during the 1800's. The content is really not that different.

What does that mean?

It means we should stay with the same message regardless of the disappointments with the church as an institution or postmodernism call for change. The content must not change. Do not change the content. There is something seriously wrong if we want to change or water the content down. It is this same Paul who said these words to his disciple in 2 Timothy 4:2-3 "preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teaching to suit their own passions."

Preach the Word, in its entire content. We are deeper in a time of the gospel "being out of season" in our culture, I think that is clear. So, what do we do? Paul says preach the Word anyway and still reprove, rebuke, and exhort. Those 3 indicate that our job is not to make sure everyone always feels good about everything. A rebuke does not bring encouragement unless it lands on a spiritually wise person.

The content of the gospel must not be altered for any reason.

Shaping the Identity of Church

Every local church or ministry needs an identity and will naturally have one. The problem at times is that some choose to allow themselves to be shaped by the wrong things or they fail to know what they need to do to be shaped by the right things. I want to offer what could help in this process.

• Rules - For church to be church we have to follow what the Bible says about the both the bride and life. Let's face it, the word rules is not so popular today, but there are standards that have to be embraced and followed. Call them what you want, but they are rules. Rules are not bad, really they aren't. As parents we set standards for our kids to follow and we don't bend them. Culturally, people may not like to be told what to do, oh well! Rules are a part of all of life and they make things better. They also help define the expectations which aid in building identity. One thing about this, the rules have to only come from scripture, not culture. Scripture over culture.
  
• Responsibilities - As rules are settled, the next important thing for shaping of identity is for the members of the church to take on personal responsibility for the best of the church and the glory of God. Do we really love our church if we do not take responsibility for it? If we don't, we just an attender and like so many other people in the church. When the majority of the members take responsibility then you have a strong church. When they do not, then you have a weak church.
  
• Relationships - We are so shaped by those around us. Unhealthy relationships will produce dysfunction and this is true for the church. Relationships within the body shape who a church is and where they are going. Is gossip, envy, jealousy, or impartiality present in your ministry? or Does evidence of love, unity, forgiveness, and inclusiveness dominate the life of your body? How the relationships function will shape the body. The leadership must model this.
  
• Rituals - The church needs to be about certain things that they do in both private and public expressions of personal faith. Yes, rituals is not so popular and in some ways I get why, but it is really a good word. Every group has rituals whether it is a spiritual one or not. You see this in sports, music, or preparation for a test. They all have some sort of a ritural. Why should a church not have rituals that define who they are? Obviously, the rituals need to be embraced by the people, if they are not, then they need to be thrown out. Consistent rituals build identity and they need to be in line with scripture.
  

Hope these are helpful.

Moving to the Big Boy Bed

We had a transition happen this week at home. On Monday afternoon Canyon climbed out of his baby bed and moved immediately to his "big boy" bed. We now have no more "babies" at the house and at my old age, maybe that is good.

What makes the transition so good is that we have subsequently put him in bed for nap and a full night of sleep and we just put him in the bed and he stays just as he did in the baby bed until we come to get him out. We are hoping it stays this way. So far so good in his next step toward maturity.

It has caused me to think about the transition that is to take place in the believers life. The writer of Hebrews wrote about spiritual maturity and the steps that we all should make, but sadly many believers do not make. Far to many stay in the realm of immaturity. Look at these words from Hebrews 5:11-14
"About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you our to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who are mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil."
Let's look at a couple of these things in regard to our lives and keeping us from maturity.

• Becoming dull of hearing prevents maturity. Not hearing and obeying the word cannot ever mature us. Ignoring the Word means we ignore the truth and we only become dull, boring and ineffective.
• Whenever we become dull, we need to start at the basics again. It means that are no longer fit to take on the solid food of good doctrine and challenging messages. Look what the scripture says - you live only on milk, we will be unskilled in the ways of righteousness. We will not be able to discern who is right and one stays a child. This is where far to many seem to stay. If you do not like messages that challenge you, then you are immature, because a person who is mature wants deeper and deeper truth. When you are a child, you act like a child - gossip, throw fits, manipulate, lie, etc. If this is you, then it is time to grow up.
• Solid Food is for the Mature. Maturity brings discernment, that when practiced, allows us to really discern what is good and evil. There is a perspective that comes from eating solid food of doctrine and deep truth that equips us better for life.

Have you moved to the "Big Boy Bed" spiritually? If not, it is time.

The New Normal

Pam and I were talking yesterday and we finally think we have something figured out. Living in a day and time where there is not such a clear cut and dry standard for what shapes how we live our lives or what shapes a society, the natural result is that everyone is free to do whatever they want. After all, my life is my life and I should not be told what to do as I live it and I should be free to make decisions regardless of what others really think about me. "I am you know, the center of the universe" - so we often think and live. Call it postmodernism or me-centered living, but it has definitely become the mainstream and the NORM.

There was a time in our society in the not too distant past where this life view was considered foreign. Yes, one could argue that life in the 1940's and 50's was a bit stuffy, etc., but one can also not deny that children and communities had a much better understanding on how to love and care for one another than we do now. There were also life and behavior standards that communities and society at large considered NORMAL. Those certain ideals shaped family, church, government and community life and honestly, gone are those days. The days of respect and mutual accountability to certain standards that were acceptable before no longer really exist. There was, even with the flaws of that generation, something NORMAL to their existence. And if you did not live by those standards, then one was seen outside the NORM and excluded from the group. Certain important ideals were embraced and we have lost those today.

The new normal is now this: Everyone is Normal. Everyone who lives gets to be considered the NORMAL and the new NORM is whatever you may want to do. No matter the choices one makes, no matter the value system one holds, no matter who you may affect - we all have the right to do as we please because what we do is normal. Everyone gets included in the NORM because everything is normal. Obviously I am not talking about breaking the law, as that still carries a penalty, but I am referring to how we talk and treat police officers, teachers, parents, neighbors, coaches, family, and etc. The new NORMAL gives us the right to say and do whatever we feel is right to them and anyone else who may get in our way. These questions must be asked: How is this working for our society? Are we friendlier and more joyful than the previous generations? Have we moved into a higher plane of respect and honor for others? Of course not!! Everyone being NORMAL is not a good thing and our current culture is proof. Accepting and placing anyone and everyone under the NORMAL banner is scary!

I don't like the new NORMAL, in how I live it out at times and how people treat me because they are infected by it. Somehow I don't see that the new NORM has made us more content or loving. We are worse off than ever. Some abnormalcy to the NORM is in order. Anyone want to join me? Maybe we could form a support group called the ABNORMALS.

Let's keep in mind these words of Jesus in John 15:19 - "If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, therefore the world hates you". Let us live in such a way that the world's NORMAL does not get our NORMAL and in so doing we find we are living for the glory of Christ.

Are you normal or abnormal?