Futile Following

God's enemy, Satan, works continuously to block, obscure, mangle, and drown out the Gospel message. His only possible triumph in his cosmic struggle with God would be to stop as many humans as possible from coming to understand the true reality of God's holiness and their sinfulness, the need for a Savior and the gracious provision through Christ, and the simplicity of responding in faith to these truths.

Upon reading Jeremiah 17:9, I am stunned by one of Satan's most successful campaigns. The Bible says:

"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?"

Satan has countered this warning with:

"Follow your heart!"

You see, God and Satan both base their statements on the same truth: our spiritual hearts are the wellsprings of our sinful state just as our physical hearts pump blood to the whole body.

Therein lies the danger: see our heart pumps blood all over the body whether it's healthy, anemic, or even infected - the heart just continues pumping what it has to pump. If we want to improve the health of the body we need to purify the blood.

In the same way, our spiritual heart pumps whatever it has to pump, which in our natural state is sinfulness. Since the heart only knows to keep pumping, the adage "Follow your heart" seems as sensible as a doctor telling you: "let blood pump through your body!"

Until we exchange our blood for Christ's, the heart continues to pump its dark material, leaving us utterly lost in sin.

God and Satan both make a statement based on the function of our spiritual heart: whose statement are you going to follow?

Story Time

It is common, this time of year, for Christians to shift uncomfortably while they discuss the presence of Santa Claus, Rudolph, Frosty, and other seasonal myths in their home. Some Christians and denominations loathe and expunge the amiable characters, while others have gone to great lengths of defend their right to keep these myths around - and a whole slew of believers land somewhere in between. I'm not here to comment on who is right, but to pause on a Scripture that may just bear on this situation:

"And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the LORD or the work that he had done for Israel."     - Judges 2:10

The sad tone of this verse is only plunged deeper into sobriety by its context: it comes right after the end of Joshua, the book chronicling God delivering on all the oaths He made Israel concerning the Promised Land and their peace.

He has done everything for them, and they couldn't even bother to tell their children.

Did you catch that subtext in the verse? The first generation was gathered to their fathers, a euphemism used for a godly generation of Israel, it presumes that at least the majority of them are with the patriarchs in heaven. At a basic level, this implies that they had believed God's promises and worshipped His faithfulness. But then, the verse talks about the next generation - their children - not knowing about the LORD or what He had just done!

What would have been different if they had told their children the stories of God? Why didn't they share their eyewitness accounts of the Lord in action with their own children? What we see of this generation is that they do know the entire sacrificial system, the ins and outs of the temple, and every detail necessary to Israelite culture.

Perhaps, then, the danger is in what they talked about with their children.

In other words, do you talk about Santa as much as you talk about your own journey of sanctification? Do you sing about Rudolph with the same joy that you sing about your redemption? Do you find yourself wanting gifts as much as you want grace? Is Jesus the reason for the season but Frosty the reason it's exciting?

Are our cultural myths, lessons on manners, and education on cultural practices consuming all the time we had to talk about Christ, about salvation, about grace?

The Christmas myths aren't inherently bad, but they can be distracting. Particularly when we realize that our children will remember what we tell them stories about and that the Bible holds us responsible for what our children do and do not know.

When we are gathered to our Lord, what do we want to be said of our children?

Priorities

Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You cloth yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them in a bag with holes [...] You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? declares the Lord of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house.                                  - Haggai 1:5-6,9

God takes our priorities seriously.

So seriously that when we don't put Him first, and care about His kingdom first, He makes our efforts in life futile.

"Just let me make a good salary, God, and I'll give some of it to your church."
"Let me finish this video game level, and then I'll read my Bible."
"I'm too busy to pray today, God, but you know I mean well."
"I have too much homework, God, so I can't go to Bible study."

Sound familiar? We all do it every day. Deadlines, bottom lines, worry lines, and long lines preoccupy our thoughts, and suddenly a God we cannot see or touch is easy to push out, bump down the list, and forget.

Have you ever, considered, though, that putting God and His priorities off may be the reason your life is fraught with busy-ness but devoid of productivity? Is building and maintaining God's Kingdom the first priority in your life? Does it even make the "Top 10" list? How many of your top priorities, on the other hand, involve building your own kingdom?

Try something radical: examine your priority list through the eyes of the Spirit. Move God back up the list. Years of wrestling with balancing Eternal priorities and Earthly ones in college taught me one thing: if you REALLY put God first, He gets it all done.

This isn't a "increase your productivity" scheme, or an efficacy model. It's just a sticking point God has with our worldly lives. He insists on being first. Christ promises, though, that if we prioritize God's way and seek His goals first, then all the other stuff WILL get taken care of (see Matthew 6:33).

Perhaps, as we re-align our priorities with God's, we might find ourselves living a life far less futile and feel more fulfilled.

A Simple Thought Worth Blogging

The following thought has preoccupied my tweets, Facebook statuses, and general thinkings lately, and I really think it's changing everything:

"What do I have to say about the Gospel today?"

Thinking this has caused me to evaluate everything I say on its ability to convey the vastness of God's nature, the depth of man's sinfulness, the astounding grace of Christ's life and sacrificial death, and the simplicity of our need to respond.

It's also causing me to evaluate what I get behind or support - on the same grounds.

Christ is the most worthy name in all the universe. His Gospel is nothing short of the greatest story of all history and all future.

Simple, but perhaps also profound.

The Unending Chain of Growers being Grown

What does it mean to be a "good Christian"? What does it mean to be a "good church"? Throughout the fourteen years I've been a Christian, these questions have been perennially present in my mind. Answers came - some even seemed to fit - but over time my thoughts have shifted off of most.

With each passing day lately, though, God finds some new way to hone my focus to a razor-sharp point: Gospel-centered ministry. It may sound trite or obvious, but the now-deepening commitment in my soul is no simple claim. Understanding the four facets of the Gospel message - who God is, who I am, what Jesus did, and how I ought to respond - on their own elude most people on most days. Then, however, to start considering how to convey these truths to people who do and don't agree with them, and to help them apply them to their lives when they want to, adds yet another challenge.

But, then I look to Scriptures and see Jesus telling His first followers to go and make disciples of all nations, to baptize them and to teach them to follow all that He commanded, which of course includes this final command to go and make disciples. I see Paul echoing this when he tells Timothy, whom Paul himself taught and trained, to find men to whom he can impart the words of truth, men who in turn will be able to teach  these truths to others. In short, the New Testament doesn't just command the gospel-centered ministry of all believers, but rather assumes and expects it.

The trick to the message of the Bible is applying and sticking to it, not intellectually understanding it, and this is the ministry and life we're meant to be practicing. The implications of this are astounding - phrases like "shame on you" ought to disappear from my vernacular as I live the grace of God's mercy towards myself and others, ideas like "God helps those who help themselves" and the ridiculous "Puritan work ethic" ought to repulse my mind once it centers on the reality that my only hope is that Christ succeeded where I never could, and beliefs like human autonomy and the self-made man ought to seem foolish in contrast with the creative and willing submission to the Word and Spirit that produces a fulfilling life.

My commitment, then, is this: I want to join the unending chain of growers being grown. As God and the godly guides in my life speak truth into my life and challenge me to holiness, compassion, and Christlikeness, I will turn to others who want/need those same things from me. As I am trained to speak the Truth so I will train others. The Great Commission didn't launch a group of people sitting in pews but rather an actively growing Vine producing sweet fruit to honor Him, and I want in - for as long as I'm here on this earth - on helping the vine grow and seeing Christ, the root Vine of the whole Divine affair, magnified high above all else.

Trinity Talking

A chance for me to chat with God Most High,

Awaits me ev’ry morning when I wake.

Most days I cannot wait to shut my eye,

My stance before His throne I gladly take.

He sits atop a seat of royal grace,

Attending to the words upon my lips.

I am so blessed to look at His Great Face!

All moments there I taste as sweetest sips.

The man beside the throne defends so stout,

My character to Him who hears my plea.

He too is God – of this I have no doubt!

And God, inside, shows words so right to me!

He does the work, both in and out, to pray,

Yet I enjoy its blessings ev’ryday!

                                       

Worth It

On my list of useless societal concepts, feel free to add the idea that we "need to feel needed". It's just plain silly to think that the only way we can feel valuable or feel confident in our worth is if we are "needed". No wonder we've become such an achievement-based society! What happened to my value as a human being? Why aren't I worth something simply for existing, and why cannot I be content with that? Wouldn't it be better to be enjoyed rather than "needed"?

In our broken state we came to believe that we were the center of the universe, the pinnacle of the created world, the bee's knees. In our search for security we convinced ourselves that the whole thing pivots and turns on us. Fortunately, Scripture often reminds us that this is not the case:

Everyone who is called by my name,

And whom I have created for My glory,

Whom I have formed, even whom I have made.

                                           - Isaiah 43:7

See, God is the one speaking here, and He wastes no time beating around the bush when explaining why He made human beings. For HIS glory! God didn't desperately need us for something, He wasn't even in deep desire of our presence or lonely without us. As a triune God in perfect community, God had everything He needed in Himself - He could have gone on without us. All of this ought to be breaking that "man as center of the universe" paradigm right out of our heads!

However, at the same time, realize what God IS saying about us. God deserves all the glory and praise to be given to Him, and we exist as His creation, as a testament to how amazing, brilliant, creative, and divine He really is. We exist because He decided it was worth it to form us, to breathe life into us, to save us from our own sin, and so on. God made us because He wanted to.

Reflect today on the fact that you're not needed. God will accomplish His plan with - or without - you. I am humbled by this but I also breathe a sigh of relief, because if God made me because He needed me to achieve something and I mess up as often as I do, then He ought to cast me out and start over anew, as we do with a broken vacuum cleaner. But, if my worth comes from being an Image-Bearer for the most High King, if it comes from who He made me to be rather than what I do, then my place in the cosmos is remarkably more stable than I could have hoped for! I may not be needed, but I am wanted, and that - to me - is worth it.