My 3 girls...

My 3 girls waiting for me at home...My wife (Janeen), my baby girl (Eliana) and my dog (Lexi).

Is it over already?

We just got back from our Summer Camp at Camp Erdman. Going into to it I really had no idea what it would be like. There was so much to do in preparation that I always felt that I was forgetting something. I was worrying about the outcome so much. Thankfully the Lord convicted me a few days before about trying to go it alone, without Him.

I stopped. I got down on my knees. I prayed.

Now on the "victory" side of camp, I don't see how I got anything done without Him. The team grew and came together, more kids signed up, the kids were stoked and the team was single minded in loving the kids throughout the weekend.

Forgive me for doubting. Thank you Jesus.

Putting up with others for His names' sake...

“12 Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. “

Colossians 3:12,13

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Paul uses the term ”put on“ here in verse 12. It gives us the sense that believers must choose to put these character markers on like one puts on a shirt. He also calls them ”God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved...“ God sees them, sees us, as holy and beloved. In the preceding verses he tells us that in Christ there is no difference between Jew or Greek, slave or free man etc. This is the basis for what he tells them to do next.

He tells the Colossians to put on love most of all because love is like the umbrella that all of these falls under. As Christians they were to show no partiality because Christ showed none. In His eyes all who were in Him were seen as holy and beloved, not because of anything they did, or the way they looked, or how much money or power they had. It was solely based on His choice; ”God’s chosen ones...“

In verse 13 he tells them to bear with one another. This greek word for ‘bear’ is anechō (ἀνέχω). It can also be translated ”put up with“ or ”endure”. The idea is that even though they are a body of believers they still have sinful tendencies that need to be forgiven as Christ forgave them. This obviously applies to us today as well. If we must choose to put on compassion, humility, meekness, patience and love then that means we can also choose to be uncaring, mean spirited, prideful, boastful, impatient and unloving.

He finishes this passage by telling us to do everything in the name of the Lord in other words, do it all in order for Christ to get all of the glory. That truly is what Christianity is about.

Christianity is not about ME going to church, ME reading the bible, ME being in a small group and ME sinning less.

Although those are certainly good things, ultimately the reason we are in Christ is so that He might be glorified. The reason we were saved was so that He might be known more. This may sound horrible to some. To think that God is self-centered. But I just read today in 2 Kings 20 about 2 instances where God saved His people form annihilation for His names sake. A simple word search for the term “for His names sake” produces countless other examples. Even Paul’s conversion was done so that the patience of God might be shown. From 2 Kings 20 we also see that when God is glorified is to our good. I don’t think that you can separate the two. In God’s pursuit to glorify Himself our joy is fulfilled.

It’s like the last line of the theme song of Married With Children:

Love and marriage. Love and marriage.

Go together like a horse and carriage.

This, I tell you brothers.

You can’t have one without the other

Just like love and marriage, God’s glory IS our ultimate joy. In a way, “you can’t have one without the other.”

___

To ‘put up with one another“ is key to unity in the body of Christ and this unity is key to making Christ known.

As John 17:22,23 says:

“I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”

Too many times I have seen leaders criticize the work of other leaders or volunteers. Because they might not be as organized, or the event did not go off as well as planned. I have seen youth form cliques and exclude the uncool or not as talented or not as old etc.

All of this is rooted in the thought, whether conscious or unconscious, that one is better than the other. That somehow because we are more attractive, more talented, have more money, pull off awesome events, fundraise tons of money or whatever it may be, we are better than someone else.

People who think like this are like a vending machine. You put in a few coins for a bag of chips. But that last coin hasn’t yet dropped and so you don’t get your bag of chips. The coin is in the machine but it has not yet been fully deposited. And just like that vending machine, these people intellectually understand grace but it has not dropped into their hearts affecting their emotions and affections and so their is no fruit of that grace evident in their lives.

As receivers of grace, we must be willing to bear with one another for the sake of unity in the body.

The American ideals of individualism and consumerism have seeped into the church. “If this doesn’t work for me I’ll get a new one.“ And so we see a pin ball effect where people are bouncing to and fro from church to church never building relationships. Or people stay within a particular body of Christ but become poisonous and acidic to those around due to their bitterness.

The only way to combat this is to fully understand grace and forgiveness which places everyone on the same level and urges us to put up with people’s sinful proclivities and not only that but to forgive as Christ forgave.

Do we allow sin to flourish and just simply endure it with no rebuke? By no means. But even the rebuke must be rooted in love with the ultimate goal of reconciliation to Christ and His body.

The idea is to never give up. Whether that means you giving up on the church and leaving or you giving up on the person and allowing them to continue sinning.

Both are a danger to unity.

So let us pursue unity in the body with love and grace as our foundation. Let’s pursue Christ with reckless abandon of our own pride and glory. So that unity flourishes and Christ is magnified and made known.

___

Lord,
Please root out of me anything that is working against your purposes of unity in the body. I lay my life down at your feet knowing that you love. Please use me as you please to love on others and glorify your name.

In Christ’s name, Amen

Pushing through the quitting moments

Lakers take game 5, bringing the game to Boston.

I believe in miracles.

The Best Brand of Kicks - the Gospel of Peace

“and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace.“

                                                                                        Ephesians 6:15

This short passage in Ephesians 6 is the well known and often preached passage on spiritual warfare and the armor of God. I have heard many different takes on what spiritual warfare entails and what this set of scriptures is talking about. I still don’t understand it fully but what I do know is that the majority of everyday spiritual warfare is not battling demonic possession, casting demons out and the like. The majority of the battle is demon oppression fought in the mind.

Doubts, worries, concerns, desires, mislead passions, guilt, unbelief. All of these and more wage war against our souls; against the truth. But Ephesians 6:15 urges us to put on readiness of the gospel of peace as shoes.

In this passage I see three things that are key to understanding what is meant. Shoes, readiness and the gospel of peace.

Shoes protect our feet which is what we use move, to strive forward and stand tall. They give us something to stand on and walk in.

Readiness is self explanatory. Since we are talking about feet I think that this is the readiness to move. To take action.

But to understand what readiness really means we need to understand what the Gospel of Peace is. The gospel is God’s message to His people that the enmity that was once between us and Him is now gone through the power of Christ’s blood. His wrath which was ready to be poured out has been absorbed by Christ and no in place of enmity is peace; an open relationship.

Paul here is not telling us to put on the gospel as our shoes. He is telling us to put on readiness. The readiness to move with the gospel. To go where the gospel is going.

The readiness given by the gospel which says that our righteousness has been given to us through Christ not our own merit. And with that readiness our sense of self, our self esteem, our identity is no longer found in ourselves. And with that truth imbedded in our hearts the lies thrown at us hold no water and we are ready to move on when struck.

The Armor of God is presented as a defensive armor. The only offensive weapon is the word and the word IS the gospel of peace.

It has been said that the best defense is a good offense. And I think that that principle holds true here. As we live out the gospel, as we spread out the message, its truth becomes imbedded deep within our souls and we are continually ready to move. Never being hindered by the enemies fiery darts of doubt, despair, guilt or depression.

On the flip side, another weapon that the devil uses are our own proclivities and desires. Pride, selfishness, self-glorification, greed. The gospel of peace deals with these too. A good understanding of the gospel reveals our own depravity and need of a savior. It breaks down pride by taking away all of our power to make ourselves righteous and gives it to Christ. All of our action become filthy rags when compared to His righteousness.

___

This is way harder than it sounds. To live out the gospel and really believe it 24/7 is tough. Mentally I can understand it, but often when I look at my actions they don’t match up to my beliefs. I let other people’s view of me determine my self worth. I find myself trying to do my best not for God’s glory or to love on people but so that people will see what I’ve done. I know better. I believe in the gospel of peace but my actions don;’t always reflect it. Paul fell into this cycle of doing what he didn’t really want to do. But He knew God’s grace well. And that is truly the gospel of peace. God’s grace allows us; even urges to get back up and pursue Him once more. If it truly is all for His glory then it would do no good to stay down.

___

Jesus,
Help me to live what I know to be true. I love you.
In Jesus’ name, amen.

Submitting to Christ is like playing "Simon Says"...kind of.

In July I have to speak at our High School Ministries Summer Camp on Moloka’i. I am both excited and petrified at this notion. The teaching theme given to me is “Modern Day Discipleship”; what it means to be a follower of Christ today.

The first session is supposed to be on what it means to “Count the Cost”; What does it cost to follow Christ?

There are many things to be said on this particular subject but as I was getting ready for bed tonight a thought popped into my mind that following Christ is kind of like playing Simon Says.

In Simon Says the players give up their rights and submit to the absolute authority of “Simon”. Whatever Simon tells them to do they must do it. If Simon doesn’t “say it“ and they do it they are out of the game.

The difference then is in the ”Simon“.

In the game, the role of ”Simon“ is to try to trick the players into doing an action that he didn’t say to do. ”Simon’s“ goal is to get people out.

But when Christ is the ”Simon“; when He is in the position of authority He gives us everything we need to stay in the game. He even pushes, prods, disciplines and rebukes us to make sure that we stay in it. And when we do something that goes against Him, He is quick to forgive those in Christ Jesus.

God Draws Near to Us in Christ

“In Christ Jesus, then, I have reason to be proud of my work for God. For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience—by word and deed, by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God—so that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ;“

Romans 15:17-19

___

Paul lived a missional lifestyle. He calls himself a priest to the Gentiles. He went around and proclaimed truth to a disobedient people and because of that he was often persecuted, jailed, whipped, and stoned. If anyone was to boast of his efforts and perseverance for the sake of the Gospel, it would have been him. But he doesn’t boast. His very words say that it was Christ who did the accomplishing; the Holy Spirit who gives hope and changes hearts. He was merely a vessel. With this mindset that he was merely a joyful pawn in God’s hands being used to bring Gentiles to repentance he had no room for pride. It wasn’t him. It was Jesus.

In today’s culture proclaiming truth is looked down upon. People don’t want to be told that what they believe is wrong. They call Christians who hold to the idea that Christ is the only way bigots, or closed-minded or narrow. They seem to think that as people get more educated and more modern, ideas about Christ should dissipate. In their eyes Christianity is backwards and ancient, not relevant today with all that we know now. When I was in college I would hear the same thing all the time, ”Don’t try to force your beliefs on me.“ They think that if you say ”What I believe is right and what you believe is wrong.“ then you are arrogant.

The thing is that they are doing the exact same thing. They are saying that they believe one thing and that what I believe is wrong. They are being ignorant and arrogant. All of the worlds belief systems and religions are to some degree based on the works of the individual to make them righteous or to get them closer to God.

Atheism.

Scientology.

Catholicism.

Islam.

Judaism.

Christian Science.

Buddhism.

Hinduism.

Sikhism.

Bahai Faith.

Mormonism.

Jehovah’s Witness.

The International Church of Christ

Naturalism.

Humanism.

Etc.

Followers of all of these all find their sense of self worth and justification from their own merit. What they have done or are going to do.

They have room to boast and be prideful and look down at others because its all about what they’ve done.

Christianity is the only one that says our sense of self worth is found in God’s view of us. And His view is not based on our actions but on His love. Man is sinful and unable to please God apart from Christ

The worlds religions have prophets who tell people about the path to get closer God or Enlightenment or Happiness or whatever.

Christ is the only one who claims to be God Himself drawing close to us.

Paul got this. It was all about Christ not himself.

James on authentic faith

James has long been one of my favorite books. Whenever a new believer asks
me what books to start with in the bible I often point first to John then James and then 1 John.

My family has a history steeped in Catholicism and growing up in Simi Valley I had many opportunities to speak with Mormons both as my neighbors and as missionaries. Both faiths use James 2 as an example of scripture pointing to a works based salvation. And one can easily see why they came to that conclusion based on this chapter alone. In numerous places it says that we are justified by works and faith alone. But when read objectively, taking into account the rest of the book we see a clear picture. James is not even close to being antithetical to the message of Paul in his epistle to the Romans. In fact, when understood correctly it is a perfect complement.

Faith necessarily produces good works. Faith = Works.
The equation cannot be reversed.
Good works produce nothing in and of themselves.

A true authentic faith will be manifested through works.
Faith without works is then indeed dead because it is not a true and saving faith. It is a false hope. It is a mere intellectual assent to certain truths about God but it never makes that proverbial leap from the mind to the heart.

As pastors, teachers and preachers we must never preach the Gospel and then say, “Ok, you’re good to go. See you later.” The call is to make disciples not merely “converts”. And a disciple is one who follows in the footsteps of their teacher meaning that their works, actions, thoughts, mirror that of their teacher. In our case, our teacher is the God of the universe. We are a mirror reflecting his image and we must reflect well. Sin came and shattered that mirror. Christ came and sent the Holy Spirit to live in us and begin the process of rebuilding that mirror until that day when we meet Christ face to face and that mirror will be made whole. Imago dei.

All praise and honor be to God.

Preachy?

14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? 15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!" 16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?" 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
Romans 10:14-17
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        Paul does something very interesting here. He takes the usual road of faith and he flips it. He gives it to us backwards. Instead of: God sent preachers -> They preached -> People Heard -> People believed; Paul takes us down the natural backwards progression of questions. How can they believe if they have not heard -> How can they hear if nobody preaches -> Who will preach if they are never sent. But he leaves the next logical step out which would be “How can they be sent if there is no God to send them?“
        Why wouldn’t he walk us through the entire progression? Why stop there? Why assume that the people that would hear his message believed in a god. The reason was most likely that most people did in fact believe in some sort of deity. But in verse 16 we see that he is not just talking simply about belief in God but about the Gospel; about Jesus.
        Now assuming that we believe in God I think the next question that we need to ask is ”Who is sending preachers out?“
        In today’s world there is no shortage of people that think they have a message that everyone needs to hear. Whether it be global warming and green living, how to get rich fast and stay that way, gay marriage and a woman’s choice and so many others. They may not want to be called preachers but they certainly are preaching. Al Gore is a preacher. Barack Obama is a preacher. Oprah Winfrey is a preacher.
        The very idea of preaching at is one of the current generations most hated ideas. A speech will often be premised by, ”I don’t mean to be preachy but...“
        Preaching has been turned into a negative idea because of the form that it has taken over the years and the current generation’s understanding of truth. When one preaches a message they are unequivocally saying that they believe their position is the correct one. And the rest are false. Even if they preface their messages with statements like, ”I am just one person in a much larger discussion.“ or ”Everyone has their own truth but...“
        And when truth claims are given to a generation that say they don’t believe in truth except for their own than it makes it very hard to win over hearts (unless of course your message is supported by the mainstream media and Hollywood). Especially if your message is one that is counter cultural, which in the case of Christ, will always be.
        Many try to engage the culture so much that they end up being the ones engaged. Meaning that the culture infiltrates not only their style of worship and services, but the very core beliefs of their message. The substance is lost for the sake of relevance. When this happens, what we see is a bunch of churches pursuing social justice and global responsibility preaching that this was Jesus’ main message. That the church’s job was to bring the kingdom of heaven down here by loving on others.
        Don’t get me wrong. This type of service to others in and of itself is not wrong by any means. I think that this type of service should be typical of all churches in America. However if the very heart of the Gospel is not preached which is God’s redemptive work through Jesus’ death and resurrection on the cross for the salvation of sinners from God’s wrath (Romans 2,3:21-26), then what that produces are vibrant, energetic, philanthropic, culturally hip yet spiritually dead congregations.
”For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?” (Mark 8:36)
I have too many thoughts to write in one posting but I will continue later...

God's glory; Our joy

"God is most glorified when His people are most satisfied in Him.”

This is one of John Piper’s most famous statements through his work at
Desiring God. He has said it almost every time I have heard him speak.
And rightly so because this is the crux of why we were created. It is
our purpose here on earth. And yet it seems like we generally run away
from this concept. People like Richard Dawkins hear this phrase and
are disgusted. They see it as a true depiction of a megalomaniac that
we call God. A selfish, egocentric, angry being that allows all kinds
of pain and chaos to happen to his creation. This breaks my heart.
These people have such a twisted view of the Biblical God that it
negates the entire phrase. God is not glorified and people are trying
to find satisfaction in everything else but Him.

So does this really make sense? Is God really so passionate about His
own glory. Is His outlook really that self-centered?

I would answer yes.

But how could God be so passionate and centered on Himself and not be
a megalomaniac?
How he be so into himself and not be narcissistic and an egomaniac?

When this statement is viewed upon the backdrop of all God’s
attributes that answer becomes clear.

Because God loves us he wants the best for us. He wants us to have the
one thing that will ultimately satisfy; ultimately fulfill. He wants
to make that one thing so glorious and so awe inspiring that we would
be drawn to it. He does this through people that have already attained it;

people that have already tasted what it means to be truly satisfied; people

that know what it means to be joyful in all circumstances. People that have

finally realized that everything else that they try to find fulfillment and

satisfaction in is wanting of any lasting significance.

And that one thing that provides all of this is not a thing at all. In
fact is a person. In fact it is God himself.

People often miss the point of the Gospel. They think that eternal
life, or being saved form hell is the prize. They think that because
they are saved they will have better lives. They look at the
peripheral benefits of God’s grace and completely miss the point.

The point is we get God. Period.

Everything else is just fluff. Just a side note. So when God is
glorified it is to the benefit of His people and it comes through a
heart motivated by love.

When I think of self glorification I often think of selfish people
like Donald Trump or some other famous person only looking to get more
glory for themselves and I think, “What an idiot.” or “That’s just
demonic.” The world looks down on supposed selfish gain even though it
is exactly what everyone is doing. So when they hear about God’s
desire to glorify Himself they freak out. And so it is my job to make
much of Him. So that people would see that and start to worship and
glorify Him and then in turn lead others to do the same.

As Pastor Gary always says, make God famous. But by doing so, know
that His glory loves on us because He is what is for our best.