Attempts at Honesty

Reflections on the interplay of the Bible and Culture

Home Archives for 2013

Archives for 2013

Rosaria Butterfield on Difficulty in Life

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“Outside of the Lord, life is a very treacherous ordeal. Proverbs teaches this when its author Solomon writes: ‘the way of the unfaithful is hard’ (Prov. 13:15). Of course Christian life is hard too, but it is hard in another way, in a way that is at least bearable and purposeful. Christians can lay hold of the meaning and purpose and grace of suffering and truly believe that all things, even the evil ones, ‘work together for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose.’ (Rom. 8:28). A life outside of Christ is both hard and frightening; a life in Christ has hard edges and dark valleys, but it is purposeful even when painful.”

 

-Rosaria Champagne Butterfield in The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert

Don’t quit your day job

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Flock of BirdsMy day job has kept me very busy of late and there has been less time to sit and reflect. Social events and family obligations have also contributed. But none of these tell the entire story as to why I haven’t posted.

This week my thoughts were like a pack of birds in a field. I could see them from afar, but when I got close to one, the entire pack would fly away. For this reason, I haven’t posted since Monday and that post was queued up for a while in advance.

I am reading through Numbers right now for devotional reading. One of the recurring themes in that book is that God does not look favorably on a rebellious heart. God also takes sin very seriously and the remedy for sin is costly. There is no free lunch, someone has to pay.

The good news is that Jesus has paid that price and we can come into relationship with God through Jesus’ work on the cross. I know this, believe this and live in confidence that I am saved from the penalty of my sin.

That being said, when I read Numbers, I am faced with acknowledging that mine is a rebellious heart. I do not want to submit, I constantly want to assert my rights. I want God to do things my way, and my way is defined as anything that pleases me or increases my comfort. The only solution for this rebellion is repentance.

Another part of my unrest is a sense that the world is becoming increasingly hostile to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Maybe it has always been hostile, and I’m just now seeing it. Or perhaps the hostility was hidden behind external conformity which is now out of fashion. But for the first time in my life, I see persecution of Christians as a real possibility in the United States.

The question is, what can one individual do about the chaos that is around him? The correct answer is that on his own, he can do nothing. That is the bad news.

The good news is that when God wants to work, he can use the most unlikely characters to accomplish his will. For this reason, I love the story of Gideon. He was not  brave, nor was he a natural leader, but God chose him and used him to deliver the nation of Israel.

Most of us are not called to preach to large audiences, nor are we called to organize a massive spiritual movement. We are called to be in relationship with Jesus through prayer and Bible reading. We are also called to be faithful to obey what he commands. The rest is up to him.

It may turn out that a smile directed at someone who is having a bad day may be used by God for encouragement. A thought prayer quickly delivered for the frazzled person you encounter will make a difference.

The point of this ramble is that God redeems all of life, even the aspects of life that seem to have no eternal value. To be faithful in a difficult or boring job is as much an act of grace as teaching a Bible study. To serve your family in humility is of more value than serving in a church program. Faithfulness goes a long way in God’s economy.

There is an old saying that if you “mind your pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves.” In the same way, I need to mind my own thoughts and actions and God will take care of the rest of the world.

Despite my restlessness, God remains in control.

Nancey Pearcey on Worldviews as Idols

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Saving Leonardo
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“The Bible defines idolatry as the human tendency to elevate something in creation to the status of God. In Romans 1:25, the apostle Paul writes, “They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator.” Humans are inherently religious, and when they deny the Creator, they will fasten on to something within creation and elevate it to an object of worship. In practical life, people who reject God will seek some substitute emotional fulfillment: power, profit, or pleasure. In intellectual life, they will seek some substitute to play the role of the divine in their thinking – the ultimate reality, the source of everything else. Worldviews are idols of the heart (Ezekiel 14:3).”

Nancy Pearcey in Saving Leonardo

5 Marks of a grace based church

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I recently commented on a post by Jeremy Myers on his Till He Comes blog. In response to my comment Jeremy asked the question, how can a grace-based church be identified? This post is an attempt at answering that question.

I came up with five things that mark a church as grace based:

  1. A grace based community points to Jesus
  2. A grace based community values every person’s story
  3. A grace based community speaks the truth in love
  4. A grace based community helps people become what God designed them to be
  5. A grace based community is not content to play church when the world around them is dying without a saving relationship with Jesus Christ

Points to Jesus

Grace

It seems like a tautology to say that every church should point to Jesus, but sadly this is not the case. While the legalistic churches I’ve attended would claim to point to Jesus, instead they point to men and they point to rules. In a legalistic system some person or group will be the final arbiter of what is right and whether someone is accepted.

In a grace based community, people are directed to Jesus who welcomes all no matter their current belief or practice.

Values every person’s story

The Apostle James warns us against judging people by external traits. Specifically he warns against giving rich people preferential treatment. While we may comply with the letter of this command, often the church violates its spirit.

How do we treat homeless people? Are we aware of the undercurrents in the society around us? How would we react if a drug addict or prostitute showed up on Sunday morning? How do we react to the gay and lesbian community?

The danger is that we can look down on people who practice a life-style with which we do not agree. We can condemn them before we even listen to their stories to find out how they ended up that way.

I think of how Jesus interacted with the woman at the well in John 4. He knew her story but valued her enough to draw her story out. She came to understand that despite Jesus knowing her story, he still valued and accepted her. The church should do the same.

Speak the truth in love

My experience is that churches tend to gravitate toward one or the other of these. Either truth is compromised for the sake of being loving or love is compromised for the sake of truth.

A grace based church does not withhold the truth, it does not compromise on the standards of holiness as outlined in Scripture. Neither does a grace based church use the truth to brow beat people into submission.

We need to speak the truth and be loving as people examine and consider the truth. This is why it is important to value a person’s story. Because of their background, some will have trouble trusting what we say. We need to give them time to process and patently answer questions and help them work through doubt and misunderstanding.

Helps people become what God designed them to be

When I interact with Scripture and other believers, I become painfully aware of areas of my life that are not what God would want them to be. This interaction also give me glimpses of what I can become as I surrender my life to Jesus. This is the process of discipleship.

The church should not condemn people for where they are, but neither should we allow them to stay as they are. We should always be spurring one another on to love and good deeds (Heb. 10:24).

It is not loving or gracious to ignore problems.

Not content to play church

If we do indeed have the Good News, then it would be the opposite of gracious to keep that good news to ourselves. We are not to play church and function as a spiritual club using doctrine and conformity to determine who is in and who is out.

If we are striving to live in grace, we will be like Jesus in the way we reach out to the community. Jesus lovingly challenged the people around them. For example, when the rich young man came to Jesus and called him “good teacher,” Jesus asked him “why do you call me good?” (Mark 10:18). Jesus challenged the young man’s assumptions to make him think about his world view.

If the culture around us is indeed lost and subject to eternal consequences for that lostness, should we not feel a sense of urgency in bringing them to safety? Is it not gracious to reach out to them?

Now it’s your turn

Can you think of any other marks of a grace based church? Please add them in the comment section below.

 

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