Attempts at Honesty

Reflections on the interplay of the Bible and Culture

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The enemy’s best tool

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Church leaders have the opportunity to deprive our great enemy of his best and most effective tool. What is that tool? It is us when we are more concerned about our own glory and reputation than we are of God’s glory and reputation. When we make decisions and say things that misrepresent God, we are an apt tool in the enemy’s hand.

I am reminded of the answer to Question 1 of the Westminster Shorter Catechism. “The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.”

There are 1,440 minutes in every day. Think about yesterday and tally up how many of them were spent in promoting your own agenda, increasing your own comfort, or increasing your own reputation. Then add up the minutes that were used in active contemplation of how to best reflect God’s glory to a world that so desperately needs a glimpse of it.

I am guessing that I am not alone in finding this exercise shows me that I have much to repent of.

It is time that the church ditch the corporate model of the strong leader that pushes his agenda. What would the church look like if, instead, we followed the model of a leader who actively demonstrates a life of continual repentance and dependence upon God?

What is at stake is God’s reputation. When we misrepresent God, people get hurt.

Think about this question: How many people have you met that were hurt by the actions of a church leader who misrepresented God by driving his own agenda? I have met many who have legitimate complaints about how they were treated by a pastor or church leader. How many of them have walked away from the church and are unwilling or reluctant to return?

The stakes are high. We, who are called to be church leaders, need to be aware of our tendency to go wrong and humbly seek God on a moment by moment basis. Otherwise we will go wrong and people will get hurt.

Take the tool out of the enemy’s hand.

On the pursuit of pleasure

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MeatloafI am not the first to make the point that idolatry can entail taking good things and making them into ultimate things. Or to put it another way, we should not confuse means and ends.

I was thinking about this with reference to physical pleasures. Too often, the response of the church to the danger of making pleasure a god in our life is to put rules in place to deny those pleasures. Churches have spoken out against many things to keep us from the danger of having pleasure as our goal in life.

One danger of a focus on restricting pleasure is that by doing so, we may feed our inner Pharisee and cause us to look down on others who are less disciplined.

The problem is that pleasures are so . . . pleasurable. We like the comforts in life and they make life interesting. While I assume that you could survive with only eating meatloaf, green beans and potatoes every day, limiting the diet to these would surely reduce anticipation of delight from the meal.

Jesus tells us in Matthew 6 that God delights to give us what we need, pleasures included. But a warning is needed: there are illegitimate pleasures that are forbidden to us by Scripture. For example, while consuming alcohol is not condemned in Scripture, drunkenness is. There are other “pleasures” that we are to avoid. The good news is that the legitimate pleasures are more numerous than those that are forbidden.

How then can we keep the pleasures from being a cause for idolatry?

The answer lies in how we enjoy the pleasure. I can enjoy the legitimate pleasures without idolatry when I enjoy them as an act of worship. When I accept the pleasures as a gift from God and enjoy them as such then I am less prone to idolatry.

I like to eat. I like to eat good food and I very much enjoy having a variety in my diet. Using food as an example, It would be possible to arrange my whole existence around food. I could spend a majority of my time planning my eating and focus my existence on finding new and interesting foods.

Or, I can accept any opportunity to eat as a gift from God. I can enjoy the really great food when it is available or I can enjoy more pedestrian fare if that is what is in front of me.

The difference is not in what is eaten but the motivation for eating it. The fundamental question is this: “Who gets the glory?” Am I so focused on the food that I do not give glory to the God who made the food possible?

The same question applies to any legitimate pleasure we could pursue.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones again on Prayer

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The Assurance of our SalvationMartyn Lloyd-Jones said this about prayer in a sermon on John 17:

“Our whole idea of prayer is false. We think of prayer only as guidance and requests. Now if you were to put that into practice in human relationships you would regard it as insulting. No, the thing the saint wants to know above everything else is that all is well between his soul and the Father. There is nothing the saint delights in more than to know God as his Father. He likes to maintain the contact and communion, to assure his heart before God and in the presence of God. The saint is in this difficult world, there are temptations from the outside and the whole world  is against us, and the saint is tried – sometimes he almost despairs. So he goes to God immediately, not to ask this or that but just to make certain that all is well there, that the contact is unbroken and perfect, that he can assure his heart and know that all is well.”

This quote was found in The Assurance of Our Salvation (Studies in John 17): Exploring the Depth of Jesus’ Prayer for His Own which is a collection of Lloyd-Jones’ sermons on John 17.

Jesus tells us that we are to approach God in a childlike way. What is more childlike than to look to our father to assure us that everything will be OK?

Life as a flawed human in a flawed world is often difficult. But, for the Christian, we have the assurance that God will see us through to the end. I don’t think it is possible to over emphasize what Paul tells us in Philippians:

“I am sure of this, that he who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 1:6, CSB)

We have been told this, but we have a patient Father who is willing to tell us over and over again that he is with us and all will be well.

Bigger isn’t always better

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Bigger isn't always better
Copyright: gearstd / 123RF Stock Photo

I don’t know if it is just an American thing, but we are so enamored with popularity and large followings. Unfortunately, the church has not been immune to this fascination.

When a church grows large, there will be those who want to study that group to determine what they did that has become so effective. Leaders will attempt to understand and emulate the programs and techniques of the larger church so that their own congregation will grow.

There are good things that come as a result of growth.  But, as leaders, we need to constantly remind ourselves that we are not the ones who are responsible, nor are we the ones who have the ability, to make the church grow. Jesus reminds us that He will build His church.

I suppose that techniques might be effective in drawing a large crowd. Any spectacle, good or bad, will draw a crowd, but what will be the long term effect? But, if our focus is too heavily skewed toward numbers, I think we do those in our congregations a disservice.

Today I read the words of the Apostle John in Chapter 6 of his gospel which tell us “a huge crowd was following [Jesus] because they saw the signs that he was performing by healing the sick.” Later in the same chapter, we see parts of that crowd leaving because of the hard things that Jesus was saying.

Certainly we don’t want to unnecessarily offend people. We should go out of our way to present the truths of Scripture in a manor and language that are most likely to be understood by our hearers. But ultimately, the Gospel will prove to be an offense to some, and a fountain of life to others.

Rather than focus on growth in numbers, we must focus on growth in Biblical understanding and growth in correct practice. The two must go hand-in-hand. We should question whether we, as a group, and as individuals, are growing in our ability to live out the two great commands of Scripture. Are we becoming more loving? Are we moving into deeper relationship with God? In short, are we making disciples (the root meaning being learner) of ourselves and those in our care?

The numbers will be what they are and if God brings a bunch of people together, then as leaders we need to learn how to minister to all of them in a way that encourages them to grow. Our example is Jesus who fed the 5,000 even though he knew that some or many of them were there for the wrong reasons and would soon be leaving him.

Certainly we should try to reach as many people as we can with the good news of Jesus Christ, but all the while, we should also remind ourselves that some of the people in our crowd will walk away and we should not be devastated when they do. Bigger isn’t always better.

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