Jonathan Evans

Moving forward...

Moving forward, I will write and post weekly content here: http://www.elimgrace.org/category/blog/

"Revive us again"

“Revive us again, oh Lord, that your people may rejoice in you.” (Psalm 85:6)

The word “revive” means something like “reinvigorate with fresh life”. Though the word “revival” does not appear in the Bible, the idea of it does. Revival is a Biblical idea. “Revival is a season in the life of the church when God causes the normal ministry of the gospel to surge forward with extraordinary spiritual power... Revival is seasonal, not perennial. God causes it; we do not. It is the normal ministry of the gospel, not something eccentric or even different from what the church is always charged to do. What sets revival apart is simply that our usual efforts greatly accelerate in their spiritual blessings...Revival theology is pervasive in the Bible.” (Raymond C. Ortlund)

God is the great Life-giver, reinvigorating his people at different times and in different ways, but always for the same purpose: that Jesus Christ may be glorified and the gospel proclaimed.

As a young teenager I was greatly and permanently marked by a season of revival/reviving in our church.

Growing up in the country of Mexico, pre-internet, news reached us slowly. At some point my dad, who was pastor of a small church in the city of Uruapan, heard about something called “The Toronto Blessing”. A revival, he was told, had broken out. God was visiting his church in a fresh way. But if you’ve been around long enough, then you’ve heard stories and lived to tell the tale of “false” or “empty” revivals and revivalists. A student of the history of revivals, my dad waited, but prayed.


He sought out the opinion of men he trusted, men who had seen and been impacted by past seasons of revival. The verdict was withheld, until a man my father greatly respected, a former teacher and President of Elim Bible Institute, David Edwards, went to see for himself what, if anything, God was in fact doing in Toronto.

David Edwards was reinvigorated with fresh life by God. He encouraged all he knew to “come and see”. Once that report found its way back to us, my dad boarded a plane and traveled to Toronto. The same “reviving” occurred in him, and shortly after his return, began to occur in our church. I remember those days vividly, moments undeniably filled with God’s presence, a strong conviction of sin, a deep abiding sense of joy, passionate praise and worship, periods of weeping and laughing, the lost being saved, the sick being healed, and the demon possessed being set free.

But while those times didn’t last, and that season came to end, it bore fruit that remains to this day. I recognize those days changed me as I came to know and to be known by Jesus in a fresh new way.

I long for those days. Not in a nostalgic way, wishing for the good ol’ days. And not with an ungrateful or critical attitude of where I am today. But in a way that hopes and seeks for God to “revive us again”. I long for it for the sake of my children, for them to experience such a season as I did. I long for it for my church, for us to behold more of the glory of Jesus and to be empowered for the work he’s called us to do.

Yes, God is moving in our midst! There is growth and there is fruit. But I urge us to be thankful yet expectant of heart. Which disciple following and becoming like Christ would ever say, “I know you as much as I want to and I think I’ve changed enough”; or which local church proclaiming and adoring Christ would ever say, “We’ve reached enough people for you and we’ve done our fair share of good works”. May our prayer and the cry of our heart for ourselves and for our children’s generation be, “Revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you.”

Grace isn't always the gift that you want

Do you love to receive gifts? Anytime? Any kind? From any person? If it’s a gift we want or need, we are thankful and excited. But if it's a gift we feel we don’t really need or really want, we find it harder to receive. We smile, but inside we may feel we’re above this kind of thing.  

 

The grace of God is his gift to us, his unmerited favor towards us. By it we are saved, forgiven, transformed, strengthened, challenged, trained, formed.  

 

When we are weak, hurt, confused; when we are strong, excited, confident, we ask and receive it wholeheartedly. We know we need it. We know we need it to accomplish God’s will. But grace isn’t always the gift that you want. Sometimes it’s the gift that you don’t want.  

 

Not every time God gives grace do we receive it eagerly. Often we’re reluctant, not because we don’t appreciate his grace, but because we don’t appreciate why he's giving it to us.  

 

We maybe don’t want to go where he wants us to go. But it's still grace to be sent. We maybe don’t want to do what he wants us to do. But it’s still grace to be called. We maybe don’t want to be who he’s called us to be. But it's still grace to be chosen. 

 

Conviction and repentance are gifts of grace, but often gifts we’d rather not receive. "Is this really sin? Is it really that big of a deal?" Discipline and correction are gifts of grace, but often gifts we’d rather not receive. "I was wrong? Didn’t they overreact?”  

 

We can mistakenly believe that when we do fail or disobey or wander, that we’ll completely see it that way and fully want to follow because “I love Jesus". That may be true. We do love Jesus. But there are still plenty of moments where “not my will but yours be done” is something like a child saying to his father, “Fine. Whatever. I’ll do it.” Reluctant disciples we are. 

 

Yet, it is ultimately not our love for Jesus that changes us, but his love for us. So in his love his grace or favor towards us both draws and shocks our heart, both captures and offends our heart. But it comes either way and, overtime, our reluctance turns into adoration. 

 

Opposition deepens friendship, is friendship. Two friends who never oppose each other or challenge each other or disagree with each other or call each other out, know little of what it means to be friends. As iron sharpens iron, so grace sharpens a man when it opposes him or argues with him. But in so doing a heart is sharpened in understanding, in wisdom, in love, in maturity, in humility. To be opposed by grace is a great gift. 

 

Many children (and adults) are picky eaters. Growing up they are made to eat what they don’t like. But imagine if I say to my younger children, “Not only will you eat that, but you will like it”. Well, I can’t make them like the food, though I can tell them to eat the food. Yet, what they don’t know is that their present obedience will enable their taste palate to grow, so that in the future they may be able to experience and enjoy new foods they otherwise never would have known, if I give them the grace of food they dislike. 

 

There is no limit to the power of God's grace. So when God gives us the grace of what we don’t want, we remember that we don’t have to like it, but we also remember that in receiving it, it will grow our heart and its capacity to enjoy him and his unfolding blessings, riches, and “pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11).  

What are you passionate about?

Passion itself is not worthy of your pursuit. I find myself often praying something like, “God give me more passion, more energy, more courage.” But the question becomes: passion for what? energy for what? courage for what?

 

The goal is never to create passion, but to discover what you’re passionate about. That means finding something—or being found by something—that ignites, fuels, and drives the passion in your heart. Discovering what that is can provide a singular focus and set of priorities for your life. It can create a giant Yes in your heart that will enable you to say No to a lot of unnecessary things. What we are passionate about determines the direction our life. For good or for bad, in the end we all get what we want.

 

Now, remember this: the objective is never to become obsessive about our passion, but to become obsessive about the object of our passion. We should be single-, not split-minded, single-, not multi-taskers, when it comes to our passion in life. “One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.” (Psalm 27:4).

 

As a Christian, what is your passion? We should have one passion: Jesus Christ. We should have one position: His servants. Preoccupation with Jesus is a disciples’s number one priority. It is the “essence of worship”.

 

Our passion, then, is “to know Jesus and to make him known”. This is our personal mission statement. He is why we exist. What we do must be driven by that. And how we do what we do must be driven by that. But the “what” and the “how” are further shaped by the unique assignment God has given to us.

 

I once heard a preacher explain the difference between calling and assignment. Calling, he said, was an open hand. Assignment was the object placed into that hand. Now, God’s calling over our lives doesn’t usually change, but his assignments for us often do. Our assignment isn’t to be passionate. Our assignment is to with passion be good stewards of the task in hand.

 

On my office wall are going up sheets of paper with thoughts, Scripture verses, ideas, images — “promptings” that may or may not turn out to be assignments from the Holy Spirit. My aim is not to become obsessive over good ideas, but to prayerfully discover the unique but cohesive set of tasks Jesus is entrusting me to do. I won’t aim to be the best. But I will aim to be the best at what God calls me to do and how he calls me to do it. “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts.” (Zechariah 4:6)

 

I love my wife. My love for her compels me to do anything for her, but it also leads me to delight in doing some things more than other things. This is the result of my personal knowledge of her and my personal relationship with her shaped by that knowledge. So with the people God has called us to. The love of Christ compels us to serve them anyway we can, but it also leads us to delight in doing some things more than others. These assignments are shaped not only by our personal knowledge and relationship with these people, but by the personal knowledge and relationship we have with the God who died and rose for each one of them.

 

Passion itself is not worthy of your pursuit. But Jesus is.

Four Ways Trust Impacts Parenting

Trust is foundational to any lifetime or longterm successful, healthy, and growing relationship. With it you can withstand any storm. Without it you’ve built your house on sand.  

 

In my relationship with my children my trustworthiness is “built to last" in several ways.  

 

(A) My trustworthiness is built on follow-through — It’s me doing what I say by when I say. It’s starting what I’ll finish and finishing what I’ll start. It’s fulfilling the responsibilities I like, but especially the ones I dislike, and with excellence. It’s not letting quit happen.

 

(B) My trustworthiness is built on honesty and vulnerability — It’s telling the truth in love. It’s confessing when you’re wrong. It’s asking for forgiveness. It’s having big and small, serious and fun, conversations. It’s making sure things are clear. It’s admitting when you don’t understand. It’s asking questions and learning from your children. 

 

(C) My trustworthiness is built on trusting — You can’t ask people to trust you, if you’re not willing to trust them. It’s giving freedom and privilege, not just responsibility. It’s delegating smaller, small, bigger, big tasks. It’s not being afraid of “letting go”. It’s not controlling their decisions. It’s saying, “You decide.” It’s asking, “What do you need me to do for you?” It’s permitting your children to make mistakes and risk failure and, then, helping them to learn and grow through it.

 

These and more build trust. Ultimately, though, trust is not about what we do, but about who we are wherever we are whatever we’re doing. In other words, it’s a matter of integrity, of wholeness, of oneness. I become a picture of trust; trust is no longer an abstract concept.  

 

So how do we know whether or not we’re building trust into the culture of our home and into the structure of our relationships? How do we know whether or not we’re the picture and embodiment of it? How do we know whether trust is having a positive or a negative impact on our children? Here are four ways:

  

(1) You’re absent when present — if you’re home but not present to your children and to their doubts, fears, questions, dreams; if you’re oblivious to their lives and don’t know them, then there is no trust. 

 

(2) You’re absent when absent — if you’re not home and they don’t feel it, don’t even notice a difference from when you are home, then there is no trust. 

 

(3) You’re present when present — if you’re home and fully present in the present; if you’re appropriately engaged in their lives listening, talking, playing, watching; if you’ve turned off and put away distractions to focus on them, then trust is being built. 

  

(4) If you’re present when absent — if you’re not home and they miss you; if your absence is felt; if they want you to be home; if they can’t wait for you to get home; if they hug you or kiss you or are quick to say hi and eager to tell you about their day, then trust is being built. 

 

Trust and trustworthiness are the assurance of, security from, safety in, dependability on who you are and what you do. 

Grace (in)visible

“And the people of Israel did just as Joshua commanded and took up twelve stones out of the midst of the Jordan... And Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of the Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests bearing the ark of the covenant had stood; and they are there to this day.” (Joshua 4:8-10)

 

Out of the midst, in the midst. Visible, invisible. 

 

There was one memorial that future generations would see by the side of the Jordan as a visible testament to God’s power and grace. And there was another memorial that future generations would “see” in the Jordan by faith.

 

For every visible memorial, witness, or demonstration of God’s grace in our lives, there is an invisible one. God is at work all around you—always at work for you, in you, and through you. In fact, whatever you consider to be the biggest sign you’ve ever seen of God’s grace in your life, it is even then the tiniest fraction of a great work he is bringing to completion (Philippians 1:6).

 

Yes, there will come a day when the full picture of God’s grace will be revealed. When all you imagined good about it will be revealed to be the smallest part of the smallest part of that picture. When all you never understood about it will be revealed to be intricate to the whole. When all you saw disappointing about it will be revealed to be the edge of the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen.  

 

Who can imagine or comprehend or dream all that God has in store for those whom he loves, for those who love him! Yet, every flow has a source. 

 

Behind every demonstration of God’s grace in your life stands the eternal fountain of the cross of Christ. The cross stands above it all—above all things and beyond all things, before all things and after all things. Apart from the cross, nothing God desires to give us can be given; nothing he wants to complete in us us can be completed; nothing he seeks to accomplish for us can be accomplished. 

 

Jesus came and by his life, death, and resurrection parted the waters of sin, death, and judgment, in order to save us and bring us across to new life now and a future new life in the promised new heaven and earth. 

 

We praise God for all we’ve seen him do and will see him do. And we praise him for all we’ve never seen and will never see that he’s done. We praise him, because he "saved us...not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus” (2 Tim 1:8-10).  

Resurrection life now

“It’s a beautiful day, don’t let it get away,” sings U2 on their album All That You Can’t Leave Behind. On the one hand, we live most of our lives trying to find what is valuable to us. On the other, we live most of our lives trying not to lose what we’ve found. Here’s the bad news: you will lose it all. Here’s the good news: unless it is resurrected. 

 

“Why do you seek the living among the dead?” ask the angels. We could reframe the question: “Why do you seek the dead among the living?” In other words, something has occurred that has radically changed everything. You are in the world now either alive living among the dead or you are dead among the living.  

 

God’s message delivered by the angels is that an exchange has occurred! "The new has come and the old has gone; the day has arrived and the night has passed; the light has shone and the darkness has flown away. Do you really know what you’re looking for?" Henry Ford once said that “If he had asked people what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse.” In the resurrection, God was exceeding all that the disciples knew to ask and look for.

 

What did resurrection mean? To the Greeks it meant seeking the separation and liberation of the soul from the body. To the Jews it meant the renewal and restoration of all things, but at the end of time. "The idea of an individual being resurrected in the middle of history, while the world continued on burdened, was inconceivable.” (Timothy Keller) Yet, here and now, the angels proclaim to two women, “He is not here, he is risen.”

 

I recently told my kids it was “ten till eight” and time to get ready for school. My youngest daughter turned to me, stared, and said, “Dad, I don’t know what that means.” The two women might have stared and said the same thing to the angels. “We don’t know what that means.” If this was true, if Jesus was raised from the dead, it meant the new age, the future world, the coming kingdom had begun in Jesus.

 

The resurrection changes everything about your life right now! It occurred at dawn, marking not only the beginning of a new day but the day of new beginnings. God was watching over the dawning of a new and beautiful day.

 

“The message of the resurrection is that this world matters,” preaches N.T. Wright. And, moreover, Paul preaches in 1 Corinthians 15 that if Jesus is dead, you are in sin and darkness forever and this world is as good as it’s going to get. But if he is alive, you can be saved from your sin and resurrected in a new heaven and earth. The empty tomb alone didn’t prove the resurrection. The living Jesus did!

 

Jesus didn’t rise from the dead to become the Savior and King of the world. He rose from the dead because he was the Savior and King of the world. Resurrection is God’s vindication upon his enemies—the devil, sin, and death—and his validation of Jesus as the Christ— the Anointed One, the Messiah, the One True Lord of heaven and earth. Many had been crucified, but only one crucified was resurrected

 

Only him, Jesus Christ, has the authority to walk you across death to life, because only Jesus came across life and death to rescue you. And he wants to make an exchange for resurrection life now. But only what is crucified can be resurrected. Only what is lost in him can be found in him. Only what is surrendered to him can be rescued by him. Only at the cross can the exchange of new for old be made. Only what is crucified with and buried with Christ will be raised with him into a new and beautiful day that will never get away from you.

Celebrate first and criticize last

“Praise is inner health made audible,” said C.S. Lewis. This is the kind of person who can go into a restaurant and order everything on the menu and find in each dish something to praise. As opposed to the person who orders everything and finds in each something he dislikes. This is the person who reads a book and praises to others what they love, as opposed to the person who stops reading at the first fault they find.

 

How does one cultivate a good inner health? Learn to celebrate first and criticize last, if ever. Form the discipline of celebrating all you can, before criticizing all you can.

 

Simply put, if you see something good, point it out. If you see something bad, resist the urge to point it out. Do this not because pointing out the bad is unnecessary, but simply because it’s harder to celebrate and easier to criticize. In other words, you want to grow your capacity and ability for celebrating over your capacity and tendency for criticizing.

 

This discipline can have a profound effect. Praise of the good can convince not only that the good is good but also that the bad is the bad. It is only the man who knows the light that can discern the darkness. The man who knows only darkness has no idea of what light is.

 

Some personal examples. First, as a preacher, I can preach a whole sermon on what is bad, but that doesn’t help anyone to see the good. I can preach a whole sermon on the good, though, and chances are high(er) that in drawing the comparison to the good someone will recognize where they have fallen short. The question is not whether or not one can see, find, and somewhat describe what is wrong or bad; most of us know where we've gone wrong. Rather, it’s where we can or should go right that we have a hard time finding. Here a reliable witness is needed.

 

So the question must become whether or not there is someone who can see, find, rejoice in, and accurately praise the good to another. Again, it is ultimately not the bad that convinces of the bad, but the good. It is ultimately not the dark that convinces of the dark, but the light.

 

Second, as a preacher, my conviction is that ultimately it is the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ that convinces a heart there’s a way out of sin, death and darkness, that shows a heart there's forgiveness for sins and life everlasting. A preacher who constantly hammers on the bad may be skilled with the hammer, but the call is to point people to and exult in the grace of the living Christ.

 

Third, as a preacher, my capacity to rejoice over another preacher and not compete with them or criticize them is my capacity for meaningful preaching anywhere. So now your capacity to rejoice over someone or celebrate something and not criticize is your capacity for meaningful ministry anywhere. Be, then, the first to celebrate and the last to criticize, if ever.

Four situations you need counsel for

“Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety.” Proverbs 11:14  

 

A goal for growing in wisdom is to be able to make good and right decisions. However, wisdom is not simply information or knowledge about what you should or should not do. It is “know-how,” meaning, not simply what you know in any given circumstance, but how you know in any given circumstance. To be wise is not in what you do as much as it is in who you are. 

 

Now, wisdom as character is developed not in isolation from others, but in community with others. Furthermore, we will learn most profoundly not from what the wise do, but from how the wise think. In wanting to imitate someone, though, we often reverse this and believe that if we simply do what they do, we will live like they do. But they do what they do because they think like they do—they “feel their way” through life through wisdom.  

 

If you want to “get” wisdom and become wise, then it is wise to seek wisdom beyond your own. We are never as wise or as strong as we believe we are. Here are four situations where the hard decision you need to make might be protected from error by seeking counsel: 

 

1) When many lives will be impacted — it could be your wife and/or children and the new city or job you are considering; it could be your church, organization or small business and the people you are leading towards embracing change; it could be a group of students you teach and the way they learn. When a decision you make will affect many lives and many futures, seek wisdom. 

    

2) When there’s confusion — many times our problem isn't believing that we don’t have the answer, but believing that no one else does. We can't know what we don’t know until someone shows us. Don’t push or pray or analyze your way through confusion. Ask for help, direction, insight.  

 

3) When relationships are at stake — if your decision has the potential to disrupt friendships or relationships, whether your own or of others, consider asking for wisdom. Many decisions involving people are motivated by good intentions but steered by bad timing or handling. A quick email or call asking for advice can make all the difference. 

 

4) When there’s deep reservation or uncertainty — there’s a difference between the positive stress of accepting new challenges and the negative stress of operating beyond your capacity. If you’re unsettled in your heart or uncertain in your mind, look for guidance. A trustworthy guide will show you more of the hidden snares and treasures of a foreign land than you might ever discover on your own. 

Where to put your fear

When have you been afraid? Last week? Yesterday? Today? And were you afraid of something real? Of something imagined?The Israelites lived in fear under Pharaoh. What was he thinking? What might happen next? And what might never happen? Rescue. So Israel groaned under the weight of slavery and cried out for help.

 

When you’re afraid, what do you do? Sometimes we try to distract ourselves from our fears. Sometimes we try to ignore them. Sometimes we run away and hide. But what happens? Our fears don’t get distracted from us; they don’t ignore us; they don’t run away and hide from us. They are, it seems, ever present. So sooner or later we look to something or someone else and we, too, cry out for help.

 

Israel called out to God. Who do you call out to? Where do you put your trust, your fear? To trust is to entrust, to transfer something belonging to you, even your very self, into another.

 

In your fear you can only deal with what you know, not with what you don’t or can't know. Here are two things you can know in your fear to help direct your trust:

 

1) God knows your thoughts. God saw and heard Israel in their groaning. He saw their affliction, that they feared. And he saw their oppression, what they feared. God isn’t just aware of your fear. He’s also aware of the cause of your fear.

 

2) You can know God’s thoughts. For children especially, not knowing what an adult is thinking can be scary. But you need not fear what God is thinking about you. Paul says no man can know another’s man’s thoughts except the spirit of that man and unless that man chooses to reveal those thoughts. In the same way, no one can know the innermost thoughts of God except the Spirit of God and unless God chooses to reveal his thoughts (1 Corinthians 2:10-12).

 

The glorious truth, Paul proclaims, is that God has given us his Spirit to reveal to us, to make known to us, the inner most precious thoughts of God. These thoughts are about something though. “Set your minds on the things that are above” where Christ is (Colossians 3:1-2). The thoughts God makes known to us are centered on, revolve around, are grounded in, not a place “above,” but a person—“Christ” who is above.

 

Now where Christ is there is no fear, because he has conquered every fear. He is our living hope! Our thoughts, when set on him, are neither disconnected from something real nor connected to something imaginary. It is one thing to have an imaginary fear, quite another to have an imaginary hope. Your hope is only as real, unshakable and unassailable, as the object of your hope.

 

Wherever you are put your fear, your hope and trust, your very life, into Jesus Christ. In him God has not only seen and heard you, but has himself come down to rescue you on the cross. There Jesus faced his greatest fear—he didn’t distract himself, ignore, or run away and hide—he walked into our greatest fear: being completely forsaken and separated from God. And he was, in our place, so that now "neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39)