Jonathan Evans

Listening is an act of faith

 

Listening is an act of faith. It is being awake to God and his speaking personally to us. It is being aware of God and that he is personally present with us. Wakefulness, watchfulness are conditions for listening. Too often, though, we are disciples asleep, unaware, unconvinced that God is in this place.

 

"Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me?” (John 14:9)  

 

It is much easier to think of faith as an act of speaking on our part, of God waiting on us. And so it often is. Just as often, though, it is an act of not speaking on our part, of our waiting on God. The faith to wait is as vibrant as the faith to move.

 

In fact, our faith both moves and is moved. By the time my faith moves to listen to God, I realize God has already made the first move and drawn me to himself.

 

In many ways, listening by faith is like surrendering by faith. By the time God asks you to surrender all, you realize that you’ve already given him all. This last act of surrender is simply the culmination of an ongoing series of acts, of surrendering a little bit of yourself at a time.

 

So listening is ongoing. Little by little knowing more and more. Those who wait until they come to a sermon to listen for God will find it difficult to hear him. But those whose listening is ongoing daily will come and find it easy to hear him.  

 

For all of us who come to the preaching of God’s Word, we can either sit and wait for something to grab our attention or we can come already attentive to “God with us". We can come fully awake, aware, and ready to listen in on the ongoing conversation of God with us, to receive the living and active word of God deep into our hearts. 

 

“Take care then how you hear, for to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he thinks that he has will be taken away.” (Luke 8:18)

Revival: Purity

A spontaneous gift is sudden and unexpected to the recipient not to the giver. Revival is the sudden and unexpected outpouring of the Holy Spirit. It’s sudden and unexpected to the church and to the world, but not to God. 

 

INTO THE TEMPLE

 

Jesus enters Jerusalem and proceeds to enter the temple (Matthew 21:12-16). The temple was the heart of the city, the center of its life. For Israel the temple was the meeting-point with God. It symbolized God’s presence, his dwelling with them. God never intended to come and go. From the beginning in the garden of Eden to the end in the new heaven and new earth, the picture and the truth is that God desires, intends, and plans to dwell with man completely and permanently. To be in unbroken relationship.

 

Yet, every relationship we are in inevitably suffers decay over time and must be restored. 

 

When Jesus enters the temple he is by his actions declaring that the heart is sick, the center is twisted. It is because of this that he comes to heal, to purify, to restore. Revival is relational restoration to the church (relational reconciliation to the world). By its very name, Revival implies that something needs reviving; and reviving implies that something is dying. If the church of Jesus Christ is always consistently and fully devoted, obedient, and faithful in her relationship to Jesus Christ, there is no need ever of revival; but the Bible and history have shown that the church is not. God has repeatedly sent revival to his people.

 

OUT OF THE TEMPLE

 

By virtue of Jesus entering the temple, something must come out of the temple. He drives out “all who sold and bought”, perpetrator and victim alike. Jesus is going beyond corrupt practices. Where (the temple), not what (the trading), is at the root of what Jesus wants to get at. As Christians we often feel that our problem is our isolated acts of disobedience, but our problem is the deep aversion in our heart to God. We have an allergic reaction to God's sovereignty over our lives. It’s our attitude beneath our actions. We not only push against God, we push away from him.

 

A parent who lovingly disciplines their child quickly comes to learn that sometimes you discipline the act and sometimes you discipline the attitude. In fact, a parent will completely miss the heart of the discipline process if he thinks that it is only actions that need addressing.

 

In revival God intends to lovingly go after the attitudes beneath our actions; our moods and the way we are attuned to him and to the world, our way of being-in-Christ and being-in-the-world. Because before revival can come to the world, renewal must first come to the heart of the church. It is in this season that once again God restores to us a grand vision of himself, not of ourselves. We, the church, are obsessed with our own image. We’re not obsessed with the image of Jesus Christ, unless it reflects favorably upon us. God must come to demolish the idol of our image. It must become as dust before his glory.

 

A NEW TEMPLE

 

What Jesus has done in the temple, though, is not the extent or the fullness of what he wants to accomplish. What he is saying by what he is doing is that a new age is coming in him. Jesus hasn’t come to fix a system or to beautify a building. Jesus has come to replace the temple as the meeting-point with God: So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. (John 2:18-22)

 

Jesus has come to purify, to beautify, a people to meet and to dwell with God: What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.” (2 Corinthians 6:16-18)

 

Revival comes to restore the splendor of God’s holiness in his people, to return us to an original or earlier condition. The holiness of Jesus doesn’t fade, but it does fade in us. So the Holy Spirit comes and “touches up” what needs to be.

 

Revival comes to radiate the light of God’s glory from us to the world, to go out in a direct line from a central point. We are not that central point. Our lamp is the Lamb. (Revelation 21:23)

 

A PURE AND SPOTLESS BRIDE

 

We can’t cause revival, but we can (re)turn to the God who does, and in so doing turn from the things that infect, decay, clog, or obstruct. Jesus’ great joy is not to present to himself a sleek, slender, brilliant, charismatic, and famous bride. His great joy is to present to himself a pure and spotless bride (Ephesians 5:27), and in so doing to present himself to the world.    

I Love The Bible! part 3

London pastor and preacher, Charles Spurgeon, told this tale:

Once upon a time there was a gardener who grew an enormous carrot. He took it to his king and said, “My lord, this is the greatest carrot I’ve ever grown or ever will grow; therefore, I want to present it to you as a token of my love and respect for you.” The king was touched and discerned the man’s heart, so as he turned to go, the king said, “Wait! You are clearly a good steward of the earth. I own a plot of land right next to yours. I want to give it to you freely as a gift, so you can garden it all.” The gardener was amazed and delighted and went home rejoicing.

But there was a nobleman at the king’s court who overheard all this, and he said, “My! If that is what you get for a carrot, what if you gave the king something better?” The next day the nobleman came before the king, and he was leading a handsome black stallion. He bowed low and said, “My lord, I breed horses, and this is the greatest horse I’ve ever bred or ever will; therefore, I want to present it to you as a token of my love and respect for you.” But the king discerned his heart and said, “Thank you,” and took the horse and simply dismissed him. The nobleman was perplexed, so the king said, “Let me explain. That gardener was giving me the carrot, but you were giving yourself the horse.

 

BEAUTIFUL COMMANDS?

A man-centered understanding of and approach to God finds God useful – what I want and what God can do. I give to receive. A Jesus-centered understanding of and approach to God finds God beautiful – who He is and what He has done. I give because I've received.

 

We often think God’s beauty is only found in His blessings and not in His commands. But the Psalmist would disagree with us: "Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is IN the law of the Lord, and ON his law he meditates day and night.” (Psalm 1:1-2, emphasis mine) Here the Psalmist’s delight is rooted in the Word of God and the fruit of that delight is not only meditation, but obedience. He finds beauty IN God’s commands.

 

Is this unusual, weird even? Who of us LOVES, even delights to obey and submit to authority? Who of us finds God’s commands in the bible beautiful?

 

Ever since the garden of Eden, humanity has been trying to divorce God’s blessings from God’s commands; but ever since Calvary, God has joined His blessings and commands in His Son, Jesus Christ. 

 

Can I, then, really love Jesus and not obey His Word? Or can Jesus truly love me and not make demands of me in His Word?

 

TO OBEY OR TO LOVE?

In Jesus’ last words to His disciples, He commands them to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them inthe name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:19-20). His command is not only completely legitimate because of His authority (28:18), but completely possible because of His presence (28:20). 

 

But Jesus’ words still provoke a question: Why does He say “teaching them to observe” (or obey) and not “teaching them to love”? 

 

The answer is that for Jesus, love is obedience and obedience is love. There is no true love for God where there is not found obedience towards God. Likewise, there is no true obedience to God where there is not found love for God. 

 

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments”. (John 14:15) 

 

Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me “. (14:21) 

 

“If anyone loves me, he will keep my word...Whoever does not love me does not keep my words.” (14:23-24)  

 

“And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected.” (1 John 2:3-5)

 

KNOWLEDGE OR OBEDIENCE?

As Christians, we often wrongly assume that the more we know about God the more we will obey God. But having biblical information about God is not the same as having a spiritual reality of God. No one knew more about the Scriptures than many of the pharisees did, yet no one loved Jesus less than they did. But there were many who knew little by comparison and yet came to know and love Jesus sincerely.

 

Paul teaches us in Romans that the more we disobey what we know of God, the less we come to truly know God (1:18-19). Proverbs teaches us, though, that “the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day.” (4:18) The more we obey what we know of God, the more of God we come to truly know. 

 

Obedience begets knowledge. There’s no light into God’s Word apart from obedience to God’s Word. There’s no light for our path in life apart from obedience on God’s path for our life. As christians, there are seasons where it seems like we’re not growing in our understanding of God and His Word and/or are not growing out of our sin and selfish patterns. Perhaps, it is because we are simply not obeying what we understand of God’s Word and taking the step He’s asking us to take, which if we did would give us light for the next step (Psalm 119:104-105) and bring us into a greater degree of knowledge of Him and conformity to Him.

 

HOW IS OBEDIENCE POSSIBLE?

 

The Psalmist cries out, “I hold my feet back from every evil way” (Psalm 119:101). Yes, this is obedience, to not sin. But why? “in order to keep your word.”  The bible is not simply a means to an end. No, I don’t sin BECAUSE I want to keep your word!

 

Again the Psalmist cries, “I turn my feet to your testimonies; I hasten and do not delay to keep your commandments” (119:59-60). I not only turn my feet from something, I also turn them towards something. And I turn quickly, without delay, BECAUSE I love You!

 

Our obedience to God is as strong as our love for God. But immediately we feel an inconsolable, unbearable burden upon our hearts. Do we have to prove our love for God to Him? Do we have to earn from Him His love for us? WE DESPAIR: “My love for God is weak then! I disobey and fail to walk in His ways all the time.” WE HOPE: Our obedience is as strong as Jesus’ love; it is rooted in, fueled by and empowered through His love. WE DESPAIR: “Then His love must be weak!“ WE HOPE: No! His love is as strong and perfect as His obedience.

 

Our obedience to Him is only possible because of His love for us! It is His obedience and love that is daily being perfected in our obedience and love, as weak as they sometimes are.  But we hope and rejoice: “whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected.” (1 John 2:5)

 

This post is adapted from the sermon I Love The Bible part 3

I Love the Bible! part 2

In the movie Toy Story 2, Woody suffers a tear in his arm and as a result is exiled by Andy’s mom to the top shelf in Andy’s room. There out of sight and out of mind, Woody finds another missing toy. Weezy. Weezy is old, broken, forgotten and unneeded. Yet Woody attempts to save him. “What’s the point in prolonging the inevitable? We’re all just one stitch away from here...to there.” Weezy believes the yard sale is a toy’s inevitable destination.

Is there a shelf life to the bible? Is it inevitable that it will become old, broken, forgotten and unneeded? Or will it always be relevant, sufficient, authoritative and trustworthy?

 

 

WHAT DO I NEED TO KNOW?

When life gets tough, when things break, when you lose satisfaction, where do you turn to for answers? Think of a baby. There’s a lot a baby boy or girl doesn’t know and can’t know. But everything the baby needs to know it finds in mom. 

There’s a lot we don’t know and can’t know. But everything we need to know we find in Jesus. But can we say the same about the bible? “There’s a lot I don’t know and can’t know. But everything I need to know I find in the bible.”

Does the bible answer man’s hardest questions? Does it address life’s biggest problems? Can it explain the heart’s deepest longings?

  

IS THERE A LIMIT?

Psalm 119:96 says, “I have seen a limit to all perfection”. Every human endeavor, explanation, advancement and achievement has a limit in the knowledge and satisfaction it can bring to the human heart. No matter how earth-shattering or culture-shifting, human “perfection” cannot bring unlimited joy, peace, rest and satisfaction to the human heart. Eventually, whatever good things it has provided will be replaced, improved or dismissed. 

Only God’s Word is “exceedingly broad” (Ps. 119:96). That is, only in the Word of God does the perfection, fullness, completeness and sufficiency of God begin to unfold before us and enlarge our hearts with the knowledge of Him, His Will and His kingdom.

But we fail to trust in Him. So we look elsewhere...

There’s no limit to where we can look, but there is a limit in everything we look to: it’s sufficiency – it’s ability to supply everything we need.

Remember Solomon? Solomon had wisdom beyond the collective wisdom of entire people groups and nations (1 Kings 4:29-30). Yet he still wrote, “I said in my heart, ‘I have acquired great wisdom, surpassing all who were over Jerusalem before me, and my heart has had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.’ And I applied my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is but a striving after wind.”  (Ecclesiastes 1:16-17)

But consider Jesus. Jesus has wisdom that goes immeasurably beyond Solomon’s (Luke 11:31). While Solomon’s wisdom was comparable to the sand on the seashore, it was all but a grain of sand on the seashore of Jesus’ wisdom (1 Corinthians 1:24; Colossians 2:3). By comparison, Solomon was poor. Nothing he possessed was sufficient in and of itself.

Therefore, the difference between the poverty of man’s sufficiency and the riches of God’s sufficiency is not our understanding, but our trust. Behind my trust in an object is the believed sufficiency of that object: “IT IS ENOUGH.” 

 

WHOSE WORD WILL I BELIEVE?

In Matthew 11, Jesus prays to God in the company of His disciples and thanks God that He has graciously revealed Himself in His Son, not to those who think they are sufficient in themselves, but to those who are like little children (verse 25-27). Little children believe they find everything they need to know in the one they trust the most.

What does this revelation offer? It offers rest from weariness and heavy burdens (verse 28). It offers rest from the vain and endless pursuit(s) of finding sufficiency in anything or anyone other than Jesus.

How can I receive this rest? By taking Jesus’ yoke – His teaching, commands and words (verses 29-31; 1 John 5:3).

The sum of God's word is The Truth, Jesus Christ (Psalm 119:160; John 1:14; 14:7; 1 John 5:20). In the bible, the perfection, fullness, completeness and sufficiency of Jesus begin to unfold before us and to enlarge our hearts with the knowledge of Him, His Will and His kingdom. Yes, the Word of God is "exceedingly broad"!

The difference between our weariness and our rest is not the work we do, but whose yoke we wear – Whose word do we believe? Who do we find enough? Who do we trust? 

The yoke Jesus carried was the weight and horror of my sin, rebellion, mistrust and disobedience, so the yoke I can carry is the freedom and glory of His love, will, word and obedience in my heart. 

 

Whose yoke do you carry? Whose word do you believe? Who do you trust? Who is  enough? Jesus won your heart! Put our trust in His Word and find rest for your souls.

 

This post is adapted from the sermon "I Love The Bible! part 2"

I love the Bible! part 1

When do kids want to talk? It never fails that the moment my youngest son wants to talk is AFTER I’ve said goodnight to him. It’s then that his mind comes alive with many questions. 

 

As parents, we often want to listen on our time. But the reality is that we have to learn to listen when, where and how our children want to talk. 

 

The bible is when, where and how God wants to talk. 

 

The bible is God’s revelation of Himself; He has made Himself knowable to us in the pages and words of Scripture. Furthermore, the goal of God’s revelation to us in the bible is not to make us smarter or better than other christians or non-christians; the goal is to bring us to worship Jesus – to know Him, to love Him and to live for Him. 

 

LOVE THE LAW?

As christians, what we believe and how we feel about the bible is a reflection of what we believe and how we feel about God. 

 

Psalm 119 is a love poem written by the Psalmist about God’s word – God’s testimonies, statutes, commandments, precepts, words, law. It’s divided into 22 sections, one section for each of the letters in the Hebrew alphabet, each section with 8 stanzas, each stanza beginning with the corresponding Hebrew letter. It’s magnificently inspired and carefully crafted. 

 

Whenever I travel, my wife writes and gives me a love note to keep while I’m away. If I’m gone for multiple days, she writes me a note for each of those days! Imagine, though, that I refuse the notes or that I say, “I’ll read them when I get back.” My actions towards her written words would speak volumes concerning my value and love for her. 

 

When we love the bible we love God; when we love God we love the bible. They are distinct, yet they are inseparable. 

 

The Psalmist says in 119:97, “O how I love your law!” The law?! Does that sound odd, unusual, even absurd? Who of us loves the speed limit? Who loves to pay their taxes? Who loves submitting to their authority? Who loves serving their spouse at all times? Who loves forgiving their enemy? 

 

In Matthew 22:36-40, Jesus is asked which is “the great commandment”. Jesus answers with, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” What does this mean? It means that the law is love and love is the law. It means that the source of God’s law is God’s love and that the source of man’s obedience to God is man’s love for God. It means that the law is not simply moral, but also relational.

 

WHICH CAME FIRST?

Early in the Old Testament, God sees and hears that the people of Israel are suffering in bondage to slavery in Egypt. So God appears on Mount Sinai, calls a man named Moses and sends him to deliver Israel from the hand of Pharaoh. Moses, however, is unsure of his ability to accomplish such a task. God assures Moses, “they will listen to your voice” (Exodus 3:18). 

 

Moses does obey and God does deliver. After their exodus from Egypt, Moses leads the people of Israel to Mount Sinai where “the LORD came down” (Ex. 19:20) and “spoke all these words” (Ex. 20:1). What words? The words of the Ten Commandments, the words of God’s law. 

 

QUESTION: Which came first? God’s law or God’s rescue? 

 

Rescue. God didn’t rescue Israel on the basis of their obedience to His law. God gave them His law on the basis of His rescuing and making them His people. The law was/is given within the context of a relationship that God initiated out of love.

 

Now think of Jesus. In Matthew 17:5, Jesus is on a mountain top with his disciples when  both Elijah and Moses appear with him. Peter wants to join the conversation when God speaks three words from heaven that change everything for the disciples, and for us: “listen to him.” Listen to Elijah? Listen, still, to Moses? No. Listen to Jesus. When you listen to Jesus, the beloved Son of God, you are listening to God. 

 

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God...the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” (John 1:1, 14)  

 

 

WORDS OF LIFE

The law, Scripture, the word of God – ALL of the BIBLE – finds its fulfillment in WHO Jesus is and WHAT He has done. ON Jesus depends ALL that God has spoken and done, and continues to speak and to do through his word. On His authority, power and life hangs ALL the authority, power and life of God’s Word. At the beginning and end of all our bible reading, studying, meditation, preaching, application, exhortation, training, etc. are the words of Peter concerning his realization and revelation of Jesus Christ: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” (John 6:69)

 

So, then, do we need to have the right degrees or tools or skills to come to the bible and to understand it? 

 

No, but to think this way will either produce fear or pride. It will produce fear because we will feel like we can’t; we’ll think it’s too complicated for us. It will produce pride because we’ll believe that we can, since we’re convinced we have what it takes.

 

As we come to the word of God we come to The Word of God. Approach the word of God without fear of not understanding, since you’ve no reason to fear Jesus, The Word of God made flesh. Approach the word of God without pride in understanding, since you’ve no reason to boast about anything before Jesus, the Word of God eternal. 

 

Come to Him. Listen to Him. See Him. Worship Him.

 

This post is adapted from the sermon I Love The Bible! part 1

Unselfed-church

What are you natural at? Is it math? Is it sports? Maybe art? Music? What about talking? All of us are good at something, that is, all of us have something that we do without effort and without hesitation.

 

Love should come natural, without effort and hesitation, to the church of Jesus Christ.

 

TESTED

Having died and risen from the dead, Jesus has richly poured out the Holy Spirit on His church (Acts 2:33; Titus 3:4-6). We read in chapter two of Acts that great power was given to the disciples, that the church grew by thousands and that the fame of the disciples spread. But the pouring out of the Holy Spirit went deeper than power, size and fame.  As Paul says, “...God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” (Romans 5:5) The Holy Spirit brought a new dimension and experience of the love of God to those who by faith believed in Jesus Christ for their salvation by grace.

 

Furthermore, the coming of Jesus Christ and subsequently the Holy Spirit inaugurated “the last days” (Hebrews 1:1-2; Acts 2:17). Though no one knows the day nor the hour (Matthew 24:36), we are living in the last days before the second coming of Jesus Christ. This is important because Paul warns us (2 Timothy 3:1-2), as Jesus did (Matthew 12:24), that in these last days the church, Jesus’ disciples, will be tested. Yet, what will be tested in particular will be our love. The battle will be between love for self and love for Jesus. Will we be lovers of ourselves and of pleasure (what pleases us) or lovers of God and of His will (what pleases God)? 

 

“...many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.” (Matthew 24:10-12) When Jesus returns we won’t be commended by our power, size or fame, but by the condition of our love for Him. Neither power (miracles, signs, wonders) or size (how many attend a church, how many decisions have been made) or fame (how reputable, innovative and authentic our services and speakers are) will be the concrete evidence Jesus is looking for.  

 

INVOLVED

Jesus involved Himself in creation, in humanity and above all in our salvation at great cost to Himself out of love for us. The gospel – what Jesus has done to rescue and save sinners – is the perfect expression of love.

 

By next year, it is speculated that the average person in America will consume around 15.5 hours of media (using 30 different forms of media like satellite radio, tv, internet, etc.) Today our attention will shift about every 3 minutes. We are distracted! So, the question is, If we’re consuming and distracted during most of the day, when do we have the time to put out, to give away, to focus and to involve ourselves? As the church, this is critically important if it’s true that the main way the world will know Jesus has come and that we are His disciples is by our love (John 13:35). 

 

The gospel enlarges our hearts and involves our lives at a cost to ourselves out of love for others. But are we too busy, too distracted, too self-preoccupied? Blessed are those who have crucified their flesh with its passions and desires and have inherited NOT only the kingdom of God BUT the passions and desires of The King. We are blessed when we are oriented around and centered in Jesus Christ. 

 

“WHEN”

In a parable on the Day of Judgment, Jesus describes two kinds of people whom He will encounter (Matthew 25:31-46). The first kind are those who served The King by involving themselves in the lives of those The King calls “the least of these”. The second kind are those who did not involve themselves with “the least of these”. But, and this is central, both kinds of people were UNAWARE of what they had and hadn’t done. Their common answer begins with the key word, “When”. Both kinds of people were living what was natural to them. They both were without effort and hesitation living out of what they were on the inside. 

 

For a local church (as for any christian), “When” represents a supernatural, natural way of living. It represents the unselfed life, a way of living for Jesus and a way of loving Him that is so normal that we do so without question and without thinking; His love is so richly dwelling within us by the presence and power of the Holy Spirit that we forget ourselves. 

 

A church obsessed with itself is not a church filled with the Holy Spirit. Such a church is looking inward (what do I want) and outward (what can I gain from the world). But a church filled with the Holy Spirit is a church consumed with the love and work of Jesus. It is looking outward (what do they need) and upward (adoring and pursuing Christ). 

 

The praise and love of man is tantalizing, but also anesthetizing and paralyzing. The praise and love of Jesus is holy, transforming and freeing! A church that lives for the glory of Jesus is a church that is filled with the presence and power of Jesus. And it is only His presence in the midst of His people that makes both a clear contrast between the world and a profound impact on the world. 

 

Love. Love is how we will endure to the end (Matthew 24:13). Love for Jesus and love for others. Love that is often unassuming, unannounced and unobtrusive, yet always demanding nothing, expecting nothing and giving everything.

 

"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love."

(1 Corinthians 13:1-13)

Unselfed-marriage

If I showed you a silhouette of Buzz Lightyear I have no doubt you would instantly recognize him as Buzz. Same goes for a silhouette of either Gandalf, Legolas and the Fellowship of the Ring or of Martin Luther King, Jr.. A silhouette is a representation of an object, a person or a scene which has a featureless interior, yet a detailed exterior.

 

 

Paul, writing in Ephesians 5:31 begins by quoting Genesis 2:24: “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” Paul next says, “This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.” Marriage, then, is a representation – the silhouette – of Christ’s love for His church and His church’s love for Him. Marriage should look like Jesus Christ laying down His life on the cross out of love. But to represent we must resemble.

 

DYING TO SELF

In reality, 50% of all marriages, christian or not, divorce before year 7. Writer Gary Thomas suggests that it takes 9 to 14 years for a husband and a wife to move from Me to We, that is, to go from being selfish to being unselfed. But since the pain of dying to self and living for another is too great, many husbands and wives choose the comfort of living for self. Had some waited another 2 years, they may have entered into a season and life of marriage that would have made the cost pale in comparison to the reward.

 

The bottom line is that it takes a long time to die to self...

 

Into my college years I was pretty confident I was a dream husband-to-be! But of course nothing would be further from the truth! Upon getting married to Alissa I soon came to recognize that I was more selfish than I knew. But this recognition came as a result of the realization that Jesus was more humble than I imagined. It remains eternally impossible to live before His face and remain unchanged. You don’t learn humility in a vacuum. You learn it face to face in relationship with other people, beginning with Jesus. 

 

The greatest convictions of sin in my life have come within the context of my marriage. Why? Because marriage is about holiness before happiness – a shadow of a greater reality, a thread of a greater tapestry, a note of a greater composition. Yet, for the christian holiness is happiness. It’s in becoming more like Jesus that we walk into a greater depth of joy and love flowing from the life we have in Him. This is because we were not created to live for ourselves, to count ourselves as more significant than others, to put ourselves first. But that’s exactly what we too often do: we put ourselves first.

 

FIRST RESPONSES

When you’re getting ice cream for yourself, do you even remember there are other people in the room? Do you even think to ask if someone else wants any? Better yet, if there’s only enough for one bowl, do you give it to your wife? Or imagine you’re grilling on a perfectly beautiful summer day. The breeze is blowing, the drink is cold and your hunger is kicking. The burger at the center of the grill is the biggest, juiciest one there. Do you think to yourself, “This one is mine” or “This one is for my wife.”? What are your first thoughts, your first responses? Are they centered around others first or around yourself first? 

 

A marriage can only and truly be satisfying and enduring if it’s between two unselfed people, each one moving away from his or her own selfish interests towards Jesus and the other. A marriage could potentially survive if a husband and/or wife feel they’re getting what they want, but it can only thrive when a husband and a wife are learning to give what the other needs. Giving requires serving which requires sacrifice, patience, time, care, attention and focus on a daily basis. 

 

LITTLE BY LITTLE

Little by little self-seeking spoils and rots a relationship. It’s the small things that sneak in because it’s the big things we’re looking for. Big words like divorce and unfaithfulness get all the attention, leaving wide open spaces for busyness, criticism, distraction, hurt, offense, etc. to creep in and reek havoc (Song of Solomon 2:15). Just because you’re not on the precipice of disaster doesn’t mean you’re not inching closer. Personally, as a pastor, I believe that no amount of ministerial success (or any success) will outweigh any amount of marital failure before the eyes of Jesus. Paul never said, “Love your ministry (or job or career or hobby or anything) as yourself.” He said to love your wife as yourself (Ephesians 5:28).

 

Little by little self-giving nourishes and sustains a relationship. Think of a valve that either opens or closes the flow of water. The more you serve your husband or wife, the more you open up the flow of life into your marriage. Every little thing is an adjustment of the valve and an increase in flow. But the opposite is also true. The less you serve each other, the more you close off the flow. 

 But where does the flow go?

 

LIFE FLOW

Recently my wife and I replaced the plumbing in our house. We went from galvanized pipe to copper. The galvanized pipe was so full of an accumulation of corrosion that I could hold the pipe vertical, take a pen and stand it straight up. In many marriages there’s a dirty, old accumulation of selfishness and offense. All the serving in the world isn’t going to make a difference in the flow. At this point many try to buy back what they have lost: the bigger and more expensive the gift, the reasoning goes, the more certain they are things will get better. Unfortunately, one can turn the valve of serving till blue in the face, but the problem is not the valve. The problem is in the pipes.

 

The copper pipe was new, clean and free of any accumulation. I could hold the pipe, take the same pen and it would fall straight through! When Jesus died on the cross He opened the floodgates of heaven and cleansed our hearts by forgiving us, so that the flow secured by His obedience could reach and flood our hearts. In the same way, He designed and desires a marriage to have a new, clean and open flow of unselfishness and forgiveness. Nothing little or big can stop this kind of flow!

 

MARRIAGE IS NOT COMPLICATED

Beginning on the wedding day through the first 7 years of discovery and difficulty, continuing on through the 9 to 14 years of dying to self and living for another, and enduring through a lifetime of satisfaction and joy, marriage is not more complicated than walking with Jesus: repenting of your sin and forgiving one another.

 

There are only two people in the world who think they’re never wrong: the arrogant and Jesus, and only Jesus is right. When as a christian I consider the cost of the forgiveness of my sins, I truly have no right NOT to forgive (or not to ask forgiveness), since God had every right NOT to forgive me, but did. “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” (Ephesians 4:32)

 

Accidents happen: words slip from our mouths. Clean them up quickly! Otherwise, we move from accidents to decisions. We begin to decide we’re going to say something hurtful anyway. Then, if we don’t repent of our wrong decisions, we move from decision to attitude. We’ve determined this is how things are and this is how we’re going to respond. And finally we move from attitude to habits. At this point we’ve established patterns of behavior and paths of thinking, feeling and reacting that apart from the grace of God, will never be removed from our heart.

 

But His grace is like a gentle hand, a skilled hand, a steady hand, a mighty hand that can always come to unself, undo and unstop.

 

“Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.” (Philippians 2:3-7)

Unselfed-worship

I was thirsty. I walked down the stairs into the kitchen and to the fridge. I grabbed the pitcher of apple juice and begin to fill my cup. I don’t remember how old I was, but I remember that what looked like apple juice didn’t taste like apple juice at all. It was a type of oil! Even now, I feel the thick consistency down my throat. 

 

INVISIBLE DIFFERENCES

I don’t know why I didn’t notice the difference when pouring, but visibly I made no distinction between juice and oil. So it is that there often are invisible differences between two things. Two men may appear to look, dress and behave exactly the same, yet are in fact completely different. 

 

When Jesus came to earth, He introduced a new way of thinking about self in conjunction with challenging what people thought about Him. He said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross on Sunday and follow me.” No, he didn’t say exactly that. He said to take up your cross “daily” and follow Him (Luke 9:23). Jesus wasn’t chiefly concerned with morality: behavior reformation. Certainly, as christians our behavior should change, but what Jesus was after was character transformation. 

 

The difference between a good, moral person and a christian is not one of degree, but one of essence – the root, the disposition, the direction, the orbit of their lives.

 

Today, it’s widely broadcast from pulpits that God has mercy on people so we can become better at who we are and what we do. But God didn’t have mercy on us so we could become better versions of ourselves; God had mercy on us so we might become a new and holy people (2 Corinthians 5:17). There is a world of difference. 

 

TRANSFORMATION

 

In short, to be a christian is to be saved  both from a life enslaved to sin and  for a new life of freedom in holiness. Still, there are many aspects to salvation: 

 

JUSTIFIED before God (Luke 18:14) – We are now in right-standing before the living and holy God. On the cross, the righteousness of Jesus Christ becomes ours and our sin becomes His (2 Corinthians 5:21).

 

TRANSFERRED – God “has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” (Colossians 1:13)

 

UNITED – “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his...Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.” (Romans 6:5, 8)

 

SANCTIFIED – “And such (sinners) were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” ( 1 Corinthians 6:11) Our position before God is one of sanctified or holy. Yet, our daily experience and condition reminds us that we are being sanctified: “Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Thessalonians 5:23) 

 

For example, when my four children were born they were born Evans. There position as an Evans will never change. But they still need to grow and mature as an Evans, because the hope is that they will become fully what they are intended to be as adults. Sanctification, then, is the moving away from selfish immaturity to maturity in Jesus.

 

Sanctification is the transforming of self into the image of Jesus Christ. “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord,are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.” (2 Corinthians 3:18) But how does this happen?

 

NEW DISPOSITION

 

Paul, writing in Romans 12:2 says, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.” Transformation – sanctification – happens by or through the renewing of the mind. Paul helps us even more in Ephesians 4:22-23, when he says, “put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and (to) be renewed in the spirit of your minds”. 

 

It is the “spirit of the mind” that is the difference between two people who on the outside appear exactly the same, but who on the inside are completely different. There is a new disposition, a new direction, a new orientation in one that’s not in the other. This new disposition is the direct result of the mercy of God, apart from which every intention of the thoughts of our heart is only evil continually (Genesis 6:5). 

 

Recall the apostle Paul, who before his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus was known as Saul of Tarsus (Acts 9:1-9; 13:9). Saul was full of passion and incredibly intelligent. Yet, when Jesus saved Saul, He didn’t give him a brain transplant nor did Saul become lazy or less intelligent after meeting Jesus. Rather, Jesus changed the disposition and direction and orientation of Saul’s mind. Same brain, different mind, intelligence still brimming. As christians, though, we often mistakenly believe that now that we are saved, we have to undergo some sort of transplant either in our body or in where we live, work, play or study. In reality, Jesus saves us and most often keeps us in the context or culture in which He found us in (same friends and strangers, same workplace and school, etc.) But by finding and saving us He changes us, so that we can, and we will, live differently right where we are. The same passion and intelligence and skills are being applied as before, yet now with a new intent, motive and purpose behind them all.

 

SACRIFICE AS WORSHIP

Christians, therefore, are a new humanity – not a better humanity – but a new humanity where the human potential finds fulfillment not in self, but in Another. In Jesus we find ourselves – our life, meaning and purpose. Christians find there joy and satisfaction within the constraints and boundaries of living for Jesus and not outside those constraints and boundaries in living for self. For the christian, freedom lies in sacrificing anything and everything for the sake of Jesus. Whereas the idea of sacrificing what I want for another is more like captivity to the person living for his or herself. Sacrifice is embracing Jesus and replacing self.

 

In the end, because of His mercy, to offer myself in worship as a living sacrifice to Jesus is not only logical but desirable (Romans 12:1-2). Worship is understood and experienced as the dual response of my mind and my heart to my self and to Jesus, and is ultimately the difference between the unselfed life revolving around Jesus and the selfish life revolving around self.

Craft & Enmity: The heart of the matter

“I have a question for you,” my father said. In my childhood, when my father wanted to get to the heart of a matter (an incident or behavior), he often used a question.

 

Jesus asked a lot of questions in order to get to the heart of a matter, to the center of a person:

 

Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

 

Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?

 

Why do you call me “Lord, Lord,” and not do what I tell you?

 

Where is your faith?

 

But who do you say that I am?

 

For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?

 

Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts?

 

Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me? 

 

Whom are you seeking?

 

Do you love me?

 

Jesus often implied questions. One day he cast out a demon from a person and the group of witnesses was split by the demonstration of His power. Some said Jesus was casting out demons by the power of the devil, to which Jesus responded, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and a divided household falls. And if Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebul” (Luke 11:17-19). No. Jesus is not working with the devil: “But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you”  (Luke 11:20). Yes. Jesus is the “finger of God”, the focal point and locus of the kingdom of God (Luke 17:20-21). He is the Son of God and “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8).

 

And then Jesus draws a line in the sands of time and history and eternity: “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters”  (Luke 11:23). The implied question is: Are you with me or against me?

 

The background of this conversation is a spiritual reality Jesus has just brought to the foreground. The devil is a strongman (Luke 11:21-23), an intoxicator and abductor of human hearts who has captured them to do his will (2 Timothy 2:25-26). The home of the human heart is in fact a stronghold, a prison, and the devil is fully armed, fully alert and fully secured. Yet Jesus is stronger. He overpowers the Strongman’s will, craft and enmity, and sets the home free.

 

Now what? The Strongman is gone, but the heart remains. The heart has experienced grace and power, and as a result engages in activity: sweeping and putting things in right order. Grace always produces activity – spiritual momentum and religious activity. But the heart, while it is active, remains empty (Matthew 12:44). It is at leisure; there’s a pleasantness about the place. Perhaps a new coat of paint has been applied; some repairs have been made; new art is hung. There’s a moral reformation occurring, which isn’t bad. It’s better than what was. But this kind of moral reformation has a peculiarly soothing and dangerous therapeutic effect. “I like the way I feel. I like what I’ve done. I like how I behave.”

 

But moral reformation is an empty substitute for true, lasting spiritual transformation. It’s also a more attractive opportunity and less powerful obstruction to the Strongman when he returns, and he always does.  When he returns to “my house” (Luke 11:24), to the heart which has experienced and received grace and power and deliverance and healing, will he find a moral makeover but a vacant heart and spiritual vacuum, or will he find a cleansed heart (Psalm 51:10) and a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17)? Temporary, temperamental, palliative spiritual experiences are not what Jesus is after. He is after a created, steadfast, radical – to the root – change of heart.

 

“I have a question for you,” asked Jesus: Are you with me or against me? (Luke 11:23)

 

There are two kingdoms, one heart. Consider Colossians 1:13,“He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son,” and Colossians 1:21-23, “And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard.” Note the conditional, inspired word “if” (See also 1 Peter 2:9-10; 2 Peter 2:19-20; John 8:11; 5:14). What are we doing with what Jesus is saying to us? With what He is doing in us? We can receive what Jesus gives, yet that doesn’t mean we serve Him (Luke 8:13).

 

Daily we must choose who we will serve. The question is not, “Whose side is God on?”, but, “Whose side am I on?” (Joshua 5:13-15). God serves no master. I choose who I battle against when I choose who I serve (Joshua 24:14-15). Spiritual vacancy is not an option; spiritual neutrality is an impossibility.  Our response to Jesus determines everything, both our present and our future.

 

God’s deliverance doesn’t mean I become preeminent in all things to God, but that Jesus becomes preeminent in all things to me (Colossians 1:17). That’s the heart of the matter. 

Craft & Enmity

The difference between the devil and humanity is that the devil is not deceived by sin; but we are. Yes, the devil is well aware of the closing scene, the end of the story, his final defeat. Yet he roams the earth with a hand of craft and a heart of enmity, seeking to deceive by sin and to destroy in death.

 

Christians – the Church – cannot afford to ignore or trivialize the devil. If we do, Scripture like Hebrews 3:12-13 is lost on us, lost to us, and we’re lost: Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 

 

Yes, no one is above the craft of the devil and the deceitfulness of sin. Not the pastor of a church, not the janitor of that church. Not the most powerful man in a city, not the weakest man in the street. No one.

 

Eve was deceived by the craft of the devil (Genesis 3:1-7). Cain was also. God Himself spoke to Cain and told him there was a snare laid by the devil (Genesis 4:7-8; John 8:44). God Himself! Yet, Cain fell. We don’t like Cain for that reason. But what about David? We like him. The “man after God’s own heart” inspires us. Yet, David was also deceived by sin. There was Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11), and there was also this: "Then Satan stood against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel." And David did, bringing guilt upon Israel. (1 Chronicles 21:1-3). Peter became of use to the devil in attempting to distract and hinder Jesus (Matthew 16:22-23). Judas became the pawn of betrayal in the devil’s hand. It began with a thought; every subsequent rejection of Jesus’ love and word resulted in Judas’ heart being hardened. Peter, having learned firsthand of the devil’s schemes, returns in Acts 5:3 saying to a man named Ananias, “Why has satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself a part of the proceeds of the land?” 

 

No one is above the craft of the devil and the deceitfulness of sin. To think that I am, is already to be deceived.

 

The devil has incalculable schemes and constantly repeats them (Ephesians 6:10-11). He is also patient, waiting for the opportune time (Luke 4:13). He never grows weary, never stops, never gives up. He is an ancient student of man and a master teacher. His forces are united in one mind, heart and spirit. His aim is death, destruction of the soul of man. He is the ancient serpent (Revelation 12:19) and great adversary of the Church.  His aim is to outwit - to defraud - the Church of Jesus (2 Corinthians 2:11) of the new life of Jesus by gaining a foothold in the door (Ephesians 4:27) through both our relationships and our “old self” and life (Ephesians 4:13-32). He delights in our every fight, distraction, failure, weakness and sin.

 

But then there is Jesus.

 

Jesus has been tempted as we are in every respect, yet he never sinned or fell prey to the devil’s craft and the deceitfulness of sin (Hebrews 4:15). Here’s what else I need to remember: Jesus was tempted in every way full of the Holy Spirit (Luke 4:1-2). Jesus lived, served, endured, died and conquered by the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, not by inner resolve or external strategies. So must we withstand against the devil’s schemes: in the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. 

 

John writes that God is in us and greater than he who is in the world (1 John 4:4). Paul writes that the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead dwells in us (Romans 8:11).  And then John writes at the end of the book of Revelation, “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all” (Revelation 22:21). This is not an unusual ending, or beginning, in Paul’s letters. There is often the exhortation and prayer to receive grace. But why? Why, if God is in us, do we still need grace? Because grace is God endlessly supplying, in and by the Holy Spirit, what is lacking in me. Jesus promised and purchased the Holy Spirit for us. He has descended as Christ has ascended, so that the life of Jesus Christ now flows within us. We are a new creation in Jesus Christ – the Spirit of God conforming us, equipping us, empowering us to live this life in the flesh in the life of Jesus. By the Spirit we are given and receive the abundant life of God in Jesus. So “be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18), and stand against the craft of the devil and the deceitfulness of sin.