"Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound..."
Ah, the grace of God. Such a popular subject in many churches today, especially emergent and seeker-friendly ones. But what is the grace of God? Have we lost its power?
A friend and I were talking the other day about the frustration of Christ-less Christians. Hypocrisy. Not just the kind of hypocrisy we grieve and work through in our own lives, for we all are a work in process if we are to be honest. But this modern culture of quasi-Christianity where millions would label themselves Christians by name, but in reality live no different than the unbeliever next door. They continue to live in the same bondage, baggage, and sin. Ironically, a statement you will hear often in these circles is, "Yeah, I'm not perfect, but thank God for His grace."
Several years ago, John Bevere's ministry conducted a survey of thousands of Christians as to the definition and benefit of grace. An overwhelming 98% responded that it was "unmerited favor" or "forgivness of sins." It was encouraging to hear the understanding that salvation is a gift that cannot be earned and that God lovingly bestows upon us what we could never earn. At the same time, however, it was disheartening to discover that only 2% of those surveyed responded with the most prominent and vital biblical definition of grace: the empowerment to live a godly life.
The writer of Hebews said, "Let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably (12:28)."
Paul said in Romans 6:14 that "... sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under the law but under grace."
In the book of Acts amid the supernatural outpouring of the Spirit and miraculous revival that was going on among the church, we read that "...with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all."
Though Jesus stripped himself of his divine rights, He still walked by the enabling of the Holy Spirit, in incredible power. How? The writer of Luke tells us in chapter two that "the Child (Jesus) grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him."
Grace, then, is powerful! So often it is only discussed in the context of a sentimental, fluffy, and sugary-sweet sermonette on the love of God. But as we study scripture, grace is not just a mere cover-up for our sins. It is the empowerment to live the life we never could in our own flesh.
I think true grace is perfectly illustrated in the story of Jesus with the woman at the well. When the harsh and judgmental religious leaders want to have her stoned, he exposes their hypocrisy, defends her and shows her mercy. "Who condemns you?" he asks when they all leave. When she replies "nobody," he follows up with those healing words of grace and mercy, "Neither do I condemn you." But notice He doesn't stop there. Neither does he add, "Okay, now that you've said a prayer, go on with life as normal." He doesn't say, "Alright, struggle on in your various sins and sexual addictions, but just thank God for His grace." He doesn't even say "Go and sin less." He flatly commanded, "Now go and sin no more." You see, true grace doesn't just forgive sin from our record; it eradicates the sinful nature from our lives. If we think we have encountered Christ, but continue to live no differently, we have some very real soul-searching to do, for Paul soberly warns us in Corinthians "not to receive the grace of God in vain," but instead to "let us purify ourselves from everything that makes body or soul unclean, and let us be completely holy (2 Corinthians 6:1, 7:1)."
The Gospel is such great news! Christ has come to show us grace not only so that we can be free from guilt, condemnation, and punishment, but free from sin to live the extroardinary, victorious, abundant life of freedom and power that He purchased for us with His blood. And we can access this grace by faith! May we not declare or live anything less.
* Additional resources for study: Galatians, Corinthians, "Extroardinary" (Bevere), & "Relentless" (Bevere)
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
We Are Going Somewhere
We are going somewhere. But if we haven't stood up, pointed to a horizon, and started walking, that somewhere might be nowhere. And discipline along the way will be hard to find anywhere. Vision gives strength. Vision gives discipline. Vision is powerful.
Imagine two different types of road trips. The first road trip finds you on the way back from a strenuous work retreat on a 48-hour ride back to the same monotonous daily grind that you have known for the past twelve years. The second road trip is a forty-eight hour ride to Key West, Florida where you will be relaxing with your loved ones for two weeks. I imagine those two rides would be vastly different. I imagine the bumps and inconveniences on the first will be much more annoying and harder to bear. There will probably be less smiling, more frustrations, more indulging comfort meals, and less anticipation. The vacation route, however, will more likely find you more antsy yet more laid back and pleasant. You will be able to shrug off more inconveniences and perhaps even consider them to be adventures. You will be less likely to blow all of your money on the way, because you have some fun to save for. You will also be less likely to eat nine cheeseburgers on the way because afterall you will be standing shirtless on a hot beach in twenty-four hours, not to mention the lobster dinners that will soon take place.
There is power in vision, and when you pick a destination and begin to follow through, you begin to provide the needed discipline along the way. In Andy Stanley's book, "The Principle of the Path," he stated that "Direction, not intention = destination." Simple, but profound. Everyday, based on our small, but cumulative decisions, we are going somewhere - financially, physically, relationally, spiritually, etc. And when we seize a God-given vision or dream, point to that destination, and start to put one foot in front of the other, we begin to infuse our lives with the energy and discipline necessary to get there. After all, we are going somewhere.
A couple of months ago when I had a Sunday night off, I visited a mega-church in the area. Donald Miller, one of my favorite authors, was coming there again to speak. As always, he was very motivational, and he talked a lot about life goals. He actually read us his 5-year plan which was both ambiguous and inspiring. The ten of us that went were so motivated that we went to Panera afterwards to discuss some of our goals and the idea of even forming a club. Out of this, "Sunshine Scholars" was born... a loose group of dreamers that to be honest have met fairly infrequently so far due to busy schedules. But I actually ended up typing out my 2011-2012 code of what kind of person I wanted to be a year from now - physically, financially, relationally, spiritually, and emotionally. Then, I bought a fresh, college-ruled notebook which I labeled "Vision Plan" and turned each part of my code into categories where I broke my ideals down to actual goals and actions to achieve those goals. I started on August 1st. I haven't been perfect with it, and I have a long way to go, but I am getting better organized financially, I have set some new intentional spiritual disciplines in my life, and I have lost fifteen pounds. I'm going somewhere.
Just wanted to drop a line to encourage you and me that we're going somewhere. But we better know where that is. Ultimately, God is in control and we must seek Him, but "failing to plan is planning to fail," and we better get our God-given desires and dreams on paper and then start turning them into flesh. And this will give us strength. When you're not going somewhere specific, you will probably still serve the god of your stomach and indulge every lunch on whatever looks best. But not when you're going somewhere. See, now you see yourself a couple of months from now full of energy, lean with muscle, sleeping better, feeling better, and looking better. And this gives you strength to master your appetite and choose foods and activities that are going to best fuel your temple for your good and His glory. Afterall, you're going somewhere. When we're not going somewhere specific, you'll probably be prone to waste your money on whatever meal or retail purchase looks good at the time. But not when you're going somewhere. When you're going somewhere, each paycheck is an exciting time to master your money instead and divide up every penny where you need it to go - tithes, savings, investings, paying off debt, future purchases, etc. You have a destination in mind of no debt, no payments, and no stress - only giving, saving, investing, and wisely purchasing with cash. You're going somewhere. One of the facets, afterall, of maturity is delaying immediate pleasure for long-term gratification. And going somewhere helps us with this. If you're not going somewhere specific, it will be easy to let the prayer closet decay, the Word of God gather dust, and your church doors go ungraced. But not you. You want to pay the price that few do. You want to be diligent in a careful life of holiness, with time spent in prayer and fasting, cultivating inner strength and freedom, and for a life in which you can more consistently walk in a deep, abiding Presence of God. That's where you want to go. As a single person, it can be easy to become trapped in bad relationships or drift into compromise. But with a day on the horizon in which you can joyfully and pureheartedly give yourself whole to another person without more baggage and skeletons in your closet, why even play the game? You're going somewhere. In church, it can be easy to become frustrated with details and either step down or jump ship, but we are learning patience and sewing for the harvest, so we "must not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary (Galatians 6:9)." We are going somewhere.
The examples are endless. We must enjoy the day at hand, for we are not promised tomorrow. But we also better make sure "we happen to the future instead of the future happening to us." Let us continue to cast vision and then relentlessly pursue. Afterall, we're going somewhere.
Imagine two different types of road trips. The first road trip finds you on the way back from a strenuous work retreat on a 48-hour ride back to the same monotonous daily grind that you have known for the past twelve years. The second road trip is a forty-eight hour ride to Key West, Florida where you will be relaxing with your loved ones for two weeks. I imagine those two rides would be vastly different. I imagine the bumps and inconveniences on the first will be much more annoying and harder to bear. There will probably be less smiling, more frustrations, more indulging comfort meals, and less anticipation. The vacation route, however, will more likely find you more antsy yet more laid back and pleasant. You will be able to shrug off more inconveniences and perhaps even consider them to be adventures. You will be less likely to blow all of your money on the way, because you have some fun to save for. You will also be less likely to eat nine cheeseburgers on the way because afterall you will be standing shirtless on a hot beach in twenty-four hours, not to mention the lobster dinners that will soon take place.
There is power in vision, and when you pick a destination and begin to follow through, you begin to provide the needed discipline along the way. In Andy Stanley's book, "The Principle of the Path," he stated that "Direction, not intention = destination." Simple, but profound. Everyday, based on our small, but cumulative decisions, we are going somewhere - financially, physically, relationally, spiritually, etc. And when we seize a God-given vision or dream, point to that destination, and start to put one foot in front of the other, we begin to infuse our lives with the energy and discipline necessary to get there. After all, we are going somewhere.
A couple of months ago when I had a Sunday night off, I visited a mega-church in the area. Donald Miller, one of my favorite authors, was coming there again to speak. As always, he was very motivational, and he talked a lot about life goals. He actually read us his 5-year plan which was both ambiguous and inspiring. The ten of us that went were so motivated that we went to Panera afterwards to discuss some of our goals and the idea of even forming a club. Out of this, "Sunshine Scholars" was born... a loose group of dreamers that to be honest have met fairly infrequently so far due to busy schedules. But I actually ended up typing out my 2011-2012 code of what kind of person I wanted to be a year from now - physically, financially, relationally, spiritually, and emotionally. Then, I bought a fresh, college-ruled notebook which I labeled "Vision Plan" and turned each part of my code into categories where I broke my ideals down to actual goals and actions to achieve those goals. I started on August 1st. I haven't been perfect with it, and I have a long way to go, but I am getting better organized financially, I have set some new intentional spiritual disciplines in my life, and I have lost fifteen pounds. I'm going somewhere.
Just wanted to drop a line to encourage you and me that we're going somewhere. But we better know where that is. Ultimately, God is in control and we must seek Him, but "failing to plan is planning to fail," and we better get our God-given desires and dreams on paper and then start turning them into flesh. And this will give us strength. When you're not going somewhere specific, you will probably still serve the god of your stomach and indulge every lunch on whatever looks best. But not when you're going somewhere. See, now you see yourself a couple of months from now full of energy, lean with muscle, sleeping better, feeling better, and looking better. And this gives you strength to master your appetite and choose foods and activities that are going to best fuel your temple for your good and His glory. Afterall, you're going somewhere. When we're not going somewhere specific, you'll probably be prone to waste your money on whatever meal or retail purchase looks good at the time. But not when you're going somewhere. When you're going somewhere, each paycheck is an exciting time to master your money instead and divide up every penny where you need it to go - tithes, savings, investings, paying off debt, future purchases, etc. You have a destination in mind of no debt, no payments, and no stress - only giving, saving, investing, and wisely purchasing with cash. You're going somewhere. One of the facets, afterall, of maturity is delaying immediate pleasure for long-term gratification. And going somewhere helps us with this. If you're not going somewhere specific, it will be easy to let the prayer closet decay, the Word of God gather dust, and your church doors go ungraced. But not you. You want to pay the price that few do. You want to be diligent in a careful life of holiness, with time spent in prayer and fasting, cultivating inner strength and freedom, and for a life in which you can more consistently walk in a deep, abiding Presence of God. That's where you want to go. As a single person, it can be easy to become trapped in bad relationships or drift into compromise. But with a day on the horizon in which you can joyfully and pureheartedly give yourself whole to another person without more baggage and skeletons in your closet, why even play the game? You're going somewhere. In church, it can be easy to become frustrated with details and either step down or jump ship, but we are learning patience and sewing for the harvest, so we "must not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary (Galatians 6:9)." We are going somewhere.
The examples are endless. We must enjoy the day at hand, for we are not promised tomorrow. But we also better make sure "we happen to the future instead of the future happening to us." Let us continue to cast vision and then relentlessly pursue. Afterall, we're going somewhere.
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