Monday, May 29, 2017

Finding Our Identity


“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”

(1Peter 2:9 ESV)



            If I go back fifteen or twenty years, I had an interest in genealogy.  Even though I had a pretty good idea about my heritage, I wanted to learn more about my family and where I’d come from. And, for this reason, I spent a fair amount of time tracing my family history.

            I did so until I hit a couple of roadblocks.  At the time, I was frustrated by them.  However, in recent years, my attitude has changed.

            Although I don’t want to forget my family history, I no longer find my identity in it as I once did.  I find my identity somewhere else.  I find it somewhere more important.

            I find my identity in the Lord.  And I do so for a couple of reasons.  I do so because, no matter our heritage and no matter our race, we find our origin in one place.  All of our family trees go back to the same starting point.

            Our ancestry goes back to one man.  It goes back to one couple.  It goes back to the first man created by God in the Garden of Eden.  It goes back to the woman that God created from that man.

            I also find my identity in the Lord because of what we read in the above verse.  We see in these words that God has made us to be his own.  We’re told that we are a chosen race.  And, in saying this, he isn’t talking about a certain culture or skin color. 

            As we read in John 1:12-13, we’re made his children by faith in Christ.  We’re told that all who received Jesus and who believed in his name were given the right to become God’s children.  And this is not a matter of ancestry or bloodline.  It’s not something that we do for ourselves, nor is it something that others do for us.  We are made to be the children of God by God alone.

As we see above, we are a royal priesthood.  We’re a people set apart for his service.  We’re a people set apart to share his Word and promises with the world around us.  We’re a people sent to bring the message of salvation to all mankind.  We’re a people sent to declare his excellencies.

We are a holy nation.  We are a people that have been set apart from all other peoples on earth.  We’ve been set apart to belong to God.

God calls on us to honor our father and our mother.  And we must not fail to do so.  However, we must also bear in mind that the church is our family.  We must bear in mind that the faithful, all around our world, are our brothers and sisters.  No matter their background, if they trust in Christ, if they trust in his death and resurrection for salvation and the forgiveness of sins, if they hold to his Word and promises, they are our family.

My identity, then, is in Christ alone.  And the same is true for you.  In him we find our beginning, and in him we find our eternity.

Friday, May 26, 2017

Hating Evil

“Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.”
Romans 12:9

We know that, as Christians, we’re to follow Jesus.  It means believing both the promises and the truth he’s given to us.  It means living in daily repentance, turning from our sin, and looking to him for mercy.

However, that being said, too many of us in the church are enamored with the world around us.  We try to emulate what the world identifies as cool, in-style, smooth, hip, or whatever slang term you choose to insert. We desire Jesus’ forgiveness, we desire his blessings, and we want to follow him.  But, at the same time, we try to remain current and in-touch with the world around us.

This leads us to make compromises.  It leads us to begin accepting behaviors and attitudes that God calls sinful.  It leads us to see how close we can walk to the world without abandoning Christ.

Most years, as I teach young people in confirmation, I receive questions like this: How far is too far?  They want to know how far they can go with a person of the opposite sex before it’s considered sinful.  Is it kissing?  Is it touching in areas that are generally considered out of bounds?  Or does it simply mean “going all the way?”

We tend to do the same in other areas of life as well.   We want to live like the world around us, but we want to know how far is too far.  We want to know the line of no-return.

I’ve seen this, even in churches, that desire to remain “relevant.” There are churches where the pastor curses and swears during the sermon in an effort to appeal to the unchurched.  There are churches and pastors who hold gatherings at a bar and around pitchers of beer in an effort to seem approachable to those who may otherwise never set foot in a church.  And, as we know, there are churches who have turned from the truth of Scripture and adopted societal norms in an effort to be more appealing.

As we see in the verse above, we are called upon to abhor what is evil and hold fast to what is good.  In other words, those things that are sinful, those things that are identified by God as evil, should be detested and despised by us, as his followers.  We should not try to see how close to them we can get, but rather how far away from them we can place ourselves.

When we become a believer, and when the Spirit of God fills our heart, our desires and passions become like those of God.  Not perfectly, of course, because we’re still a sinful people.  But we naturally find ourselves loving the things that God loves and hating the things that God hates.

We begin to turn away from sin, not because we have to, but because we want to.  When confronted with temptation, we choose to obey the Lord, not because we have to, but because we want to.  And when we fall, when we sin, we immediately confess our failure to the Lord and seek his mercy, wanting to be free from our sinful behaviors and attitudes.

If you have been walking closely with the world, if you find yourself wondering how far is too far, I encourage you to repent.  Ask the Lord to forgive you and to fill your heart.  Ask him to make your desires like his own.   We must do this because, as we read in James 4:4, “You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”

Thursday, May 04, 2017

None of Your Business


“If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me!”

(John 21:22 ESV)



            Peter is a great example of the redemption of Jesus.  Here is a man who was called by Jesus to follow him.  And he was so devoted that he declared his willingness to die for Jesus.  However, when the rubber hit the road, he fell far short of his expectations. When Jesus was arrested, Peter publicly denied him three times. 

            However, after the resurrection, Jesus restored Peter.  He asked Peter three times: “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” And, each time this question was asked, Peter affirmed his love for Jesus.

            Jesus then tells Peter that he would, indeed, give his life for him.  Peter would die for his faith in Christ and his service of him.  He then, once again, calls Peter to follow him.

            This is interesting.  We know that we’re to follow Jesus no matter what it means for us.  We know it’s possible that we might end up giving our life for the Lord.  However, in our mind, that likelihood is small.  In all honesty, it doesn’t even concern us.

            But how hard would it be to follow Jesus, knowing that we would die for our faith?  Would we willingly follow him, knowing this was our fate?  I think we have to admire Peter for doing so.

            However, hearing this call, Peter makes a mistake that’s common to us all.  Seeing John, he asks Jesus if this would be his fate as well.  He wants to know if John’s call, if his future, would be as difficult as his own.

            We often do the same thing.  We compare our life and our call with that of other believers.  We wonder if others will suffer as we’ve suffered.  We wonder if we’ll have it as well as another believer.  We seem to think that our life of faith should be fair.  We seem to think that our life of faith should be comparable to that of others.

            Jesus answers Peter, telling him that it’s none of his business.  What he had in store for John was not Peter’s concern. Peter was simply to follow him.

            We must take this statement to heart.  What the Lord has in store for other believers is not our concern. We must not compare the call of God placed on our life with that of others. We must concern ourselves only with the Lord’s will for our life.  We must concern ourselves with following the Lord, wherever he might lead us.

Monday, May 01, 2017

A Shared Faith


“And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.”

(Acts 2:46-47 ESV)



            We often assume, incorrectly, that the early church was the perfect example for us to follow.  As we read through Scripture, we find that they had their flaws, just as we do today.  We find that they often failed, as we do today.

            That being said, there is something I admire about the early church.  What I’m referring to is the fact that they lived out their faith together.  They lived it out as a community.

            This is something that’s reflected in the above passage.  We see that every day they attended the temple together and broke bread in their homes.  They gathered each day for prayer and for fellowship.

            This is something that’s lacking in the church in our day.  It’s especially lacking in the American Church.  We tend to think that our faith is a private matter.  We tend to think that all we need is “Jesus and Me.” But nothing is further from the truth.

            We see the corporate nature of the Christian faith throughout the New Testament.  For example, in Hebrews 10:24-25, we read: “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”

            We see in this passage that we’re called to gather together on a regular basis.  And, in this way, we’re to be an encouragement to one another.  We’re able to bless one another.

            In James 5:16, we read this: “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.”

            James calls on us to do something that probably feels strange in this day and age.  He calls on us to confess our sins to one another.  He calls on us to pray for one another.  And he calls on us to do this that we might be healed, that we might be restored.

            In 1 Corinthians 12, starting in verse 4, Paul says: “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.”

            He points out that God has gifted each of us in different ways.  But he goes on to say that these gifts are given for the common good.  What he means by this is that our gifts aren’t given that we might keep them to ourselves.  God gives them that we might bless one another.

            It’s clear as we read passages such as these that the Christian faith is to be lived in fellowship with the Church.  In this way, we’re able to be blessed and encouraged by our fellow believers.  And, in the same way, we’re able to be a blessing to our brothers and sisters in Christ.

            My encouragement to each of you is to stop trying to live the Christian life on your own.  Live it as God intends for it to be lived.  Let’s live out the Christian life together.  And, in this way, let’s seek to be a blessing to one another, and to work together in reaching our world for Christ.