I have had enough time to digest the treasure of inspiration I received at the “Simple Church” Conference held recently at our State Ministries Camp Ground. Author, Tom Rainer, did a marvelous job of challenging us to revisit the simple picture of what it means to be a New Testament church. As he repeated several times to his audience,…he was not promoting a “new” way of doing church or some new program. He was showing us nothing “new”, but instead was re-introducing us to the simplicity of being a vibrant church. The day was too short, but the conference set me to thinking about church, and how we go about it. And, I thought maybe I would share some of my thoughts today.
When Jesus was asked to provide the cliff notes version on how to be a Christian, He said “love God and love each other, cause that’s what this thing is all about.” RJVT (Revised John Vaughn Translation). I believe that most would readily agree that Christianity, in its purest form, is pretty simple. But we often seem to make our faith and practice a lot more complicated than we would like it to be. Maybe it’s spiritual A.D.D., but we tend to quickly lose sight of our primary focus as believers… loving God and loving others.
Our addiction to maintaining order and traditions of how we do what we do every Sunday morning, can make the clarity of our mission seem muddy. Somehow, because we’ve been basically doing the same things the same way for the last several hundred years, we now associate singing songs and listening to someone talk for 45 minutes… with being a believer. What has happened to us? The result is that many have come to the point of merely attending church as a non-essential spectator. In turn, we’ve created a false perception of what it means to be a Christian.
We’re not really living life as Christians anymore. What we are doing is we’re singing songs about it, and letting the preacher tell us what it might look like if we actually did something about living as a Christian. But, I submit to you that Christianity is not an event that we passively attend,…it is a life we must live! And more fundamentally, Christianity is about a real being that we must get to know as a friend.
Before we can truly love anyone, we must have some form of up close and personal interaction with them. But, we’ve been trained to interact with God vicariously through the songs, teachings, and well written and even sometimes entertaining books of others. This is a relatively recent phenomenon, and I’m sure it would seem pretty strange to early Christians.
Much of what we’ve come to accept as our expression of faith is no more than a routine that we do each week, because apparently we lack the motivation to try something else. But, the essence of our faith is relational in nature, not ritualistic in nature. And, there lies the problem. Our culture has trained us to put more effort into our events than we do our relationships. Now, we can assemble together in a friendly manner...but, too often we are not friends. We were created to live out our Christian lives in the context of a family and a community that would allow us not only to function as a community, but also to actually enjoy ourselves in the process. It seems that much of Christianity today has become more about our meetings than what our meetings are supposed to be about…which is developing life giving love relationships with God and others.
Even in our service setting, looking at the back of each other’s heads while listening to a speaker, though it serves its purpose, is clearly not relational in nature. Don’t get me wrong…before you prepare to stone me…I’m not saying there is no value in gathering on Sunday mornings as we do. The point is that we have often invested a greater percentage of our time and energy in our meetings, and not nearly as much as we should in each other and our individual interaction with the Lord. Genuine relationship, whether it is with God or others,… is costly. It is time and energy consuming.
I have watched as godly men and women,…mature in their faith…full of godly thoughts and actions…(and, if they wouldn’t be stared at they would be comfortably dressed in white linen)…who were going through some of the most heart wrenching, and difficult life struggles. I expected at any time to hear them blurt out, “I’m mad at God!” And, I would not have been shocked. As a matter of fact I would appreciate their relationship with the Lord. Because at the very least, even in the frustration of the moment, their reaction would be real, and it would be honest… the way genuine relationships always are. Sometimes we get mad and have to give each other a piece of our mind. “I don’t like the way you’re treating me!” “Why’d you do that?” “Sometimes I don’t understand you!” If we ever find ourselves talking this way with God…it’s probably a pretty good sign. Intimate relationship requires truthful, gut wrenching vulnerability more often than not. And frankly, that’s probably more at the center of the real issue.
Most of us are so emotionally wounded, that we have great difficulty achieving much heart to heart intimacy with God or anyone else for that matter. Life has occasionally been rough, whether we’re willing to own that fact or not. I don’t care how spiritually mature we think we are, we are deeply emotional beings and most of us could benefit greatly from some inner healing. And, as much as I hate to admit it…sometimes it’s the most visible and influential church leaders who are in the greatest need of emotional healing. Many of the leaders and even pastors I’ve known would love the opportunity to be truly vulnerable with someone, but they are afraid go there for fear of character assassination.
All of this has led to much of the masks that cover what is going on outside our church life that we experience currently in churches across the land. Hey…Pastors are people, too…cut’em some slack! I don’t in any way mean that we should turn our heads when there is moral failure. Our feet must be held to the fire. But, we simply must allow our leaders to be transparent without fear of being publicly destroyed. We can't forget that every moment of our lives we dwell in the middle of a full on, bare knuckled brawl in the supernatural realm. As a believer, we have an enemy whose greatest pleasure is sucking all the peace and joy out of our life here on earth that he possibly can. One of his most successful strategies is to simply get us to focus on one another’s weaknesses or mistakes so that we remain in a state of offense toward one another. Or, he just gets us to start doubting the Lord’s goodness and love for us, and as a result we become offended at God. Proverbs 18:19 says, “An offended brother is more unyielding than a fortified city.” That sounds a lot like battle language to me! If we don’t allow emotional wounds and offenses to heal, both have the potential to keep us from honoring our two most essential directives…to Love God, and to Love Others. We can’t love God or each other at a distance. We need transparent, face to face interaction for it to work.
If you think about the definition of “love” provided in 1 Corinthians 13, you will realize that very few of these concepts are easily apply to a large public gathering. True love must be always be expressed in the context of relationship,... and most often to an individual. So,… loving God and each other can be difficult to do well in a crowded room with someone singing or talking through a microphone. Maybe, we need to re-think this thing a little. How am I to express love to you if I’m afraid to even look at you when you’re sitting right next to me? I mean, God forbid we distract one another and miss some crucial moment of the performance on stage. Is it just me, or is there really something wrong with this picture? Why are we so afraid to get out of our seats and mix it up a little?
Truthfully, it’s not just the rut we’re in on Sunday morning, it’s the overall shortage of joy and our inability to simply ENJOY our relationships with one another and the Lord. We’ve been so busy doing the church thing that we’ve forgotten how to BE the church. How we interact with our friends, our family, and our fellow man is a much more accurate indication of our spiritual maturity, than how well we understand and can articulate the latest and greatest teaching methods. Paul called this being “blown here and there by every wind of teaching.” (Ephesians 4:14)
Many of us still think that if we can just get our friend to the meeting… if they just hear the right message,… they’ll “come to the Lord.” Here’s an idea,… why don’t we make an honest effort to take the Lord to them? He’s in us isn’t He? I don’t know anyone right now who would say they suffer from too much kindness being shown to them, or having too many friends who really care about them. Jesus was known as a FRIEND of sinners. Sometimes just being a good friend may be the most spiritual thing we can do for someone. That also applies to our relationship with the Lord.
Slowly I’m coming to the understanding that God wants us to see ourselves as more than His child or His servant. Just like us, He wants to love us as friends love each other. Jesus likes it when we just hang out together, no agenda, no pressure…just being friends. Honestly, we need to learn how to be a good friend in the Sunday morning environment,…both to the Lord… and to others.
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Monday, April 25, 2011
IS IT POSSIBLE?
“Nothing will be impossible for you.” (Matthew 17:20b)
I recently read this piece written by Bishop Handley C. G. Moule that set me to thinking. He wrote:
“It is possible for believers who are completely willing to trust the power of the Lord for their safekeeping and victory to lead a life of readily taking His promises exactly as they are and finding them to be true.
It is possible to daily ‘cast all your anxiety on Him’ (1 Peter 5:7) and experience deep peace in the process.
It is possible to have our thoughts and the desires of our hears purified in the deepest sense of the word.
It is possible to see God’s will in every circumstance and to accept it with singing instead of complaining.
It is possible to become strong through and through by completely taking refuge in the power of God and by realizing that our greatest weakness and the things that upset our determination to be patient, pure, or humble provide an opportunity to make sin powerless over us. This opportunity comes through Him who loves us and who works to bring us into agreement with His will, and thereby supplies a blessed sense of His presence and His power.
All these are divine possibilities, because they are His work, actually experiencing them will always humble us, causing us to bow at His feet and teaching us to hunger and thirst for more. We will never be satisfied with anything less…each day, each hour, or each moment in Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit…than walking with God.”
If Bishop Moule is correct…and, I believe he is…if this kind of life is possible, then whatever in the world keeps us from living in its reality? As Jesus said in the beginning portion of the verse above in Matthew 17:20,…it is “unbelief and lack of faith!”
But, just what is it that is required for us as believers to experience these divine possibilities? I think Jesus made it quite simple when He said things like: “Come to Me”; “Learn from me”; “Follow Me”; “Trust Me”; “Obey Me”; “Abide in Me.” Every one of these instructions are given in the present tense to let us know that an ongoing one on one relationship with Him is possible! It is real…it is loving…and it is a joy!
I recently read this piece written by Bishop Handley C. G. Moule that set me to thinking. He wrote:
“It is possible for believers who are completely willing to trust the power of the Lord for their safekeeping and victory to lead a life of readily taking His promises exactly as they are and finding them to be true.
It is possible to daily ‘cast all your anxiety on Him’ (1 Peter 5:7) and experience deep peace in the process.
It is possible to have our thoughts and the desires of our hears purified in the deepest sense of the word.
It is possible to see God’s will in every circumstance and to accept it with singing instead of complaining.
It is possible to become strong through and through by completely taking refuge in the power of God and by realizing that our greatest weakness and the things that upset our determination to be patient, pure, or humble provide an opportunity to make sin powerless over us. This opportunity comes through Him who loves us and who works to bring us into agreement with His will, and thereby supplies a blessed sense of His presence and His power.
All these are divine possibilities, because they are His work, actually experiencing them will always humble us, causing us to bow at His feet and teaching us to hunger and thirst for more. We will never be satisfied with anything less…each day, each hour, or each moment in Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit…than walking with God.”
If Bishop Moule is correct…and, I believe he is…if this kind of life is possible, then whatever in the world keeps us from living in its reality? As Jesus said in the beginning portion of the verse above in Matthew 17:20,…it is “unbelief and lack of faith!”
But, just what is it that is required for us as believers to experience these divine possibilities? I think Jesus made it quite simple when He said things like: “Come to Me”; “Learn from me”; “Follow Me”; “Trust Me”; “Obey Me”; “Abide in Me.” Every one of these instructions are given in the present tense to let us know that an ongoing one on one relationship with Him is possible! It is real…it is loving…and it is a joy!
Thursday, April 21, 2011
WHAT WAS IN THE CUP?
Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples, “Sit here while I go and pray over there.” And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. Then He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.” He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.” Then He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “What! Could you not watch with Me one hour? Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Again, a second time, He went away and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done.” .... Matthew 26:36-46 NKJV
Luke’s Gospel says in Chapter 22, verse 44, “And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. When He rose up from prayer, and had come to His disciples, He found them sleeping from sorrow. Then He said to them, “Why do you sleep? Rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation.” ....Luke 22:44-46 NKJV
Here is Jesus approaching the betrayal and the cross as he enters this garden to pray. You can’t help but sense the anxiety in His words. What is that would cause the very Son of God to sweat as it were great drops of blood? What is it that would cause the Son of God to return to that spot in the garden three times to pray the same words? I believe it might have been that which was in the cup that Jesus prayed to the Father about. When we see Jesus in this garden we see him filled with sorrow and deep distress. I can’t think of anywhere else in scripture where we see the humanity of Jesus like we do in this passage. So, what caused such anxiety? What was it that Jesus saw in that cup?
It is possible that on the first stop to pray Jesus looked into the cup of the Father’s will and He was confronted with sin? Not just any sin, but the sin of all the world. Jesus looked into that cup He saw the sin of all the world from Adam… to the last sinner that will ever be present on earth. He saw all sin, past, present and future. But, why would that cause such sorrow and distress in the Son of God. I mean,…Jesus was familiar with sin,…only He Himself was spotless…he had never sinned. And now, He was about to become sin. That certainly must have caused Jesus anxiety as He looked into the cup! But there was more. I believe he may have also seen suffering.
Jesus was not caught by surprise by the suffering, but I believe that when He was praying in the garden, it all became so real because now the hour had come. We all know that our life (if we live long enough) will be stricken with a certain amount of suffering. We will all be betrayed by someone we considered a friend. We will all face death in some form... some of which will cause a great deal of suffering and pain through disease or accident. My point is this…just because we know that suffering is going to come, it doesn’t make it any easier to handle when it actually happens. Jesus knew He would suffer and die. He told his disciples in Luke 9:22... “The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day.” But now that hour had come. He would face trumped up charges during trial,… he would be mocked, spit upon, slapped, beaten, and His flesh would be ripped to shreds. This is what Jesus saw as He looked into the cup. But, I think there was more. I believe he also saw sacrifice.
Jesus looked beyond the Sin, beyond the Suffering, and He recognized His role as Sacrifice. The Day of Atonement was not a pretty sight. It had to be an awful, awful bloody sight at the tabernacle on that day as the lambs would be slain at the altar. Imagine the small lambs, white without blemish, being slain as they stood helplessly. The blood must have overcome that altar! I know that it is an awful image to suggest, but that was the day that Jesus would face at Calvary. I believe Jesus saw his sacrifice in the cup! He would be the final, the once for all sacrifice. It was necessary because His was the only blood that would satisfy the righteous demands of God’s justice so that the wages of sin could be paid. And Jesus was that sacrifice. But, I believe there was more. There was also separation from the Father.
Jesus looked beyond the Sin, the Suffering, the Sacrifice... and maybe what led Him back into the garden the third time is what He saw toward the bottom of that cup. It was something that He had never experienced before. Perhaps this is what brought the blood drops of sweat dripping from his body…Separation! Matthew 27:46 records that it was about the ninth hour when Jesus cried, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" For the first time ever, from eternity past, the Son had never known separation from His Father. But now the Father laid the sin of the world upon His only begotten Son.
Now I know that people say it was my sin and your sin that put Jesus on that cross. And, I know that some say that it was Rome or the religious establishment of the Jews. But friends, when it comes to Jesus dying on that Cross….He was put there by the Father! It has always been the plan of God the Father from the foundation of the world, to offer Jesus on that Cross. It was the Father’s will. And there on that cross, Jesus died; for my sin, for your sin, for the sin of the world...He died! That is what Jesus saw in that cup.
You may wonder, if Jesus really saw all that was in the cup, then why did He go through with it? The cup was full of such bitterness and Jesus had a choice... so, why do it? Well, because there was more! You see, Jesus looked beyond the Sin,…the Suffering,…the Sacrifice…and even the Separation....and in the bottom of that cup was the one thing that turned that bitter cup into sweetness. It was….Salvation. He was and is… our only hope!
First of all, Jesus loves the Father and it was His greatest desire to do God’s will in God’s timing. That is why He prayed the same thing three times. But friends, Jesus loves you...and, He loves me...and that is why He looked beyond all that the cup had to offer and He got up from praying,…dusted himself off,…released the disciples from the weariness of prayer and surrendered himself to his enemies. All so that YOU may be saved today!
Maybe you haven’t received that precious gift of salvation from Jesus, and today is the day you want to say “Yes” to Jesus. On the right hand side of this blog is a prayer for you to pray under the title… “Do You Want to Know My Jesus”. Would you pray that prayer, and tell someone close to you that you have asked Christ into your heart. And please, will you let me know too?
Luke’s Gospel says in Chapter 22, verse 44, “And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. When He rose up from prayer, and had come to His disciples, He found them sleeping from sorrow. Then He said to them, “Why do you sleep? Rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation.” ....Luke 22:44-46 NKJV
Here is Jesus approaching the betrayal and the cross as he enters this garden to pray. You can’t help but sense the anxiety in His words. What is that would cause the very Son of God to sweat as it were great drops of blood? What is it that would cause the Son of God to return to that spot in the garden three times to pray the same words? I believe it might have been that which was in the cup that Jesus prayed to the Father about. When we see Jesus in this garden we see him filled with sorrow and deep distress. I can’t think of anywhere else in scripture where we see the humanity of Jesus like we do in this passage. So, what caused such anxiety? What was it that Jesus saw in that cup?
It is possible that on the first stop to pray Jesus looked into the cup of the Father’s will and He was confronted with sin? Not just any sin, but the sin of all the world. Jesus looked into that cup He saw the sin of all the world from Adam… to the last sinner that will ever be present on earth. He saw all sin, past, present and future. But, why would that cause such sorrow and distress in the Son of God. I mean,…Jesus was familiar with sin,…only He Himself was spotless…he had never sinned. And now, He was about to become sin. That certainly must have caused Jesus anxiety as He looked into the cup! But there was more. I believe he may have also seen suffering.
Jesus was not caught by surprise by the suffering, but I believe that when He was praying in the garden, it all became so real because now the hour had come. We all know that our life (if we live long enough) will be stricken with a certain amount of suffering. We will all be betrayed by someone we considered a friend. We will all face death in some form... some of which will cause a great deal of suffering and pain through disease or accident. My point is this…just because we know that suffering is going to come, it doesn’t make it any easier to handle when it actually happens. Jesus knew He would suffer and die. He told his disciples in Luke 9:22... “The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day.” But now that hour had come. He would face trumped up charges during trial,… he would be mocked, spit upon, slapped, beaten, and His flesh would be ripped to shreds. This is what Jesus saw as He looked into the cup. But, I think there was more. I believe he also saw sacrifice.
Jesus looked beyond the Sin, beyond the Suffering, and He recognized His role as Sacrifice. The Day of Atonement was not a pretty sight. It had to be an awful, awful bloody sight at the tabernacle on that day as the lambs would be slain at the altar. Imagine the small lambs, white without blemish, being slain as they stood helplessly. The blood must have overcome that altar! I know that it is an awful image to suggest, but that was the day that Jesus would face at Calvary. I believe Jesus saw his sacrifice in the cup! He would be the final, the once for all sacrifice. It was necessary because His was the only blood that would satisfy the righteous demands of God’s justice so that the wages of sin could be paid. And Jesus was that sacrifice. But, I believe there was more. There was also separation from the Father.
Jesus looked beyond the Sin, the Suffering, the Sacrifice... and maybe what led Him back into the garden the third time is what He saw toward the bottom of that cup. It was something that He had never experienced before. Perhaps this is what brought the blood drops of sweat dripping from his body…Separation! Matthew 27:46 records that it was about the ninth hour when Jesus cried, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" For the first time ever, from eternity past, the Son had never known separation from His Father. But now the Father laid the sin of the world upon His only begotten Son.
Now I know that people say it was my sin and your sin that put Jesus on that cross. And, I know that some say that it was Rome or the religious establishment of the Jews. But friends, when it comes to Jesus dying on that Cross….He was put there by the Father! It has always been the plan of God the Father from the foundation of the world, to offer Jesus on that Cross. It was the Father’s will. And there on that cross, Jesus died; for my sin, for your sin, for the sin of the world...He died! That is what Jesus saw in that cup.
You may wonder, if Jesus really saw all that was in the cup, then why did He go through with it? The cup was full of such bitterness and Jesus had a choice... so, why do it? Well, because there was more! You see, Jesus looked beyond the Sin,…the Suffering,…the Sacrifice…and even the Separation....and in the bottom of that cup was the one thing that turned that bitter cup into sweetness. It was….Salvation. He was and is… our only hope!
First of all, Jesus loves the Father and it was His greatest desire to do God’s will in God’s timing. That is why He prayed the same thing three times. But friends, Jesus loves you...and, He loves me...and that is why He looked beyond all that the cup had to offer and He got up from praying,…dusted himself off,…released the disciples from the weariness of prayer and surrendered himself to his enemies. All so that YOU may be saved today!
Maybe you haven’t received that precious gift of salvation from Jesus, and today is the day you want to say “Yes” to Jesus. On the right hand side of this blog is a prayer for you to pray under the title… “Do You Want to Know My Jesus”. Would you pray that prayer, and tell someone close to you that you have asked Christ into your heart. And please, will you let me know too?
Monday, April 18, 2011
BECOMING CHRISTLIKE IS MORE THAN TAKING A "JESUS PILL"
I could be that because of spending the day trying to recover from flu like symptoms all day today that I am in a weakened state of mind, but whatever the cause, I find myself in the middle of one of those “transparent” moments from which we pastor’s try to shield and protect ourselves. I’ve added a new section to my blog called “Taking Personal Inventory” where I simply ask a question for us to ponder about our own personal growth into Christian maturity. The questions were supposed to be for you…but, wow… I find that maybe the Holy Spirit intends them even more for me.
Taking personal inventory is an important part of our Spiritual formation. It seems like I am taking inventory every day. And sometimes my self inventory results show areas where I am lacking. I must confess that I find that there are moment when I can feel a little overwhelmed in the work of the Lord that I have been called to do. Don’t get me wrong…I'm thankful and I am privileged to hear so many people's stories, and I am blessed to be called to help others to grow in their relationship with Christ. I love it! But, there are times when I am overwhelmed, that I wish spiritual growth and formation was a little more neat and tidy. But, it’s not. We can’t just come to church Sunday morning and take a "Jesus pill" and be ready for the week to come.
Spiritual formation (or how we become more like Jesus) happens every moment of everyday. It happens as we wait in line at the grocery store and pray for patience. It happens when we choose to say "no" to the temptations that our flesh screams “yes” to. It happens when we serve others and no one takes notice. It happens when we hurt someone and ask forgiveness. And, it happens in the ways we fill our minds with God's transforming thoughts as we ponder a message from God through daily devotions, or some Christian blogger’s musings. I pray that In the Cool of the Day helps fill your mind with God’s transforming thoughts.
I love John Ortberg's quote: "God isn't a mass-producer He's a handcrafter." That is so true in my life. He is continually working on this project called John Vaughn, to turn me into the person He created me to be. I have no doubt there are times God would like to just give me a “Jesus Pill”…It certainly would make it go a lot easier for Him. But, I am thankful He does not get discouraged in His labor as He handcrafts me into the person that not only He created me to be, but the person I want to be. I do not share my thoughts in "In The Cool of the Day" because "I think you need this.” I share them because whether the thoughts are memories of a personal learning lesson, or simply musing and meditations on a Bible passage I have been reading…each of these have been amazing, life-giving, and motivating for me, and I hope that my transparent moments and personal inventory questions may be beneficial for you, too. So, how is God handcrafting you? What are the crafting tools He has been using in your life this week?
"Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another." Hebrews 10:24-25
Taking personal inventory is an important part of our Spiritual formation. It seems like I am taking inventory every day. And sometimes my self inventory results show areas where I am lacking. I must confess that I find that there are moment when I can feel a little overwhelmed in the work of the Lord that I have been called to do. Don’t get me wrong…I'm thankful and I am privileged to hear so many people's stories, and I am blessed to be called to help others to grow in their relationship with Christ. I love it! But, there are times when I am overwhelmed, that I wish spiritual growth and formation was a little more neat and tidy. But, it’s not. We can’t just come to church Sunday morning and take a "Jesus pill" and be ready for the week to come.
Spiritual formation (or how we become more like Jesus) happens every moment of everyday. It happens as we wait in line at the grocery store and pray for patience. It happens when we choose to say "no" to the temptations that our flesh screams “yes” to. It happens when we serve others and no one takes notice. It happens when we hurt someone and ask forgiveness. And, it happens in the ways we fill our minds with God's transforming thoughts as we ponder a message from God through daily devotions, or some Christian blogger’s musings. I pray that In the Cool of the Day helps fill your mind with God’s transforming thoughts.
I love John Ortberg's quote: "God isn't a mass-producer He's a handcrafter." That is so true in my life. He is continually working on this project called John Vaughn, to turn me into the person He created me to be. I have no doubt there are times God would like to just give me a “Jesus Pill”…It certainly would make it go a lot easier for Him. But, I am thankful He does not get discouraged in His labor as He handcrafts me into the person that not only He created me to be, but the person I want to be. I do not share my thoughts in "In The Cool of the Day" because "I think you need this.” I share them because whether the thoughts are memories of a personal learning lesson, or simply musing and meditations on a Bible passage I have been reading…each of these have been amazing, life-giving, and motivating for me, and I hope that my transparent moments and personal inventory questions may be beneficial for you, too. So, how is God handcrafting you? What are the crafting tools He has been using in your life this week?
"Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another." Hebrews 10:24-25
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
SPIRITUAL FERVOR, ZEAL, AND URGENCY
Romans 12:11... “Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.”
I have found myself recently spending probably way too much time on analyzing and over-analyzing our Sunday morning services. I want our service to be a time where people can have a genuine encounter with the Spirit of God. We try to bring the elements of worship, prayer, and preaching into play in a way that will encourage that much needed encounter. It seems to me that church services should be both somber and joyous; there should be a time of reflection and a time of loving. But, what happens to all that preparation when we pastors forget the sense of urgency? What happens when we saunter up to the pulpit, and kill a little time with some chit-chat, casually meandering around as if there's no particular hurry in getting to the Word? I think we undercut what we believe. I think we send conflicting messages. We have no sense of urgency.
For example: A church could be well armed with a terrific pastor. The pews or chairs may be filled with sweet, genuine, loving people. Their doctrine may be on firm ground, their vision statement may be a work of literary art (though often a lie). But, services started off at varying times,…people are still filing in…stopping along their wandering way, with this-'n'-that amid general continuing buzz and conversation. And, once they have finally found their way to join in a time of 30 or forty minutes of worship, their morning is crowned by the pastor trying to find five ways to say the same thing, and then 10 minutes to close the sermon,… rowing back and forth, back and forth…like a boat unable to find the dock to tie up to. Not a bad morning,… far from it. But not urgent.
It seems to me that whether it is 60 minutes, 90 minutes, or 120 minutes,… our church services, as well as any words given in Christ's name should be urgent affairs. It was in Acts 6:15 that we saw that those listening to Stephen's blistering message of Jesus Christ…they saw in him the “face of an angel.” I don’t know exactly what that means, but I picture Stephen literally glowing with a reflection of God's glory. What we do know is that he was a perfect messenger,… who was clearly urgent in what he had to say, as if it were the last message he would ever give...which, in fact, it was.
Every confrontation we bring forward with the Word of God is a crisis point in someone‘s life. God's word is living, powerful, unimaginably sharp, and it judges. There are souls hanging in the balance, and lives that are at unknown crossroads. It could be the otherwise healthy looking man in our congregation who may be on the verge of a heart-attack. It could be a well veneered couple who is headed for divorce. It could be young person hovering at the brink of making a terrible decision. What we do on Sunday mornings is not teatime on the deck of some luxury cruiser! It ain't Oprah or Dr. Phil stuff! It's strategy-time, for soldiers under fire, in the midst of a war for the souls of lost people! There is an urgency to what we are called to do.
At the same time, that very urgency,… once it grabs a hold of us, can also work against us, to dampen our effectiveness. I have had occasion when someone said to me, "It just amazes me that you can think of things to say every week." I said, "The Bible is so rich that my problem is never thinking of things to say. My problem is knowing when to stop." That problem has been echoed on numerous occasions by well meaning (but, what do they know) critics who try to insinuate that I begin to lose people after 20 minutes. And, here all along, I thought my messages were so riveting and thought provoking, that the looks on the faces of the listeners was “Give me more” …instead of whining under their breath, ‘Another point?’”
This has always been my struggle. When I was first offered chances to teach or preach, I grabbed at such opportunities as if I'd never have another. Consequently, I would try to say everything in one sermon. Because…who knew? I just had so much to say…so much to give,…so few opportunities. I am sure there were occasion when I may have given one of those “My brain is full” sermons, but it was only due to my excess of passion and urgency. Maybe that is what led me to preaching in series more often. There is just so much to say and such urgency…It is better to give it in smaller more nourishing bites, rather than trying to stuff it all in on the buffet line. There is urgency! I don't know whether I'll ever have the opportunity to preach again. What if I left something out and there are those out there who will go to their grave, unforgiven, under-preached, and underdeveloped?
I suppose in the final analysis, that would really be God's concern, wouldn't it? He knows to a nanosecond how long we have left. He'll accomplish what He intends to accomplish through me, whether I labor over my own style, or my need to be thorough, or whatever it is that may drive me to excess urgency. All I need to maintain is the sense of urgency and a heart aflame with a zealous love for God as Paul writes in Romans 12:11... “Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.” Which may be easier said than done…but certainly merits both saying, and doing. What do you think?
I have found myself recently spending probably way too much time on analyzing and over-analyzing our Sunday morning services. I want our service to be a time where people can have a genuine encounter with the Spirit of God. We try to bring the elements of worship, prayer, and preaching into play in a way that will encourage that much needed encounter. It seems to me that church services should be both somber and joyous; there should be a time of reflection and a time of loving. But, what happens to all that preparation when we pastors forget the sense of urgency? What happens when we saunter up to the pulpit, and kill a little time with some chit-chat, casually meandering around as if there's no particular hurry in getting to the Word? I think we undercut what we believe. I think we send conflicting messages. We have no sense of urgency.
For example: A church could be well armed with a terrific pastor. The pews or chairs may be filled with sweet, genuine, loving people. Their doctrine may be on firm ground, their vision statement may be a work of literary art (though often a lie). But, services started off at varying times,…people are still filing in…stopping along their wandering way, with this-'n'-that amid general continuing buzz and conversation. And, once they have finally found their way to join in a time of 30 or forty minutes of worship, their morning is crowned by the pastor trying to find five ways to say the same thing, and then 10 minutes to close the sermon,… rowing back and forth, back and forth…like a boat unable to find the dock to tie up to. Not a bad morning,… far from it. But not urgent.
It seems to me that whether it is 60 minutes, 90 minutes, or 120 minutes,… our church services, as well as any words given in Christ's name should be urgent affairs. It was in Acts 6:15 that we saw that those listening to Stephen's blistering message of Jesus Christ…they saw in him the “face of an angel.” I don’t know exactly what that means, but I picture Stephen literally glowing with a reflection of God's glory. What we do know is that he was a perfect messenger,… who was clearly urgent in what he had to say, as if it were the last message he would ever give...which, in fact, it was.
Every confrontation we bring forward with the Word of God is a crisis point in someone‘s life. God's word is living, powerful, unimaginably sharp, and it judges. There are souls hanging in the balance, and lives that are at unknown crossroads. It could be the otherwise healthy looking man in our congregation who may be on the verge of a heart-attack. It could be a well veneered couple who is headed for divorce. It could be young person hovering at the brink of making a terrible decision. What we do on Sunday mornings is not teatime on the deck of some luxury cruiser! It ain't Oprah or Dr. Phil stuff! It's strategy-time, for soldiers under fire, in the midst of a war for the souls of lost people! There is an urgency to what we are called to do.
At the same time, that very urgency,… once it grabs a hold of us, can also work against us, to dampen our effectiveness. I have had occasion when someone said to me, "It just amazes me that you can think of things to say every week." I said, "The Bible is so rich that my problem is never thinking of things to say. My problem is knowing when to stop." That problem has been echoed on numerous occasions by well meaning (but, what do they know) critics who try to insinuate that I begin to lose people after 20 minutes. And, here all along, I thought my messages were so riveting and thought provoking, that the looks on the faces of the listeners was “Give me more” …instead of whining under their breath, ‘Another point?’”
This has always been my struggle. When I was first offered chances to teach or preach, I grabbed at such opportunities as if I'd never have another. Consequently, I would try to say everything in one sermon. Because…who knew? I just had so much to say…so much to give,…so few opportunities. I am sure there were occasion when I may have given one of those “My brain is full” sermons, but it was only due to my excess of passion and urgency. Maybe that is what led me to preaching in series more often. There is just so much to say and such urgency…It is better to give it in smaller more nourishing bites, rather than trying to stuff it all in on the buffet line. There is urgency! I don't know whether I'll ever have the opportunity to preach again. What if I left something out and there are those out there who will go to their grave, unforgiven, under-preached, and underdeveloped?
I suppose in the final analysis, that would really be God's concern, wouldn't it? He knows to a nanosecond how long we have left. He'll accomplish what He intends to accomplish through me, whether I labor over my own style, or my need to be thorough, or whatever it is that may drive me to excess urgency. All I need to maintain is the sense of urgency and a heart aflame with a zealous love for God as Paul writes in Romans 12:11... “Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.” Which may be easier said than done…but certainly merits both saying, and doing. What do you think?
Monday, April 11, 2011
Hmmm....WHERE DID I LAY MY BIBLE?
This is something to make you go....hmm...where is my Bible? Ever wonder what would happen if we treated our Bible like we treat our cell phone?
- What if we carried it around in our purses or pockets?
- What if we flipped through it several times a day?
- What if we used it as our app for all our life questions?
- What if we turned back to go get it if we forgot it?
- What if we used it to receive messages from the text?
- What if we used it’s GPS to keep us on the right path?
- What if we treated it like we couldn't live without it?
- What if we gave it to kids as gifts?
- What if we used it when we traveled?
- What if we used it in case of emergency?
Friday, April 8, 2011
YOU'RE GOD'S WORK OF ART, JOHN...DON'T FORGET IT!
"As [a man] thinks within himself, so he is" (Proverbs 23:7 NKJV)
Have you have ever found yourself in a deep hole of discouragement where everything seems so dark and overwhelming that your mind begins to play tricks on you? While I would like to portray myself as one who is confident and has it all together, I have to confess I have found myself in those potholes of life all too often…even most recently. Having just immerged from the darkness of one of those holes, I look back and wonder… why was it is so easy to believe the lies in my mind about who I am, rather than God's truth? Surely it is not because I was not sure what God's truth is. And, where in the world do those lies come from anyway?
Well, it all began in the Garden. After six days of creation, God looked at all He made, and He said, "It is good." But, then something went terribly wrong! The enemy of our souls crept into God's perfect world and deceived His image bearers with lies. And, even though God's redemptive plan has restored what the serpent destroyed in the Garden,… the enemy continues to tell us lies even today. He tells us that we are worthless failures who are not good enough,…we’re not smart enough,…we are powerless,… there is no way we are competent enough to succeed. And, that my friends… is simply NOT THE TRUTH!
God created the world, and stocked the seas with marine life, and He filled the skies with winged creatures. He ignited the stars in the night sky and placed the sun to light the day and the moon to illumine the darkness of night…and He did all of it with words… "And God said..." and it came to be. God spoke and what was not became what is. "By the word of the LORD were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth" (Psalm 33:6).
When God created man in His own image, He gave us that same powerful tool….words. He didn't entrust words to monkeys, zebras, or elephants. He gave words to man. And, He saw to it that our words would also have creative potential. The Bible tells us that "death and life are in the power of the tongue" (Proverbs 18:21 NASB). Our words impact our children, our wife (or husband), our friends, and they impact the world. But some of the most powerful words we speak are the ones that no one hears...the words we speak to ourselves. We can speak life to ourselves and we can speak death to ourselves. A considerable amount of our words are spoken or thought to ourselves. Most of this self-talk is harmless, like…“What will I have for dinner?” Or, “Where did I put my car keys?” But, some of our word to ourselves are very destructive.
When we say, "I'm so stupid!" Or, "I'm such an idiot!" Or "I'm never going to be good enough!"…It can create destructive thought patterns that can paralyze a person into inactivity. It can put you in a place where you don’t know how to take the first step to crawl out of the pothole. And, I fear that these negative self-perceptions repeated over a period of time will brand themselves into our minds and eventually become our reality. If you repeat a lie enough times,… you may begin to believe it, and the lie becomes your reality...even though it is a false reality. "As [a man] thinks within himself, so he is" (Proverbs 23:7 NKJV)
When we look into God's incredible love letter to us…our Bible, we discover the truth. God does love you (Colossians 3:12 ). We are told we have an entire cloud of witnesses cheering for us (Hebrews 12:1). I am told that “I am God's masterpiece...His work of art!” (Ephesians 2:10) His Word tells me that I am good enough because Christ lives in me (John 14:20). WOW!!!…I am a chosen, holy, dearly loved child of God! That's the truth! Because that’s the way God sees us!
I believe that God has no greater joy than to know that His children are walking in the truth. And, when we are walking in the truth, the lies of the devil are exposed. We can recognize the lie,…we can reject the lie,…and we can replace the lie with truth. And, that is when we can we be all that God has created us to be, and do all that God has created us to do. We can experience the abundant life that He planned all along!
I know God has great plans for all of us-His Word promises that He does. "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him" (1 Corinthians 2:9). But many of us are not experiencing the abundant life because we don't know…or sometimes forget who we are. But, God wants us to see exactly who we are, what we have, and where we are as a child of God. It is the key to living the victorious Christian life.
I am thankful for people around me who love me and care for me when I fall into a pothole,…friends who will come along side and help me to start seeing the truth again. They help me hear God say... "You are my son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased."
Let’s speak the truth about ourselves TO ourselves. Let's see ourselves as God sees us.
Have you have ever found yourself in a deep hole of discouragement where everything seems so dark and overwhelming that your mind begins to play tricks on you? While I would like to portray myself as one who is confident and has it all together, I have to confess I have found myself in those potholes of life all too often…even most recently. Having just immerged from the darkness of one of those holes, I look back and wonder… why was it is so easy to believe the lies in my mind about who I am, rather than God's truth? Surely it is not because I was not sure what God's truth is. And, where in the world do those lies come from anyway?
Well, it all began in the Garden. After six days of creation, God looked at all He made, and He said, "It is good." But, then something went terribly wrong! The enemy of our souls crept into God's perfect world and deceived His image bearers with lies. And, even though God's redemptive plan has restored what the serpent destroyed in the Garden,… the enemy continues to tell us lies even today. He tells us that we are worthless failures who are not good enough,…we’re not smart enough,…we are powerless,… there is no way we are competent enough to succeed. And, that my friends… is simply NOT THE TRUTH!
God created the world, and stocked the seas with marine life, and He filled the skies with winged creatures. He ignited the stars in the night sky and placed the sun to light the day and the moon to illumine the darkness of night…and He did all of it with words… "And God said..." and it came to be. God spoke and what was not became what is. "By the word of the LORD were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth" (Psalm 33:6).
When God created man in His own image, He gave us that same powerful tool….words. He didn't entrust words to monkeys, zebras, or elephants. He gave words to man. And, He saw to it that our words would also have creative potential. The Bible tells us that "death and life are in the power of the tongue" (Proverbs 18:21 NASB). Our words impact our children, our wife (or husband), our friends, and they impact the world. But some of the most powerful words we speak are the ones that no one hears...the words we speak to ourselves. We can speak life to ourselves and we can speak death to ourselves. A considerable amount of our words are spoken or thought to ourselves. Most of this self-talk is harmless, like…“What will I have for dinner?” Or, “Where did I put my car keys?” But, some of our word to ourselves are very destructive.
When we say, "I'm so stupid!" Or, "I'm such an idiot!" Or "I'm never going to be good enough!"…It can create destructive thought patterns that can paralyze a person into inactivity. It can put you in a place where you don’t know how to take the first step to crawl out of the pothole. And, I fear that these negative self-perceptions repeated over a period of time will brand themselves into our minds and eventually become our reality. If you repeat a lie enough times,… you may begin to believe it, and the lie becomes your reality...even though it is a false reality. "As [a man] thinks within himself, so he is" (Proverbs 23:7 NKJV)
When we look into God's incredible love letter to us…our Bible, we discover the truth. God does love you (Colossians 3:12 ). We are told we have an entire cloud of witnesses cheering for us (Hebrews 12:1). I am told that “I am God's masterpiece...His work of art!” (Ephesians 2:10) His Word tells me that I am good enough because Christ lives in me (John 14:20). WOW!!!…I am a chosen, holy, dearly loved child of God! That's the truth! Because that’s the way God sees us!
I believe that God has no greater joy than to know that His children are walking in the truth. And, when we are walking in the truth, the lies of the devil are exposed. We can recognize the lie,…we can reject the lie,…and we can replace the lie with truth. And, that is when we can we be all that God has created us to be, and do all that God has created us to do. We can experience the abundant life that He planned all along!
I know God has great plans for all of us-His Word promises that He does. "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him" (1 Corinthians 2:9). But many of us are not experiencing the abundant life because we don't know…or sometimes forget who we are. But, God wants us to see exactly who we are, what we have, and where we are as a child of God. It is the key to living the victorious Christian life.
I am thankful for people around me who love me and care for me when I fall into a pothole,…friends who will come along side and help me to start seeing the truth again. They help me hear God say... "You are my son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased."
Let’s speak the truth about ourselves TO ourselves. Let's see ourselves as God sees us.
Monday, April 4, 2011
GOD WILL FORGIVE AND FORGET
"Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered." (Psalm 32:1)
When I was a little boy, I had an incredibly amazing ability to get in trouble, especially with my mother. In the summers when I was out of school, and mom was at work, I found that trouble had a way of finding me as I searched for ways to entertain myself. Ashley, Illinois, was a tiny little town, and other than exploring up and down the two sets of railroad tracks that crossed through town, or climbing the water tower to do some fine artistic work for all to see…Ashley was pretty tough place to find suitable entertainment for a young boy like me.
One fine summer day at age 13, I was particularly creative in my day’s entertainment. We had a single shot .22 caliber rifle in the house (I’m still not certain where it came from or why we had it) and, I thought it might be a good day for some target practice. I already knew I couldn’t go out into the yard and shoot at the black birds up in the trees, because our neighbors always got a bit hostile when they saw me outside with a rifle and heard bullets ricocheting off the branches (I personally think they were overreacting.)
So, being the creative boy that I was…I decided that while sitting in mom’s chair inside the house in the living room, and with the front door open, I had a clear shot at the wooden Railroad Crossing sign at the corner of our yard. The “O” in Crossing, would be a great target. Over the next 10 minutes, six carefully aimed shots rang out from somewhere in Ashley (after all, no one could really PROVE where they came from.) I rose from my sniper’s perch in the living room and prepared to check out my marksmanship. You can imagine the stunned look on my face to see that I had not thought to open the screen door, and there were six bullet holes in the wire screen! (I have never claimed to be the sharpest knife in the drawer.)
Panic began to creep in my being. This definitely qualified for one of my mom’s famous whuppin’s! My mind began to think of what should I do…just confess and throw myself on mom’s mercy…or, try to cover it up. I brilliantly chose the second option. With tooth picks and tweezers, I carefully moved each broken wire of the screen back (sort of) into place, thinking that she wouldn’t notice it for years,…maybe even after I had grown up and moved away.
When mom came home…it was as if she had a GPS tuned into the front screen door. She looked at the mangled wires in the screen and asked me if there was something I wanted to tell her. I replied, " No mom, you would be mad at me…I would rather pray to God about it, because God will forgive me and forget about it.”
Even at 13 years old, I knew one of the greatest salvation benefits of all, the reality of sins forgiven. "We who received the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior enjoy freedom from the eternal condemnation of our sins." (Romans 8:1) …"and we can also have daily forgiveness and cleansing" (1 John 1:9).
Oh, while I may have impressed mom by invoking God's forgiveness....I still got the whuppin’…which was well deserved, I might add. And, I recognize I likely would have done much better with the confession and mercy thing. But, the spirit lesson in all this is that when we acknowledge our guilt with true repentance, God stands ready to forgive because of what His Son Jesus Christ did on the cross…even bullet holes in the screen door.
When I was a little boy, I had an incredibly amazing ability to get in trouble, especially with my mother. In the summers when I was out of school, and mom was at work, I found that trouble had a way of finding me as I searched for ways to entertain myself. Ashley, Illinois, was a tiny little town, and other than exploring up and down the two sets of railroad tracks that crossed through town, or climbing the water tower to do some fine artistic work for all to see…Ashley was pretty tough place to find suitable entertainment for a young boy like me.
One fine summer day at age 13, I was particularly creative in my day’s entertainment. We had a single shot .22 caliber rifle in the house (I’m still not certain where it came from or why we had it) and, I thought it might be a good day for some target practice. I already knew I couldn’t go out into the yard and shoot at the black birds up in the trees, because our neighbors always got a bit hostile when they saw me outside with a rifle and heard bullets ricocheting off the branches (I personally think they were overreacting.)
So, being the creative boy that I was…I decided that while sitting in mom’s chair inside the house in the living room, and with the front door open, I had a clear shot at the wooden Railroad Crossing sign at the corner of our yard. The “O” in Crossing, would be a great target. Over the next 10 minutes, six carefully aimed shots rang out from somewhere in Ashley (after all, no one could really PROVE where they came from.) I rose from my sniper’s perch in the living room and prepared to check out my marksmanship. You can imagine the stunned look on my face to see that I had not thought to open the screen door, and there were six bullet holes in the wire screen! (I have never claimed to be the sharpest knife in the drawer.)
Panic began to creep in my being. This definitely qualified for one of my mom’s famous whuppin’s! My mind began to think of what should I do…just confess and throw myself on mom’s mercy…or, try to cover it up. I brilliantly chose the second option. With tooth picks and tweezers, I carefully moved each broken wire of the screen back (sort of) into place, thinking that she wouldn’t notice it for years,…maybe even after I had grown up and moved away.
When mom came home…it was as if she had a GPS tuned into the front screen door. She looked at the mangled wires in the screen and asked me if there was something I wanted to tell her. I replied, " No mom, you would be mad at me…I would rather pray to God about it, because God will forgive me and forget about it.”
Even at 13 years old, I knew one of the greatest salvation benefits of all, the reality of sins forgiven. "We who received the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior enjoy freedom from the eternal condemnation of our sins." (Romans 8:1) …"and we can also have daily forgiveness and cleansing" (1 John 1:9).
Oh, while I may have impressed mom by invoking God's forgiveness....I still got the whuppin’…which was well deserved, I might add. And, I recognize I likely would have done much better with the confession and mercy thing. But, the spirit lesson in all this is that when we acknowledge our guilt with true repentance, God stands ready to forgive because of what His Son Jesus Christ did on the cross…even bullet holes in the screen door.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)