HOLINESS IS WHAT I LONG FOR

There is a great song that Sonicflood does that has the lyrics “Holiness, holiness is what I long for.” Those words speak to my soul because we ought to be holy and blameless, It is something we all naturally desire because it is seared into our hearts. I remember back at the moment I became reborn in Christ. There was a depth of joy, and peace, and a wholeness of the love of Christ that flooded over me. It wasn't just some sort of feeling. It was something that simply enveloped me and completed me. I can’t help but grin from ear to ear as I think of it today. I remember how I couldn't wait to go to church to worship. I clung on to every Word that came from the Bible,…I looked forward to the next teaching Pastor Rudd would bring from the pulpit. I had never enjoyed reading before, but the Bible and great books from outstanding Christian authors became important to feed on. I grabbed every opportunity to serve and to help at church. I had a really good time. No one knew me or even cared who I was…and it was all okay! I was just another happy Christian!

I think in those early days of my new life I even had a grip on holiness…I just didn't know it. I didn’t realize it was something special because in my mind, that's just how it's meant to be. There were so many saints around me and I was learning from them. While I was of course a work in progress (and, if I am to be painfully honest, it appears that I still am, very much so), the joy of a personal relationship with Jesus made thoughts of sinning the furthest thing from my mind. I had no desire or appetite for it.

Then church happened. There came a time when I became noticed by church leaders and elders (as well as the people who thought of themselves as elders and appointed themselves as such,…I think you know the people I am talking about). Suddenly it began to matter what I wore, how I looked, who my friends were in church and even who I sat with during services. Up until that point I was in a place of such delight in my Savior, that I was blind to the undercurrents of church politics and the modern day Pharisees that are in our midst. I ran into religiosity. I was suddenly under scrutiny… not by the light of the Jesus…but by the eyes of man.

I have a dear friend and mentor who tells of how a tie tac was preached right off his tie (and it was a pretty nice tie tac). I suppose I began to wonder why should it matter if I tuck my shirt in or not? Isn't it okay if I wear jeans? They are pretty decent you know,… they don’t have too many rips or tears. So what if I am wearing a plain old t-shirt? Does being trendy mean I am not holy enough? And, what does it matter if I sit with someone with less than a great reputation in church? I mean, someone's gonna have to sit with that person…right? I just attended a seminar where the speaker challenged us with the question… “How many non-Christian friends other than family do you meet with?” How are we to be salt and light if we don’t associate with non-Christians, or even the Christian wannabes?

The Bible tells us “not to conform to the world but be transformed” (Romans 12:2). I am fearful that a version of the world exists in our churches also. This is the world of false religion that tries to fit us into a standard mold of its own definition. I found myself being conformed to legalism and I hated it. I began to experience striving to attain, rather than the joy of experiencing God, and I found myself struggling between law and grace.

Nothing changed inside me. I wanted to be holy. I desired it more than ever, and religion seemed to offer the direction. However, I also recognized how the Pharisees followed this path of religiousness, and it did not lead them closer to God. I continued even with tireless service, but it became burdensome and strained, because religion weighs a ton. Even the lightest load would get pretty heavy when we bear something long enough. The joy of my First Love was being squeezed out by do's and don’ts. His yoke is supposed to be easy and light (Matthew 11:30). It is not supposed to weigh a ton. So I gave up that burden, and embraced grace. His yoke is still a yoke, and I have chosen to be yoked to Jesus. I love being in a personal relationship with Him. What a relief when He carries my burdens. His friendship and His thoughts of me is now what defines me. I don’t have to worry about what others think about me any longer. That’s what happens when God is BIG and people are SMALL (“Thanks” to my friend for the book and His wise counsel on that!). He fights those battles for me now. I just need to follow His instructions, love God, love people, serve Him, and live righteously (Deuteronomy 10:12-13).

I freed myself from religious expectations (both those imposed by others, and those imposed on myself) and I am back where I should be with my First Love. I found the same grace I experienced when I first became reborn! And, what about holiness? Well, I may have a better grasp of it than ever before…I still seek it, I long for it, and I am growing in it. I think that's what transformation is. It is from the inside out, and it frees us.

There is always this question of law versus grace that seems to come up again and again. But, why does law have to be at odds with grace anyway? Jesus wasn't at odds with the law (although He didn't like religious legalism). Jesus came to fulfill the law (Matthew 5:17). The law teaches us and leads us to Christ (Galatians 3:24). The Old Testament is not at odds with the New Testament. The Law has never been changed and it never will according to Matthew 5:18. But grace gives me life with my First Love . It doesn’t have to be one over the other. We debate grace versus law only to go around in circles. I don’t know, maybe that is just the point of it. Law and Grace exist in harmony and cannot be separated. Maybe we should just accept the law as the written moral compass and grace as our truth about it.

We should just be holy because God is holy, and we should do His will because that is what we long for. Law and grace…it works together.

Holiness, Holiness is what I long for…
Holiness is what I need….
Holiness is what You want from me…

REDEEMED HUMANITY

There is nothing like the Church! One of the most glorious things there is about the church, I think can be seen in a little rhyme we learned when we were little. Do you remember how we interlocked our fingers together making a little hand church, with our two pointers making a steeple? And then we would recite the rhyme that went like this: "Here is the church and here is the steeple. Open the doors and see all the people." I think one of the most glorious things about the church is all the redeemed humanity that is contained within.

When people connect with God,… and God gets a hold of a life through Jesus, there is a glorious thing that begins to happen. Starting way, way back, there was a guy by the name of Simon, just an ordinary, insecure guy, who becomes a rock named Peter. Then there was a guy named Saul who was a murderous and superior acting religious zealot who becomes a missionary to the very Gentiles he used to oppose so much. We find a story about a little widow woman named Dorcas who becomes a hero. And, then there was Mary Magdalene who has her life turned around. Through the centuries, there was Francis of Assisi, the Wesley brothers, Martin Luther, and in our day Mother Teresa, and Billy Graham…people who just shine like stars in our world…as well as ordinary people like you and me. One of the glorious parts of the church is all the redeemed humanity.

But, we can’t sit back in our pews thinking “Well, I have the heaven job done. I got out of Jesus what I needed from him. Oh, I might want to do a little extra credit work here and there, but basically I got out of him what I need from him.” That’s not the relationship with Jesus to which we are called. We are called to a transforming relationship. We are called to a mission. Jesus says, "Go to all the world, make disciples of all peoples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit." We want to lead our generation into a transforming relationship with Jesus Christ.

I don’t know about you, but I love being a part of the redeemed humanity. But, I want more. I want to be a part of a glorious army of redeemed humanity on a mission…a mission given to me by my Savior…to make disciples of all peoples. How about you?

HOW'S YOUR BREATH?

Lately, God keeps confronting me with the power of words. Have you ever had a conversation with a friend, or your spouse, that included some critical words that you later regretted?

In the New Testament Book of James, we read in the third chapter, about the powerful ways our speech can give life or destroy it. It can draw people towards Jesus or push them away.   It tells of how out of the same mouth our speech is truly an unruly evil…it goes about boasting, cursing, gossiping, making promises…and out of the same mouth we praise God.

Well, in the middle of all this, God has reminded me of a couple of things that have been helpful at least to me. This morning I read Proverbs 10:32, “The speech of a good person clears the air; the words of the wicked pollute it.” This verses makes me think of someone who’s eaten garlic or onions and has bad breath. In the same way, that which we fill our minds and hearts with can affect the aroma of our speech. Then Matthew 12:34 says “Out of the heart the mouth speaks.” So I have to ask, what’s my “diet” like? What am I filling my mind and heart with that impacts my “breath”?

Maybe God is reminding me of a litmus test for my speech. Before I speak, maybe it would be a good thing to ask myself:
Is it true?
Is it necessary?
Is it kind?
Is it loving?
Does it build up or tear down?

It was just a reminder I needed this week. What about you?   How’s your breath?

TERRIBLE AS AN ARMY WITH BANNERS!

C.S. Lewis wrote a great book called “The Screwtape Letters.” The book is like letters written by a senior demon tempter named Screwtape, that he writes to a junior tempter about how best to pry a human being away from faith in God. This is what Screwtape writes: "One of our great allies in this is the Church itself. Do not misunderstand me. I do not mean the Church as we see her, spread out through all time and space and rooted in eternity, terrible as an army with banners. That, I confess, is a spectacle which makes our boldest tempters uneasy, but fortunately, it is quite invisible to these human beings.” It is a great book.

Part of what Lewis is to make a fundamental distinction. There is, on the one hand, what might be called the Church (capital C)…the body of Christ… "spread out through all time, and space, and rooted in eternity, an army with banners," and what we often see is what might be called the church (little c)…the buildings, pews, programs, and people going to services. The danger is if the “little c church,” is all we see…we miss the vision of the great Jesus-fueled mission in the world.

In Luke 9, we read this, “And he called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal. And he said to them, 'Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money; and do not have two tunics. And whatever house you enter, stay there, and from there depart…And they departed and went through the villages, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere.’”

When Jesus first called these 12 guys, they got a front pew seat to hear Jesus teach, and see him perform great miracles. They thought, “When it comes to Jesus, we get to watch.” That is until Jesus said one day, "That's not the plan. You get to GO. This is not actually a come-and-watch movement; this is actually a go-and-do kind of movement."  And, what do they take? Jesus says, "Nothing…no staff, no bag, no money, not even an extra tunic… because now my Father (the God of manna, the God of our daily bread) is involved and He'll provide. And, you're going to see stuff, Church, you won't believe."

It’s a funny thing…generally, through history, you will find the Church flourishing mostly where people do not have many staffs, or bags, or tunics. When people have a lot of bags and a lot of tunics (and a lot of us have a lot of bags, a lot of tunics),…every once in a while, we get really generous, and really humble, and really good stuff starts to happen. But more often, we get kind of self-sufficient and we start thinking to ourselves, “Man, if God had all of MY resources, and all of MY skills, and all of MY stuff,…any church would be really lucky to have MY help.” …and, we miss out on the miracle of the Church… "spread out through all time and space and rooted in eternity, terrible as an army with banners."

Jesus did not say, "I am looking for some spectators who will come to some little building once a week and watch." He said, "I'm looking for followers who will go and do." Some did… and something great started. Something started with nothing, no money, no bag, no staff, no extra tunic, and no power. Something was starting that God would use to touch the world,… something that would "spread out through all time and space and rooted in eternity, terrible as an army with banners."

There has never been anything like the Church! There is nothing like the Church!

FINDING ME

It’s been a couple of months since I took the time to write. I suppose my head is still swimming from all that I have learned about myself over the past few months. My time of vacation was wonderful and came a just the right time! God taught me a lot of things during this summer… most of which I think I’ll keep to myself for right now. I just really wanted to spend some time with my wonderful wife, and with God, while resting up on Big Turtle Lake. It was really “our time” and not an opportunity for me to find new gems to write about.
I will have to confess that during my God time this summer I learned a lot about me. If the truth be known, I probably learned more about the layers of stuff I added over my real self to create a false self. And, the reality of seeing the contrast in those two selves in the quiet of a Minnesota dawn helped me to shake myself out of the false self, and see myself once again as the man God called me to be.

Sometimes we try to clothe our false self with accomplishments, and glory, trying to make ourselves something we are not. And because there isn’t any substance to the false self, when all the coverings are stripped away, there is little left.

I’m working hard to take apart in small pieces my false self and allow my true self in Christ to emerge. It’s easier said than done! My desire to please people, along with all the expectations people have of me, as well as those I place on myself, have created a pretty thick web of coverings to shed.

I think that the most important blessing I’ve received through my time of rest was to help find who God has called me to be in Christ. I began to reconnect with the real me through silence and solitude, as well as trusted relationships. The silence and solitude was important because I’m still trying to find ways to escape the distractions and noise that continues to bombard my life and simply add to the confusion of who I truly am.

I especially am thankful for my trusted relationships. These special people in our lives are not the people who tell us what we want to hear, or the critics who are speaking out of their own personal pain, but they are the true, trusted friends and family, who can give me honest feedback about what they see God is doing in my life. They are people who can tell me when they see inconsistencies between how I’m acting, and who God has called me to be. They will come alongside me and coach me through the most difficult times, and be an encourager as I search for the person God created me to be.

While I know that these two things…solitude and relationships…may seem to contradict each other… they really don’t. It was Deitrich Bonhoeffer who said “Let the person who cannot be alone beware of community. Let the person who is not in community beware of being alone.” We all have to find this balance. Maybe I’m finally beginning to get it.