"If you want to grow something to last a season-- plant flowers.
If you want to grow something to last a lifetime-- plant trees.
If you want to grow something to last through eternity-- plant churches." -- Author Unknown
Friday, July 12, 2013
A Worshipful Life
A worshipful life will always be marked by humility. We cannot truly acknowledge God's rightful place, and ascribe to Him the glory and honor due Him, without recognizing and embracing our place.
Restored in Christ
We were created for the paradise of Eden, but now live in the broken wilderness. We were created to walk with our God in the cool of the day, but now run and hide from Him. We were created for life, but all around us we see death. We were created for the stewardship of God's image and this world, but now seek to build our own kingdoms in our own image.... Thanks be to God for His Son, Jesus Christ, Who is all the things we were created to be, yet without sin! In Him-- in His life, death, and resurrection-- the ban of Adam is lifted and we are sealed for paradise; in Him, we may again walk with God; in Him, we have-- not just life-- but life eternal; and in Him, the image of God and the stewardship of His creation is restored to us! There is nothing else in this world that can truly satisfy the longings, the needs, of the human heart other than Jesus Christ. -- Solus Christus
Thursday, June 27, 2013
Making Much of God & Much of Others
We are called, as followers of Christ, to make much of God, but in nearly the same breath, we are also called to make much of others. If we find that we can worship our Lord, without much thought for those around us in pain or in need, then something is off kilter. Conversely, if we find ourselves so caught up in the cares of this world, the injustices, and the heartaches, that we begin to miss the story that God is telling, we are likewise off kilter.
The love of God should fuel, and ignite, our love of others. The grace of God, poured out in our sinful lives, through the work of Jesus Christ on the Cross, should spill out of us to impact those around us. And the power and presence of the Holy Spirit within us transforms us and empowers us to live for God as lights in the dark and broken world.
In other [better] words, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets” (Matt 22: 37-40).
The Gospel of Jesus Christ sets us free to live out these two great commandments, to love and make much of God and, to truly, love and make much of others.
The love of God should fuel, and ignite, our love of others. The grace of God, poured out in our sinful lives, through the work of Jesus Christ on the Cross, should spill out of us to impact those around us. And the power and presence of the Holy Spirit within us transforms us and empowers us to live for God as lights in the dark and broken world.
In other [better] words, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets” (Matt 22: 37-40).
The Gospel of Jesus Christ sets us free to live out these two great commandments, to love and make much of God and, to truly, love and make much of others.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Romans 3: Our Works or His Work?
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, ithrough the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. - Romans 3:21-26
Talk about an even playing field! No one has a leg up, no one can perform well enough, no one can work their way into righteousness. All humanity has missed the mark, has openly rebelled against God- all that is, save one. Jesus Christ, and His righteousness, is our only ground, our only point of refuge. Knowledge of the Law cannot make one righteous, any more than ignorance of it can save one from it's judgements. Only Jesus can cover us, only the Son of God can save the son's and daughters of Adam, of whose ranks, He Himself freely condescended to join (Philippians 2:5-8).
"Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb" (Revelation 7:10). What great news! This is freedom, that I do not have to spend my life wringing my hands, worrying about whether or not I am making the cut or doing it well enough. There is no room in Biblical scenario for self-righteousness. I, we, have no righteousness to offer, save that which we have been given by God's grace and chosen to receive by faith in the person and work of Christ Jesus.
Talk about an even playing field! No one has a leg up, no one can perform well enough, no one can work their way into righteousness. All humanity has missed the mark, has openly rebelled against God- all that is, save one. Jesus Christ, and His righteousness, is our only ground, our only point of refuge. Knowledge of the Law cannot make one righteous, any more than ignorance of it can save one from it's judgements. Only Jesus can cover us, only the Son of God can save the son's and daughters of Adam, of whose ranks, He Himself freely condescended to join (Philippians 2:5-8).
"Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb" (Revelation 7:10). What great news! This is freedom, that I do not have to spend my life wringing my hands, worrying about whether or not I am making the cut or doing it well enough. There is no room in Biblical scenario for self-righteousness. I, we, have no righteousness to offer, save that which we have been given by God's grace and chosen to receive by faith in the person and work of Christ Jesus.
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Christian Leadership
In the Great Commission, Jesus says to his disciples, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age" (Matt 28: 18-20).
Our first calling, as Christian leaders, is learning to follow the One Who has called us and, as we learn, lead others to do likewise. We are called to live with the constant awareness that we too follow, that we are have no righteousness of our own. It has been a humbling (which is a nice way to say humiliating) realization for me that I, all too often, live and lead out of some sense of self-righteousness. Shocker, right?!?! Not really, but still, the questions remains, how do we lead, in truth and love, but not out of sense of our "own rightness," but from a position of humility rooted in "Christ's rightness?" How do we lead by example, give voice to the truth (even in correction, when necessary...), and yet walk in humility? I believe we must keep ourselves keenly aware of the unmerited grace by which we have been saved, always looking to the person and work of Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, and live out the words of the Apostle Paul, "Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ" (I Cor. 11:1)....
Our first calling, as Christian leaders, is learning to follow the One Who has called us and, as we learn, lead others to do likewise. We are called to live with the constant awareness that we too follow, that we are have no righteousness of our own. It has been a humbling (which is a nice way to say humiliating) realization for me that I, all too often, live and lead out of some sense of self-righteousness. Shocker, right?!?! Not really, but still, the questions remains, how do we lead, in truth and love, but not out of sense of our "own rightness," but from a position of humility rooted in "Christ's rightness?" How do we lead by example, give voice to the truth (even in correction, when necessary...), and yet walk in humility? I believe we must keep ourselves keenly aware of the unmerited grace by which we have been saved, always looking to the person and work of Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, and live out the words of the Apostle Paul, "Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ" (I Cor. 11:1)....
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
In the Light of the Cross
In the light of the Cross, I make my way through a darkened world. I journey to a city I have never yet seen, but of which I am already a citizen. I seek a kingdom that has come, but is not here yet here, a bright tomorrow which can yet be glimpsed today even through the darkness of the hour that is currently at hand.
"For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing to with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God" (Rom. 8: 18-19).
"For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing to with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God" (Rom. 8: 18-19).
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