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Archives For May 2011

A Greater Faith

admin —  May 27, 2011 — Leave a comment

We are a people of faith. Faith is and the center and the heart of who we are. Yet, faith is so often misunderstood. Faith is misused and abused. Our first and foremost Biblical calling before anything else is our calling to faith and if we we miss this most basic premise, we will miss everything else which follows.

To understand what faith is we must understand that it is more than optimism. Some will hold faith is about keeping a positive attitude that everything will get better. But faith does not necessarily anticipate a better circumstance, rather it clings to a greater God. Your financial crisis might get worse. The illness you are suffering may become more severe. That relationship which is struggling may turn into a crisis. Yes, faith holds God will win the victory, but tomorrow may not necessarily be a better day than today. It might get much worse, before it gets better. Faith needs to be more than being hopeful everything will be ok.

Second, faith must be more than comfort for my soul. Faith is balm to heal the wound. Faith is there to soothe. It is medicine to make me feel better. It helps me to cope with the circumstance or situation I find myself in. It gives hope when all feels so hopeless. It gives me the confidence to hold my head up when all I really want to do is fall down and give up. It will give me peace and serenity amidst the storm of anxiety. This is great and wonderful news! But the problem is that if this is all faith is, then when life is good, without any worries, we are not going to have much need for this type of faith. Like medicine, this type of faith will be put in the drawer only to be pulled out when needed in times of distress, disease, death, and devastation.

Faith must also be more than a get out of jail free card. I accept Jesus died for my sins and rose again from the grave. I accept this as fact. I believe this happened. Because of this I believe I shall receive the gift of eternal life. Those who do not accept this, are left to a place which is not so pleasant called hell. But again, faith must be more than just intellectual acceptance of a historical person and events. James 2:19 says, “You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that – and shudder.” In other words, the demons have no problem accepting the fact that Jesus died and rose again, but that doesn’t do them much good. Faith must be more than an intellectual exercise as a get out of jail free card.

When we look at God’s Word, Jesus talks about having faith to move the mountains. In the Old Testament we saw faith cause the sun to stand still and waters to be parted. In other places faith would heal the sick, make the lame to walk, and raise the dead to life. Faith would turn the most hardened sinner to God. Faith is not just something that happens in me, but is something that is shown through me. Faith is not a personal thing buried in my heart, but lived out loud. Faith does not ask what’s in it for me, but what can I do for the kingdom of God. Faith is expressed in the way we talk, the things we do, the places we go, and the way we live our lives. Faith moves me to live with such confidence in the promises of God, that I live my life now as if they had already come to pass.

Last weekend, there were 1000′s of people convinced the world was going to end. As a result they quit their jobs, sold their homes, and spent their life savings. To their credit, no one could question their resolve and their commitment. Their faith was revealed. The only problem they put their faith in the wrong thing. God’s Word says no one knows the day nor the hour. Jesus will come like a thief in the night. Their faith may have been misplaced, but what an incredible example of faith so many of them displayed.

Imagine if we might we live with such confidence in what God has truly promised. Our lives would be transformed along with many others around us. Yet, many of us still live by sight rather than by faith. We have so many excuses that hold us down in survival mode. We are stuck with a faith that is more along the lines of wishful thinking than confidence to live in the fullness of the life Jesus won for us.

So here is one challenge I would like to leave you with. Write down one way you can positively impact another person in a tangible way in the next week. Stop reading. Do it right now! Don’t read the next paragraph until you have written down that person’s name.

And now go do it. Forget about all the excuses. I don’t have the time. I don’t have enough money. God has put another person upon your heart to serve that person. Take a step of faith and go do it. Don’t wait. Believe God will give you everything you need to make it happen. Faith is given to serve the needs of others and to change the world. And it is faith which will overcome anything that will hinder the work of the kingdom through us.

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The Rich Man in Me

admin —  May 19, 2011 — Leave a comment

In Luke 16:19-31 you will find the story of the rich man and Lazarus. The story tells us about a rich man who lived in luxury every day. At his gate laid a beggar named Lazarus. This man was hurting. He had sores that covered his body. It says he longed for the scraps off of the rich man’s table.

The time comes when both of these men die. Lazarus finds himself in heaven and is greatly comforted. The rich man finds him in hell and is greatly tormented. The rich man cries out across this large chasm which has been set between heaven and hell for mercy. He asks that Lazarus might come just to touch his tongue with a cool drop of water.

But Abraham says, “remember that in your lifetime you received good things, but now he is comforted here while you are in agony.” There was no help coming anytime soon.

As you think about this parable, I want you to think about who you relate to in this story. If I am honest with myself, I am the rich man.

We live in luxury every day! Consider this – if you have running water, food to eat, shelter over your head, clothes to wear, and some means of transportation, then you are in the top 15% of the world’s wealthiest people.

We see wealth around us every day. We are easily reminded of all the things we don’t have. We don’t see the poor around us unless we intentionally open our eyes to them. When we fail to see the poverty in this world we easily forget about all the things we have been given.

David Platt shares in his book, Radical, that today more than a billion people live in desperate poverty. Although you are not going to necessarily see these people in Elburn, Wasco, St. Charles, or Geneva. You are not going to see them unless you want to see them. They attempt to survive on less than a dollar a day. Close to two billion people will survive on less then two dollars per day. That’s nearly half the world struggling to find food, water, and shelter with the same amount of money I spend on french fries for lunch.

When I think about the rich man and Lazarus, I wonder if the rich man even knew Lazarus lay outside his gate. I wonder if he was so blinded by his luxury he missed the poverty just outside his gate.

The Bible teaches us not to neglect the poor:

Those who give to the poor will lack nothing, 
    but those who close their eyes to them receive many curses. Proverbs 28:27     When it comes to sin, we certainly do not overlook the sin of sexual immorality. But neglecting to care for the poor is much more readily acceptable. What is the difference? One is taboo and the other is status quo. But the Bible condemns both.

God does not give us what he has given us for our own luxury. He gives what he gives us so that we might serve his kingdom purposes. On the day of judgement each one of us will be called to account for how we spent the treasure he gave to us. Did we spend it on earthly trinkets or did we invest it in heavenly treasure.

I want you to consider if you take your cue for how you spend your money from the people around you spend their money or do you take your cue from God’s Word. I imagine many of us take our cue more from the world around us than anything else and we are given to the same keeping up with the Joneses games everyone else is playing.

King David once asked the question, what is a sacrifice that costs me nothing. I wonder if we give in such a way that it costs us something. Do we give off of our table of bounty or do we give from our left-over scraps?

In the end, we should be careful to note the rich man did not find himself in hell because of the way he spent his money. We are never going to buy our way into heaven. Jesus blood alone paid the price. But there is nothing in our life that is as good of an indicator of our eternal destination than the way we spend our money. It’s no wonder Jesus talked about money as much as he did.

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Your Apprenticeship

admin —  May 11, 2011 — Leave a comment

Jesus is clear about the purpose of the church when he gives his disciples the Great Commission. He tells them to make disciples of all nations. This is what the church is to do. If we are not making disciples then we are simply not doing what Jesus has told us to do.

The church in America does many things well. We are good at building buildings. We spend billions of dollars constructing places of worship.

We are good at putting on performances. Each Sunday people come to sit in their pews or chairs to hear and sing along with the band or organ. To go along the pastor will add an inspirational message. The people go home after the Sunday show is over to come back the next week for another performance.

We are good at putting on programs. We have programs for men, women, children, and youth. We have Bible programs, music programs, missions programs, worship programs, recovery programs, and almost any other type of program you can imagine.

We are good at promoting professional church workers. We lift up leaders with charisma. We buy their best-selling books and share them with our friends. We might follow them on Facebook or Twitter waiting for the next pithy words of wisdom to be uttered from their social media account.

But how well are we doing at making disciples? Are we effective in the most important task Jesus gave us? Are disciples being reproduced among all nations through our efforts? Again, there is no task which is more important.

The task of making disciples is one which is intentional. It does not happen by accident. It does not happen by letting the chips fall where they may. Jesus intentionally chose his disciples to apprentice them as his followers so that they might apprentice others to follow him.

I use the word apprentice here because I fear the word discipleship is often misunderstood. When we talk about discipleship many of us default to thinking about an academic endeavor. We equate discipleship with participating in a Bible Study or reading our Bibles. But it is more than that. Jesus did not gather his disciples at the local synagogue to study the book of Isaiah. No, he brought his disciples with him to heal the sick, cast out demons, feed the 5000, and more. As he lived life with them he taught them how the Scriptures applied to what he was doing. He was apprenticing them as Christ-followers so that they could apprentice other Christ-followers.

It ought to be the goal of every Christian to be leading others to follow Jesus. Discipleship is done one on one. It is not a building that is going to make it happen. It is not the Sunday morning performance that is going to do it. It is not a program or an inspirational charismatic leader that is going to achieve the goal. All of those things can help the process along. But in the end, making disciples is done through people living life and serving together looking at how the Scriptures apply to what they are doing.

At Lord of Life we are in the process of developing the 3C Community for Missional Leadership Development. It is our goal this community would provide an opportunity for you to be apprenticed as a Christ-follower and then to be challenged, equipped, and encouraged to go and apprentice other Christ-followers. To learn how to become part of this community visit Lord of Life’s website at lolchurch.net/3com.

I leave you with Jesus words from Luke 1:17 where he says, “Come, follow me and I will make you fishers of men.”

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Do you “like” or “live” for Jesus?

admin —  May 5, 2011 — Leave a comment

I am convinced living in America, our greatest obstacle to following Jesus is not a lack of ability to say yes to Jesus. It is our lack of ability to say no to all the rest. Jesus is one more commitment we make in our already over-committed lives. I think about the thousands of people who come forward for altar calls in churches and at crusades to say yes to Jesus, yet see so little impact upon our churches and communities. Why is this?

Have you seen the “like” button on Facebook. You click on the “like” button to identify people, places, and organizations your are interested in. I took a peak at my Facebook account and realized I had some diverse interests. I “like” Lord of Life Church, the US Open Golf Championship, the Great Wolf Lodge, Crab Boat Captain Sig Hansen, Elburn Baseball and Softball, Amazon Kindle, MLB Trade rumors, Peter Lik Photography, and many, many more. So many interests. Some of these interests I am more invested in than others.

The thing I fear with all these different interests is that Jesus becomes just one more interest I dabble in among many others. Many of us see Jesus as a really good guy. We realize he is someone we should spend some time with and get to know better. We know he is someone we should fit into our schedule and listen to what he has to say. We think to ourselves, “maybe I can help him out in his work a little bit. I think I might volunteer a little bit of my time or offer him a little bit of my money.”

But following Jesus is so much more than having an interest in him. Jesus doesn’t call us to “like” him but “live” for him. Maybe Facebook should add a “live” button. He doesn’t want to be one interest among many, but wants to be our all in all.

The Apostle Paul writes: “I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ . . .” Philippians 3:8 My failure to live in the fullness that Jesus has called me to has less to do with my willingness to follow Jesus, but more to do with my unwillingness to set aside other interests (rubbish) in life.

My challenge for you this week is to consider what in your life is hindering from moving beyond “liking” Jesus to “living” for Jesus. These might not necessarily be bad things in your life. They might very well be good things. But they are things that hold you back from the best thing. What is Jesus leading you to say no towards and to sacrifice so that you might more fully serve him? What are your fishing nets he is calling you to leave behind?

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