I came across this post written by Jonathon Dodson this morning and was inspired and convicted. I am constantly asking the question what does the gospel look like in "this" situation and find myself, more times than not, resorting to proving myself to God and others. "Do you ever find yourself trying to prove yourself…to Others, to Self, or to God? Here are a few ways we slide away from the approval of the Gospel to proving ourselves. These categories are adapted from Tim Chester’s forthcoming U.S. publication of You Can Change, an excellent book for Gospel Change. Think about which one of these categories fits you and let us know how you’re finding the Gospel more reliable than yourself. Proving Yourself To Others When we try to prove ourselves to others, we set ourselves on impressing them—a spouse, a boss, a parent, a peer. We want so desperately to be cheered by them, that we’ll overwork or compromise our health or morals. The approval of others becomes the most important standard in our lives, so we sacrifice our beliefs, our convictions, our standards so that we will be accepted by others. When others are our standard, we will always fail to find the approval and acceptance we long for. Performance Fail. The Gospel reminds us that others cannot offer us lasting acceptance. That God not others are our standard. We will never sufficiently prove ourselves to others because we are flawed. Others aren’t nearly as forgiving as Jesus is. God is our standard. We fail to meet it, but the gospel reminds us that Jesus has met God’s standard for us! We need not prove ourselves because Jesus has proven our worth. We don’t have to impress other because Jesus has impressed God for us. That is Good News. Proving Yourself To Self When we try to prove ourselves to ourself, we set ourselves on improving upon our past. We try to impress ourselves. “I used to look at porn but now I don’t.” “I used to not go to church, but now I don’t.” “I used to not be missional, but now I am.” This may work for a while, as long as we succeed, but as soon as we fail ourselves the bottom of our worth drops out. We aren’t nearly as forgiving as Jesus. Our sense of worth and acceptance comes from moral or spiritual self-improvement, not from Jesus. Our standard is Self not God. Peformance Fail. The Gospel reminds us that we have not sinned against ourselves, but we have sinned against God. But the Gospel reminds us that we must look to God for the ultimate standard. God provides a righteous, not relative standard, and it can be met alone by faith in Christ, by resting in his acceptance. From our place of acceptance and rest in Jesus, we can live a life that reflects God’s holy standard, instead of striving against ourselves. This too is Good News. Proving Yourself To God When we try to prove ourselves to God, we set ourselves on impressing God. We try to perform for his acceptance and approval. “Look how devoted I’ve been to you.” “I’m involved in so much mission and church ministry, surely God is happy” We content ourselves with proving ourselves to God. We try to be good enough, missional enough, spiritual enough. We may even secretly believe that even though we’ve been forgiven in Christ, God’s favor is based on our performance after salvation. We think to ourselves: “If I practice enough spiritual disciplines, then I will gain the spiritual intimacy I long for.” We think that we can put God in our debt. Our standard is God, which is good, but the problem is that we can’t reach his standard. The Gospel reminds us that we are still sinners, never good enough apart from Christ AND it calls us to stop trying to prove ourselves to Him. The Gospel calls us to rest in God’s approval of us in Christ. To receive his forgiveness for sinful performance and rely on Christ’s performance for us. We need not impress God, because Jesus has impressed God for us." by Jonathon Dodson Gospel Approval (it’s so much better!) Here are a few gospel aphorisms that might be helpful to memorize when you are tempted to prove yourself to others, yourself, or God..jpg)
You Can’t Prove Yourself… So Stop Trying!
PDF Mission is the New Cool
Here is a blog post I wrote for Regenerate 21-01 OK raise your hand if you have used the word "missional" and you have no idea what it means. You see missional is the new cool! Just google the word and you will be amazed at what comes up. Everyone wants to be missional OR maybe people just want to be cool. You see we can talk all about missional and not really know what it means, like the cool kid who doesn't want to look stupid, so he says "ya, I know all about that". So what does it mean anyway? According to Alan Hirsch in his article "Defining Missional" (http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/2008/fall/17.20.html?start=1): "A proper understanding of missional begins with recovering a missionary understanding of God. By his very nature God is a "sent one" who takes the initiative to redeem his creation. This doctrine, known as missio Dei—the sending of God—is causing many to redefine their understanding of the church. Because we are the "sent" people of God, the church is the instrument of God's mission in the world. Although we frequently say "the church has a mission," a more correct statement would be "the mission has a church." Back to why I think people like cool… You can discuss, read, and even blog about missional but if it is not lived it is missing the very essence of what missional really is. And living missional is not cool, its actually pretty hard. What I know about myself and humans in general is we love living in the words and avoid the work it takes to make the words come alive. The general rule is people don't want to change so it is easier to talk about missional than to actually live missional. My wife is amazing! Beautiful, godly and a great mom but what I also love about her is her willingness to live out her beliefs. We will have long discussions on how to love our neighbours and, to be honest, I am content having the discussion. Then the next thing I know she is baking them cookies, or inviting them over for a meal. Honey, I was happy with just talking! OR We think we are not ready… One of the "deadly sins" of church planting, according to David Garrison in his book, "Church Planting Movements" is that of sequentialism. We think we need to become mature first, and then we can go out and evangelize. If we wait until we are ready before we reach out to others, it will never happen. Jesus said, "You say there are still four months until harvest, but I say the harvest is ready now." We have created within our churches this sit and learn mentality but we all know that to learn something you need to be out "doing it.
In Acts 8, all the believers except the apostles were scattered because of persecution, and those who were scattered preached the Good News about Jesus wherever they went. Start today living scattered, join God in what He is doing in the world, live a sent life and let us know the stories!
Here are some ways to begin living missional.
Anything But Normal
I dislike the word normal, who even knows what normal is? When my wife and I move to Ottawa to plant a church God gave us a pretty specific vision on what He desired His church to look like. Mission for us was not some cool, trendy word but a way of living so we embarked on a way of living that quickly defined our DNA as a church. And I am thankful to say we are not like other churches in Ottawa. Now don't think I am saying we are better or have it all together… quite the opposite is true. We have just settled in our heart that it is our role to show this city what the rule and reign of Christ looks like. So missional living is all about joining God in what He is doing in peoples lives, communities, and city!
I find it fascinating as I meet with pastors throughout the city and ask what the vision God gave you when you first planted your church and a gleam comes in their eyes as they describe the dream God gave them. Then I ask so what happened? And the gleam shifts to sadness as they describe how they feel they have become like every other church. What happened? What went wrong? Is the fight to hard? Do we lose faith in what could be? Or is the pressure to conform just too great?
As we move towards our one year Anniversary I am pleased to say we are not like every other church. BUT the pressure to fight against becoming a "regular" church is overwhelming at times. Why? Well when I look at Acts the dream of the church is clearly laid out but the sacrifice to see that become a reality will mess you up. We strive for comfort, convenience, easy… jacuzzi like. Yet the church in Acts is far from Jacuzzi… the desire for communion with God, authentic community with others, and mission to the world will require sacrifice, death to self, commitment, patience, and pain… The church needs to get back to asking the question Who are you dying for? Who do you open your house to when its not convenient, who are you taking meals to, who are you blessing, loving in your neighbourhood? The proposed shift to regular is because we lose the focus of becoming a disciple of Jesus following Him into the mess of peoples lives and we find contentment in becoming a church attender, consuming the goods and services of whatever church we find ourselves at.
Keep fighting to look like Jesus and joining Him in redeeming the world!
The Journey Disclaimer…
"You should know up front that we are a very imperfect church. We will disappoint you, but we’ll do our best to point you to a perfect Savior. That’s the Gospel, and we believe it converts us to Christ, to Church and to Mission. It’s why we’re here, to be the church to one another and to the city. To be in the city and for the city, redemptively engaging peoples and cultures. The best place to figure this all out is in our Gospel Communities that serve one another and the city. You can check them out right here by hanging around afterward and chatting in the back."
The Vine
Sorry I am a little late posting this today.
Prayer and Fasting Day 5 – Jesus is The Vine
READ - John
15:1-11, Romans
1:21-25
Reflections This last “I AM” statement describes Jesus as the Vine from which we, the branches, derive our sustenance. Vine branches are only useful for bearing fruit, not for building, which means that they have no value apart from being connected to the vine. How true this is for us! The sign that we are connected to the vine is in the type of fruit we bear. If our life is laden with love, we know that we are connected to God. What is disturbing, however, is the amount of good that is done in this world by people who are very unconnected to Christ. Surely they are doing good, so what makes our connection to Christ so important? Romans 1 describes those who are not rightly connected to God as having a hyper-concern for the material world. But this causes them to act in ways that abuse and degrade the very creation they worship. Ironically, what one hand is building up, the other hand is tearing down. Conversely, those whose source of life is Christ can serve the world with both hands. When our love of people and things are in their rightful place, we can love them in Jesus' name. This turns our love into something that is genuinely selfless, powerfully transforming, and wonderfully God-honouring. Prayer 1. How can you tell when your connection to Christ is weak? 2. What can you receive from Christ to strengthen your connection to Him? 3. Note that fruit is different than results (conversions, healings, etc.) for we cannot determine who tastes the fruit we bear. What helps you to stay focused on the fruit and not on the results? 4. Who is God inviting you to love with His love? What, specifically, is God inviting you to do? When will you do that?
The Way The Truth and The Life
Prayer and Fasting Day 4 – Jesus is The Way The Truth and The Life
Read - John 14:1-14
Reflections
As Jesus spoke of His
imminent departure, His disciples expressed their longing to go with Him. He
comforted them with the promise, not just of being reunited, but also of being
with His Father forever. When they wanted more detailed instructions on how
this will happen, Jesus announced that He
is the way that leads to this truth and life.
At least two things
stand out in this dialogue: the ends and the means.
First, we must be clear
on the point of life. We can endlessly amuse ourselves with the pursuit of happiness,
peace, meaning, or excellence, or we can live in the One who already is these
things. The point of life is not to get
somewhere, but to be somewhere. We
are truly alive when we are found in the Father.
When we are clear on
the point of life, the paths of life get drastically reduced to just one: Jesus
Christ. There is absolutely no other way to come to the
Father except through Jesus. No other means adequately prepares us for an
eternal relationship with God. Jesus dresses us with His righteousness, heals
us with His mercy, and fills us with His grace. He reconciles us to the Father,
providing the means for a relationship that is eternally secure and profoundly
significant. What a gift we have in Christ!
Prayer
1. What are other life purposes that compete for your
devotion? How does God turn your heart toward Him? Receive His invitation to be
with Him.
2. What other things do you depend upon, other than
Christ, to be successful in your life purpose? Pray about what makes those
options attractive to you. Ask God to reveal the sufficiency of Christ to you.
3. How will this ends and means shape this coming
year?
4. Who is God highlighting for you to pray for,
regarding these things?
The Good Shepherd
Prayer and Fasting Day 3 – Jesus is the Good Shepherd
Reading John 10:7-18, 1 Corinthians 6:19-20
Reflections The Jews’ treatment of the once blind beggar led Jesus to describe Himself further, as the Good Shepherd. Jesus likened their leadership to a thief who comes to steal, kill (slaughter) and destroy (lose) the sheep, whereas He is one who protects, provides and pastors. Jesus protects us from our enemies, He provides life through His own death, and pastors us by intimately knowing and caring for us. What a contrast! Interestingly, what enables Him to do all this for us is that He is our Owner; He is not a hired hand. If we sheep had the ability to hire someone to care for us, our hireling could never provide the depth of help we require. While it might seem like the best of both worlds – practical help while retaining ownership – being our own boss is entirely insufficient. We need to be owned. Now being owned might not sound like good news in a society that so values independence. But looking back at the beggar, he was delighted to be owned by Jesus. He had no illusions that he or his old leaders could heal his blindness, protect him from abuse, or grant him eternal life. It was simply a matter of comparison. Oh the privilege of being bought by Christ! What a comfort it is to be the sheep of the Good Shepherd! The protection, the provision, the pastoral care He provides… who or what could compare? The freedom and joy of His leadership makes self-rule a prison cell. May God teach us this year about the depth of His ownership, so that every area of our life might be redeemed and renewed by His mercy and grace. Prayer 1. God show me where my independence and personal abilities undermine Your ownership of my life. Jesus, where and how do I resist your ownership? 2. Meditate on what it looks like to receive Jesus' protection, provision and pastoral care in specific areas of your life. 3. Jesus, where are leading me in this coming year? 4. Who else needs to be owned and shepherded by Christ?
The Light
Prayer and Fasting Day 2 – Jesus is the Light
Reading John 9; 3:19-21
Reflections Jesus is the Light! He is not just enlightened; He is its source – in His presence are illumination, purity and joy. God's first act of creation was to make light and His reason for salvation was to end darkness. In every way, light describes who God is and what He does. What excludes us from the Light? Darkness. It is easy to think, however, that darkness is about our evil deeds, when it is actually about the beliefs under which we try to hide our evil deeds. When our kids were young they would walk into the room with a blanket over their heads, thinking that because they couldn’t see us, we couldn’t see them. Their innocent game actually provides a picture of what it means to live in darkness. It is a shroud of blame shifting, excuses, complications and self-righteousness that only serves to blind us from seeing the Light that can truly cover our shame and heal our hearts. This is what we see in John 9. The pride and hypocrisy of the Jews blinded them, while the beggar’s blindness enabled him to see Jesus. The irony of spiritual sight is that instead of seeing to believe, we must believe in order to see. The joy of trust in Christ is that we get to participate in a grand exchange: our eyes for His. Imagine seeing the coming year and decade through His Light! Prayer 1. What causes your spiritual blindness? Under what do you try to hide from God's light? What is the result of your blindness? (See Proverbs 4:18-19) 2. What must you believe in order to see? (See Revelation 3:17-18) 3. What can you pray for regarding the blindness in others? 4. What does God want you to see about the coming year and decade?
The Bread of Life
Our church community is joining all the other EveryNation churches across Canada for prayer and fasting. If you are not part of our church community I hope you enjoy the reflections.
Prayer and fasting Day 1 – The Bread of Life
John 6:1-14, 22-69, Deuteronomy 8:2-5
Reflections:
How do you respond to the demands or needs in your life? Do you become resourceful, finding a way to make things happen? Or do you become despondent, resigning yourself to disappointment? These are the two responses of Jesus' disciples when He asked them to feed a crowd of five thousand (6:7-8). The crowd also had needs: empty stomachs and a hunger for miracles.
To begin, Jesus met everyone’s needs by feeding the crowd with bread from heaven. But when He told them that He is the Bread of Life, and that they must eat His flesh and drink His blood for their eternal hunger to be satisfied, many disciples struggled with His invitation. Why? Why would Jesus ever be a disappointing answer to our needs?
Ask yourself, are you upset when you are at the end of your rope and all Jesus offers you is Himself? Are you frustrated when Jesus does not respond as you think He should, to all your hard work? Would you rather have a physical miracle than an eternal life? Despondency, resourcefulness, and physical miracles can actually look more attractive than Jesus Christ. Yet Jesus remains committed to giving us the one thing that is eternally satisfying: Himself.
“It would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us. [We are] like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” C.S. Lewis
Prayer
1. To begin your fast, ask God to show you where you have chosen despondency, resourcefulness, or the demand for a miracle, over needing Jesus Christ.
2. Pray that Jesus would be enough for you in those places.
3. Meditate on what it means to receive Jesus as your life bread.
4. Who else can you pray for, to find their satisfaction in Jesus Christ?
Blessed are the Peacemakers
From Mars Hill
Reading Matthew 5v9
Remember that all of this started with Jesus moving into the midst of those who ached. They ached for all kinds of different reasons just as we ache for all kinds of different reasons. But before he spoke anything, he went into the ache with them. Before he uttered a word he simply looked at it. He touched it. He shared the ache with them. God knows you don’t get near ache without getting some of it on you. It’s like velcro. So Jesus begins his announcement by addressing the aching ones. Then he makes a subtle shift to those who interact with others in a particular kind of way: Those who are merciful receive mercy. Those who stop playing the game of how they’ll be seen by others will see God. Then there are the peacemakers.
Life is anything but easy for peacemakers. They advocate on behalf of the one to the other, then turn right around and advocate on behalf of the other to the one. They’re constantly stuck in the middle. They haven’t aligned themselves with a side, which draws the ire of everyone around them, because choosing sides is a fundamental part of how our world functions. Align yourself with this group and exclude that group. Whose side are you on? What are you for? What are you against? Pick a side already. Picking sides helps maintain the illusion that there are those of us who are right and those of us who are wrong, and it’s as simple as that. Such a view of the world allows us to project all of our worst fears onto the other team. Not so with peacemakers.
Once God has met you in the midst of your own badness it becomes harder and harder to not meet others in the midst of theirs. Peacemaking is complicated. It involves bringing the two sides together. Peacemakers are the ones who, in the midst of a side-taking world, make the disturbing and counter-intuitive choice to transcend and include. “I’m on both sides.” “There is some right in that person’s wrongness and there is some wrong in that person’s rightness.” In the ancient world, rain ensured you weren’t going to starve, and God, for some odd reason, sees fit to send rain on the just and the unjust alike. God extends goodness to all sides, and the peacemakers who do the same are the sons and daughters carrying on the heritage.
Questions
Describe a time when you felt caught between two opposing sides. What was it like? How did you feel connected to both sides and disconnected to both sides at the same time?
What role do you think fear plays in division between people or groups of people?
In what ways do you live in obedience to the perception of others?
Who do you know that is a peacemaker? What have you seen them do that leads you to make that observation about them?
We often think of peacemakers as third parties. What do you think it means to be a peacemaker between yourself and someone else?
Where is there a desperate need for peacemaking socially and culturally?
Practice
Peacemaking isn’t as simple as doing something and expecting tension to simply disappear between people. Peacemaking is a process; it often involves acknowledging fear and naming the goodness we see, despite our differences, in others. With whom do you need to do some peacemaking this week? Find a way, despite your differences, to call out the goodness that is in them. Also, spend some time thinking about your fears and what role they might be playing in the situation.
Prayer
God grant that we will be participants in this newness and this magnificent development. If we will but do it, we will bring about a new day of justice and brotherhood and peace. And that day the morning stars will sing together and the sons of God will shout for joy. Amen.*
*Martin Luther King, Jr.
Blessed are the Pure in Heart…
Blessed Are THE PURE IN HEART READER:
From Mars Hill
Reading
Matthew 5v8
Jesus knew the Scriptures inside and out. The first six sentences of his announcement are riddled with references to the Psalms and Prophets. For the Jews, the temple in Jerusalem was the epicenter of the universe, the place where God’s presence met the earth. In order to “ascend the hill of the Lord and stand in his Holy place” one needed “clean hands and a pure heart” [Psalm 24v3-4]. In Jesus’ day, the religious elite were obsessed with external purity, with keeping up appearances: Do all the right things, and say all the right things and it will appear as though you’ve got clean hands and a pure heart. Never mind that you’re dying on the inside and that the keeping up appearances leaves you feeling more like a fraud with every passing day. Still today, far too often religion operates according to a purity-obsessed beatitude that says, “Blessed are the posers.”
But Mary didn’t raise no fool. Jesus saw through the charade and called it what it was. “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness” [Matthew 23v27-28]. In the Greek language, hypocrite was a drama term that referred to someone playing a part. For Jesus, the religious obsession with purity had far more to do with how one would be seen by others than it did with actually seeing God.
The pure in heart are those who live an undivided life. The Hebrew word for heart, “lev”, refers not only to the heart but also to the will and the mind. The pure in heart aren’t playing a part for others. Their entire being, heart, mind, and will aches to see God and nothing else. According to the religious conventions of the day, the lepers, the sick and diseased, and the demon-possessed people sitting around Jesus didn’t stand a chance at seeing God. But having sat on that hillside with Jesus, seeing God is exactly what they had done. Blessed are you, Jesus said. And to those who have stopped living in obedience to the perception of others, and to those who ache to see God, Jesus still announces, Blessed are you for you will see God.
Questions
Hypocrisy is often a term we use when talking about others, but this text beckons us to look at ourselves. In what ways do you feel like a hypocrite?
Read Matthew 23. Jesus has some stinging words for the religious leaders. What discrepancies do you think Jesus would call out in churches today?
In what ways do you live in obedience to the perception of others? What needs to happen in your life for you to begin living with an undivided heart?
Many of us share life together on a regular basis with a group of people, whether in a House Church, a LifeGroup, or with our families. Occasionally, we “play the part” even in those groups. What do you think it looks like in those moments to graciously and lovingly remind each other that we don’t have to live in obedience to the perceptions of others?
Practice
Spend this week reminding yourself that you don’t have to live in obedience to the perceptions of others. Pay attention to what you do and say this week, as well as to the motives behind those actions. Did you speak or act from an undivided heart? Or were your actions motivated by a desire to appear a certain way in order to please someone else? Whenever you find yourself “playing to the crowd”, remember that you don’t have to live in obedience to the perception of others.
Prayer
God, so much of my life is lived to please others. I can’t seem to control my hunger for affirmation and acceptance. There is deep division in my heart, and it aches. On the outside I look as though I have it all together, but you know the me just beneath the surface. I am weary of expending the energy to keep up appearances. Create in me a clean heart. Cleanse me from my idols. Give me a new heart, an undivided heart, one of flesh and not stone. Hide me in Christ, and remind me that I am your beloved son, that I am your beloved daughter with whom you are well pleased, so that I will have eyes to see you. Amen.
