When Enduring isn't Enough

This past Sunday we began our look at the letters that God dictated to the 7 churches in what today we know as Turkey. The first letter, to the church in Ephesus, commended them for their endurance but confronted them for not living up to the love they had early in their journey. Listen to this look at the height from which they had fallen. Like them, we are to live boldly and joyfully!

The God Nobody Likes

We have just completed an extended time looking at the book of Jonah. The book focuses on a prophet who is selfish and self-centered. In his immaturity, he is more concerned about a vine that took a day to grow and a day to die than he was about a city of our 120,000 people. What a pathetic man.

Until ... until we realize that we are Jonah. This past Sunday we looked at two stories in Luke that are tightly connected, one about a blind man who was healed and one about a rich tax collector who was transformed. The funny thing is, people didn't want Jesus to help the blind man, although they were happy when he did. But even when Jesus helped the rich man, nobody liked it.

It turns out that, perhaps, there's room under Jonah's vine for more than just him...

Listen

One of the core beliefs of Christianity is “God with us.” In fact, that is the literal meaning of “Emanuel,” the prophesied name for the Jesus, the Son of God. He came in meekness. He came as a baby, was scoffed at by people, and was eventually killed.

Because of His meekness, sometimes we make light of the glory of God. In Isaiah 6, we see a different image. Isaiah was overwhelmed by the vision he saw of God’s holiness. He was convinced that he was a dead man because he was not worthy of the glory of the presence of God. He then experienced the grace of God as the angel touched his mouth with a coal from the altar. After receiving the grace, he was then commissioned to be a messenger for God, sharing both the holiness and the grace of God with people who had made light of God’s presence. (Listen to the sermon from Sunday.)

In what ways do we make light of the glory of the presence of God today? How should we approach Him in pray and in worship? What can we do to encourage each other to remember the awe-inspiring glory and holiness of God?

God comes Meekly

John 1:1-18 expresses some of the greatest surprises in the Bible for me. One is that God would become a human being, a man, with flesh and blood. He got tired and hungry. He eventually died. All of this while He was fully God. And all of this so that He might rescue those who were opposed to Him. That’s surprising.

Related to that is the surprise that God allows (at least for a time) people to oppose Him. The Word (aka, the Son, Jesus Christ) shines in the darkness. The darkness doesn’t understand and cannot control the light, yet the darkness still remains. The Son came into the world He created, the world that continued to exist by His own power, and they didn’t know Him or receive Him. In fact, they eventually killed Him. And He allowed it.

God came into the world with great meekness (listen to the message from Sunday). He lets us ignore Him if we choose to. What are you doing to choose to listen to God? To choose to seek Him?

An Upside Down World

In Luke 18:9-14, Jesus contrasts the prayers of two different men. The first man, a highly respected man in the community, expressed thankfulness for the things which people admired in him. He actually was someone whom people looked up to and wanted to be like. The second man, who was despised by the people, expressed a very simple prayer: “Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner.” And everyone would have agreed that this was the only prayer he could pray.

Jesus said that those who ‘lower themselves’ (like the second man) are honored by God while those who ‘raise themselves up’ (like the first man) are not.

Pride is so quick to invade our hearts! In fact, it is actually naturally at home there. How easy it is even to say, “Lord, thank you that I’m not like the proud man!” (Listen to the sermon from Sunday to hear more.)

The most direct way to apply this passage is to pray the prayer of the second man and to let the attitude of that prayer pervade our thinking. Comparing ourselves with others before God is rarely a helpful thing. Whether we thinking highly of ourselves or poorly, either way we tend to make ourselves the focus. How much better to say, “Lord, have mercy.”

How else does pride or humility show up in life? Pray that God would sensitize your heart to your own pride, and to lead you to the humble prayer before him.

Living for Others...

At the heart of Christianity is the call to live for the good of other people. Certainly that is at the core of God's actions. What He did in creation was for the good of what He created. What He did in providing salvation was for the good of those who had rebelled against Him. An essential part of God's identity is that He serves.

Since we have been called to be like God, to live in His Image, we also are to serve. As Pastor Tim challenged us on Sunday, one way we are to serve, as the writer of Hebrews says, is in spurring other people on to love and good works. We should behave in a way that leads other people to love others more and to act in better ways than if we weren't there.

So how might we do that? What is one thing you can do today that will lead the people around you to love more and to serve more? It is easy to lead people to judge and dislike each other. What could I do today to increase kindness and reduce judgment?

One simple thing that we can do is to meet together with other Christians with the specific intention of helping them grow. We might do that over lunch or in a small group meeting, like a Bible study. But it takes more than being with people. It takes challenging them, perhaps sharing with them something that we are learning. It certainly involves some risk, but it is also a key part of being like God. You don't have to become an extrovert if you are more introverted. But whatever your natural tendency, you do need to find ways to help someone else live more like God.

So if you aren't in a small group or meeting with someone else regularly with the goal of helping each other toward love and good deeds, why don't you move toward that today? Join one of our small groups, or ask someone else if you could meet with the goal of helping each other grow. And trust God to bless that effort to put into practice His Word.

Seeking the Kingdom of God

Longing for the coming of the Kingdom of God. It sounds like a very abstract concept. And it sometimes seems disconnected from the daily pressures and activities of life. But in contrast to thinking about daily necessities, Jesus said, “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matthew 6:33) What would it mean to seek God’s kingdom?

Some people have described it as longing for people to live according to God’s perfect direction. That is, to long for a situation where people would live wisely, with self control, focusing on the good of others. In effect, it is the desire for things to be like they were in the Garden of Eden. When you see someone whose life is going down a bad path, it is easy to see how they need to have a life more like that, one that follows God’s good design.

As Pastor Tim’s brother David Andersen shared on Sunday, we long for God’s will to be done, for a flood of people to recognize the need to adopt God’s ways rather than their own, for a sense of renewal as we reorient our thinking to that which is true and right.

That’s something we can pursue each day, no matter what else happens. We can pray even now, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”