IN THE FACE OF TROUBLE, WHO ARE YOU?

Jen Smidt is one of the writers for the excellent blog The Resurgence.  I found this post particularly poignant and insightful for real-world disciples.

For he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and he has not hidden his face from him, but has heard, when he cried to him. - Psalm 22:24

I went to the doctor yesterday and was told I needed surgery. This is not a particularly unique event in many people’s lives. It happens every day. It has happened to me 15 other times in my 4 decades of life. Despite the frequency of this news, the blow is always felt.
I hate getting bad news. So much of our lives are spent trying to avoid or protect against it, but dealing with pain and disappointment is a daily occurrence on the face of this imperfect and fallen world.
Who do you become in the face of adversity?

Worst-Case Scenario Woman

This is the woman who immediately upon hearing difficult news goes off the deep end, filling in the blanks with a myriad of outcomes, all equally horrific. There is a strange illusion of control and comfort that goes along with catastrophizing life so as to brace yourself from the inevitable. A dear friend of mine described it as “walking way too far down the road of fear and shaking hands with all of the possible scenarios that live there.”
Worst-Case Scenario Woman isn’t simply preparing herself for what may come–she is sinning. Her heart is revealed in these difficult moments and her distrust in God is speaking loudly. If this describes you (and it certainly does me over the last 24 hours), we would do well to completely derail the thought train of speculation and disaster and simply state to ourselves truth. Truly, our current trouble may feel like too much, but it never is for God. I can’t maintain my life through this trial but God promises to sustain me in it.  Finish reading ...

'ISSUE CHRISTIANS" AND THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH

Ed Stetzer has an excellent post called "Why I Have No Difficulty Helping "Issue Christians" Move On" is a very reflection on a problem that most pastors face.  If you are an "issue Christian" and are reading this, I would suggest you heed its words in your own conduct.

Yesterday, I had an "encounter" in the line where I shake hands after the Grace Church worship service. A well-dressed man came up to me after church, shook my hand, and immediately started a conversation about prophecy.


I listened initially, but within a couple of minutes he had quoted one passage he feels is related to the founding of Israel in 1948 and another about Israel occupying Jerusalem in 1967. "Why don't churches talk more about prophecy?" he asked.

At that point, I could have redirected our conversation and tried to persuade him that we believe in biblical prophecy and will teach on it another time (both of which are true). Or, since he approvingly referenced both Jack Van Impe and John Hagee, I could have found some ways of positively connecting with each of these men.

In most cases, I've decided that "this is not the church for you" is actually the right response for "issue Christians" who are visiting the church.

Honestly, if this person were unchurched and told me they thought highly of Deepak Chopra and Wayne Dyer, I would have sought a point of contact and encouraged further discussion. I probably would have tried to get together-- if they were open-- to see what the Bible says about the kinds of things that Wayne Dyer talks about. I would have used the bridge to talk about Jesus.

However, in this case, I simply said something like, "We are not one of those churches that you would think talks about prophecy enough-- this would not be the right church for you, but I do hope your search for a church home goes well."

You see, I don't spend a lot of time with "issue Christians."

It's not just the issue of prophecy either. I've had similar conversations with "issue Calvinists," "issue political Christians," "issue charismatics," "issue homeschoolers," and many others. These are often good people and those are important issues, but when these are the primary defining issues in the first (and every other) conversation, the correct response is help them move on and do so quickly.
Here are four reasons why I have no difficulty helping "issue Christians" to move on:

1. Some "issue Christians" get stuck on specific ideas--you don't have time to persuade them. It is simply not a good use of your time and energy to debate with "issue Christians." Instead, reach your community, pastor your people, and get on mission. Focus on reaching the unreached, not debating church members about eschatology or pneumatology. If they know Christ, but are stuck on an issue, they will be just fine without you. Generally, you can't "fix" them anyway and they will (eventually) come out of it on their own.
2. Some "issue Christians" have divisive views--you don't need them to fit in at your church's expense.
You can disagree in our church (to a reasonable degree) and still be a part--I've pastored cessationists, charismatics, Calvinists, and Arminians all in the same church. The issues are not the issue, it is that this person wants to make them an issue. Simply, "issue Christians" generally do not fit in well in a mission-focused congregation. They don't want to.
3. Some "issue Christians" drift from church to church looking for willing ears--you do not need to let that in your church.
"Issue Christians" love to debate and display their knowledge. It is not good stewardship of your time to have these debates and you are not being a good steward of your church to let them loose inside.
4. Some "issue Christians" will talk forever if you do not cut them off--you will probably offended them less than you think.
For many, listening for hours is the Christian thing to do. Many pastors listen, set up appointments, then seek to reason and redirect the confused. That's not a good plan if it is obvious that this person has dwelt in and studied on an issue.
My experience is that people like this get "cut off" all the time. So, I say, "Thanks Joe, but that's not what we are passionate about here--I do encourage you to find a church that is passionate about what your issues." Surprisingly, that does not generally offend--people like that have been cut off many times before this time.
So, let me encourage you to thank "issue Christians" for their passion and time, and encourage them to find a church home that fits their values. Of course, I should say, this is different if someone comes to me confused on an issue. In that case, we can counsel and provide more information.

In conclusion, we should always provide guidance, but we should not always provide a platform. "Issue Christians" want a platform with you and your church because they are passionate about an issue--don't let that distract you or your church from being and doing all that God has in store. Move on... and move them on.

WHAT IS SATAN REALLY SAYING IN GENESIS 3?

From the blog FORWARD PROGRESS comes this excellent observation.

“Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the LORD God had made”

(Genesis 3:1).

Really? When you look at what serpent, or Satan, said to Eve, it doesn’t seem THAT cunning. In seems in fact pretty straight forward. But read between the lines with me. Satan is saying something else – something more – than what he’s actually saying.

Satan led his attack with a simple question: “Did God really say you can’t eat from any tree in the garden?” It’s a twisting of God’s word, to be sure, but there’s also something else here. He is causing Eve to focus on the one prohibition God gave to His children. He’s moving her to a fixation on the negative – to what she can’t have – rather than focusing on the hundreds or thousands of trees she could.
The underlying message behind this simple question is this:
God is a miser. He is not generous toward you.

But let’s not stop there. If we continue to trace that thought down to the center, we see what Satan was really getting at:
God doesn’t really love you. If He did, He wouldn’t be holding out on you. But He is. He doesn’t want you to be happy, and the way you know it is there’s something else out there that He won’t let you have.

Now we see the cunning. The craftiness. But let’s  not stop there, because his cunning is evident in other subtle ways. Think, for example, of what the implications are of Satan going to Eve instead of Adam. God created the world, and humanity, within certain guidelines and systems. In His design, it was the male who was to lead the home. But Satan didn’t go to the male; he went straight to the female.
In this, too, we see the subversive attacks of the enemy. He is challenging the authority, wisdom, and plan of God simply by asking the question to Eve at all.

Then there’s the word choice of the snake. If you look back to chapter 2 of Genesis, it’s interesting to note that in this chapter, which talks much of the creation of man and his purpose in creation, the name of God reads like this:

LORD God.

That is, the revealed name of God signifying his dominance, mastery, and power with the name for God as creator. And yet here slithers the snake and says, “Did God really say…”

No LORD. Subtly, subversively, the snake strips the authority out of God’s name and causes Eve to hold God at an arm’s length. A creator who has no real claim on her or her husband.

Cunning indeed. This is the true genius of Satan, for with each one of these seemingly small choices of words or phrases, he steadily chips away not at the will of the human, but of her belief. That’s the real key, isn’t it? Satan recognizes that actions spring from beliefs. Always. So if you want to direct action, you must begin with belief.

Maybe God doesn’t know what He’s talking about.
Maybe He doesn’t have authority over me.
Maybe He is holding out on me.
Maybe He doesn’t really love me at all.

And the dominoes of a belief system begin to topple. It’s only a matter of time when belief begins to falter that actions follow.

I AM SYZYGUS

From The Church Whisperer comes this intriguing post about conflict resolution in the church.

I Am Syzygus

9 02 2010

Tuesday Re-mix – This is a popular post from last year, updated and resubmitted for your consideration and comments.

(This is the second in a series of posts from Philippians 4 about church conflict)

Yes, and I ask you, loyal yokefellow, help these women who have contended at my side in the cause of the gospel, along with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life. Philippians 4:3

Have you ever thought about your name and wondered how it has shaped you or influenced you as a person?  I have…

 

My name is Syzygus.  It is Greek.  There really isn’t a good English translation of it, but “yokefellow” comes pretty close.  It’s a bit of an embarrassing name, actually, because it is a reference to oxen in a yoke.  I have no idea what my parents were thinking.  But today, looking back on my life, I’m glad they named me Syzygus.  When I think of how God worked in my life, it fits.  I suppose it refers to a co-laborer wearing the same yoke as you, pulling along with you.  If there is any truth to the old adage that names do reflect something about us, then I am a true friend who has walked along with you during good times and bad times, never leaving your side.  I am a person who has been coupled with you through difficult service together.  I have grown to trust you and you have grown to trust me.  I am your “yokefellow”.

I suppose I was not surprised, then, when Paul called me out in his letter to my church in Philippi.  I had been yoked with him in ministry and had been yoked with Euodia and Syntyche as well.  I knew them well and they knew me and trusted me.  As much as I did not want this assignment, I was exactly the right person to confront them about their disagreement.  In his wisdom, Paul knew that.

I suspect Paul also knew that all of us in the church were a bit perplexed about what to do with these two sisters.  We knew their broken relationship had gotten out of hand, and we knew someone needed to love them enough to confront them about it, but none of us wanted to do it.  I suppose we were all hoping someone else would step up, or maybe by some miracle Paul himself would be released from prison and he would come and do it.  Hey, don’t laugh, it’s happened before.

But there would be no miraculous prison break this time.  One of us (or perhaps a few of us) in the church would have to step up and deal with this conflict.  Personally, I usually run from it.  I really hate conflict.  I don’t like getting up in other people’s business, I don’t like being perceived as judgmental, and I don’t like sticking my nose where it doesn’t belong.  Frankly, I can probably think of at least a dozen other excuses if you give me a little time.  Bottom line: none of us in the church wanted to do this, but we all knew it needed to be done.  Some argued it was the pastor’s job.  Others argued it was the elders’ job.  I was neither.  I was just someone who cared deeply for these two women, which is why Paul knew I was the right person to do this.  After all, if it were me who needed confronting, I would want it to be someone whom I trusted and who I knew loved me.  Why shouldn’t Euodia and Syntyche have the same benefit?

I pray that, when you need someone to tell you the truth about yourself, you will have a “Syzygus” in your life.  And I pray that, when someone you love needs a “Syzygus” in his/her life who will help him/her see the truth, you will step up and be that yokefellow for him/her.  I pray that, when God touches you on the shoulder with that assignment like Paul touched me, you will kneel down and pray and then go.  And I pray that God will use that experience to change your life the way He changed mine.

I am Syzygus.  And I am so very glad for that.

© Blake Coffee

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ETERNAL LIFE--LIVING FOREVER OR SOMETHING MORE?

From the blog ALL THINGS IN CHRIST comes this post from Michael Young.

Eternal Life: the least understood phrase in the church today?

Maybe not, but possibly.

I believe these two simple words have been very much misunderstood in the church today. Not that it has been missed, ignored, or even wrongly interpreted, but instead it has only been partially interpreted and defined in our age.

We are all aware that, being washed in the Blood of Jesus, and having the promise of the Holy Spirit, “guaranteeing that which is to come”, that we will live forever with Jesus Christ in glory. This is a promise of God to His children, that we may dwell in the “New Jerusalem”. And this is what many take as the meaning of “eternal life” that Jesus spoke so freely of. However, I believe that this is only a small piece of a much greater, and much more blessed reality.

A Spring of Living Water Welling Up…
Jesus met with a Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well. He asks her, “Will you give Me a drink?” The woman, being a Samaritan who do not associate with Jews, replies, “You are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan woman. How is it that You ask me for a drink?” So not only was this person a Samaritan, but a woman at that. In that time it would have been considered a taboo for a Jew male to interact with a Samaritan female! But nonetheless, Jesus responds. “If you knew the gift of God and who is is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked Him and He would have given you living water.” Of course, this woman had no clue who she was speaking to.

Then comes Jesus’ most beautiful, most life-filled response. This response is such a glorious summary of who He is, what He did, and how that changes the lives of you and me. It even explains how you and I are to live the Christian life while on earth.

Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water that I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

In my estimation, this passage simply doesn’t make much sense if “eternal life” is reduced to only living forever in Heaven. Though that is a part of it, that is not the full reality.

The full reality is that Jesus Christ is the Living Water. He is the Eternal Life that is a spring welling up, pouring out, quenching thirst, and giving life to men and women. He is that life. The “spring of living water welling up to eternal life” is the very substance that holds all life together; the very thing that created all things, and lives in all things: Jesus Christ.
Yes, you have a deep spring of Life living within you. This Life, or living water, is the most fertile substance on earth. But it isn’t just a substance, or a thing–it’s a Person.

Jesus Christ isn’t this figure, this it that lives in Heaven that tells you and I what to do all day every day. He isn’t someone who just created a bunch of plant and animal life, earth and soil, stars and sky, that simply places you and me here to live to the best of our finite ability. No, that would make us like pets, and we simply are not that!

No, He is the God that not only created all things, but He is the very essence of His creation. He dwells within His creation and He is the life that causes trees to grow, stars to shine, and air to breath. He is all and in all.

The very Person that causes this life, the very Person that gave air to breath, lives inside of us once we believe. He comes to dwell in such a way that causes us to be springs, vessels, reservoirs of living water. This living water is something that at any second, any hour of the day, in any situation, we can draw from. This is what it means to “never thirst”. We are never in lack of any of the infinite riches that are in Christ.

We just have to learn how to use a bucket to draw from this well.

The Glory of the Church
So, eternal life isn’t just a neat phrase to describe living forever. No, it is the life that is in Jesus Christ, the life that is Jesus Christ. For His life is eternal, for He is eternal. That water has been shared with you and me. We may drink of Him at any moment. We may share and partake of this life as well. Not only for our own needs, but for others as well.

We may share this water that is within us to others. This is the task of the church and this is the glory of the church: to make Christ manifest and expressed by sharing the living water with one another and with those around us. This is at the very heart of the Father, that is, to make Christ known and visible here on earth. It is a very interesting thing to ponder that humans long so much to be in Heaven while God longs to be made known and visible on earth (I won’t go any further with that thought, I’ll leave that one to you )
So think about that next time you see or hear the phrase “eternal life.” Don’t think only of living forever, but think of Him!
Amen.

PATIENCE IS ROOTED IN FAITH

From the blog FORWARD PROGRESS comes this excellent insight into PATIENCE.


“Have patience, have patience, don’t be in such a hurry…”

I sang that song when I was a kid. It extols patience as a virtue that we should pursue. It is, after all, one of the fruits of the Spirit – and who couldn’t do with a little bit more of any of those? But patience is easier exhorted than practiced; easier extolled than embodied. Especially right now.

We live in a Twitter world. Instantaneous information. Quick gratification. Faster food. Microwave relationships. Multi-tasking tasking. Patience is bucking the entire culture around us.

I suppose that we might just decide to be patient; to will ourselves past our frustration. But I think we all know that won’t last. You decide to be patient, and you know what? It doesn’t happen fast enough. So you find yourself frustrated at how long it’s taking you to be patient.

But patience, like any of these other fruits of the Spirit, is rooted in faith. Think of it this way – what does a person of true patience communicate to those around them about what they believe?

- They communicate a belief in a sovereign God who is readily involved in even the most mundane areas of life.

- They communicate a trust that this God is orchestrating events for their good, even when those events seem haphazard and chaotic.

- They communicate an appropriate view of themselves, that their agenda and schedule is actually not the most important thing in the universe.

- They communicate an openness to divine interruption, believing that they might join God in some unexpected way for some unexpected work on behalf of the gospel.

- And finally, they communicate that they believe in the enduring patience of God, who instead of being frustrated with us, continues to love us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies.

For me today, the exhortation is not just “be patient.” It’s “believe.”