Daily Thought: God's Passion Must Become Ours

"It is important to see, and to say, that those who follow Jesus are committed, as he taught us to pray, to God's will be being done 'on earth as it is in heaven.'  And that means that God's passion for justice must become ours, too.  When Christians use their belief in Jesus as a way of escaping from that demand and challenge, they are abandoning a central element in their own faith." ~ N. T. Wright, Simply Christian, p. 13

Daily Thought: Be One of the Few

"Jesus has many lovers of his heavenly kingdom these days, but few of them carry his cross.  He has many who desire comfort, but few who desire affliction.  He has many friends to share his meals, but few to share his fasts.  Everyone is eager to rejoice with him, but few are willing to endure anything for him.  Many follow Jesus up to the breaking of the bread, but few as far as drinking from the chalice of his Passion.  Many admire his miracles, but few pursue the shame of his cross.  Many love Jesus as long as no difficulties touch them.  Many praise and bless him as long as they receive  comfort from him.  But if Jesus hides himself and leaves them awhile, they either complain or fall into a deep depression." ~ Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, p. 77

Daily Thought: The Tragedy of Happiness

"It's a great tragedy when Christian people make it through life without ever discovering that their happiness is no different from the happiness of circumstantially well-off pagans.  I fear that millions of Christians have never made that discovery and therefore blissfully continue to drink watery grape juice when fine wine is available." ~ Larry Crabb, Shattered Dreams, p. 58

Giving Up Your Personal Rights for the Sake of the Gospel | theresurgence.com

This subject has been on my mind lately and then I was reminded about it twice yesterday.  It is easy to focus on our rights and what is due to us.  Part of what the United States was founded on was the idea of personal liberty.  If you know me I am a huge fan of liberty.

Yet on the other hand, if we are not careful, we can make our liberty an obstacle in following Jesus.  In other words our personal liberties, our rights, must always be evaluated in light of Jesus and our commitment to Him.  Jesus is our Savior, Lord, and King and therefore He is entitled to our devotion.

Andrew Jackson, in this post from The Resurgence, asks the question: What is more important to you: your personal, spiritual, and ministry rights, or the integrity and advancement of the gospel of Jesus Christ?


This is a very important question to consider.  It is "easy" to follow Jesus when His agenda seems to line up with ours, but would we continue to follow Him if He asked us to do something that didn't make sense to us?  Would we walk away sad like the rich young ruler?

Giving Up Your Personal Rights for the Sake of the Gospel | theresurgence.com

Daily Thought: The Way to Christ

"Repentance is not a welcome idea among many believers today; as a whole, people squirm when confronted with it. No one likes to see himself as a sinner; it is nicer to be a good Christian. Yet don’t all four gospels make it clear that Christ came for sinners – not for saints – and that the way to Christ is humility and poverty of spirit, not human goodness?" ~ J. Heinrich Arnold, Freedom from Sinful Thoughts

Doctrinal Boot Camp | Christianity Today | A Magazine of Evangelical Conviction

There is no doubt that we have failed the younger generations, at least mine and younger, by not stressing points of doctrine and theology enough. We have talked too much about things like the 5 keys to a healthy marriage or the 3 secrets to influencing your co-workers and not enough time about what following Jesus is really about. That is why this paragraph from Chuck Colson caught my attention:

The more I've thought about the parallels, the more I am convinced that we have failed younger evangelicals and new believers generally. We have told them or at least implied that they can live happily ever after, that Christianity is all about what's good for them—not necessarily about what is true. Things just go better with Jesus.

From my personal experience following Jesus began to have a much bigger impact in my life when I began to take doctrine and theology seriously, things began to make sense. That doesn't mean I have all the answers, in fact I have more questions than I do answers, but my worldview is much more cohesive than it used to be.

Doctrinal Boot Camp | Christianity Today | A Magazine of Evangelical Conviction

Daily Thought: A Community that Feels

"Nothing brings back feelings of being cared for as much as being in a community that feels.  There is hurt and loneliness on a rampant scale today.  Nothing will speak to our society as much as a community that reaches out with the love of Christ." ~ Ravi Zacharias, Cries of the Heart, p. 55

Daily Thought: Taking Advantage of Prayer

"If there is one thought with regard to the church of Christ, which at times comes to me with overwhelming sorrow; if there is one thought in regard to my own life of which I am ashamed; if there is one  thought of which I feel that the church of Christ has not accepted it and not grasped it; if there is one thought which makes me pray to God: 'Oh, teach us by thy grace, new things'—it is the wonderful power that prayer is meant to have in the kingdom. We have so little availed ourselves of it." ~ Andrew Murray, Humility and Absolute Surrender, p. 97

Daily Thought: The Consequences of Sin

“The spiritual consequences [of sin], however, are even more serious. Matthew says that Jesus saw crowds of sinners as being ‘harassed and helpless’ (Matt. 9:36). The Greek word here for ‘harassed’ literally means ‘flayed, torn, and mangled.’ Sin does leave its victims full of wounds and bruises and festering sores. When the spirit of a man is raped and ravished by sin he is very much like the victim of a physical assault. There are serious doubts that he can ever be whole again.” ~ William Pile, What The Bible Says About Grace; pg. 28

Daily Thought: Don't Be Bitter

"When we embrace bitterness, we reject grace. When we allow a bitter root to take hold of our hearts, we literally miss the grace of God. Bitterness destroys our relationships, impairs our judgment, skews our perspective, and distorts our memories." ~ Erwin McManus, Uprising, p. 124

Lay Aside Your Feelings

{Galatians 6:10; NLT}

Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone—especially to those in the family of faith.

One of the traps that is so easy to fall into in life is the trap of motivation.  We say, "I just don't feel like doing that right now, I'll do it later."  Since we are waiting for our feelings to catch up with what we now we ought to do, what ought to be done doesn't get done.  That is why people say, "The road to hell is paved with good intentions."  We may have had the good intentions, but good intentions don't love other people.

Paul tells us that we should not wait on our feelings.  Instead we should make use of the opportunity that is in front of us.  Even when we don't feel like doing the task or helping our neighbor we do it because it is an opportunity to show God's love to them.  Life is too short to wait around for us to feel like loving, serving, forgiving, and worshipping.  We need to buy up the time we have by making the most of the opportunities God sends our way.

The reason this is important is because when we base our actions off of our feelings we are putting ourselves front and center.  We are not concerned about loving God and loving people, we are only concerned about loving ourselves.  A life which is lived based on our feelings at the moment is a very selfish life.

The discipline of serving others, especially when we don't feel like serving, teaches us what it means to love people.  It isn't going to come easy, but if we are intentional about doing it we will soon discover that serving and sacrificing our time to help someone else comes a little bit easier.  We will also discover that we love God and we love people just a little bit more.

Daily Thought: Let Your Light Shine

"Let your light shine before men so that they shall see your good works.  Let a Christian be far from ever designing or desiring to conceal his religion.  On the contrary, let it be your desire not to conceal it.  Make every effort to put your light on a candlestick rather than under a bushel.  You are to give light to all who are in the house.  Take heed not to seek your own praise in this.  Do not desire any honor for yourself.  Let it be your sole aim that all who see your good works may glorify your Father who is in Heaven." ~ John Wesley, The Sermon on the Mount, p. 137

Daily Thought: The Horror of Sin

“Only when sin is seen in all its horror does grace appear next to it in all its splendor. Viewing God’s gracious gift of our salvation against any backdrop other than our hopelessness does it a disservice.” ~ William Pile, What the Bible Says About Grace, p. 33

A Slave of Christ

The apostle Paul understood that there was a purpose for his life. This purpose is what drove Paul. It was the reason that he endured hardships and faced persecution. The purpose that Paul lived was to take the Good News of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles. This is what Paul told the elders of Ephesus:

"But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God." (Acts 20:24; NLT)

It was God’s calling on his life that gave Paul his purpose. This calling caused Paul to see himself as both God’s servant and Christ’s apostle. Those are the titles Paul uses when he sat down to write a letter of encouragement and instruction to his student Titus. This is what Paul writes:

This letter is from Paul, a slave of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ. I have been sent to proclaim faith to​​ those God has chosen and to teach them to know the truth that shows them how to live godly lives. This truth gives them confidence that they have eternal life, which God—who does not lie—promised them before the world began.  And now at just the right time he has revealed this message, which we announce to everyone. It is by the command of God our Savior that I have been entrusted with this work for him. 

I am writing to Titus, my true son in the faith that we share.
May God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior give you grace and peace. (Titus 1:1-4; NLT)

Being a slave and an apostle Paul saw that his job was to build of the faith of Christians, to instruct them on what it means to live a righteous life, and to remind them of promise of God—eternal life. This is what I want us to take some time to consider. God has promised us life! Not just existence, but life, eternal life. That is reason to have hope.

Eternal existence isn’t reason to have hope. Because of sin existence is what we come to call life. Why would we want an eternal existence of sickness, hardship, bills, confusion, fighting, and a host of other problems that crowd our days? We wouldn’t. Eternal life is much more than just going from one day to the next. It would have to be, otherwise it wouldn’t something for us to hope for. The promise of eternal life should give us hope.

We don’t have a description of eternal life in this paragraph, but we are told that it is the promise of God. Why can we trust this promise? Because God has revealed the source of eternal life. This message, Paul says, had been entrusted to him. This message Paul proclaimed centered on God’s grace as found in Christ Jesus. We can trust God’s promise because God promised long ago to send a Messiah to set people free. Thousands of years past between God’s initial promise and Jesus, but in His timing God did exactly what He promised He would do. Jesus is the evidence we need so we can know that God will keep His promise of eternal life.

It is important for us to reflect on the promise of God and the life of Jesus. The difficulties of life, even the mundane routine of life, have a way of robbing us of the hope of eternal life. We can wonder: “Where is this eternal life? If I am a new creation, why do I still feel like the old creation?” Reflecting on God, His Word, His Son, and His promise will reorient our lives and fill our hearts with hope. We need hearts full of hope if we are going to survive this life of existence with our faith intact.

Daily Thought: Connecting with God

"The discipline, by the way, is never the point.  The whole point of a 'devotional life' is connecting with God.  This is our primary antidote to the counterfeits the world holds out to us.  If you do not have God and have him deeply, you will turn to other lovers." ~ John Eldredge, Wild at Heart, p. 172

Daily Thought: Don't Hesitate

“Just do whatever Jesus calls you to do the moment it is clear to you. Do not procrastinate; do not hesitate, do not deviate from whatever course of action He calls you to. But I want to warn you, the closer you walk with Christ, the greater the faith required. The more you trust Him, the more you’ll risk on His behalf. The more you love Him, the more you will love others. If you genuinely embrace His sacrifice, you will joyfully embrace a sacrificial life. Your expectations of Jesus will change as your intimacy with Him deepens.” ~ Erwin McManus, The Barbarian Way, p. 53

Daily Thought: The Victory Has Been Won

"Scripture clearly teaches this perspective: Christ has already won the victory (1 Cor. 15:1ff.; Col. 2:15; and Heb. 2:14ff.). The crucial battle has been fought and won in the incarnation and the resurrection. The ceasefire is yet in the future. Jesus' followers continue to fight against the principalities and powers (Eph. 6:10ff.) until he comes again to bring about the final end of the war. We do not know how long the warfare will continue. As we battle the forces of evil, we also witness in the shadow of Christ's victory on the cross and his ultimate victory to be achieved at the final coming. We fight with the conviction that someday all weapons will be placed at the feet of Jesus. This concept should encourage all believers. It can also exhort all to be be faithful to Jesus and his cause." ~ Robert Lowery; Revelation's Rhapsody: Listening to the Lyrics of the Lamb; p. 43

To be Disciplined

{1 Corinthians 9:24-27; NLT}

Don’t you realize that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize? So run to win!  All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize.  So I run with purpose in every step. I am not just shadowboxing.  I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified.

It is hard to believe now, almost 20 years after high school, but I used to be a runner.  I ran the 2 mile, the mile, and a half mile in the two mile relay at every track meet.  I was not world class, but I held my own, and it was something that I enjoyed.

Over the years I haven't kept up with my running and my body has paid the price.  I am overweight and out of shape, and I have dreams of running again.  So this week I decided it was time to quit dreaming and to starting doing something about it.  I have been at the gym this week running on the treadmill and lifting weights, with the goal of actually running outside once March roles around.

If I would have been disciplined the soreness I feel in my legs tonight would not have been necessary because running would have just been part of my life.  That is what discipline helps us do, it helps us make the important things in life a natural part of the way we live.

The apostle Paul says that he disciplines his body like and athlete disciplines his body for the sake of Christ.  In other words, to live like Jesus doesn't naturally happen, we have to train ourselves to live that way!  While we are empowered by the Holy Spirit it also requires us to put our bodies into action and to participate in some life giving activities.  Activities such as Bible reading, prayer, fasting, giving, serving,   having times of solitude, as well as meditating.  We cannot become like Jesus if we don't make an effort to do the things he did.

As Dallas Willard writes:

Once the individual has through divine initiative become alive to God and his Kingdom the extent of integration of his or her total being into that Kingdom order significantly depends upon the individual's initiative...Yet even as we reach for more grace to this end, we also learn by experience that the harmonization of our total self with God will not be done for us.  We must act (The Spirit of the Disciplines, p. 68).

So we read that Paul needs to be disciplined in his life, just as an athlete is disciplined, so he won't be disqualified.  I guess what that means can be debated, but what I think is crystal clear is that if we are going to live the life God created us to live, then we need to be disciplined.  We need to train ourselves to walk as Jesus walked.

Daily Thought: God is the Only Solution

"Paradoxically, then, even though the problem of evil is the greatest objection to the existence of God, at the end of the day God is the only solution to the problem of evil. If God does not exist, then we are lost without hope in a life filled with gratuitous and unredeemed suffering. God is the final answer to the problem of evil, for He redeems us from evil and takes us into the everlasting joy of an incommensurable good: fellowship with Him." ~ William Lane Craig; Hard Question, Real Answers; p. 112

Being Salt and Light

{Matthew 5:13-16; NLT}

“You are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor? Can you make it salty again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless.

“You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden.  No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father."

Followers of Jesus are called to be "the salt of the earth" and "the light of the world".  What did Jesus mean when he used these two metaphors? What did he hope that his listeners would take away?

We can spend time analyzing the uses of salt and light, not only in the ancient world, but also in our world in hopes of better understanding what Jesus said and how they can translate over to a Christian's life.  To be honest I think this text is pretty straight forward, and while doing some analytical work would be profitable, it isn't necessary.  You see in the end both salt and light are agents of change and influencers of their surroundings.

In other words, Jesus wants his disciples to be people of influence in this world.  We are to help people discover God's truth for their lives.  So how do we go about doing that?  I think in the United States we have tended to try to influence the world, to halt the moral decay, and to shine a light in the darkness by taking the "right" moral stands and by proclaiming the "truth".

If we stopped for a moment and reflected on how that methodology has worked the last 30 years we will notice that the Church has less influence now in our country then it ever has before.  We will notice that on the important issue of abortion, with all our talk about the preciousness of life, there are more abortions happening all the time.  The really sad reality is that many of these women come from a Christian background.

There is also the issue of marriage.  The Church has opposed gay marriage, and rightly so, and we have talked about the sanctity of marriage in the process.  Not only do we have more and more states making gay marriage legal, but we also have to contend with a high number of divorces.  One of the scandals of the evangelical church is that that Evangelicals lead the way in the numbers of divorce.  We can take the right stands and proclaim the right truth, but we lose creditability when it isn't lived out in our lives.

What this world really needs are not people who go on and on about morality or talk endlessly about sin and hell, but people who live in a radically different way.  The world needs to see that there is a better way to live life.  I like what the apostle Peter wrote; But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests,​  a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light (1 Peter 2:9; NLT, emphasis added). We have been chosen and set apart for the purpose of showing the world the love and forgiveness of God.  The transforming power of God's grace should be seen in the way we live our lives.

The bottom line is this: In order to be salt and light we need to stand apart form the world.  We need to be different.  Too often we are compromising with world in the choices we make about life, and then we condemn them for living as the unredeemed people they are.  The problem is not them, but it is us.  If we are going to influence this world for Jesus then we need to change the way we live.  Only then can we truly become "salt of the earth" and "light of the world".

Daily Thought: The Power of Sin

"One great power of sin is that it blinds men so that they do not recognize its true character.  Even the Christian finds an excuse in the thought that he can never be perfect and that some sin is inevitable.  He is so accustomed to the thought of sinning that he has almost lost the power and ability to mourn over sin." ~ Andrew Murray, The Best of Andrew Murray, p. 134

Daily Thought: Moral Choices

"People often think of Christian morality as a kind of bargain in which God says, 'If you keep a lot of rules, I'll reward you, and if you don't I'll do the other thing.' I do not think that is the best way of looking at it. I would much rather say that every time you make a choice you are turning the central part of you, the part of you that chooses, into something a little different from what it was before. And taking your life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices, all your life long you are slowly turning this central thing either into a Heaven creature that is in harmony with God, and with other creatures, and with itself, or else into one that is in a state of war and hatred with God, and with its fellow creatures, and with itself. To be the one kind of creature is Heaven: that is, it is joy, and peace, and knowledge, and power. To be the other means madness, horror, idiocy, rage, impotence, and eternal loneliness. Each of us at each moment is progressing to the one state or the other." ~ C. S. Lewis; The Joyful Christian; pgs. 123-124

Daily Thought: We are Lost and in Need of Rescue

"The need which the Christian faith answers is not so much that we are ignorant and need better information, but that we are lost and need someone to come and find us, stuck in quicksand waiting to be rescued, dying and in need of new life...Christianity is all about the belief that the living God, in fulfillment of his promises and as the climax of the story of Israel, has accomplished all this--the finding, the saving, the giving of new life--in Jesus.  He has done it.  With Jesus, God's rescue operation has been put into effect once and of all." ~ N.T. Wright, Simply Christian, p. 92

Daily Thought: Corrupting Creation

Evil is not simply something that happens within the (otherwise pristine) cosmos; it is rather is a force that corrupts the cosmos itself!  There is something hostile to God that has affected creation to the core, and God must fight it” ~ Gregory Boyd, Satan and the Problem of Evil, p. 48

Daily Thought: The Victory of New Life

"The child of God is to expect victory. Much of the power of the early church found its source in this expectancy. They had stepped into a new kind of life, rather than merely adopting a new religion. The unseen things of eternity had become more real to them than the three dimensional materialism of this earthly existence. Friends marveled at it, enemies trembled at it, and emperors went mad trying to understand the dynamic with which the first century Christians faced both life and death." ~ Clinton Gill,Hereby We Know, p. 127

Change is Happening

Change is not very easy.  Ask anyone who has tried to shed a few pounds, losing weight doesn't happen over night.  We don't become thinner just because we started to go to the gym, eat fewer calories, and begin to take the stairs at work.  These things over time help, but sometimes it takes weeks, even months, before we begin to notice a difference.

We shouldn't be surprised that the defects in our character, the sin we struggle with, and the bad attitudes we carry around don't easily disappear when we surrender our lives to Jesus.  After all many of these things have taken years to developed and are intertwined with how we cope with life.  Yes, Jesus can bring about healing and restoration, but it will take awhile as He goes for the root of our sin and we learn to trust Him more and more.

This can be frustrating because we are become so exhausted with dealing with the crap that is a part of our lives.  It is tiring to have to fight through fear every time we want to talk to a person or to rev ourselves up enough to get our depressed hearts out of bed in the morning.  We want the joy of the Lord and to live the abundant life Jesus promised His followers!

Dallas Willard wrote;

Love, joy, and peace fostered in divine  fellowship simply crowd out fear, anger, unsatisfied desire, woundedness, rejection.  There is no longer room for them—well, perhaps there is for a while, but increasingly less so.  Belonging to Christ does not immediately eliminate bad feelings, and we must not be drawn into pretense that it does. (Renovation of the Heart, p. 136)

Here is my point: The transformation of our lives takes time.  It isn't just about the elimination of the bad, but the addition of the good.  The way God works is to bring in the light to chase away the darkness and to add love to force out hate.  This takes times, but little by little transformation happens.  I think it is Rick Warren who said, "We over estimate how much we can accomplish in a year and under estimate how much we can accomplish in five years." If we are faithful in following Jesus, if we are consistent in crying out for His healing, and if we truly hungering and thirsting for righteousness we will experience change in our lives.  God will transform our lives, but it will happen so slowly that we might just miss it.

Last night I had the chance to reflect on my life and I was overwhelmed about the transformation God has brought about in my life.  Yes, I have a long ways to go, but I am more energized to keep going because I know the difference God has made in my life and the healing He has brought to my heart.

Hang in there.  Just because you don't see the change doesn't mean God isn't working in your life.  Continue to trust Him and one day you will discover that He did come and make you into a new person.

Daily Thought: Indispensable Joy

"Hence there is nothing so attractive as joy, no preaching so persuasive as the sight of hearts made glad.  There is no proof of the reality of God's love and the blessing He bestows as when the joy of God overcomes all the trials of life.  And for the Christian's own welfare, joy is indispensable.  The joy of the Lord is his strength; confidence, courage, and patience find their inspiration in joy.  With a heart full of joy, no work can weary and no burden can depress." ~ Andrew Murray, The Best of Andrew Murray, p. 132

Now is the Time to Grow

Ryan feels like there is something missing in his life. He is able to recall the excitement he had when he went through Experiencing God with his small group in college. The excitement from doing that study lasted for the rest of his senior year as he devoured books by John Ortberg, Philip Yancey, Erwin McManus, and C. S. Lewis. Five years have already passed since that experience and now Ryan feels like he is in a holding pattern. The excitement of growth seems to have disappeared from his life. Spiritually he is dry and frustrated.

My story is Ryan’s story. Even though I grew up in a Christian home, attended Nebraska Christian College, and had been in ministry for six years I felt that going through Henry Blackaby’s Experiencing God was what really put me on the path of spiritual growth. After that everything that I picked up and read seemed to move me along spiritually. The books that influenced me at that time included Wild at Heart, Seizing Your Divine Moment, and If You Want to Walk On Water You’ve Got to Get Out of the Boat. Yet that period of intense spiritual growth was over very quickly and I found myself stuck in place. No matter how hard I tried to recapture that time of spiritual growth I couldn’t. I was frustrated and disillusioned.

I am certain that many Christians have gone through experiences like this. We have those times when we seem to grow by leaps and bounds and then we have frustrating stretches when it seems like we are on the fast track to nowhere. While we are committed to the same disciplines it seems that the results are totally different. What is the difference?

The Difference

In order to answer that question we have to understand the goal of spiritual maturity. In basic terms spiritual maturity is learning to trust God more than we trust ourselves. Learning to trust God requires us to know His will and adjust our lives to it.

The reason many of us come to feel stunted in our spiritual growth is because we have concentrated on just knowing God’s will. We are disciplined in studying the Bible, reading books, listening to sermons, and attending seminars and conferences so we know what God expects from us, but knowing God’s will doesn’t mean we are trusting God. In order to trust God we have to obey. If we are not obeying then we are not growing.

An Example

An excellent example of this truth is found in the anonymous man from the Gospels that we have dubbed the rich young ruler. This is Mark’s account of his encounter with Jesus:

As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. "Good teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" 

"Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good—except God alone. You know the commandments: 'Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.'" 

"Teacher," he declared, "all these I have kept since I was a boy." 

Jesus looked at him and loved him. "One thing you lack," he said. "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." 

At this the man's face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth. (Mark 10:17-22; NIV)

This young man was religious, he was respected, and he was wealthy. He met every criteria that his culture had for a person who was right with God, yet when he examined his life he realized that something was missing. No wonder he went to Jesus to find his answers. He needed something different than what the religious establishment had already given him.

The encounter the rich young man had with Jesus shows us the two elements of spiritual growth that must be part of our lives if we are going trust God more than we trust ourselves.

Knowing God’s Will

The first element that is so vital for spiritual growth is going to Jesus. This young man understood that his life wasn’t what it should be, and so he went to the one person he thought had the answer.

A quick examination of our lives will tell us that things aren’t what they should be. We feel like we have made no progress on this journey of faith and we are on the verge of giving up. Why should following Jesus be so hard? What are we doing wrong? Are the questions we ask ourselves as we struggle to mature.

The only one who has the answer is Jesus. He knows where we have been and where we need to go. If we are going to travel the road of spiritual maturity we must turn to Jesus for guidance.

How do we go to Jesus? The rich young man had the advantage over us because he could physically go to Jesus and ask his question. We don’t have that luxury, but that doesn’t mean that we are unable to receive direction from our Lord and Savior.

We go to Jesus whenever we seek His will. We seek the will of Jesus through prayer, Bible study, asking for the advice of other Christians, and listening to God’s Word preached. By seeking God’s will we are doing spiritually the very same thing the rich young man did when he physically went to Jesus.

Going to Jesus isn’t about doing spiritual disciplines, but it is about honestly seeking God’s will. It is by seeking God’s will that we put ourselves in the position to live the life He created us to live.

Adjusting Our Lives

This brings us to the second element of spiritual growth: obedience. While the young man went to Jesus and discovered Jesus’ will, he ended up leaving sad. Remember the rich young man was obeying the commandments, he was keeping the spiritual disciplines of his day, but he was unwilling to change his life and follow Jesus.

This is the place I think many of us lose our way. Our dedication to seeking God’s will is very evident in our lives. We are committed to studying the Bible, to talking to others about God’s word, and sitting under preachers and teachers who explain some of the deeper truths of Scripture to us.

The trouble comes because of our unwillingness to make the necessary adjustments to our lives in order to change. We are moral and religious people, but we lack true obedience. We are disciplined and serve at church, but we have yet to really take a risk and follow Jesus into the unknown.

The young man went way sad because he was unwilling to part with his wealth and follow Jesus. We are frustrated because we are unwilling to risk and trust Jesus with our lives. There comes a time in our lives when the only way to continue on the path of spiritual maturity is to take a risk and trust Jesus.

Making it Real

The last four years have been an eye opening experience for me of this very truth. I took my current ministry position in November 2006 after being out of paid ministry for a year. The church family I serve has had some very difficult times and has been in decline for the past few years. It was not an ideal situation for me, and I was warned by a couple of people about the position, but after consulting family members and praying about the situation I was convinced that this is where God wanted me to be. At times it has been difficult and frustrating, but this situation has taught me how to trust God like no other situation I have been in.

In that same time period I started to go to counseling. This was something that God had been urging me to do for a few years, but I resisted. To me going to counseling meant that I was broken and needed to be fixed and I was bound and determined to handle things myself. I finally gave into God’s demands to seek help with my introvert personality that had a negative impact on my ministry. This has opened up avenues to new relationships that were closed before.

I have no idea what God is calling you to do, but I am certain that He has made clear, or will make clear, to you what His will is for your life. You know God’s will but you fear the risk that is involved. The only way to grow is to take the risk and trust God. Now is the time to quit your job and stay home with the kids. Now is the time to take that leadership position at work. Now is the time to build a relationship with the couple next door. Now is the time to serve at the homeless shelter. Now is the time to babysit for the single mother who sits next to you at church. Now is the time to cut up the credit cards and get out of debt. Now is the time to take over the Jr. High youth group. Now is the time to risk. Now is the time to grow.

Daily Thought: God-Given Lovableness

"We can think of our inadequacies as terrible defects, if we want, and hate ourselves.  But we can also think of them affirmatively, as doorways through which the power of grace can enter our lives.  Then we may begin to appreciate our inherent, God-given lovableness." ~ Gerald May, Addiction and Grace, p. 31

Too Distracted to Mourn

{Matthew 5:4; ESV}

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”

I think many Americans live in a fantasy world. Because we have enjoyed such a high standard of living in the United States we have been able to be free from many of the world’s troubles. We don’t know what it is like to live in extreme poverty and to hungry most of the time.

Not only are we insulated from many of the harsh realities that many other people deal with on a constant basis, many of us are consumed with another life. Not the true eternal life that we receive from Jesus, but the fantasy life of sports, TV shows, video games, and even politics. These things blind us from the reality of the world around us and therefore we are clueless about what life in a fallen sinful world is really like.

I am currently doing a sermon series through the Sermon on the Mount. Last week I preached part 1 on the beatitudes, a sermon I entitled “Proper Citizens” as we looked at the 8 virtues that need to be present in the life of a citizen of God’s Kingdom.

Right now I am in the process of preparing for part 2, a sermon I have entitled “Kingdom Blessings” as we will look at the eight blessings promised to the citizens of Heaven. As I was doing my study today I read this passage from Leon Morris’ commentary on Matthew:

Perhaps we should bear in mind that typically the worldly take a lighthearted attitude to the serious issues of life, a fact that is very evident in our pleasure-loving generation. In there seeking after self-gratification and pleasure they do not grieve over sin or evil. Because they do not grieve over what is wrong in themselves, they do not repent; and because they do not grieve over the wrong they share with others in the communities in which they live, they take few steps to set things right. (The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Gospel According to Matthew; p. 97)

It is so easy to allow these pleasures to consume our lives and to distract us from the reality of life, and in the end we are not people who are mourning over the sin in our lives, the sin in our communities, or the evil that is rampant in the world. We push from our minds the images of starving children, the disfigured bodies of those people in war zones, or the faces of drug addicts right around the corner. As a result we are not crying out to God in repentance for mercy, healing, and help. We are doing nothing except sitting on the couch catching the next episode of American Idol and talking about who is going to win The Super Bowl.

If we are going to be people who are citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven then we need to be people who mourn, who cry over the sin and evil this world. This isn’t about being sad and depressed all the time, rather it is about living a life of repentance and joining God in bringing His Kingdom rule into this world. It is about taking time to pray about the issues that are on your heart, it is about being generous with the blessings God has given to you, and it is about becoming active in this world.

We live in a world that is messed up and where a lot of people are hurting. We may not be able to change the world, but we can do something that will bring a little light and love into the life of another person. May we be people who mourn over the broken nature of this world and who are confident that one day God will make everything right.

Daily Thought: Jesus is the Sole Cause

"Any theology that construes salvation as some sort of cooperative between God and man is false.  Whatever man does in reference to salvation may be seen as responsive, not causal.  Jesus, God's gift, is the sole cause." ~ William Pile, What The Bible Says About Grace, p. 105