Cowardice, Comfort or Christlike?

We all have a choice.  We face it every single day.  We face it in every situation.  In every relationship.  In every community in which we are part of.  In every place of study or work or worship.  Will we embrace cowardice, comfort or be Christlike?

We're working through Matthew at the moment on Sunday mornings and preparing the sermon series is proving challenging.  It challenges our church culture, our family culture and my personal culture.  It continually calls me to see my cowardice and turn from it, to see my overwhelming attachment to my comfort and disavow it and my aversion to true Christlikeness and repent of it.

My cowardice is confronted as in chapter 4 Christ leaves the Judean desert when John the Baptist is arrested and goes to Galilee, not because he wants a lakeside country retreat but to go into the heart of darkness.  To go to the place knows little of God his promises and his covenants.  To go to a people who need to hear the gospel.  Will I carry to gospel deliberately into the darkest places spiritually?  As i look at an area where so few know the gospel what will I do about it.  Jesus preaches and proclaims the kingdom come and repentance needed not in the safety of a church building but beside a lake, on a mountainside, wherever the people are.  Will I?  Or will I cower in the church preaching boldly but to those who already have the light?

Secondly it confronts my comfort.  I like knowing what is coming and when it is coming.  I like having a certain shape to my day.  I like to avoid what I don't like - be that avocado's or antagonism from those who don't like Christianity or are offended by what the Bible says about sin or sexuality or identity.  Jesus is continually leaving his comfort behind, from the moment he leaves the splendour and glories of heaven to the moment he embraces the cross.  Will I?  Where are the places God wants to discomfort me in my ministry both within the church and without?

Thirdly it challenges my Christlikeness.  In short I've been reminded again and again that Jesus is Holy.  He is Immanuel - God with us and that means he is thrice holy - Holy, Holy, Holy.  He is the one who fulfils all righteousness.  He is the one who fights Satan, who resists temptation because he is Holy.  And the call to his people, to me, is to repent of my sin and trust in his holiness on my behalf, yes, and the wonder of that must never grow old because that's what causes love and devotion to well up in our hearts.  But his call is also to be Holy, that is why he preaches the beatitudes, the household rules of the family of God.  And I am reminded that my version of holiness is all too often maxed out at a slightly better than average niceness.  But Jesus is Holy for me and calls me to be holy after him as his follower.

A Fatal Failure

I've been thinking about sin. Not the blindingly obvious sin that we all find it easy to see and mourn in ourselves but the subtle less noticeable but incredibly destructive sins we sometimes ignore, or don't view as serious.

How often does the Bible warn us about our tongues or lips? The answer is lots, again and again we are warned about the need to control our speech. Be it Job 27; Psalm 12, 34, 120, 140, Proverbs 12 or 17, or Peter or James in their letters. And yet how often we fail to listen to the warnings.

Too often we want to defend ourselves or justify ourselves and so we speak out to the harm of others and as we do our words reveal the state of our hearts. That we do not take sin and holiness seriously.

James 3:9-12 "With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God's likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water."

How we would stand out from friends neighbours colleagues if we tamed our tongue. If we learned to bite it instead of engaging in gossip, or slander, or cursing, or self justification. The gospel calls us to bring our tongue under control and to be holy and blameless in all we say.

Holiness and happiness

We live in a world that feeds us the lie that holiness and happiness don't mix. That somehow to be holy would mean giving up the things that make us happy, we need to check our attitudes and thoughts. Holiness is the scriptures is a source of peace, contentment and happiness. It is to be conformed to God's will.

Robert Murray M'Cheyne wrote "The holiest believers are evermore the happiest."

You've got lies

I have been directed to this today as an article designed for ladies about the perils and problems inherent in watching chick flicks, its by Beth Spraul from Capitol Hill Baptist Church in the States and it is well worth reading and thinking through. http://www.capitolhillbaptist.org/wp-content/uploads/youve_got_lies.pdf

Questions for Father's Day

I've used these here before but with Father's Day on Sunday they are good things to be thinking about. In our churches we need to ask men great questions, not just give them easy answers, we need to address the questions that men are asking in our preaching, here are some suggested questions:

1. What does becoming a Christian mean for my masculinity?
2. What is Biblical manliness?
3. What does biblical holiness look like for men today?
4. What is success?
5. How do I deal with guilt feelings?
6. What is male sexuality? Is purity possible for the modern man?
7. How can we nurture family life?
8. What is Christian leadership? How is it developed?
9. What are the basic disciplines of the Christian man?
10. What ministry skills need to be developed? How? Will the church do it?
11. What is biblical business conduct?
12. What is integrity? How is it developed?
13. What does it mean to be married for God?

Men follow men. Its fascinating working through Luke 9 and 10 as Jesus teaches his disciples how many of these issues come up and are addressed again and again.

Worldliness

That's the title of a little book which C J Mahaney is the editor of that I picked up a while ago but am now getting round to reading. I've read the foreword (by John Piper) and opening chapter and it is excellent so far. It challenges us about our snippet approach to the Bible - specifically how we seem to have effectively cut out John 2:15 "Do not love the world..."

Later chapters deal with the media, music, stuff, clothes, and finally how to love the world. We need its reminder that when it comes to wordliness we are all at risk and also that we do not drift into holiness, that it is a series of choices we make every moment of every day. The example of Demas as a danger of worldliness and where it leads: "Demas, because he lived this world, has deserted me..." Is a challenge especially when you consider he began well and was so involved with the gospel mission.

I'm looking forward to reading it, though the proof will only be in the practical application of it to my heart, my thinking, my bookshelves, DVD collection, CD collection, iPod, TV viewing habits and so on.

Does holiness matter?

Am I bothered about the holiness of others? Am I concerned about what people looking on see as they look at the peopel of God?

Nehemiah 13 is quiet striking. This last chapter of a book in which there has been so much success against adversity is one where rebuke is the theme. Even after so many successes, after so much achievement compromise and decline is what Nehemiah finds on his return to Jerusalem.

1. Our biggest danger – we think the battle is over
There are a number of compromises made in this chapter; Eliashib gives Tobiah (one of those who has opposed the rebuilding) a room in temple, the people fail to provide for the Levites, so temple cult fell into disuse, the people engage in trade and business on the Sabbath, and in mixed marriages (with a priest even marrying Sanballat's (another who has opposed the rebuilding) daughter.

You would think with all the opposition the people would have be determined not to make the same mistake as their forefathers. You would think they would be incredibly aware of the holiness of God having just experienced 70 years in exile. But the people are halfhearted in their worship of God, and its shown in their actions. Actions that say holiness doesn’t matter. , worship can be halfhearted.

I need to look at myself and ask the question, we may recognise that our deliverance and salvation is great but have I become too familiar with it? Do I take it for granted? Over familiarity shown in my actions. But a real desire for holiness, for God’s glory, is seen in right worship, joyful giving, and God honouring living in all of our lives.

2. The only remedy – a call to radical repentance
Confrontation is not popular today – we don’t want to offend anyone. But Nehemiah grasps that something radical needs to be done and he does it: he throws Tobiah out and has the room purified, he rebukes the leaders and nobles, bars gates so traders cannot get in, rebukes people, drives out Joiada, and purifies the priesthood.

In every case Nehemiah stands for what is right as rebukes and calls the people to radical repentance. He takes steps to stop compromise and halfheartedness.

Why? In every case there is a little interlude after action – (14, 22, 29). And what is striking is that Nehemiah wants to hear God’s well done. His actions are prompted by his love for God, his desire to see God's people worshipping a holy God properly.

Do God’s words matter? Our biggest danger is taking liberties with God and his word. The only response is repentance, not words but in radical actions. Nehemiah’s concern is for the people of God to be holy – do I mirror that concern? Would I consider giving warnings like these, using words like these and taking actions like these to spur others on to godliness? Nehemiah did because God’s holiness mattered and his holiness is revealed to others by the way his people live. Do I share that concern?

our biggest addiction

Someone has said “We need to confess our addiction to morality and the appearance of godliness…Jesus is holy which means different without being sinful?” What do you think?

2 Peter 1:5-7 gives us a great MOT for our faith as Peter calls on the believers to make every effort to add to their faith things that are the marks of true godliness and religion and its frippery does not appear once. Yet why so often do we end up weighing someones godliness based on appearance rather than self-control and on attendance rather than moral excellence. It is because hardwired into our hearts is the Pharisee, religion is our default setting.

Yet the Bible continually calls on us to radically revise how we view living for God, it is not about doing set things for him or for show it is about increasingly becoming like him, conformed to the family image.

It means I can be just as holy in a pub as in a church, just as Jesus was perfectly holy when eating with a swindler or a prostitute as when he was in the temple.

That realisation is to liberate me to live in every situation for God's glory in God's power through his spirit.

Fear

I've been looking at Luke 5:1-11 for Sunday morning, its the calling of the disciples. What has struck me as I have done so is that Simon's response to Jesus revealing himself via the miraculous catch of fish is fear. We are told that they were "astonished" and Jesus first words to them are "Do not be afraid". Why were they so terrified?

Because of what the miracle revealed about who Jesus was and what they feared it meant for them. They knew they were not right with God and Jesus found them out! The natural response is to be afraid, judgement should follow.

But we don't really do fear, even when it comes to God. So somewhere there is a fundamental difference in our thinking about God and the disciples. I think there are two areas where we fail to appreciate reality here: we have a wrong image of God and a wrong view of sin.

The Bible reveals a God who hates sin, who can't even look on it, who finds it utterly abhorrent. Sadly that is not how we think. The challenge is to bring my thinking in line with the Bibles especially on these two issues and to tell others the truth.

Am I an alien?

Am I an alien? Sometimes people regard Christians as being well a bit odd. And we are meant to be different but all too often we are not regarded as odd because we are different but because we are odd - because we are not engaged in the real world.

I was at a conference last summer and heard John Piper speak, I've been reviewing my notes again and came across this phrase in my notes; "Nobody is too heavenly minded. We are just not engaged in the world." Driscoll, whose books I have mentioned, suggests that holiness is not removing yourself from the culture around you but striving to be different whilst engaged in the culture around you.

That is what taking gospel risks is. Its all too easy to withdraw from the culture in order to strive to be holy. But how much more radical to strive to be holy whilst engage with the culture. How much more would people take note of us if our holiness was seen in the pub or club or in the workplace. The New Testament seems to envisage holiness to be a struggle and also to be obvious to the world around us, it certainly was in the early church as they stopped idol worship (1 Thess 1:9) as they changed their eating patterns (1 Cor 10) and tried to live a life worthy of the gospel not in monastic terms but whilst engaged in the culture.

No divide of sacred or secular just God's redeemed people living out the call to be holy as I am holy whilst going about their daily life.