Two Important Announcements

Hello everyone,
      Here are two important announcements for you.

      Firstly, my blog has moved to my official author site www.gracefighters.org. I will be posting articles there beginning this week.
      Secondly, my book, "Fight for Grace", is officially released. You may find it on Amazon (see link below), Barnes and Nobel.com, or your local Christian book retailer.

     Thank you for your support!


Andy



Link to Amazon.com

http://www.amazon.com/Fight-Grace-Time-Roll-Sleeves/dp/1449773400/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1354129485&sr=1-1&keywords=Fight+for+grace

My Own Private Penance

           Why is it that when we sin we feel the need to somehow make up for it? This is fascinating to me. We may wrong a person, or lose our temper, or lust, or fall into gluttony, and often times when these sins occur in our lives there is an immediate reaction to try and make up for it.  We often think, “Wow, look at what I did! I really don’t deserve to do anything fun today…I am completely unworthy of praying to God or serving in His church, going out with friends or taking some alone time for myself. I am just so rotten! I am not worthy of anyone’s love or grace because of what I have done.”

            Sound familiar?

           

            My wife is a woman who is full of grace towards me, and this comes out especially when I do or say something rude to her. I know exactly when I have let my flesh out towards her, and afterwards, I feel so silly because I know that it is not how I am meant to live. But I also find that when I have let my flesh out (usually impatience) I am tempted to reject my wife’s love for me after the fact. For some reason, I feel so unworthy of it almost as if her loving me this way simply is not fair, and I need to reject it to keep the scales even.

            While rejecting love and grace filled acts towards us sometimes feels right, what we are really doing is inflicting a subtle type of penance towards ourselves. We often think “I have been bad. I must make up for it.” This seems especially true for Christians at times. We feel that when we sin, we suddenly become unworthy of God’s grace and must do something to make ourselves worthy. But the reality is that grace has never been about fairness: grace is not fair, and by definition, it never will be.

            Essentially what we are doing when we deny Christ’s work in the midst of our failure is enacting our own private penance. Sure, we may not be hitting ourselves with a whip, but we each have our own “whips” that we try and use in the midst of failure. Sometimes my whip is agreeing with the thought that I am too dirty to make an impact in the kingdom. As I said above, another whip I use is the denial of my wife’s love for me in the midst of failure. Whatever our weapon, penance is a flagrant attack on the work of Christ. He has already done everything needed for our “worthiness.” He has already done everything needed to “make up” for our sins. There is no room for penance in true Christianity.

            Hebrews tells us why.

            “For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.” Hebrews 10:14

            So how has Christ perfected those who are sanctified (set apart)? By one offering: Himself. True Christianity leaves no room for penance because Jesus has done it all. We are perfect because our sins have been forever taken away. Sure we may feel stupid when we sin (this isn’t a bad thing necessarily), or we may feel unworthy of such a beautiful gift of grace. But what sets Christianity apart in the world is that it is not about giving people what they deserve. It is about accepting Christ and His work as a free gift.

Why is Christianity the narrow path that is entered through the “narrow gate” (Matthew 7:13)? Because people have to come to the end of their self-righteousness and private penances, and receive the free gift of grace. We must all recognize Jesus, and Jesus alone, as the one and only means of our “perfection” and righteousness before God. There is no sin for which we must perform penance. There is no sin that is too big for the work of Christ. We must learn to rest in this finished work without any attempt to doctorate it up by man-made religion. Like it or not, when we add to the work of Christ, we are saying that He is not enough for us, and that His work needs to be doctored up a bit so that it is sufficient.

This is very dangerous ground indeed.

True Worship

            Worship has been a topic of debate for a long time: "What is it? How do we do it? How do we do it better? What kind of corporate worship is permissible in church?" For some churches, worship is singing out of a hymnal without any instruments, while others have a full worship band complete with back-up singers and a lead guitarist. 

             I think there have been some grave misunderstandings about worship and its real meaning. Growing up I always saw Sunday morning as the “worship time” for my week, and I think on a very subconscious level I began telling myself that true worship can only happen in a church with music on Sunday morning. I lived with this belief for a while and constantly sought worship through music and nothing else.

             Because I am a musician and a huge fan of worship music, I will admit that songs are often an easy place for me to go to focus on Christ, but often times I will listen to a song or sing one in church, and I will be completely unresponsive. I won’t be passionate about the words of a certain song so I will automatically think “Well, I must not be worshiping today! I must not be intimate enough with Jesus…” As I have thought about worship more and more, I have realized that when this mindset is present, we aren’t worshiping. Not because we don’t respond to a song, but because our focus is off of Christ.

             Romans 12:1 helps paint a great picture of true worship.

           “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.”

            Paul knew how to simplify worship. It was a response to God’s mercy, and ultimately led to believers offering their bodies to the Lord. While other gods and religions around the world call for people’s bodies to be offered as blood sacrifices to appease a god, the God of Heaven and Earth calls us to offer ourselves because He stands appeased by the blood of Jesus Christ.

           Worship is not a one time a week ordeal where we come to church to be intimate with God. It is a daily, moment by moment response to His mercy in Christ. It is done because we have been made intimate with God through Jesus Christ, not to gain intimacy.

            Singing songs about our great God is wonderful. Coming together as a body of believers throughout the week to reflect on Jesus is what church is supposed to look like. But true worship is not ultimately in the songs we sing, or the actions that we carry out. It is in the response to God’s mercy. If we respond to the grace of God by offering our bodies (voices included) to Him daily, this is worship. But if we are doing it for some other reason, it ceases to be worship entirely.

            Much debate has occurred over what worship forms are appropriate in the church. We often ask “Should we use guitars? Hymns? Banjos? Which songs should we sing?” And many a worship leader has thought “What on earth is wrong with this congregation? Why don’t they show their excitement by raising there hands and jumping around?” But while we ask these questions, the Father is asking us to lay aside these human ideas of worship, and reflect on the magnificent work of Jesus. When true worship is in focus, it becomes less and less about HOW we worship in church, and more about WHO we are worshiping. Worship was never meant to be confined to specifics like musical or instrumental choice. God has always intended our worship to be a life spent responding to how great Jesus is, and how the Love of God has magnificently revealed itself to mankind throughout human history. Anything else is false worship.

            And let’s face it, the more the grace of God is tasted, the less the music even matters. 

The Helper

            We Christians often define our faith as a faith where people can be forgiven for all of their sins simply by trusting in Jesus’ finished work on their behalf. This is a completely amazing and completely true fact about the Gospel. When we trust in Jesus Christ for our right standing with God, all of our sins committed beforehand, and all sins that we will commit are completely forgiven in an instant. The book of Hebrews even goes as far to say that not only has God the Father completely forgotten our sins, but so has the Holy Spirit (see Hebrews 8:12, and Hebrews 10:17). But is this all there is to being a Child of God?

            It is so tempting to make the conclusion that we are saved by grace through Christ’s work on the cross, but after we are saved, we need to roll up our sleeves and get to work for God. The problem is, as all who have lived in this mentality know, that when we think this way, we are often placing trust in our own strength to live the Christian life.

            In short, when we do this, we are setting ourselves up to fail. Often.

            So when we do fail we think “Crud, there I go again, failing for God. I can’t believe I sinned! I thought I would never cross that bridge again. Well, there I go, being my own sinful self. Thank God I am forgiven!” It becomes an endless cycle. We remember Jesus work. Receive grace. Get back to work. Fail. Remember Jesus’ work. Receive grace. Get back to work. Fail. And so on, and on, and on, and on.

            But God does not limit the good news of His Son to forgiveness for sins. Yes, this is an amazing part of the gospel. But it is not the whole gospel. There is an entire second half that we often forget.

            Jesus Christ lives in us.

           

            That’s right. The one Being in the entire universe who actually has the Christian life down perfectly is alive in us, wanting to express Himself through us. So what does this look like?

            Imagine for a minute that you are a young filmmaker trying to be noticed by Hollywood, and have the opportunity to have the spirit of the Academy Award winning filmmaker Steven Spielberg living inside of you. Wanting to be as good as him, you jump at the chance. So, old Steven’s spirit comes and lives inside of you wanting to express his style of filmmaking through you. A few days after this miraculous (and weird) encounter, you receive a call from a top producer who really wants you to make a movie for them. You jump at the opportunity!

As you might already imagine, when you make that movie you have a choice. You can either roll up your sleeves and get to work on it in your own power, or you can let the master live his life through you guiding your actions and counseling you. You can let him help you.

This is how it is for us after salvation. We can either go for the Christian life ourselves, or we can let Jesus do it.

            The Bible describes the character of the Spirit of Jesus in this way:

            “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” Galatians 5:22-23

            He is always producing these qualities both towards and within His children. We never have to wonder how God is acting towards us at any given moment. He will always be loving, joyful, peaceful, kind, gentle etc. towards us. But He will also always be guiding us into a lifestyle of allowing Him to express these qualities through us. It’s what He has designed us to do: be expressers of Him.

            So how do we produce these qualities? We don’t. We stop trying to live the Christian life. We rest in grace and in God’s total acceptance of us through Christ, and as we do, the grip that we hold on our Christian walk lessens, and Jesus’ grip begins to tighten.

            As Christians we have been spiritually redesigned. Our sin nature has been destroyed and we have been made “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4) and “slaves of righteousness” (Romans 6:18). We aren’t evil at our core anymore; we desire what God desires. But we don’t successfully express this new us on our own strength. This was never God’s intention. We do it in total dependence on the Holy Spirit as our Helper, our encourager, and our power source. We do it WITH Him, BY His power. It is not “all of Him and none of us” as we are tempted to say. It is all of Him and all of us living the life together. Do you know that you are actually one with the Spirit of God? That your life and His life are completely inseparable?

            “For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.” Colossians 3:3

“But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him.” 1 Corinthians 6:17

We are completely forgiven when we trust in Jesus, and what an amazing truth this is! But it is not the whole gospel. We are changed from the inside out, and we become the Home of a God who desperately wants us to understand that we are not alone, so that we can stop living the Christian life as if we were.  

Worth in the Son

            Our worth is not in what we do.

             It is not in our accomplishments, however big.

             It is in one thing alone: The Son.

            We all come from different backgrounds. Some of us are believers in Jesus, some are not. But regardless of what we accept or reject about the Son of God, one truth remains: Our worth is in Him. It is not in us or anything that we can accomplish or have accomplished.

            For those of us who reject the gospel message, there is proven love.

            “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8

            You may reject Christ, but He has shown you your worth. He has proven it, in fact. Can you imagine a God that actually would stoop to such “a low” as to enter into His creation and die for it? It would be hard, impossible even, to imagine if the Bible did not describe such a God to us. The Greek and Roman Gods were petty and selfish. Many other “gods” described in various religions are not far from the same. But none of them have died for you.

            You may be a believer in Jesus and are absolutely “on fire” for Him. You may even be a pastor or serve in ministry at your church doing amazing things for God. But your worth is not in these things. No matter how many copies (or how few)  your books have sold, no matter how many people you have led to Jesus, no matter how many pats you get on the back Sunday morning, your worth is safely kept in the Son. Oh yes, you too are loved, but you are more than that. You are children of God.

            “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.” 1 John 3:1

            God is not some distant being to you. He is Abba. He is daddy.

            “Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father." Galatians 4:6

            There are so many places to find our worth in this world. But only one true place and that is in Jesus Christ. Regardless of whether you are a believer or not, your worth is in Him. You can’t escape it. He died for you. He wants to save you. He wants to give you a real life, one that is abundant in meaning. He doesn’t want to make you “religious.” He just wants you. Can you believe it?

Come to the Son.

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28

Believe and Love: Simple Reminders of God's Grace

            I am still a work in progress, and if you’re honest, you are too. Honestly, how many times a week do we have difficulty keeping track of God’s love for us? Ten? Fifteen? Twenty? THIRTY!?! I know. Some of you are right up in the hundreds with me. At times our Christianity is freeing, at other times it’s binding. Sometimes it doesn’t matter just how much we tell ourselves the amazing truths of the gospel, our brains just have a hard time receiving it. Welcome to Earth: sin beaten and war ravaged. Our temporary home.

            There is an improper belief that pastors have it all together. At times, we are seen as the ones who totally understand the grace of God PERFECTLY. Well, in case some of you believe that, I am here to set the record straight: we don’t. We struggle just as much as you do. We too see ourselves as unlovable at times, we also feel condemned even though deep down we know that “there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).

            We still sin too. We fail to behave perfectly in ways that many congregants might find shocking if they themselves have not recognized the depth of their own sinful struggles. But this is the journey that we are on. It began when we received Christ, and it never ends. Let us take a pause in our busy lives and investigate some truth together. Are you ready?

            We are not perfect in and of our own doing. But Jesus is, and He has perfected us by His own doing.

            “For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.” Hebrews 10:14

            That’s right. He (Jesus) has perfected all those being set apart for God. How? By one offering. Jesus offered Himself once for sin, and this offering initiated the New Covenant. God saw His Son’s sacrifice as perfect, and therefore sees we who believe as perfect. Without sin. Without imperfect behavior. Without moral failures.  I am perfect because of the sacrifice of my Jesus. Not because of my behavior. How about you?

            God has truly made this New agreement with mankind bullet proof. We receive Christ once and we begin an eternal lifetime of knowing God. The God who has revealed Himself as Abba.

            “For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.” Romans 8:15

            God. Our daddy. Perfectly patient, gentle, and accepting of His children. Daddy is close to us in our fear, moral failure (no matter what the magnitude), and our insecurities. God has taken care of it all. He has taken away the one beast that kept us from Him: sin. We are safe, secure, and intimately close to God.

            “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own…” 1 Corinthians 6:19

            He also does not require much from us. Just simple belief, and simple love. Almost too simple right? Some of you may be thinking “but what about all of Jesus’ commands like loving God with all our heart soul mind and strength, and love our neighbor as ourselves?!?! That isn’t simple. It takes a lot of work!” Well let’s take a look.

³⁵ One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: ³⁶ “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”  ³⁷ Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’^{[a] 38} This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’^{[b] 40} All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:35-40

Alright…so….how you doing with those two commandments? Some of you may be doing well, others not so much. Especially with the first commandment. It’s one thing to love a neighbor but just how do you love God with all of that?  The good news is we don’t have to sit down and figure out exactly what it means to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Why? Because these two commandments summed up the Law. As much as these are used as commands for Christians today, it is actually a lot more simple than that. Christians are no longer under the Law because Jesus Christ fulfilled the Law perfectly for us.

"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” Matthew 5:17

“Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.” Romans 10:4

^“For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh,^[a] God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering.^[b] And so he condemned sin in the flesh, ⁴ in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” Romans 8:3-4

So loving God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength? Yes. That has been fulfilled as well by Jesus. He was the only person who truly could love God perfectly. So what is required of us? Take a look.

 ^“This is His commandment that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us.” 1 John 3:23

That’s right. Believe and love one another.

This is not a two point check list for Christians daily living. This is a state of being. It is who we are! Those who genuinely believe will love other Christians. This does not mean we won’t fail at specific acts of love, but that deep down we love the people of God because they are from God. And so are we!

 Those who follow His simple commands are also loving God by doing so.

“This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome…” 1 John 5:3

Yes my friends. Not burdensome. Just simple belief and simple love for one another.  In my journey, simple things often get complicated. I often forget the relentlessly grace filled message of the gospel. I do fail often, I am not perfect in behavior, and yes I am a youth pastor. But I am here on the journey with you, desperately needing constant reminders of the grace of God. Thanks for taking this journey with me today through some simple reminders of God’s grace. I needed it, and something tells me you did too.

Faith Plus

                    "Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves 
                       be circumcised, Christ will   be of no value to you at all.” 
                                                    Galatians 5:2

            These strong words came from the Apostle Paul around 48 years after Christ. That’s right, merely half a century later the gospel of grace was already under attack. How you might ask? Let me tell you.

            The church at Galatia had been influenced by a group known as the Judaizers. These professing Christians taught that one needed not only to have faith in Christ for salvation, but to follow various works of the Old Testament law. In this specific case, the law was circumcision. The church was being taught and persuaded that not only did one need to believe in Jesus to be saved, but they needed also be circumcised. Modern day Christians may not have issues with Judaizers teaching a faith plus circumcision gospel, but we certainly have a lot of faith plus teachings going around.

Notice Paul’s words to the Galatians: If they begin circumcising themselves, Christ will mean nothing to them. How much? Nothing. What is the only way that Jesus could ever mean “nothing” to someone? If His work is not held in the absolute highest esteem imaginable. For the Galatian church it was circumcision that “outshined”, and distracted people from the grace of God. What is it for us today?

Take a few moments and think on this. What is it that distracts you from Jesus? No, I am not talking about your job or daily rituals such as reading non-Christian books or watching movies. I am talking about ANYTHING in your life that shrinks the magnificent work of Christ. What exactly are you adding to the gospel?

For me, I was adding confession for forgiveness of sins. Some of you may be thinking “Wait? Really? What kind of teacher are you?!?! We are SUPPOSED to confess our sins for forgiveness. Come on! Everyone knows 1 John 1:9!” But the reality is that if we do not believe that we are a hundred percent forgiven solely on the basis of faith in Jesus redeeming work, then we are adding to the gospel. As Andrew Farley puts it, we are “cheating on Jesus.”[1] We on one hand accept His sacrifice as totally sufficient for our sins, while one the other hand, adding “right” behavior to take care of the stuff that He neglected to take care of on the Cross.

 1 John 1:9 is one of the main points of cheating on Jesus that exist today. If there was ever something that we like to add to faith, it is confession. The reality is that if this verse does talk about Christians, then we literally lose our salvation every time we sin. That’s right. Check out the language.

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9

Catch that? Forgive us our sins, and cleanse from what? ALL unrighteousness. I’m sorry to disappoint, but this is salvation talk folks. The only people who are by definition not forgiven and cleansed are those who reject Christ, since Christians by definition are forgiven and righteous people (Romans 3:22). This makes sense when we understand that John was separating light from darkness, those who were of Christ and those who weren’t. Those who were not of God, Gnostic teachers, needed to confess (acknowledge) their sins (of which there were many) before God in order to be forgiven and cleansed. After all, we all known that step 1 to becoming a Christian is recognition of what? Sin! John was not asking Christians to ask for forgiveness. That would be like Bill Gates asking someone for a dollar. He doesn’t need it! And neither do believers in Jesus. We have everything we need in Christ.

You now know how I made Christ “of no value” to my life. What is your poison of choice? Good works? Spiritual achievements? Competition? Circumcision?

It’s time to check exactly how well we are respecting Jesus’ work. Maybe we aren’t doing as good a job as we think.

           

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[1] Farley, Andrew. "Cheating on Jesus." The naked Gospel: the truth you may never hear in church. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2009. 131. Print.