Greetings,
When we purchase an item, we automatically run it through a cost/value analysis. Think of paper plates. Some people value the cheapest price and will compromise quality and the plates will break, leak or be run through with a plastic fork. Other people let the quality dictate their decision, buying plates that practically look like fine china--they value the guarantee of a great plate experience. Most people will land somewhere in the middle with a quality that isn’t life-changing but also isn’t going to biodegrade before you finish eating.
Once we find just the right balance, we often purchase the same kind over and over again, without question. We value the product and so it gets our vote of confidence and thus our business. I want to suggest that each of us make these value estimates not only in our consumer life, but in all facets of our lives. Consequently, even if we value our devotional life, we often vote with our use of time, most of the time subconsciously, very differently than what we say we value.
"I want to spend more time in reading God’s word and devoting myself to the instructions of Jesus... I want to get healthy... I want to spend more time in face to face conversations... I wish I had more time to do… I wish, I dream, I hope, I want, I desire, etc…" are each the beginning of a value statement. We desire some level of intimacy with the Lord and with others, but we either do not value it enough to make it happen, value the other things that steal our time more, or are so distracted by the urgent matters around us that we don’t persevere in doing what we know we need most.
There is this tension that we all live. How much time and energy am I going to put toward something that I value? Paul said it best, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.” Romans 7:15-20
He is saying that he often loses the value war within himself. The Holy Spirit within him values the good but his sin too often wins out in the value war. If you were to look at Paul’s life, it would be difficult to prove that he did not value the good things of the spirit. I think the aggregate of his life demonstrated that he valued the Spirit more than the things of the flesh. We recognize that he continued to strive to obtain it. As we see him state in Philippians 3:14, "I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."
If we value the Lord in our life, it should show through personal growth and development, a deepening love and devotion to the Lord through obeying his commands, and teaching others to obey His commands as well. That is His calling in the life of every believer. We make value statements all day, everyday by the decisions that we make. Every time we say yes to something we are saying no to something else. Are you saying yes to God? In the end, will the aggregate of your life demonstrate that you valued Jesus above everything else? We can get discouraged that we often do what we don’t want to like Paul. If we truly value Jesus like we say we do, press on, keep trying, don’t give up! Demonstrate by your decisions that you value Christ more.
Love ya,
Chris
Greetings,
How is it with your soul? This past Sunday, I proclaimed a message on hope. I was surprised by the number of people who approached me after the service to say that they had struggled with spiritual and emotional depression. Those dark seasons of the soul are far more common than we care to admit.
I really appreciated studying and meditating on Psalm 42 and I have found the principles drawn from it to be helpful in my life, even though I rarely feel overwhelmed by hopelessness. The past 16 to 18 months in ministry have come with many trying and difficult moments. Although I didn’t feel hopeless, I definitely felt overwhelmed. I knew that the Lord would carry me through. I knew that I would see brighter days and that this was a opportunity to grow in character, but it also felt overwhelming and dark.
God bless our leadership and our church family for stepping into the place where I was to pray for me and speak the hope of the gospel to my soul. I feel incredibly blessed to share friendships that were encouraging during tough times. I can’t begin to tell you what a blessing it is to have elders with the grace and wisdom that we have at Way of Life. If I were faced with leading a congregation with only my faith and immediate family supporting me, I think… I know, that I would have broken a long time ago. I know that I need other people around me taking my spiritual temperature and checking on my soul.
One of the principles that I learned a long time ago is that I also need to communicate honestly where my soul truly is. I have known myself to say that my soul is healthy to those around me when I know that my soul is feeling dry or hurt. Vulnerability, meekness, humility is the position Jesus took for each of us. In order to have Christ shine best through us, we need to be honest with our friends about the condition of our soul. If you are feeling alone and your soul is feeling in need of a revival of hope, I would encourage you to look first to the unconditional, sovereign love of God through Christ Jesus, and second, to communicate the true condition of your soul with someone who reflects the love of God to others. Be willing to “put yourself out there.” Take the risk of experiencing the pain that undoubtedly you have experienced before, in telling someone about your soul condition. Be sure the person is a wise lover of God and truly desires to reflect that love to others. Trust that the Lord wants you to have hope.
John 13:34-35 ~ “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
The soul of a person is more valuable than the whole world (Mark 8:36). You can’t truly know or love someone unless you know the true condition of their soul. Likewise, you cannot truly be known or loved unless you reveal the true condition of your soul.
Love ya,
Chris
Greetings,
I am okay, you’re okay… you do you… I can respect that… that’s cool for you… these are popular responses that people give when facing a challenge to their worldview. At first glance, they are kind of a courteous way to end the conversation. However, these comments are more than a quick brush off from what may be a difficult discussion. They are a part of a larger thesis statement to a worldview that is old but has morphed and resurfaced in western culture and is quickly becoming global. This thesis statement claims that there are many options, several ways to live that are right and good. The argument from many is that what you believe is only one of many philosophies and your way may be right for you but I don’t find it helpful for me.
So, Jesus saying that He is the way the truth and the life and that no one comes to God except through Him is “problematic” to people because of the exclusivity of that statement. I am convinced that this is the largest intellectual hurdle for most people to get over in order to understand why Jesus is such a big deal.
Convincing a “many roads” minded person to trust in an almighty God alone is tough especially because they often don’t believe in one almighty creator. This issue of a creator has been debated since the beginning of time and the “sophisticated” mind has trouble dealing with a creator God. Not in intellectual terms, but emotionally. The bottom line is, if there is a God, and if that God is holy, that will mean that I must change; I don’t want to change, so I will argue for no God and work hard to convince myself and others that I am right.
The next important intellectual hurdle is coming to terms with whether the Bible is the inspired word of God. If the Bible is the inspired word of God, then God is absolutely holy and therefore cannot be approached by any created being, no matter how righteous that person claims to be. Holiness in its very essence is set apart, dangerous, powerful, pure and perfect. A holy God can only be approached by perfection and no one is perfect. The only way that a holy God would allow an imperfect human to stand in His presence, is if that holy God chooses to either overlook the imperfection or impute His perfection onto the imperfect one.
The Bible is clear that God has given imperfect humanity His perfect righteousness as a gift through Jesus. The Bible tells us that Jesus is not only a perfect human, but bears the very names of God--He is self-existent, all-powerful, all-knowing, eternal, sinless, sovereign, and is in His very nature, God. He possesses the authority of God, performs the work of God and is worshiped as God. The Old Testament prophesied about Jesus and through His life, death, burial and resurrection He fulfilled, very conservatively, over 100 messianic prophecies.
Since God through Jesus replaces our imperfection with Jesus’s perfection and it is only through Jesus’ perfection that we are allowed into the presence of the almighty, holy, creator God, it appears to be the only possible way to God. This is the exclusive, free and holy gift that Jesus offers to all who believe.
Unfortunately, humanity wants to earn God’s favor for some reason. We want to be considered good enough, capable enough and smart enough to craft a new and simple way to enter into the presence of the holy creator God by our own merit. Unfortunately, any other way but perfection will fall dreadfully short.
1 Thessalonians 2:13 -- "And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers."
Love ya,
Chris