What are you doing when you go back?

I was asked the question: "So, what do you have to do when you go back to Portland?" And so I answered, "Well, I have to prepare for..." and then "I have to finish..." and finally "I have to do..." this and that. After answering that question a couple times over the past week, my mind went back to this verse: 

"Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers." - 1 Timothy 4:16

Although I can focus on so many different facets of pastoral ministry, such as programs, structure, administration, communication, numbers, effectiveness, and so on, it is clear that my utmost concern is twofold: my life and my doctrine. 

Am I faithful in teaching God's Word accurately and in a God-honoring way? Am I then living out faithfully what I teach from Scripture? The first question is difficult in and of itself... I must strive to be diligent in study and prayer so that I do not miss the point of any particular verse or passage and take it out of its context or intended meaning! The second question, however, is where the rubber meets the road. Am I faithfully living out God's truth? Of course, neither I nor anyone else could ever say that we follow God's Word with perfection, but I do think that we must be faithfully fighting the fight of faith. Paul makes clear in his letters to Timothy that certain men were not qualified for pastoral ministry if they were not considered men of good character and faithful obedience. 

How does this change the way I answer the question, "What do you have to do when you go back to Portland?" Instead of listing off duties and responsibilities, I think that I will try to include some of the character development and spiritual disciplines I should be (and hopefully will be!) doing. So ask me that question and see if I live up to what I'm preaching!

When our bodies are weak...

"The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak."
Matthew 26:41

It has been my experience time and time again that when I desperately need to seek after God and spend time in His Word and spend time with Him in prayer I find myself physically tested and tempted to go the other direction and turn my brain off. 

Jesus said these words when his disciples fell asleep while Jesus was praying. They were supposed to keep watch and stay awake. They were supposed to keep an attentive ear and eye to Jesus. What happened? They got tired. They fell asleep. I am the same way too many times... how about you?

Father, help us in our times of tiredness and weakness! Father, change the desires of our hearts so that we want you and your wisdom and your relationship more than any other thing in this world - and may that be ever more evident when we are tempted to sleep or "veg" or "turn our brains off" instead of seeking you!

Trusting in Promises, not Providences

This blog post really captured an incredible truth for us to live by especially in light of 2 Peter 1:3-4 which says:

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.

Trust Promises, Not Providences

December 18, 2007 | By: Jon Bloom

This morning my assistant, Bryan DeWire, found out his father, who 24 hours ago seemed in fine health, didn’t make it through emergency heart surgery. This afternoon, my wife called me in tears to update me on a very difficult day trying to raise and teach 5 young children. Very different, yet real and painful experiences of God’s providential reign in lives of Christians I love.

Also this morning I read this sentence in a pamphlet titled, “Honey Out of the Rock,” by Puritan Thomas Wilcox,

“Judge not Christ’s love by providences, but by promises.”

Experiences are very powerful. They often feel more powerful than promises. So it's tempting to interpret prosperity and ease as God’s blessing and tribulation as God’s displeasure. And sometimes they are. But often they are not.

Actually, what we see all the way through the Bible is the Lord training his disciples to trust his promises more than providences. Think of Abraham and Sarah waiting for Isaac, or Jacob losing Rachel, or Joseph in slavery and prison, or Job’s suffering, or David running from Saul. Think of Lazarus and the heartbreak of his death and the constant tribulations of Paul. And of course Jesus set the ultimate example by looking to the joy set before him as he endured the cross (Heb 12:2).

Strange, isn’t it? In the Bible pain is often the path to unspeakable joy and prosperity is often an obstacle to it. What’s going on?

Simply, God wants us to treasure what we can’t see more than what we can.

“For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” (2 Cor. 4:18).

And we find out that it’s pain more than prosperity that makes us look for what our eyes can’t see, and long for a satisfaction that doesn’t exist in this world.

So Thomas Wilcox’s advice is worth heeding. For those of us who are experiencing a bitter providence, Wilcox goes on to say,

Bless God for shaking off false foundations, for any way whereby He keeps the soul awakened and looking after Christ; better sickness and temptations, than security and superficiality.

Thank God for busy weeks and slow weeks alike!

This past week was not only jam-packed, it was draining! Every morning, I had to get up a couple hours earlier than I'm used to; this was all to be able to study and prepare for all the teaching I had to do. I look back over the week and I see God's faithfulness... But I also see his faithfulness in the upcoming week although the two weeks are completely different with regard to my responsibilities. It is truly amazing how God gives us breaks and gives us times of relief and recooperation... of course God originally intended this system since the beginning of creation by modeling it for us! 

Point: God is in control... even over our schedules, whether they are hectic or calm.

Boasting... Pride in action

This article powerfully summarized our tendency to boast about so many things in life! However, it is Christ who is our boast and nothing else... please read this!

Boasting in Lesser Loves

I don’t always love to boast most about God. I love to boast about tricky anagrams. (Can you anagram diesel? What about brides?) I love to rave over my cute little boy. I go on and on about happy hour at McCormick and Schmick’s. I tell every Christian I know about John Piper.

But none of these things are God. So there’s a limit to how much I ought to praise them. I don’t want to make people sick with my exuberance about word games or babies. I don’t want to promote happy hour or Piper so much that people will be disappointed when they actually try for themselves. I sometimes have a feeling inside me that asks, “Are these your idols?”

But one day all of this will change. I won’t have to worry that these pleasures are competing with God in my heart. Our lesser joys will fade away when we see Christ before our own eyes.

Anagrams? Christ is the author of life!

My son? Christ is the image of the unseen God!

Happy hour? “Come and I will give you rest!”

Piper? Well, he’s still pretty cool. But Christ is the one who knit him together!

Suddenly our greatest ambition will be God himself and it will finally be right for our praise to be limitless. We will be at the happy intersection of highest admiration and highest praise, and that joy we had praising our lesser loves will finally be redeemed and realized when we boast in our great God.

- Taken from "Desiring God"'s blog

A Thought on the Love of God

God's love for us is incredible! Even when our perceptions of Him are inaccurate, He seems to give us opportunity to be corrected if we are humble enough to receive correction. God's love for us is not about making much of us but rather saving us from self-centeredness so that we can make much of God and enjoy Him more than anything else in this life.

Look at 1 John 4:7-12:

"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.
Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.
In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us." (emphasis added)

Is it not fascinating that whenever John mentions God's love toward us and shown through us it is always qualified with God-centered and others-centered love. This is no surprise if you remember what the greatest commandment is in Matthew 22:37-40:

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
This is the great and first commandment.
And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets."

God's love for us is not a man-centered love, but rather a God-centered love. There is tremendous practical follow-up from this point: how do I demonstrate love toward others, how do I worship God, how do I witness to others... Do I do these things in a man-centered way or in a God-centered way...? Join me in asking ourselves the tough questions...

Work hard and give all the credit to God!

This is the verse of the day:

"work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure." - Philippians 2:12-13

God does not honor passivity. Rather, we are to "work" out our own salvation, or in other words "fight the good fight of faith" (1 Timothy 6:12). At the moment when you see victory over sin or freedom from the cares of this world or moral excellence in your life, do not make it all in vain by taking the credit and glory for yourself. It is God who works in you! It is for His good pleasure!

May God receive all the credit and glory and praise for any good thing that comes from my life!

A Week in Las Vegas

Las Vegas definitely lives up to its name: "Sin City". Although, in retrospect, I think that it would more accurately be called "Skin City". Pornographic images were everywhere and the entire culture was centered on sensuality and deviousness.

Although this last week was jam-packed with lessons on our culture and its values, there were several moments where I sensed the grace and providence of God.

Moment #1 - Arriving
Having a baby has its advantages when traveling. We had to get a cab to take us to the car rental place and instead of waiting 30 to 45 minutes we were shoved to the front of the line because of our "traveling with baby" status. A small miracle for us in the midst of a lot of craziness! (also, coming back home we experienced another expedited security checkpoint that shaved off an hour's wait in the Las Vegas airport - praise God!)

Moment #2 - The Bellagio
The buildings there were amazing (until you realize they were paid for by the millions/billions of dollars that come streaming in second by second via slot machines, card tables and bets). Standing in front of this massive structure, Tara and I watched the water show that has been widely known because of the popular movie "Oceans 11". During the show, two men were standing behind us sharing the gospel and praying with anyone who would come up to them. Although their methods (including a sandwich-board with abusive language) were less than God-glorifying, I was reminded of the real reason Tara and I were there (or perhaps I should say the real reason that we exist at all times) which is to glorify God by enjoying Him forever!

Moment #3 - Conversations at the Pool
Tara's extended family (her mother's side) accompanied us to Las Vegas ( or more appropriately, we accompanied them due to their generosity!). All of them, to the extent of my knowledge and discernment, do not know God, and most of them would admit that they are not Christians nor desire to become one. To get to the point, I had several conversations with one of them in particular concerning my position on certain cultural/ethical issues (which are really side issues which reveal deeper and stronger worldview convictions). Some of them included capital punishment, dinosaurs on the ark and the end of the world. Although fire did not come down from heaven and burn up the deceit and falsehood that was present, I did sense an openness to Scripture that probably was not there before - praise God!

Moment #4 - Tara and Jacob
Ok, so this wasn't just a moment- it was the entire week. I got to spend a lot of quality time with my family! We did a lot of swimming, wrestling, eating, sleeping... but what was so great was that it was hour upon hour of uninterrupted time with the two people closest to me! This was tremendous for me ( and I know that it was tremendous for Tara and Jacob too... although Jacob wouldn't be able to put it into words). Even more importantly, Tara and I were free to talk about our incredible God and spend a huge chunk of time reading Scripture and studying what God has been teaching us as of late... knowing God through his revealed Word is sweeter than honey!

Lesson Learned: Although some places seem to be more wicked than others, God can be sensed and experienced and pursued and enjoyed at any time and any place. - even in "skin city"

May God encourage you all wherever you are and at all times!

The Key to Unity: Humility

"So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. "
- Philippians 2:1-11

There are many causes of discord and division in the church and among believers that are secondary to doctrinal differences: worship styles, financial situations, favoritism("I like this guy more than that guy"), etc. The ROOT of all these causes is PRIDE - thinking of our own interests before others' interests... the desire to be honored, agreed with, liked, made much of or praised instead of God.

"Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves." - Philippians 2:3-4

Our example of humility is God himself: namely, Jesus Christ (2:6-11). "Obedient to the point of death" is the description of his humility.

If there is any:
encouragement in Christ
comfort from love
participation in the Spirit
affection
sympathy

Basically, when God is at work in and through you... don't let God's work in you become an issue of division or pride, but rather "be of the same mind."

I do not think that this means that we must be willing to compromise what the Bible says. Humility is not the same as compromise. There are certain areas where compromise is completely acceptable: worship styles, paint schemes, pragmatic issues, etc. Humility is needed and is vital to these areas. However, humility in doctrinal disputes or in sin-drenched situations looks a lot different. This humility is like saying, "My opinions and instincts can be helpful or hurtful because I am imperfect even with good intentions; however, THIS is what the Bible says concerning this matter!"

We must submit to Christ's example and his Word in everything we do! May we be humble in our opinions and bold in our allegiance to Christ and his Word!

Hello, I'm Teaching Tomorrow...

It is such a humbling reality to teach the Word of God! When all is said and done, my only hope is that God was honored by my faithfulness to the text of the Bible and that the Holy Spirit worked in the hearts of those who heard the message. I am merely a vessel. A servant. Praise God! To Him be all the credit and praise and recognition and fame and "thank you"s and "how true"s and "that impacted me"s!

What is even more humbling is seeing God use an imperfect servant who still battles with his sinful nature: namely, me. Yes, me. I agree with Paul when he says time and again that he is the "chief of all sinners." Sometimes I feel that way. Oh God, thank you for using broken and sinful and imperfect people such as myself to do Your will! You truly are great and deserving of all praise when Your will is accomplished and we are obedient: You are the one who is moving and directing and changing the hearts of your people!

Tomorrow, I am teaching our awesome Junior High group. I look to the words in Jeremiah 1 for confidence in God's calling as a teacher/pastor:

"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations."

For those of you who are reading this post as teachers or pastors: take comfort in the calling and sovereignty of God! What a wonderful God we serve... may God encourage you and build you up in His grace and joy!