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"Knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ" (1 Peter 1:18-19)
How many of you have ever had the experience, beloved, of checking out the price tag of a particular garment in a store and gasping in amazement at how expensive it was? I have known folks who have treated themselves to such an item, then later when wearing it and having it admired, have replied, "What? This old thing? Why, I've had it ages!"
It is true that perishable items such as clothing, household furniture, and automobiles do grow older and eventually wear out, becoming to us "this old thing" or "our old clunker," regardless of what we originally paid for it. And there is absolutely nothing unusual about such a quirk of human nature.
But Peter was talking about a "price tag" of a different sort, beloved. He was writing about the price of your individual redemption and mine. And the price that God had to pay to buy us back from sin should absolutely always make us gasp in utter amazement! Nor should there ever come a time when we view our salvation through God's grace as "this old thing" and something that we've had forever.
Yet that is precisely what happens in the minds of so many Christians today. We become so accustomed to being saved that it almost comes to be "second-nature" to us. In essence, it becomes "this old thing" that we take for granted! And the longer that we are saved, the more likely we are to develop such an attitude within.
What is so deadly about such an attitude is how it affects our relationship with God. Once we begin to devalue the cost of His grace in our lives, we begin to minimize the awfulness of sin in our thinking. We lose sight of the impact that our sinfulness has upon the perfect holiness of God. And as sin loses its ugliness to us, we further minimize the need for His grace and, thus, the high price which He had to pay. Such a process becomes a vicious cycle of downward progression.
Another area that is affected is our attitude toward the lost around us. Because we take God's grace for granted in our own lives, it becomes difficult to feel heartbroken over those who do not yet know Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. It is difficult to feel any sense of burden for them. And when that happens, our zeal for "missions" diminishes and can be lost altogether.
What is the solution, then? I think that it is very simple. Go back and look once again, really look, at the "price tag" of your salvation! Stand there and realize that it cost the Lord Jesus Christ His very blood to buy you out of sin and into the family of God. Read and re-read Peter's words about how it took "the precious blood" of Christ, the unblemished Lamb of God, to satisfy our sin-debt and to set us free from its bondage. Then fall on your knees before God and begin to truly praise Him for heaven's greatest gift, that of eternal life. When you do, you will find yourself crying out with the Apostle Paul:
"Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!" (2 Corinthians 9:15)
I believe that, were Paul still living on earth today, he would agree with the words of Charles Gabriel, the most prolific gospel song writer of the Billy Sunday evangelistic era (1910-1920):
"I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene,
And wonder how He could love me, a sinner condemned, unclean.
How marvelous! How wonderful! And my song shall ever be;
How marvelous! How wonderful is my Savior's love for me!"
Go check the price tag one more time, beloved! When you do, I don't think you will ever see your salvation in the same light again.
Ron
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Outside-in or Inside-out?
"And He was saying, 'That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man'" (Mark 20:7)
The essential difference between Christianity and any other religion, beloved, is basically one of direction. Religion as man practices it today all over the world is that of changing one's outward behavior to adapt to a rigid set of moral and ethical rules. And many are quite successful at such adaptation. How often have we heard this religious group or that one commended for their fervency and zeal in living by a strict code of conduct - dress, behavior, social relationships - and even in their seeking of new converts to their belief system? What we are seeing all around us today is evidence of an "outside-in" approach to religious belief and practice.
Jesus, however, in teaching His disciples what the nature of true "religion" is, declared that what is necessary is an "inside-out" approach. Whereas mankind has the tendency to believe that everyone is essentially good on the inside and that life is simply a matter of lining up one's behavior with one's inward goodness, Jesus said that what is on the outside is merely a reflection of what is wrong on the inside! In other words, we don't just have a problem with our "doer," we have a deeper problem with our "want-er"! And Jesus said that what is wrong within every man is sin. As the apostle Paul wrote to the church in Rome so graphically describing this deepest need:
"As it is written, 'There is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God; all have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one'" (Romans 3:10-12)
So much for man's inward goodness, beloved! All of the "outside-in" religious efforts, then, no matter how well-intentioned, will accomplish nothing because there is nothing good on the inside for us to model!
What makes Christianity so unique, then, is that only Jesus Christ promises to change what is wrong on the inside of us so that what we do on the outside becomes a natural reflection of the new creation that He has made us on the inside. The apostle Paul put it so beautifully and clearly when he wrote to the Corinthian church and said:
"Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come" (2 Corinthians 5:17)
The "outside-in" approach will always be with us, beloved. There will always be those by the thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, who will insist on trying to conform themselves to a rigid code of conduct in hopes that, if they can just follow it closely enough, perhaps somewhere and somehow their notion of eternal life might be possible.
As Christians, what an opportunity is ours today to exhibit by contrast the wondrous change that Jesus Christ can make as we demonstrate His own "inside-out" miracle of spiritual transformation! Because what He makes us on the inside is what people should see on the outside, we can have opportunity to impact our world for Jesus Christ. We are not "religious" because we make ourselves religious by keeping our noses to the proverbial "grindstone." We are Christ-like because by His grace we have been changed forever from the inside out! Thanks be unto God for His indescribable gift! Are you living your life today "inside-out"?
Ron
The essential difference between Christianity and any other religion, beloved, is basically one of direction. Religion as man practices it today all over the world is that of changing one's outward behavior to adapt to a rigid set of moral and ethical rules. And many are quite successful at such adaptation. How often have we heard this religious group or that one commended for their fervency and zeal in living by a strict code of conduct - dress, behavior, social relationships - and even in their seeking of new converts to their belief system? What we are seeing all around us today is evidence of an "outside-in" approach to religious belief and practice.
Jesus, however, in teaching His disciples what the nature of true "religion" is, declared that what is necessary is an "inside-out" approach. Whereas mankind has the tendency to believe that everyone is essentially good on the inside and that life is simply a matter of lining up one's behavior with one's inward goodness, Jesus said that what is on the outside is merely a reflection of what is wrong on the inside! In other words, we don't just have a problem with our "doer," we have a deeper problem with our "want-er"! And Jesus said that what is wrong within every man is sin. As the apostle Paul wrote to the church in Rome so graphically describing this deepest need:
"As it is written, 'There is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God; all have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one'" (Romans 3:10-12)
So much for man's inward goodness, beloved! All of the "outside-in" religious efforts, then, no matter how well-intentioned, will accomplish nothing because there is nothing good on the inside for us to model!
What makes Christianity so unique, then, is that only Jesus Christ promises to change what is wrong on the inside of us so that what we do on the outside becomes a natural reflection of the new creation that He has made us on the inside. The apostle Paul put it so beautifully and clearly when he wrote to the Corinthian church and said:
"Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come" (2 Corinthians 5:17)
The "outside-in" approach will always be with us, beloved. There will always be those by the thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, who will insist on trying to conform themselves to a rigid code of conduct in hopes that, if they can just follow it closely enough, perhaps somewhere and somehow their notion of eternal life might be possible.
As Christians, what an opportunity is ours today to exhibit by contrast the wondrous change that Jesus Christ can make as we demonstrate His own "inside-out" miracle of spiritual transformation! Because what He makes us on the inside is what people should see on the outside, we can have opportunity to impact our world for Jesus Christ. We are not "religious" because we make ourselves religious by keeping our noses to the proverbial "grindstone." We are Christ-like because by His grace we have been changed forever from the inside out! Thanks be unto God for His indescribable gift! Are you living your life today "inside-out"?
Ron
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Growing a Healthy Church
"But now there are many members, but one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand, 'I have no need of you'; or again the head to the feet, 'I have no need of you'" (1 Corinthians 12:20-21)
Perhaps nothing in life hurts quite like the feeling of being rejected, beloved. And when that rejection takes place among Christians within the visible church, it is even more traumatic. Paul in this passage was dealing with that very problem in the church in Corinth. Some who had shown evidence of the showier spiritual gifts were looking down upon and even disdaining as unnecessary other members that did not have such gifts. Thus, both a feeling of spiritual superiority as well as one of inferiority had arisen and were tearing the church apart. Because the have's were manifesting the attitude "we don't need them" of the have not's, those being rejected had begun to conclude of themselves that "we are not important."
The apostle felt led of the Holy Spirit to use the parallel of the members of the human body to make his point. Suppose, he proposed, that the head should say to the feet: "We do not need you." How would the body get around anywhere if it were not for the feet? "Ridiculous!" surely thought the Corinthian believers about such an absurd occurrence. Yet they failed to see that what they thought to be silly when occurring within the human body was precisely what they were allowing to take place within the spiritual body of their local assembly of believers!
How absolutely vital today within the visible church that none of us as members of those churches ever allow an attitude of either spiritual superiority or inferiority to develop! The way to make sure that such never happens and, thus, tears apart the fellowship of the church is for us to go out of our way to show every member of Christ's body how special and how unique they really are. Such a ministry will be one of personal encouragement, of consolation, of appreciation and of total acceptance. As Paul would later write in this same passage:
"And those members of the body, which we deem less honorable, on these we bestow more abundant honor, and our unseemly members come to have more abundant seemliness" (1 Corinthians 12:23)
If you want to grow a healthy church, then, make it your goal in your interpersonal relationships within the assembly of believers to insure that every single members feels necessary and useful, regardless of what their spiritual giftedness or even their level of spiritual maturity might be. It should be unthinkable to us today, beloved, that even one member of Christ's body should feel rejection in any form!
Ron
Perhaps nothing in life hurts quite like the feeling of being rejected, beloved. And when that rejection takes place among Christians within the visible church, it is even more traumatic. Paul in this passage was dealing with that very problem in the church in Corinth. Some who had shown evidence of the showier spiritual gifts were looking down upon and even disdaining as unnecessary other members that did not have such gifts. Thus, both a feeling of spiritual superiority as well as one of inferiority had arisen and were tearing the church apart. Because the have's were manifesting the attitude "we don't need them" of the have not's, those being rejected had begun to conclude of themselves that "we are not important."
The apostle felt led of the Holy Spirit to use the parallel of the members of the human body to make his point. Suppose, he proposed, that the head should say to the feet: "We do not need you." How would the body get around anywhere if it were not for the feet? "Ridiculous!" surely thought the Corinthian believers about such an absurd occurrence. Yet they failed to see that what they thought to be silly when occurring within the human body was precisely what they were allowing to take place within the spiritual body of their local assembly of believers!
How absolutely vital today within the visible church that none of us as members of those churches ever allow an attitude of either spiritual superiority or inferiority to develop! The way to make sure that such never happens and, thus, tears apart the fellowship of the church is for us to go out of our way to show every member of Christ's body how special and how unique they really are. Such a ministry will be one of personal encouragement, of consolation, of appreciation and of total acceptance. As Paul would later write in this same passage:
"And those members of the body, which we deem less honorable, on these we bestow more abundant honor, and our unseemly members come to have more abundant seemliness" (1 Corinthians 12:23)
If you want to grow a healthy church, then, make it your goal in your interpersonal relationships within the assembly of believers to insure that every single members feels necessary and useful, regardless of what their spiritual giftedness or even their level of spiritual maturity might be. It should be unthinkable to us today, beloved, that even one member of Christ's body should feel rejection in any form!
Ron
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Lessons from Dry Bones
"And He said to me, 'Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, 'O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord''...So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to its bone" (Ezekiel 37:4,7)
I cannot imagine preaching to a valley of dried-out, sun-bleached human bones, beloved, and I stand in awe of Ezekiel for the way in which he was able to do so! I have stood in pulpits where it was the last place I wanted to be and preached to people for whom I was likely the last person they wanted to hear, but that is still a far cry from Ezekiel's valley of dry bones!
What really grabs my attention about Ezekiel is that, regardless of what he may have thought of what God had commanded him, he did it faithfully and apparently with great passion. Imagine being told: "Preach to these bones!" From a preacher's perspective, nothing seems more a waste of time and energy than preaching to those who can neither hear nor see. Yet Ezekiel proclaimed to those bones the unmistakable truths of God's word as if they were all pulled together and hanging upon every word!
As Ezekiel obediently carried out God's command to him, a wonderful thing began to happen. Bone began to move toward bone until they were connected as they had once been however long before. Ligaments and tendons joined bone to bone and bone to muscle, blood vessels appearing and tissues and skin covering each restored individual. As Ezekiel continued to preach God's word, there suddenly arose before him "an exceedingly great army" (v.10).
Should it surprise us, beloved, that God commanded Ezekiel to proclaim truth faithfully to even those dried up old bones? Do you recall the apostle Paul's exhortation to a young preacher named Timothy?
"Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction" (2 Timothy 4:2)
We may all at one time or another encounter our own "valley of dry bones," a situation in which we feel that we are not doing God any good, that no one cares and no one is listening. Those are the times that most try our endurance, those times when we feel that our energies are being wasted. Yet that is not God's concern, just as it was not when He commanded Ezekiel to prophesy. His concern is rather that we do what we have been put there to do and just leave the outcome to Him.
What an encouragement I find Ezekiel to be in these verses, beloved! He is an encouragement to me personally to remain faithful where God has me and not to worry about who is listening or who is not, about who is being changed or who is not. And that is precisely why and how you and I need to keep right on proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ to a world that seems to care less. Let God connect the bones, beloved! Let's you and I just determine that like Ezekiel we are going to keep on preaching!
Ron
I cannot imagine preaching to a valley of dried-out, sun-bleached human bones, beloved, and I stand in awe of Ezekiel for the way in which he was able to do so! I have stood in pulpits where it was the last place I wanted to be and preached to people for whom I was likely the last person they wanted to hear, but that is still a far cry from Ezekiel's valley of dry bones!
What really grabs my attention about Ezekiel is that, regardless of what he may have thought of what God had commanded him, he did it faithfully and apparently with great passion. Imagine being told: "Preach to these bones!" From a preacher's perspective, nothing seems more a waste of time and energy than preaching to those who can neither hear nor see. Yet Ezekiel proclaimed to those bones the unmistakable truths of God's word as if they were all pulled together and hanging upon every word!
As Ezekiel obediently carried out God's command to him, a wonderful thing began to happen. Bone began to move toward bone until they were connected as they had once been however long before. Ligaments and tendons joined bone to bone and bone to muscle, blood vessels appearing and tissues and skin covering each restored individual. As Ezekiel continued to preach God's word, there suddenly arose before him "an exceedingly great army" (v.10).
Should it surprise us, beloved, that God commanded Ezekiel to proclaim truth faithfully to even those dried up old bones? Do you recall the apostle Paul's exhortation to a young preacher named Timothy?
"Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction" (2 Timothy 4:2)
We may all at one time or another encounter our own "valley of dry bones," a situation in which we feel that we are not doing God any good, that no one cares and no one is listening. Those are the times that most try our endurance, those times when we feel that our energies are being wasted. Yet that is not God's concern, just as it was not when He commanded Ezekiel to prophesy. His concern is rather that we do what we have been put there to do and just leave the outcome to Him.
What an encouragement I find Ezekiel to be in these verses, beloved! He is an encouragement to me personally to remain faithful where God has me and not to worry about who is listening or who is not, about who is being changed or who is not. And that is precisely why and how you and I need to keep right on proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ to a world that seems to care less. Let God connect the bones, beloved! Let's you and I just determine that like Ezekiel we are going to keep on preaching!
Ron
Thursday, July 16, 2009
You Never Know Whom You'll Meet in a Tight Spot!
"He answered and said, 'Look! I see four men loosed and walking about in the midst of the fire without harm, and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods!'" (Daniel 3:25)
Three young Hebrew men learned a wonderful lesson about God, beloved, and they learned it, of all places, right smack in the middle of a blazing furnace! Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, better known to us by their Babylonian names given to them by the king - Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego - had made a serious decision concerning the degree of their commitment to God. And that commitment had cost them their personal freedom and a one-way trip to Babylon's biggest bonfire! They certainly hoped that God would choose to keep them out of the fire, but their determination to obey Him was just as resolute even if He did not:
"But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up" (Daniel 3:18)
But it is upon those moments when they were actually in the furnace that I would like for us to focus briefly, beloved. Note carefully that Nebuchadnezzar had ordered three men bound and three men cast into the furnace. And knowing that surely even a pagan like Nebuchadnezzar could count to three, how utterly shocked he was to look into the furnace as was his perverted pleasure to do and find four men "loosed and walking about" unharmed in the flames! And even that pagan king could see the resemblance to divinity when he described the fourth man as being "like a son of the gods."
This incident is replete with wonderful lessons for us as Christians today. One that occurs to me immediately is that Shadrach and Meshach and Abed-nego knew that the furnace was coming. It came as no surprise to them when they were trussed up for their brave stand and cast into a smoking, blazing inferno. Today we should never be surprised when the fiery trials of this life come our way. In our heart of hearts we know they're coming, beloved. And especially as Christians who take a stand in this sinful world for Jesus Christ, we've got to know that our faithful dedication to Him is going to bring some "fire" into our future!
"And indeed, all those who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted" (2 Timothy 3:12)
A couple of other truths occur to me as I read this familiar passage again. One is that God isn't always going to keep us out of the flames. I know that we, like the three Hebrew men here, would love for Him to do just that, but it just isn't always going to happen. Sometimes the simple truth is that the flames are part of the plan! Nowhere in God's word will you find Him promising us that we will not know tribulation. Quite the opposite!
"Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing" (James 1:2-4)
Another truth that occurs to me is that God isn't ever going to leave us alone in the flames. What we go through in life, we never go through alone. If we take time to look around, wherever the trial may take us, there will always be an extra person present! And if Nebuchadnezzar could recognize His divinity through the scratched-up glass of a furnace window, then surely we can spot Jesus because He will never be far away:
"Let your character be free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, 'I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,' so that we confidently say, 'The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What shall man do to me?'" (Hebrews 13:5-6)
One other truth that occurs to me, beloved, is that unbelievers will always be watching every time we are tossed into the flames of this life. Know it or not, like it or not, skeptics and mockers will be watching to see how we handle the fire, just as they did for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. How we handle our trials will be some kind of witness to this watching world.
Just as God brought three Hebrew men through a furnace of blazing fire and caused a king to stand amazed and even declare that He is "the Most High God," so today God will astound those who watch what you suffer, beloved. He will, that is, if like Shadrach and Meshach and Abed-nego we determine that, come what may, we are going to be true to God. So we can know whom we are going to meet in that next tight spot, beloved! And you can look for Him and find Him with you every time that you by God's design encounter one of the many trials of life. Let me encourage you, then, to always look for Jesus first when the tough times come. When you know He's there with you, somehow it just looks different!
Ron
Three young Hebrew men learned a wonderful lesson about God, beloved, and they learned it, of all places, right smack in the middle of a blazing furnace! Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, better known to us by their Babylonian names given to them by the king - Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego - had made a serious decision concerning the degree of their commitment to God. And that commitment had cost them their personal freedom and a one-way trip to Babylon's biggest bonfire! They certainly hoped that God would choose to keep them out of the fire, but their determination to obey Him was just as resolute even if He did not:
"But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up" (Daniel 3:18)
But it is upon those moments when they were actually in the furnace that I would like for us to focus briefly, beloved. Note carefully that Nebuchadnezzar had ordered three men bound and three men cast into the furnace. And knowing that surely even a pagan like Nebuchadnezzar could count to three, how utterly shocked he was to look into the furnace as was his perverted pleasure to do and find four men "loosed and walking about" unharmed in the flames! And even that pagan king could see the resemblance to divinity when he described the fourth man as being "like a son of the gods."
This incident is replete with wonderful lessons for us as Christians today. One that occurs to me immediately is that Shadrach and Meshach and Abed-nego knew that the furnace was coming. It came as no surprise to them when they were trussed up for their brave stand and cast into a smoking, blazing inferno. Today we should never be surprised when the fiery trials of this life come our way. In our heart of hearts we know they're coming, beloved. And especially as Christians who take a stand in this sinful world for Jesus Christ, we've got to know that our faithful dedication to Him is going to bring some "fire" into our future!
"And indeed, all those who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted" (2 Timothy 3:12)
A couple of other truths occur to me as I read this familiar passage again. One is that God isn't always going to keep us out of the flames. I know that we, like the three Hebrew men here, would love for Him to do just that, but it just isn't always going to happen. Sometimes the simple truth is that the flames are part of the plan! Nowhere in God's word will you find Him promising us that we will not know tribulation. Quite the opposite!
"Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing" (James 1:2-4)
Another truth that occurs to me is that God isn't ever going to leave us alone in the flames. What we go through in life, we never go through alone. If we take time to look around, wherever the trial may take us, there will always be an extra person present! And if Nebuchadnezzar could recognize His divinity through the scratched-up glass of a furnace window, then surely we can spot Jesus because He will never be far away:
"Let your character be free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, 'I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,' so that we confidently say, 'The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What shall man do to me?'" (Hebrews 13:5-6)
One other truth that occurs to me, beloved, is that unbelievers will always be watching every time we are tossed into the flames of this life. Know it or not, like it or not, skeptics and mockers will be watching to see how we handle the fire, just as they did for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. How we handle our trials will be some kind of witness to this watching world.
Just as God brought three Hebrew men through a furnace of blazing fire and caused a king to stand amazed and even declare that He is "the Most High God," so today God will astound those who watch what you suffer, beloved. He will, that is, if like Shadrach and Meshach and Abed-nego we determine that, come what may, we are going to be true to God. So we can know whom we are going to meet in that next tight spot, beloved! And you can look for Him and find Him with you every time that you by God's design encounter one of the many trials of life. Let me encourage you, then, to always look for Jesus first when the tough times come. When you know He's there with you, somehow it just looks different!
Ron
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