STOP IT!

Had the joy and honor of speaking at our ALPHA ministry last night on the topic of resisting evil, and had some people ask for me to put some of what I talked about. So, here you go!

If you’re anything like me you have had someone in your life who drove you crazy because they seemed so incredibly perfect. They had the looks, the smarts, the friends, the athleticism, the talent, and even the perfect shoes. They were so madingly perfect you wished the perfect shoelaces on their perfect shoes would come untied, forcing them to trip in front of a perfectly gigantic bus. Or maybe that was just me! Here’s the thing. We get irritated when we see “perfect people” because we’re not even close to perfect, and we kinda wish we were. In our lamenting we need to remember that we were not made to be so imperfect. Ephesians puts our creation in God’s image like this: For we are God’s masterpiece, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do (Ephesians 2:10).

We were made to be a masterpiece, but we’ve chosen repeatedly throughout our life to screw that up by giving into temptation and letting sin into our lives. One way to illustrate this is the life of David. Here is a guy that from the beginning seems to do nothing wrong. He’s just a little guy and he’s killing lions and bears. He’s a young man and taking out giants with a little stone. He’s a shepherd who becomes king. Sounds like God’s Mona Lisa to me. Then one day he sees this beautiful woman bathing and, in an instant, flings himself into lust, adultery, and eventually murder. David basically spills paint all over God’s Mona Lisa. 

David’s reaction is one we can learn so much from. When confronted by his sin David quickly responds: “I have sinned against the Lord.” Nathan replied, “The Lord has taken away your sin.” That’s God’s grace at work. We follow a God who creates us as masterpieces, watches us spill paint all over them, then gracefully cleans it up when we are willing to confess our wrongs at the foot of His cross. That needs to be our constant response to sin and evil in our life: we confess it at the foot of the cross, asking the God of grace to forgive us.

Here’s the next part, and a part many of us don’t do well with. We need to actually work at cutting the sin out of our lives, resisting evil and temptation at every turn. Here’s an acronym I came up with that has helped me in resisting evil and sin in my life. Hopefully you will find it helpful as well.

STOP IT:

Seek God’s way in all things. No matter how much YOU may want something remember you were formed masterful not for your own pleasure, but for God’s. Constantly be evaluating your decisions against God’s holy standards

Trust in Christian friends. Surround yourself with Christ followers willing to call you what you often are: an idiot! Get people in your life who will love you no matter what, but who will also hold you accountable and point you in God’s direction.

Overcome by God’s grace: Remember, it is only God who forgives sins, and God had to come to earth in the flesh and suffer and die in a horrendous fashion to forgive your sins. When tempted to sin picture Jesus on that cross, and remember what had to be done for you. Don’t take advantage of that gift.

Pray constantly. Pray for your weaknesses, your sins, your impure thoughts, and that God’s spirit my guide you in all struggles. Oh, and do it all every single day!

Ignite a passion for God in others: you can’t give into evil when you fully engaged in fighting it, so fight it by investing in the lives of others in Christ’s name.

Taught by God’s Word: You’ve been given the ultimate cheat sheet for success in this life and eternity, so use it! Take out the Bible every day and cheat to win now and forever!

Praying for God to help you in overcoming whatever struggles you are facing.

 

Fuel Yourself

Right now our church is in a series in worship and small groups entitled 40 Days in the Word. As I’ve been taking in the messages, participating in my small group, and doing the daily devotionals I’ve been really struck by the following: it’s really stinking hard to be all God has made us to be if we’re not getting into His Word AND putting into practice daily. I think this is a fact many of us, including THIS GUY RIGHT HERE, tend to forget as we go about the hustle and bustle of our lives, but it’s something we do need to be hyper mindful of.

Last winter I drove from Wisconsin to my parents’ house in Iowa (about a 9 hour drive) to help them out while my Dad recovered from knee replacement surgery. In my effort to make really good time I tried to limit stops as much as possible, which meant pushing my gas tank to the limit. Unfortunately there are sections of Iowa more sparsely populated then a crater on the dark side of the moon (i.e. all of Sac County!), which kinda sorta led to me running out of gas. My desire to make great time ended up costing me hours as I got to mush through snowy fields to the nearest gas station (my gas can also ended up having a leak, covering me in gas, which I smelled like for about 2 weeks).

Here’s my point: when we skip filling up with the fuel we need we tend to fall pretty flat, and that’s exactly what happens when we fail to take the time to be charged up by God’s Word. I love how Paul puts this in Colossians 3:16: Let the Word of God Dwell in YOU richly. Want to live the fullest life possible? Get into the Word daily. Want to truly be a disciple of God who makes a huge impact? Fill up with the Word? Need guidance amidst the trials of life? Seek it in God’s Word. Is it hard to find the time to do it? Sure. Is it harder to mush through the messes of life caused by going a different path? You better believe it!

What We’re Fighting For

Many of you probably know by now that I lost one of my best friends this past week. Anan Smith was my roommate at Simpson College for 2 years, a groomsman in our wedding, and just one of the singularly most unique and loving guys I ever met. As I’ve thought about his passing and attended his memorial service in Kansas City last night (a service which should get it’s own post!) I felt challenged in two pretty big ways, and wanted to pass those challenges on to you.

1. We ALL NEED to live as large as Anan did. Anan was large in size, but even bigger in impact. In college I would sometimes go a day or two without seeing him, even though we were roommates  I’d find out later he’d discovered a problem someone else was having and had spent countless hours helping them or cheering them up. Last night the pastor of Blue Ridge Church in Independence, MO shared about Anan starting a Boy Scout troop there. Anan target underprivileged city kids and changed their lives in major ways. He even started having the church be open for special classes for kids on the weekends, classes that gave them skills and one of their only good meals for the week. When the troop grew to such a size that Boys Scouts of America put Anan on the payroll he simply wrote the check right back over to the kids. I could go on and on with the stories I know, and that would still only be a fraction of his impact. Life on this earth is short, but the need on this earth is MASSIVE. I really want to challenge you to live more like Anan, which in reality is living more like Christ. Think about it. Where do you see Christ seeing a need and not meeting it? When someone needed healing, he healed, when they needed forgiveness he forgave, when they needed rebuke and refocusing he pressed them to repent and change. FInd ways to impact others throughout your life, even if it means some sacrifice on your part. Last night I saw dozens of young men whose lives, and in some cases eternities, were changed by Anan. Whose life do you need to change?

2. Life is short, and not everyone has eternity. As Anan once said, life has a 100% fatality rate. As I’ve dealt with the shock of someone my age passing I’ve been reminded that life can end at any instance for anyone, and that scares me. It scares me because of the vast number of people who do not know Christ, and sadly some of them are good friends of mine. I can’t stomach the thought of people spending their eternity anywhere but God’s perfect heaven, and that feeling is what really drove me to ministry. I think many of us put off “that conversation” with our unsaved friends, thinking “well, someday when they’re ready I’ll talk to them or invite them to church.” The problem is, we never know how many somedays are left. I want to really challenge you this week to stop putting off the conversations and the invites. We wouldn’t fool around with a friend’s health, and neither should we fool around with their eternity. I love how Paul puts it, as he talks about his work telling others about God: For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith” Romans 1:16-17. Don’t be ashamed, and don’t be shy. Lift up those who need salvation in prayer, prayerfully ask God to guide you as you guide them, and be God’s tool that bring’s them to the foot of the cross. God’s Grace will meet you there to do the rest.  

Just Fix the Problem!!!

I love my church! I take a little hiatus from blogging and they’re all kinds of over me for it. Love them for pushing me. So, with a little more solemn afternoon ahead of me, time to get back to it.

This morning I awoke to yet another disheartening national poll. A new survey has shown that 1 in 5 Americans now identify themselves as having no religion, a 25% increase in five years (thats 33 MILLION PEOPLE). The fastest growing religious group in America is now “no religion.” I’ve watched the blame game take shape in blog-ville and Facebooklandia today, and man is it flying around. It’s the fault of mega-churches, the traditional churches, the liberals, the conservatives, the Muslims, the Iowa Supreme Court, pretty much everyone except the people doing the blaming. So let me switch it up a bit: as a Christian I’m here to say that the blame lay with me, and likely with you as well.

Here are some steps I think we can all be following to get things turned around in our world.

1. Live life with the Word front and center: I dislike the irony that in a time and place where the Bible is accessible to a jaw -dropping degree Biblical literacy is at a historical low. We have dozens of translations, free access via websites and apps, not to mention religous freedom in our country, yet most of us still don’t dig into the thing. I went on a cruise this summer and listened to some people complain about their boredom. I so wanted to slap them in the face and say “your on a cruise ship for crying out loud!” They had so many exciting and amazing options all around them, yet were choosing to miss it all. That’s exactly what most of us do with the Bible. We have this amazing guide to life and eternity right in front of us, and yet we choose to get nothing out of it. I’ve often wondered what would happen if American Christians actually chose to regularly read the Word AND act on it? The Bible is the ultimate guidebook to a life that is best for us now, best for our world now, and best for all for eternity. If you’re frustrated by what is happening in the world start by consistantly reading the Word and letting it guide you. I don’t think there can be a better first step.

2. Stop whining and do something!!! I often sit in coffee shops, and I’m amazed how often the conversations around me are about church. But, seldom are they positive. People complain about low giving, low attendance, low participation, apathy, etc. They blame the pastor, generations other then their own, worship style, and lots of other factors. But I never hear THEM talk about PERSONALLY doing something about it. As long as we Christians play “pass the blame” we are headed for failure. Own the problem! With 1 in 5 Americans irreligious chances are you know a whole lot of somebodies who are far from God. Ask them why. Address their concerns. Bring them to your church, your small group, or some other ministry. Show them what they are missing: the eternal love of God, who died to save them. Please, just own the problem! Stop passing the buck to church staff and step up to the plate.

3. Live attractively: My ego moment every week is when I help at our local food pantry, where I am referred to as “the muscles.” This is likely due to me being the youngest in there by about 4 decades, and often the only male, but I like feeling muscular instead of fluffy. Look, we all want to be attractive like that right? Known by some awesome quality that builds our self esteem. Why not be attractive for God? Why not read the Word, live the Word, and regularly seek to defeat the problems in our world? When you do those things the natural by-product is something amazingly attractive, and amazingly powerful to others.