Reflect on This



Picture from: http://mtcministry.wordpress.com

The closer Jesus got to the end of His life, the more the Pharisees seemed to hassle and question Him.  The result is that Jesus teaching toward them became even harder.  In Matthew 22:16, one of the Pharisees' disciples comes to question Jesus about taxes.  Before he asks Jesus his question, though, he makes an assertion that is true, profound and challenging.  In a nutshell, the Pharisees' disciple states that Jesus has shown Himself to be who He says He is regardless of what others say or think.  He goes on to state that Jesus is no respecter of persons.  What that means is that it does not matter where a person is from, what they look like, what they do for a living, or how they dress, Jesus treats them all the same.

As I read that verse this morning, I was deeply challenged in my own faith walk.  How many times have we asserted that we are to be like Christ to people?  How often have we heard from pulpits the necessity of reflecting Christ in our community?  I've heard it and I have preached it.  All of that aside, the question remains, are we living it?  I want to spend some time today unpacking the assertions of this verse and what impact it has for our daily life.

You are True

Jesus is who He says He is.  Can the same be said for me?  To be true, we must walk in truth.  What that translates to for us as disciples of Jesus is that we are to walk in the Truth.  Jesus makes it very clear in John 14:6 that He is the Truth. So for us to walk in the truth, we are to walk in the footsteps of Jesus. Paul adds to this in Galatians 5:25 saying that as we are in the Spirit (or as the Spirit is in us) we are to keep in step with the Spirit. To be true, we must stay rooted in the truth.  An additional way that we are to do that is to be steeped in the Word of truth, which is God's word.  If we, as Jesus' disciples, are not spending time in the Scriptures daily, we are missing the mark and standard that Jesus has set for us.

You Teach the Truth

Jesus was uncompromising when it came to teaching God's Word.  But His teaching extended beyond just the words that He said into the way He lived His life.  We've long heard it said in the church that we may be the only Bible some people ever read. That points directly to how we live our lives before an unbelieving world. If our life does not match the words we speak concerning Jesus, then we have missed the mark that Jesus set for us.  When we teach the truth about Jesus, we must live out that truth as well.

You Don't Care

When our lives are intensely focused on Jesus, His opinion is the only one that matters.  At this point in Jesus' ministry, there were many detractors, but He was unfazed by them.  He continued to carry out His life's mission - to seek and to save that which is lost.  As His disciples, we must live our lives in the same way.  Too often we are overly concerned by what others will say or think.  We cannot be concerned with the things of the world.  If we are concerned with the things of the world, that means that our focus is misplaced there instead of on Jesus.  When we care more about what people think as opposed to what Jesus thinks ,we have missed the mark that Jesus has set for us.

You are Unswayed

Jesus was not swayed by the status of those around Him.  He brought low the high and elevated the low.  He leveled the playing field for people.  He was not impressed by titles, symbols, incomes or gadgets.  People were people to Him.  If there is one thing that we must learn from Jesus as His disciples, it is this.  Often we get caught up in who people are or, worse, who we think we are. People are people. It does not matter if they are rich or poor, powerful or powerless. At the heart level, people are all the same.  If we treat people differently because of an external appearance, we have missed the mark that Jesus has set for us.

These words have challenged me deeply. They will cause me to think and live differently.  They have brought into perspective the life that Jesus expects me to live as His follower, and that is crashing into life.



Enjoying the Joy of the Lord

On Monday I got the opportunity to hear Randel Everett, the executive director of the BGCT, speak at the Engage XP conference in Belton. Here are the notes that I took from his message. Granted there is some of my own commentary mixed in, but the ideas came from Randel.

How do we come together as congregations and enjoy the joy of the Lord? It seems that when we come together anymore, it is more like business as usual, as mundane. It could be said that it is lifeless. It is lifeless people who have been gathered with the purpose of winning a lifeless people to Christ. In Luke 15 Jesus shares three significant stories. The joy of serving Christ is seeing the transformation in the lives of people by the power of Christ. Until we see life change, we will not experience the power of Christ or the joy of Jesus. If we would just understand Jesus' purpose, to seek and save, and His message, and do it, then we would experience the joy of Christ. Jesus says that He came to seek and to save that which was lost (Luke 19). In the parable of the lost son, we, the church, are the older brother. That son was invited to the celebration but it is not said if he joins the party. We have been invited to the joy of life transformation and celebrating life transformation. Will we accept the invitation? There is great rejoicing over one sinner who is saved. Is this happening among the church today? Is there celebration when one person comes to Christ? The church is faster to question genuine life change than to join in the celebration and join in growing this person in their new life. Just like the older brother, we become jealous over people coming to faith in Christ because the attention is no longer on us. Like a child, we reason that even negative attention is still attention. Can we not celebrate when someone passes from death to life? Would we not cancel the funeral if the dead person were raised to life? Of course we would!! Jesus spent His time among the dead. He spent His time amount those who were in need of salvation. People who needed real life that comes through genuine faith. Those people of "faith" looked down their nose at Jesus for this. We need to say, as the church, that Jesus' ministry is our ministry -- to seek and to save the lost. The difference is that Jesus cared about people, His sheep, and the church, the bride of Christ, does not. When we make our mission the same as Jesus, we will begin to care about people again. The key to Jesus' parables in Luke 15 is that the lost were sought out. There is diligence involved in the search. Are we searching diligently for the downcast sheep of our churches? Most of the downcast sheep in our churches are downcast for a reason. They are in need of someone to come and help them get back on their feet.

What a challenging message. This is what is at the heart of crashing into life. It is doing those things that are so radically different from the norm. That what Jesus did, and that is what Jesus calls his followers to do...crash into life.

The Sickness

The sickness settled on our house today. This "bug" invaded that stomach of one of our family. Needless to say...it wasn't pretty. Now, I'm just praying that I'm not the next victim. But as I've been home today lending moral support, I started thinking about another sickness that infects all of us. This sickness is one that is life-threatening. Every day, all over the world, it claims victims. This sickness is common to all mankind. This sickness is sin. It is a disease that separates us from what God wants us to be. It stands in the way of us having the relationship with God that He initiated with us from the beginning. This sickness does not discriminate, as every man suffers from it. Unlike a virus, you don't just let it runs its course and you get better on your own. That's the bad news. But, there is some good news. There is a cure. It's a little shot. Now if you're like me, you're not a big fan of shots. Truth be known, I hate shots. I've got to be really sick and at the point of death before I take a shot. But the shot that cures the sickness of sin is not a vaccine given through a needle. It is a vaccine for your heart that is administered by Jesus Christ. It's the kind of cure that brings about life change for those who are willing to take it. You see, not everyone will take the vaccine. Not everyone will come to Jesus for the cure from sin. Jesus cures sin by forgiving it. Only He can do it. Jesus gives it freely to all of those who will come to Him, ask for it and recieve it. So here's the thing. Maybe today, you got the diagnosis of your sickness. Maybe you've tried everything else to make you well, everything that you thought would make you well, but you are still sick. Turn your life over to Jesus, ask Him to heal your sickness of sin and begin to live a life that follows after Jesus. Now there is nothing keeping you from living the life of wellness that God wants you to live. Jesus said, "It is the sick who need a doctor." Good news...the Doctor is in!