One Little Word Shall Fell Him

John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress, hailed as one of the most notable works in British literature, recounts the story of the protagonist, Christian, as he travels from his earthly homeland, the City of Destruction, to his heavenly dwelling, “the World which is to Come.” Becoming aware that he carries a heavy burden of sin, Christian seeks to cast off the load he bears and find redemption. Through his interaction with Evangelist, he finds the way to Wicket Gate which leads Christian to Good Will (the Christ character). When Christian arrives at the Place of Deliverance (allegorical for the foot of the cross of Christ), the ties that bind his heavy burden to his back begin to shred and his burden rolls off. Christian is welcomed in peace by three shining ones who announce he has been forgiven. His dirty, ratted cloths are replaced with glistening new clothing, and he is handed a “Roll with a seal upon it.” Christian is saved and the allegory comes to a close. At least it would seem like the allegory would come to a close at this point. But it is here, at Christian’s conversion, that the book just begins.

For now Christian comes upon Difficulty Hill, and if he is to proceed along the right path, he must endure the trek up it. At times the path is so steep that he must crawl on his hands and his feet. Once he arrives at the top and steps inside Palace Beautiful, he is given spiritual armor and weapons for the warfare he will face: a sword, a helmet, a shield, a breastplate, and a firm warning that the next step of his journey will be quite dangerous. This warning proves true when Christian crosses paths with Apollyon, a “foul fiend,” in the Valley of Humiliation, and nearly loses his life. His only hope is to use the spiritual armor which he has been given.

Though allegory, The Pilgrim’s Progress reflects a stark reality of Christian life. Charles Spurgeon writes:

John Bunyan has not pictured Christian as carried to heaven while
asleep in an easy chair. He makes him lose his burden at the cross-foot,
but he represents him as climbing Hill Difficulty on his hands and knees.
Christian has to descend into the Valley of Humiliation, and to tread the
dangerous pathway through the gloomy horrors of the Shadow of Death…nowhere is
he delivered from the necessities incident to the way, for even at the last he
fords the black river, and struggles with its terrible billows. Effort is
used all the way through, and you that are pilgrims to the skies will find it to
be no allegory, but a matter of fact.[1]

Each pilgrim, including you and me, are engaged in a spiritual battle. In a spiritual sense, we cannot fight this battle while lying reclined in a Lazy Boy chair, sipping not-too-tangy and not-too-sweet lemonade. “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Eph. 6:12). Our foe, the enemy of our souls and his demonic cronies, are out to dissuade us from following our Savior and Shepherd passionately and wholeheartedly. The devil is not the horn bearing, pitchfork carrying red creature that Hollywood portrays. No, he is much more subtle and crafty. So subtle and crafty that we sheep are “prone to wander, Lord we feel it, prone to leave the God we love!”

The Father of Lies whispers deception after deception over our souls. Sometimes he appeals to our pride and speaks the lie that you and I can earn our own salvation through performing good deeds, as if the law could ever make us holy before a righteous and perfect God. Sometimes he speaks the lie that God could never forgive what you and I have done and we will be hopelessly lost in our sins forever, as if Jesus’ bloody and brutal wrath-bearing death only covered the “small” sins. Sometimes he tells us that the sin in our life is not that big of a deal or that we will never get caught in our sin, as if God is not just and we can somehow hide from the Creator of the universe.

Regardless of which lie he speaks, he will always tempt us to make little of Jesus and to make much of ourselves. But victory is only found in the Valley of Humiliation, when we face these spiritual battles head on and fight them with the armor that God Himself has provided for us: the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, the sword of the Spirit, and prayer in the Spirit (see Eph. 6:14-18).

Here is the Truth. Apart from Jesus, you and I are hopelessly lost in our sins. Performing good deeds—even a lifetime of good deeds—cannot take away the sin that stains our souls. The perfect, righteous, holy God before whom each of us will give an account doesn’t give out “get out of hell free” cards to those who go to church, give to the poor, or walk the elderly across the street. But God remedied this problem in the greatest act of love in all history. He sent His sinless Son, Jesus, to be nailed to two pieces of wood in order to bear the wrath of God for the sins of all who come to faith in Him. By repenting of our sins, believing that Jesus alone has the power to save sinners, and turning to Him as Lord of our lives, we are saved! It is a completely free, we-did-nothing-to-deserve-it kind of gift! And His salvation is available to all people, no matter what you have done. Yes, even the sin that came into your mind as you read that sentence. Because Jesus died on the cross and was raised to life again, Christ-followers have victory over the enemy no matter how formidable his attacks. That is why we make much of Jesus! And that is what we celebrate as we end these series of posts over the book of Ephesians.

[1] Spurgeon, Charles H. Pictures from Pilgrim’s Progress. Pasadena, TX: Pilgrim Publication, 1992. p.134.

Relational Idolatry in Families

Number one New York Times best-seller, The Purpose Driven Life begins, “It’s not about you. The purpose of your life is far greater than your own personal fulfillment, your peace of mind, or even your happiness. It’s far greater than your family, your career, or even your wildest dreams and ambitions. If you want to know why you were placed on this planet, you must begin with God. You were born by his purpose and for his purpose.”[1]

As we touched on in the last post, the words “It’s not about you” are hard to swallow when we live in an egocentric society where my needs and my desires are paramount. This grates against our prideful, self-centered, sinful nature that secretly whispers into our souls that we should seek our identity in anything other than our Savior. The poison of idolatry is subtle in our society. We may not have a temple to Artemis, a widely worshipped Greek goddess popular in the time when Paul wrote his letter to Ephesian believers, but idolatry is just as alive in twenty-first century America.

One subtle form of idolatry that has crept into the modern evangelical church is the idol of family. We treat our children as if they were the center of the universe—as if our worth, value, and significance rested in their ability to achieve. Tim Keller, author of Counterfeit Gods, writes, “Modern society…puts great pressure on individuals to prove their worth through personal achievement. It is not enough to be a good citizen or family member. You must win, be on top, to show you are the best…. From the earliest years, an alliance of parents and schools creates a pressure cooker of competition, designed to produce students who excel in everything…. The family is no longer what Christopher Lasch once called a ‘haven in a heartless world,’ a counterbalance to the dog-eat-dog areas of life. Instead, the family has become the nursery where the craving for success is first cultivated.”[2]

In Proverbs 22:6, we are instructed to, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.” How are we raising our children in this dog-eat-dog world? In his sermon on this topic at First Baptist Church of Geneva, Pastor Jeff Frazier asked a provocative series of questions. “What would you rather have,” he asked, “to have your child become a great athlete, a great musician, a great student, a great scholar, a great business man or woman, or a great man or woman of God?” The question is posed to us. Are we eager to raise sons and daughters who count the cost, take up their cross, and follow Jesus Christ? Or are we content to raise children whose identity is found in their success, wealth, and personal achievement? In Ephesians 6:4, Paul exhorts fathers to not “exasperate your children.” By making idols out of our sons and daughters, we raise up bitter, resentful, jaded children.

It is not only parents who struggle with idolatry. The inherited sin nature with which we are born feeds us the lie that life is about self-satisfaction and self-glory. Parents do not need to teach a child to be selfish; it comes naturally. Therefore, throughout the child’s toddler years, parents stress the importance of sharing and taking turns. Parents have the responsibility of raising children who fear the Lord and keep His commands. Children have the responsibility to “obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right” (Eph. 6:1). And adult children should “honor your father and mother,” for this pleases the Lord (Eph. 6:2).

Consider whether there are any areas of relational idolatry in your own life. In what areas is God calling you to renounce the temptation to make life about you or the success of your children? Offer up a prayer to the Lord, asking Him to break any idols in your life and fill you with Himself as your all-surpassing Joy and Treasure!

[1] Warren, Rick. The Purpose-Driven Life: What On Earth am I Here For? Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2004. p. 5.
[2] Keller, Timothy. Counterfeit gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters. New York: Dutton, 2009. p. 79.

Hope for Marriage

“A magnificent marriage begins not with knowing one another but with knowing God. In Him we have the foundation and resources necessary to love one another. His Word, His ways, and His will must be paramount in our lives. Unless we are growing in the knowledge of God, we’ll lack the motivation and wisdom to build an effective marriage.”
~Gary & Betty Ricucci~

From Burger King’s trademarked slogan “Have it your way” to McDonald’s “You deserve a break today,” we are conditioned to pursue whatever provides personal happiness. If fast food restaurants serve happiness on demand by filling our bloated stomachs with beefy burger, certainly we deserve happiness in much deeper, more critical areas of life too. Long before the moment “Mine!” becomes the first word to grace our lips, many of us tuck away this philosophy of warranted happiness into our souls. It is no surprise, then, when this desire expresses itself in marriage. But it may be a surprise when it slowly and stealthily affects our relationship with our spouse like an undetected, slow-growing cancer.

In a study reported in the March 2003 issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Dr. Richard Lucas discovered that couples who marry find themselves happier during the first year of marriage than they were prior to marrying. “But after two years of marriage,” Dr. Lucas reports, “most people are pretty much back to where they started before marriage.”[1] Marriage has a very minimal affect on long-term happiness. If a couple marries to find happiness, they will be sorely disappointed after their first twenty-four months together. Perhaps this painful sense of disillusionment accounts for a fraction of the 50% of first-time marriages, the 67% of second-time marriages, or the 74% of third-time marriages that all end in divorce.[2]

These statistics are sobering, and call the church to consider what we can do to preserve the sacred covenant we made before the Lord. Paul addresses the heart-attitude of husbands and wives in Ephesians 5:21-33. His God-inspired teaching is the antithesis to culture, and it contains the key to living in a marriage that glorifies God and honors one’s spouse. Believers are instructed to “submit to one another out of reverence for Christ” (Eph. 5:1) Giving specific instruction to wives, Paul commands, “Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord” (Eph. 5:22). Furthermore, the wife is instructed to “respect her husband” (Eph. 5:33b). Husbands are charged to love their wives “just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her” (Eph. 5:25). These decrees defy the lie of popular culture that marriage is about what makes “me happy” and clearly indicate that marriage requires self-denial as we consider our spouse better than ourselves (see Phil 2:3).

In his book Sacred Marriage, Gary Thomas asks the provocative question, "What if God didn't design marriage to be 'easier'? What if God had an end in mind that went beyond our happiness, our comfort, and our desire to be infatuated and happy as if the world were a perfect place? What if God designed marriage to make us holy more than to make us happy?"[3] As a believer, our lives have been radically turned upside-down by Jesus Christ. We are no longer to live for ourselves and for our happiness. “[Jesus] must become greater; I must become less,” including in my marriage (Jn. 3:30). As we ride the tumultuous tide of marriage—choosing to express love to our spouse when he or she is most unlovable, clinging to our covenant before God when the romantic feelings have long faded, determining to forgive the seemingly unforgivable act, releasing the “right” to exact revenge—it is then that God does His most redemptive, restorative act in our lives of making us more like His Son Jesus Christ. It is through releasing any corrupt compulsion to change our spouse’s character and instead pleading with God to transform our own hearts that Jesus Christ is magnified and we find joy.

May Jesus Christ be our highest, most precious, most valuable Treasure, for there is none other who can satisfy the deepest longings of our soul.

[1] Qtd. in Kirchheimer, Sid. “Does Marriage Make You Happy?” 17 Mar 2003. http://www.webmd.com/balance/news/20030317/does-marriage-make-you-happy. Accessed 27 May 2010.
[2] Statistic taken from http://www.divorcerate.org/.
[3] Thomas, Gary. Sacred Marriage: What If God Designed Marriage to Make Us Holy More Than to Make Us Happy? Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2002. p. 13.

New Creation

“If traces of Christ’s love-artistry be upon me, may He work on with His divine brush until the complete image be obtained and I be made a perfect copy of Him, my Master.”
~Unknown Puritan~

It starts out as a rather ugly creature and a pest in agriculture. Some can inflate parts of their body to resemble a snake. Others produce pungent chemicals in order to protect against predators. Even though these creatures contain six tiny eyelets on their heads, they have horrible vision. This unsightly, smelly pest with poor eyesight is the common caterpillar.

Children are often fascinated with the lifecycle of a caterpillar—catching the larva, putting it in a jar, and watching it transform from an ugly caterpillar to a beautiful butterfly. When the graceful, delicate, often colorful butterfly bursts forth from a cocoon, it is awe-inspiring. Could this beautiful new creation truly have started out as the ugly caterpillar?

In Ephesians 4:7-32, Paul contrasts the old life with the new life, and the description is much like that of a caterpillar that has been transformed into a butterfly. Just as the caterpillar has terrible eyesight, Paul describes unbelieving Gentiles as “darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts” (Eph. 4:18). They suffer from spiritual blindness—a condition much more severe than physical blindness. The spiritual odor they emit is unpleasant, for, “Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more” (Eph. 4:19). And they have no solid ground upon which to stand, but they are “tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming” (Eph. 4:14). The picture of the old life is one of spiritual ignorance that leads to death.

Here is the good news: not one person has to remain in that state! For like the caterpillar that transforms into a butterfly, Jesus offers to change us into purpose-filled people who beautifully reflect His glory! Paul urges believers to put off their old self and grow into maturity. The mature, adult stage of the butterfly is called the imago. Our goal as believers is to imago (image) God, reflecting His majesty. Putting off the putrid scent of impurity, the colorful wings we are to possess are truth-speaking, honest labor, wholesome speech, forgiving spirits, kindness, and compassion. It is by grace we are saved through faith in Christ alone (Eph. 2:8). But following our conversion and in participation with the Holy Spirit, we must grow in Him “until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” (Eph. 2:13).

What is the spiritual state of your soul? Have you given your heart to Jesus and let Him transform you into a new creation? If not, He is waiting for you with arms of love to make something beautiful out of your life, no matter what your past has been! Jesus has the power to make something majestic out of larva! If you have given your heart to Him, in what areas do you need to grow into maturity and imago the God who created you to beautifully reflect Him? Invite the Holy Spirit to change your life into something of splendor!

Coex-What?

“Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshipers [meeting] together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be, were they to become ‘unity’ conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship. Social religion is perfected when private religion is purified.”
~A.W. Tozer~

If you have driven anywhere lately, you have probably seen a growing number of vehicles sporting a bumper sticker with various faith symbols resembling the word “coexist.” The symbols forming this word include the Islamic crescent moon, a peace sign, the male and female symbol, the Jewish Star of David, a Wiccan pentacle, the Chinese yin-yang, and at the very end of the word, a cross. It is an effort to promote religious tolerance, a symbolic representation that all religious systems are equally valid and should be respected. There is only one problem. The cross has to be lopped off the end of the bumper sticker. It can never be part of that equation.

Jesus, the God-man whom that cross represents, boldly declared, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (Jn. 14:6, emphasis mine). In a time when the religious leaders were seeking to kill Him for declaring that He was God, Jesus spoke radical words—words that would be deemed extraordinarily intolerant in twenty-first century America. According to Jesus, the other symbols on the coexist bumper sticker represent equally invalid religious systems that attract people who are hungry to find some way to achieve a sense of peace within their souls. But religious tolerance and human effort will never lead them to the only Way, Truth, and Life. That is found in Jesus Christ alone.

Paul, a persecutor of Christians turned apostle of Christ, clearly understood this truth. As “a prisoner for the Lord,” he urged all believers in Jesus to be united to each other precisely because of the “one body…one Spirit…one hope…one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” and who called them to Himself (Eph. 4:1, 4-6). Jesus Christ, not religious tolerance, is to be the basis of our unity.

In Jesus, our one Lord, we find every reason to be united. We are all called to the same hope, and we must not allow petty divisions to take our eyes off of our prize and treasure, Jesus Christ Himself. Paul urges us to “live worthy of the calling we have received” (Eph. 4:1). And the appropriate response to who Jesus is and what He has done requires humility, gentleness, and patience as we “bear with one another in love” (Eph. 4:2).

Our calling has been clearly identified. As we examined in earlier posts, we have been chosen, predestined, redeemed, and adopted. The debt of our sins was canceled, and we have been made alive with Christ. God calls us His workmanship; we are no longer foreigners and aliens, but citizens with God’s people and members of His household. This is your identify in Christ! Are you living a life that is worthy of this high calling?

The Deep, Deep Love of Jesus

“If we have deep-seated fears that God does not really love us (as many Christians have), we can only go so far in growing nearer to God. There will come a point at which we will fear to trust Him any further because we cannot be sure of His love. When we look at ourselves, or our own faith, or our circumstances we will never be free from those lurking fears. Satan will see to that. But when we lift up our eyes and look on the cross we find the final persuasion that God is gracious towards us. How can He be against us when all His wrath against us fell upon Christ? How can He fail to care for us when He gave the only Son He had for our sake? How can we doubt Him when He has given us evidence of His love sufficient to banish all doubts?”
~Sinclair Ferguson~

His name was Samuel Trevor Francis. He was born on November 19, 1834 in a village north of London. As a boy, Samuel had a knack for writing poetry, and he loved singing in his church choir. But during his teenage years, he went through a period of spiritual darkness and his soul was disquieted within him. One evening, on his way home from work in London, he found himself walking across the Hungerford Bridge south of the Thames. He later wrote, “During the winter’s night of wind and rain and in the loneliness of that walk, I cried to God to have mercy on me. I stayed for a moment to look at the dark waters flowing under the bridge, and the temptation was whispered to me, ‘Make an end of all this misery.’ I drew back from the evil thought, and suddenly a message was borne into my very soul, ‘You do believe in the Lord Jesus Christ?’ I at once answered, ‘I do believe,’ and I put my whole trust in Him as my Savior.”[1]

Francis would later become a preacher and hymn-writer, penning the words to the well-loved hymn “O the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus.” The lyrics give rise within our hearts to a love too deep for comprehension, and help us to grasp a small strand of “how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge” (Eph. 3:18b-19a). Francis writes:

O the deep, deep love of Jesus!
Vast, unmeasured, boundless, free!
Rolling as a mighty ocean
In its fullness over me!

Underneath me, all around me,
Is the current of Your love
Leading onward, leading homeward
To Your glorious rest above!

This deep, deep love of Jesus is so vast that it “surpasses knowledge,” as Paul describes in Ephesians. It is a love that is undeserved, unearned, and unconditional. It is a love so boundless that the Father willingly crucified His Son, pouring out the wrath that you and I justly deserve on a perfect, sinless sacrifice. “Greater love has no one than this, that He lay down His life for His friends” (Jn. 15:13).

Only this God who loves you unconditionally knows where you are at today. Maybe you are in a place where you are basking in His love, and the radiance of His presence emanates from your life. Or maybe you are in a place where your love has grown cold, and you think that God must feel just as apathetic towards you as you feel towards Him. Or perhaps you are longing and crying out to hear the love of Jesus whispered into your soul, because in this moment, you feel very unloved. Wherever you are in your spiritual journey, the truth is this: God will never love you any more or any less than He does in this moment! If you have a relationship with Jesus Christ by grace through faith, then His love surrounds you and is within you through the indwelling of His Holy Spirit. If you have yet to experience this vast, unmeasured, boundless, and free love, will you open your heart to Him today? The current of His love is waiting to overwhelm you no matter your circumstance!

O the deep, deep love of Jesus!
Spread His praise from shore to shore,
How His love is never-ending,
And it changes nevermore;
How He watches o’er His loved ones,
Died to call them all His own;
How for them He’s interceding,
Watching o’er them from the throne.

[1] Qtd in Morgan, Robert J. Then Sings My Soul. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2003. p. 197.

Dead Man Walking

“Paul first plumbs the depths of pessimism about mankind, and then rises to the heights of optimism about God. It is this combination of pessimism and optimism, of despair and faith, which constitutes the refreshing realism of the Bible. For what Paul does in this passage is to paint a vivid contrast between what man is by nature and what he can become by grace.”
~John Stott~

Prior to the 1960s, when a man on death row would walk down the halls of the prison, the warden would shout out, “Dead man walking! Dead man walking here!” To all of the other prisoners within earshot, the phrase signified the convict’s very imminent death. It was a grim reminder that, while the man had life and breath in the moment, his execution was on the horizon.

The sober reality is that our world is full of dead men and women walking—not in the physical sense, but in the spiritual sense. But unlike the prisoner on death row, the frightening truth is that most people are not even aware that they will be condemned before the God of the universe. In the book of Ephesians, Paul expresses the truth to awaken us from our spiritual slumber and warn us of the things to come. He uses the strong language appropriate for such an occasion. “…You were dead in your transgressions and sins,” he stresses, “…gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath” (Eph. 2:1b, 3b). This is our condition from birth because of the hereditary stain of sin we have as descendents of Adam and Eve. And it is irreversible. Working hard to perform good deeds doesn’t impress the holy God of this universe. His standard is His perfect Son Jesus Christ, and whether or not we like to admit it, you and I fall hopelessly short. We are dead people walking.

It is a bleak picture. But into the bleakness, God speaks. “Because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in our transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved” (Eph. 2:4-5). The gavel has fallen and we have been declared guilty. But God intervenes. He grants a pardon to all who, in faith, place their trust in His sinless Son, Jesus Christ, as Savior and Lord. All of those who are in Christ will never face the wrath of God; Jesus drank the cup of God’s wrath for us and He left not one drop for us. The death penalty has been dropped. The guilty party has been acquitted!

Take a deep breath and let that sink in a moment. It is not until we realize the depths of our own depravity that we can appreciate the depths of God’s grace! God could have stopped there, and we would have been eternally singing His praises with hearts that never grow tired of delighting in His amazing grace! But God goes further and calls us His workmanship! We are God’s masterpieces on display so that the world might see His glory and goodness shining through us.

If you are in Christ, when God the Father looks at you He no longer sees a dead man or woman walking. He sees His Son, Jesus Christ, the perfect and spotless Lamb. He looks at you with eyes of unconditional love and He has canceled the debt of your sin. The chains have fallen off, the prison doors have been opened, and you have been set free! Masterpiece of God, use your freedom to declare this truth to other dead men and women walking in order that they too might be free.

Adopted

“Properly understood, adoption is one of the most precious, heartwarming, and practical of all our theological beliefs… [It] focuses our attention on a relational image and points us to the joy and assurance that comes from receiving a father who loves us and a family with whom we can enjoy our new freedom in Christ.”
~Iain Duguid~

In early April 2010, the world watched with horrified fascination as news reports announced that a mother put her adopted seven-year-old son on a plane back to his homeland of Russia, announcing that she had no desire to continue being his mom. In a typed letter she tucked away inside his little backpack, she explained, “After giving my best to this child…I no longer wish to parent him.” Her son was exhibiting signs of emotional and behavioral disorders, and rather than seeking counseling for him, she found it easier to put him on a one-way, 10-hour flight back to Russia unaccompanied by anyone else. Patricia Cogen, a child development specialist and family therapist, said that adoptive mother Torry Hansen discarded her son “like a pair of pants that didn’t fit.”[1] Hansen reported wanting a child whom she could love, but her adopted son did not meet her expectations. She just could not love him.

Adoption is a metaphor used in Scripture to describe our relationship with God in Christ, and the picture is strikingly different than the story of Hansen and her adopted son. Paul writes in Ephesians, “For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will—to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the One He loves. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that He lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding” (Eph. 1:4-8, emphasis mine). Notice the language used here. He chose us in Him before the creation of the world. Our adoption is not a haphazard decision made by God that lasts only for a season of life.

Romans 5:8 informs us that “…while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” God did not spot something good or beautiful in us, and then decide to adopt us. He looked at us, saw the mangled mess of our lives with all of the sin and ugliness that keeps us from His presence and said, “You! Yep, you right over there! I choose YOU!” Dr. Al Mohler, the president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary writes, “The wonder of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is this—not one of us is worthy of adoption. In our sinfulness, not one of us has any claim on the Father’s love, much less a right to adoption. But, the infinitely rich mercy of God is shown us in Christ, in whom believers are adopted by the Father. And this adoption, thanks be to God, is eternal and irreversible.”[2]

God has a destination for us—to make us holy and blameless in His sight. He will not annul our adoption the moment we sin. For exclusively through the blood of Jesus, He has made us holy and blameless in His sight, and He will continue to make us like Jesus until He returns or calls us home to be with Him.

Because of Jesus, you and I are no longer orphans! We will never be shipped back on a jet plane to an eternity without Christ. We do not need to fear being rejected by God because He has redeemed us through the blood of His Son, He has granted us the forgiveness of our sins, and He has lavished His grace upon us. If you are in Christ today, when God sees you, He sees the perfect, spotless Lamb of God. And God will not reject His Son. Let this be your hope today. Rejoice! You are a chosen, holy, and dearly loved son or daughter of the King!

[1] Cogen, Patricia. “Torry Hansen Should Have Sought Help.” www.cnn.com. 14 Apr. 2010.
[2] Mohler, Dr. R. Albert. “When Adoption Fails, the Gospel is Denied.” The Christian Post. 18 Apr. 2010.

Not Alone

It has been said that when God closes a door, He opens a window. But maybe He allows us to sit in the room, no window in view, until we become comfortable in the silence and solitude. For then we discover we are not alone; there is Another in the room. And He is all we need.

In Sunshine or Rain

When considering the goodness of God, I must never look first at my circumstances. For I can only "see in a mirror dimly," and I will never perceive God correctly if I judge Him through the lens of my circumstances.

Instead, I must look first at the character of God to clearly see His goodness. Only then will I understand that whether God brings sunshine or rain, still waters or a hurricane, HE IS GOOD!

"For now [I] see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known" (1 Cor. 13:12).

Let God's character always and forever be the lens through which I see the world!

On the Other Side

It was a sad day. The thick, dreary clouds felt heavy and my soul languished. The sky longed to weep, but it could not find the tears to shed. My eyes stared into the distance, wondering when—no, wondering if God would make the pain go away. It had been too long; I was convinced of it, but apparently God had other plans. Plans that I did not favor. Plans against which I wanted to retaliate.

I jumped at the sound of my alarm. 3:00 a.m. I had a plane to catch. Rolling out of bed and forcing myself to eat a bowl of Cheerios, I could barely swallow the thought of the dreadful mysteries that would await me as I stepped off of that plane. Grabbing my luggage and glancing one last time at the peace and normalcy I was leaving behind, I let out a deep sigh and walked mechanically out the front door to embrace the overcast day. My journey had begun.

The plane was on schedule. There was no delaying the inevitable. Like cattle we boarded the small craft. One after another. All with individual stories. All with a hidden thorn in the flesh. I wondered if I wore mine on my sleeve.

I took my first row, first class seat near the window. Before we even took off, my eyes were drawn to the view outside like a magnet is drawn to its polar pair. The sky understood me. The blissful chatter and ignorant laughter echoing from the voices filling the seats in the plane mocked my sorrow. But not the sky. The sky mourned with me. We connected that morning, and I listened to it as if it were speaking directly to me.

I hardly noticed the movement as the plane began its course down the runway. Or perhaps I simply did not care. Either way, we began to ascend rapidly and I was thrust forward towards my sorrowful, sympathetic sky. At the peak, we kissed each other, and then I passed through her. Closing my eyes as I drank in the sorrow of this moment, it was not until the plane leveled that my eyelids slowly lifted to take in the scene of darkness once more.

Light. Glorious light as far as my eyes could see. I blinked one, twice, three times to confirm whether it was a mocking mirage or if Morning had dawned. The more my eyes gazed into the blinding brilliance, the more I never wanted to look away from the breathtaking beauty that enveloped me. What had become of the bleak scene of darkness?

I glanced down from my small window view, and noticed that the storm clouds were still there. But their appearance had changed. They were much thinner now. And lighter too. They lost their ominous power as I noticed that they were beneath my feet. Only the Light surrounded me, and my desire was to fix my eyes upon it.

Too soon the captain’s voice would come over the speaker system once more. “Ladies and Gentlemen, please fasten your seatbelts as we prepare for our descent.” We would kiss the sky, pass through her, and land on the rain-soaked ground. Exiting the airplane, I would look back up at my sky and notice that she was thick and dark and threatening once more. But this time I knew what was on the other side. And I smiled.

Lessons in the Waiting Room: Tangoing with Suffering

I am in the waiting room—that ominous place of mystery where the severe storms strike violently, and in their viciousness, conceal untold secrets. They threaten to steal my love, kill my joy, destroy my hope. Battered and broken. Torn and tattered. Whipped and weary. The storm cloud continuously morphs to mock my sorrowful soul.

My human nature is averse to suffering. I am weak. I am tired. I am fearful. I was not created to love suffering. Suffering was not a part of God’s perfect plan of creation. It informs me that there is something wrong in this world. There is something so terribly wrong that I experience pain, disease, and death. There is something so horrific that the sinless Lamb of God was nailed to two pieces of wood. Scripture labels the undefined “something” as sin. All of the pain and suffering that God has called me to endure serves as proof that the seemingly insignificant first sin in the Garden of Eden was not so insignificant after all. One sin set into motion every drop from the ocean of suffering that engulfs me. The depths and horror of suffering reveals the depths and horror of sin. I have a righteous hatred of suffering because I have a righteous hatred of sin.

And yet, suffering is inevitable. I cannot will my current suffering to disappear or any future suffering to pass any more than I can will myself to live without oxygen or food or water.

The issue is not whether we will suffer; the issue is whether Jesus Christ will be made to look great through our suffering. Prosperity theology, which teaches that our faith in God will result in physical health, material wealth, and personal success, robs us of seeing the goodness of God because it is an unbalanced view. Yes, all blessings come from God and they are to be celebrated with hearts overflowing with abundant thanksgiving! And all suffering that we endure has no power to touch us unless God allows it; He is sovereign! Moments of intense trial and hardship have the potential to reveal the goodness of God because it is in the school of suffering that God chooses to refine our character. In the midst of the storm, I enjoy a new level of intimacy with God. He reveals Himself as my Comforter, my Sustainer, my Strength, my Defender, my Fortress, my Deliverer, my Joy, my Hope, my Friend, my Redeemer, and my Abba Father. Cradling me in the palm of His hands, He invites me to savor the sweetness of His tender touch and loving embrace. He walks through the fire with me; it is not foreign to Him. I do not enter the flames alone. He is here. And He is not silent.

This is a dichotomy of universal proportions. For within me, I find a righteous hatred of suffering and a holy embracement of suffering. I serve a God who detests sin and has won the victory, and I serve a God who uses suffering—a consequence of sin—to draw me closer to Himself. God has the power to silence my suffering by uttering a single word or entertaining a brief thought. If my suffering still persists, it is not because God lacks the power. It is because He has chosen to bring me through it for His glory. And the very act that feels painful as He willingly prolongs my time in the fire is the very proof of His great love.

My circumstances change, but God remains constant. Therefore, my hope, joy, and peace are rooted in the faithfulness of my Father. “For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” (2 Cor. 4:17-18).

Chemical Pride

Staring at the mirror into the eyes of sin's deceitfulness, the bleak image pierces my flesh and blinds my soul's eyes. Shrinking back from the sordid sight, my soul wallows, then withers in the waves of chemical pride. The reflected image inverts and distorts until Power appears placid and person appears powerful. Chemical pride pulsates through the veins, cutting and carving its vain portrait into the soul's caverns.

O, wretched beast, once beautiful and blessing! What has become of your blessed estate?

Chemical choked cries for deliverance from death; kingdom of self disintegrates and crumbles. Beauty beheld is a balm to brokenness. The reflected image inverts and clarifies until servant submits and Righteousness reigns.

This is the Resurrection Power of the Risen Lord, saving and satisfying the repentant soul!

Out of the Mouths of Babes

He stopped what he was doing, gazed at me out of his intensely blue eyes, and in all seriousness asked, “Does he worship God or Satan?” Apparently my six year old nephew had overheard me speaking about someone who had not yet surrendered his life to Christ. Concerned for the soul of this man, my nephew wanted to know where he stood spiritually. There was a sense of urgency and concern in his little vocal articulation. He must know: Did this man worship Jesus Christ or did he worship Satan?

Completely unaware that his attentive ears had been eavesdropping on my conversation with his mom, I began to backpedal in my mind. How do I explain such intellectual, theological matters to a six year old? Certainly the man about whom we were speaking did not worship God; he had never responded to Christ’s call to repentance or received His grace. But worship Satan? That description seemed so…harsh. Surely this unregenerate man must be somewhere on the journey between the two.

I peered back into my nephew’s piercing, intelligent eyes, and in that moment, I realized that a child with little more than a kindergarten education had a more profound theology than his aunt, twenty years his senior with a Masters degree in ministry. Luke was correct; either we worship, fear, and serve Jesus Christ; or we worship, fear, and serve Satan—the very Enemy of our souls. There is no intermediary state or tertiary option, regardless of culture’s insistence to the contrary.

I wrote in my previous post, “Let us not cling to any patronizing notion that tells us that we can obtain or achieve autonomous freedom. Both the Enemy and the Almighty require of us our lives. But the former takes our life in order to destroy it, and the latter takes our life to give us abundant life. With the former, our death is an end. With the latter, our death is a means to an end. And that end is the fullness of life in Christ!” Satan masquerades under many names and titles. We “complexify” distortions of truth in our society. There is the worship of man (humanism), the worship of material objects and consumer goods (materialism and consumerism), the worship of pleasure (hedonism), the worship of self (egocentrism), the worship of tolerance (tolerationism), the worship of feelings (emotionalism), the worship of the individual (individualism), etc. The list could continue indefinitely because an utterly depraved heart persistently seeks after false objects for worship. It did not take long before the Israelites formed a golden calf upon which to outpour the worship that was arising within their hearts. It does not take long before we locate some feeling or idea or person or object of worship and outpour deep expressions of love and adoration upon it/him/her, even though these expressions were created within us to be outpoured upon Jesus Christ exclusively and exhaustively.

As I reflected even more deeply on my nephew’s question, I also found it fascinating that he did not ask me whether my friend was going to heaven or hell. Rather, Luke wanted to know whether my friend worshipped God or Satan. His question was theologically sound. Salvation is not a matter of whether one wants heaven or hell: paradise or fire and brimstone. When given the choice, which mentally sound and rationally sensible person would not choose eternal paradise over eternal damnation? But as my six-year-old nephew can articulate, salvation is a matter of whether one wants God or Satan; there is no spiritual “purgatory” of choice. To choose anything other than Jesus Christ and His glory is to choose Satan. The natural consequence of either decision is heaven or hell. But heaven is no more of an end than hell is an end. They are both means to an end: one end results in the worship of Jesus Christ in His presence for all eternity; the other end results in separation from the love of God and the intimate experience of His wrath and displeasure.

Would you be content in Heaven if God were not there? The question is hardly original, yet absolutely essential to evaluating true salvation. In Altogether Lovely, Jonathan Edwards asks, “What is it which chiefly makes you desire to go to heaven when you die? Indeed some have no great desire to go to heaven. They do not care to go to hell, but if they could be safe from that they would not much concern themselves about heaven. If it is not so with you, but you find that you have a desire after heaven, then inquire what it is for. Is the main reason that you may be with God, have communion with Him, and be conformed to Him? That you may see God and enjoy Him there? Is this the consideration which keeps your hearts, your desires, and your expectations towards heaven?” (10).

Or take Asaph. Can you honestly echo the cry of Asaph’s heart in Psalm 73:25, “Whom have I in heaven but You? Besides You I desire nothing on earth.” Seeking after heaven in order to avoid eternal damnation is a search for safety, not for salvation. Salvation is nothing less than the desire for God Himself, which is expressed through obedient submission and humble worship. Edwards writes, “Now the main reason why the godly man has his heart thus to heaven is because God is there; that is the palace of the Most High. It is the place where God is gloriously present, where His love is gloriously manifested, where the godly may be with Him, see Him as He is, and love, serve, praise, and enjoy Him perfectly. If God and Christ were not in heaven, he would not be so earnest in seeking it, nor would he take so much pains in a laborious travel through this wilderness, nor would the consideration that he is going to heaven when he dies be such a comfort to him under toils and afflictions. The martyrs would not undergo cruel sufferings from their persecutors with a cheerful prospect of going to heaven did they not expect to be with Christ and to enjoy God there. They would not with cheerfulness forsake all their earthly possessions, and all their earthly friends, as many thousands of them have done, and wander about in poverty and banishment, being destitute, afflicted, and tormented, in hopes of exchanging their earthly for a heavenly inheritance, were it not that they hope to be with their glorious Redeemer and heavenly Father. The believer’s heart is in heaven because his treasure is there” (3-4).

So who do you worship, God or Satan? Where does the treasure of your heart reside?

Freedom in Christ

Today we celebrate our nation’s freedom. In the midst of listening to patriotic music, enjoying a cookout with my family, and watching fireworks light up the night sky, I am taking a moment to reflect on the freedom that is found in Christ. I have met many sincere, godly individuals who grapple with the concept of Christian freedom. Wrestling with the rules and regulation with which they have been raised, they question what activities, actions, and behaviors are appropriate for the one who worships Jesus Christ. To more fully understand the meaning of freedom in Christ, I turn to Paul’s exhortation recorded in the sixth chapter of Romans.

Dead to Sin

In the first verse of chapter six, Paul asks the same question as many well-meaning Christians. Because we have been given the grace of God, should we exercise our Christian freedom by engaging in sinful behaviors? It is an interesting question. But Paul’s answer is an emphatic, “By no means!” He masterfully uses the imagery of slavery, explaining that the follower of Christ is no longer a slave to sin; it has been mortified in the life of the believer. As long as we have a sin nature, we will have sinful tendencies. For the believer, however, freedom in Christ is the freedom to sever all allegiances to our old nature and to pledge our allegiances to Jesus Christ. We must exercise our freedom by moving away from the downward spiral of sin that results in death and moving onto the upward trajectory towards holiness—a journey called sanctification—that results in eternal life.

Slaves to Righteousness

Paul continues with his chosen slavery motif and labels the follower of Christ as a slave to righteousness. Your freedom in Christ necessitates your slavery to righteousness. Herein lies the great paradox. Your bondage and your freedom are both forms of slavery. Let us not cling to any patronizing notion that tells us that we can obtain or achieve autonomous freedom. Both the Enemy and the Almighty require of us our lives. But the former takes our life in order to destroy it, and the latter takes our life to give us abundant life. With the former, our death is an end. With the latter, our death is a means to an end. And that end is the fullness of life in Christ! Paul summarizes it this way: “But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 6:22-23, ESV).

As you rejoice today in your political freedom, rejoice all the more in your spiritual freedom. Friends, through the shed blood of Jesus Christ, we have been set free from slavery to sin which results in death! Just as our political freedom required the shedding of blood, so our spiritual freedom required the shedding of Christ’s blood on our behalf. Let us take a moment today to offer up thanksgiving to God for offering to us the greatest Freedom of all time—that which transcends geographical boundaries and transforms the hearts of humankind!

The Source and Object of My Love

I am in love with love. The most exquisite notion of all that is beautiful and wondrous, it culminates in knowing and being known. It drives the affections and titillates the intellect, creating relentless, passionate pursuit. Deep desire burns and bubbles and bursts forth like the water in a cauldron under a hot flame.

There is a Source of my love, for I have neither the creative power nor the purity of heart to will it into being. A heart that is “deceitful above all things and desperately sick” (Jer. 17:9) cannot produce anything as exquisitely beautiful as love; out of its depravity, it can only twist and distort and defile the purity and essence of Divine Love. The Source of my love, then, is You, O my Lord and Savior. For I did not love first, but You first loved me (I Jn. 4:19).

If You are the Source of my love, then I am one conduit of Your love. It flows into me from the Source, passes through me, and is outwardly expressed from me. Therefore there is also an object of my love—that which receives the exquisite and beautiful affection created within me from You, the Source. And in measure of the love that I have been given, there must be a Primary Object which is the recipient of my deepest love and greatest affection.

My life, O Lord, is a quest to identify the rightful Object of my deepest love. At times, I find its fulfillment in an object called Matter—that which is tangible, but transient. There are fixed objects all around me that vie for my attention and affection. I can manipulate them, acquire more of them, and mold them into my liking for my use. But Matter has an elusive and mysterious power over me and turns me into a Materialist. I find that it does not pour love into me, but requires all of my love from me. And as I am required to pour out without being poured into, this finite creature who cannot create love any more than she can create the universe, is left feeling empty.

Another object calls out to me with the name of Power—that which is intangible, but also transient. The desire for it pulsates through my veins, moving to the rhythm that man is the measure of all things. Its friend, Knowledge, holds its hand, and together they dance through my mind, enticing me to join in the rhythm of their beat. They call me to move one foot forward, then another, faster and faster, until I am spinning and swirling and twirling at a dizzying rate. And when I arise victorious, they call me Humanist. But that which is intangible and transient also beckons me to love it, and it says that I must deny You, Lord, in the process. In taking up my crown and discarding the cross that You call me to bear, I am left with only a distorted, twisted, depraved love of self. And once again, I am empty.

A much more attractive object comes along and its name is Man—that which is tangible and intransient—for while he was not pre-existent, he is an eternal being. This object of love finds its attractiveness in the very truth that it has been created in Your very image. And perhaps that is what makes it the most desirous and dangerous of all. It is not content to ask for my love as a means to an End, but it desires to become my End. I pay tribute to it and it becomes an object of worship. It labels me Idolater and Adulterer, for it robs me of the love and affection that I have already given to Another. And because the love it gives to me is a mockery of the Love that I am intended to receive, I am still left utterly empty.

Upon the darkness of my condition breaks forth the Voice of Truth, the Light of light. It is the Source of Love Himself—He who is intangible and intransient. It is You, my Lord and Savior! You whisper into my soul, “The Source of Love is the Object of love.” While all else that surrounds me desires to be the recipient of my love, only the Source of Love deserves to be the recipient of my love. You, my Source, pour into this conduit so Your love might flow through her back to You. The Object is both the Giver and the Receiver. You label me Chosen and Beloved, for You called me out before the establishment of the foundations of the earth. In You, my identity is secure. And I am left feeling satisfied and fulfilled, for there is a constant flow of pouring into so that I may pour out Your Love to You.

O, to know and to love You more! How my heart longs to be in constant and continual communication with You, and thereby to receive unending joy and assured hope. Might You impart to me a greater passion and root within me a deeper adoration for my Savior. Become the Object of my love just as You are the Source of my love. Envelop me in Your Love so that I may see You; and in seeing You, know You; and in knowing You, love You; and in loving You, savor You; and in savoring You, worship You.

May the things that break Your heart shake me to the core. Grant to me a supreme dissatisfaction with the folly of this life, and make my heart loathe the idolatrous affections that woo my spirit. Become the Great Iconoclast at work within my soul. Destroy any desire within me to rob You of Your glory and replace my foolish pursuit of self with a grounded, firm, and unshakable pursuit of You. May my cries of desperation call to You as the Object of fulfillment. Cause my heart to echo the Psalmist’s, until my “soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the Lord.” Make my “heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God” (Ps. 84:2). When my soul is drowning and gasps for air, fill my lungs with the sweet oxygen of Your presence. Dwell in my heart, Christ Jesus my Lord, rooting and grounding me in Love. Only then will I have the “strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.” And only then will I “be filled with all the fullness of God” (Eph. 3:17-19), the Source and Object of my Love!

Sacrifice of Praise

This post is dedicated to a dear friend, whose praise to God will be uttered through deep pain tonight. May you cling to Jesus, and in His abundant grace and mercy, find the healing for which your soul aches.

Throughout my life, whenever I faced a trial, my mom would quote Hebrews 13:15 to me. It reads, “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise....” While she lavished her love and compassion on me, identifying with my pain, she would not allow me to wallow in self-pity for too long. Though I always expected it, I did not always enjoy hearing her gentle rebuke from Scripture. But she was always right, and those words renewed life in my weary soul. Real, genuine praise always requires a sacrifice. Praise is God’s antidote to the pain.

As the years have passed, I have learned detrimental mechanisms to cope with any painful situations that arise. These usually involve society’s distractions. When I need to drown out my own sorrow, I turn to noise. If praise is God’s antidote to pain, then noise is society’s tranquilizer. Give me an injection with the serum of comedy or drama on television, music on an iPod, products in the shopping mall, mindless surfing on the Internet, the newest application on Facebook, worlds of escape in a book, excessive exercise regiments at the gym, superficial conversations over dinner with friends, work that “must get done” before tomorrow…and the list continues. Give me anything. Anything but Jesus.

We turn to noise because it is temporarily effective at drowning out our sorrow. But then the sedative wears off and we the feel the pain once again in full force. Not knowing where to turn, we repeat this vicious cycle, desperately longing for healing and release the second time around. But once again we are left feeling empty and alone, grasping for anything that offers us a glimmer of hope.

In His beautiful, divine, mysterious plan, God has designed everything in this life other than Himself to cause our hearts to ache for something Deeper and Higher and Greater than anything this world has to offer. We can eat of the world, but we cannot savor its flavor for very long. It is distasteful and dissatisfying. The more we eat of it, the more our hunger grows because it was never intended to nourish our spirits or nurture our souls.

There is only One who can satisfy, and His name is Jesus Christ. Right when our souls cry, “Give me anything but Jesus,” we need to run all the more quickly to Him. We must continually offer praise to Him, and it is precisely the sacrifice that makes our praise so pleasing to His ears and penetrating to our inner beings.

Larnelle Harris penned the following song lyrics,

When praise demands a sacrifice

I’ll worship even then

Surrendering the dearest things in life

And if devotion costs me all

He’ll find me faithful to His call

When praise demands a sacrifice

Through God’s enabling power, we must make a conscious decision to be faithful to His call, surrendering all in life that we hold dear, because we clearly perceive that Christ is supremely more beautiful and infinitely more worthy than anything that this life has to offer. We must not be afraid to dwell in the midst of our pain, stare it in the face, and at the top of our lungs scream that God is good at all times regardless of our circumstances! It is only here—in the place of paradox, dwelling in our pain while clinging to the goodness of God—that our hearts will find the rest, contentment, hope, assurance, and peace that Christ has intended for us.

Part Six: Deserting its Missiological Call: When Mass-Marketing Method Drives Mega-Church Message

Deserting its Missiological Call: When Mass-Marketing Method Drives Mega-Church Message

Part Six: Returning to its Missiological Call

For parts one through five, see the posts directly following.

If the church does not exist to satisfy its own needs but to incarnate the love of Christ to the world around them, which I firmly believe is the calling of every church body, then every ministry must transform into a vibrantly externally-focused ministry of the church. Instead of focusing attention on attracting newcomers into the church through creating polished products, churches should concentrate on equipping their teams of volunteers to enter into their communities with the message of the Gospel using acts of service as their platform. Both approaches may result in an increase in church attendance, but an externally-focused approach invites the Holy Spirit to produce this growth. The church that is preoccupied with serving the needs of others has little time to preoccupy itself with its own needs.

When newcomers enter the building, they understand that they a significant part of a larger community of believers. They will not be entertained during the church service, but challenged to find their place within the missiological community that is already established. Dr. Darby Ray, professor of Religious Studies at Millsaps College writes, “Worship is entertainment when it fails to challenge the worshippers to live differently and to carry out the ministry of the church in the world.”[1] Being entertained and embodying Christ’s call to become a missiological community are contradictory. Visitors to mega-churches must understand that they are being invited to become active participants in a way of life that transcends the individual and impacts the world around them. And the primary objective of their service is not to meet needs of those in the community, but to have a platform to proclaim the Gospel message, addressing the real need of the regeneration of the unsaved. The worship of Jesus Christ is the ultimate aim of a missiological community.[2]

In struggling through these issues, my passion has deepened to see the American church transform into a missiological community that maintains its doctrinal purity. My vision for mega-church communities is best articulated by the Gospel and Our Culture Network:

[My vision for the American church is that it will focus] on celebrating God’s presence and promises without seeking or expecting worship to be the occasion for God to meet human needs. The congregation departs from worship, knowing that it is a sent and sending community, and each Christian is conscious of his or her apostolic sentness as light, leaven, and salt in the world.[3]

In reminding the American church of its missiological calling and shifting the emphasis of its ministry life away from an internally-focused philosophy to an externally-focused reality, my goal is that the church will withstand the temptation to favor business principles over biblical principles, emphasize quantity over quality, and succumb to a world-centered entertainment style rather than a Word-centered proclamation of truth.

The rhythm of the world and its methods creates dissonance and disharmony. If the church sings to the tune of the world’s music, it will lose sight of its calling to be the light that shines in the darkness. Rather than proclaiming Jesus Christ as Lord, it will begin to proclaim itself.[4] But stepping into the cadence of the divine song composed by God, the church begins harmonizing with the melody sung by her Bridegroom. Singing this sweet song requires the church to adjust its life “to the presence and activity of our living Lord, one day at a time.”[5] It is a song of surrender, and the lyrics are beautifully expressed in Isaiah: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways…for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”[6] The church as an organization is structured, standing erect and powerful, finding an identity in the name that it has made for itself. The church as an organism is fluid, bowing in reverence and humble submission to the God who is power; finding an identity in losing itself, only to discover that it has gained Christ.[7]

Footnotes:

[1] Darby Kathleen Ray, ed., Theology that Matters: Ecology, Economy, and God (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2006), 175.
[2] Lois Y. Barrett and others, Treasure in Clay Jars: Patters in Missional Faithfulness (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company), 100.
[3] The Gospel and Our Culture Network, “Empirical Indicators of a ‘Missional Church’”; available from http://www.gocn.org/newsletters/pdf/103-newsletter.pdf; Internet; accessed 29 April 2008.
[4] 2 Cor. 4:5-6
[5] Blackaby, What the Spirit is Saying, 73
[6] Isa. 55:8-9
[7] Phil. 3:8

Part Five: Deserting its Missiological Call: When Mass-Marketing Method Drives Mega-Church Message

Deserting its Missiological Call: When Mass-Marketing Method Drives Mega-Church Message

Part Five: World-Centered Entertainment vs. Word-Centered Truth

For parts one through four, see the posts directly following.

In addition to fighting the temptation to employ business principles instead of biblical principles and focus on quantity instead of quality, the market-driven church must relinquish its fascination with world-centered entertainment by proclaiming the Word-centered truth. The method of using entertainment in the context of church services began with a genuine desire to attract the unchurched to the church. Robert Schuller, Senior Pastor of Crystal Cathedral in California, is credited as the first pastor to successfully incorporate marketing techniques into the life of the church. He comments, “The secret of winning unchurched people into the church is really quite simple. Find out what would impress the nonchurched in your community [then give it to them].”[1] Growing churches understand that the unchurched are attracted to lively services that mimic the style of music to which they enjoy listening on their iPods and messages that address their day-to-day concerns. The unchurched feel comfortable when churched individuals relate to them without using Christian jargon or look down upon them for their differing viewpoints.[2] Churches that offer comfortable, entertaining services find success.

In 1975, a young man named Bill Hybels and a small group of his acquaintances envisioned how a church sensitive to the seeker might operate. Understanding that many of the unchurched were at one time disillusioned by the church-as-institution, Hybels and his friends wanted to introduce seekers to authentic believers who cared for their needs at every level. Their goal was to provide a safe place for the unbeliever to ask questions without being judged, where they in turn could point the seeker to Jesus Christ. On October 12, 1975, Hybels’ vision came to fruition as Willow Creek Community Church held its first service[3]. The church now reaches an estimated 20,000 individuals each week.

Market-driven churches such as Willow Creek have rightly invested in people and committed themselves to studying the needs of those they intend to reach. Conducting door-to-door surveys, listening intently to the hurts and misconceptions of the unchurched, and warmly inviting them to attend a “different” style of church, they express the love of Christ to those around them. They understand the vernacular of the unchurched, thereby enabling them to communicate effectively with seekers. In speaking their language, many of the pastors of market-driven churches are master storytellers.[4] Reflecting Jesus’ extraordinary ability to use parables, metaphors, and symbolism that was understood by His audience, market-driven church pastors make their message relevant by using the symbols of the contemporary world, including modern art, the latest technology, and references to popular culture. Bill Hybels admitted that he struggled with the resources that are required to keep up with the latest technology and present polished productions each week to his audience, but in counting the costs, he considered it worthwhile. Whenever he doubts his decision, he remembers the reason why he continues with these productions:

Because some lost man or woman, who matters more to God than we can possibly understand, might come on the arm of one of our believers and get a first glimpse of what Christianity is like. And that glimpse might set the dominoes falling, so that someday that person will come to understand who Christ is, then build a relationship with Him, and eventually sit in a small circle of believers in which he or she can experience the church.[5]

Thus market-driven churches package the product that they are selling more attractively, and in so doing, they draw the interest of the unchurched. They reverse the stereotype of the church as a conventional, dull, lifeless establishment. If the church changes its methods, meets the needs of the consumer, and reverses its negative stereotype, the consumer will ultimately buy the message of Christ. But what message is the consumer buying? The market-driven church is unintentionally teaching that God exists to meet the felt needs of the unbeliever. This message, supremely attractive to the unchurched, is quickly becoming a best-seller. The problem is that this is not the message of downward mobility that ends at the foot of the cross. The apostle Paul asserts that “no one understands; no one seeks for God” and that “the cross is folly to those who are perishing.”[6] The message of the cross is abrasive because it mortifies man’s desire to see his deepest needs fulfilled in favor of seeing the beauty and supremacy of Jesus Christ manifested in all things.

The problem with the market-driven approach is not in conducting ethnographic studies to explore the needs of the surrounding culture, nor is the problem the church’s desire to address people’s needs. The problem lies in the answers that the church provides. Does the church suggest that the latest Christian self-help book can answer all of life’s problems, or does it point to Jesus Christ as the only Savior of the world? Does the church blame all of life’s problems on psychological dysfunction and moral imperfections, or does it identify that the root of life’s problems is sin? Educational theorists and market-driven ministry practitioners are informed by Abraham Maslow’s theory of the hierarchy of needs. According to Maslow, human beings must have their fundamental needs met before they can reach the highest level of self-actualization. Even at the pinnacle of his pyramid diagram, the summit is centered on self.[7] The church that focuses on felt needs fails to detonate the bomb that destroys the pyramid of self and enables one to reach above and beyond humanistic thinking to the deification of God and the detestation of self.

Church marketing techniques may be successful in attracting newcomers, but they fail at presenting the Gospel message with the clarity and conviction that changes one’s character. The market-driven church attracts those who are seeking entertainment, free childcare, an emotional experience, a weekly concert, motivational messages, a feeling of fulfillment within a loving community, and intellectual discourse with other likeminded individuals. These elements of the market-driven church are not inherently evil, but they miss the mark when they become the end rather than the means to an end. The ultimate purpose of the church is not the fulfillment of perceived needs; it is the worship of a holy God. As David Wells writes, “Neither Christ nor his truth can be marketed by appealing to consumer interest, because the premise of all marketing is that the consumer’s need is sovereign, that the customer is always right, and this is precisely what the Gospel insists cannot be the case.”[8] In one of the many beautiful paradoxes recorded in Scripture, Jesus declares that the one who “loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”[9] In forfeiting comfort, ease, worldly pleasure and earthly gain, the follower of Jesus Christ gains life. And this is the path leading towards the hope and fulfillment to which the church must point at all times.

Author James Twitchell, who describes himself as a “humanist, universalist, atheist,” expresses his disgust at the effort of the market-driven church to “sell God.” Even as one of the “seekers” that the market-driven church is attempting to reach, Twitchell clearly perceives the drastic measures the church is willing to take in order to draw him into the building, and the way the message is compromised in the process. He writes, “The sermons (and they are not called that; they are called messages) are invariably encouraging and easy to swallow, sugarcoated with optimism and affirmation. No one is called a sinner; they’re just someone with a broken part.”[10] Market-driven churches insist that the language of sin is outdated, harsh, and condescending. Rather than hitting a nerve that makes congregants squirm in their seats, better marketing techniques suggest that the church offers people a message that leaves them feeling comfortable. The accusatory term “sin” is replaced with the less condemning phrases “poor choice” or “error in judgment.” But the issue is not simply one of semantics. Employing these terms changes the connotations of the words and the result is a diluted theology. A world that is blinded to the truth needs to hear the Gospel proclaimed with clarity and sincerity. Dr. John MacArthur writes, “…the truth of God does not tickle our ears; it boxes them. It burns them. If first reproves, rebukes convicts—then exhorts and encourages.”[11]

The twenty-first century church walks a fine line, trying to balance cultural relevancy with doctrinal integrity. Cross the line and the church becomes driven by marketing strategies and slick methods rather than a call to unapologetically proclaim truth in a spiritually relativistic culture hungry to embrace something that is above and beyond earthly existence—that which is the resurrection power of Jesus Christ. If the church fails to do this, it becomes “just a Christian Oprah Winfrey Show, mirroring the culture but not bringing scriptural truths to bear on it.”[12] The church must be message-driven rather than market-driven. Comfort is not character-forming and convenience does not challenge. In surrendering to Christ and remaining faithful to the teaching of His Word, the church allows God to miraculously and supernaturally provide for its needs in order that His glory might be on display as preeminent and supreme. Surrender necessitates sacrifice. To gain Christ, the market-driven church must renounce its craving to rise above its “competitors” and become the most powerful, most populous, most polished, most potent, most prosperous church on the corner.

Footnotes:

[1] G.A. Pritchard, Willow Creek Seeker Services, (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1996), 51.
[2] Michael Fewson, Will the Real Church Stand Up: How the Gospel of Jesus Christ Contradicts the Contemporary Church (Longwood: Xulon Press, 2006), 78.
[3] Hybels, Rediscovering Church, 59.
[4] Twitchell, Shopping for God, 283.
[5] Hybels, Rediscovering Church, 16.
[6] Rom. 3:11, 1 Cor. 1:18
[7] Mark Driscoll, Confessions of a Reformission Rev.: Hard Lessons from an Emerging Missional Church (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2006), 24.
[8] Wells, God in the Wasteland, 82.
[9] John 12:25
[10] Twitchell, Shopping for God, 243.
[11] MacArthur, Ashamed of the Gospel, 37.
[12] Hybels, Rediscovering Church, 187.