The Church Afire!

 Our celebration of Easter has come and gone, and we move on, looking forward to next Easter’s celebration, and before then, Christmas.  But for the apostles, the weeks after Easter were filled with wonder and glory.  For the 40 days after Resurrection Sunday (Acts 1:3), their risen Lord was among them!  Without doubt their faith was strengthened and enriched during this this time.  And after Jesus had instructed them to remain in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit came and baptized them, equipping them for their mission to be His witnesses, the apostles witnessed their Lord’s return to heaven.  

 

And so the apostles remained together in Jerusalem, waiting….  Ten days later, the day of Pentecost came (Acts 2:1).  The Holy Spirit made His presence known as He filled each of the Apostles, equipping them to witness to visitors by declaring God’s mighty deeds in their own native languages.  The church of Jesus Christ was born as the Lord filled His disciples with His Holy Spirit to enable, equip, and empower them to do His work on earth.

 

Now, millennia later, the church of Jesus Christ remains, guarded, guided, and empowered by the Holy Spirit to proclaim Christ to the world until He returns.  We, as believers, are incredibly blessed to be deemed worthy to carry out this eternally significant work that is both solemn and joyous.

 

As vital as it is to commemorate Easter, to remember Jesus’s astonishing sacrifice on our behalf, it is also crucial to bear in mind that the day of Pentecost—that we commemorate this month, on the 24^th—marked the New Covenant beginning of the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit.  Pentecost is more than a historic holiday.  It is a reminder that the Holy Spirit abides in us and guards, guides, and empowers the church to continue preaching the Gospel and continuing the Kingdom work that Christ initiated with His disciples.

 

We need to be very, very clear that the work of the church is not a solo human endeavor.  We need the Holy Spirit, and we need one another.  In Ephesians, the Apostle Paul casts a vision for the Gentile readers of his letter: God raised Christ above all rule, authority, power, dominion, and name for all eternity and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.  (Ephesians 1:22b-23).  We are the body of Christ, His fulness!  As we use our unique gifts that the Holy Spirit has bestowed upon us in a Holy Spirit-driven and cooperative and coordinated manner, we will manifest the fullness of Christ…!  May we embrace with joy the task of making disciples of all even as we depend upon the Holy Spirit to do so.

 

He Is Risen--INDEED!

 As we welcome April, we are drawn to return to the story of Christ’s passion and resurrection.  Our annual commemoration is an important reminder, but the repetition can blunt the impact of the most pivotal event in human history.  It is essential for us to fix our heart, minds, and spirits on what our Savior has done on our behalf.  But beyond that, Good Friday and Easter give us an opportunity to consider that these events are the most reliable in ancient history.  They really happened!  And since they really happened, the consequences are of eternal consequences.

 

We live in a world where personal, independent power and performance are a high priority and vague spirituality is glorified.  History, especially ancient history is irrelevant.  Life is fast-paced and distracting.  It is easy even for believers to let Good Friday and Easter come and go with limited focus and spiritual impact.  But Scripture calls us to remember, to remember, to remember what the Lord has done for us….

 

I find it helpful to consider how much the reality of Good Friday and Easter highlights the foundational truths found in God’s Word:  Mankind is sinful.  From the fall in the Garden of Eden, the influence of Satan and sin has corrupted the entirety of creation.  Men and women continue the legacy of Adam and Eve with our “do it myself” and the lack of love in our relationships.  We cannot save ourselves from ourselves!  We need a Savior.  

 

And then since God is the God of both righteousness and justice, there must be some accounting for our sin.  Our sin debt is beyond our reckoning, and we have no way to pay that debt.  Only God Himself can pay it, and that is precisely why Christ died on the cross.  The ugliness of our sin is highlighted by the brutality of the crucifixion, but it also stands in sharp contrast to the beauty and depth of our Lord’s love for us.

 

Of course, the cross is only a portion of the story.  The resurrection reminds us that it was God Incarnate who died on the cross, but since Christ was fully God as well as fully man, He is eternal; death itself cannot contain Him.  He was, and is, and is to come…. And the resurrection is the first fruits of the eternal life now offered to us by faith.  

 

Finally, since Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross has covered our sin debt, we now have a restored and abiding relationship with the Triune Godhead.  By faith, we have the Holy Spirt—God Himself!—living within us.  As life on this side of the kingdom confronts us with our shortcomings, weaknesses, and failures, we can depend upon the faithful work of our Lord who has promised to complete the work He has begun in us.  The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is at work in us!

 

Truly, the death and resurrection of Christ is beyond our human comprehension.  It is a more spectacular reality than anything Christ created.  But it is also incredibly personal.  The Godhead wants you and me to know Him more truly and more deeply as time on earth passes.  He calls us to repent of the sins that continue to cause us to stumble and to walk in faith before Him, embracing the resurrection power within us to become who He has created us to be and to fulfill His purposes for us.

 

 

Now if Christ is preached, that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?  But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vary, your faith also is vain….  If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.  But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep.

I Corinthians 15:12-14, 19-20

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spring Forward...By Abiding in the Vine

 With March comes the realistic anticipation of Spring…. Plants spring back to life, and gardeners and farmers are busy preparing the soil and plants big and small to produce the fresh fruit and vegetables that we enjoy.  It is quite a contrast to the bleakness that has surrounded us these past several months.

 

With the limited information of fall and winter, we could easily conclude that most of our plant life has died.  But nothing could be further from the truth.  Plants become dormant, storing energy in their roots, so that they can be ready for spring and the rush of new life and growth.  And as with much of creation, this can be a metaphor for us in our walks of faith.  There are times when the Lord is quiet, when our ministries seem stalled, when we are more tired than excited.  But that does not mean that the indwelling Holy Spirit is done with us!

 

The early chapters of Genesis tells us a lot about our God, the God of creation.  He is the God of teeming life and productivity:

 

The God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation: plants yielding seed, and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit after their kind with seed in the, and it was so.  Genesis 1:11.

 

God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.  God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it….

 

And here we are, millennia later, serving our Creator, who is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.  We have been created to bear fruit for His kingdom!  But unlike the plants that the Lord created, we need the Lord’s direct help in order to bear the fruit He is calling us to produce.

 

I am the true vine, and My Father is the vine-dresser.  Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit…Abide in Me, and I in you.  As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.

 

We will invariably find ourselves in a season of pruning at times.  But Spring reminds us that our Creator and Redeemer has created us to bear eternal, glorious fruit for His kingdom.  He invites us to nurture an abiding relationship in Him so that we can know the joy of doing so.

 

The Februaries of Our Lives

 We worship and serve a God who wants to be known.  The Lord has revealed Himself to us in His Word, by His Spirit, in the Incarnate Christ, and in His creation.  And while there is no substitute for the Lord’s direct communication by His Word, I very much appreciate the lessons that nature can teach us.  February is an ideal time to think about this.

 

There are few people indeed who would name February as their favorite month.  Plants are dormant, and it is grey, chilly, dreary, damp…. Conversations about the weather generally head toward the future: Spring is coming!  We take encouragement in this knowing that warm, sunny weather is coming even though we can’t see any hints of it. 

 

But this annual phenomenon can encourage us in our walk of faith.  There are times of struggle, trial, suffering; there are times when we are unable to see the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel.  The Lord’s sovereign goodness and redemptive purposes can be beyond our imagination.  But just like the transition between winter and spring, the seasons of our lives can deeply connect us with our Redeemer, with Life Himself!  While there is little or no appearance of life in our flowers, shrubs, and trees, much is happening below the surface, these plants are becoming prepared and ready to burst forth with new life.  And in our times of struggle, there may be few signs of spiritual life, but the Lord can use such times to bring us to confession and repentance if needed, to restore us, to enable us to depend on Him as we are exercising perseverance, and to build our faith as we walk in the conviction of truth that we cannot, at the moment, see.

 

To be sure, struggling through challenges and trials, both large and small, is not fun.  The fall was not the Lord’s intent or desire for us; it is not what He created us for.  But our God is not only our Creator; He is our Redeemer.  He has promised to work all things—even the worst of things—for our good.  And not only that, He will use our suffering and the good He works out of that suffering to enable and equip us to help and encourage others in their faith walk.  No hardship will go unredeemed.  All will gleam in glory…. May we persevere in that truth…!

 

 

 

Adventure!

 In his prequel to his trilogy The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien shares the musings of hobbit Bilbo Baggins as he contemplates the concept of adventure:

 

            It’s a dangerous business… going out your door…. We are plain quiet 

            folk and have no use for adventures.  Nasty disturbing uncomfortable 

            things!   Make you late for dinner!

 

A short while back Bilbo’s words came to mind as I walked out my door and had an adventure.  I set out to jog one of my regular and favorite routes to and through a local park and back.  While I was in the park, I was attacked by a large dog that was let off leash by its owner.  I was bitten six times before the owner could control the dog, and then the owner cursed at me for somehow provoking it.  I was hurt just badly enough to need medical help and found myself in rabies protocol.  And, I was late for dinner…..

 

As I processed this event and pondered the words of Bilbo Baggins, I came to the conclusion that Bilbo’s words were not entirely accurate.  The truth is that we are fallen people in a fallen world.  “Adventure” can find us whether or not we walk out the door.  Lightning can strike our home, thieves can break in, our own pets can wreak havoc, health issues can surface.  A deeply meaningful life is not so much about controlling adventure as it is about applying faith to it.  

 

The Apostle Paul reminds us in his epistle to the Romans that those who walk in a faith relationship with Christ can be assured that our Lord will work all events, situations, and circumstances for our good and His glory.  It is a description of the “Now and Not Yet” aspect of redemption: Even as we wait for our redemption in Him to be complete and sealed in eternity, we have the assurance that the Lord will use every bit of our time on earth for His good purposes for us.

 

It seems to me that an exceptionally wise way to begin a new year is to apply Paul’s words to Bilbo Baggins’ concept of adventure.  Since we are called to do all things as to the Lord, pursuing excellence in all that we do is appropriate.  But a focus on self-improvement so that we can do better, do more, and compete with those around us may be counter-productive as we seek to walk in faith before our Lord and Master.  I would like to suggest that we would do well to consider our Maker and Model:  As Jesus walked the earth as God Incarnate, He used the adventure of every unpredictable encounter to proclaim God’s kingdom, to love, and to serve, knowing without doubt that His Father and the Holy Spirit were at work in Him, to work all things for the Godhead’s good and redemptive purposes.

 

Prepare the Way of the Lord!

December is a month of anticipation: Christmas is coming!  Our celebration of the earthly arrival of God Incarnate is rapidly approaching, and with it a significant “TO DO” list.  We send cards, shop for and purchase gifts, decorate our homes, bake goodies, and plan for guests and parties.  These may all serve a good purpose, but it strikes me that the most important preparation is that of our own hearts…. It is what the liturgical season of Advent—Coming—is all about.

 

John the Baptist was the forerunner of Christ, called to proclaim the kingdom of God.  In the Gospel of Matthew we read these words of John:

 

            Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

 

            Make ready the way of the LORD,

            Make His paths straight!

 

The trappings of Christmas are not necessarily inappropriate, but we do not want them to become a trap!  They are secondary to John’s message.  If we are to recognize and welcome Christ into the depths of our beings, and if we are to embrace His work in us and through us, it is important to turn our minds and hearts to the Kingdom of God.  We can prayerfully identify and repent of sin, and we can look to remove the life clutter that could make it difficult for the Lord to reach us.  In doing so, we become more able to receive our Lord and respond to His indwelling work in us via the Holy Spirit.

 

John also proclaimed the importance of bearing fruit in keeping with repentance (Luke 3:8).  Genuine repentance means that again by the power of the Holy Spirit, we change direction from self-focus to God-focus and become more closely aligned with Christ.  When we do this in the here and now, we are better able to manifest Christ.  Our lives echo John’s words to the world, that the kingdom of God has come!

 

And now if we circle back to our Christmas “TO DO” lists, it is easy to see that the trappings of our celebration will have deeper meaning and impact if we see those trappings not merely as something we traditionally do, but as expressions of the kingdom of God within us and pouring forth.  Joy to the World!

  

The Giving of Thanks

It is November, and we are looking forward to Thanksgiving.  But thanksgiving—the giving of thanks—is appropriate and indeed vital every day of every year.  The topic of expressing gratitude and/or appreciation has countless facets.  Feeling and expressing appreciation releases “happiness” hormones, particularly dopamine and serotonin, and we feel good.  It serves our physical, mental, and emotional health.  The giving of thanks is good for our spiritual health as well, turning our focus where it belongs, on our Creator, Savior, and Lord.  When we give thanks and praise Him, we are far better able to see the Lord’s hand in our lives.  And finally, God’s Word calls us to give thanks in all times, in all places, for all things, to the Giver of all good gifts.  (James 1:17).

 

The giving of thanks is also crucial in the development of relationship.  When we give anything, we take something of substance from ourselves and turn outward with it toward someone.  It becomes a means of connection.  So when we express gratitude to God, we reinforce our faith relationship and strengthen our connection with our Creator, Savior, and Lord.  But as we give thanks to God for others, it also turns our hearts toward them.  We promote relationship as we affirm their value.  The Apostle Paul provides numerous examples in his epistles of thanking the Lord for those to whom he was ministering long-distance.  I have often wondered at the breadth and depth of Paul’s relationships with countless members of countless churches sprawled across a good portion of the known world.  I suspect that Paul’s attitude of gratitude toward others and the quantity and quality of his relationships were closely related.  

 

What might this mean for us as we walk in faith as the body of Christ?  In our rushed, competitive, and performance-focused culture, it is tempting to become self-focused and operate from a platform of expedience rather than to be led and fueled by the indwelling Holy Spirit.  It can be easy to choose independence over faith, missing precious opportunities to become more deeply connected to one another.  And connection is crucial if we are to become a unified, fully functional body unit that is able to participate in the Lord’s kingdom work among us and through us and to manifest Christ to an unbelieving world by our love and unity.

 

May we be continually mindful that the Lord has blessed us with one another!

 

We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brethren, as is only fitting, because your faith is greatly enlarged, and the love of each one of you toward one another grows ever greater.  

                                                                                                   II Thessalonians 1:3