Great Gospel Questions (two)

"Why would we allow ourselves to be motivated by shame when Jesus willingly carried our shame?...

...Why would we construct a facade of righteousness when Jesus has given his righteousness over to our account?..."

...Why would we fear  God's wrath when Jesus took the full brunt of God's anger  for us on the cross?"

Paul Tripp,  New Morning Mercies: a Daily Gospel Devotional

Great Gospel Questions (one)

"Why would you and I work so hard to hide or deny what has been fully, completely, and eternally forgiven?...

...Why would we work so hard to pretend that we are something less than sinners when the message of the gospel is that Jesus loves and accepts sinners?...

Why would we hide in guilt when Jesus has fully borne our guilt?"

Paul Tripp,  New Morning Mercies: a Daily Gospel Devotional

Sign of the Kingdom: Jesus Still Serves through His People

Really, if you think about it, it does not make any sense. They left their home for a week to come to Seattle when they could be celebrating the fact that they aren't in school.  Who would fault them for playing video games, sleeping in and (maybe) filling out paperwork to get into their dream university?

As many people think of high school students they are often portrayed as self absorbed and lazy, unaware and maybe unwilling to give to anyone else. So, for a group of students to come to Seattle to serve at the Ballard Food Bank- and to do it with joy- doesn't seem to make sense. (Did I mention that they paid to do it?!)

There is something "not of this world" when a group of students (and their servant hearted leaders) gets up early to go make sure that people that they have never met get to eat that day. It is a sign of God bringing his kingdom.

What is really "not of this world" is that they did all of this, not from a heart that says "Look at me and how great I am," but with an attitude of joyful, sacrificial love. Don't get me wrong, they are by no means perfect, but the heart that Jesus has given them- His heart!- overflowed in practical service to people who are not used to be treated with authentic kindness and respect.

This group was here to serve alongside Vona Church that my good friend Wil pastors. Wil has counseled all of us that the best way to wisely love the people of his neighborhood in Seattle is to serve them with the attitude of Jesus so that their hearts might be stirred to ask "Why are those crazy people doing that?" (Note: not his exact words) They may not want to hear about Jesus at first, but there is a quality of that kind of love that makes people wonder. Serving others in a world that overvalues those who "deserve" to be served is a sign of the way the world should be...a sign of the kingdom.

A mature lady came to me and asked me all sorts of questions about the students and Vona Church. She was VERY skeptical (to say the least) and asked me questions that revealed that she had been hurt in the past by those who called themselves "Christians." But, interestingly, she was asking questions. She saw something in those students that made her search her heart more than what was comfortable for her. She HAD to know what they were about. I simply told her that those students were expressing the heart of their Savior that he had given them. She scoffed as she walked away, but she also left wondering. The expression on her face showed that she encountered something she couldn't quite explain...and definitely couldn't explain away.

It is a sign of the kingdom that a group of students would joyfully sacrifice time they could be playing  to genuinely serve with the servant heart of Jesus. That sign spoke loudly to me and to at least one hurting woman who longs for something better than the life she knows. Our God often shows signs of his kingdom so quietly that we might almost miss how he is pointing us to the better world he is creating in the midst of a selfish world. He is quiet in that way, but, when we notice, the sign is too loud for us to ignore...and we wouldn't want to ignore it.

"In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven." (Matthew 5:16 ESV)

Crossing Each Person's Culture

People around us are deep mysteries. To love my neighbors means I need to understand them, to know them deeply even if they try hard not to be known. Every person has a culture and every relationship I have with someone is crossing over into their culture.

The only way I will ever really understand someone is if the Spirit gives me insight into them but, that doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t do the work of listening to them and observing what they love. Everyone who is a child of God is also a missionary to the people they spend time with. That means we need to think like people who cross cultures, even if we don’t recognize that we are crossing cultures.

In their book, Everyday Church,  Tim Chester and Steve Timmis give counsel on how to observe people and discern culture. They give questions to ponder in discerning how to love people deeply by understanding them and their culture:

Where?

• Where are the places and activities that we can meet people (the missional spaces)?
• Where do people experience community?
• Are there exiting social networks with which we can engage, or do we need to find ways of creating community within the neighborhood?
• Where should we be to have missional opportunities?

When?

• What are the patterns and timescales of our neighborhood (the missional rhythms)?
• When are the times that we can connect with people (the missional moments)?
• How do people organize their time?
• What cultural experiences and celebrations do people value/? How might these be bridges to the gospel?
• When should we be available for missional opportunities?

What? 

• What are people’s fears, hopes, and hurts?
• What gospel stories are told in the neighborhood? What gives people identity (creation)? How do they account for wrong in the world (fall)? What is their solution (redemption)? What are their hopes (consummation)?
• What are the barrier beliefs or assumptions that cause people to dismiss the gospel?
• What sins will the gospel first confront and heal?
• In what ways rate people self righteous?
• What is the good news for people in this neighborhood?
• What will church look like for people in this neighborhood?

This is Good News, Too

Those who follow Jesus are never in the majority...never in control of the culture.

We will always be different. But it is a kind of different that isn't awkward and disconnected with what is going on around us.

It is the kind of "different" that reminds the people around us that what we see in this world is not and is not all that there is. Our "different" reminds the world that God's kingdom is what we have always longed for in ways we may never have recognized.

"If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you." (John 15:19 ESV)

"Look For Signs of the Kingdom"

This statement seems so simple, but it was revolutionary to me at a time I needed it most. I have to share it with you.

A few weeks ago, I went to a new friend to ask for his counsel on how to handle "planting a church" in Seattle. The week prior had been discouraging and it was obvious to both my wife and me that we were missing the point. Asking questions like "why is it so hard to connect with people?" and "what are we doing wrong?", Adrienne and I both knew that our outlook was short-sighted and full of fear. 

My friend heard and empathized with my frustrations. He didn't try to wow me by being profound, but pointed me back to a simple truth: we did not move here first a foremost to "start a church," but to be a part of how the King of heaven is working to make the world "right" again by transforming people. He reminded me that faithfulness doesn't simply mean building a new religious organization, but working in the power that God provides to see people flourish because of a restored relationship with the God who gave his son Jesus to rescue us from ourselves.

Its simple. Seek God's kingdom and look for signs of that kingdom. Signs like a man who had never heard that there is a personal God who created him hearing that truth for the first time and being overwhelmed by it. A woman who grieves for restored relationship with her son seeing the Father bring him back home to her. A man who anxiously brought his family to a new city resting again in the truth that the God he trusts can (and will!) do exceedingly more than he can imagine in the lives of people around him. These are signs of the kingdom.

 Another friend recently reminded me that when God shows himself to us it is not for us alone, but to share that joy with others. So, as I recognize signs of the kingdom around me, I need to share with others.

The King of heaven is at work in the hearts of the people of Seattle. He is showing us signs of his kingdom.

They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom and tell of your power, to make known to the children of man your mighty deeds, and the glorious splendor of your kingdom. (Psalm 145:11-12 ESV)

A Promise to Love With

And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.
(Deuteronomy 30:6 ESV)

Heartfelt Wisdom from a Man With a Wig

Jonathan Edwards

An excerpt from Jonathan Edwards' Religious Affections:

"The nature of human beings is to be inactive unless influenced by some affection: love or hatred, desire, hope, fear, etc. These affections are the 'spring of action,' the things that set us moving in our lives, that move us to engage in activities.

When we look at the world, we see that people are exceedingly busy. It is there affections that keep them busy. If we were to take away their affections, the world would be motionless and dead; there would be no such thing as activity.

It is the affection called covetousness that moves a person to seek worldly profits;

it is the affection we call ambition that moves a person to pursue worldly glory;

it is the affection we call lust that moves a person to pursue sensual delights.

Just as worldly affections are the spring of worldly actions, so the religious affections are the spring of religious actions."

Look Through Them for Their Sake

And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” (Matthew 9:35-38 ESV)

There has been a latent desire in my heart over the last decade that I am just now starting to understand. I have a weak, but yet substantive longing to see people transformed to love Jesus. That is nothing we create on our own, but something that the Spirit gives every believer when he gives us a new heart.

This desire, this gift, grows in us as we trust Jesus more. The more we know him the more we want others to know him too. It is a beautiful thing that brings more and more joy. 

Meeting new friends in our area that we want to see trust our God stirs the desire on but yet dries it up. When real people with real names and real eternities are involved it changes.

I have found myself obsessing about it, trying to manufacture it and sustain it. But, the Lord has shown me something even better: "Look Through Them for Their Sake."

Jesus didn't simply tell his disciples in this passage to go and engage those people. That would be good. Jesus set their eyes beyond the people he had compassion on because he had compassion on them.

What our Lord wants for his people is to come home to him to be sure, but also to have his righteous anger over sin, his joy over one who has even the smallest amount of faith in him, and his deep love that welcomes people to the home they long for. Jesus' compassion is too rich and too expansive to simply keep to himself- he wants that heart in everyone who is his child.

So, he pointed his disciples beyond the people right in front of them for the people right in front of them. Jesus called his disciples to look into the reaches of the world that they themselves could never reach...but the people in front of them could. Jesus wants the people in front of us to have the joy of loving the nations.

So, we want to make new friends in Seattle who come to trust Jesus with all of their heart. If my compassion only leads me to see them saved and not see through them to the people they will befriend, then my compassion is much smaller and weaker than Jesus'.

I want to look through the people we will grow to love to the people they will grow to love and the people they will grow to love and the people they will grow to love. I want to look at my new friends, love them deeply and committedly, and longingly work to stir up the joyful gift Jesus' heart in them for the nations. The salvation we are given is more than a ticket out of punishment, but it is also into a full, adventurous life with Jesus.

Jesus never "overlooked" someone for someone else' sake. I don't want to either. I want their joy to be the joy of Jesus when someone comes to trust him. Isn't that what love is?

One more thing. Jesus told the disciples (and us) to pray that the Lord of the harvest would send out workers. Every workers was once part of the harvest. May it be that he sends out people who whole-heartedly love him into the harvest field who are, today, in the harvest.

"It's like Ray-ee-ain on Your Wedding Day..."

Ironic, huh?