SPENDING TIME THINKING ABOUT GOD

In our Sunday morning adult class, we recently discussed God as Jesus’ Father and how they relate to each other and the Holy Spirit, and considered our inadequacy to completely understand the nature of God. Following that discussion, I shared the following story:

Shortly after St. Augustine had finished his theological tome On the Trinity, he was walking along the Mediterranean shore on the coast of North Africa when he chanced upon a boy who kept filling a bucket with seawater and pouring it into a large hole in the sand.

"Why are you doing that?" Augustine asked the boy.

"I'm pouring the Mediterranean Sea into the hole," the boy replied in all seriousness.

"My dear boy, what an impossible thing to try to do!" chided Augustine. "The sea is far too vast, and your hole is far too small."

Then as Augustine continued his walk, it dawned on him that in his efforts to write on the Trinity he was much like that boy: the subject was far too vast, and his mind was far too small!

We may not be able to understand God, but we do need to give constant consideration to God and how he works in our world and in our lives. In his book All That Jesus Asks, Stan Guthrie suggests that we do not study the questions about God as readily as we do matters about things around us. Guthrie comments on and analogy Jesus used in Luke 12:54-56:

He also said to the crowds: “When you see a cloud rising in the west, right away you say, ‘A storm is coming,’ and so it does. And when the south wind is blowing, you say, ‘It’s going to be a scorcher!’ and it is. Hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky, but why don’t you know how to interpret this time?

Guthrie says:

Their priorities are wrong. They study the weather, which comes and goes, but this moment, this opportunity to align oneself with God's purposes, will never come again-and yet people don't use their brains to evaluate these unique circumstances and make the right decision. It is damnable ignorance.

Such attitudes are just as prevalent today. People study the stock market, the weather, the baseball box scores, how to land a good job, and many other subjects, some more worthy, some less. But they expend few or no brain cells on the most important matters: Is there a God? What is he like? What does he require of us? How do we get into heaven and stay out of hell?

Most of us know about many things today. There is an extremely large amount of information available to us about every subject imaginable, more than at any time in the world’s history. We know details about our jobs, how to run our computers (some more and some less than others), our cars, the features in our homes, and a myriad of other things. But how much time on a daily basis do we think about God and what he is like and how he needs to affect every aspect of our lives?

Jesus raised just that point in Luke 12. When we know Jesus as Savior, we also need to know him as Lord and open every aspect of our lives for him to influence. That takes constant thought.

Opportunities in a New Year

As a congregation, we will have plenty of opportunity to evaluate our spiritual lives in 2012 as I preach through the Gospel of Luke. There is no more important person to learn about or to measure our lives against than Jesus . He is the center of our faith.

I try to preach at least one series of messages each year that puts the emphasis squarely on Jesus’ life or ministry. In the last three or four years, we have, at various times, examined his teachings through his parables, his miracles, the people he encountered, and the Gospel of Mark.

The salvation that Jesus offers is the beginning and ending point of our faith, so in 2012 we will let Luke teach us about Jesus as our Savior. Luke, more than the other Gospel writers, emphasizes that Jesus came as the Savior for everyone. The key verse in his Gospel is Luke 19:10: “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

So through this year, consider what it means for Jesus to save you and how he can use you to offer his salvation to others. If you have struggled with whether to put your faith fully in Christ, let Luke’s Gospel speak to you about Jesus this year, and determine to trust him completely.

There are other tools that you can use this year to keep your spiritual focus sharp. Here are a couple:

Commit to spending time every day in the Word of God. If you already spend time in God’s Word every day, find a new way to approach Scripture so that it speaks to you in a fresh way.

I have made it my practice most years to read the entire Bible through the year. In recent years, I have used computer Bible apps and online services to determine my reading plan for the year. There are plenty of tools available today for reading the Bible, many of them free. I have one resource that has over twenty Bible reading plans. If you need to find one, I would be glad to help you, but anyone can take a book of the Bible and read through it or just divide the number of pages in your Bible by 365 and read that number of pages per day.

It also helps to change up your Bible reading. I have read and preached from the New International Version of the Bible for many years, but last year I changed and read through the Bible in the English Standard Version and began using an updated NIV that came out in 2010 when I preach. This year I will read the Holman Christian Standard Bible and will read from it when I preach. In just a few days, I have noticed some of the differences in phrasing. That is enabling me to think about the passages I am reading in new ways.

And one more thing: Commit to regular attendance at worship in 2012. If you are out-of-town and cannot attend Westwood, attend church wherever you are. I have learned much from attending other churches over the years. Regular worship keeps you sharp in your Christian walk as you worship, fellowship, and encounter the Word of God.

So meet the Savior in fresh ways in 2012. Keep him at the center of your life.

The Real Story of Christmas

Black Friday is generally the biggest one-day shopping day of the year, and the “beginning” of the Christmas shopping season. With the rise of online shopping has come the advent (excuse the pun) of Cyber-Monday, which offers a whole new way to get great shopping deals leading up to Christmas. By all accounts, both Black Friday and Cyber-Monday were outstanding successes this year.

It is not just about Christmas shopping, though. This year I saw news pieces about people finding great shopping deals to buy for themselves. It seems that the season is not just about giving. It is about getting the best deal that you can on something you want.

While America is shopping, the world, it seems, is sinking into deeper and deeper trouble. Our Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, is currently in Myanmar (Burma), one of the world’s greatest abusers of human rights and a country suspected of cooperating with North Korea on ballistic missiles. In addition, world-wide economic woes continue, with general concern around the world about the impending collapse of economies in Europe.

While pondering these national and international issues and with Christmas approaching, I have been pondering two passages of Scripture that ought to give us hope. It seems that Jesus came into a world where personal selfishness and international turmoil reign. Behind it all is the ongoing battle between good and evil. In the midst of that battle, Jesus brings us hope and ultimate victory.

Micah 5:1-4 predicted the birth of a new ruler would take place in Bethlehem at a time when a siege was laid against Israel that would strike their ruler with a rod. Although Bethlehem was an insignificant place in Israel, this coming ruler was tied to the nation’s heritage — his “origins are from of old, from ancient times.” Micah prophesied that “He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God” and “his greatness will reach to the ends of the earth.” The baby born in Bethlehem would bring stability to a world of selfishness and turmoil.

The great victory that Christ’s birth brings into the world is underscored in Revelation 12 when the scenes from the birth of Jesus that we read about in the Gospels are set in cosmic terms. One commentator says that the Gospels tells us the story of Jesus’ birth from an earthly viewpoint, while Revelation 12 tells us the story of Jesus’ birth from a heavenly viewpoint.

In Revelation 12 the story pictures “a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and a crown of twelve stars on her head” who cries out as she is about to give birth. Then an enormous dragon attacks with the purpose of devouring her child as soon as he is born. The child is protected, resulting in a war breaking out in heaven. But the dragon is defeated, and a loud voice from heaven announces the salvation and power and the Kingdom of God that have come as a result.

Both Micah and Revelation show us the great battle we are engaged in that is, in part, a product of the selfishness and turmoil of our world. In the midst of the battle a child is born. He is born in the humblest of circumstances, but he is the greatest child, the greatest king of all who will yet rescue the world for God. That is the story of Bethlehem.

Fred Craddock – A “Preaching Genius”

One of the preachers who has influenced my own preaching through his sermons and books is Fred Craddock. He is a master storyteller-preacher who has taught and influenced dozens of preachers. This week CNN’s Belief Blog has an excellent profile of Craddock, who is now 83, that discusses his preaching as well as his personal journey of faith. You can find the profile here. I highly recommend reading it.

International Day of Prayer For the Persecuted Church

November 13, is The International Day of Prayer For the Persecuted Church. While our constitution establishes religious freedom in the United States, there is growing evidence of that right being seriously eroded. Yet, such freedom does not exist at all in many countries of the world. In many of those countries, Christians face persecution resulting in imprisonment, torture, and martyrdom.

On November 6, my sermon theme will be “Hazardous” as we examine Acts 5, one of the times in the book of Acts when the early church faced persecution. From those early days until now, living for Christ has always been hazardous. Today, however, persecution has risen around the world to new levels. So we need to be aware of the plight of many of our brothers and sisters in other nations and pray for them.

Certainly we can expect persecution to come to those who follow Christ. Jesus told us that “Everyone will hate you because of me” (Luke 21:17). In John 15:18 & 20, Jesus said, “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first” and “If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.” In Acts 14:22, Paul would say, “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.”

Sunday our bulletin will include an insert with stories of people who are experiencing these very things today:

• Gao Zhisheng is a Christian and prominent human rights attorney in China who was seized from his home in 2009 and imprisoned without a trial.
• Asia Bibi, a mother of five in Pakistan, was accused of blaspheming Muhammad and sentenced to death.
• Youcef Nadarkhani was arrested in Iran for opposing the practice of forcing Christians to read the Quran in school and has been held in solitary confinement.
• Puih H’bat was arrested in her home in Vietnam while leading a group of Christians in prayer.

These are the conditions many Christians around the world face. So we must pray for them.

You can learn more by visiting the web site of Voice of the Martyrs: www.persecution.com.

Jesus’ Claim On Your Life

In a Thursday morning Bible study that I have been teaching since June, we are currently studying the Gospel of John. Among the unique things about John’s Gospel are the claims that Jesus makes about himself. Among the four Gospels, we read these claims only in John. He did not so much write a narrative of Jesus’ life as he wrote a reflection on who Jesus is.

Consider, for instance, the uniqueness of Jesus’ “I am” statements that John presents:

• “I am the bread of life” — John 6:35.
• “I am the light of the world” — John 8:12.
• “I am the good shepherd” — John 10:11.
• “I am the resurrection and the life” — John 11:25.
• “I am the way and the truth and the life — John 14:6.
• “I am the true vine” — John 15:1.

Those are just the most familiar of the claims that Jesus makes. Each of them is filled with meaning, but let’s examine just one for a moment: Jesus’ claim to be “the light of the world.”

When Jesus makes that claim, he continues by saying, “Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” Then he demonstrates what he means by the claim through the continuing dialog and events of the text.

• When the Pharisees challenged the validity of the claim, he went on to claim, “If you knew me, you would know my Father also” — John 8:19.
• He then claimed that he is going away — referring, of course, to heaven — and said, “Where I go, you cannot come” — John 8:21. We cannot go there, he said, because “You are of this world; I am not of this world” — John 8:23. We can only go where he is when he takes us there because we put our faith in him.
• When we hold to his teaching, “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” — John 8:31-32.
• Finally, when the Jewish leaders claimed Abraham as their father, Jesus made the remarkable claim, “Before Abraham was born, I am” — John 8:58.

These claims only scratch the surface of Jesus’ claim to be “the light of the world.” Jesus then demonstrated the effect this claim can have on us by healing a blind man in John 9. The man who is healed saw Jesus far better than the leaders of the Jews who were teaching the people about God, but they did not know God.

When this man who was blind believed in Jesus, Jesus made a claim on his life, and he makes a claim on our lives. We need to believe Jesus’ claims, and then we need to let him claim our lives as we walk with him, trust him, and learn from him to know the Father.

IS YOUR CHURCH INNUMERABLE?

There are some things that are innumerable – too numerous to count: grains of sand on the seashore, stars in the sky, and drops of water in the ocean. On a recent drive through Rocky Mountain National Park while in Colorado, I added another one to the list: rocks in the Rocky Mountains. Some actions are innumerable: the tears a mother will shed for her children, and the times a four-year-old will ask “Why…?”

The population of the world is innumerable today. World population remained steady at about one billion people from the time of Christ until about 1600. Then it began to increase until it reached about two billion people during the last century. During the lifetime of most of you who are reading this, world population has grown from two billion to nearly seven billion. That is innumerable (This analysis can be found in Unleashed by Dudley Rutherford, et al from Standard Publishing in the chapter “Innumerable.”). As of July 1, 2011, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated the world’s population to be 6.96 billion.

In the book of Acts, the growth of the number of Jesus’ followers could be described as innumerable:

• Acts 1:15 begins with 120 followers of Jesus before Pentecost.
• In Acts 2:41, the number multiplied to more than 3,000.
• In Acts 2:47, the Lord was adding to their number daily.
• Acts 4:4 records that about 5,000 men were now Christians.
• Acts 5:14 tells us that “more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number.”
• Acts 6:1 says that “the number of disciples was increasing.”
• Acts 9:31 records this about the church: “Living in the fear of the Lord and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it increased in numbers.”

By AD 350 there were thirty-one million Christians, more than half the population of the Roman Empire! The church was growing so rapidly that it became virtually impossible to count. Today there are some two billion Christians in the world.

I review those numbers for you in order to ask a question: How does the church once again become innumerable? How does your church become innumerable?

I realize that the number of people in most churches can be counted. As Christians, however, we are part of the world-wide church, so every church should be seeking out as many lost people as they can, so that together we become innumerable. Here are three emphases that I find in Acts that together enable the church to reach innumerable people.

(1) Emphasize the centrality of Christ. If you read through the messages preached by Peter and others that are recorded in Acts, you will find that every one emphasizes Christ above all else. Peter’s message on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2 sets the stage by telling us that Jesus’ miracles prove that he is from God, that he was crucified and rose again, as foretold by the prophets and witnessed by the apostles, that he was exalted to the right hand of God, and that he poured out his Spirit on those who witnessed his resurrection. Messages recorded in each of Acts chapters 3, 4, and 5 all repeat that emphasis on Christ. Christ must be emphasized above all by the church.

(2) Emphasize the need for salvation. When Peter concluded his message in Acts 2, he was asked, “What shall we do?” He responded, “Repent and be baptized … in the name of Jesus Christ” and you will receive forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit. This emphasis on salvation continued throughout the messages in Acts, with Peter even announcing in Acts 4:12 that “salvation is found in no one else” except Jesus. This is not just the message of the church. It is the message of every individual Christian. Most people come to Christ because a friend or family member has reached out to them in the name of Christ. Make this the emphasis of your life and your church.

(3) Emphasize the practice of love. In the snapshots in the book of Acts into the life of the early church, we have various pictures of the church loving and caring for each other and for those in the community around them. The church in fact became known in the world around them as a community of people who loved each other and those around them.

Your church can be innumerable. Begin to ask how you can build these three emphases into every aspect of your life and the church. Make your church not just about your church, but about the church around the world reaching innumerable people.