Grace and Peace

With rare exceptions the Pharisees trusted in the accumulated good works of their lives to get them into the Kingdom of God.  Things haven't changed much in 2000 years, because many still follow the same path believing that their good works can earn favor with God.  Jesus points out the futility of this approach to salvation in Luke 7:41-42.  Just as in the parable contained in those verses, we will never be able to repay our debt.  Salvation is not a trade with God; it is His gift to us.  This pardon is graciously bestowed and received only through faith.  In regard to eternal salvation, faith is confidence in a Person, the Lord Jesus Christ. This believing is the only and sufficient requirement, as the words of our Lord indicate: "Your faith has saved you" (v 50).

These life-giving words of our Lord are echoed all through the letters of the apostle Paul.  One such passage that perhaps serves as the benchmark of Paul's teaching is Ephesians 2:8-9, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast."

Sola gratia - sola fide!

The Christian Post reported the findings of a new study released Monday from The Barna Group which shows that negative perceptions toward the Christian faith outweigh the positive, as more younger Americans associate with a faith outside Christianity.

Only 16 percent of non-Christians aged 16 to 29 years old said they have a "good impression" of Christianity. Common negative perceptions among non-Christians is that present-day Christianity is judgmental (87 percent), hypocritical (85 percent), old-fashioned (78 percent), and too involved in politics (75 percent). Just 10 years ago, a vast majority of Americans outside the Christian faith - including young people - felt favorably toward Christianity's role in society.

Here is the money quote from the report:  When asked why they had a negative impression of Christianity, 25% of the people answered, " Because Christianity No Longer Looks Like Jesus."  While you might dismiss their answer as simplistic or just plain wrong, I think it is a scathing indictment of how we have "institutionalized" Jesus and made our mission about ourselves and not His kingdom.

Think about it--what concerns you most when you think about personal spiritual matters?  Is it having your needs met or living in a way that pleases the Heavenly Father?  What concerns you most when you think about your church?  Is it having the most beautiful, comfortable, easily accessed campus in town or is it going "out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in (to the kingdom, not just your church building)?"

Maybe we don't look very much like Jesus!

Many Christians regard being in conflict as being in sin. Yet Jesus has taught us, at some length, how to manage conflict and Proverbs has whole sections on it. Conflict is inevitable for three reasons

1. Our knowledge is incomplete and imperfect so even sinless people in a perfect world will see the same situation differently through their own knowledge and perspectives.

2. Satan engineers conflict whenever and wherever possible especially amongst Christians. Satan sets us in conflict with ourselves, God and one another.

3. We knowingly enter into and initiate conflict with evil whenever we proclaim the gospel, preach holiness, protest against sin in our society, teach against cults or testify to Christ in the midst of a world that does not want to change.

Thus conflict is here to stay and we must learn to deal with it in a way that exalts Christ.  Remember God is bigger than the problem. The God who created the heavens and the earth is able to deal with our disputes and conflicts.  He has given us His Word to guide us.  Scripture is much better than conflict resolution manuals and self help books.  Especially emerse yourself in Proverbs and you will find that it is an invaluable source of wisdom.  For example, Proverbs teaches us that how something is said is vitally important(Proverbs 25:11-13).

Whatever we say should be clear, kind, true and appropriate. There is a right time and a right way to say things.  We must never forget we are speaking to a fellow human being with feelings.  Therefore, choose your time, place, and manner with care. It can make all the difference in the world.

Now excuse me while I go clear up a mess I made while communicating with a friend.

Have you ever considered how consumed our culture has become with the issue of safety?  We are constantly warned about our risky behavior--from our eating habits to our driving habits to environmental issues--we want to play it safe.  Every morning the newscasts and talk shows tell us what we should fear and also tell us how to play it safe.  We have weather radar with marvelous technology that can predict and warn us about hurricanes and tornadoes.  Why all this effort?  Because people are interested in being safe. 

However, risk is part of life and especially a part of our life in Christ.  As a friend recently said, “No one said following Jesus would be easy.” Even Jesus warned us about the risks of following Him, "Remember the words I spoke to you: 'No servant is greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also (John 15:20 NIV)."

What would you say about a group of believers that moved their place of worship out of suburban safety and into a neighborhood plagued by drug abuse and burglaries because they were burden over the people there who were separated from God?  These believers did this not as an outreach (like some hobby), but they moved everything down there! They take it for granted that their building will be broken into and that their stuff might be stolen. Perhaps some of them may even be assaulted and robbed as they travel in and out of the neighborhood in their quest to follow Jesus.  Would you consider them foolish or bad stewards? Would you call those believers fanatics? Why do they take the risk?

Wherever these risky Christians might go, they seem to be playing by a different set of rules than most American believers.  Yet, I suggest that they are simply taking their calling seriously. When we follow Jesus Christ, we have different priorities that may take us in different directions than the prevailing wisdom of our time.

God is calling us to take some risks, not risk for the sake of being risky, but for the sake of the gospel.  Let me suggest three areas where we can start:

1. We can risk living and doing life together.  We live in a very individualized age where each one tends to look to their own interests (and maybe those of their family).  Living for others takes us out of our comfort zone.  It is easier to ignore our neighbor than talk to them.  It is easier to mind our own business than ask a co-worker what is wrong (when we can see the evident pain in their eyes).  We would be much more effective at sharing our faith if we would simply take time to be kind to people around us and talk to them.  That way we can build bridges between our lost neighbors and the Savior.  We can show them Christ in us and help them know Him.
2. We can risk being generous.  It is risky to share our resources with one another and with our community without expecting a return on our investment.  Everything that is worldly and fleshly within us tells us to hang onto what we have.  We go to great lengths to protect our wealth and our stuff, yet we are most like our God when we give.  Remember, "God so loved He gave (John 3:16)." We can risk being generous with our wealth and with our love.
3. We can risk being different.  The Christians of the first century were ridiculed and scorned by the society around them. They were called incestuous, cannibalistic, and atheistic (they only believed in one God not the many gods of Rome).  They didn’t overcome society's misunderstanding and enmity by standing up for their rights, initiating lawsuits, or wielding their political power.  They also didn’t give up and say, "Well, we can't beat them so we might as well just join them" thus conforming to the expectations of a dying culture.  instead they overcame by kneeling in prayer in the arenas where they were slaughtered.  They lived their life for Jesus fearlessly and suffered persecution willingly for the sake of the gospel.

I live in a community where more than 50,000 people live within 5 miles of my home. Of that 50,000, one third are 18 years of age or younger. Where the national and North Carolina median age is 35, my community has a median age of 25. In our nation and state, women slightly outnumber men 51% to 49%. But in the community where I live, men outnumber women 55% to 45%.  In my community, 50% plus of the population claims to be Christian, but only about 28% worship with other believers on any Sunday.  That leads me to conclude that many are Christian in name only...not having the faintest idea what it means to follow Jesus.  This breaks my heart!

This is where I would ask for your prayers. Having seen the need, I ask that you would pray for me.  I believe God has placed me here for this time and for this cause.  Pray for wisdom.  Pray for courage.  Pray that God would send out His laborers into this community for a harvest.

The day is late and the night is coming.  How can we play church and be consumed with our petty little problems while the world goes to hell?  God help us.

Becky and I will be leaving soon for a Friday afternoon and Saturday morning conference at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.  While there, we hope to touch base with Ryan and Allison Thomas.  Pray that God will use us to encourage this young couple and that He will use the time of study at Southeastern to equip me.  One of the most valuable lessons I learned from my predecessor, Paul Odum, was that you must be a life-long learner if you want to be greatly used by God.  God wants to constantly stretch our understanding and show us new things.  He desires to open our understanding to His Word, will, and way.

Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. (Isaiah 43:19 ESV)

After Mark Twain had made his triumphant tour through Europe, where he was honored by great universities and recieved by kings, his daughter Susy said, "Daddy, I guess pretty soon you will know everybody except God."

The truth is, it doesn't matter how many people you know if you don't know God.

George Washington Carver was born on July 12, 1864 near Diamond Grove, Missouri.  These were difficult and changing times near the end of the Civil War. George, his brother, and mother were kidnapped by Confederate night-raiders and taken away. Moses Carver, on whose farm George was born, found and reclaimed George and his brother after the war.  Their mother was never located and the identity of their father remains unknown.

Moses and Susan Carver took George and his brother into their home and reared them as their own children. It was on the Moses' farm where George first fell in love with agriculture.

Carver began his formal education at age twelve, but had to leave the home of his adopted parents to do so. Schools were segregated by race at that time and there was no school available for black students near Carver's home. He moved to Newton County in southwest Missouri, where he worked as a farm hand and studied in a one-room schoolhouse. He went on to attend Minneapolis High School in Kansas.

After high school he entered college at the age of thirty.  Carver was the first black student at Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa. He transferred to Iowa Agricultural College (now Iowa State University) in 1891, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in 1894 and a Master of Science degree in bacterial botany and agriculture in 1897. Afterwards, he became a member of the faculty of Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanics.  He was the first black faculty member at an Iowa College.

In 1897, Booker T. Washington convinced Carver to come south and serve as the Director of Agriculture at the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute for Negroes. George remained on the faculty there until his death in 1943. At Tuskegee, Carver developed his crop rotation method, which revolutionized southern agriculture. Carver also worked at developing industrial applications from agricultural crops. During World War I, he found a way to replace the textile dyes formerly imported from Europe.  He produced 500 different shades of dye and was responsible for the invention of a process for producing paints and stains from soybeans.

In spite of his brilliance, Carver did not patent or profit from most of his products. He freely gave his discoveries for the good of mankind. "God gave them to me." he would say about his ideas, "How can I sell them to someone else?"  In 1940, Carver donated his life savings to the establishment of the Carver Research Foundation at Tuskegee, for continuing research in agriculture.

Carver declined an invitation to work in private industry for a salary of more than $100,000 a year (almost a million dollars today).  He did that so that he could continue his research on behalf of his countrymen.  When he died on January 5, 1943, George Washington Carver was mourned by the entire nation.  On his grave you will find inscribed this epitaph:

"He could have added fortune to fame, but caring for neither, he found happiness and honor in being helpful to the world."

Today, our church staff team pulled away for a day of prayer, study, and planning.  It was a great time.  I am blessed to labor together with my best friends, in a church family I love, within a community that inspires me, and for a God who is gracious and good.  It doesn't get any better than that.

Please pray for our staff and church family.  Pray that we will be faithul to our God and make an impact for the Kingdom in our community and beyond.

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. (Acts 1:8 ESV)

Bob Evans was blind for the first 51 years of his life.  He lived in a dark world filled with sounds and smells, but not sight.  Then, a new surgical technique was pioneered and his particular condition made him an excellent candidate for the procedure.  The surgery was performed and for the first time in his life, he could see.  Bob wrote this about his experience of seeing things for the very first time:

"I couldn’t believe yellow. I never dreamed that yellow was so, well, yellow. And red. Red is my favorite color. It’s so brilliant and warm and penetrating. Then there are the airplanes flying high in the sky, stretching their vapor trails behind them. I love watching the airplanes. And the sunsets. There are times when I just sit outside to drink in the beauty of a sunset, followed by a night filled with the brilliant light of the stars, blinking in the heavens. All my life I was surrounded by beauty and I never realized it until now. I didn’t even know what I was missing."

Many live lives of desparation and hopelessness while they are surrounded all around by the mercy and grace of God.  They are "spiritually blind" and do not realize what they are missing.  Yet, we who have "eyes to see" have been given the privilege of sharing with them the "eye opening" truth of the gospel.  Why would we want to leave anyone in darkness when Jesus can open their eyes to the light?

Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. (2 Corinthians 4:1-7 ESV)