What I Did on My Summer Vacation

The family and I just got back from an 8-day excursion that took us from Springfield to Hot Springs, Arkansas to Lake of the Ozarks. Here's a few things I learned:

• U.S. 67 is a boring and slow way to travel through Missouri into Arkansas. I'll stick to I-55 next time.
• I'm pretty sure there's a Wal-Mart in every town in Arkansas.
• Of all the hub-bub influential cities get, the amount of rural America is immense.
• Speaking of rural America, you've got to love names like Knob Lick, MO and Toad Suck Park in Arkansas. I'm being very serious.
• Flying a plane is fun.
• The amount of food you're offered at Lambert's (where they throw the rolls at you) should be illegal.
• Watching a lightning/thunderstorm roll in at midnight over Lake of the Ozarks is a very spiritual experience.

One last thing: I've gained some deeper appreciation for gospel community and gospel hospitality. Here's what I mean: my family of SEVEN travelled about 1000 miles, stayed in two cities, and while I haven't added up all the receipts just yet, my estimations is that this trip only cost us about $400! How is this possible? It's possible only because of the gospel.

We visited and stayed with some dear friends in Hot Springs, which is a beautiful area of the country and boasts a very unique National Park. These are the type of friends where Dawn and I are "Aunt & Uncle" to their kids, and they are the same to our kids. The community we have because of the gospel is what really makes this friendship so deep and true community. When we're together, everything is shared and it really feels like family (in the best way!).

For our Lake of the Ozark leg of the trip, we were given an amazing condo to stay in. For free. By people we've never met. Talk about hospitality! The hearts of these dear people is for their condo (which is right on the Lake; which they've named "Still Waters") is for people to connect with Jesus and find some rest for their souls. Just take care of the place and clean up when you're done. They understand that it really isn't "their" condo, but it's God's, and it's to be used for His glory.

May we all truly live out Gospel Community and Gospel Hospitality.

Gospelizing Your Idols

We are an idolatrous people. Not that this is anything new, but it's more prevalent than you'd think. Culturally, it is quite easy to see our current "temples" of our "gods", namely: shopping malls, restaurants, sports stadiums, strip clubs, and even technology centers in California and the Pacific Northwest (had to include this since I really can't say that the Internet is a "place"). Everyone on the planet falls into either one of two categories: worshipper or idolater. A worshipper is a gospel-centered Christ-follower who understands and strives to live out Romans 11:36 "For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever." An idolater is then anybody who is not a Christ-follower OR a Christ-follower who has gotten their eyes off of Jesus. This is what Paul has been confronting the Galatians on. The issues beneath their issue of legalism is that of idolatry. This is exactly what he confronts them on in Galatians 4:8-11. He makes a direct comparison of their legalism to their former life of pagan idolatry.

So how do we figure out what our personal "idols of the heart" are? What do we do with them? Tim Keller gives us some great counsel regarding this.

1) Diagnose yourself to begin to identify the areas of idolatry in your life. Ask yourself these telling questions:

• Am I anxious? Am I prone to be fearful and worried?
• Am I angry? Am I prone toward bitterness and guilt?
• Am I empty? Am I prone to boredom, feeling despondent, or having a negative view of myself?
• Has my thinking been clouded, distorted, full of assumptions, and not rooted in reality?
• Do I struggle with intense over-desires or inordinate longings?

2) Identify what your primary idol may be.

• Comfort. A comfort idol has "dialects" of seeking salvation in things that bring you pleasure, always seeking new experiences (or the flip side, never taking risks), a high need for independence, or materialism.
• Approval. An approval idol has the dialects of a high need of being loved or respected by other people, overly-conscious of your image, having others dependent upon you, and an unhealthy perspective on being in relationships (finding Mr. or Mrs. "Right", being included in a certain "inner ring" of people, putting all of your hopes in one friend/family member).
• Power. A power idol has the dialects of needing to be influential, always achieving more, having your particular ideology in the majority (ie, Republican or Democrat), or positioning yourself so people always need you to accomplish whatever they're needing to do.
• Control. A control idol has the dialects of a meticulously maintained schedule, a predictable work environment, or a rule/tradition-laden religious expression.

3) Heal from your idols.

• Reject moralizing. Don't simply think all you need to do is repent and practice behavior modification. It just doesn't go deep enough.
• Reject psychologizing. Don't simply think you need to embrace and rejoice in that God loves you as you are. This goes a little deeper in addressing feelings, but it's still not deep enough.
• Embrace "gospelizing". You need to realize that you are looking to something or someone apart from Jesus for happiness and meaning (this is called a "functional savior"). And you need to : Remember Jesus' work on the cross and your identity in Him; Repent of your idolatrous attitudes, thoughts, & behaviors; and Rejoice that God does indeed love you as you are, but loves you enough to continue to pursue you so you don't stay that way!

The only way to truly find healing and victory over sin in your life is to identify the idol underneath it and root it out! This begins with being "known by God" (Galatians 4:9)...that it's His work in you and that according to 2 Peter 1:3-4, we have everything we need for life in the gospel. It then continues by living in community where you have gospel-leadership to submit to and have gospel-friendships where you can be transparent and have others love you and encourage you. This is called "discipleship"...but maybe more more appropriate to refer to it as "gospelizing" one another.

How to Gospelize

I'm a pastor, in particular a church planter.  And given the three perspectives of pastoring (as seen in Jesus - prophet, priest, and king), I'm foremost a prophet - but not in a Nostradamus-end-of-the-world type of way.  It's more like a "I love you, so I'm going to yell at you from the bible for 45 minutes every week."  Things like truth, confronting sin, and right doctrine are important to me.  But, if that's all I did all the time, I would be a terrible pastor, because people also need priests (who love and care for people) and kings (who organize, administrate, and strategize for ministry).  This is why it's so important to have a plurality of eldership in the local church to the lead the church, and why the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers is important as well.  The bottom line is that although God does specifically call some into vocational ministry (or lay ministry, like elders who don't get paid), the truth is that we all are called to minister to each other, which is what Ephesians 4:11-16 is all about.

But back the pastoring thing.  You just can't yell at people all the time.  Yes, truth must be stood up for and sin confronted (in a spirit of sincere love), but you have to put your arm around somebody's shoulders and gently communicate your heart for them.  This is what Paul does in Galatians 4:8-20.  He's been hammering them for three chapters, calling them "foolish" and "bewitched."  But now in this section his tone is completely different and uses terms like "brothers and sisters" and "little children."  Paul really loved them like family and that's why he had been so firm with them up to this point.  He now talks to them like a priestly-pastor.

It's important to note that as you seek to minister to people (or as I'm beginning to like to say "gospelize" people), two elements are pretty important.  First, is having a sincere emotional investment with others.  We see this in 4:12-16.  Paul recalls their time together, how they cared for him, and experiences they shared.  Relationships take time to develop.  There has to be significant time invested in others so they deeply know you desire nothing but Jesus' best for them.  The second element is the goal of ministry, which is Christ.  This is what Paul brings out in 4:17-20.  He didn't want to reproduce clones of himself; he wanted the Galatians to be formed into the image of Jesus.  Because now, Jesus is the only one who really has disciples.  If any church or church leader calls you to anything or anyone other than Jesus as the goal for the Christian life, knock the dust off your boots and get out of there!

So what does "gospelizing" really involve?  On it's most basic level, it is helping people to move from being an idolater to a worshipper.  Every person on the planet will "proclaim worth" to something - a tree, the ocean, a relationship, a bank account, a pro sports team.  But if the object is anything other than Jesus, that is by definition idolatry.  And idolatry is something that Christ-followers can be guilty of as well.  Remember, in Galatians Paul has not questioned their salvation.  In 3:27, he affirmed them being baptized into and clothed with Christ; but they've gotten distracted.  They have begun to seek to "please man" rather than pleasing God (Galatians 1:10).  What Paul has really been doing the whole letter is not just confront their legalism, he has been confronting their idolatry (see how he tied idolatry to legalism in 4:8-10).

This post is getting a tad long, so I'm going to hit the "pause" button and finish it up tomorrow.  The next post will be on how to diagnose, identify, and heal from our idols.  Peace out.

How the Gospel Transforms Us

People don't like instability.  When we have breakdowns relationally, vocationally, financially, or any other way, it just tends to freak us out.  Why?  Sure, it's uncomfortable, but is there a deeper reason?  I think there is.  I think instability exposes our fear...but fear of what?  My answer is fear of not being in control.  And when our control issues are exposed, what comes to the surface then is really an issue of where our identity lies and what we put our hope in.  So, if my identity and hope for happiness lies in my spouse, but then we get in a fight, my life feels out of control and unstable which causes me to live in fear.

The good news is that the gospel is designed to go all the way down to these deep levels of our hearts.  The gospel isn't limited to being the elementary truths of being a Christ-follower, it's also designed to carry us through our PhD work, if you will. Tim Keller has often said that the gospel is not just the A-B-C's of Christianity, it's the A-Z.

In Galatians 3:25-4:7 we get a picture of this.  We see how large the scope is of the transforming power of the gospel.  The gospel changes us in the very core of our being, and in doing so provides a stability in life that everything else pales in comparison to.  It is in fact the "perfect love" that John writes about in 1 John 4:18, which "casts out fear."  So, what we find is three areas in which the gospel transforms us.

1) Our identity is transformed to that of a son of God (3:26, 4:1-5). This is not a chauvinistic or sexist idea.  In this culture (and in many places today) it was the firstborn son that had full rights to everything of the father's.  This was called primogeniture.  Paul is saying that both men and women alike, through faith in Jesus, are given the legal status of "son of God."  God in his love and mercy looked out on those who were created to be in relationship with Him and redeemed (bought out of slavery to sin; bought back what was His in the first place) and adopted (chose to be his children and given full rights as sons) them.  What are the benefits of this sonship?

• You are free from the control of sin and are controlled by love.
• You are a full recipient (heir) of every blessing available from God the Father.
• You are not bound to live by the pattern of the world, but by faith.
• You are fully loved by the Father and enjoy intimacy with Him and his protecting authority.
• When you fail (sin), condemnation doesn't drive you away, but the love of the Father draws you back.
• You are secure in your status of a son which will never change.

2) Your primary community is transformed to one with other sons of God (3:27-29). When a marriage happens, the women takes the husbands name, placing her into his family.  That is a picture of what Galatians 3:27 is meaning.  We are baptized and clothed with Christ, becoming fully identified in Him, much like the message a surname communicates.  This is important to note, because it sets up a very misinterpreted verse 28.  Galatians 3:28 is not about the dissolution of race, class, or gender - for there are obvious distinctions and roles within those - but it is about the primary community you belong to.  As a Christ-follower, you have infinitely more in common with other Christ-followers than you do of those who share your race, class, or gender but who aren't Christ-followers.  This shows us the communal aspect of the gospel.  While our faith is personal, it is not private, for God has made for himself, according to 1 Peter 2:9-10 a plural "people, race, priesthood, and nation."  The benefits of this community transformation are:

• You are intimately connected to the first and primary community of the Trinity: Father, Son, and Spirit
• Your local Christian community is irreplaceable and even mandatory for your growth
• You are connected to a history of people - people of faith dating thousands of years back to Abraham
• You are accepted in community as a fellow saint and sinner
• You are never, ever alone

3) Your experience is transformed by the Spirit (Galatians 4:6-7).  Christianity is not simply something we understand and agree with, it is something we experience.  This is one reason we are given the Spirit - so that we experience through our sonship & community the love of the Father, enabling us to cry out to Him in both need and satisfaction.  Being a Christian is about being madly in love with God not in a weird-romantic sense, but in a  passionate, consuming, joyful, satisfying Father-child relationship deeper than any systematic theology or apologetic reasoning.  A child who spontaneously gets picked up, hugged, and kissed by his father has an experience of his love that  a simple knowledge of love doesn't communicate.  So this experiential transformation means:

• We have passion for God
• We have an intimate prayer life - beyond the "niceties" of a meal time prayer, but springing up from our very souls
• We have a deep sense of assurance for our Father's love is unconditional and His love fuels our obedience

What must we do to fully live out this transformation?  It starts with fully surrendering to Jesus. We also must meditate on His Word; not in a way to simply study and learn, but to soak in it and having it become a part of us. We have to walk with others in community by encouraging each other, praying for each other, confessing to each other, serving together, and living together. And we must cry out to God the Father in unscripted ways; the more we spontaneously cry out, the more we are reminded of the Spirit's active presence with us.

Guarded for the Gospel

First, this is a landmark post...it's number 100!  Woo-hoo!  So what...let's get moving.

One of the more curious things to figure out about Christianity, specifically about the Bible, is what we're supposed to do with the Old Testament, particularly what's referred to "the law."  Being on this side of the cross, how are we supposed to read it?  Is it outdated like an old rotary phone?  Why use it when we have the "iPhone" of the New Testament?  Seriously, are we really supposed to follow the rules about not eating shellfish and not wearing mixed-fiber clothing?  How can David write the longest chapter (119) in the longest book (Psalms) and it's all about how he "loves" the law?  We hear the word "law" and we all grimace and feel disdain.

This is what Paul addresses in Galatians 3:15-25.  In the previous section, he talked about the negative effects of the law.  In this section, he talks about the positive effects of the law - and why we continue to need it, even on this side of the cross.  So let's establish a framework from this passage:

First, we need to understand what Paul meant by "covenant."  God always has made covenants, which are basically "promises."  The most common usage of this word in Paul's day was in context of a last will and testament, the most unalterable of all human contracts (this was verified by Dave Edwards, a lawyer and one of Delta's deacons). So basically Paul is saying that when God makes a promise (that He initiates, set up the parameters, and ratifies) that promise will never change and will be fulfilled.

Second, we need to understand the relationship between the covenant and the law.  First, they are exclusive of each other - they are different.  In verse 18, the teaching is basically this: if you are given something based on a promise, it's NOT because of your performance, and conversely, if you get something because of what you have done (ie, a paycheck), it's not because of a promise.  But in versese 21-22, we see that the covenant and law are in agreement.  The law was never expected to grant salvation (because keeping it fully was impossible); if it could, the Jesus never would have had to come (Galatians 3:17)!  So basically, the law shows us our need for salvation by faith through grace - the law points to the promise.  Everything in scripture is either looking forward to the cross, or looking back at the cross.

Third, we need to understand where Jesus fits into all of this.  According to verse 16, Jesus was the true fulfillment of the "offspring" promised to Abraham.  Additionally, Jesus was the only person to keep the law 100% in deed and in spirit (Matthew 5:17).  Jesus fulfills BOTH the promise AND the law!

Fourth, what purpose does the law truly serve?  Verse 23 says that the law "imprisoned" us like a jailer.  The law kept people in bondage until the fullness of time when Jesus would come (Galatians 4:4).  The law kept us "locked up" to protect us from our great propencity to sin.  But then in verses 24-25, we see this word "guardian" which is better translated "tutor."  In this, we see the ultimate end of the law was to instruct us for maturity, namely faith in Jesus - that we would be obedient not becaus we have to, but because we want to.  So, while we are no longer under a guardian, we still have great need for a guardian.  Paul wrote in Romans 7:7 that if it wasn't for the law, he would not know what his sin was.  John Stott beautifully wrote, "It is only against the inky blackness of the night sky that the stars begin to appear, and it is only against the dark background of sin and judgement that the gospel shines forth."

So with those points as our framework, we know can make these three conclusions:

1) We know how to read the Old Testament.  When reading through the lens of the gospel, we see it all pointing to Jesus.

2) We have a different starting point for obedience.  Fear and guilt are transformed into love and grantitude.

3) We are released to attempt great things for God.  We now have the FREEDOM to fail!  Our acceptance & relationship with God is not on the line, we do not live in performance-based Christianity.

The law exposes our need to be connected to God and provided a limited pathway for that.  Jesus has come completely fulfilling everything that God requires on our behalf so we can be vitally connected to God in the fullest sense.

There is a reality of law and sin.  But there is a greater reality of faith, grace, love, and mercy.