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The Great Conflict: Trouble on the Journey

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I was told many things about what happened after a person became a Christian. I was told that after I chose Christ as my Savior my life would change. I found this to be true; life does change. I was also told that life would be easier. Now, if this meant that Jesus would become the answer to all of my problems and I could claim many different promises in His name, this is absolutely right. But if this meant (as many people assume) that my problems would go away and it would be smooth sailing the rest of my life, it couldn’t be more wrong.

Photo by Isaac Davis on Unsplash

In my experience, the inevitable difficulties of being a Christian causes a lot of discouragement and often makes me doubt my walk with Christ. I had long held to this misconception that if I was a good Christian I wouldn’t have any issues in my spiritual life (or even life in general). So, any time I found myself struggling to be consistent in my walk with God, I thought something was wrong with me. Yet, I found that the attacks in my life seemed to happen when I was trying to get closer to Christ. I saw that my struggles grew the more my desire to know God grew. It seemed the harder I tried to live right, or the greater the mountaintop experience I had with God, the more likely I could expect something in life to throw me down again.

As I would learn later, this whole Christian/ disciple journey is a battle. As Paul said to Timothy: “Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 2:3). No one looks forward to hardship. Many do not expect it to be a part of being a disciple either. Jesus didn’t hide this aspect of discipleship from us though. He was clear about the cost of following Him: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23). True discipleship is filled with days of self-denial and cross-carrying.

This is not a punishment for following Jesus, it is the reality of choosing Christ over this world. Troubled times are part of our Christian experience because there is a great, cosmic, spiritual war occurring all around us. Every day a battle is fought over us: God, and all of heaven, are fighting for our salvation, while our Adversary and his forces are fighting to pull us away from God. We are a part of this war whether we want to be or not and, ultimately, we all will choose a side—either on purpose or by default.

On becoming a disciple, we join the forces of God, by following Him, and are purposely taking a stand against His opposition. This is why we see trouble. This is why there is fighting. By choosing to lovingly obey God, we become a target for Satan’s schemes (Ephesians 6:11).

This is an important key to understanding our trials and sufferings. As in any war, it is important to know where the battlefront is. If we are fighting in the wrong places we will never see victory. Paul advises, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12, emphasis mine). Our fight is not with the physical but with the spiritual—not with people but with powers.

In other words, we are not to fight against each other. If we are distracted from the true source of our struggles and fight each other, we are fighting the wrong battles, wasting our strength, and we will never have spiritual victories. Instead, we are only helping the enemy! Even if a person is used to hurt us or cause us to stumble, we cannot forget that the battleground is spiritual. Our fight is not with that person, but with the spiritual forces of evil. Therefore, as soldiers of Christ, we must focus all of our attention and our energy to fight against our true enemy: that old serpent, the Devil!

Yes, the battle and the struggle is real—we are at war. The more we take our stand for God, the more we can expect conflicts in life to try to knock us down. Satan will not give up. In fact, he is coming at us “in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!” (Revelation 12:12).

The Devil may come at us with everything he has, but that does not mean we will be overcome. God didn’t intend to call us to His side to be defeated. He sends us out into this war protected by His whole armor (Ephesians 6:13–18). As His soldiers, we are only protected if we use His armor (I’ll talk about this armor in later blogs). However, armor is useless without the right battle plan. In my next blog, I will talk about God’s battle plan.

Discipleship: Childish or Childlike?

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When Jesus drew crowds, they were typically silent, focused on listening to Him teach. Yet, every so often, commotion would arise. At one such time, while Jesus was teaching, some thought to bring their children, including infants (Luke 18:15), to Him so He could touch and bless them. But the disciples intercepted these parents and rebuked them. For some reason, the disciples felt that this was inappropriate behavior. It may not have been the proper time yet; maybe the parents were ignoring what was printed in the bulletin. Maybe they were becoming disruptive—children have a way of stealing the show, don’t they? Maybe they thought Jesus had better things to do. It doesn’t matter why they rebuked the parents, the fact is they did.

Their rebuke does not go unnoticed by Jesus. In fact, Mark’s recording of this incident says that it really affected Jesus (Mark 10:14). He became indignant. The Greek word gives an idea of anger, but also of grief. Jesus didn’t just get upset at the disciples, He was hurt (pained) because of their reaction. So Jesus used their reaction as an opportunity to teach His disciples, and all who were listening, a very valuable spiritual lesson.

He instructed them to not keep the children away but to let them come to Him because, “to such belongs the kingdom of God” (Mark 10:14). The KJV says: “to such is the kingdom of God.” In other words, God’s kingdom is made up of those like children. Jesus explains, “Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it” (Mark 10:15).

According to Jesus, children possess a key to the kingdom. This key, according to Him, is in they way they accept the kingdom. In a way, He is telling the disciples that they need to be more like these children.

Is He telling them to become childish? Will Heaven be filled with people acting in childish ways? I don’t think so. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:11, “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.” Can you imagine if Christian adults acted childish? Selfish and whiny adults—what a thought! Regrettably, such childish behavior is still found in too many adults. Yet, this is not what Jesus was asking us to do. Being childlike and being childish are not the same thing.

For example, Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 14:20, “Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature.” Our thoughts are to become mature and adult-like (ability to continue to learn and understand deeper things), but we should be child-like, or innocent, when it comes to evil. Similarly, Peter says, “So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation” (1 Peter 2:1, 2). There should be, in us, a child-like desire for the pure Word of God, not evil things; a longing for the perfect things of God, not the things of this world.

Jesus is calling us towards a child-like faith, child-like hope, and child-like love. Just think about how children so quickly and willingly accept the marvels of Heaven. “Impossible” is not a word known to a child, it is only learned as we become adults. It is interesting, and sad, that many of the things that plague us as adults are learned. As children we are taught to doubt, taught that one group of people can be greater than another, taught to not trust, taught that promises can be empty. It is when we are children that we learn to hate, to fear, to lose hope, and to give up. But Jesus wants us to go back to the simplicity of childhood when it comes to our spiritual experience. As His disciples, He desires that we return to the innocence of childhood—to change back into being quick to trust, quick to hope, and quick to love.

Jesus also calls us to humble ourselves like children. God has to be the greatest in our minds—not ourselves. We should be in awe of Him like a child would be in awe of their parents. You’ve experienced, or at least seen, a child in complete awe of something their mom or dad had done, haven’t you? As disciples of Jesus, we must have this same sense of awe of Him.

We must also be careful to avoid the childish trap the disciples found themselves in: they thought they were great because they followed someone great. Remember their question: “who is the greatest?” They wanted to establish a barking order. They wanted a hierarchy list. Was John the greatest? How about Peter? Maybe Bartholomew? No, definitely not Bartholomew. Sadly, this question plagued them even until the last supper with Jesus. Jesus reminded them in that upper room what He had taught before: disciples are supposed to be servants. We are to be humble not prideful. We are to look for ways to serve not be served. As Paul said, we are to “count others more significant than yourself” (Philippians 2:3).

Jesus wanted us to be like children so we would humbly serve each other and be quick to believe, hope and love. He is our example. He humbled Himself and became our servant. He generously and equally loved everyone and had quick, unwavering faith in His Father. And He wants us to be the same. Not childish, but childlike: humble servants lavishly loving each other and quick to trust in God.

Discipleship: Strength in Dependence

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This weekend the United States celebrates independence. It is a time of weekend vacations, backyard barbecues, and large firework displays. Of course, independence is something normally worth celebrating. I say normally because some have taken this to an extreme and believe that it is inherently wrong to depend on anyone. Those to adopt this concept tend to trust no one but themselves. Sadly, this hazardous idea of autonomy has negatively impacted many relationships—even our relationship with God. From the very beginning in the Garden of Eden, mankind has been tempted to live life independent of God. It is thought that we lose something by being dependent on another person. Yet, throughout the Bible, we are shown that there is power in dependence. Consider this story in the New Testament: Jesus found Himself facing an agitated crowd (see Matthew 17:14–20, and Mark 9:14–29). Not one to beat around the bush, Jesus asked them directly, “What are you arguing about?” (Mark 9:16). A man stepped forward from the crowd and relayed the situation to Jesus: He had a son who was possessed by a spirit which made his son mute and caused him great misery and pain. While that may have been a horrible situation, it wasn’t the problem. The problem was that he had asked the disciples to cast the spirit out, but they were not able to do it. At first glance, we might think this was asking a lot from the disciples. We know that Jesus had the reputation for casting out demons, but the ex-tax collectors, fishermen, and general mess-ups that followed him? Talk about great expectations! While you may shudder at the thought of someone asking for something so great from you, it would not have been an odd request for Jesus’ disciples. You see, Matthew 10:1 says that Jesus had given the twelve disciples “authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction.” In fact, they were even surprised and asked Jesus why they couldn’t cast out the spirit themselves (Matthew 17:19)! Jesus’ response: “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there.’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you” (Matthew 17:20). In Mark 9, Jesus told them that it could only be cast out by prayer. In other words, the casting out of the boy’s evil spirit should have been possible for them, but their faith and prayers were lacking. Was this a lack of faith in themselves? No. It wasn’t that they didn’t possess enough power, it was a lack of faith in God and His power. Because, although plenty of things are impossible for us, according to scriptures, nothing is impossible for God (Matthew 19:26). Jesus gave them authority to do these things, they didn’t earn it or learn it. A disciple’s authority and power does not come from the length of time as a follower. It does not come from completing enough seminars or getting a theological diploma. It comes from a dependent relationship with the Source. Even Jesus was dependent on the power of His Father. He said, “The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me” (John 10:25). He did things in His Father’s name. Jesus explained that the works would help us to “know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father” (John 10:38). In other words, Jesus’ works revealed an ongoing, dependent relationship with His Father. Likewise, works done in Jesus’ name will be possible only because Jesus is in us and we are in Him. Jesus likened this relationship to a vine and its branches (John 15:5). In this example, Jesus was saying that if we abide, or live, in Him, His power (the fruit) will be seen in our lives. More importantly, as He says, without Him, we can do absolutely nothing! Yet, this shouldn’t surprise us. As Paul says in Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” The Bible is clear: nothing is impossible for God, and we can do all things through Christ. You see, regardless of the vessel, the source of power is the same. The electricity that powers a city is the same as that which powers a watch. It doesn’t matter who the disciple is, it matters if they are plugged into Christ. It doesn’t matter how great or small the work is that you are called to do, because the source of power is the same. Our power as disciples is found in Christ, not ourself! So our abilities and worthiness do not matter; being plugged into Christ only matters. Jesus’ reply to the father in the story says it all: “All things are possible for one who believes.” (Mark 9:23, emphasis mine). You may not be able to do it, but God can—and if you depend on Him, you can. Yes, anything He asks you to do, you can do through Him. When it comes to the issues of eternity, it doesn’t pay to be independent. To truly experience the life God desires for us, we must learn again to be dependent—dependent on His power and love.

Be Ye Perfect?

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Photo by Karl Fredrickson

In a previous post, I told a story of a church member’s shocking reaction towards my friend for wearing jeans to church. Unfortunately, such reactions are not that rare in Christianity. Sadly, these days Christians are known more for being critical, judgmental, and condemning rather than gracious, merciful, and loving. Of course, most would claim the reason for our toughness on the immorality of others is that we have a standard to uphold. Many would quickly quote Matthew 5:48, which says we are to be “perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Because of this goal, we feel the need to measure and enforce such perfection.

Yet this feeling rises from of misunderstandings of that text and our role in judgment and conviction. Sure, 1 Corinthians 6:2, 3 says we will judge angels, but it says “will.” Not yet—we don’t have all the information. The Bible also talks of holding fellow Christians accountable, but always in the context of grace, gentleness and love (see Galatians 6:1 and 1 Timothy 5:20). The Bible is also very clear that conviction is the work of the Holy Spirit. Besides, can we really change each other? Why would we think we can when we can’t even change ourselves (Jeremiah 13:23)! If we are not to judge (yet) and we cannot bring true conviction, how could it be our job to perfect the church?

Perfecting the Church?

Yet, in our desire to create “perfection” in our churches, we create a human standard (according to our preferences) so strict that many who need Jesus can’t come to Him. Too many churches tell people they can’t do things that God allows, and allow people to do things that God detests! No, we are not to perfect God’s people; we are not to try to convict; we are not to judge. Jesus says plainly in Matthew 7:1, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged.”

You might be wondering: what are we supposed to do about Jesus’ teachings on perfection? The passage in question: Matthew 5:48—“You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” First, if we are made perfect, it is God’s doing not ours (see Ezekiel 20:12 and Philippians 1:6). Second, this text doesn’t say anything about being sinless or being perfect in actions. We assume that’s what it means, but the word in the Greek means “mature, complete.” (In fact, never once does the word for perfect in action appear in the Bible to describe man. It is only used to describe God!) Of course, we would understand the meaning of Jesus’ challenge if we would just read the context.

The Context of Matthew 5:48

Jesus starts this topic in verse 43. He counters a common understanding with the truth. The world believes people should get what they deserve. The world says it’s okay to hate your enemies, but Jesus sets a new standard: love them and pray for them. It is noteworthy that verse 45 starts with “so that.” In other words, we do the former because of the latter. We love and pray for our enemies, “so that, you may be the sons of your Father who is in heaven.” To be children you must behave as the Father does—He is impartial in His love for us. He loves us all equally and allows blessings to fall on everyone.

Then, in verses 46 and 47, Jesus further challenges us to rise above the world. Love the unloveable—the not-good-enough. Do you give the same love to everyone? Every church believes they are a loving church, yet most only show love to the lovable (or they only show love while at church). Here’s a tough question: is the “love” shown by you at church really any different than the “love” shown at a local bar or even by a greeter at Wal-Mart?

Jesus brings the idea home in verse 48: be perfect, therefore, as our heavenly Father is perfect. The context is not about purified actions, it is about the central theme of Jesus’ ministry and teachings to His disciples. It is the summation of the Law (Matthew 22:37–40). It is the identifier of a disciple (John 13:35). He is calling us to be perfect in love. Becoming spiritually mature and consistent in how we treat each other. He wants us to love like the Father loves. A love that does not care who “they” are or what they have done. The love that can say “forgive them” even when being persecuted.

Perfect in Love

Can you imagine what it would be like to experience that kind of love? According to Paul, all of our evangelism, our ministries, our church services are pointless without love (1 Corinthians 13:1–8). This love requires more than a smile or greeting at the door on the way in or out. It is a love that cannot be experienced out in the world. Yet, somehow we have gotten it backwards. We used to live by the saying: “Love the sinner, hate the sin.” Today, we seem to be living by the saying, “Love the sin, hate the sinner.”

So, I will restate Jesus’ challenge: Be Ye Perfect—in love. And what better place to start than  among your fellow God-followers? We can’t love the stranger walking through the door if we don’t love each other first. This means we must stop judging. We must stop gossiping. We must stop trying to cleanse the church of its imperfect members (or leaders), and start showing the love of God instead.

God’s still working on me and you, and we are called to love each other through that process. So regardless of how spiritually clean the people around you are—whether their theology is seriously flawed or they actually ate real cheese—just love what God is making them to be. As Jesus said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34, 35). May we be perfect in love, even as He is perfect!

Biblical Stewardship: An Entitlement Problem

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There is little doubt that a major issue on many people’s minds lately is the economy. In the last several years we have seen the consequences of abuse and misuse—basically really bad money management. Unfortunately, it is not a problem only in our government, but in our own homes as well. We are plagued by the disastrous results of corporate and consumer greed. One such result is that there has been a change in our mindset from: America is the place where you can work to change your life one day, to: America is the place where you deserve a better life today.

Herein lies the root of our personal and national economic woes: we have an entitlement problem. Freedom in America was once a gift fought long and hard for, now we deserve it. The American Dream was once an ideal one could labor a lifetime for, now we deserve it. We no longer have to work long (if at all!) for anything, everything should simply be given to us because we live in America.

So, how much do we deserve? The Bible says that the current wages of sin, or what we sinners deserve, is death (Romans 6:23). In fact, the last part of that verse tells us the only reason we can have hope: God offers us a gift of eternal life through His son Jesus. We don’t deserve anything; anything we have would be a gift. In fact, James 1:17 tells us that every good and perfect gift we have comes from God. If we have anything good, we’ve received a gift from God! This is the Heavenly Dream: you don’t get what you deserve, you get God’s gift.

But, since a gift is not earned or purchased, how much of what we have crammed in our homes is truly ours? What does the Bible say?

God says that every beast and bird—all of creation, in fact—is His (Psalm 50:10–12). This is pretty clear. He created the animals, so it makes sense that they are all His, right? But God doesn’t stop there. In Isaiah 43:1 He reminds us that we are His. Sometimes we forget this. Too often we live our lives as though we created ourselves. We do not live as though our lives are God’s and not our own. Yet, this is not something God takes lightly. In fact, in Deuteronomy 14:2, he calls us His “treasured possession.” God values the fact that we are His!

What about everything else? In Haggai 2:8, God tells us that the silver and gold is His. Thus, everything that can make us wealthy is His too. Most people will quickly suggest that the money they bring home every paycheck is hard-earned money and not a gift. Besides, what about all my hard work? “Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth” (Deuteronomy 8:17, 18, emphasis mine). According to this, even the ability to work hard and bring home the paycheck is a gift given to us from God. He gives us strength and ability to work.

What about those great ideas I had for that invention or the understanding I possess that got me that raise? Those were my ideas right? It was my dedicated work that brought on understanding, wasn’t it? This is what Job 12:13 says: “To God belongs wisdom and power; counsel and understanding are His.” Even wisdom and understanding are God’s. All of this great technology we enjoy comes not from our own great understanding, but from God.

Just to make sure there’s no confusion, God says in Job 41:11, “…Everything under heaven belongs to me.” Everything. How much does that leave us? Nothing.

What does this all mean? I think Ecclesiastes 5:19 explains it well: “Moreover, when God gives any man wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his work—this is a gift of God.” All of the possessions we enjoy, and all of the money we make is a gift. Yes, God provides us with what we need in life, but he also gives us the ability to have more than we need. Since God is giving us from what is His, we become managers or stewards of His things rather than owners. Does this make a difference? It sure does. According to Jesus, God has entrusted us with His wealth, wisdom, and power to do His work and take care of His people. Therefore, the more He blesses us, the more He expects from us (see His parable in Luke 12:42–46).

You see, we are not entitled to anything—everything is God’s and all we have is a gift from Him. Therefore, we don’t have anything to offer God (except our will). We cannot “give” God money—it is already His. We cannot give God time—it is already His. We cannot “give” God anything if everything is already His, we can only give back. So, we give money back to Him, and give our time back to Him, and give our life back to Him. We are to live with the understanding that everything we have, including our very lives, is a gift from God. And with this understanding, would we waste our money, time, energy on the same things?

God has blessed us with so much. Have we been thankful? Have we been faithful? Have we taken care of His work and His people? Or are we living carelessly with God’s things? There will be a day when our Master comes back to see how we have managed what He has given us. Will He find in us faithful stewards?

Avoiding Spiritual Burnout, Part 2: The Remedy

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In my last post, we looked at the causes of Spiritual burnout. In this post, I want to show you something Jesus said in Matthew 11:28–30, where we will find the remedy—or the prevention—for spiritual burn-out (if we would only follow it).

Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). First of all, we must come to Jesus. Remember, the cause of burn out is being emptied of your fuel. One of the reasons we are emptied is because we are trying to get through life on our own resources. We might go to a church self-help course or count on a fellow church member to give us encouragement. Yet, shortly after, we’ll need more just to get by. The truth is that we cannot rely on our own resources or anyone else’s. Our resources are not enough—we need something greater. Of course, there is good news: if you are weary and burdened (or burned out) Jesus can give you rest! Jesus can restore you. Only He can light the flame again!

But here’s the better news: Jesus can keep you from becoming burned out in the first place. He can give you living water and keep the flame alive (see John 4:13, 14). Of course, you have to come to Him. Unless you spend time with Him daily you will find yourself empty. Not surprisingly, the easiest prevention of spiritual dryness is to be constantly plugged into the source of Life. So come plug in. Spend more time with Him. Come to Him with your empty resources and let Him fill you up.

Next, Jesus says, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” Matthew 11:29). Verse 30 says that his “yoke is easy and his burden is light.” The next part of the remedy is to give up on our burden and take his. This is a trade. If you are still carrying your burdens, you have never taken on his. So, what is Jesus’ burden? And how can a “burden” be easy?

There are different ideas of what Jesus’ burden may have been, but I believe all ideas of his burden could be summed up in his mission. And that mission is spelled out in Luke 19:10—“The Son of Man has come to seek and save the lost.” Sure, you could say that the cross was his burden, but it was his mission of salvation that led him there—and held him there. Jesus had one thing on his heart every day—one burden, one yoke: the salvation of mankind. So Jesus is asking us to take this burden in place of our own. His was a burden of the Gospel; a burden of pleasing His Father. He’s calling us to take on his burden of service and sacrifice—a burden of grace.

Now catch this, because this is what makes His burden easier than our own: if we focus on the burden of the Gospel and following God’s calling we will focus on others, which means we will have less time to focus on ourselves. The guilt of our sins was carried on the cross. The Gospel frees you from its burden. “Burdens are lifted at calvary!” If we are continually presenting the beauty of the Gospel, how can we not remind ourselves of this?

In addition, when we are carrying His burden—which was God’s mission for Him, and He passed to us (Matt 28:18–20)—we focus on pleasing God. Believe me, pleasing God is MUCH easier than pleasing man. God never asks us to do something we do not have the ability to do with His help. Furthermore, for everything God requires of you, He also provides everything necessary, even help, to complete it. Try finding a person or a church that is like that! Good luck!

The third and final part of the remedy is also in verse 29: Learn from me. This doesn’t say learn about Him, but learn from Him. Walk and talk with Him, sit at his feet, and follow Him. You see, Jesus’ teachings can keep us from becoming burdened. What does He want us to learn? Many things, no doubt, but there are two specific things He points out about Himself: that He is gentle and humble in heart. If we want a peace the world doesn’t understand, then we need to be different from the world. We need to be gentle, not forceful; humble, not proud. In these there is no rest. There is no peace. Gentleness and humbleness are important. These are the two characteristics we will need to carry His burden. These are the padded shoulder straps that make His burden easier and lighter. And since these don’t come naturally in our sinful state, we need to learn them from Him.

So there it is, the remedy for Spiritual burnout. It may not be what you were expecting, but it truly works. So, how are you spiritually? How’s your heart? Have you found yourself at a plateau? Are you missing a spark you once had? It doesn’t matter what it was that might have caused you to dry out. If you feel the passion is gone, and it’s hard to keep on fire for God, then listen to Jesus’ invitation! He says, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scriptures has said, streams of living water will flow from within him” (John 7:37b, 38).

For all of you that are weary and burned out Jesus is calling you to come and be refilled. He’s calling some of you to learn from him, calling some of you to serve, calling some of you to sacrifice, and He’s calling all of you to come.