Yearly Archives: 2014

Wisdom for another Year: “Give it away and you will not lack,” #6 of 10.

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Godly wisdom says,

“One gives freely, yet grows all the richer; another withholds what he should give, and only suffers want.

Whoever brings blessing will be enriched, and one who waters will himself be watered.

The people curse him who holds back grain, but a blessing is on the head of him who sells it.” (Proverbs 11:24-26)

A few things have I noticed about this advice from him who gave his very best:

1. Stingy people live a tight-fisted, claustrophobic life. Even the very, very wealthy ones. A wealthy person is not necessarily an “enriched” person. Many wealthy people are not lovely people.

2. Of the few godly and wealthy people that I have known, they are great givers. They love to water the lives of others. They do not hold back their resources to enrich the lives of others. Consequently, they are both lovely people to be around and there seems to be a blessing upon their lives. They could live a more opulent life, as the world defines high-class living, but they do not. Yet, their lives speak about and point the way to something that seems to be more pleasurable to them than what this world has to offer.

3. People who make giving to God through the local church a priority, often have less or no debt at all (other than the house, or a modest car), no matter their level of income. The reason is not so much that God has made them wealthy for giving, but because their main affection for God causes the affections for material stuff to shrivel. Things of this earth do not have the same satisfying appeal that they once did and so they do not keep swiping the charge card for things they don’t need. (this has been documented in a variety of polls and surveys)

4. The Mathematics of Heaven cannot be altered here on earth. Giving freely does cause one to become all the richer for it, and it all started in heaven when God the Father sent his Son. As a result, Our Father in heaven is all the richer for it because the Son will purchase a bride, and the Father will dance and rejoice over the joy of his Son’s marriage to his lovely wife. If here on earth we think that we can break away from the Equation of Heaven, it is foolish! If you want a great harvest of corn come mid-August, then early June, put a couple handfuls of corn seed into the ground. You see . . . you are all the richer for giving away what was in your hand. (10 – 10 = 100)!!!!!!!!!

5. Observe some of the happiest people around you. They may not have much yet they are content. Why is that? Or if they do have much of this worlds goods, why are they lovely people? Odds are, they do not trust in their wealth for their value or their happiness. They are other-centered, seeking to enrich the lives of others. Take note and make a change for yourself.

Finally, if these things seem to be a consistent pattern of life here on earth, generally speaking, then you should consider that the reason it is so, is because there really is a Father in heaven who freely gave everything that he had so that his own joy would be fulfilled in what he gave away:

“He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all [that is, all who have been predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, vs. 29], how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32)

Wisdom for another Year: “The Value of a Good Reputation,” #5 of 10.

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The following are a few comments from sports writers over the last few days.

“Richard Sherman, who was defending 49ers receiver Michael Crabtree near the end of the tight contest, batted a ball to a teammate. That move ensured the Seahawks a trip to the Super Bowl. “I’m the best cornerback in the game,” he screamed during the post-game sideline interview. “When you try me with a sorry receiver like (the 49ers Michael) Crabtree, that’s the result you are going to get. Don’t you ever talk about me.”

“Fox sideline reporter Erin Andrews asked, “Who was talking about you?” “Crabtree,” Sherman angrily responded. “Don’t you open your mouth about the best, or I’m going to shut it for you real quick.”
                                                                                                                                                In his CNN interview on the following day, Sherman said it takes certain characteristics to become a successful football player: “It takes intensity. It takes focus.” And, he said, “it takes anger.” He said he was in that emotional state after the play Sunday. “If you catch me in the moment on the field when I am still in that zone, when I’m still as competitive as I can be and I’m trying to be in the place where I have to be to do everything I can to be successful … and help my team win, then it’s not going to come out as articulate, as smart, as charismatic — because on the field I’m not all those things,” he said.

“There’s no such thing as bad publicity, the saying goes. And to hear Sherman’s agent tell it, the controversy has been good for him. Sherman’s Twitter follower count has exploded in recent days. And the agent says his phone is ringing off the hook.”

“Corporate America knows who Richard Sherman is,” said Jamie Fritz, who manages Sherman’s marketing deals. “I talked to brand managers this week and they are fired up. They love it. They say this is real. This is true. We finally have a player who is willing to speak his mind.” “He deserves all the marketing money he gets,” Hill told CNN’s Don Lemon. “My concern though is when they use this image, will they see him as an extraordinary athlete who has a knack for talking trash or frame him as another angry, violent athlete?” Fritz admits there are two Shermans: The one who stormed off the field, and the one he wants America to see.

But here are some eternal words of wisdom:

“Whoever keeps his mouth and his tongue keeps himself out of trouble”       Proverbs 21:23

And:

“A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favor is better than silver or gold”  Proverbs 22:1

I want to keep this close to my heart and mind:

I can ruin a good reputation in 2 minutes that took 10 years to build. That’s how quickly the tongue can self-destroy a good name. And no matter the wealth and fame one may acquire for trash-talking, no one wants their name to be associated with bile. But that’s the consequence if bile is already in the heart. It’s just a matter of time before the heart will open its mouth, and out of the orifice through shining teeth comes a putrid and noxious sound. What Sherman needs is what everyone needs, including me: an inner cleansing that replaces a love for self-boasting with a love for boasting in Christ. This is what is truly valuable and attractive in the end.

 

Wisdom for Another Year: “Don’t try to fix every quarrel” – #4 of 10

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Having now provided housing for two married daughters in my own home, and pastoring a church family with every personality trait and disorder described in The American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, and living with a wife that often tells me I’m crazy, hear ye this: everyone is a little whacked in the head! And since we’re better in seeing the “faulty logic” in others’ quarreling, the temptation then is to get sucked into fixing every feud and falling-out that is within earshot.

But Wisdom says, “Whoever meddles in a quarrel not his own is like one who takes a passing dog by the ears” – Proverbs 26:17

So here is my advice:

1. Before you enter into the fray to help a friend, think about this picture:

OUCH!!

2. Is this a person who has repeatedly blown off serious, friendly, kind advice as a habit and refuses to “hear”? If so, then stay out of it and remember more wise advice: “Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him yourself” – Proverbs 26:4.

3. Wait until it is over if you can, about a day or two. To enter into the heat of a quarrel and give counsel is rarely ever fruitful. Emotions are too out-of-balance and quarrels rarely ever stay on subject.

4. As a principle, don’t get involved if you weren’t invited. To offer counsel where there was no invitation to speak usually means that they do not want to hear you.

5. Accept the fact that many people do not want help, even though they need it. Their pride is in the way and it may take a really bad fall to open their ears.

6. If you’re the kind of person who keeps getting bit, ask yourself, “Why do I feel the need to “help” everyone fix their problems?” Often the reason is that it feeds some kind of self-assurance/worth, or control issue, or the pursuit of a “perfect” world obsession.

7. Finally, if the quarreling is too close to your doorstep and is harming others near you, and this person just doesn’t get it, though many have tried, “Better is open rebuke than hidden love” – Proverbs 27:5. This may mean that when trying to offer advice becomes meddling, then a stern and short rebuke of truth is the medicine. Sometimes, the best thing to say is, “Your selfishness is ugly and sinful. And until you see your contribution to this mess you are going to continue to hurt yourself and everyone around you.” Full stop. Walk away. Don’t respond to the slander. Stay silent. Move on. Pray for them. Be open and ready if and when they want to talk.

Wisdom for a New Year: “All You Can Drink for $8.99,” #3 of 10.

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There are Two ways to indulge the flesh:

1. It’s 12:30 pm on Sunday and the parking lot to a local bar advertises, “All you can drink for $8.99.” What a deal!! About 2 hours later, around 2:30 pm, a bunch of people come out a little less than steady, some stumbling to their car, some a little better than others so as to drive home and everyone crash on the sofa.

And,

2. It’s 12:30 pm on Sunday and the parking lot to a local family buffet advertises, “All you can eat for $8.99.” What a deal! About 2 hours later, around 2:30 pm, a bunch of people come out a little less than steady, some barely able to heave themselves into their car seat, some a little better than others so that they can reach the steering wheel to drive home and everyone crash on the sofa.

Hear Wisdom:

“Hear, my son, and be wise, and direct your heart in the way. Be not among drunkards or among gluttonous eaters of meat, for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, and slumber will clothe them with rags” – Proverbs 23:19-21

When Jesus walked the earth he lived a perfect life of self-control and moderation. And when Jesus died on the cross he bore both the sins of my over-drinking and over-eating. Jesus is the answer to our idolatry of food and drink that we use to feed our empty souls. Jesus is the only cure for drunkenness and gluttony. Jesus is more satisfying than food and drink. But do you believe it and do you want to believe it for a new year?

For further help, read this:

http://theresurgence.com/2012/04/27/how-the-gospel-overcomes-gluttony

Wisdom for Another Year: “If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.” – Jesus; #2 of 10.

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“The New Age of Christian Martyrdom” – by Kirsten Powers

Lions have been replaced by firing squads and concentration camps as record numbers of Jesus’ worshipers are persecuted from Syria to North Korea.
The concept of Christian martyrdom may seem like something from a bygone, uncivilized era when believers were mercilessly thrown to the lions. Not so. This week, Open Doors, a non-denominational group supporting persecuted Christians worldwide, reported that Christian martyrdom has grown into a pervasive and horrifying human rights crisis.In their annual report of the worst 50 countries for Christian persecution, Open Doors found that Christian martyr deaths around the globe doubled in 2013.  Their report documented 2,123 killings, compared with 1,201 in 2012. In Syria alone, there were 1,213 such deaths last year. In addition to losing their lives, Christians around the world continue to suffer discrimination, imprisonment, harassment, sexual assaults, and expulsion from countries merely for practicing their faith.Once again, the worst persecutor of Christians is North Korea, where an estimated 50,000 to 70,000 followers of Jesus are suffering in prison camps for “crimes” such as owning a Bible, going to church, or sharing their faith.                  
In November 2013, it was reported that 80 prisoners were publicly executed, many for possessing Bibles. Last year, North Korea sentenced an American missionary, Kenneth Bae to 15 years of hard labor in a prison camp.  The U.S. State Department has lobbied unsuccessfully for his release.Christians are obviously not the only North Koreans in prison camps.  But former captives have reported that they often attract the worst treatment because the regime is particularly enraged by the worship of any other being than the Supreme Leader, who forces North Koreans to treat him as a deity.It’s chilling to imagine worse treatment than what the average prisoner North Korean has reported, including a mother forced to drown her own baby in a bucket, and tales of subsisting on nothing more than rats and insects. According to first-hand accounts from former prisoners reported by Amnesty International, “every former inmate at one camp had witnessed a public execution, one child was held for eight months in a cube-like cell so small he couldn’t move his body and an estimated 40% of inmates die from malnutrition.”                   
Syria, ranked as the third-worst country by Open Doors, has devolved in the last year to a horror show for Christians. The Hudson Institute’s Nina Shea noted in December 2013 a message she received from a contact in Syria who reported, “Kidnapping, killings, ransom, rape . . . 2013 is a tragedy for Christians in Syria. All Syrians have endured great suffering and distress. The Christians, however, often had to pay with their lives for their faith. Our bishops and nuns have been kidnapped, our political leader killed by torture. After our Christian villages have been occupied, our churches have been destroyed and even mass graves were found in Saddad. [T]he Islamists have put [to] the Christians the alternative: Islam or death. Why [is] the West just watching?”Some of the most harrowing stories about how Christians are persecuted have come from the African country of Eritrea, which Open Doors lists as the twelfth worst country in the world for Christian persecution.                                                                                                                                
In his 2013 book, The Global War on Christians, reporter John L. Allen Jr., writes that in Eritrea, Christians are sent to the Me’eter military camp and prison, which he describes as a “concentration camp for Christians.” It is believed to house thousands being punished for their religious beliefs.Prisoners are packed into 40’x38’ metal shipping containers, normally used for transporting cargo. It is so cramped that it’s impossible to lie down and difficult even to find a place to sit. “The metal exacerbates the desert temperatures, which means bone chilling cold at night and wilting heat during the day….believed to reach 115 degrees Fahrenheit or higher,” Allen writes.  One former inmate…described [it] as “giant ovens baking people alive.”  Prisoners are given next to nothing to drink so “they sometimes end up drinking their own scant sweat and urine to stay alive.”  The prisoners are tortured, sexually abused, and have no contact with the outside world.  One survivor of the prison described witnessing a fellow female inmate “who had been beaten so badly her uterus was actually hanging outside her body.  The survivor desperately tried to push the uterus back in” but couldn’t prevent the inmate’s excruciating death.                                                  
At a December 2013 speech to a conference organized by Georgetown’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs, Allen told the audience, “I always ask Christians in countries [where persecution occurs], what can we do for you?  The number one thing they say is, “Don’t forget about us.”

Wisdom for Another Year: “Wasted Beauty,” – #1 of 10.

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“Like a gold ring in a pig’s snout is a beautiful woman without discretion” – Proverbs 11:22

You put a ring an a pig’s honker to keep him from rooting up the ground. Any old metal ring will do and that’s why there’s no point in spending $500 when you could spend $1. The wise godly sage is not saying that nose rings in hogs are bad and he’s not saying that it is bad for a woman to be beautiful. He’s saying that it’s a shame to see beauty wasted on a foolish woman like gold is wasted on a hog’s ring.

The beauty industry exalts the outward appearance while mostly ignoring the inner character. This is unfortunate because it communicates the wrong thing: that the true value of a woman is in her outward beauty. But the answer is not to be as homely and disheveled as you can, rather, a woman is to concern herself first with the cosmetic of her character.

The power and influence of a beautiful woman can get a job, get someone fired, get a loan, get a man, get a discount, get out of a speeding ticket, get put to the front of the line, get a promotion, get a larger dip of ice-cream, get a parking spot, get a better grade – basically, get just about anything she wants if she’s beautiful enough. It’s just the way things work. “Lyin’ Eyes” was a song written by Don Henley and Glenn Frey of the Eagles and recorded in 1975. One of the lines goes, “City girls just seem to find out early. How to open doors with just a smile.” So true. But let’s not come down too hard on beauty and its power – this is not inherently evil. By its very nature, Beauty is supposed to affect and attract and bring a smile.

Have you ever been to Chicago on a summer day and hear some great outdoor, live, impromptu saxophone coming from somewhere? You follow the sound – you want to get closer, you want to hear better and see the action. Or smell some awesome BBQ? You follow your nose. You want to see and taste. Or your favorite artist – you buy the ticket to the show and you want to afford a seat as close as possible. We were made to seek after and enjoy Beauty. God made Beauty. He made women beautiful. Some, he made drop-dead gorgeous. Like Esther.

In the bible, Queen Esther “had a beautiful figure and was lovely to look at” (Esther 2:7), which is why the King selected her. But Esther also had discretion. She did not allow her beauty to misguide her judgment of men, money, prestige, and power. Her beauty was not a waste because her discretion of life was guided by her love for the Lord, to the degree that she did not value her own life over courageous truth-telling and godly living. She approached the King uninvited to inform him of treachery in the kingdom (you could lose your life to approach uninvited). Her own family pleaded with her to not intrude and impose upon the King, but she said, “if I perish, I perish” (4:16). She did not perish. The King listened and admired her beautiful character. She saved her family and the Jewish people.

Here is godly wisdom. If you are a beautiful young girl/woman, do not waste your beauty by being foolish with your beauty. Just because you can open many doors with just a smile doesn’t mean you should. Not every door is for your good and not everyone who opens the door for you has your best interest in mind. Your beauty is a gift by God, to be used to show off a beautiful God. But you can’t do that if you’re acting like a fool in life. No one will see the one who made you. Your “in-discretionary” lifestyle is a distraction not only from the one who made you, but you too. Wisdom says, “Be Beautiful and Wise,” then your beauty will not be a shameful waste.

It’s January 8 and I’ve already failed.

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So how’s those New Year Resolutions coming along?

Me? I plead with Paul:

“For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want (like start exercising), but I do the very thing I hate (eat more donuts) . . . For I do not do the good I want (like pray more), but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing (like watching too much tv) . . . wrecthed man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death (that is prone to such weakness)? Romans 7:15b-19

Therefore, I take great comfort in what Tullian Tchividjian posted regarding an illustration of what it means to never stop trying to do better. Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) journals his fight against sloth and to get up early in the morning to pray:

1738: He wrote, “Oh Lord, enable me to redeem the time which I have spent in sloth.”

1757: (19 years later) “Oh mighty God, enable me to shake off sloth and redeem the time misspent in idleness and sin by diligent application of the days yet remaining.”

1759: (2 years later) “Enable me to shake off idleness and sloth.”

1761: “I have resolved until I have resolved that I am afraid to resolve again.”

1764: “My indolence since my last reception of the sacrament has sunk into grossest sluggishness. My purpose is from this time to avoid idleness and to rise early.”

1764: (5 months later) He resolves to rise early, “not later than 6 if I can.”

1765: “I purpose to rise at 8 because, though, I shall not rise early it will be much earlier than I now rise for I often lie until 2.”

1769: “I am not yet in a state to form any resolutions. I purpose and hope to rise early in the morning, by 8, and by degrees, at 6.”

1775: “When I look back upon resolution of improvement and amendments which have, year after year, been made and broken, why do I yet try to resolve again? I try because reformation is necessary and despair is criminal.” He resolves again to rise at 8.

1781: (3 years before his death) “I will not despair, help me, help me, oh my God.” He resolves to rise at 8 or sooner to avoid idleness.

So Don’t give up. Tomorrow is January 9!

“Dear Church, Meet With Me,” – Jesus.

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Kevin DeYoung is a pastor and author of whom I appreciate on various levels. Here is one of his most recent posts to his own church family. I too plead the same sentiment. He calls it, “The Scandal of the Semi-Churched.” After I read this it seemed as if I could hear our Shepherd say, “Dear Church, Meet with me.”

“This is one of those posts I’ve wanted to write for awhile, but I wasn’t sure how to say what I think needs to be said. The danger of legalism and false guilt is very real. But so is the danger of disobedience and self-deception.

I want to talk about church members who attend their home church with great irregularity. These aren’t unchurched folks, or de-churched, or under-churched. They are semi-churched. They show up some of the time, but not every week. They are on again/off again, in and out, here on Sunday and gone for two. That’s the scandal of the semi-churched. In fact, Thom Rainer argues that the number one reason for the decline in church attendance is that church members don’t go to church as often as they used to.

We’ve had Christmas and Easter Christians for probably as long as we’ve had Christmas and Easter. Some people will always be intermittent with their church attendance. I’m not talking about nominal Christians who wander into church once or twice a year. I’m talking about people who went through the trouble of joining a church, like their church, have no particular beef with the church, and still only darken its doors once or twice a month. If there are churches with membership rolls much larger than their average Sunday attendance, they have either under-shepherds derelict in their duties, members faithless in theirs, or both.

I know we are the church and don’t go to church (blah, blah, blah), but being persnickety about our language doesn’t change the exhortation of Hebrews 10:25. We should not neglect to meet together, as some are in the habit of doing. Gathering every Lord’s Day with our church family is one of the pillars of mature Christianity.

So ask yourself a few questions.

1. Have you established church going as an inviolable habit in your family?You know how you wake up in the morning and think “maybe I’ll go on a run today” or “maybe I’ll make french toast this morning”? That’s not what church attendance should be like. It shouldn’t be an “if the mood feels right” proposition. I will always be thankful that my parents treated church attendance (morning and evening) as an immovable pattern. It wasn’t up for discussion. It wasn’t based on extenuating circumstances. It was never a maybe. We went to church. That’s what we did. That made the decision every Sunday a simple one, because their was no real decision. Except for desperate illness, we were going to show up. Giving your family the same kind of habit is a gift they won’t appreciate now, but will usually thank you for later.

2. Do you plan ahead on Saturday so you can make church a priority on Sunday? We are all busy people, so it can be hard to get to church, especially with a house full of kids. We will never make the most of our Sundays unless we prepare for them on Saturday. That likely means finishing homework, getting to bed on time, and foregoing some football. If church is an afterthought, you won’t think of it until after it’s too late.

3. Do you order your travel plans so as to minimize being gone from your church on Sunday? I don’t want to be legalistic with this question. I’ve traveled on Sunday before (though I try to avoid it). I take vacation and study leave and miss 8 or 9 Sundays at URC per year. I understand we live in a mobile culture. I understand people want to visit their kids and grandkids on the weekend (and boy am I thankful when ours come and visit). Gone are the days when people would be in town 50-52 weeks a year. Travel is too easy. Our families are too dispersed. But listen, this doesn’t mean we can’t make a real effort to be around on Sunday. You might want to take Friday off to go visit the kids so you can be back on Saturday night. You might want to think twice about investing in a second home that will draw you away from your church a dozen weekends every year. You might want to re-evaluate your assumption that Friday evening through Sunday evening are yours to do whatever you want wherever you want. It’s almost impossible to grow in love for your church and minister effectively in your church if you are regularly not there.

4. Are you willing to make sacrifices to gather with God’s people for worship every Sunday? “But you don’t expect me to cancel my plans for Saturday night, do you? I can’t possibly rearrange my work schedule. This job requires me to work every Sunday–I’d have to get a new job if I wanted to be regular at church. Sundays are my day to rewind. I won’t get all the yard work done if I go to church every week. My kids won’t be able to play soccer if we don’t go to Sunday games. If my homework is going to be done by Sunday, I won’t be able to chill out Friday night and all day Saturday. Surely God wouldn’t want me to sacrifice too much just so I can show up at church!” Not exactly the way of the cross, is it?

5. Have you considered that you may not be a Christian? Who knows how many people God saves “as through fire” (1 Cor. 3:15). Does going to church every week make you a Christian? Absolutely not. Does missing church 35 Sundays a year make you a non-Christian? It does beg the question. God’s people love to be with God’s people. They love to sing praises. They love to feast at the Table. They love to be fed from the Scriptures. Infrequent church attendance–I mean not going anywhere at all–is a sign of immaturity at best and unbelief at worst. For whenever God calls people out of darkness he calls them into the church. If the Sunday worship service is the community of the redeemed, what does your weekly pattern suggest to God about where you truly belong?

Have you entered the storehouses of the snow?

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This is one of the questions that is posed by God to Job (38:22-23). Like the other questions, it is not given to send us to the lab and discover scientific data about snow. It is given to build trust in our hearts for God. Job did not understand the ways of God and thought that God was mishandling his life. When you suffer, you question – it’s natural to wonder what God is up to when you are hurting. You want to trust but it’s difficult when pain and loneliness is all you know.

Here is the full question:

“Have you entered the storehouses of the snow . . . which I have reserved for the time of trouble, for the day of battle and war?”

God asks, “Job, are you capable of discerning all the ways that snow makes life hard . . . all the ways that snow has a threat upon the life of a man? Can you tell me how deep snow gets at the poles of the earth? Can you tell me how snow can break down a forest? Can you describe the solitude and suspension that snow can force upon an army, a city? How much snow can you gather up in your hand to cause an avalanche? Are you able to do as you please in a snowstorm? Do you not feel vulnerable and humbled by such majesty?”

God continues his strange comfort to suffering Job and to you (40:2ff),

“Dear Job, if you cannot fathom the mystery of snow then how can you possibly sit in judgment against me – The SnowMaker? I am just and good in all my ways. You are not suffering for no reason. You are not suffering because of your sin. You are not suffering because I am bored, or angry, or capricious. You are suffering because I am preparing something that only stress and hardship can produce – and you will see that it will be worth it. I have your future joy in mind as I am sending my very one and only to suffer in your place, so that your peace is forever secured. Job, trust me. Believe that the purpose of your suffering is complex, too wonderful for you (42:3), yet, strangely revealing my love for you. Believe that if I can send an avalanche of suffering upon my innocent Son to raise up unspeakable joy, then I know what I am doing with your life. Consider the snow . . . and trust me to use suffering in your life to produce eternal, astonishing fascination in your heart for my Son.”

Let’s Pray:

Heavenly Father, give peace and comfort to our hearts as we look to Jesus Christ who suffered on Calvary’s hill, who bled and died and was raised that we may come to know the God whose power and beauty is seen in snow. Instill a deep sense of awe and wonder as we quietly, silently, sit and wait for our final release from sin and death. As gently as you cover the earth with snow, spread your arms today over the hurting and the lonely, and make known the riches of Christ in many hearts. O gracious Father, make hearts as white as snow as you bestow the gift of repentance – cleansing them from sins. And keep us in perfect rest as we receive our daily supply of grace and mercies from your righteous and steady hand.

In Jesus’ name we gratefully pray, Amen.

Jesus’s New Year Resolution: To be the Same as He was Last Year

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Unlike the cartoon, Jesus never needs to change. But like the cartoon, too often that is me. But to say that Jesus never changes can be both comforting and disconcerting. Comforting because you need Jesus to remain faithful to his promises; disconcerting because you feel that he let you down and you want him to step it up and do a little better this year. However you feel about Jesus’s character, scripture teaches that he is trustworthy, and that he does not improve as time goes by. Notice the context of that famous verse:

“Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them” (Hebrews 13:7-9).

What surrounds the affirmation of Jesus’s consistency is faithful teaching of God’s Word by pastors who shepherd the flock with a faith that is worth imitating, and the heart’s wayward leaning into various teachings, appetites of the flesh, that draw you away from Christ. Jesus cannot be re-packaged into a new mold to accommodate your new desires. If you are resolved this year to become a wealthier person, and you think that Jesus died to make you wealthier just because a Sunday morning preacher on TV said so, think again. The book of Hebrews shows Christians getting poorer and poorer by the minute for following Christ and they are commended for their faith and encouraged to keep it up because it’s going to get worse, not better (10:32-39, chapter 11, and 13:3).

But if you are resolved this year to trust Christ even more than you did last year, because you found him faithful and true to his promises to never leave you nor forsake you (13:5-6), then you will not be wasting your time and effort. Go for it! – “It is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace . . . and not by _____________.”

Three Things:

1. What would you put on that empty line that too often was your source of strength last year? Foods. Sports. More Money. Revenge/Justice. A Healthy Body. Marriage. Pregnancy. What was it that was more of a refuge for your heart than Jesus? For some of the Hebrews, they were mixing Jesus into their dietary rules and rituals to feel good about their walk with the Lord and their lives, abstaining from one kind of food and indulging in another. But “comfort food” does not comfort/benefit the heart. It only makes you gain more weight and then leaves you feeling guilty for indulging, or prideful for abstaining. This year, press forward to make Jesus more and more your place of strength and not food.

2. Surround yourself with a pastor(s), and other believers, whose lives have a consistency in God’s Word. Watch them, listen to them . . . then imitate their walk of faith as much as it applies to your life. And keep in mind, someone is watching you too.

3. Jesus promises that if you take comfort in the fact that he will be the same for you this coming year, you will not be disappointed. The sermon to the Hebrews is about a pilgrimage to “the city whose builder and maker is God.” It is about a life of faith that perseveres to the end, strengthened in the heart by a High Priest, Jesus, that will preserve the heart’s loyalty to Christ until the day comes that you are “made perfect”  in the presence of Christ (11:40). Jesus is as reliable as the day is long. And some days in 2014 are going to be very long. Jesus will stay with you at your side every second of the way. Don’t quit. Look to Jesus – the founder and perfecter of your faith. You’re almost there. You’re almost home. Compared to eternity, this whole year is just a few more strides around the bend and you’ll cross the finish line, having given your all. By grace, you can do this!