Strangers

I've been meditating (a fancy way of saying I've only been reading one thing over and over) on 1 Peter for the most part of this summer. Reading it several times has reminded me of one of my least favorite aspects of my eight months in Albania, which I will now share.

While Albania was a great experience, the one thing that always bothered me was how my team and I stuck out in the village and received a lot of attention, mostly unflattering. I loved it when we made trips to the city because I did not stick out as much. I like fitting in, but in the village there was no way I could fit in, even if I dressed like an Albanian or spoke in Albanian (both of which I did). I was a stranger to that village in Albania, and I couldn't change that because I couldn't change the fact that I was an American. I'm sure missionaries to Asia or Africa can relate even more to this aspect of mission life.

I also think followers of Jesus can relate to this aspect of life.

Two themes of 1 Peter are suffering for doing good and being strangers to the world. The verse that has stuck out to me is 1:17, "Since you call on a Father who judges each man's work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear." Peter calls the believers, in light of their salvation, to live like strangers, since they have become strangers to the world, "a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light" (2:9).

Since followers of Jesus are "aliens and strangers in the world" (2:11), they will stand out, and it won't be easy for them (though it will be worth it). The world will press them to look like itself. I watched a Cornerstone podcast last night in which the pastor preached on Romans 12:1-2, and I felt that it fit well with the themes of 1 Peter. Romans 12:2 says, "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing, and perfect will."

The world wants believers to be pressed into its mold, to look like itself. But those who have turned to Jesus are a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). We must, on a daily basis, recognize the war we are in and choose to die to ourselves and live for Jesus (Romans 6). We need people around us who are also new creations. We must remember Jesus' words in Matthew 16:25, "For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it," and that "in his great mercy he (God) has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead" (1 Peter 1:3).

"Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us." -1 Peter 2:11-12

Viewing God And Yourself

When spirituality becomes focused on feeling and experience rather than truth, everyone's view of God becomes valid. Sadly, we see this in our culture. Everyone has a view of who God is, but many have an inaccurate view. In America, many people have the viewpoint called Moralistic Therapeutic Deism: there is a god who just wants you to be nice and will help you out when you need it but is ok with you being distant from him and living your own life. With this view of God, it's understandable why many Americans don't fear God. This was my viewpoint for most of my life.

Obviously, our view of God will impact how we respond to God. When I started following Jesus, the changes that took place were brought about from an accurate view of God. My view of God (and myself) changed, and I started changing. God used certain people and the Bible to give me an accurate view of God. The following is one of the things that got me to view God, and myself, more accurately.

A great teacher and pastor (Francis Chan) talks about how when people were (and will be) in the presence of God and his glory, they were terrified. In Isaiah 6, Isaiah sees the Lord on his throne and angelic beings who never stop praising God, and his response was utter terror. He says in verse 5, "'Woe to me!' I cried. 'I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.'"

It's interesting that Isaiah's response is, "I'm going to die, because I am unclean and I have seen God." It's a response we don't often see when talking about God. But that makes sense. If God really is like that (read Isaiah 6:1-7), then our response wouldn't be mere acknowledgement. If we compare ourselves with something that awesome and holy, we recognize our shortcomings and our unworthiness to be in his presence (Romans 3:23). This is what happened when I started following Jesus; I began seeing God for who he really is, and God used that to show me how hypocritical I was for saying that I knew God and was a Christian.

This should also happen when people interact with Christians. Our lives, which are shaped by knowing, loving, and following Christ, should point people to an accurate view of God and should cause them to question their inaccurate view of God.

People will not seek after God if they don't have an accurate view of him. They need Jesus followers around them, showing them God's love, giving them an accurate view of God (Romans 10:14-15), and then praying that God will show himself to them and draw them to himself. Getting an accurate view of God will change people, as it did me, because God is not the god of Monotheistic Therapeutic Deism, and Jesus was not just a good teacher or a prophet. Christians are Christians because they have an accurate view of God, which by God's grace moves them to trust in Christ and truly know and follow him.

Seeking God

This morning I commented to my sister about how Islam treats reading the Quran as a religious activity/duty (some professing Christians treat the Bible in this way too), whereas I genuinely desire to read the Bible so I can learn more about God, not to check it off a religious to-do list. I love God because he first loved me (1 John 4:19).  Reading more about this God who loves me increases my knowledge of him, and this has been changing my life considerably.

God says in Jeremiah, "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart" (Jeremiah 29:13). We know that God exists (the universe and the moral law that exists within us point to this), and the great thing is that he is not distant (it may feel like he is at points, but that's another topic) and that we can learn more about God.

A very important thing to note on seeking God is the attitude in which we seek him. We should not approach or seek God in arrogance or pride. Pride was what first separated us from God. God is not unapproachable, but we must remember who God is and who we are when seeking him. We cannot think that we know better than God. This is what Job thought, and after he was finished asking his questions to God, God responded by "putting him in his place." God humbled Job by reminding him that he is not God. 

In Isaiah, God says, "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts" (Isaiah 55:9). When seeking God, we can't assume that we are above God and know better than him. Remember that God created billions of galaxies, that he holds everything together (Colossians 1:17), and that he is Lord (ruler/king) of everything. 

Strangely enough, we will only seek God after we fear him, about which I will write more in my next post.

Remain Or Live

I have been following Jesus for about two and a half years now. Best two and a half years of my life. God doesn't speak just through the Bible, but He has been teaching me many things through it. Here's something that he showed me last week.

Don't read this post for the sake of entertainment, especially if you don't know Jesus.

While reading through John, I was struck again by a misconception people have about our natural standing with God since the Fall. I'll mention two passages that reminded me of this. The first verse really stuck out to me; It's from John the Baptist's Testimony about Jesus:

"Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him." -John 3:36

The last part struck me: "God's wrath remains on him." That means that from birth, God's wrath is on us until we give our lives to Jesus. God, our Creator, gave mankind the choice to remain or die, and we chose to die. We chose life apart from God, which is death compared to life with God. Disobeying a perfect, holy God resulted in God's wrath, the consequence of sin: eternal death apart from him.

But the whole point of Jesus coming to earth was to provide a way back from death to life. Take a look at what Jesus says in John 5:24:

"I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life."

 Through Jesus we can cross from death to life. The only way to get back to God is through Jesus (John 14:6).

Now here is the misconception: Many people think that we start out innocent, or neutral. John Piper explained it with the analogy of the pendulum of a metronome. Many people think that we begin at the center, and we can swing toward the good side or the bad side. The truth, however, is that we are all completely on the bad side from the start, and there is no way we can change that or earn our way to the good side. Here is the Good News, from Romans 3:23-24:

"for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus."

Through Jesus alone, we can cross over from death to life. But the fact of the matter is this: we all are facing eternal death if we aren't living for Jesus. We have the choice to remain where we are, on the road to death, or to turn to Jesus (called repenting).

If you aren't living with Jesus, you are not on a good path. Don't read this passively. When we stand before our Creator, we won't have an excuse for not following Jesus. He has lovingly and graciously given us a way back to him, and to reject him is foolish and eternally costly.

 Looking back to my life before knowing Jesus, I can see that I was not innocent at all, even though for a long time I appeared to be a Christian, and I would have said I was. No matter how good we appear to be, we know how bent toward evil we are on the inside. We need to be fixed, to be changed, to return to God, and Jesus is the only one who can do it. Our choice is to remain or live. Repent and turn to Jesus, and live.

Changed And Changing

Last week was my final week at the Harrisburg Discipleship Center. I have been processing my time there since my return home, and one thing is certain: I have changed and I am continuing to change.

No, I am not talking about puberty; I am talking about Jesus' work in my life.

Since being back, a couple of people have told me that I have changed so much these past two years. When I hear people say this, I think of 2 Corinthians 5:17, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" Now, the changes that have been happening are not surface level; they happen inwardly and work their way out. This, I suppose, is how Jesus works. People may want surface-level change, but Jesus starts at the inward-most point, the heart/spirit (see Ezekiel 36:26). So for me, this change first happened during my senior year of high school. Jesus gave me a new heart and his Spirit.

Looking back at the past two years, I have definitely been changing. The big word for this occurrence is sanctification. It means that Jesus' living in you causes noticeable changes in your life. Jesus has never been such a focus in my life as He has been these past two years, and the changes in my life have come from that focus, or that relationship, or that Jesus. Some things that I have learned from this past year are grace, the importance of John 15, the sovereignty of Jesus, and my passion for discipleship.

So as one season ends and a new one begins, I am excited to see how God will continue to change me, deepen my relationship with Him, and how He will impact others through me.

Christian Fragrance

This is a continuation of my thoughts from my previous post, so if you haven't read it, you should check it out.

A mission re-entry is taking place here at the Harrisburg Discipleship Center, and we have morning devotionals together. Yesterday morning I talked about the picture I took (shown right). Today I brought it up again and we expounded more on my third point. What we discussed is this:

Our attitudes affect our fragrance.

I mentioned how last night I thought about my life apart from Christ, and how there was great evidence I wasn't in a relationship with him. The part of my past life that stuck out was my relationship with my family. I was extremely self-centered back then, and family life was affected from this. I didn't have good interactions with them, and they often got upset with me (understandably so). I treated my sisters terribly and didn't care what they thought of me. We never talked about God or Christianity (at least with me), and I probably would not have had much to say anyway.

But now, having a relationship with God, my family life has changed for the better. I have great times with all my sisters and no longer treat them poorly. We also naturally talk about our relationships with God, something of which we all share.

Thinking back on this change (and others) allowed me to see how God has changed my life by being in relationship with me. This is what our fragrance should be: an overflowing love of God for who he is and for his grace given to us. God gives us this fragrance by making us a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17) and giving us a new heart and his Holy Spirit (Ezekiel 36:26-27).

This is crazy love! We can't forget that we were once "cigarette butts." Our new identity in Christ should never get old. His grace in our daily lives continues to give us the "fragrance of the knowledge of [Christ]" (2 Corinthians 2:14). This overflow of love (the fragrance of Christ) is what gets the attention of "cigarette butts." People know crazy love when they see it. When "roses" show love to "cigarette butts," they notice something is different, in a good way.

A friend of mine, who doesn't yet know Jesus relationally, noticed this in my life (remember, by the grace of God). I'll never forget what my friend said after visiting me one weekend: "You make me want to be a better person." My friend could smell the fragrance of Christ in me and my family.  This is how God spreads his love and "fragrance:" through changed "roses."

But back to the point: Our attitudes affect our fragrance. Our motivation for our interactions with those who don't know Christ should never be obligation. You are not indebted to Christ. You could never pay him back if you were, because he gives us his grace in our lives every day. We depend on his love, faithfulness, and character daily. We need to remain in the Living Water (John 4:10, 15:4) to have the fragrance of Christ. If we don't do this, we will start smelling like a "cigarette" again.

So in summation, stay in the Living Water and remember that you once were a "cigarette butt," but now God has given you a new identity. And spread the fragrance of Christ!

A Rose Among Cigarettes

On my way to McBIC this morning, I saw a peculiar thing while waiting for a green light: a rose was on the side of the road among cigarette butts. It caught me and my friends off guard; you usually don't see a rose on the side of the road. It seemed out of place. I had to take a picture of it because it was so peculiar.

My friends and I agreed that this would be good imagery for something. I soon thought of the phrase "aroma of Christ," and  it seemed to fit very well. So after we returned from McBIC, I looked up the passage. Here it is:

"But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing." -2 Corinthians 2:14-15

 A couple things from this image. First, we are like cigarette butts, but God came to us anyway. I think cigarettes are gross, while roses are lovely things. One has a foul fragrance, the other has a pleasant fragrance. Jesus went to those whom people considered "sinners." He didn't mind hanging out with the "unclean" people. When questioned about this, Jesus said in Luke 5:31, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick."

And we we need to realize that we are all "unclean." Paul told the church in Rome, "While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8) We all are separated from God (at one time, for Jesus followers) and in need of someone to save us from sin and death. "Self-righteous" should be equated with "self-deceived." No one has the capability to be righteous in his own strength. We all are (or were) cigarette butts, and we can't change that reality by ourselves.

Second, God, through a relationship with him, makes us a new creation. Imagine transforming from a cigarette butt to a rose. Talk about an entirely new identity! When we have a relationship with God, we become noticeably different. We have "life to the full." (John 10:10) Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:17, "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" Cigarettes are known to cause death, while roses signify love and life. The difference is significant.

Third, the roses (those with a relationship with God) are to "spread the fragrance of the knowledge of him [Christ]" to the cigarette butts. Roses are fragrant, and fragrance spreads. If you are a follower of Jesus, you can remember those "roses" in your life who spread the fragrance of Christ to you. We need to have "cigarette butts" in our lives so they can smell the fragrance of Christ in our lives.

In summation, the 2 Corinthians 2 passage fits well with this picture. Christ is leading our lives, we are confident and joyful from the transformation in Christ, and we spread the fragrance of Christ to others.

Refocus

During this past winter training at the Harrisburg Discipleship Center, I would, every now and then, remind the team of the reason they were there. In essence, I would remind them of the Good News; that God, through Jesus, reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:17-21).

I was reminded of our need for focus while reading 2 Timothy. I would encourage you to read through it. Paul writes to Timothy in an almost militaristic style. There are many charges throughout the book. But you can see that Paul is not being heartless (he addresses Timothy as "my dear son") but is lovingly stressing the importance of these commands. He is stressing Timothy's need to persevere, stay focused, stand on sound doctrine, and not be distracted or deceived.

(If you aren't a follower of Jesus, I encourage you to examine your life.)

I found myself going back to 2 Corinthians 5 after reading 2 Timothy. 2 Corinthians 5:14-21 is an excellent summation of our purpose, our mission. Here's a part of it:

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation." -2 Corinthians 5:17-19

 God brought us back into a right relationship with him through Jesus' atonement of sins on the cross. We have new life in God. It's so encouraging for me to look back to where I was a couple years ago and see how much has changed through a relationship with God. It really is a Jesus Story; it's not a self-help story. God brings a genuine newness to our lives.

But notice that Paul doesn't stop there while writing to the believers in Corinth; he goes on to say that God "gave us the ministry of reconciliation." God has shown me this truth in recent months: the Good News doesn't end at us. Christianity is not about ourselves; it's about sharing the love and grace that God has given us. It's about God. This is hard to see in America, a place being choked by the thorns of materialism and consumerism, but it's clear to see in places like Asia, where the majority of Christians are. The persecution there forces them to be focused; they need to have the truth constantly on their minds.

This takes us back to 2 Timothy, with Paul telling Timothy to stay focused and not be distracted. His reason for these encouragements is the message of reconciliation that we've received. We're supposed to be sharing this amazing love that we've been given and showing others the new life that's been given to us; because, again, Christianity is about God, not us. It doesn't end with us. We have the joy of sharing to those in our lives this Good News.

But isn't it easy to get distracted? There is an enemy in this world who is perfectly content with us Christians wasting time on Facebook, at the mall, on the computer, in front of the TV, etc. Frankly, we aren't being very effective sharers of God's love when we do stuff that is only temporally significant. But it seems lately that I have been distracted by many little things that aren't terribly important in the long run. By God's grace, he has been refocusing me.

So how about you? Does your life need some more focus (like mine)? Remember the new life that has been given to you, and remember your God-given ministry (2 Corinthians 5:17-19).

Examine Your Life

"Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord." -Lamentations 3:40

God showed this verse to me yesterday during a prayer retreat, and it spoke volumes to me. It's a short verse, but full of truth.

We need to slow down our life and take a look at it.  It's so easy to get caught up in daily routine; it's definitely something that's happened to me lately. For the past few weeks, my time spent with God was becoming more and more irregular. This was bugging me; I knew something wasn't right. Then God showed me this verse and the importance of examining life.

An important aspect of this life examination is holding it up to eternity. Do the parts of your life have eternal value, or are they merely temporal and not worthwhile? God has been showing areas in my life that don't have eternal value, one of those areas being my conversations. (Did you know the top conversation topic is sports? How temporal and trivial in light of eternity!) God has shown me that my conversations are mostly about temporal things (a predicament I wrote about in a previous post) instead of the stuff that really matters.

A good question to ask yourself if you're not yet a follower of Jesus (or even if you are) is, "Is what I'm doing really worthwhile?" What do you pursue in life? To what end? Do you pursue things because the world tells you it's worthwhile? What has history shown the outcome of these pursuits to be? Life is so short; there's no guarantee we're going to live till we're 80. We need to examine our ways and test them, because wouldn't it be terrible to live this short life only to find out that you've squandered it on trivial things that, in the end, didn't satisfy? Wealth is so uncertain, so why put your hope in it? (see history and 1 Timothy 6:17) What are your ways, and do they amount to anything? What is temporal and what is eternal?

The second part of the verse is the greatest encouragement: "let us return to the Lord." When you truly examine your ways and test them, it's very possible you will find your life lacking in some way. If you are pursuing something in life, that shows that you need something, but what is it? God shows in this verse that the thing that is missing in our lives is himself, and that we can return to him.

We were made to be in relationship with him. God made the whole universe, galaxies and all, but he only gave one thing the choice to obey him: us! He did this because he wants a genuine relationship with us; it wouldn't be real if it were forced. But isn't it terrifying that we have the ability to say no to an infinite God? All of creation completely obeys God without question, except for us. We are the only ones with the audacity to look in the face of the Creator of the universe and say, "No, your way is not as good as my way." This rebellion is evil in God's sight and deserves just punishment: death. An eternal death without God.
But God provided a way back to him. Jesus bore the punishment and eternal wrath due us on the cross. Through Jesus we can "return to the Lord." The Lord of heaven and earth. We can only have a right relationship with God if we turn to Jesus.

So, having examined your life, what will you do? What needs to change? Is something lacking in your life? I submit to you that what your life needs is the Lord. If you never have done it yet, turn to the Lord. If you have wandered from him (which I have, lately), return to the Lord.

Citizens Of Heaven, Ambassadors Of Christ

Here at the Harrisburg Discipleship Center, we have a devotional every morning, called Start of Mornings. I led today's Start of Morning, and I thought I'd share what we talked about.

Last night, several HDC alumni visited, and we hung out for a good bit. Afterwards, though, it struck me that we did not, as a group, talk about God or anything spiritual-related. Now, I'm not saying that that's a horrible thing, and I'm not condemning us for not talking about God in a group setting; I know that the majority of the group had talked about our spiritual lives in one-on-one settings that evening. But what struck me was the thought, "If an unbeliever were sitting in on our conversation, would he know that we are Christians?"

The passages I brought up this morning were Philippians 3:18-20a, Colossians 3:1-2, and 2 Corinthians 5:20a. Here's the Philippians 3 passage:

"18For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. 20But our citizenship is in heaven."

 What sticks out to me in this passage is the last part of verse 19: "Their mind is on earthly things." The enemies of Christ (everyone without a relationship with him) have their mind on earthly things, mind being singular. So their communal mind is on earthly things; that's what they talk about when they're together. "But our citizenship is in heaven." Paul says this shouldn't be the case for Christians, because our citizenship is no longer in the world, but in heaven. We've been sealed with the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13), so we are now partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4) and no longer find our identity in the world but in Christ (Colossians 3:3).

So now we come to the Colossians 3 passage:

"1Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things."

 Because we have been brought to life through Jesus and now have a relationship with God, our hearts and minds should be set on him, not on earthly things. This makes sense, doesn't it? Wouldn't it be strange if you were married but never thought about your spouse or were never compelled to do something for your spouse to show that you love her? Would that relationship be genuine? In the same way, our relationship with Christ affects what our hearts and minds are set on.

And, finally, the passage from 2 Corinthians 5:20a "We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us." Our role on earth is ministers of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18), ambassadors of Christ. The Good News doesn't end with us; we now have the privilege of partaking in God's mission by spreading the Good News to others. This is now what our life on earth is all about.

If you are a follower of Jesus, you are an ambassador of Christ. How are you living as an ambassador? How am I living as an ambassador? Are our lives, even our conversations, showing that we belong to God, that we are no longer citizens of the world, but citizens of heaven? Do our lives show enemies of the cross of Christ (unbelievers) that we are a new creation, that the old has gone and the new has come (2 Corinthians 5:17)? Thank God for his grace that we need every day! May his love compel us to be noticeable citizens of heaven and ambassadors of Christ.