Author: kirkallanlewis@yahoo.com

Raise the Bar

Background Passages: 2 Peter 1:5-9; Galatians 5:16 and Philippians 3:10-14
The streak of laziness that runs through my bones was never more evident than my high school track career. I tried out for every field event in an effort to escape any serious running events. While I had a small measure of success in the shot put, my efforts at the broad jump, high jump and pole vault might be classified as dismal.
I found the sand pit too far from the foul line and the pole vault abjectly frightening. I really wanted to do the high jump, but my technique and general lack of skill ended that dream.
A few years after my high school efforts, my cousin Paul advanced to the Texas state championship in the high jump and eventually took his skill to college where he set a personal best of 6’10”. He fell just short of the world record…had he been jumping in 1937. (I hope God will forgive me for that family dig even if Paul doesn’t.)
I don’t know for sure how high the bar was when the competition started back when Paul was back in college. I’d be stunned if they started the event at 6’10”. Paul most certainly worked up to his personal best in incremental steps. Each jump built upon the success of the preceding jump. Chances are my cousin never would have cleared his personal best without raising the bar along the way.
I found myself wondering this week if that’s what Peter had in mind as he began his second letter to the early Christian churches. To grow in our spiritual maturity, Peter said we need to be willing to raise the bar along the way.
Peter tells those early Christians and those who follow them, that God has given us everything we need to live a godly life. We just have to keep raising the bar of excellence and spiritual maturity. Read his words.
For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith, goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control, and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and brotherly kindness, love. 
For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But, if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from past sins.” (2 Peter 1:5-9)
Because God has given us everything we need to live a godly life, we must keep pushing ourselves toward a deeper faith…a deeper and wiser spiritual maturity. We’ll never make that move if we keep the bar low.
Peter says we make an initial leap of faith in our trust of Jesus Christ as savior. We learn in Hebrews 11:6 that “without faith it is impossible to please God. “
Far too many seem to think that’s all that is required…and it is to a point…a true expression of faith in Jesus as savior puts you on the list of God’s redeemed.
That’s a little like clearing the bar at its opening height. Elite high jumpers have little difficulty clearing that first jump. Had any of them been content with that first jump, they might not have tried higher heights.
Placing our faith and trust in Jesus as savior is a great first jump. Staying at that height does not grow our faith. It does not allow us to stretch our understanding of who God is and what he asks of us.
Read through that list of character traits Peter shares. Nothing within them suggests a random order. Each trait builds upon the preceding trait. He says make sure you add to your faith a life of goodness. Making right choices. Virtuous. Pure. Live a life that reflects Christ in you. Letting God’s way be your standard. That seems a natural evolution of our faith commitment. Declare your faith then live a life of virtue and purity.
As you begin to live a life that reflects Christ, you gain knowledge into his teachings, discerning what is right and what he requires of those who follow him. You gain an understanding of the nature of God and thus the nature he desires for us.
Paul’s words to the Philippians would reinforce this thought.
“Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things. (Philippians 4:8)
As time passes and we invest ourselves in God’s word, we gain an understanding and knowledge of how he lived and the words he spoke. Such understanding enables us to deepen our faith and expand and enhance the good we are doing.
Then, we raise the bar higher. Finding the self-control or discipline to resist our former way of life and the temptations that will surely come. It is getting a grip on our passions in order to stay focused and committed to what we’ve been taught in God’s word. This, then, leads to a stronger faith, a goodness that seldom wavers because we continue to grow in our knowledge of his will and way.
Perseverance speaks to the ability to stay the course when days get more difficult. To persist in our pursuit of godly character even when it is hard to do so. It is the patience to keep exercising our faith, goodness, knowledge gained and discipline to remain strong during hard times. The ability to fight off the temptation to abandon what we believe and know when circumstances don’t go our way.
“Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross… (Hebrews 12:2-3)
Raise the bar yet again because as we stay strong in the face of hardship, we are demonstrating a deep respect for God and his love for us. The call to live a life of godliness suggests a faith that is practiced and practical. It is simply the faith we put into practice. We determine to be more and more like him in pursuit of the godliness…being Christ-like…in the way we live and relate to those around us, especially those who are outcasts.
James put it this way in his brief letter.
Religion that God our father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. (James 1:27)
It is this raised bar of Christian living that demands we love those who persecute us. Insists that we love the sinner but reject the sin. Encourages us to wrap our arms around those society pushes aside.
Jesus raised the bar for his disciples when he told them that the evidence of their godliness is in the gentleness, kindness and grace extended toward our fellow believers. In their love for one another.
A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”  (John 13:35)
It is a picture of grace and forgiveness within the body of Christ that builds up the church rather than tearing it down. Our brotherly kindness and love is the light of Christ reflected through the church that invites the unbeliever to consider a life with Christ. It is this light that opens the door of salvation to a lost world.
It is the love that allowed Peter and Paul to embrace the faith of the Gentile believers. It is the love that forgives the hurt caused by our fellow believer so that church continues to model God’s love for the world. It is the love that makes a church a church.
“And, now, these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” (I Corinthians 13:13)
Peter raises the bar one last time in this passage. Read the words again.
…add to your faith, goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control, and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and brotherly kindness, love.
Peter goes beyond brotherly love when he suggests that we will reach new heights when we learn to love each other as God loved. This is agape love. It is a love abounding from our hearts by the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. It is the spark that compels us to go out of our way to share our faith, to love those who others deem unlovable. To reach into the community to meet needs expecting nothing in return.
May the Lord cause you to increase and abound in love for one another and for all men, just as we also do for you. (I Thessalonians 3:12)
The list Peter shares may seem daunting. Who could live a life like this other than Jesus Christ? Each characteristic he asks us to pursue reflect the character of God himself. Take a look at verse 4 immediately preceding our primary passage in 2 Peter 1. Peter declares that God gave us his gift of salvation and his promises so that we might “participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world…”
These traits of our heavenly father are the traits he wants to see evident in the lives of those who believe in him. The list Peter shares is not a “how to,” but rather a statement about what is possible. That a focused and committed life can keep raising the bar of excellence as we become more Christ-like. It is a process and is something to which we can strive. Peter is giving us a picture of what we can become if we make spiritual maturity a priority.
I’ve lived almost seven decades on this earth. I wish I could declare that I’ve cleared the bar set by God. I’m certain I have not. It is a growth process, even until the day we die.
Christian growth and maturity is neither automatic nor a matter of time. Growth occurs as we consistently and obediently seek to grow…as we hurdle each bar…with the power and help of God’s spirit and the faithful study of God’s word.
Peter offered us both an encouraging word and a warning in 2 Peter 1:8-9.
For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But, if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from past sins.”
We said earlier the reason we seek after these traits is to understand the character of God and participate in that divine nature. Then, we must consistently demonstrate these traits in our lives in increasing measure each day we live. To be effective and productive in our knowledge of Jesus.
To simply let that initial faith commitment slide suggests we’ve forgotten what Jesus did for us on the cross.
I’ll make one last connection. Peter’s choice of character traits in his second letter to believers is similar to the fruit of the Spirit Paul discusses in some of his letters. Paul lists the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5 as the qualities God produces in us through the work of the Spirit.
The key to manifesting the fruit of the Spirit, according to Galatians 5:16, is to walk in the Spirit. A spiritual lifestyle choice. This passage in Peter tells us how to walk in the Spirit, constantly jumping the higher bar of spiritual maturity.
I want to know Christ and the power of the resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings…Not that I have attained all of this or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me…but one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining forward to what is ahead. I press on… (Philippians 3:10, 12-14)
I hope you will join me in making that thought a commitment in the days to come. Maybe we can clear the next bar together.

Choose to Remember

Background Passages Lamentations 3:21-26,40; Romans 15:13

If you opened my Bible, you’d find the margins dotted with editorial comments of lessons learned from personal Bible studies and notes taken from sermons preached by my pastors over the years. It is study method I learned from my parents who both taught Sunday School. I watched them make those margin notes and began to follow their lead.

It got me in trouble with my pastor when I was 10 years old. I sat with some other children near the front of the sanctuary listening to the sermon. The pastor said something I thought was significant so I jotted it down in the margin of my Bible, just like my Dad often did.

After the sermon the pastor fussed at me for writing in my Bible. I needed to treat it more reverently, he said. I remember being near tears as he scolded me. I’m pretty sure my Dad had a “come to Jesus” meeting with the pastor after I told him what happened. He had that look in his eye.

Dad just told me to keep taking notes as long I was writing things that I felt like God was teaching me. He said, “I’m quite sure God won’t mind.”

Today, the margins of some books in my Bible are a jumbled mess of handwritten notes and lines drawn from one verse to another. A few books in my Bible are dotted with little more than a scattering of comments notated in the margin.

Lamentations is one of those books. Obviously, I’ve not spent a lot of time in Lamentations and, frankly, not many of my pastors over the years delivered a sermon with Lamentations as its source.

Most Bible scholars believe Jeremiah wrote Lamentations. As a witness to the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple in 586 B.C.E., his grief over Israel’s loss was palatable.

The name of the book in Hebrew is “ekah,” literally “How…,” the characteristic beginning of a funeral dirge. It makes sense as Jeremiah’s sorrow expressed his laments as he witnessed the political and spiritual death of his beloved nation. The word Lamentations derives from the book title as it appears in the Greek Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate translations of the Bible.

A lament is a crying out…a song of sorrow. More than simply crying, a lament is a form of prayer. A conversation with God about the pain you’re experiencing. The hopeful outcome of a lament is trust. A recognition that God hears your sorrow and remains present throughout the experience.

Mark Vroegop, a pastor in Indianapolis, said “Laments turn toward God when sorrow tempts you to run from him.” He said there are four essential elements to a lament. Turning to God by laying your heart at his feet. Sharing your sorrows and fears. It is the moment when a person who is pain chooses to talk to God.

A lament brings a complaint to God and asks boldly for his help in finding a path through the circumstances. Sorrow is when we give in to despair or denial and find no hope. A lament dares to hope in God’s presence and promises.

The final element of a lament is a sense of renewed hope. It is an invitation to renew our trust in God amid the brokenness we feel.

The first verse of Lamentations sets the stage for the prophet’s internal suffering.

How deserted lies the city once so full of people! How like a widow is she who once was great among the nations! (Lamentations 1:1)

Jeremiah’s feelings run downhill from that somber beginning. As you read through the verses, you hear the shock and despair in the prophet’s voice. The devastation he witnessed was real.

To make matter worse, Israel brought this destruction upon itself, by its own rebellion and sin. That’s the burden heard in the prophet’s lament. The author knows that the Babylonians who conquered the people of Israel served as human agents of God’s divine punishment because of the sinfulness of the Hebrew people. It is a bitter pill.

The value of Lamentations to modern day Christians is its underlying belief in God’s redemptive and restoring work in our lives. The hope of a lament recognizes that God is both sovereign and good. Vroegop said lamenting is one of the most “theologically informed things a person can do.”

Life is messy and hard. Most of us have witnessed the destruction of our metaphorical Jerusalem. Circumstances and events don’t turn out as we planned. Relationships fracture as bridges burn in the background. Physical suffering saps our strength. People we love die. The hurt we feel drills deep into our soul.

Under those circumstances it might be far easier to feel embittered and angry. Expressing pain and confusion to God rather than becoming resentful and cynical requires a spiritual strength we can’t always muster. Laying our troubles at the throne of God and asking God repeatedly for his help requires a faith grounded in his word.

After reading through Lamentations this week, I found Jeremiah’s words both instructive and encouraging. Knowing that I can lay the cries of my heart at God’s feet, even when I am responsible for my circumstances, provides a sense of comfort. Hearing the words of hope and promise from Jeremiah’s own heart gives me hope that my cries will be heard.

Jeremiah struggled with the things he witnessed. The destruction. The suffering. The confusion. The judgment that came as God allowed Israel to suffer the consequences of their spiritual rebellion. He detailed his misery in verse after verse until he gets to my favorite verses in the entire book.

This I call to mind and, therefore, I have hope. Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 

I say to myself: “The Lord is my portion, therefore I will wait for him.” The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. (Lamentations 3:21-26)

Hear the beauty of the passage. That which the prophet remembers gives hope. What he remembers is not all he reported in the previous verses. What gives him hope is the truth he shares next.

He remembers “God’s great love.”  Other translations use “God’s steadfast love.” Steadfast suggests something that is firmly fixed or immovable. Something unshakable.

This steadfast love keeps Jeremiah from feeling consumed. With all that happened, every step Jeremiah takes is labored. It would be easy for the prophet to feel as if he hangs precariously at the end of his rope. Unable to go on. God’s unshakable love does not lead him into a dark place that overwhelms, but to a hope that endures. It is the silver lining in the storm clouds over his head.

Jeremiah’s life experience tells him that God’s compassions…his mercies…his grace…never failed him in the past. He sees no reason why they would fail him now, even in this most personal loss.

In the beauty of passage, Jeremiah says that God’s compassion renews every morning. Every new day is a reminder of God’s faithful love and his desire to extend his grace and mercy to all who seek him. God is a faithful and fair even when it is unmerited.

As a result of this understanding, Jeremiah knows God is sufficient in all things….his portion. It allows him to wait, even in his distress, for God to reveal himself…for God to bring an end to the suffering. For God to bring him through. He rests his hope in the promise of God’s goodness, trusting that God will cover him through his sorrow and trouble.

That’s the truth I often need to hear. You can find example after example of God’s extended love, compassion and grace toward those who are hurting in both the Old Testament and the New Testament.

I think the key in this is what Jeremiah says in the beginning of this passage. Do you see it?

“This I call to mind…”

After all the horror and pain he shared from his opening words until this point in Chapter 3, Jeremiah said, “This I call to mind…” or “This I choose to remember…”

What is he calling to mind?

His declaration points forward to God’s great love and mercy. To God’s faithfulness and goodness. To his sufficiency and salvation. This is what he chooses to call to mind.

There isn’t a Christian among us who hasn’t dealt with tears. Our world is broken and brings its own special brand of hardships that we all must bear…believers and non-believers. It often consumes our thoughts. Darkens our spirit.  Often our sorrows make us feel we cannot take another step.

It seems the difference is what we choose to remember. What we choose to call to mind. You can dwell on the sorrow or you can dwell on God.

Dealing with the struggles and trouble of life will always be easier when we choose to remember God’s steadfast love and his mercy that renews itself with each new day. When we choose to remember God’s faithfulness instead of dwelling on our sorrow, we will find hope, as Jeremiah did, instead of bitter despair.

I love the truth this teaches. Life’s circumstances may make us feel as if we can’t go on, but God is not done. He is not finished. You will not fail because his love and compassion never fail.

I don’t know where your heart is today. If it is breaking…if it is filled with sorrow and despair. As real as that pain may feel, choose to trust in God’s great love and compassions that renew every morning. Choose to wait on him to work his will in your life. Trust his timing. Choose to remember God’s faithfulness.

As you make that choice, even in the middle of life’s most troublesome times, you will find hope in a Creator God who loves you without reservation.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit (Romans 15:13)

A Little Mustard; A Little Leaven

Background Passages: Matthew 13:31-33; Romans 10:14-15 and James 2:15,17

We all love a good story. Great storytellers connect with us on a personal and emotional level, finding ways to engage, influence, teach and inspire all who really listen. While storytelling is both art and science, some folks are naturally gifted storytellers. Others learned the craft over time.

As I’ve studied the Bible over the years, I find myself wishing I could go back in time to walk down the road with Jesus or sit on a rock around his campfire as he was sharing a truth to everyone within earshot. Jesus rarely lectured. To get his point across, he told stories. The Bible calls these stories parables.

If you’ve read enough scripture, you know Jesus was a master storyteller. I also suspect that Jesus’ parables recorded in scripture are probably Cliff Notes versions of the real conversations, edited to the quotable parts that we might actually hear. Listening to Jesus spin his tales would be an experience unlike any other.

Drawing upon images from everyday life, he shared truths about God’s heart and about kingdom living. While we can’t hear him speak, reading his stories in the Bible is the next best thing.

The 13th Chapter of Matthew is filled with story after story that Jesus used to teach about God’s kingdom. Verse 3 says, “Then he told them many things in parables…” And, he did… especially in this chapter.

The parable of the sower and the seed. The parable of the weeds. The parable of the hidden treasure and the pearls. The parable of the net. You’ll also find the parables of the mustard seed and the leaven bread. Two quick parables in three short verses.

Take a look.

And he told them another parable: The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all your seeds yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches.

He told them still another parable: The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough.” (Matthew 13:31-33)

Now, had I been that fly on the deck of Jesus’ rowboat that day, I might have asked, “Jesus, would you care to elaborate? What are you getting at?” If anyone asked, scripture doesn’t tell us. So, we have to think…just as Jesus intended.

To be clear, the mustard seed is not really the smallest seed used in Jesus’ day, but it was proverbial in the first century for “smallness,” a convenient and recognizable example for something tiny or small.

The mustard seed was a garden herb common in regional cuisine of the first century. It does grow into a tree-like bush sometimes as high as 12 feet. Because of its tree-like structure, it would have not been uncommon to see birds resting, nesting and feasting on the little black seeds.

Jesus followed his tale of the mustard seed with another familiar picture drawn from everyday life. Bread was the staple of life in the first century. Leaven is nothing more than fermented dough kept over from a previous baking of bread.

Bread without leaven, unleavened bread, always baked flat, dense and hard. Leaven served the same purpose as yeast does today. Mixing leaven into fresh dough made the bread soft, porous, spongy and delicious. (I can smell it baking, can’t you?)

What truth is Jesus conveying when he used this imagery as he taught?

It could not have been easy for the disciples to watch great crowds gather around Jesus and have the majority of them walk away unaffected and unchanged by Jesus’ words. Earlier in Matthew’s gospel, they asked Jesus, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?” It’s as if they were saying, “Why do you tell these stories? Just tell them how the cow ate the cabbage.”

Jesus, in essence, told his disciples that the hearts of the people had grown calloused to the point of not hearing anything remotely resembling a sermon.

By virtue of being Jewish, they were God’s chosen after all. They could not and would not understand the unvarnished truth about the changing nature of God’s kingdom. Jesus told his disciples that he spoke in parables because “…they hardly hear with their ears and they have closed their eyes.” (Matthew 13:15)

At the end of other parables, Jesus sometimes says, “He who has ears, let him hear.” In other words, Jesus is saying, if you’re paying attention and if you’ll think about it seriously and how it fits into your life, you’ll see what I’m trying to tell you with this story.

In these verses, the picture Jesus paints with his stories is about the stunning and exponential growth of God’s kingdom.

Now, it might be helpful here to define “God’s kingdom.” When you and I declared Christ as Lord and have gave him control of our lives, we entered the kingdom of God. A group of believers who trust him as savior and live each day in the “righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 14:17) It is the community of faith allowing God, through Christ, to govern the way we live.

These two parables run parallel teaching about the stunning growth of God’s kingdom. when the tiny mustard seed becomes a large tree and the lump of leaven permeates the whole dough.

Think about how it all started. Jesus and a handful of disciples working throughout Galilee and Judea, taking a message of repentance and hope to all they encountered as they lived out their lives. Each step along the way, the kingdom grew as more and more people believed in and trusted Jesus.

After Jesus’ ministry, the New Testament church began in the upper room in Jerusalem with about 100 followers, none of whom were great religious scholars. Fishermen. Tax collectors. Zealots. Poor. Uneducated. Frightened. A bunch of nobodies who found themselves with the one person who was the glue holding them together.

Through the power of the Holy Spirit and over the span of 2,000 years, the kingdom of God has grown beyond expectation. From this mustard seed, this lump of leaven, the gospel of Christ has spread throughout the world. In doing so, it has become a place of spiritual food and rest for the birds in its branches and a transforming power in the world’s lump of dough.

Yet, there is a reason why these parables still speak to us today. It’s the same reason Jesus told them in the first place.

We live in a world today in which the hearts of people have grown calloused. By virtue of living in a “Christian country,” we assume some favored status in God’s kingdom. We’ve become some hard-hearted in our culture that we “hardly hear with our ears and we have closed our eyes” to his truth.

Recent statistics show that the number of non-churched, unchurched and de-churched people is growing at about 10 percent each decade. In other words, the population non-believers, believers who have never plugged into a church after committing their lives to Christ increases a bit each year.

The number of those believers who left the church because they were hurt by someone or something within the church keeps growing as the church itself is shrinking. It is an alarming trend.

That phenomenon becomes more and more evident over the past 50 years. We could easily list the reasons behind the decline, but that’s not really the point here. I think the only reason that matters is that the church quit consistently reaching out in ministry and love.

We open our doors, very willing to love and help all who enter our doors, but we rarely do as Jesus did and go out to meet them where they live. To ministry in the neighborhoods.

In Paul’s letter to the church in Rome, he told them how to become a part of the kingdom of God.

If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved…Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Romans 10:9, 13)

Then, Paul issues the challenge that reverberates from the 1st century to the 21st.

How then, can they call on the name of the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one in whom they have not heard? And how they can hear without someone preaching to them? And. how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news.” (Romans 10:14-15)

Author Cecil Northcott once told of an international evangelical convention he attended to discuss how the gospel might be spread. The people in attendance talked about the distribution of literature, large scale revivals and other means available in the early 20th century. Then, one girl from Africa spoke.

“When we want to take Christianity into one of our villages” she said, “we don’t send them books. We send a Christian family to live in the village and they make the village Christian by living there.”

That’s how it’s supposed to work, I think. We can’t wait for the lost and the hurting to come to us first, though some do. We most often must go to them.  We must be there ready to love and care for them. We can’t ignore their existence or fail to meet their needs.

“Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well. Keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” James 2:15-17)

If we fail to be the church outside the walls, we will soon become the empty church within the walls.

As we recently visited many churches throughout Eastern Europe, it was profoundly sad to see these churches become little more than museums of time gone by. How different would it be if they were more mission and less museum?

As more and more people become disillusioned and de-churched, I fear our own churches throughout America will become these cold museums, relics of a time in history.

Jesus told his parables to connect with people. His stories used the ordinary to teach extraordinary spiritual truths. He didn’t print them up and hit them over the head with a tract. He told his stories. Made connections. Built relationships. Met needs. Then, he loved them into the God’s kingdom.

You and I and all who profess a faith in Christ, have a story to tell. It is the good news of Christ…his free gift of grace available to all. It is also the love expressed by God’s people as we go out into our respective communities on mission to love and serve.

I think that’s the challenge of these marvelous parables. God’s desire is for the world to be saved and for his kingdom to grow. Be the mustard seed. The only way for that to happen is for his people to be the leaven that causes it to rise.

———

I’ll beg your indulgence and forgiveness for this personal note.

I am a member of South Main Baptist Church. We’ve been blessed for almost seven decades with wonderful pastors and a service approach to ministry and missions. I’ve been blessed by the preaching of our new pastor, the worship through singing and praise, the great Bible teaching and the opportunities to serve.

Our people recently adopted a new mission statement. It promises that our church is in an ongoing mission to be “engaging and equipping others to experience and share God’s transforming love.”

The desire is to keep stepping outside the physical confines of the church to build relationships with our community and encouraging others to join us as we grow together in the work of Christ. Our desire is for the kingdom of God to increase as more and more people discover God’s grace and love.

Toward that end, we will be gathering at 5:30 p.m., Wednesday, May 31, at Pasadena’s Crenshaw Park Softball Fields for “First Pitch”–a little kick ball, a bunch of free hot dogs, family games and an open invitation to let us get to know you.

For the better part of four decades, South Main has made two promises to those who come to us. “We promise to love you and let you love us” as we serve our Lord together.

We’re not perfect, but we strive to be more Christ-like every day. If you’re longing to find a church where you can serve and be served, drop by for a visit. We’d love to get to know you and let you get to know us.

Hope to see you there.

Check Your Plumb Line

Background Passages: Amos 7:7-9; Isaiah 28:16-17; Matthew 5:1-12

I have a vague recollection of my Dad building some kind of shed near the barn on our farm. The extent of my help on the project was dragging a 2 x 4 from a nearby pile, handing him a few nails, and picking up the hammer he dropped.

What I do have a memory of is watching him determine that the walls were absolutely vertical by using a plumb line.

A builder might use a plumb line as an alternative to a level to find a straight vertical line. In simplest form, a plumb line consists of a piece of string with a weight called a bob at the bottom.

When you hang the line downward, the weight, with an assist from gravity, pulls the string taut and creates a straight, vertical line. Measure your wall against that line and, if it’s equal top to bottom, your wall is plumb.

We know the ancient Egyptians used plumb lines thousands of years ago. I suspect they were used by others long before the Egyptians.

The prophet Amos, a sheepherder and farmer of figs from Tekoa, would have known how to use a plumb line. It’s natural that God would use a plumb line to reveal an important truth to his prophet.

Amos told the people of Israel that they were headed in the wrong direction. He said they “sold the righteous for silver and the poor a pair of sandals.” (Amos 2:6)

God was pronouncing judgment against Israel for its continued rebelliousness as they failed to live up to his standards and had failed to repent and return to God.

Twice as God declared his intent to punish his people, Amos begged him to relent. God then spoke to Amos a third time.

This is what he showed me. The Lord was standing by a wall that had been built true to plumb, with a plumb line in his hand. And the Lord asked me, “What do you see, Amos?”

“A plumb line,” I replied.

Then the Lord replied, “I am setting a plumb line against my people Israel. I will spare them no longer. The high places of Isaac will be destroyed, and the sanctuaries of Israel will be ruined. With my sword I will rise against the house of Jeroboam.” (Amos 7:7-9)

It’s not my intent to talk about the prophecies of Amos and how God followed through on his punishment. This passage intrigued me in what it says about God’s plumb line.

“I am setting a plumb line against my people Israel.”

I think it serves as a great reminder for us to make sure we measure up to God’s standard.

Rodney Johnson, pastor of New Light Christian Church in Kansas City, called God’s plumb line the standard by which God measures our faithfulness; our righteousness.

He said, “The kinds of instruments we use to measure our life will often determine what we uncover and how we face life in general.

“When we begin to examine our plumb lines, if they are faulty – based on the world’s standard of right and wrong – our assessments of where we are will be faulty. When our assessments are off – when they are different from God’s assessments – we cannot course correct to mirror our plumb lines to God’s.”

Years ago, I built a four-foot brick wall to shield my pool equipment from the pool. I used a plumb line. It only took a few rows of bricks to see that something was off. When I looked closer, the bob at the end of the plumb line was just barely resting on the ground. I was basing the uprightness of my wall on a faulty plumb line.

I think this is what Johnson was talking about. We too often measure our righteousness, our uprightness, if you will, by a faulty standard…parental expectations, cultural morality, friendships, legal requirements. In every one of those situations, the plumb bob is touching the ground, skewing the standard. Until and unless we use God’s plumb line, we will never measure up.

So, what’s the plumb line? What’s the standard?

In his prophetic message, Isaiah gave us a hint.

So this is what the Sovereign Lord says:

“See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; one that relies on it will never be stricken with panic.” (Isaiah 28:16)

“A tested stone,” one already measured against God’s plumb line, will become the “cornerstone for a sure foundation,” level and plumb. Isaiah is talking about the coming Messiah…Jesus Christ.

You see, if we’re trying to live by God’s standard, his plumb line, then we have to be able to see it. God revealed his plumb line through Jesus and through his word. To see Jesus as he lived, to hear God’s word as he preached and taught, to be able now to listen to the voice of God through the words of the Bible…that’s the plumb line against which our lives are measured.

Isaiah continues with the illustration.

I will make justice the measuring line and righteousness the plumb line…” (Isaiah 28:17)

Righteousness can be defined as “living in right relationship with God” or living “upright and obedient lives.” Letting our words and our deeds measure up to God’s plumb or standard.

It is a theme that runs throughout the New Testament. Paul told the Ephesians, “Therefore, be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave himself up for us… (Ephesians 5:1-2)

We live up to God’s standard when we imitate the life of Christ and walk in love for one another.

John’s first letter declares the same. “This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.” (I John 2:6)

The life of Jesus, his faithful obedience, his servant’s heart, make him the perfect plumb line against which we can test our own lives. We should strive to be like him.

“To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.” (I Peter 2:21)

Clearly Jesus is the standard for even Peter asks us to emulate Jesus as our perfect example of how to live our lives.

Jesus is not the only way God tests us against his plumb line. He uses his word to assess how well we are following his commands.

Look at 2 Timothy 3:16-17.  It says,

“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.”

It is his word that tells us how we are to live our lives as his hands and feet in ministry.

You don’t need to read a lot of scripture to find this truth. It is there, at the turn of every page, a guide to tell us how to live, how to be measured against God’s standard and not found to be out of plumb.

It sounds so easy. Walk in Jesus’ footsteps.  Live in his image. Read the Bible. One of my favorite authors explained this in his book God’s Mirror Image:

“To live in the image of God seems to be such a deep theological concept. Yet, the promise of Jesus resonates in its simplicity. “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.”

Once we get past the wonder of Emmanuel, “God with us,” and embrace the character and teachings of Christ, we can see exactly how we are to exist as God’s reflected image in the world. We mirror the image of God by imitating the character of Christ.”

What is the character of Christ? Look no further than the Beatitudes in Matthew 5. Look at this passage and then think about the life of Christ. He modeled every character trait described in those verses in his daily walk.

Every instance of Jesus’ life and ministry on earth recorded in the Bible is a blueprint on how we should live our lives. It’s up to us to live as he lived.

Here’s my thought. God has a plumb line and his message to Israel long ago and to us today is that he uses it as his standard to measure our faithfulness, our obedience and our righteousness.

God knows his will for us, where he wants us to be and how we should get there. The standard modeled in the life of Jesus and reflected in God’s word tells him if we’re in plumb. If not, his plumb line shows us how far we must go to get back on track.

When I read that passage this week, I had to think about that plumb line in my life. I had to make sure the plumb line I was using was not something other than the life of Jesus and God’s word.

If I’m honest, my plumb bob has been dragging the ground a bit and the what I’m trying to build of my life has been a little off vertical.

Let me go back to what the Rev. Johnson wrote. “When we begin to examine our plumb lines, if they are faulty – based on the world’s standard of right and wrong – our assessments of where we are will be faulty. When our assessments are off – when they are different from God’s assessments – we cannot course correct to mirror our plumb lines to God’s.”

I discovered I need a course correction. I need to make sure God’s plumb line is unobstructed, free to show me where I don’t measure up to his standard. In those areas of my life where I am off, I need to get back into proper alignment with his will and way for my life. That’s my commitment this week.

How about you? When’s the last time you checked the plumb line in your life? How well do you measure up to God’s standard?

It feels like a question all of us should ask every day.

The Proper Response to Easter

Background Passages: Philippians 3:9-10; Ephesians 1:19-20; Ephesians 3:20; John 15:5,7

A week after we celebrated Easter with friends and family at our home church, we found ourselves experiencing Easter again while on vacation in eastern Europe. The majority of folks in that part of the world are Eastern Orthodox Christians who use the Julian calendar on which Easter falls one week later than it does in the States.

It was interesting to see and participate in some of their Eastern traditions. One local guide shared with us that they decorate eggs with their children just as we do. When we asked if they hide their eggs for the children to find, she gave us a look of shock and asked, “Why would you do that?” I guess it sounded mean-spirited to her.

Another Croatian family invited us to participate in their traditional “egg war.” To play this game you each hold an egg and tap the two eggs end to end. Usually, one egg will break and the other will not. The one whose egg does not break continues to test the egg against other members of the family. If yours is the last egg unbroken you are assured of one year of good luck. I lost quickly only to find out that our host was using a wooden egg.

The people we visited with indicated they would be attending church at midnight on Easter Eve and then again early Easter morning. The rest of the day would be spent with family. Our guide told us the churches would be quite full Easter Sunday, but she said, once Easter is over very few people would attend church again until Easter rolls around again.

Like those churches in eastern Europe, Easter is the most well-attended Sunday of the year in most American churches. And like those European churches, far too many American worshippers will not return to church until the following Easter holiday.

It is a sad reality of faith that far too many people acknowledge the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ but find too little time to understand what it means to live as though it mattered.

So, the question every believer must answer is what is my proper response to Easter? What is my proper response to the resurrection?

The Bible records the reactions of the individuals who encountered the resurrection. Depending on the person, the response was disbelief, fear, confusion, paralysis, and at some point, joy and celebration. For the person committed to Christ, the resurrection must be a call to action.

In his letter to the Philippian church, Paul told them that everything he had gained in life up to that point was “garbage” when compared to what he had gained in Christ. He also knew he had not received everything that Christ could offer. His life as a follower of Christ continued to be shaped and molded by the work of Christ in him. He recognized he still had much to learn so he turned to the source of all knowledge.

“I want to know Christ–yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in death, and so, somehow attaining the resurrection of the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.” (Philippians 3:10-11)

It is an interesting turn of phrase in this verse that I’ve not given a great of thought to prior to the past few days. “…to know the power of his resurrection…” As a believer in Christ, we accept by faith that the resurrection Jesus’ experienced will be ours someday. That the promise of eternal life is the hope of all who believe.

The power of the resurrection is a future reality for every Christian, but I don’t think that was what Paul was thinking here. Before we can explore what he meant by the phrase, though, Paul said the surest way to avoid having an Easter-only faith is to harbor a deep desire to know the resurrected Lord. Not simply to acknowledge who he is, but to know him personally and intimately.

You hear the longing in his note to the Philippians. “I want to know Christ.” Paul’s idea of knowing Christ was to connect with him, to interact with him on a personal level. It was his passion. Absent the opportunity to walk with Jesus as his disciples did, Paul longed to see into the heart of Jesus. To understand how he could love so deeply, care so tenderly and live so faithfully. Paul earnestly and passionately wanted to have an intimate relationship with Jesus.

Any good relationship takes time spent with the one to whom we wish to connect. To get to know Jesus, takes that faith commitment as a starting point and then spends time learning the things he taught, figuring out how to apply what he taught to our lives. It speaks to the idea of following so closely in his footsteps that we become like him in the way we think, behave and the way we minister and relate to others.

To know Christ is the heartfelt goal toward which we ought to set our own lives, knowing that he is the perfect example of kindness, justice and righteousness. God said as much to Jeremiah,

“Let not the wise boast of their wisdom, or the strong boast of their strength or the rich boast of their riches but let the one who boasts boast about this: that they have the understanding to know me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight.” (Jeremiah 9:23-24)

So, our first response to the resurrection is to do what it takes to know God, to know Christ. The second part of it is to know the power of his resurrection. As I said earlier, it seems to me that Paul uses that phrase not to suggest an eternal answer, but to suggest a “here and now” experience. Paul talks about knowing the power of Jesus’ resurrection…as if it is a power and strength available to us if we can just find a way to plug into it.

I’m pretty sure we won’t find a way to connect to the power of the resurrection dressed in our Sunday best once a year on Easter.

Paul’s realization is my own. None of us has exhausted the possibilities of what God is willing to do in and through us when we plug into the power of the resurrection of Christ. Take a look at another letter Paul wrote in which he lays claim to that promise.

His opening prayer for the church in Ephesus was for enlightened hearts that see and understand the hope to which they were called and the inheritance they would receive as God’s children. He defined the hope and inheritance as…

“…the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe…that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead.: (Ephesians 1:19-20)

The power of the resurrection.

Paul prayed that the Ephesian Christians would come to understand and tap into the unfathomably awesome power stored up for those who believe in Jesus Christ as Lord…the same power that God used to raise Jesus from the dead.

With the power of God Almighty already at work within us, we can do all things, anything, everything, he desires us to do. Just look at what he says just a little later in Ephesians.

“God is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us.” (Ephesians 3:20)

Paul is telling us we most often dream too small. Limit what we think we can do. Never really knowing what we might accomplish for God if we just plugged into the source of our strength and power or fully committed to the work he puts in front of us.

Famed 19th century theologian Charles Spurgeon called the act of raising Jesus from the tomb “as great a work as creation itself.” Jesus entered the tomb a captive of death. By the power of God, he exited the tomb as a conqueror.

Spurgeon said Paul’s desire to know the power of the resurrection was less about the power displayed in the resurrection as it was about the power that derives from it. That’s the power that Paul wanted to tap into. The power available to us today.

The power that allows us to do more than we dream we could is the power of God that he worked through Christ when he raised him from the dead. The power that allowed Jesus to conquer death is the same power available to equip us to do “far more abundantly than all we ask or think.” It is the power that enables us to be used by God to accomplish his will and purpose in and through us.

If you’re wondering how to tap into the power of the resurrection, Jesus explained it clearly to his disciples.

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing…If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” (John 15:5,7)

It is the connection to the vine that enables the branch to bear fruit. The branch gains its strength through its connection to the vine, its source of growth and power. The power of the resurrection is available to those who attach themselves to the vine, to Christ, drawing our growth and strength through him.

What is our proper response to Easter? What is our proper response to the resurrection?

First, we must know Christ. Not just acknowledging his presence and who he is but getting to know him personally and intimately. Striving to become more like him every day. God’s word reveals Christ in every way that matters. Hearing God’s word proclaimed every week, studying his word regularly and deeply, provides insight we need to his character and his way. Spending time with him in conversation about our hopes, our fears, our joy and our sorrow, provides that intimate connection to our Creator and Lord.

Second, we must tap into the power of his resurrection. When you read that original passage, Paul isn’t asking for more power. He’s asking for the power already available to him. We have all this power at our fingertips, but we keep acting as if we are too weak…as if we are still slaved to our past. It’s probably the biggest reason we go to church only on Easter Sunday. We have not plugged into the power at our fingertips.

The power of the resurrection…our response to the resurrection… ought to be directed more outwardly. Christianity is not just about forgiveness and overcoming sin. The Christian faith is not just an eternal solution to our sin problem. God saved us for a reason, a purpose. We are to be his agents in the world…his voice, his hands, his feet. And he gives us the power to make it so.

Through our knowing God and making that intimate connection with him, we tap into the power to not only defeat sin and gain everlasting victory over death, but we get to share in his message of love and grace to the world, to minister to the hurting and disconnected…not in our own power, but the power of the resurrected Lord.

I think that’s the idea Paul is leading us to understand. You’ll never find it in an Easter-only world. Living in the middle of all of it all…that’s the proper response to Easter.

Aliens and Strangers

Background Passages: I Peter 2:11-12; John 17:14-17; Ephesians 4:1-6

As I reflect on things this week, I’m sailing down the Danube River in Eastern Europe. I tend to put off “don’t visit with me” vibes when I’m on vacation. One of the passengers who missed the signs asked me how many times we had been overseas. To this first-time traveler, our five times evidently qualified us as world travelers.

I sure don’t feel that way. While I know we are blessed physically and financially by God to see places in this world I never dreamed I would see, my 10 total weeks abroad on very carefully planned and sheltered cruises hardly make me Marco Polo.

I always find my time in other countries a bit surreal. Constantly aware of the cultural differences, language barriers and the vastly different historical and political frames of reference remind me that I am an alien in a strange land. It feels odd. Most of us find comfort in the familiar things of home. We find comfort in the world we know. Stepping beyond its borders heightens our anxiety.

When a thought first enters my head, I don’t always think it’s God telling me to pay attention and listen. When the feeling won’t go away, I have to reconsider if this is one of God’s teachable moments. In one of the early classes I attended in my one year of seminary, I read a short book called, An Alien in a Strange Land: Theology in the Life of William Stringfellow, by Anthony Dancer.

It has been almost 45 years since I read the book. I don’t remember a great deal. Studying the writings of American theologian William Stringfellow, Dancer came to the hopeful conclusion that the Bible (its truth) and the world (his creation) were central to God’s plan. He said the Bible is there to make sense of us and not us of it. In other words, it tells us who we ought to be rather than us trying to alter its truth to fit our desires and circumstances.

Dancer talked of a theology of engagement in the world that the church in general has come to avoid in an effort to keep the world’s influence from diluting the truth of God’s word. He argued against the church pulling back from the world, but instead engaging with it by ethically and morally carrying the teachings of Christ directly to the to those who live outside the truth God teaches.

Peter understood this when he penned his letter to believers in the first century, reminding them to live godly lives in a pagan world.

“Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage 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.” (I Peter 2:11-12)

Peter’s reminder is a good one. We are supposed to feel estranged from the world around us once we accept Christ as Lord of our lives. From the first moment we commit ourselves to him and begin to understand his teachings, we should not get comfortable living as the world lives.

If we’re comfortable with what’s going on in the world around us, we need to check our moral compass. The peg isn’t pointing to God. The magnet pull of sin and discord drags us off course.

Peter tells us our lives must be distinctively different from those who are not believers, setting aside the sinful things in constant battle for control of our lives and live, instead, purposeful, God-guided lives that reflect his love and compassion to all we encounter and every decision we make.

One can’t accomplish any of that if we disengage from the world around us. We will reach only those desperate enough to finally open a door to a church.

Peter further says the reason for our alien behavior is so that those who do not believe, and maybe even those who have been disconnected from the God they once served, will see how we live and find their way to or back to the God who loved them enough to give his life for them. In that way, God is glorified by our alien status.

It’s not enough is it, to glibly live our alien lives perfectly for God if we never connect or build relationships with the people who are residents of this non-spiritual world? It’s just not.

That scripture kept popping up every time I’d start to feel the edge of discomfort descend on me in these new cultural contexts over the last two days in Croatia and Serbia. I’ll never connect in any way with these people if I never walk among them. Never talk with them.

The same is true in Christ. The charge is to build a community of faith that becomes a safe harbor for those people in the world who God is calling to believe in him. We’re only going to do that when we are willing to be in the world, but not of it. That’s not always easy to do.

As Jesus prayed for his disciples during his last night with them, he asked his Father in heaven to guard them from the world’s influence when he left them.

“I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one…Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.” (John 17:14-17)

It dawned on me then. There’s our passport to a foreign land! That is what grants you entrance into a world in which you no longer reside. Within that prayer is the peace that should follow every one of God’s aliens in this strange world in which we live.

Jesus prayed for our protection. Jesus prayed that we be set apart (remain aliens in a strange world) by the truth we found in Jesus Christ. The great news is that the passport is written in the blood of Christ and the truth of God’s word. It will never expire, though on our end, it may need to be renewed. We can and should carry it with us everywhere. Pretty cool when you think about it.

If we know we’re aliens and strangers in this world, we also know that is our calling to live differently and distinctively for Christ in such ways as to draw all people to him. We can’t do that hunkering down in the walls of a church.

This is the first time we’ve traveled by ourselves…without the security of several other friends who journeyed with us. On a cruise like this one, that means we have to dine and visit with strangers.

Finding myself way outside my comfort zone, I’ve tried to settle in and see what connections I could make with the people of the countries we visit and the people aboard ship. Our conversation today was with a very interesting couple from Chicago with a Serbian Orthodox Southern Baptist Methodist Christian heritage.

The conversations flow more freely than I imagined. The empathy I feel for them, in many cases, grew with each moment of discussion. Through the conversations, I have found other believers, some of whom have lived through earthly hell in a war zone or refugee camp, who celebrate their faith in Christ.

One morning we visited a small Catholic church in Osejik, Croatia. Compared to the more ornate cathedrals it was simple in size and design. Its approach to worship expressed in far less grandeur and pomp. I found a degree of comfort in the relative simplicity of the sanctuary, especially given the troubled life experienced by so many in the region over the past 25 years.

You see, we had just been in a home of people who were dramatically affected by the Serbian invasion of Croatia in 1991. Seven years of separation and fear, only to return to a bombed-out home with little to nothing left to salvage. Their spirit of grace and peace was a testimony to resilience.

A few minutes later, 10 miles down the road, found us sitting in this quiet church listening to a vocal concert by a young woman. A music student at the local college, her well-trained soprano voice echoed off the surrounding walls of the sanctuary with pure clarity.

The first few songs she sang were in Latin, part of the catholic liturgy. Part of her faith. Other than Ave Maria, the unrecognized melodies stood out as beautiful songs of adoration, written in the emotion of her face as she sang.

Then, breaking from the Latin, she began to sing in her native language of Croatia.

Cudesna milost, kako sladak zyuk!
Koja je spasila bijednika poput mene
Jednom bijah izgublien, ali sad sam pronaden
Bijah slijep, ali sad vidim

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound!
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost, but now I’m found,
Was blind but now I see.

Trying not to let the tears fall, God reminded me that the unifying factor for every Christian who feels estranged by the world around them is this common, but amazing grace. It encouraged me to keep living that distinctive life without fear of being an alien in a strange world, regardless of my circumstances…good or bad.

Paul had just finished praying for the Christians in Ephesus 3 asking God to grant them inner strength, to help them remain rooted in love, to find the power “together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,” even when you’re 9,488 miles from home.

You may feel at times the only one who believes as you do in the place where you live. You are not. When you step out of your comfort zone to build relationships and connect with the people God places in your life, you will find there’s always another alien just like you who has been called by God to live in the world while not being of it. One God. One Lord. One Spirit. One faith. One hope. One body.

Listen to Paul’s words.

“As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called. One Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But to each of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.” (Ephesians 4:1-6)

Because we are called to live our lives differently than the rest of the world lives theirs; because we know we are charged to live in the world, but not by its misguided precepts; because we know there is strength and power in the unified and connected body of believers across the world and because it is our commission to ensure that everyone comes to know the personal love of Jesus Christ, that discomfort and disconnect you sometimes feel while in this world lets you know that you have your heart in the right place.

Embrace the alien and stranger within you. It’s by God’s design and calling.

I don’t know if I conveyed what I hoped to convey in this, but it made sense on this side of the world.

But God

Background Passages: Genesis 50:16-21; Romans 5:6,8; Ephesians 2:1-7

Every English teacher I ever had in school harped constantly on the use of strong, active verbs, almost to the point of sucking the joy out of writing.

I can still see that smattering of red ink circles drawn around certain verbs in my essays with a line to the margin indicating, in no uncertain terms, that my teacher was disappointed in my verb choice. I measured the quality of my paper less on the grade and more on the number of times I had to read Ms. Falks’ scribbled note in the margin that just said, “weak.”

I will come out of the closet today and admit that I have always enjoyed grammar. One of my favorite parts of speech is the lowly conjunction. In case you need a reminder, conjunctions are words that link other words, phrases or clauses together. Conjunctions allow a writer to form complex, elegant sentences by avoiding the choppiness of multiple short sentences.

My favorite conjunction is the word but. Its most common usage introduces a phrase or clause that contrasts with another phrase or clause which has already been stated. For instance, “He stumbled, but did not fall.”

But always makes a bolder and grander statement in a sentence than does and, if, or so. When it comes to these statements like these, the bigger, the better.

My thoughts this week germinated during last week’s Sunday School lesson about Joseph and his brothers. Near the end of that biblical narrative in Genesis 50, Joseph’s father Jacob had died. His brothers, who sold him into slavery when he was young, feared that Joseph would seek revenge on them now that Jacob was no longer in the picture.

They concocted a lie, putting words in Jacob’s mouth. Read what the Bible says about it. Look for that conjunctive phrase.

So they sent word to Joseph, saying, “Your father left these instructions before he died. This is what you are to say to Joseph: ‘I ask you to forgive your brothers the sins and the wrongs they have committed in treating you so badly. Now please forgive the sins of the servants of the God of your father.’” When the message came, Joseph wept.

His brothers then came and threw themselves down before him. “We are your slaves,” they said. (Genesis 50:16-18)

Joseph responded to their deceitful plea in an unexpected way.

Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. So then, don’t be afraid, I will provide for you and your children. And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them. (Genesis 50:19-21)

Did you see it? “You intended harm, BUT GOD…”

What a big but! The words written after but God suggests a biblical truth written in a slightly different manner in the New Testament.

For we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)

It’s a great lesson, but not today’s lesson.

As I reflected on that lesson last Sunday, those two words kept resurfacing. But God. We see the use of but God or but the Lord at least 61 times in scripture. One thing unfolds, but God uses it to reveal his character, to teach us something we need to learn or accomplish, or to bring about his will or his purpose.

The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days, but God remembered Noah… (Genesis 7:24-8:1)

My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. (Psalm 73:26)

The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. (I Samuel 16:7)

Similar instances occur in the New Testament.

No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear. (I Corinthians 10:13)

He said to them, “You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with or visit a Gentile. But God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean.” (Acts 10:28)

Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David. This is my gospel, for which I am suffering even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But God’s word is not chained.”(2 Timothy 2:8-9)

Study those passages on your own if you choose but notice how the phrase that comes after but God reveals so much about who God is and what he desires for us. The more I find that phrase mentioned in the Bible, the keener I am to pay attention to the words that follow. In every instance, there is a truth I probably need to hear.

The phrase, time and time again, introduces the gracious and compassionate intervention of God. He redeems. He resurrects. He makes all things new. He instructs. He is strength. He provides. He is faithful. When we erect a façade as a barrier to keep the world away, he sees straight into our hearts.

I said all of that to say this. This weekend is Palm Sunday, leading up to our celebration on Easter. There may be no greater use of the phrase but God among Christians than what you find in the Easter narrative.

Here’s the message of Easter in one simple but God statement.

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:6, 8)

The message of Easter is one big but God. All hope seems gone. All seems lost. Then, we see this but God moment on the cross and in the empty tomb. Those words should have been the sign Pilate inscribed for his cross…not “He claimed to be King of the Jews,” but God.… It is the crux of his redemptive work and Paul knew it.

God waited until just the right moment when we could understand the depth of his sacrificial love. When the time was right, he sent his son, even though we were powerless to do anything about it on our own and ungodly in our actions.

This inconceivable act of love was in the mind and heart of our omnipotent creator from the beginning. Even before God brought those first molecules of creation together, he knew his most precious creation would rebel against him. He knew you and I would be steeped in sin and in need of a way back to him. And he provided the way.

Paul testified as much to the church in Ephesus when he wrote these words.

As for you, you were dead in in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of the world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But God, being rich in mercy and because of his great love for us, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.” (Ephesians 2:1-5)

Through an act of unmitigated love and mercy, through an act of grace, you and I, as believers in Christ, experienced our but God moment at some point in our past. We find that the celebration will continue forever, according to Paul’s next words.

But God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in the kindness in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:6-7)

This is the ultimate reason for sacrificing his son on the cross. This is his reason for emptying the tomb. He wants us to one day experience his eternal grace…the joy of which is indescribable.

“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him. These are thing revealed to us by his spirit.” (I Corinthians 2:9-10)

“…But God…”

Maybe that’s the message some need to hear today. A simple paraphrase of one of the Bible’s most cherished verses.

But God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

Maybe today can be their “but God” moment, making this Easter even more special.

For those of us who have already claimed that eternal promise and experienced our personal but God moment, what about here? What about now?

Because they reveal to me the character of the God I serve and the life he demands I live, every but God statement in scripture calls me to live a Christ-like life…even when I’m overwhelmed by the circumstances in which I’m living.

Claiming the promises of God is never easy, especially when overwhelming circumstances put us at wits end. You and I will struggle as we try to live as a disciple of Christ. While I don’t always follow through, it has been my experience that we can trust in those but God lessons we find in scripture.

In a recent blog, Lisa Appelo wrote, “But God brings hope when we can’t see a way through. But God means ashes aren’t the end of our story. And but God, not our circumstances, always gets the last word.”

In other words, go back to Joseph’s story, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done…”

That’s the story of Easter. Every but God is his grace gift and promise of eternity in heaven, but it is so much more. It is life abundant. Here. Now. But God is the peace that surpasses our understanding. It is knowing that God walks with us through the good and bad times of life, actively working in all things for the good of those who love him. But God is knowing that he has a plan for us and will actively work in our lives to see it happen in our lives.

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. (Jeremiah 29:11)

Wow! Just wow!

But God.

One More Question

Background Passages: John 1:35-39; John 1:1-14, John 15:4,9

Jesus asked a lot of questions during his time on earth. The Bible records over 300 questions that Jesus tossed out as he encountered people along the way. Those are just the questions we know he asked. I would imagine in the elapsed time between biblical stories, many other questions were asked. His questions were meant to probe deeply into the hearts and minds of those he met.

We live in a culture that demands answers. Truthfully, most of us would rather give an answer to demonstrate what we know than ask a question that demonstrates what we don’t know.

Jesus was a guy who had all the answers in the world. Yet, when most people asked him a question, he rarely answered directly. In fact, the scripture only records eight instances where Jesus specifically answered a question. Far more often, he answered a question with a question of his own. His questions caused those to whom they were directed to think, to dissect their lives, and to come to grips with that which was ultimately important.

Those questions recorded in scripture, if we pay attention to them, still cause us to think, dissect and decide upon that which is ultimately important in our lives today.

For the past several weeks, I’ve looked at some of the questions Jesus asked. “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul?” “Why do you call me Lord, Lord and not do what I say to do?” The answers led me to explore my commitment to him and my need to be faithful and obedient to his teaching.

Today’s question is so profoundly simple.

“What do you want?”

Interestingly, these four words are the first words spoken by Jesus in the Gospel of John. It can’t be an accident that John included this question at the start of his narrative. The question, intended for those first century followers, is the same question John extends to every reader of his gospel throughout history.

When you think seriously about it, isn’t this the question? It stands at the heart of every religion and philosophy. It is the central question every person asks at some point in life. What do I want? What am I looking for? What is the point? What’s my purpose in life? If you’re anything like me, it is a question you’ve struggled with from time to time.

Jesus asked that question in the early days of his public ministry. Two days after Jesus walked into the waters of the Jordan to be baptized in the Jordan River by John the Baptist, Jesus passed by the place where John continued to preach and teach. Here’s how it’s recorded in scripture.

“The next day, John was there again with two of his disciples. When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, ‘Look, the Lamb of God.’ When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus.

“Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, ‘What do you want?’ They said, ‘Rabbi’ (which means Teacher), where are you staying?

“’Come,’ he replied, ‘and you will see.’

So, they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent that day with him. It was about four in the afternoon. (John 1:35-39)

It is not a stretch to believe that, as disciples of John the Baptist, the two men who followed Jesus were present when Jesus was baptized two days earlier. It’s also not a stretch to believe they sat at John’s feet the next day when he testified that God’s spirit revealed to him (John 1:29-34) that Jesus was God’s Chosen One, the Anointed of God, the long-awaited Messiah.

As a result of that testimony and with his implied permission, the two ardent followers of John the Baptist left to follow Jesus when he passed by the next day. There is no mention of anyone else following Jesus that morning. At some point along the way, Jesus noticed the men shuffling along behind him.

It’s an interesting scene in my mind. Jesus looked over his shoulder and saw them. They stopped in their tracks and looked down and around, trying to hide the fact that they were following. Jesus smiled to himself and continued on his way. A few minutes later, he glanced behind him again and saw that they were still on his tail. He turned. With a tilt of his head, he asked, “What do you want?”

Jesus didn’t wait for them to get brave enough to speak to him. He spoke first. He made it easier for them to engage with him by opening the door to the conversation with a very simple question.

Therein lies a truth we find again and again throughout scripture. God always takes the initiative by reaching out to us. Our desire to know him is a seed the spirit plants within us when we’re longing for that elusive “something” that we feel is missing in our lives.

Augustine, the early Christian pastor, said God takes the first step in connecting with us. He wrote, “We could not have even begun to seek for God unless God had already found us.” God does not distance himself from us, he stops along the road and waits. He even takes those first steps toward us as he asks with a tilt of his head,

“What do you want?”

I suppose you could try to read a measure of irritation in the question Jesus asked, if you’re prone toward confrontation. “What do you want!? Why are you following me? Less of a question and more of a statement to “back off.” That says more about me and nothing about Jesus, I suppose.

No, I believe interest and curiosity oozed through Jesus’ question. On the surface, it sounds like, “Is there something I can help you with?” Here’s the penetrating power in the question though, linked to the deepest of life’s philosophical questions. What do you really want out of life?” It’s as if Jesus is saying, “I see you following me. That’s a good first step, but what are you really looking for? Do you even know what you want and need out of this relationship?”

When you think about it, it’s not an easy question to answer, is it? Most of us rarely have a handle on what we want. Standing on the side of the road, face to face with Jesus, I doubt those two men were all that sure either. To their credit, rather than give the “church answer” that they thought this new rabbi wanted to hear, they responded with a shrug of their shoulders and a desire to continue.

“Where are you staying?”

The disciples could have been content with exchanging a few words at the side of the road. “Tell us a little about yourself, Jesus. Where did you go to school? Tells us about your family. Briefly summarize your plans for the next few days. Such conversation would have been little more than a casual “get-to-know-you” encounter.

Instead, they asked him a question that implied a desire to stay with him for a time. To linger with him a bit longer. To engage in deeper conversation. To share their heart as he shared his own. These disciples said, in essence, “Is what John told us true? Are you the promised Messiah? Are you the one we’ve been looking for all our adult lives? Help us understand more.”

We should never read or hear that question from Jesus without giving it its due consideration. What exactly do I want?” We learn a great lesson from those followers. Even though they were less than certain what they wanted, they knew they needed time with Jesus to figure it out.

How are we any different? You and I should never be satisfied with a passing encounter with Christ. It will never be enough to accept him as our Lord, thinking that’s all we need do. It’s never sufficient to follow along at a distance without understanding what a life of discipleship means.

“Where are you staying?” becomes “Can we talk?”

“Where are you staying?” says “Are you the answer to the longing of my soul?”

“Where are you staying?” implies, “Teach me more.”

“Where are you staying?” means, “Help me grow in my understanding of what God requires of me.”

Jesus’ response is classic. He doesn’t give his three-minute elevator sales pitch nor does he share a three-point sermon and all six stanzas of Just As I Am. I doubt that Jesus made any attempt to persuade them that he is exactly who John the Baptist said he was. They just talked.

“Come and see!” An invitation to evolve…to grow. An offer to discover…to explore. An encouragement to keep digging until you find treasure.

I don’t think it took long for Jesus to put these two disciples at ease. When Jesus speaks, he is an open book. There is no pretense. No guile. No barriers to keep people at a distance. The warmth of his words draw them in so easily they quickly begin sharing more than they ever intended to share.

When we spend time with Jesus, quit pretending we know all the answers, we find that the longings of our hearts isn’t a philosophy or a religion. It is a person…a connection to the divine…a relationship that develops through trust over time. It is finding, as John says in those brilliant opening lines…

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…In him is life, and that life is the light of all mankind…Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God…The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” (John 1:1, 12,14)

Once they received that invitation to come and see, John tells us they went to where he was staying and remained with him the rest of the day. Don’t you wish you could have eavesdropped on that conversation? I don’t know what was said, but it was life changing.

One of those two men who followed Jesus that day was Andrew. In the very next passage of scripture John tells us that Andrew was so moved by that conversation with Jesus that the first thing he did was find his brother Simon (Peter). When he tracked him down, he grabbed him by the arm and pulled him away from whatever he was doing. Brimming with excitement, Andrew told him, “We have found the Messiah” and he brought him to Jesus.”

I’m not sure the events of that day would have made a significant impact had those two disciples not stayed with Jesus for the rest of that day. It’s the staying with Jesus that gives us the time to truly discover what we’re looking for.

In his book, Being Disciples: Essentials of the Christian Life, author Rowan Williams wrote on this passage of John. He said, “The Gospel teaches us that the bottom line in thinking about discipleship has something to do with this staying. Later on in this same gospel, the same language of staying or abiding as it is often translated is used again to describe the ideal relation of the disciple to Jesus.

When Jesus talked about the vine and the branches in John 15, he said the optimal way to live life is to “abide” or “remain” in me. To stay.

“Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me… As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.” (John 15:4,9)

To remain is to stay. In other words, what makes me a disciple is not showing up from time to time when it’s convenient or when I want to demand something from him. Staying is not an on again, off again relationship of convenience. It is a relationship that continues. It is a relationship that grows.

I’ll ask you the question, even though I’m busy trying to answer it for myself.

What are you looking for?

It’s the question Jesus asks all of us…all the time.

Maybe it’s time for us to come and see.

Maybe this time, we’ll stay.

Another Great Question

Background Passages: Luke 6:46-49; Romans 7:15-24

Some of the best teachers I ever had were those who challenged me with probing questions designed to pique my curiosity. It was a method championed by the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates. When teachers ask questions rather than simply provide information, they encourage students to dig more deeply and actively explore their own beliefs.

As good as Socrates might have been, Jesus, I think, used questions masterfully in his teaching to help his disciples see past the letter of the law into the heart of God. His questions almost always opened their eyes to a new way of understanding God’s purpose and plan.

In my last blog, I looked at a question Jesus asked his listeners. “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul?” After looking into that challenge, I began to look for other questions Jesus asked. I found one in Luke 6 that intrigued me.

“Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord’ and do not do what I say?”

For years, one of my favorite shows on television was NCIS, starring Mark Harmon as Leroy Jethro Gibbs, the leader of a group of federal agents investigating crimes involving U. S. Navy personnel. When one of the agents under his command failed to grasp a key bit of information, Gibbs would often slap them on the back of the head as if to say, “Think!”

That’s what this scripture was to me this week…a slap on the back of my head. Why do I proclaim Jesus as my Lord and still do or not do what I know God’s word teaches me to do? It is a maddening tendency I expect I share with many other Christians.

It’s not a problem unique to me or to this time in history. You can hear the similar frustration in Paul’s words to the church in Rome.

“I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do, but what I hate, I do…For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do…this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is the sin living in me that does it.” (Romans 7:15, 18-20)

It makes the question Jesus asked even more poignant. “Why do you call me “Lord, Lord’ and do not do what I say?”

Let’s set the context of Jesus’ question.

Throughout Luke 6, the gospel writer shares a series of teachings of Jesus. If you read through the chapter, you’ll find Jesus talking about the blessings that come from following him and the woes that befall those who go their own way. Luke relays to us Jesus’ thoughts on loving our enemies, turning the other cheek, giving them the shirt off your back and gives a taste of the Golden Rule, “Do to others what you would have them do to you.”

The questions continue to probe our hearts when Jesus asks, “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you?” and “If you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that.” “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”

Luke continues with Jesus’ teaching on our desire to judge others. “Do not judge, and you will not be judged…Forgive and you will be forgiven…For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” In his message, Jesus warns us to remove the plank from our eyes before we complain about the speck in the eyes of another.

Finally, Luke shares a small parable from Jesus about a tree and its fruit, reminding us that “No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes or grapes from briers. A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.” (Luke 6:43-45)

After all of those words where Jesus calls us to a different way of life, Luke says Jesus asked our question of the day. “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord’ and do not do what I say?”

Given our proclivity toward sin, it may be best to come to grips with what it means to call Jesus “Lord?”

When we use the term “lord” today, it is typically a verb, not a noun. Someone who abuses their power and authority is said to “lord it over” those who serve under them. It’s a negative connotation.

“Lord” becomes a noun in the Christian context. It is the person to whom we have surrendered our lives, submitted our will to the will of Jesus, our Lord and Savior. Substitute “master” or “boss” if it is an easier concept to understand. One possessing absolute authority, power and control. It is a way of recognizing Jesus’ divine and holy position. Head of the church. Ruler of all creation. Lord of lords and King of kings.

When we make our faith commitment to Jesus as our Savior and Lord, we are turning our lives over to him. Surrendering complete control of our lives to his will and way. Submitting to his teaching and truth in all aspects of life. That means doing things, living life, his way…not my way.

When Jesus makes this statement, he is addressing those who have made that decision to put their trust in him. His followers. He’s not talking about the charlatans who pretend to be one of his disciples. He’s talking to those who made a genuine commitment to him but are struggling with living up to the standard he sets for us. He’s talking to me, and I suspect, he’s talking to you.

See what he says after asking his question?

“Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord’ and do not do what I say? As for everyone who comes to me and hears my words and puts them in practice, I will show you what they are like. They are like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent stuck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck it collapsed and its destruction was complete.” (Luke 6:46-49)

Jesus drew upon his experience as a carpenter and stone mason to drive home a point. In what has become a beloved children’s Bible story, we find a great truth for all ages. When we decide to place our trust in Jesus, it is the biggest and greatest decision we will ever make. Making that decision is just the first step in making Jesus Lord of our lives.

We must build upon that commitment by becoming Christ-like. Growing in our obedience to his teachings. Building upon the truth he taught. Not just hearing his words but putting them into practice every day.

Why do we call him Lord and still do what we want to do?

Because it’s not easy. The foolish builder in Jesus’ parable, didn’t want to put in the work required to dig into the rock. He was short-sighted. It was easier and much less trouble to build in the sand. It may be easier to keep living the way we’re living before Christ became our Lord, but it brings disaster upon us. It may be difficult to do things Jesus’ way, to be obedient in all things, but that brings unparalleled security in the face of life’s flashfloods.

Theologian William Barclay said, “In every decision in life there is a short view and a long view. Happy is the man who never barters future good for present pleasure. Happy is the man who sees things not in the light of the moment, but in the light of eternity.”

It’s far easier to say the right words than to live them out every day. Yet, that is exactly what we are called to do. So, it takes us back to what Jesus talked about before this remarkable question. We must love those who don’t love us back. Do good for those who do us harm. Put aside our judgmental attitudes. Forgive those who wrong us. Be merciful. In general, treat others as we would want them to treat us.

It’s not enough to give lip service to our faith. Every day must be a concerted, if occasionally flawed, effort to live as Jesus lived.

Here’s the good news. The grace of God does not require us to be perfect. His love and his mercy trump my inability to live as I should each day. His grace gives me another chance to rebuild the shattered walls on a firmer foundation of faith.

After Paul expressed his frustrations with his own inability to do what he knows he should, he praised God for his deliverance.

“What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God who delivers me through Jesus Christ, my Lord.” (Romans 7:24-25)

That pretty much sums it up for me. I don’t want to be one of those Jesus followers who never moves past that initial faith commitment. I want to be one of those hears his word and tries with all my heart and soul to put those words into practice.

Jesus’ question is a great one. “Why do you call me “Lord, Lord” and do not do what I say?”

What answer would you give today?

That’s a Good Question

Background Passages: Matthew 16:23-27

Though many kings and conquerors held such lofty ambitions, no one ever came close to ruling the whole world. A quick journey through history reveals a host of men who gave it their best shot. Sargon of Akkad. Julius Caesar, Cyrus the Great. Genghis Kahn. They and many others held stated goals of ruling the known world.

Alexander the Great of Macedonia carried similar ambitions and came close to seeing it through. Despite conquering most of the known world and gaining vast wealth and tremendous power, Alexander finally recognized the folly and hubris in his effort. Nearing the end of his life, he said, “When my casket is being carried to the grave, leave my hands hanging outside. For empty-handed, I came into this world and empty handed, I shall go! My whole life has been a hallow waste, a futile exercise, for no one at death can take anything with them!”

When I read that quote this week, I was reminded of two rhetorical questions Jesus asked his disciples as he neared the end of his earthly ministry.

“For what profit is it to a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul? What can anyone give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26)

It is an intriguing question that made me wonder why Jesus posed it to his closest followers. When something piques my interest, I’m usually curious enough to keep digging.

Jesus kept a frenetic pace while ministering to the multitudes in Galilee. Crowds of people followed him around seeking his teaching and his touch. Shortly after Jesus fed the 5,000, he took his closest disciples north to Caesarea Philippi.

Though the Bible doesn’t tell us why, the region around Caesarea Philippi was more sparsely populated. Jesus was now weeks away from the cross. Many biblical scholars speculate Jesus left the crowds behind in order to spend quiet and quality time with his disciples. He needed them to understand what was going to happen over the course of the next few weeks. He needed them to be ready for his death and to know what was expected of them.

In one quiet moment in Caesarea Philippi, surrounded by the temples to the various pagan gods, Jesus asked his disciples what the people were saying about him. They told him some people were calling him John the Baptist. Others thought him to be Elijah, Jeremiah or some other prophet of God.

“Who do you say that I am?” he asked his disciples. In typical fashion, Peter blurted out an answer for all of them,

“You are the Christ! The Messiah!”

The affirmation Peter spoke had to be both gratifying and troubling to Jesus. Gratifying, in that the disciples understood at some level of faith who Jesus was. Troubling, in that they didn’t fully understand what that meant.

As they began the journey toward Galilee and on to Jerusalem, Jesus began to teach them that he would suffer at the hands of the religious leaders…that he would be killed and would rise from the dead on the third day.

Peter took exception to what he considered morbid and fatalistic teaching. Pulling Jesus aside, scripture says that Peter “rebuked” him, saying essentially, “Stop talking like this. You’re frightening the others. This will never happen to you. Not on my watch! You are destined to rule.”

Jesus’ words to Peter cut to the quick, stunning the disciple to silence.

“Get behind me, Satan. You are a stumbling block to me. You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.” (Matthew 16:23)

The terse exchange between Jesus and Peter opened the door to deeper teaching about God’s priorities. Read the words of Christ.

“Whoever wants to be my disciple must take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world, but loses his very soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person for what he has done.” (Matthew 16:24-27)

Peter’s concerns about Jesus’ impending death were human concerns. It seems his understanding of Messiah, though tilted toward the miraculous power of Jesus’ teaching and miracles, most closely aligned with that of the rest of Israel as they looked to the Messiah to free them from the yoke of Roman oppression.

Peter had his mind and heart set on human things.

The question Jesus posed moves beyond rhetorical when we look into our own hearts. Are there concerns in our lives that take precedence over the things of God? Is our pursuit of those things putting us in danger of losing our very soul?

Let’s get the easy part out of the way. I believe God wants the very best for every one of his children. There is nothing wrong with gaining wealth, fame, success and power if those things are God’s plan for your life, if you’ve acknowledged that those blessings come only from God’s good grace and you use the blessings to meet the needs of others. However, to seek to tuck God in the corner of your life while you pursue earthly things runs counter to God’s will for his people. Jesus said doing so, will cost you.

The price for pursuing human concerns is our soul. Those who reject the call of Christ and chase after the things of this world, will face eternal condemnation as a result of their choice. Even if they rise to rule the world, the cost, says Jesus, is too high.

Believers who make that sincere, initial faith commitment then get bogged down in the things of the world, may not lose their eternal soul, but their lives will never experience the deep contentment, inner joy and peace God promises through our faith and trust in Jesus Christ. Their souls, their lives, are wasted potential in pursuit of things that ultimately don’t matter. The light God called them to be is hidden under a bushel of ambitions never fully realized.

Solomon, God’s anointed king of Israel, denied himself nothing, seeking greater pleasure and greater wealth. When he realized what it cost him in relationship to his God, he said in Proverbs 1 that everything he gained is “meaningless,” “vanity,” a “chasing after the wind.”

Solomon knew that by chasing after earthly blessings as the primary motive of our lives outside the will of God we compromise the very being of our souls. The fruit of our spirit rots on the vine. We inevitably lack the love, compassion, peace, gentleness, patience and self-control. Those things come our way only when we abide in Christ.

When Jesus responded to Peter’s rebuke, he outlined succinctly the cost of discipleship. This is the hard part of his statement. Simple in its concept. Difficult in its execution.

Pick up your cross and follow.

Give up your life for his sake.

Let go of your hold on the world.

We are called to die to the life we think we deserve and yield our lives to Jesus as boss of our lives. To surrender our will to the will of God. To go where he sends us. To make a difference in the lives of others in the place he sends us and the time he allots us.

When you really think about what Jesus said, he’s simply asking us to do what he did for us. No more. No less. The Rev. Charles Hoffacker put it this way. “This request shatters the life of every Christian like a rock thrown through glass. Echoing Peter’s refusal, we don’t want a suffering Messiah, one who calls us to no better place than his own, a cross with our name on it…The formation of Christian character over time then shows itself decisively. Jesus offers us a cross with insistence and we take hold of it, guided more by faith than fear.”

To be a disciple, a learner and follower of Christ, I must take up my cross and follow Jesus. It is a call to self-sacrifice. Absolute surrender to God. To die to self, as Paul declared, and live for Christ. Christ modeled the life we are called to live. You and I are called to live Christ-like lives. To follow in those remarkable footsteps. To love the lost as much as he did. To care for one another as much as he did. To mirror his compassion. To live faithfully even in the most demanding times. To declare as he did in the garden, “not my will, but yours be done.”

Given how much I struggle to pick up my cross, Jesus asked a really good question.

“What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world, but loses his soul?”

To those of us who know what he desires for us, the question begs an answer, doesn’t it?