Anger is complicated. Even if we spend little time considering the anatomy of our anger, we all intuitively recognize its dangerous power (which, of course, is why we leverage it as we do). I deeply appreciate how the Bible carefully nuances this important issue.
Read MoreIn life, invariably, anything that you do over-and-over has the potential of devolving into mere repetition with no feeling involved. We call that “going through the motions”, right? It can happen with anything: work, exercise, paying the bills, regular date nights with your spouse, community, Sunday church gathering, discipleship group, daily Bible reading, and so forth. When that happens, the tendency can be to think, “I need something different. I need something bigger-and-better. Or, something is wrong with this thing I’m doing. I need fireworks! I need excitement! I need a change.”
Read More“Only a fraction of the present body of professing Christians are solidly appropriating the justifying work of Christ in their lives. Men...have a theoretical commitment to this doctrine, but in their day-to-day existence they rely on their sanctification for justification...drawing their assurance of acceptance with God from their sincerity, their past experience of conversion, their recent religious performance or the relative infrequency of their conscious, willful disobedience. Few know enough to start each day with a thoroughgoing stand upon Luther’s platform: you are accepted, looking outward in faith and claiming the wholly alien righteousness of Christ as the only ground for acceptance, relaxing in that quality of trust which will produce increasing sanctification as faith is active in love and gratitude...Much that we have interpreted as a defect of sanctification in church people is really an outgrowth of their loss of bearing with respect to justification. Christians who are no longer sure that God loves and accepts them in Jesus, apart from their present spiritual achievements, are subconsciously radically insecure persons...Their insecurity shows itself in pride, a fierce defensive assertion of their own righteousness and defensive criticism of others. ”
“Anyone can love his friends; only grace can produce someone who truly loves his enemies and seeks their good so that God gets all the honor. Anyone can forgive one act of betrayal; only grace can produce someone who goes on forgiving time after time so that God gets all the honor. Anyone can dip into her purse and give coins to a beggar; only grace can produce someone who sells all her possessions and give the proceeds to the poor so that God gets all the honor. Anyone can expend himself on behalf of his wife; only grace can produce a husband and wife who open their homes to the destitute and oppressed so that God gets all the honor. ”
Some time ago I came across a list of questions used by George Fox for regular self-examination in order to identify sin in his life and apply the fresh grace of God, in Jesus. Then, I came across similar lists by John Wesley and Jonathan Edwards. I thought, "These guys are on to something here." So, over time, I have merged, added-to, subtracted-from and, in turn, created my own list of questions for gospel-fueled self-examination.
Read MoreThe second you place your faith in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, God gives you a new identity in Him. He declares who you are - not your emotions, not your friends, not your family, not your coworkers, not your neighbors, not your conscience, not your suffering, not your past, not your future, not your present, not your successes, nor your failures, and not your career. If we are to know and grow in Jesus, we must know and grow into who God has declared us to be, in Jesus.
Read MoreOn August 16th, 2012, we had the
privilege and honor of holding our second annual summer baptisms as a
newly forming church in the heart of downtown Seattle. Simply speaking,
it was an amazing evening. This was likely the most gospel-centered baptism celebration I have ever been a part of. You can catch a glimpse of it here.
Video credit: Peter Isaza (www.peterisaza.com)
“Pride in the religious sense is the arrogant refusal to let God be God. It is to grab God’s status for one’s self. In the vivid language of the Bible, pride is puffing yourself up in God’s face. Pride is turning down God’s invitation to join the dance of life as a creature in his garden and wishing instead to be the Creator, Independent, reliant on one’s own resources. Never does pride want to pray for strength, ask for grace, plead for mercy, or give thanks to God. Pride is the grand illusion, the fantasy of fantasies, the cosmic put-on.
The fantasy that we can make it as little gods leaves us empty at the center. Once we decide we have to make it on our own, we are attacked by the demons of fear and anxiety. We are worried that we cannot keep our balance as long as we carry no more inside our empty heart than what we can put there. We suspect that we lack the power to become what our pride makes us think we are. So we learn to swagger, to bluff, to use symbols to cover up our fears that we lack substance. We force other people to act as buttresses for the shaky ego that pride created by emptying our soul of God. In the words of God’s love song, we become arrogant.
Vanity is emptiness. A person who is empty at the center of life is vain, and a vain person is almost always arrogant. Every new situation calls forth the questions: ‘What can I get out of this to support the need of my ego for power and applause?’ As he encounters new people, he wonders, ‘How can this person contribute to my need for applause and power?’ He projects his own anxieties onto other people, so when others come to him he wonders, ‘What is this person’s pitch? What does he want from me?’ Life becomes a campaign to use people to support oneself and a constant battle to avoid having others use oneself that way. Vanity creates the need to use people because we cannot keep our balance spiritually if we are empty at the center.”
“I have come to realize that walking with Jesus is like riding in a car with someone that you just met and have no clue where you are or where you are going. You can get out of the car but then you are stranded with no direction at all. Or you can stay in the car and get to know Jesus and be humbled, surprised, blessed, terrified, beat down, built up and eventually end up where you are meant to be with Jesus at home.”
I received this as a text message today from a friend, also a new follower of Jesus, who is learning what it means to live out his faith on a daily basis. This was so good that I just had to share it. So much truth and wisdom here.
“Preach the gospel, die, be forgotten.”
