A Christmas Prayer

May this season to you bring
The love of Christ our King,
Who came to give his life,
For us the perfect sacrifice.
Who came to show us the way
And for our sins to pay,
That we would believe and never die,
But instead have eternal life.

May his love your heart fill
And may you know his perfect will,
That he would be your treasure,
And you find in him your pleasure.
May you each day love him more,
And share that love with the world.
May he guard you by his grace
Until at last you see his face.

May he be the one great reason
For your life, and not just the season.

God's Invincible Commitment to Your Good: Thoughts on Romans 8:28-39

Last week, we looked at how God takes us, spiritually dead and rebellious as we are, and gives us new life and desire for obedience in Christ. To close out these Advent thoughts, I'd like to call your attention to why God saves us so. What's the point of being a Christian? Is it so we won't go to hell and instead be with God in heaven forever? Or does God have a bigger plan in saving us?

The Goal of God's Saving Us

We find the answer in Romans 8:29. There, Paul says that we are "predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son." Ephesians 1:4 puts it this way: God "chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him." God, from before tiem began, set out to save a people and make them like Christ. He wants us to have Christ's attitude as our own (Philippians 2:5) and to love one another (John 13:34-35).

That's the goal of our salvation - to be like Christ. And God is absolutely committed to seeing this happen. Consider Romans 8:29-30: "For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified." Notice the progression here:

• the foreknown are predestined to Christ-likeness,
• the predestined are called,
• the called are justified,
• the justified are glorified.

The process of salvation begins with God's foreknowing and ends with God glorifying. And, from this passage, we see that nobody is lost along the way. God is irrevocably committed to conforming his own to Christ-likeness. In fact, the rest of the chapter builds on this assurance:

• God is on our side, so nothing can stand against us (Rom 8:31)
• God gave us the best he had-his own son. Surely he will give us everything else we need (Rom 8:32)
• God has declared us righteous, so no one can accuse us (Rom 8:33)
• Jesus dies, rose, ascended to heaven, and intercedes for us, so there are none left to condemn (Rom 8:34)
• In the face of hard times and even death, we are super-conquerors through Christ (Rom 8:35-37)
• Nothing in all of creation can separate us from God's invincible love (Rom 8:38-39)

God wants us to have an unshakable confidence in him, that he will indeed see us through all of the difficulties that we may face in this life. Things may hurt us, but they cannot destroy us. We cannot be cut off from our God who has adopted us as his own children. We can be confident that "that he who began a good work in [us] will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ" (Phil 1:6)

God's Commitment to YOUR Good

All of this assurance stands underneath the promise of Romans 8:28: "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose."

If you are a true Christian, this is God's promise to you. If you have, by faith, trusted in Christ alone to be set free from your sin and to be your Lord, God is irrevocably and invincibly committed to bring everything in your life out for good. It may not feel like it in the moments of intense pain and suffering, but God is fulfilling his desire to make you like Christ. And God cannot, does not, and will not fail in his mission.

So keep fighting. Fight sin that remains in your life. Fight the desire to lead a "comfortable" life. Fight the depression on the insanity that threatens to undo you. Fight the influences of the world that want to shut you up and shut you down. Fight, because the invincible God is on your side!

Rescued or Resurrected? Thoughts on God’s Great Salvation

This is post #2 in this series. To see the first post, click here.

Last week, we saw from Ephesians 2:1-5 that we are dead in sin and unwanting of rescue. We do not, in our natural state, see any possible need for God or the salvation that he provides. Romans 8:7-8 adds more bleakness to the picture:

• Our natural mind (lit. “mind of the flesh”) is hostile to God
• It does not submit to God’s lawIt CANNOT submit to God’s law
• Natural people CANNOT please God.

Jeremiah 17:9 adds “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” Our hearts are beyond sick and diseased. Our minds are hostile to God. We cannot, by anything we do, please him.

But we also saw last week that God, though he has no reason to, loves us and will make us alive with Christ. This week, I want to look at how he does that. God tells us how this happens in the Old Testament, primarily in Ezekiel 36:26-28 and Jeremiah 31:33. These passages are part of what is called the New Covenant. God says that he will:

• Remove the heart of stone (Ez 36:26)
• Give us a new heart of flesh and a new spirit (Ez 36:26)
• Put his Spirit in us (Ez 36:27)
• Put his Law in us and write his Law on our hearts (Jer 31:33)
• Cause us to walk in his ways and obey his rules (Ez 36:27)
• Be our God (Ez 36:28; Jer 31:33)
• Make us his people (Ez 36:28; Jer 31:33)

When we were flat-lined, he removed our old, dead heart and gave us a heart of flesh. When we were more interested in our own desires, he put his Spirit in us and wrote his law on our hearts. When we were children of wrath, he made us his own children. When all we wanted to do and could do was disobey, he caused us to become obedient to him. The New Testament refers to this act in several ways:

• Jesus calls it being born again (John 3:3, 3:5, 3:7)
• Luke tells us that God “opened [Lydia’s] heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul” (Acts 16:14)
• Paul says that God “made us alive together with Christ” (Eph 2:5)
• He also says that God “has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor 4:6)

How Does God Do This?
How is God able to give us a new heart, to make us born again, to be able to walk in his ways? Listen to Jesus’ own words: “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood” (Luke 22:20). Jesus, when he died, bought this new covenant for us. With his own life he bought our new hearts. He bought the indwelling of the Spirit. He bought us to belong to God, that we could call him our own. Jesus’ death bought these things for us, God’s people.

So as we look forward to Christmas’ coming, remember that Jesus’ birth is not the main event. That he was born to die is. And, most importantly, he was born to die to purchase our salvation. Not just to make it possible, but to give us what we needed to be saved.

Drowning or Drowned? Thoughts on Our Condition as Sinners

Sorry for the prolonged absence from the blogosphere. It's been a while I know, but I've had some stuff that's been needing to be dealt with. Nevertheless, I'm back in time for Christmas!

I heard a commercial on a Christian radio station the other day that said we are all “drowning in our sin.” A drowning person is fighting for his life. He is fighting to get out of the waters that are trying to choke him. He is in need of help. He needs a rescuer. It sounds good enough, right? But is it a biblical picture of us in our sin? While it’s true that we need a rescuer, is it true that we are really fighting for our lives to get out of our sin and merely need someone to assist us in our desire to escape?

The Bible paints no such picture of us in our sin. The picture is much more hopeless than that. Consider the following observations from Ephesians 2:1-5:

• We were dead in our sins (vs. 1, 5)
• We followed the course of this world (v. 2)
• We followed “the prince of the power of the air” – namely, Satan (v. 2)
• We lived in the passion of our flesh (v. 3)
• We were by nature children of wrath (v. 3)

We are not drowning; we are DROWNED. We do not want out of our sin; we WANT it. We’re not trying to escape anything; we FOLLOW SIN deeper. We don’t want a rescue; we need a RESURRECTION. Our condition as sinners is so hopeless that we, left to ourselves, only deserve God’s wrath, and justly that’s all that we should receive.

But in spite of this hopeless condition of our souls, look at what God does:

• Instead of giving us his just wrath, he shows mercy (v. 4)
• Rather than let us face his righteous anger, he loves us with a great love (v. 4)
• Rather than leave us dead in our sin, he makes us alive (v. 5)

The source of all the good things that God does for the sinful man is this: Christ. As we celebrate CHRISTmas, the focus of our holiday should be not on the gifts we receive, the family we see, or the twinkling of lights on trees, houses, etc. Our focus should be on Christ, who is a great Savior. But we will not see how great a Savior he is unless we see how bad off we are without him. If we were merely drowning, there are many who could save. But who can save a dead man? Only Christ. And that is ample reason to celebrate this season.

How do you understand your condition as a sinner, and how does that lead you to see Jesus? How would you explain it to someone who does not believe the gospel?

What Christians in America Must Never Forget

*Sorry for the couple of weeks of silence. I've been particularly distracted lately with some stuff going on in my life. I hope to bring you more posts on a regular basis again.

It's hard to believe that nine years have passed since that one Tuesday morning. I was wearing blue jeans and a light gray USA T-shirt, and I was walking from my Biblical interpretation class to my math class when a friend said, "Hey, you gotta go check out the TV." It was about 9:20 when I got into the student center and saw the WTC in flames.

The responses that followed were understandable. Fear. Anger. Sadness. The whole experience seemed so surreal at the time I wondered if I was watching the news or some new Hollywood blockbuster.

Nine years later that day is still permanently etched in American minds, as it should be. It was a day to not forget. Many lives were cut short. A lot of senseless destruction happened. But for Christians, it was the start of an opportunity. An opportunity I feel we may have mostly missed.

WHAT DO YOU SEE?
Look at the picture below and honestly answer what you see.
So what do you see? A murderer? A coward? A terrorist? A Muslim? An enemy of America? An enemy of freedom? The image of God?

Wait...what? The "image of God" in this man who killed thousands? Preposterous isn't it? But he is not a terrorist first. He is first a human being, and human beings were created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27). And even though we have now sinned, that image still remains (James 3:9). Osama bin Laden is still God's image bearer, along with all terrorists, all Muslims, and all people on the face of the earth.

"But just look at what he did to us!" you might object. "He's senselessly hurt and murdered people! He's a poor representation of God! He's an enemy of our country!"

OK, that's true. He's declared himself an enemy of our country and misrepresented the one true God. So, my question to you, Christian, is how are we to be the image of God before our enemies? Let's look at the words of Jesus, our example of what it means to bear God's image:

You have heard that it was said, "You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy." But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." (Matthew 5:43-48)

We, as Christians, cannot demonize Osama bin Laden, his followers, nor any Muslim person that God has created. Instead, we MUST love them and show them what it truly means to follow the one true God! They will never consider our Christ if all we do is vehemently oppose what they do or burn their holy books. The true Christian responds to his or her enemies with Christ-like love, regardless of the wrong done to them.

So How Shall We Love Muslims?
What does this look like in our lives? How do we show love to Muslims, especially to those who have attacked our country? I'd like to offer the following suggestions:

• Remember God's goodness to you.

The best way to learn to love our enemies is to see how God loves his. "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). Before we met Christ, we were "hostile to God" and completely unable to please him (Romans 8:7-8). Because of our sin, we were enemies of God (Romans 5:10). We were under the just wrath of a holy God (Romans 1:18; John 3:36). If God treated us as his enemies, as we all rightly are before Christ, we would all, at this very moment, be suffering under his wrath in Hell (2 Thessalonians 1:9).

But God did not leave us so. He sent Christ to die our death (Romans 3:21-26) so that we could be called righteous (2 Corinthians 5:21). He saved us by grace so that we could live the way that he wants us to live - in doing good for others (Ephesians 2:8-10). So the first step in loving others - especially our enemies - is to see God's love and care for his enemies, and then to seek, by his help, to emulate that before others.

• Remember your true citizenship.

A lot of the resentment that we as Americans feel towards our attackers is based on our national identity. So to overcome that, we must remember that our citizenship is not to America primarily. When writing to the patriotic Philippians (who prided themselves in their allegiance to and representation of Rome), Paul reminds them that their "citizenship is in heaven" (Philippians 3:20). Earlier in the letter, he tells them that they must live as responsible citizens of their real kingdom and the gospel that it represents (1:27).

In light of these verses, I have stopped referring to myself as an American Christian. I am first and foremost a Christian, with all the benefits and responsibilities that come with it. So I have adopted the phrase "Christian who lives in America."

• Forgive those who have attacked us.

Unforgiveness and bitterness are paralyzing. We will never move forward in Christ-likeness while holding people's mistakes and wrongs over their heads. One thing I don't think I have heard in churches since 9/11 is that we must forgive those who attacked us. If we are not the kind of people who forgive others - even the worst offenders - then we cannot begin to think of ourselves as forgiven (see Matthew 6:14-15). God's kindness towards us must produce our kindness towards others, or else it has had no effect at all.

• Pray for Muslims.

A lot of talk among Christians in America seems to refer to Muslims collectively as the enemy. Personally, I don't agree with this, but even if they are the enemy, how are we to respond? Jesus tells us to pray for those who persecute us. We need to be praying for Muslims everywhere. We need to ask God to send workers to them so that the harvest of saved souls will be brought in (Matthew 9:36-38). We need to pray that God would open their eyes to the light of the gospel so that they will turn to Jesus and be saved (2 Corinthians 4:4-6). We have to be on our knees and pray for Muslims constantly. We have to seek God's heart for them and pray for him to make it our own.

• Remember your calling.

Jesus' final charge to his disciples was to "make disciples of all nations" (Matthew 28:18-20). How do we do this? By going to where the people are. I don't believe that we will get very far in making disciples unless we are intentional about it. This doesn't mean that you have to go into another country or far off land (though that is necessary!), but rather that you, as Christ did, seek out the lost (see Luke 19:10). Our calling is to be active disciple makers. And so we must set our minds into action mode - a mode where we seek to take every opportunity to reach out with the love of Christ. This brings us to my last point.

• Befriend Muslims.

One of the saddest things I've seen with Christians in America is that their view of Islam comes from either Fox News or CNN or the likes. All that they know about Islam is what they've heard from some other source. So let me ask you: Do you have Muslim friends? If not, why not?

We need to actively seek to get to know Muslim people. To listen to them. To understand them. To ask them questions about their faith. To have them over for dinner (but, please, don't serve pork!). We need to seek to be in their lives and to be there for them when they are hurting, broken, or confused. We have to actively engage in their lives, all the while prayerfully seeking for God to grant us the opportunity to share his life-giving message with them.

If you have read this far, thank you for sticking with this post! Don't forget amidst all the prayers offered today to lift up Osama bin Laden and Al-Quaeda. Pray that God would carry the gospel to them too!
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What has God most spoken to you about from this post? What are you going to do about it?

The Best News in the World - Bracelet Edition

As Christians, we have the best news in the universe. But do we present it as it is meant to be presented?

While we were in Peru, we made a craft with the villagers often referred to as a "Gospel Bracelet." I would then get up and, using the bracelet, explain God's great news for all humanity. This week, I'd like to share with you how I shared the message with them.
YELLOW - GOD
God is our creator, our maker (Acts 17:22-31). As our maker, he has the right to command how we should live. And he expects us all to live according to his way.

Also, our Creator loves us and wants to be a Father to us. He wants us to know him and be with him.

But to be with him and to know him, we must live by the rules that he set forth, which are perfectly summarized by Jesus in this way: "The most important is, 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these." (Mark 12:29-31).

Basically, God expects us to love him more than anything else in the world, and he expects us to love others and always do what's best for them and serve them.

BLACK - SIN
Sin is not living up to God's standards. Romans 3:23 says that "all have sinned." Every person on the planet has not lived by God's standard of life. We have not loved him more than anything, and we have failed to love each other with selfless service.

By not living God's way, we have earned his punishment. "The wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). God must cast us "away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might" where we "will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction" (2 Thessalonians 1:9). This is called Hell, and it is not a pleasant place to be.

Yes, God loves us and wants us to be with him, but he also must punish sin. He is holy and cannot stand sin (see Habakkuk 1:13). He must punish wrongdoing if he is to remain righteous. We cannot fix the wrong we have done. Going to church and doing good things cannot save us from the punishment.

RED - CHRIST
God is the only one who can deal with the problem of our sin. And he sent Jesus Christ as the solution.

Jesus came into the world and lived the way God wanted him to - he did not sin. Because he lived a perfect life, he could die in our place and pay for our sins (2 Corinthians 5:21). After dying for our sins, he rose back to life (1 Corinthians 15:3-4).

Because Jesus died for our sins, he is now the bridge to God (1 Peter 3:18). He is the only way that we can get back to God.

WHITE - CLEANSING
John 3:36 tells us that if we believe Christ for salvation, then we will receive eternal life. God will forgive our sins and make us "white as snow" (Isaiah 1:18).

What does it mean to believe? It means to turn away from everything that we have done wrong and everything we have tried to do right and to not trust in that to save us. It means to trust in Jesus and Jesus ONLY for forgiveness and salvation from the penalty of our sins. It means to trust who he is and what he has done as our only hope. It means to receive him as Savior and Lord of our lives.

When we do this, God says that we will "become children of God" (John 1:12). He calls us his children, and he becomes our Father. He will not cast us to Hell for our sins and will instead let us be with him in Heaven after we die.

GREEN - NEW LIFE
Because of what God has done for us, we do not stay the same. We begin to grow and become like he intended us to be. We learn to love God as we should through reading the Bible, through prayer, through obeying his commands, and through worshiping with other believers. We also learn to love others and serve them through good deeds and through telling others about Jesus.

HAVE YOU BELIEVED THIS MESSAGE? WILL YOU? WHY OR WHY NOT? HOW CAN YOU SHARE THIS MESSAGE WITH SOMEONE YOU KNOW THIS WEEK?

The Greatest Obstacle to Missions

President's chapels were always one of my favorites at Columbia International University. Our president at the time, Dr. Murray (mentioned in the last post) spoke with passion and conviction, always challenging us to share our faith or be involved with missions or live godly lives.

And that week's title (the same as the title of this blog) sparked much curiosity and discussion as to what he would say. My friends and I would joke that he was going to just say "YOU! YOU are the greatest obstacle to missions! Now GO!" I'm sure if he had, he would have still done it in a fair and biblical way that would have been convicting.

But that's not what he said at all. In fact, he led us to a rather unlikely passage, a passage that until that day I hadn't connected with missions, nor seen as an obstacle to it. He took us to Matthew 9:36-38:

When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

Get Involved In Missions
Prayerlessness is the greatest obstacle to missions. So in this final post I just want to leave you with a simple challenge: Get involved. If you are already involved, great. If not, take the first step to becoming a "world Christian" by starting small: prayer.

Start praying for the nations. Start praying for missionaries. Start praying for God to raise up missionaries to go and work his harvest field. Just start praying. Prayer is a powerful gift of God that unleashes his purposes on the earth.

Disclaimer
Prayer is a dangerous thing. You may find, as I did, that when you begin to pray for peoples who don't have the gospel, God might do something strange. He may call you to go (see Matthew 10, immediately following Jesus' call to prayer).

Resources
I would like to give you a couple of resources that will help you begin your journey of prayer for the nations:
Operation World - an annual prayer guide that walks you through the world, giving stats and prayer requests for every political nation in the world. A good guide available online or in print.
Joshua Project - daily prayer focused for unreached people groups. Great site with great info on the work left undone.
Also, your church may have prayer guides/letters for missionaries they support.

However you do it, just be sure that you pray that the task would be accomplished, that God's glory would be revealed among the nations.

How do you pray for missions? Are there other resources you know of that will help others pray for the nations?