The Challenge of Knowing God's Not Done With You

And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. ~Paul, Philippians 1:6

Isn't it funny how you can know a verse for so long and yet still see something new in it? Last week, I wrote about the comfort of knowing that God's not done yet. This week, I want to issue a challenge from the same verse.

Have you ever had moments in your life, where you think things are going pretty good? Your bills are paid; your relationships all seem to be going well. It seems like all is right with the world. Or at least right enough. You're comfortable. There's nothing pressing on you to move forward, and no great challenge to drive you towards God.

Times like this are harder for us than in moments of crisis when you know that God is your only hope. In difficulty, it's easy to see who our source is, whose help we need. But in the "safe" times, we are tempted to forget about God. We become casual about him and don't really see our deep need for him. So for times like this, Philippians 1:6 is a challenge.

Remember, "GOD'S NOT DONE WITH YOU YET!" I need to hear this as much in the good times - if not more - as I do in the hard times. Remember the goal of our salvation is that we be like Christ! And God is committed to making it happen.

So when things in your life are easy and seem to be going good, don't abandon your only hope. Don't let the gentle rocking of comfort lull you to sleep. SEEK GOD! Continue to pray! Continue to read the Word! Continue to go to church. Don't assume you have arrived at where you are supposed to be with God. Notice the timing of God's completed work in you: "AT THE DAY OF CHRIST JESUS."

We will not be where God wants us to be until Christ returns. So let him keep working in you and keep pressing on towards becoming more like Christ. Don't settle for "good" when God's desire for you is "great!"

How do you press on in the easy times to maintain your relationship with God? How do you press on towards Christ-likeness even when you think you're doing pretty good?

The Comfort of Knowing God's Not Done with You

And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ ~Paul, Philippians 1:6

Ever have those moments in your life when you feel broken? You see your own sinfulness and you get discouraged. You look at you life circumstances and despair. You feel hopeless and wonder if things will ever change. I have. I still do sometimes.

When I was in college, I struggled with depression and hopelessness. I thought that I would never change. I wondered often if God was there, if he cared about my hurts and troubles. At times, I wondered if I was even saved.

It was no accident that one day in chapel our speaker spoke on Philippians 1:6. His point was simple: "God's not finished with you yet." Since then, that's been one of my favorite verses of Scripture. I think of it often. I've memorized it and, in those times when I am feeling down, will quote it to myself. In essence, I am preaching to myself to not despair, but to have hope in the God who has worked, is working, and will not stop working.

He Began It
A few weeks ago, I posted about how God is committed to our good. In it, I spoke of how God has planned for us to become like Christ. He knows our sin. He knows our inability. And he sent his Son to die for us. He caused us to become Christians.

The work that is happening in us is wholly owing to God, not to ourselves.

He Will Finish It
God does not abandon his work. He didn't stop creating after day 2. He didn't only half-raise Jesus from the dead. He didn't stop giving us his love or his Spirit. And he won't abandon us either. God ALWAYS finishes what he started.

How does God's promise to you give you the strength to keep on going even when you feel like giving up?

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?